Date of Degree
2024
Degree Name
Ed.D. (Doctor of Education)
Department
Department of Curriculum and Instruction (CI)
Director
Wickens, Corrine
Committee Members
Johnson, Laura; Werderich, Donna
Keywords
school library, library browsing, independent reading, figured worlds, literate identity, middle grade, student choice, library collection, supporting adolescent readers
Abstract
Middle school, a time of great change for early adolescents, is also a time of declining interest in independent reading. This study examines the experiences of 27 middle-grade students as they navigate the complex systems within their school, the grade-level reading classroom, and the school library and work to support their independent reading. Each student had free access to the school library and time in class dedicated to independent reading. Yet, students had vastly different experiences in the classroom and school library; further, the special education students and general education students experienced in-class independent reading in very different ways due to policies, restrictions, and systems either maintained or avoided by their teachers.
Students participated in two semi-structured personal interviews, twice recorded concurrent think-alouds while browsing, and participated in a focus group. As the students spoke of the elements necessary for them to feel supported in their pursuit of independent reading, three themes emerged: belonging, voice, and autonomy.
While some students had complete freedom to choose what they read and read at their own pace, others faced restrictions based on book length, genre, and style, as well as restrictive surveillance systems that set a rigid but arbitrary reading pace and mandated comprehension assessments. As these students navigated the separate but parallel figured worlds of the reading classrooms and the school library, they strived, to varying degrees, to support their own literate identities, determining what it meant to be a reader and whether that was an identity they took up for themselves.
Publisher
Northern Illinois University
Rights Statement
In Copyright
Rights Statement 2
NIU theses and dissertations are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors, unless otherwise indicated.
Recommended Citation
Crisp, Laura, "How Middle-Grade Students Navigate the School Library and Grade-Level Reading Classroom to Support Their Independent Reading and Literate Selves" (2024). Dissertations of Practice. 32.
https://huskiecommons.lib.niu.edu/allgraduate-disspractice/32
