They’re Just not Reading (adapted from McInerney 2014) Case Study Critique Cathy was very concerned when she compared this year’s Year 6 class with last year’s. Very few students demonstrated an interest in reading. What was happening? What had gone wrong? When it came to DEAR time, students chose books that were predominantly picture based or too simplistic for their reading age. During shared reading sessions students would daydream or chat amongst themselves. After some considerable thought, Cathy devised a plan in an attempt to foster positive reading attitudes and behaviours in her class. She planned to capitalise on current affairs to encourage student reading and hopefully impact on their writing and HSIE problem solving skills too. The class learned about an oil spill in the Great Barrier Reef. Cathy brought in newspaper articles to class that sequenced in logbook fashion the events of the leakage. To prepare the students to understand the article, she had her students participate in several field-building experiences. First, they used a world map, an encyclopaedia, library books and the internet to gather and share relevant information. Next, she simulated an oil spill by coating an object with oil. By then, the class was eager to read the article. After they read and discussed the newspaper article, the teacher divided the class into groups. Cathy organised heterogeneous groups comprising 3 students each, taking into account factors like student ability, cultural and ethnic background knowledge, and gender. The groups were asked to imagine how the problem might have been prevented and to explain and support their solutions. Some groups were particularly enthusiastic and got on with the task very effectively. Two groups were slower to get going, however, and as Cathy went to investigate she was met by groans from some students: “Why do I have to work with her? She doesn’t know anything,” and “He’s too bossy.” Cathy explained that learning how to work together was part of the task and encouraged them to get on with it. She found she had to return to both these groups several times and that they were noisy and often off-task. The next week she rotated the group composition, being careful to separate those students who had previously not worked well together. This benefited some of the students from the difficult groups, but there were still two students who remained disgruntled about having to work in groups again, which made it difficult for those they now joined. She found she needed to take these two students aside to remind them that they needed to participate like everyone else. She asked whether the issue was really about working together or about the reading and research they were being asked to do. “Why can’t we just work on our own? It doesn’t have to be a big happy family, you know,” one student responded. Overall, Cathy found that most students’ reading and enthusiasm were enhanced through the constructivist teaching model she had adopted. They read another newspaper article about how people in their local council were helping with the cleanup efforts of the Great Barrier Reef and, when Cathy asked if the students wanted to help, all but the two difficult students replied with an enthusiastic “Yes!” The groups designed posters and made speeches requesting donations of clean towels for cleaning the oil soaked animals. The two reluctant students were still not enthusiastic about participating in these activities, but they did contribute happily to the four large bags of towels the class sent to help in the cleanup. Scenario-specific guidelines Drawing upon constructivism and cooperative learning consider how effectively Cathy has applied these approaches to enhance her students’ reading. You should discuss the specific strategies Cathy has adopted in light of constructivist theory as well as considering specific theories and research on cooperative learning approaches and achievement motivation theory (e.g. goal theory, expectancy value theory, attribution theory). Think about what further steps Cathy could have taken to try to meet the social and learning needs of all her students.
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