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Online Social Interaction and Its Effect on Students' Self-Selected Reading

Heather Sox

Clemson University

Abstract

Research suggests that providing an environment where students can interact and receive support promotes engagement and encourages intrinsic motivation. Students have a need to relate with others; therefore, I chose to implement online interaction to try to improve student participation in self-selected reading. This intervention was chosen to solve an existing classroom problem where my students were not reading and completing books during self-selected reading. Many students would float from book to book without ever finishing a book and discussing it. It is essential for students to read and engage with books in order to increase fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary development. Because of the research that supports students’ need for relatedness, I immersed my students in online social interaction in hopes of improving their participation, motivation, and engagement in regard to self-selected reading. They participated in online discussion groups and social networking via Pinterest where they shared books they read and wanted to read. Students recorded books read in their Accelerated Reader folders after they took a comprehension quiz on the book. I gathered the data by counting books that students read before the intervention in their folders and comparing them to the number of books that they read after. I was also able to monitor student participation through the discussion forums and Pinterest boards. Students participated in these online forms of social interaction, and after two months of implementing the intervention, students completed many more books than prior and showed more engagement and motivation throughout the process.

Reading Log Tracking Sheet

Figure 1

Conclusions

References

Table 1

Introduction

Data Chart

I was having trouble motivating students to read novels and finish them during self-selected reading and on their own time. Self-selected reading is a time during the day designated to provide students with the opportunity to participate in individual silent reading in order to increase fluency, comprehension, and overall literacy skills. It is also a time where they can apply the various strategies that they are learning to their own reading. If students are not participating in this time of day and reading on their own, they are missing out on the value of self-selected reading.

I wanted to pinpoint the reason for their lack of motivation and determine an intervention that might increase student engagement in regard to self-selected reading. There are many reasons why students and people lack motivation in various areas of life. One theory related to performance in school and the work place is that people have a need for relatedness. Human beings are social and have a need for social interaction in order to be surrounded by the love and respect of others (Connell & Wellborn, 1991; A. P. Fiske & Fiske, 2007; A. J. Martin & Dowson, 2009; Reeve et al., 2004; R. M. Ryan & Deci, 2000). Humans display this need in many different ways, and it is very common to begin seeing more of this need in adolescents (B. B. Brown, Eicher, & Petrie, 1986; Juvonen, 2000; A. M. Ryan & Patrick, 2001).

I wanted to see how I could increase my students’ motivation during self-selected reading to read and finish books, so I decided to add a component that would interest them. I wanted to know: How does online social interaction related to individual reading increase motivation? Providing students with the opportunity to engage in online discussion groups and social networking related to their self-selected reading allowed students to direct their own learning but also be supported by their classmates and teacher. They were able to socially interact in an engaging environment, which provided a means to meet their need for relatedness and increase motivation to read and finish books. Based on my research and the theories discussed above, I predicted that students’ participation in online social interaction would increase their motivation in regard to self-selected reading.

The results of this study supported my hypothesis that students' need for relatedness can be met through online social interaction in turn affecting intrinsic motivation to read and finish books. Due to the increase in student participation in self-selected reading, I would like to continue these online discussion groups and Pinterest boards in order to provide social interaction for my students. It might even be beneficial to create a rubric for student participation so the students are aware of the expectations. Continued and increased student participation in this intervention is something that I want to pursue in the future.

Another future goal that I am going to pursue is using this strategy of social interaction in other areas of my classroom. Because of the success of this intervention, I would like to see if it has the same effect on math and other areas. I want to have students share math word problems and have math Pinterest boards like they have literature Pinterest boards. That is one way that I want to extend the online social interaction to other areas, but I would also like to see how social interaction, not necessarily online, can increase motivation and engagement. Incorporating more discussion within classroom activities and sharing strategies with each other is one way that I hope to improve motivation and engagement in all areas of the classroom.

Results

Figure 2

Methods

Participants

Examples of Students' Social Networking with Literature

Examples of Student Online Discussion

Students that participated in this research included all of my class. My class consists of 13 white females, 9 white males, 1 African American female, and 1 male student from Iraq. I have seven students that qualify for free or reduced lunch. Seven of my students are considered gifted and talented and attend “Challenge” twice a week. I have one student that receives resource services. All of these students participated in this study.

Description of the Intervention

Students participated in online social interaction through two different means: discussion groups on Edmodo and social networking about literature through Pinterest. While reading books, students discussed them within five separate online discussion groups. After finishing a book, students shared them on Pinterest and also "pinned" books that they wanted to read. They were also able to comment on other students' discussions and book pins.

The data that I analyzed for this action research was quantitative because I wanted to evaluate the numbers to determine if their reading increased, decreased, or stayed the same. As a whole, the class went from reading an average of 1.33 books to 4.67 books. This shows a fairly large increase (3.33) after the intervention. The results indicate that there was significant change in the amount of books read (p < .01). The number of books completed after the intervention was significantly larger than before the discussion groups and social networking.

Data Collection Procedures

I looked at the number of books that my students finished before beginning the online discussion groups and social networking compared to the number of books completed when they had the opportunity to engage in online social interaction. This was a quantitative study because I wanted to see if the number of books increased, decreased, or stayed the same with the implementation of online social interaction. All of my students have Accelerated Reader (AR) folders that they use to document their reading. When they finished a book, they took an AR test on that book, and then they had me sign their folder. This is how I kept track of the number of books completed. This enabled me to track the data in two ways: individually (how did this intervention affect individual students) and whole class (how did this intervention affect the class as a whole). I drew a bright orange line under the last book that the students read in each of their AR folders so that I could see where the students began to participate in online interaction. This is how I kept track of the number of books read before the intervention compared to the number of books read after the intervention.

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