Kerry Whitehead

ETEC 562 Article Review #1

An Action Research Study Involving Motivating Middle School Students

Learning Through Online Literature Circles

Reading to understand is a main goal of reading instruction. (52). This is

the ultimate goal of all ELA teachers. This is what we all strive for. We want
students to enjoy reading just as much as we do. One way we try to do that is with
novel studies/literature circles.

Novel studies are a mainstay in English/Reading classrooms. Novel studies

give the teachers an opportunity to have students apply the skills they have learned
in an authentic way. Traditionally, novel studies have been done face-to-face.
Literature circles are small groups of students reading a novel and discussing that
novel. Literature circles are designed to elevate critical thinking skills in reading
through discussion and student engagement.

Literature circles embrace a couple of different learning theories. The first

theory is the social interaction theory. This theory applies more to the online
version of literature circles. Literature circle online discussions allow students to
think and rethink their thoughts. The discussions give students the ability to
consider different viewpoints and possibly reconstruct their thinking. Students are
social creatures. Students crave to have their thoughts valued and heard. Even
the quietest and shyest student can have a voice with online literature discussions.
Vygotskys theory of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is also incorporated
in online literature circles. Teachers can scaffold the students in regards to their
discussion responses and slowly pull that scaffolding from the students so that the
students are completing the prompts on their own.

Traditionally students are not given a choice in the novel that they read. I can
attest to that. When I was in the classroom I picked the novels. I did not receive
much participation in discussions from the students and the novel studies became
more of a chore than something fun and rewarding. By students having a choice in
book it increases their motivation because they feel that they have a say in their
learning.

The students in this study were allowed to choose from a list of approved
books. The study uses Edmodo for the discussion board. This was a platform that

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ETEC 562 Article Review #1

the students were familiar with from previous lessons. Students made their initial
post in response to a question posed by the pre-service teachers. These discussions
were asynchronous due to time constraints of the students and the pre-service
teachers. Much of the discussion took place outside of school due the time
constraints and the fact that students had access to technology outside the
classroom. The literature circle took four weeks to complete. One of the results of
this study is that the students felt more motivated to read (even though the book
may be boring) because they were eager to respond and have their peers hear and
value their thoughts.

Another major benefit of online literature circles is the students are learning
digital literacy skills. Students are learning how to write appropriately and not use
text speak. They are learning how to honor each others thoughts and opinions in
a friendly manner online. They are learning how to make a statement and support
it by thinking critically about the text.

I found this article to be very informative and thought-provoking. I did novel

studies when I was in the classroom but I never really managed to master them.
Even though this article was a study involving motivating students through online
literature circles it caused me to stop and think back to my novel studies and how I
could have done them differently to make them more effective and rewarding. A
love unit of mine is the Holocaust. In our textbooks we read the play, The Diary
of Anne Frank. I planned an entire unit around the Holocaust that would end with a
visit to the Dallas Holocaust Museum. We read a novel that was supported by the
museum. We read it as a whole group and did some activities. But we were not
able to finish it. After reading this article I now know how I would have done things
differently and incorporated more technology. Instead of the entire class reading
one book I would give them a choice of Holocaust novels to read. These novels
would be read outside of class and also connected back to the play they were
reading. They would work in small groups and they would post discussions on
something such as Edmodo, a wiki, Google Classroom, etc. The students of one
class period would have the opportunity to communicate with students from
another class period reading the same novel. Today, with the amount of technology
that students have at their fingertips it only makes sense to bring the learning to
where they are phones, tablets, laptops, etc.

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ETEC 562 Article Review #1

Reference
Falter Thomas, A. (2014). An Action Research Study Involving Motivating Middle
School Students' Learning Through Online Literature Circles. Journal of
Ethnographic & Qualitative Research, 9(1935-3308), 44-54.