Teacher Inquiry Project

Teacher Inquiry Project Topic: Teaching Student to Enjoy Reading
Essential Questions:
1 - What makes a "good reader"?
2 - Why do some students dislike reading, while others enjoy it?
3 - What role does the students' gender, family, or socio-economic background play in determining whether they enjoy reading?
4 - How important is student choice of text in helping a student enjoy reading?
5 - Can a resistant reader, no matter why they are resistant, be taught to enjoy reading? If so, how? If not, why not?

So far, I have found a ton of resources for this topic. I have several books that I plan on pulling some information from, including: I Read It, But I Don't Get It, Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning, Mosaic of Thought, What Really Matters for Struggling Readers. As for the journal articles, I found several regarding the role of gender, family, and socio-economic background, as well as a few that talk about the importance of student choice.

It's really interesting to me to see the different articles that discuss some reasons why boys in general enjoy reading less than girls, and the importance of reading in the home. There is a lot of evidence that actually ties in all three (family, student choice, and socio-economic background) as the cause for boys reading less for pleasure than girls. I'm really glad that Jen (I think it was Jen) mentioned something about the role of gender when we did the activity last week. I might not have thought of it, and it has opened up a lot of information for my topic.

I don't really have any questions yet. So far, I have just read the articles to make sure they are relevant, and I plan to read them again and highlight what I'm using. I've done a preliminary works cited as well, just so that I have something to work from. I'm starting on an outline to help me organize my ideas and decide exactly how I want to work out the paper.