[Xmca-l] A Question about Reading and Motivation

[Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net>]

Re: Peg Griffin - 
http://lchc.ucsd.edu/MCA/Mail/xmcamail.2011_05.dir/msg00530.html
and Peg and Mike et al: http://lchc.ucsd.edu/People/NEWTECHN.pdf

The first article sets up a scenario in 5thD where kids "sneak" a look 
at piece of writing in order to find an answer to a current affairs 
question. As opposed to telling the kids to read a text and then (for 
example) testing them on it.
The second talks about "reading for meaning" where assistance is given 
to kids to read in order to find out something they want to know about 
the world. As opposed to decoding "Jack and Jill" stories containing 
nothing of interest to them at all (and actually humiliating).

I am trying to get my head around the issue of the motivation which the 
teachers are trying to engender in the child which facilitates learning 
to read.

Following A N Leontyev, Peg talks about the "merely understood" motive 
for the child "to be a productive, informed, literate citizen" which is 
what the education system is supposed to be doing. Peg says this motive 
was "in the social interactions and ready to replace the 'really 
effective' motives that got the kid to come to/put up with our reading 
group." ... *in the social interactions*!

Generally speaking I think there is no doubt that the distinction 
between "really effective" and "merely understood" motives is valid, and 
that in general children who have difficulty in reading, read only for 
"effective" but "external" motives which do not succeed in them learning 
to read effectively. Further, the task of the teacher may be or may be 
supposed to be to get the child to learn to read so as "to be a 
productive, informed, literate citizen." This objective is somewhere in 
the complex of motives underlying a teacher's motives, certainly in 
5thD, but I suspect often a "merely understood" motive for many 
teachers, alongside earning a wage for their own family, having a quiet 
day and the kids getting good test scores, etc.

But I question whether it is *ever* the child's motive "to be a 
productive, informed, literate citizen." This may be an "internal 
reward" for learning to read, but not for learning to read any 
particular text or even a particular type of text.

Would this explanation make sense: Learning to read is like happiness. 
It does not generally arise through being the motivation of the activity 
which produces it. People learn to read as a byproduct of struggling to 
get something they want out of particular texts. And this applies to 
adults as much as children. I think people can only learn to read 
philosophy if they are struggling to get something out of a book on 
philosophy (other than pass the exam or acquire an air of erudition). In 
Peg's email message we learn that the kids jumped on the newspaper 
article to extract information they wanted in (what they took to be) 
/another/ task. In the QAR story, adults mediate kids' relation to a 
text which is in turn mediating their real and meaningful relation to 
the world. (I think if a kid is strongly enough motivated to pass a 
reading test, and assisted, they will usually manage to learn to read, 
but it is for those for whom this doesn't work that the issue arises, 
isn't it?)

But in general I think it is neither necessary nor likely that a child 
has their eye on becoming a literate citizen when they struggle with a 
text and learn to read in the process. Isn't it always more proximate 
motives? The "internal" reward in reading a particular text is the 
particular content of that text, not actually anything to do with books, 
or texts, or reading or citizenship.

I know there are dozens of experts in literacy education out there, so 
please help me.

Andy

--
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*Andy Blunden*
http://home.mira.net/~andy/