How do Graded Assignments Impact Students

Motivation to Read?
Context: High school students are known to take the path of least rsistance. Or in their minds the
path with the least homework and the highest grade. I began to realize that students were not doing the
nightly assigned reading which was negatively impacting our class discussions. I decided to figure out
what I could do in order to motivate them to read and thus be able to have a higher level of participation
and engagement in class discussions.
Original Question:

Hypothesis:

To what extent do graded assignments (i.e., reading quizzes

and Socratic seminars) impact students'
motivation to complete their assigned reading?

Students motivation will increase when their grade

is determined by them completing the reading in
order to complete the reading quizzes and Socratic
seminars.

The Plan
1. Survey the students and see what
they say would motivate them.
2.Analyze survey results.
3. Complete unit plan using the method
that came out of the survey.
4. Incorporate a reading quiz (and try
different kinds of reading quizzes) after each reading day and a Socratic
Seminar after each of the three parts of
the book.
5. Poll the students for how many read
after each reading day.
6. Gather and analyze the data.
7. Make inferences based on data.

Data Collection:
1. Reading Quiz
Scores (solo, whole
class collaborative,
pairs)
2. Socratic Seminar
participation
3. Polls
4. Surveys
5. My Own Journal

I dont
read.
Nothing will
work.

Socratic Seminar Set-Up

The biggest thing that

motivates me is my
grades. Give us reading
quizzes and I will
read.

If I have to
read make
it for a grade.

The survey that I gave students informed me that students are grade motivated
and in order to get them to do the reading, I have to make their grade depend on it.

Results
Reading
Quiz

Average
Score

Quiz 1

69.5%

Quiz 2

71%

Quiz 3

96.7%*

Quiz 4

53.6%

Quiz 5

93%**

Quiz 6

69.5%***

Quiz 7

70.24

*Whole class collaborative quiz.

Done to test a new type of quiz
that I read about in my research

Reading
Quiz
Quiz 1

n/a

n/a

Quiz 2

n/a

n/a

Quiz 3*

18/20

8 girls/ 10 boys

Quiz 4

14/22

7 girls / 7 boys

Quiz 5**

18/20

7 girls/ 11 boys

Quiz 6***

15/22

6 girls/ 9 boys

Quiz 7

13/20

6 girls/ 7 boys

** This quiz was a partner quiz

and was given on a Monday. Over
the weekend, a fellow student was
killed and students were upset.
*** This quiz was given after the
death of a student, 2 days of ACT
testing, and was on the day of the
funeral. Many students claim they
did not have time to read.
**** The class has 22 students:
9 girls and 13 boys.

References
Brozo, W., & Flynt, E. (2008). Motivating Students to
Read in the Content Classroom: Six Evidence-Based
Principles. The Reading Teacher, 62(2), 172-174. Retrieved January 20, 2015, from ProQuest Research Library.
Hicks, P. (1991). Cooperative Learning Motivates Reluctant Readers. Journal of Reading, 35(2), 148-148.
Retrieved January 20, 2015, from ProQuest Research
Library.
McCombs, B. (199). Motivating secondary school students to read their textbooks. National Association of
Secondary School Principals., 24-24. Retrieved January
20, 2015, from ProQuest Research Library
Quinn, T., & Eckerson, T. (2010). Motivating Students
to Read with Collaborative Reading Quizzes. English
Journal, 100(1), 89-91.

Looking to the Future

In the future, I want to continue using different
types of quizzes like the collaborative quiz. I
would also like to incorporate Socratic Seminars. But I would also like to find other ways to
motivate students as opposed to just dangling
grades in front of them to do the reading and to
participate.
Additional Questions
1. What other things will help motivate students to read?
2. How can I get the boys to read as much as
the girls?

#students read/
# girls read/
# present
# boys read****

Socratic
Seminar

Average
Score

Participation Percentage
(# full credit/
of Full
# present)
Credit

TGG SS*

66%

12/21

57%

F451 SS1

76%

17/20

85%

F451 SS2

96%

16/21

76%

F451 SS3

99%

18/19

95%

*TGG SS = The Great Gatsby Socratic Seminar. The first that many had come into
contact with. I measured growth based on this first Socratic Seminar.

Analysis/Findings
The reading quizzes table shows that students do better on quizzes
when they work with partners or as a class and sparks great conversation. I originally decided to try these types of quizzes after reading
Quinns article about collaborative quizzes. His was the most useful
article that I found. Even though I had great results with this type of
quiz and quiz scores were increasing, unforeseen circumstances most
likely impacted scores as they probably also impacted students actually reading. Yet 2/3 of the girls read every time whereas only 54% of
the boys did.
As the table for Socratic Seminars show, the average student score
increased for each Socratic Seminar. The percentage of students who
received full credit also increased by 38%
Overall, using Socratic Seminars and reading quizzes, student reading
did increase. Thus, discussion also increased, both for the Seminars
and whole class discussion. I went from having 3-5 students talking
during whole class discussion to almost everyone in the class.