Literacy Instruction

The decline of student motivation and engagement in literacy classrooms is an ongoing, prevalent educational issue in high schools across public school districts. Consequently, low student motivation and engagement may stem from a multitude of problems, occurring from a lack of ability or from a lack of interest, the latter the likely of the two reasons. Current research in the field of literacy instruction has identified additional existing factors that most likely leads to the overall decline of student motivation and effort to produce satisfactory academic performance including: difficult or boring school work, high demands from teachers, or preference of extracurricular activities (Hidi & Harackiewicz, 2000). In order to sustain students’ motivation in literacy instruction, educators need to utilize instructional tools that incorporate palpable experiences that are present in learners' out-of-school reality. Students need opportunities for sensory instruction (e.g., seeing, hearing, touching) to be motivated to learn in the classroom. Effective literacy instruction requires that educators provide students with real-world experiences which correspond to learning objectives and student choices because it evokes intrinsic motivation (Guthrie & Cox, 2001). Without the application of real-world experiences and sensory-infused lessons, students will remain unmotivated and unengaged. Unfortunately, today’s traditional literacy instruction, such as lecturing, has diminished the authenticity and meaningfulness of student learning, thus, causing a reduction in students’ academic motivation and engagement and increasing unwillingness to collaborate with peers; however, newer Web 2.0 digital learning tools, such as Glogster EDU, offer edu...

... middle of paper ...

...udents to learn during literacy instruction?

By infusing Glogster EDU with available school-wide technologies and traditional instructional strategies, this applied thesis attempted to show that teachers believed that this Web 2.0 technology is valuable when integrated into literacy instruction. It was the researcher’s hope and intention that teachers would perceive that their students would successfully participate in collaborative discussion forums to complete assignments, thus directly improving student motivation in literacy class. Data results may provide evidence that when combining web-based learning and traditional literacy instruction, it can bridge gaps between students’ real-world experiences and literacy instruction in school, and give students more choices regarding learning outcomes which, ultimately, can motivate and engage them to learn collectively.