Digital and Multimodal Literacies and Student Motivation

Introduction Last week, I discussed early reading development and motivation and how digital and multimodal literacies can both help and hinder our young readers.  In this post, I will mention the impact of motivation on reading in adolescent readers.  Adolescent readers are those who have transitioned from building foundational literacy skills and learning to read, to reading to learn new concepts and for leisure.  I will conclude this post by exploring research that includes digital and multimodal literacies that affect adolescent readers and their reading development.   Adolescent Readers and Motivation According to Hinchman and Sheridan (2014), motivation is one of the key factors of reading that should take focus in the classroom because of research findings that indicate a transition in motivation for adolescent readers. These authors determine that this is caused by a performance-oriented learning climate, such as the focus on grades, and the percepti...

    Introduction      This week, I will discuss the impacts of digital and multimodal literacies in early reading development and motivation.  For the purpose of this week’s topic, I want to differentiate that early reading development will include ages ranging from infancy to third grade, and both emergent and beginning readers. Early Reading Development, Motivation, and New Literacies Early reading development is crucial to later success in both reading comprehension and reading motivation.  Schwanenflugel and Knapp (2016) express that learning to read begins at infancy in the home.  They also state that factors such as oral language such as the quality and quantity of conversations that children engage in with their families and supported and stimulating play experiences impact early literacy skills.  However, they also mention the impacts of screen time on children’s reading development.  Schwanenflugel and Knapp cite a study that ...

Introduction As I mentioned in my earlier post, this blog’s purpose is to discuss the impacts of new literacies on student motivation. In this blog post specifically, I explore pedagogical theories that explain the purpose of student motivation and engagement in learning and instruction. Then I provide the teacher’s role in supporting student motivation and engagement in the classroom. Next, I discuss the relationship of student motivation and engagement and the implementation of new literacies. Finally, this blog will discuss the implications of new literacies and their relationship with student motivation and engagement that educators must consider.   Theory and Motivation There are two guiding theories of pedagogy that much of our teaching is based upon:  constructivism and social constructivism.  In constructivist theory, it is mentioned that students are active participants in their learning and that supporting autonomy can lead to authentic learning opportu...