TOO MANY BOOKS OR NOT ENOUGH BOOKSHELVES?

EXTENDED STORYTELLING

COMBINED WITH COLLABORATIVE STRATEGIC READING

AND ITS EFFECT ON STUDENT ENGAGEMENT

AND READING COMPREHENSION

by

TAMMY OSBORNE

An Action Research Project submitted to the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures

of Southern Oregon University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

In

SPANISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

SUMMER, 2020

ADVISOR: JEREMY W. BACHELOR, PH.D. 1 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR

Abstract

One tool that is gaining momentum in the foreign language classroom is comprehensible readers, or novels written for second language learners. The present study is aimed to establish the significance of the comprehensible reader combined with Collaborative Strategic Reading in a students’ engagement to learning a second language. More specifically, this study researches the comprehensible reader combined with Collaborative Strategic Reading utilizing authentic resources, and the role this may play in a student’s engagement and reading comprehension.

This study involved 25 sixth-grade Spanish students with a wide variety of past experience in the

Spanish language. Comprehension tests and qualitative surveys were conducted to measure students’ engagement and reading comprehension abilities with a collaborative read of a comprehensible reader over a six-week period. Then, the same tests were performed with a significantly shorter One-Word-Image story without Collaborative Strategic Reading nor a reader. Results suggest that both collaboratively reading a novel and reading without a novel can each have a positive effect on students’ reading comprehension and engagement. Based on this research, using comprehensible readers may improve student attitudes toward learning and increase the learning itself.

Introduction

While reading in a foreign language can be a daunting experience for any second language learner, I always incorporate reading in my Spanish classes with the assumption that reading and seeing the written language is central to learning. Therefore, at the start of my first year as the new Spanish teacher at my current school, I decided to create a beautiful library. I chose a corner, built bookshelves, and proudly displayed the array of diverse, interesting, multi- 2 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR leveled Spanish comprehensible readers the previous teacher left behind. I added pillows, blankets, and a sign that said in Spanish, “Once upon a time…”. My school’s curriculum is based on Comprehensible Input (CI), and through one technique of CI called storytelling, students hear and create stories during Spanish class. However, each time I tried to incorporate reading a novel into our storytelling, or discuss the possibility of free reading, students would grumble and complain. Once I experienced the students’ negativity towards reading, I hesitated when it came to any reading comprehension activity. Although my desire to incorporate reading in the classroom was high, their motivation to read and their level of reading comprehension was low. I did not want to obligate students to read against their will, and I never utilized the books in my library my first school year.

I teach grades sixth through eighth in a small, independent K-8 school. The dynamics of the students in my classes are that some students have had Spanish for many years, and others are taking Spanish for the first time. Therefore, I am often challenged to find lessons and activities that match their Spanish levels and interests. I constantly search for ways that both beginners and more advanced students can be engaged and learn new vocabulary and concepts through the same classroom activity. I thought that the comprehensible readers in my room held the key to solve this puzzle, and I determined to do more reading in my second school year in combination with this action research project.

Through my Master of Arts in Spanish Language Teaching classes at Southern Oregon

University in the University of Guanajuato, my passion and desire to read with students was revitalized. More specifically, the short story and film class with Dr. Enrique Chacón, and Don

Quijote & the Modern World class with Dr. Eduardo Olid Guerrero reminded me that reading and collaboratively discussing the readings can be enjoyable and engaging for students. In 3 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR addition, I learned that there are many benefits of reading in one’s first language, and these same benefits transfer to second language learners. Reading helps improve cognitive and communication skills because of the wide exposure to vocabulary words, structures, ideas and contexts (Alkialbi, 2015). And, reading can be extremely engaging when one finds the right storyline that students can identify with. But how does one get students motivated to read in a foreign language and ensure they are also engaged, comprehending the story, and acquiring the language? With renewed spirit and access to the comprehensible readers in my classroom library, I was resolute to explore this question further.

Purpose Statement

Reading in a second language is a difficult task for second language learners because the skill is generally considered to be of a highly individual nature; that is, no two readers approach or process a written text in exactly the same way (Alkialbi, 2015). The purpose of this study was to explore my students’ attitudes toward an extended story-tell using Collaborative Strategic

Reading (CSR) through a comprehensible reader, and to study how their perceived engagement in the novel would ultimately impact the outcome of their reading comprehension.

My research questions asked: 1) Will teaching through extended storytelling with a comprehensible reader combined with CSR have an impact on students’ perceived engagement, and if so, to what degree? 2) Will teaching through extended storytelling with a comprehensible reader combined with CSR have an impact on students' reading comprehension, and if so, to what degree?

Importance of the Study

The importance of the study was to explore extended storytelling with a comprehensible reader as a meaningful and appealing way for students to learn and grow in the Spanish language 4 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR classroom. By researching the effects of extended storytelling combined with CSR, teachers can discover if these comprehensible readers are indeed an engaging and effective tool for learning a second language. Likewise, teachers can ascertain if following the readers’ extended storylines and lengthened character analysis have an impact on reading comprehension. Furthermore, teachers can utilize authentic resources in their collaborative discussions to make the topics richer and real-world. Overall, the results from this study can serve as a motivator for teachers to choose whether to read more novels in their foreign language classroom as well as consider implementing other reading activities with comprehensible readers like incorporating authentic texts and Free Voluntary Reading.

I want students to learn to communicate in a foreign language, but I also want them to be motivated and excited to continue to learn the language and explore the rich cultures of Spanish- speaking countries. I believe that it is important for Middle school students to foster a desire to continue learning Spanish and culture as they move into high school. To this end, the knowledge of what engages students and encourages them to learn within the curriculum is vital to tailor classes to their learning needs and interests.

Definitions of Terms

The keywords in this study are comprehensible reader, extended storytelling, authentic materials, Free Voluntary Reading (FVR) or extensive reading, reading comprehension,

Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling (TPRS) through the One-Word Image

(OWI) technique, and Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR) and CSR strategies.

A comprehensible reader is a short novel that usually includes a historical or cultural context through fictional characters. The readers are designed for second language learning with controlled vocabulary between 2,000 and 10,000 words that consists of high frequency words, 5 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR cognates and repetitive language. Comprehensible readers are strategically written to include themes, relationships and scenarios which are conducive to collaborative reading and discussion as they are relatable to student’s lives and are written to captivate students’ attention (“How do I teach with comprehensible readers,” 2017). Authentic resources are materials written or created for native speakers and contain real-world and authentic language (Berardo, 2006). This is in contrast to non-authentic texts, like the readers, that are especially designed for language learning purposes.

Extended storytelling is, for the sake of this action research project, a teacher-led collaborative read with the whole class, usually up to six weeks or more. During extended storytelling, students may continue reading or discussing topics inspired by the novel or as mentioned in the teacher’s guide. Free Voluntary Reading (FVR) is also known as extensive reading. According to Day (2013), both terms are concurrent in meaning and refer to books that are self-selected and read for pleasure at the reader’s pace.

Reading comprehension is the ability to process a written text. Reading comprehension, for this current study, will be based on the definition from the Cambridge First Certificate in

English (FCE), whereas it measures macro and micro questions such as expression of opinion, attitude, purpose, and main idea (Namaziandost, et. al. 2019).

A study by Liam Printer (2019) took a closer look at the Teaching Proficiency through

Reading and Storytelling (TPRS) approach developed by Blaine Ray in 1997. TPRS focuses on acquiring language through storytelling, reading, and personalization of themes. According to

Printer, the steps to TPRS are show, ask, and read. One facet of TPRS is Ben Slavic’s pedagogical technique called One-Word-Image. During the OWI technique, students self-create 6 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR a story based on one word given by the teacher. Then, a story and a subsequent reading are created by the students over a short period of time (Slavic 2016).

Finally, Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR) is based on the premise that students can engage in high-quality discussions about a text with peers (Boardman, et. al. 2015). There are four main strategies for CSR- Get the Gist, Preview, Click and Clunk, and Wrap Up. According to the study by Boardman et. al. (2015), the Get the Gist strategy teaches students to use their own words to explain the main ideas of a reading to check for understanding. Preview requires students to scan text features such as the title, subheadings, and illustrations to identify key words and terms. During preview activities, students could brainstorm prior knowledge, watch a short documentary, or predict what they will learn from the reading. During the Click and Clunk strategy, students monitor their understanding and decide if they understand what they read.

When students find a word, concept, or idea hard to understand, it is a clunk. During the reading when clunks are found, students are encouraged to pause, reread, or ask for clarification. Wrap up mandates students to identify the most important ideas in a passage and help them remember what they learned by answering questions and/or writing a summary.

Literature Review

Researchers, theorists, and teachers can agree that reading is a fundamental instrument in the acquisition of language. But how we can engage students to want to read in a foreign language and acquire language through reading is a topic of much discussion. This literature review will explore the use of extended storytelling in the second language (L2) classroom through a comprehensible reader combined with teacher-led Collaborative Strategic Reading.

This literature review begins with why it is important to have a classroom library with printed novels in the target language. Then, research will be presented regarding the importance of 7 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR different types of student reading like Free Voluntary Reading, reading from authentic sources, and CSR. Finally, research will be shown regarding the use of reading in the second language classroom and its effectiveness in engaging students as well as increasing comprehension skills.

Because reading comprehension incorporates both bottom-up skills like learning words as well as top-down skills like making inferences as seen in the CSR techniques, the role of vocabulary acquisition has also been included in this literature review.

Classroom library with printed books

According to researchers Young, et. al (2007) there is a correlation between students’ love of reading and their access to books. Students with greater access to books have better attitudes about reading, reading achievement, and comprehension in comparison to students with less access to books. According to a study by Gabarron (2017), students’ familiarity with a printed text versus a digital one lowered anxiety levels associated with language learning and allowed for a relaxed approach to assignments and in-class activities. Gabarron determined this through a study with printed texts in a French Comics language class aimed at broadening students' knowledge and experience of graphic novels and providing them with a cultural representation in the foreign language. In the study the author noted that students developed a relationship to printed text as students were intrigued by their shapes and sizes and commented on the number of pages. Overall, the study suggests that students showed an increased interest in reading with an emotional attachment to the printed book versus reading digitally. This current research study will also be conducted with a classroom set of printed books that students will hold and read along with the class.

Reading novels such as comprehensible readers 8 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR When one reads, one sees the world through a character’s eyes, and this can help one to understand perspectives never seen before. In terms of reading fictional novels, Gareis, et. al.

(2019) explain that the benefits of using novels as textbooks are numerous due to their compelling plot, characters, and rich cultural content. This includes using novels as a foundation for activities such as writing, cultural awareness, listening and speaking skills through role-plays and discussions (Lazar, 1998). In a novel as in a comprehensible reader, the writing is unauthentic as the vocabulary tends to repeat itself more because the setting and the situations are revisited and referred to over and over. According to Lazar, this repetition of contextualized vocabulary is helpful to a reader (1998). According to a study by Economou (2015) regarding reading fiction in a second-language classroom, results indicated that second language learners have a positive attitude towards reading and discussing what they read. The study was conducted in a large town in Sweden with sixteen students taking Swedish as a second language.

The researcher measured how a group of advanced, multilingual second-language learners interpreted and interacted with each other after reading a Swedish novel. The analysis revealed that the students had good reading abilities because of their use of different styles of reading which helped them to develop an understanding of the text. Another interesting outcome of the study was that the forms of reading that were most clearly discernible were primarily subject- oriented where the reader applied the content of the text to their own lives.

A qualitative study regarding reading graphic novels in a classroom was conducted by

Ranker who observed a classroom teacher read and create comic strips with students. The study showed student improvements due to the highly visual texts that were incorporated which supported different learner types’ reading comprehension. Students reported that seeing the 9 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR pictures and comics gave them interesting and motivating reading material that engaged them in various aspects of reading and learning new literary practices (2007).

Free Voluntary Reading

Free Voluntary Reading (FVR), or extensive reading, is where students choose their own reading for pleasure and read at their own pace. FVR entails reading for overall meaning and doing few or no exercise afterwards. This has become a strategy to promote interest in foreign language reading (Yulia, 2018). Yulia’s study (2018) indicates that much research has shown that extensive reading improves reading fluency, builds new vocabulary knowledge, expands students’ understanding of words they previously learned, and promotes a positive attitude toward foreign language reading. In another study by Al-Hamoud and Schmitt in 2009, the authors compare an extensive reading class with a more traditional class involving vocabulary exercises and intensive reading, when learners read in detail with specific learning aims and tasks. The classes were part of a Saudi college professional course of seventy participants and included a control group and an experimental group. The reading comprehension portions of the test for both groups were reading six passages and answering five questions. The result indicated that scores in reading comprehension ability, reading speed, and vocabulary acquisition during the extensive reading approach was just as effective as the intensive approach. Moreover, the extensive reading participants reported much more positive attitudes toward reading, their class, and their learning than the participants in the intensive reading group. Overall, these results indicate that, for the variables studied, the extensive reading approach was as good as, or better than, the focused intensive reading approach.

Another qualitative study by Cho and Krashen (2001) examined the impact of a single, positive experience with comprehensible readers with a group of Korean students studying 10 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR English as a foreign language. All teachers were enrolled in a short-term teacher training program focusing on improving their methodology in English language teaching with sustained silent reading. While 92% of the students in the study reported not reading for pleasure prior to the study, results from a post-survey concluded that 98% of the students considered the impact of

FVR to increase their desire to continue reading for pleasure. In addition, 95% of the students indicated their confidence in reading English increased.

There were no studies found involving a collaborative read or the use of a comprehensible reader. However, many peer-reviewed studies were found regarding FVR utilizing comprehensible readers and each spoke in favor of the benefits of a free read in a foreign language classroom. While this action research project does not incorporate FVR, it is important to note the favorable studies of utilizing comprehensible readers. FVR is also mentioned in the discussion section of this paper as an alternative means for reading in the second language classroom.

Collaborative Strategic Reading

Reading helps students develop social and emotional skills by experiencing plots and relationships they could potentially encounter in real life. It is this connection with the everyday that leads readers to engage in dialogues and debates as students attempt to understand how characters feel and the motivations behind their actions. In a study by Hitchcock, et. al. (2011), the researchers examined the impact of Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR) on reading comprehension by comparing student performance on a pre- and post-test after a school year.

This analysis included 1,355 students within 26 linguistically diverse schools in Oklahoma and

Texas. Within each school, researchers measured teachers CSR instructional strategies, and reported that it did not have a significant impact on student reading comprehension. 11 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR On the other hand, in a case study by Boardman, et. al. (2015), the authors state that through Collaborative Strategic Reading “...students can engage in high-quality discussions about text with peers in heterogeneous student-led groups, and structures and supports can act as a vehicle for equitable access” (p.48). Giving students the chance to talk about a text helps them actively struggle through new ideas and elaborate on their cognition. These authors utilized the four comprehensible strategies in their classroom instructional approach. The researchers concluded that CSR was effective because the strategies successfully changed students’ access to learning, which promoted equitable contributions of all students.

Authentic Resources

One of the main ideas of using authentic materials in the classroom is to expose the learner to as much real language as possible. Even if the classroom is not a real-life situation, authentic materials do have a very important place within it (Berardo, 2006). In the article by

Berardo, she found authentic materials to be highly motivating because it’s uses gave a sense of achievement when students understood and information in a real-life context (2006). In a study on using authentic materials in an English language classroom in Iran, researcher Zohooriana

(2015) evaluated the use of authentic materials on student motivation using a mixed-method approach. Her results concluded that authentic context was more effective in increasing the students’ motivation level because it integrated language input and output mirroring real world communication. In addition, she proposed that instructional design is believed to play a significant role in increasing learners’ motivation by establishing interest and relevance.

Therefore, this current study will incorporate authentic resources during the Collaborative

Strategic Reading phases using a wide variety of original materials such as readings and videos from Spanish-speaking tourism websites. 12 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR Student Engagement

Cambria and Guthrie (2010) suggest a student may have the skills to read, but without the will to read nor effort to make a connection with a story, he or she is not likely to become a good reader. The natural interaction and engagement with a text makes reading easier and more pleasant for readers, and it is this element of pleasure that leads students to maintain engagement and make predictions in a story. Authors Dörnyei and Otto (1998), claim that various factors contribute in dynamic ways towards one’s motivation to accomplish a particular task, like reading a novel. These motivational factors stimulate individuals with energy, interest, and effort to fulfill their own needs, goals and self-expectations as well as the expectations of others.

In a study looking at student engagement as well as classroom climate and achievement, Reyes, et. al. (2012), focused their efforts on examining teacher to student interactions and classroom social processes that promoted student outcomes. The study investigated the link between classroom emotional climate (CEC) and academic achievement, including the role of student engagement as a mediator. Analysis of this study showed that when a teacher creates an emotional climate that makes a connection with and engages students, grades increase by 1.74 points for every unit increase in student engagement. These findings demonstrate the positive relationship between classroom emotional climate and engagement, which is similar to what this current study will be investigating.

A further study on engagement conducted by Brown in 2009, indicates that learners’ beliefs and perceptions might be more central to effective second language acquisition than an engaged and communicative teacher. Brown’s study was conducted on approximately 1,600 students from eighty-three second language classes. The principal objectives of this study were to identify and compare the ideals of teachers and students of effective teacher behaviors in a 13 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR classroom. Discrepancies between teacher and student beliefs in several relevant areas from this study point to the need for foreign language teachers to seek out students’ perspectives actively, and to engage them in classroom discussions that are deemed important, relevant, and engaging for the students.

Is a student who is listening and asking questions more engaged than another student taking notes? Student engagement can mean different things to different people. In this action research study, students ranked their own perceived level of engagement. The Likert engagement survey used was adapted from Rod Ellis’s task-based language presentation (2011) and the motivation study by Torres and Serafini (2016) which had correlations with this study.

Reading Comprehension

Fiction authors often infuse their work with morsels of real-world subjects and personalities that engage our emotions and our thinking which make us more likely to follow along and comprehend a storyline or topic (Alkiailbi, 2015). Alkiailbi attempted to shed light on the many criteria that define reading abilities and the skills, processes and knowledge bases that act in combination with reading comprehension. In his study involving ninety-two college students in Oman, a number of tests were used to measure students’ overall proficiency in

English as well as their reading ability, which is the ability to contribute to the main idea of the text, skimming and to derive word meanings from context. The findings in his study established that several reading skills like understanding main ideas, making inference and guessing vocabulary from context are essential skills which readers of English as a second/foreign language need to develop to attain high levels of proficiency in a target language. The results corroborate the importance of reading and reading comprehension in acquiring a second language. 14 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR In another study by Namaziandost, et. al. (2019), the authors successfully utilized a pre- and post-test model for reading comprehension from the Cambridge English First (FCE) reading tests. In this project, fifty-four Iranian pre-intermediate English learners participated in fifteen sessions in which they were asked to read and study books from a series of L2 reading materials with varying competency levels. Using a before and after design, students were retested after fifteen weeks. On a test of L2 reading comprehension, means testing revealed both groups showed marked increases, but the above competency group was higher. These results suggest that there can be clear benefits for learners to spend time mastering L2 materials above their competency level. The reading comprehension post-test model utilized for this study test consists of macro and micro questions such as the expression of opinion, attitude, purpose, main idea, detail, and gist. The FCE will be the model for the reading comprehension post-tests utilized for this action research project.

Vocabulary acquisition from reading

Teng and Reynolds (2019) tell us that vocabulary knowledge is the key to reading comprehension. Without a good mastery of vocabulary knowledge, second language learners cannot understand what they are reading. The number of words learners acquire incidentally through reading might vary according to many factors including input factors, word properties, and learner factors (Ellis, 1994). According to Zhao, et. al. (2016), researchers agree that both word properties and input factors like input elaboration, frequency of exposure, topic familiarity, and context clues were found to be significantly associated with second language incidental vocabulary acquisition through reading. The authors determined that through reading, students encounter new words, process new words, and develop knowledge of new words. Although second language learners also acquire words through listening and conversations (Ellis, 1994), 15 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR reading serves as the primary source of input for incidental vocabulary acquisition. Vocabulary review and discussion was one element used within the collaborative strategies in this study.

Summary

To sum, reading and in particular, reading printed texts, has been shown to provide several benefits to language learners. Benefits include important aspects like learning about real- world circumstances, serving as an instrument for social engagement, and increasing vocabulary, language acquisition, and overall reading comprehension. Several studies have investigated the implementation of varied reading strategies in the L2 classroom to establish the significance of reading ability and the role of reading comprehension in improving L2 proficiency levels.

Accordingly, the current study continues this exploration of reading in the foreign language classroom. My research questions asked: 1) Will teaching through extended storytelling with a comprehensible reader combined with CSR have an impact on students’ perceived engagement, and if so, to what degree? 2) Will teaching through extended storytelling with a comprehensible reader combined with CSR have an impact on students' reading comprehension, and if so, to what degree? Ultimately, the question of whether there were too many comprehensible readers or not enough bookshelves in the second language classroom was explored.

Methodology

Participants

My school is an independent K - 8 school located in an affluent neighborhood in

Alexandria, Virginia. Based on data from the 2019 - 2020 school year, Alexandria Country Day

School (ACDS) has a total of 185 students. The diversity dynamic of the school is 71% white and 29% labeled as people of color. Out of the 185 students, 0.04% of the students consider themselves bilingual in both Spanish and English. Approximately 17% of the population has 16 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR received some form of scholarship to attend the school. Spanish One is the only foreign language offered, and it is a required subject for all K- 8th graders. While a handful of students have had exposure to Spanish since Kindergarten, many students have come into the school in later years. Therefore, there is a wide variety of Spanish experience in each classroom.

I utilized my entire sixth grade, level one Spanish class for my intervention. This was the first exposure this group of students had with me as their Spanish teacher and in the Middle school environment. The sixth-grade classes meet three times a week for 45-minutes per class.

Students in the sixth grade are between 11 and 12 years of age, and sixth grade consists of two different classes with a total of 25 students. When determining the class make-up for the following school year, previous teachers make a conscious decision to have equal amounts of boy and girl ratios per class. In total, there were fourteen boys and seven girls in one class, and eleven boys and seven girls in the other class. Apart from the boy and girl ratio, the classes consist of a completely random combination of intellectual levels, social skills, and foreign language experience. For example, in one of the two sixth grade classes, there were four new students to the school with no formal Spanish language training. Within the same class, there was one bilingual student, one student who had only one year of previous Spanish classroom experience, and six students who had more than three years of Spanish classroom experience. It is important to note that I did not eliminate any student for previous foreign language experience because I am looking at the engagement and reading comprehension for the class as a whole and not individual students.

Materials

For the intervention I used the comprehensible reader by Mira Canion Agentes secretos y el mural de Picasso (AS) as well as some elements of the official teacher’s guide to lead my 17 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR daily, collaborative lessons and chapter readings. This novel was chosen because of the Spanish language level as well as the rich historical and cultural yet comical story line. It is about two characters who are secret agents during the time of the Spanish Civil War and have interesting conflicts while looking for the legendary Spear of Destiny. The means of our collaborative discussions were utilizing authentic materials from various resources like each city’s tourism website such as turismonavarro.es. We also read about important events by looking at actual pamphlets from the San Fermines bull fighting festival in Pamplona or viewing authentic images or videos on YouTube like walking on Las Ramblas and in the Parque Güell in Barcelona. In the post-intervention OWI lesson, a TPRS technique following Ben Slavic’s One-Word-Image was followed. The OWI instruction included collaboratively formulating a story about two characters, drawing a picture of the characters, and then reading the final, generated story.

The first data material I collected was the Likert engagement survey on students’ perceived engagement. Each survey was adapted from Ellis (2011), as seen and adapted from the study by Torres and Serafin (2016), to measure students’ perceived engagement of the reading. Students completed the surveys anonymously during three intervals of the intervention—after the first chapter, after the eighth chapter, and after the post-test given after the final chapter fourteen. The first three surveys were completed prior to winter break in mid-

December. Students completed an identical, fourth engagement survey in the post-intervention phase after the post-test on the third and final day of the OWI reading. The final survey was collected upon our return from winter break in early January. The survey contained a total of ten

Likert items (See Appendix A). There were five Likert items regarding student contentment with the reading and their contentment with participation in the reading. The other five Likert items were regarding student perceptions of engagement while listening to the reading. Students 18 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR rated whether they agreed with each statement on a scale from 1 through 5 (1=definitely disagree, 2=disagree, 3=neutral, 4=agree, 5=definitely agree). On the last and final survey, two optional “agree” or “disagree” questions were added as well as an invitation to free write comments regarding the class, the reading, and any of the collaborative discussions.

In addition to the surveys, students completed two reading comprehension post-tests as seen in the study by Namaziandost, et. al. (2019). Both reading comprehension tests were based on the model of FCE that tests comprehension of main ideas, opinions, and gist. The reading comprehension tests were also formulated after learning about assessments in the SLI

Assessment class in Guanajuato. Dr. Mary O’Donnell taught the importance for teachers to create fair assessments as well as appropriately written questions and answers. Through the influence of Dr. O’Donnell and the FCE, the post-reading comprehension and tests were created.

Upon completing the AS novel, a post-reading comprehension test was given in the form of a new reading of a made-up chapter 15, created by the author of this action research project.

A sample of the teacher-created reading and post-test for AS is provided in Appendix B. For the

OWI post-intervention, a sample of the reading and post-test is provided in Appendix C. The tests are similar in format as they each include a similar length writing sample with similar questions and answers. Each reading comprehension post-test, for the intervention and for the post-intervention, had a total of five questions. Three of the questions were short answer questions, and two were multiple-response questions. At least one of the questions on each test required the reader to use inference skills to choose the best answer.

The qualitative materials collected in this study were the teacher field journal and notes written from the focus group. The teacher field journal was utilized throughout the data collection process and consisted of student comments as well as teacher notes on the day’s 19 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR instruction. The focus group consisted of sixth-grade volunteers who agreed to meet for twenty minutes during lunch to discuss their perceived engagement in both the intervention and the

TPRS One-Word-Image class during the post-intervention. The focus group’s unstructured interview questions can be found in Appendix D.

Procedures

This study incorporated a mixed-methods design that included the data collection materials of four Likert surveys, two post-reading comprehension tests, a focus group interview, and a teacher field journal. I collected qualitative and quantitative data simultaneously to triangulate the data. Figure 1 “Study Design” shows the timeline of the intervention and the timing of the data collection tools during and after each intervention. There was a post- intervention of a typical TPRS storytelling called One-Word-Image, which was a three-day unit just after the extended storytelling intervention. This was done to collect comparative data.

Finally, a teacher field journal was maintained throughout the duration of the study, and a focus group was conducted at the conclusion of the study.

This experimental research project started on October 19th and was completed on January

10th, the first week after winter break. The intervention was a total of six weeks from October

15th until December 11th, and the post-intervention was conducted over three days during the week of January 6th until January 10th. Students began collaboratively reading the AS novel on

October 20th, and only paused momentarily during the holidays of Day of the Dead in early

November and Thanksgiving in late November.

Figure 1 “Study Design” 20 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR

Each of the fourteen chapters in the AS novel were read utilizing the four collaborative reading strategies. For Get the Gist, students read the title of the chapter and saw a pre-made word cloud with the important vocabulary of each chapter. For the Clink and Clunk phase, students asked specific questions about a particular expression, idea or concept within a chapter reading. In the Preview phase, authentic readings, images, and historically accurate videos from the local tourism websites was used. The teacher and the class would engage in discussions of

WWII and dictators, life on the streets of Europe, famous artists and artwork, and Bullfighting and the Running of the Bulls. These discussions took place mostly in the target language, but in some cases, English was used for clarification. We then had group discussions about student’s background knowledge of such events. After utilizing the collaborative strategy of Preview, students read the chapters in a variety of ways like teacher-led readings, silent readings, volunteers who read as the characters, and paired readings.

Typically, the final CSR strategy of Wrap Up would be conducted at the start of the following class as a means of a review of the previous chapter. In the Wrap up phase, the author’s or student’s own drawings of events were used to recap the stories, or authentic photos 21 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR were used to recall and discuss important elements of each chapter. One example was a photo of a secret sombrero that had a camera inside. With this one image, students discussed where the camera was located and how the secret agents used it to gain evidence.

Likert surveys adapted from Torres and Serafini (2016) on students’ perceptions of engagement were collected in the beginning and middle of the intervention as well after the final, teacher-created post-test of a reading comprehension summative on the novel and characters.

After the intervention (as well as the winter break), the next three classroom lessons were based on OWI. Using the OWI technique, the teacher had students determine an unlikely character.

This character, a Chupa Chup lollipop from Spain, was the one-word image for students to create their story. Then, the teacher asked questions about this character in Spanish. “Is the Chupa

Chup a girl or a boy?” “Does he have a friend? “Where does he go?” are a few of the questions asked. On the second day, students in small groups reread the story and added details. It is important to note that CSR strategies were not used during the OWI collaborative story fabrication. On the third day, the students read a compiled version of the story for their post-test.

This post-test was similar to the intervention post-test as far as the quantity and types of questions. After the post-intervention test, students completed their fourth and final engagement survey.

Student perceptions throughout both the intervention and post-intervention were tracked in the teacher’s field journal. Then, a focus group was conducted with unstructured interview questions regarding students’ perceptions and engagement in both the intervention and post- intervention readings and activities.

Analysis 22 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR The analysis in this research was organized in three categories- four Likert scale engagement surveys, two reading comprehension post-tests, and qualitative notes through a field journal and student focus group. Each individual Likert scale survey question was classified by points. I used an inverted scale to assign points to negative questions. For example, when a student chose (1), definitely disagree for a question that is the reverse like “I feel angry about the reading”, then I assigned five points to that question. With the total points calculated using an

Excel file for each survey, I ran descriptive statistics to look at the mean, median and mode of the scores as well as the standard deviation. I also used these survey scores to run paired t-tests to measure the relationships between each survey as well as compare the results from the two reading comprehension post-test scores.

For the two post-reading comprehension tests, I ran a diagnostic statistic on the final test scores. I ran two individual t-tests for each set of scores to measure for growth in reading comprehension between the two techniques— the extended storytelling of the novel and the 3- day OWI story. Then, I ran paired t-tests to see if the growth between the post-tests was significant. Finally, I linked the test scores from the Likert scale survey results of perceived engagement on a scatter plot to display how the activities may or may not have a connection.

In my teacher research journal, I tracked important points and student comments throughout my intervention and post-intervention to look for and identify common themes and patterns. The journal along with the focus group feedback helped me to uncover possible limitations to my study. These qualitative notes also assisted in making assumptions and suggestions for future planning, lessons, and ideas for future research. My expectation for this action research project was to discover benefits of students’ reading and collaboratively discussing aspects of a novel over an extended period of time. 23 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR Results

The primary aim of this action research project was to examine the impact that extended storytelling with a novel and Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR) had on student engagement and reading comprehension. More specifically, students’ perceived engagement and reading comprehension post-tests of a comprehensible reader titled Agentes secretos y el mural de

Picasso were analyzed with perceived engagements and reading comprehension of a short fictional story using the OWI pedagogical technique to determine any impacts. This project examined the following research questions: 1) Will teaching through extended storytelling combined with CSR have an impact on students’ perceived engagement, and if so, to what degree? 2) Will teaching through extended storytelling combined with CSR have an impact on students' reading comprehension, and if so, to what degree?

Research Question 1: Impact on Students’ Perceived Engagement

Students completed a total of four engagement surveys by responding to a 5-item Likert survey (See Appendix A). For the AS reader, students took their first survey after reading the first chapter (pre), eighth chapter (mid), and the final fourteenth chapter (post). Then, after reading their OWI story on day 3, students completed the same survey (post-OWI). On each of the surveys, a score of “1” indicated “definitively disagree” and a score of “5” indicated

“definitely agree.” There were 10 questions total with a maximum total of 50 points allowed.

The final survey included an open-ended item that invited participants to voluntarily provide written comments about the reading and reading activities as well as two “agree” or “disagree” questions. Two items on each survey, questions 7 and 8, were reverse coded to increase the validity of the results. One of these questions was “I feel angry about how I participated”. Items

1, 2, 5, 6, and 10 indicated that students persisted and learned from the reading, with questions 24 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR like “I found the reading interesting” and “I concentrated on the reading”. Items 3, 4, 7, 8, and 9 indicated that students were satisfied with their participation in the reading, with questions like “I am glad with my participation in the reading” and “I am proud of my participation in the reading”. The combination of reading and participation questions on the survey, for the purposes of this research, were measurements of self-perceived student engagement.

Simple descriptive statistics were calculated in an Excel file to determine the mean, median, and mode scores and standard deviation of the surveys as summarized in Table 1. The maximum score for each survey was fifty. The higher the mean and median score, the higher the students’ rated their satisfaction with their reading, participation and engagement. The mode represented the most common response from each of the groups.

Table 1. Students’ engagement survey and reading comprehension test results

Figure 2 below demonstrates the results of the mean scores on each of the engagement surveys and how it fluctuates between each of the readings. It is important to note that there were three AS Likert surveys and only one OWI survey.

Figure 2. Students’ mean scores on each engagement survey 25 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR

Research Question 2: Impact on Students’ Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension tests (Appendix B and C) were administered to determine students’ comprehension of the AS reader and the short OWI storytelling event of two fictional

Chupa Chups characters. The tests consisted of similarly written questions and answers in which students could not explicitly find the information in the story yet had to understand the reading and make inferences to be able to answer the questions. For example, there was a weather pattern mentioned, and students had to determine what the characters would do the next day based on the weather. In this example, students had to infer that it would be hot, and the characters would go to the beach to swim, even though the beach activity was not explicitly mentioned. Table 1 shows the mean, median, mode, and standard deviation of each test, and

Figure 3 below shows the mean results of each reading comprehension score based on a maximum score of 50 points, or 10 points each question. The mean score of the AS reader post- test was 40.40, or an 80% (B). The mean score of the OWI post-test was 37.84, or a 76% (C).

Table 2 below displays the number of students who earned each score. While 19 students for AS and 17 students for OWI scored an 80% or above, there were 6 students for the AS reader and 8 students for the OWI story who earned a 60% or below.

Figure 3. Students’ mean scores on comprehension tests 26 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR

Table 2. Student individual reading comprehension scores.

Research Questions 1 and 2: Links in Engagement and Reading Comprehension

Student engagement surveys were measured and likened with the reading comprehension test scores for each intervention. More specifically, paired t-tests were conducted for the AS pre, mid, and post surveys with the AS reading comprehension post-test score as well as the OWI survey and OWI reading comprehension post-test score. Then, paired t-tests were calculated for the AS post-test score with the OWI post-test, and the AS post-survey with the one OWI survey.

Table 3 below represents the results from these paired t-tests.

Table 3. Paired t-test results 27 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR

Subsequently, two scatterplots were created (Figures 4 and 5) to observe the relationship between the post-survey scores with the post-tests for each intervention. As can be seen in the scatterplots, a majority of the engagement surveys and test scores fall between the 30 and 50 score range. For Agentes secretos, 88% of students scored above 40 points on their engagement surveys yet only 32% score about 40 points on their reading comprehension scores. For OWI,

84% of the students scored above a 40, and 28% scored above a 40 on the reading comprehension test.

28 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR Figures 4 and 5. Scatterplots for Agentes Secretos and OWI story

Student Preferences from Optional “Agree/Disagree” Questions

For the final survey, the post-survey after the OWI reading, students were asked to answer voluntarily “agree” or “disagree” to the following two questions. Question one was “I preferred reading the Agentes secretos novel vs. the short OWI story,” and question two was “I connected more with the two Chupa Chups characters from the OWI story more than Paula and

Luis from the novel.” Out of the twenty-two students who responded to these optional questions on the final survey after the OWI story, nine students said they preferred reading the novel versus twelve students who preferred reading about the two made-up OWI characters. Then, nine students said they connected more with the two characters in the novel, and thirteen students 29 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR said they connected better with the fictional characters from the OWI reading. Figure 6 shows that out of the twenty-two students who answered the questions, 47% preferred the AS novel and

53% preferred the OWI reading in relation to both the book and the characters. This figure was calculated after the post-test of the OWI story which occurred after the extended novel.

Figure 6. Overall student preference from open question on survey.

Open-Ended Question in Final Survey

Student qualitative analysis regarding both the extended novel and the OWI story explored in this research were collected on the final survey by allowing open comments to be written on a voluntary basis. Participants wrote a total of sixteen comments. The prompt was,

“Please let your teacher know any other thoughts you have regarding Spanish class, you’re learning, your engagement, the Chupa Chups story and the reading of the novel Agentes secretos.” These responses were subsequently coded for patterns under the headings of the reading, activity, discussion and learning as seen in Table 4. Five comments indicated general satisfaction with the novel and student learning (e.g. “the book is interesting” and “I feel I am learning a lot of Spanish words by reading the AS book.”). Four comments offered a specific satisfaction with the CSR activities (e.g. “I really liked the games after the reading, like the role- plays and the scavenger hunt. They helped me to remember what happened” and “My favorite activity was the break-out box.”). Four comments expressed praise for incorporating the non- 30 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR fiction elements from the book (e.g. “The book tells history in a fun way.”). Only one comment expressed a criticism of our collaborative reading (e.g. “I wish we didn't stop and talk so much, and we would just keep reading.”). No students during the open comments section of the survey spoke specifically about the OWI story creation or reading.

Table 4. Categorized answers to open-ended question.

Focus Group Interview

To ensure that there was a fair sample of students for the focus group interview

(Appendix D), four specific male students and four specific female students were invited.

Within these eight students, four were new students to Spanish, and four were students who had classroom Spanish for at least three years. Further, anyone who wanted to come to the focus group was also invited. As a result, a total of eight students came on their own free will, and six were the participants who were initially invited. Out of these eight, an equal male to female ratio as well as four new students and four students with Spanish classroom experience were maintained in the focus group. 31 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR The focus group was an unstructured interview during the student’s 25-minute lunch period where sample questions asked ranged from the reading like, “Which reading did you prefer and why?” to “Do you think your reading comprehension has improved as a result of reading the novel or the OWI story?” Likewise, there were questions about students’ perceived engagement throughout the readings like, “Were you engaged throughout the reading of the novel or the OWI, or were there parts where you tuned out?”

Students mostly expressed positive attitudes toward the novel Agentes secretos and the

Collaborative Reading Strategies that were done in class. Students indicated that they liked the extended reading of the novel best (e.g. “With the novel there was more time to process, and I liked the repetition over time” and “With the long-term story it helped us to remember and think more about the characters, story lines and understand the vocabulary.”). In addition, they stated they were more engaged with the novel (e.g. “I was more engaged with Agentes secretos as there was more to learn” and “We learned history in a fun way and a lot about the culture too which I liked.”). Students commented positively on the collaborative reading strategies of the novel (e.g.

“I loved the different types of reading for each chapter, especially when we got to read the characters as if we were the characters” and “Visual learners could also learn since we discussed each chapter in a different way like watching videos or acting.”). Finally, one student indicated that he did not like the OWI story because, “it was so wacky I was more caught up in the story and didn’t learn anything.”

Discussion

The purpose of this action research project was to investigate the benefits of collaboratively reading a comprehensible reader in Spanish class, and to what extent would the extended and collaborative read have on student engagement and reading comprehension. 32 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR Results were obtained through a mixed methods approach utilizing Likert scale engagement surveys, comprehension post-tests and a focus group. In addition, results were compared with another significantly shorter reading that followed the OWI technique where students created the story and no CSR strategies were used. This project started in mid-October and finished in early

January, just after the winter break. The reader, Agentes secretos y el mural de Picasso by Mira

Canion, was collaboratively read to two sixth-grade classes for six weeks during the intervention.

During the intervention AS reading, the teacher utilized the collaborative readings strategies and distributed a total of three Likert scale engagement surveys. Upon the completion of the novel, a reading comprehension post- test based on the Cambridge First English Learning tests was given that measured expressions of opinion, attitude, purpose, main idea, detail, and gist. This process started over again in January for the 3-day OWI activity and subsequent reading where students completed a reading comprehension post-test as well as an engagement survey. This post-test was written in a similar format in relation to the length of the reading and the number and types of questions. Finally, there was a field journal throughout both interventions as well as an unstructured interview focus group to discuss students’ perceptions of each reading. The teacher journal included student comments as well as CSR activity notes.

Summary of Findings

Did the extended reading of a comprehensible reader combined with CSR ultimately have an impact on students’ perceived engagement and reading comprehension? Most students reported positive perceptions when asked whether they hoped to continue doing comparable extended readings with similar comprehensible readers. Observations from the focus group interview stated that many students appeared to have a positive opinion of the novel and the method of instruction, and they verbally stated that they learned from it as well. In my field 33 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR journal I noted that there were some hesitations to continue reading the novel, but overall the experience was positive, and students seemed motivated to uncover more about the characters and plot. This qualitative data suggests that students saw value in the instruction they received, enough to give energy in the daily lessons and overall positive feedback.

Taken together, the qualitative and quantitative data provides triangulation to give insight into the effectiveness of a collaborative reading of a novel. The quantitative instruments, which were the pre-survey, mid-survey, and two post-surveys, and the two reading comprehension post-tests, found that one could not give credence to say that an extended novel is a more effective tool than a shorter read in regard to engagement or reading comprehension. However, data suggests utilizing readers in the L2 classroom could be a viable language teaching approach.

Conclusions from engagement surveys

Data from the self-assessed engagement surveys showed a progression in engagement for the AS novel. As the story progressed, the engagement and interest of the students also increased. For Agentes secretos, the mean pre-survey score was 43.04, the mean mid-survey score was 44.8, and the post-survey score was 45.12. While the differences are relatively small, d=.32 from the first to second survey and d=1.76 from the first to the last survey, there is a progression in engagement as shown in Figure 2. Another noteworthy finding from this study was that in the engagement surveys, the average level of engagement for all three AS surveys was high, 44.35 out of 50, or 89% engagement from participants. For the OWI story it was

45.12 out of 50, or 90% engagement. This agrees with a similar study of Free Voluntary

Reading with graded readers by Al-Homoud and Schmitt (2009). In their study, the mean average from their self-assessed survey to measure their participants’ attitude toward reading was

5.10 out of a scale of 6, meaning 85% of the participants were engaged. They further went on to 34 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR say that extensive reading participants in their foreign language classroom reported much more positive attitudes toward reading, their class, and their learning. This was similar to the qualitative feedback received from the current study as both studies showed participants in the high percentile ranges of 85% - 90% for perceived engagement.

When comparing data between each of the post-surveys, the post-survey score mean was the exact same, 45.12. A paired t-test was conducted to compare these two post surveys, and the result was p = 1. This indicated that there was the same level of engagement between both activities and no significant difference. While it showed there was no significant difference when comparing engagement within the two instructional methods, it is important to restate the progression of student engagement when looking at the results of the novel on its own.

Conclusions from reading comprehension tests

As seen in Table 1, the median and mode of the AS and OWI post-test scores were each

40/50, or an 80%, a B grade. In addition, the mean scores of 40.40 or a B- for AS and 37.84 or a

C+ for OWI also show that students did comprehend each of the readings, even if at average levels. Figure 3 indicates that when looking at the mean reading comprehension scores, the AS reader was slightly higher than the OWI reading comprehension test by 2.56 points. While the average scores were higher for AS, it does not necessarily indicate that more was learned or comprehended. Therefore, a paired t-test was conducted to compare the test scores to understand if the numbers show statistical significance. The purpose of this t-test was to compare if the extended 6-week storytelling of the reader combined with collaborative reading strategies had a bigger impact on the reading comprehension of the OWI, 3-day read. The results of the paired t- test showed no significant difference between the AS test (M= 40.40, SD=7.84) and the OWI test

(M= 37.84, SD=10.58); p = .33641. This indicated there were no significant differences in the 35 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR two approaches. Additionally, there was no growth in reading comprehension between both interventions.

Another result to consider when looking at reading comprehension are the individual scores from each test as seen in Table 2 and not just the averages. When analyzing the number of individual student scores on each reading comprehension test, it is alarming to see that while

72% earned an above average to average score, 28% of students still earned a 60% or below.

Overall, 6 students for the AS reader and 8 students for the OWI story did not earn a proficient reading comprehension score. Therefore, the impact for each of the interventions can be considered as low.

The results of reading comprehension in this study are similar to the study applying collaborative reading strategies to improve reading comprehension within seventy-four fifth- grade, linguistically diverse social studies classes over five districts in Texas and Oklahoma.

Study authors reported that after a full year of analysis, CSR did not have a significant impact on student reading comprehension. The p-value between their two interventions of utilizing CSR strategies versus a full year of traditional learning in a social studies class was p = .11; not statistically significant. Furthermore, their post-test reading scores based on the Group Reading

Assessment and Diagnostic Evaluation (GRADE) for both interventions had a mean difference of .66 (Hitchcock, et al. 2011), and this current study had a mean difference of just 2.56.

On the contrary, another case study concluded that collaborative reading strategies can be an effective method for teaching a second language (Boardman, et al. 2015). These authors state that “students in CSR classrooms are capable of engaging together to tackle the demanding text in spaces where all students contribute to and are accepted by the learning community” (49).

These two studies presenting contradicting results represent the variability in assessing how CSR 36 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR can successfully work and be assessed in a classroom, considering the unpredictability of both teacher and student backgrounds, personalities and learning traits. This will be discussed further as one of the limitations of this current study.

Conclusions from data comparison

In the scatterplots of Figures 4 and 5, the majority of the engagement surveys and test scores fall between the 30 and 50 range. For AS, 88% of students scored above 40 points on their engagement surveys, and only 32% scored over 40 points on their reading comprehension scores. For the OWI story, 84% of the students scored above 40 on their engagement survey, and 28% scored above a 40 on their reading comprehension test. While the engagement levels were high in both interventions, the outcomes of the post-tests were more variable. The results from the analysis of the scatterplots highlight no real significant differences between both interventions.

Engagement surveys were then analyzed using a paired t-test with reading comprehension post-tests as seen in Table 3. When comparing the first engagement survey with the AS reading comprehension post-test, the result was p = 0.20655. This showed no significant difference. However, the results for the mid-survey and the post-survey did show significant results when paired with the reading comprehension test scores. The mid-survey had a paired t- test result of p = 0.02198, and the post-survey had a result of p = 0.01770. Accordingly, we can see that students experienced a statistically significant increase between the pre- and mid-survey scores, as well as an increase between the mid- and post-survey scores. The statistically significant increase indicates that the results of students’ perceived engagement favorably correlated with the test results from Agentes secretos. In other words, the more engaged the students, the better the test scores. When conducting the same paired t-test for the OWI survey 37 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR and the OWI reading comprehension test, it was discovered that p = 0.00414. This can also be considered a favorable and somewhat significant correlation between student engagement and reading comprehension. Consequently, and most importantly, while the bulk of the outcomes of the t-tests were significant, it does not indicate that one method is better than another. This is especially evident in the t-test result of 1.000 for the post AS survey with the OWI survey, which showed no significant difference between the two readings.

Results from comparing student engagement surveys with reading comprehension tests are similar to the study by Reyes, et. al. (2012), where they suggested high-quality teacher-to- student relationships matter to student learning. They learned that the collaborative environment created by the teacher is likely to impact students’ quantitative success in school. This is important because while it cannot be said that reading a novel is better than a shorter read in this current study, the results all show a positive link between engagement and overall student academic achievement.

Conclusions from qualitative data

Qualitative data from the agree/disagree questions in the final Likert survey, as seen in

Figure 6, shows that out of the twenty-two total students involved in this action research project,

47% stated they preferred the novel Agentes secretos and 53% preferred the OWI reading.

Additional data shows that nine students said they connected more with the two characters in the

Agentes secretos novel, and thirteen students said they connected better with the fictional characters from the OWI reading. With this being said, open comments from the final Likert survey as well as the focus group lean heavily towards a higher satisfaction with the AS reader than the OWI story. The qualitative data obtained through open comments on the final Likert survey, focus group conversations and my field observation journal speaks to the general 38 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR similarities in student opinions of both readings which is not weighted substantially on just one.

It also leads one to look at the overall engagement of the lesson itself and not just one factor- not the reading, not the discussion, not the tests yet the whole process.

Previous studies indicate that when students are engaged with a reading, their reading comprehension increases. This is evident in the qualitative study of comic books by Ranker in

2007. In his study, the author noted that through reading aloud, the teacher was able to

“motivate and engage students in various stages of the reading process as well as opportunities to write, think and discuss texts as they learn new literary practices” (p. 304). The qualitative research in this current study suggests that students were indeed engaged in the reading and in the collaborative discussions centered around the reading, and their post-test results showed positive results in reading comprehension. Another study by Cho and Krashen indicates that

Free Voluntary Reading has a positive impact on reading comprehension and student engagement. In their study, the authors report that 98%, or 84 out of 86 students who participated in Free Voluntary Reading said the reading experience motivated them to read more

(2001). This is similar to the current study where in the focus group, all eight students said they felt positive about and were encouraged to read another similar style reader again.

In conclusion, this action research project sought to answer the question if collaboratively reading a novel for an extended period of time has value to a foreign language learner to maintain engagement and improve reading comprehension. The results suggest that collaboratively reading a novel can indeed have a positive effect on students’ reading comprehension and engagement. However, so can a shorter read, i.e. not a collaborative read nor a reader. In addition, the positive effects of collaboratively reading a novel are limited in their statistical significance. Therefore, further research is needed to determine whether different 39 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR novels or collaborative teaching approaches would have a more significant learning impact, as well as what role student qualities, study strategies, or use of authentic materials may play.

Recommendations

Based on this research as well as similar studies on engagement, reading comprehension, and CSR, using comprehensible readers may improve student attitudes toward learning and increase the learning itself. Therefore, my recommendation is to utilize readers in the classroom both as a collaborative read at least once or twice a school year, as well as provide opportunities for free voluntary reading throughout the school year. In addition, I recommend incorporating collaborative reading strategies into the foreign language classroom to add value to lessons and offer differentiated instruction to students with varying proficiencies. I especially appreciated the CSR strategy of Preview that allowed me to utilize rich, authentic resources within the discussions from the plot of the comprehensible reader. It is my opinion that overall, readers can offer a low-prep platform for teachers who use some elements of the teacher manual to provide comprehensible input in the target language. These facts combined with the plentitude of available comprehensible readers in my personal school library are reasons I sought to find valuable evidence to support their use.

Limitations

My original study design, as seen in Figure 1, included the 3-day OWI teaching style to be completed prior to the 6-week collaborative read of the novel Agentes secretos. Before initiating my action research, I determined to complete the OWI teaching style after the collaborative read so that students could better remember and participate in the qualitative parts of my research after the entire project was completed. Had I not made that correction, it is my belief that students would not have been able to make an accurate comparison between both 40 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR teaching styles and readings because over six weeks would have passed between interventions.

At the same time, I believe a limitation is that students were influenced by the most recent activity (the OWI story) simply because it was more current and fresher in their minds.

The first limitation I discovered in the midst of my research was creating the reading comprehension post-tests for my stories in an attempt to interpret and follow the guidelines of the Cambridge First English Learning test. I created tests that measured expressions of opinion, purpose, main idea, detail, and gist. However, I feel that students had a hard time answering the questions that were inferred and would have done better had the questions been on vocabulary or direct facts from the story. Another discrepancy in my test is that it was written in Spanish.

Among debate from colleagues, it has been said that in order to accurately measure reading comprehension in a foreign language, one should ask comprehension questions in the first language, which I did not. And finally, I did not teach metacognitive reading strategies which could have potentially helped some students. Students who were more adept at employing reading strategies may have done better on the tests simply because they had a more developed strategy use, and this may not have had anything to do with their language acquisition or reading comprehension skills.

A subsequent limitation was my Likert survey. In retrospect, I would have liked to have changed some of the adjectives utilized in the survey like “angry” and “pleased” to

“disappointed” or “happy” to make them more sixth grade-student- friendly. During the survey I wrote in my field journal that some of the students asked for clarification of these questions, and this could have construed their answers and my engagement results.

Another limitation was my student population. When teaching Spanish at a school that advocates comprehensible-input in their foreign language program, teachers do not follow a 41 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR textbook or have a curriculum with specific themes to teach. Teachers are expected to find subjects of interest to students and have them receive comprehensible input. While reading a novel can be considered comprehensible input, does reading a comprehensible reader guarantee that students will be engaged and learn the language? After completing my action research, I am able to answer this question with…it depends. It depends on the students, their individual backgrounds and interests, the chemistry of the class, the instruction centered around the novel, and the storyline and characters. The group of sixth graders that were my participants were fond of the secret agent theme, and one of the students had family in Spain and many had traveled there, so the story line resonated with them. Was I successful because of the book, or was it my specific students and their current interests? Would I have the same results if I read the book to all of my classes? Would I have the same results if I used different collaborative reading strategies? The overall research points positively towards continuing collaborative reading using readers like Agentes secretos, but it is uncertain if a different segment of the population or different students with different personality traits would yield similar results.

One detail I would reconsider of my current study was the way the test results and survey results for each participant were anonymous. In retrospect, I would have preferred to fully analyze my research by tracking survey results from each student and compare with test scores of that student to create a paired t-test. This would have enabled me to better compare student profiles with their progress and evaluate engagement with specific students and scores. In addition, a future research project could measure long term vocabulary acquisition aligned with reading comprehension. This could be done by reevaluating participants six or more months later to see what elements of the story and vocabulary was acquired and/or active in current language output. 42 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR For a future action research project, I would recommend a similar research framework but using an authentic reading with collaborative reading strategies centered purely on authentic resources. This would be of interest to discover what authentic texts sixth grade students can be successful in comprehending and if they would maintain engagement while reading and discussing them.

In summary, the present study generated many conversations with my students and peers regarding reading in the L2 classroom. This study gave me insight into about how powerful reading is for language acquisition. On the whole, I plan to continue exploring the use of comprehensible readers in my classroom as collaborative reads and free voluntary reads.

Likewise, I will continue to research the variety of available readers as well as how to find authentic materials to accompany each reader so I can make connections with my students’ interests as well as expose them to real-world language within my classroom. Although the analysis in my study was not statistically significant in regard to a collaborative read with a comprehensible reader, qualitative findings showed comprehensible readers to be a facilitator to get students enthusiastic about the language, learn elements of history and culture, and ultimately, practice using the target language in context. 43 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR

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Date: ______Topic: ______Circle the number that best describes your opinion after the reading. Do not write your name on this sheet so that your responses remain anonymous.

1 = I definitely disagree 2 = I quite disagree 3 = I don’t know 4 = I quite agree 5 = I definitely agree

Statements

1. I persisted in the reading. 1 2 3 4 5

2. I concentrated on the reading. 1 2 3 4 5

3. I am satisfied with my participation in the reading. 1 2 3 4 5

4. I am glad with my participation in the reading. 1 2 3 4 5

5. I found the reading interesting. 1 2 3 4 5

6. I am satisfied. 1 2 3 4 5

7. I feel angry about how I participated. 1 2 3 4 5

8. I feel distressed about my participation. 1 2 3 4 5

9. I am proud of my participation. 1 2 3 4 5

10. I learned from this reading. 1 2 3 4 5

48 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR

APPENDIX A, continued

(Optional page on final, 4th survey)

1) I preferred the Agentes Secretos novel more than the Chupa Chups story.

Agree Disagree

2) I connected more with the characters in the Agentes Secretos novel more than the Chupa Chups story.

Agree Disagree

Please let your teacher know any other thoughts you have regarding Spanish class, you’re learning, your engagement, and the reading of the novel Agentes Secretos and the Chupa Chups story.

49 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR APPENDIX B (2 pages) Post Test for Agentes Secretos

Capítulo Quince de Agentes Secretos por Señora Gómez Madrid, España Paula y Luis van en el coche hacia Barcelona. Luis está contento porque Paula es una buena amiga, y tiene una buena imaginación. Paula está feliz porque Luis es un buen amigo, y es un buen agente secreto. Están felices porque finalmente tienen la lanza. Tienen la Lanza del Destino. La Lanza del Destino tiene una parte mágica. Tiene poderes mágicos. La persona que tiene la lanza también tiene poderes mágicos. Puede controlar Europa. Paula y Luis hablan mucho en el coche. Paula le pregunta a Luis:

-“¿Qué va a hacer tu padre con la lanza?”

-“Va a protegerla. Franco no puede tener la lanza,” responde Luis.

-“¿Por qué Franco quiere controlar España?” pregunta Paula.

Luis mira a los ojos de Paula. De repente, Luis tiene una idea. ¡Vamos a acelerar! ¡Vamos rápido! ¡Vamos a Madrid! Paula acelera el coche y va hacia Madrid. Paula mira detrás del coche. No están Mario y Javier. -“¿Por qué tenemos que ir rápido a Madrid?” Luis es un agente secreto muy serio. A Luis le gusta ir a los museos. Luis habla por teléfono, y habla con muchas personas en Madrid. -“Vamos al Museo del Prado en Madrid” dice Luis. “Vamos al museo con La Lanza del Destino. Tengo una idea importante.” En el Museo del Prado, Paula y Luis entran con La Lanza del Destino. Ven a otro agente secreto. El agente secreto es bueno. Es un agente secreto del rey de España, Alfonso XII. -“Vamos a dar La Lanza del Destino al agente secreto”, explica Luis. “El rey de España la necesita para controlar España. ¡Es urgente- es el destino de España!” Paula y Luis caminan por las calles de Madrid. Están contentos porque la lanza está con el rey de España. En Madrid no hay calles pequeñas y no hay toros. Ellos paran en un restaurante. En el restaurante hay mucha arte. Paula bebe su café y observa el arte intensamente. Paula piensa que ve un símbolo en el arte. Luis se ríe, y mira intensamente a los ojos de Paula.

El fin.

APPENDIX B, continued Post Test for Agentes Secretos

Nombre: Fecha: 50 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR

Sumativo “Agentes Secretos”

Read chapter 15 of Agentes Secretos by Señora Gómez. Then, according to what you read in chapter 15, answer the questions below. Each question is worth 10 points.

1) En Madrid, ¿Qué hay y/o no hay? (Ej.) Hay un/a _____, No hay ______. 1. ______2. ______3. ______4. ______5. ______

2) ¿Qué es cierto (true) de Paula? a. Paula no bebe café ni té. b. Paula quiere controlar España. c. Paula hace magia (magic) con la lanza. d. A Paula le gusta la fantasia.

3) ¿Por qué tienen que ir rápido a Madrid? a. Mario y Javier están detrás del coche de Paula. b. Luis quiere ver a su papá en Madrid. c. Paula está triste tener la lanza en su coche. d. Luis tiene una idea diferente y muy influential.

¿Qué opinas? Write two complete sentences in Spanish to answer each question with your opinion according to chapter 15. ¡Ojo! Each sentence needs a verb.

4) ¿Por qué Luis mira intensamente a los ojos de Paula? - -

5) ¿Por qué Paula mira intensamente al arte en el restaurante en Madrid? -

-

_____ / 50

APPENDIX C Post Test for OWI

Instrucciones. Read the following story about your 6R Mascots. After you read the story, then answer the questions that follow. Each question is worth 5 points.

51 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR Había una vez dos Chupa Chups. Su cumpleaños es el 16 de septiembre y tienen 12 años. Un Chupa Chups es una chica que se llama Kidz bop Karen, y el otro es un chico que se llama Tommy. Los Chupa Chups no viven en el planeta tierra (Earth), viven en el planeta marte. Así que no llevan ropa normal. Llevan un traje de espacio con bañadores. Tienen superpoderes. Pueden volar cuando tiran pedos de gas. Y, les gusta bailar el baile de la lotería. Bailan bien. Un día, Kidz bop Karen está muy feliz, pero Tommy está muy confundido y enfadado. Kidz bop Karen tiene una página web con un baile en “Tic Tok” y muchas personas hacen “like” a su página web. No hay personas que hacen “like” a la página web de Tommy. Así que Tommy está confundido. Tommy piensa que Kidz bopz Karen no baila bien.También Tommy está enfadado. Está muy, muy enfadado. Están tan enfadado que empieza tirar pedos de gas. Tira muchos pedos de gas que empieza volar. Tommy vuela hasta otra galaxia. Ahora, Tommy vive solo en otra galaxia. Kidz bopz Karen quiere ser amigos con Tommy otra vez. Kidz bopz Karen va a la otra galaxia con Tommy. La otra galaxia se llama la Vía Láctea (Milky Way). En la Vía Láctea no hace frío, hace calor. Hace mucho calor. Kidz bopz Karen y Tommy viven solos en la Vía Lácteal. Karen y Tommy están felices. La fecha es el 15 de septiembre...

1. Describe Tommy y Kidz bop Karen. (Write 5 sentences in Spanish). 1)______. 2)______. 3)______. 4)______. 5)______.

2. ¿Qué opinas- Tommy y Karen son amigos buenos? (Write why, ¿por qué?)

3. ¿Qué opinas- Tommy prefiere vivir en el planeta Tierra? (Write why, ¿Por qué?)

4. Basado en el cuento, ¿qué hacen Kidz bop Karen y Tommy en la galaxia vía lactea? a. Van a la playa y juegan en el agua. b. Esquían en las montañas de nieve. c. Hacen ángeles en la nieve.

5. Basado en el cuento, ¿qué van a hacer mañana? a. Van a ir a la escuela en autobús. b. Van a hacer tarea de matemáticas. c. Van a comer un pastel de chocolate y cantar.

APPENDIX D

Unstructured Focus Group Interview Questions

Date: ______Number of volunteers: ______52 EXTENDED STORYTELLING WITH CSR Principal Researcher: Anne Connor Co-Investigator: Tammy Osborne Unstructured Interview Questions:

1) Which reading did you like better and why- the One-word-image story of the Chupa Chups, or reading the TPRS novel Agentes Secretos y el mural de Picasso? 2) Were you engaged throughout the entire novel Agentes Secretos? Tell me about how and why you felt engaged. (Or) Were you more engaged with the OWI story? 3) How much did you understand in Spanish when we were reading in Spanish during both activities? How did that percentage make you feel? 4) Do you think your reading has improved as a result of reading the novel? 5) Do you think your reading has improved as a result of reading the short stories of the OWI? 6) Did you connect more with Paula and Luis from Agentes Secretos or with the Chupa Chups and why? 7) What aspects of the novel DISCUSSIONS did you like? For example, we did various styles of reading like teacher reads/students listen, students read out loud, students act out, students read silently, running dictations, and the break-out box. We also did scavenger hunts and historical side lessons.

Notes: