The Impact of Choice Novels on Student Reading Motivation

Abstract

Too often, reading instruction in schools does not encourage or support a classroom culture that fosters intrinsic reading motivation. Through this teaching inquiry project, I modified my approach to teaching literature and incorporated independent novel choice with book clubs into my high school English classroom. My research study examined if choice novels impacted reading motivation. Over the course of the project, I collected qualitative and quantitative data to determine the impact of choice novels on my students. Findings indicated that choice novels and book clubs enriched students’ conversations about literature and furthered their connections to one another. I found that this choice novel reading program brought back a genuine interest in reading as a result of an increase in reading motivation.