Lights, Camera, Action: Using Moviemaking to Motivate Adolescent Struggling Readers to Read and Engage Them in the Reading Process

Xiufang Chen*
Assistant Professor of Reading, Department of Reading, College of Education, Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ.
Periodicity:March - May'2010
DOI : https://doi.org/10.26634/jsch.5.4.1152

Abstract

Many teachers and researchers have found that motivation and engagement seem to decline as students enter adolescence, and one of the causing factors is limited opportunities for creative expression. Moviemaking a text undoubtedly encourages students’ creative expression to a great extent. This article explores the integration of moviemaking in an eighth-grade classroom where more than half of the students were considered struggling readers.  The author describes in detail the steps of how moviemaking was integrated to motivate adolescent students to read and further engage them in the reading process, from book introduction, reading and script preparation, to movie shooting and editing. Moreover, the author discusses the issues encountered at different stages, and solutions they came up with together. This article suggests that adolescents’ literacy need to be re-evaluated especially these nontraditional or “non-academic” digital literacies. Adolescents especially struggling adolescents must be given opportunities to demonstrate their capabilities in these literacy activities, which helps build their self-efficacy in school reading and learning. But this process must be scaffolded.  Ideas of how to scaffold adolescents’ participation are shared.

Keywords

Moviemaking, Reading Instruction-Motivation And Engagement, Adolescent Struggling Readers.

How to Cite this Article?

Xiufang Chen (2010). Lights, Camera, Action: Using Movie Making To Motivate Adolescent Struggling Readers To Read And Engage Them In The Reading Process. i-manager’s Journal on School Educational Technology. 5(3), 44-48. https://doi.org/10.26634/jsch.5.4.1152

References

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