Methodology

Design

I used a pre-survey to determine the initial motivation level of the Readers Rally team members.  I then used a variety of ARCS motivation strategies at the team meetings.  At the last team meeting before the school competition to choose the members who would represent McConnell at the county meet, I administered a motivation post-survey.  At the final team meeting, I administered an open-ended Student Reflection instrument.

Participants

• Participants were 29 middle school students who volunteered to be part of the Readers Rally program: 11 sixth-graders, 9 seventh-graders, and 9 eighth-graders.
• The students were recruited through the following methods: promotion by the media specialist during class media center orientation, announcements on the morning news show, posters, and some informal recruitment by language arts teachers.
• All students who volunteered were selected.

Data Collection Story

Techniques and Procedures

• Administered Pre-survey (Wigfield and Guthrie’s Motivation for Reading Questionnaire) to Readers Rally members at organizational meeting on September 27.
• Input results of pre-survey on Excel spreadsheet; coded results according to reading motivation dimension.
• Used ARCS motivation strategies at team meetings (10/12, 10/19, 11/2, 11/9, 11/16, 11/29, 12/7, 12/13, 12/17)
• Administered post-survey, MRQ, at last meeting (12/17) before the final team of ten members was chosen
• Input results of post-survey on Excel spreadsheet and compared to results from pre-survey.
• Continued to use ARCS motivation strategies at team meetings held after the school competition (1/18, 1/24, and 2/1).

• Recorded the number of students who began the program (completed permission slips and pre-surveys), and the number of students who completed the program (attendance at final meetings and completion of post-survey).
• Tabulated the number of books read by each student as indicated by Member Reading Log.
• Administered Student Reflection instrument to members at final team meeting on February 15.

Instruments and Materials

Copies of all instruments and materials are included in the Appendices.

• Motivation for Reading Questionnaire (reading motivation measurement instrument)

• Readers Rally member permission slip

• Readers Rally member Book Log

• ARCS Motivation Strategies Table

• Readers Rally Meeting Plan form

• Readers Rally Student Reflection

 Data Sources

·        Pre-survey MRQ

·        Post-survey MRQ

·        Student Reflection Instrument

·        Member Reading Log

Analysis

Data Organization

• Organized data from MRQ (pre and post) on Excel spreadsheet, listing results by team member.  Each team member was identified by a number rather than by name for confidentiality purposes. 
• For the Student Reflection, I used a table to record the responses to the four questions.

 Data Analysis

• Computed average for each reading motivation dimension measured on the MRQ for the team as a whole.  Compared overall average for each dimension from pre-survey to that from post-survey.  Determined amount of change, and whether change was positive or negative.  Conducted t-test to determine if changes were statistically significant.
• Computed average for each reading motivation dimension for each student.  For those students who completed both the pre-survey and the post-survey (18 out of 26), compared the average for each dimension from the pre-survey to the average from the post-survey.  Determined amount of change for each dimension. Conducted t-test to determine if changes were statistically significant.  Determined overall amount of change for each student who remained active.
• Compared overall amount of change for each student on the post-survey to number of books read by each student.
• Compared pre-survey motivation dimension averages for each student who remained active to the pre-survey averages of those students who did not complete the program. Conducted t-test to determine if differences were statistically significant.