Student Choice-of-Text in an Upper Secondary Independent Reading Program: A Quasi-Experimental Study

This study examined the effects of student choice-of-text and reading comprehension outcomes in a 12-week independent reading program in an upper-secondary school. Students aged 17-18 (N = 52) were divided into two groups with one receiving an assigned text of age-appropriate Lexile estimate and genre; the other group was given free choice-of-text from an appropriate Lexile level from a classroom library. This quasi-experimental study followed a pretest-posttest, one-way ANCOVA model with both groups receiving the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test series before and after the intervention. Both groups made modest gains; however, the ANCOVA results revealed no statistically significant difference between the choice-of-text and No Choice-of-text groups (p =.262). Participant interviews of typical and non-typical cases are included. Recommendations for further research include a call for a readjustment of previously reported effect sizes upon which to build future studies in adolescent literacy.

Keywords: Adolescent Motivation to Read Profile (AMRP), Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test (GMRT), Sustained Silent Reading/Daily Independent Reading (SSR/DIR), Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA), Reading Comprehension, Instructional Design Theory, Choice-of-Text, Secondary Education