making time to read: an action research plan

Action Research Plan:Making Time to Read

Nathan Wolfe

EDUC 526: Capstone Experience in Digital Teaching and Learning

Professor Matthew Hixson

APU Murrieta Regional Center

April 3, 2014

ACTION RESEARCH: MAKING TIME TO READ

Abstract:

Literacy is rapidly declining in this country and has been for at least a decade. Knowing

my own personal reading habits are not as they should be, I aspired to increase both the quantity

and quality of my reading experience and enforce a daily habit of frequent exposure to literature.

Using Charles Dickens’, Our Mutual Friend, and a period of three-weeks as the basis of my

research, I sought to progressively introduce three techniques to improve my reading: (1) read

daily, (2) set goals, and (3) change reading environments. The results were surprisingly positive

in helping me become a more active and effective reader.

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Introduction

Literacy in America, despite the best efforts of the public education system, is at a poor

state. According to research done in April 2013, fourteen percent of adults cannot read, which

roughly translates into a total of 32 million individuals across the country (U.S. Dep. of Ed.

2013). Unfortunately, this relatively high percentage is not limited to those who were not

schooled. Nineteen percent of high school graduates are not literate, revealing the remarkable

missteps of teaching reading in the public schooling system. These statistics along with my own

struggles to be a motivated reader helped develop my initial interest in making adequate time to

read.

As one desiring to be an English teacher, I certainly enjoy reading and making sure my

literacy skills remain sharp, yet I struggle, as nearly all adults do, to read on a regular basis. In a

fast-paced, distraction-filled world, finding time to immerse oneself into a literary world of

varied characters and diction is a rare and difficult task. My realization of my own lack of

motivation to make time to read along with the poor example I would be setting for the students

to whom I would be teaching literacy and fluency caused me to take action. The amount of

literature and written information I was failing to take in was unacceptable. I made it my goal to

not only increase the frequency of making time to read, but also to drastically improve the

amount of content I was consuming by increasing the speed of my reading.

Implementation

Since my prior reading schedule was fairly dismal, I knew that the best method of

increasing both my time devoted to reading and pages read per minute would be to set

progressive short term goals. Given a three-week time span, I sought to implement a new goal or

technique each week to scaffold and build off of my previous improvements. Following this

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pattern, I hoped to slowly build these reading strategies into my daily routine. In order to

maintain consistent results and data, I chose to spend the three-week span reading Charles

Dickens’ Our Mutual Friend, which consists of 797 pages and implements more difficult

vocabulary and prose diction. My ultimate goal was to complete this novel by the end of the

three weeks, yet that was secondary to increasing the frequency and time spent of my reading.

Read Daily

My first priority was to make time for reading each day, no matter how little was done. I

felt this would be an easy way to start a habit, and that, hopefully, by the end of the week I would

feel that reading is an essential part of my day. This step had the least amount of restrictions or

limitations, which allowed me to form more of a loose habit of reading rather than one that was

goal-oriented. The only requirements this step required is that I motivate myself to at least crack

open the book and read a few pages for at least 10 minutes. While the number of pages and

minutes read for this goal may seem quite underwhelming, at least making time to read was

better than reading nothing at all.

Set Goals

After getting used to reading every day and beginning the habit of making time to read, I

then started Week Two by setting daily goals for my reading. In order to increase the amount of

pages I read per day, I set the goal of completing four chapters of the novel per day. While some

chapters are longer than others, I felt that providing myself with an objective and tangible goal

would force me to read for a longer period of time while also not feeling overwhelmed by such a

long novel. With this goal of four chapters per day enforced, I could successfully finish the

novel by the end of the three-week period.

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Change Environment

The final step to be enforced in Week Three is the changing of the environment in which

reading takes place. Since there are so many distractions at home, I wondered if reading in a

more peaceful environment would help me reach my goal of increasing my page-per-minute

reading time. At home, I already knew how easy it would be to get distracted by others, from

cell phones and TVs, and from simple chores that need to be done around the house. Getting out

and going to a location like a coffee shop or a park would eliminate many of those distractions

and, hopefully, provide me with more focused reading time and more of an opportunity to be

fully immersed in what I was reading.

Results

Following the three-step process I sought to implement proved much more helpful than I

could have expected. The results that were brought about by these three weeks of focused

reading were very satisfactory. Week One, although it was the baseline for which I was

anchoring this study, provided some interesting results. Simply taking the time to read some of

the novel, as much of a change as it was, was not as difficult as I thought. Making reading a

priority helped me notice several opportunities throughout the day that I could take to open up

Our Mutual Friend and spend a few minutes reading the introductory chapters. With an overall

average of 0.4 pages per minute, I was hopeful to make improvements by the end of three weeks.

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Week Two proved to be very successful in terms of increasing the amount of pages read

per day. After determining to read at least four chapters of the novel each day, I had a more

consistent result in how many pages were read, averaging at about 49 pages a day – up from 23

pages the previous week. Since I was able to more than double my prior results, I felt that Week

Two was a success and that implementing reading goals is absolutely necessary in making more

time to read every day. I also noticed that my pages read-per-minute was stabilizing, although

there was no sign of tremendous growth compared to the increase of pages read per day.

Surprisingly, finishing the 797-page novel seemed to be possible at this point, considering the

next step of implementation should even more drastically improve my reading performance.

The most substantial and noticeable improvement came at the implementation of the third

and final step: changing environments. Previously when I would read at home, despite finding a

relatively quiet place to focus on the text, my wife or other visitors would easily distract me, no

matter how determined I was to keep reading. Having cell phones and computers around made it

all the more tempting to take a break and begin doing something other than reading. So,

removing these obstacles had the potential to increase my page-per-minute speed. I first tried

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WEEKONE Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursda

y Friday Saturday

Pages Read 27 11 30 9 12 43 32

Time Spent 1 ½ hour ½ hour 1 hour ½ hour 20 min. 1 ½

hour 1 hour

Pages/Min. 0.3 pages

0.4 pages

0.5 pages 0.3 pages 0.6

pages0.5

pages0.5

pages

WEEKTWO Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursda

y Friday Saturday

Pages Read 53 48 47 45 56 42 52

Time Spent 2 hours 1 ½ hour 2 hours 1 ½ hour 2 hours 1 ½

hour 2 hours


0.5 pages


pages0.5

pages0.4

pages


visiting a coffee shop down the street to test the environment to see if it was conducive for

focused and meaningful reading time. The results were positive and I was able to increase my

completion speed of the four chapters I had made it my goal to accomplish. After doing this on

Sunday and Monday, I then decided to try another atmosphere, one with even fewer distractions

and people: the park. Being outside and having fewer auditory disturbances seemed to further

increase my ability to read quicker without losing comprehension or enjoyability. It was due to

this particular environment that I was able to achieve a reading speed three-times as fast (0.9

pages/minute) as my beginning day three weeks prior (0.3 pages/minute). I was even successful

in completing the novel and achieving a record 1-page/minute speed due to this positive change

in environment.

Table 1: Pages Read

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wed

nesday

Thursday

Friday

Satu

rday

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Week 1Week 2Week 3

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WEEKTHREE Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursda

y Friday Saturday

Pages Read 40 52 39 49 42 44 4

Time Spent 1 hour 1 hour 45 min 1 hour 45 min. 45 min. 3 min.


0.9 pages


pages1

page1.3

pages


Table 2: Time Spent

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wed

nesday

Thursday

Friday

Satu

rday

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

Week 1Week 2Week 3

Wk1: S

unMon

TuesW

edThurs Fri Sa

t

Wk2: S

unMon

TuesW

edThurs Fri Sa

t

Wk3: S

unMon

TuesW

edThurs Fri Sa

t0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

1.4

Pages/Min.

Pages/Min.

One can easily see the drastic increase in pages read per minute from the beginning of Week

Three and onward. The change in environment coupled with the setting of goals and a habit of

daily reading forming certainly produced the best results in just a matter of weeks. Each step had

its part in the process. Reading daily formed the habit necessary to make time and find time to

read. Setting specific yet manageable goals helped provide me with a drive to read a certain

quantity. Changing my environment gave me that added change to truly focus on what I was

reading and improve my reading speed.

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Conclusion

I am excited to continue this practice, as it will help my personal and professional life. I

know that as a future English teacher, I need to be self-motivated to read and read frequently.

The results of this three-week research period will cause me to continue to experiment with

different steps that can be taken in order to even further my reading efficiency and reinforce my

habit of reading daily.

Part of the reason I chose to participate in this form of action research is due to the fact

that my personal knowledge and experience of what works best when making time to read will

aid my future students. I am already determined to share these helpful tips with my students

before beginning a large reading assignment, as I know that it will be beneficial to some, if not

all of my students. I hope that I can inspire many of my future students to make time for reading

in a world that is quickly declining in literacy. With statistics such as those shared earlier

increasing, the best preventative is to simple make the time to read and share that love of reading

with your students and peers alike.

General Comments

The action research process helped me rediscover my love for English literature and

made me realize how important it is to me. Because of the significant time I spent figuring out a

way to accomplish my goal of making time for reading, I value the time I make to read even

more. Taking time out of a busy schedule, especially a teacher’s, is very difficult, but reading in

the way prescribed by the research I underwent is abundantly beneficial for personal relaxation

and intellectual development. It is truly amazing to think how much time most individuals –

teenagers and adults alike – spend on smartphones, tablets, and/or computers. Taking the time to

read and removing myself from environments that are focused on electronics helped me realize

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that. I have already resolved to limit my time and exposure to technology throughout the day

unless it is for educational or academic purposes.

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References

United States Department of Education, National Institute of Literacy. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://nces.ed.gov/naal/kf_demographics.asp

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making time to read: an action research plan

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