Abstract
This action research study examined how student-centered reading strategies influenced engagement, motivation, and comprehension among high school students enrolled in a Language Arts Lab course. Over six weeks, eleven students participated in a collaboratively selected novel study supported by Readers’ Theater, teacher read-alouds with think-alouds, vocabulary activities, reading logs, and opportunities to analyze their own performance data. Data sources included standardized reading assessments, biweekly comprehension quizzes, student surveys, reading logs, informal interviews, and classroom observations. Classroom quizzes showed clear improvement over the course of the unit, while students’ survey responses and reflections indicated more frequent use of strategies such as predicting and inferring, greater willingness to read aloud, and growing confidence in their ability to understand complex texts. At the same time, students expressed mixed feelings about traditional reading logs, highlighting the importance of how reflective tools are framed and used. Overall, the findings suggest that combining student choice, explicit modeling of expert reading behaviors, and collaborative performance routines can help adolescents reframe themselves as more capable, engaged readers. The study also illustrates how classroom-based action research can guide ongoing instructional adjustments and support more responsive literacy teaching in secondary settings.
Recommended Citation
Petersen, Elin and Vu, Phu
(2026)
"Student Choice and Strategy: Reviving Reading in the Language Arts Lab,"
Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education: Vol. 11:
Iss.
1, Article 3.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/ctlle/vol11/iss1/3
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