Literacy habits of sixth grade students

Abstract

Literacy continues to be important during the secondary school years; however, during middle school motivation to read is known to decline (Hughes-Hassell & Rodge, 2007; Moss & Hendershot, 2007; Pitcher, et al., 2007; National Institute for Literacy, 2007). There is little research on how adolescents spend their free-time and less research regarding types of preferred literacy related activities (Nippold, Duthie, & Larsen, 2005). Less is known about differences in urban or rural communities. The purpose of this study is to determine to what extent sixth graders in an urban and rural public school differ in their preferred types of literacy activities, amount of time spent engaging in literacy activities, and the effect of time spent doing homework on leisure reading. Participants were 78 students from urban and rural sixth grade classes. Data were collected using a multiple choice survey constructed to obtain information about student's freetime activities as they relate to time spent engaging in literacy activities and homework. Results indicated that urban students spent more time reading for fun than the rural students and girls spent more time reading for fun than boys. There was not a significant difference in the amount of time students spent on homework and reading for fun. All students indicated a high preference for magazines. Additionally, urban students preferred comics while rural students preferred non-fiction materials. Also, boys preferred comics and internet articles while girls preferred novels and nonfiction materials.