The Combined Influence of Collaboration, Real-World Tasks, and Strategy Instruction on Student Engagement in Long-Form Reading: Observations in Twelfth Grade

This study aims to provide insight into how language arts (LA) teachers may facilitate engagement in reading longer fiction as a social event in upper-secondary classrooms. Reading longer fictional texts strengthens literacy and cognitive patience. The Norwegian LA curriculum for grades 11–13 emphasizes the reading of longer fictional texts. However, over 60% of Norwegian adolescents never read fiction out-of-school, and PISA 2018 ranked Norwegian 15-year-olds second-lowest in reading engagement. Further, initiatives to support reading in school diminish as students progress to upper-secondary school. This study integrates a theoretical framework of reading engagement with empirical observations of upper-secondary school practice. I observed a reading project, designed by the teachers, involving a Norse saga in two twelfth-grade LA classes and followed one class in full to ensure depth of observation. The study provides rich descriptions of how the teaching features of collaboration, real-world interactions, and strategy instruction are used interconnectedly, and how teacher support “in the moment” may strengthen student engagement in reading longer fiction. One crucial finding is that in-class reading was prioritized over out-of-class assignments. Another was that the students were allowed to connect closely with the saga in multiple ways, with their teacher guiding them through their reading.