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UALR Center for Literacy Technical Reports

Spring, 2013

Children’s Literature and Student Preference

Michele L. Owen Bryant School District

 Introduction

Over the past few years in my own classroom and library media center, I have observed student preferences with regard to children’s literature. Educators like myself often wonder about students’ perceptions of particular genres and whether there are differences according to gender. With the release of the Common Core State Standards and its emphasis on the use of more informational texts, students’ perceptions about particular genres appear to be evolving differently than in the past when students were introduced largely to narrative texts.

Specifically, many female students have taken a new interest in the informational texts. In my observations as a media specialist for the past two years in three different schools, girls, some as young as kindergarten, are gravitating toward informational texts. Publishers have also noticed this trend and have begun to capitalize on it by releasing specialized informational series such as the series Jump, Kick, Cheer by Sara Green. When observing male students in my schools, they appear to have gained more interest in fictional works because of the increase in new books and series being released that are written specifically to encourage more recreational reading by male students. For example, male students frequently check out titles such as the series The Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney, The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger, and the new series that has been released by Rick Riordan.

As a result of my interactions and observations with students in my current school, the present study seeks to examine recreational selection of children’s literature with regards to which genre students prefer, informational or fictional works. The study also looks at which type of genre that each gender prefers. Studies from as early as 1930 have examined student preference for children’s literature with mixed outcomes. Some researchers have found that children’s preferences for literature change with the cultural and societal changes as well as the gender-roll shift (Zimet, 1966). Other researchers have suggested another factor affecting preferential change may also be in play. As students mature, their preferences begin to shift as well (Asselin, 2003; Chapman, Filipenko, McTavish & Shapiro, 2007).

For this study, students in grades three through five were asked to read and evaluate selected books. This study was done in conjunction with the International Reading Association (IRA) and Children’s Book Council’s (CBC) Children’s Choices Book Project, a nationwide project consisting of 5 national regions, and in which my school participated for the Arkansas region. Established in our school this year, children vote on book choices for the project by submitting paper or electronic ballots. The data is collected regionally and then forwarded for national analysis. In addition to the data being collected for the larger national study and for the

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purposes of this study, students were asked their opinions about how they enjoyed the different books and to what extent. The following questions guide this study:

1. Do third, fourth, and fifth grade children prefer fictional or informational books?

2. Does gender contribute to differences in student preferences?

Brief Review of Literature

Historical Perspective on Gender Preferences   A simplistic modern definition of children’s literature is: literature or books that were created for children to read; however, this was not always the case. Children’s literature has evolved throughout the years moving it from non-existent to multifaceted, rich literature. Much like the children’s literature of today, in the earliest periods of our history, the contents of children’s books typically reflected beliefs about the purposes of education for that time (Smith, 2002). MacClintock (1902) argued that if children are not exposed to literature then educators are missing out on an opportunity to watch the students grow. Like MacClintock, Zimet (1966) also called for providing ample amounts of appropriate reading materials that reflects children and their interests. More recently, Stauffer (2007) found that the best way to promote and encourage reading in children is to provide a large quantity and wide range of titles and diverse adult role models who read.

In 1930, the article “Children’s Preference in Reading Material” published in Education School Journal, highlighted the preference of literature for young boys based upon an English study of all-male schools. According to this study, boys preferred short stories that contained illustrations, but they had little or no interest in reading the classics or poetry. In addition, the authors reported that the boys’ preferences changed as they grew older . Nearly seven decades later, Worthy, Moorman and Turner (1999) also echo similar findings reporting that as male students aged their reading preferences changed. Their study focused on sixth grade male students and their preferences for literature. In addition, they found that the most recommended texts were scary books and stories, comics, popular culture magazines, and books or magazines about sports.

Similarly, Zimet (1966) focuses on the “boy-girl preferences” (p. 126) and how they have changed over time. She brings to light that the changes in preferences reflect the changes that typically occur in culture and sex-roles within our society. In agreement with Zimet’s findings, Hickman (2008) tracks the changes of children’s literature with social and cultural changes of the period and turns us to Rosenblatt’s work with students’ transactions with literature to establish a theoretical base for readers’ choices:

(Rosenblatt’s) theory indicates that readers do not just retrieve an author’s meaning; they create their own particularized meanings guided by the author’s text and informed by their own perceptions and understandings at the time. This is a perspective that speaks directly to our interest in topics such as comprehension and reading engagement (pp. 148-149). Chapman, Filipenko, McTavish and Shapiro (2007) examined if there were differences

in the preference of male and female readers. Examining first grade students, they found that there was little difference in preference between the genders with regards to narrative and informational text. Likewise, Worthy, Moorman and Turner (1999) also concluded that despite

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children’s economic or gender differences there was little difference in their book selection for recreational reading materials. Preference versus Motivation

Drouillard (2009) found that studies about preference were done to allow children to express their attitudes toward reading and what they might read if given the opportunity, while reading interest studies focused on actual reading behaviors of children by analyzing student book selection. Flowerday, Schraw and Stevens (2004) found that motivation or engagement was not directly impacted by choice. They also found that topical interest affects attitudes if measured alone, and that choice has minimal impact on engagement and motivation. Additionally, Drouillard (2009) found that though researchers understand the difference between interest and preference, most research studies are still using the terms interchangeably. In What Kids Are Reading: The Book-Reading Habits of Students in American Schools, Roger Farr writes the introduction, “Motivation Is Not a Mystery”, in which he focuses on motivation with regards to reading and how educators can help foster motivation to read, even for reluctant, struggling readers. Farr states that motivation to read has three conditions that include (1) student’s interest/experience, (2) finding books or other reading material that match these interest, and (3) student’s successful reading experiences. Farr believes that without interest and motivation to read, promoting positive reading behaviors and increasing reading ability are nearly impossible.    Methodology Participants Elementary students in grades three through five volunteered to participate in the IRA’s and CBC’s Children’s Choice, a nationwide project consisting of 5 national regions, and in which my school participated in the Arkansas region, and this subsequent study. Located in a suburban area, approximately 303 students across 12 classrooms participated in this study. Students’ ages ranged from seven to eleven years of age. There were 151 boys and 152 girls. Each student obtained permission from his or her parent or legal guardian to participate in these studies. In addition the principal and district administrators provided consent to allow my school to participate in this nationwide project as well as this subsequent study. Instrumentation and Procedures

Students were given access to chose and read 341 different books published in 2012 across two grade levels. All books were recommended by their respective publishers. Students selected their books, read their books, and evaluated their books. For the IRA/CBC portion of the study, students were required to vote on books they read. On the ballot, students were asked to record the title, the author, and how they liked the book as well as what they would tell a friend about the book. Personal information such as gender and grade level was also recorded on the ballot. No student names were recorded to maintain anonymity. Ballots could be cast two ways: electronically or paper ballot. After voting, ballots were gathered and the data was recorded and saved in excel files.

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Data Analysis

Before students’ responses were analyzed, the books were categorized into informational and fictional genres using both professional discursion and publisher’s information. Once categorized, the data were analyzed.

In order to tabulate voting for IRA and CBC Children’s Choice portion of the study, the students’ responses to, and “Do you like this book?” were scored as following:

• 3 points for each vote of enthusiastic endorsement • 2 points for each vote of approval • 1 point for each vote of no enthusiasm for the book

    (IRA, 2011) Delimitations A delimitation of this study was that the data for this study came from only one elementary school within a suburban school district in the state of Arkansas. In addition, this study only worked with students in grades three through five, thus reducing the generalization of these results. Results In total, 807 votes were cast in grades three through five during the 5-month period. Students in third grade accounted for 390 votes or 48 percent of the votes; fourth grade students cast 249 votes or 31 percent of the votes; and fifth grade students voted 168 times or 21 percent of the votes. Boys cast 288 votes (36 percent), while girls cast 519 votes (64 percent). Table 1 shows votes aggregated by genre type and gender. Table 1: Genre and Gender Voting Results

Fictional Informational Male Votes Female Votes Male Votes Female Votes 186 (23%) 342 (42%) 115 (14%) 164 (20%)

528 (65%) 279 (35%)

Fictional texts were preferred by both males and females at nearly a 2 to 1 ratio.

Overall, fictional texts were strongly preferred as compared to informational texts (65% compared to 35%). Although there were equal numbers of males and females, females cast 205 more votes or 25% more votes than did males.

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Table 2: Book Attributes by Grade and Votes Cast Total Number

of Books Fictional Informational Total Number of

Books Receiving Votes

Grades 3/4 136 102 (75%) 34 (25%) 95 (70%) 67 fictional 29 informational

Grade 5 205 188 (92%) 17 (8%) 85 (41%) 72 fictional 13 informational

Grand Totals 341 290 (85%) 51 (15%) 180 139 fictional 42 informational

Of the 341books distributed for this study, 136 were identified by publishers for

students in grades three and four; books included 102 fictional titles and 34 informational titles. Only 95 books received votes from the students; 67 (71%) were fictional and 29 (29%) were informational. For students in grade five, 205 books were identified by the publishers; books included188 fictional and 17 informational. Only 85 books received votes from the students; 72 (85%) were fictional and 13 (15%) were informational.

Table 3 shows the Top 30 Books from our portion of the national study selected by

third and fourth grade students. Books highlighted yellow represent the informational genre. The italicized titles appeared in the Top 30 of the national study that were released in March 2013, and the titles with a star represent the Top 5 nationally that will being voted on to receive the Children’s Choice Award for 2013 within this grade band.

Table 3: Top 30 Books from Grades 3 and 4

Book Information “Do you like this book?”

Title Author Yes

(3 points) Maybe

(2 points) No

(1points) Total

Homer* Shelley Rotner 31 6 0 105

Bully Patricia Polacco 26 11 0 100

Great Dane Stephen Person 31 0 0 93

Looking at Lincoln Maira Kalman 14 14 1 71

Another Brother Matthew Cordell 19 5 1 68 Fancy Nancy: Nancy Clancy, Super Sleuth O'Connor, Jane 20 3 0 66 Illusionology Albert Schafer 22 0 0 66

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Touch the Sky Ann Malaspina 17 4 0 59

Dolphins in the Navy Meish Goldish 16 3 1 55 Firefighters to the Rescue Meish Goldish 17 2 0 55

Doodlepedia DK Publishing 13 6 2 53

Dear Cinderella Marian Moore and Mary Jan Kensington 16 0 1 49

Pluto Visits Earth* Steve Metzger 13 3 3 48 Freaky-Strange Buildings Michael Sandler 13 4 0 47 Surviving the Hindenburg Larry Verstraete 15 0 0 45 Last Laughs: Animal Epitaphs

J. Patrick Lewis & Jane Yolen 11 5 1 44

Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers Michael Sandler 14 0 1 43 Just Joking: 300 Hilarious Jokes, Tricky Tongue Twisters, and Ridiculous Riddles*

National Geographic Children’s Books 10 4 1 39

Bill the Boy Wonder Marc Tyler Nobleman 8 7 0 38

Dance Class Beka 12 0 0 36

Garmann's Secret Stian Hole 10 0 5 35 Get the Scoop on Animal Poop! From Lions to Tapeworms: 251 Cool Facts About Scat, Frass, Dung, and More!* Dawn Cusick 8 5 0 34

The Herd Boy Niki Daly 11 0 1 34 Molly's Organic Farm

Carol L. Malnor and Trina Hunner 7 6 0 33

Derrick Rose Michael Sandler 9 2 1 32 Bad Kitty for President * Nick Bruel 9 1 0 29

Split! Splat! Amy Gibson 8 2 1 29 Horses, Donkeys, and Mules in the Marines Meish Goldish 6 4 2 28

Giants Beware! Jorge Aguirre 8 1 0 26

That's Gross! Crispin Boyer 7 2 0 25 Those Rebels, John & Tom Barbara Kerley 5 5 0 25

Table 4 shows the Top 39 Books from our portion of the national study selected by the fifth grade students. The books highlighted yellow on the table represent the informational genre. The italicized titles appeared in the Top 32 of the national study that were released in

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March, and the titles with a star represent the Top 5 nationally that are being voted on to receive the Children’s Choice Award for 2013 within this grade band.

Table 4: Top 39 Books from Grade 5

Book Information “Do you like this book?”

Title Author Yes

(3 points) Maybe

(2 points) No

(1points) Total

Dork Diaries 4: Tales From a Not-So-Graceful Ice Princess* Russell, Rachel Renee

12 0 0 36

Broxo Zack Giallongo 5 3 0 21

Haunted Caves Natalie Lunis 1 9 0 21

I Lay My Stitches Down: Poems of American Slavery Cynthia Grady

4 3 1 19

Almost Home Joan Bauer 6 0 0 18

Chitty Chitty Bang Flies Again Frank Cottrell Boyce

2 4 0 14

Bell Bandit Jacqueline Davies 3 2 0 13

Fake Mustache Tom Angleberger 3 2 0 13

Dark Mansions Dinah Williams 4 0 0 12

Ungifted Korman, Gordon 4 0 0 12

The Boy on Cinnamon Street Phoebe Stone

3 1 0 11

Cardboard Doug TenNapel 2 2 0 10

If Only Carole Geithner 2 2 0 10

A Wrinkle in Time Graphic Novel

Madeleine L'Engle, adapted by Hope Larson

1 3 0 9

Presidential Pets: The Weird, Wacky, Little, Big, Scary, Strange Animals That Have Lived in the White House Julia Moberg

3 0 0 9

Same Sun Here Silas House and Neela Vaswani

3 0 0 9

The Takedown of Osama bin Laden Natalie Lunis

1 3 0 9

Whatever After #1 Sarah Mlynowski 3 0 0 9

Capture the Flag Kate Messner 0 4 0 8

Ghosts of the Titanic Julie Lawson

0 4 0 8

Haunted Histories: Creepy Castles, Dark Dungeons, and Powerful Palaces

J. H. Everett and Marilyn Scott-Waters

2 1 0 8

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Code of Silence Tim Shoemaker 1 2 0 7

The Secret of the Fortune Wookiee Tom Angleberger

1 2 0 7

The Tempelton Twins Have an Idea Ellis Weiner

1 2 0 7

Today's Air Force Heroes Miriam Aronin

1 2 0 7

White House Kids Joe Rhatigan 1 2 0 7

A Diamond in the Desert Kathryn Fitzmaurice

2 0 0 6

Buddy M.H. Herlong 2 0 0 6

Gold Medal Summer Donna Freitas

2 0 0 6

Kepler's Dream Juliet Bell 2 0 0 6

Kizzy Ann Stamps Jeri Watts 2 0 0 6

National Geographic Kids Quiz Whiz

2 0 0 6

One for the Murphys Lynda Mullaly Hunt

2 0 0 6

Remarkable Lizzie K. Foley 2 0 0 6

Theodore Boone: The Accussed John Grisham

2 0 0 6

The Boy Project: Notes and Observations of Kara McAllister Kami Kinard

2 0 0 6

The Breathing Room Marsha Hayles

2 0 0 6

The Brightworking Paul B. Thompson 2 0 0 6

The Wild Book Margarita Engle 2 0 0 6

Undead Ed Rotterly Ghoulstone 2 0 0 6

Discussion Do third, fourth, and fifth grade students prefer fictional or informational books? Third, fourth, and fifth grade students in this study overwhelming preferred fictional texts as 65 percent of the votes were for fictional texts. Likewise, when looking at the top 30 books for the third/forth grade and the top 39 books for fifth grade, 54 percent and 77 percent of the texts were fictional respectively. However, it should be noted that the publishers distributed the books used in this study. As a result, the books were not balanced as far as fictional and informational (See Chart 2). This lack of balance may have adversely affected the findings because there were significantly more fictional books from which students could choose. Does gender contribute to differences in student preferences? Males and females in this study overwhelmingly preferred fictional texts by a ratio of nearly 2-1. Interestingly, the data from this study does not support previous findings that boys prefer informational books as 62 percent of males’ votes in this study preferred fictional texts. Furthermore, with 68 percent of the females’ votes supporting fictional texts as well, these data were more indicative of findings by Worthy et al. (1999) and Chapman et al. (2007) who reported no significant differences among genders for preference of fictional and informational texts.

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However, interpretation of these results should consider the unequal numbers of fictional and informational texts from which students could consider (See Chart 2). Although the imbalance of fiction versus informational books supplied by the publishers may have affected the results of this study, an interesting aspect of the imbalance deserves attention. Chart 2 reveals that informational texts only accounted for 25 percent of the titles in Grades 3 and 4 and only 8 percent of the titles available to Grade 5 students. Interestingly, after voting, 85 percent of the informational texts received votes from Grade 3 and 4 students and 76 percent of the informational texts received votes from Grade 5 students. Compared to fictional texts, 65 percent and 40 percent respectively were voted on by students. Thus, a larger percentage of informational texts (compared to the total available for selection) received votes than did fictional texts even though there were significantly more fictional texts for students to chose from during the five-month selection period. Recommendations for Additional Studies For future studies, all data should be collected through electronic balloting. For hand entering procedures with paper ballots, there is great possibility unintentional misreporting of data. To strengthen the generalizability of the results, increasing the grade levels surveyed to study grade level differences is also recommended. Finally, future studies should examine other genre preferences, specifically graphic novels. Many graphic novels are being partnered with classical novels and being used to simulate reading with lower ability readers. Within each grade level graphic novels appear to be well received, especially by the voting students in fifth grade. References

Asselin, M. (2003). Bridging the gap beween learning to be male and learning to read. Teacher

Librarian, 30(3), 53-54. Chapman, M., Filipenko, M., McTavish, M., & Shapiro, J. (2007). First graders' preferences for

narrative and/or informational books and perceptions of other boys' and girls' book preferences. Canadian Journal of Education, 30(2), 531-553.

Children's preference in reading materials. (1930). Elementary School Journal, 30(9), 651-653. Cobb, J. B., & Kallus, M. k. (2011). HIstorical, theoretical, and sociological foundations of reading in

the United States. Boston, MA: Pearson. Drouillard, C. L. (2009). Growing up with Harry Potter: What motivated youth to read? Florida

State University, College of Information. Flowerday, T., Schraw, G., & Stevens, J. (2004). The role of choice and interest in reader

engagement. The Journal of Experimental Education, 72(2), 93-114. Hickman, J.H. (2008). Half a century of children's literature and reading. In M. J. Fresch, An

essential history of current reading practices (pp. 144-156). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

History of children's literature:rezguy2004. (2010). Retrieved April 30, 2012, from Time rime: http://timerime.com/en/timeline/377753/History+of+Childrens+Literature/.

International Reading Association. (2011, July). INFO for ALL PARTICIPATING AREAS. Retrieved November 2, 2012, from Children's Choice: https://sites.google.com/site/ childrensbookchoice/home/info-for-both-areas

MacClintock, P.L. (1902). Literature in elementary school. The Elemetary School Teacher, 3, 87-95.

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Martinez, M., & McGee, L. (2000). Children's literature and reading instruction: Past, present and future. Reading Research Quarterly, 35(1),154-169.

Renaissance Learning. (2013). What Kids Are Reading: The book-reading habits of students in American schools. Wisconsin Rapids: Renaissance Learning.

Smith, N. B. (2002). American reading instruction. Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association.

Spangler, K. L. (1983, May). Reading interests vs. reading preferences: Using the research. Reading Teacher, 36(9), 876-878.

Stauffer, S.M. (2007). Developing children's interest in reading. Library Trends, 56(2), 402-422. Worthy, J., Moorman, M., & Turner, M. (1999). What Johnny likes to read is hard to find in

school. Reading Research Quarterly, 34(1),12-27. Zimet, S. F. (1966). Children's interest and story prefences: A critical review. The Elementary

School Journal, 67(3),122-130. Note: This technical report is a condensed version of the original study prepared for the UALR Center for Literacy under the direction of Dr. Layton to fulfill the requirements for READ 8349 Research Practicum in Reading. For more information regarding the study, please contact Michelle Owen at mowen@bryantschools.org. The views in the report are the sole expression of the researcher and do not necessarily reflect the beliefs of the Center for Literacy, The College of Education, or the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.