Literature Discussion: Encouraging Reading Interest and Comprehension in Struggling Middle School Readers

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how literature discussion affects middle school struggling readers. The focus was on 16 middle school struggling readers in a rural Title I school in the southeastern United States. Findings indicated that (a) literature discussion increased student enjoyment of reading, and (b) students understood a text better during literature discussion when they used reading strategies along with prior knowledge to make connections between a text and their own lives. The discussion focused on the practice of literature discussion. The authors explored how this learning activity positively influenced middle school students' learning, particularly among struggling readers.