The Catch and the Hold Matter When it Comes to Situational Interest

This summer, I was fortunate to conduct research at an amazing thematic summer camp for struggling readers. There, I functioned as a participant observer and interviewed primary-aged boys about what they liked and disliked about camp in general and about the guided reading portion of their day. The overarching theme of the camp was “kids as change-makers” and the subtheme for primary students was “composting with worms”. Interestingly, the boys’ responses to my motivation-related questions largely aligned with a recent article in The Reading Teacher, written by Springer and colleagues (2017). The article detailed the importance of fostering situational interest for reading and provided recommendations for teachers aiming to cultivate situational interest as a means of enhancing overall reading motivation.

Situational interest involves creating “a classroom climate and instructional activities in which everyone is excited to participate”; however, maintaining situational interest is thought to entail two phases: “the catch and hold” (Springer, Harris & Dole, 2011, p.45). According to Mitchell (1993) the catch aspect, which many teachers are familiar with, involves an exciting, topic-related, opening activity that ignites a fire for investigating the topic further via reading. The hold is intended to keep students interested in the topic throughout the lesson or unit. Hold activities strive to be relevant and meaningful for children. Examples include “reading [topic-related] books … with brilliant pictures,” “watching [topic-related] YouTube videos,” and incorporating numerous opportunities for children to work together towards a goal (e.g., kids working together to access a text and build a model stemming from their reading).

Below I have listed some of the catch and hold activities observed at the thematic summer camp described in the opening paragraph. Many of these activities surfaced in the boys’ responses specific to what they enjoyed most about camp and guided reading.

Catch Activities:
  • Dissecting compost bins
  • Digging for earthworms
  • Observing worms closely with a magnifying glass
  • Observing worms in a worm bin
  • Sorting biodegradable and recyclable items


Hold Activities:
  • Reading a recipe for making a dirt cup with gummy worms and making the recipe in small groups
  • Reading Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin and Harry Bliss and writing a new version of the book with a partner
  • Reading modified text from How to Start a Worm Bin by Henry Owen and making a worm bin as a class
  • Reading Compost Stew: An A to Z Recipe for the Earth by Mary McKenna Siddals and Ashley Wolff and writing a persuasive letter (as a class) to the parent council for money to purchase compost bins for the school
  • Reading a collection of especially descriptive worm poetry (pulled from online sources and books) and creating a worm sculpture individually and accompanying poem with a partner




References

Mitchell, M. (1993). Situational interest: Its multifaceted structure in the secondary school mathematics classroom. Journal of Educational Psychology, 85(3), 424–436.

Springer, S. E., Harris, S. & Dole J. A. (2017). From surviving to thriving: Four research-based principles to build students’   reading interest. The Reading Teacher, 7(1), 43-50.

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