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Logic Model & Rationale
Logic Model & Rationale
Logic Model
Logic Model
Through a year-long program held both in and out of school hours, the Reading Buddies learning experience is designed to offer students a variety of collaborative and concrete reading activities in order to build their reading skills and increase their desire to engage in reading. As a result, students will build their confidence and fluency, improve their reading comprehension, and foster socio-emotional growth in areas like teamwork, resilience, and autonomy in reading, ultimately leading them to long-term improvement in reading comprehension, emotional intelligence, learning autonomy, and academic success.
In order to make this possible, the program needs a physical space and time allocation, various learning materials and technology resources to complete activities, and both human and financial resources to support its development. Below, there are the details of our logic model.
Design Rationale
Design Rationale
Our primary objectives going into this design was to increase students’ confidence in reading, build their stamina, and encourage students to take on more autonomy in their reading.
Overall, we approached the design of our primary learning solution, Reading Buddies, from the perspective of Vygotsky’s Social Learning Theory. We combined constructivism, cognitivism, and social emotional learning theory to create a casual and low-stakes environment where students can continuously practice reading alongside their peers. To do so, we implemented learning methods like modeling, situated practice, and self-reflection and monitoring, encouraging students to build their confidence in their reading abilities through repeated, situated reading practice in a collaborative environment. They build on their understanding alongside more knowledgeable peers in an authentic context, improve their teamwork and other emotional learning skills, and boost their own understanding through metacognitive activities like journaling and self-evaluation.
The Audiobook Workshop is a supplementary activity, where students work together to create an audiobook of a text they choose, practicing fluency strategies and engaging students with a creative approach to reading. Applying theories of constructivism, cognitivism and situated learning, as well as the principles of learning by design, scaffolding, and Keller’s ARCS model, this activity encourages students to think of reading as a multi-sensory activity and take creative control over their reading experience. The student-led design nature of the activity builds a sense of ownership over their work and instills them with confidence by celebrating their efforts.
Learning Theories:
Learning Theories:
Vygotsky's Social Development Theory emphasizes social interaction as a critical component of learning as an active process. This approach highlights the importance of social interaction, allowing learners to build on their previous knowledge through observation and modeling. (Vygotsky, 1978)
Reading Buddies is designed to encourage peer-to-peer exchanges and knowledge building between peers, mentors, and mentees. More knowledgeable students model reading skills for others.
Constructivism views learning as an active process, where where students build knowledge through experiences, interactions, and reflections. Meaning, relevance, and connection to prior knowledge is key to learning as well. (Amineh & Asl, 2015)
Students directly participate in reading out loud, performing, and storytelling.
Students negotiate meaning by interacting with their peers to build on their prior knowledge, enhancing their knowledge of schemas & reading comprehension. (Jonassen & Rohrer-Murphy, 1999)
Constructionism also views learning as an active process, sharing many roots with Constructivism, but focuses on learning by doing, the creation of tangible artifacts. (Papert, 1991)
Students actively participate in the construction of an audiobook, interacting directly with the text to create a final project.
Students build Story Maps, identifying story elements and SEL topics in the reading to improve reading comprehension.
Cognitivism focuses on the mental processes involved in learning, particularly how the brain processes, retains, and recalls information, as well as how information is integrated into knowledge schemas. (Oyarzun & Conklin, 2021)
The Peer-to-Peer unit focuses on building up pronunciation, prediction, and other reading fluency schemas to provide students with a stronger base for reading aloud, particularly building up strategies to recognize patterns in the text (dialogue, punctuation, etc).
Social Emotional Learning Theory emphasizes the development of five core competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making. It helps students manage emotions and build relationships. (Elias, 2023)
Students engage in SEL-focused activities and topics when reading in pairs, strengthening their emotional intelligence and reading comprehension.
Collaborative activities such as pair reading or audiobook teams build teamwork and collaboration skills, preparing students for future academic and professional success.
Situated Learning emphasizes that learning occurs best within an authentic context, participating in relevant and real world activities. (Christensen, 2021)
Reading Buddies and the Audiobook Workshop both focus on developing skills in meaningful, real-world context, through forming reading partnership and performances.
Learning Methods:
Learning Methods:
Scaffolding: Teachers guide students toward fluency and comprehension by first offering direct support with reading strategies, before gradually becoming more hands-off and allowing students to work primarily with their peers. (Vygotsky, 1978)
Learning By Design: Students take part in project-based design and real-world tasks, such as audiobooks and story journals. Rehearsal and self-evaluation allow them to take an iterative, hands-on approach to their learning. (Kolodner et al, 2003)
ARCS Model: Students choose their own texts (attention/relevance); use scaffolded partnerships and self-reflection tools to track their growth and build confidence; and reinforce their motivation through tangible, celebrated achievement (satisfaction). These combine to make a meaningful, engaging learning experience. (Oyarzun & Conklin, 2021)
Modeling: More knowledgeable peers demonstrate reading fluency, allowing students to observe and learn from them in a low-stakes, authentic way. (Vygotsky, 1978)
Self-Reflection and Monitoring: Progress-tracking tools like journals (Reading Passport, Storybook Log) encourage students to self-evaluate, providing visual markers of achievement to boost confidence and build a sense of ownership over their learning.
Practice: Students repeatedly engage with texts around their reading level, implementing reading strategies to overcome challenges and refining their skills over time. (Ericsson et al, 1990)
References
References
Amineh, R. J., & Asl, H. D. (2015). Review of constructivism and social constructivism. Journal of social sciences, literature and languages, 1(1), 9-16.
Christensen, T. K. (2021). The Role of Theory in Instructional Design: Some Views of an ID Practitioner. Design for Learning: Principles, Processes, and Praxis. https://edtechbooks.org/id/the_role_of_theory
Elias, M. J. (2023, March 30). The role of SEL in developing reading skills. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/sel-reading-skills
Ericsson, K. A., Krampe, R. T., & Tesch-Römer, C. (1990). The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance. Psychological Review, 100(3), 363–406. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.100.3.363
Jonassen, D. H., & Rohrer-Murphy, L. (1999). Activity theory as a framework for designing constructivist learning environments. Educational Technology Research and Development, 47(1), 61–79. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02299477
Kolodner, J. L., Camp, P. J., Crismond, D., Fasse, B., Gray, J., Holbrook, J., ... & Ryan, M. (2003). Problem-based learning meets case-based reasoning in the middle-school science classroom: Putting Learning by Design™ into practice. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 12(4), 495–547. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327809JLS1204_2
Oyarzun, B. , & Conklin, S. (2021). Learning Theories. Design for Learning: Principles, Processes, and Praxis. https://edtechbooks.org/id/learning_theories
Papert, S. (1991). Situating constructionism. In I. Harel & S. Papert (Eds.), Constructionism (pp. 1–12). Ablex Publishing.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
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