Typical college classrooms consist of auditory lectures with very little variety. Frequently, with large quantities of difficult material such as literature and writing assignments, undergraduate students become anxious about maintaining their grades. This problem is more prevalent with first-year students, who are still adjusting to the college experience. The purpose of this researcher was to investigate the effects of Traditional Instruction versus Contract Activity Packaged Instruction versus Tactual Resources on the achievement and attitudes of first-year undergraduate students with literature in a core university course. Participants in the sample included 75 first-year undergraduate students from a metropolitan university in New York. The investigation spanned a six-week period, using a Counterbalanced Research Design. Each method was used for two weeks before the next method and chapter commenced. At the end of the study, all were administered the "Comparative Values Scale" (CVS) to assess their attitudes. The results indicated significant differences in attitude among both CAP instruction and Tactual Resources versus Traditional Instruction (p [less than or equal to] 0.05). Additionally, there was a significant difference with regard to gender when using the CAP versus the Traditional Instruction (p [less than or equal to] 0.05), with females scoring significantly higher than males on the assessment test. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]