This research was a 12-week-long study of six participants attending the same alternative high school in a suburban district in the northeast of the United States. Rosenblatt's Reader Response Theory and interpretative qualitative methodology were used to examine participants' reactions to reading self-selected young adult (YA) literature during…

This research focuses on the ways in which preservice teachers evolve in their beliefs and understandings of literature while they are enrolled in a semester-long course, TLS 480, Children's Literature in the Classroom. I was the instructor of the course and served as a teacher researcher using qualitative research and Louise Rosenblatt's…

This dissertation explores the relationship between the teaching of literary genre and the facilitation of empathy. It analyzes whether poetry, fairy tales, readers-theater, biography and/or novel can contribute to a fourth-grade student's understanding and development of empathy. After leading my students in guided readings, I concentrated on…

This qualitative study utilized video games and virtual reality in an eighth-grade public middle school media literacy elective classroom in which the head researcher was also the official teacher for the students in the study. The nineteen students and their teacher used video games in small groups for five consecutive weeks. The teacher and…

Literacy and learning is a social process, one that is both transformative, empowering, and can often lead to social change. The following study is based on the idea that literacy can be used as a tool not only to teach the basic skills of reading, but the skills for individuals to learn to be compassionate towards others, understand their…

Chinese has intimidated heritage language learners as it is believed to be notoriously difficult (Liu, 2008). Traditional Chinese education, which focuses on linguistic skills and is mainly acquired by recitation and memorization, tends to drive students from maintaining and regaining their inherited language and culture (Curdt-Christiansen,…

This study is based on the assumption that because the Holocaust is a significant part of Germany's history, culture, and national memory, it should be taught openly and honestly within German curricula. To ignore it would be to ignore an essential part of the country's identity, which in turn would lead teacher-scholars of German to impart a less…

This study explores the social construction of gender perceptions among U.S and U.K. fifth grade students engaged in book club. Using a reader response framework, this study endeavors to discover how meaning is negotiated through print and film literacy, specifically related to gender. By using four Newbery and other award winning pieces of…

Women in higher education and the consumer pressures they feel have implications for the quality of an education a woman receives. With college tuition rising, more and more college students are going into deeper financial debt than ever before (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2008). Popular culture influences on the college-going…

The purpose of this study was to design a culturally relevant curriculum that could be used with English language learning, Mexican American, immigrant, fifth grade children and study the responses they might have to that curriculum. The research questions were: What are the issues in developing a culturally relevant curriculum for Mexican…

Reading comprehension plays a key role in academic success in today's classrooms. Literature Circles (LCs), a learner-centered collaborative reading activity, brings together the ideas of cooperative learning, independent reading, and reader response theory to enhance students' reading comprehension as well as their motivation toward learning…