The use of American historical fiction in an eighth grade social studies or language arts class has not been fully explored, so its literary and social science value is questionable. In order to establish its worth and methods for its use, research into desirable 1iterary goals for adolescents, implications and purposes of historical fiction in general and for youth in particular, a bibliography of novels, and an evaluative survey of specific novels written for youth needed to be done. The research indicates that some critics believe that most junior novels have little to offer youth and that they are poorly written. A minority find that they are useful as an example of a literary genre and as a model for the exploration of adolescent problems, frustrations, and decision making alternatives. Opinions on the value of historical fiction also vary. Some writers conclude that it is largely romantic and a reflection of contemporary times in historical dress, while others have indicated that it conveys an emotional and spiritual feeling for an era through its presentation of historical figures and events and student involvement. Many writers on the subject are ambitious when they consider what junior novels and junior historical novels should accomplish. They list a variety of personal, literary, and conceptual goals. They itemize suitable aims for students such as character building, personal problem solving, an understanding of the mechanics of plot and characterization, an understanding of historical events, and the motivations of figures involved in them, a "feeling" for an era, knowledge of our democratic heritage, even an understanding of what history means. This survey and analysis of specific novels chosen from different American historical eras explores the pertinence of these opinions and goals to novels and briefly verifies the historical accuracy. Part Three handles the problem of methods of use and adaptation in the classroom by specifying alternatives for teachers' consideration. The survey determines that junior American historical fiction is useful to study as a literary genre, though imperfect. If it is used, students must be aware of the imperfections; principally shallow character development or inadequate and overly romantic plots. As a model of personal relevance to youth, historical fiction is not outstanding even though nearly half of the novels contain obvious efforts to build character and several have a theme about growing up. The historical value in these novels varies; most are largely romantic with contemporary main characters who cannot control their situations but can control their destinies. Some provide historical data that gives the reader an insight into specific events, historical figures, or the emotional feelings prevalent during an era. The themes in half the novels stress the issues of the times in which they are set. The surveyed novels include examples of political, social, psychological, economic, religious, cultural, and great man interpretations of history. Social and psychological interpretations predominate, and a majority imply that societies rather than people make history. This survey concludes that junior American historical fiction is relevant for classroom use. Teacher familiarity with the novels and his continuing exploration of divergent applications for use by individual students or classes can make them successful, informative, and enhance student interest in history.

Initially, this work recognizes that college students often fail to understand or to appreciate the language of literature; therefore, a proposal has been developed that incorporates the typical methods and media of two academic areas--literature and oral interpretation--into a synchronized dual approach to the study of literature. Chapter I discusses contemporary problems of literacy in general; Chapter II explores the traditional teaching approaches of English and oral interpretation; and Chapter III develops a possible-literary communal effort by outlining a survey course in British Literature and presenting a series of exemplificative Writers Theatre scripts.Chapter IV reviews the associative problems that apparently exist between oral language and the written symbol and recommends that a companion project might demonstrate more fully the efficacy of an integrative approach to the teaching of writing.

The purpose of this study was to illustrate the usefulness of oral interpretation in the teaching of English literature at the middle school level. Four areas of literature: poetry, short story, mythology, and drama, were approached through methods of oral interpretation and/or recommendations in the teacher's resource manual accompanying the textbook. A descriptive review was made of the response to the material by the students and the methods of presentation by the instructor. The primary value of approaching the study of literature through oral interpretation was increased interest and motivation among the students and their generally positive reaction to the methods used.

How do ELA spaces, here defined as classroom practices, curricula, and assignments, invite students to locate “their” voice? To enact one? To what extent do or might pedagogical approaches to and community norms for a class discussion; the possibility and opportunity to lean into uncertainty; the texts students read and are exposed to; and the kinds of writing assignments and different narrative perspectives with which they experiment each play a role in shaping that voice? The chapters that follow will explore occasions and sites where voice may be located in different iterations in the ELA secondary classroom. Based on student claims and written responses on which I report in this dissertation, ELA spaces emerge as a kind of laboratory theater for locating a writerly identity. The results of my research suggest that Harkness pedagogy; reading and writing in response to literature; dialectical journaling; essaying that embraces uncertainty; experiment and play with different narrative perspectives; and being in conversation with literature are all promising pedagogical approaches to ELA instruction whose aim is to help writers locate and develop their own writerly voice.

This dissertation is an exploration of trauma in the secondary English classroom. It examines what trauma is and the ways in which English classrooms can center healing through rhizomatic explorations of fiction in order to reassemble experiences with trauma and create hope. The heart of this work is a young adult novel embodying a rhizomatic exploration of trauma. In exploring trauma in fiction in a rhizomatic epistemology, the novel uses multiple genres and non-linear storytelling to examine the roots of trauma that are nomadic and non-binary. This writing to heal invites teachers and students to follow the rhizomatic roots necessary for their own healing and allows teachers to think differently about the purpose of the English classroom and what healing-centered practices can look like.

Literature textbooks have been used in English classes, particularly in underresourced schools, since the late 1800s. Since then, literature textbooks have been the de facto literary studies curriculum for most high school students. Practitioners and researchers in the field of literary studies at the secondary level do not have an account of how the questions central to literary studies have been addressed by the publishers of high school literature textbooks since the 1960s. I selected six widely adopted tenth-grade literature textbooks and their accompanying teacher’s editions from three generations (the 1960s, 1990s, and 2020s) and analyzed the texts and authors, organization, and instructional apparatus in the student editions and the teaching materials in the teacher’s editions. I used the data to identify the types of literary texts, author characteristics, knowledge emphasized by textbook publishers, and the cognitive, social, and interpretive abilities they favored. I then compared these findings across the three generations. Three characteristics of literary study have remained stable from the 1960s to the 2020s. First, the knowledge privileged by textbooks—understanding literary terms and enlarging vocabulary—has remained constant. Second, students spent more time in class on solitary activities, such as keeping logs and reading texts, than on group activities. Most textbooks in the study emphasized a product-oriented approach to interpretation and favored a single, authoritative answer to questions.. Starting in the 21st century, literature textbooks have transformed from print-only editions to digital-only and hybrid print and digital editions, raising concerns about the cognitive and economic impact of screen reading. Audio, visual, and multi-media texts have become the focus of study on equal footing with textual genres, signaling the emergence of digital literacy, a form of literacy that has become necessary because of social, economic, cultural, and technological changes in the early 21st century. Digital editions allowed teachers and administrators to track data online from students’ assignments and assessments, suggesting that high school literature classes have become a site of instrumentarian power. 21st-century instructional apparatus introduced a two-step procedure for reading and interpreting texts. The first step emphasized the surface meaning of the text with comprehension activities. The second step instructed students to “close read the text" (Morrell et al., 2022a, p. 476). Both steps privilege an efferent reading of all genres while impeding students’ ability to have an aesthetic experience of literary texts.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the learning log, a reader-response journal, as an instructional tool in the study of literature. One hundred high school seniors participated in this study over the course of a year. Random sampling was used to assign the students to two groups -- an experimental group and a control group. The variable was the learning log. Group A kept a learning log on A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, and Group B did not. An objective exam was administered to both groups immediately following completion of the study of the novel. Several months later, Group B kept a learning log on 1984 by George Orwell and Group A did not. Again, a follow-up test was given to both groups. Statistical analysis indicated that the learning log did make a difference in students' exam scores. At the end of the year, another exam on these novels was given to both groups and statistical analysis on this data indicated the learning log was particularly effective in delayed testing. A major portion of the study also included case studies to examine the variety and patterns of student responses in the learning logs. Based on textual analysis, it appeared that high-achieving students wrote responses which were predicting and analytical; average students wrote responses which were more comparative and associative; and lower achieving students wrote responses which were questioning but not probing. / Master of Arts

ChatGPT and generative AI technologies have infiltrated our learning spaces, and, as a result, schools may be changed forever. While some educators may seek to ban the use of chatbots, motivated by a fear of the rampant plagiarism the technology might invite, I, however, write this dissertation with the intent of finding uses for AI as a participant in the teaching and learning of literature in the secondary and post-secondary English classroom. In this dissertation, I examine a series of problems, issues, and ideas raised by AI, situated in specific relationalities among readers and literary texts (students, teachers, and myself functioning as my main sites of inquiry) by engaging in literature-based experiments. Through reflecting on my experiences and experimenting alongside teachers, students, and AI, I have found that the problems and opportunities introduced by AI are not-so-new: they’re a re-presentation of the familiar, repackaged and amplified. Though this dissertation has not lent itself to the discovery of a singular conclusion, I have found, rather, grounds for further experimentation and provocation. As I conclude this dissertation, I attempt to identify some ways that teachers of English can utilize AI not as a tool for providing knowledge and information for students, but to rather utilize it as a thought-provoking companion for the teaching of literature.

To this day, Columbia College maintains one of the most robust liberal arts curriculaa mong the tertiary education landscape, an institutional decision that has been both lauded and denounced by students, professors, and cultural critics alike. As this dissertation examines, high tensions from all angles largely stem from the Core Curriculum’s dual commitment to two seemingly oppositional values: its original mission and its ongoing evolution. My interpretive study of this unique undergraduate program begins with an examination of the cultural tradition from which Core derives—the West—considering how the notion of the liberal arts has evolved from antiquity to present day by pinpointing artifacts that demonstrate each era’s practices and priorities. Atop this foundational context, whose relevance persists in its establishment of citizenship, reciprocity, self-determination, and amateurism as underlying values of the liberal arts, I then examine university archival records dating back to the Core’s inception in 1919 and engage with personal stories, collected through interviews with alumni and former instructors of the program. These retrospective and interpersonal examinations are further complemented by the weaving in of my own experiences from my time as a student in the program, adding an introspective angle. In service of determining what is, was, and should be at the core of this curricular phenomenon, I neither defend nor rebuke the Core’s existence, but rather wonder and imagine its universal potential, ending with a call for more finite iterations of the program’s long-lasting values.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the trends in the teaching of literature in the upper elementary grades as outlined in articles in The Elementary English Review, volume VII to XVI, years 1930 to 1939, inclusive.