This study was designed to explore the transactional relationship between young learners and diverse texts. Students' perceptions toward difference are shaped by prior, lived experiences, and books provide students with virtual experiences of diversity, which can lead to transformative possibilities. This study explored: (1) How can children's picture books about autism be used to create transformative opportunities in an elementary classroom, and (2) What types of responses do primary students have when transacting with children's picture books about autism? Through the use of a formative experiment methodology aligned with Rosenblatt's Transactional Theory of the Literary Work (1978), interventions involving (a) a teacher read aloud, (b) student journal writing, and (c) class discussion allowed second grade students to transact both aesthetically and efferently with diverse texts about autism. Examination of student responses was a qualitative, iterative process that utilized the Constant Comparative method (Strauss and Corbin, 1998), and intervention data was triangulated with researcher field notes and pre and post-intervention student interviews. Analysis led to a deeper understanding of transactional response, including how (a) increasing awareness cultivates deeper connections with diverse texts, (b) prior perceptions and experiences influence evocation and response, and (c) diverse texts provide necessary virtual experiences with diversity. Student responses during transaction also revealed a process of growth in which students oscillated between various levels of introspection by (a) gaining awareness though an insightful view of diversity (developing understanding of difference/defining and explaining autism), (b) reflecting on similarities to gain an understanding of difference (journeying through the text), and (c) using texts as a reflexive tool and gateway toward acceptance (affirming care and responsibility). This study gives insight into how transacting with diverse texts can provide students with opportunities to explore diversity and increase their knowledge and understanding of difference in order to create a more accepting and equitable culture. / Ph. D.

This study was designed to explore written responses of dialogue journals in a fourth-grade social studies classroom to better understand individuals' meaning-making responses during content-based lessons. The Transactional Theory of Literacy acknowledges that readers generate individualized experiences as they transact with literacy. Although Rosenblatt focused explicitly on the transactions readers make with text, this study expands the idea of these transactions to the more current, unbounded definition of text. Writing could be the tool used for students to record these transactions that lead to their continuously changing, individualized understandings. Through journals, students conversed with one another using written dialogue in the continued generation or restructuring of existing understandings in response to exposure of a content-specific text. The following research questions were addressed in the study: How do written responses of fourth-grade students made in dialogue journals express students' understandings of content-based lessons? 2) To what extent do dialogue journals motivate students in content-based lessons? Analysis of dialogue journals showed evidence of varying levels of understanding, the effective use of journals as a communication tool, and differences in statement types depending on journal audience and content materials used. The MUSIC Model Inventory (Jones, 2009) used to assess perceptions of motivational constructs related to use of dialogue journals in social studies lessons yielded positive results for all constructs measured. Therefore, the results of the study including word count findings, qualitative journal analysis, and observational files clearly showed evidence of dialogue journals being a motivating way of having students express their understandings of content-based texts. / Ph. D.