Using realistic fiction to enhance social decision making in middle grades students

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Jeanneine Jones (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Advisor
David B. Strahan

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to describe how a literature-based curriculum influenced middle grades students' perceptions of the social decisions that they may make. This eight-week study initially explored the decision-making agendas that were employed by 28 seventh-grade reading students. The study's curriculum then introduced 31 novels which featured literary peers who were immersed in social decision-making situations that were analogous to the students1 concerns. Each student read six novels of choice, examined the decisions that the characters made, and then compared the characters’ decisions to their own. A systematic model for decision making served as structure for the analysis. The study concluded with the students again discussing their personal agendas, particularly in regard to the influence of realistic fiction. Data was gathered through a host of written classroom assignments and analyzed qualitatively. An overview of the entire class was reported, with four case studies detailing the evolution of the students' decision-making agendas.

Additional Information

Publication
Dissertation
Language: English
Date: 1992
Subjects
Reading (Secondary) $z North Carolina
Middle school students $z North Carolina $x Books and reading
Middle school students $z North Carolina $x Social conditions
Teenagers $z North Carolina $x Books and reading
Teenagers $z North Carolina $x Social conditions
Realism in literature

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