| he purpose of the study, "Value and Authenticity: Young Adult Readers Respond to African American Literature" (hereafter known as "Value"), was to discover how four middle school students take up some traditionally used classroom novels. In other words, "Value" wanted to find out what African American students, reading outside the classroom, would value, question, or believe about some novels written about "the Black Experience.";Thus, some initial questions that guided this study were: (1) Based on what personal experiences and/or what stories in the readings do students believe and perhaps value these texts? (2) Contextually how may these novels force students to culturally and/or racially identify against themselves? (3) If students are more willing to actively engage a novel outside the confines of the traditional classroom, then why?;Based on open-ended questions, "Value" individually invited the students to make written and oral evaluations of the novels. Among the multiple theoretical and pedagogical conclusions that can be drawn from "Value," perhaps the most important is that both the curricula and as well as individual teacher practices must allow space for students to make personal interrogations of the classroom novels. ftn... |
