Twelfth -graders respond to 'Macbeth': A response -based approach through student -led discussion in a secondary classroo

The purpose of this study was to compare how students respond to their own questions and discussions as opposed to teacher-led discussions based on text questioning. The study leads to clarification of the value of reader-response. Research Question.;Reader-response is the key to student learning successes and that students who take at least partial control of their education are more positive and successful learners. The reader-response classroom offers students greater opportunities to read and apply reading comprehension from their own backgrounds and experiences. Independent thinking, inquiry, and student-led discussion of canon and independent reader choices are necessary parts of reader-response. Because I wondered what happens, I placed class members in charge of and responsible for student-led discussions of student-generated questions during the study of Macbeth.;The questions that arose out of consideration of reader-response and student-led discussions are: (1) hat kinds of questions do students ask? (2) What roles do students play in these discussions and how do these change? (3) How does bonding occur and how does it lead students to become a learning community? (4) How and why does power shift during student-led discussions? (5) When and where disagreement occurs, how is this handled? (6) Do students identify with characters and experiences?;Using research done by Louise Rosenblatt, Robert Probst, and other reader-response leaders, I gave students the opportunities to finding their own meanings in literature as an enjoyable, in all areas of learning and life.;This project involved twenty-two twelfth-grade students, ages seventeen and eighteen, whose number included eight females and fourteen males. The project was conducted at The Woodlands High School, The Woodlands, Texas, in my classroom, during approximately a two-week period while we covered the play Macbeth. My study was centered around students' responses to teacher-led and text-generated questions versus student-generated questions and student-led discussions. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).