Personal response and social interaction in reading literatur

This descriptive study examined relationships among reading, discussion, and writing in developing students' understandings of what they read in two seventh-grade reading classes of the teacher-researcher. One purpose of the study was to uncover possible links between writing's influence on discussion and vice versa. More specifically, the aspects of stance, level of understanding, and critical thinking were examined in writing and discussion about texts. Three literacy events (the reading of a text, discussion, and writing activities surrounding it) were analyzed over the year, as were independent journal writing and formal writing assignments. Two student case studies examined individual student perceptions of the classroom activities, providing a more specific counterpart to the general overview provided by analyzing class data. The researcher and teacher roles were examined to describe their influence on each other.;Results showed strong patterns of efferent stances, less abstract levels of understanding, and less elaborated critical thinking than expected in all writing and discussion. Initial writing about a text was more aesthetic than subsequent writing; less guided writing assignments tended to be more aesthetic than more specific assignments. Discussion tended to show more elaborated critical thinking when a discussion was considered as a whole; individual remarks tended to be very efferent. Discussion did influence subsequent writing: Students incorporated discussion ideas into their written responses. While students used ideas written about earlier in discussion, writing was much less an influence on discussion than vice versa.;The research suggests that further inquiry into students' responses to literature and ways of writing about them is necessary. Future research could also be done to explore possible developmental influences as well as instructional influences on reading response. The case studies tended to verify the findings reached in the general population and to illuminate the need for variety in instruction. The study also illuminates how various aspects of school culture may be affecting response. Researcher and teacher role influence extends more from researcher to teacher than the opposite.