Enhancing grade one children's responses to literature through creative expression

This research study took place in my Grade One classroom in Kingston, Ontario over a period of 10 weeks. The purpose of this research is to examine the effects of oral and creative responses to text on children's literary transactions. The research questions which guide this investigation are the following: (1) Does combining readaloud and creative responses to literature provide children with meaningful scaffolding? (2) Does providing children with the opportunity to respond orally and creatively to texts have the power to enhance their literary transaction, leading to deeper, more complex written and pictorial literature responses?; This research project builds upon Vygotsky's theory of the zone of proximal development (ZPD) and Rosenblatt's transactional theory and provides information about the effectiveness of arts-based reading response activities. In this study, I examined the impact of further advancing students' ZPD by having them participate in readaloud sessions followed by an art or drama activity related to the theme, characters or events of the story. Findings indicate that the same creative response activity offered appropriate and effective scaffolding for students with a variety of academic needs.