| Summary: | This study, A Search for Meaning: Secondary ESL Students and
Reader Response, involved a year long examination of two secondary
ESL classrooms which had as their foundation a literature-based,
response-centered curriculum. The research was concerned with what
we can learn when we examine the use of a reader response approach
within a secondary ESL classroom. In order to investigate this question
a case study methodology was used.
The study involved two groups of Asian secondary ESL students
who were enrolled in pull-out ESL classes in a suburban, senior
secondary school. These students were designated through district wide
testing as being Level Three ( beginning/ intermediate) and Level Four
(intermediate to advanced).
As part of the year-long curriculum both groups of students were
involved in a variety of activities which supported personal meaning.
The same belief system influenced the curriculum for both groups of
students; however, a variety of factors influenced the degree of
involvement and personal meaning making that the two groups of
students exhibited.
Both classes achieved gains in terms of the complexity and
commitment to personal response and meaning-making. However,
the Level Three students made greater gains in their written responses. Both groups were still at the emergent stages of making meaningful
oral responses to poetry or prose.
In conclusion, this research indicates that secondary ESL
students can benefit from a literature-based, response-centered program
in terms of their written responses, given that key elements are in
place. Some of these elements are: a sense of community, the use of
instructional frameworks such as Readers' and Writers' workshops,
implementation of dialogue and response journals, thematic units,
and the on-going use of literature in the classroom. === Education, Faculty of === Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of === Graduate
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