MSU LIBRARIES RETURNING MAIEBIALS: P1ace in book drop to remove this checkout from your record. FINES wi11 be charged if book is returned after the date stamped be10w. A STUDY OF HOW CHILDREN'S RESPONSES TO HISTORICAL FICTION ARE REFLECTED IN THEIR WRITING By Dianne H. Ross A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partiaI fquiIIment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of EIementary and Special Education 1982 ABSTRACT A STUDY OF HOW CHILDREN'S RESPONSES TO HISTORICAL FICTION ARE REFLECTED IN THEIR WRITING By Dianne H. Ross The purpose of this descriptive study was to study responses from a group of fifth grade students to specifically selected books of historical fiction for children and to have the students record their responses in writing. This study used the writing function categories as designed by James Britton et al.: transactional, expressive, and poetic. During the prescribed study of eight weeks, the researcher read aloud three selections of historical fiction for children which dealt specifically with children involved as victims of World War II. The fifth grade students responded in oral discussions and in writing to these books. The researcher provided a sheet of three writing sug- gestions for the students to write their response to the story or the students were instructed to write in any way they chose. After the eight week study, the researcher assessed the writing that the students submitted via an instrument designed by the researcher and based on the Primary Trait Scoring System. This instrument was validated by four educators experienced in working with upper elementary aged students. There was a high percentage of agreement between the raters and the researcher. Dianne H. Ross The results of the study indicated that literature is an excellent stimulus as a springboard for writing experiences. The use of historical fiction involved the students in a setting of World War II that gave them a feeling for the era of the War. An analysis of the responses that the students' gave to the causes and the consequences of the war revealed that they perhaps did not understand the background or the outcome of the War. However, they did have a feeling for the pro- tagonist involved in the three stories and were able to identify the theme of the books. The students involved in this study, for the most part, seemed to view what happened in the story as a reality for something that happened in the past. When responding in writing, the selection of historical fiction seemed to effect the choice of discourse method: transactional, expressive, or poetic. The students chose different discourse methods to respond to the selections and did not seem to have a favorite. The expressive and the poetic were selected by a clear majority of students over the transactional. The students were not as sophisticated in their writing experiences nor as astute in their responses as they might have been had writing and response to literature been more familiar to them. Age and maturity as well as past writing experiences were reflected in the writing of the students. Capyright by DIANNE H. ROSS 1982 I dedicate. rm Rum/nah P/chc/t to my pace/Com “may: Let/my, Mai, and Chip (and to La) (duh my deepest £oue and gut/dude. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To the many people who have made this study possible, I offer my sincere appreciation: To Dr. Patricia J. Cianciolo, my major professor and advisor, who led me into the world of children's literature with enthusiasm, knowledge, and a degree of sophistication, I had not before experienced; who demanded from me excellence in scholastic achievement; who most of all, gave me permission to be myself; and whose friendship I cherish. To Dr. Sheila M. Fitzgerald, Dr. Stephen N. Judy, Dr. William J. Walsh, the members of my committee, who gave willingly of their knowledge and expertise during my graduate study and in this research project. To Dr. Brian Curry, who provided assistance in interpretation of statistics and to Mr. Martin J. Strickler, who helped with the computer programming. To Roberta K. Dwelly, Sue S. Swanson, Barbara A. Nagel, and Robert J. Ulrich, who participated as raters for the instrument used in this study. To the principal, teacher, and the twenty-five enthusiastic, creative, bright-eyed children of the fifth grade who provided the spark for this study. To Lorain Bonds Hardin, my mother, who believed the very best in me and who daily reaffirmed this belief with love, support, and friendship; who, in her own strength, continues to give me a sense of my feminine identity, a gift to carry me throughout my life. To Lawrence McIvor Ross, M.D., Ph.D., my husband, who provided love, devotion, caring, patience, a wonderful sense of humor, and who added a 'not-to-worry' when I most needed it; who enjoyed watching with me, the growth of our train. To Chip Ross, my son, who added love, plus sunshine, sensitivity, and grace; who daily enriched my life by his very presence. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES ......................... viii ANCIENT CHINESE PROVERB .................... ix Chapter I. INTRODUCTION ...................... 1 Purpose of the Study ................. 6 Need for the Study .................. 8 Limitations ..................... ll Research Questions .................. 13 Definition of Terms ................. l4 Overview ....................... l5 II. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ................ 17 Children's Response to Literature .......... 17 Literature as a Stimulus to Creative Expression . . . 41 Literature as a Model ................ 49 Children's Written Expression ............ 56 Children's Wartime Fiction .............. 75 Summary ....................... 88 Overview of Remaining Chapters ............ 90 III. SELECTION OF SUBJECTS, PROCEDURES, AND DESIGN OF THE STUDY ...................... 91 The Design of the Study ............... 92 The Instrument .................... 94 Phase I of Developing the Instrument ....... 94 Phase II of Developing the Instrument: Establishing the Inter-Rater Agreement ..... 95 Examples of Rater's Evaluation as to the Quantity of the Response ............ 104 General Procedures .................. lOS Sample ........................ lll Students' Background as to Reading and Writing Experiences .............. ll3 Criteria for Selection of Materials ......... 116 General Format of the Lessons Used .......... l18 Chapter Page Assumptions ..................... 119 Overview ....................... 120 IV. ANALYSIS OF RESULTS .................. 122 Instrumentation ................... 122 Research Questions .................. 124 Data Analysis Relating to Research Question One ...................... 125 Data Analysis Relating to Research Question Two ...................... 131 Data Analysis Relating to Research Question Three ..................... 138 Data Analysis Relating to Research Question Four ...................... 141 Data Analysis Relating to Research Question Five ...................... 146 Data Analysis Relating to Research Question Six ...................... 151 Data Analysis Relating to Research Question Seven ..................... 157 Data Analysis Relating to Research Question Eight ..................... 162 Other Findings .................. 164 Summary of the Chapter ................ 165 V. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS ................ 181 Summary of the Findings ............... 182 Research Question One .............. 182 Research Question Two .............. 185 Research Question Three ............. 192 Research Question Four .............. 194 Research Question Five .............. 197 Research Question Six .............. 201 Research Question Seven ............. 205 Research Question Eight ............. 208 Conclusions ..................... 210 Problems Encountered in This Research ........ 211 Recommendations for Further Research ......... 212 Appendix A. LETTERS TO PARENTS AND CONSENT FORM .......... 214 B. WRITING SUGGESTIONS TO GAIN CHILDREN'S RESPONSES . . . . 217 vi Appendix A Page C. ORAL DISCOURSE: THREE HISTORICAL FICTION SELECTIONS ...................... 221 D. SAMPLE LESSON PLANS .................. 228 E. LETTER VERIFYING HISTORY IN THREE HISTORICAL FICTION SELECTIONS .................. 233 BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................... 235 ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF JUVENILE BOOKS WITH A WORLD WAR II SETTING FROM WHICH THE BOOKS FOR THE STUDY WERE SELECTED . . . 244 vii Table th TO. LIST OF TABLES Rater Agreement: Transactional Function of Writing . . . Rater Agreement: Expressive Function of Writing Rater Agreement: Poetic Function of Writing ..... Percentage of Agreement Between Researcher and Literary Raters .................... Raw Score Tabulation for Book by Discourse Method (Percentage) to Three Historical Fiction Selections (Instrument Items 1 and 2) .............. Raw Scores Tabulated for Student Responses (Percentage) to Three Historical Fiction Selections (Instrument Items 3-10) ................ Raw Scores Tabulated for Student Responses (Percentage) to Three Historical Fiction Selections (Instrument Items 22-24) ............... Raw Scores Tabulated for Student Responses (Percentage) to Three Historical Fiction Selections as Reflected by the Writing Functions: Transactional, Expressive, and Poetic (Instrument Items 11-21) . . . . Raw Score Tabulation for Discourse Method by Sex Percentage Ranges ................... viii Page 100 101 102 103 126 132 144 152 165 166 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The purpose of this study is to look at how children respond to historical fiction as reflected in their writing. There has been a great deal of interest displayed over the past decade both by the. press and by the academic community in the decline of student writing abilities. Such concern has caused writing programs to go in many and varied directions. These range from a desire for a return to 'basics' and a strict adherence to standard English to a more permissive approach where a student is allowed to express opinions regardless of form or usage. Dr. Carlos Baker,-author of a biography of Ernest Hemingway, says: "Learning to write is the hardest, most important thing any child does. Learning to write is learning to think."1 Dealing with the importance of having an elementary writing curriculum which is stimulating and receptive of children's writing, Lester S. Golub addresses the idea of having poets in the classroom who can make a living by stirring the reader's imagination, by using one's own imagination and by manipulating language. Without the poet, there would be no method of discovery of the inner voice that is within us all. According to Golub, this is what writing is all about, discovering 1Merrill Sheils, "Why Johnny Can't Write," Newsweek 86 (December 8, 1975): 61. an inner voice and expressing it in such a way with language that it stimulates some sort of sensitive creative response in the reader or in the listener.2 It is hoped that the stimulation of this inner voice and the response that it elicits will be reflected in the writing that the children who are part of this study will do. Authorities in the field of writing instruction believe that growth and development occur through extensive writing experiences. The main idea of the Dartmouth Seminar, held in 1966, was to redefine the teaching of English. In the field of writing instruction, changes were to occur which would take writing from the rules and formulas to giving direction for expressing experiences. According to John Dixon, "Even the private act of writing bears traces of the primary purposes ”3 in language to share experiences. James Moffett and Betty Wagner direct parts of their language arts textbook to this concept of shared experiences. Moffett and Wagner believe that experience is first and writing builds onto this experience.“ James N. Britton sums up the need for an integrated language arts experience when he says: "Reading and writing and talking go hand in hand."5 Britton 2Lester S. Golub, "Stimulating and Receiving Children's Writing: Implications for an Elementary Writing Curriculum," Resources in Reading, Language Instruction, ed. Robert B. Ruddell et a1. TEngTewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1974), p. 233. 3John Dixon, Growth Through English: A Report Based on the Dartmouth Seminar, 1966’TReading, England: National Association for the Teaching 0f English, 1967), p. 6. l'James Moffett and Betty Jean Wagner, Student-Centered Language Arts and Reading, K-13, 2nd ed. (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1976). 5James N. Britton, Language and Learning (Coral Gables, F1a.: University of Miami Press, 1970). Pp. 150-151. goes on to support reading aloud to the class which will be a vital part of this study. When a teacher reads to his class, at least three important procedures are going on at the same time. First, the class is functioning as a single group and such communal experiences become particularly valuable. In the second place, the children who listen are gaining experience of the written forms of the English language. There is an art of listening to reading that is very different from listening to someone talking. If my second process was that of gaining language experience, my third in simplest terms, is gaining life experiences.‘ A study done by James N. Britton, Tony Burgess, Nancy Martin, Alex McLeod, and Harold Rosen, done in England from 1966-1971, defines the writing categories that will be used for this study. Using the terminology. expressive, transactional, and poetic to describe the major functions of writing, this team looked at student writing from over 500 boys and girls ages eleven to eighteen. In order to understand the categories used, it is necessary to look at the way that the team described the three categories; expressive was in the center of the continuum. This category is defined as "language close to the self, revealing the speaker, verbalizating his consciousness, displaying his close relationship with the reader. (The use of the expressive category brings language) possibly not highly explicit; relatively unstructured.“7 Expressive forms the matrix of the three categories. The poetic is on one end is language “which is written as a pattern; language as an art medium; language arranged to make an object of 6Ibid., pp. 140-151. 7James N. Britton, Tony Burgess, Nancy Martin, Alex McLeod, and Harold Rosen, The Development of Writing Abilities (ll-l8) (London: MacMillan Education, Schools Council Publication, 1974), p. 90. language." This category is language that is expressive but in a more formal sense; poetry forms part of this category along with short stories, plays, and so on.8 At the opposite end of this continuum is transactional category. The transactional function of language is "language to get things done; to inform peOple; to persuade, to instruct, to advise."9 These categories as defined by Britton and the other members of this study, correspond to the basic four kinds of discourse: exposition, argumentation, description, and narration. The literary stimulus to encourage writing response from the children will be historical fiction. The particular period of his- torical fiction that will be used for this study is World War II, the atrocities of the Holocaust, the resistance efforts, and the effects of war on children. As Lester Golub says, "The poet makes his living by writing, by stirring the reader's imagination."'° It is hoped through exposure to these books of historical fiction, the reader's imagination will be stirred and called upon to express her or his feelings about these aspects of history which are depicted in these fictions. The rationale for using fiction (historical fiction) is based on the conjectures by some of the leading authorities of literature for children who state when one reads fictional literature there 8Ibid., p. 90. 91bid., p. 87. 1°Golub, p. 233. occurs an emotional identification and involvement with the book characters and thus the reader becomes involved with and reads to the conflict and action that occurs in the story and responds to it. More specifically, it has been conjectured that as one reads historical fiction images of the aspects of the historical era, event, or people are formed and these historical aspects would then become more real to them. Helen Haines, author of the classic children and adolescent literature text theorized: Historical novel is a novel which depicts actual periods, persons, events in such a manner that they can be readily identified. Such depiction may be complete or partial, specific or generalized. The historical novel offers a re-creation of the past, at once imaginative and realistic, it imbues famous figures of history with immediate vitality and emotional significance and it enables present day readers to realize conditions of living as they were known to men and women of a vanished day.11 Patricia J. Cianciolo, also conjectured about the involvement of the reader's imagination and historical reality: Historical stories which cause the reader's imagination and historical reality to merge provide a fine vehicle for gathering a wide range of knowledge. Once the imagi- nation is engaged, the reader gathers a wide range of knowledge and acquires the framework for remembering it.12 The child according to Erik Haugaard, author of historical fiction for children and young adults, does not live in the past but rather lives in the present. He further expounds this theory: 11Helen Haines, Living_With Books (New York: Columbia Press. 1950). p. 539. 12Patricia J. Cianciolo, "Yesterday Comes Alive for Readers of Historical Fiction," Language Arts 58 (April 1981): 454. I question that we (adults) ever really understand that the world existed "before I was born." I believe that even as adults, we operate as small children and unconsciously divide time into B.B. and A.B. (Before I Was Born and After I Was Born). Everything that happened A.B. is real and anything that happened B.B., we never come to terms with as reality. This would explain why humanity seems unable to take lessons from history. It appears that only those things that happen to human beings themselves are truly understood by them.1 Haugaard suggests that as one reads historical fiction, they might be allowed to glimpse aspects of the past and perhaps realize the impacts these aspects of history had on people in the past or possibly how these affected the contemporary scene. If we indeed ignore the events of our past and never come to terms with them as reality, perhaps we will never understand what has happened in our civilization. Bringing together children's literature and children's writing makes a natural merger. Learning to understand and to explain what has happened in history provides a stimulus for writing. Educators throughout the country emphasize the importance of a student putting down thoughts on paper in the act of writing. S. I. Hayakawa, seman- ticist, says, "You don't know anything unless you can write it.”'“ Purpose of the Study The purpose of this study is to look at how children respond to historical fiction as reflected in their writing. There has been a great deal of concern during the past ten years over the apparent decline in the writing abilities of students. Through research studies, 13Erik Haugaard, "Before I Was Born: History and the Child," The Hornbook 45 (October 1979): 516. 1"Sheils, p. 61. such as this one, educators can look at the way children write when exposed to a specific stimulus and can draw conclusions as to the effectiveness of such programs. The belief that the child will be emotionally and mentally stimulated and drawn into the events of yesteryear through the books selected for this project coupled with the belief that as a result of such involvement, the child will be aroused in such a way as to respond to this stimulation in writing, makes this study a strong supporter for using literature as a stimulus to writing. The definition of the writing categories selected to define the responses that the children will make to the literature selections are: expressive (language of the self), transactional (language to instruct, to inform, to advise, to persuade), poetic (language as an art medium which takes the feelings closest to the self and displays them in a pattern or a form).15 The subjects of the study were a fifth grade class from a school district located in Michigan. The subjects listened to the researcher read aloud two short stories dealing with children involved in the resistance movements of their countries. At the end of the reading, of each short story, the children discussed with the researcher what happened in the stories and then wrote their feelings about the story according to the categories defined by Britton. These short stories formed a 'pre-study' atmosphere for the actual research project. By reading these stories, the children involved were able to become used to the voice and reading technique of the researcher 15Britton et al., pp. 88-90. and were able to practice putting their response to the reading into writing. Although the results of this 'pre-study' will not be recorded, the researcher feels that this was a very important part of this research project. At the conclusion of reading of the short stories, the researcher read aloud three selections of historical fiction to the class and the students responded in oral discussions and later in writing assignments which were structured according to the three categories defined by Britton. Through the combination of reading aloud the historical fiction selected for the study and the experience of recording the response that each child made to the books in writing, the researcher would attempt to determine if the level of involvement with aspects of this literature were displayed in each child's writing. Need for the Study The need for having informed citizens who can communicate well both verbally and in writing has long been a desire of this democracy. However, research and journal articles appearing in the various pro- fessional publications will attest to the fact that there exists a deficiency in the communication skills of our children. Educators, administrators, curriculum specialists, and parents are bombarded on all sides with effective approaches to improve the quality of writing and reading in our schools. They are pressured with demands from parts of the society for a return to the 'basics' and they are threatened with minimal competency testing. According to Alvina Trent Burrows: The back to basics movement propels many schools into buying numbers of workbooks that ask pupils to do little more than fill in the blanks, to finish other people's sentences, and to punctuate isolated fragments. Such exercises though occasionally fruitful in focusing on a troublesome technique, constitute a process unrelated to the problems of achieving acceptable form in projecting one's own thoughts.16 A possible answer to this dilemma lies in effective educational research which will point the way to new approaches to teaching. writing, and reading. Studies such as the one proposed here, provide such innovation. Research has shown that children want and need to be able to communicate effectively. Yet as many educators will conclude. the writing in our schools, today, is sometimes little more than "fill in the blanks, finish other people's sentences."17 We need to release the inner thoughts of the child and to allow her/him to communicate via the written word. Reading quality literature to children can provide an excellent stimulus for writing. Not only does the child gain a sense of aware- ness of the elements of story: plot, characterization, style, theme, setting, but she/he is also able to hear a rich vocabulary which will enrich the way that the young writer approaches words. Research studies indicating that literature is an important stimulus for writing do exist. Nielsen (1980) did a study on using literature as a stimulus for writing narrative compositions by fourth grade students and found that quality literature could indeed evoke responses in writing from children. She went on to conclude that there was a lack of significant 16Alvina Trent Burrows, "Reflections: The Child as Writer," Langgage Arts 56 (October 1979): 733. 17Ibid., p. 733. 10 difference in the quality of the writing regardless of whether the story is read aloud or read silently by the student. She also con- cluded that there was no apparent difference between the favorite story as defined by a student and the quality of the writing. Girls in the Nielsen study did show higher scores in their writing than did boys. The writing of girls and boys was different in subject matter. The girls chose 'primary territory' or that territory as defined by Donald Graves as nearest home and school. The boys selected tales of 'extended territory' or the area of national and world events and those persons identified with them. Nielsen concluded that a greater sense of story existed in the student's writing where they had listened to the story read aloud.18 Pinkham (1968) did a study on fifth grade pupils' written expression using a series of lessons which consisted of listening to the selection of children's literature discussing writing techniques as they appeared in the selection, reading and discussing the selection, writing creatively, evaluating, and rewriting. It was her hypothesis that through this series of lessons, children's literature would stimulate pupils to write better. The experimental group improved significantly over the control group in the areas of organization, convention, critical thinking, effectiveness, and appropriateness. 18Beatrice F. Nielsen, "Effects of Reading on Children's Narrative Writing" (Ph.D. dissertation, Brigham Young University, 1980). p. 90. 11 There was no significant differences in the areas of thought and style.19 Even though some research is available to support the belief that literature can be an excellent stimulus for writing, there remains the need to have research which shows definitely the existing relation between using literature to stimulate writing and successful writing experiences. This study which will look at how children do respond in writing to historical fiction should provide significant results to be included with the existing studies and will probably establish the link between writing and using literature as a stimulus to writing. Limitations 1. The school district involved in the study required that the study be limited to two months. 2. The researcher was not the classroom teacher of the fifth grade class involved in the research study. The researcher met with the fifth grade for fifty minutes a day,five days a week. 3. All of the children in the elementary school shared the same school library and had access to the collection of books that existed there, so it was not impossible for the students in the research study to read the books of historical fiction 19Rosalie Gately Pinkham, "The Effects on the Written Expres- sion of Fifth Grade Pupils on a Series of Lessons Emphasizing the Characteristics of Good Writing as Exemplified in Selected Works from the Area of Children's Literature" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Connecticut, 1968), pp. 121-123. 12 used by the researcher for the study. It was also not known if the students were able to discuss the books being read aloud when the researcher was not present. According to the information obtained by this researcher when she interviewed the fifth grade classroom teacher and the fourth grade teacher who had taught the class involved in the research project the year before, the fifth grade class selected probably did not do the kind of writing that this research project required of them. They had participated in a minimal of writing experiences in the past. For these reasons, it is possible that they might have placed more importance on the writing assignments required by the researcher if they had been more experienced in writing. It would be difficult for any set of discourse categories ever described to hold all writing. This probably would be possible if there existed a separate category in writing for each piece of writing done. For these reasons, the categories used in this study are limited. This study required that students write an initial response to the literature used in this study. There was no provision by this researcher for the child to do rewriting or editing of their writing. The instrument used in this study was verified by interrater reliability. The raters who varified the instrument did not take part in proving reliability of the researcher's analyses of the existing data. 13 The students in the study were required to write during a certain time frame as established by the researcher and were required to be finished at the end of that time frame. The students were not permitted to take the writing home or to work on it at a later time. At this point in time, the review of response studies currently available indicates that the most that any research can reveal about response is that a response from the reader could occur. Research Questions As a result of listening to historical fiction, read aloud, what discourse method does the child select to express her/his thoughts about the book: transactional, expressive, or poetic? How do children respond to historical fiction through their writing? a. Is there evidence in their writing that there is a personal involvement with the main character? b. Is there evidence in their writing of identity of the theme? c. Is there evidence in their writing of awareness, or involve- ment with the conditions of the lives of the characters? 00 children show an insight for the historical climate of the story, in other words, do they recognize the causes and the consequences of World War II and respond to these in the writing? How does the child view the historical aspects portrayed in and/or pertaining to the historical fiction? a. Does the child view this as an unreal happening? b. Does the child view this as a reality for something that happened in the past? How do individual children respond in writing to the story? a. Is there evidence of a personal involvement with no reference to the story? b. Is there evidence of a response on the factual or abstract level with no reference made to personal feelings? c. Does the child summarize the story? 14 6. What specific characteristics of the expressive function of writing are evidenced when the writer selects this function of writing as a way of responding to the historical fiction selection. a. Does she/he use the first person pronoun to describe her/his response to the story? b. Does she/he use the second person pronoun, addressing the writing to 'you,‘ an intimate reader? c. Does she/he write in a self-revealing way? 7. What specific characteristics of the transactional function of writing are evidenced when the writer selects this function of writing as a way of response to the historical fiction selection? a. Does she/he use language to explain the historical event? b. Does she/he use language to persuade people to accept her/his view of the story? c. Does she/he use language to present opinions about the historical event? 8. What specific characteristics of the poetic function of writing are evidenced when the writer selects this function of writing as a way of responding to the historical selection: a. Does she/he use language that is arranged in the form of a short story, play, or poem? Definition of Terms Function: As related to writing, function is the term used for the intention of a piece of writing. Quality children's literature: Quality children's literature is literature for children that has met the criteria of literary and artistic (where it applies) excellence. These books are judged for their outstanding literary elements of plot, characterization, style, setting, and theme. Elements of‘story: The elements of story refer to plot, character- ization, style, setting, and theme of a book or story. Historical fiction: A book or story of historical fiction is set in the past (at least twenty-five years ago) which tells accu- rately and completely of life in that time. The piece of historical fiction must not only tell a story of literary excellence but must also be totally authentic to the period of history. .Discourse: Discourse is any piece of verbalization either spoken or written. 15 writing categories: Writing categories refers to the transactional, expressive, or poetic categories of writing (as defined by Britton et al.). Empressive: This is language that is closest to the self. It is language one would use if thinking out loud. The expressive is language used with an intimate when the speaker is not required to explain her/his meaning. Iransactional: The transactional is the language of more formal writing, when the writer wishes to inform, to persuade, to instruct, or to argue. Poetic: The poetic is the formal ordered manner of presenting one's ideas and feelings. The language or writing of the poetic is akin to creative writing: the poem, the play, the short story. Literature as a stimulus: The use of literature as a stimulation for writing, provides a starting point, an arousal for further writing. Literature as a model: The use of literature as a model provides examples of good writing for the writer. Overview Chapter 1 contains the introduction to the research study, the purpose of the study, the significance of the study, the need for the study, the limitations of the study, the research questions to be looked at in this project, and the definitions of terms used in this research project. Chapter II is the review of the literature pertaining to this research study. Chapter III is the design of the study which contains the design of this research study, general procedures, the sample, stu- dent's (involved in the study) background as to reading and writing experiences, criteria for the selection of materials, general format of lessons used, and assumptions. 16 Chapter IV contains an analysis of the data. Chapter V is the conclusion of the study which contains the summary, conclusions, and recommendations for additional research in this area. CHAPTER II REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE The review of the literature is divided into five major areas which are pertinent to this research study: (1) Children's Response to Literature, (2) Literature as a Stimulus to Creative Expression, (3) Literature as a Model, (4) Children's Written Expression, and (5) Children's Wartime Fiction. Children's Response to Literature Richards (1929) did a classic study of response to poetry among university undergraduates. Using a printed sheet of four poems issued each week to the students in his classes, Richards conducted an exper- iment to understand how the student did respond to poetry. The students were not aware of the author or of the identity of the poem. From this early study of response to poetry, Richards makes the following observation regarding response to literature: Whenever we hear or read any not too nonsensical Opinion, a tendency so strong and so automatic that it must have been formed along with our earliest speech habits, leads us to consider what seems to be said rather than the mental observations of the person who said it. We at once try to consider the objects his words seem to stand for and not the mental goings on that led him to use those words. We are in fact anxious to discover whether we agree with what is being said that we overlook the mind that says it, unless some very special circumstance calls us back.1 1I. A. Richards, Practical Criticism (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1929), pp. 6-7. 17 18 Richards says in effect that in order to have an understanding of the response of another, we must first improve our ability to com- municate with one another. With the relevant mental condition, relevant to the piece of literature and appropriate communication, we then can elect to understand the response of the reader. Richards identifies ten categories which he says hinder the student in her/his ability to comprehend the work of literature. Among these are the inability of the reader to really understand the literary work, difficulty in understanding the literary work as regards to sensuous apprehension, difficulty in visualizing the imagery of the work, mental trips which take the reader's mind away from the work, making stock responses to the work, reacting in oversentimentality, reacting in a manner of overinhibition, a literary work which includes false Opinions about the world, presuppositions as to the technical make-up of the work, and preconceived critical opinions about lit- erature. Richards says that there exists a connection between these hindrances to response. While they may not exist in all of the responses that readers make to literature and to poetry, they do, according to Richards, cause "most of the principal obstacles and causes of failure in the reading and judgment of poetry."2 This early study by Richards set up some categories for evaluating response to literature in the future and was followed by Rosenblatt (1938, 1978) who spoke to the importance of the reader and the interaction that she/he makes with the selection of literature 2Ibid., p. 17. 19 in her now classic Literature as Exploration. Rosenblatt commenting on the response of the reader to the work of literature says: For he [the reader] can being to achieve a sound approach to literature only when he reflects upon his response to it, when he attempts to understand what in himself produced that reaction and when he thoughtfully goes on to modify, reject, or accept it.3 She places value on the reader and what the reader brings to the text. The reading of a particular work at a particular moment by a particular reader will be a highly complex process. Personal factors will inevitably affect the equation represented by book plus reader. His past experience and present preoccupations may actively condition his primary response.“ Rosenblatt goes on to say that everything that is the student influences his response to literature. Whether he is from the North or South, the community background of his growing-up years, the economic status of his family, the moral and religious code and social beliefs of his parents, and so on, all play a significant role in the level of response that the student makes.5 For in the end, according to Rosenblatt, "What the student brings to the piece of literature is as important as the work itself."6 Louise Rosenblatt established her theory of the transactional relationship of the text and the reader in her more recent book, The Reader, the Text, the Poem. She defines the function of the 3Louise Rosenblatt, Literature as Exploration, 3rd ed. (Dallas: Noble & Noble, Inc., 1976), p. 76. “Ibid., p. 79. 5Ibid., p. 94. 6Ibid., p. 96. 20 text as: "a stimulus activating elements of the reader's past experience with literature and with life."7 Rosenblatt assigns an active role to the text and goes on to say that "the text serves as a blueprint, a guide for selecting, rejecting, and ordering of what is being called forth; the text regulates what shall be held in the forefront of the reader's attention."8 Rosenblatt derives the concept of the "transactional" from the work of John Dewey and Arthur Bentley, whose early research devised a formulation of the transactional for the natural sciences. Rosenblatt elaborates her beliefs in the transactional theory of reader response: The transactional phrasing of the reading process underlies the essential importance of both elements, reader and text, in any reading event. A person becomes a reader by virtue of his activity in relationship to a text, which he organizes as a set of verbal symbols. A physical text, a set of marks on a page, becomes the text of a poem or of a scientific formula by virtue of its relationship with a reader who can thus interpret it and reach through it to the world of the work.9 Rosenblatt is in essence freeing the student of literature from the bindings of literary analysis of a work for its own sake. By opening the text as active and establishing a relationship with the reader as well as the poem, she is helping the reader to participate in his own responses to the literature. 7Louise Rosenblatt, The Reader, the Text, the Poem (Carbondale, Ill.: Southern Illinois University Press, 1978), p. 11. 8Ibid., p. 11. 9Ibid., p. 19. 21 James Squire (1964) studied the response that ninth and tenth grade students make to short stories. He selected four short stories for their appropriateness to the age and the interest of the students involved in the study. He used interview sessions, tape-recorded, to obtain the data from the study. Squire identified seven categories of response to classify the responses that the students made. Among these were literary judgments, interpretational responses, narra- tional reactions, associated responses, prescription judgments, self-involvement, and a miscellaneous category. Squire found that students responded most frequently to the category of interpretational responses. He also found that readers respond to work of literature in many ways and that the nature of the response is made up of many different facets rather than just one single cause. He stated that the sex of the respondent does not affect the response but does influence individual reactions to specific stories. V Finally, Squires concluded that the types of responses made were not related to the reading ability of the student. This would suggest that there is no correlation between reading test scores and the ability to respond soundly to works of 1iterature.'° Alan C. Purves and Victoria Rippere (1968) attempted to design a category of responses which would classify the elements of writing about a selection of literature. The five broad categories that they 1°JamesR. S uire, The Responses of Adolescents While Reading_ Four Short Stories Champaign, Ill.: National Council of’Teachers of Eng1ish, 1964). 22 devised to place student responses are engagement-involvement, perception, interpretation, evaluation, and miscellaneous. Purves, after describing these categories, did a pilot study with 300 essays by students ages 13-17 and found that two out of three students agreed on close to 90 percent of the statements. A higher percentage of usage of the elements was found from the categories of engagement-involvement and perception by the seventeen year old students than by the thirteen year old students. The two groups scored more closely in interpretation. Purves offers the following evaluation of these categories and their place in the school curriculum: The elements and categories offer a way of thinking about the curriculum and the teaching process, a way that is less hampered by "loaded terms" than many other ways. Further, it is a way that enables one to organize a curriculum. Most of all, it enables a teacher to recognize that his organization is one of many possible organizations, that it is a choice and that it necessarily perhaps, fails to be all encompassing.11 The line of research that began with I. A. Richards' Practical Criticism and extended through Squire (1964) and Purves, Rippere (1968) has sought to provide a clear, reliable, and concise way of describing the response of readers of literature. As Purves said, the central concern in response studies is "the mind as it meets the book. The response."12 11Alan C. Purves and Victoria Rippere, Elements of Writing About a Literary Work: A Study of Response to Literature (Champaign, 111.: National Council of Teachers of English, 1968), p. 65. 12Ibid., p. 224. 23 Norman N. Holland's study on Five Readers Reading was conducted with the idea in mind that people's responses to literature are personal, psychic involvements with the reader recreating the book in terms of her/his own fantasies, needs, drives, and impulses. Using under- graduate English majors, who had volunteered to participate in his study, Holland had these students read ten short stories (one a week). He then met with each of the participants after they had read each story and conducted an interview asking questions about the story that the student had just read. The readers were encouraged to expound upon their feelings about the story or about any related point. Also included in the interview was a list of questions about the stories; Holland requested each student to answer the questions and then to retell the story in her/his own words. These interview questions were tape-recorded to provide an accurate record of the student's response and later these sessions were transcribed to comprise the five case studies which make up this book. In analyzing the five readers' reading, Holland brought to bear the following principle: "A reader responds to a literary work by assimilating it to his own psychological process. That is, to his search for successful solutions within his identity theme to the multiple demands, both inner and outer, on his ego."13 Holland expands upon this one principle by saying that a reader can adapt herself/himself to make what is read match "the defensive and adaptive capacities shaping it 13Norman N. Holland, Five Readers Reading (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1975), p. 209. 24 until it will fit" as a kind of identity theme. He goes on to say that a reader can use "the literary work as a sort of pleasure" and can project whatever fantasy that pleases herself/himself at the moment.'“ A11 of the students who were a part of this study showed a strong tendency to relate to the literary experience in terms of their own existing life-style. Proust made the following statement regarding reader association and response: Each reader reads only what is already within himself. The book is only a sort of optical instrument which the writer offers to the reader to enable the latter to dis- cover in himself what he would not have found but for the aid of the book.15 The Fourth Biennial Symposium of the International Research Society for Children's Literature was held in the South-West of England at the University of Exeter in 1978. Forty-one members of the Society and thirty-eight guests from sixteen countries attended the Symposium which was on the theme of responses to children's literature. The following three papers are from this International Research Symposium. Nicholas Tucker's paper entitled "Can We Ever Know the Reader's Response?" says that "we can never know the reader's response to lit- erature at least beyond the vaguest generalizations and platitudes."16 1"Ibid., p. 211. 15Ibid., p. 11. 16Nicholas Tucker, "Can We Ever Know the Reader's.Response?" paper presented at Fourth Symposium of the International Research Society for Children's Literature, held in South-West of England at the University of Exeter, September 9-12, 1978, p. l. 25 He goes on to elaborate, "The faces I conjure up to fit the characters are all my own work, based on an unrepeatable amalgam of faces drawn from people, comics, films, photographs, advertisements, and posters "17 Tucker says all seen at what was probably an impressionable age. that in addition to the images that the reader conjures up to fit scenes from a piece of literature, "there is also other accompanying thoughts and feelings that can happen at the same time that one is reading, such as the extra lines of dialogue one sometimes supplies, the sudden memories that can be stimulated, or the way that one can also start imagining another parallel story involving oneself, or even find oneself thinking something quite different such as how to best repair a broken shower-unit?"18 Tucker says that reactions to liter- "19 ature seem to be for him an "elusive quarry. He goes on to say that the "effect of both important and of trivial literature upon individual readers is always going to be a very personal matter."2° Tucker believes that the bonds of developmental psychology offer information about some of the children's cognitive, emotional, and experimental limitations at various stages which will enable one to predict which books will work for which readers.21 17Ibid., p. 1. 18Ibid. 19Ibid. 2°Ibid., p. 2. 21Ibid., p. 6. 26 Michael Benton's paper entitles “Children's Responses to the Texts" says that the "subject of the 'reader's response' is the Loch Ness Monster of literary studies. When we set out to capture it, we cannot even be sure that it is there at all, and, if we assume that it is, we have to admit that the most sensitive probing with the most sophisticated instruments has so far succeeded only in producing pic- tures of dubious authenticity."22 There are many fields of interest at work in understanding the response that a child makes to a work of literature: "a psychologist, a psychoanalyst, a literary critic, a novelist, a philosopher."23 In attempting to arrive at a conclusion to the nature of the response of the reader, it must be understood that the novel is a "pluralistic form" of literary concern and the "theory of poetics which deals with it must be flexible and organic just as the theory of the process of reading and responding to fiction must also be flexible and organic."2“ The reader, then, makes his own world within the novel and experiences this world both as a private experience and as an experience which the reader then relates to the outside world or a public response.25 Commenting on the use of categories by researchers to classify the responses of students to a work of literature, Benton says that the 22Michael Benton, "Children's Responses to the Texts," Responses to Literature, ed. Geoff Fox and Graham Hammond (New York: K. G. Saur, 1980), p. 14. 23Ibid., p. 15. 2"Ibid. 25Ibidu Pp. 15-16. 27 "exhaustive categorizing and quantifying of stated response runs the risk of undiscriminating inclusiveness and of reading a descriptive conclusion about what happens in reading literature and misses the living quality of the psychic processes and substitutes inert data."26 Rhonda Bunbury's "Children's Understanding of Literature" states that there has been no significant study to date dealing with children's cognitive and/or affective responses to literature. She proposes in her study to "investigate questioning which will develop higher thinking in response to literature and has hypothesized that children will give different response to literal cognitive demands than to referential cognitive demands."27 The subjects that Banbury used for this study were sixty primary school children selected randomly from classes with equal numbers of boys and girls in the group. There were three groups of twenty children aged seven, nine, and eleven years. The subjects were selected from a broad population base.28 The literary texts selected for this study ranged in both genre and degree of difficulty. A major criteria for selecting materials for the study was a consideration of the different stimuli that the types would offer: poetry, folktale, and the modern short story. 26Ibid., p. 21. 27Rhonda Bunbury, "Children's Understanding of Literature," Responses to Literature, ed. Geoff Fox and Graham Hammond (New York: K. G. Saur, 1980), p. 92. 28Ibid., pp. 93-94. 28 The procedure that was used called for the researcher to read the three pieces of literature into a tape recorder at a consistent rate. The children would hear the literature in a random fashion only. The children were then interviewed by the researcher who told them that their reaction to the story would not be graded but rather that the researcher was using the information about their responses to help other students and teachers. The responses that children gave to the pieces of literature were judged by two judges using a nine point scale. They agree within one unit of measurement, 86 percent of the time. The result of the study showed that the original hypotheses (that children give significantly different responses to literal cog— nitive demands from inferential cognifitive demands) must be modified. The following are examples of this modification: 1. There is a significance in the different responses to literal cognitive demands from inferential cognitive demands. 2. Children ages seven, nine, and eleven show a significant linear trend in the responses that they give to the interaction of literal and inferential demands.29 In examining the raw scores for the two literal demands in each story, it was indicated that within each age group there is a "gradual increase in scores towards the higher level of response. And as age increases, the number of preoperational responses to literal demand decreases, while the number of concrete operational responses increases. In all groups, not one response scores beyond the concrete operational level; 29Ibid., p. 98. 29 and in each case, the eleven responses which scored four, gave more information than the question required."3° The findings of this study indicate that literal demand will be best responded to at the concrete operational level. The value of the Bunbury study is that it shows the differences between children's literal and inferential responses to literature which should be a key concern to teachers. It has been shown that a great percentage of teachers formulate their questions to children at the basic literal level. This study shows that such questions will actually limit response from children. This will interfere with higher order thinking that children can do. Arthur Applebee's study, The Child's Concept of Story: Ages Two to Seventeen, explores the child's own storytelling abilities and responses to literature. Applebee in his study, employs the categories of language as defined by Britton and used in this researcher's study. The first form of language is called the expressive mode of language. The primary feature of this form of language use is that it relies on the self to relate, share, and express attitudes and feelings of the speaker or the writer. The speaker is able to convey much information in a "non-linguistic way" by using "eye contact, facial expressions, posture and gestures that are an important part of the reciprocity of the face-to-face encounter for the adult as well as for the child."31 3°Ibid., p. 98. 31Arthur Applebee, The Child's Concept of Story (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978), p. 10. 30 By seeking to relate the expressive function of language or of writing to a work of literature, the reader will discuss the story in terms of the self, she/he will relate to the story in terms of their own experiences. "The assumption of a shared representation of experience which gives the expressive its power also limits its usefulness; as soon as the assumption of a shared world becomes less tenable, other modes of language become necessary." The two other forms of language use that Britton describes are the poetic which leads to personal sub- jective patterns of response, largely the language of poetry and trans- actional which "reduces the personal component in language as this kind of objectivity is the condition for transactions between people who do not share a world in common."32 Applebee describes the role of spectator and participant in the following ways: Our attitude toward . . . such experience becomes that of a spectator; we look on testing out hypotheses about struc- ture and meaning, but we do not rush in to interrupt. to do so would obscure the relationship and spoil the effect of the whole. The role of the participant moves directly into the experience being offered; we judge it step by step, and act on it piecemeal . . . whether that action is taking place in the realm of everyday life (close the door, please) or in the more intellectual realms of theoretical argument or professional discussion.33 Applebee goes on to explain the terms of spectator and participant in terms of Britton's categories: A mixture of poetic and transactional technique is in fact quite characteristic of most uses of language; it is rare to find either in pure form. Yet though they are often mixed, the conventions of the two types of symbolization 32Ibid., p. 12. 33Ibid., p. 16. 31 are to some extent a conflict. This is because poetic techniques ask us to consider a work as a whole and it is only at the end that the total pattern is revealed.3“ Here, Applebee says that our attitude is spectator, where we look on and evaluate the situation before we become involved in the action that is occurring. "The techniques of transactional symbolism leads us to participate more directly in the experience being offered.”5 In describing the spectator role and contrasting it with the participant role, Applebee says that the difference is most evident in the way that we respond to it. In transactional discourse, the response made is usually to continue the discussion already under way by qualifying, accepting, or challenging the argument, or we enter the argument by "offering a new perspective or simply expressing pleasure or disgust."36 In poetic discourse, the response is usually not with more poetic language but rather with transactional language. Applebee says, "Usually when we start to formulate our response to a work in the spectator role, we move out of it into transactional, participant—role writing or speech. In considering what children say about stories, we do it by looking 'through' their transactional language to the subjective response the child is trying to describe."37 Applebee says that in the case of the spectator and the participant roles of language: written or spoken, we cannot assume 3"Ibid., p. 16. 35Ibid. 36Ibid. 37Ibid., pp. 16-17. 32 both roles at the same time. Our approach to the writing effects the response that we make to it. In the spectator role, viewing the work as a piece of literature, we may say that it is an exciting tale. In the role of a participant we may decide that it is not worth our time to read the book. Applebee says that "we ask different questions of works in the two roles, bring different criteria to bear on them, and take away quite different impressions."38 Robert G. Carlsen identified five categories of literary response that parallel the responses to writing that James Britton and James Moffett have defined. The first of these Unconscious Delight occurs when the reader becomes unconsciously absorbed in the world of the book. "He momentarily escapes, slipping the bonds of real life to live in a world more splendid, more exciting and perhaps more beautiful than his own. The world out there disappears. When the reading is finished, he is disappointed, let down. Sometimes, it takes an hour to return to reality."39 This stage, according to Carlsen, "hooks the reader. Until a reader has had such an inter- action with a book, I am convinced that nothing in literature will 1190 ever mean very much to him. The second stage that Carlsen describes is Vicarious Experience. This takes the reader into learning about "people, times and places 38Ibid., p. 18. 39Robert G. Carlsen, "Literature Is," wnglish Journal 63 (February 1974): 24. “°Ibid., p. 24. 33 that brings another satisfaction from reading literature." A really avid reader will be filled with "rags and tags of information (such as this) from reading.“1 The third stage, Seeing,0neself, according to Carlsen “is suddenly meeting ourselves, encountering situations similar to our own, rediscovering our own emotions and relationships. We (as readers) never know quite when this is going to happen.“2 Carlsen concludes this category with this statement: "Though we glorify our individual- ity, and our uniqueness, we find comfort in discovering that we are not alone, that others live and feel as we do and that someone, an author, has understood us.""3 The fourth stage of literary response as described by Carlsen is Philosgphical Speculations. This stage of literary response involves the satisfaction most often gained from reading, the projection of the mystery of our experience with life itself. Literature projects for us the unsolved dilemmas of human life . . . those things that trouble us deeply and have seemingly troubled men from the dawning of human consciousness. Literature seldom solves these dilemmas or offers explanations. Rather it presents a living situation that throws us back on ourselves. . . . For most readers, literature is as close to philosophy as they ever get."““ The fifth category of response that Carlsen identifies is Aesthetic Experience. "The aesthetic quality of literature is the “11bid., p. 24. “21bid., p. 25 “31bid. ““Ibid., p. 26. 34 warp upon which the other things are woven. There is at any rate, a satisfaction that comes from the contemplation of a well-made object.“5 These five categories of response to literature that Carlsen has defined gives the teacher different ways to approach the work of literature when it applies to children. Carlsen says that there are "periods in a child's life when one of these categories is more important to the reader than the others. Late childhood and early adolescence is the period when the reader generally demands complete absorption in what he reads."“5 By referring to this information, the teacher is able to plan reading experiences that will account for these stages to approach to response. Similarly, Carlsen goes on to say, "In early junior high school, the reader is somewhat reality bound and seeks vicarious experience in reading. He collects information the way he collects match box covers or stamps.”7 The reader does not approach any one category with the total exclusion of the others but rather the categories overlap. The reader, according to Carlsen, by “middle adolescence becomes ego absorbed and wants book that are about himself.“8 Finally, as the reader matures and advances in his late teens, he turns to literature, “SIbld., p. 26. I”"Ib'id. “71bid., p. 27. I’BIb'id. 35 "the avenue for philosophical-religious-psychological-speculation.""9 In the end the experienced reader turns back to the only satisfaction that is left, "the aesthetic which takes on an importance now that it did not have earlier."5° Miller (1980) describes literature as "one of the arts and reading literature is an artistic, or aesthetic, experience that has something in common with other aesthetic experiences as listening to music, watching dance or looking at paintings."51 Miller goes on to describe the relationship with literature as an event, an object, a message. Responding to literature, as Miller suggests, usually means that the reader is experiencing it as a work of art, aesthetically and not as an instructional method. Literature as an event happens to the reader as an aesthetic arrest in time. The event causes the reader to focus attention on a particular thing instead of flicking from time to time, from object to object. What is a pleasant event or happening to one person is perhaps painful or unpleasant to another. Miller says that, "certain happenings psychologically makes us 'all event,‘ they absorb our per- sonalities for a time shaping them independently of our own thinking and willing. In extreme instances, of this sort, we may say that we "9113111., p. 27. 5°Ibid. 51Bruce E. Miller, Teachinggthe Art of Literature (Urbana, 111.: National Council of Teachers of English, 1980), p. 3. 36 have just been in a 'brown study, or had a daydream, a trance or a vision.”52 The state or event has been identified by Purves and other researchers as the engagement or experience. Miller expands upon this by saying that the person who reads literature successfully will have a “highly conscious and thoroughly pleasant experience independent of any personal need, in which the particular work that is being read arrests the attention of the reader, fixes it, controls it, concludes it.”53 Literature as an object occurs when the work becomes tangible to the reader. Miller defines the constituting of literature as the reader's assimilation of a text. According to his theory, constituting comes first and must occur before interruption and response can begin. Miller sees the response to a work of literature as different readers constituting works in accord with their own inner workings (these include identity themes of personality, memories, moral convictions, formal learnings, and experiences).5“ Literature as a message delivers meaning to the reader. The reader can, according to Miller, respond to the message that the work delivers on many different levels and can have different meanings or messages for different readers. 52Ibid., p. 8. 53Ibid., p. 9. 5"Ibid., p. 12. 37 Miller's theory of responding to the literary work as an aesthetic experience, an art form gives still a different way of looking at response to literature. Literature does present the event, object, message for the reader to ponder and to respond to in "intensity, order and abundance."55 Janet Hickman (1979) did an ethnographic study of response to literature. Meeting in one elementary school with ninety children whose grade range spanned kindergarten through fifth grade for a period of four months, Hickman was able to look at the dimensions of children's response to literature which included the need of children for repetition and successive responses, nonverbal modes of responding and automatic expressions of response. Using the observational method of data collection as the primary research tool, the researcher was able to look at the classroom behavior of the children both verbal and nonverbal and through this approach was able to bridge some of the private phenomenon of response. Using a list of categories that Hickman devised to chart the responses of the group, she found that she could look at the range and sequence of the event and also could use the categories as a basis for comparison among the age groups. Through this observa- tional study, Hickman found that students in K-l responded to lit- erature mostly with their bodies. They also incorporated bits and pieces of the stories that they were eXposed to when they played together. The children in the 2-3 class were concerned with being 55Ibid., p. 45. 38 independent readers. They spent time reading together, sharing books, commenting on the books that they had read. Their conversations included information about books--their length and difficulty. The 4-5 class showed great interest in books. The reader would become so involved in a story that she/he would forget where they were. Because of the level of development, the older children were able to manage tasks more easily than were the younger ones. One of the limitations of the Hickman study is that it is set in a school which encourages and fosters a love of literature in the classroom. The reading teacher taught the reading classes with trade ‘ books as the chief means of reading instruction. The classroom teachers provided time for positive reading experiences, discussion, and response through writing, drama, and the arts.56 This is, in the opinion of this researcher, not a typical school environment and because it was such a supportive school, the results of this study are not as impressive as they would have been if the researcher had gone into a school where experiences with children's literature and reading were not so highly esteemed. The findings of the Hickman study, indicated that the teacher has considerable power of influence on the response of the student. Through the teacher's control of the material that the students are exposed to, the amount of discussion that is encouraged to take place, the teacher can control the qualitative aspects of the response. 56Janet Hickman, "Responses to Literature in a School Environ- ment, Grades K-5" (Ph.D. dissertation, Ohio State University, 1979). 39 Susan Lee Galda (1980) studied the responses of three young readers to two literary texts for the purpose of determining how the properties of the text and the personalities of the readers came together to form the story and the ability to assume the role of the spectator. The girls were identified as being members of the upper middle class socioeconomic status, attending a private school in New York City, and reading above grade level as determined by standardized test scores and teacher assessment. Galda felt that it was necessary to match participants on reading ability and socio- economic status. The two literary texts chosen were part of the literary genre of contemporary realistic fiction selected for their appr0priateness to the age and reading ability of the girls. The books chosen, both award winners in the field of children's literature, were Beat the Turtle Drum by Constance Green (1976) and Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson (1977). Galda used the format of small group discussion to obtain the responses of the students. It was her function to guide the discussion and to encourage, not force, responses to the books. The discussions were tape recorded. The girls participated equally in the discussions and made judgments about the books comparing and contrasting them one to the other. It was the original intention of Galda to use a modified version of the response categories that Alan Purves used in his 1968 study. However, the categories did not lend themselves to the oral group discussion. Each of the girls responded in the way that was 40 fitting to her own style and personality. Emily was the pragmatic realist, not quite certain of the reasons behind the responses that she made. Charlotte tended to look at the books in a more objective way but still insisted on a reality-based response. Ann looked at the text and at her own response and tried to understand literary life- styles and her own life as well. The girls showed difference among their abilities to evaluate the text. Emily and Charlotte used literary labels that they could not define or identify. Ann did not use the literary labels but was able to see the text working together in sub-plots to form the literary whole. In Galda's results of the study, Ann was able to look at the books and to relate their experiences to the real-life experiences that she had. She was the one more readily able to analyze her responses to the text. Galda found that the role of spectator in response to the story, manifested itself in the various personalities of the girls involved in the study. Emily was too much of a participant to ever be a spectator and wait to let the message of the author come to her. Emily was able to get into the story while Charlotte controlled her response to the story. Ann in the end was able to use her experiences and the experiences of the story to make a mature literary experience for herself, withholding judgment of the story until the end. Galda concluded that it is necessary for the reader to remove herself/himself from reality to make a mature response to the literary 41 text; that the response of the reader is influenced by her/his opinion of the author's role in the story and the reader's ability to read deeper for more than just the plot; that the reader is able to become a spectator which influences the perspective and concept of the story which the reader is able to respond to; that the reader must assume the spectator role if she/he is able to respond in mature fashion.57 Literature as a Stimulus to Creative Expression The basic foundation of this study is that literature can be used to stimulate creative, imaginative, expressive, objective thinking which will lead to response in writing. This differs from the idea that literature can be used as a model for more enriched writing experiences. There is an absence of research which deals with using literature as a stimulus and there are very few articles in the professional publica- tions which relate to the need of using literature in this way. Beatrice Folsom Nielsen (1980) whose research study dealt with investigating the "effectiveness of using quality literature for a stimuli for the writing of narrative composition by fourth grade students."58 Her study was based on the assumption that an "emphasis on idea stimulation is more fundamental to writing of good literary quality than is an emphasis on the mechanics of composition."59 57Susan Lee Galda, "Three Children Reading Stories: Response to Literature in Preadolescents" (Ph.D. dissertation, New York University, 1980).. 58Beatrice Folsom Nielsen, "Effects of Reading on Children's Narrative Writing" (Ed.D. dissertation, Brigham Young University, 1980), p0 88. 59Ibid. 42 According to Nielsen, "children's literature is considered to be a natural and appropriate source of stimulation."5° The purpose of this study was to look at the effectiveness of using quality literature as a stimulus for writing. Fourth grade students were involved in the study. A composite score was used, by the researcher, which was made up of subscores of plot, theme, setting, characterization, and style. These were measured by the Glazer Narrative Composition Scale (CNCS). Using fourth grade students, this study was conducted during ten reading and writing sessions held twice a week for five weeks. The students, members of nine fourth grade classrooms were divided into four treatment groups. Those students who were a part of Group A listened to selections of children's literature read aloud. Questions were given to the group which dealt with literary elements as charac- terization, plot, or locale. The students answered the questions silently and individually followed by a twenty minute silent writing period where the students were asked to write a story about anything they wanted to write about. Those in Group B listened to the same books, and had the same silent writing period but without the question period. The students who were in Group C silently read to themselves materials that they selected (not the pre-selected books of Groups A and B) from a designated collection of quality books. At the end of the reading time, these students were asked the same questions as Group A and then had a twenty minute writing time to write on any subject of their choice. 6°Ibid., p. 88. 43 In Group 0, all of the activities that Group C participated in were the same except that Group D was not asked the questions. Nielson found that there was no difference in the literary quality of the students' writing, as evaluated by GNCS, regardless of whether stimulus stories were read aloud or read silently, or if the silent reflective period was followed by questions. There was a difference in the writing of boys and girls, with girls showing higher scores. The writing of boys and girls was different in subject matter with boys going for tales of extended territory while the girls wrote of primary territory. The boys showed more aggression in their writing. The classroom teacher is the most important variable in determining whether or not the students enjoy writing experiences.61 Neilsen's research study did emphasize the importance of teachers using children's literature as a stimulus for student writing. It is important for teachers to look at student writing in ways other than to evaluate the writing as to mechanics. Alice Barbara Cummins Pilon (1969) provided a guide for teachers of the intermediate grades which used literary selections as a stimulus for writing. Pilon found while teaching elementary grade children with serious reading problems that she could, through the use of specific literary selections, interest these children in books and later these 62 children began to show interest in writing. A further belief held 61 . Ibid.. PP. 91-92. 62 Alice Barbar Cummins Pilon, "Stimulating Creative Writing Through Literature: A Guide for Teachers of Intermediate Grades" (Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University, 1969), p. 2. 44 by the investigator of this guide is that "all children possess creative abilities in differing degrees and that these abilities can be developed further."63 Pilon stresses the importance of having a guide such as this one for teachers who may not have training in children's literature and writing and may not know which books would be best to use in specific curriculum needs.6“ The justification for having such a guide to be used with children's literature as a stimulus for writing is well-founded; however, there would be a need for constant revision which would make such a guide, as a research study, impractical. The guide that Pilon published for her doctoral dissertation in 1969 is very outdated now. Richard J. Smith (1967) did a study on the effects of using specific kinds of writing tasks assigned before the reading of a short story and completed after the reading of the short story on student attitudes toward what was read and on the writing that the students did in response to the story. The studied population was made up of twenty twelfth grade students in college preparatory English classes from two senior high schools in a large Midwest city. The students were randomly assigned to four different treatment groups. The treatment groups were briefly made up of the following: Group I had a creative writing task and the training program (which for Group I and Group II included the playing of a tape-recorded script, 63Ibid., p. 2. 6"Ibid. 45 the projection of overhead transparencies). Group II included a noncreative writing task and the training program. Group III included a creative writing task and no training program, and Group IV included a noncreative writing task and no training period. The creative writing task asked for the writer to write in a way that created or added to the writing; a noncreative writing task asked for a summary of the author's feelings about some part or the story, and so on. Smith found from his study that students who were directed to be creative were creative and those who were directed to be non- creative were noncreative. Literature as a stimulus is part of the existing English program and can be successfully utilized as a medium for creativity. It is important for the teacher to fashion tasks that direct student readers to this level of creative activity and set an atmosphere for creativity to emerge.65 Rossalie Gately Pinkham (1968) theorized that a series of lessons based on the characteristics of good writing from children's literature could improve the written compositions of fifth grade pupils. The series of fourteen weekly lessons were planned, each including all areas of the language arts. Two fifth grades from four schools were selected to serve as the control group and the experimental group. The two groups were compared as to chronological age, intelligence, and writing ability. Analysis of covariance and t ratio techniques were applied using data from tests and school records 65Richard J. Smith, "The Effects of Reading a Short Story for a Creative Purpose on Student Attitudes and Writing" (Ph.D. disserta- tion, University of Wisconsin, 1967). 46 to make the comparisons. The experimental group was given the fourteen lessons as composed by Pinkham while the control group listened to literature and wrote compositions stimulated by the literature. Upon completion of the weekly lessons, tests were administered to both (groups for the purpose of measuring growth in written expression. The tests used were: Sequential Tests of Educational Progress, Level 4, Form B, in Writing and Essay. The results of the study showed that the total experimental group improved significantly over the total control group, in areas such as organization, conventions, critical thinking, effectiveness, and appropriateness. No significant difference was apparent in the areas of quality of thought and style. On the combined scores of these tests for the groups, analysis of variance did not yield an F ratio which was significant at the .05 level of confidence.66 From the findings of this study, it is apparent that the series of lessons that Pinkham devised to improve student writing by being exposed to good literature was only significant as related to those abilities measured in the Sequential Tests of Educational Progress, organization conventions, critical thinking, effectiveness, and apprOpriateness. 66Rossalie Gately Pinkham, "The Effects on the Written Expression of Fifth Grade Pupils of a Series of Lessons Emphasizing the Character- istics of Good Writing as Exemplified in Selected Works from the Area of Children's Literature" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Connecticut, 1968), p. 121. 47 Howard E. Blake (1971) in discussing the British Primary Schools found that the teacher in the British schools uses many approaches to motivate the children to write. Among these is the importance that the English teacher places on reading to the children revery day. According to Blake, "Reading to children not only stimulates thought and brings forms of literature to children they might not ordinarily read . . . but . . . it also helps improve sentence construction, grammar and syntactical arrangements, organization and approach used by other writers."67 Glenna Davis Sloan (1978) believes that "children may be helped toward percision and order in their process of ordering the world through language without loss of creativity and spontaneity." Sloan goes on to assign the teacher the responsibility to "stimulate, nurture and guide" writing.68 It is the belief of Sloan that the child can be helped to shape the imagination through exposure to literature, as a stimulus for writing. According to Sloan, “the impersonal forms create structures into which the child can project feeling unself—consciously."69 David Holbrook, the British educator who has had considerable success in freeing the most resistant children to write, favors the use of forms to release ideas and feelings. 67Howard E. Blake, "Written Composition in English Primary Schools," Language and the Language Arts, ed. Johanna S. DeStefano and Sharon E. Fox (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1974), p. 409. 68Glenna Davis Sloan, The Child as Critic: Teaching Literature in theElementary School (New York: Teachers College Press, 1975), p. 107. 69111111.. p. 107. 48 I felt that the only way to achieve . . . expression was by using stimulant poems, passages and themes which the child already recognized as means to depersonalizing of his individual emotion . . . a way to that "third ground: which is a meeting-place between the 'mind' of a community and his own." Such a depersonalized world, I have tried to suggest, exists in the sea-shanty, the folk-song, the game rhyme. The fairy tale provides it and so do certain other conventional types of child's story.7° Ruth Kearney Carlson (1959) did a research study to investigate two methods of teaching fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students to write original stories. The experimental group of her study consisted of using a variety of stimuli including multisensory experiences, such as pictures, literature, and toys. The control group consisted prin- cipally of using story titles as a form of stimuli to writing. The method of data analysis that Carlson used was the type-token ratio and the word count were applied to 1,400 samples of children's writing. The researcher developed her own instrument to measure the results of her study: General Impression Originality Scale and an Analytical Originality Scale. An analysis of the data obtained from this study showed that the use of the variety of multisensory experiences, such as pictures, literature, and toys stimulated about 99 percent of the experimental group to write original stories on all of the writing lessons of the study; 87 percent of the control group were stimulated to write creative stories. 0f the original experimental group, Carlson found that one student failed to be interested in pictures as a stimulus. Of the 7°Ibid., p. 108. 49 control group, approximately 2.7 percent were uninspired to write original stories on lessons entitled "Daydreams and Pictures."71 Many of the students involved in the study did not write original stories when the stimulus was the title of stories. Carlson found that a higher percentage of students seem to be stimulated to write original stories if many types of stimuli were offered. Most teachers seemed to obtain more creative stories from the children that they taught if the teachers were given assistance in planning lessons which call for creative stories and if they were given assistance in finding stimuli for use with the writing groups.72 Literature as a Model The use of literature as a stimulus for writing has been discussed in the previous section of this review of literature. This section will deal with the use of literature as a model for writing. Editha 8. Mills (1967) examined the use of literary models in teaching writing to children. She met with twenty-six fifth grade students for twenty-four weeks, one hour periods to teach written composition to the experimental group. The lessons and work sessions were based on the models in specifically selected children's literature. The children kept weekly records of the amount of reading and writing that they did. Two different pretests and posttests were used to 71Ruth Kearney Carlson, "Stimulating Children in Grades 4, 5, and 6 to Write Original Stories" (Ed.D. dissertation, University of California at Berkeley, 1959), p. 183. 721bid., pp. 1844185. 50 measure written composition and conflicting results were obtained. Using data analysis derived from the STEP (Sequential Test of Edu- cational Progress in Writing) Writing, the null hypothesis which stated that the use of literary models has no effect on quantity and quality of written composition could not be rejected. Based on the data analysis of the writing sample, the high difference after treatment warrants rejecting the null hypothesis that the use of literary models has no effect on quantity and quality of written composition. The researcher concluded that there was a need for a more adequate measure of written composition.73 John Stewig (1975) has published a widely used text on using literary models to teach writing. In his book, Read to Write, he draws the following assumptions regarding using literature to teach writing: 1. If children know and understand good literature there is an opportunity for them to transfer something of what they know into what they write. 2. If children are immersed in literature and encouraged to talk about it, reflect upon it, argue about it, and raise questions about it, there is the chance that they may become better writers by using literature as models on which to build. 3. There is some indication that children, especially those in the intermediate grades write more effec- tively as a result of vicarious eXperiences. One author reports that these children seem to turn from first-hand experiences as a motivation for writing to respond to less immediate motivations.7“ 73Editha B. Mills, "An Experimental Study in the Use of Literary Models in Written Composition" (Ed.D. dissertation, University of Georgia, 1967). 7”John Stewig, Read to Write (New York: Hawthorn Books, Inc., 1975), p. 21. 51 Joy F. Moss (1977) did a study using six and seven year old children to show that literature can provide a learning experience for writing. Moss contended that "as children listen to stories read aloud, they are learning to attend to and comprehend written language and they are learning about the language and structure of narrative."75 The learning experience that Moss conducted consisted of two parts: (1) "exposure to stories with a common theme which could serve as a framework for discovering specific elements of narrative, and (2) the production of stories as a natural extension of this exposure to literature."76 The investigator read aloud stories of animals as this seemed to be a common ground to meet the students in - her group. After discussing the stories, the author had the children bring their favorite stuffed animals to school and she took a picture of the child holding her/his animal. The next step was for the inves- tigator to have the child create a story about imaginary characters. Finally the stories were compiled in an anthology for the school library. Using an experience with children such as the one described above largely involves: "motivation and preparation."77 The children were encouraged to create stories which were related to their own experiences. The stage was set for the preparation of these stories by listening to literature. 75Joy F. Moss, "Learning to Write by Listening to Literature," Language Arts 54 (May 1977): 537. 76Ibid., p. 537. 77Ibid., p. 540. 52 Patricia H. Duncan and Alan M. McLeod (1980) did a study on children's compositions following discussions of a distinctive lit- erature selection. The students in the study were a group of eight seventh grade youngsters: four girls and four boys. They represent an ability range from gifted to low average. The students are involved in a reading period followed by a discussion period of fifteen to twenty minutes. As writing progresses, the oral period is brief and informal, and writing is sustained for longer periods. Three writing samples are examined initially which reflect instruction and discussion directed to character and organization of plot. Growth appears to be greater for less creative students who are adding new elements to their writing. It is the belief of these investigators that listening to a story read aloud, discussing what the student has heard and finally writing in response to the piece of literature will improve communication skills in writing.78 Marjorie Smelstor (1978) in writing a guide for the Wisconsin Writing Project to teach writing at the elementary and secondary levels focuses on the teaching of writing through models that introduce ideas, patterns, and styles through specific examples. Smelstor says, "We see modeling as part of the total writing process.“79 She goes on 78Patricia H. Duncan and Alan M. McLeod, "The Development of Children's Compositions Following Targeted Discussions of a Distinctive Literature Selection," paper presented at the First Annual Meeting of the American Reading Conference, Sarasota, Florida, December 1980. ERIC Document: ED 194 882. 79Marjorie Smelstor, "A Guide to Using Models to Teach Writing" (A Guide for the Wisconsin Writing Project) (Madison: University of Wisconsin, 1978), p. 2. ERIC Document: ED 176 272. 53 to say that "teachers must make sure the models do not become a goal in themselves. Experts agree that when children are encouraged to model their writing after someone else's, it should not be regarded as a copying of ideas, but rather a sharing process. The children should be encouraged to build on the ideas gained and to give ideas their own interpretation and treatment."°° James F. McCampbell (1966) proposed that the use of models is one technique that teachers of composition can use to improve the teaching of composition. Through a study done by a group of teachers who wished to work with remedial composition students, it was found that providing the students with a model of the conventions of the language, the student would improve her/his pattern of expression. The use of a model varies from replacing specific slots in a particular pattern to using a general model of an organizational pattern. Dealing with students who have a problem with syntax, the use of models will either allow them to write acceptable sentences or it will create writing from them which is more interesting.81 Ronald L. Cramer and Barbara B. Cramer (1975) speak to the importance of a child learning to write by using language models. They propose that many painters and writers claim to have obtained a start through imitating the technique of others. According to the 8°Ibid., p. 67. 81James F. McCampbell, "Using Models for Improving Composition," English Journal 55 (September 1966): 776. 54 Cramers, "Imitation should be encouraged for if one imitates excellence in writing only good can come of it."82 Marie Gabrille Carroll Sponsler (1970) did a research study on the effectiveness of using models in the teaching of written composition. Her purpose was to test the effectiveness of using the literary models and to compare two methods of presenting a model to the student: (1) before the student writes, and (2) after the student writes to have her/him compare what they write with the original version. The p0pulation of the study was 201 tenth grade students comprising three English classes. The instrument used for evaluation of the writing samples were three written samples rated by three independent raters and the STEP Writing Tests. A control group design using analyses of variance and covariance was employed in the study and the .05 level of significance was used throughout the study. Students in each class were randomly assigned to an experimental group and to a control group. The treat- ment consisted of two lessons with literary models. Both lessons were concerned with descriptive writing. The lessons were: (1) selecting details to create a dominant impression, and (2) a fixed spatial point of view. The experimental Group 1 wrote a rough draft of a paragraph on an assigned topic first, then were given the treatment lesson and finally rewrote their rough drafts in final form for rating. Experi- mental Group 2 were given the treatment lesson first, then wrote rough 82Ronald L. Cramer and Barbara Cramer, "Writing by Imitating Language Models," Language Arts 52 (October 1975): 1011. 55 drafts and the final papers for ratings. Members of the control group were not present in the classroom for the lessons with models but wrote drafts and final versions of the paragraphs along with the experimental group of their class. As tests of the overall composition skills of the groups, the STEP Writing Test Form 2A was administered to all students at the beginning of the study and the STEP Writing Test Form 28 at the end of the study, eleven weeks later. Sponsler reached the following conclusions regarding the use of the effectiveness of literary models: (1) The effectiveness of the use of literary models as described in this study was not completely demonstrated; (2) There is no difference in the effectiveness between the use of literary models before writing and after writing to improve writing; and (3) The use of literary models in teaching written compo- sition has no effect upon improvement in overall composition skills as measured by STEP Writing Tests Form 28. According to the conclusions that Sponsler reached, the use of models in the study that she conducted really made little or no difference as to the effectiveness of the students' writing. She also found that there is no bearing on the improvement of the composition written if the model is presented before the writing or after.83 Richard Braddock, Richard Lloyd-Jones, and Lowell Schoer (1963) listed in their textbook on research in composition, one of the ques- tions that they considered fundamental to the teaching and learning 83Marie Gabrille Carroll Sponsler, "The Effectiveness of Literary Models in the Teaching of Written Composition" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Maryland, 1970). 56 of written composition which at that time, they felt had not been the subject of careful research and study and which they felt needed investigation. That question was: "How is writing affected by the extensive study and imitation of parody of models?"8“ The research studies that this investigator has read pertaining to the use of models as a method of improved written composition have not been effective in establishing the importance of the use of models. Miles Myers (1978) suggests five approaches to the teaching of writing and suggests as one way: the models approach. Myers says of modeling that it is the one of the longest tradition in the public sChools to improve composition skills. He goes on to say that modeling "assumes that the child can develop a skill through imitation before he has the power of sustained thought."85 He goes on to say that "reading can introduce the student to ideas and structures that the student left to his own devices, cannot generate from his personal experiences."86 Children's Written Expression The Development of Writing Abilities, 11-18 by James Britton, Tony Burgess, Nancy Martin, Alex McLeod, and Harold Rosen reports the findings of a study conducted in England, 1965 to 1972. This study, directed by James Britton, looks at the problem of categorizing writing, 8"Richard Braddock, Richard Lloyd-Jones, and Lowell Schoer, Research in Written Composition (Champaign, 111.: National Council of Teachers of English, 1963), p. 53. 85Miles Myers, "Five Approaches to the Teaching of Writing," Learning, April 1978, p. 38. 861pm., p. 38. 57 especially that done by young writers, from two ways: the function of writing and the audience to which the writing is intended. The procedures used for the research problem included two parts. The first part was based in theory and included setting up "hypothetical categories of written discourse appropriate to the general needs of the individual in our society."87 The second part of the study looked at the student's writing "taking as wide a range as possible of written work by a representative sample of five hundred girls and boys aged eleven to eighteen and having tested the validity of the hypothetical categories."88 The researchers decided to have a pool of materials to represent all kinds of writing that goes on in schools: over the whole age range of secondary age students, over the ability range, and across the cur- riculum. They would have six pieces of writing from each child; two of these would be from the subject area, English, and the other four from other subjects across the curriculum. The research study is divided into two categories to describe the writing: a sense of audience category and a function category. The sense of audience category deals with the person to whom the writing is addressed. The researchers suggested that one important dimension of development in writing ability is the growth of a sense of audience, the growth of the ability to make adjustments and choices 87James N. Britton, Tony Burgess, Nancy Martin, Alex McLeod, and Harold Rosen. The DevelOament of Writing Abilities, 11-18 (London, England: MacMillan Educatibn, Ltd., SchooTs Council Publication, 1975), p. 50. 88Ibid., p. 50. 58 in writing which take into account the audience for whom the writing is intended.89 The main divisions of the sense of audience are self, teacher, wider audience (known), and unknown audience. Britton discusses the sense of audience in the school situation as being paramount in understanding the writing of young people. Since most of the writing that students do is in school, and because this is primarily the type of writing that this research project is interested in, a great deal of attention is given to the variety of relationships that students have in their writing. In school, it is almost always the teacher who initiates the writing and who does so by defining the writing tasks with more or less explicitness. Not only does he decide the task, but also nominates himself as audience. He is not simply a one-man audience, on whom pupils must focus a special kind of scrutiny in order to detect what they must do to satisfy him. This particular function of this relationship is that the pupil will see his teacher's response as a means by which his progress is being charted.9° The second part of the study is dealing with the function that writing serves the writer. Language, according to Britton, functions in two roles: the participant and the spectator. Using language in the participant role is getting something done; in the spectator role language is an aesthetic experience, something to be appreciated, enjoyed, and viewed from afar. Britton bases the "scheme for distinguishing the principal functions of written utterances on the distinction between the two 89Ibid., p. 58. 9°Ibid., p. 64. 59 roles of language (the role of spectator and the role of participant). The scheme is illustrated in the following diagram:91 Participant Role Spectator Role Transactional Expressive Poetic Britton summarizes the role of spectator and participant in the following way: In a very general way, the distinction between the roles of participant and spectator is the distinction between work and play; between language as a means to buy and sell, to inform, instruct, persuade, and so on, and an utterance for its own sake, no means but an end: a voluntary activity that occupies us for no other reason than that it preoccupies.92 Britton defines the writing categories that he uses in this study as the expressive: "ordinary face-to-face speech" which is language closest to the self; the transactional is "an utterance in writing satisfying the demands of some sort of participation in the world's affairs"; the poetic is "language as a verbal object."93 When one is using the expressive function which is the matrix of the three writing functions, she/he is functioning at a beginning stage of writing. As the writer/speaker moves out from the expressive, to the transactional, the writer becomes more of a participant in the world and as the writer moves toward the poetic, the more the writer becomes a spectator. 91Ibid., p. 81. 92Ibid. 93Ibid., p. 83. 60 Looking at the results of this study, the researchers found that the greatest percentage of writing, 63.4 percent, was done in the transactional category, or writing to get things done. The expressive category and the poetic category are quite small in percentage of writings done. The eXpressive, or language that is closest to the self, received 5.5 percent of the writings. The poetic, or language as an art medium, received 17.6 percent of the total writings. Britton explains the overall results of the study as follows: As a rough and ready way of describing the overall con- figuration, we can say that there is three times as much Transactional writing as both of the other writing func- tions put together and approximately thirteen times as much Transactional writing as Expressive.9“ The results from the overall study seem to indicate that the students involved in this study spent their time in the English schools writing informative, expository, writing-to-get-the-job-done types of writing. This seenm. clearly to indicate that there was little encouragement for writing which dealt with the personal feelings of the students or writing which asked the student to create an art form of words or the poetic. Katherine Whale and Sam Robinson (1977) did a study patterned after the previous one done by Britton et al. This study, called the Saskatchewan Study uses the categories that Britton proposed but applied the categories to the writing of younger children, using the third grade as the lower range of age. 9“Ibid., p. 163. 61 The population of the study was three schools in central Saskatchewan which included both urban and rural schools. Three classrooms from each school consisting of the third, the fifth, and the eighth grade provided the population for the study. Four sets of writings were collected from the students with the researchers providing the motivation to write for two sets and the teachers providing the motivation to write for the other two sets. The writings motivated by the researchers included a visit to the classroom where the researcher showed a film, an eight minute visual with a recognizable story line. On the second visit, the researcher read to the students two short stories. On both occasions, the researcher asked the students to write in whatever way, that they felt motivated by the film or by the short stories. The writings collected by the teachers were done in 'free writing' sessions. They were in no way influenced by the researchers. The writings were coded by a team of coders trained to use the function categories as defined by Britton: transactional, poetic, and expressive. In the Saskatchewan study, the researchers added a fourth category--the mimetic category to the poetic category, to accommodate the modeling type of writing that the children do. The coders were able to achieve 87 percent agreement. Eight hundred forty-nine writing samples were coded by the function categories. The distribution of these is as follows: transactional, 541 (63.7 percent); expressive, 118 (13.9 percent); poetic, 158 (18.6 percent); and additional category, 32 (3.7 percent). 62 The results of the study show that the researcher directed writings accounted for a more even distribution of writings across the function categories than did the teacher directed writings. Some factors that could account for this include the nature of the motivations to write, the demands of the individual teachers. and the students' level of language ability.95 Finally, the researchers concluded that the use of Britton's function categories could indeed enable the classroom teacher to gain an understanding as to the writing categories of the students. The teacher could with this type of information in mind really explore other parts of the writing process, the nature of what motivates students to write, and the nature of students' responses to their writing.96 Daniel Dyer (1976) conducted an informal classroom research project where he looked at what his seventh grade students wrote about on Friday, their free writing day. Dyer collected the writings done by his English classes on free writing days, over 2,978 papers done over a period of two years (1972-73, 1973-74). The students were free to write on any topic that they wanted; the papers were collected and read, but no grade was assigned. Dyer classified the papers into six categories which included: Personal Experience (past, present, future); Letter to Teacher, Fiction; 95Katherine Whale and Sam Robinson, Modes of Students Writings: A Descriptive Study," Research in the Teaching of English 12 (December 1978): 353. 96Ibid., p. 355. 63 Poetry; Exposition; and Miscellaneous. Personal Experience had the largest percentage of papers, 35 percent; Past Personal Experience. 7 percent; and Future Personal Experience, 3 percent. The Letter to the Teacher category received 16 percent of the total writings. The girls wrote masses of letters, sometimes as much as 30 percent of their writings during the second year of the study were letters. The Fiction category had 28 percent of the total writings done. The Poetry category had 3 percent of the total writings. Only 2 percent of the writings were from the Expository category. Finally, the Miscellaneous category had 6 percent of the total writings.97 Dyer formulated the following conclusions from the data that he collected: The boys wrote considerably higher percentage of fiction than the girls in both years of the study. The students wrote about recent personal experiences with ease and with interest. Girls wrote more letters perhaps to suggest that as girls reach puberty, letter writing becomes a type of therapy to work through problems. With the exception of the letter category, there was no difference in the girl and the boy writers. The value of this informal classroom research is that it shows how students will write when they are free to do so. It is of value because it shows what students are interested in and how they express their interests when the researcher collecting data is not present. 97Daniel Dyer, "When Kids Are Free to Write." English Journal 65 (May 1976): 39. 64 J. C. Seegers (1933) proposed to look at the effect the form of discourse has on the writing. The schools which participated in this research study were asked to have a number of children write papers in the several forms of discourse (descriptive, expository, narrative, and persuasive). The researcher controlled conditions so that the form of discourse was the only variable present.98 The researcher used the independent clause as a basic unit for comparison rather than using the sentence. The independent clause provides a unit for discussion more expressive of the paper than does the sentence as it depends on expression of thought rather than punctuation. The form of discourse in which the children write has a definite bearing upon their choice of sentence structure as shown in this study. Writing in the form of argumentation tends particularly to multiply the use of the dependent clause. It was found that the dependent clauses were distributed among the types of discourse as follows: argumentation, 69; eXposition, 37; narration and description, 41.99 Looking over the results of Seegers study, it appears that one conducting a study of written composition must consider the form of discourse in which the composition is written. Writing expository papers seems to result in the use of more dependent clauses than writing narration and description as shown in this study. It suggests 98J. C. Seegers, "Form of Discourse and Sentence Structure," Elementary English Review 10 (March 1933): 51. 99Ibid., p. 54. 65 that the writing in the form of narration and description is less likely to multiply the use of any specific types of dependent clauses than is writing in the other two forms. and it points out the advisability of using for comparative purposes papers written in narration and description.1°° James Moffett (1968) writes of a theory of discourse that in some ways is parallel to the theories of discourse set forth by James Britton. Moffett's Teaching the Universe of Discourse looks at language acquisition as a movement from the self outward. He believes in teach- ing language acquisition not by analyzing it but by having students use it in every way. Moffett's theory of discourse deals with the elements of "first person, second person, third person; a speaker, a listener, and a subject; informer, informed, and information; narrator, auditor, and story transmitter; message, and receiver."”1 Moffett used the term abstraction to describe the relation that a student has with language and with the structure of discourse. "The concept that I believe will most likely permit us to think at once that both mental development and the structure of discourse is the concept of abstraction which can apply equally well to thought and to language."”2 1°°Ibid., p. 54. 1“James Moffett, Teaching the Universe of Discourse (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin Co., 1968), p. TOI 1°21bid., p. 18. 66 Moffett goes on to describe one element of abstraction as the ranging of the mind's materials in "hierarchies of classes and subclasses, superordinates and subordinates!“3 By abstracting, we pick and select our levels of abstraction. We might allow the concept of "international trade" to be more abstract than the concept of "bartering." We "form a rough notion of the equivalent attitude between concepts in different hierarchies. . . ."1°“ The second element of abstraction is selection "constructing in one's mind an object out of the individual phenomenal world by singling out some environmental feature and ignoring others."1°S "Selection is very subtle," according to Moffett. It occurs as part of a large process which includes "digestion and assimilation."'°6 Moffett goes on to say that abstraction must: center on the notion of selection but this selection as it operates through perception implies some reorganization of features according to the nature of the apparatus doing the selecting and according to previous systems that have grown in the organism. Abstraction by selecting and ranking the elements of experience reduces reality to manageable sum- maries. To abstract is to trade a loss of reality for gain of control.”7 Moffett believes that a child comes to school equipped with abstractions about her/his world, many derived from the child's own 1°3Ibid., p. 19. 1“Ibid. 1°51bid. 1°GIbid., p. 22. 1°7Ibid., p. 23. 67 experiences with life. He goes on to state that "increased consciousness of abstracting has as much to do with the developmental growth [of the child] as has progression up the abstraction ladder." With these factors of development in mind, it is Moffett's idea to have a curriculum based on the hierarchy of abstraction. His belief is that students should be speaking, writing, and reading in forms of discourse that are successively more abstract which makes it possible for the learner to understand what is entailed at each stage of hierarchy, to relate one stage to another and thus to be aware of how he and others create information and ideas.”8 Janet Emig (1971) examined the composing process of twelfth- grade writers, using a case study method. She looked at the categories set up by Britton et a1. and changed the function categories of writing that he and his colleagues had defined. According to Emig, Britton's study regards all writing as, primarily expressive--that is expressing the thoughts and feelings of the writer in relation to some field of dis- course. Beyond expressiveness writing evolves toward or becomes, one of two major modes: poetic in which the student observes some field of discourse, behaving as a spectator or participant, in which the student somehow participates through his writing in the business of the world.1 9 Emig's own views of the function of writing, content that "all student writing emanates from an expressive impulse and that they then 1°BIbid., p. 24. 1”Janet Emig, The Composing Processes of Twelfth Graders (Urbana, 111.: National Counciliof Teachers of English, 1971), p. 36. 68 bifurcate into two major modes."'1° Emig goes on to say that "less satisfactory are the terms assigned to these modes and the implications of these terms about the relation of the writing self to the field of discourse. The terms are at once too familiar and too ultimate. They are too absolute: rather than describing two general kinds of relations between the writer and his world, they specify absolute states--either passivity or participation."1:1 Emig adds her two categories of writing: the reflexive and the extensive and defines them in the following ways: The reflexive is basically a contemplative role: "What does this experience mean?" the extensive, a basically active role: "How, because of this experience, do I interact with my environment?" Neither mode suggests ultimate states of passivity or participation. The mid-modes or transitional writings have been eliminated from this schema as a needless complexity at this time.112 Emig goes on to suggest the possibility that. subcategories can be established as well for the register, "tenor of discourse" which concerns the distance observed between the field of discourse, expressed by the degree of formality observed by the writing self. Formality or decorum in written discourse can be established by one of the following means: lexical choices, syntactic choices, rhetorical choices. Obviously, the most formal discourse would employ all three.113 The value of the research that Emig did in this study lies in her interpretation of the writing categories. In light of the 11°Ibid., p. 37. 111Ibid. 112Ibid. 113Ibid. 69 research study that this investigator is attempting to make, the information gained from the Emig study will be important. Ethel Eudora Smith (1943) did a research study for the purpose of discovering the most effective procedures for encouraging creative writing in the elementary school. She undertook the task of discover- ing the procedures most frequently used by teachers of writing in the elementary school. The main sources of data used for this study were (1) responses of teachers to questionnaires concerning creative writing procedures; (2) records of interviews with administrators, teachers, and pupils in the eleven selected schools; (3) descriptions of teaching procedures secured from observations and interviews and from books, magazines, and unpublished papers; and (4) samples from children's writings. Smith used the following criteria in evaluating the creative writing procedures among the children in the study: (1) Are the children obtaining joy and satisfaction in their writing? (2) Are children expressing themselves freely about a wide range of topics through a variety of forms of writing? (3) Is the quality of the content of creative writings high in relation to maturity and ability? (4) Is the quality of presentation in creative writings high in relation to maturity and ability? Smith found that the children were finding joy and satisfaction in their writing. In at least 95 percent of the classrooms that she observed, the children were writing with joy and spontaneity. They treasured their writing and liked to preserve it for writing 70 collections. They expressed themselves freely, in response to their needs for recording or sharing experiences or for securing emotional release. The children that Smith observed were expressing themselves in a variety of kinds of writings. In the course of the study, 5,800 to 6,800 samples of writing were examined. Some of the writing samples were secured through teachers and some were obtained by Smith in direct observation of the classes. Smith found that the quality of writing was good in relation to the maturity and ability of the students. The writing analyzed in terms of the writing criteria set up by Smith showed imaginative, original, pieces of composition.11“ The study done by Smith is important for the emphasis that it places on the writing process rather than on the writing product. At the time of her study, there appeared not to be as much attention given to the value of the creative spirit; research study, such as hers, is reaffirming. Donald Graves (l973) did a study of the writing processes of seven year old children which won the l974 Promising Researcher Award of the National Council of Teachers of English. He used a case study, an analysis of broad samples of writing, and he observed children writing in both formal and informal settings to gather data. The findings of this study can be applied to other age groups. The classrooms used for the study were two second grade class- rooms which Graves identified as being either formal or informal. The 11"Ethel Smith, "Procedures for Encouraging Creative Writing in the Elementary School" (Ph.D. dissertation, Northwestern University, l943 . 71 definition as to formal or informal classrooms had to do with the degree to which the "children were able to function without specific direction from the teacher and the amount of choice children had in determining their learning activities."115 The primary emphasis of the study was placed on gathering data for a case study of two children in each of the four classrooms. The researcher placed secondary importance on gathering data from the larger groups of children located in the same four classrooms. Data was col- lected from the logging of five categories of information secured from the children's writing, from observation by the researcher of the chil- dren writing, from interviewing in four different sessions the eight case study children as to the views of their writing, from the gathering of full case study data about eight children through parent interviews, testing, assembling of educational, development history, and observing the children in several environments.116 Graves' conclusions were that there were differences in the writing of girl and boy writers in three areas: writing frequency, thematic choice, and what their conception of a good writer appeared to be. He found that girls do write longer than do boys in either the formal or informal environment. Boys, according to Graves, write more unassigned writing than do girls. By writing unassigned writing, boys seem to find more to write about that interests them than they do when they write teacher assigned work. Boys seldom use the first person 115Donald Graves, "An Examination of the Writing Processes of Seven Year Old Children," Research in the Teaching of English 9 (Winter l975): 22. 116Ibid., p. 235. 72 form in unassigned writing, especially the '1' form, unless they are very advanced for their ages. Graves identified the secondary and the primary territory as meaning: secondary territory is the metro- politan territory beyond the child's home and school and the primary territory is the area which relates to home and school. He says that boys write more about the secondary territory than do girls who write more about the primary territory. Graves says that the definition of a good writer as given by the boys in his study are those who stress spacing, formation of letters, and neatness; the girls in his study define the good writer as having prethinking and organizational qual- ities, feelings of characterizations, and give more illustrations to support their judgments than do the boys. Finally Graves identifies the behavior of two types of writers as the reactive and the reflective writers. The reactive writer uses overt language to accompany prewriting and composing phases, isolation that evolved in action-reactive couplets, proof-reading at the word unit level, a need for immediate rehearsal in order to write, rare contemplation or reviewing of products, characterizations that exhibited general behaviors similar to their own, a lack of a sense of audience, and an inability to use reasons beyond the affective domain when evaluating their writing.117 The reflective writer according to Graves, is the child who showed little rehearsal before writing, little overt language to accompany writing, periodic re- readings to adjust small units of writing at the word or phrase level, growing sense of audience, characterizations that exhibit general behaviors similar to their own, the ability to give examples to support their reasons for evaluating writing.1 8 1171bid., p. 236 “31bid. 73 This study done by Graves does indeed present important data relating to the writing processes of children. However, this study leaves this investigator with many questions regarding the data which attributes certain writing traits to children by their sex. It is in the opinion of this researcher that sex is not a determiner of ability or of traits which refer to writing. Graves' research study has failed to convince this researcher otherwise. Paul O'Dea (l965) writing of the five myths in the teaching of composition says that much of what happens in the teaching of composi- tion reinforces certain beliefs regarding composition rather than improving writing. He goes on to list the myths which he feels stand in the way of improving the composition of our children: "Myth l: Students learn to write well by reading great literature." According to O'Dea, many teachers of English use this method because first they are literature teachers who happen to be asked to teach composition and it is easier to combine the two. Teachers will point out that many great writers are there because they loved to read and emulated the people that they read. O'Dea says that there is merit to the fact that those who read widely are better writers, but this is not the definition of wide reading that most English teachers ascribe to. They believe that those who read widely and carefully the masterpieces of writing are the best writers. This is the myth that O'Dea is speaking.119 119Paul 0'Dea, "Five Myths in the Teaching of Composition," English Journal 54 (April l965): 328. 74 "Myth 2: Students write essays by analyzing professionally written essays."12° Not so, according to O'Dea, who says that this myth is closely attuned to the first myth, but this myth rests on the assumption that the best way to learn to write is by imitating models. The results of such imitation is that the ordinary student is over- whelmed at the distance between herself/himself and the professional writer. O'Dea goes on to point out that the fault in this myth is "not in the rule but in the stars of our writing world; they are several light years removed from the ability of the ordinary student. The latter would better profit by imitating the work of the best writer in his class."121 "Myth 3: Students learn to write well by grammatical analy- sis." This myth has been perpetuated since the dawn of time and is as outdated and unreasonable as its origin.122 "Myth 4: Students learn to write better by reconstructing other people's sentences."123 This myth is based on the theory that students will spend a lot of time in correcting workbook or textbook sentences. This type of instruction takes away from the time that the student could spend writing. "Myth 5: Students learn to write by taking into account "1219 extensive teacher criticism. This is the most negative myth 12° 1pm., p. 328. '2'Ibid., p. 329. 122mm. 1231mm, p. 330. mma. 75 of all and contrary to the beliefs and principles of sensitive, caring individuals. Finally, O'Dea offers the suggestion for teachers: "Let the myths be a part of literature instruction not of composition."125 Children's Wartime Fiction Mary Ann McLaughlin (l973) conducted a study to determine the extent to which democratic themes and values were identified in the literature for children concerning American wartime involvement, l939-l97l. The researcher divided this study into two parts: Part I of the study, the researcher read and evaluated eighty-three books which were identified through professional book selection sources as to the extent to which the thematic and value determinations were those inherent in the democratic philOSOphy present in children's literature about various wars of the period, l939-l97l. Part II of the study concerned the evaluations of the same themes and values in three selected books by twelve adult professionals and two hundred twenty- four children in the fifth and sixth grade.126 The results of this study showed in Part I that fiction for children which is related to the involvement in war by American forces does contain the democratic themes and values as defined by McLaughlin. These books considered showed the presence of twenty-one of the 125Ibid., p. 330. 126Mary Ann McLaughlin, "Thematic Analysis and Democratic Value Identification in Realistic Fiction for Children Concerning American Wartime Involvement, l939-l97l" (Ph.D. dissertation, Michigan State University, 1973), p. 233. 76 twenty-five values in over 90 percent of the eighty-three books considered.127 Part II showed adult professionals using content analysis found that American democratic values were present in children's books with a wartime-theme. The twenty-four children who evaluated the themes of the books found that the democratic concepts were also available in their books. McLaughlin found that content analysis is possible and effect done by both children and adults.128 The value of the McLaughlin study seems to be that it does provide an existing number of books with democratic values and themes available for children which deal with the wartime experience. This information gives teachers and librarians an extended amount of books that they can use with children. Marcia Shutze and M. Jean Greenlaw (l975) present a study of children's books which contain a World War II setting. Their study was brought about by a pattern that seemed to have emerged concerning books with World War II settings. Looking back over the publication of children's books, it seems that few books were published during the war years (1940-45) with a World War II theme. In the late fifties, some books with a World War II setting came on the market; an increase was seen throughout the sixties and then the interest seemed to peak in the seventies. The reason behind this pattern is the subject of their study. 127Ibid., p. 234. 128Ibid., p. 239. 77 Contrary to what many adults would like to believe, childhood is not, as Paul Hazard said, "a fortunate island where happiness must be protected."129 The world of the child in the seventies is vastly different from other times. Shutze and Greenlaw point out that, "the critical political, social and economic issues that face the world are so intertwined and interrelated that they have woven a highly complex web about today's world and have cast their ensnaring gossamered shadow over childhood's island."13° No longer is it possible to insulate children. Erik C. Haugaard, author of The Little Fishes (l967) (one of the three selections used in this research study). commented on the new realism that exists in children's books: I wanted to tell not only what happens to the victims of war but also how in degradation he could refuse to be degraded. Our history books tell about the victories and defeats of armies; I wanted to tell about the defeat and victory of human beings.131 Schutze and Greenlaw came to the following conclusions regarding the pattern of World War II settings in books for children: l. The books written during the war and postwar years were not as strong or as powerful in their statements about war as compared with the books published since the late fifties. 2. Author's statements about war become increasingly stronger and more realistic as time takes us further away from World War II. No matter how strong the 129Marcia Schutze and M. Jean Greenlaw, "Childhood's Island Receives the Gift of Myrrh: A Study of Children's Books with World War II Settings," Top of the News 3l (January 1975): 200. 13°Ibid., p. 200. 131Ibid. 78 statement about war is and how realistic the situation is, there is always that element of hope present that the situation will get better. This hope is an expres- sion of faith in living and surviving to see the coming of a better world. 3. The young people in these books matured beyond their years in these war situations. Childhood is lost forever in the ruin and rubble of war. 4. The authors of these books did not preach about their war beliefs with didactic sentimentalism. Rather, they tried to present an accurate and realistic picture of war, allowing the reader to draw his own conclusions. 5. The books were accepted as quality books. Reviews in several noted journals and magazines illustrated this point. A number of these books received awards for their quality.132 In conclusion, Shutze and Greenlaw offer a quote from Paul Heins who compared different types of children's books to the qualities of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, the gifts of the Magi. "Myrrh, a bitter spice, medicinal in property, reminds us of life's more than occasional bitterness."133 In this article, these investigators have presented the "myrrh of children's literature with World War II themes."13“ Lee Bennett Hopkins and Misha Arenstein (l969) proposed that for many American children growing up in the l9605 and the l9705 "war is an abstract term; it is something they cannot understand because they have no direct involvement in it, for some it means a brother 1321mm, p. 208. 133 Ibid. 13"Ibid. ’ 79 or cousin has gone away to fight, for others it has deeper meaning, their loved ones went away and will never come home again."135 These investigators go on to comment on the number of books that have been published recently in the children's book world with war themes. Some teachers and librarians have said that children should not be involved with so much war that it is "over the children's heads," "too subtle," and should not be a concern of elementary school child- ren.136 In the opinion of these researchers, this kind of response by educators of the students is wrong. The child according to Hopkins and Arenstein is daily exposed to the war via the television set. No other generation has been so aware of the realities of the battlefield. A suggestion of these investigators for teachers/librarians who are concerned with the theme of war in children's books is to seek the books which are being published today containing strong anti-war statements. Through this type of book used in the elementary classroom, discussions can begin which will be carried possibly "to all presidents, premiers, kings, queens and leaders of all nations in our troubled world of today."137 Margaret Scroggin (l957) speaking of the involvement of children's literature in the theme of war made the following observation: 135 Lee Bennet Hopkins and Misha Arenstein, "Nervose of the Thought: War and Peace in Children's Books,‘I Elementary English 66 (October l969): 460. 136 Ibid., p. 460. 137 Ibid., p. 462. 80 I sometimes wonder how much horror and suffering is too much in realistic accounts of war and imprisonment. There are incidents in some of these books which make me acutely uncomfortable. Yet when authors present facts with compas- sion, when they do not write of sensation for sensation's sake, when they show how human beings can rise above bru- tality and cruelty, I believe their books have a place in young people's hands. War is horrible-~let us not try to evade that fact.138 These statements from professionals in the field of children's literature and education seem to speak to the importance of having children's literature involved with the themes of the world in which the children live today and will be responsible for caretaking tomorrow. Shielding children from life seems to have become an attitude of the past. Looking at the Jewish experience as related to children's literature, Eric A. Kimmel (l977) says that the books which deal with the Holocaust and the Jews fall into a pattern. According to Kimmel, the first ring of the circle involves the books dealing with the Resistance novels. These are books with settings in occupied Denmark, Poland, or France, which deal with the young people of the country taking an active part against the aggressors. One of the roles in which these young people are often cast is to help the poor Jew escape. In turn, the Jew in these novels is seldom an important character but rather a passive piece of humanity. Kimmel goes on to explain that the reason for the lack of "focus on the Jews" is that "these books 138Margaret Scroggin, "This Is War," Hornbook 33 (August 1957): 318. 81 are optimistic: stories of young people struggling against great and terrible odds to win in the end."139 The second ring of the circle of novels which deal with the Jewish question and World War II is that of the "Refugee novels, written predominantly by Jewish authors (which) are either openly or admittedly autobiographical and deal with experiences of families fleeing the Nazis."1“° Contrasting the helpless and passive Jews of the Resistance novels, the "families in the Refugee books are quite capable of coping with the crises they face. They plan and carry out their own escapes, meet the challenges of poverty and separation, and build new lives in foreign lands with courage, ingenuity and strength of character.""'1 Kimmel says that "though the families readily adjust be being refugees, they fail to form any sense of a positive Jewish identity."“'2 The next ring of the circle that Kimmel identifies is the Occupation novel which is set in countries under Nazi occupation. These characters are like the ones in the Refugee novels, alone, and trying to survive. The next ring is "the level of the heroic."“'3 This is the novels of the Jewish resistance. Kimmel describes these novels as having characters who "take up the gun and grenade and physically 139Eric A. Kimmel, "Contemplating the Oven,” Hornbook 53 (February 1977): 86. 1”Ibid., p. 86. 1“Ibid. 1“Ibid. 1”Ibid., p. 89. 82 fight back. Another is to go on living with decency and hope in the face of a monstrous regime."1““ The last circle of this ring of children's books which deal with the Jewish experience is the "bottom, the eerie, silent world of gas, ashes, flames, the world of the camps."“'5 Here Kimmel asks the question: "Is mass murder a subject for a children's novel?" To which he answers the following: Five years ago, we might have said no; ten years ago we certainly would have. Now, however, I think the appearance of a novel set in the center of the lowest circle is only a matter of time. What concerns me is whether or not that novel will come any closer to the question at the core of all this blood and pain. Can those millions of deaths be given significance to transcend the gross monstrosity of corpse-choked pits? Whatever the answer, we must never allow ourselves to forget the question?‘“5 Winifred Kaminski (1979), writing of the depiction of war and Nazism in West German children's and juvenile literature offers a picture of the setting of World War II in German children's books. Kaminski says that the books published and the films made with World War II as their setting "have in common the fact that they separate the political from the military events and therefore contribute to making the historical happenings appear more harmless than they were."“'7 Kaminski goes on to assign the task to children's literature dealing with the war theme "to show the relationship between the experience 1""Ibid., p. 89. 1“51bid., p. 90. 1”Ibid., p. 91. 1“Winifred Kaminski, "The Depiction of War and Nazism in West German Children's and Juvenile Literature,“ Bookbird 3 (1979): 3. 83 (event) and structure and to try to reflect in a literary way the relationship between subjective experience and objective factors. It is not enough to report about everything one has "experienced"; it is just as important to report about what one "did" and in what objective connections the events took place."“'8 Kaminski goes on to say that "children's and juvenile books call attention to the fact that the prohibition of political parties, the persecution of the Jewish people, the political organization of the youth, and the War were in the end not simply related to each other in time, but that there were causal relationships."1“9 By isolating the events as to cause, Kaminski says that there is a great chance of falsifying what really happened. He proposes that an author still be allowed to select one cause of the war and write a story about it, but in this writing, he would reflect on the other causes of the war.15° Genevieve Humbert (l979) writes of the Second World War in French books for adolescents. To formulate her discussion of the books in France dealing with the Second World War, she asks these questions concerning the works themselves: "(l) What image of the war, the period of occupation and liberation is presented to the French youth of today? (2) Does this image correspond to reality per se or only to a certain reality? (3) What point is the author trying to make?"151 The second '“BIbid., p. 3. 1”Ibid., p. 4. 15°Ibid. 151Genevieve Humbert, "The Second World War in French Books for Adolescents," Bookbird 4 (1979): 8. 84 set of questions that Humbert is asking concerning these books deals with the ideological and political position of the author. Does she/he use dates and facts to support her/his position? Does the publishing house show a certain persuasion in the choice of subjects?152 The third set of questions pertain to the relations between the French and the Germans: "(1) How are relationships between the French and the Germans portrayed in the books published in France? (2) What picture is being presented to the youth of West Germany, East Germany, and even Austria of this period of Franco-German relations?"153 _ After examining books with World War II settings, Humbert was able to draw several conclusions regarding French books dealing with the war: Not a single book on her list dealt with certain important French historical facts (such as the organization of French youth under the Vichy regime). Not a single book mentioned "the problems of the post-liberation period, the battles between the various resistance groups, the ambiguous policies of the Americans, the trials of the collaborators."15“ She went on to conclude that the reality dealt with in these juvenile literature books "can never portray reality in its entirety. It can only present bits and pieces of reality."155 152Ibid., p. 9. 153Ibid., p. 8. 15"Ibid., p. l2. 155Ibid., p. 8. 85 Among the positive conclusions that this investigator was able to make about the books were that they aim to acquaint the young people of today with a part of the national history so they can better understand the present day situation. These books describe the atrocities of the war without dramatizing them. And finally, they teach the reader hope; even in the darkest moment of defeat one must not despair.156 Regarding the questions relating to the German people and their portrayal in the French books of adolescent literature, Humbert concluded that "the Germans are in the background; the Germans are presented as a mass--they; the Germans are presented as individuals playing a principal or a secondary role. . . . This stereotyped por- trayal is negative because it is not realistic."157 Shelia Ray (l979) did a study on the forty years after World War II in children's books. Looking back to forty years ago in British children's books, Ray says that "many authors did the easy thing and ignored that there was a war."158 The books that did have any mention of the war let the action of the air raids and such factors of the War take place off stage and not in the central part of the book. The British writers in the l9605 and 19705 used the setting of the Second World War for three reasons, according to Ray: l. They recall what it was like to be a child at that time. 156Ibid., p. l2. 157Ibid. 158Shelia Ray, "1979--Forty Years After World War II: Children's Books in Britain," Bookbird 3 (l979): l4. 86 2. It provides a useful catalyst for an interesting story. 3. They want to show the children of today the realities of war, both its issues and its horrors.159 David L. James (l977) did a recent World War II fiction survey in which he proposed to offer the reason for the recent interest in England in children's books with a World War II setting. One reason that he sees as being an important explanation for the war interest is the coming of age of those whose "formative years were spent scattered over sundry pastoral retreats of the British Isles awaiting news from home, or cramped into shelters hoping only for survival."’5° For the most part, according to James, there has been an abundance of "over- elaborate attempts to document the war or self-indulgent exercises in nostalgia."161 So many writers on the British writing scene are reluc- tant to probe the "troublesome psychological and spiritual questions that war should provoke."162 Lucia Binder (l979) studied World War II in books read by Austrian children and found that the reading of the Austrian children and young people has always been determined by the German book market. In l938, when Austria was made a part of the Third Reich, the literature for children was filled with propaganda and literature of the Hitler regime. 159Ibid., p. 17. 16°David L. James, "Recent World War II Fiction: A Survey," Children's Literature in Education 8 (Summer 1977): 7l. 161Ibid., p. 71. 162Ibid. 87 After the war, according to Binder, the contemporary book scene in Austria changed. No one spoke of the recent history in children's books, and one reason for that was "the shock over the lurid end of what had been a total politicalization of the masses. The aim of literature for the young in Austria was no longer for propaganda but for the "portrayal of personal experience."163 Books for children about World War 11 did not appear on the Austrian book market until l965. In the l970s a second group of books on World War 11 came out. Binder says that all of the books from Austria about the war have the stamp of personal experience on them. "They name no names; they don't describe the destinies of people who changed the world, but rather they deal with children and their experiences. They are set against a historical background, but there is no listing of historical data. These books are not meant to be sources of factual information but were written with a retrospective view of fateful experiences."16“ Binder concludes with the following statement: This task of animating young people to take a serious look at contemporary history is important if today's books about World War II are to function in education, and especially in political education. There have been inquiries made into what young people [in Austria] think about World War II, how much they know about it, and to what extent they have formed a political Opinion about it. The answers [that these young people] give on questionnaires such as "I'm not interested in politics," "I don't want to be bothered by that," "I don't want to have anything to do 163Lucia Binder, "World War II Books Read by Austrian Children," Bookbird 3 (1979): 9. 16"Ibid., p. 12. 88 with that," are very alarming and could perhaps be effectively counteracted by the experience of juvenile literature, which arouses readers' interest and makes them more knowledgeable. To this at least Austrian books have made a contribution.165 Summary This review of the literature has described five major areas of interest to this study: children's response to literature, lit- erature as a stimulus to creative expression, literature as a model, children's written expression, and children's wartime fiction. The first area of interest to this study examined the response of the reader to the piece of literature. From the earliest research studies on student response to literature (Richards, 1929; Squire, 1964; Purves and Rippere, 1968) an attempt has been made to categorize the responses that occur when student and book meet. It has been concluded in various studies that everything a student brings to the work of literature influences her/his response. The responses that students make are personal and multifaceted. It is not possible, according to investigators in the field of literature (Rosenblatt, l938; Holland, l975; Tucker, l977) to know the complete response that a person makes to a work of literature. Yet, it is possible to influence the responses of children to literature by providing quality literature and the time for the response to occur. In this capacity, the elementary school teacher does play an important role. The second area of interest to this study examined literature as a stimulus to creative expression. Through various research studies, 165Ibid., p. 15. 89 it can be concluded that using literature as a stimulation for writing is both effective and useful. Literature does indeed offer a natural resource for a variety of writing experiences, as shown in the studies ' of Nielsen (l980) and Pinkham (1968). The third area of interest to this study examined the use of literature as a model for writing experiences. Recommendations were made through varied investigators for the use of models as a means of improving writing experiences. Modeling is not to be thought of as a c0pying of someone's work but rather an imitation of an art form. Stewig (1975) brings clear-cut suggestions for using models in the classroom to teach the elements of literature: plot, characterization, and so on. Duncan and McLeod (l980) believe that models will provide an opportunity for the student to improve composition skills. It is the approach of these two investigators to read a story to the class, have a class discussion, and finally write in response to the piece of literature. The fourth area of interest in this study investigated chil- dren's written expression. The study done by Britton et al. (l965-72) defines the categories that are used in this researcher's study. The Britton study addresses itself to the writing process rather than the writing product. Other studies which attempted to develop categories along the lines of the Britton study are Whale and Robinson (l977), Dyer (1976), and Emig (l97l). While the development of categories gives the researchers a basis for discussing the writing, the danger of over-emphasizing the categories and de-emphasizing the writing of the students can occur. Children's writing, the function of the writer 90 and her/his writing, the writing process instead of the writing product are part of the multidimensional approach that the literature review revealed. The fifth area of interest to this study investigated children's wartime fiction. Shutze and Greenlaw (l975), Hapkins and Arenstein (l969), and Scroggin (l957) spoke to the importance of having books with wartime settings available to children's literature. Kimmel (l977) addressed his research to the Jewish involvement in the Second World War and pointed out the lack of books in children's literature which deal with the real horrors of the Jewish experience. A series of articles were included which investigated the involvement of chil- dren's books in Europe which deal with the Second World War. Each of the countries included, Germany, Austria, France, and Great Britain, addressed its comments to the children's literature of the war along nationalistic lines. The consensus of the investigators of these studies seem to be that children cannot be shielded from war. Overview of Remaining Chapters Chapter II contained a review of the literature and research pertaining to response of literature, literature as a stimulus to creative expression, literature as a model, children's writing, and children's wartime fiction. Chapter III contains the procedures, the design, and the methodology for the descriptive study of children's written response to historical fiction. Chapter IV contains an analysis of the results of the study. In Chapter V, the summary, discussion of the data analysis, conclusions, implications, and suggestions for further research are included. CHAPTER III SELECTION OF SUBJECTS, PROCEDURES, AND DESIGN OF THE STUDY In this chapter, the researcher will describe (1) the design of the study, (2) the procedures used to elicit these oral and written responses from the fifth graders through the use of historical fiction, (3) the sample selected for the study, (4) the criteria for the selec- tion of the literature, and (5) the general format for the lessons used in this study. The research is designed to study the responses that children make to historical fiction as reflected in their writing. The subjects used in this study were a fifth grade class in an elementary school in Michigan. The researcher read aloud two short stories of historical fiction selected for their literary quality and for their appropriate- ness to the age of the students and had the students respond to these selections orally and later in writing. This served initially as an introductory experience to the research study. The research study included reading aloud three book length selections of historical fiction for children selected for their literary quality and for their appropriateness to the age of the students. The students responded to these selections orally and later in writing. The function categories of writing that provided the stimulus for the responses, both oral and 91 92 written, were transactional, expressive, and poetic as defined by Britton et al., in the study The Development of Writing Abilities.1 The Design of the Study The basic design for this descriptive study was to elicit responses from a group of fifth grade students to specifically selected books of historical fiction for children and to have them record their responses in writing. The researcher used the writing function cate- gories as designed by Britton. These categories are the transactional, expressive, and poetic. During the prescribed study of eight weeks, the researcher met with the group of fifth graders as follows: two weeks, entire school day; two weeks, half school day (9:00 a.m. to l2:00 noon); four weeks, fifty minutes to one hour for five days a week. The initial period where the researcher was with the children for the entire school day served as a time of developing rapport with the children and having the children become accustomed to the researcher being present in the classroom. After this initial period of adjusting one to the other, the researcher read aloud to the class of fifth graders two short stories dealing with children involved in the resistance movement of World War II. This served as a pre-study and gave the students an opportunity to become accustomed to the voice and reading style of the researcher and to the expectations for the writing which followed. lJames Britton, Tony Burgess, Nancy Martin, Alex McLeod, and Harold Rosen, The Development of Writing Abilities, ll-l8 (London, England: MacMillan, l975. 93 The planned research study was composed of three selections of historical fiction for children which dealt specifically with children involved as victims of World War II. The researcher read aloud from each of the three selections and had the children respond in oral discussions and later in writing. The researcher provided a list of three writing situations for the students to write their response to the story or the students were instructed to write in any way that they chose. The selections including the book of short stories are as follows: 1. Anderson, Margaret. Searching for Shona. New York: Alfred Knopf Co., 1978. 2. Cowan, Lore. Children of the Resistance. New York: Meredith Press, l969. 3. Haugaard, Erik. The Little Fishes. (Illustrated by Milton Johnson). Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1967. 4. Suhl, Yuri. On the Other Side of the Gate. New York: Dial Press, 1978. After the eight week study, the researcher assessed the writing that the students submitted via an instrument designed by the researcher. The instrument is based on the Primary Trait Scoring System of Writing Assessment. The researcher felt that using the Primary Trait System as the method of instrumentation was the most effective for this study as the Primary Trait System is designed to look at and to assess the writing of students for specifically defined purposes. The instrument used was validated by inter-rater reliability and will be discussed in this chapter. 94 The Instrument Development of the instrument used in this descriptive study consisted of two phases. The statements included in the instrument constructed during Phase I were based on information obtained in the professional literature and related research about response to writing, literature, and historical fiction. Phase II of developing the instru- ment consisted of determining the degree of inter-rater reliability of the instrument to be used in the descriptive part of this study. The instrument is located on page l03 of this chapter. Phase I of Developing the Instrument The researcher designed the instrument that is being used with this study by using the Primary Trait Scoring System of Writing Assessment. The researcher selected this method of assessing the writing samples of the students as the Primary Trait Scoring System looks at the whole piece of writing and assesses its effectiveness as to precisely defined purposes. Using the Primary Trait Scoring System, one is able to look at various kinds of tasks. This researcher was able to look at the student's responses to characters, conditions of the character's lives, to their motives, and to the theme of the books. The researcher could also look at the elements of the history of World War II as shown in the student's writing through the Primary Trait Scoring System. Similarly, the researcher could assess the characteristics of the three writing functions as revealed in the writing through the use of the Primary Trait Scoring System. 95 The instrument provided for the book responded to and for the kind of discourse method used by the writer. A dichotomous scale was used to rate the responses of the writer. The dichotomous scale which can be answered with a 'yes' or a 'no' answer enables the rater to decide whether the writing has the trait identified by the statement. When a statement was answered with a 'yes' on the dichotomous scale, the rater was then asked to elaborate on the quality of the response. The choice of the quantity of response included the following termi- nology: (l) Slight Indication, (2) Moderate Indication, or (3) Significant and Elaborated Upon. Phase II of Developing the Instrument: Establishing the Inter-Rater Agreement The four raters who voluntarily agreed to score the Instrument in order to establish agreement that a sample of three student's writings gathered and scored by the researcher was in agreement with the scores obtained from the raters. The four raters selected had experience working with and teaching fifth and sixth grade students. Three of the raters were currently fifth grade teachers; the fourth was currently an elementary school principal who had taught sixth grade previously. Two of the four raters had a Master of Arts degree in Education. The third rater was currently working on a Master of Arts degree in Education and the fourth rater was a doctoral candidate at a local university. The raters were individually given the three writing samples and a Primary Trait Scoring sheet for each of the three samples. They 96 were instructed to elaborate on their responses to the 'yes' answered statements. The formula used to compute the inter-rater reliability of the instrument to be used in this descriptive study is: where: X = the percentage of agreement, n = number, A = agreements, and V = variables. After the selections were rated, this researcher compared the responses of the raters with her own responses with respect to each of the writing functions. The purpose of this comparison was to ascertain the percentage of agreement that existed between the responses of the raters and the responses of the researcher. Tables 1, 2, and 3 show the raw responses regarding the three types of writing. Table 4 shows the percentage of agreement between the researcher and the four literary raters regarding the response of the students in their written papers. When considering all forty-six possible traits within the three writing and response functions, this researcher found agreement to exist for thirty-three traits or for 72 percent total agreement between her evaluation of the response to the writing that the students did and the evaluation of the four raters. Table l. Rater Agreement: 97 Transactional Function of Writing Rater Rater Rater Rater Researcher l 2 3 4 Opinion main character X X X X X Identifies theme X X - X - Describes conditions (lives of characters) X - X X X Responds conditions (lives of characters) X X X X X Summarizes story X X X X X Evaluates motives X X X X X Describes causes World War II X X X X X Describes consequences World War II X X X X X Describes historical (aspects not real) X X X X X Describes historical facts X X X X X Responds in personal way (no reference to story) X X X X X Explains historical event X X X X X Persuades people accept (her/his view of story) X X X X X Records facts X X X X X Presents Opinions X X X X X Uses language provide (specific information) X X X - X Table 2. Rater Agreement: 98 Expressive Function of Writing Rater Rater Rater Rater Researcher l 2 3 4 Opinion main character X X X X X Identifies theme X X X X X Describes conditions (lives of characters) X X X X - Responds conditions (lives of characters) X X X X X Summarizes story X X X X X Evaluates motives X X X X X Describes causes World War II X X X X X Describes consequences World War II X X X X - Describes historical aspects (not real) X X X X X Describes historical facts X - X X X Responds in a personal way (no reference to story) X X X X X Uses first person pronoun (describe her/his response) X - X X - Uses second person pronoun (addressing 'you' intimate reader) X X X X X Writes in a self-revealing way X X X X X Table 3. Rater Agreement: 99 Poetic Function of Writing Rater Rater Rater Rater Researcher l 2 3 4 Opinion main character X - X X X Identifies theme X X X X X Describes conditions (lives of characters) X X - X - Responds conditions (lives of characters) X X X X X Summarizes story X X X X X Evaluates motives X X X X X Describes causes World War II X X X X — Describes consequences World War II X X X X X Describes historical aspects (not real) X - X X X Describes historical facts X X X X X Responds in a personal way (with no reference to story) X X X X X Selects form short story X X X X X Selects form play X X X X X Selects form poem X X X X X 100 Table 4. Percentage of Agreement Between Researcher and Literary Raters Function Researcher Rater l Rater 2 Rater 3 Rater 4 Transactional: Researcher --- .944 .944 .944 .944 Rater l .944 -—- .888 .888 1.000 Rater 2 .944 .888 --- .888 .888 Rater 3 .944 .888 .888 --- .888 Rater 4 .944 .888 1.000 .888 --- Expressive: Researcher --- .875 1.000 1.000 .875 Rater l .875 --- .875 .875 .875 Rater 2 1.000 .875 --- 1.000 .875 Rater 3 1.000 .875 1.000 --- .875 Rater 4 .875 .875 .875 .875 --- Poetic: Researcher --- .875 .937 1.000 .875 Rater l .875 --- .875 .875 .750 Rater 2 .937 .875 --- .875 .937 Rater 3 1.000 .875 .875 --- .875 Rater 4 .875 .750 .937 .875 ,___ 101 INSTRUMENT PRIMARY TRAIT SCORING SPECIFIC WRITING AND TO HISTORICAL FICTION Part 1: (Select the appropriate number) ( ) 1. To which book was the writer responding: 1. The Little Fishes by Erik Haugaard. 2. Searching for Shona by Margaret Anderson. 3. On the Other Side of the Gate by Yuri Suhl. ( ) 2. Which of the following is the principle discourse used by the writer: 1. Expressive 2. Transactional 3. Poetic Response: Answer 'yes' or 'no.' When the answer is 'yes,‘ please include on a separate sheet of paper an example from the writing of 'how' the writer meets the trait. Include with your statement the quantity of the writer's response to the statement. Please use the following terminology to explain your answer: 1. Slight Indication (mentions the trait sought by the statement but nothing else) 2. Moderate Indication (mentions the trait and goes into some detail about it) 3. Significant and Elaborated Upon (mentions the trait and displays a very emotional reaction to it, using strong adjectives in discussion of the trait). Yes No ( ) ( ) 3. The writer reveals her/his opinion of the main character. ( ) ( ) 4. The writer identifies the theme, or the central topic, of the book. ( ) ( ) 5. The writer describes the conditions of the lives of the characters. ( ) ( ) 6. The writer responds to the conditions of the lives of the characters. ( ) ( ) 7. The writer summarizes the story. Yes No 102 The writer evaluates the motives of the characters. The writer describes some causes of World War II. The writer describes some consequences of World War II. Writing Function: Transactional 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. The writer explains the historical event when selecting the transactional function of writing. The writer makes an effort to persuade people to accept her/his view of the story when selecting the transactional function of writing. The writer records facts when selecting the transactional function of writing. The writer presents opinions about the historical events when selecting the transactional function of writing. The writer uses language to provide accurate specific information. Expressive 16. 17. 18. The writer uses the first person pronoun to describe her/his response to the book when selecting the expressive function of writing. The writer uses the second person pronoun addressing the writing to 'you' an intimate reader when selecting the expressive function of writing. The writer writes in a self-revealing way when selecting the expressive function of writing. Yes No (H (H (H Part III: ()22. ( ) 23. ( ) 24. 103 Poetic 19. The writer selects the form of a short story when selecting the poetic function of writing. 20. The writer selects the form of a play when 21. selecting the poetic function of writing. The writer selects the form of a poem when selecting the poetic function of writing. (Select the appropriate number to describe the response) The writer describes the historical aspects of the story as if they were not real. 1. No evidence of describing the historical aspects of the story as if they were not real. Some evidence of describing the historical aspects of the story as if they were not real. Considerable evidence of describing the historical aspects of the story as if they were not real. The writer describes the historical facts of the story. 1. No evidence of describing the historical facts of the story. Some evidence of describing the historical facts of the story. Considerable evidence of describing the historical facts of the story. The writer responds in a personal way without reference to the story. 1. No evidence of responding in a personal way without reference to the story. Some evidence of responding in a personal way without reference to the story. Considerable evidence of responding in a personal way without reference to the story. 104 There were no items showing less than 70 percent agreement between the researcher and the raters. Few areas of disagreement were revealed, when it is considered that the Instrument consisted of forty-six items. When the raters did disagree with the researcher, it was not on the same trait, so one could not establish a clear-cut pattern. Table 4 gives the percentage of agreement between the researcher and each of the raters. The table, listed by each of the functions of writing, shows the high percentage of agreement between the researcher and the raters as to the validity of the instrument. Examples of Rater's Evaluation as to the Quantity of the Response When the raters selected a 'yes' answer for the statements in the Primary Trait Scoring System, they were asked to elaborate on the quantity of the response of the answer. The choices to explain the quantity of the response were as follows: (1) Slight Indication, (2) Moderate Indication, and (3) Significant and Elaborated Upon. In response to the transactional function of writing to Book Three: 0n the Other Side of the Gate by Yuri Suhl, the following statements were made: Trait 4: The writer identifies the theme or central topic of the book. Researcher: Yes. In regard to the quantity of the response, writer showed a moderate indication of the existence of the statement's called-for trait. The paper showed the German invasion; it addressed the Jewish involvement and persecution. The writer used strong adjectives in describing how the Jewish people were treated. 105 Rater 1: Yes. The writer shows slight indication of the trait. He simply says, "It is wartime." This more or less implies the theme. Rater 2: Yes. The writer shows moderate involvement. He writes of the cruelty and unfairness of the treatment to the Jews. He uses strong adjectives to describe the theme. Rater 3: Yes. The writer in response to statement four shows considerable involvement. He identifies what is hap- pening at that time. His tone implies that he is more than a little upset at the actions of the Germans. Rater 4: No. General Procedures The purpose of this study was to look at how children in the fifth grade respond to historical fiction as reflected in their writing. The study was conducted in an elementary school, self-contained class- room, using fifth grade students already grouped from the beginning of the existing school year. The study lasted eight weeks. Immediately before beginning the study, this researcher spent fourteen days in the classroom working with the students in all subject areas in order to establish rapport with the students. During this same time, the researcher collected information from the administration and from the classroom teacher (from both the fourth grade and the fifth grade) to ascertain: l. the background of the class as to literature in general; 2. the background of the class as to historical fiction in particular; and 3. the background of the class as to writing. 106 During the allotted pre-study time which lasted about two weeks. the researcher spent the entire day with the students and participated with them in all facets of their school day. The classroom teacher suggested that the researcher become involved with the students by teaching two lessons in mathematics and by working with the mathematics groups and by grading paragraphs which she had assigned the students to write on instructions for cooking hamburgers. After the paragraphs were graded, the researcher met with the students individually to discuss what they had done right with their paragraphs and what they could do to improve their writing. The researcher also assisted these fifth graders when they visited the kindergarten to trace around the bodies on large sheets of paper of the kindergarten students. The read aloud portion of the day was assumed by the researcher during the two week period of developing rapport with the students. The selections read aloud were those chosen by the classroom teacher and were not related to the study. In addition to the literature read aloud, during the two weeks, the researcher was also able to conduct an introductory study, as described above. This introductory study consisted of reading aloud two short stories from a collection of short stories of historical fiction, Children of the Resistance by Lore Cowan. This enabled the researcher to set the stage for the three book-length selections which made up the research project. During this introductory study, the researcher spent time reading two short stories and had the children discuss the stories orally according to the writing function categories of Britton: transactional, expressive. and poetic. The 107 researcher then had the students respond to the story by writing in one of the three ways of the function categories: transactionally, expressively, or poetically. The writing situations that the researcher gave to the students also included the directions to respond in one of the three ways given or in any way that the student chose. The results of this pre-writing experience are not included in this study. This initial introduction merely served to set the stage for the type of response experience that the students would have in this study. The book of short stories plus the three books of historical fiction used in this study, deal with the child as victim of war in World War II. The selections of historical fiction were chosen by criteria established by experts in the field of children's literature. The historical accuracy of these books was verified by a historian from the faculty of Michigan State University. These procedures are discussed at length on pagell7’of this chapter. The titles of these selections and a brief summary of each follows: Cowan, Lore. Children of the Resistance. New York: Meridith Press, 1969. These are stories based on true experiences of young people who participated in the underground resistance against the Nazis during World War II. Playing a vital part in the fight that their countries waged for freedom, these boys and girls played sometimes passive, sometimes active, dangerous roles in the war. Anderson, Margaret. Searchinggfor Shona. New York: Alfred Knopf Co., 1978. Set in Edinburgh and surrounding countryside of Scotland during the Second World War, this is the story of two girls and their very different life-styles. Shona was the orphan who lived in a very poor neighborhood orphanage; Marjorie was the rich girl 108 who lived in a mansion. One day, when the two girls were boarding a train in Edinburgh (Shona for an evacuation center in the country; Marjorie for a visit to cousins in Canada), they decided to change places. The story, told from Marjorie's point of view, is of war-time Scotland and how a rich girl grows up in a poor fashion. In the end, who is rich and who is poor is a question which will give readers to this story, time and material to ponder. Haugaard, Erik. The Little Fishes. (Illustrated by Milton Johnson) Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1967. Guido is the boy-orphan living by his own abilities in the streets of war-torn Italy during World War II. He is joined in the streets by Anna and her little brother, Mario, who are war orphans. Together the three children manage to exist and in the end to find good in their life and in their fellow pe0ple. This is a powerful story told in the impressionistic form of three pathetic souls who offer the best gift of all: hope and the will to go on in a hopeless lost world. Suhl, Yuri. 0n the Other Side of the Gate. New York: Dial Press, 1978. This is the story of occupied Poland during World War II, especially as experienced by the Jews. Hershel and Lena Bergman a young Jewish couple are sent to the Warsaw Ghetto as are the rest of the town's Jews. Much to their dismay, they find that the baby that Lena is carrying will have to be born in secrecy because the Nazi authorities had outlawed pregnancies in the Ghetto. The child, David, is born and is smuggled out of the Ghetto by a friend of Hershel's who lives in Warsaw. This friend, also happens to be a member of the Resistance Movement in Poland. This is a poignant story and is a fascinating one of a couple's courage and determination for their child. The view of life in Warsaw is unforgetable. At the end of each read-aloud session, the researcher spent from five to ten minutes asking the class as a whole, questions relating to the content of the reading of the day. The questions used included a factual question or two to make certain that the student had a basic interpretation of the events of the story. An example of a factual question follows: 'Who is Guido? Where does he live? Why is he forced to beg in the streets?' These factual questions were included 109 to give the children a chance to clarify any fact relating to the story that might be unclear to them. When time permitted, the researcher included questions which looked at how the student interpreted the reading. An example of questions of basic interpretation follows: 'How did Shona feel to see Marjorie?‘ Sometimes a question relating to the experience of the reader was asked: 'If you had been Lena, how would you have felt to see your baby placed in a barrel?‘ At the end of each complete book, the researcher spent three class periods of fifty minutes each discussing orally aspects of the story. These discussions focused on the three writing functions: transactional, expressive, and poetic (a definition of these terms is found on page 15 of the Introduction). The questions were asked in such a fashion as to have transactional the last question that the student heard discussed in one session, poetic the last question that the student heard discussed in one session, and expressive the last question that the student heard discussed in one session. The pattern of changing sequence that the researcher used in this oral discussion was as follows: Book 1: Transactional Poetic Expressive Book 2: Expressive Transactional Poetic Book 3: Poetic Expressive Transactional After the oral activities, the writing took place in one class hour. The students were not permitted to take the writing home and were told that they had to complete what they did in class. The 110 researcher and the classroom teacher were in the room--the researcher to clarify any problems as to what was expected in the writing and the classroom teacher to give 'credibility' to the project. The researcher, incidentally, was introduced to the children as 'Mrs. Ross, from Michigan State University.‘ At no time during the study did the children become aware of the project as being a research study. There were questions as to grading, mechanical problems of writing: 'will you count-off if this is misspelled?‘ and so on. The children were told that the papers would be taken to Michigan State University to be shared with some professors who wanted to help children improve their writing. As to the mechanics of writing, the students were encouraged to get their initial response on paper. The study was limited to eight weeks and there was not time to include rewriting and editing in this project. When the writing was complete, we would follow these procedures: (1) either we would get into groups and have each member read aloud her/his paper to the group with the group instructed to offer one good point about the paper and to offer one way of changing the paper to make it even better, or (2) the researcher would read aloud the papers to the class (omitting names) and the class would comment on the good things about the paper and the ways that the paper could be improved. In the writing assignments, the students were allowed three options or suggestions to write in response to the book. These options or suggestions followed the guidelines of the transactional, 111 expressive, or poetic function of writing. They were also instructed if they did not feel like responding to the books in one of the ways that the researcher had suggested, they could respond to the book in any way that they chose. In addition to the reading of the three books that the researcher brought to class, she also included a small library of historical fiction pertaining to World War II in the class. The students were encouraged to browse through the titles and choose books to do extra reading. These books were kept on the shelf in the front of the room. The researcher mentioned the titles to the class and offered suggestions from time to time as to books which would be interesting to read. The students were free to select books from the shelf and to take them home to read. A list of the titles used is included in the Appendix of this dissertation. Sample The school district selected for this study is located in a small town adjacent to a metropolitan area in Michigan. Eighty percent of the residents of this area live in the school district selected and work in the adjacent city thus forming a 'bedroom community atmosphere.‘ The school system has an enrollment of 27,500 students and is composed of one high school (9-12), two middle schools (6-8), and eight elemen- tary schools (K-5). Approximately 50 percent of the students in the district attend college. The reason for this high percentage is the cooperation between the district and a community college which offers the students the opportunity to begin different programs leading to a 112 degree while in high school and to complete the program after high school graduation and the close proximity of the area to Michigan State University, the University of Michigan, and other smaller colleges and universities. The elementary school in which this study was conducted is housed with a middle school. There are 716 students in the middle school and 171 students in the elementary school. Two buildings form the middle school/elementary school complex. The physical location of a middle school with the elementary school of this study had no effect on the results of this study. Based on income, education, and life-style, the community would be considered predominantly middle class with about a 60:40 ratio of lower-to-middle to upper-middle. The school population is 99 percent Caucasian with the remaining 1 percent Asian, Afro-American, and Mexican American. The ratio in the elementary school in which this study was conducted averaged out as follows: Asian, 2 students; Afro- American, 1 student; and Mexican American, 7 students. The one Afro- American was a part of this study. There is an agricultural area located in the district which has one elementary school located there. Four of the eight elementary schools of the area are Title I schools; the school in which this study was conducted is not a Title I school. The district covers an area of 125 square miles. The students involved in this study were administered the Stanford Achievement Reading Test in the spring of the preceding year. The following results were obtained from the Stanford Achievement Reading_Test scores: 113 Stanine 1-2 no students below average Stanine 3 no students below average Stanine 4 no students average Stanine 5 1 student (1 girl) average Stanine 6 3 students (2 girls; 1 boy) average Stanine 7 9 students (4 girls; 5 boys) above average Stanine 8 6 students (3 girls; 3 boys) above average Stanine 9 5 students (4 girls; 1 boy) above average One student joined the class after the Stanford Achievement Tests were given. Students' Background as to Reading and Writing Experiences In an interview with the classroom teacher for the fifth graders involved in the study, and with the classroom teacher who had taught this group in the fourth grade, the following information regarding the reading and the writing experiences of the group was ascertained. The current classroom teacher of the group said that the group had not had a lot of experience in writing. She said she usually used mimeographed sheets that called for fill-in-the-blank responses for language arts experiences. These were used about once or twice a week for seat work in language arts. She said she used this type of expe- rience when teaching writing paragraphs, topic sentences, sequencing, and other language arts activities. The group had written four short stories according to the teacher. She used a kit entitled Language 114 Experience in Reading published by RoachVan Allen, to teach short stories according to the teacher. These cards presented a situation and the children wrote a story from that. The classroom teacher said that she had had the children do two reports for science projects. She gave them a t0pic and showed them how to look up information in the encyclopedia in the school library. She said that she had read no poetry to the children and they had written no poems. They had received no instruction in writing letters, news articles, or journals, and that they had not written any of these forms during the school year. The requirements for book reports appeared to be rather loose with the children reporting on any number from five to thirty, depending on the child. The classroom teacher did read literature aloud to the class. Some of the titles were as follows: —-I 0 Ronald Dahl, Danny Champion of the World. William Oldenburg, Potawatomi Indian Summer. 2 3. Willo Roberts, The Girl with the Silver Eyes. 4 Marjorie Shamat, Getting Somethinggon Maggie Marblestein. 5. Barbara Robinson, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Oi Betsy Byars, Summer of the Swans. \l Esther Forbes, Johnny Tremain. The classroom teacher said that her objective for reading these literature selections aloud to the class was to offer the students pleasurable experiences with and from literature. She said that she did not follow these read aloud sessions with any discussion or request for any response from the members of the class. 115 In an interview with the fourth grade teacher of the group of fifth graders involved in this study, it was again noted that the group of students had done little writing in the fourth grade. The fourth grade teacher said that the group had written two short stories from a kit entitled Story Sparkers from Educational Insights, Compton, California. The teacher had required no formal written book reports from the students but had them present two oral book reports per month. The students kept a personal journal that was not checked where they wrote when they felt like it. She said that she required no poems, no news articles, and only asked for science reports for special credit (meaning that not all children in the class participated in the science reports). The students who did do the science reports were on their own and received no instruction from the teacher. The fourth grade teacher read aloud the following books to the group: 1. Ann Turnbull, Frightened Forest. 2. Jean George, My Side of the Mountain. 3. Judy Blume, Super Fudge. These books were not followed by any type of discussion nor was any response oral or written required of the grOUp. 116 Criteria for Selection of Materials The specific titles of historical fiction were selected by considering the reading interests of ten to twelve year old readers and by applying this information to the following literary criteria. The criteria used for selecting these books were chosen from IDE. Literary Time Line in American History by Patricia J. Cianciolo and Jean M. LaPere, and Living with Books by Helen E. Haines. The criteria for selection of historical fiction are as follows: 1. The historical person, period, or event itself must play a truly significant part in the story line of the novel if it is to qualify as historical fiction. Contemporary historical fiction for children is typified by three qualities: historical assimilation, an imagainative unfolding of history, and a realistic spirit. The careful reading of historical fiction should alert the reader to the values inherent in a democratic way of life. Since children are known to experience difficulty in comprehending the notion of chronology. it is advis- able to offer them books about actual persons, periods, or events from the past within a broad chronological framework. The degree of authenticity of the period, person, or event should be an important criteria for evaluating a historical fiction book. If the author of historical fiction offers his readers a message or a theme, this should be done in such a way as to not appear didactic or exaggerated. The characters in historical fiction should be described as being dressed in costumes in keeping with the histor- ical period and their speech should reflect the era or the region. The more sound and thorough the historical basis the deeper and more enduring is its value. 117 9. Factual accuracy on sound historical data is an accepted responsibility of the author.2 The period of World War II used for this study covered the war in Europe from September 1, 1939 through May 7, 1945. The mate- rials used in this study looked at the resistance movement and the war in the countries of Italy, Poland, and Scotland. The primary target of the study as far as age group of the literary characters to be studied was children. The books selected for the study included children as victims of the war and how their heroic actions serve as excellent role models for children today. The words of Charlotte Huck reinforce this idea: In these stories, there are few heroes but many victims and the common enemy is the war itself. While most of them depict man's inhumanity to man, they also show many individual acts of humanity and extreme courage.3 In addition to the criteria for selection of literature, this researcher had the historical events of these books selected for this study verified by Dr. Justin L. Kestenbaum, Professor of History and Director of the History Education Program at Michigan State University. Dr. Kestenbaum has written two books on the history of Lansing and East Lansing, Michigan area. The letter of verification of the historical events found in three books used for this study is located in Appendix E. 2Patricia J. Cianciolo and Jean M. LaPere, Literary Time Line in American History (Garden City, N.J.: Doubleday, 1969); and Helen Haines, Living with Books (New York: Columbia Press, 1950). 3Charlotte Huck, Children's Literature in the Elementary School, 3rd ed. (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1979), p. 502. 118 General Format of the Lessons Used The researcher met with the group for the actual study for fifty minutes to one hour, five times a week. The following is an outline of the format used for these meetings: 1. The researcher spent five minutes or less of each hour asking for a brief summary of the reading of the day before. At this time, points of misunderstanding were clarified. 2. The researcher read aloud approximately 25-30 minutes from the three selections of historical fiction chosen for the study. 3. At the end of each day's reading, a brief discussion was conducted to be sure that the students had factual information of the book. An example of this type of question follows: 'What happened when Mario and Anna were forced to leave Naples? Where did they go?‘ Next, after a basic factual interpretation of the text was established, the researcher would ask a question to look at the student's interpretation of the literature. (Usually there was only time to ask one.) Finally, when time permitted, a question was asked relating to the experience of the student: 'If you had been Mario walking the roads alone, how would you have felt?'“ 4. When the class had finished reading a book, they spent three days (class periods) discussing the book. They discussed one question relating to each of the three function categories: “Stephen N. Judy, Explorations in the Teaching of Secondary English (New York: Harper & Row, 1974), pp. 121-123. 119 transactional, expressive, and poetic. The order of questions was alternated so that the last question discussed each of the three times was a function category: transactional, expressive, or poetic. 5, The class used a complete period to write. The students did not take the writing home but finished it during the allotted class time. 6. The researcher collected the papers at the end of the time, and we spent another class period discussing what the students had written. Assumptions The first assumption is that there is really no connection between the selection of historical fiction and the method of discourse selected. James Britton discusses the process of writing and its relation to reading in the following: A good deal used to be taken for granted about direct relationships between what children read and what they ought to be able to write. Focusing on processes rather than products will help us to appreciate the different methods and strategies children adopt as they learn to use the writing of others to develop their own.5 The second assumption is that individual children will respond to the story on both the personal and the factual levels. The personal level will include some factual information and the factual level will include some personal feelings. The writing categories, as defined by sJames Britton, The Develgpment of Writing Abilities, 11-18, p. 43. 120 Britton, speak to the function of writing involved in factual information and in personal feelings. The more fully an utterance meets the demands of some kind of participation in the world's affairs (factual), the nearer will it approach the transactional end of the scale; the more fully it satisfies the spectator role demands, the nearer it will move to the poetic end (abstract).6 The two ends of writing function are always involved with the expressive (personal) which serves as the matrix of the scale. The third assumption is that the selection of historical fiction provides the child with an experience of living the times of history as opposed to viewing the history as unreal. The child is able to express this vicarious living of the times in the writing that she/he does. Tom Hastie, commenting on the value of historical fiction, says that "historians tend to paint on a wide canvas using broad strokes but the historical novelist uses a sharper focus and looks at individuals and small communities and suggest how their lives were affected by historical events and processes. The novelist can help us (the reader) to imagine what it felt to be a part of these happenings."7 Overview Chapter III contained the design of the study, the procedures used to elicit oral and written responses from the fifth graders through the use of historical fiction, the sample selected for the 51bid.. p. 83. 7Tom Hastie, "Just a Pack of Lies," The Times Literary Supplement 3383 (5 December 1980): 28. 121 study, the criteria for the selection of literature and the general format for the lessons used in this study. The responses that children made to historical fiction as reflected in their writing were categorized according to the functions of writing categories: transactional, expressive, and poetic. Chapter IV contains the statistical data analysis of the writing responses that the students did. CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS OF RESULTS In Chapter IV descriptive data are analyzed. The data were collected through the writing samples of a fifth grade class who responded to three selections of historical fiction read aloud to them by choosing to write in either the expressive, the transactional, or the poetic function of writing. This research study was conducted over a period of eight weeks. Instrumentation The Instrument used to measure the writing responses of this class of fifth grade students was created by this researcher in two phases. The details about the procedures involved in these two phases is discussed in Chapter III of this study. Phase I of developing the instrument involved using the Primary Trait Scoring System of Writing Assessment to design the instrument. The researcher selected this method of assessing the writing samples of students because the Primary Trait Scoring System looks at the whole piece of writing and assesses its effectiveness as to the precisely defined purposes. Using the Primary Trait Scoring System one is able to look at various kinds of tasks. 122 123 Phase II of developing the instrument involved establishing the inter-rater agreement. The four raters who volunteered to participate in determining the validity of the instrument were experienced with working with fifth grade students. In order to establish agreement, the researcher selected three papers which represented a cross-section of the responses to the historical fiction selections and which also represented one of the writing functions: the transactional, the expressive,and the poetic. The raters and the researcher rated the papers by the instrument used for this study. It was agreed by the researcher that the ratings would be reliable at the .7 level. The tables listed in Chapter III give the results of the percentage of agreement between the raters and the researcher. The lowest percentage of scoring between the researcher and the raters occurred at 75 percent and this occurred only once; the highest percentage of scoring between the researcher and the raters occurred at 100 percent and this occurred three times. The mean percentage of agreement was 94 percent. The accumulated data that was obtained will be discussed and analyzed according to writing types. The researcher will only report on the students who were present for all three of the writing assign- ments. Of those students dropped from the study because of absence, their writing appeared to be comparable. While the total group popu- lation was n=25, the number of students' writings used will be n=l7. Eight major research questions and their sub-questions were formulated to conduct the interpretation of the data. 124 Research Questions For the purpose of this study, the researcher looked at the following questions and sub-questions: 1. As a result of listening to historical fiction, read aloud, what discourse method does the child select to express her/his thoughts about the book: transactional, expressive, or poetic? How do children respond to historical fiction through their writing? a. Is there evidence in their writing that there is a personal involvement with the main character? b. Is there evidence of identity of the theme? c. Is there evidence in their writing of awareness. or involvement, with the conditions of the lives of the characters? 00 children show insight for the historical climate of the story, in other words, doe they recognize the causes and the consequences of World War II and respond to these in their writing? How does the child view the historical aspects portrayed in and/or pertaining to the historical fiction? a. Does the child view this as an unreal happening? b. Does the child view this as a reality for something that happened in the past? How do individual children respond in writing to the story? a. Is there evidence of a personal involvement with no reference to the story? b. Is there evidence of a response on the factual or abstract level with no reference made to personal feelings? c. Does the child summarize the story? What specific characteristics of the expressive function of writing are evidenced when the writer selects this function of writing as a way of response to the historical fiction selection? a. Does she/he use the first person pronoun to describe her/his response to the story? b. Does she/he use the second person pronoun, addressing the writing to 'you,‘ an intimate reader? c. Does she/he write in a self-revealing way? 125 7. What specific characteristics of the transactional function of writing are evidenced when the writer selects this function of writing as a way of response to the historical fiction selection? a. Does she/he use language to explain the historical event? b. Does she/he use language to persuade people to accept her/his view of the story? c. Does she/he use language to record facts? d. Does she/he use language to present opinions about the historical event? 8. What specific characteristics of the poetic function of writing are evidenced when the writer selects this function of writing as a way of response to the historical selection? a. Does she/he use language that is arranged in the form of a short story, play, or poem? Data Analysis Relating to Research Question One 1. As a result of listening to historical fiction, read aloud, what discourse method does the child select to express her/his thoughts about the book: transactional, expressive, or poetic? In order to address this question, the written responses that the students made to the selections of historical fiction were evaluated by the instrument designed for this study. The results of the data from The Primary Trait Scoring Instrument is included with samples from the writing that the students did for this study. Looking at the Raw Score Tabulation for the selection of historical fiction related to the discourse method (see Table 5), seventeen students responded in writing to the reading of The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard. The class population was n==25 students; however, only the students who participated in all three of the writing assignments are reported in this study. Of the seventeen, one (5.9 percent) selected the expressive writing function; one (5.9 percent) 126 Table 5. Raw Score Tabulation for Book by Discourse Method (Percentage) to Three Historical Fiction Selections (Instrument Items 1 and 2) Discourse Method Book Expressive Transactional Poetic Raw Total The Little Fishes l (5.9) 1 (5.9) 15 (88.2) 17 Searching for Shona 13 (76.5) 1 (5.9) 3 (17.6) 17 On the Other Side of the Gate __§_(47.l) _l_(5.9) __§ (47.1) _;L[ Column total 22 (43.1) 3 (5.9) 26 (51.0) 51 (100%) selected the transactional function of writing; fifteen (88.2 percent) selected the poetic function of writing. The second writing was done in response to the reading of Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson. Of the seventeen students, thirteen (76.5 percent) responded in the expressive function of writing; one (5.9 percent) responded in the transactional function of writing; three (17.6 percent) responded in the poetic function of writing. In the third selection of historical fiction, On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, eight (47.1 per- cent) selected the expressive function of writing; one (5.9 percent) selected the transactional function of writing; eight (47.1 percent) selected the poetic function of writing. Relating to this first group of raw scores, there were twenty-two (43.1 percent) of the 127 overall group of three writings each per child who responded in the expressive function of writing; three (5.9 percent) who responded in the transactional function of writing; and there were twenty-six (51.0 percent) who responded in the poetic function of writing to the selections of historical fiction. This is an overall group total of fifty-one writings for the group of fifth graders involved in the study who were present for the three writings. The following are some examples from the writing that the students did in response to the three selections of historical fiction of the writing functions: the transactional, the expressive, and the poetic. The writing examples quoted here in italics are in the words of the students. The first writing sample given here was done in response to The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, when the students were asked to write a news article related to the bombing incident of the harbor of Naples by the Allies. The girl who responded to this assignment used information that she had obtained from listening to the oral reading of The Little Fishes and then committing the facts to memory. About flue minutes ago, a fire broke out in the Naples harbor. An Allied plane flew over a German ship. The ship was bombed and exploded. The cause of it was war. Responding to the reading of Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, a girl wrote a news article about the evacuation of the children from Edinburgh. This was an example of the transactional function of writing. 128 An eye witness to the evacuation of’the children from Edinburgh is on hand and can tell us about the evacuation. "What is your name?" "Anna." ”Tell us about the evac— uation." "When the children were evacuated in Edinburgh during the war, Shona was my partner. She must have spotted Marjory because she took off’and the next thing I knew was Marjory and I were headed on a train for Ganobie, where we were to live to get away from the bombs of the city." Writing in response to the third book, On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, this girl responded to the transactional writing assign- ment which asked for the person to write a chapter for a children's non—fiction book about the Jewish Warsaw Ghetto. It is wartime, the Germans step over the border. For awhile nothing happens. Then the Germans order the Jewish to wear the Star of David on there {egg} arms. Any Jew seen without it would be severely punished. But before that the Germans had ordered a kerfew [gig] at 8:00 and they could have no firearms or shortwave radios. Later the Germans ordered the Jewish to pack everything they could carry except furniture in 24 hours. For they were going to live in the Getto! {pie} The Getto [gig] consisted of 2 streets with lots of'rooms all Jews would live in there [e22]. Jews were assigned rooms from 5 in a room to 10 in a room. To make matters worse {gig} the town pump was fenced off and they could only get water from 6 to 8 in the morning. When asked to respond to The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, a boy wrote the following letter. The writing suggestion was, "As Guido, write a letter to Hitler, the German dictator, telling him why you feel that he must surrender for the good of the Italians." Dear Hitler--[§igj I ask you to surrender to the allied powers [sic] for the sake of the people of Italy [pie]. People all around me are dying and it would be a great load off of their back if war was done away with. Yours truly, Guido (Fifth Grade Boy) 129 In response to the book Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, this girl wrote in the expressive function of writing which (in this writing assignment) asked for a letter to Marjorie telling how the writer felt about the way that Shona had behaved. Dear Marjorie, I think you are nice to let Shona be like that you [gig] could of’started yelling and telling Uncle Firgus and saying shes [sic] not the real Marjorie and that Marjorie was an imposter. But your [sic] kind, loving, sharing, giving person but Shona, the real one, is stuck up, snotty, bratty and inconsisteret [gig]. I"m glad that your [gig] going to be a doctor. Sincerely, Fifth Grade Girl The third book, On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, asked for an expressive writing response of a letter to a friend telling how the writer feels about the events of the book, the way the Jews were treated, and about the horrors of the war. The girl who chose to write this, wrote to Lena and Hershel (the main characters of the story). Dear Lena and Hershel, I think that the parts of the story were very risky and the parts when you got David out of the Ghetto {gig}. I think that the way you were treated is very mean that giving you little chance to live is mean, like how you would have to smugle [gig] food into the Ghetto to eat was a thing hard to believe [sic]. It was not fair to have to hide your baby in fear it would be killed if someone found out. I think it was not fair to only get water for a certain amount of'time. Your way of surviving was a neat way. I think that because Lena you gig_ got a room of'your own and to have privicy [sic] is neat to [sic]. You had a hard life because you had the baby_ to hide and care for. sometimes you must have wondered if the war would ever end. Yours truly, Fifth Grade Girl 130 As a way of responding to the book The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, one of the writing assignments that the students could choose was to write a poem telling about the war. One of the girls wrote the following poem: war war war is a big black mass, That leaves people crying, and children on the streets, war is bloody and cold, With explosions every-were [sic], No-body [gig] wants to be there, With the smell of'smoke in the air, And people dying. Its no fun, no fun at all! In response to the book Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, the students were given a poetic writing function by which to respond. They were asked to write a short story and pretend that they, like Marjorie and Shona, exchanged places with someone else. Excerpts are given from this story by a girl who pretends to do just that: I was going to Egypt for the summer. I really didn't want to go. I was on the train to the coast when I met my cousin, Rebecca. She was a brat. Becky said she was going to our grandparent's house. Boy how [gig] I wished we could trade places because I wanted to go to my grandparent's house more than I wanted to go to Egypt. But Becky was 4 years younger than I was. Switching places was out of the question. The poetic function of writing for the book On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, asked that the students write a play about the lives of the characters, after the war was over, and the Jews were released from the Warsaw Ghetto. This is an excerpt from the play that one girl wrote: 131 'Which Family David?’ Lena: Hershel today we're going to see David! (excited and happy). Hershel: I know, but Lena, I was thinking. . . . Lena: What Hershel, what? (thinking something bad had happened). Hershel: 0h never mind, Let's [sic] just get going if we want to see David before nightfall. Lena: I can 't wait to see my little David (with a smile of thrill). Data Analysis Relating to Research Question Two 2. How do children respond to historical fiction through their writing? a. Is there evidence in their writing that there is personal involvement with the main character? The Raw Score Tabulation for the data dealing with the writer's involvement with the main character is shown in Table 6. Of the seventeen students who wrote in response to The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, nine (53.1 percent) responded to the main character; eight (47.2 percent) showed no involvement with the main character. Relating to Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, fourteen (82.4 percent) showed a personal involvement with the main character while three (17.6 percent) showed no involvement with the main character. Referring to On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, seven (41.2 percent) responded to the involvement with the main character; ten (58.8 percent) showed no involvement with the main character. The following writing samples from the student's papers show examples of how the student was involved with the main character in 132 .u mpnmh cw umpcoamc mam em-mm msmufi new mm mFaMh :_ cmugoamc qupp mama? mm mpamk cw zpmpmcmamm umugoawc N can F mew»? pcmsagpmch A¢.mmv m Ao.o~v NF Am.mwv m_ Aw.~FV N Am.cnv mp Am.mmv v HH gm: upgoz we mmucwzc -mmcou mg» mmnwcummc .o_ Ao.oav NF Ae.mmv m AN.mmv m, Am.__v N Am.~wv s_ AN.N_V m HH as: o_aoz co mmmamu as» mmnwcummo .m A~.mmv mp Am.__v N AG.NFV m he.mmv sp Ao.oo_v a. Ao.ov o mampascagu asp co mm>wuos asp mmumapm>m .m A_.ssv mp Am.mv _ Ap.smv mp Am.mv F Ao.oo_v a, Ao.ov o seeps any maNPcsee=m .a as.mmv m Am.okv NF Am.mmv s Am.mav mp Ao.o~v N_ e.m~v m massuagmga Lo ma>cp mcowuwucou op mucoammm .m Ao.oc o Ao.oo_v N_ Am.m~v e Am.mmv m_ Am.mmv s Am.mkv m_ scapuacsgu co mm>__ mcowuwucoo mmnwLUmmo .m “a.mv P AF.emv o_ As.mmv m Ao.o~v ~_ Ae.mwv m Ao.o~v NF memes mawcwucmea .4 Aw.mmv o, A~._sv a AG.N_V m Ae.va s_ AN.Nsv m A_.mmv a gasusasga :wms u=w5m>Po>cH .m oz mm> oz mm> oz mm> msmpH “cwschmcH N_.= NP": N_.= seam Lasso ass :0 seagm Lou mecgucsam magmwa a_pswc ace Aopum msmpH pewssgumcav mcowpompmm cowuuma Fmowgoumw: macs» op Ammmucmucmav mmmcoammm ucmuawm Low umumpznmh mmgoum 3mm .m wpnmp 133 her/his writing. Responding to The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, one girl wrote in the poetic writing function, a short story of Guido and Anna: Guido and Anna are walking the dark streets alone. Mario died. Poor Guido and Anna are hungary [gig] and are looking for somewhere to live. They spend many hard days and nights without food. The book, Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, brought the following letter from a boy written in the expressive writing function. In this letter, he is giving his opinion of Shona MacInnes. Dear Marjorie [gig] Don't worry about Shona [gig] she [gig] stuck-up brat [gig] just because she's rich now. But your [gig] smarter loved more. I'd rather be loved than rich and not loved. Your [gig] lucky because you woun't [gig] be able to get doctor degree if'you went to Ganada [gig] uncle would not let you. But if‘you went to Ganada you woun't [gig] have to hide in the shedter [gig] and stufjl From [gig] Fifth Grade Boy On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, a boy wrote a letter (shown here in excerpts) in the expressive function of writing which shows his personal involvement with the character David. Dear Herman Gerfunehki, I think that David will not go back with Lena and Hershel because David has grown up with Belowski and David thinks that Belowski is his real father and I don't blame David. I would propily [gig] do the same thing. He has never seen David and Lena before sense [gig] he grew up. Signed Fifth Grade Boy 134 Research Question Two, Sub-Question b: b. Is there evidence of identity of theme? The Raw Score Tabulation for the data dealing with evidence of identity of the theme in the book is shown in Table 6. Of the seventeen students who responded to The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, twelve (70.6 percent) did identify the theme in the book when they wrote; five (29.4 percent) did not identify the theme of the book. 0f the seventeen who responded to Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson. twelve (70.6 percent) identified the theme and five (29.4 percent) did not identify the theme. Sixteen (94.1 percent) of the students who responded to On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, identified the theme and one (5.9 percent) did not identify the theme. Examples from the writing of the students who did identify the theme of the book are listed below. Responding to The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, this boy wrote a poem in response to a poetic writing function assignment which shows involvement with the theme of the book. War is killing everyone in sight, Searing all the little children, Hurting people who aren't even in it. Ugly because no one really wins. Writing in response to Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, this girl selected an expressive writing function assignment where she is asked to write a letter to Marjorie Malcolm-Scott telling her how she (the writer) feels about the traded life-style of the two girls. In this excerpt, the writer shows her involvement with the theme of the book. 135 Dear Marjorie, I think you are the winner. Because Shona didn’t have anyone but she had money and money can't buy love. You ended with love and hope that you didn't have in the begining [gig], when you lived with your Uncle Fergus and .Mrs. Kilpatrick. I think you won because you ended with happiness. You got a doctor's degree and all that Shona got was snobby. I think Shona became that way because she went to canada and didn't have to go to the bomb shelters [gig] she just did whatever she wanted to. You had to go in bomb shelters and help around the house and it made you part of’the family. Yours truly, Fifth Grade Girl The third book that was used in the study, On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, brought the following response in the expressive function of writing from a boy. The writing suggestion was to write a letter expressing the writer's feelings about the war and so on. Dear Tom, The Jews were treated like they weren't human beings. They were caged up in a stupid old dumb Ghetto. Only few got out of the Ghetto to ever see daylight again. some made it out alive but some died when they were trying. The horrors of'war were very bad. sometimes people were told that their son was killed. People prayed that their son was not killed and that they would not be killed by the German officers who took over the city [Warsaw]. I feel very sorry about the Jews and of’all the laws [gig]. I also feel sorry for the people who died in the Ghetto and in the camps. Sincerely, Fifth Grade Boy 136 Research Question Two, Sub-Question c: c. Is there evidence in their writing of awareness, or involvement with the conditions of the lives of the characters? Raw Score Tabulation for the data dealing with describing and responding to the conditions of the lives of the characters can be found in Table 6. Of the seventeen students who responded to the book The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, thirteen (76.5 percent) described the conditions of the lives of the characters; four (23.5 percent) did not describe the conditions of the lives of the characters. Among those who responded to the conditions of the lives of the characters, five (29.4 percent) did respond to the lives of the characters, while twelve (70.6 percent) did not respond to the conditions of the lives of the characters. Seventeen students responded in writing to the book Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, and among these, thirteen (76.5 percent) described the conditions of the lives of the characters, while four (23.5 percent) did not respond to the conditions of the lives of the characters. Among the students who responded to Searching for Shona, thirteen (76.5 percent) responded to the conditions of the lives of the characters while four (23.5 percent) did not respond to the conditions of the lives of the characters. On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, seventeen students responded to the book in writing and among these, seventeen (100 percent) of the students described the conditions of the lives of the characters. Of the students who wrote in response to On the Other Side of the Gate, twelve (70.6 percent) responded to the 137 conditions of the lives of the characters while five (29.4 percent) did not respond to the conditions of the lives of the characters. In responding to the book, The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, this girl wrote in the poetic function of writing by selecting to write a short story with a different ending to The Little Fishes. She describes and responds to the conditions of the lives of the characters. Guido and Anna walked the streets for days and days. They were coming near a very large city called Gassino. It was late at night and Guido didn't think they should enter the city until morning. "I'm tired and hungry," said Anna, "I miss Mario." "0h Anna there's a shed up there [gig] we can sleep in and we'll get some food tomorrow," said Guido. The poor children hardly slept a wink all night. Guido was thinking about entering the city tomorrow. Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, had a writing assignment where the student was asked to write Marjorie Malcolm-Scott a letter expressing her/his feelings about the traded life style that the girls had chosen. A girl chose to write this expressive writing function and in her letter described and responded to the conditions of the lives of the characters. Dear Marjorie, I think when you changed identities you did what you thought was good. As time goes by and as I here [sic] more about you [Lic] I think it was better that you traded places with Shana. Because you had a better life at Ganobie with the Miss Gambell' 3 [gig] and Anna because they gave you a family that your cousin's couldn't have. Yours truly, Fifth Grade Girl 138 The third book of the study, On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, had a transactional writing assignment which asked for a chapter to be written for a children's non-fiction book which would tell about lives in the Warsaw Ghetto. The girl described and responded to the conditions of the lives of the characters in the excerpts from the chapter that she wrote. In the Getto [gig] there were strict rules [gig] anyone that broke them was punished by death. The Germans passed a decree saying no Jew could have a baby in the Getto [sic] and you could not be out in the streets in most of the day. Men had to be marched off to work on the railroad and in coal yards. These were hard times for the Jewish [sic] and we hope they never come again. Data Analysis Relating to Research Question Three 3. Do children show an insight for the historical climate of’the story; in other words, do they recognize the causes and the consequences of World War II and respond to these in their writing? The Raw Score Tabulation for the data dealing with the involvement that children make in describing the historical climate of the story is recorded in Table 6. Of the seventeen students who responded to The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, three (17.7 percent) responded to the causes of World War II as indicated in their writing; fourteen (82.3 percent) did not respond in their writing to the causes of World War II. Regarding the consequences of World War 11, among those responding to The Little Fishes, four (23.5 percent) described the consequences of World War II and thirteen (76.5 percent) did not describe the consequences of World War II. 139 Of the seventeen students who responded to Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, two (11.8 percent) responded to the causes of World War II as indicated by their writing; fifteen (88.2 percent) did not respond to the causes of World War II. Similarly, of the seventeen who responded to this book, two (11.8 percent) responded to the consequences of World War II and fifteen (88.2 percent) did not respond to the consequences of World War II. Seventeen students responded to the book On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl. Of this seventeen students, five (29.4 percent) did describe the causes of World War II, while twelve (70.6 percent) did not describe the causes of World War II. Regarding the consequences of the war, twelve (70.6 percent) did describe the consequences of the war while five (29.4 percent) did not include a description of the consequences of World War II in their writing. Examples of those students who did describe the historical climate of the book that they responded to by indicating in their writing some of the causes and some of the consequences of World War II are given below. Relating to the book, The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, the transactional writing suggestion was that the children write a news article relating to the bombing of the Naples harbor. One of the girls responded in the following excerpt from a news story that she wrote showing a cause of the war: About five minutes ago, a fire broke out in a Naples harbor. An Allied plane flew over a German ship. The ship was bombed and exploded. The cause of’it was war. 140 This boy responded to the book The Little Fishes by writing a letter to Hitler from Guido as part of an expressive writing function. In his letter (excerpt included below) he writes of one of the consequences of war: Sir: You must surrendur [gig] for the sake of the Italians because there is [gig] to many refugees walking on the roads in Italy. There is not enough food or homes. Most people are sick or dying. We don't have medicine to cure there [gig] illness, please surrender. Yours truly, Guido (Fifth Grade Boy) Responding to the second book that was used in this study, Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, this girl chose to write a news article about the evacuation of the children. In this trans- actional piece of writing, she gives a cause of the war: The children were evacuated during the war to protect them from the bombs that were dropped on the cities. When the children in Edinburgh were evacuated, Shana was my partener [gig]. She must have spotted Marjorie because she took off and the next thing I knew was Marjorie and I were on a train headed for Ganobie. This girl wrote an expressive piece of writing in the form of a letter to Marjorie from herself (the writer) telling Marjorie how she felt about the different life-style switch that Marjorie and Shona had made. In it she lists a consequence or a result of the war. The excerpt from the letter is below: I think Shona became that way because she went to Ganada and didn't have to go into the bomb shelters. 141 This girl responded to the causes of World War II in a transactional writing assignment. The book that she was referring to was On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl. It is wartime the Germans step over the border [of’Poland]. In response to the consequences of World War II, this girl continues with the following: Quite a few [Jewish people] were taken away to consitration [gig] camp, a few were killed, a lot died. some of the people had the right contacts and enugh [sic] money to escape or send there [gig] children to places. If’a child was small when it went out it probably wouldn't remember its parents. A few Polish people adopted the Jewish children when they thought the parents were dead. The Polish unwillingly gave up the Jewish children when their parents were,free. Data Analysis Relating to Research Question Four 4. How does the child view the historical aspects portrayed in and/orpertaining_to the historical fiction? a. Does the child view this as an unreal happening? The Raw Score Tabulation for the data relating to how the child views the historical aspect of the story is found in Table 7. Of the seventeen students who responded to the story The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, eleven (64.7 percent) showed no evidence of describing the historical aspect of the story as if they were not real. Four (23.5 percent) showed some evidence of describing the historical aspects of the story as if they were not real, and two (11.8 percent) of the students showed considerable evidence of describing the histor- ical aspects of the story as if they were not real. The data relating to Searching_for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, showed that sixteen 142 (94.1 percent) of the students showed no evidence of describing the historical aspects of the story as if they were not real; no students responded to the category of showing some evidence of describing the historical aspects of the story as if they were not real; one (5.9 percent) of the students showed considerable evidence of describing the historical aspects of the story as if they were not real. Of the seventeen students who responded to the book, On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, thirteen (76.5 percent) of the students showed no evidence of describing the historical aspects of the story as if they were not real; one (5.9 percent) showed some evidence of describing the historical aspects of the story as if they were not real; three (17.6 percent) of the students showed considerable evidence of describing the historical aspects of the story as if they were not real. Examples from the writing of students to support the idea of some students viewing history an an unreal happening are given. Ine_ Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, had as a poetic writing function, the writing assignment of writing a sequel to the book in the form of a short story telling what the writer thinks will happen to the children. One girl responded to this assignment with the following short story. Excerpts from her story are presented here: Anna and Guido were walking on the road one dark gloomy night [gig] they were hoping they would find somewhere to go. Anna and Guido were going back to Naples to ask the police if they could sleep in their cave for one night. On their way they passed some bushes. They heard a noise. Later they heard it again so they stopped. Anna 143 and Guido were behind the bushes, they saw an invisible door. They hoped something good would happen to them if they opened it. Anna slowly went over and opened the door. There was a slide going underground. Guido decided to go on the slide first. Guido got to the bottom and he couldn't beleave [Lie] his eyes. There was a big underground world with lollipop houses and gumdrop mountains and candycane bridges. Guido called up to Anna to come down the slide and she couldn't beleave [Lic] her eyes either. The grass was green lickerish and the sky was blue with big pink puffy cotton candy clouds. In responding to the book Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, a girl selected the poetic writing function and wrote a short story about a secret desire to change identities. Included here are excerpts from her story: All of'a sudden there was a noise that sound [gig] like helicoptors. soon we heard.Mrs. Doodle coming upstairs. She opened the door and said follow me [sic] so we did, she lead [sic] us to a closet where we hid—for a long time. Later we heard the people get into their helicoptors and fig away. Then we stepped out of the closet and we all went back to what we were doing. When we reached Jenni's room we saw that she had more toys. Later I found that she didn't like having a lot of toys. She wanted to be me and I wanted to be her. so that night, we traded places. Jenni hurried down the stairs, got out of the house and rode away on my bike. I got into her pajamas and went to bed Lic when I woke up I went downstairs for breakfast. Mrs. Doodle said, "It isn't like you to awake so early Jenni. " I said, "It isn't?” At the breakfast table I sat down and I started to eat my breakfast. Mrs. Doodle said, "It's not like you to eat like that Jenni." Mrs. Doodle said, "Are you really Jenni [gig] are you tell [gig] me the truth?" I said, "What am I going to do?" Responding to On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, this girl wrote a short story describing what she thought happened to David. This was written in the poetic function of writing. 144 zo.ov o zo.ov o zo.apv m mucousso o_amaouem=oo Am.m~v a Am.mv _ Ae.mmv m oocoow>o meow Am.muv mp AP.emv op Am.~mv m owns» mo oocoom>o oz zoz pocomcoo m cw mocoomoz .om Ao.ov o Ao.ov o Ao.ov o oocoow>o opnocoowmcou Am.ouv NF Aw.FFv m Ae.omv m oocoow>o oEom A¢.m~v m Am.mwv mp Ao.onv wp avocp wo oocoow>o oz zgopmv; monrgomoo .mN Am.npv m “a.mv F Aw.PFV N oocoow>o o—nocmowmcou Am.mv F Mo.ov o m.mm o oocoow>o oeom Am.omv mp P.¢mv mp ~.¢m PF peace mo oozoom>o oz poo; pocuuzgopmwz moawgomoo .NN A~_ new, Asp new, kxa_uzp sopH “amazgpmcH ovum Lozoo ago co acacm Lac messoasom ma;m_a o_ooeo one mxoom Aemumm msouH peasagpmch mooPQUoFom cowpowa _oowLopmwz ooczh o» Ammopcoocoov momcoomoz pcoospm Low oopopznoh mogoom 3mm .5 opoop 145 When David was five years old, he helped Tuduse make a bed and Tuduse helped him make a stool and help around the house. When David was 6 he went to school and had lots of’homework but Hershel and Lena helped him with his home— work. When David was 18 he went to college. When he was 22 he got a masters degree and was a doctor. Research Question Four, Sub-Question b: b. Does the child view this as a reality for something that happened in the past? The Raw Score Tabulation for the data relating to how children view history is found in Table 7. Of the seventeen students who responded to the story The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, twelve (70.6 percent) showed no evidence of describing the historical facts of the story; five (29.4 percent) showed some evidence of describing the historical facts of the story; no students showed considerable evidence of describing the historical facts of the story. Of the seventeen students who responded in writing to Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, fifteen (88.2 percent) showed no evidence of describing the historical facts of the story; two (11.8 percent) showed some evidence of describing the historical facts of the story; no stu- dents showed considerable evidence of describing the historical facts of the story. The third book in this study, On the Other Side of the geie, by Yuri Suhl, was responded to in writing by seventeen students. Of these, five (29.4 percent) showed no evidence of describing the historical facts of the story; twelve (70.6 percent) showed some evidence of describing the historical facts of the story; no students showed considerable evidence of describing the historical facts of the story. 146 The news article telling of the bombing of the harbor of Naples was the transactional writing assignment that this girl chose. Responding to the book The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, she described the historical facts of the story. A fire broke out in a Naples harbor. An Allied plane‘flew over a German ship. The ship was bombed and exploded. The cause of’it was war. One boy chose to respond to Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, by writing an interview with Shona McInnes after the war. This poetic writing function assignment is shown in excerpts below: We are here with Shona MacInnes talking about the times when the planes flew over their house at night and how it felt. shona MacInnes said, "When I was a girl, me [gig] and my sister had to get up very early in the morning and go to a closet which was as close to a bomb shelter as we had." The response from On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, was made by a girl writing a transactional writing assignment in the form of a chapter for a children's non-fiction book. Excerpts are given below: some of the people had the right contacts and enough money to escape or send there [gig] children to places. Ij’a child was small when it went out [of the Ghetto] it prob- ably wouldn't remember its parents. A few Polish people adopted the Jewish children when they thought the parents were dead. Data Analysis Relating to Research Question Five 5. How do individual children respond in writing to the story? a. Is there evidence of a personal involvement with no reference to the story? 147 The Raw Score Tabulation for the data relating to whether children show a personal involvement with no reference to the story is found in Table 7. Of the seventeen students who responded to Ine_ Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, nine (52.9 percent) showed no evidence of responding to the story in a personal way; five (29.4 percent) showed some evidence of responding in a personal way without reference to the story; three (17.6 percent) showed considerable evidence of responding in a personal way to the story. Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, had seventeen students to respond. Of these, sixteen (94.1 percent) showed no evidence of responding in a personal way; one (5.9 percent) showed some evidence of responding in a personal way to the story; none showed considerable evidence of responding in a personal way to the story. Among the seventeen students who responded to Qfl_£fl§. Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, thirteen (76.5 percent) showed no evidence of responding in a personal way without reference to the story; four (23.5 percent) showed some evidence of responding to the story in a personal way; and none showed considerable evidence of responding to the story in a personal way without reference to the story. A boy writing in response to the book The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, described his personal reaction to a poetic writing function without reference to the story in the following way: I think war is shaped round because no one wins. I think war is loud because of the guns and bombs. I think it smells like blood and looks like blood. I think war hurts everyone. 148 A boy writing in response to the book Searching for Shona. by Margaret Anderson, also chose the poetic writing function to respond to the story in a personal way without reference to the story: There was a boy who feels the war is rotten because his father was killed in the war. I am that boy and I'am afraid that my mother will be killed, too. A girl writing in response to the book On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, chose the following expressive writing function to respond in a personal way without reference to the story: I don't think the Jewish people should be treated differently because of their religion because it doesn't matter what you believe in. Research Question Five, Sub—Question b: b. Is there evidence of a response on the factual or abstractllevel with no reference made torpersonal feeling? The Raw Score Tabulation relating to this question can be found in Table 7. Among the seventeen students who responded to The Little fjeneg, by Erik Haugaard, twelve (70.6 percent) of those who responded showed no evidence of describing the historical facts of the story; five (29.4 percent) showed some evidence of describing the historical facts of the story and none showed considerable evidence of describing the historical facts of the story. Of the seventeen students who responded to Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, fifteen (88.2 percent) showed no evidence of describing the historical facts of the story; two (11.8 percent) showed some evidence of describing the historical facts of the story; and none of those responding showed con- siderable evidence of describing the historical aspects of the story. 149 Relating to On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, five (29.4 percent) showed no evidence of describing the historical facts of the story; twelve (70.6 percent) showed some evidence of describing the historical facts of the story, and none of the students showed con- siderable evidence of describing the historical facts of the story. Examples from the writing of the students involved in this study are given here to show how students respond on the factual or abstract level with no reference made to personal feelings. Relating to The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, this girl wrote the following account of the bombing of the Naples harbor by the Allied planes: About five minutes ago, a fire broke out in a Naples harbor. An Allied plane flew over a German ship. The ship was bombed and exploded. The cause of it was war. Responding to the book Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, this girl shows some factual or abstract response without personal involvement: When the children in Edinburgh were evacuated during the war, Shona was my partner. She must have spotted Marjory [gig] because she took off'and the next thing I knew, was Marjory [gig] and I were on the train heading for Canobie. This girl chose the following transactional writing function to respond to On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl: It is wartime the Germans step over the border. For a while nothing happens. Then the Germans order the Jewish to wear the Star of’David on there [sic] arms. Any Jew seen without it would be severly [sic] punished. 150 Research Question Five, Sub—Question c: c. Does the child summarize the story? The Raw Score Tabulation relating to the summarization of the story can be found in Table 6. Of the seventeen students who responded to The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, none summarized the story. Of these seventeen students who responded to Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, one (5.9 percent) summarized the story while sixteen (94.1 percent) did not summarize the story; On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, seventeen responded to the writing, one (5.9 per- cent) did summarize the story and sixteen (94.1 percent) did not summarize the story. One girl responded to The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, by writing the following short story (excerpts below): Anna and Guido are walking the dark streets alone. Mario died. Guido and Anna are looking for somewhere to live. After hard days and nights without food, Anna and Guido finally find the count's castle. Everything is beautiful and has gold on it. Responding to Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, this boy wrote a letter to Marjorie telling her how he felt about the different life—style that she and Shona had chosen. Dear Marjorie, I kind of’feel sorry for you because you lost your Uncle Fergus and your money. Yet you had a good familie [gig] with Mrs. Gampbells and Anna. Yet you loved your life in Canobie and you are not stuck up like Shona[.] shona is a no-good brat who would do (anything to get money)[.] .If I were you I would of’told your uncle [gig] Fergus that you were the real Marjorie. Good luck, Marjorie, Fifth Grade Boy 151 This girl responded to On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, and wrote the following poetic writing function assignment: Little David has been smuggled out of the Warsaw Ghetto and Ludk has taken David to Tuduse and Nina Belowski. Hershel has found out that David got out of the Warsaw Ghetto safly Igig) and Tuduse and Nina adopted David. When David was five years old, the war ended. Data Analysis Relating to Research Question Six 6. What specific characteristics of the enpressive function of writing are evidenced when the writer selects this function of writing as a way of responding to the historical fiction selection? a. Does shefhe use the first personnpronoun to describe her/his response to the story? The Raw Score Tabulation for the data dealing with the expres- sive function of writing can be found in Table 8. Of the students who responded in the expressive function of writing to the three selections of historical fiction, none chose to use the first person pronoun to describe her/his response to the book; one chose to write in the expressive function of writing but did not choose the first person pronoun. These are responses to The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard. Of the thirteen students who chose to respond to Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, ten (76.9 percent) of those who chose to write in the expressive function of writing used the first person pronoun to describe their response to the story; three (23.1 percent) who chose to write in the expressive function of writing did not use the first person pronoun to describe her/his response to the story. Referring to On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, those 1552 Am.va N .m.N_v . zaoo_v N o AN.oev N Am.mmv o soon a co ago» ago woos—om .pN zo.mN. o zo.va N zaoo_v m o zuoo_v mp o zapa a to sLoa ago woos—am .ON Am.va m Am.NoV m o zaoo_v n AN.ooV o_ Am.mmv m xaoom ocogm a No Eco» as» mouo_om .m— Nowuooa Am.N_v _ Am.No. N Am.ov P AN._oV ._ Asoopv F o as: mcepoo>og-wpom o c. moHPL: .mp Am.NoV m Am.va m AN.NV _ AN.NNV N. o zsoo_v p soon so museums; oa.comoo co caococa concoo ucooom mom: .5— o zaoopv o z..mNV m As.oNv o_ zaoo_c _ o Noon o» guacamoc an.comou so czocogo comcoo you,» mom: .op uo>—mmocmxm o Anoopv _ zuoopv _ o Anoo_v _ o =o_oaeL°c=F ooacaoos acomogo ou omoomcop mom: .mp o zaoopv p o zuoopv p zaoo_v F o m=o_=eao moeomoca .s. a “noose F o zNoo_v P o zaoopv P mouse “vacuog .NP zuoo_v _ o Axes—V P o zuoopv _ o xcoom on» mo zor> m_=\soc cocoon o» cocoon ozu moooomgoa .NF 0 zaoo_v . o ANOO_V _ o Asoopv P ocosu .ao.coom_g m=_s_axo ._F "pocowuuomcoch oz no» oz no» oz mo> souu acmsacumcu zN_.co KN..c~ zN_.=V au.m Lasso on» go scogm Locioc_;ocmam massed opoo_o use mxoom A_~-—— msouu acosocumc_v upuooa oco .o>_mmocoxm .—o=o_uuomcogh "mcowuucoa uneven: on» »a vogue—wax no mcovuoo_om covuo_a poopgoum_z cough o» Ammoucoocoov momcoomoz acoooum Lou noun—zoo» mocoom 3oz .m o—noh 153 who chose to use the first person pronoun to describe their response to the story were eight (100 percent) of the papers; no student chose to write in the expressive function of writing without using the first person pronoun to describe their response. This boy chose the first person pronoun to describe his response to the expressive writing function. The book that he is referring to is The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard. Dear Hitler---[gig] I ask you to surrender to the allied powers [sic] for the sake of'the people in Italy, [Lie] People all around me are dying and it would be a great —load of thier [Lie] back if'war was done away with. Yours truly, Guido (Fifth Grade Boy) Responding to an expressive writing assignment, this girl chose to write a letter to Marjorie telling her what the writer thinks of the life-style of Marjorie and Shona. The book the writer is referring to is Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson. Dear Marjorie, I think when you changed idenities [Lic] you did what you thought was good. As time goes by as I —here [Lie] more about you I think it was better that you traded places with shona. Yours truly, Fifth Grade Girl The third book that was used in the study, On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, brought the following response to an 154 expressive writing function assignment. Here the girl is writing a letter telling how she feels about the treatment of the Jews. Dear Tom, The war was not fair to everyone. I think the Germans were unfair and cruel to the Jewish people. I think it was unfair to make the Jewish people wear stars on there [gig] clothes. I think it was cruel to send them to the ghetto [gig]. I also think it was a stupid rule that nobody could have children in the ghetto [gig]. I don't think that the Jewish people should be treated differently. Sincerely, Fifth Grade Girl Research Question Five, Sub-Question b: b. Does she/he use the secondnperson pronoun, addressing the writing to 'you' an intimate reader? The Raw Score Tabulation for the data dealing with the expres- sive function of writing can be found in Table 8. Of the students who responded in the expressive function of writing, one chose to use the second person pronoun, addressing the writing to 'you' an intimate reader when responding to The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard. Twelve (92.3 percent) chose to use 'you' the second person pronoun when using the expressive function of writing; one (7.7 percent) did not choose to use the second person pronoun when addressing the writing to 'you' an intimate reader. These were responding to Searching_for §nene, by Margaret Anderson. In response to the book On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, three writers (37.5 percent) selected the second person pronoun when responding to the expressive function of 155 writing; five writers (62.5 percent) did not choose the second person pronoun when using the expressive function of writing. This boy chose the second person pronoun when writing an expressive writing function assignment. The book that he is referring to is The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard. Sir, You must surrender for the sake of'the Italians because there is to [gig] many refugees walking on the roads in Italy. There is not enough food or homes. Yours truly, Guido (Fifth Grade Boy) In response to Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, this boy chose to write a letter to Marjorie telling her why he feels that she has made a wise choice in switching places with Shona. He chose the second person pronoun, addressing the writing to 'you' an intimate reader in responding to the expressive writing function. Dear Shona, You would be better off in your place than hers. I hate your style of’living. You're not going to be anything the way you are. Uncincereley [gig], Fifth Grade Boy This girl selected the expressive writing function assignment and wrote a letter to Lena and Hershel telling them about the writer's feelings regarding their lives. She chose the second person pronoun, addressing the writing to 'you' an intimate reader. The book to which she is responding is On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl. 156 Dear Lena and Hershel, Your way of surviving was a neat way. I think that because Lena you got a room of your own and to have pri- vicy [gig] was neat to [_s_i_c_]. Your lives in a way were easyer [gig] than others but then they were harder, they were easy because you had people who cared at the hospitle [sic] [,1 you had a harder life because you had the baby to hide and care for. Sometimes you must have wondered if the war would ever end. Yours truly, Fifth Grade Girl Research Question Six, Sub—Question c: c. Does she/he write in a self-revealing way? The Raw Score Tabulation for the data dealing with the expres- sive function of writing can be found in Table 8. Of the students who responded to the expressive function of writing by writing in a self- revealing way, those who wrote in response to The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, did not choose to write their expressive writing in a self-revealing way. Of those who responded to Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, eleven (91.7 percent) chose to write in a self- revealing way; one (8.3 percent) did not choose to write in a self- revealing way. Of those who responded to On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, seven (87.5 percent) chose to write in a self-revealing way when selecting the expressive function of writing; one (12.5 per- cent) did not choose to write in a self-revealing way when selecting the expressive function of writing. In responding to Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, this boy wrote an expressive piece of writing. He writes this letter 157 to Marjorie telling her what he felt about her life-style switch with Shona. He writes in a self-revealing way. Dear Marjorie, I think Shona was not very nice to do what she did to you, when you went back to her house [sic] I think she should of’at least talked to you and see what—was going on. I mean like just talk to you find out if'you shoud [sic] trade back but really Shona lost by a long way because Shana lost love [gig] Marjorie had love. Marjorie was a real winner. Marjorie won because she had a chance to be someone and she had love. Your firend [gig], Fifth Grade Boy A girl writing in the expressive function of writing, chose the form of a letter to write in a self-revealing way. The book to which she was responding: On the Other Side of the Gate, by Margaret Anderson. I don't think the Jewish people should be treated differently because of'their religion because it doesn't matter what you believe in. I don't think Hitler should have done that just because the Jewish people were more successful than the German people. Sincerely, Fifth Grade Girl Data Analysis Relating to Research Question Seven 7. What specific characteristics of the transactional function of writing are evidenced when the writer selects this func- tion of writing_as a wey of response to the historical fiction selection? a. Does shefhe use language to explain the historical event? The Raw Score Tabulation for the data dealing with the writer's use of language to explain the historical event can be found in Table 8. 158 One student (100 percent) wrote in the transactional writing function when responding to the book, The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, and used language to explain the historical event. One student wrote in the transactional function of writing and used language to explain the historical event, when responding to Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson. One student chose to write in the transac- tional function of writing and used language to explain the historical event when responding to On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl. In responding to the book The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, this girl chose to use the transactional writing function as a means of expressing her feelings about the book. In this excerpt from her paper, she uses language to explain the historical event. About five minutes ago, a fire broke out in a Naples harbor. An Allied plane flew over a German ship. The ship was bombed and exploded. The cause of it was war. The second book in the study, Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, brought the following response, written in the transactional function of writing and using language to explain history. This news article is also written by a girl. We have just received word that two girls changed places during the war. There is a wittness [gig] here and she can tell you about it, "What is your name?" "Anna" "How did you find out that Marjorie Malcolm Scott and Shona McInnis changed places?" "When the children in Edinburgh were evacuated during the war, Shana was my partner. " Responding to the book On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Shul, brought the following transactional response which shows an example of using language to explain a historical event. This was written by a girl. 159 In the Getto [gig] there were strict rules[.] [A]nyone that broke them was punished by death. The Germans passed a decree saying no Jew could have a baby in the Getto [gig] and you could not be out in the streets most of the day. Men had to be marched off to work on the railroad and in coal yards. Research Question Seven, Sub-Question b: b. Does she/he use language to persuade people to accept her/his view of the story? The Raw Score Tabulation relating to Research Question Seven, sub-question b can be found in Table 8. Referring to The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, one student elected to respond in the transactional function of writing. This student did not use language to persuade the reader to accept her/his view of the story. The one student who chose to write in the transactional function of writing when responding to Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, did not use language to persuade the reader to accept her/his point of view. Responding to On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, one student who selected the transactional function of writing did not use language to persuade people to accept her/his view of the story. Research Question Seven, Sub-Question c c. Does she/he use language to record facts? The Raw Score Tabulation relating to Research Question Seven, sub-question c can be found in Table 8. Referring to The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, one student elected to respond in the transactional function of writing. This student did use language in her writing to record facts. 160 One student who chose to respond to the transactional writing function assignment when responding to Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, did use language to record facts. Responding to On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, one student who selected the transactional function of writing did use language to record facts. An example of the writing sample from The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, which shows a transactional writing assignment using language to record facts is given below: About 6tve mtnutes ago, a 6tae baohe out tn a Naptes haaboa. An Attted ptane (tew oven a Geaman shtp. The shtp was bombed and exptoded. The cause 06 it was wan. One student wrote in the transactional function of writing in response to the book, Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, and showed in the writing an example of using language to record facts. The writing is given in excerpts below: When the chttdaen tn Edtnbuagh weae evacuated duatng the wan, Shana was my paatnea. She must have spotted Manjoay [stc] because she took 066 and the next thtng I unantuts Nanjoay [gig] and I weae on the thatn headtng 50a Canobte. One student wrote in the transactional function of writing in reSponse to the book On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, and showed in the writing an example of using language to record facts. This writing is given in excerpts below: The Jenn have just (ound out about the Getto [stc] they have onty 24 houas to get heady. They aae not supposed to batng any 6uanttune atong. Jens aae supposed to caaate [sic] anythtng accept [stc] fiuanttuae. The onty aeason they ate gotng to the Getto TZZc] ts that the Geaman teadea didn't [stc] tthe the Jews ueay much, because they had a dtfiéeaent xzzzgson than the Geamans. 161 Research Question Seven, Sub-Question d: d. Does she/he use language to_presentnppinions about the historical event? The Raw Score Tabulation relating to research question 7, sub-question d can be found in Table 8. Relating to The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, one student elected to respond in the transactional function of writing and did not use language to present opinions about the historical event. The one student who chose to respond to the transactional writing function assignment when responding to Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, did use language to present opinions about the historical event. One student did use language to present opinions about the historical event when responding to On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl. Examples of the writing sample from Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, which shows a piece of transactional writing using language to present opinions about the historical event is given below: The wan was hand on the chttdaen. The chttdaen weae evacuated duatng the wan to pnotect them (tom the bombs that weae dnopped on the ctttes. When the chttdaen tn Edtnbuagh we/Le evacuated, Shana was my pannu [gig]. Responding to On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, this person chose to write in the transactional function of writing and used language to present her opinion about the historical event. The Geamans passed a decaee saytng no Jeulcoutd have a baby tn the Getto [stc] and you coutd not be out tn the stneets tn most 06 thE day. Men had to be matched 066 to weak on the nattaoad and tn coat yaads. Those weae hand ttmes flat the Jewish and we hope they nevea come agatn. 162 Data Analygis Relating to Research Question Eight 8. What specific characteristics of the poetic function of writing are evidenced when the writer selects this function of writing as a way of responding to the historical selection? a. Does she/he use language that is arranged in the form of a short story, play, or poem? The Raw Score Tabulation for the data relating to how the writer responds to the poetic function are given in Table 8. Of the students who responded to The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, and who selected the poetic function, five (33.3 percent) chose the form of a short story; ten (66.7 percent) did not select this form of response. Three (100 percent) of the students who responded in the poetic function to Searching for Shona selected the form of a short story. Five (62.5 percent) of the students who responded in the poetic form selected the form of a short story when responding to On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl; three (37.5 percent) did not select a short story in response to the poetic. When responding in the poetic function to The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, none of the students selected the form of a play to express their feelings. Likewise, when responding in the poetic func- tion to Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, none of the students selected the form of a play. When responding in the poetic function to On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, two (25.0 percent) selected the form of a play to respond to the story. When responding in the poetic function to The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, eight students (53.3 percent) selected the form of a 163 poem to express their feelings. Likewise, when responding in the poetic function to Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, none of the students selected the form of a poem to express their feelings. When responding in the poetic function to On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, one student (12.5 percent) selected a poem to express her/his feelings about the book; seven (87.5 percent) did not select a poem as a way of response to the poetic function. An example from the student's writing of selecting the poetic function of writing in the form of a short story is given below. This student responded by writing a sequel in the form of a short story to The Little Fishes: As Anna and Guido are walking they come to a fork in the road they wait to see were [gig] the others are going. Most of the people go to the right[,] Guido and Anna go to the left. "Guido," said Anna, "Where are we going?" "To the Count,"'answered Guido. "But what if'we can't find him[,]what will happen to us?" "We shall find him Anna[,]we will find him." That night as they lay on the grass so hungry they could not sleep, Guido spotted some- one coming nearer. Guido grabbed Anna by the wrist and ran behind a tree. The man lay down and soon fell asleep. The next morning they saw it was the robber they had met and ran away from on their way to the monestary. They saw the robber take bread, cheese, and meat out of'a sack he was carrying. Anna looked on longingly and Guido told Anna to go behind a certian [gig] tree quite far away and make a noise that would attract the robber's attention and he would take some food. Their plan was a success. As they kept on walking the came upon a farmer who took pity on them and adopted them for the rest of’their life. Guido and Anna lived a happy life. An example from the student's writing of selecting the poetic function of writing in the form of a play is given in excerpts below. This girl wrote a play about the life that Hershel and Lena lead after 164 they are released from the Warsaw Ghetto. She was responding to On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl. "Which Family David?" Time: 1944 scene: Hershel and Lena are going to the Belowski house. Lena: Hershel today is the day were [sic] going to see David! (excited and happy) Hershel: I know, but Lena I was thinking. . . . Lena: What Hershel, what? (thinking something bad happened) Hershel: Oh never mind. Let's just get going. If'we want to see David before nightfall. Lena: I can't wait to see my little David (with a smile of thrill). An example of responding in the poetic function of writing with the form of a poem is found in the following student writing. This student made the following response to the book The Little Fingers, by Erik Haugaard. War War is a circle but never forgotten, War smells rotten soon planes come and all the people are dead soon you hear shooting and owls are hooting And you think its a dream when you Hear people scream. Other Findingg_ The Raw Score Tabulation of Discourse Method selected by the sex of the respondent is included in Table 9. Looking at the data included there, it is apparent that of the fifty-one papers involved in this study, twelve (54.5 percent) of the females and ten (45.5 per- cent) of the males wrote in the expressive function of writing; of the 165 students who responded to the transactional function of writing; three females (100 percent) and no males (0 percent) selected this writing function; of the students who responded to the books in the poetic function of writing, twenty females (76.9 percent) selected the poetic function of writing and six males (23.1 percent) selected this function of writing. Table 9. Raw Score Tabulation for Discourse Method by Sex Discourse Method Female Male Raw Total Expressive 10 (45.5) 12 (54.5) 22 (100.0) Transactional 3 (100.0) 0 (0.0) 3 (100.0) Poetic _z_g (76.9) __s (23.1) _gp (100.0) Column total 33 (64.7) 18 (35.3) 51 (100.0) Summary of the Chapter In this chapter, the analysis of the data accumulated from the total population (n==l7) during this descriptive study is presented. Eight major research questions and fourteen sub-questions were formu- lated in order to determine the responses of fifth grade female and male students to selections of historical fiction as is reflected in their writing. These three selections of historical fiction were selected by the researcher according to specific criteria formulated by several experts in the field of children and adolescent literature 166 and the historical events were validated by a leading professor of history. The books were read aloud to the class over an eight week period, and the students were given an opportunity to respond to these selections in writing functions: transactional, poetic, and expressive. as defined by Britton et a1. Analysis of the data collected was presented with raw scores tabulated and a discussion of percentages was developed based upon the amount of the total population which each reflected. Differences in these tabulations were discussed based on their respective placements within the percentage range itemized in Table 10. Table 10. Percentage Ranges Population Range Percentage All the students 100 Almost all the students 90-99 A clear majority of the students 75-89 A majority of the students 50-74 Less than half of the students Below 50 Considerably less than half of the students Below 25 167 Analysis of data collected for Research Question One, which asked for the discourse method selected by the child to express her/his response to the historical fiction selections, looked at the three kinds of discourse methods available to the child to respond. Scoring for the data revealed out of seventeen students who responded to the reading of The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, one (5.9 percent) selected the expressive writing function; one (5.9 percent) selected the transac- tional function of writing when expressing their response to the book; fifteen (88.2 percent) selected the poetic writing function. Of the seventeen students who responded to Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, thirteen (76.5 percent) responded in the expressive function of writing; one (5.9 percent) responded in the transactional function of writing; three (17.6 percent) responded in the poetic function of writing. The third selection of historical fiction, 0n the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, had eight students (47.1 percent) responding in the expressive function of writing; one student (5.9 percent) selected the transactional function of writing; eight students (47.1 percent) selected the poetic function of writing. Relating to this first group of scores, there were twenty-two (43.1 percent) of the overall group of three writings per each child who responded in the expressive function of writing; three (5.9 percent) who responded in the transactional function of writing; and twenty-six (51.0 percent) of the students who responded in the poetic function of writing. This is an overall total of fifty-one writings for the whole group of fifth graders involved in the study. The results of the data collected for 168 Research Question One indicates that the discourse method selected by the child to respond to the historical fiction selection is dependent on the book read. There is no clear cut indication of a preference among these available writing functions, but rather the selection of writing function is dependent on the story read. Analysis of data collected for Research Question Two, which contained three sub-questions, asked how children respond to historical fiction through their writing. Sub-question a dealt with evidence in the writing of the students of a personal involvement with the main character. Raw Score Tabulation indicates of the seventeen students who responded to The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, nine (53.1 per- cent) responded with involvement to the main character; eight (47.2 percent) showed no involvement with the main character. Relating to Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, fourteen (82.4 percent) showed a personal involvement with the main character while three (17.6 percent) showed no involvement with the main character. Qn the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, seventeen students responded and of these, seven (41.2 percent) showed involvement with the main character while ten (58.8 percent) showed no involvement. Research Question Two, sub-question b asked if the child showed evidence in her/his writing of identity of the theme. The Raw Score Tabulation for the data dealing with evidence of identity of the theme indicates of the seventeen students who responded in writing to The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, twelve (70.6 percent) did identify the theme in the book when they wrote; five (29.4 percent) did not 169 identify the theme of the book. Seventeen students responded to Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, and of these, twelve (70.6 percent) identified the theme and five (29.4 percent) did not identify the theme. Of the seventeen students who responded to On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, sixteen (94.1 percent) students identified the theme and one (5.9 percent) did not identify the theme. Research Question Two, sub-question c asked for evidence in the writing of the students of awareness or involvement with the con- ditions of the lives of the characters. Raw Score Tabulation for the data dealing with evidence of awareness or involvement with the condi- tions of the lives of the characters indicates that of the seventeen students who responded to the book The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, thirteen (76.5 percent) described the conditions of the lives of the characters; four (23.5 percent) did not describe the conditions of the lives of the characters. Among those who responded to the conditions of the lives of the characters, five (29.4 percent) did respond to the conditions of the lives of the characters; twelve (70.6 percent) did not respond to the conditions of the lives of the characters. Seven- teen students responded in writing to the book, Searchingnfor Shona, by Margaret Anderson, and among these, thirteen (76.5 percent) describe the conditions of the lives of the characters while four (23.5 percent) did not describe the conditions of the lives of the characters. Among the seventeen students who responded to Searching_for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, thirteen (76.5 percent) responded to the conditions of the lives of the characters while four (23.5 percent) did not respond to 170 the conditions of the lives of the characters. On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, seventeen students responded to the book writing; among these, seventeen (100 percent) of the students responding described the conditions of the lives of the characters. Of the seventeen, twelve (70.6 percent) responded to the conditions of the lives of the characters while five (29.4 percent) did not respond to the conditions of the lives of the characters. The results of the data collected for Research Question Two indicates that a personal involvement with the main character is dependent on the selection of historical fiction read. Analysis of the data relating to the writer showing evidence relating to the iden- tity of the theme in her/his writing, revealed that most of the students did show an involvement with the theme in the three historical fiction selections. Referring to sub-question c, which asked for evidence in the writing of an involvement of the writer with the conditions of the lives of the characters, the scoring of the data revealed that: most of the students did describe the conditions of the lives of the char- acters in their writing. The analysis of the data which related to the response that the students made to the conditions of the lives of the characters revealed that: most of the students did not respond to the conditions of the lives of the characters when relating to The Little fjgneg, by Erik Haugaard. However, the students did respond to the conditions of the lives of the characters in the other two books. Research Question Three asked how the child viewed the histor- ical aspects of the story; in other words, do they recognize the causes 171 and the consequences of World War II and respond to these in their writing. Analysis of the data revealed that of the children responding to The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, three (17.7 percent) described the causes of World War II; fourteen (82.3 percent) did not describe the causes of World War II. Relating to the consequences of World War II, four (23.5 percent) of those responding to The Little Fishes described the consequences while thirteen (76.5 percent) did not. Relating to the responses of those writing in relation to Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, two (11.8 percent) did describe the causes of World War II while fifteen (88.2 percent) did not describe the causes of World War II. Of those who responded to Searching for Shona, two (11.8 percent) did describe the consequences of World War II while fifteen (88.2 percent) did not. Analysis of the data relating to those who responded to On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, revealed that five (29.4 percent) did describe the causes of World War II; twelve (70.6 percent) did not. Of the seventeen students who responded to On the Other Side of the Gate, twelve (70.6 percent) described the consequences of World War II and five (29.4 percent) did not describe the consequences of World War II. The results of the data collected for Research Question Three revealed that for the most part the students involved in this study did not describe the causes and the consequences of World War II. Analysis of the data collected fOr Research Question Four, which contained two sub-questions, asked how the child views the historical aspects of the fiction selection. Sub-question a dealt 172 with the child's interpretation of the historical event as a real happening. Of the seventeen students who responded to The Little figneg, by Erik Haugaard, eleven (64.7 percent) showed no evidence of describing the historical aspects of the story as if they were not real; four (23.5 percent) showed some evidence of describing the his- torical aspects of the story as if they were not real; two (11.8 per- cent) of the students responding to the book showed considerable evidence of describing the historical aspects of the story as if they were not real. Of the seventeen students who responded to Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, sixteen (94.1 percent) of the students who responded showed no evidence of describing the historical aspects of the story as if they were not real; none (0 percent) of the students showed some evidence of describing the historical aspects of the story as if they were not real; one (5.9 percent) showed considerable evidence of describing the historical aspects of the story as if they were not real. Among the seventeen students who responded to On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, thirteen (76.5 percent) of the students showed no evidence of describing the historical aspects of the story as if they were not real; one (5.9 percent) showed some evidence of describing the historical aspects of the story as if they were not real; three (17.6 percent) showed considerable evidence of describing the historical aspects of the story as if they were not real. 173 Research Question Four, sub-question b refers to whether or not the child views the historical event as a reality for something that happened in the past. Of the seventeen students who responded to The Little Fishes, by Yuri Suhl, twelve (70.6 percent) showed no evidence of describing the historical facts of the story; five (29.4 percent) showed some evidence of describing the historical facts of the story; none of the students showed considerable evidence of describing the historical facts of the story. Among those who resonded to Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, fifteen (88.2 percent) showed no evidence of describing the historical facts of the story; two (11.8 percent) showed some evidence of describing the historical facts of the story; none of the students showed considerable evidence of describing the historical facts of the story. Of the seventeen students who responded to On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, five (28.4 percent) showed no evidence of describing the historical facts of the story; twelve (70.6 percent) of the students showed some evidence of describing the historical facts of the story; none showed considerable evidence of describing the historical facts of the story. The results of the data collected for Research Question Four. revealed that most of the students involved in the study did view the historical aspects of the story as a reality for something that happened in the past. There was very little evidence of the student writers viewing the history as unreal. Research Question Five, which contains three sub-questions, looks at the way that children respond in writing to the story. 174 Sub-question a asks about the evidence of a personal involvement with no reference to the story. The Raw Score Tabulation relating to Ine_ Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, shows of the seventeen students who responded to the story, nine (52.9 percent) showed no evidence of responding to the story in a personal way without indicating reference to the story; five (29.4 percent) showed some evidence of responding to the story in a personal way without indicating reference to the story; three (17.6 percent) showed considerable evidence of responding to the story in a personal way without indicating reference to the story. Responding to Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, sixteen (94.1 percent) showed no evidence of responding to the story in a personal way; one (5.9 percent) showed some evidence of responding in a personal way; none showed considerable evidence of responding in a personal way. Among the students who responded to On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, thirteen (76.5 percent) showed no evidence of responding in a personal way; one (5.9 percent) showed some evidence of responding in a personal way without reference to the story. Research Question Five, sub-question b: Is there evidence of a response on the factual or abstract level with no reference made to personal feelings? Of the seventeen students who responded to IDS. Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, none showed considerable evidence of describing the historical facts of the story; five (29.4 percent) showed some evidence of describing the historical facts of the story; twelve (70.6 percent) showed no evidence of describing the historical facts of the story. These were responses made without reference to statements of personal feelings. 175 Research Question Five, sub-question c: Does the child summarize the story? Of the seventeen students who responded to Ine_ Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, none summarized the story. Of the seventeen students who responded to Searching_for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, one (5.9 percent) summarized the story while sixteen (94.1 percent) did not. Among the seventeen students who responded to On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, one (5.9 percent) did summarize the story and sixteen (94.1 percent) did not summarize the story. The results for the data collected for Research Question Five, revealed that most of the students in the study did show no evidence of responding to the story in a personal way without reference to the story. The students expressed some evidence of responding on a factual level without reference to personal feelings. Mainly, the students did not summarize the story in their writing. Research Question Six, which contains three sub-questions, asks how the writer reflects the characteristics of the expressive function of writing when she/he selects that function of writing to respond. Sub-question a asks, does the writer use the first person pronoun to describe her/his response to the story? 0f the students who responded in writing to the expressive function of writing, to The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, none of those who chose to write in the expressive function did use the first person pronoun to describe the response that the writer made. Thirteen students who chose to respond to Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, ten (76.9 percent) of those chose to write in the expressive function of writing used 176 the first person pronoun to describe their response to the story; three (23.1 percent) did not choose to write in the first person pronoun. Eight (100 percent) of those who chose to write in the expressive function of writing when responding to On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Shul; no student used the first person pronoun in the writing of the expressive function that they elected to do. Research Question Six, sub-question b: Does she/he use the second person pronoun, addressing the writing to 'you,' an intimate reader? The Raw Score Tabulation for the data dealing with the writer using the second person pronoun, addressing the writing to 'you,' an intimate reader, indicates that of the seventeen students who responded to The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, one student chose to use the second person pronoun. Among those who responded to Searching for §nene, by Margaret Anderson, in the expressive function of writing, twelve (92.3 percent) chose to use the second person pronoun. In response to the book On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, three (37.5 percent) of the writers who selected the expressive function of writing used the second person pronoun; five (62.5 percent) did not choose the second person pronoun when using the expressive function of writing. Research Question Six, sub-question c: Does she/he write in a self-revealing way? The Raw Score Tabulation for the data dealing with the writer writing in a self-revealing way when selecting the expressive function of writing indicates of those students who 177 responded to The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, showed that those students who wrote their response in the expressive function of writing did not choose to write in a self-revealing way. Of those students who responded to Searchingnfor Shona, by Margaret Anderson, eleven (91.7 percent) did choose to write their expressive writing function response in a self-revealing way. Those who responded to On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, seven (87.5 percent) did select to write in a self-revealing way when selecting the expressive function of writing; one (12.5 percent) did not choose to write in a self-revealing way when selecting the expressive function of writing. The results of the data collected for Research Question Six, revealed that most of the students responding to the expressive function of writing selected one of the specific characteristics of expressive writing. The area of expressive writing that received the lowest percentage was in writing in a self-revealing way. Research question Seven, which contains four sub-questions, relates to the writer who uses the transactional function of writing to express her/his responses to the historical fiction selection. Sub-question a asks if the writer uses language to explain the historical event? The Raw Score Tabulation for the data dealing with the writer's use of language to explain the historical event when writing in the transactional function of writing is given first for The Little Fishes. by Erik Haugaard. One student who responded in the transactional function of writing used language to explain the 178 historical event. One student who chose to respond to Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, used language to explain the historical event. One student, of the students who wrote in the transactional function of writing when responding to 9n the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, used language to explain the historical event. Research Question Seven, sub-question b asks if the writer uses language to persuade people to accept her/his view of the story. Of the one student who chose to respond to The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, using the transactional function of writing, there was no evidence in the writing to suggest that the student used language to persuade people to accept her/his view of the story. One student responded to Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, in the trans- actional function of writing also did not use language to persuade people to accept her view of the story. Responding to On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, one student selected the transactional function of writing and did not use language to persuade people to accept her opinion. Research Question Seven, sub-question c asks if the writer uses language to record facts. Referring to The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, one student did use language in her transactional function of writing to record facts. The one student who chose to respond to the transactional function of writing assignment when responding to Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, did use language to record facts. Responding to On the Other Side of the 179 geie, by Yuri Suhl, one student did use language to record facts when writing in the transactional function of writing. Research Question Seven, sub-question d asks if the student writer uses language to present Opinions about the historical event. Relating to The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, one student elected to respond in the transactional function of writing and did not use language to present opinions about the historical event. The one student who chose to respond to Searching_for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, in the transactional writing function assignment, did not use language to present opinions about the historical event. One student did use language to present opinions about the historical event when responding to On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl. The results of the data collected for Research Question Seven revealed that most of the students did use the specific characteristics of the transactional function of writing when responding in writing to a transactional writing function assignment. Research Question Seven, which contains one sub-question, relates to the specific form of writing that the writer would choose when responding by using the poetic function of writing. The forms which are available in the poetic form include: short story, play, and/or poem. The data relating to how a writer responds to the poetic function of writing in response to The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, five (33.3 percent) chose the form of a short story in which to respond; none of the students selected a play as a way of responding to the book; eight students (53.3 percent) of the responses to the book in the poetic function were in the form of a poem. 180 Among those responding to Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, three responded in the poetic function Of writing by selecting a short story; none of the students selected the form Of a play; and none of the students selected the form of a poem. When responding in the poetic function of writing, in response to On the Other Side Of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, five (62.5 percent) of the students responded in the form of a short story; two students (25.0 percent) selected the form of a play to respond to the story; one student (12.5 percent) of those responding selected the form of a poem. The results of the data collected for Research Question Eight reveals that most of the students responding to the poetic function of writing selected the form of a play, a poem, and/or a short story. Their choice as to form to write in was independent of the story read. CHAPTER V SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS This chapter contains a summary of the findings of this study based on the analysis of the data collected, and the conclusions and implications concerning the responses of the female and the male fifth grade students to selections of historical fiction as reflected in their writing. Recommendations for further research in areas related to this study will be presented. Through an extensive review of related research and other important professional references, this researcher recognized the need and importance to study the use of literature as a stimulus for response to literature and as a stimulus to writing. The National Assessment of Educational Progress,in its third writing survey, has found that there was no major change in the writing abilities of most American students. The study went on to state that a majority of stu- dents at ages 9, l3, and 17 demonstrated control over the basic con- ventions Of writing, still a sizable majority of students (from 10 percent to 25 percent) at each age had serious problems with writing.1 The battle between those in the academic community who desire to return 1National Assessment of Educational Progress Newsletter (National Institute of Education, U.S. Department of EducatiOn, Washington, D.C.) 13 (Winter 1980-81): 1. 181 182 to the basics and those who desire a more permissive approach where the words of the student are most valued, continues. This researcher has found a number of studies in which lit- erature has served as a model for writing, but there seems to be very little research where literature has served as a stimulus for response (and for writing. Realizing the importance of providing writing expe- riences for students through literature, this researcher investigated the responses that students made to selections of historical fiction as reflected in their writing. The twenty-five fifth grade students selected for this study were read aloud three selections of historical fiction by the researcher and were asked on three separate occasions to respond in writing to these books. The results of this study are reported in eight research questions and fourteen sub-questions. Each of these questions presented in this chapter is followed by a summary of the findings, discussion of conclusions, and implications. Summary of the Findings Research Question One 1. As a result of listening to historical fiction, read aloud, what discourse method does the child select to express her/his thoughts about the book: transactional, expressive, or poetic? The discourse method selected by the student to respond to the selection of historical fiction appears to be dependent on other factors rather than a particular discourse method. A majority of the students (88.2 percent) in the study selected the poetic discourse method when 183 responding to The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard. When responding to Searchingnfor Shona, by Margaret Anderson, 76.5 percent and On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, 76.1 percent of the students selected the expressive discourse method. It appears from the percentage of students responding, that there is no preferred discourse method used by students to respond to the historical fiction selections. In the Opinion of this researcher, the selection of discourse method was influenced by at least five factors. The students at the beginning of the study were not experienced writers. as evidenced by the interviews with the classroom teachers of the fourth and fifth grades. Since their writing experiences appeared not to have included the kinds of writing requested by this study, the selection of discourse method was made for reasons other than the discourse method. The oral discussions held at the end of each book were possibly one influencing factor in the writing mode that the student selected. These discussions were structured to include one question of the transactional, one of the expressive, and one of the poetic. The order of the discussion was varied for each book so that the student who wrote about the last discussed method would be accommodated. From the percentages reported, the last discourse method discussed apparently did not influence the choice of the student. The type of writing assignment requested by the researcher was a possible influence on the choice of discourse method selected by the student. The wording of the assignment and the level of difficulty as perceived by the student were also possibly influencing factors in the choice of discourse method by the student. 184 Regarding the sex of the respondent and the discourse method selected, there appears to be no clear-cut statement that can be made. The females involved in this study did not respond to the expressive writing function in the same percentages as did the male respondents. Neither female nor male student showed a great interest in writing in the transactional writing function. Three females wrote in the trans- actional; no males did. This lack of response to the writing that is more formal, more factual, more of the type that school assignments are usually constructed, may be attributed to the age and maturity of the student than to the sex. More female students responded to the poetic writing function than did male students. It is possible to infer that the preadolescent girl is more likely to be poetic in her subjective approach to writing than is the preadolescent male. Although there is a difference in the response to the writing functions (female students did not respond to the expressive writing function as did the male stu- dents, neither female nor male students responded with any great enthu- siasm to the transactional writing function, female students responded more to the poetic writing function than did the male students) the data gathered in this study is not extensive enough to form clear-cut conclusions as to the sex of the respondent and the discourse method selected. Before clear-cut conclusions can be made, additional research is needed. Conclusions drawn from the findings for question one are as follows. The method of discourse selected by the student to respond to a selection of literature was not predictable. The selection of 185 discourse method seems to be influenced by a number Of factors. These influencing factors include: the oral discussions held after each book, the type of writing assignment requested by the researcher and its level of difficulty as perceived by the student. While the stu- dents responded to different discourse methods by sex, there is no clear-cut conclusion that can be made as to the sex of the respondent and her/his choice of discourse method. Research Question Two 2. How do children respond to historical fiction through their writing? a. Is there evidence in their writing that there is e_personal involvement with the main character? This researcher developed three sub-questions which each focused upon a separate aspect of Question Two. The percentages used to explain the analysis of the data pertaining to an involvement with the main character showed that in a majority of the cases, the students did indicate an involvement with the main character of the three books. Among the students who responded to The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, 53.1 percent showed an involvement with the main character, 47.2 percent did not; of the students who responded to Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, 82.4 percent showed an involvement with the main character, 17.6 percent did not; and 41.2 percent of the students responding to On the Other Side of the Gate, I by Yuri Suhl, showed an involvement with the main character, while 48.8 percent did not. 186 In the Opinion of the researcher, there were five factors which probably influenced the response that the fifth graders made to the main character in the three selections of historical fiction. The first of these was the age of the protagonist in two of the selections (The Little Fishes and Searching for Shona) which was close to that of the students involved in the study. Another reason that the students probably responded to the main characters in the three selections of historical fiction is that these main characters were the kinds of people with whom one could become easily involved. The emphasis that the researcher placed on the strength of the protagonist and her/his reaction to the horrors of war in the class discussions was a possible factor that related to the involvement of the reader and the main character. In the oral discussions, various students in the class who had formed strong opinions for the protagonist acknowledged these feelings for all of the class to hear. The opinions of other students could have been a strong influencing factor in the involvement of the class with the main characters. One girl after hearing Ine. Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, read aloud, said, "I’ll never again hear of'war without thinking of Guido." The fifth factor that could have influenced the response of the students to the main character was the seemingly emphatic attitude of this class toward the suffering of the victims of this war. 187 b. Is there evidence in their writing of identity of the theme? Looking at the data analysis, it shows that in each of the books, a majority of the students in the study did become involved in the literature selections and were able to identify the theme Of the books. Among those students who responded to The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, 70.6 percent identified the theme of the book, 29.4 percent did not; of the students who responded to Searching for Shona. by Margaret Anderson, 70.6 percent identified the theme of the book, 29.4 percent did not; among the students who responded to On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, 94.1 percent of the students were able to identify the them, 5.9 percent did not. The theme of the book is the topic or the truth of the book. An effectively written story will incorporate the theme in such a way as to leave the reader with insight into the characters and with a feeling of understanding for the theme. When a reader is finished reading an effectively written story, she/he will sit back, reflect upon the story and perhaps smile with a new understanding of what the story (theme) was all about. In responding to the themes of the three books involved in this study, 70.6 percent of those students responding to The Little Fishes and to Searching for Shona; in response to On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, 94.1 percent of the students responded to the theme of the book. Specifically, in responding to the theme of this book, the students addressed themselves in their writing to the tragedy of ordinary people who were persecuted because of their 188 religious preference and the students in their witing showed feeling for the plight Of these people. In responding to this book, to the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto, the students made their most involved and emotional responses. The cruelty to the Jewish people perhaps elicited a stronger involvement. c. Is there evidence in their writing_of awareness or involvement with the conditions of the lives of the characters? The item on the instrument which referred to this question was divided into two parts. Part I asked if the writer described the con- ditions of the lives of the characters. In response to this item, on the instrument, 76.5 percent of the students writing in response to The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, did describe the conditions of the lives of the characters, 23.5 percent did not; 76.5 percent of those writing in response to Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, did describe the conditions Of the lives of the characters, 23.5 percent did not; 100 percent Of those writing in response to On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, described the conditions of the lives of the characters. The students responded well in describing the conditions of the lives of the characters. They were exposed to information regarding the conditions of the lives of the characters through the daily reading aloud of the three selections of historical fiction. They received reinforcement of the information that they gathered from the readings in the oral discussion of the books that they heard daily. Through the information that they had gathered from their own listening to the 189 selections and the information that they heard from their classmates' interpretation of the readings, the individual response was formed. In the second part of the statement, the students' response to the conditions of the lives of the characters was examined. In this statement on the Primary Trait Scoring Sheet, the researcher defined response as giving some emotional statement involving a personal feeling to the conditions of the lives of the characters. Of the stu- dents who wrote in response to The Little Fishes, 29.4 percent responded to the conditions of the lives of the characters; 70.6 percent did not respond to the conditions of the lives of the characters; among those who wrote in response to §earching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, 76.5 percent did respond to the conditions of the lives of the char- acters, 23.5 percent did not respond to the conditions of the lives of the characters; 70.6 percent of the students who wrote in response to On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, responded to the con- ditions of the lives of the characters and 29.4 percent did not write in response to the conditions of the lives of the characters. Of the students who wrote in response to The Little Fishes, 70.6 percent did not write in response to the conditions Of the lives of the characters. An example from the writing of one student in response to The Little Fishes shows a description of the conditions of the lives of the characters without giving a response: Guido and Anna go back to Naples and back to Guido's cave. When they get there it is abanded [gig] the top of’the cave was bombed. There were rocks all over the place. Guido and Anna get it picked up again. 190 This writer is able to describe the conditions Of Anna and Guido's lives without responding to what happens to the children. Of the students who wrote in response to Searching for Shona, 76.5 percent did respond to the conditions of the lives of the characters. An example of a student who wrote in response to Searching for Shona who did respond to the conditions of the lives of the characters is given: I think you are being very nice to let Shona have your money, your inheritance, and your name. You traded places with Shona to make her happy. I feel that the kind of person you are is "thoughtful, nice and happy." The apparent reason for the lack of response to the conditions of the lives of the characters of the students who wrote in response to The Little Fishes could be that this was the first book that was used in the study and the students simply were not used to the style of reading and the requests for writing that the researcher made. Perhaps, too, the students were still uncertain of displaying emotional responses in regard to the books. Conclusions drawn from the findings of Question Two are as follows. The students in this study did show involvement with their reading. A majority of the students did indicate an involvement with the main character in the three books. The involvement with the main character occurred possibly because the protagonist was close to the age of the students involved in the study and was the type of person (in each Of the three selections read) with whom one could become easily involved, the emphasis that the researcher place on the strength 191 of the protagonist and her/his reaction to the horrors of war in the class discussions could have influenced the involvement of the student and the main character of the three books. A majority of the students in the study (70.6 percent who responded to The Little Fishes, 70.6 percent who responded to Searching for Shona, and 94.1 percent of the students who responded to On the Other Side of the Gate) did identify the theme of the book. There were several contributing factors to the children's identity of the theme in each of these three books. Perhaps, hearing the book read aloud by the researcher and listening to the oral discussions held in connection with each book was a contributing factor in each child's recognition of the central topic or truth of the books. Hearing the opinions of the other students in the study expressed and having reinforcement of one's own feelings, could have made the identity of the theme easier for each student. The greatest involvement with the theme of the book occurred in response to On the Other Side of the Gate. The reason for this response is possibly the subject matter--the perse- cution of the Jewish people. The students became strongly involved with the happenings of the Warsaw Ghetto and seemed to really empathize with these people. A possible influencing factor was the position of this book (being last in the series of three books used). By the last book in the study, perhaps the students were more relaxed with the style and demands of the researcher and the writing choices that were proposed. The students were able to describe the lives of the characters in most _ cases. Yet when the students were asked to respond (giving some emo- tional indication of feeling regarding the lives of the characters), 192 most of those writing in response to The Little Fishes did not give any emotional response to the conditions of the lives of the characters. Perhaps this occurred because the world of the children of the study was so far removed from the world of the children of the story who were left on their own to wander the streets and roads of Italy. A second influencing factor was perhaps the order of the book in the study: The Little Fishes was the first book read and the students did not feel comfortable in giving emotional responses in writing. Research Question Three 3. Do the children show an insight for the historical climate of the story, in other words, do they recggr nize the causes and consequences of World War II and resppnd to these in their writing? According to the analysis of data relating to Question Three, most of the students in responding to the three selections of historical fiction did not recognize the causes and the consequences of World War 11. Of the seventeen students who responded to The Little Fishes, 17.7 percent responded to the causes of World War II in their writing, 82.3 percent did not; 23.5 percent responded to the consequences of the war in their writing, 76.5 percent did not; Of the seventeen who wrote in response to Searching for Shona, 11.8 percent responded to the causes of World War II in their writing, 88.2 percent did not; and 11.8 percent responded to the consequences of the war in their writing, 88.2 percent did not; of the seventeen who responded to On the Other Side of the Gate, 29.4 percent described the causes of World War II, 70.6 percent did not; and 70.6 percent described the consequences of the war when they wrote, 29.4 percent did not. 193 It is the opinion of the researcher that the failure of the students to respond to the causes and in two cases to the consequences of World War II was due, in part, to the lack of a historical background of the students. With the exception of a brief discussion at the begin- ning of the study to show the students where the countries of the Allies and of the Axis Powers were on a map and a brief overview Of the war, this fifth grade class had had almost no formal instruction in the history of the War. It was the purpose of this study to see how the students would respond to the historical fiction selections read aloud by the researcher. The books themselves were works of literature, fiction, and it was not their purpose or intent to instruct on the causes or the consequences of a war. They told a story which was set in World War II. The amount of history that the children found in the pages of these books was related to the story and to the characters. A majority of the students responded to the consequences of World War II in On the Other Side of the Gate. It appears that the setting of the concentration camp and the imprisonment of the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto did indeed influence the students to look beyond the end of the story to a time of closure in the future and the conseqeunces Of the ending for the main characters. Perhaps the writing assignment, suggested by the researcher, where the students were asked to write another ending to the story telling what happened to the main characters, influenced the student's outlook. Conclusions drawn from the findings of Question Three are as follows. The students in this study were either not astute enough to 194 recognize the causes and the consequences as drawn from inferences of the literature selections or they read from the story-line alone. The curriculum for social studies in their elementary school did not include information about World War II; this was included in the middle school social studies. These students had not been exposed to factual lessons regarding World War II in this study. The exception to the rule was the students who responded to the consequences of World War II in their writing. The setting and the imprisonment of the Jewish people in the Warsaw Ghetto was a possible influence on the children looking ahead for an outcome or a consequence of the War. The writing assign- ment which asked the children to write a sequel to the story, telling what happens to Hershel, Lena, and David, was also a possible influence on the children responding to the consequences of World War II. Research Question Four 4. How does the child view the historical aspects por- trayed in and or pertainingnto the historical fiction? a. Does the child view this as an unreal happening? Sub-question 'a' is one Of two sub-questions, developed by the researcher, which focused upon a separate aspect of Question Four. A majority of the students who responded to the three selections of historical fiction did not view this as an unreal happening. Of the students who responded to The Little Fishes. 64.7 percent showed no evidence of describing the history as not real, 23.5 percent showed some evidence of describing the history as not real, and 11.8 percent showed considerable evidence of describing the history as not real; 195 among the students who responded to Searching for Shona, 94.1 percent showed no evidence of describing the history as not real and 5.9 percent showed considerable evidence of describing the history as not real; 76.5 percent of the students who wrote in response to On the Other Side of the Gate showed no evidence of describing the history as not real, 5.9 percent showed some evidence of describing the history as not real, and 17.6 percent showed considerable evidence Of describing the history as not real. The writing that the students did in response to these books described the conditions of war as a reality and not as an unreal happening. They wrote of the bombings, of the death and destruction, as if the students almost took the fact of war for granted. An example of this type of writing is as follows: About five minutes ago, a fire broke out in a Naples harbor. An Allied plane flew over a German ship. The ship was bombed and exploded. The cause of it was war. Perhaps the invasion of the television set into the living rooms of America has made war and its horrors a reality of sorts. Certainly, the world of these students has been expanded by the coming of the media age to include television and motion pictures where war is made to be a common occurrence of everyday life. This study did not go into having the students define reality or deal specifically with World War 11. Yet from the responses to the proposed writing suggestions, war, as is shown in the example given above, was dealt with as a reality. In only a small number of students who responded in writing to these selections of historical fiction is there evidence of viewing this time in history as unreal. 196 b. Does the child view this as a reality for something that happened in the past? Regarding sub-question "b" of Question Four, the data revealed that the students involved in this study responded to history according to the book that was read. In regard to The Little Fishes, 70.6 percent showed a slight description of the event; 29.4 percent gave a moderate evidence of describing the event of history. In Searching for Shona, a clear majority of the students did not describe the events of the times in their writing. Of the students who responded to Searching for Shona, 88.2 percent showed a slight evidence in their writing of describing the events of history while 11.8 percent described the events of history with moderate evidence. Relating to On the Other Side of the Gate, a majority of the students did describe the events of history in their writing. Of the students who responded to this book, 70.6 percent responded with a moderate evidence of describing the events of history in their writing, while 29.4 percent did show only a slight evidence of describing the events of history in their writing. In the Opinion of the researcher, the book dictated the response of history in their writing. While The Little Fishes and On the Other Side of the Gate were closely woven around the events of World War II, Searching for Shona did not appear to be as involved with the history of the times as did the other two. The setting of the story could have influenced this reaction: The Little Fishes was set in war-torn Italy, and the war was happening around it; On the Other Side of the Gate was set in the Warsaw Ghetto, and the reality 197 of the cruelty to the Jewish people was evident. On the other hand, Searching for Shona was set in Scotland where the children from Edinburgh had been evacuated. While the war events did influence the story, the setting was really more removed from the actuality of war. Conclusions drawn from the findings of Question Four: the students in this study were aware of the history of the setting of the three books read. They knew that World War II was a happening of a long time ago. Whether or not they had a full measure of the impact of the horrors of this War is a question that was not answered by this study. Whether or not any of us ever look at the horrors of war as a reality and fully understand the consequences is a question that has not been answered. Research Question Five 5. How do individual children regpond in writing to the story? a. Is there evidence of a personal involvement with no reference to the story? Sub-question 'a' is one of two sub-questions, developed by the researcher, which focused upon a separate aspect of Question Five. A great majority of the students showed no evidence Of responding to the story in a personal way without reference to the story. In response to The Little Fishes, 52.9 percent of those who wrote did not respond in a personal way without reference to the story, 29.4 percent showed some evidence of responding in a personal way without reference to the story and 17.6 percent showed considerable evidence of responding in a 198 personal way without reference to the story. Among the students who responded to Searching for Shona, 94.1 percent showed no evidence of responding in a personal way without reference to the story, 5.9 percent showed some evidence of responding to the story in a personal way with- out reference to the story. Of the students who responded to On the Other Side of the Gate, 76.5 percent showed no evidence of responding to the story in a personal way without reference to the story, 23.5 percent showed some evidence of responding to the story in a personal way without reference to the story. In the opinion of the researcher, the age and maturity of the students was responsible for this lack of a personal response with no reference to the story. The children simply were not able to evoke personal feelings for the events described in these three books without the framework of the writing assignments or without the content of the story. If the research study had lasted longer than the eight weeks that it was conducted, perhaps the students would have become more intimate and personal in their response and writing. It is also difficult for students who have not written extensively to write abstractly about their feelings. b. Is there evidence of a response on the factual or abstract level with no reference made to personal feelings? Some of the students responded to the historical climate of the book without reference to personal feelings according to the book that they were responding to. Of the students who responded to The Little Fishes, 70.6 percent did not respond on the factual or abstract level with no reference to personal feelings; 29.4 percent did make somewhat 199 of a response on the factual or abstract level with no reference to personal feelings; of the students who responded to Searching for Shona, 88.2 percent did not respond on the factual or abstract level with no reference to personal feelings, 11.8 percent showed somewhat of a response on the factual or abstract level with no reference to per- sonal feelings; and among the students who responded to On the Other Side of the Gate. 29.4 percent showed no indication of responding on the factual or abstract level with no reference to personal feelings, and 70.6 percent showed somewhat of a response on the factual or abstract level with no reference to personal feelings. The age and maturity of the students influenced their response on the factual or abstract level without reference to personal feelings. Their response was perhaps influenced by the historical setting of the story and the way that they absorbed the history from the reading. c. Does the child summarize the story? Of the seventeen students who responded to The Little Fishes, none used the technique of summarization in responding to the boOk. Of the students who responded to Searching for Shona, 5.9 percent of the students summarized the story in their writing, and 94.1 percent did not summarize the story. Among the students who wrote in response to On the Other Side of the Gate, one student (5.9 percent) summarized the story, and 94.1 percent of the students writing in response to this book did not summarize the story. The students, in the opinion of the researcher, did not summarize the stories in these three books for two reasons. A possible reason that the students did not summarize in these 200 three books was the wording Of the writing suggestions that the researcher gave the students. In each instance, the writing suggestion that the students responded to was worded around a specific writing task for the students to do. These suggestions did not contain sit- uations where a summarization of the story was necessary. If the writing suggestion had perhaps asked, "What was this book about?" the students would have (possibly) responded with a summary. However, the way that the writing suggestions were worded prevented in most cases the students summarizing. Possibly a second factor which kept the students from summarizing the books was the amount of time that having to write a summary would have taken. These students were not experienced writers and having to write a lengthy summary would have presented in more challenging writing experience than most of these students would have wanted. Conclusions drawn from the findings of Question Five are as follows. The students used the framework of the story to write their response and did not respond in a personal way to the story. In the opinion of the researcher, the age and maturity of the students effected the lack of a personal response. The students may have been willing to be more intimate or personal in their responses had the study lasted longer than eight weeks. The response that the students made to the story reporting her/his response in a factual or an abstract way without referring to personal feelings is dependent upon the age and maturity of the student and on the student's knowledge of history. Responding to the story in a factual or an abstract fashion 201 without referring to personal feelings is perhaps a more mature trait than these students were ready to perform. The lack of history in their school curriculum influenced the depth of their response. The historical climate of the story and its influence on the story may have influenced the response of the student on the factual or the abstract level. The students, for the most part, did not summarize the stories. The wording of the writing suggestions and the amount of time that it would have taken an inexperienced writer to write a summary of a book were perhaps two factors which influenced the lack of using summarization as a writing technique. Research Question Six 6. What specific characteristics of the expressive function of writing are evidenced when the writer selects this function of writing as a way of responding to the historical fiction selection? a. Does she/he use the first person pronoun to describe her/his response to the story? Sub-question 'a' is the first of three sub-questions, developed by the researcher, which focused upon a separate aspect of Question Six. Twenty-two (43.1 percent) students selected to write in the expressive writing function as a way of responding to the three selections of historical fiction. Of those who responded to The Little Fishes by writing in the expressive function of writing, none of the students chose to use the first person pronoun to describe their response to the story. Among those who responded to Searching for Shona, 76.9 percent used the first person pronoun to describe her/his response to the story; 23.1 percent did not use the first person pronoun to 202 describe their response. Of the students who wrote in response to On the Other Side of the Gate, 100 percent of those using the expres- sive function of writing wrote using the first person pronoun to describe their response. In responding to the three selections of historical fiction, the expressive was the writing function selected second in popularity by the students. Most of the students did use the first person pronoun, 'I,' when writing in response to an expres- sive writing function suggestion. There were instances when the stu- dent wrote in the expressive writing function and expressed her/his opinions using 'you' addressing the writing to an intimate reader. This will be covered in the next sub-question. b. Does she/he use the secondrperson pronoun, addressing the writing_to 'you,' an intimate reader? A majority of the students when responding to The Little Fishes (100 percent) used the second person pronoun addressing the writing to 'you' an intimate reader. Of the students who responded to Searching for Shona, 92.3 percent used the second person pronoun addressing the writing to 'you' an intimate reader when selecting the expressive func- tion of writing; one student (7.7 percent) did not use the second person pronoun when selecting the expressive writing function. Three students (37.5 percent) did select the second person pronoun addressing the writing to 'you' an intimate reader when selecting the expressive writing function in response to On the Other Side of the Gate. The writing suggestions that the researcher gave to the students perhaps influenced their use of the second person pronoun, addressing their 203 writing to an intimate reader. On one suggestion, the students were asked to write a letter to Hitler and to tell him why they felt that the war should end in Italy. This occasion of writing in the expres- sive writing function, caused one boy to use the second person pronoun addressing the writing to 'you' an intimate reader. In the Opinion of the researcher, the lack of writing experiences of the children and the short time allotted for this research study, did affect the level of writing that the child produced. There was not time in eight weeks to discuss a sense of audience and to attempt to give the children's writ- ing some direction. It was instead the purpose of the study to obtain the child's initial response to the books used. c. Does she/he write in a self—revealing way? Referring to the analysis of data, none of the students who wrote in the expressive writing function when responding to The Little Fishes wrote in a self-revealing way. Of those who wrote in the expres- sive writing function when responding to Searching for Shona, 91.7 per- cent did write in a self-revealing way; 8.3 percent did not write in a self-revealing way when writing in response to the expressive function of writing. Of those who wrote in response to On the Other Side of the geie, 87.5 percent did write in a self-revealing way and 12.5 percent did not write in a self-revealing way, when they selected to write in the expressive writing function. The writing suggestions proposed by the researcher perhaps influenced the choice of the students to write in an open and revealing way. Due to a lack of writing experiences and a lack of experiences in responding to literature, the class was 204 not experienced enough to respond in an open and self-revealing way. When they did express some part of their own person, it was limited and dependent on the writing suggestion proposed by the researcher. The age and maturity of the students perhaps played a part in their being open and self-revealing. The limited time of the study and the limited time that the researcher was with the class could also have been a contributed factor in the way that the students felt about revealing their own person. Conclusions drawn from the findings of Question Six are as follows. The expressive writing function was the second choice in popularity of the students when they selected a writing function. They did respond to the writing assignments which were proposed by the researcher, mostly giving opinions, or expressing concerns. Their level of writing was not sophisticated or profound enough in most cases to include the first person pronoun. This study did not include instruction as to a sense of audience. It was the intent of this research project to first Obtain the initial response of the student to the selections of historical fiction. There was not time to do more than that. In the opinion of this researcher, this class could have been challenged beyond where they were in writing and in response to literature, had they been presented the Opportunity in a less intense (than the eight week research study) manner. 205 Research Question Seven 7. What specific characteristics of the transactional function of writing are evidenced when the writer selects this function of writing as a way of regponse to the historical fiction selection? a. upes she/he use language to explain the historical event? Sub-question 'a' is one of four sub-questions, developed by the researcher, which focused upon a separate aspect Of Question Seven. Referring to the data for Question Seven, the transactional function of writing had the least number of respondents of any of the writing func- tions. Three students responded to writing suggestions in the trans- actional function of writing. In the opinion of this researcher, two factors could have influenced this low number of respondents. The first factor could have been the child approached the writing sug- gestions and decided that she/he did not really have enough factual information obtained from the oral reading of the books to adequately write in the transactional writing suggestion. The second factor that perhaps influenced the child's choice of writing functions was that she/he perceived the transactional writing function as being more like 'school work' than the other two. Of the three students who did select the transactional writing function, each of them used language that explained the historical event. The students were able to effectively take the language of the historical event as told in the three selections of historical fiction and to use the facts in their own writing to express their feelings about the historical event. 206 b. Does sherhe use language to persuade people to accept her/his view of the story? Of the three students who selected the transactional function of writing to respond to the three selections of historical fiction, none of them used language to persuade the reader to accept her/his view of the story when referring to The Little Fishes and Searching ' for Shona. One student did use language to persuade the reader to accept her/his view of the story when responding to On the Other Side of the Gate. Using language to persuade someone to accept one's view of a book is, in the Opinion of this researcher, a mature writing ability and one that would come with practice. The one student who did use language to persuade people to accept her/his view of the story did so with language of a very superficial level. c. Does she/he use language to record facts? Each of the three students who responded to the transactional function of writing in response to the three historical fiction selec- tions did use language to record facts. These were facts about the historical happenings of the story which the students obtained from listening to the three selections of historical fiction read aloud by the researcher and to listening to the oral discussions of the three books. The students who did record facts in their writing were able to take the facts from the readings and from the discussions and incorporated them into their own writing experience. 207 d. Does sne/he use language torpresent opinions about the historical event? A clear majority of the students who wrote in the transactional function of writing did not use language to present (personal) opinions about the historical event. Of the three students who wrote in response to the transactional function of writing, only one student writing in response to On the Other Side of the Gate used language to present opinions (personal) about the historical event. The age of the student and the lack of writing experiences of these particular students influ- enced their ability to present opinions about the historical event. Conclusions drawn from the findings of Question Seven are as follows. Only three Of the students who wrote in response to the three historical fiction selections, selected the transactional writing func- tion. In the opinion of this researcher, there are two factors which influenced this lack of response. The first factor is that the students perhaps did not feel that they had enough 'facts' gathered from the writing and from the oral discussions to write adequately in response to the transactional function writing suggestion. The second factor which was perhaps an influencing factor was that the transactional writing function is closest to the 'school writing assignment' and was perhaps perceived as the most 'difficult' by the students in this study. The ones who did select the transactional writing function responded by using language to explain the historical event and by using language to record facts. These facts were gathered from the oral reading of the three selections of historical fiction and from the oral discussions which followed the reading Of each book. When 208 responding to the transactional writing function, a majority of these students did not try to persuade the reader to accept her/his opinion about the book nor did they present (personal) opinions about the book. In the opinion of this researcher, trying to persuade the reader to accept one's opinion about the historical event is a more sophisticated writing tool and not really on the level with these students. This study revealed that the students involved for the most part did not become intimate or personal in their writing. Perhaps this was attri- buted to two factors: one, the shortness of the time allotted to this study (the researcher was only with the students for eight weeks) and two, the age and maturity of writing experiences of the students. Research Question Eight 8. What gpecific characteristics of the poetic function of writing are evidenced when the writer selects this function as a way of responding to the historical selection? , a. Does she/he use language that is arranged in the form of a short story, play, or poem? The researcher developed one sub-question which focused upon a separate aspect of Question Eight. The students selected the poetic writing function as the most popular form of writing in the study. Of the fifty-one students who responded to the three selections of histor- ical fiction in their writing, 51.0 percent selected the poetic writing function. They responded to the books with poems, short stories, and plays. The short story was the most popular form of writing that they selected in the poetic with the poem second in popularity. Of the students who responded to The Little Fishes, 53.3 percent selected 209 a poem as a response, 33.3 percent selected a short story in response to the book and none of the students responded to the book by selecting a play. Among the students who responded to Searching for Shona, three (100 percent) selected a short story and none of the respondents to the poetic function of writing selected a poem or a play. Of the students who wrote in the poetic writing function in response to On the Other Side of the Gate, 62.5 percent selected a short story, 25.0 percent selected a play, and 12.5 percent selected a poem. In explaining the popularity of the poetic writing function with these fifth grade stu- dents, there are perhaps four influencing factors. The wording of the writing suggestions given by the researcher could have influenced the selection of the poetic writing function. The children perhaps per- ceived this as the 'fun' category of the three. At the time of the research project, the children were participating in a play at school which could have prompted them to try to write their own play. This age child is perhaps best suited to write in the poetic. The forms for this type of writing are easily obtained from their reading and their imaginations are usually open and receptive to creating. Some of the students approached the researcher and wanted to write more Of the diamantes and one girl wrote a poem for the researcher. These are found in Appendix F of this study. The length of the study prevented the class from writing additional writing in this category, however, in the opinion of the researcher, these students would have enjoyed more poetic writing. 210 Conclusions This descriptive study was designed to study the responses that children make to historical fiction as reflected in their writing. From this study this researcher has concluded that literature as a springboard to writing experiences is an excellent stimulus. The use of historical fiction involved the students in a setting of World War II that gave them a feel for the era of the War. An analysis of the responses that the students' gave to the causes and the consequences of the War revealed that they perhaps did not understand the background or the outcome of the War. However, they did have a feeling for the protagonist involved in the three stories and were able to identify the theme of the books. The students involved in this study for the most part seemed to view what happened in the story as a reality for something that happened in the past. They did not appear to view these stories as unreal. When responding in writing, the selection Of historical fiction seemed to affect the choice of discourse method. In other words, the students chose different discourse methods to respond to the selections and did not seem to have a favorite. The expressive and the poetic were selected by a clear majority of the students over the transactional, which in the view of this researcher, was perceived by the students to be too much of a school assignment than were the other two. The stu- dents were not as SOphisticated in their writing experiences nor as astute in their responses as they might have been had writing and 211 response been more familiar to them. In writing in response to the various writing functions, the students showed that age and maturity were factors reflecting in their writing as was past experiences in writing. The majority of the students were enthusiastic about the selections of historical fiction read aloud and did not need encour- agement to listen to the researcher read aloud. Their enthusiasm for hearing the books was unmarked. Erpblems Encountered in This Research 1. The time limitation of two months (eight weeks) was too short a time for the students to become accustomed to the style and the demands of the researcher and to respond via the writing functions. 2. The age and lack of maturity of the students and their lack of experiences in writing and in responding orally to the three selections of historical fiction limited the results of the study. 3. Having to fit the research study into the existing schedule of the school and having to accommodate changes and inter- ruptions during the time that was allotted to the study posed problems. 4. Reading and responding and writing with any degree of depth had not been stressed by the current or the previous classroom teacher. The study would have been more effective if these teachers had placed more value and importance on writing and responding to literature. Another factor that could have affected their writing choices was their developmental stage. Had they been Older, they might have chosen the transactional writing function more frequently than the expressive or the poetic. 212 Recommendatiogs for Further Research This study should be replicated over a longer period of time and with an older age group. Perhaps having a four-month study using middle school students would be effective. Looking at the writing research that could be done, a study in which students would write just in the expressive function or just in the poetic function in response to literature would be worthwhile. There is need for research in writing that would look at the effect of feedback on the student's writing and what this type of feedback means when it is given by various other readers: classmates, the teacher, other significant adults. Changing the genre of literature used as the stimulus would perhaps create different responses. Using science fiction or folklore instead of historical fiction would make an interesting research study. A case study approach using only four or five students instead of an entire class with literature used as the stimulus for writing and discussion would provide a different approach to this type of research. In this case, the researcher could moderate the group and serve as a participant observer in recording the comments and responses of the group to the literature selection. Finding a more suitable instrument to evaluate the student's response in writing would be worthwhile and perhaps add to the depth of the data analysis gathered. Changing the method of Obtaining the responses to literature and using oral responses instead of written responses would give a different approach to the study. 213 Following a group of students over several years and grades to ascertain the maturity and changes that they make in their response to literature through writing would make a worthwhile study. By changing the setting of the historical fiction from, say, World War II to the American Revolution, a different response to the research study would perhaps be given. The student's response would be different through exposure to an earlier period of history. University researchers going into an already established classroom should be aware that they could encounter resistance from classroom teachers who perhaps do not value their research. University researchers performing studies in writing and literature should also be aware that there are teachers who do not include writing and extensive readings from quality children's literature in their class- room curriculums. In such instances where writing and literature are not stressed, it may perhaps be difficult for the research to conduct her/his research in the most effective and fruitful manner. Therefore, one might select another classroom where literature and writing were valued or elect to conduct the research in another school. APPENDIX A LETTERS TO PARENTS AND CONSENT FORM APPENDIX A LETTERS TO PARENTS AND CONSENT FORM January 14, 1982 Dear Parents, Mrs. Diane Ross, a graduate student at M.S.U. will be working at our school for the next ten weeks. She will be helping the students in room during this time. She is a graduate of University of Mississippi and University of Alabama and is working on her doctorate at M.S.U. We're glad to have her help here at Sincerely, Elementary School Principal 214 215 Dear Parents: During the next ten weeks, I will be conducting a study with the fifth grade of Elementary School as a partial fulfillment for my doctoral degree in education from Michigan State University. I am working on this project with the COOperation of the administration and of your child's teacher. My study is to look at the way that children respond to historical fiction as reflected in their writing. I plan to read aloud to the children three selections of historical fiction dealing with the child as victim of war in World War II. The selections that I plan to use are: 1. Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson; 2. The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard; and 3. On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl. After hearing the stories read aloud, the children will be asked to respond to the reading through writing. They may select either one of the suggested writing experiences that I provide or they may write something of their own choosing. The writing that they do will help me to draw conclusions as to how children of this age do indeed respond to what they read. I will use the results of their writing to support my doctoral dissertation. At no time and in no way will I ever identify the children or the school from which the writing was obtained. During the time that we are reading and writing together, I expect the children involved in the study to improve the quality of their writing, to develop greater skills of oral language ability, and to gain empathy for children of other times. I believe that participating in this study will provide an enriching educational experience for your child. I have enclosed with this letter a consent form that will be necessary for you to sign in order for your child to participate in this study. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me. I hope that you will agree for your child to participate in my study. I look forward to working with your son/daughter. Sincerely, Dianne H. Ross 216 FORM OF CONSENT I give my child permission to take part in the study conducted by Diane Ross at Elementary School. I have read the following statements and am in accord with their contents. 1. This study has been adequately explained to me and I understand its contents. I understand that my child will participate freely in this study. I understand that my child is free to withdraw from this study at any time. I understand that all results from this study will be treated with strict confidence and the subject and the school will remain anonymous. I understand that my child can have the results Of this study on request. I understand that the person conducting this study does not guarantee beneficial results from this study. (Parent's signature) APPENDIX B WRITING SUGGESTIONS TO GAIN CHILDREN'S RESPONSES APPENDIX B WRITING SUGGESTIONS TO GAIN CHILDREN'S RESPONSES Writing Number 1: Select one of the following ways to respond to The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard. If you do not find a way that you want to respond to the book given here, then you may write about the book in any way that you choose. 1. As The Little Fishes ends, Mario is dead, Anna and Guido are again wandering the roads of Italy. The reader is not sure what happens to the children. Write a sequel to the book as a short story telling your version of what happens to the children. War is always with Anna, Guido, and Mario. Sometimes it seems as if war is a character of the story, too. Make a list of words that make you think of war. Include words that describe war to your senses. (How is war shaped? How does war smell? What sounds does war make?) When you have completed your list, write a poem describing war using words from your list. Remember not all poems have to rhyme. (You may not use the diamantes that we did in class.) Pretend that you are a news correspondent for the "Naples Daily Sun." You have been sent to the harbor to cover the bombing by the Allied planes that took place there. A German ship is burn- ing in the harbor. Twenty refugees are standing around watching. From your training in writing news articles, you know that you first include the 5 W's (who, what, where, when, and why) as your lead paragraph. You also will remember that next you will include important details and that last you will put lesser details. Now write your news article about this important event. Benito Mussolini was the dictator of Italy and he convinced the Italian people to follow the Germans and their dictator, Hitler, in the war. The Italians surrendered, but the Germans kept fight- ing. Why did the Germans not surrender and end the horrors of war? Pretend that you are Guido and write a business letter to Hitler, the German dictator, telling him why he must surrender for the good of the Italians. Guido's address: Guido Hitler's address: Adolph Hitler The Caves Headquarters Naples, Italy The Third Reich Berlin, Germany 217 218 The German officer forces the children to move from the mill. He tells Guido that it is his orders to move the children. He says to Guido, "You don't understand war." Guido thinks, 'I don't speak for what was there for me to say? Who understands war? the soldiers? the homeless ones? Mussolini? or the leaders?‘ What is war? What is there to understand about this war? 00 you understand this war? Tell me about your feelings regarding war. Before Guido's mother dies, she told him: "Be strong, Guido. You are all alone. Be strong like iron. But be kind, too; or you will wear yourself out. Don't be so strong that you will become lonesome.‘I Have you ever had a time in your life when you felt that you had to be especially strong and maybe even Older than you really were? How did you feel? Have you ever felt alone and really had to rely on yoUrself? Tell me how you felt. Write about your feelings when you were alone and had to be strong. 219 Writing Number 2: Select one of the following ways to respond to Searching_for Shona, by Margaret Anderson. If you do not find a way that you want to respond to the book, given here, write about the book in any way that you choose. 1. In the end of the book, Shona refuses to recognize Marjorie. Shona pretends that she has never seen Marjorie and in the end, Shona takes everything from Marjorie, her money, her inheritance, her name. Yet is the real Marjorie a loser? Write a letter to Marjorie and tell her how you feel about Shona (the real Shona) and the way that she treated Marjorie. Be sure and tell her why you feel as you do. Shona and Marjorie decide to change identities as each is about to leave Edinburgh. Shona becomes Marjorie and goes to Canada; Marjorie becomes Shona and goes to Canobie. Write a story about a person who decides to change identities. Include who your story is about; where your story happens and when it happens. If you need help getting started, you may want to use one of the following story starters: "One night, Tom's parents called him into their room and laid the law down about his low math grade. Brother that was all, Tom decided to. . . ." "It all happened to Susan when she decided to stay at the cottage for one week longer. . . ." Write a news article about the evacuation of the children from Edinburgh. You might want to pretend to be a reporter for the Edinburgh Daily News. Remember what news articles contain: the 4 W's (who, what, when, where). 220 Writing Number 3: Select one of the following ways to respond to The Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Shul. If you do not find a way that you want to respond to the book given here, write about the book in any way that you choose. l. Pretend that you have been asked to write a chapter for a children's nonfiction book about the Jewish Warsaw Ghetto. You know how the Jews came to be placed in one Ghetto and why they were sent there. You know how life for them was there and the laws and restrictions under which they lived. You know that some of them didn't live to see the end of the war but were sent to concentration camps. Tell as much as you remember about the Ghetto. Remember most of the children who read your chapter will not know as much as you do. 2. The Other Side of the Gate ends with David escaping from the Warsaw Ghetto. Suppose that Hershel and Lena manage to avoid the concen- tration camp and four years later are able to find the Belowski's and David. What will happen to David? Which family will take him? Will he want to go with his real family or with his adopted family? Write a play about this meeting and the way that the story finally ends. Remember a play is like a short story, only you write the name of the person who is speaking before the sentence spoken. An example of the way that a play is written: Hershel: Good Morning, Lena. Lena: Good Morning, Hershel. 3. Through the pages of The Other Side of the Gate, we have met people whose lives were made miserable because of their religion. We have seen how a young family tries to save their son and to survive themselves. Write a letter to a friend and tell this friend how you feel about the events of this book, about the way the Jews were treated, about the horrors of the war. You can address your letter to Dear Diary but make sure you tell how you feel. APPENDIX C ORAL DISCOURSE: THREE HISTORICAL FICTION SELECTIONS APPENDIX C ORAL DISCOURSE: THREE HISTORICAL FICTION SELECTIONS Oral Discussion: The Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard I. Transactional Function of Discourse The Objective of this lesson is to conduct a class discussion of Ine_ Little Fishes, by Erik Haugaard, using the transactional function of discourse. Question: Suppose our group has been asked to write an encyclopedia article describing Naples and Italy in 1943 (the time that Guido and Anna were wandering the streets and roads). What do you think that we should include in our article? Remember in an encyclopedia article everything that we say must be true. (The following response to this question is made up of oral suggestions from the children and recorded by the researcher on the chalkboard.) "Italy--1943" World War II: the whole world is at war. Italy is part of the Axis powers. The Axis powers include Italy, Japan, and Germany. Benito Mussolini is the dictator of Italy. Tojo is the dictator of Japan. Adolf Hitler is the dictator of Germany. The other side was the Allied powers. This included all the other countries. Especially involved were Great Britain, United States, France, Denmark, Austria, Russia, Holland, Yugoslavia. The Americans and the British provided the air power. When the peOple of an occupied country did not wish to be a part of the enemy takeover, they formed a group known as the resistance. The resistance was a group of ordinary people who tried to make it difficult for the enemy. In Italy, the United States and Great Briatin bombed German targets. Finally, Italy surrendered and the Germans continued to fight in Italy. There were thousands of homeless refugees and orphans during and after the war. Germany didn't surrender until Hitler killed himself. 221 222 II. Erpressive Function of Discourse The objective of this lesson is to conduct a class discussion of Ine_ Little Fishes using the expressive function of discourse. Question: After the air raid, Guido sees an Old woman who has lost her cat. He sees the woman crying and he looks at her in scorn. He feels that she is silly to love the cat so much when there are so many peOple dying. Yet the cat is all the woman has. Have you ever had something that you loved as she did the cat? Have you ever had something that you loved like that and in the end, lost it as the Old woman did the cat? How does it feel to be the old woman and to lose the only thing that you had to love? How would you feel if you lost the one thing that you had to love? "My dog dies last year. We were sad and then we got another dog." "We have a dog that gets in the road. My mom says that some day she is going to kill it." "Our dog is real old and we may have to put her to sleep." III. Poetic Function of Discourse The objective of this lesson is to conduct a class discussion of Ine_ Little Fishes using the poetic function of discourse. Diamantes: There are many ways that you can respond to the story that we have read. One way is through poetry. I would like for us to do a group poem together. It is called a diamantes. In a diamantes, you have a form to follow which will help you to write poetry. A diamantes is shaped like a diamond. It follows this pattern: 1. 223 A diamante has the following form: 1. One word: subject, a noun. 2. Two words: adjectives to describe the subject. 3. Three words: participles referring to the subject (ending in either "ing' or '1y.' 4. Four words: nouns, related to the subject 5. Three words: participles (ending in '1y' and 'ing' depending on the ending of item 3: if 3 ends in '1y' then 5 must end in 'ly,' if 3 ends in 'ing' then 5 must end in 'ing'). 6. Two words: adjectives referring to the last word of the diamante 7. One word: a noun, Opposite of the subject. Example given by researcher: Summer Carefree, Golden Skipping, Flowing, Running Sun, Flowers, Grass, Trees Snowing, Freezing, Blowing Angry, Gray Winter Oral response to diamante recorded on the chalkboard by the researcher: War Gory, Bloody Hurting, Willing, Suffering Guns, Bombs, Airplanes, Soldiers Loving, Caring, Sharing Calm, Quiet Peace 224 Oral Discussion: Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson I. Expressive Function of Discourse The objective of this lesson is to conduct a class discussion of Searching for Shona, by Margaret Anderson, using the expressive function of writing. Question: In the book, Searching for Shona, there are two girls who change lives for what turns out to be forever. One girl Marjorie moves to the country village and lives a quiet life with two ladies and another orphan. There, she finds that she is loved and needed. The other girl, Shona, goes to Canada and is raised in a wealthy family. In your opinion, who is the winner and who is the loser in this situation? (The following response to this question is made up of oral suggestions from the children and recorded by the researcher on the chalkboard.) Winner: Marjorie Winner: Shona had love wasn't really in the war (in Canada) someone to care had money a real family a sister and two mothers Loser: Marjprie Loser: Shona lost her family name never knew her parents (or about lost her money them) had to live in the War lost love, never really having a family to care about her II. Transactional Function of Discourse The objective of this lesson is to conduct a class discussion of Searching for Shona using the transactional function of discourse. Question: Suppose that our class has been asked to write a chapter for a children's history book on the children who were evacuees from the cities in World War II. In this chapter, we are to include as much information as we can about the evacuees from Edinburgh. What can we tell them? (The following response to this question is made up of oral suggestions from the children and recorded by the researcher on the chalkboard.) 225 It is mid-September 1939. Germany is at war with Britain. The children are taken to the country to keep them safe from the bombings of the cities. The children were taken to small towns. During air raids, there would be blackouts where the area would be without light. The people would go into shelters. Some of the shelters were no more than make-shift closets. The children were issued gas masks so that they could live through the bombings. The parents put their children on the trains to go to the country. The parents could not go because there was no room. III. Poetic Function of Discourse The objective of this lesson is to conduct a class discussion of Searching for Shona using the poetic form of discourse. Question: Using the following story starter, create your own short oral short story. Remember to include in your story: une_are the characters in your story; where the place your story will take place; what is the character doing or what problem does she/he face? Story Starter: Shona McInnes and Marjorie Malcolm Scott meet in the crowded Waverly station. They see each other across the station and hurry to say, 'hello.' "Where are you going?" asked Shona. "To Canada," said Marjorie. "Oh, aren't you lucky!“ said Shona. "I know. I can't wait to get to Canada, said Marjorie. (Since this is not the way that the real story happened, what do you suppose the result Of this story will be: with the real Shona going to Canobie and Marjorie going to Canada.) Marjorie goes on to Canada and Shona goes to Canobie. In Canobie. Shona is taken prisoner by a group of German soldiers. She is sent to Germany on board a troop ship to be put in a concentration camp. She is unhappy and tries to escape. Finally. she is successful and she goes back to Canobie. There she finds the town evacuated. The gov- ernment sends her back to Canada where she finds Marjorie. 226 Oral Discussion: On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl. I. Poetic Function of Discourse The objective of this lesson is to conduct a class discussion of On the Other Side of the Gate, by Yuri Suhl, using the poetic function 0 discourse. Question: The Warsaw Ghetto was the home of many Jewish peOple for the length of the war. I would like for us to compose a poem telling about life in the Ghetto. In the poem, please include information about what you gee_there, how it feels to be there, what it smells like, and what sounds you hear. Let your imagination loose and really be in the Ghetto. Before we write, let's list some of the feelings we can imagine about the Ghetto. §ee_ Feel Smell Sound death crowdedness skunk quiet black lonely farm cry fences grimy dirty bathroom sudden loud noises poverty tempted to garbage gun shots blood escape cries of 'help!I cloudiness blocked in strange hungry weak sick (The following response to this question is made of oral suggestions from the children and recorded by the researcher on the chalkboard.) 'Ghetto' In the Ghetto there is death, I can only see the black. There is crowdedness, yet I feel lonely, Gunshots and cries of 'help' don't explain it all. The smell of garbage and the fences surround me. I am tempted to be free of this place once and for all. Yet with all of this crowdedness and cloudiness, I reach up to Hope. 227 II. Expressive Function of Writing The objective of this lesson is to conduct a class discussion of Qn The Other Side of the Gate using the expressive function of writing. Question: Suppose you were a resident in Warsaw when the Jewish people were given twenty-four hours to pack their belongings and move to the Ghetto. How do you think you would feel as you watched the people walking down the street with whatever they could carry going to the Ghetto? Suppose you were going home to describe what you had seen to your family and you also wanted to tell them how you felt about this, what would you say? As you walk to work in Warsaw each day, you see the people lined up at the fence staring out at you, you try to describe the scene to your family at night, what do you say? Years have gone by and you are still living in Warsaw, one of your children asks you why the Ghetto had to be, what do you say? How do you feel? (The following are oral responses to this question.) "Nobody should have to be locked up for their religion." “I'd feel sorry for the children and all." "It is not fair the way the Germans treat the Jews." "I'm not sure what I would say. Why did the Germans do that?" III. Transactional Function of Discourse The objective of this lesson is to conduct a class discussion of Qn_ the Other Side of the Gate using the transactional function of writing. Question: Write a short news article about the Jewish people being sent to the Ghetto. Remember to include the 4 W's: Who, What, When, and Why. (The following response to this question is made of oral suggestions from the children and recorded by the researcher on the chalkboard.) Today, the Jews were sent to live in one place. It is called the Warsaw Ghetto. They were sent by the Germans and by Hitler. They will have to live there for a long time. They may have to go to a concentra- tion camp. The Jews were told to bring what they could carry but not furniture. There are to be no babies born in the Ghetto. APPENDIX D SAMPLE LESSON PLANS APPENDIX D SAMPLE LESSON PLANS Literary Selection: Haugaard, Erik. The Little Fishes. Illustrated by Milton Johnson. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1967. Session 1: Purpose: To introduce the class to Italy in 1943 and to the book The Little Fishes. Skill 1: The ability to establish a personal involvement with the main character. The researcher will say: When the story Of The Little Fishes is told, Italy is at war with the Allied Powers. Italy is a part of the Axis Powers which included Germany and Japan. The Allies are Great Britain, France, the United States, Austria, Holland, and so on through the remaining European countries. (Show the countries on the map.) Italy was ruled by Mussolini, a dictator. The war did not work in Italy; the Italians were not good soldiers. Poverty was everywhere and the poor were forced into the streets to beg because their homes had, for the most part, been destroyed and they were very poor. Guido and Anna and Mario, the main characters of the book that we are going to read, were a part of the children who roamed the streets of Italy, begging. They were called 'the little fishes.‘ Reading Time: 30 minutes (Chapters 1 and 2). Discussion: Literal Discussion Questions: Who is Guido? What is the setting of the story? Who is Father Pietro? Who is Don Carlos? Tell me about Guido's house. What is Guido's treasure? How much money does Anna decide to charge Guido to bring home his treasure? What does Guido keep in his wooden box? m NO‘U‘IDWN-J Interpretative Questions: 1. Why were the children begging? 2. What event had caused them to be homeless? 3. Do you think that life was fair to these children? 228 229 4. Could you survive like they are doing if you had to live in the streets as they are doing? What would you do? How would you live? 5. Why were the Germans in Italy? 6. Why were the children called 'The Little Fishes'? 7. Why did Don Carlos question the children about the bread? Additional Interpretative Questions: 1. How did you like Guido? Would you like to have him as a friend? 2. Do you think that life was unfair to Guido and to these children? 3. So far, what do you think of this story? 4. Whose story is it? Who is telling the story? 5. If Guido lived today and went to your school, what kind of a person would he be? Session 2: Purpose: TO involve the students in the story of The Little Fishes stressing the background of the war and its effect on the begging children. Skill 2: The ability to recognize the theme Of the book. Reading Time: 35 minutes (Chapters 3 and 4). Discussion: Literal Discussion Questions: Who was 'Sack of Bones'? What kind of an animal did he have? Who did Guido say that his father was? Where was Guido's 'real' mother? Who did Guido and his mother live with in the country? What did Guido's mother tell him about how to live? U'l-hUJN—J Interpretative Questions: 1. Why do you think Father Pietro and the old man known as 'Sack of Bones' were friends? 2. Do you think that it was difficult for Guido to beg? 3. Why did Guido save bread for Anna when he at first refused to give her any? 4 Were Guido and his mother alike in personality? How were they alike? 5. Why did Guido's aunt say that 'he could go a whole day without saying a word'? Did she think Guido was wrong not to talk? Did Guido's aunt talk a lot? 230 Additional Interpretative Questions: 1. Do you think that Guido was wrong to beg? DO you think that Guido was wrong to steal bread? 2. Do you think that Guido was wrong to lie to Anna about the bread? 3. Is it wrong to beg, to lie, and to steal? When is it not wrong to beg, to lie, or to steal? 4. How is war hard on the innocent? Who are the innocent in this story? 5. What do you think that the message is that Mr. Haugaard is trying to give you in this book? 6. When Guido's mother dies, what does she leave him? Do you think that this is a good gift? 7. Now that Guido is in Naples and is about to begin his new life there, do you like this story so far? Why or why not? Session 3: Purpose: To show the students some of the history that is included in this book. Skill 3: The ability to recognize and to respond to the conditions of the lives of the characters. Reading Time: 30 minutes (Chapters 5 and 6). Literal Discussion Questions: 1. acumen-poo N Did the old man, Sack of Bones, want to leave Naples to go to the country? As the planes approached to drop their bombs, where was Sack of Bones and his horse? Whose planes were dropping the bombs? Did the bombs kill the old man? What happened to his horse? How did Father Pietro die? What did Guido tell himself about the deaths of these two men? What did the woman give Guido to eat? How often did the old Count tell Guido that he could come and beg? - Interpretative Questions: wa—i Why were the Allies bombing Italy? Why did the Allies bomb the German ship in the Naples harbor? Why was Guido in the area of Naples called Vomero? Why did Guido spit at the house of the Count? 231 The woman kept feeding Guido, why do you think that she did not want him to leave? 00 you think that Guido understood what the woman meant when she offered him money? Additional Interpretative Questions: 1. 2. General m-DWN-d —"O to CDV 01 12. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. Guido says that Sack of Bones and Father Pietro were alike. What do you think that Guido meant? The Allies were bombing the harbor when the Old man and his horse were killed. 00 you think that the Allies were right to drop bombs which killed innocent people? 15 war ever the 'right' thing to do? Guido and Little Giorgio were both growing up in wartime Italy but under very different circumstances. Do you think that one can say both of these children are 'victims of the War'? Why? Why not? Discussion Questions Relating to lne Little Fishes: What country is the setting for The Little Fishes? What major even is taking place during the time of the book? Who are the main characters of the book? Where does the name The Little Fishes come from? Who was Father Pietro? What finally happens to him? Is he a real man of God? What is the occupation of the children? Why do they have to live this way? In Naples, where is Guido's home? What is the treasure that Guido has found and that he wants to take to his home? Who does he hire to take it for him. Why are the peOple of Italy having such a difficult time living at this time? Tell me about the government of Italy. Who is its leader? Who is 'Sack of Bones'? What animal does he have with him? What happens to him and his orse? Where is Guido's mother? Where is his father? Do you remember what Guido's mother told Guido about living? Who are the Allies? Why are their planes bombing a ship in the harbor? Whose ship is it? Why do you think the woman in Vomero offered Guido wine and cognac when he is just a boy? What happened to Anna and Mario's house? What advice did the carpenter give Guido regarding the children? Why did Guido make the children clean themselves before they set out on the road? What special present did Guido buy for Anna so that she could make the journey? How did he obtain this item? 232 What did the stranger who claimed to be the children's father on the road want from them? How did they get away from him? Did the miller give the children permission to stay with him in the mill house? What group came to spoil the children's happy life at the mill? When the Germans first came, were they friendly to the children" Later what happened to change this feeling? What did the German soldier tell Guido about war? Who was the person that the children met on the road Cassino? What happens to Mario? Who rescued Guido from the mountain? In the end when Guido and Anna are on the road again, who does Guido tell Anna that they will try to find? In the epilogue, what does the author Erik Haugaard say that he hopes happens to Anna and Guido? APPENDIX E LETTER VERIFYING HISTORY IN THREE HISTORICAL FICTION SELECTIONS APPENDIX E LETTER VERIFYING HISTORY IN THREE HISTORICAL FICTION SELECTIONS MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND LETTERS - DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY EAST LANSING ° MICHIGAN ‘ 48824 501 MORRILL HALL - (517) SSS-7500 May A, 1982 To whom it may concern: At the request of Mrs. Dianne Ross, a doctoral candidate in the College of Education with a Special interest in children's literature, I have read the following works of historical fiction: Margaret J. Anderson, Searching for Shona (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1973) Erik Christian Haugaard, The Little Fishes (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1967) Yuri Suhl, On the Other Side of the Gate (New York 8 London: Franklin Watts, 1975) While these are of course works of fiction, in my judgment they accurately reflect easily verifiable historical experience. Respectfully, «it. 3(/ . tin L. Kestenbaum Professor. MSU is an Af/imative Action/Equal Opportunity Institution 233 234 JUSTIN L. KESTENBAUM B.A. University of Illinois, 1952. Summa cum laude. Teaching History and Social Studies. M.A. Northwestern University, 1954. History. Ph.D. Northwestern University, 1963. American History. 1959-1963 Teacher, History and Social Studies, Evanston Township High School Evanston, Illinois 1963 to Professor of History present Michigan State University East Lansing, Michigan Director, History Education Program, since 1963. Publications include: At the Campus Gate (1976) Out of a Wilderness (1981) BIBLIOGRAPHY BIBLIOGRAPHY Reference Books Applebee, Arthur N. The Child's Concept of Story. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978. Applegate, Maureen. Helping Children Write. Evanston, 111.: Row Peterson & Co., 1954T7 Borg, Walter, and Gall, Damien Meredith. Educational Research. 3rd ed. New York: Longman, 1979. Braddock, Richard; Lloyd-Jones, Richard; and Schoer, Lowell. Research in Written Composition. Champaign, 111.: National Council of Teachers of English, 1963. Britton, James. Language and Learning. London, England: Allen Lane; The Penguin Press, 1970. Britton, James; Burgess, Tony; Martin, Nancy; McLeod, Alex; and Rosen, Harold. The Develepment of Writing Abilities, 11-18. London, England: MacMillan Education, 1975. Burrows, Alvina Treut; Ferebee, June 0.; Jackson, Doris C.; and Saunders, Dorothy 0. They All Want to Write. New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1952. Cianciolo, Patricia J., and LaPere, Jean M. The Literary Time Line in American History, Rx for Social Studies. GaFden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Co., 1969. Cooper, Charles R., and Odell, Lee. Research on Composing. Urbana, 111.: National Council of Teachers of English, 1978. . Evaluating Writing: Describing, Measuring,_Judging, Urbana, 1111: National Council of Teachers of English, 1977. de Stefano, Johanna, and Fox, Sharon E. Language and the Language ' Arts. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1974. Dixon, John. Growth Through English: A Report Based on the Dartmouth Seminar, 1966. Reading, England: National Association for the Teaching of English, 1967. 235 236 Emig, Janet. The Composing Processes of Twelfth Graders. Urbana, 111.: National Council of Teachers of English, 1971. Everetts, Eldonna L., ed. Explorations of Children's Writing. Urbana, I11.: National Council of Teachers of English, 1970. Frazier, Alexander, ed. New Directions in Elementary English. Champaign, I11.: National Council of Teachers of English, 1967. Haines, Helen. Living with Books. New York: Columbia Press, 1950. Haley-James, Shirley, ed. Perspectives on Writingrin Grades 1-8. Urbana, 111.: National Council of Teachers of English, 1981. Hennings, Dorothy Grant. Communication in Action. Chicago: Rand McNally College Publishing Co., 1978. Holbrook, David. Children's Writing. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1967. Holland, Norman N. Five Readers Reading, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1975. Huck, Charlotte S. Children's Literature in the Elementary School. 3rd ed. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1979. Ingarden, Roman. The Cognition of the Literary Work of Art. Evanston, 111.: Northwestern University Press, 1973. Judy, Stephen N. Explorations in the Teaching of Secondary English. New York: Harper & Row, 1974. Koch, Carl, and Brazil, James M. Strategies for Teaching the Composition Process. Urbana, 111.: National Council of Teachers of English, 1978. McGuire, Richard L. Passionate Attention: An Introduction to Literary Study. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1973. Miller, Bruce E. Teaching the Art of Literature. Urbana, 111.: National Council of Teachers of English, 1980. Meek, Margaret; Warlow, Aidan; and Barton, Griselda. The Cool Web: The Pattern of Children's Reading. New York: Atheneum, 1978. Moffett, James. Teaching the Universe Of Discourse. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1968. 237 Moffett, James, and Wagner, Betty Jane. Student-Centered Language Arts and Reading, K-l3. 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1976. Myers, Miles. A Procedure for Writing Assessment and Holistic Scoring. Urbana, 111.: National Council of Teachers of English, 1980. Purves, Alan C. How Porcupines Make Love. Lexington, Mass.: Xerox College Publishing Co., 1972. Purves, Alan C., and Beach, Richard. Literature and the Reader: Research in Response to Literature, Reading Interests, and the Teaching of Literature. Urbana, 111.: National COuncil of Teachers of English, 1972. Purves, Alan C., and Rippere, Victoria. Elements of Writing About a Literary Work: A Study of Response to Literature. Champaign, 111.: National Council of Teachers of English, 1968. Rosenblatt, Louise M. Literature as Exploration. 3rd ed. New York: Noble & Noble, Publishers, Inc., 1976. The Reader, the Text, the Poem: The Transactional Theory of Literary Work. Carbondale, 111.: Southern Illinois University Press, 1978. Richards, 1. A. Practical Criticism. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1929. Sloan, Glenna Davis. The Child as Critic: Teaching Literature in the Elementary School. New York: Teachers College Press, 1975. Squire, James R. The Responses of Adolescents While Readinngour Short Stories. Champaign, 111.: National Council of Teachers Of English, 1964. Stewig, John. Read to Write. New York: Hawthorn Books, Inc., 1975. Sutherland, Zena; Monson, Dianne; and Arbuthnot, May Hill. Children and Books. 6th ed. Glenview, 111.: Scott Foresman & Co., 1981. Tate, Gary, ed. Teaching Composition: Ten Bibliographical Essays. Forth Worth, Texas: Texas Christian University Press, 1976. White, Mary Lou. Children's Literature: Criticism and Response. Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill Publishing Co., 1976. 238 Articles Benton, Michael. "Children's Responses to the Texts." In Responses to Children's Literature. pp. 13-33. Edited by Geoff Fox and Graham Hammond. New York: K. G. Saur, 1980. Binder, Lucia. "World War II in Books Read by Austrian Children.” Bookbird 3 (1979): 8-13. Blake, Howard E. "Written Composition in English Primary Schools." In Language and the Language Arts, p. 409. Edited by Johanna S. de Stefano and Sharon E. Fox. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1974. Bunbury, Rhoda. "Children's Understanding of Literature." In Responses to Literature, pp. 92-101. Edited by Geoff Fox and Graham Hammond. New York: K. G. Saur, 1980. Burrows, Alvina Treut. "Reflections: The Child as Writer." Language Arts 56 (October 1979): 723-733. Carlsen, G. Robert. "Literature Is." English Journal 63 (February 1974): 23-27. Cianciolo, Patricia J. "Responding to Literature as a Work of Art: An Aesthetic Literary Experience." Language Arts 59 (March 1982): 259-264. Cramer, Ronald L., and Cramer, Barbara 8. "Writing by Imitating Language Models." Language Arts 52 (October 1975): 1011-1014. Dyer, Daniel. "When Kids Are Free to Write." English Journal 65 (May 1976): 34-41. Early, Margaret J. "Stages of Growth in Literary Appreciation." English Journal 43 (March 1960): 161-167. Galda, Lee. "Assuming the Spectator Stance: An Examination of the Responses of Three Young Readers." Research in the Teaching of English 16 (February 1982): l-19. Graves, Donald. “An Examination of the Writing Processes of Seven Year Old Children." Research in the Teaching of English 9 (Winter 1975): 227-241. Haugaard, Erik Christian. "Before I Was Born: History and the Child." Part I. The Hornbook 57 (October 1979): 514-521. . "Before I Was Born: History and the Child." Part II. The Hornbook 57 (December 1979): 698-706. 239 Hickman, Janet. "A New Perspective on Response to Literature: Research in an Elementary School Setting." Research in the Teaching_of English 15 (December 1981): 343-353. Hopkins, Lee Bennett, and Arenstein, Misha. "Nervose Of the Thought: War and Peace in Children's Books." Elementary English 46 (October 1969): 460-462. Humbert, Genevieve. "The Second World War in French Books for Adolescents." Bookbird 4 (1979): 8-12. Hunt, Peter. "Children's Books, Children's Literature, Criticism and Research." Paper presented at the Fourth Symposium of the International Research Society for Children's Literature, held in the South-West of England, at the University of Exeter, September 9-14, 1978. James, David L. "Recent World War 11 Fiction: A Survey." Children's Literature in Education 8 (Summer 1977): 71-79. Kaminski, Winifred. "The Depiction of War and Nazism in West German Children's and Juvenile Literature." Bookbird 3 (1979): 3-7. Kimmel, Eric A. "Confronting the Ovens: The Holocaust and Juvenile Fiction." The Hornbook 53 (February 1977): 84-91. McCampbell, James F. "Using Models for Improving Composition." English Journal 55 (September 1966): 772-776. Meek, Margaret. "Prolegomena for a Study of Children's Literature: Guess What's in My Head." Paper presented at the Fourth Symposium of the International Research Society for Children's Literature, held in the South-West of England at the University of Exeter, September 9-14, 1978. Moss, Joy F. "Learning to Write by Listening to Literature." Language Arts 54 (May 1977): 539-541. Myers, Miles. “Five Approaches to the Teaching of Writing." Learning, April 1978, pp. 38-41. O'Dea, Paul. "Five Myths in the Teaching of Composition." English Journal 54 (April 1965): 328-330. Ray, Shelia. "1979--4O Years After World War II: Children's Books in Britain." Bookbird 3 (1979): 14-17. Rosenblatt, Louise. "The Acid Test for Literature Teaching." English Journal 45 (April 1956): 66-74. "Literature: The Reader's Role." English Journal 49 _—_(—March 1960) : 304-315. 240 . "The Poem as Event." College English 26 (November 1964): 123-125. . "Towards a Transactional Theory of Reading." Journal of Reading Behavior 1 (Winter 1969): 31-49. . "A Way of Happening." Educational Record 47 (Summer 1968): 339-346. Scroggin, Margaret. "This is War." The Hornbook 33 (August 1957): 318-319. Seegers, J. C. "Forms of Discourse and Sentence Structure." Ine_ Elementary_English Review 3 (March 1933): 51-54. Sheils, Merrill. "Why Johnny Can't Write?" Newsweek 86 (8 December 1975): 58-65. Shutze, Marcia, and Greenlaw, M. Jean. "Childhood's Island Receives the Gift of Myrrh: A Study of Children's Books with World War II Settings." lop of the News 2 (January 1975): 199-209. Tierney, Gilbert, and Judy, Stephen N. "The Assignment Makers." English Journal 61 (February 1972): 265-269. Tucker, Nicholas. "Can We Ever Know the Reader's Response?‘I Paper presented at the Fourth Symposium of the International Research Society for Children's Literature, held in the South-West of England at the University of Exeter, September 9-14, 1978. Whale, Katherine 8., and Robinson, Sam. "Modes of Students' Writings: A Descriptive Study." Research in the Teaching of English 4 (December 1978): 349-355. ERIC Documents D'Angelo, Karen. "Developing Concepts of Reading and Writing Through Literature." Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the International Reading Association, New Orleans, Louisiana, April 27-May 1, 1981. ERIC Document ED 203 290. Duncan, Patricia H., and McLeod, Alan M. "The Development of Children's Composition Following Targeted Discussions Of a Distinctive Literature Selection." Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Reading Conference, Sarasota, Florida, December 4-6, 1980. ERIC Document ED 194 882. Smelstor, Marjorie. "A Guide to Using Models to Teach Writing." Madison: University of Wisconsin. 1978. ERIC Document ED 176 272. 241 Dissertations Carlson, Ruth Kearney. "Stimulating Children in Grades 4, 5, 6 to Write Original Stories." Ed.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1959. Galda, Susan Lee. "Three Children Reading Stories: Response to Literature in Preadolescents." Ph.D. dissertation, New York University, 1980. Hickman, Janet. "Responses to Literature in a School Environment, Grades K-5." Ph.D. dissertation, Ohio State University, 1979. McLaughlin, Mary Ann. "Thematic Analysis and Democratic Value Identification in Realistic Fiction for Children Concerning American Wartime Involvement, 1939-1971." Ph.D. dissertation, Michigan State University, 1973. Mills, Editha B. "An Experimental Study in the Use of Literary Models in Written Composition." Ed.D. dissertation, University of Georgia, 1967. Nielsen, Beatrice Folsom. "The Effects of Reading on Children's Narrative Writing." Ed.D. dissertation, Brigham Young University, April 1980. Pilon, Alice Barbara Cummins. "Stimulating Creative Writing Through Literature." Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University, 1969. Pinkham, Rosalie Gately. "The Effect on the Written Expression of Fifth Grade Pupils of a Series of Lessons Emphasizing the Characteristics of Good Writing as Exemplified in Selected Works from the Area of Children's Literature.“ Ph.D. dissertation, University of Connecticut, 1968. St. Romain, Madeleine Duvic. "A Study of Differences in Creative Writing of Children under Varying Stimuli." Ed.D. dissertation, Syracuse University, 1974. Smith, Ethel Eudora. "Procedures for Encouraging Creative Writing in the Elementary School." Ph.D. dissertation, Northwestern University, 1943. Smith, Richard J. "The Effects of Reading a Short Story for a Creative Purpose on Student Attitudes and Writing." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Wisconsin, 1967. Sponsler, Marie Gabrielle Carroll. "The Effectiveness of Literary Models in the Teaching of Written Composition." Ph.D. disser- tation, University of Maryland, 1970. 242 Wyatt, Nina Mae. "A Study of the Relationship of Extensive Reading to Certain Writing Skills of a Selected Group of Sixth Grade Children." Ed.D. dissertation, University of Kansas, 1960. ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENT BOOKS INVOLVED IN WORLD WAR II ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENT BOOKS INVOLVED IN WORLD WAR II Anderson, Margaret. Searching for Shona. New York: KnOpf, 1978. Marjorie Malcolm-Scott and Shona McInnes exchange identities at the station during the evacuation of the children from Edinburgh at the start of World War II. The story of this switch makes one of excitement and intrigue. Benchley, Nathaniel. Brignt Candles. New York: Harper & Row, 1974. Jens Hansen, sixteen, becomes part of the Danish Resistance when the Germans occupy Denmark. The activities of the resistance effort are dangerous and make good reading. Bishop, Claire H. Twenty and Ten. Illustrated by William PenechIBois. New York: Viking Press, 1952. During the Nazi occupation of France in 1944, twenty French school children hide ten Jewish refugees. The children symbolically por- tray the Biblical story Of ”The Flight into Egypt" which in the end saves them from the Germans. Bonnell, Dorothy. Passport to Freedom. New York: Julian Messner, 1967. An American girl who is studying at the Sorbonne in Paris during 1940 looses her passport and is caught in a dangerous situation. A good picture of life in France during the early war years. Burton, Hestor. In Spite of All Terror. Illustrated by Victor G. Ambrus. Cleveland, Ohio: World Publishing Co., 1969. Liz, an evacuee from London, comes to live on the estate of the aristocratic Bererton's during the war. Her story shows the contrast of life in the country and life in the city during World War II. Cooper, Susan. Dawn of Fear. Illustrated by Margery Gill. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Jovanovich, 1970. ' Three boys living in London during World War II look on the war and the air raids as exciting and a game. One day one of them is killed in an air raid and war takes on a new and grim meaning. 244 245 Cowan, Lore. Children of the Resistance. New York: Meredith, 1968. The resistance movements in various occupied countries during World War II played an important role in the search for freedom. This is a collection of short stories about the young peOple who led the resistance efforts and their bravery and contributions to the peace of their countries. Daly, Maureen. The Small War of Sgt. Donkey. Illustrated by Wesley Dennis. New York: Dodd, Mead’& Co., 1966. Chico Filippo, an Italian boy, works with the soldiers of the United States Army in their efforts to train donkeys. His involvement in wartime Italy presents a different picture of the child as victim of war. Degens, T. Transport 7-41-R. New York: Viking Press, 1974. A thirteen year old girl traveling alone aboard a train of evacuees on their way to Cologne in 1946, befriends an old man and promises to help him conceal the corpse of his wife so that she can be buried in Cologne. Forman, James. Ceremony of Innocence. New York: Hawthorn, 1970. Sophie and Hans Schall_work with the underground in Nazi Germany as printers and distributors of newspapers. One day the Nazis catch them and they are executed for their actions. fly Enemy, My Brother. New York: Meredith Press, 1969. David Baratz, a survivor of the concentration camp of Warsaw, Poland, goes to Israel and finds prejudice. The Survivor. New York: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 1976. David and Saul Ullman, twin sons of a Dutch-Jewish physician, along with their family are hidden from the Nazis when they invade Holland. Their lives are threatened and in the end one is left the survivor, to make a new day out of the carnage of the Holocaust. Frank, Anne. Anne Frank: The Diary_of a Young Girl. Rev. ed. Translated by B. M. Mooyart. Introduction by Eleanor Roosevelt. New York: Doubleday, 1967. This autobiographical account Of a young Jewish girl, Anne Frank and seven members of her family who lived in hiding for two years from the Nazis is an excellent portrayal of a girl growing up in very difficult times. Garner, Alan. Tom Fobble's Day, Illustrated by Michael Foreman. London, England: Fontana-Lions, 1979. William set Off down the hill on his sled that his grandfather had built for him while the searchlights scanned the sky for the enemy bombers. William living the life of a boy becomes aware of the empty spaces of the generations as his grandfather dies. 246 Greene, Bette. The Summer of My German Soldier. New York: Dial, 1973. Patty Bergen, twelve year old Jewish girl, lives in Arkansas with her merchant father, her mother, and her beloved Ruth, the family cook. Anton, a German prisoner of war, meets Patty in her father's store and meets her again when he escapes and she helps him. Grund, Josef Carl. Never To Be Free. Translated by Lucille Harrington. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1970. Gustav Briel, a German boy who is at first loyal to Hitler and Nazism, changes his mind because of a disillusioning army expe- rience. This book, translated from the German, gives a look at the 'other side.’ Haugaard, Erik. Chase Me, Catch Nobody. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1980. Erik, a Danish schoolboy, becomes involved with a desperate man in a gray raincoat on a ferry from Denmark to Germany when the man asks him to deliver a package to an address in Hamburg, now under Nazi regime. His adventures in a country under the Swastika make a fast moving adventure and his discoveries about the rule of Hitler are insightful. The Little Fishes. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1967. Guido, Anna, and Mario are the '1ittle fishes' of Naples. the street children who try to live in the midst of war and poverty. Told in the first person, impressionistic, this is a story of life as well as war and of its victims. Hautzig, Esther. The Endless Steppe. New York: Crowell, 1968. This is the author's own experience of growing up in a slave labor camp in Siberia. From harshness and hardships to lighter moments reflective of an adolescent girl's search for herself, one finds courage in this story. Holm, Anne. North to Freedom. Translated by L. W. Kingsland. New York: Harcourt, 1965. David, a prisoner in a concentration camp for most of his life, escapes and tries to fit his knowledge that he learned 'inside' to the 'outside' world. This is a search for one's self and the results make for a beautiful story. Jones, Cordelia. Nobodyfs Garden. Illustrated by Victor Ambrus. New York: Scribner, 1966. Bridget, a war orphan living with an aunt and uncle in postwar London and Hilary, cultivate a garden in order to improve their surroundings. A good look at the tragic aftermath of war. 247 Kay, Mara. In the Face of Danger. New York: Crown, 1977. Ann and her uncle are involved in an automobile accident in Nazi Germany which forces them to live among the German people and for a time to be a part of Hitler's rule. The ensuing adventures are exciting and the observations Ann makes are interesting. Kerr, Judith. When Hitler Stole the Pink Rabbit. New York: Coward-McCann, 1972. This is the fictionalized story of Judith Kerr's family, their escape to Switzerland, from Germany, and their attempt to establish a life and earn a living in Switzerland, and later in France and in England. An excellent picture of life in pre-war Europe. Kluger, Ruth, and Mann, Peggy. The Secret Ship, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1978. Ruth Kluger, a beautiful woman and a member of a secret orga- nization formed to get Jews out of Hitler's Europe, faces impossible tasks in transporting the Jewish people. Her story is one of courage and excitement. Koehn, Illse. Mischling,_Second Degree: ,ny Childhood in Nazi Germany. New York: Greenwillow, 1977. Illse Koehn's autobiographical story of a girl who lives in Nazi Germany and who is not aware that she is a Mischling, gives a picture of life under Hitler from the point of view of a young girl. The day to day life portrayed here, makes this a very human story. Levin, Jane Whitbread. Star of Danger. New York: Harcourt Brace & World, Inc., 1966. This is the story of the Danish resistance which helped the Jews escape to Sweden during World War II and of three children, Karl, Peter, and Elsie who fled Nazi persecution. Levitin, Sonia. Journey to America. Illustrated by Charles Robinson. New York: Atheneum, 1970. Lisa Platt, whose father goes first to America, accompanies her mother and sisters to Switzerland in their escape from Nazi Germany. Here they learn a contrasting life style: that of being poor as they await their final trip to America. Mace, Elisabeth. Brother Eneny. New York: Beaufort Books, 1979. Andreas, a mischling not wanted by his mother who has divorced his father and is remarried or by his father who is Jewish and must escape from Germany, is sent to England where he finally finds a home with a drunken old grave digger who loves him. 248 Magorian, Michelle. Good Night, Mr. Tom. New York: Harper & Row, 1981. Willie Beech, an abused child, is evacuated from London to live in the English countryside in the home of Mr. Tom. This is the beautiful story of Mr. Tom opening the world for Willie. Moskin, Marietta. I Am Rosemarie. New York: John Day, 1972. Rosemarie, who lives in Amsterdam with her parents and her grandmother, is taken to the concentration camp when the Nazis invade Holland. Her ability to survive under impossible circumstances is amazing. Murray, Michele. The Erystal Nights. New York: Seabury, 1973. The arrival of Jewish refugee relatives trying to escape Hitler complicates the lives of Elly and her family. A realistic look at life at the time of World War II with all of its fragments and with all of its problems. Orgel, Doris. The Devil in Vienna. New York: The Dial Press, 1978. Written in journal form, this is the story of two girls, one Jewish, one Catholic, and their lives in pre-wartime Vienna. An excellent picture of conditions for Jews under Hitler and of tpe friendship of two girls that can cause trouble to their fami ies. Prager, Arthur, and Prager, Emily. World War II Resistance Stories. New York: Watts, Triumph Book, 1979. Stories of the resistance movement of World War II where civilians of all walks Of life set up secret groups to save the lives of thousands. These stories range in setting from cities, countryside, concentration camps to the South Pacific. Rees, David. Exeter Blitz. London, England: Nelson, 1978. As the bombs are dropped around the Cathedral of Exeter, Colin and his family watch not only the destruction Of property but of their very lives. This winner of the 1978 Carnegie Medal is a beautiful example of life's continuing regardless of the circumstances. Reiss, Johanna. The Journey Back. New York: Crowell, 1976. Annie's story is continued in this book about the aftermath of war and its effect on the girl's family. A look at relationships is well done in this story of Annie's father's remarriage to a difficult stepmother and the way the girl copes with additional hardships. The Upstairs Room. New York: Crowell, 1972. A fictionalized account of the author's own experiences when she and her sister were hidden in a small room on a Dutch farm from the German soldiers. The realistic story of these children as victims of war and of their reaction to this extreme confinement make this an outstanding commentary on the war. 249 Richter, Hans Peter. Friedrich. Translated by Edite Kroll. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1970. This is a compelling story of Nazi Germany and the friendship of two boys, Friedrich, a Jewish boy and an unidentified narrator who is representative of all Germans. The powerful seduction of the Hitler machine make Friedrich unforgetable. . I Was There. Translated by Edite Kroll. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1972. The story of three boys growing up in Nazi Germany is told in this story Of the German way of life, the German army and battles, and Hitler's hold on the average people. An excellent companion book to use with Friedrich. Sachs, Marilyn. A Pocket Full of Seeds. New York: Doubleday, 1973. Nicole, a French Jew, is the only one of her family to escape the ravages of the Nazis. This is her story, told in flashbacks of her life and left open-ended. Shemin, Margaretha. The Little Riders. Illustrated by Peter Spier. New York: Coward McCann, 1963. Johanna, living in Holland at the beginning of World War II, is concerned over the safety of the town's freedom symbol, 'The Little Riders.‘ A German officer comes to live at her grandparents' house and offers her a different perspective of the term 'enemy.‘ Siegal, Aranka. upon the Head of the Goat. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1981. This is the story of Piri, a young Hungarian Jew, who experiences the cruelties of the Germans and finally, Auschwitz. A fiction- alized account of a true experience, this is the life of Aranka Siegal. Sommerfelt, Aimee. Miriam. New York: Scholastic Book Services, 1962. When the Nazis occupy Sweden, Miriam and her family, who are Jewish, leave Norway to live in Sweden. There she makes friends and learns hard lessons even about those people she trusts. Suhl, Yuri. On the Other Side of the Gate. New York: Franklin Watts, 1975. Hershel and Lena, Polish Jews, are sent to the Warsaw Ghetto, knowing that Lena is pregnant which is against the German rules. The story of their lives in the Ghetto and of their son's birth there is a fascinating reading experience. 250 Uncle Misha's Partisans. New York: Four Winds Press, 1973. This is the story of a twelve year old boy who becomes a member of his Uncle Misha's partisans, a band of Jewish people who resist the Nazis. A little known fact of the war is emphasized here, that of Jewish people leading resistance groups. Taylor, Theodore. The Cay. New York: Doubleday, 1969. A different kind of involvement in World War II, this is the story of Phillip and his mother who are traveling aboard a freighter which was torpedoed by a German ship; Phillip is washed ashore a small island, is rescued by Timothy, a black man, and the relationship between these two makes a lastingly memorable one. Tunis, John R. His Enemy, His Friend. New York: Morrow, 1967. Twenty years after a German soldier makes friends of the French during World War II, a soccer team on which he now plays returns to the French village. On their way home from the soccer game, a fight breaks out between the French and the Germans and a brave Frenchman whose father was killed intercedes in favor of the Germans. Excellent story. Silence Over Dunkerque. New York: Morrow, 1962. This is the story of the people who helped evacuate the British from the beaches of Dunkirk in France and of the average French people who help the British soldiers survive until they make their escape. A dog attaches himself to the English Sergeant, a French Girl Scout and her grandfather display extreme bravery, and all come together to make this an outstanding story. Van Stockum, Hilda. The Winged Watchman. New York: Farrar, Strauss, 1963. The Verhagans playing an exciting role in the resistance efforts of the Netherlands develop a code for windmills. An exciting story which shows the strength of the Dutch, both in war and in life. Volavkova, Hana. I Never Saw Another Butterfly: Children's Drawing§_ and Poems from the Terezin Concentration Camp, 1942-1944. New York: Schocken Books, 1978. This is a book of poems and drawings of some of the 15,000 children, who passed through Terezin, Czechoslovakia, a way station for Jews sent on to gas chambers. A beautiful, simplistic book of the wonder of children, all under the age of fifteen. 251 Walsh, Jill Paton. The Dolphin Crossing. New York: St. Martin, 1967. Pat and John are involved in the evacuation of British forces from Dunkirk. Coming from different backgrounds, these two adolescent boys play their role in the war with courage and bravery. . Fireweed. New York: Farrar, Strauss, 1970. Bill and Julie, adolescents living in London during the World War II Blitz, become good friends as they are left to wander the bombed city. A contrast is drawn between their backgrounds which is over-shadowed by their strong and dependent friendship. Westall, Robert. Fathom Five. New York: Greenwillow, 1980. This is the story of a boy of sixteen who finds salvage on an English beach which leads him to believe there is a Nazi spy in town. A good description of wartime England. Werstein, Irving. The Long Escape. New York: Charles Scribner & Sons, 1964. The head of an orphanage of fifty children attempts to flee the Germans and to make it to Dunkirk and safety. This exciting wartime story gives a strong role model to emulate. Zei, Alki. Petros' War. Translated from the Greek by Edward Fenton. New York: Dutton, 1972. Petros lives in Athens during the Italian and the German occupation and manages to endure deprivation, grimness of the times. An excellent book with a marvelous insight into a boy's growing up. . Wildcat Under Glass. Translated from the Greek by Edward Fenton. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1968. When a Facist dictatorship comes to Greece, Melia who lives on a Greek isle before the German occupation, learns of the rigidity and oppression of this way of life. An excellent award winning book in international children's literature.