meAN S'TATRE Eumvef‘bv‘; HST LANS‘NG "“04 B OVEN FINES: , 25¢ par day per ital ‘ ‘1... ,1 g“ “\I ‘ RETURNING uamw MATERIAL§: C" _. “VP” 'qu Place in book return to rave charge fro. circulation records 4/1 RESPONSES OF FOURTH AND SEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS TO SATIRE AS REFLECTED IN SELECTED CONTEMPORARY PICTURE BOOKS By SheTTey Gai] McNamara A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfiliment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Elementary and SpeciaT Education T980 «\JAWL ‘ \. L ABSTRACT RESPONSES OF FOURTH AND SEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS TO SATIRE AS REFLECTED IN SELECTED CONTEMPORARY PICTURE BOOKS By Shelley Gail McNamara This descriptive study attempted to determine children's prefer- ence or rejection for satire as a type of humor; to ascertain whether students are able to relate to the satiric form in a critical manner; to determine whether students associate works of satire with their own lives; to determine whether students make overt responses to the art- work in picture book satire; and to ascertain whether students are capable of recognizing the characteristics, techniques, or literary de- vices associated with satire. Fourth (n=l2) and seventh (n=l2) grade students who participated in this study were randomly selected from three elementary and three middle schools in three districts in mid-Michigan. Two female and two male students were randomly selected from six schools. All children who participated received similar treatment. An initial interview session was held with groups of four students and the investigator. At that time a selection of satire was read aloud to the group, followed by the administration of The Questionnaire. The subsequent fbur sessions involved the reading aloud of a work of satire to the group, followed by the administration of The Question- naire to each subject in a one-to-one setting. The last of the four Shelley Gail McNamara sessions also included the administration of Preference/Rejection Ques- tions by this investigator to each subject in order to determine the responses of students to all five literary selections. The selections of satire were chosen by this researcher on the ba- sis that they were picture books and contained the designated and selec- tive associational characteristics of satire. Four literary experts served as raters to establish agreement that the selections chosen by the researcher were works of satire. The research questions for this study were: l. What are the responses of students toward contemporary satire as a genre of literature? Sub-question (a): What is the general attitude of students toward contemporary satire as a genre of literature? Sub-question (b): In what ways do students apparentlyprespond to the characters, incidents, or experiences within works of satire? Sub-question (c): To what extent do students respond to con- temporary works of satire as works of humorous literature? To what extent are students capable of recognizing specific associational characteristics of satire as a genre of litera- ture? To what extent do the responses of female students differ from the responses of male students, when they are respondipg to contemporary selections of satire? Shelley Gail McNamara 4. To what extent do the responses of seventh grade students dif- fer from the responses of fourth grade students when they are responding to selections of contemporary satire? 5. To what extent do the responses of students toward contempor- ary satire change after experiencing several selections over a period of five consecutive weeks? A majority of the students in the study were capable of responding to these works of satire in a critical rather than literal manner, gleaning information for their responses from aspects revealed within the artwork, expressing a positive response to satire as a form of humorous literature, and giving responses indicating that they are ca- pable of recognizing the associational characteristics of stereotyping, superiority, moralizing, distortion, scorn, and exaggeration. Students of fOurth and seventh grades are ready, and willing, to accept satiric literature as a form which they say they enjoy. They respond to works of satire as literature which they find humorous. These students are capable of responding to satirical literature in a critical, in-depth manner beyond the literal, word for word level of meaning. They have the ability to go beyond the literal, surface in- terpretation of a text. © Copyright by SHELLEY GAIL MCNAMARA 1980 To my family who has filled my life with so much love that I have always had the strength to pursue my goals. MShower the people you love with love. Show them the way that you feel." James Taylor ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to express my deep appreciation to the many pe0ple who have helped to make this study possible. To Dr. Patricia J. Cianciolo, my major professor and advisor, I express deep appreciation for her demand for creativity and academic ex- cellence, throughout all the time of studying with her. She has pro- vided inspiration, support, counsel, as well as a professional model. I offer her my respect, admiration, and gratitude. To Dr. Sheila M. Fitzgerald, Dr. Pete C00per, and Dr. Walter Hap- kiewicz, the members of my committee. Each one has provided me with personal support, intellectual stimulation, and encouragement. To Professor Thomas William Downen in the School of Library Sci- ence at The University of Michigan, who first made me aware of the breadth of professional contribution which I could make with my compe- tencies in literature. ‘ To Dr. Alan M. Hollingsworth, Dean of The College of Arts and Let- ters and Professor of English, for guiding my graduate reading. He led me down a path which forced me to clarify my personal definition of the reading process and the literary experience. To Professors Keith Anderson and Byron Van Roekel whose advice and guidance have been greatly appreciated. Throughout my time at Michigan State, they have shared their knowledge and friendship, always with a gentle hand. To Dr. Don Freeman, Mrs. Martha Meaders, and Ms. Barbara Reeves for their helpful suggestions at different points throughout this study. To Dr. LeRoy Dugan, Assistant Dean of the Graduate School, and Ms. Virginia Niseman, in the College of Education Graduate Office, for their assistance in understanding and cutting through the red tape associated with attending graduate school. To Dr. Denise C. Storey, Dr. Rosalie B. Kiah, Dr. Stephanie L. Brown, Dr. Gloria T. Blatt, Ms. Leonora A. Smith, and Ms. Jyl M. Dalla- Vecchia for acting as literary raters during the selection of the books and the development of the instrument for this study. To the students who participated in this study. Each brought a unique sparkle and sense of humor to our sessions. Their enthusiasm provided reinforcement for the value of this project. To Mr. Martin Herstein for sharing so much warmth and caring throughout the writing of this project. And, in fact, who did all the really difficult parts of the writing. To my brother Al for teaching me, firsthand, about the satiric spirit and helping me to select the study of satirical literature for this project. To my sister, Jyl, So wherever I am, there's always Pooh, There's always Pooh and Me. "What would I do?" I said to Pooh, ”If it wasn't for you," and Pooh said: "True, It isn't much fun for One, but Two Can stick together," says Pooh, says he. "That's how it is," says Pooh. A. A. Milne iv To my mother, I express a very special appreciation for her unwav- ering emotional support, confidence, and sense of humor throughout my graduate program. TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables ......................... vii1 List of Figures ........................ x Chapter I: INTRODUCTION Statement of the Problem ................. 1 Purpose of the Study ................... 10 Statement of Research Questions .............. 11 Need for the Study .................... 12 Significance of the Study ................. 18 Limitations ........................ 22 Definition of Terms .................... 23 Organization of the Study ................. 25 Chapter II: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE Responses to Literature Written as Prose ......... 27 Studies of the Factors in Understanding ....... 27 Studies of Free Responses to Literature ....... 33 Studies of the Factors in Measurement of Literary Appreciation or Judgment ......... 59 Responses to Humorous Literature ............. 76 Summary .......................... ‘ 87 Chapter III: DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY Assumptions Underlying the Study .............. 91 Selection of Books .................... 93 Establishing Literary Classification Agreement . . . . 96 The Design ........................ 105 The Procedure ....................... 106 Interview Sessions .................. 107 Read Aloud Sessions ................. 108 Questioning/Response Sessions ............ 109 Preference/Rejection Sessions ............ 112 The Population ...................... 112 The Instrument ...................... 116 Phase I of Developing The Instrument ......... 116 Phase II of Developing The Instrument ........ 117 Phase III of Developing The Instrument ........ 125 Summary .......................... 137 Instrument III .................... 139 The Questionnaire III . . . . ............ 140 Preference/Rejection Questions III .......... 142 vi Chapter IV: ANALYSIS OF RESULTS Instrumentation ...................... 143 Group Responses ................... 145 Research Questions .................... 145 Research Question One ................ 146 Research Question Two ................ 174 Research Question Three ............... 210 Research Question Four ................ 224 Research Question Five ................ 238 Additional Data ...................... 242 Similar Responses .................. 242 Preference/Rejection ................. 245 To Ending ...................... 250 Summary .......................... 252 Chapter V: SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS, AND SUGGESTIONS Summary of the Study ................... 258 Research Questions .................. 261 Summary of the Findings .................. 262 Research Question One ................ 262 Research Question Two ................ 264 Research Question Three ............... 265 Research Question Four ................ 266 Research Question Five ................ 267 Additional Findings ................. 267 Conclusions ........................ 269 Implications ....................... 270 Suggestions for Changes in the Study ........... 274 Suggestions for Further Research ............. 276 Appendix A ........................... 281 Appendix B ........................... 283 Appendix C ........................... 291 Appendix D ........................... 299 Bibliography .......................... 310 vii LIST OF TABLES 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. Some Associational Characteristics of Satire ........ 95 Literary Rater Agreement - The Shrinking of Treehorn . . . . 98 Literary Rater Agreement - War and Peas .......... 99 Literary Rater Agreement - The World's Greatest Freakshow ....................... 100 Percentage of Literary Rater Agreement ........... 101 Percentage of Literary Rater Agreement Below Fifty ..... 102 Summary of the Basic Design of the Study . ......... 106 Questioning and Response Order of Subjects ......... 111 Sample Information . . . . ................. 115 Inter-Rater Agreement - War and Peas ........... 128 Inter-Rater Agreement - The Qgicksand Book ........ 129 Inter-Rater Agreement - The World's Greatest Freakshow . . . 130 Inter-Rater Agreement - The Shrinking of Treehorn . . . . 131 Percentage of Inter-Rater Agreement ........... 132 Percentage of Inter-Rater Agreement Below 50 . . . . . . . 133 Research Question One .................. 148 Percentage of Response I ................. 150 Research Question Two .................. 176 Percentage of Response 11 ................ 178 Research Question Three ................. 213 Research Question Four .................. 226 Research Question Five I ................. 240 viii 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. Research Question Five II Similar Responses I Similar Responses II . . . Responses to Ending Percentage Ranges ...... . . . . Group Responses ............ lY/x 241 243 244 251 253 300 Reader Response Total Responses Total Responses Total Responses Total Responses Total Responses Grades I . . Total Responses LIST OF FIGURES Models of Reading ............. (for All Books I ............ (for All Books ) (for All Books) II . . . . . ...... ) Female and Male I . ) (for All Books Female and Male II (for All Books) Fourth and Seventh (for All Books) Fourth and Seventh Grades II . . . . xi 228 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Statement of the Problem Traditionally, within the domain of the English classroom, the in- tention or original meaning of the author has been the focal point of interest regardingtherprocesses of literary interpretation. We have focused our attention on seeking the one meaning which the author in- tended the literary contribution to posses. This orientation, then, has placed upon the reader the responsibility to seek out the contem- porary, psychological, social, or historical meaning of the text. 0f- ten, the protocol established by the literary critic has led us to look at the way in which the text was mechanically constructed. Since our attention has been on the text, we have scarcely seemed to consider that the text is given meaning only when it is read by students. This single meaning approach presupposes that a text possesses ob- jective, definable meaning. Thus, concensus of meaning has been the rule. Critical evaluation of individual texts, as put forth by the English teacher, has rarely been discussed or doubted openly. For those involved in the business of English education, this model of literary interpretation has been known as New Criticism. In the past, more often than not, students have been made to feel that they are not in charge of their personal responses to literature, that literature is a mysterious commodity, the realm of the literary critic or English instructor. The growing wave of interest in the con- tributions of the individual when reading a literary selection has come to be known as Reader Response Criticism. The basic tenet of those in- volved with this movement is to consider the involvement of the reader with the literary work. Norman N. Holland explains the philosophy of reading held by those aligning themselves with this movement as: ...a literary work is not a fixed stimulus. Rather, each reader must give the words meaning, and he(/she) can only give them the meanings they have for h1m(/her). Several theories of reading offer models which are concerned ultimately with the reader's response to or interaction with the literary work dur- ing the act of reading. All of these models which fall into the domain of Reader Response Criticism are in Figure 1. It seems to this researCher that students are capable of accepting responsibility for their own reading and their personal responses to that which they are reading. If one of our intentions in educating students, in the domain of literature, is to offer them confidence in their own interpretations, appreciations, and associations with works of literature so that this confidence will continue long after they have left our English classes and our focused instruction, then we must begin early in the elementary grades to guide our students in acquiring the necessary reading skills so that they can interact with literary works without us. For some of our older students, a shift in approach in the classroom study of literature from seeking the single meaning within a text to considering the reader's involvement with that text may require extra opportunities and more time. 1Norman N. Holland, Five Readers Reading (New Haven: Yale Univer- sity Press, 1975), p. 43. New Criticism Model author a reader meaning is within the text The Transactional Model author TEXT E3::::[_ r;;EEE:) text is active Aesthetic Model author (:jgiM’ create the literary work of art Psychoanalytic Model author TEXT meaning is within the reader Fig. 1. Reader response models of reading. Three major schools of thought about reader response to literature have developed within the 1970's. Louise Rosenblatt spoke of the im- portance of the interaction of the reader and text as long ago as 1938 in her now classic work Literature as Exploration.2 It is, however, only in recent years that a significant number of educators have 2Louise M. Rosenblatt, Literature as Exploration (New York: 0. Appleton-Century Company, Inc., 1938). accepted Rosenblatt's position on the Transactional Model. Since the late 1960's Rosenblatt's historically—based theory of reading has de- veloped a following alongside of those educators who have ascribed to the New Criticism Model. According to Rosenblatt, the relationship of the reader with the text is of extreme importance. "What the student brings to literature is as important as the literary work itself."3 The experience of literature: ...is a form of intense personal activity. The reader counts for at least as much as the book or poem itself; he(/she) re- sponds to some of its aspects and not others. This Transactional Model (see Fig. 1), then, offers quite a different interpretation of the reading act than did the traditionally accepted, rhetorical model of New Criticism which placed all meaning and impor- tance within the work itself. Another faction of Reader Response Criticism includes those who support a theory of aesthetic response. The Aesthetic Model was clearly explained by D. W. Harding when he said: Response is a word that reminds the teacher that the experi- ence of art is a thing of our making, an activity in which we are our own interpretive artist. This perspective is similar to The Transactional Model is that 'it is dependent upon the fact'that the experience of reading is an interac" tion between the textual structure and the reader. The model (£589 Fig. 1) assumes that the literary work of art is created thro‘4.§;“'t“fis f interaction, that the literary experience is an active INVOIVem€0t 0 3Ibid., p. 95. 41bid., p. vi. 5D. W. Harding, "Response to Literature: the Report of‘ t 9" x" Group," in Re_sponse to Literature, ed. James R. Squire (Champ he (‘4 linois: National Council of Teachers of English, 1968), p. E§ $9 A a reader with the text and one which is always associated with an emo- tional response to a work of literary art.6 Response by each reader to what s/he has read is as important to this model as the actual event of reading. If the author's contribution to the literary experience is seen as artistic, then the reader's contribution is viewed as aesthetic. "The reader's attention is centered directly on what he(/she) is living through during his(/her) relationship with the particular text."7 This model extends to include the interpretation that once the initially aesthetic event is given meaning, so as to be retained after the read« ing occurs, it becomes nonaesthetic. The other school is that which adheres to the Psychoanalytic Model (see Fig. 1) introduced by David Bleich in 1975 in his initial manu— script Readings and Feelings.8 It is an affective model given to con- sider the reader as the all important aspect of the study of literature Supporters of this model feel that the reader is in complete command of the literary experience. They believe that all derived meaning is sub- jective in nature and conceived only as an individual interpretation on the part of each reader. "Meaning is constructed and conferred on ob- jects (texts) and not extracted from them."9 This model views the ex- periencing of literature as a pleasurable event because each reader 6Charles R. Veley, "Literature and the Emotions: a Psychology of Literary ReSponse" (Ph.D. disseration, The Pensylvania State Univer- sity, 1970). 7Louise M. Rosenblatt, The Reader, the Text, the Poem (Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1978), p. 25. 8David Bleich, Readings and Feelings: an Introduction to Subjec- tive Criticism (Urbana, Illinois: National Council of Teachers of ifiifiiEfij‘Ts757. 9David Bleich, "The Subjective Paradigm," Subjective Criticism (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978), p. 30. becomes so deeply involved in satisfying her/his own needs. Simon 0. Lesser10 explains that the reading of fiction provides an opportunity fOr us to compensate for the limitations, deprivations, and discontents of our actual experience, to act out our wishes and fears. The Psycho- analytic Model defines response as purely unique to each reader: Response cannot be one particular object or thing that each person produces as just another learning activity; rather, it is an expression of, and declaration of, self in a local context reflecting a set of local choices, motives, and in- terests in knowledge.11 Each reader's motivation is to understand her/himself. Each of these factions of Reader Response Criticism emphasizes the role of the reader in the literary experience. Due to such concern, the term response has come into prominent usage in all contemporary discus- sions of literature. The common thread among the varied definitions is the necessity for affective, personal involvement of the reader with the text. It seems crutial to stress that reader response to literature can frequently be observed in students and, hopefully, encouraged, directed or refined. We must continually remind ourselves that response is an individual revealing of self that must always be considered with the ut most respect. If we intend to obliterate the negative effects which New Criticism curricula had upon students in past years and replace those effects with satisfactory literary encounters which may, in turn, lead to sophistication of each student's response, we must work to 10Simon 0. Lesser, "The Process of Response," Fiction and the Un- conscious (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1957). 110avid Bleich, "Epistemological Assumptions in the Study of Re— sponse," Subjective Criticism, p. 132. create English classrooms wherein the students' responses are received as being as valuable as the teacher's interpretation. We need to begin in elementary classrooms to guide the responses of students from being less emotional, to being associational, and ultimately to being more in- terpretational, so as to send these students on with confidence in their own critical responses to works of literature. This problem surrounding student responses to literature becomes compounded when the type of literature to be offered is that of satire. Historically speaking, satire has always been considered a controversial fOrm of literature. The term pgtipg has created controversy simply due to the fact that it defies precise definition. In contemporary usage, the term is used to designate several common properties which may be associated with a literary work, yet there are no properties which are common to all that is labeled as satire. Robert C. Elliott, noted writer and critic of satirical literature, has considered the matter as follows: This is not a factual question to be settled by examining the work for the necessary and sufficient properties which would automatically entitle it to the name satire; it is a decision question: are the resemblances of this work to various kinds of satire sufficient so that we are war- ranted in including it in the category?12 When we speak of satire today, we usually have in mind a work imbued with the satiric spirit. And that spirit reveals itself through any number of literary and rhetorical devices. The definition of such li- terature is elusive because the term denotes a tone as well as a form. Therefore: 12Robert C. Elliott, "The Definition of Satire: a Note on Method? Yearbook of Comparative and General Literature (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1962), p. 23. ...no strict definition can encompass the complexity of a word which signifies, on one hand, a kind of literature, and on the other, a spirit or tone which expresses itself in many literary genres. Those literary devices associated with the satiric form contribute greatly to the controversial nature of this type of humorous literature. Satire appears to be one of the least attractive forms of humorous lit- erature by the very fact that so many readers/listeners feel that it encompasses the negative and ill-mannered of comic devices. Writers of this type and tone of literature utilize sarcasm. mockery, ridicule, attack, and other means of overt social criticism in order to bring their concerns to the attention of their audiences. There are many, then, who have found satire to be a controversial body of literature be- cause it sacrifices the hearty and wholesome aspects of the comic spirit in order to place the ignoble and perverse in full view. Yet, without such disparagement, there can be no satire. Much of the irrita- tion which is associated with satire probably is a result of the fact that satire is a fOrm of humor which points directly at the incongrui- ties of human beings. Inanimate objects and innocent animals have no place in the comic situations of satire. Satire is humor which can "be applied only to human beings, and only in situations for which they can be assumed responsible."14 It would seem, then, that satire arouses in- dignation among many readers/listeners because it does not attempt to soften the anger or malicious intent of the satirist. It has been the- orized that those readers/listeners with whom satiric literature is 13Ibid., p. 19. 14Louis I. Bredvold, "A Note in Defence of Satire," ELH: a Journ- al of English Literary History 7 (December 1940), p. 259. popular are those people who apply the sentiments to their neighbors rather than themselves, thus avoiding having to accept any personal moral responsibility fbr the social situation.15 These readers/listen- ers enjoy the pleasures of superiority and that: ...nobody really expects (them) to do anything about it (the injustice), and that (they) have no real intention of ever doing anything about it.1 By virtue of the fact that satire is not considered to be polite literature, it rarely makes its way into the planned literary curricula until students enter high school English courses. It would appear that the major themes about which satirists choose to write constitute the reason for such omission. The proverbial existence within our society of the double standard of pretending to support one standard and yet, in reality, practicing another contributes the topics for the social criticism for the pens of the writers of satire. These topics tend to attack the hypocrisy surrounding established institutions of main- streamed society such as government, organized religions, politics, marriage, family, and educational institutions. There are many adults who would deny young readers the opportunity to read statements of cri- ticism of the very institutions which public school educational systems are supporting as right and just to children during their elementary and middle school years of instruction. Such themes of blatant criti- cism are seen as controversial at best and resultantly avoided when selections of literature are chosen. l5Ibid.. p. 257. 16Leonard Feinberg, "The Nature of Satire," Introduction to Satire (Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University Press, 1967), p. 7. 10 Consequently, many of our children are not being given the oppor- tunity to critically assess the themes that many satirists see as hypo- critical. They are not offered literature which questions the inequi- ties or wrong doings of contemporary society. They are not being en- couraged to share personal responses to the issues and controversial topics which these authors are revealing. Yet, since one of the func- tions of the literary experience is to allow each reader the satisfac- tion of becoming a critical thinking member of society at large. it is only natural that children begin to experience such encounters within the setting of the language arts or English classroom. In order to offer children the tools which will allow them to ex- perience literature and life with a heightened awareness. to go beyond the literal interpretation of a text, and to associate the work of literature with their own lives, we must begin to offer works of sa- tire early in the educational experience. Clearly, such exposure will have to begin in the elementary grades and be continued all the way through high school. The ability to think, read, and respond criti- cally can only develop with much practice and experimentation. Boys and girls who can recognize the incongruities and ab- surdities in life and be amused at them should become adults who can meet unexpected situations sanely and philo- sophically.17 Purpose of the Study The purposes of this descriptive study are as follows: 1. To determine responses of fourth and seventh grade stu- dents to contemporary works of picture book satire. It is the intention of this researcher to analyze children's 17Ruth E. Wells. "A Study of Tastes in Humorous Literature Among Pupils of Junior and Senior High Schools." The Journal of Educational Research 28 (1934), p. 90. 11 responses to picture books, wherein a fusion of text and illustration presents the story and the message. To determine fourth and seventh graders' preference or rejection for satire as a type of humor. To analyze children's verbal responses made to satire and to ascertain whether they are capable of recogniz- ing the characteristics or literary devices associated with satire. To analyze whether fOurth and seventh grade children can relate literally and critically to the satiric form of humor. To determine whether or not fourth and seventh grade children associate the characters, events, or experi- ences of contemporary satire with their own lives. To analyze children's verbal responses made specifi- cally to the artwork in contemporary picture book sa- satire. To determine whether fourth and seventh grade children become more aware of the associational characteristics of satire after weeks of exposure to this genre of literature. Statement of Research Questions In this study this researcher examined the following questions and sub-questions: 1. What are the responses of students toward contemporary satire as a genre of literature? Sub-question (a): What is the general attitude of stu- dents toward contemporary satire as a genre of litera- ture? Sub-question (b): In what ways do students apparently respond to the characters, incidents, or experiences within works of satire? Sub-question (c): To what extent do students respond to contemporary works of satire as works of humorous literature? To what extent are students capable of recognizing specific associational characteristics of satire as a genre of literature? 12 3. To what extent do the responses of female students dif- fer from the responses of male students when they are responding to contemporary selections of satire? 4. To what extent do the responses of seventh grade stu- dents differ from the responses of fourth grade stu- dents when they are responding to selections of con- temporary satire? 5. To what extent do the responses of students toward contemporary satire change after experiencing several selections over a period of five consecutive weeks? Need for the Study Although the change in orientation from considering the literary text as the focal point of interest within the classroom to considering the responses of the students has been slow to make its way into modern English programs, research studies concerning Reader Response Criticism are beginning to mount. The research reveals that The Transactional Model, rather than the New Criticism Model, the Subjective Model, or the Aesthetic Model, is the model which will help to develop literary curricula which will meet the standards established concerning litera- ture by English educators during the last decade. Perusal of the related research and pertinent professional re- ferences led this researcher to recognize a need to study the verbal responses made by elementary and middle school pupils to contemporary satire which is available to them. This researcher was convinced that the collection and recording of verbal responses would provide a begin- ning study which would assess response to satirical literature. Ad— mittedly, verbal response may be only a small part of the total re- sponse of the children to picture book satire. But obtaining a thorough understanding of what verbal responses students do express may provide the impetus for a later opportunity to study why they l3 respond as they do, or to answer the question as to what in this liter- ary form encourages such response. An extensive search of the literature revealed several studies which considered student responses to aspects of physical humor. Few studies pertained to aspects of verbal humor, and these considered sa- tire as only one type of verbal humor. They also dealt with jokes, puns, humor of specific words found in literary passages, and misuse of language. Consequently, the search revealed a need for a study which would concentrate on the complex nature of the genre of satire and would assess reader/listener response to it. Collection and analysis of literary responses when children are still in elementary and middle school grades may reveal data which would not reveal itself in studies among more mature readers who are already well established within a personal pattern of literary response. Proféssionals participating in the Dartmouth Conference in 1966 expressed concern about the life-long effects of English curricula which promoted mass responses and implied social conditioning and con- formity.18 The members of the study group on literature concluded that teachers must stress the values of personal response to reading and works of literature so as "to help the student reader find satisfaction in more mature literature on his(/her) own"19 long after the teacher is out of the picture. They emphasized that pupils must learn to take on their own tasks within a framework of choice that the teacher in- troduces and helps them develop. Scholars from Great Britain and the 18Harding, "Response to Literature," p. 15. l91bid., p. 20. 14 United States recommended an English curriculum beginning in elemen- tary grades which: ...allows students to respond to aspects of literature which affect them personally--to make an emotional response as well as a response to literary form and style. The participants of this study group concerned with response to literature were especially concerned about taking the development of each child into consideration when planning a literature program. They stressed the importance of classroom strategies which would offer ap- proaches to learning through the experiencing of language. They em- phasized that the learning experiences should be structured around op- portunities fOr pupils to explore, extend, and shape their learning ex- periences. In short, they recommended programs where there would be less imparting of knowledge about literature and more experiencing of literature. This approach to literature, of course, encourages greater attention to students' individual responses and makes the impact of the Dartmouth Conference an important factor in the changing regard for response and studies of response.2 John Dixon, a participant in the Dartmouth Conference, has dis- cussed the implications of the conference for English education during the 1970's. Although the recommendations have been slow in being im- plemented, he believes that they have encouraged new interest in the learner, her/his development, and the processes of using language for 20Zena Sutherland, "Patterns of Response to Literature," Children and Books, 5th ed. (Glenview, Illinois: Scott Foresman and Company, 19'7'7‘)‘, "p. 508. 21Charles R. Cooper, "Preferred Modes of Literary Response: the Characteristics of High School Juniors in Relation to the Consistency of Their Reactions to Three Dissimilar Short Stories" (Ph.D. disserta- tion, The University of California at Berkeley, 1969), p. 29. 15 self learning. Dixon emphasized "the value of verbalizing some of our deeper experiences...at times in search of fuller involvement."22 In June of 1972, the National Foundation for Educational Research in Britain appointed a committee to investigate language and reading in English schools. The committee, headed by.Sir Alan Bullock, released a report of its findings along with recommendations for improvements in February, 1975. The committee considered all aspects of English education, including reading, writing, and speech which related to stu- dents in elementary and secondary schools. Their findings, reported in "The Bullock Report," were based on the principle that "reading must be seen as a part of a child's general language develOpment and not as a skill that can be considered in isolation."23 Learning and the ac- quisition of language are interlocked at all stages of development and within all academic areas. The Bullock Committee supported literature as a powerful factor in the teaching of English. Because they felt that literature is a vehicle through which children can encounter language in its most com- plex and varied forms, they posed the following concerns regarding the literary encounters of children: 1. Getting groups of children to discuss their reading instead of always demanding written book reviews. 2. We must seriously question what is being achieved when pupils are producing chapter summaries in se- quence, taking endless notes to prepare model ._V 22John Dixon, "In the Perspective of the Seventies," Growth Through English, 3rd ed.(London: Oxford University Press,1975),p. 12L 23Sir Alan Bullock, "A Language for Life; the Report of the Bul- lock Committee," The London Timep, February 21, 1975, Educational Sup- plement, p. I. 16 answers and writing stereotyped commentaries which carry no hint of a felt response. 3. The main emphasis on teaching literature should be on extending the range of reading. True discernment can only come from a breadth of experience. Learning how to appreciate with enthusiasm is more important than learning how to reject. 4. Whatever else a pupil takes away from his(/her) ex- perience of literature, he(/she) should have learned to see it as a source of pleasure, and something that will continue to be a part of his(lher) life.24 In 1977 the National Society for the Study of Education devoted one of its yearbooks to the teaching of English. Experts who contrib- uted to this important publication discussed a multitude of aspects concerning the state of English education in America. One of their ma- jor conclusions was that: ...language and literature inevitably reflect the values of a culture, and the teaching of language and litera- ture inevitably reflects the conflicts and complexities of the culture in which the teaching occurs. They also expressed their concern for upholding the student- centered, interactive approach for teaching English which had emerged during the Dartmouth Conference. They noted that English education should reflect the needs of the students and, as such,rejected content- oriented programs which neglect student involvement in learning and fo- cus upon subject matter. Consequently, the entire yearbook placed an emphasis on the process of English learning and instruction.26 241bid., p. v1. 25James R. Squire, "Editor's Preface," in The Teaching of English ed. James R. Squire, The Seventyesixth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, Part I (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1977), p. xvi. 261pid., pp. xii-xvi. 17 Kenneth Donelson outlined the principles which a literature curri- culum fer young people should support. The premises which he felt should be identified are: 1. Literature exists to be enjoyed, to entertain humanity. 2. Literature allows young pe0ple to see themselves and their problems. 3. Literature provides vicarious experiences beyond the possibilities of any one person's life. 4. Literature exposes young people to many values and many value systems and ideas and practices, often at sharp variance with their own. 5. Literature gives young people a chance to see their language at work and an opportunity to perceive how dif- ferent authors can shape the lives of characters and af- fect the feelings and beliefs of their readers. 6. Literature encourages young pe0ple to see the world as it is, neither all good nor all bad, but all human. 7. Literature promotes the recognition of ideas and emo- tions that lead to action, and actions have consequences.27 That the study of literature should concern not only the text, but also the reader/listener's reception of it and personal response to it is compounded when the form of literature is also considered as a vari- able affecting the experience. Although the relationship between genre and response is probably a complex one which will only be understood after much research is undertaken, the need for research about satiri- cal literature acknowledges a timely shift in emphasis from physical humor to word humor in our 1970's educational offerings to children. Daily, our elementary and middle school children are confronted with the verbal innuendo through bumperstickers, graffiti, and all forms of 27Kenneth L. Donelson, "Literature," in The Teaching of Epglish ed. James R. Squire, p. 160. 18 media advertising. Children's educational television programming has made a concerted effort to include subtle word humor for their viewers so as to offer them the opportunity to become aware of their own lan- guage system. Double meanings of words and the nuances of varieties of structure are central to the popularity of television personalities such as Mork and Mindy, Kermit the Frog and Fozzie Bear, and the staff of The Electric Company. Children's responses to satire must be en- couraged, if not intentionally cultivated, if: ...the professional task of the school is to plan the kind of literature program needed to prepare the adults of the twenty-first century.28 Significance of the Study It is the intention of this study to utilize satirical literature, as presented through picture books, in order to substantiate the fact that students do express their understanding of, empathy for, and sen- sitivity to how this form of literature pertains to aspects of the hu- man condition. It allows students the opportunity to explore, extend, and shape their experiences with their world through experiences with literature, as called for by the members of the Dartmouth Conference in 1966.29 The design of this study provides for meeting all four of the intended aims of literature as recommended by the Bullock Commit- tee's report of “A Language for Life" which were to get children to discuss their reading, to get them to respond to their literature, to 28Doris Young, “Evaluation of Children's Responses to Literature," in A Critical Approach to Children's Literature, ed. Sara Innis Fenwick (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1975), p. 109. 29Dixon, “In Perspective of the Seventies." 19 offer children the breadth of literature, and to offer children the pleasure of literature.30 This researcher believes that the form of satire may be one vehicle through which we can offer elementary and middle school children the op- portunity to read literature which will take them beyond the literal interpretation of a text and nudge them to embark upon a critical in- terpretation. Therefore, this is what this study will attempt to de- monstrate. Satire appears as a literary form which will provide reading ex- periences that encourage a shift from reading for one, single meaning to reading for a variety of meanings because: Satire is not for the literal-minded. It exists on at least two levels, the overt and the implied; and it can only function properly when the tact and the intelligence and the imagination of the satirist are met by a corres- ponding response in the reader.31 Involvement with literature which contributes to development of critical thinking abilities is an important part of the language arts education of all children. One member of the study group on response to literature at the Dartmouth Conference shared the perspective of the whole study group when he emphasized that: ...the student should be able to understand implied as well as surface meanin s, to make critical judgments as a basis for choice in hisF/her) own reading, to recognize the values presented in literature, and to relate them to his(/her) own attitudes and values.32 3OBullock, "A Language for Life." 31James Sutherland, English Satire (New York: Cambridge Univer- sity Press, 1958), p. 20. 32James R. Squire (ed.), Response to Literature (Champaign, Illi- nois: National Council of Teachers of English, 1968), p. 60. 20 Satirical literature is a form which can provide readers/listeners with the opportunity to exercise, and maybe stretch, their critical thinking processes because it demands of them a movement from surface interaction with the literature to deeper, precise interaction. Those literary works which contain sufficient characteristics so as to be labeled as satire are significant materials to be incorporated into the English classroom lessons as planned for elementary and middle school children by virtue of the fact that so frequently they are con- cerned with the timeless, universal issues of life and living. They offer students significantly relevant themes for thought and discussion The authors bring into focus contemporary, timely concerns, which are both universal and timeless at the same time, which they feel are worthy of reader attention today. They write about relevant tapics which stu- dents may not otherwise stop to think about when left with their own thoughts, but which they are capable of comprehending and forming opin- ions about when confronted with them in the form of books. Arthur Pol- lard, noted writer and authority on literary devices, expresses this power when he says, "...one function of satire is to confront us with a thing and to say, 'It is not what it seems. Look!'"33 Through satire, writers offer their perspectives on current events for scrutiny by our students. "Satire may call attention to some fault that has been missed or has been unthinkingly accepted as no fault at all.34 33Arthur Pollard, Satire; the Critical Idiom (London: Methuen & Co., Ltd., 1970), p. 19. 34Richard Armour, "The Significance of Satire: a Satirist Looks at Books," The Thirty-third Yearbook of the Claremont College Reading Conference (Claremont, California: Claremont Graduate School), p. 115. 21 Satire, then, is not an extinct dinosaur. (It) has still a vital part to play in twentieth century literature. (It) lets in a current of fresh air which fills our lungs and keeps our blood in circulation.35 Humor can get along without satire, but satire cannot get along without humor. The fact that satire is also a type of humorous litera- ture adds to its significance. The ability to appreciate the comic spirit, to detect incongruity, and to enjoy absurdity are all aspects of developing the sense of humor. Although the capacity to respond to humor is innate within human beings, it is a capacity which must be encouraged. Moreover, the sense of humor is like a muscle. It can atropgy without use, and it can be developed with exer- Cise. "Satire entertains-~that is its basic appeal."37 And ”beyond the laughter there is something learned."38 This researcher feels that, if satire is one vehicle for extending the aims of literature to students, then the picture book can be one means of doing so. Picture books are written in every literary genre; and since there are quite a few picture books written in the satirical form, introduction to satire through the picture book in elementary and middle school grades seems so natural. Picture books can provide an initial experience with writers and illustrators of satire. They can fOrm a base, fOr those students unfamiliar with this tone and literary 35Sutherland, English Satire, p. 22. 36Armour, "The Significance of Satire," p. 113. 37Leonard Feinberg, Introduction to Satire (Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University Press, 1967), p. 273. 38John Bailey, "Satire," Intent on Laughter (New York: Quadrangle/ The New York Times Book Co., 1976), p. 103. 22 form, from which to study and appreciate more sophisticated satirical works. The reader's enjoyment begins when he(/she) himse1f(/her- self) becomes productive; i.e., when the text allows him (/her) to bring his(lher) own faculties into play.39 Limitations All of the picture books used in this study were limited to con- temporary works of satire which have been published within the years 1970 to 1978. All of the books used in this study were limited'UJthose published in a picture book format and, thus, were received and responded to with respect to texts as well as illustrations. The picture books used in this study were limited to selections which could be read aloud within a thirty to forty-five minute session by the researcher. All of the subjects selected to participate in this study were en- rolled in the fourth grade (ages 9-10) or the seventh grade (ages 12- 13). Each grade level was represented by twelve students. Since all of the subjects were in these two grades, this study can only be gener- alized to a similar population of fourth and seventh graders. The subjects selected to participate in this study were all aver- age or above average in mental age in relation to their grade level placements. They were all at grade level or above grade level with re- spect to their reading level as measured by a standardized reading test. 39Wolfgang Iser, The Act of Reading; a Theory of Aesthetic Re- sponse (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978), p. 108. 23 This descriptive study was designed to be completed within five consecutive weeks. Although the time duration was limited, the design of this study would allow future researchers to replicate the study covering a longer period of time. Definition of Terms The following terms were defined by this researcher using informa- tion and terms gleaned from a variety of literary sources. Contemporary Fiction That body of literary prose which has been published and copy- righted within the 1970's. Picture Book A special form of an illustrated book wherein there exists a fu- sion of text and illustration. The messages or meanings presented de- pend upon both; if either were missing, the message would be limited or lost. The literary art of diminishing a subject by making it ridiculous and evoking towards it attitudes of amusement, contempt, or scorn. The following literary devices are often used alone, or in some combination of one or more techniques, in order to achieve such an end: ridicule, verbal humor, sarcasm, social criticism, stereotyping, exag- geration, superiority, derision, distortion, condemnation, and moraliz- ing. 24 Verbal Humor The manipulation of language through word play, puns, jokes, plat- itudes, wit, and/or name-calling evoking attitudes of amusement or whimsy. Genre A literary term intending to signify a literary species or a lit- erary fOrm or a literary convention. Response to Literature A unique interaction between a literary work and the reader/lis- tener. Appreciation A sensitive awareness which presupposes an emotional, artistic, or other pleasurable recognition as a response indicative of a personal value judgment. Literal Interpretation Interpretation considered with adherence to word for word meaning: characterized by a concern for the factual, verbatim expression. The skill of reading/thinking with the intention of seeking the primary, direct meaning of an idea in context. This type of reading/listening inlcudes no depth of thought. Critical Interpretation Interpretation considered with an emphasis upon judgmental evalua- tion; appreciation at a level of analysis which investigates subtle in-depth distinctions indicating intellectual perceptions in addition 25 to literal perception. This type of reading/listening is concerned with supplying meanings not directly stated within the text. Organization of the Study Chapter I begins with an introduction to the dissertation, speci- fically stating the problems associated with measuring students' re- sponses to literature and to satire in particular. All of the models which relate reader responses with the reading act which have come to comprise Reader Response Criticism are discussed. Satire is explained as an elusive and historically controversial form of literature which defies definition, yet is associated with literary devices which are readily noticed as satiric in tone when present in many literary genres. The statement of the purpose and the research questions follow in the introduction. The need for anclsignificance of the study, sup- ported by noted authorities, are also stated. The study asks the fol— lowing question: What are the responses of students toward contempor- ary satire as a genre of literature? The limitations of the study and definition of terms conclude Chapter I. A review of the related research is presented in Chapter II. The review is focused in two areas: research pertaining to responses of students to literature written as prose and research pertaining to re- sponses of students to humorous literature. Chapter III is the design of the study. It is a delineation of a descriptive method and the specific procedures used in this research. It discusses the population and its selection. The development of The Instrument is included, as well as an account of the pilot study and 26 the resultant validation of The Instrument. The literary materials used in the research are presented with accompanying literary expert agreement. Chapter IV contains an analysis of the data collected during the study. Chapter V contains a summary of the study. In it, conclusions and recommendations for future research are made. CHAPTER II REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE The review of related literathre will be organized under two major headings: (1) studies pertaining to responses to literature written as prose, and (2) studies pertaining to responses to humorous literature. Responses to Literature Written as Prose This section will deal with those literary studies which measure the response of students of any age to any form of literature written as prose. Because many studies about response to prose literature fall into more than one category and because the process of response is, it- self, not easily divisible, this researcher has arrived at the fOllow- ing divisions: (1) studies of the factors in understanding, (2) studies of free responses to literature, and (3) studies of the factors in measurement of literary appreciation or judgment. Studies of the Factors in Understanding One type of study which can be found under reader response re- search is that which is directly concerned with comprehension of liter- ary genre or literary device or literary meaning. This type of re- search may be descriptive or experimental. It has as its major purpose the discussion of those factors relating to the study of literature which students are capable of understanding and the stages in their education and development during which they come to understand them. 27 28 In some of the studies, comparisons were made of variables which are as- sociated with the subjects themselves such as reading level, comprehen- sion of literature, and enjoyment of literary works, while others are concerned with variables involved with technical aspects of literary works such as understanding literary genre, interpreting the literal as well as the implied meaning, and comprehension of elements of author prose style. Charlotte 0. Rogers1 has reported a study in which she investiga- ted individual differences between high level and low level readers when they interpreted a short story which they had read. The subjects (n=28) were high school juniors, fourteen of whom were chosen from an honors English class, and fourteen of whom were selected from an Eng- lish class where all students were reading at least one and one-half years below grade level. The students were all asked to read the short story "Love" by Jesse Stuart on the same day. Rogers selected this story because she felt that (1) it was one which had a t0pic which would be of interest to eleventh grade students, (2) it was of excel- lent literary quality, (3) it had surface as well as implied meaning, and (4) it could be read by all of the students within ten to fifteen minutes. After the reading of "Love," students were asked several structured comprehension questions regarding their interpretations of the story. Four months later, each student was interviewed through a series of open-ended questions regarding her/his personal responses to the story. Rogers felt that these questions would provide her with 1Charlotte D. Rogers, "Individual Differences in Interpretive Re- sponses to Reading the Short Story at the Eleventh Grade Level“ (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Arizona, 1965). 29 infbrmation about the reading process used by each individual. The f0urteen participants were then given two short tasks of listing all of the short stories which they could remember having read, having heard, or having viewed and of listing all of the writers of short stories which they, likewise, could remember having read, having heard, or having viewed. Ten days after the responseinterviews were conducted, the subjects were asked to complete a follow-up question- naire which Rogers developed in order to measure persistent aspects of the short story which the participants had retained. Analysis of the data which Rogers accumulated through all of her questionnaires and personal interview sessions led her conclude that (1) there are indi- vidual interpretive differences in response to the shortstory,iuithin as well as between, the low level and high level readers, (2) the high level readers are familiar with more short stories and more short story writers than the low level readers, and (3) the high level read- ers have a more favorable attitude toward reading than do the low level readers. Rogers went on to also Show findings which revealed significant statistical differences between her two groups of readers in their ability to grasp literal and implied meaning in the short story. It does not seem to this researcher that Rogers has revealed any new evidence which would contribute directly to reader response re- search. Her conclusions do offer support for her investigation of the differences between high and low level readers, but she makes no con- clusive statements about all of the responses which her subjects made to the unstructured questions which she asked during the interview sessions. She offers the conclusion that both high and low level 30 readers integrate the short story into their personal lives, but does not offer sufficient analysis as to the ways in which they do so. Per- haps, if her data were reconsidered, a major contribution would reveal itself concerning each subject's free responses or she could have ex- panded upon her discussion and brief mention of implied and literal literary comprehension by these eleventh graders. Kenneth F. Gambone2 conducted a study to determine the degree to which a high school student grows in her/his understanding from one literary genre to another literary genre. Borrowing the four types of categories into which the noted critic Northrop Frye divides all works of fiction, it was the researcher's contention that high school stu- dents pass from comedy to romance to tragedy and, finally, to irony in their growth through literary understanding. In order to test this hypothesis, Gambone selected four literary works, one to fall into each of the four ferms. He then presented the four works to college-bound tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grade students (n=36) for individual read- ing. All of the subjects were asked to submit a series of questions about human value themes present in each work. From these questions, a total of ten questions were selected for use in an experimental study. Tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grade students ("=246) were given each of the four texts for fifteen days of reading time at school. All reading was completed independently, with no teacher instruction. These high school students were then asked to mark their responses to each of the ten questions. In attempting to quantify the developmental growth of literary understanding by these secondary students, Gambone found that 2Kenneth F. Gambone, "The Viability of Literary Texts" (Ed.D. dis- sertation, Pennsylvania State University, 1972). 31 he could not offer support for his hypothesis based on Northrop Frye's progression of literary understanding. Instead, interpretation of his data revealed that these students pass from tragedy to comedy to ro- mance and, finally, to satire (irony) in their development. He also concluded that literary growth consistently moves upward from grade ten to grade twelve. There was indication that this growth reflected an increase in overall literary sensitivity. The contribution of Gambone's research lies in the fact that he has developed a means for studying the subjectivity of a student's response to literature. He states very specifically that he has measured active responses and that he is unable to measure the nature of that aspect of literary response which is other than active. Upon looking closely at Gambone's data it is possible to conclude,for purposes of thisstudy that when the responses of the tenth grade students are compared with the responses of eleventh and twelfth grade students, the tenth grade students were more confused by the category of satire more often than they were confused by the other three literary categories. Concern with children's enjoyment of literature and their sensiti- vity to the elements of literary style led Mary Henze3 to undertake a study which would determine sixth grade children's (n=102) pleasure in listening to a well-written story, their preferences for well-written passages of literature, and the effect which study about literary style would have on their responses to literature. Henze selected four sixth grade classrooms in two elementary schools to participate in her re- search. She developed a multiple choice test about the following six 3Mary V. Henze, "Children's Responses to Literary Style" (Ph.D. dissertation, The University of Arkansas, 1972). 32 elements of literary style: simile, alliteration, onomatopoeia, image- ry, rhythmical prose, and variety and complexity of sentence structure which she administered to all of the subjects. Then, during a four week period, Henze met with two of the classrooms and taught each class seven lessons on the six elements of literary style, after which she re- peated the same form of the multiple choice test about the literary ele- ments. She then read them most of Chapter One of The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien, following which she administered a preference/rejection test concerning twelve passages extracted from Chapter One of The Hobbit in order to measure the children's responses to Tolkien's literary style. The other two classes served as Henze's control groups. They were read aloud Chapter One of The Hobbit and administered the preference/rejec- tion test over the passages. Since they did not receive any instruc- tion about the elements of literary style from Henze, they were not re- tested with the multiple choice test to measure for growth. Henze read aloud all of the items of the instruments developed and used with the subjects as the subjects marked their choices and preferences. Thus, the task of reading was equalized for all of the subjects. In consi- dering her data, Henze found a significant difference in understanding elements of literary style for those sixth graders who had received instruction about the six elements, after the instruction took place. She also discovered that the girls scored a bit higher both before and after her seven lessons than the boys did. She fbund no differences in preference/rejection scores of her subjects, which led her to be- lieve that learning about literary style has no effect on the enjoy- ment of listening to a well-written story. She found also that chil- dren in both groups thoroughly enjoyed Tolkien's writing style. Henze 33 went on to conclude that children enjoy hearing well-written stories and seem to enjoy learning about the elements of literary style, yet they do not need this knowledge about literary style in order to re- spond positively to high quality literature. Mary Henze makes a contribution to reader response research in documenting the fact that children of the sixth grade age range can learn about elements of literary style and can express their prefer- ences about an author's writing style, both of which are aspects of literature considered by many to be too abstract in nature to be com- prehended by elementary grade students. Although her data supports the fact that direct instruction about literary elements is not a pre- requisite to preferring superior literary style, it does offer children the skills to be more discriminating about the passages which they select. Studies of Free Responses to Literature One approach to considering response to literature is through the analysis of the stated responses of the subjects. This often takes the form of describing the content of the spoken or written responses of individual students or groups of selected students to works of lit- erature. It seems to this researcher that those setting about to mea- sure literary response in this manner believe that "it is what the reader brings to the text as much as the text itself that determines the nature of response."4 Although all research of this type attempts to encourage freedom of response so as to generate data which will 4Alan C. Purves, "Research in the Teaching of Literature," 32; search in the Teaching of English 52 (April l975), p. 463. 34 reveal internal dimensions of reader/listener reaction, several pro- cedures for research have been developed in order to (l) develop clas- sification systems for the responses shared, (2) discuss certain attri- butes which may be associated with the personalities and abilities of different types of respondents, (3) learn more about the effects of some treatment procedures or direct methods of teaching on the re- sponses which they produce, and (4) understand the process which the reader/listener goes through in interpreting a literary work. Ninth, tenth, and eleventh grade male and female students from a large city in Alabama (n=4l7) and a small town in Connecticut (n=80) were the subjects of an experimental study run by Stewart5 in order to ascertain whether or not subjects who differ in their reactions to certain characters also differ demonstrably in various personality traits. Both groups of students were measured as to intelligence quo- tient, socio-economic status, and liberalism-conservatism through the use of standardized tests. They were also rated as to personality traits on checklists which were filled out by their respective high school English teachers. In order to obtain subjects' preferences for various literary characters, Stewart chose to use novels which con- tained obviously opposing characters. She used Gone with the Wind, Nuthering Heights, and Kings' Row, each of which includes the inter- action of two male and two female characters wherein none of the per- sonalities of these characters is subtly hidden from a naive reader through writing style. The literary works were summarized and read 5Naomi Schiller Stewart, ”Attitudes Toward Literary Characters as Related to Factors in Personality" (Ph.D. dissertation, Purdue Univer- sity, l944). 35 aloud on separate days to the subjects during their English class peri- ods. After each reading, the students were asked to answer a question- naire. Two months' later, the procedure was repeated with the Alabama group. Stewart concluded that almost all personality variables studied showed a relationship to character preference. She also surmises from her data that preference appears to be indicative of differences in cultural factors within a community setting rather than specific dif- ferences in personality traits. When cultural milieu is constant, re- lationships between character preferences and personality traits tend to be constant, also. Since she has shown us that preference for one character pres- ented in a literary work over another character in the work is an in- dividual response to literature as well as a cultural response to literature, Stewart's contribution to literary response research seems to be the fact that she has shown the breadth, variety, depth, and variability of the human response to literature. She has enumerated the fact that there can be as many unique preferences and rationales for those preferences as there are unique personalities. It was the intention of a study done by Henry Meckel6 to explore the responses of high school students to a fictional work containing content concerned with experiences and problems common to adolescents. He wanted to determine what situations in a novel students would re- spond to, what aspects of a novel students like or dislike, and how responses relate to the predispositions of personalities of the 6Henry C. Meckel, "An Exploratory Study of Responses of Adoles- cent Pupils to Situations in a Novel" (Ph.D. dissertaion, The Univer- sity of Chicago, l946). 36 students. Fortitude by Hugh Walpole was selected as an appropriate novel because Meckel felt that the use of one work, rather than several short stories, would reduce the multiplicity of characters and events to which he was measuring response. It was also a work that was al- ready built into the English curriculum of the twelfth grade students from which he was to gather his data. Each 91?] BUd boy Ul=96) was given a week to ten days to read the novel on her/his own. Upon com- pletion of the four major sections of the novel, each pupil was asked to participate in a free writing/free response activity. When a whole class had finished reading the novel, all members of that class were asked to answer specific questions about it which Meckel had developed. This was followed, within the next day, by a rating test wherein sub- jects were asked to rate incidents within the text according to how vividly they were remembered. No discussion of the novel took place within any of the classrooms until all of the three phases of data were gathered. Upon consideration of the data through content analysis proce- dures, Meckel drew four conclusions: (l) vividly remembered situa- tions in the novel tended to be specific and highly individual, (2) eighty-four percent of the participants showed evidence of identifi- cation with the characters and situations, (3) there is a relationship between personality predisposition of the subjects and their corres- ponding responses, and (4) female readers are more interested in char- acters while male readers are more interested in events andsituations It would seem then that Meckel offers documentation of the fact that adolescents can live vicariously through literature, because they tend to identify so totally with a work of fiction. When selecting 37 literature, this identification should be considered, as well as the characterization and events in the story, so as to guarantee interest on the part of girls and boys. Meckel's study is very exploratory in nature. Although he does document the conclusions which he itemizes, he gives no insight as to the content of adolescent responses. He merely tells us that they are individual to each subject. That, in itself, would be important for the teacher of literature so that s/he would value and expect unique responses; but for reader response research, we need more information. Using informal research methods, Hilda Taba7 conducted an explora- tory study designed to determine the capacity of literature to help to extend social sensitivity. Through continued and intensive exposure, during one complete academic year, eighth grade public school students (n=25) were exposed to works of realistic fiction which reflected their own personal concerns and interests. Stories were selected and either read to the entire class or were read by each student on her/his own at home. The program involved a follow-up discussion with the total group after each selection was read. As it was the intention of this re- searcher to encourage these students to explore each story freely, questions leading off the group discussions were open ended. Fifty-one different discussion sessions were recorded during English and social studies class periods throughout the duration of the program. Taba organized the student response statements into the categories of pro- jections, generalizations, self-references, and irrelevancies. Al- though she fbund marked variation in contribution, projection into the 7Hilda Taba, With Perspective on Human Relations (Washington: American Council on Education, l955). 38 story with attempts to explain and to evaluate was the dominant mode of response, with fifty to ninety percent of the statements made falling into this classification. The next largest group of statements in- cluded references to personal experiences, and only twelve percent of the statements reflected attempts to generalize beyond facts of the stories. She found irrelevant statements to be quite infrequent. Sev- eral encouraging conclusions were drawn by Taba from her extensive amount of data. She felt that the documented statements provided evidence that the reading and discussing of fiction is effective in ex- tending feelings, cultivating understanding of persons different from oneself, and encouraging positive human relations through exposure to new ideas. She also concluded that constant exposure to literature, relevant to eighth grade problems, was capable of overriding strong adolescent peer pressure and home environment to eliminate ethnocen- tric and egocentric judgments and to lead to cosmopolitan growth through character identification. The informal nature of this research, as opposed to a formal ex- perimental research design, allowed personal experiences with litera- ture to surface for tabulation. Taba has documented the fact that literature can be a potent force in altering understanding, empathy, and sensitivity within an educational setting. She also gives credence to personal response through the mere fact that she set out to under- take this, now classic, response study. Walter Loban has reported a study which measured the responses of high and low socially sensitive adolescents 01=l20) from grades eight through twelve to literature involving values based on the theme 39 of human dignity.8 Specifically, he chose to analyze their responses to literature intended to evoke sympathy from the reader. Once he had selected adolescents who were highly sensitive to the feelings of other people and an equal number of adolescents who were low in their sensi- tivity to the feelings of other pe0ple, Loban placed them in a setting where teachers read a short story aloud to them. After the reading, four responses of each student were recorded: a free written response of discussion of the story, response to an agree—disagree scale with a number of statements, a questionnaire covering the story and measuring reader (listener) response, and a checklist measuring response to the main character in the story. This procedure was repeated for ten short stories. When all of the responses to the stories were drawn together for analysis, Loban itemized several significant conclusions. Among those relating to the subjects themselves were: a larger number of adolescent girls proved to be highly sensitive as compared with ado- lescent boys; low socio-economic status was less conducive to sympathe- tic behavior for adolescent boys, yet had no bearing on the adolescent girls; and there were no differences in race, intelligence, familysize, reading ability, or religion among the members of the two Opposing groups. Among those conclusions which relate to obvious differences between the high and low sensitive groups, Loban found that members of the highly sensitive group are disposed to be: more understanding ra- ther than to accuse, blame, or condemn; more concerned over their rela- tions with others; more popular with their peers; more stable in their 8Walter Loban, "Adolescents of Varying Sensitivity and Their Re- sponses to Literature Intended to Evoke Sympathy" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Minnesota, l949). 40 interactions with others, and much more sensitive to their own limita- tions, inadequacies, and failures. And among those conclusions relat- ing the high and low sensitive students to literature, Loban cites that there is a tendency: to identify with literary characters most closely resembling oneself; for highly sensitive adolescents to show a greater interest in books which deal with idealistic, aesthetic, or sympathetic themes; for low sensitive adolescents to show an interest in books which include themes of cruelty; and for free responses to works of literature to organize themselves into major categories. It would seem then that Loban's extensive research would combine well with Taba's9 earlier work to provide a clear, documented case of stating exactly where readers are with respect to their sensitivity to others. With the statement of needs provided, a program of utilizing literature to encourage growth through a similar literary program would have maximum chances for being effective. Assessment of sensitivity would prove meaningful if it served to act as a pretest and posttest measure to encourage social sensitivity through exposure to literature selected to promote such sensitive understanding. It also seems clear when assessing so many subjects, for any re- searcher involved in the collection of such large amounts of response data, to attempt some clear, manageable means of organizing these re- sponses into classifications of protocols. Perhaps here, too, Loban could have merged his work with Taba's and have used her four areas of organizing student responses. 9Taba, With Perspective on Human Relations. 41 The ways in which students comprehend literature while they read has been investigated by James R. Squire.10 He studied comprehension as it takes place and developed a technique of classifying responses made during the reading of a short story. Squire was interested in the de- velopment of responses of readers during the total process of reading a literary selection. Squire selected four stories on the basis of quality as reading material for adolescents, on the relationship of the stories to key experiences within the lives of adolescents, on their level of complexity as literary works, and with the intention that students would be previously unfamiliar with the selections. He then analyzed the responses of ninth and tenth grade boys and girls (r:52) while they were reading the four selected short stories. The data on the students' responses was obtained during interview sessions and recorded for later perusal. Oral responses of each of the subjects were recorded immediately after the reading of each of the six sections of each of the four stories, in order to gather data of an on-going process. Squire then identified seven general categories of responses through methods of content analysis. The study revealed the response categories of literary judgments, interpretational responses, narra- tional reactions, associational responses, self-involvement, prescrip- tive judgments, and miscellaneous. The study findings noted that re- sponses to literature coded as interpretational occur more frequently than any other type of response. Squire included such reader reactions as attempts to discover the meaning of the story, the motivational 10James R. Squire, "The Responses of Adolescents to Literature Involving Selected Experiences of Personal Development" (Ph.D. disser- tation, University of Califbrnia at Berkeley, l956). 42 forces of the characters, interpretations of plot, themes, and ideas, and visual reconstruction of scenes as interpretational responses. Those reSponses occurring fewer than four percent of the time were as- sociational, prescriptive judgments, and miscellaneous. These codings indicate that few students related the works of literature with their own lives and rarely discussed any recourse available to characters within the stories. Squire concluded that the types of responses made were completely unrelated to the reading ability of the subjects. This finding would suggest that ratings on a standardized reading test offer no reliable index as to the ability of readers to interpret literary selections. He also fbund that there are observable group tendencies among adoles- cents with respect to their reading responses. Although Squire re- ported six basic sources of difficulty which adolescents encounter when interpreting short stories, his major contribution to response research seems to be that he offered case studies in support of the fact that readers respond to literature in unique and select ways and that the nature of an an individual's reaction is conditioned by the dynamic interplay of several factors. He further offers evidence which suggests that sex differences do not affect the overall pattern of response, but do influence reactions to specific situations in lit— erature. College freshmen from two English courses at San Francisco State College (n =54) were the subjects of a study done by James R. Wilson11 to measure the responses of students to a work of literature before and HJames R. Wilson, Responses of College Freshmen to Three Novels (Champaign, Illinois: National Council of Teachers of English, l965). 43 after the study of that work in their English classrooms. As it wasrfis intention to consider the factors affecting student response to litera- ture after studying a work when compared with student response to lit- erature without any previous classroom study, Wilson arranged a class- room procedure whereby all subjects would be reading a novel, writing out a free written response to the novel, discussing the novel in the classroom, participating in a panel discussion of the work, discussing the novel again, and then writing another free written response con- cerning the work. This procedure was repeated for a total of three no- vels over a period of three days for each novel. Since it was Wilson's contention that the study of literature will influence how a student perceives literature, he made a content analysis of the students' first written protocols and compared that analysis with the analysis of the second set of written protocols. He categorized the responses into the seven response categories which Squire12 had established in his earlier study of measuring student responses to literature. A statistical, as well as qualitative, analysis revealed that there was more than a twenty percent increase in interpretational responses among student protocols after the discussion of each novel within the classroom. The increase in this type of response, to attempt to discover the mean- ing of the work, was included at the expense of nearly all other ca- tegories of response. It was the contention of the investigator that such an increase indicated more maturity of literary perception. He also stressed that such an occurrence was probably a result of the fact that the teacher in these English classes avoided supplying the 1ZSquire, "Responses of Adolescents to Literature.” 44 "correct" interpretations of the novel. The protocols also revealed to the researcher a ten percent decrease in responses of literary judgment from the first writing to the second. This change in concern with au- thor technique and literary value is also considered to be a result of the instructor's refusal to make such evaluative literary judgments. Wilson's research contributes to literary response research in that he has shown that students often begin their involvement with lit- erature in a fairly emotional manner, often highly dependent upon per- sonal identification, and then move into confronting interpretation in a logical, directional manner. He makes a case for instructors of literature to make increasing demands upon their students to move to- ward explicit analysis in their interaction with a literary work. Wil- son supports Squire's earlier contention that readers respond to liter- ature in free and uniquely varied ways and that these responses can be encouraged if the instructor does not impose her/his interpretations upon her/his students. In a study designed to contribute significantly to an understand- ing of the broad dimensions of response to literature, Alan Purves13 attempted to categorize and classify the elements of writing about a work of literature. He was interested in ascertaining the process of description which a person would use within an essay about her/his reading after the reading of a work. Initially, Purves asked a number of critics and scholars to formulate statements about one literary work. Later, their writings were compared with the writings of many 13Alan C. Purves with Victoria Rippere, Elements of Writing about a Literary Work: a Study of Response Literature (Urbana, Illinois: National Council of Teachers of English, l968). 45 students in Great Britain, Germany, Belgium, and the United States. From these prototypes Purves drew his list of elements or constituents which students use to make their interpretations. Purves established five broad categories into which he placed all of the literary ele- ments which were generated. These categories are: engagement-involve- ment, perception, interpretation, evaluation, and miscellaneous. Purves conducted a pilot study of students aged thirteen and seventeen (n=300) from the previously cited four countries, and he found ninety percent agreement of two out of three readers scoring the essays and the indi- vidual statements according to the elements contained in his five ma- jor categories. The scoring of the written responses revealed higher percentages of usage of elements from the categories of engagement- involvement and perception by the seventeen year olds than by the thir- teen year olds. The two groups of students measured closely on their usage of elements of interpretation and miscellaneous elements. The striking difference in the essays of these two groups of students be- came apparent within the category of evaluation. Purves has defined this category to include elements related to statements made by the reader regarding her/his judgment of whether or not the literary work was good or bad. He has explained the difference as a function of the literature curriculum offered at the high school level. This research- er interprets Purves as implying that a seventeen year old student does not have the confidence in her/his own judgment of a literary work to discuss such elements in a written essay. The data revealed within this study offer important information regarding the ability of students to respond to literature. Although students responded more with elements of some of the categories than 46 they did with elements in other categories, they did include statements of response in all five categories. He demonstrated that thirteen year old students are capable of discussing their perceptions or understand- ings of a literary work. That is, they are able to consider elements such as literary devices, literal statements about content or theme, events of a work, character descriptions, author tone, and generic classification. They are also capable of making evaluative statements about a literary work. These statements include elements of emotional appeal, generic evaluation, thematic evaluation, and moral significance. The consistency of response to differing short stories written by four individual authors was investigated by Charles R. Cooper.14 He was interested in discovering whether or not high school juniors would respond in a consistent manner to stories which were notably different in ways such as writers' points of view, characterizations developed, or themes unraveled. Cooper selected students (i=ll7) from seven su- burban high school English classes who were all at grade level or above as determined by their school records. He then chose "A B P" by John Updike, ”The Wish" by Roald Dahl, "Just Lather, That's All" by Hernando Tellez, and "Indian Camp" by Ernest Hemingway as the four short stories he would utilize with his subjects, because he considered the stories to be of high quality, appropriate reading matter for adolescents, and sufficiently dissimilar in obvious ways. Cooper read the stories him- self onto tape and typed the script of each so as to offer a read-along copy to each subject during the treatment procedure. The investigation 14Charles R. Cooper, "Preferred Modes of Literary Response: the Characteristics of High School Juniors in Relation to the Consistency of Their Reactions UJThree [fissimilar Short Stories" (Ph.D. disserta- tion, The University of California at Berkeley, l969). 47 included two parts. In one part, a story was presented on tape accom- panied by the typed script for following along followed during the same session by a response sheet. This procedure continued at weekly inter- vals for the first three stories. The other part consisted of a follow- up study where subjects (n=29) from the first part were selected to hear and give responses to the fourth short story and where subjects (n=8) were further selected for in-depth interviews concerning their responses throughout the entire investigation. The response sheet used throughout this study consisted of four essays developed by Cooper about each story. The intention was for each subject to select the one Cooper essay which most closely resembled an essay which s/he would have written about the story to which s/he just listened. The response sheet also asked each student to explain reasons for her/his choice. Cooper developed the four essays to correspond to the four response categories of engagement, perception, interpretation, and evaluation. At the outset of his research, Cooper defined consistency of response to mean that a subject selected the same essay response mode for two of the three initial stories heard. The responses of the subjects led Cooper to conclude that three-fourths of these high school juniors had a preferred way of responding to short stories. These results con- firmed the earlier work of James R. Squire15 in noting interpretation as the most frequent type of response selected by fifty-three percent of the subjects. Twenty-four percent preferred the engagement mode, nineteen percent preferred evaluation, and only four percent selected the perception mode. In considering these data with respect to other 15Squire, "Responses of Adolescents to Literature." 43 variables, Cooper found that reading ability definitely discriminated the respondent groups from one another, sex of the subject revealed no influence on choice of response mode, and those subjects selecting the interpretive essays were far superior both in reading ability and grades earned in English to the other subjects.16 Cooper's study offers documentation of the consistency of response which may be expected by high school English teachers when exposing their students to short works of fiction. These results may be an in- dication that those students with a lower reading ability will need the aid of their teachers in developing responses to literature through an interpretive mode. Further analysis of the reasons for the preferences which the students made, as well as the comments which were revealed by the eight subjects who participated in the follow-up study, might also make a contribution to reader response research. William D. Rearick17 designed a study to investigate the extent to which children identify values or lessons in the behavior of charac- ters in short stories, the extent to which these children see the same values or lessons as adults see in the behavior, and the extent to which these children support the personal moral responsibility as re- presented in the behavior of the characters. He randomly selected girls (n=208) and boys (n=222) from seven elementary public schools in Seattle. All subjects were sixth grade students, but they varied from high to low in reading ability and socioeconomic levels. 16Cooper, "Preferred Modes of Literary Responses." 17William D. Rearick, "An Exploratory Study of Selected Responses of Sixth Graders to Personal Moral Responsibility as a Social Value in Short Stories" (Ed.D. dissertation, The University of Washington, l969 . 49 Four adult judges aided Rearick in selecting four short stories which included personal moral responsibility as a dominant theme, were at or below a sixth grade readability level as determined by a readability index, and included two major characters, one of which supports a posi- tive moral value system and the other being one which shifts from a negative belief system to a positive one. The four short stories se- lected were "For Skylark and Gypsy" by Hunt, "That Lazy Mario“ by Crockett, "Light Bow's Gift" by Holland, and "The Gullible Goose” by Spencer. Each subject was randomly assigned to read one of the short stories silently to her/himself and then asked a series of questions concerning one of the eight characters presented in that story. Rearick's findings led him to conclude that a greater percentage of girls and boys were able to identify a lesson or message as revealed in one of the four stories than those who were unable to identify one. The percentage of sixth grade girls and boys who noted the same lesson within the story as the four adult judges noticed was about the same percentage of students who noted a different lesson. A greater percen- tage of girls and boys supported the personal moral responsibility of these characters than failed to support it. When Rearick considered his data with respect to personal traits of his subjects, he found no differences among boys of differing socioeconomic levels and only a few differences among girls of low and middle socioeconomic status. Rearick's research makes a contribution in that he offers data in support of the fact that elementary-aged readers do respond positively and negatively to characters about whom they read. He also points out that they are very capable of interpreting the moral lesson which an author is presenting to them. It seems to this researcher that Rearick 50 has contributed evidence in support of the fact that elementary grade children do identify with and evaluate characters in their stories. This research may offer further interesting information if it were re- plicated as a study incorporating oral reading of the stories and oral questioning of the subjects rather than silent reading in order to al- leviate the requirement of decoding the printed page before comprehen- sion can take place. Faye L. Grindstaff18 has reported a study which attempted to ex- plore the written responses of tenth grade public school students to four different novels. It was her intention to consider the effects of two different techniques of teaching, so her subjects (n=57) were di- vided into three separate groups, each with a different high school English teacher. All of the subjects read Swiftwater by Paul Annixter, Fahrenheit 45l by Ray Bradbury, Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman, and A Separate Peace by John Knowles. A period of one week was allot- ted fbr the reading of each novel. When they finished reading a novel, the subjects were each asked to write two free response compositions about the given novel. During a one week period between the writing of the two compositions, the three groups received different treatment. The first group received instruction which Grindstaff termed structural analysis, a teaching technique based on the precepts of the New Criti- cism Model wherein the teacher leads students to discover the interre- lationships within the text which s/he already knows. The second group received instruction which she termed experiential reflective analysis, a teaching technique based on the premise that one should study the 18Faye L. Grindstaff, "The Responses of Tenth Grade Students to Four Novels" (Ed.D. dissertation, Colorado State College, l969). 51 literary experience as s/he perceives it to be. This teaching method takes into full account the previous life experiences of each student and approaches the study of literature through the structure and mean- ing that each student brings to it. The third group received no in- struction regarding the four novels and thus served as the control group for the others, but Grindstaff allowed for the passage of one week between this group's writing of the two compositions. Grindstaff then did a content analysis of the students' first written protocols and compared that analysis with the analysis of the second set of writ- ten protocols. She also compared the responses of the three groups. She categorized the responses into the seven response categories estab- lished by James R. Squire19 in his earlier study. A statistical, as well as qualitative, analysis revealed that those students exposed to the experiential reflective teaching had more divergent responses and more self-involvement, associational, and literary judgment responses than the other students and that the control group responded most often with unsophisticated responses categorized as narrational and interpre- tational. Grindstaff also found that exposure to structural analysis teaching developed more sophisticated responses and that those students denied any form of literary instruction had greater difficulty in read- ing the novels.20 This study contributes to reader response research because the subjects involved were average tenth grade readers, not students se- lected on any basis of reading excellence. It also provides 19Squire, "Responses of Adolescents to Literature." 20Grindstaff, "Responses of Tenth Grade Students." 52 documentation for the premise that direct instruction in literature is far superior in encouraging divergent response than no instruction at all. It appears, too, that Grindstaff's analysis of the student re- sponses supports experiential reflective instruction as the form of English teaching which provides students with self-sufficiency in learning about and making critical literary judgments about those as- pects of literature which are of personal importance to them. Peter L. SandersZ] conducted a study in order to determine the effects which classroom instruction in the interpretation of short stories would have on the responses of adolescents. He randomly se- lected ninth grade (n=78) students within a suburban community of Syra- cuse, New York, which he assigned to two experimental and two control English classrooms. The four teachers who participated had willingly volunteered to take part in the investigation and were also randomly assigned to the classrooms. Sanders developed a teaching strategy of establishing motivation and purpose for reading, preteaching necessary vocabulary, silent reading of the short story and a study guide, small group discussion based on the material within the study guide, a con- cluding activity with the teacher, and a twenty minute free response essay as the treatment for his experimental groups. Eight short stories were selected based on criteria which were established to de- termine literary quality and positive appeal for ninth grade boys and girls. Four of the stories were rated high in appeal and four were rated low. Three stories from each rating were read according to 21Peter L. Sanders, "An Investigation of the Effects of Instruc- tion in the Interpretation of Literature on the Responses of Adoles- cents to Selected Short Stories" (Ph.D. dissertation, Syracuse Univer- sity, 1970). 53 Sanders' learning strategy during a three and one-half week period by the experimental students. No other instruction regarding literature was offered during this time. The students in the control classrooms read the same six stories independently and wrote the twenty minuteiWee response essays, but were involved in no other aspects of the learning strategy. The final two stories were read and a response essay written each within one English period, following the three and one-half week experimental procedure, by all of the subjects. Sanders analyzed the protocols of his subjects in the following ways: (l) by using the ca- tegories for response devel0ped by James R. Squire,22 (2) by consider- ing the quality of each essay as assessed by readers who interpreted each subject's response in a wholistic manner, and (3) by measuring fluency within each protocol as defined by both number of words and number of total responses per subject. From his analysis of the proto- cols, Sanders concluded that those students who were exposed to his teaching/learning strategy exhibited significantly more quality in their responses to stories read both during the instruction and inde- pendently after the instruction and their responses to the stories high in appeal and low in appeal when they read them independently. He also determined that the number of ideas represented in their responses was greater for those students who were receiving instruction at the time of writing their responses.23 It appears that the direct instruction did, in fact, affect the responses to the short stories by the experimental students. Sanders' 2ZSquire, "Responses of Adolescents to Literature." 23Sanders, "Investigation of the Effects of Instruction.“ S4 investigation points to the positive effects which teaching strategies can have in developing the breadth and variety of reader response. Al- though Sanders mentions that we have many unidentified variables which affect reader response to literature in his discussion, he does docu- ment the fact that there are dimensions of response which can be en- couraged and developed. His research supports the earlier works of Wilson24 and Grindstaff25 in emphasizing teacher instruction as a means of eliciting divergent and quality response to literature. John F. Fanselowz6 has reported an investigation of the responses of Spanish speaking adolescents in New York City both to passages of short stories and the short stories in their entirety. His research is a replication of an earlier study done by James R. Squire.27 Thus, he duplicates Squire's study in every aspect except for those students who served as the subjects. Fanselow's ninth graders (n=60) were asked to read the short stories "All the Years of Her Life" by Morley Callaghan, "Prelude" by Lucile Payne, “Reverdy” by Jessamyn West, and "The Man in the Shadow" by Richard Child. As the intention of the research was to determine the development of reader response throughout the total read- ing process of each literary selection, each subject's response was solicited and tape recorded through personal interview sessions at six different intervals of reading each short story. Fanselow coded these responses according to the categories which Squire previously 24Wilson, Responses of College Freshmen to Three Novels. 25Grindstaff, "Responses of Tenth Grade Students." 26John F. Fanselow, "The Responses of Ninth Grade Bilingual Ado- lescents to Four Short Stories (Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, l97l . 27Squire, "Responses of Adolescents to Literature." 55 established. The study revealed that the bilingual students responded similarly in number of responses make to Squire's subjects, but that the responses fell in differing proportions among the categories. The bi- lingual students made fewer responses coded as literary judgments, in- terpretations, and prescriptive judgments. The study findings also noted that the bilingual students made responses which contained fewer stock responses, fewer irrelevant associations, fewer critical predis- positions, and fewer failures to grasp the literal meaning than did Squire's subjects. Fanselow also reported that there were no signifi- cant differences in the responses of these ninth grade students withre- spect to reading scores in English or Spanish, sex, age, or professed enjoyment. Fanselow's investigation went beyond that of Squire's to look at the presence of traits usually associated with the New York Spanish speaking population within the responses of these adolescents, but the data revealed such diverse and varied responses that they proved con- tradictory.28 The researcher was interested in itemizing evidence of Spanish speaking people's values present within the responses and was unable to do so. Nonetheless, he did contribute to an understanding of the needs of these Spanish speaking students by revealing that their needs relating to response to literature are, in fact, similar needs to those adolescents within Squire's sample. He has shown that these ninth grade students also require assistance in developing their re- sponses to short stories and that they, too. respond to literature in unique and select ways. 28Fanselow, "Responses of Ninth Grade Bilingual Adolescents.” 56 The variations in the responses to three different short stories among adolescents, college students studying to become English teachers, and in-service English teachers were investigated by Maia P. Mertz.29 The design of her research involved English teachers 01=52), college students 0l=52), and tenth grade public high school students 01=l60) in a silent reading of "The Use of Force" by William Carlos Williams, "In- dian Camp" by Ernest Hemingway, and "Born of Man and Woman" by Richard Matheson. After each reading, Mertz had her subjects complete a re- sponse questionnaire which she developed based on Alan C. PUFVES' 30 previously devised four general categories of response to literature and all of the literary response elements which he interpreted to be first level response elements. In addition, the adults were asked to complete a questionnaire which solicited infbrmation regarding age, years of ex- perience in teaching, and amount of graduate work which they had com- pleted. Mertz considered the responses from the participants by making between group comparisons, within group comparisons, and relationships between the adults' responses and the personal, professional variables which they revealed on the second questionnaire. When Mertz analyzed the data she had gathered, she found the largest differences in re- sponse between adults and the tenth grade adolescents and, in contrast, found almost no differences in the responses of adults and college stu- dents. Her findings revealed that there was no relationship between the responses given to the three short stories and personal factors 29Maia P. Mertz, "Responses to Literature among Adolescents, Eng- lish Teachers, and College Students: a Comparative Study" (Ph.D. dis— sertation, University of Minnesota, l972). 30Purves with itippere, Elements of Writing. 57 relating to the English teachers with regard to teaching experience, amount of literature courses which they had taken, or other graduate coursework completed.3‘ Mertz's conclusions seem to support the fact that response to lit- erature can change as a reader's experiences become broader or include specific purpose. She documents the fact that readers' responses do vary as they increase in age as well as education, yet they seem to re- main similar upon reaching adulthood. Mertz's data might also offer us further information if we were to know the personal variables of ex- periences and background of the tenth grade students and the future teachers. With the premise in mind that all readings originate in the read- er's personality, Norman N. Holland32 set about to document the supposi- tion that a reader responds to a literary work by using it to recreate his own characteristic psychological processes. He used undergraduate English majors (n=5) who had volunteered to serve as the readers in his study. He felt warranted in doing so, as he surmised that such col- lege students would feel comfortable in voicing their reactions freely to literary works. Holland selected ten short stories for all of his subjects to read on their own time, each during a one week period. Fol- lowing the reading of each story, he met with each individual partici- pant for a one hour tape recorded interview. In h0pes of getting his readers to freely associate with the stories, Holland encouraged them 3lMertz, "Responses to Literature among Adolescents." 32Norman N. Holland, Five Readers Reading (New Haven: Yale Uni- versity Press, 1975). 58 to express as much as they would about any given feeling or point in the stories. The interview sessions also included fixed questions about the stories which he prepared ahead of time to ask them, questions about specific passages, and the request of each reader to retell each story in her/his own words. All of these recordings were then transcribed and compiled into five composites of data, five longitudinal case studies. In considering the wealth of data, Holland attempted to determine a recurring pattern of information about each of his subjects. He drew four conclusions about personality identification themes, driving forces, and personal defenses from his collected data. These conclu- sions are: (l) if a reader responds positively to a literary work, s/he has been able to put elements of it together so that they act out her/his lifestyle; (2) if a reader has a favorable reSponse toward a work, s/he must have found something in the work that s/he doesiriorder to cope with her/his needs or fears; (3) each reader uses a literary work in order to create a wish-fulfilling fantasy of her/himself; and (4) each reader makes some literary interpretation of a text. The data revealed as a result of this study providedauiopportunity for Holland to share support of the Transactive Model of literary cri- ticism. He has shown that the manner in which each person reads and combines these readings with her/his past expereinces, in order to af- firm personal identity, should certainly provide support for the fact that we recreate literature for ourselves. When a reader reads, s/he brings to the work a set of characteristic expectations which are ty- pically a combination of related desires and fears. 59 Studies of the Factors in Measurement of Literary Appreciation or Judgment Another approach to considering response to literature is through assessment by literary tests, most of which propose to measure apprecia- tion or judgment. It seems to this researcher that those professionals setting about to measure literary rating are, in fact, concerned with the emotional or otherwise aesthetic recognition which becomes a re- sponse to personal value judgment of the work. There is agreement among them that there can be genuine growth in literary appreciation, enhanced by arousing both primary as well as secondary responses made by read- ers.3'3 .Although there can be and is appreciation at every level of en- counter with a work, the premise is that readers can travel along a continuum from immature to mature readings. This sequential growth runs from unconscious to self-conscious to conscious. At the initial stage, the reader is content to read for pleasure and enjoyment. As the read- er develops into the second stage of appreciation, s/he interprets the author's meaning by weighing, judging, and comparing the work to her/his own life. And at the most mature level, the reader combines enjoyment with interpretation and is able to find aesthetic delight in her/his own choices and responses. 34 The procedure is one of explicitly stating the objectives for teaching literature or exposing students to literature, then devising 33Robert C. Pooley, "Measuring the Appreciation of Literature," English Journal 24 (October l935), pp. 627-633. 3‘4Margaret J. Early, "Growth in Literary Appreciation," English Journal 49 (March l960), pp. l6l-l67. 60 tests to objectively measure the specific objectives.35 With such a procedure, the purposes seem to be to encourage the discriminating re- sponse, to analyze the stated responses offered by students, and to ex- amine the differences which exist between expert and inexpert judgments. There are other literature tests available which aim to measure a stu- dent's ability to interpret a literary work or passage of a literary work in a critical manner. One recent example is A Look at Litera- tg:g.35 Such tests are not concerned with aesthetic reader response and appreciation. P. B. Ballard37 was interested in finding out what types of prose appeal to children during different stages of their growth. He felt that inquiry could help to discover that which a child would choose as her/his favorite writing style. He began his investigation by select- ing four samples of prose to represent four styles of writing. The fbur styles were labeled the antique, the flowery, the plain, and the jocular. The four writing samples were selected from four versions of the literary work Kigg Arthur. Ballard offered the four writing styles to children in twenty elementary classrooms and two training college groups with instructions to read them, arrange them in order of pre- ference, and offer critical analysis of each piece. He found that the selections which a subject placed first or last were those which 35 Charles R. Cooper, "Measuring Appreciation of Literature: a Revigw of Attempts," Research in the Teachigg of English 5 (Winter 1971 , p. 14. 36National Council of Teachers of English, A Look at Literature (Princeton, New Jersey: Educational Testing Service, l969). 37P. B. Ballard, "Prose Preferences of School Children," Journal of Educational Psychology 5 (January l9l4), pp. l0-2l. 61 offered information on their preferences. Ballard concluded that the influence of the classroom teacher was obvious in the written comments offered by the respondents through their criticism. He also found that the humorous passage was preferred by children up to the age of ten, but that older children always put it last. Ballard interpreted this to mean that older children are often hesitant to admit what they like, if they think it may be seen as a childish tendency. The responses re- vealed that the plain style was not preferred by the youngest children, was most often given as the first choice by the older children and was seen to decline in popularity with the adolescent college students. Ballard found that a professed fondness for the flowery style increased with age and reached a maximum during the adolescent years. And he con- cluded that young children pay very little attention to the way in which a thing is expressed, but rather tend to notice the t0pic much more. Ballard's research was undertaken quite some time ago and, result- tantly, his discussion includes some rather biased and generally out- dated comments about children. Some of his statements of analysis re- veal what may now be interpreted as sexist and racist, as when he com- ments on the generally known innate mental comprehension deficiencies of children from lower socioeconomic families. Ballard does make a contribution to those professionals interested in the reading and writ- ing of elementary school students. This researcher would be curious to see these literary passages offered to youngsters toda» so as to com- pare their choices with those collected by Ballard. Perhaps, contem- porary upper grade children and adolescents would not reject the humor- ous style of writing. 62 Herbert A. Carroll 38 set about to determine whether or not literary aesthetic judgment is affected by intelligence. He selected junior high (n=600) and senior high (n=270) students within the Minneapolis and St. Paul public schools for whom verbal intelligence quotients were avail- able. He then administered the Carroll Prose Appreciation Test39 to these students. Appreciation is defined by Carroll as a quality which includes the ability to be sensitive to style, to understand the deeper meanings of a book and to respond emotionally to the feelings expressed in writing. He is of the Opinion that appreciation is measurable by assessing the ability of pupils to "differentiate the good from the less good, and the less good from the very bad."40 In order to assess this ability, Carroll has constructed a test of literary judgment wherein students are asked to rank order four passages relating to the same to- pic or theme as to the best in literary merit down to the worst. There 41 are two forms available, one each for junior high students and senior high students,42 each of which has been validated by literary experts and standardized on over three thousand students. After completion of 38H.A. Carroll, I'Appreciation of Literature and Abstract Intelli- gence," The Journal of Educational Psychology 25 (l934), pp. 54-57. 39li. A. Carroll, "A Method of Measuring Prose Appreciation," _gg; lish Journal 22 (l953), pp. l84-l89. 401bid., p. l85. ‘le. A. Carroll, "A Standardized Test of Prose Appreciation for Junior High School Pupils," The Journal of Educational Psychology 23 (1932), pp. 604-606. 42H. A. Carroll, "A Standardized Test of Prose Appreciation for Senior High School Pupils," The Journal of Educational Psychology 23 (1932). pp. 401-410. 63 the appreciation test, Carroll grouped all the students with 10's over l20 together and all those with IQ's below lOO together so as to compare their scores on the Carroll Prose Test. He concluded that there was a marked relationship between intelligence and the ability to appreciate quality literature. The data substantiate the' fact that brighter chil- dren possess better literary judgment than dull children. He 9095 0" to say that: ...the ability to appreciate literature rests to a consider- able degree upon comprehension, and comprehension, in turn, of course, rests upon intellectual capacity.4 It seems to this researcher that it bears mentioning that the Car- roll Prose Appreciation Test is measuring the ability of junior and senior high school students to match their choices with sixty-five ac- claimed literary experts. If s/he agrees with their choices, then her/ his score will be right and thus high; and if s/he disagrees, then her/ his score will be wrong and thus low. Carroll makes no attempt to men- tion or account for the deeper, fuller, more individual aspects Loan: _uowmxga mzoLoe=z xtozuto cu bmumtoe::m masogu comumvuommo an —mu_u¢cu acme»0n:m 149 Table 17 shows the percentages of response in a regression table relating all items discussed in Research Question One. The four scores recorded for “enjoyment” all fell well above the ninety percent level of response. All twenty-four students professed enjoyment of War and Peas and The Quicksand Book. Virtually all of the students expressed enjoyment of The World's Greatest Freakshow and The Shrinking of Tree- horn. Some Example Statements which Document the Scoring of Student Re- sponses. The following statements offer sample responses collected on The Questionnaire III during the questioning sessions and subsequently scored as indicative of this aspect of satire. War and Peas by Michael Foreman. "En! or: ' 1' go 4'. 0* f‘" *Eer a A»? "q-s +q'z‘) H 7 o. .4. LC is su’ (Jilé‘w LuiC/‘J g" v ’ it log“. hos; oht’. C'cé ’(L’ w and toe other kingdom was overweight and too fuZ' of';ooa. fourth grade female enjoyment J: was good, the main to you skouZd share it, not fourth grade male The Quicksand Book by Tomie de Paola. enjoyment Jungle Soy was teaoktug her about 1: ukiZe st? .29 drowning and then he fell in and sle woafjl'* nil: him 'tiZ she felt like it. Both of them youfjt't zeip each other out. fourth grade female enjoyment She was sinking. He wouZdn't save her 'til he got aZZ done teZZing her about it. then he was going down, but she wouldn't help him. fourth grade male 1 SC) ..... ---- ----- ---- ----- ---- .~\P_ m.mo ----- ---- mo\mm e.oo .~\m_ m.~w ----- ---- ----- ---- .~\~_ o.om Loss: ..acos ..... -- --- -- ----- --- --- --- --- -- --- --- --- -- --- -- .~\~_ m.o~ --- -- puwdnuga ..... -- --- -- --- -- --- -- --- -- --- -- --- -- --- -- --- -- --- -- «saga-a: ..... --- cmxv 5.0— --- -- ---- ---- ---- ---- om\.o ~.co --- ---- --- ---- ----- ---- --- ---- acozuca as oo\o_ ..o_ .~\_ ~.. .~\~ m.» c~x~ m.» ¢~\m m.o~ ..... --- ..... ---- ..... ---- .............. ---- vouacuaseo mucosa 93$ cam 3k «.3 cNB c3 2.“? 52 3k «.8 ..... -- ..... -- ..... -- .............. -- 8328.3. 3 ..... --- .~\. N.o. ---- --- ----- --- ---- ---- o¢\.m ..mn --- --- ¢~\¢p ".mm .~\._ «.mm ---- -- ..o.u.eu ..... -- --- -- --- -- --- -- --- -- II --- -- --- -- --- -- --- -- --- -- «cu-aonco 5%. 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E-DK no A K W SK HKNO ANA A K HK ER H- SKO HKNO ANA T 0 R0 DEAH TCAU HAE T 0 TN E0 TH;E H TC 0 HAE 0 0 .LTIES 158 P 00 I RH LTES .IL 8 p T 8 RAR U TB RNT R R U DEF HI OEF HR S HR G G mmcoamwm to omuucmucwa .m. cpnah F! 151 The World's Greatest Freakshow by Ellen Raskin. enjoyment In the beginning he thought he was really great, he wanted so much, then when he got i 3 - He didn't think people had feelings, freak. The end where the people he thought were were successful. He was successful but unhaypg. seventh grade female dislike It was okay. It was different. Would you read this story again? 3o. would you read any more books by this author at another time? No. seventh grade male The Shrinking of Treehorn by Florence Parry Heide and Edward Gorey. enjoyment o a 0 “' I Treehorn was alwaus train? to saw sonetndno, an: his ‘1' c a p l .. Y) n ‘ 7,; h7~jw- h "n A-n-q-Je. a fi;A- + AZ/r,Q . motl’lé. dado;- Moo-L430 g: 7.7;- 1 of 3.77:4 “...a/(Av 0.1.x: u . this book. It's the est one so far. seventh grade female V- 3 1 ”I A; dislike - 1 Did you like the story? I dOfi': know. I: was 5;;- ferent. I never read anything like it. Would you read this story again? No. - Would you read any more books by this author at another time? No. seventh grade male Sub-question (b): .In what ways do students apparently respond to the characters, incidents, or experiences within works of satire? This research question was developed to determine whether or not students respond in critical ways, by personal association, to the nu- merous themes revealed, and to the incidents evident through the artwork present in contemporary picture book satire. In order to consider responses which would be indicative of a literary appreciation beyond the literal level, this researcher made 152 provision for a scoring of "critical" under "Other Responses" on The Instrument III. For those subjects whose responses appeared to reveal only a literal level of comprehension, provision for such a scoring was made by "literal” under "Other Responses" on The Instrument III. The decision as to whether a subject's responses reflected a criti- cal or a literal level of understanding was based on the consideration of the total response offered by the subject to each individual work of satire. In scoring, this researcher made an analysis of the subject's answers to all twenty-two questions. Those responses which revealed a level of comprehension beyond verbatim, word for word meaning to evalua- tive or judgmental levels were scored as "critical." The final tabulation of the raw scores (see Appendix C) and cor- responding percentages recorded as "critical” for the total population of twenty-four subjects for each of the four selections of satire is shown in Table l6. A total of nineteen of twenty-four students gave verbal responses which revealed a critical comprehension of War and Peas by Michael Foreman. This score shows a 79.2% critical understanding by the total population, with a 20.8% literal understanding by fourth grade female and male students. A total of fourteen of twenty-four students gave verbal responses which revealed evidence of a critical comprehen- sion of The Quicksand Book by Tomie de Paola. This score exhibits a 58.3% critical understanding by the total population, with a 4l.7% li- teral understanding as evidenced by subjects from both grade levels and both sexes. A total of fourteen of twenty-four students gave verbal re- sponses which revealed a critical comprehension of The World's Greatest Freakshow by Ellen Raskin. This score shows a 58.3% critical under- standing by the total population, with a 4l.7% literal understanding as l53 evidenced by the responses recorded for subjects from both grade levels and both sexes. A total of four of twenty-four students gave verbal responses which revealed a critical comprehension of The Shrinking of Treehorn by Florence Parry Heide and Edward Gorey. This score exhibits a l6.7% critical understanding by the total population, with an 83.3fi literal understanding as evidenced by subjects from both grade levels and both sexes. Three of the four scores recorded as "critical“ fell above the fif- ty percent level of response (see Table l7). A clear majority of stu- dents responded critically to War and Peas while more than fifty percent of the students responded critically to The Quicksand Book and The World's Greatest Freakshow. Critical response to The Shrinking of Tree- horn was scored for considerably less than half of the sample. In order to consider responses made by subjects which evidenced a reader/listener's personal involvement with an individual work of satire, this researcher made provision for a scoring of "by_gssogiatjon” under "Other Responses" on The Instrument III. Such a scoring was made on the basis of a subject's response to the following questions which were developed and included on The Instrument III: 22. Did anything about the story make you feel uthWfrrTJFEef 22a. Jf'yes, what made you feel uncomfortable? Additional supportive evidence which would document a student's personal relationship with any particular literary work was also scored as "by association" under "Other Responses.“ In scoring, this research- er made an analysis of the subject's responses as recorded on the total questionnaire. Those responses which revealed an in-depth digression beyond a direct answer to any single question and indicated that the 154 subject had associated the picture book with an aspect of her/his own life were recorded as "by association." The final tabulation of the raw scores (see Appendix C) and corres ponding percentages recorded as "by association" for the total p0pula- tion of twenty-four subjects for each of the four selections of satire is shown in Table l6. A total of seven of twenty-four students gave verbal responses which revealed that they made a personal association with Mar and Peas by Michael Foreman. This score shows a 29.2% associa- tion with this story by the total population and a 70.8% lack of any professed association by subjects of both grade levels and both sexes. A total of four of twenty-four students gave verbal responses which re- vealed that they made a personal association with The Quicksand Book by Tomie de Paola. This score exhibits a 16.7% association with this pic- ture book by the total population and an 83.3% lack of any professed association by subjects of both grade levels and both sexes. A total of six of twenty-four students gave verbal responses which revealed that they made a personal association with The World's Greatest Freakshow by Ellen Raskin. This score shows a twenty-five percent association with this work of satire by the total population and a seventy-five percent lack of any professed association by subjects of both grade levels and both sexes. A total of seven of twenty-four students gave verbal re- sponses which revealed that they made a personal association with The Shrinking of Treehorn by Florence Parry Heide and Edward Gorey. This score exhibits a 29.2% association with this story by the total popu- lation and a 70.8% lack of any professed association by subjects of both grade levels and both sexes. l55 The scores recorded as "by association" fell below the fifty per- cent level for all four works of satire (see Table l7). Considerably less than half of the students related The Quicksand Book to their own lives and less than half of the subjects related to the other three selections. In order to tabulate those questionnaires in which students item- ized the major themes which the authors revealed in their contemporary works of satire, this researcher made provision for a scoring of "themes enumerated” under "Other Responses" on The Instrument III. The decision as to whether a subject itemized several of the themes discussed within a work was based on the consideration of the total response offered by the subject to each individual work 28.5.5 cowumPUOmmm an wmumcm53cm mmEmzu 174 Six of the eight aspects of satire considered in Research Question One reflected a score which fell above the fifty percent level of re- sponse (see Table 17). Virtually all of the students expressed enjoy- ment of this literary fOrm with the recorded score's falling well above the ninety percent level of response. A clear majority of the students were capable of responding to the humorous aspects and specifically the physically humorous aspects as occurred within these picture books. A majority of students were capable of responding to the artwork and ver- bal humor as evident, as well as responding in a critical rather than merely a literal manner to these literary works. The scores recorded for the other two aspects relating to satire fell below the fifty per- cent level of response indicating that considerably less than half of the subjects made responses which reflected comprehension of the themes revealed or association with these works of satire. Research Question Two To what extent are students capable of recognizing specific asso- ciational characteristics of satire as a genre of literature? Since it was the intention of this study to measure response to satire, associational characteristics of satire were accumulated by this researcher as she read the professional literature pertaining to humorous literature and the satiric form specifically. Those literary techniques used alone or in some combination of one or more were com- piled into a checklist entitled "Some Associational Characteristics of Satire" (see Table l in Chapter III). 175 This research question was developed so as to determine whether students were able to identify the literary devices or techniques which an author of satire may include in her/his writings. In order to assess the extent to which students recognize 533139- pyping as present in satirical literature, this researcher developed the following question which was included on The Instrument III: 5. Who do you think are the funny characters in the story? One of the literary traits listed as being associated with satire as a form of writing is stereotyping. Stereotyping is further defined through the synonyms oversimplified, standardization, conformity, and caricature. If a subject's response to question six reflected evidence of comprehending any stereotyping of characters within each of the pic- ture books, her/his response was marked as positive for "stereotyping" under "Humorous Responses" on The Instrument III. The final tabulation of the raw scores (see Appendix C) and corres- Ponding percentages recorded as "stereotyping" for the total population of twenty-four subjects for each of the four selections of satire is shown in Table 18. A total of twenty-three of twenty-four students gave overt responses which reflected recognition of stereotyping in up: and Peas by Michael Foreman. This score shows a 95.8% recognition of the stereotyping within this story by the total population and a 4.2% lack of recognition of the stereotyping by one fourth grade male stu- dent. A total of twenty-two of twenty-four students gave responses which reflected recognition of stereotyping in The Quicksand Book by Tomie de Paola. This score exhibits a 91.7% recognition of the stereo- typing within this picture book by the total population and an 8.3% lack of recognition of the stereotyping by male students. A total of l 7(5 eo\mn wmxmc om\ov om\wv ma\mm omxmw om\em wa\0m om\mm wo\mm oo\mm os\o_ same o.w~ co\m~ o._m oo\ue ~._e wo\om o.om oo\me m.~m oo\_e o.- oo\e~ e.mm wo\~o m._m ca\eo n.5m om._e ~.mm oe\me m.mm em\oe e.o_ oo\ow m emu: mHmEam _aemw mgoomaw Logs; quwmxcq mzocoszc xcozugo ow umumcmsscw mmEmcu cowummuommm An Psuwowto “cosmowcm 215 mpme u HHHHHHHHH mpmsmw u ooooooooo cache me o Asw.omv o_ HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH ANNNV mp ooooooooooooooooooooooo A&N.mmv VP HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH A&m.mov mm cooooooooooooooocooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Axmmv mm HHHHHHHHHHHHHfiHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH~HHHHH A&N.F¢v om ooooooooooooooooooooooooooocoooooooo A&N.mmv wfi HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH A&w.omv cm ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Ashmv m_ HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Asm.wmv mm oocooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo A&mmv um HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Axnmv Km ooooooooooooooooooooooooocoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ANn.oov mm _HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Axm.mov om ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo A&m.mmv mm HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH A&n.wov mm ooooooooooooooooooooocoooooooooooooooooooocoooocoo A&¢.mmv NF HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Axomv vm ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Axm.~mv mp HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Ax~.mmv mm ooooooocoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Asm.mmv ¢_ HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Asm.smv mm coooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Axm.mwv N¢ HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHfiHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH A&N.Fmv «v oooooooocooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo HH mpmz vcm umEma Amxoom pp< Lowv mmmcoammm Pouch .m wgamwu :owmwcmv unemucou cowamcmmmmxm ccoum cowumcemccou cowpgoumwu mchPPmLoe apwcowgmaam EmePpwcu _m?uom mpzuwuwc Emmucmm mcwaxpomcmpm 216 for critical comprehension as a majority of the female responses indi- cate critical comprehension of satire (see Figure 4),while less than half of the male responses indicate critical comprehension of these works. A total of twelve of forty-eight female responses indicated that females made some personal association with the satiric form of litera- ture compared with an equal total of twelve of forty-eight male re- sponses which reflected personal association. These scores both show a twenty-five percent response indicative of personal involvement with these works of satire. There is no substantial difference between the female and male responses reflecting evidence of personal association with satire as both scores fell at the twenty-five percent level of re- sponse (see Figure 4), indicating that considerably less than half of both the female responses and male responses reflected personal asso- ciation with this fOrm of literature. A total of seven of forty-eight female responses indicated a dis- cussion of themes as developed within these works of satire compared with a total of three of forty-eight male responses. These scores show a l4.6% response in which themes were itemized by the female population and a 6.3% itemization by the male population. There is no substantial difference between the female and male responses indicating a discus- sion of the themes as developed within these picture books as both scores (see Figure 4) indicated that considerably less than half of both the female responses and male responses indicated a discussion of the themes. A total of thirty-three of forty-eight female responses indicated a response to the artwork within these picture book selections compared 217 with a total of thirty-one of forty-eight male responses. These scores reflect a 68.7% response to the artwork by the female population and a 64.6% response by the male population. There is no substantial differ- ence between the female and male responses to the artwork within these picture books as both scores fell well above the fifty percent level of response (see Figure 4), indicating that a majority of both the female and male responses were to the artwork. A total of forty-six of forty-eight female responses reflected a response to the humor as evident within these literary works compared with a total of thirty-fOur of forty-eight male responses. These scores exhibit a 95. % response to humor by the female p0pulation and a 70.8% response by the male population. There is a considerable difference in the female and male responses to the humor as expressed within these works of satire. The score for the female responses fell well above the ninety percent level of response (see Figure 4), indicating that virtually all of the females responded to humor. The score for the male responses fell well above the fifty percent level of response, indicating that only a majority of male responses were to the humor. A total of forty of forty-eight female responses indicated a re- sponse to the physical humor within these picture books compared with an equal total of fOrty of forty-eight male responses. These scores both show an 83.3% response to physical humor by both the female and male populations. There is no substantial difference in the female and male responses to the physical humor as present within these picture books as both scores fell well above the seventy-five percent level of response (see Figure 4), indicating that a clear majority of both the female responses and male responses were to aspects of physical humor. 218 A total of thirty-two of forty-eight female responses indicated a response to verbal humor within these picture books compared with a to- tal of twenty-six of fOrty-eight male responses. These scores exhibit a 66.7% response to verbal humor by the female population and a 54.2% response by the male population. There is no substantial difference in the female responses and male responses to the verbal humor as shared within these literary texts. Both scores fell above the fifty percent level of response (see Figure 4), indicating that a majority of both female and male responses reflected a comprehension of the verbal humor of these satiric works. All of the scores as recorded for the twelve associational charac- teristics of satire as analyzed in Research Question Two are listed for the total possible female responses and the total possible male re— sponsesin Table 20. A total of forty-four of forty-eight female re- sponses reflected recognition of stereotyping compared with a total of forty-two of forty-eight male responses. These scores show a 9l.7% re- cognition of stereotyping within these picture books by the female pop- ulation and an 87.5% recognition by the male population. There is a slight difference between the female responses to stereotyping and the male responses. The female score fell slightly above the ninety per- cent level of response (see Figure 5), indicating that virtually all of the female responses reflected comprehension of stereotyping while the male score fell well above the seventy-five percent level of response, indicating that only a clear majority of the male responses reflected comprehension of stereotyping. A total of twenty-six of forty-eight female responses reflected recognition of the sarcasm within these literary works compared with 219 a total of fOurteen of forty-eight male responses. These scores exhi- bit a 54.2% recognition of sarcasm by the female population and a 29. % recognition by the male population. There is a slight difference be- tween the female and male responses to sarcasm as evident within these works of satire. The female score fell slightly above the fifty per- cent level of response (see Figure 5), indicating that a majority of the female responses reflected comprehension of sarcasm. The male score fell well below the fifty percent level, indicating that less than half of the male responses reflected comprehension of sarcasm. A total of twenty-five of forty-eight female responses indicated comprehension of the ridicule as present within these works of satire compared with a total of eighteen of forty-eight male responses. These scores indicate a 52.l% comprehension by the female population and a 37.5% comprehension by the male p0pulation. There is a slight differ- ence between the female and male responses to ridicule as evident with- in these stories. The female score fell slightly above the fifty per- cent level of response (see Figure 5), indicating that a majority of the female responses reflected comprehension of the ridicule. The male score fell below the fifty percent level of response, indicating that less than half of the male responses reflected comprehension of ridicule. A total of twenty-four of forty-eight female responses indicated comprehension of the social criticism as present within these picture books compared with a total of seventeen of fOrty-eight male responses. These scores show a fifty percent comprehension by the female popula- tion and a 35.4% comprehension by the male population. There is a slight difference in the female responses and male responses to social 220 criticism as expressed within these works of satire. The female score fell at the fifty percent level of response (see Figure 5), indicating that exactly half of the female responses reflected comprehension of social criticism within these literary works- The male score fell below the fifty percent level of response,indicating that less than half of the male responses reflected comprehension of social criticism. A total of thirty-three of forty-eight female responses indicated recognition of superiority as present within these works of satire com- pared with an equal total of thirty-three of forty-eight male responses indicating recognition. These scores both show a 68.7% response indi- cative of recognition of superiority. There is no substantial differ- ence in the female and male responses to superiority as present within these works of literature as both scores fell well above the fifty per- cent level of response (see Figure 5), indicating that a majority of both female and male responses reflected a recognition of the trait of superiority. A total of thirty of forty-eight responses reflected recognition of moralizing as developed within these works of literature compared with a total of thirty-two of forty-eight male responses. These scores express a 62.5% recognition by the female p0pulation and a 66.7% recog- nition by the male population. There is no substantial difference in the female and male responses to the moralizing developed within these picture books as both scores fell well above the fifty percent level of response (see Figure 5), indicating that a majority of both the female responses and male responses reflected a comprehension of the device of moralizing. 221 A total of thirty-seven of forty-eight female responses indicated comprehension of the distortion within these works of satire compared with an equal total of thirty-seven of forty-eight male responses, indi- cating comprehension. These scores both show a seventy-seven percent response indicative of understanding of distortion. There is no substan- tial difference in the female and male responses to distortion as pre- sent within these works of literature as both scores fell above the seventy-five level of response (see Figure 5), indicating that a clear majority of both female and male responses reflected a recognition of the literary device of distortion. A total of twenty-eight of forty-eight female.responses reflected understanding of the condemnation as evidenced within these picture books compared with a total of thirteen of fOrty-eight male responses. These scores express a 58.3% understanding by the female population and a 27% understanding by the male population. There is a slight differ- ence in the female responses and male responses to condemnation as ex- pressed within these books. The female score fell above the fifty per- cent level of response (see Figure 5), indicating that a majority of the female responses reflected understanding of the trait of condemna- tion. The male score fell well below the fifty percent level of response, indicating that less than half of the male responses re- flected understanding of condemnation. A total of thirty-fOur of fOrty-eight female responses indicated recognition of scorn as a literary device within these works of satire compared with a total of fourteen of forty-eight male responses. These scores show a 70.8% recognition of scorn by the female population and a 29.2% recognition by the male population. There is a slight 222 difference in the female and male responses to the scorn as revealed within these picture books. The female score fell well above the fifty percent level of response (see Figure 5), indicating that a majority of the female responses reflected recognition of scorn. The male score fell well below the fifty percent level, indicating that less than half of the male responses reflected recognition of scorn. A total of twenty of forty-eight responses expressed understanding of the device of exaggeration as present within these works of satire compared with a total of thirty-six of fOrty-eight male responses. These scores show a 4l.7% understanding by the female population and a seventy-five percent understanding by the male papulation. There is a considerable difference between the female and male responses to exag- geration as evident within these stories. The female score fell slightly below the fifty percent level of response (see Figure 5), in- dicating that less than half of the female responses expressed under- standing of exaggeration. The male score fell at the seventy-five percent level of response, indicating that a clear majority of the male responses reflected understanding of exaggeration. A total of thirty-three of forty-eight female responses indicated comprehension of contempt as a literary device within these works of satire compared with a total of fourteen of fOrty-eight male responses. These scores express a 68.7% comprehension by the female population and a 29.2% comprehension by the male population. There is a slight dif- ference in the female responses and male responses to contempt as ex- pressed within these books. The female score fell well above the fifty percent level of response (see FigureES), indicating that a majority of the female responses reflected comprehension of the trait of contempt. 223 The male score fell well below the fifty percent level, indica- ting that less than half of the male responses reflected comprehension of contempt. A total of thirteen of ferty-eight female responses revealed under- standing of derision as developed within these works of literature com- pared with a total of ten of forty-eight male responses. These scores express a twenty-seven percent understanding of derision within these picture books by the female population and a 20.8% understanding by the male population. There is a slight difference in the female and male responses to the derision developed within these books. The fe- male score fell well below the fifty percent level of response (see Figure 5), indicating that less than half of the female responses re- vealed understanding of derision, while the male score indicated that considerably less than half of the male responses revealed understand- ing of derision. Summation. Six of the eight aspects relating to satire, as con- sidered under Research Question One, revealed no substantial differ- ences when comparisons were made between the responses of the female population and those of the male population. Virtually no differences existed in expressed enjoyment of satire, the degree to which subjects related satire to their personal lives, the amount of discussion of the themes devel0ped within these works, or the responses to artwork, phy- sical humor, or verbal humor. The other two aspects, critical response and response to humor presented, revealed a slight difference and a considerable difference, respectively. In each of these two cases, the female population responded more frequently than the male. 224 Eight of the twelve associational characteristics of satire, as analyzed in Research Question Two, revealed a slight difference in the responses when the sex of the subjects was considered. A slight dif- ference was recorded for recognition of the traits of stereotyping, sarcasm, ridicule, social criticism, condemnation, scorn, contempt, and derision. For each of these traits, the female responses reflected recognition more often than the male responses. Consideration of three of the twelve associational characteristics revealed virtually no sub- stantial differences. When comparisons were made between responses of the female and male p0pulations, no substantial differences were fOund to exist for superiority, moralizing, or distortion. The final trait, exaggeration, revealed a considerable difference between female and male responses, with male responses reflecting comprehension of exag- geration considerably more often than female responses. Research Question Four To what extent do the responses of seventh grade students differ from the responses of fOurth grade students when thgy are responding to selections of contemporary satire? This research question was developed in order to determine whether or not there were any substantial differences in the responses of fourth grade students to contemporary satire when compared with the re- sponses of seventh grade students to this form. All of the aspects of satire as analyzed in Research Question One and Research Question Two were considered by this researcher according to the grade level of the subject. 225 The final tabulation of the raw scores (see Appendix C) and cor- responding percentages recorded for the fourth grade students (n=l2) and the seventh grade students (n=12) appears as a summary of responses in Table 2l. Table 21 provides the responses of the population of the fourth grade students for all of the four selections of satire (n=48) and of the population of seventh grade students fer all of the four se- lections of satire (n=48). Figure 5, Total Responses (for All Books) Fourth and Seventh Grades 1, and Figure 7, Total Responses (for All Books) Fourth and Seventh Grades II, offer a pictorial view of the re- sponses to satire arranged so as to compare fourth and seventh grade subjects. All of the scores as recorded for the eight aspects of satire as analyzed in Research Question One are listed for the total possible fourth grade responses and the total possible seventh grade responses in Table 21. A total of forty-eight of forty-eight four gradewresponses reflected enjoyment of satire compared with a total of forty-six of fOrty-eight seventh grade responses. These scores show a one hundred percent enjoyment by the fourth grade population and a 95.8% enjoyment by the seventh grade population. There is no substantial difference between the fOurth and seventh grade responses as both scores fell well above the ninety percent level of response (see FigureES), indicating that all of the fourth graders enjoyed these selections of satire and virtually all of the seventh graders enjoyed them as well. A total of nineteen of forty—eight fourth grade responses re- flected critical comprehension of satire compared with a total of thirty-two of fOrty-eight seventh grade responses. These scores show a 39.6% comprehension by the fourth grade population and a 66.7% 226 Table 21. Research Question Four Total Books Total Sample fourth seventh z w a we enjoyment 100.0 48/48 95.8 46/48 critical 39.6 19/48 66.7 32/48 by association 25.0 12/48 25.0 12/48 themes enumerated 2.1 1/48 18.8 9/48 to artwork 66.7 32/48 66.7 32/48 humorous 89.6 43/48 77.1 37/48 physical humor 91.7 44/48 75.0 36/48 verbal humor 41.7 20/48 79.2 38/48 stereotyping 85.4 41/48 93.8 45/48 sarcasm 37.5 18/48 45.8 22/48 ridicule 33.3 16/48 56.3 27/48 social criticism 35.4 17/48 50.0 24/48 superiority 60.4 29/48 77.1 37/48 moralizing 56.3 27/48 72.9 35/48 distortion 70.8 34/48 83.3 40/48 condemnation 41.7 20/48 43.8 21/48 scorn 35.4 17/48 64.6 31/48 exaggeration 35.4 17/48 81.3 39/48 contempt 47.9 23/48 50.0 24/48 derision 18.8 9/48 29.2 14/48 mvmgm guco>wm u HHHHHHHHH mtmgm nugzow u cooooooco ascer~,me o A&N.mmv mm HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Axn._¢v om ooooocooocooooooooooooooooocoooooo Axmxv om HHHHfiHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Ax~.Fmv cw oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooocoooocooocooocooooooocooooooooooooooooo A&P.~Nv mm HHHHHHHfiHHHfiHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH_HHHHHHHHHHmfiHHHHHHHHHH A&o.mwv mv oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo A&n.mov Nm HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH 7“ Axm.mov mm oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo 39 Aem.m_v m HHHHHHHHHH Ae_.mv _ oo Aemmv N. HHHHHHHHHHHHHH Aemmv NP oooooooooooooo A&m.mov mm HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Axo.mmV mp coooocooooooocoooooooooooooooooo ANw.mmv ow HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Afioo—V we oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooococoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo wQHC Loan; Fancm> Logs; _m0wmxgq msocoE=c xeoZucm op umamcmszcw mmsmcg cowpmVUOmmm An Pmuwueeu ucwEXOncm H mwcmcw cucm>wm can :pczoa Amxoom FP< Lowv mwmcoammm payee .m mcammm 228 wuwgm cucm>mm u HHHHHHHHH mumsa zugzow n ooooooooo “soarp me o A&N.mmv op H_HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH A&w.wpv m ooooooooooo A&omv cm HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH A&m.nev mm oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo A&m._wv om HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH A&¢.mmv up ooooooooooooocoooooooooooo HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Axv.mmv NF cooooooooooooooooooooooooo Axw.m¢v Fm HHHHHHfiHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH A&~.P¢V om ooooocooooococoooooooooooooooooocooo A&m.mwv ow HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHfiHHHHHHHHHHHH Axw.omv cm ocooocoooooooooocoooooooooooooocooooooooccooococoooooocooooooo Axm.mnv mm HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHaHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Axm.cmv mm oooooccoooocooooooooocooocooooooooooooooooo A&_.mmv um HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH 5&q.owv mm oooooooooocoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Aeomv em HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Axe.mmv N_ ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Aem.©mv RN HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Aem.mmv e_ ooooooooooooooooooooocoooo Afim.mvv mm HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Afim.nmv w_ ooooooooooooooocoooooooooooo Axw.mmv me HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH A&v.mmv Fe oooooocooooooooooooooooooocooooocoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo A&©.¢ov _m HH mwnmco zucw>mm new sucaod Amxoom FF< come mmmcoawmm Fmpoh .N mcamwa wvu: cowmwcmc unEmucou co_emcmmmmxm ccoum cowumcemucou catacogmwc acmePmLoe xuwcowcmaam Emqupwcu FmWUOm mpaowuwg Emmugmm mcwazuomcmpm 229 comprehension by the seventh grade population. There is a slight dif- ference in the fourth and seventh grade responses for critical compre- hension as a majority of the seventh grade responses indicate critical comprehension of satire (see Figure 6), while less than half of the fourth grade responses indicate critical comprehension of these works. A total of twelve of forty-eight fourth grade responses indicated that fourth graders made some personal association with the satiric form of literature compared with an equal total of twelve of forty- eight seventh grade responses which reflected personal association. These scores both show a twenty-five percent response indicative of personal involvement with these works of satire. There is no substan- tial difference between the fourth and seventh grade responses reflect- ing evidence of personal association with satire as both scores fell at the twenty-five percent level of response (see Figure 6), indicating that considerably less than half of both the fourth and seventh grade responses reflected personal assocition with this form of literature. A total of one of forty-eight fourth grade responses indicated a discussion of themes as developed within these works of satire compared with a total of nine of forty—eight seventh grade respones. These scores show a 2.1% response in which themes were itemized by the fourth grade population and an 18.8% itemization by the seventh grade popula- tion. There is no substantial difference between the fourth and se- venth grade responses, indicating a discussion of the themes as de- veloped within these picture books, as both scores (see Figure 6) in- dicated that considerably less than half of both the feurth grade re- sponses and seventh grade reSponses indicated a discussion of the themes. 230 A total of thirty-two of fOrty-eight fourth grade responses indi- cated a response to the artwork within these picture book selections compared with an equal total of thirty-two of forty-eight seventh grade responses. These scores both reflect a 66.7% response to the artwork within these literary works. There is no substantial difference be- tween the fourth grade and seventh grade responses to the artwork with» in these picture books as both scores fell well above the fifty percent level of reSponse (see Figure 6), indicating that a majority of both fourth grade and seventh grade responses were to the artwork. A total of forty-three of forty-eight fourth grade responses re- flected a response to the humor as evident within these literary works compared with a total of thirty-seven of forty-eight seventh grade re- sponses. These scores exhibit an 89.6% response to the humor by the fourth grade population and a 77.1% response by the seventh grade pop- ulation. There is no substantial difference in the fourth and seventh grade responses to the humor as expressed within these works of satire, as both scores fell above the seventy-five percent level of response (see Figure 6), indicating that a clear majority of both fOurth and seventh grade responses were to the humor. A total of forty-four of forty-eight fourth grade responses in- dicated a response to the physical humor within these picture books compared with a total of thirty-six of forty-eight seventh grade re- sponses. These scores exhibit a 91.7% response by the fourth grade population and a sevenbl-five percent response by the seventh grade population. There is a considerable difference in the fourth and se— venth grade responses to the physical humor as present within these picture books. The fourth grade score fell above the ninety percent 231 level of response (see Figure 5), indicating that virtually all the fourth grade responses reflected a response to the physical humor. The seventh grade score fell at the seventy-five percent level of response,indicating that only a clear majority of the seventh grade re- sponses were to aspects of physical humor. A total of twenty of forty-eight feurth grade responses indicated a response to verbal humor within these picture books compared with a total of thirty-eight of forty-eight seventh grade responses. These scores exhibit a 41.7% responSe to verbal humor by the feurth grade population and a 79. % response by the seventh grade population. There is a considerable difference in the fourth and seventh grade responses to the verbal humor as shared within these literary texts. The fourth grade score fell below the fifty percent level of response (see Figure 6), indicating that less than half of the fourth grade responses re- flected a comprehension of the verbal humor of these satiric works. The seventh grade score fell above the seventy-five percent level of response,indicating that a clear majority of the seventh grade re~ sponses reflected a comprehension of the verbal humor. All of the scores as recorded for the twelve associational charac- teristics of satire as analyzed in Research Question Two are listed for the total possible fourth grade responses and the total possible se- venth grade responses in Table 21. A total of forty-one of forty-eight fourth grade responses reflected recognition of stereotyping compared with a total of forty-five of forty-eight seventh grade responses. These scores show an 85.4% recognition of stereotyping within these picture books by the fourth grade population and a 93.8% recognition. by the seventh grade population. There is a slight difference between 232 the fourth grade responses to stereotyping and the seventh grade re- sponses to stereotyping. The fourth grade score fell well above the seventy-five percent level of response (see Figure 7), indicating that a clear majority of the fourth grade responses reflected comprehension of stereotyping. The seventh grade score fell above the ninety percent level of response indicating that virtually all of the seventh grade responses reflected comprehension of stereotyping. A total of eighteen of forty-eight fourth grade responses reflected recognition of the sarcasm within these literary works compared with a total of twenty-two of forty-eight seventh grade responses. These scores exhibit a 37.5% recognition of sarcasm by the fourth grade p0pu- lation and a 45.8% recognition of it by the seventh grade population. There is no substantial difference between the fourth grade and seventh grade responses to sarcasm as evident within these works of satire. Both scores fell below the fifty percent level of response (see Figure 7), indicating that less than half of both fourth and seventh grade re- sponses reflected comprehension of sarcasm. A total of sixteen of forty-eight fourth grade responses indicated comprehension of the ridicule as present within these works of satire as compared with a total of twenty-seven of forty-eight seventh grade responses. These scores indicate a 33.3% comprehension by the fOurth grade population and a 56.3% comprehension by the seventh grade popula- tion. There is a slight difference between the fourth grade and seventh grade responses to ridicule as evident within these stories. The fourth grade score fell well below the fifty percent level of response (see Fi- gure 7), indicating that less than half of the fourth grade responses reflected comprehension of the ridicule. The seventh grade score 233 fell above the fifty percent level of response indicating that more than half of the seventh grade responses reflected comprehension of ri- dicule. A total of seventeen of forty-eight fourth grade responses indi- cated comprehension of the social criticism as present within these picture books compared with a total of twenty-four of forty-eight se- venth grade responses. These scores show a 35.4% comprehension by the fourth grade population and a fifty percent comprehension by the seventh grade population. There is a slight difference in the fourth grade responses and the seventh grade responses to social criticism as expressed within these works of satire. The fourth grade score fell below the fifty percent level of response (see Figure 7), indicating that less than half of the fourth grade responses reflected comprehen- sion of social criticism within these literary works The seventh grade score fell at the fifty percent level of response, indicating that exactly half of the seventh grade responses reflected comprehen- sion of social criticism. A total of twenty-nine of forty-eight fourth grade responses indi- cated recognition of superiority as present within these works of sa- tire compared with thirty-seven of forty-eight seventh grade responses indicating recognition. These scores show a 60.4% response indicative of recognition of superiority by the fourth grade population and a 77.1% response indicative of recognition of superiority by the seventh grade population. There is a slight difference in the fourth and se- venth grade responses to superiority as present within these works of literature. The fourth grade score fell well above the fifty percent level of response (see Figure 7), indicating that a majority of the 234 fourth grade responses reflected a recognition of the trait of superi- ority The seventh grade score fell above the seventy-five percent level of response indicating that a clear majority of the seventh grade responses reflected a recogntion of the trait of superiority. A total of twenty-seven of forty-eight fourth grade responses re- flected recognition of moralizing as developed within these works of literature compared with a total of thirty-five of forty—eight seventh grade responses. These scores express a 56.3% recognition by the fourth grade population and a 72.9% recognition by the seventh grade population. There is no substantial difference in the fourth grade and seventh grade responses to the moralizing developed within these picture books as both scores fell above the fifty percent level of re- sponse (see Figure 7). indicating that a majority of both the fourth and seventh grade responses reflected a comprehension of the device of moralizing. A total of thirty-four of forty-eight fourth grade responses in- dicated comprehension of the distortion within these works of satire compared with a total of forty of forty-eight seventh grade responses. These scores express a 70.8% response indicative of understanding of distortion by the fourth grade population and an 83.3% understanding by the seventh grade population. There is a slight difference in the fourth and seventh grade responses to distortion as present within these works of literature. The fourth grade score fell well above the fifty percent level of response (see Figure 7), indicating that a ma- jority of the fourth grade responses reflected a recognition of the literary device of distortion. The seventh grade score fell well above the seventy-five percent level of response, indicating that a 235 clear majority of the seventh grade responses reflected recognition of the device of distortion. A total of twenty of forty-eight fourth grade responses reflected understanding of the condemnation as evidenced within these picture books compared with a total of twenty-one of forty-eight seventh grade responses. These scores express a 41.7% understanding by the fourth grade population and a 43.8% understanding by the seventh grade popula- tion. There is no substantial difference in the fourth grade and se- venth grade responses to condemnation, as expressed within these books as both scores fell below the fifty percent level of response (see Fi- gure 7), indicating that less than half of both the fourth and seventh grade responses reflected understanding of condemnation. A total of seventeen of forty-eight fourth grade responses indi- cated recognition of scorn as a literary device within these works of satire compared with a total of thirty-one of forty-eight seventh grade responses. These scores show a 35.4% recognition of scorn by the fourth grade population and a 64.6% recognition by the seventh grade population. There is a slight difference in the fourth grade and se- venth grade responses to the scorn as revealed within these picture books. The fourth grade score fell well below the fifty percent level of response (see Figure 7), indicating that less than half of the fourth grade responses reflected recognition of scorn. The se- venth grade score fell well above the fifty percent level, indicating that a majority of the seventh grade responses reflected recognition of scorn. A total of seventeen of forty-eight fourth grade responses ex- pressed understanding of the technique of exaggeration as present 236 within these works of satire compared with a total of thirty-nine of forty-eight seventh grade responses. These scores show a 35.4% under- standing by the fourth grade population and an 81.3% understanding by the seventh grade population. There is a considerable difference be- tween the fourth grade and seventh grade responses to exaggeration as evident within these stories. The fourth grade score fell well below the fifty percent level of response (see Figure 7), indicating that less than half of the fourth grade responses expressed understanding of exaggeration. The seventh grade score fell above the seventy-five percent level of response, indicating that a clear majority of the se- venth grade responses reflected understanding of exaggeration. A total of twenty-three of forty-eight fourth grade responses in- dicated comprehension of contempt as a literary device within these works of satire compared with a total of twenty-four of forty-eight se- venth grade responses. These scores express a 47.9% comprehension by the fourth grade population and a fifty percent comprehension by the seventh grade population. There is no substantial difference in the fourth grade responses and seventh grade responses to contempt as ex- pressed within these books. The fourth grade score fell just belowiflwe fifty percent level of response (see Figure 7), indicating that less than half of the fourth grade responses reflected comprehension of the trait of contempt while the seventh grade score fell at the fifty per- cent level of response, indicating that exactly half of the seventh grade responses reflected comprehension of contempt. A total of nine of forty-eight fourth grade responses revealed un- derstanding of derision as developed within these works of literature compared with a total of fourteen of forty-eight seventh grade 237 responses. These scores express an 18.8% understanding of derision within these picture books by the fourth grade population and a 29.2% understanding by the seventh grade population. There is a slight dif- ference in the fourth grade and seventh grade responses to the derision developed within these books. The fourth grade score fell below the twenty-five percent level of response (see Figure 7), indicating that considerably less than half of the fourth grade responses revealed un- derstanding of derision. The seventh grade score fell well below the fifty percent level of response, indicating that less than half of the seventh grade responses revealed understanding of derision. Summation. Five of the eight aspects relating to satire, as con- sidered under Research Question One, revealed no»substantial differ- ences when comparisons were made between the responses of the fourth grade population and the seventh grade population. Virtually no dif- ferences existed in expressed enjoyment of satire, the degree to which subjects related satire to their personal lives, the amount of discus- sion of the themes developed within these works, or the responses to artwork or humor presented. Two of the eight aspects relating to sa- tire, physical humor and verbal humor, revealed a considerable differ- ence in the responses of fourth grade students and seventh grade stu- dents. In the case of physical humor, the fourth grade responses re- flected considerably more recognition of the physical humor within these literary works. In the case of the verbal humor, the seventh grade responses reflected considerably more recognition of the verbal humor within these picture books. The final aspect, critical response, revealed a slight difference between fourth grade and seventh grade 238 responses, with seventh grade responses' reflecting critical comprehen- sion more often than fourth grade responses. Seven of the twelve associational characteristics of satire, as analyzed in Research Question Two, revealed a slight difference in the responses when the grade level of the subjects was considered. A slight difference was recorded for recognition of the traits stereo- typing, ridicule, social criticism, superiority, distortion, scorn, and derision. For each of these traits, the seventh grade responses re- flected recognition more often than the fourth grade responses. Con- sideration of four of the twelve associational characteristics revealed virtually no substantial differences. When comparisOns were made be- tween responses of the fourth and seventh grade populations, no substan tial differences were found to exist for sarcasm, moralizing, con- demnation, or contempt. The final trait, exaggeration, revealed a con- siderable difference between fourth and seventh grade responses with seventh grade responses' reflecting comprehension of exaggeration con- siderably more often than fourth grade responses. Research Question Five To what extent do the responses of students toward contemporanysa- tire change after experiencing several selections over a period of five consecutive weeks? This research question was developed in order to determine whether or not there were any substantial differences in the responses of fourth and seventh grade students to contemporary satire after weeks of exposure to it. All of the aspects of satire as analyzed in Research Question One and Research Question Two were considered by this 239 researcher in order to learn whether the subjects became more aware of them with the passing of time, as well as cumulative exposure to this genre of literature. The final tabulation of the raw scores and corresponding percen- tages recorded for the three treatment variations as incorporated into the design and procedure (see Table 7 in Chapter III) of this descrip- tive study is shown in Tables 22 and 23. The responses of those sub- jects in treatment groups A and B (Holt), groups C and 0 (Perry), and groups E and F (Grand Rapids) appear ajacent to one another. Although there are a few exceptions, as in the case of the scoring of the associational characteristic of ridicule for treatment groups C and 0 (see Table 23), this researcher found no pattern within the data which would provide evidence of the responses to satire as being affected by the variables of time or the effect of cumulative exposure to the selections. It does not appear as though there are any patterns among the scorings which would indicate any increase in the responses to the aspects of satire on the part of the subjects, due only to re— peated exposure or the passage of time between consecutive read-aloud sessions. Likewise, it does not appear as though there are any pat- terns of scorings which would indicate any regression in the verbal re- sponses of these students to this form of literature. The design and procedure of this study deliberately alternated the order in which the groups of subjects were exposed to these works in order to determine whether the five consecutive weeks of experienc- ing satire would effect any changes within the students' responses. But the fact that each picture book provides such a unique experience 240 THE QUICKSAND o.m~ o.oo~ BOOK ococ OF THE TREEHORN SHRINKING THE WORLD'S GREATEST FREAKSHON a a a .8558: o.ocp Ln & D I oo \ C THE o.mm m m.~e c o.cm m.mo n m.nw o.oc_ \DC m.mc ¢.mm o.mm o m.me w a.oo_ _ m.mp 0.0 p m.m~ 0 0.0 m.m. p m.N— N 0.mm m.mc m m.m0 0 0.0 0 00— x 0.0C~ m 0.00— ,» «1N1: m ml: w UK RDS EGFN NO ANA HNOR 0M0 ”Arr.- TI 0 NW uh an I R R U H T Q S c a 8 22:8: m.M>wa cowumwzo cuccmwum:..mm u—Q©H DO 0 O N 0 L0 (\J \l N c THE SHRINKING N00 0 m |\ efi OF TREEHORN m m.mc m m.mx \ m.mw THE WORLD'S GREATEST FREAKSHOH .l'nill o.ocp o.m~ .m a < 2 55.3.9 Loan; poncm> Loan; Fuuwmxga maoco2=c acoxugo ou umumcwe=cm mwsmzu cosuomuommm An —muwuvco ucwexowcm 241 hemmmmwwvnmc mtg QUICKSAND od ado mén odm odm cam m.~o m.~u can mi? “2:: «as 800K m.~m osmm .fiws .065 m.~o Audép m.nw cdxu— n.5m m.nm m.~m oAxU— ”Aagmmvssconammoon no] AND PEAS N‘DNO m n N N o o a g m o 0' Hfimw m.~o .vdw m.~— é m.~n _um~ .flwm adv Ava“ o OFvnlg m Flo—veesmvuovt SHRINKING TREEHORN u a m agave» THE HORLD' S GREATEST odm odm can 9% odm c.8— mém ems odm odm ad. 92 a1 FREAKSHOH mKn 95 can m.~o misc rig .2 min» ONQNQNWONM O '- HORLD' S 2; GREATEST FREAKSHOH n 93 n mgn p m.~— 9 od N 93 o od v n can v cdm 9 cd — m.~— v odm m wisn m N odw s 98 m m.~o v odm v odm n mfin m v 9.9.. a cam n wit” u any. m m.~o n mfin o n mfin m mén _. m.~p 6 od m m.~o n mfin u ~ omw m ado— m o9: s 98 o cms n mgn o 0 3K 5 wig — m «p N 9.3 m m.~o v cam a m m.~e s 98 n m um N can m cm“ o can a m mén v 08 p m 2 ~ 93 c can — m.~— v m ode m m.~o N 93 o o.o n mén ~ o.m~ o e odm — m.~p m mime v can N cam o 9mm m N m.~o s m.sw o _Hoop m _uco— m .udo_ w oAxUP a mu... m flu 1a. 81.. m .mum m 9|: m m... m El: m m. m m m mmm m W m. T w T cm W o w u ucguuwuh m a < ungogh __ a)?“ co_ummac :ucommom .mm «_oo» odm m.~o m.~o own misc own o8— c8— can om“ me E AND PEAS a I co.m.coo unuoucou co.uocuaooxo econ» :o_uo::oucou co—ugoum.v mc—N__~goa Auvgo—goaam smvuvu.su —-.uom o_=u_v.s smaugou 55:32:03 242 with the satiric form appears to overshadow the lapse of time or cumula- tive sessions. Additional Data This investigator compiled information related to but not directly covered by any of the research questions. The other data collected pro- vided this researcher with some additional information regarding chil- dren's responses to contemporary satire as reflected in picture books. Similar Responses Since it appeared, in analyzing the data for Research Question Five, that the order in which the students were exposed to the four unique selections of literature had no observable effect on each group's responses to them, this researcher decided to rearrange the scores re- corded for that research question (see Tables 22 and 23) so as to com- pare the responses of each of the treatment groups to each individual work of satire. The final tabulation of the raw scores and corresponding percent- ages recorded for the three treatment variations as incorporated into the design and procedure (see Table 7 in Chapter III) of this descrip- tive study is shown in Tables 24 and 25. The responses of those sub- jects in treatment groups A and B (Holt), groups C and 0 (Perry), and groups E and F (Grand Rapids) appear adjacent to one another organized according to each picture book. 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Freakshow (see Table 25), this researcher found the scores to reflect very similar recognition of all aspects of satire as measured in Re- search Question One and Research Question Two. It appears that the de- liberate alternating of the order in which the groups of subjects were exposed to these works had little effect upon the students' responses to them. Rather, as a whole, the groups tended to respond in similar ways to each work of picture book satire. Preference/Rejection Upon completion of the fifth session of the treatment (see Table 7 in Chapter III), the four subjects in each treatment group were asked a series of Preference/Rejection Questions. These questions were adminis- tered to each subject immediately after s/he had responded to The Ques- tionnaire III section of The Instrument III for that session. The ad- ministration was one of the examiner's reading the questions aloud for the subjects and recording their answers as shared orally. The subjects were allowed to consult all five of the literary works in order to re- call necessary information for their answers to the Preference/Rejec- tion Questions. The scoring of the first question on the Preference/ Rejection Questions III: 1. Of all the books that we have read together, which one did you like the most? 246 for all the twenty-four students revealed that the students professed to liking several of the satiric selections. There was no polarization of responses and, in fact, three of the five works were repeatedly men- tioned as the one which a subject liked most. The Endless Pavement by Jacqueline Jackson, William Perlmutter, and Richard Cuffari was men- tioned by eight of twenty-four students, War and Peas by Michael Fore- man was selected by eight of twenty-four students, and The Shrinking of Treehorn by Florence Parry Heide and Edward Gorey was selected by seven of twenty-four students as being their favorite of the five works. Consideration of the second question on the Preference/Rejection Questions III: 2. Why? offered documented reasons as to why these students had made their se- lections in question one. The Endless Pavement by Jacqueline Jackson, William Perlmutter,and Richard Cuffari. A lot of'things about cars. I like how the author wrote it. seventh grade male (It is) funny. (It) told about the future. (It) might tell about the future. seventh grade female War and Peas by Michael Foreman. (The) characters were animals.and I like stories where animals are the characters. fourth grade female I thought it was funny. I liked the pictures. (I liked) the looks of'some of the food. seventh grade female The Shrinking of Treehorn by Florence Parry Heide and Edward Gorey. Kids usually don't shrink. The game he had ordered. He didn't finish making his move. seventh grade fe- male 247 (It) seemed more realistic. seventh grade fema1e The scoring of the third question on the Preference/Rejection Ques- tions III: 3. Of all the books that we have read together, which one did you think was funniest? for all twenty-four students revealed that twelve of twenty-four stu- dents thought that The World's Greatest Freakshow by Ellen Raskin was the funniest. The other four of five works each received mention by at least one student, but the selection of them as being funniest appeared to be insignificant in number. Consideration of the fourth question on the Preference/Rejection Questions III: 4. Why? offered documented reasons as to why these students had made their se- lections in question three. The World's Greatest Freakshow by Ellen Raskin. He thought he had brought freaks from that country that weren't in any other countries. fourth grade female All the freaks wanted to see somebody different than them. fourth grade female (There is) no such thing as a two-headed person and a man with feathers. fourth grade ma1e He thought he was going to get a lot of'money by mak- ing other people do his work and he was the one who was getting laughed at all the time. seventh grade female The scoring of the fifth question on the Preference/Rejection Questions III: 5. Of'all the books that we have read together, which one did you like the least? 248 for all twenty-four students revealed that nine of twenty-four students disliked The Endless Pavement by Jacqueline Jackson, William Perlmutter, and Richard Cuffari. The other four of five selections each received mention by at least one student, but the selection of them as being least liked revealed no polarization of responses in any substantial number. Consideration of the sixth question on the Preference/Rejection Questions III: 6. Why? offered documented reasons as to why these students had made their se- lections in question five. The Endless Pavement by Jacqueline Jackson, William Perlmutter, and Richard Cuffari. It was weird. Not that much of'it (was) true. No— body's going to be put in a car. seventh grade male Not the kind of'book I'd read. Kind of'a fantasy. The apple tree. Everything in nature was cut down. seventh grade male It was really deep. At some parts, it was hard to understand. seventh grade female The scoring of the seventh question on the Preference/Rejection Questions 111: 7. Of all the books that we have read together, which one was the least funny? for all the twenty-four students revealed that the students found two of the works of satire to be the least funny selection. The Endless Pavement by Jacqueline Jackson, William Perlmutter, and Richard Cuffari was mentioned by nine of twenty-four students and The Quicksand Book by 249 Tomie de Paola was mentioned by eight of twenty-four students as being the least funny selection of the five picture books. Consideration of the eighth question on the Preference/Rejection Questions III: 8. Why? offered documented reasons as to why these students had made their se- lections in question seven. The Endless Pavement by Jacqueline Jackson, William Perlmutter, and Richard Cuffari. It told about this girl. They never heard about trees and apples. seventh grade female (It) didn't have many funny parts in it. More of'a serious book. seventh grade male The Quicksand Book by Tomie de Paola. Most of‘it is non—fiction. seventh grade female wasn't really a humor book. It was something to teach you. seventh grade female The scoring of the remaining four questions on the Preference/Re- jection Questions III: S 9. Is there any book that you liked as much as another? l0. Why? 11. Of all the characters in these books, which ones were funny? 12. What funny things did they say or do? for all twenty-four students revealed no substantial patterns of re- sponse, no polarization of responses, and, in fact, seemed only to re- veal random answers among the subjects. No two books received mention more often than another combination of two books, and several combina- tions of characters were labeled as funny. It appears to this 250 researcher that these questions may have elicited inconclusive data due to the fact that they allow for a much broader range of response than the first eight questions solicited. In contrast with the structure and specificity of The Questionnaire III, these questions may have been too vague or open-ended for the subjects, thus revealing random answers which could not be categorized. To Ending In order to determine the extent to which students responded di- rectly to the ending of each of these picture books, whether through itemization of an incident within the artwork or a textual passage, this researcher made provision for a scoring of "to ending" under "Other Responses" on The Instrument III. The decision as to whether a subject responded to the ending was based on the consideration of the total response offered by the subject to each individual work of satire. In scoring, this researcher made an analysis of the subjects' answers to all twenty-two questions. Those re- sponsesrevealing any information indicating a specific reference to any elementof'the ending of a particular work were scored as "to ending." The final tabulation of the raw scores and corresponding percen- tages recorded as "to ending" for the total population of twenty-four subjects for each of the four literary works are shown in Table 26. A total of eleven of twenty-four students gave verbal responses in which they made some reference to the ending in War and Peas by Michael Fore- man. This score shows a 45.8% response to the ending and a 54.2% lack of such response by subjects of both grade levels and both sexes. A total of seventeen of twenty—four students shared responses in which 251 mp @— mp ¢NN= N.sm PP o.mN m N.sN N_ N.sm _P ..N. «NE + mpaaem pouch m.me o.mm w.om w.mv & F N.m_ N m.mm m 0.0m e N.©© mum. w. spcm>wm N N.mN c N.@@ m m.mm N N.mN m m.mm F N.mp v n.0m m m.mw m m.mw _ N.oN N m.mm e N.mm .wwm .w mum. w. mum. .w evened nucm>mm cussed mpmz mFmEma mcwvcm ow mmmcoammm .om open» :Logomcp so mcwxcwccm use zogmxmmcu pmopmmuu m.npcoz mew woom sausageso one mama use cm: 252 they discussed the ending in The Quicksand Book by Tomie de Paola. This score exhibits a 70.8% response to the ending and a 29.2% lack of such response by students of both grade levels and both sexes. A total of six of twenty-four students gave verbal responses in which they men- tioned the ending in The World's Greatest Freakshow by Ellen Raskin. This score shows a twenty-five percent response to the ending and a seventy-five percent lack of such response by students of both grade levels and both sexes. A total of eleven of twenty-four students shared responses in which they discussed the ending in The Shrinking of Treehorn by Florence Parry Heide and Edward Gorey. This score exhibits a 45.8% response to the ending and a 54.2% lack of such response by subjects of both grade levels and both sexes. Three of four scores recorded as "to ending" fell below the fifty percent level of response (see Table 26). Less than half the student responses mentioned the ending in War and Peas and The Shrinking of I:egflg:g_and considerably less than half the student responsesnmntioned the ending in The World's Greatest Freakshow. The score recorded for The Quicksand Book fell well above the fifty percent level of response, indicating that a majority of the student responses discussed the end- ing in this selection. Summar In this chapter, the analysis of the data accumulated from the to- tal population (n=24) during this descriptive study is presented. Five major research questions and three sub-questions were formulated in order to determine the responses of fourth and seventh grade female and 253 male students to satire as reflected in contemporary picture books which were read aloud to them in groups over a period of five weeks. Analysis of the data collected was conducted in two parts: raw scores and corresponding percentages were tabulated, and discussion of the percentages was developed based upon the amount of the total popu- lation which each reflected. Differences in these tabulations were discussed based on their respective placements within the percentage ranges itemized in Table 27, Percentage Ranges. Table 27. Percentages Ranges 100 All of 90 - 99 Virtually all of 75 - 89 A clear majority of 50 - 74 A majority of below 50 Less than half of below 25 Considerably less than half of Percentages The Population of Students Analysis of data collected for Research Question One, which con- sidered the attitudes, opinions, emotional feelings, and otherresponses which readers/listeners have toward contemporary satire was conducted in three parts, one for each sub-question. Scoring of the data for sub-question (a), which considered whether or not students express en- joyment of satire, revealed that virtually all of the students ex- pressed enjoyment of this literary form. Scoring of the data for sub- question (b), which considered whether students respond in critical 254 ways, by personal association, to the numerous themes revealed, and to the incidents evident through the artwork present in contemporary pic- ture book satire, revealed that: a majority of students was capable of responding in a critical rather than merely a literal manner to these literary works and to the artwork within them, and that consider- ably less than half the subjects made responses which reflected com- prehension of the themes revealed or association with these works of satire. Scoring of the data for sub-question (c), which considered whether students respond to satire purely as humorous literature, and especially to the physical and verbal aspects of humor present in con- temporary picture book satire, revealed that a clear majority of the students was capable of responding to the humorous aspects and specifi- cally the physically humorous aspects as occurred within these picture books, while a majority were capable of responding to the verbal humor as evident within these works. Analysis of the data collected for Research Question Two, which considered the responses of students to associational characteristics of satire was conducted in twelve parts, one for each literary techni- que or trait. Scoring of the data for Research Question Two revealed that: a clear majority of the students was capable of responding to the stereotyping and distortion as seen in picture book satire; a ma- jority of students was capable of responding to superiority, morali- zing, exaggeration, and scorn as these students were able to comprehend these traits within these literary works; less than half the students recognized contempt, ridicule, social criticism, condemnation, and sar- casm as devices used within these works of satire; and considerably 255 less than half the students comprehended the literary technique of de- resion as developed within these picture books. Analysis of the data collected for Research Question Three, which considered the differences between female and male responses to contem- porary satire, was conducted in two parts: one for all aspects of sa- tire assessed in Research Question One, and one for all associational characteristics of satire considered in Research Question Two. Scoring of data relating to Research Question One revealed: no substantial differences in the responses of female and male subjects in expressed enjoyment of satire, the degree to which subjects related satire to their personal lives, the amount of discussion of the themes developed within the works, or responses to artwork, physical humor, or verbal humor; a slight difference in critical responses with the female popu- lation's responding more frequently than the male; and a considerable difference in response to the humor present in the picture books with the female population's responding more frequently than the male. Scoring of the data relating to Research Question Two revealed: no , substantial differences in the responses of female and male subjects in recognition of the traits of superiority, moralizing, or distortion; a slight difference in the recognition of the devices of stereotyping, sarcasm, ridicule, social criticism, condemnation, scorn, contempt, and derision, with female responses' reflecting recognition more often than male responses; and a considerable difference in recognition of the characteristic of exaggeration, with it's being mentioned considerably more often by males than females. Analysis of the data collected for Research Question Four, which considered the differences between fourth and seventh grade responses 256 to contemporary satire, was conducted in two parts: one for allaspects of satire assessed in Research Question One, and one for all associa- tional characteristics of satire considered in Research Question Two. Scoring of the data relating to Research Question One revealed: no sub- stantial differences in the responses of fourth and seventh grade stu- dents in expressed enjoyment of satire, the degree to which subjects related satire to their personal lives, the amount of discussion of the themes developed within the works, or responses to artwork or humor pre- sented in them; a slight difference in critical response with the se- venth grade p0pulation's responding in a critical manner more often; and a considerable difference in response to the physical humor and verbal humor, with the fourth grade students' responding considerably more often to the physical humor and with seventh grade students' re- sponding considerably more often to the veral humor. Scoring of the data relating to Research Question Two revealed: no substantial dif- ferences in the responses of fourth and seventh grade students in re- cognition of the traits of sarcasm, moralizing, condemnation, or con- tempt; a slight difference in the recognition of the devices of stereo- typing, ridicule, social criticism, superiority, distortion, scorn, and derision, with seventh grade responses's reflecting recognition more often than the fourth grade responses; and a considerable difference in the recognition of the characteristic of exaggeration, with it's being mentioned considerably more often by seventh grade students than by fourth grade students. Analysis of the data collected for Research Question Five, which considered whether responses of students to satire revealed any dif- ferences after weeks of exposure to satire, was conducted in two parts: 257 one for all aspects of satire assessed in Research Question One, and one for all associational characteristics of satire considered in Re- search Question Two. Scoring of the data relating to Research Question One and Research Question Two failed to provide evidence of the re- sponses to satire's being affected by the variables of time or cumula- tive exposure to the form of satire. CHAPTER V SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS, AND SUGGESTIONS This chapter will contain a brief summary of the study, a summary of the findings based on analysis of the data collected, and conclusions and implications concerning the descriptive responses of fourth and se- venth grade female and male students to satire as reflected in contem- porary picture books. Recommendations for further research in areas re- lated to this study will also be presented. Summary of the Study This descriptive study was designed to measure the responses of fourth and seventh grade students to satire as reflected in contempor- ary picture books. More specifically this researcher attempted to de- termine children's preference or rejection for satire as a type of hu- mor; to ascertain whether students are able to relate to the satiric form in a critical manner; to determine whether students associatelmsrks of satire with their own lives; to consider whether students make overt responses to the artwork in picture book satire; and to ascertain whether students are capable of recognizing the characteristics. tech- niques, or literary devices associated with satire. The significance of this study was directly related to the aims of literature as called for by the members of the Dartmouth Conference in 1966 and the Bullock Committee in 1975, which are to allow students the 258 259 opportunity to explore, extend, and shape their experiences with their world through experiences with literature; and to offer students the breadth of literature, the pleasure of literature, and the opportunity to respond to literature. It was the intention of this study to utilize satirical literature, as presented through picture books, to encourage a shift from reading fer one meaning to reading for a variety of mean- ings. In this study this researcher investigated the ability of ele- mentary and middle school children to comprehend literature which takes the reader/listener beyond the literal interpretation of a text to the critical interpretation. Perusal of the related research and pertinent professional refer- ences led this researcher to recognize a need to study the verbal re- sponses made by elementary and middle school pupils to contemporary sa- tire which is available to them. An extensive search of the literature revealed several studies which considered student responses to aspects of physical humor. Few studies pertained to aspects of verbal humor, and these considered satire as only one type of verbal humor. They also dealt with jokes, puns, humor of Specific words fbund in literary passages, and misuse of language. Fourth (n=12) and seventh (n=12) grade students who participated in this study were randomly selected from three elementary and three middle schools in three school districts in mid-Michigan. Two female and two male students were randomly selected from each of the six schools. All children who participated received similar treatment. The design of this study was as follows: an initial interview session was held with groups of feur students and the investigator. 260 At that time a selection of satire was read aloud to the group, fol- lowed by the administration of The Questionnaire to the group. The subsequent four sessions involved the reading aloud of a work of sa- tire to the group, followed by the administration of The Questionnaire to each subject in a one-to-one setting. During the last of the four sessions, this investigator administered Preference/Rejection Questions to each subject in order to determine the responses of students to all five literary selections. The selections of satire were chosen by this researcher on the ba- sis that they were picture books and contained the designated and selec- tive associational characteristics of satire (see Table l on page 95 of Chapter III). Four literary experts served as raters to establish agreement that the picture book selections chosen by the researcher were works of satire. The five selections of picture book satire pro- posed to the raters fer use in the descriptive research were: dePaola, Tomie. The Quicksand Book. New York: Holiday House, 1977. Foreman, Michael. War and Peas. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1974. . Heide, Florence Parry. The Shrinking of Treehorn. Illustrated by Edward Gorey. New York; Holiday House, 1971. Jackson, Jacqueline and William Perlmutter. The Endless Pavement. Illustrated by Richard Cuffari. New York: The Seabury Press, 1973. Raskin, Ellen. The World's Greatest Freakshow. New York: Athen- eum, l97l. (Annotations fer these selections can be found in Appendix A.) When considering all of the associational characteristics (n=l4) fer the three selections offered to the raters, this researcher found agreement to exist for thirty-five traits or for eighty-three percent 261 total agreement between her itemizations of the associational charac- teristics of satire and the itemizations of the four raters. The Instrument used to measure the responses of the subjects was created by this investigator in three phases. Phase I included con- struction of The Instrument I based on information gleaned from pro- fessional literature and related research about responses to humorous literature. Phase II consisted of the limited pilot study, which was conducted to establish the feasibility of The Instrument developed during Phase I, and led to the development of The Instrument II. Phase III consisted of determining the degree of inter-rater agreement of The Instrument II, which was used in the descriptive study. Four literary experts agreed to participate in determining intererater agreement, by scoring the responses of one of the subjects who participated in the pi- lot study. When considering all of the responses made by the subject (n=l7) for the four works of satire, this researcher found agreement to exist for sixty-one of sixty-eight of the scorings or eighty-nine per- cent total agreement between her scorings of the subject's responsesamd the scorings of the four raters. This establishment of inter-rateragree- ment produced The Instrument III fOr use in the descriptive study. In this study the researcher investigated five major research ques- tions and three sub—questions which will be discussed along with the results of the analysis of the data for each question. Research Questions The research questions for this study were: l. What are the responses of students toward contemporary satire as a genre of literature? 262 Sub-question (a): What is the general attitude of stu- dents toward contemporary satire as a genre of litera- ture? Sub-question (b): In what ways do students apparently respond to the characters, incidents, or experiences within works of satire? Sub-question (c): To what extent do students respond to contemporary works of satire as works of humorous liter- ature? To what extent are students capable of recognizing spe- cific associational characteristics of satire as a genre of literature? To what extent do the responses of female students differ from the responses of male students, when they are re- sponding to contemporary selections of satire? To what extent do the responses of seventh grade stu- dents differ from the responses of fourth grade students when they are responding to selections of con- temporary satire? To what extent do the responses of students toward con- temporary satire change after experiencing several se- lections over a period of five consecutive weeks? §ummary of the Findings A summary of the findings which emerged as a result of the analysis of the data collected in this descriptive study fbllows: Research Question One What are the responses of students toward contemporary satire as a genre of literature? This researcher developed three sub-questions which each focused upon a separate aspect of Question One. Sub-question (a): What is the general attitude of students toward contemporary satire as a genre of literature? Virtually all of the 263 students expressed enjoyment of this literary form, with only one se- venth grade male's rejecting two of the selections. Sub-question (b): In what ways do students apparently respond to the characters, incidents, or experiences within works of satire? l. A majority of the students in the study were capable of re- sponding to these works of satire in a critical rather than merely a literal manner. This means that the quality of their responses re- flected a comprehension beyond verbatim, word for word meaning to eval- uative or judgmental levels. 2. Students in both fourth and seventh grades did not appear to verbalize any direct association with these picture book satires with any aspect of their own lives. 3. The responses of both the fourth and seventh grade students rarely reflected comprehension of the major themes developed by the authors of these works. 4. A majority of the students gave responses which indicated that they gleaned information for their responses from aspects revealed with- in the artwork. Frequently, direct mention was made of incidents or events occurring in the illustrations that were not considered within the textual passages. Sub-question (c): To what extent do students respond to contem- porary works of satire as works of humorous literature? l. A clear majority of the students expressed a positive response to satire as a form of humorous literature. It appeared as though the works of satire were considered by the students to be funny as complete selections of literature and to be funny in their specific incidents. 254 2. The responses of the students consistently revealed numerous responses to elements of physical humor as depicted in the artwork and discussed within the texts of these picture books. The total popula- tion repeatedly itemized aspects of the physical humor in these works of satire when discussing the other attributes relating to satire. 3. Students in both fourth and seventh grades were capable of re- cognizing the verbal humor incorporated into the writing of the texts by these authors of satire. Their responses reflected a comprehension of a variety of forms of word humor appearing as expressions, names, pat sentences, and single words. Research Question Two To what extent are students capable of recognizing specific asso- ciational characteristics of satire as a genre of literature? l. The responses of the students reflected that they clearly com- prehend the literary techniques of stereotyping and distortion as uti— lized by these authors and illustrators. 2. A majority of the students gave responses which indicated that they understand the literary devices of superiority, moralizing, exag- geration, and scorn as utilized by these authors and illustrators. 3. Students in both fourth and seventh grades did not appear to comprehend contempt, ridicule, social criticism, condemnation, and sar- casm as characteristics often associated with the form of satire. 4. The responses of the students rarely reflected any understand- ing of the literary device of derision as developed within these picture books. 265 Research Question Three To what extent do the responses of female students differ from the responses of male students, when they are responding to contemporary selections of satire? 1. There were no substantial differences between the female and male students in their responses which expressed enjoyment of satirical literature. In fact, both groups expressed overwhelmingly positive feelings toward this form. 2. The female students responded slightly more often than male students in ways which reflected a critical understanding of this type of literature. 3. There was a considerable difference in the responses of fe- males and males to the humor as evident within these literary works. The score for the female group fell well above the ninety percent level, while the score for the male group fell below the seventy-five percent level. 4. There were no substantial differences between the female and male students in their recognition of the devices of superiority, mora- lizing, or distortion as utilized by these authors and illustrators. 5. The female students responded slightly more often than male students in ways which reflected that they understand the techniques of stereotyping, sarcasm, ridicule, social criticism, condemnation, scorn, contempt, and derision. 6. There was a considerable difference in the responses of fe- males and males to the technique of exaggeration as developed by these authors and illustrators. The score for the male group fell at the 266 ‘ seventy-five percent level, while the score for the female group fell below the fifty percent level. Research Question Four To what extent do the responses of seventhggrade students differ from the responses of fourth grade students, when they are responding to selections of contemporary satire? l. There were no substantial differences between the fourth and seventh grade students in their responses which expressed enjoyment of satirical literature. In fact, both groups expressed overwhelmingly positive feelings toward this fOrm. 2. The seventh grade students responded slightly more often than fOurth grade students in ways which reflected a critical understanding of this type of literature. 3. There was a considerable difference in the responses of fOurth and seventh grade students to the physical humor as evident within these literary works. The score for the fourth graders fell above the ninety percent level, while the score for the seventh graders fell at the seventy-five percent level. 4. There was a considerable difference in the responses of fburth and seventh grade students to the verbal humor within these satirical works. The score for the seventh graders fell above the seventy-five percent level, while the score for the fourth graders fell below the fifty percent level. 5. There were no substantial differences between the fourth and seventh grade students in their recognition of the devices of sarcasm, moralizing, condemnation, or contempt as utilized by these authors and illustrators. 267 6. The seventh grade students responded slightly more often than the fourth grade students in ways which reflected that they understand the associational characteristics of stereotyping, ridicule, social criticism, superiority, distortion, scorn, and derision. 7. There was a considerable difference in the responses of fourth and seventh graders to the technique of exaggeration as developed by these authors and illustrators. The score for the seventh graders fell well above the seventy-five percent level, while the score for the fourth graders fell well below the fifty percent level. Research Question Five ‘RJ what extent do the responses of students toward contemporary satire change after experiencing several selections over a period of five consecutive weeks? The responses of students to satire did not appear to be affected in any way by the variables of time or cumulative exposure to the form of satire. Additional Findings l. The order in which a student was exposed to each selection of satire had little effect upon her/his response to it. In fact, the stu- dents tended to respond in similar ways to each of the five picture books. 2. In responding to satire as a group experience, the fourth graders responded slightly more often to aspects of physical humor than the seventh graders did. 258 3. When responding to satire as a group experience, the seventh graders responded slightly more often than the fourth graders in ways which reflected a critical comprehension of satire and which reflected a discussion of the major themes developed by the authors. 4. When responding to satire as a group activity, the seventh graders responded slightly more often than the fourth graders in their recognition of the traits of social criticism, superiority, and exag- geration. 5. When responding to satire as a group activity, the fourth graders responded slightly more often than the seventh graders in their recognition of stereotyping. 6. When reSponding to satire as a group activity, there were no substantial differences between the fourth and seventh graders in their recognition of the techniques of ridicule, moralizing, distortion, or derision. 7. When responding to satire as a group activity, the seventh graders gave considerably more responses which reflected comprehension of the associational characteristics of sarcasm, condemnation, scorn, and contempt. 8. No student ever mentioned any of the five selections to which they were exposed during the study as being a "work of satire.” They never labeled these literary selections as being "satirical." 9. No student ever referred to any of the associational character- istics of satire by naming them as such. Although the names of these literary devices did not appear to be within their spoken vocabularies, they were capable of describing examples which documented the existence of these devices within these picture books. 269 l0. No student ever mentioned that there were similarities in any of the five selections which would classify them as a particular type of humor. Conclusions This descriptive study was designed to determine fourth and se- venth grade students' responses to contemporary satire as reflected in picture books. This researcher arrived at the fOllowing conclusions: 1. This investigator was able to determine, from the verbal re- sponses of these students, that virtually all of them express an enjoyment of satirical literature as a type of humorous literature. 2. An analysis of the students' responses to the selections of sa- tire indicate that they apparently do not respond to the major themes within the selections and do not associate them with their own lives. 3. An analysis of the students' responses to the selections of sa- tire reveals that fourth and seventh grade students are capable of re- sponding in a critical rather than merely a literal manner and that they significantly glean information fbr their responses from aspects re- vealed within the artwork in these picture books. 4. This researcher was able to determine that these students make overt responses which reflect comprehension of aspects of physical humor BQd verbal humor within literary selections. 5. An analysis of the students' responses to the selections of satire indicate that they are capable of recognizing the associational characteristics of stereotyping, superiority, moralizing, distortion, scorn, and exaggeration. 270 6. An analysis of the students' responses to the selections of satire indicate that they apparently do not comprehend the association- al characteristics of sarcasm, ridicule, social criticism, condemnation, contempt, or derision. 7. The responses of female students more often than the responses of male students evidenced critical understanding, a response to satire as humorous literature, and recognition of the devices of stereotyping, sarcasm, ridicule, social criticism, condemnation, scorn, contempt, and derision, while the responses of male students more often than the re- sponses of female students evidenced recognition of exaggeration. 8. The responses of seventh grade students more often than the responses of fourth grade students evidenced critical understanding, a response to verbal humor, and recognition of the techniques of stereo- typing, ridicule, social criticism, superiority, distortion, scorn, exaggeration, and derision, while the responses of fourth grade students more often than the responses of seventh grade students evidenced a re- sponse to the physical humor. 9. The responses of students to satire did not appear to be af- fected by the variables of time or cumulative exposure to the form of satire. Implications It was the purpose of this study to determine the responses of fourth and seventh grade students to satire as reflected in contempor- ary picture books. This researcher feels that this study should be of value to pre-service and in-service teachers involved in instructing children in any and/or all of the areas of language arts education or 271 the domain of English education. It should also offer insight for those reading teachers and librarians who serve as book selectors for students in elementary and middle schools. Perhaps the preparation programs which are offered for language arts teachers, librarians, and elementary classroom teachers should be evaluated so as to guarantee these students at least a basic exposure to the satiric form of literature. Such study would provide them with a base from which to work to integrate satirical literature into the curricula of their reading and English programs. The implications of the findings and conclusions of this study in- dicate that students of fourth and seventh grades are ready, and will- ing, to accept satiric literature as a fOrm which they say that they enjoy. They respond to works of satire as literature which they find to be humorous. In expressing their preference for this type of humor, they admit that it is funny to them. It would appear that satire is a literary form which can be introduced, and accepted with favor, early in the elementary school experience of children and a form which will con- tine to be well received throughout the middle school years. The plea- sure which these children seem to derive from this form provides support for offering it to them to increase the breadth of their literary exper- iences, as specifically called for by the Bullock Committee and implied in the recommendations made by the participants of the Dartmouth Confer- ence. Analysis of the students' responses to the literary elements within works of satire revealed that students at both fourth and seventh grades apparently do not recognize the major themes which the plotscrfthe works are developing, nor do they respond by associating these works with any 272 aspects of their own personal lives. It would seem that perhaps their language arts curricula have not provided them with the opportunity to discuss writing elements as found in works of literature and,especially, works of satire. It may be that the objectives of the literary programs at both elementary and middle school levels ought to be providing chil- dren with experiences in which they have the opportunity to learn the meaning of literary elements such as theme, plot, characterization, tone, and author's style and also have the opportunity to discuss the ways in which literary works may apply to their own lives. Another consideration which comes from this study is that both fourth and seventh grade students are capable of responding to satiri- cal literature in a critical, in-depth manner beyond the literal, word for word level of meaning. They have the ability to go beyond the lit- eral, surface interpretation of a text as early as fourth grade. This may provide support for the inclusion of a variety of types of litera- ture which must be received on the critical as well as literal levelin the literature programs planned for elementary and middle school read- ers. In addition to satire, these students may be able to interpret the depth of texts which would be presented to them in allegories, volumes of high fantasy, historical fiction novels, and classics of narrative verse. In interpreting the findings and conclusions of this study, it al- so appears that seventh grade students are more SOphisticated in their responses to satirical literature. Their responses reflected comprehen- sion of the devices associated with satire more often than did those of fourth graders. This conclusion provides evidence to support the fact 273 that there are definite developmental stages through which children pass in sharing their responses to literary works. It would seem, too, that, in addition to the advanced development of the older students, their past experiences with all types of satire contribute to their more mature responses to satire. In considering the associational characteristics of satire which were responded to in ways which reflected comprehension more often by seventh grade students than by fourth grade students, it appears to this researcher that these literary techniques may fall within a hier- archical order of difficulty of understanding. The fact that the re- sponses of seventh grade students more often reflected comprehension of verbal humor, stereotyping, ridicule, social criticism, superiority, distortion, scorn, exaggeration, and derision may indicate that these devices are more subtle or sophisticated techniques than physical humon a trait of satire overwhelmingly responded to by fourth graders. Another consideration which comes out of this study is that the female students' responses frequently appeared to be more sophisticated, critical, and indicative of comprehension of satire than male students' responses. This conclusion may imply that male students might require more experiences with literature, so as to increase the level of SOphis- tication of their responses to satire. While there is no reason to be- lieve that female and male children are inherently different in their abilities to respond to any form of literature, it would seem that this may be due to varying experiences based on cultural practices. While the findings of this study indicate that students at both fOurth and seventh grade levels are capable of recognizing the literary 274 devices associated with the satiric form, the findings also reveal that none of the subjects mentioned the specific techniques or literary de- vices, which they are able to define by offering examples, by name. This may indicate that children in elementary and middle school are capable of learning the terminology which is associated with satire, so as to be able to label the concepts associated with satire and re- sultantly identify satire as a special type of humorous literature. Giving students the tools which will enable them to discuss the other- wise abstract traits of satire may allow them the opportunity to refine their responses to works of satire, as well as increase their recogni- tion of them in further literary experiences. Suggestions for Changes in the Study If this study were to be replicated by other researchers, the fol- lowing changes should be made: l. This study should be made using a larger sample of students as well as selections of satire over a longer period of time, in order to further document the effects which time and cumulative exposure to satire would have on the responses of students to satire and, especial- ly, the effecton recognition of the associational characteristics of satire. 2. Research Question Three which considers the sex of the subject responding and Research Question Four which considers the grade level placement of the subject responding should be merged so as to create an additional research question. Such a question would aid in analysis of the data by offering separate findings for subjects of each sex at each grade level. For example: 275 Lem fourth fourth female male female ------------------------------------------- male female male seventh seventh 291991111 3. The Instrument 111 used throughout this descriptive study should include some refinements in the language used to word questions seventeen and seventeen-a,as this researcher sensed that several of the fourth grade subjects were unsure of the meaning of the word exaqgera- tigg. Perhaps these questions should be reworded from: 17. Does the author exaggerate anything in the story? l7a. If'yes, what does s/he exaggerate? to: 17. Does the author overdo anything in the story? l7a. If'yes, what does s/he overdo? OF: 17. Does the author stretch anything in the story? l7a. If'yes, what does s/he stretch? so as to assure comprehension of these questions by all of the subjects. 4. The Instrument III used throughout this descriptive study should reflect a change in the wording of question fourteen.which was developed in order to elicit the subject's recognition of scorn as used by each author. Such wording should be more specific, so as to let the subject know that it is intending to seek an answer relevant to the literary work in question. In response to question fourteen: 276 14. What kinds of things do you think make the author angry or annoyed? this researcher repeatedly received answers similar to the following: People not liking the story. fourth grade male When people don't like her story. fourth grade male People not liking his story, saying that he didn't do a good job. fourth grade male Perhaps this question should be reworded as: 14. Is there anything in particular in this story which you think makes this author really angry or annoyed? 5. The Preference/Rejection Questions III section of The Instru- ment III should be deleted from the design of this study as it failed to produce any conclusive data to aid in the assessment of theresponses of fourth and seventh grade students to contemporary picture book sa- tire. Sgggestions for Further Research There is a great deal of room for more research which considers the responses of students to literature and, especially, to satirical literature. Some suggestions for further research follow: l. A similar study could be conducted which would utilize a de- sign similar to this study, but which would incorporate the element of rereading into the procedure. Such a study would measure the effects of repeated exposure to one selection of satire on the responses to it as shared by students. 2. There is a need for a study which executes a content analysis of the textual passages of works of satire, so as to make some deter- mination as to specific aspects of the texts which may be eliciting similar responses in readers/listeners. 277 3. There is a need for a study which attempts to determine whether readers/listeners of satire tend to empathize or sympathize more often with characters of their same sexes, at different ages throughout elementary and middle school grades. 4. A study is needed to determine the extent to which the re- sponses of students show any differences when responding to works written by female authors than when responding to works written by male authors. Such a study could be conducted utilizing satirical litera- ture, other types of humorous literature, or other forms of fiction. 5. There is a need for longitudinal research Wthh WOUld attempt to document information regarding the changes in the literary responses of female and male children, as they develop and mature from early ele- mentary grades through their high school years. This longitudinal re- search could incorporate responses to any number of literary forms. 6. Further research needs to be conducted which focuses on the critical act of reading for more than one meaning. Such research might attempt to focus upon the processes which readers/listeners rely upon when attempting to analyze what lies beneath the literal meaning of a work of literature. 7. A similar study could be conducted which would utilize a de- sign similar to this study, but which would delve more deeply into the contribution which the artwork makes on students' responses to satire. Perhaps the picture books could be selected with an intent to provide for exposure to satire through expressionistic art or punk art in addi- tion to cartoon art, surrealistic art, and representational art. 278 8. A study is needed which attempts to determine the responses of children to the elements of all literature as they are developed within satirical literature. 9. Further research needs to be conducted which would determine a possible hierarchical order of the associational characteristics of satire as developed by this researcher for use in this descriptive study. l0. A similar study should be conducted which would utilize a de- sign and procedure similar to this study, but which would allow for the works of satire to be selected from other than the contemporary domain. Perhaps these works could be selected from children's classics or from another decade rather than the l9705. ll. A similar study should be conducted which would utilize a de- sign and procedure similar to this study, but which would incorporate another medium of satire rather than the picture book. Perhaps the form of literature to be used could be the short story or the novel- length work. l2. There is a need for a study which would determine the differ- ences in children's responses to satire when it is read aloud to them and when they read it silently on an individual basis. l3. There is a need to extend the design and procedure of this study so that it might become a longitudinal study, which includes as- sessment of student responses also at the first and tenth grade levels. Perhaps such a study could reassess the same population of students at first grade, fourth grade, seventh grade, and, finally, at tenth grade in order to make comparisons of their responses and to determine whether the changes are due to experiential or developmental factors. 279 l4. There is a need for a study which would measure the relation- ship between children's ability to discuss their recognition of the as- sociational characteristics of satire orally vs. their discussion of the associational characterics of satire in writing. l5. There is a need for further research in the area of satirical literature which would attempt to determine students' responses to dif- ferent types of writing as expressed within the texts of satire. Per- haps consideration could be made as to the narrative form, the impres— sionistic form or the diary form. 16. There is a need for a study which would utilize a design and procedure similar to this descriptive study, but which would attempt to determine the responses of children to satire as reflected through poe- try rather than prose. l7. There is a need for research which examines each of the as- sociational characteristics of satire as developed within this study in much greater depth. Perhaps such research could examine these literary techniques as they appear in other forms of humorous literature. l8. Further research needs to be conducted which would attempt to refine or standarize the Checklist of Associational Characteristics of Satire as developed for use in this study. Perhaps such research could initiate a content analysis of media other than the picture book in or- der to determine whether all forms of satire include these characteris- tics. l9. There is a need for a study which would measure the relation- ship between the responses of classroom teachers and parents to the sa- tiric form and the responses of their children to the satiric form. 280 20. A study is needed to determine teachers' perceptions of the use of satire in the elementary and middle school curricula,as well as to determine how teachers utilize satire within their classrooms. 2l. A study is needed to determine what experiences and formal instruction should be provided in teacher preparation programs in Eng- lish, language arts, reading, and literature which would prepare teach- ers to utilize satire within their curricula. 22. The effect that the group discussion factor has on the re- sponses of students to satire should be investigated. Perhaps such research should include an experimental design which would include con- trol as well as experimental groups, wherein the responses of some stu- dents are recorded in the presence of other students and the responses of other students are recorded in isolation. APPENDICES APPENDIX A ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY WORKS OF SATIRE SELECTED WORKS OF SATIRE-~ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY dePaola, Tomie. The Quicksand Book. New York: Holiday House, l977. This picture book ridicules the impertinence and snobism often a major aspect of intellectualism. It is a painstakingly developed, hum- orous cliff-hanger which foreshadows the suprise ending of having to eat one's own words. Vibrantly colored cartoon drawings reveal smug- ness, pomposity, and ostentatiousness within the guise of an informa- tional book. Foreman, Michael. War and Peas. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, l974. This picture book is an expose about global issues of famine, food waste, greed and war. It is a fantasy through which the author blatant- ly condemns the United States for turning its back on the hunger problem in underdeveloped, overpopulated countries of the world. Surrealistic paintings reiterate and extend the author's social statement through extreme exaggeration and anti-realness. Heide, Florence Parry. The Shrinking of Treehorn. Illustrated by Ed- ward Gorey. New York: Holiday House, l97l. This picture book is tongue-in-cheek commentary exposing the in- sensitivities of adults to the day-to-day crucial concerns of children. Parents, school teachers, and school administrators are chastised for being so caught up in their own concerns that they actually ignore the children with whom they are interacting. The pen and ink representa- tional drawings reveal the sarcasm and platitudes of this fantasy. Jackson, Jacqueline and Perlmutter, William. The Endless Pavement. Il- lustrated by Richard Cuffari. New York: The Seabury Press, l973. This picture book is a speculative fiction exposing possible immi- nent consequences of our over industralized, mechanized society. It is a futuristic fantasy through which the authors criticize our current trend toward abolishing all human touch and affection. The stark black and white expressionistic drawings hint at opti- mism through the addition of the symbolic red apple. 281 282 Raskin, Ellen. The World's Greatest Freakshow. New York: Atheneum, l97l. In this picture book, the author uses the theme of comeuppance to comment on the results from theinsensitive human traits of conceit, name-calling, egocentricism, vanity, greed, and exploitation. This fantasy berates inhumanity through the intensity of verbal and visual exaggeration. Brightly colored overlays are incorporated with a cartoon black line style to reveal bitterly cruel happenings. APPENDIX B INSTRUMENT I AND II Personal Information Subject's Name INSTRUMENT I Interview Booklet I Subject's Grade Subject's Reading Level Subject's Birthdate Subject's Age Racial/Ethnic Interview Number /6 Book Information I II A - 1 A — B - 2 B - C - 3 C - D - 4 D - E - 5 E - F - F F — Additional Comments: 283 Date School Teacher Subject's IQ Subject's Sex *fiwau-u— WMUOw> III I WwNLan—a Name - Book 3a. 3b. “ 4b. 5a. 5b. 6a. 13. 16. IS. 16. 20. 20a. 2!. 22. 22a. 284 The Questionnaire I __ . Date __ I 2 3 4 S Order I II III Have you ever read ehls Story before? Y N Have you ever read auv other books like this before? Y N If yes. can you remember the names of them or what they were about? Titles/Descriptions Did you like the story? Y N If yes. what did you like about it? If no. what did you dislke about it? Do you think that the story is funny? Y N If yes. what are some of the funny parts that you can remember? Why do you think those parts are funny? Are there any other funny parts? Y W What are they? Why do you think that those parts are funny? Who do yOu think are the funny characters in the story? What funny things did they/s/he say? What do you think that this story is making fun of? What or who do you think that this story is criticising? What are the funny words or names or sentences or expressions in this story? Why do you think that the author wrote this story? What do y0u think that the author is trying to teach us about? What does the author want us to think about? What new ideas did the story make you think about? What kinds of things do you think sake the author angry? What was it about this book that you really liked? Would you read this story again? Y N Does the author exaggerate anything in the story? Y I if yes. what does s/he exaggerate? What do yOu think the author's opinion is of the story in this book? "he: is your opinion of the story? Have you ever read any other books by this author? Y N If yes. can you relenber the naaes of then or what they were about? Titles/Descriptions Would you read any sore books by this author at another tine? Y I Did anything about the story make you feel uncomfortable? Y N If yes. what made you feel uncomfortable? it's funny exaggeration word humor distortion expressions phrases/sentences dialogue/discourse confusion puns serious lakes se laugh nase-calling co-euppance ridicule/derision anusenent platitudes/pat lines physical other IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS ASSOCIATION personal with characters with incidents positive negative by era-ple other THEMES/ISSUES criticise social consent sensitivity these current issue condemning attacking social institution sessage/aoral other llllllllll é sissed sessage PERTINENT VERBAL/NONVERBAL RESPONSES: 285 CRARACTERIZATION names exaggeration personality caricature stereotyping superiority characters other EVZNTS plot storyline sequencing actions setting situation ending other RESPONSE it's funny I like it it's o.k. I don't like it entertaining literal critical to sake noney a work of literature other at '3’ a: pictures ledia colors shapes fasiliar exaggeration artwork looks funny other 10. ll. l2. 286 Preference/Rejection Questions I Of all the books that we have read together, which one did you like the most? Why? Of all the books that we have read together, which one did you think was funniest? Why? Of all the books that we have read together, which you did you like the least? Why? Of all the books that we have read together, which one was the least funny? Why? Is there any book that you like as much as another? Why? Of all the characters in these books, which ones were funny? What funny things did they say or do? Personal Information Subject's Subject's Subject's Subject's Subject's Name 287 INSTRUMENT II Interview Booklet 11 Grade Birthdate Age Reading Level as of Racial/Ethnic Book Information Initial Interview Comments: I meadow» II "riUiJ-‘wNv—I "fiC’JUOwb Date School Teacher Subject's I.Q. Subject's Sex as of WNDCU’S” WwNUI-i-‘H NAN" Book 23. 33. 3b. 6a. Lb. 5a. 5b. 10. lOa. ll. 12. l2a. 13. lb. 15. 288 THE QUESTIONNAIRE II Date 1 2 3 l. 5 Group Order I 11 111 Have you ever read this story before? Y N Have yOu ever read anv other books like this one before Y N either in a group or alone? 3 yes, can you remember the names of them or what they Titles/Descriptions were about? Did you like the story? Y N if yes, what did you like about the story? If no, what did you dislike about the story? Do you think that the story is funny? If yes, what are some of the funny parts that you can remember? Why do you think those parts are funny? Are there any other funny parts? Y W What are they? Why do you think that those parts are funny? Who do you think are the funnv characters in the story? . What funny things did they/s/he say? What do you think that this story is making fun of? What or who do you think that this story is criticizing? What are the funny words or names or sentences or expressions in this story? Did any of the characters think that they were better than another character? Y N If yes. which ones? What do you think that the author is trying to teach us about? Does the author misrepresent anything or include anything which is not really true? Y N if yes, what? Who does the author blame in this story? What kinds of things do you think make the author angry? What was it about this book that you really liked? Pertinent Verbal/Nonverbal Responses: 289 [6. Would you read this story again? Y N 17. Does the author exaggerate anything in the story? Y N 17a. If yes, what does s/he exaggerate? 18. At what or who is the author pointing her/his finger? 19. Is the author mocking anything or putting anyone down? Y N 19a. If yes. who or what? 20. Have you ever read any other books by this author? Y N 20a. If yes. can you remember the names of them or what Titles/Descriptions they were about? 21. Would you read any more books by this author at another Y N time? 22. Did anything about the story make you feel uncomfortable? Y N 22s. If yes. what made you feel uncomfortable? HUMOROUS RESPONSES EXAMPLES humorous stereotyping sarcasm ridicule social criticism verbal humor superiority moralizing distortion condemnation scorn exaggeration contempt derision llllllllllllll RESPONSES literal critical to artwork to physical humor by association themes enumerated to ending laughter enjoyment Ulllllll i. llllllllllllll ! i i i l i l i I 10. ll. l2. 290 Preference/Rejection Qpestions II Of all the books that we have read together, which one did you like the most? Why? Of all the books that we have read together, which one did you think was funniest? Why? Of all the books that we have read togehter, which one did you like the least? Why? Of all the books that we have read together, which one was the least funny? Why? . Is there any book that you like as much as another? Why? Of all the characters in these books, which ones were funny? What funny things did they say or do? APPENDIX C RAW SCORES AS TABULATED Raw Scores Tabulated for War and Peas by Michael Foreman. enjoyment critical by association themes enumerated to artwork humorous physical humor verbal humor stereotyping sarcasm ridicule social criticism superiority moralizing distortion condemnation scorn exaggeration contempt derision Female ___-— Fourt O! I D 100.0 66.7 33.3 15.7 100.0 100.0 66.7 100.0 16.7 83.3 50.0 100.0 66.7 100.0 83.3 83.3 16.7 66.7 _n_/_6 6 Seventh 2L5 0/ :0 100. 100. 16. 50. 100. 100. 100. 83. 100. 33. 100. 83. 83. 100. 100. 66. 100. 100. 100. 66. 291 6 [1ng MM 341/2 2291.6. 100.0 6 100. 6 50.0 3 100. 6 33.3 2 33. 2 0.0 O 16. 1 50.0 3 100. 6 83.3 5 SO. 3 100.0 6 100. 6 16.7 1 66. 4 83.3 5 100. 6 50.0 3 l6. 1 16.7 1 100. 6 33.3 2 83. 5 100.0 6 100. 6 100.0 6 100. 6 66.7 4 100. 6 33.3 2 66. 4 33.3 2 83. 5 83.3 5 100. 6 50.0 3 33. 2 16.7 1 33. 2 20. 87. 83. 21 20 12 23 18 15 23 22 22 15 18 18 10 Raw Scores Tabulated for The Quicksand Book by Tomie de Paola enjoyment critical by association themes enumerated to artwork humorous physical humor verbal humor stereotyping sarcasm ridicule social criticism superiority moralizing distortion condemnation scorn exaggeration contempt derision 292 fissile Egg:£_ Seventh arcane. 100. 6 100.0 6 83. 5 66.7 4 16. l 33.3 2 O. O 0.0 O 83. 5 56.7 4 100. 6 83.3 5 83. 5 83.3 5 33. 2 83.3 5 100. 6 100.0 6 100. 6 100.0 6 66. 4 50.0 3 50. 3 33.3 2 50. 3 83.3 5 33. 2 66.7 4 33. 2 0.0 O 66. 4 16.7 1 50. 3 100.0 6 33. 2 16.7 l 83. 5 100.0 6 O. O 16.7 1 flglg Fourth Seventh thawing 100. 6 100.0 6 16. l 65.7 4 O. O 16.7 1 0. 0 33.3 2 66. 4 83.3 5 50. 3 83.3 5 83. 5 33.3 2 33. 2 33.3 2 83. 5 83.3 5 O. O 33.3 2 O. O 50.0 3 O. O 16.7 1 50. 3 83.3 5 83. 5 66.7 4 0. 0 83.3 5 l6. 1 33.3 2 O. O 33.3 2 16. 1 66.7 4 16. 1 33.3 2 O. 0 33.3 2 g 100 58. 16. 8. 75. 79. 70. 45. 91. 58. 41. 25. 66. 62. 29. 33. 45. 33. 58. 12. Total Sample .0 1/_2_4 24 14 4 2 18 19 17 11 22 14 11 14 Raw Scores Tabulated for 293 The World's Greatest Freakshow by Ellen Raskin. enjoyment critical by association themes enumerated to artwork humorous physical humor verbal humor stereotyping stereotyping sarcasm ridicule social criticism superiority moralizing distortion condemnation scorn exaggeration contempt derision Lem 98.1.2 Fourth Sgygggfl' £93535 Seventh 22./2214922722912 100. 6 100.0 6 100. 6 83. 5 50. 3 83.3 5 33. 2 66. 4 16. 1 33.3 2 SO. 3 0. O O. O 33.3 2 O. O 0. O 100. 6 83.3 5 83. 5 83. 5 100. 6 100.0 6 100. 6 65. 4 100. 6 50.0 3 100. 6 83. 5 66. 4 100.0 6 66. 4 100. 6 50. 3 83.3 5 66. 4 83. 5 50. 3 83.3 5 66. 4 83. 5 16. 1 33.3 2 16. 1 O, O 33. 2 83.3 5 50.1 3 50, 3 66. 4 83.3 5 50. 3 50. 3 100. 6 83.3 5 50. 3 100. 6 83. 5 100.0 6 66. 4 66. 4 100. i 6 83.3 5 83. 5 100. 5 100. 6 100.0 6 33. 2 33. 2 33. 2 100.0 6 16. l 50. 3 0. 0 100.0 6 66. 4 100. 6 83. 5 66.7 4 50. 3 50. 3 50. 3 16.7 1 33. 2 50. 3 Total Sample :7.1 95 58. 91 83. 83. 70 70 16. 54. 62. 83. 79. 91 66. 50. 66. 62. 37. p/_2z_1_ .8 23 3 14 .0 6 .3 2 .5 21 .7 22 3 20 3 2o .8 17 .8 17 7 4 2 13 s 15 3 20 2 19 .7 22 7 16 o 12 7 16 5 16 5 9 Raw Scores Tabulated for The Shrinking of Treehorn 294 by Florence Parry Heide and Edward Gorey. enjoyment critical by association themes enumerated to artwork humorous physical humor verbal humor stereotyping sarcasm ridicule social criticism superiority moralizing distortion condemnation scorn exaggeration contempt derision 5.6111113. Fourth Seventh lE—_Iifll .2 219. 100.0 6 100.0 6 l6.7 1 33.3 2 33.3 2 16.7 1 0.0 0 16.7 1 16.7 1 0.0 0 100.0 5 83.3 5 100.0 6 83.3 5 50.0 3 83.3 5 100.0 6 100.0 6 50.0 3 83.3 5 0.0 0 0.0 0 16.7 1 16.7 1 16.7 1 33.3 2 0.0 0 50.0 3 100.0 6 100,0 6 0.0 0 33.3 2 50.0 3 50.0 3 0.0 0 66.7 4 33.3 2 16.7 1 0.0 0 16.7 1 Dale Fourth Seventh 100.0 6 83.3 5 0.0 0 16.7 1 16.7 1 50.0 3 0.0 0 0.0 O 33.3 2 16.7 1 83.3 5 50.3 3 100.0 6 65.7 4 33.3 2 83.3 5 100.0 6 100.0 6 50.0 3 66.7 4 16.7 1 16.7 1 16.7 1 33.3 2 16.7 1 50.0 3 16.7 1 33.3 2 83.3 5 100.0 6 0.0 O 0.0 O 16.7 1 0.0 O 66.7 4 100.0 6 0.0 O 0.0 0 0.0 O 0.0 0 Total Sam 1e 0 n 24 95.8 23 16 29. 4. 16. 79. 87. 52. 100. 62. 20. 29. 25. 95. 29. 58. 12. .7 2 4 7 19 21 15 24 15 295 N mwm m ndm op me PF “Am m ndm : 53 m. odN — mw 9 CAN F MMW v mam m omN F mm m omN PP ném NP odop III. NPVe1.m N_\: e z h. mPNEmm _aaop imho;mmcp no. me_x=_cgm wee o_. mam op mdw e mam N mwm m 5.; N mwm : 53 a 9mm m mwm o— mam N_. odo— op mam op mam Np 0.00.. w 5.8 I 58 m 5cm Np odop op mMm Z. 58 m 9.3 m can m can Np 062 0 od N mop N nd— _U od — mw v mdm m omN m owN F mw m omN ¢_ mMm m odN m odm m Now m nAc m own m emu o— mdw PP has N. ode, as case as odes NP oso_ N. ode, News N. N_\= .w N.N;1.w NP“: .m NPNe1.m. Nam: .m z z z .m a a oPmEmm umemm mFmEum canoe Page» Faces zocmsmmMm,pwmpomcw ,Momm1mnmmxmwnd,mnH mmum-ncc co: m.UFLoz mch . 'LE'FIPLFFEEEEEFE macaw coppmmzo cocaommz.mOH.umwmm1nm» monocoom gem toss; Fencm> Loss; _momnga mzoco5=c xcozucm ob umumcm53:m moses» comumwoommm An Pmowuwco ucosxoncm 296 o 08 . mm o as N omN o. Nam s mNN . Na a cam o as N Na. .. N.m .N. ode. N owN N omN s NNN N omN N omN N Na. N No. C od N Nam N New N. ado. N. ode. Mauw.m Mamm.m z a mmamW .Noo. :cozmocN we m=.x=.c;m 8;. m Nae e 8 .26m 8 o. .uNN e s .umN m e .uNN N. .. N..m .. m. N.8e .. a .amN .. e .fiom a a .edm N . N.. N a ..NN N N.\;1.w .MHNNI N z .MHmamw .aoos dem .umN .udm Numo odop N.~m N.Nm N..m .UmN mawm .VmN N.mm m sogmxmmcu “mmpmmco m.upcoz och N Ndp m nfimN m N.F¢ N Nuop m .uwN m N.ee .UmN G303 Nnco N me m .UmN N Nnmp or mam NF N NF odop Np odop MMW qum NfimN AfimN N.N¢ Ndwp .Vdm Name N.Nv mtwm NE... m N .Ncl m a : mNNEmm .aaoe scam seamx6.:o 6;. m .UmN m N.ev F. qum N “wwm m Audm or mam Np odop Np odor N mfiwm N mtwm e dem NP qum NE... N NE... N 2 Pp NP op Np m N— m NP «PNEmm .mp6. mfiwm may. mwwm N.Po AumN odop mtmw N._m Name N.pm .umN ode. N mama use cm: mote» cowpmmso :ucmmmmz com swampsamN mu mmcoom 3mm cowmwcmu unamucou comumcmmmmxm ccoum cowumcsmucoo cowucopmwu m:.~..ocoe Newcomcmasm Empomuwco .mwuom m.=uwuwc Emmucmm mcpaxuoocoum 297 N. NNN N N.N N NNN N. NNN. N NNN .. NNN . NN N NNN . NN N Na N NNN N NNN N NNN . NN .. N.N N. NNN. MHNWiw Mamm N NNN ;.N mmamm .Noo. :cogmch No mcwxcwgnm ch N. 28. N NNN N NNN N. NNN. N. NNN N. NNN. N. MwNN .. Nu.N N ..N. N INN N Na. N NNN N .NNN N Nu.N .. Nu.N N. loco. mwmmwiwm MHNMINN NNN NNN NHNNNW .Noo. zonmxmmcu pmmpmmcw m.u—L03 wzh N NNN N NNN N NNN N. NNN N. NNN N NNN N NNN N NNN N Na. N Na N NNN . NN N NNN N NNN N. 98. N. 3.: .mmgwmw MHNWIN NNN NNN wwamm .Nso. NOON NNNNNN.NN an. N NNN N NNN N. NNN. N. NNN N NNN .. N.N N. NNN. N NNN N NNN . NN N NNN N NNN N. NNN. N NNN N. NNN. N. NNN. Mamwrw MHNWIN NNN NNN mmamm .Noo. NNmN new LN: Lao; cowpmmso :ocmmmmm to» swam—aamk NN choom 3mm toss; Nmncm> cesaz poormxgn maocoszg xcozucm op umpmcmszcm Noamgu :oNNN_uoNNN Na Nmuwupcu acmexoncm 298 . NN N NN . NN N NN. N. NNN N NNN N NNN N NNN N NN. N NN N. NNN. .. NNN N N.N . NN N N.N N NN. N NNN N NN. . NN . NN N NNN N NNN N. NNN. N. NNN. Mflmwuw MHNWiw NNN NNN «mamm .Noo. ccogmch mo NNNNNNLNN NNN N NNN N N.N N NNN N NNN N. NNN. _N NNN N NNN N NNN N NNN N NNN .. N.N .. N.N N. NNN N NNN .. N.N N NNN N NNN N NNN N NNN N N.N N NN. N NN. N. NNN N NNN Mamwrw Mflmwnw NNN NNN mmwa .NNNN zosmxmmca NNNNchw N.vpsoz och N NNN N NN N NNN N NNN N N.N N NNN N NNN N NNN N NNN N N.N N N.N N NN. N NNN N NNN N. NNN N NNN N NNN N NNN N NNN N NNN N NNN N NNN .. NNN .. N.N mamwrm MamWIN NNN NNN mmamW .NNNN NNNN NNNNNNNNN NNN N NNN N NNN N NNN N NNN N. NNN. N NNN .. N.N N NNN N NNN N NNN N. NNN. N. NNN N. NNN. N. NNN .. NNN N. NNN. N. NNN N N.N N. NNN. N NNN N NNN N NNN N. NNN. .. NNN mmmwnw Mamwim NNN NNN .wmamw .NNN. NNNN new co: ego; :oNmezd sucmmmmm so» noun—NNNN NN choom 3mm :oNNNcmu paswucoo :oNchmNmem :couN :o_uwcsmucou :oNucopNNo NNNNN.Ncos NpNgoNcmNNN ENNoNchu _NwooN mpauwuwc ENNocNN mcmqaaomcmpm APPENDIX D GROUP RESPONSES Group Responses The design and procedure of this descriptive study included an initial interview session wherein this researcher met with each treat- ment group. During each initial meeting, this researcher read The End- less Pavement by Jacqueline Jackson, William Perlmutter, and Richard Cuffari aloud to the group. The reading was followed by the adminis- tration of The Questionnaire III to the group as a whole. The responses of any and all the subjects were recorded for each item. The intent was to provide a complete treatment experience at the first session so that each participant would know exactly what to expect at each subsequent session. The final tabulation of the raw scores and corresponding percent- ages recorded for the group responses of fOurth and seventh grade stu- dents to The Endless Pavement appear in Table! 28. All aspects of sa- tire analyzed in Research Question One and Research Question Two are scored for this selection. A total of three of three of the fourth grade groups of students gave responses which reflected enjoyment of satire compared with an equal total of three of three of the seventh grade groups of students. These scores both show a one hundred percent enjoyment by both grade levels of students. There is no substantial difference between the fOurth and seventh grade responses as both scores indicate that all of the treatment groups expressed enjoyment of this selection. A total of two of three of the fourth grade groups of students gave responses which reflected a critical comprehension of this work compared with a total of three of three of the seventh grade groups of students. 299 300 Table 28. Group Responses The Endless Pavement by jggggg seventh ‘Igggl Jacqueline Jackson, William Perlmutter, Richard Cuffari. g, g£§_ §_ g£§_ %_ g_§ enjoyment 100.0 3/3 100.0 3/3 100.0 6/6 critical 66.7 2/3 100.0 3/3 83.3 5/6 by association 100.0 3/3 100.0 3/3 100.0 6/6 themes enumerated 33.3 1/3 66.7 2/3 50.0 3/6 to artwork 33.3 1/3 33.3 1/3 33.3 2/6 humorous 100.0 3/3 100.0 3/3 100.0 6/6 physical humor 100.0 3/3 66.7 2/3 83.3 5/6 verbal humor 100.0 3/3 100.0 3/3 100.0 6/6 stereotyping 66.7 2/3 33.3 1/3 50.0 3/6 sarcasm 33.3 1/3 100.0 3/3 66.7 4/5 ridicule 100.0 3/3 100.0 3/3 100.0 6/6 social criticism 66.7 2/3 100.0 3/3 83.3 5/6 superiority 56.7 2/3 100.0 3/3 83.3 5/6 moralizing 100.0 3/3 100.0 3/3 100.0 5/6 distortion 100.0 3/3 100.0 3/3 100.0 6/6 condemnation 0.0 O/3 66.7 2/3 33.3 2/6 scorn 33.3 1/3 100.0 3/3 66.7 4/6 exaggeration 66.7 2/3 100.0 3/3 83.3 5/6 contempt 33.3 1/3 100.0 3/3 66.7 4/6 derision 66.7 2/3 66.7 2/3 66.7 4/6 301 These scores show a 66.7% comprehension by the fburth grade sample and a one hundred percent comprehension by the seventh grade sample. There is a slight difference in the fourth and seventh grade responses re- corded for critical comprehension as a majority of the fourth grade groups' responses indicate critical comprehension of this work,while all of the seventh grade treatment groups' responses indicate critical comprehension of this work. A total of three of three of the fourth grade groups of students gave responses which reflected personal association with this work of satire compared with an equal total of three of three of the seventh grade groups which made some personal association with this picture book. These scores both show a one hundred percent personal involve- ment with this work. There is no substantial difference between the fourth and seventh grade responses as both scores indicate that all of the treatment groups expressed personal association with this selection A total of one of three of the fourth grade groups of students gave overt responses which indicated a discussion of themes as developed within this literary work compared with a total of two of three of the seventh grade groups of students. These scores show a 33.3% itemiza- tion of the themes in this book by the fourth grade sample and a 66.7% itemization of the themes by the seventh grade sample. There is a slight difference in the fourth and seventh grade responses recorded for discussion of themes as less than half of the fourth grade responses indicate discussion, while a majority of the seventh grade responses indicate discussion of the themes in this literary work. 302 A total of one of three of the fOurth grade groups of studentsgave responses indicating a response to the artwork within this picture book compared with an equal total of one of three of the seventh grade groups. These scores both show a 33.3% response to the artwork within this se- lection. There is no substantial difference between the fourth grade group responses and the seventh grade group responses to the artwork within this satiric work,as both scores indicate that less than half of both grade level groups responded to the artwork. A total of three of three of the fourth grade groups of students indicated a response to the humor as evident within this literary work compared with an equal total of three of three of the seventh grade groups of students. These scores both exhibit a one hundred percent re- sponse to the humor within this picture book by both grade levels. There is no substantial difference between the fburth and seventh grade group responses to the humor as expressed within this work of satire, as both scores indicate that all the treatment groups expressed re- sponses to the humor within this selection. A total of three of three fourth grade group responses indicated a response to the physical humor within this work of satire compared with a total of two of three seventh grade group responses. These scores exhibit a one hundred percent response by the fourth grade groups of students and a 66.7% response by the seventh grade groups of students. There is a slight difference in the fourth and seventh grade groups' responses to the physical humor as present within this picture book. The fourth grade score indicates that all of the fourth grade groups' responses reflected a response to the physical humor, while the seventh 303 grade score indicates that a majority of the groups' responses reflected a response to aspects of physical humor. A total of three of three fourth grade group responses indicated a response to verbal humor within this picture book compared with an equal total of three of three seventh grade group re- sponses. These scores both exhibit a one hundred percent response to the verbal humor by both the f0urth and seventh grade populations. There is no substantial difference in the fourth and seventh grade group responses to the verbal humor as shared within this literary text as both scores indicate that all the treatment groups expressed re- sponses which reflected a comprehension of the verbal humor. A total of two of three fourth grade group responses reflected re- cognition of stereotyping compared with a total of one of three seventh grade group responses. These scores show a 66.7% recognition of stereo- typing within this picture book by the fourth grade groups and a 33.3% recognition by the seventh grade groups. There is a slight difference between the fourth grade group responses to stereotyping and the seventh grade group reSponses. A majority of the fOurth grade groups'responses indicate comprehension of stereotyping,while less than half of the se- venth groups' responses indicate comprehension of stereotyping in this work. i A total of one of three fourth grade groups of students gave re- Sponses which reflected recognition of the sarcasm within this literary work compared with a total of three of three of the seventh grade groups. These scores exhibit a 33.3% recognition of the sarcasm by the fourth grade population and a one hundred percent recognition by the seventh grade population. There is a considerable difference between 304 the fourth and seventh grade group responses to the sarcasm as evident within this story. The fourth grade score indicates that less than half of the treatment groups expressed recognition of sarcasm,while the seventh grade score indicates that all the treatment groups expressed recognition of sarcasm in this selection. A total of three of three fourth grade groups of students gave re- sponses which indicated comprehension of the ridicule presented in this work of literature compared with an equal total of three of three se- venth grade groups of students. These scores indicate a one hundred percent comprehension of ridicule by both the fourth and seventh grade populations. There is no substantial difference between the fourth and seventh grade group responses to ridicule as evident within this book. Both scores indicate that all treatment groups comprehended ridicule. A total of two of three fourth grade groups of students made re- sponses which indicated comprehension of the social criticism as pre- sent within this picture book compared with a total of three of three seventh grade groups of students. These scores show a 66.7% comprehen- sion of social criticism by the fourth grade population and a one hun- dred percent comprehension by the seventh grade population. There is a slight difference in the responses of the fOurth grade groups and the responses of the seventh grade groups to social criticism as eXpressed within this work of satire. A majority of the fburth grade groups' re- sponses indicate comprehension of social criticism, while all the seventh grade groups' responses indicate comprehension of social criticism in this selection. A total of two of three fourth grade groups of students made re- sponses indicating recognition of superiority as present within this 305 work of satire compared with a total of three of three seventh grade groups of students. These scores show a 66.7% recognition of superi- ority by the fburth grade population and a one hundred percent recogni- tion by the seventh grade population. There is a slight difference in the f0urth and seventh grade responses to superiority as present within this work of literature. A majority of the fOurth grade groups' re— sponses indicate.recognition of the trait of superiority while all the seventh grade groups' responses reflected recognition of the trait. A total of three of three fourth grade groups of students made re- sponses which reflected recognition of moralizing as developed within this work of literature compared with an equal total of three of three seventh grade groups of students. These scores both express a one hun- dred percent recognition of moralizing by the fourth grade population and the seventh grade population. There is no substantial difference in the responses of the fourth and seventh grade groups to the moralizing developed within this picture book as both scores indicate that all treatment groups recognized moralizing. A total of three of three fOurth grade groups of students gave re- sponses indicating comprehension of the distortion within this work of satire compared with an equal total of three of three seventh grade groups of students. These scores both express a one hundred percent comprehension of distortion by the fourth grade population and the se- venth grade population. There is no substantial difference in the responses of the fourth grade groups and seventh grade groups to the distortion as developed within this literary work,as both scores indi- cate that all treatment groups comprehended the literary device of dis- tortion. 306 None of the three groups of fourth grade students gave responses which reflected understanding of the condemnation as evidenced within this picture book compared with a total of two of three groups of se- venth grade students. These scores express a zero percent understand- ing by the fourth grade population and a 66.7% understanding by the se- venth grade population. There is a considerable difference in the fourth grade group responses to condemnation and the seventh grade group responses to condemnation, as expressed within this book. The scores indicated that none of the fOurth grade treatment groups gave responses which reflected understanding of the device of condemnation, while a majority of the seventh grade treatment groups gave responses which reflected understanding. A total of one of three fourth grade groups of students made re- sponses indicating recognition of scorn as a literary device within this work of satire compared with a total of three of three seventh grade groups of students. These scores show a 33.3% recognition of scorn by the fourth grade p0pulation and a one hundred percent recogni- tion by the seventh grade population. There is a considerable differ- ence in the fourth grade group responses to scorn and the seventh grade group responses to scorn as revealed within this picture book. The fourth grade score indicates that less than half the groups recognized scorn,while the seventh grade score indicates that all treatment groups' responses reflected understanding of scorn. A total of two of three of the fOurth grade groups of students gave responses which expressed understanding of the technique of exaggeration within this story compared with a total of three of three of the seventh grade groups of students. These scores show a 66.7% understanding by 307 the fOurth grade sample and a one hundred percent understanding by the seventh grade sample. There is a slight difference in the fourth and seventh grade responses recorded for understanding of exaggeration as evident within this work. A majority of the fourth grade groups' re- sponses indicate understanding of exaggeration, while all the seventh grade treatment groups' responses indicate understanding of exaggera- tion. A total of one of three of the fourth grade groups of students gave overt responses which indicated a comprehension of contempt as a liter- ary device within this work of satire compared with a total of three of three of the seventh grade groups of students. These scores show a 33.3% comprehension of contempt by the f0urth grade sample and a one hundred percent comprehension by the seventh grade sample. There is a considerable difference between the fourth grade and seventh grade re- sponses recorded fOr contempt. Less than half of the fourth grade groups' responses reflect comprehension of contempt in this work,while all of the seventh grade groups' reponses reflect comprehension of con- tempt in this book. A total of two of three of the fourth grade groups of students gave responses which revealed understanding of derision as developed within this work of literature compared with an equal total of two of three of the seventh grade groups of students. These scores both ex- hibit a 66.7% understanding of derision by the fourth grade and seventh grade populations. There is no substantial difference between the fourth grade and seventh grade group responses to the device of deri- sion as expressed within this picture book, as both scores indicate that a majority of the treatment groups expressed responses to derision. 308 Summation Five of the eight aspects relating to satire, as considered under Research Question One, revealed no substantial differences when compari- sons were made between the group responses of the fourth grade and se- venth grade populations to The Endless Pavement by Jacqueline Jackson, William Perlmutter, and Richard Cuffari. Virtually no differences existed in expressed enjoyment of satire, the degree to which subjects related satire to their personal lives, or the responses to artwork, humor presented, and verbal humor. The other three of the eightaspects relating to satire, critical response, discussion of the themes de- veloped, and physical humor, revealed a slight difference in the group responses of fourth grade students and seventh grade students. In the case of physical humor, the fourth grade responses reflected slightly more recognition of physical humor within this literary work. In the cases of critical response and discussion of the themes developed, the seventh grade responses reflected slightly more recognition of both these aspects of satire within this picture book. Four of the twelve associational characteristics of satire, as analyzed in Research Question Two, revealed a slight difference in the responses when the grade level of the treatment groups was considered. A slight difference was recorded fOr recognition of the traits stereo- typing, social criticism, superiority, and exaggeration. For the three traits social criticism, superiority, and exaggeration, the seventh grade responses reflected recognition more often than the fourth grade responses. For the trait stereotyping, the fourth grade responses re- flected recognition more often than the seventh grade responses. Con- sideration of four of the twelve associational characteristics revealed 309 virtually nosubstantial differences. When comparisons were made be- tween responses of the fourth grade groups and the seventh grade groups, no substantial differences were fOund to exist fbr ridicule, moralizing, distortion, or derision. The scores of the final four traits, sarcasm, condemnation, scorn, and contempt, revealed a considerable difference between fourth and seventh grade group responses, with seventh grade group responses' reflecting comprehension considerably more often than f0urth grade responses. BIBLIOGRAPHY BIBLIOGRAPHY Abbott, Charles. An Essay on the Use and Abuse of Satire. 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