CIECIERSKI, LISA, Ph.D., August 2014
TEACHING, LEARNING,
AND CURRICULUM STUDIES
EXPERIENCING INTERTEXTUALITY THROUGH AUTHENTIC LITERATURE
AND MEANINGFUL WRITING IN THE MIDDLE SCHOOL CONTENT AREA
CLASSROOM (485 pp.)
Co-Director of Dissertation: William P. Bintz,Ph.D.
Co-Director of Dissertation: Kristine E. Pytash, Ph.D.
There may be several potential obstacles that make nourishing active readers and
thinkers a challenge and may contribute to passive learning in the content areas.
One
alternative method of instruction might be engaging students in experiencing
intertextuality through authentic literature and meaningful writing in the content area
classroom.
A mixed methods study with a grounded theory focus was the methodology used
to research this phenomenon. Questionnaires, student artifacts, observations, and student
and teacher interviews were forms of qualitative data while attitude inventories were
collected as quantitative data.
Six themes represent the findings: evolution of content knowledge, learning in
the content areas is real and relevant, real literature transforms students to being real
readers, the evolution of literate behaviors, development of intertextual thinking, and
dispositions. The findings were presented with subthemes so as to guide the reader, add
to readability, and paint a complete, vivid description of the phenomenon studied.
Key words: intertextuality, content area literacy, disciplinary literacy, authentic
literature, writing