READER-BASED AND TEACHER-CENTERED INSTRUCTIONAL TASKS - WRITING AND LEARNING ABOUT A SHORT-STORY IN MIDDLE-TRACK CLASSROOMS

This study describes how and what 2 classes of middle-track 10th-grade rs wrote and learned when their teacher employed reader-based and teac her-centered instructional tasks for discussing and writing about a sh ort story. The students wrote an analytic essay in response to the sto ry and completed 3 posttests of story understanding. Retrospective int erviews of 4 case-study students were analyzed to examine the students ' thinking and reasoning, and to explore their perceptions of the grou nd rules and teacher expectations as they wrote analytically about the story. The reader-based tasks enabled the students in developing both textual and experimental knowledge about and a thoughtful stance towa rd the short story. These pat terns suggest why the reader-based tasks permitted students to attain significantly higher posttest scores tha n did the teacher-centered tasks. Reader-based tasks to reading and wr iting may enable teachers to rethink literature instruction in classro oms with middle-track students.