Rachel Farris

Document Type

Honors Project

First Advisor

Dr. David Coffman

Degree Award Date

Spring 2005

Keywords

Reading Aloud, Beverly Cleary, Student Attitudes

Disciplines

Education | Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research | Educational Methods | Elementary Education | Language and Literacy Education

Abstract

Why does any writer write? The answer seems simply obvious: to express ideas and opinions with the hopes of providing enjoyment and making a difference in the attitude, mindset, or actions of the readers. If this postulate is then true, curiosity begs the question: Does it work? Specifically, do Beverly Cleary's stories about a young girl named Ramona who experiences all the difficulties of growing up and life help readers cope with some of the same scenarios in real life, change attitudes about life and reading, or aid in reading development? Further, by reading them aloud, what benefits does this have for students?

This project, then, is an attempt to, in some small way, answer those looming questions for the benefit of myself as a teacher, the students, and parents. The answers will come from a research portion and an application study component. The main purpose of this study is to determine whether reading aloud a selection of Beverly Cleary books to third grade students has an effect on the attitudes the students hold about reading and different life issues that are addressed in the literature.

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