Michigan State University Extension
Diversity and Pluralism - DP130050
12/95/
ERIC TITLE NUMBER: ED333441 AUTHOR: Nystrand, Martin
TITLE: Making It Hard: Curriculum and Instruction as
Factors
in Difficulty of Literature. Report Series 4.8.
YEAR PUBLISHED: 1990
NOTE: 20 p.
AVAILABILITY: SUNY).
ABSTRACT: A study reexamined data from an earlier study of
the effect of teacher questioning techniques on students'
understanding of and responses to literature. Data were
reexamined for instructional correlates of difficulty of
recall and difficulty of depth of understanding. Subjects,
1,041 students in 58 eight-grade English classes in 16
midwestern urban, suburban, and rural schools, took a test
consisting of a set of increasingly more probing questions
concerning five literature titles they had studied in class
that year. Additional data included teacher and student
questionnaires concerning instructional practices and
student backgrounds, and class observations. Control
measures included a brief personal essay and a multiple
choice test and a written response to two brief stories and
one poem from the National Assessment of Educational
Progress. The study was also controlled for race,
ethnicity, sex, socioeconomic status, and grade level,
since a few schools included seventh-grade students in
eighth grade classes. Results indicated that: (1)
curriculum and instruction significantly affected the
difficulty or ease that students experienced with
literature; (2) the absence of frequent, extensive writing
was by far the most significant factor in handicapping
students' recall and understanding; and (3) different
instructional practices potentially complicate literature
in different ways. (Three tables of data are included; 22
references are attached.)
(RS)
KEY DESCRIPTORS: Classroom-Environment; Classroom-Research;
Difficulty-Level; Grade-8; Junior-High-Schools; Recall
Psychology
KEY DESCRIPTORS: *Instructional-Effectiveness; *Literature
Appreciation; *Questioning-Techniques; *Teacher-Behavior
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