Date of Award

2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Myhill, Nova

Area of Concentration

English Education and English with Rhetoric and Writing

Abstract

Students deserve to have classrooms designed with their holistic needs in mind. Teachers should utilize pedagogical research to deliberately design their classrooms in a way that empowers student success. Structuring a classroom with these sentiments in mind reveals the benefits to students that pedagogically and psychologically sound educational activities provide. This thesis attempts to implement the pedagogical approach of active learning by developing a unit that relies on Reading Groups and Socratic Seminars. Reading Groups offer students the unique opportunity to engage with their choice in text; a common barrier for students in finding motivation for class readings. Additionally, Reading Groups offer individualization and differentiation options, as well as a scaffolded approach to developing necessary skills. Along with Reading Groups, students are asked to participate in Socratic Seminars which engage them in intertextual conversation and experience interacting with evidence from unfamiliar sources. Through the lens of four texts, this thesis analyzes how a classroom could run if students read The Hobbit, The Giver, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, and To Kill a Mockingbird, in separate Reading Groups.

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