31st Annual Student Research Conference
Contextualizing and Demonstrating Relevancy of Literature through the Inclusion of Nonfiction
Sarah E. Wappelhorst♦
Dr. Summer Pennell, Faculty Mentor
This study investigated how the inclusion of nonfiction in the secondary English classroom impacted students’ understanding of the context of the literature they were reading. The impact of the nonfiction on students’ beliefs in the relevancy of the literature was also studied. This research was conducted in a large Midwest suburban high school in an 11th grade Honors American Literature Course. Students read nonfiction to supplement the novels The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and Beloved by Toni Morrison. After closely examining the data, three major case studies appeared: students whose understanding of the literature and relevancy increased, students whose understanding of the literature was somewhat increased and relevancy deepened, and students whose understanding was not impacted and relevancy somewhat increased. The data demonstrates that pairing current nonfiction with literature, particularly canonical texts, can lead to increased belief in the relevancy of the literature to students’ lives and modern America.
Keywords: nonfiction, context of literature , relevancy of literature
Topic(s):English, Secondary MAE Research
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 401-4
Location: MG 1000
Time: 3:15