No reported research studies have compared the responses of mature adults to the responses of tenth-grade students to short stories. The case studies presented here were designed to describe the kinds of responses offered by adults and students, and to compare the responses of students to the responses of adults. The case studies were also designed to report indications· that any of three methods of small group discussions over a period of time influenced students to respond to short stories in a manner that is more like the responses of adults. A tenth-grade academic English class was randomly divided into three groups of seven students. The Reflective Reading Group participated in teacher-directed small group discussions using a highly structured questioning strategy. The Question Group 11sed the lists of' questions from the questioning strategy as guides for their discussions. The Free Discussion Group participated in free discussions with no directions as to how the discussions should proceed. The Question Group and the Free Discussion Group had no supervision by a teacher or other authority figure. The adult group also participated in free discussions. The free discussions of the three student groups, one as a pre-treatment sample and one as a post-treatment sample, and the adult discussions were tape recorded and transcribed. The transcriptions were coded as Factual and subcategories, Inferential and subcategories, Experiential and subcategories, Judgmental and subcategories, and Miscellaneous, and as Appropriate or Inappropriate. The responses were also analyzed to determine the comprehensiveness of the discussion, the length of responses, the nature of inappropriate comments, the breadth of participation, and change of mind of a discussant. No clear patterns of change in the student responses were found as a result of the treatments. The Reflective Reading Group appeared to have become dependent on the questioning strategy. The Question Group had a less comprehensive discussion in Free Discussion II, indicating that the lists of questions might have influenced the students to focus on fewer aspects of the story. The Free Discussion Group offered responses that were categorically more like the responses of the adults in their final free discussion, suggesting that a series of free discussions may help students offer responses that are more like the responses of adults in free discussions.

Ph. D.