Since I had only two students out of ten willing to participate in the study, I will report results with these two students. 

The survey results for these two students showed that John liked action books; the second student, whom we will call Mary, liked mysteries.  Both, however, suggested that they did not read by themselves.

Unit:  Young Adult Novel

Both John and Mary read Forged by Fire by Sharon Draper from a choice of three YA books mentioned in the background material.

John showed interest in the book, sometimes even reading ahead.  His preparedness for the reading circles was average.  In conference with him he indicated he had read the book previously in middle school and it did not provide much of a challenge. In his survey, however, he wrote that he had never reread a book.

Generally, John did better speaking than writing, but I wrote on one of his diagnostic essays in which he was asked to describe a character in his book, “some of your words give a sense of “you” and what “grabbed you, for example, when you talk about Gerald accepting the bike.  John chose this book to read again because he did connect with it. It is this connection that I referred to in the Background Section in which current literature indicates students need connection with the literature to be motivated to read it.  

Mary joined the class late and did not read the whole book, but she did well on her role sheets. She chose, in her role as Illuminator (see Background), a passage on p. 38 referring to Gerald’s disgusted response to the pancakes and syrup prepared by his mother for their first meeting on his 9th birthday after six years separation.  Mary understood Gerald’s feelings of abandonment that had prompted this disgust.  She also showed appreciation for the description of the author in this scene.  She said, "Because it is an image, you can understand."

Unit:  Their Eyes Were Watching God

The question now was whether the students would carry over their interest in the young adult novels to the more challenging Their Eyes Were Watching God.

When reading page 1, John, Mary, and others were stymied by the opening metaphor:  “Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board." Dialect was also difficult for this group.  We finally used film in addition to sections of the book. Literature Circles, which required independence, were replaced by whole class discussion, journals,  and projects.

Mary was reasonably creative in creating a picture of a place that had meaning for her and a similar place and action for the characters.  The key was connection.

John was creative in completing a bio-poem  (see http:// anoldfashionedliving.com/ biopoems.html for an example) about himself and Teacake, a major character in the novel. 

Notes

I found a Teacher Cyber Guide by Priscilla Tedeso from the San Diego County Board of Education  at www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us...

Pancake graphic: by OCAL, Pancakes and Syrup from Clker.com public domain clip art.

Ship graphic: by Mark A. Hicks, 1998. Published by Discovery.com