Second grade African-American reader response to culturally conscious and mainstream literature used for comprehension instruction

This thesis documents a qualitative research study that explored how 2nd grade African-American students responded in writing to picture books written by and about African-Americans (defined as culturally conscious, Sims, 1982), and how those responses differed from those student's responses to mainstream picture books. Over six weeks, the teacher-researcher read aloud six mainstream picture books and six culturally conscious African-American picture books to a 2nd grade class including ten African-American study participants. Data collected included 115 student written responses to literature, audiotaped book introductions, and field notes. A sentence-by-sentence analysis of the written responses revealed that for some African-American 2nd graders, culturally conscious literature produces a more emotional and more authentic response than mainstream literature.