Rediscovering Rosenblatt: A study describing the impact a series of professional development sessions exploring Rosenblatt's theory of aesthetic reading has on teachers' instructional practices

Six decades ago Louise Rosenblatt warned that teachers were failing to develop children's ability to respond aesthetically to literature. Rosenblatt felt that this ability was essential to achieve the goal of producing a literate population who could participate fully in a thriving democracy. This same warning is relevant today. The No Child Left Behind legislation (U.S. Dept. of Education, 2001) has had such a profound influence on reading instruction that many educators feel the need to focus solely on skill development at the expense of nurturing aesthetic responses to literature. Newspapers, journal articles, and research summaries document the continuing decline in both the amount of reading young people do and the scores they achieve on standardized tests. This research study first examines Rosenblatt's theory of aesthetic reading and then proposes a course of professional development based on her theories. The over-arching goal of this study is to determine how exposure to Rosenblatt's theories will impact the manner in which elementary school teachers approach the teaching of literature. This study presents a course of professional development related to Louise Rosenblatt's theory of transactional reading. In order to determine the impact of the professional development, data gathered from the participants through written responses, class discussions and interviews are discussed in order to describe the ways teachers believe their approaches to the teaching of fiction will change after examining Rosenblatt's theories. Following the course of professional development sessions, three of the teacher participants were observed in their classrooms to determine if their intention to alter their approach to teaching fiction had been transferred to their actual teaching. A description of the observations is included in the study. The primary research questions that guide this study are: (a) What does it mean to read literature aesthetically and how does this process affect meaning? and (b) In what ways will exposure to Rosenblatt's theories of reading impact the teaching practices of elementary classroom teachers?...