The Effects of Stance and Age Level on Children's Literary Responses

The primary purpose of this study was to explore the effects of the use of aesthetic and efferent stances in response to literature. Subjects included 43 fourth graders, 47 sixth graders, and 40 eighth graders who were reading on-grade level or above. All subjects read the same three short stories and completed written free responses to each. Responses were analyzed for reader stance and level of understanding reached. Two-way analyses of variance revealed significant main effects for stance and grade on level of understanding for all three stories. The use of an aesthetic stance, where readers focused on the lived-through experience of the work, was associated with higher levels of personal understanding. Level of understanding was also found to increase with grade level. No interaction effects were found, indicating students' grade levels do not influence the relationship between the aesthetic stance and higher levels of personal understanding.