Date Approved

5-1-2026

Graduate Degree Type

Project

Degree Name

Education-Instruction and Curriculum: Secondary Education (M.Ed.)

Degree Program

College of Education

First Advisor

Dr. Sheri Klee

Academic Year

2025/2026

Abstract

Literary engagement correlates to academic success, yet many schools across the nation struggle to engage their scholars meaningfully with traditionally taught canonical literature. The classrooms impacted most by this concern are secondary language arts classrooms. This disengagement can be attributed to a lack of student autonomy in selecting texts, low-interest topics, and an absence of relevance to student identity. As a result, schools are reporting underdeveloped reading comprehension skills, motivation, academic achievement on a variety of classroom and state-mandated assessments, and a sharp decline in critical thinking skills. This project emphasizes the importance of using high-interest paired-text lessons built into canonical literature units grounded in reader-response theory and culturally responsive teaching. These approaches aim to increase student interest using contemporary literature paired with their current canonical literature units. To address this issue, this project includes a professional development, guided note-taking sheet, a template for creating a paired-text lesson, a student reflection sheet, as well as a teacher reflection sheet. The professional development and guided notes assist educators in creating lesson plans while the evaluations allow students to self-assess their identity as a reader, and for the teacher to reflect on the efficacy of the lesson. This project benefits educators by assisting them with fitting paired-text lessons into their current units, thus removing the need for them to recreate entire units. By increasing the relevance and student connection to literature, this approach is expected to engage readers, and improve academic achievement, the development of advanced critical thinking skills, and better reading comprehension. In addition to engaging students academically, this project aims to help students become lifelong readers throughout the process.

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