Introduction to Reading, Evidence, and Argumentation: Reconceptualizing Reading Comprehension in Adolescence

• In Event: A Framework for Conceptualizing Reading for Understanding: Evidence-Based Argumentation in History, Science, and Literature

Abstract

Purpose: This presentation introduces the goals, organizational structure, and conceptual framework that underlies the research and development activities of Project READI.

Theoretical Framework/Perspective: Project READI builds on existing conceptions of reading comprehension as reflecting interactions among tasks, texts, and readers in a sociocultural context (Rand, 2002). Key assumptions are that comprehension involves the construction of mental representations of the text that capture the surface input, the presented information, and inferences that integrate information within the text and with prior knowledge (e.g., Goldman, 2004; Kintsch, 1994). For multiple source comprehension, readers also need (1) to represent information about the source, and (2) to create an Integrated Model that represents the interrelations across texts and the information synthesis, evaluation, or critique needed for a coherent and integrated representation of conflicting theories, claims, and evidence (Britt Rouet, & Perfetti, 1999; Goldman, 2004; Rouet, 2006). Furthermore, Project READI assumes a dynamic model of comprehension in which the knowledge, experience, and interests that students bring to texts and tasks are important predictors of the competencies they display (Lee & Spratley, 2010; Siebert & Draper, 2008).

Project Goals, Framework, and Organization: Project READI activities are organized around research on basic processes in reading, the design and testing of elements of interventions, and assessments that inform students and teachers about progress toward learning objectives (see Figure 1 - see pdf). The intersection of these constitute evidence-based argumentation instructional modules (E-B AIMs) that embody inquiry tasks, text/material sets, discourse routines, and student work samples that support evidence-based argumentation in literature, history, or science. E-B AIMs are designed to be educative for teachers (Davis & Krajcik, 2005) and challenging learning experiences for students.

Driving inquiry questions, text sets, and activities for the research and intervention development involve understanding the knowledge, skills, and dispositions students need to engage in appropriate forms of disciplinary argumentation and content learning, and how they might progressively be learned over the middle to high school years (approximately ages 12 to 18). We have specified five categories of knowledge and skills as “core constructs.” The core construct categories were found to be applicable to each discipline albeit instantiated differently within each, as described in the subsequent presentations. Table 1 provides brief definitions of the core constructs: epistemology; inquiry practices/ways of reasoning; overarching concepts, themes, frameworks; types of texts and information representations; discourse and language structures.

Table 1. Core Constructs and Descriptions (see pdf)
Epistemology: Beliefs, values, and commitments that the reader draws upon to prioritize and warrant claims
Inquiry Practices/ Ways of Reasoning: Literature: Strategies used to construct arguments about the meanings of literary texts
Sci/Hist: Criteria for evaluating claims, evidence, connections between.
Overarching Concepts, Themes, Frameworks of the Discipline: Unifying Concepts, Principles, and Themes, such as enduring ideas (science); complex systems (history); archetypal themes or character types (literature).
Information Representation/ Types of Texts: Types of representations, genres, organizations of texts, plot structures
Discourse/Language Structures: Prototypical organization of spoken and written discourse; rhetorical strategies

Author

• Susan R. Goldman, University of Illinois at Chicago