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Reexamining Literary Reasoning: Understanding Progressions and Argumentation

Sat, April 14, 2:15 to 3:45pm, Sheraton Wall Centre, Floor: Third Level, North Junior Ballroom D

Abstract

Purposes: This presentation reports on core constructs for complex literary response, developmental trajectories, and initial empirical studies of middle and high school students.

Theoretical framework: Research on literary reasoning largely focuses on adult expertise and indicates that literary interpretation entails literary theory, cognitive analyses, moral reasoning and rhetoric (e.g., Kohlberg, 1981; Lee, 2011; Peskin, 1998; Rabinowitz, 1987; Scholes, 1985; Toulmin, S., et al., 1984). Standards for curriculum and instruction of adolescent readers reflect limited integration of these findings. Rather, the same skill set is repeated across grades, presumably with more complex texts. However, measurement of text complexity for literature remains illusive because literary texts are open, subject to multiple points of view, and literary analysis is equally about what can be communicated and how (Lee, 2011).

Research Design and Methods: The READI literature team (researchers in English education, discourse and learning sciences, and classroom teachers) developed a comprehensive model of the multiple dimensions of literary response expressed as core constructs and conducted an initial study to examine how middle and high school students construct arguments across multiple literary texts.
Core Constructs Methods and Results: The team conducted an extensive review of literary theory, empirical studies of literature, discourse psychology, pedagogical models including Cultural Modeling, and extant academic standards. These analyses converged on the categories in Table 1, with instantiations for literature (e.g., literary epistemology refers to an orientation to see texts as open and to interrogate human values and dilemmas.
Arguments across multiple literary texts – Method and Results. An initial study examined developmental trajectories for two aspects of the literary core constructs: symbolism (language- rhetorical device) and coming of age (type of text/theme). Students read two literary works and were asked to construct an argument about how the authors use of images helped them understand the characters and their worlds. “Easier” (middle school students) and “harder” text sets (high school) were developed, with one text common to both. Prior to the argument prompt students answered open-ended, “basic” comprehension questions about plot and character. The task was administered to 192 middle and high school students from diverse backgrounds.
Student responses were analyzed for claims, evidence, warrants, backing, counter claims, quality of literary reasoning, and syntheses across texts.
Findings: Lower-level “argument” essays revealed misconceptions or ignored contradictory evidence in the stories, contained very few literary warrants or nested arguments. “More advanced” students essays identified targets as either figurative or symbolic, but did not evaluate the function of rhetorical moves made by the authors. Finally, most students across the grade bands had difficulty writing arguments that synthesized (i.e., compared or contrasted) evidence for claims about symbols. Grade differences occurred in the complexity of social and moral reasoning about characters and the social worlds.

Significance: This work contributes to a fundamental re-conceptualization of literary reading in middle and high school and of literary text complexity. Documentation of trajectories informs a re-articulation of grade-level standards in response to literature. Finally, dimensions of literary response not found in students’ responses inform E-BAIMs unit design.

Authors