Explicating "Multiple Literacies": Synergistic Texts, Tasks, and Enactments in Project-Based Learning

• In Event: 15.052 - Promoting and Measuring Student Learning and Engagement Through Project-Based Learning: Leveraging Coherence

Abstract

Purpose
Historically, reading texts in science has been regarded as anathema to the goal of positioning students to “figure out” in a manner that is consistent with contemporary science reforms (Authors, 2013), such as the Next Generation Science Standards (2013). In ML-PBL we have been determining what features of text lend themselves to “figuring out” in a manner that is consistent with contemporary calls. In this paper, we share what we have learned about: the construction of texts, the nature of the tasks in which those texts are embedded, and the features of teacher enactment that represent powerful uses of text. Because it is not possible to fully tease these apart, we consider them in interplay to respond to our question: What do powerful uses of texts in PBL entail?

Theoretical Framework
We draw on Kintsch’s (1998) Construction Integration model of reading because of its emphasis on building three mental representations of the text: a verbatim representation, a semantic representation, and a situational representation or mental model of the situation to which the text refers. We strive to support teachers to support students to construct the situation model, acknowledging the role that decoding the text and understanding vocabulary play in this process. Our research is also informed by sociocultural models of reading instruction, such as the RAND Reading Study Group (2002) model, arguing that comprehension occurs through an interaction among three critical elements: the reader, the text, and the activity in which the reading is embedded.

Methods and Data Sources
Cross-case comparisons of third- and fourth-grade teachers enable us to identify the patterns in the design of texts, nature of tasks, and teacher practices that portend powerful uses of text. Data include: memos regarding the principles guiding the design of texts that “work” in the context of PBL, iterative designs of texts, field notes and transcripts of teachers’ enactments, which allow us to investigate student/teacher interactions as they interpret texts and connect the information in the text to their prior or upcoming investigations of phenomena.

Findings
While we will present findings in three categories: the texts (including the accompanying teaching guides), the tasks in which the texts are embedded, and the features of enactment, here, we illustrate findings only regarding text. We have identified features of text that optimally position the reader to engage in figuring out; there is a “sweet spot” in which the content of the text provides data that students synthesize and interpret. There are texts that model scientific practices that then support students’ own investigations. There are texts that illustrate the uncertain nature of science and how scientific ideas evolve over time, with additional evidence and theorizing.

Significance
Consistent with the conference call “to lessen inequality and increase educational opportunities,” our research on literacy in PBL, especially in the context of elementary classrooms, supports elementary teachers to provide rich instructional opportunities that advance using literacy in the service of building knowledge about powerful scientific ideas.

Authors

• Miranda Fitzgerald, University of North Carolina - Charlotte

• Meredith Baker Marcum, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

• Gabriel Philip DellaVecchia, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

• Kathleen Easley, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

• Annemarie S. Palincsar, University of Michigan