SenseMaker as a Tool for Literary Reasoning

• In Event: Sense-Making in the Disciplines: Literacy Resource for Interrogating Past and Future As Teacher Pedagogical Tool

Abstract

The question literacy researchers must address is how to uncover the ways young people engage in literacy practices as they seek to “unforget the past” and develop the insights and disciplinary resources needed to grapple with the challenges of an “imagined future,” amidst the dismantling of what it means to be human. This proposition aligns with the conference theme of "Unforgetting Histories” as it demands a deep understanding of the specific and complex knowledge students access and contribute. Such understanding is essential to our collective efforts—whether in classrooms or research spaces—if we are to construct new knowledge within our democracy and address the complexities of that endeavor.
Literacy instruction involves multi-dimensional processes, including perceptions, cognitions, and emotions: perceptions of task relevance and personal efficacy (Bandura, 1993; Eccles et al., 2005). These are interwoven with students’ histories and identities, which are themselves contextual and multifaceted (Burke, 2003; Cross Jr & Cross, 2008; Erikson, 1994). Learning and identity are inextricably linked, not confined to individual minds or bodies but emerging in social spaces, shaped through interactions with others and with artifacts and tools—material and ideational (Cole & Engeström, 1993; Engeström et al., 1999). Classrooms exemplify this dynamic.
Core curricular constructs and tools influence how learners perceive tasks, the kinds of knowledge they access, and the emotions elicited while tackling disciplinary texts. These tools help form a social problem space where participation calls for identity orientations—fluid and multifaceted ways students relate tasks to their sense of self and determine whether they find the task worthwhile.
This paper explores how the Cultural Modeling Framework (C. D. Lee, 2007, 2014) for disciplinary reading and argumentation, along with teacher pedagogical moves, shape learners’ perceptions, cognition, and emotions during disciplinary tasks. We analyze classroom intra-actions (Barad, 2007) using data from the SMD Project. Qualitative analysis of teacher interviews, student assessments, and classroom video recordings highlights strategies used by teachers and students to engage with texts, as well as instructional opportunities that helped surface and extend those strategies beyond tacit knowledge.
We introduce two concepts: emergent understandings and identity wrestling. Emergent understandings are early expressions of big ideas not yet fully articulated or warranted in disciplinary terms. Identity wrestling refers to how learners reflect on the ways their perceptions, cognitions, and emotions shape their development and communication. We discuss the implications of these concepts for teacher knowledge, particularly in fostering literary reasoning and deeper disciplinary engagement.
Findings illuminate the foundational challenges of teaching literary analysis to adolescents. Because learning is intertwined with perceptions, cognitions, and emotions, teachers must recognize students’ emergent understandings to address persistent reading achievement gaps tied to race, ethnicity, and class. Our analysis calls for an ontological shift—from viewing learning as an isolated outcome to embracing it as an entangled process—so that imagined futures can take shape in the classroom and reframe the possibilities of educational research.

Author

• Yolanda J. Majors, Northwestern University