Sentence Stems as Supports for Interpretive Reading and Writing

• In Event: Roundtable Session 34
  In Roundtable Session: Writing and Literacies SIG Roundtable 4. Children's Writing: The Truth About Feedback, Self-Efficacy, and Gender Bias

Abstract

A significant challenge to students — especially those deemed “struggling” readers and writers — is in moving from literal to interpretive readings of literary texts. Beyond the cognitive complexities of interpretation, expectations about “right” answers, beliefs about “purposes” of literature and literacy, and lack of access to disciplinary language may lead students (and teachers) to reductive understandings of theme and thematic interpretation. This quasi-experimental study explored whether sentence stems that reframe theme in terms of worldviews and affective evaluation might support how students read and write about literary texts. Results show that students using interpretive sentence stems constructed more nuanced thematic interpretations of a complex story, as opposed to a comparison group who constructed more summaries and clichéd readings.

Author

• Sarah Levine, Stanford University