Scaffolding Critical Reading
Conference Tracks
Learning Theories and Pedagogy – Research
Abstract
How can we help students develop critical reading skills? Manarin et al. (2015) found leaving students to their own devices doesn’t work. Teaching an American Literature course, I designed an assignment sequence to carefully scaffold three critical reading skills, crucial to many disciplines: asking questions, considering multiple possible answers, and weighing competing evidence. Doubling down on Bean’s (2011) template essays, my approach is bound to raise controversy. But data from students’ final essays over five semesters—scored anonymously by three independent readers—are promising. In this presentation, I share results, examples, and ideas for adapting the pedagogy to other disciplines.
Session Format
Research Brief and Reflection Panels
Location
Room 4
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Corrigan, Paul T., "Scaffolding Critical Reading" (2019). SoTL Commons Conference. 46.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/sotlcommons/SoTL/2019/46
Scaffolding Critical Reading
Room 4
How can we help students develop critical reading skills? Manarin et al. (2015) found leaving students to their own devices doesn’t work. Teaching an American Literature course, I designed an assignment sequence to carefully scaffold three critical reading skills, crucial to many disciplines: asking questions, considering multiple possible answers, and weighing competing evidence. Doubling down on Bean’s (2011) template essays, my approach is bound to raise controversy. But data from students’ final essays over five semesters—scored anonymously by three independent readers—are promising. In this presentation, I share results, examples, and ideas for adapting the pedagogy to other disciplines.
