RM Winter 2017

Closing the Comprehension Gap in the Elementary Grades: Graphics in Persuasive Text

By Nicole M. Martin, Ball State University & Joy Myers, James Madison University

through seventh graders recalled significantly more details, and sixth and seventh graders significantly more big ideas, than third and fourth graders. He speculated mastery may not occur “until relatively late, at least not before grade 7 (ages 12-13)” (p. 170). This, along with more recent research (e.g., McNeill, 2011; Osborne, 2010), suggests elementary students continue to need help comprehending persuasive text on their own. suggests that comprehension of persuasive text may need to be addressed separately (e.g., Duke & Roberts, 2010). K-5 curricula and learning standards have already responded to the need by devoting more attention to persuasive text (e.g., National Governors Association & Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010). Teachers can capitalize on the increased attention by focusing on comprehending persuasive text during K-5 lessons. Additionally, accumulating evidence that students’ comprehension for different types of text is not the same

ABSTRACT —Elementary students’ comprehension of persuasive text is an area of inequity that urgently needs to be addressed in today’s schools. This article explains why many kindergarteners through fifth graders experience difficulty comprehending persuasive text and offers an instructional recommendation for addressing the area of inequity. Teaching elementary students to focus appropriately on the graphics in persuasive text may help them to increase their comprehension. We just read was about water. And polluting is a very big part of our environment. Well, it ruins a big part of our environment. And it ruins a big part of us. Because we’re mainly about water. You make a lot of stuff with water. We wouldn’t be eating what we have today that we have to make with water, but if we use some other resources that we hardly have but we mainly cannot use salt water or else it will hurt us. It will hurt animals. It’s about helping, well not helping, what we are doing to the environment by not recycling and what it’s doing to our environment. Polluted water is not really good. We need water basically for everything in our body, like our systems. Comprehension of Persuasive Text Comprehension is a transactional meaning-making process in which readers use reading strategies to build mental representations of written text (RAND Reading Study Group, 2002). Persuasive text has the “primary purpose of convincing a particular audience to change their ideas or behavior” (Duke, Caughlan, Juzwik, & Martin, 2011, p. 149) and includes characteristics such as those listed in Figure 1. Historically, persuasive text rarely has been included in K-5 reading instruction (e.g., Moss, 2008). Because writers advance a particular position by selectively using supportive evidence, sophisticated reading skills—such as identifying writers’main ideas and details, integrating information, evaluating trustworthiness and adequacy of evidence, and analyzing the merits of contrasting positions—are needed. Persuasive text is also particularly susceptible to variability. Factors such as the topic’s complexity, audiences’ anticipated skills and needs, and the availability of supporting evidence influence writers’ decision-making. Simpler persuasive text and complex texts featuring atypical characteristics, sophisticated vocabulary and concepts, and complicated graphics may co-exist in the same classroom. Many students simply have not had enough experience with persuasive text and may be underprepared to comprehend the texts.

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FIGURE 1. A Sampling of Persuasive Text Characteristics. Characteristic Definition

Example

Thesis

Writers’statement of position Explanation of the connection between a claim and its supporting evidence A purportedly true statement designed to support the thesis Examples, information, reasons, and other statements or graphical devices that substantiate the truth of the claim Reference to readers’ potential objections to or reservations about a claim or thesis Clarification intended to disprove or nullify readers’potential Acknowledgement of boundaries, limitations, or validity of a claim or thesis Rhetorical devices that focus on authority, logic, or personal desire in order to influence readers’thinking objections or reservations

“remember—it’s a good thing there are insects”(Fowler, 1990, p. 29). “In general, if something interferes with your health functioning, we say it’s bad for you”(Author, 2011, p. 149).

Warrant

Claim

“Eating vegetables keeps us healthy” (McCormick, 2005, p.6).

Evidence

“In the wild, a loud noise can mask the sounds that animals use to hunt for prey, escape from predators, and communicate with one another. Short blasts of noise— from fireworks, for example—can frighten or panic both wild animals and pets” (Blackaby, 2005, p. 19). “Some people might think that water is everywhere”(Stewart, 2005, p. 13). “Certainly, more than 70 percent of the Earth is covered with water. Yet most of that water is salty. People and animals can’t drink salty water because it makes us sick”(Stewart, 2005, p. 13). “However, [sound] is certainly not the only concern”(Blackaby, 2005, p. 19).

Counterargument

Refutation

Qualification

Appeal

“Doctors say you should eat five servings a day”(McCormick, 2005, p.6).

Two decades ago, Brassart (1996) analyzed 140 fourth through seventh graders’ oral recalls and found that fifth

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