Pedagogies of Rhetorical Reading in First-Year Composition

1. Pedagogies of Rhetorical Reading in First-Year Composition Carla Overdahl – Indiana University Purdue University, Fort Wayne Michelle Sprouse – University of Michigan, Ann Arbor CCCC 2018, Kansas City, MO

2. Threshold Concepts for Reading in the Composition Classroom Carla F. Overdahl Department of English and Linguistics Indiana University Purdue University – Fort Wayne Presented at CCCC March 16, 2018 overcf01@ipfw.edu

3. My Story: Anticipation

4. Dilemma

5. Reflection

6. Resolve

7. Threshold Concept TheoryJan Meyer & Ray Land Each discipline has elemental concepts that not only create an opening to new understanding, but that also serve as a necessary portal for academic success. Meyer, J. & Land, R. (2003). Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge: Linkages to Ways of Thinking and Practising within the Disciplines. Occasional Report 4. Edinburgh: ETL Project, Universities of Edinburgh, Coventry and Durham. Meyer, J. & Land, R. (2005). Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge (2): Epistemological considerations and a conceptual framework for teaching and learning. Higher Education, 49, 373-388.

8. Threshold Concept TheoryJan Meyer & Ray Land • Transformative • Probably Irreversible • Integrative • Possibly often (though not necessarily always) bounded • Potentially troublesome knowledge Meyer, J. & Land, R. (2003). Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge: Linkages to Ways of Thinking and Practising within the Disciplines. Occasional Report 4. Edinburgh: ETL Project, Universities of Edinburgh, Coventry and Durham. Meyer, J. & Land, R. (2005). Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge (2): Epistemological considerations and a conceptual framework for teaching and learning. Higher Education, 49, 373-388.

9. Learning Journey Threshold concepts embody the recursive and excursive nature of learning. Students • encounter, wrestle with, master a concept • liminal state; may move back and forth among stagnation, setback,and progress.

10. Challenge & Appeal • Challenge: teachers may have forgotten their own learning journey, and so may have difficulty understanding how to guide learners through the process of mastering threshold concepts. • Appeal: the invitation to identify challenging elements within a curriculum, to examine the source of that difficulty, and to consider how to deconstruct concepts and jargon in order to promote student learning.

11. Threshold Concepts in Writing Studies Clues for Threshold Concepts in Reading • Threshold concepts for composition: Adler-Kassner and Wardle, Naming What We Know(2015). • Reading within composition: Carillo, Securing a Place for Reading in Composition(2015) • Threshold Concepts + Reading + Composition: Gogan(2013; 2017)

12. My Research Questions • How can we identify threshold concepts for reading, and what might those be? • How should we teach them? • What does successful learning of threshold concepts look like?

13. Instructor Interviews Instructor interviews (13) explored whether we could identify threshold concepts for reading within composition by examining • perceptions of reading/writing relationships & key reading concepts, • purpose and practice of reading within the composition classroom, • evidence of student struggle or success

14. Student Surveys Student surveys (107) queried reading practices and perceptions of any connections between reading and writing to explore • how students perceive the role the of reading within the composition classroom; • how their perception of reading challenges can help us identify elemental reading concepts; and • how students' perceptions and practice of reading strategies can help us identify both effective reading strategies and indications of reading success

15. Observations: Connections Suggest Need for Explicit Instruction and Student Metacognition • Instructors and students agree: reading supports the writing process and generates learning. • Most students believe that the two disciplines are related, but almost half were not able to articulate that connection. • This discrepancy prevents students from gaining the benefit of the reading/writing relationship and suggests that instructors should be more intentional in emphasizing this dynamic.

16. Instructors’ “Key Concepts” = Students’ “Difficult Concepts” Instructors’ perception of key reading concepts Match concepts students identify as challenging Top 5 = “how” elements of rhetorical analysis; Then “what”: questioning context purpose main points • Critical reading • Rhetorical analysis • Questioning • Critical thinking • Close reading • Rhetorical situation

17. But: Perception ≠ Practice Difficult Concepts Key Concepts Critical Reading Rhetorical Analysis Questioning Critical Thinking Close Reading Rhetorical Situation Rhetorical Analysis Close Reading Rhetorical Situation Questioning Critical Reading Critical Thinking

18. Questioning • Most common response regarding instructors’ perception of key concepts and their observation of difficult concepts: questioning. • Questioning helps students identify the rhetorical situation and engages them in close reading to support a “discussion about the text.” • Yet, one-third of students struggle to question a text or to identify its context or purpose.

19. Questioning  Close  Critical  Analysis If analysis is “a discipline of thought that is foreign,” then a focus on questioning, the rhetorical situation, and close reading helps students “transfer from reading just for the information to reading for how the information is put together.” This link could help students perceive, as one noted, that “reading stimulates thoughts to be written; writing stimulates interests to research and read.”

20. Threshold Concepts for Reading in the Composition Classroom • Reading is a conversation, a dialogue with the author and the text that requires us to question the text. • Readers enter the conversation through the rhetorical situation. • Readers engage in the conversation through close reading.

21. Proposed concepts through the lens of Meyer & Land Potentially troublesome knowledge • Students accept what they read at face value, question little. • More than half have little comfort with close reading. Once students learn they can question an author, claims, and evidence, they begin to engage in meaningful inquiry.

22. Proposed concepts through the lens of Meyer & Land Integrative; possibly often (though not necessarily always) bounded • questioning, the rhetorical situation, and close reading transfer to • different genres and media • different reading, writing, and thinking processes within composition and across disciplines • “It’s conversation that happens in all disciplines.”

23. Proposed concepts through the lens of Meyer & Land Probably irreversible; transformative • Integral nature of reading and writing serves as a catalyst for critical thinking • Students’ efforts to question a text, to enter the text through the rhetorical situation, and to engage further through close reading facilitate the critical reading, thinking, and analysis that can, as one instructor noted, “change their mindset.”

24. A Closing Thought When we intentionally and explicitly teach reading within the composition classroom, we invite students to enter the conversation; to question, engage, and listen to the conversation; and to extend the conversation. Our understanding and instruction of threshold concepts for reading within our classrooms can help our practices move from presumed to purposeful.

25. References • Adler-Kassner, L, Majewski, J. & Koshnick, D. (2012). The Value of Troublesome Knowledge: Transfer and Threshold Concepts in Writing and History. Composition Forum, 26. • Adler-Kassner, L. & Estrem, H. (2007). Reading Practices in the Writing Classroom. WPA: Writing Program Administration, 31.1-2. • Adler-Kassner, L. & Wardle, E. (2015). Naming What We Know: Threshold Concepts of Writing Studies. Boulder, CO: Utah State University Press. • Blaauw-Hara, M. (2014). Transfer Theory, Threshold Concepts, and First-Year Composition: Connecting Writing Courses to the Rest of the College. TETYC, May 2014, 354-365. • Bunn, M. (2013). Motivation and Connection: Teaching Reading (and Writing) in the Composition Classroom. College Composition and Communication, 64.3, 496-516. • Carillo, E. (2015). Securing a Place for Reading in Composition: The Importance of Teaching for Transfer. Boulder, CO: Utah State University Press. • Davies, P. (2006). Threshold concepts: how can we recognise them? In J. Meyer and R. Land (Eds.), Overcoming Barriers to Student Understanding (pp. 70-84). London: Routledge. • Fallon, D. (2014). Stand on the Threshold and Follow the High Road: Response to “Transfer Theory, Threshold Concepts, and First-Year Composition: Connecting Writing Courses to the Rest of the College.” TETYC, May 2014, 366-368. • Gogan, B. (2013). Reading at the Threshold. Across the Disciplines, 10(4). • Gogan, B. (2017). Reading as Transformation. In A. Horning, D. Gollnitz, & C. Haller (Eds.) What is College Reading? (pp. 41-56). Boulder: University of Colorado Press. • Haas, C. & Flower, L. (1988). Rhetorical Reading Strategies and the Construction of Meaning. College Composition and Communication, 39:2, 167-183. • Marsh, Bill. (2015). Reading-Writing Integration in Developmental and First-Year Composition. TETYC, September 2015, 58-70. • Meyer, J. & Land, R. (2003). Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge: Linkages to Ways of Thinking and Practising within the Disciplines. Occasional Report 4. Edinburgh: ETL Project, Universities of Edinburgh, Coventry and Durham. • Meyer, J. & Land, R. (2005). Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge (2): Epistemological considerations and a conceptual framework for teaching and learning. Higher Education, 49, 373-388. • Odom, M. (2013). Not Just for Writing Anymore: What WAC Can Teach Us About Reading to Learn. Across the Disciplines, 10.4.