To read this content please select one of the options below:

Generating, weaving and curating: disciplinary processes for reading literary text

Todd Reynolds (School of Teacher Education, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, USA)
Leslie S. Rush (School of Teacher Education, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, USA)
Jodi Patrick Holschuh (Texas State University San Marcos, San Marcos, Texas, USA)
Jodi P. Lampi (Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois, USA)

English Teaching: Practice & Critique

ISSN: 1175-8708

Article publication date: 12 January 2022

Issue publication date: 17 March 2022

170

Abstract

Purpose

The purposes of this study is to expand on previous work in English language arts (ELA) disciplinary literacy and to unpack literary text reading processes across three different participant groups.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors recruited literary scholars and first-year college students to read literary texts aloud and voice their thoughts. Transcripts were collaboratively coded and analyzed using a priori and emergent coding.

Findings

This study presents the findings in two ways. First, this study grouped the codes into four categories, namely, background knowledge, comprehension, disciplinary knowledge and building an interpretation. This described the differences in frequencies among the participants’ strategy use. Next, to more fully describe how participants read literary texts, this study presents the data using three processes, namely, generating, weaving and curating. These findings indicate a continuum of strategies and processes used by participants.

Practical implications

The study suggests using the ELA heuristic for instruction, which includes moving students beyond generating and weaving by asking them to do their own interpretive work of curation. This potential roadmap for instruction avoids a deficit mindset for students by recommending low-stakes opportunities that meet students where they are as they build their capacity for interpretive moves.

Originality/value

The findings help the field to gain an understanding of what novices and experts do when they read literary text, including both strategies and processes. This study also provide an ELA heuristic that has instructional implications. This study adds to the body of knowledge for disciplinary literacy in ELA in both theoretical and practical ways.

Keywords

Citation

Reynolds, T., Rush, L.S., Holschuh, J.P. and Lampi, J.P. (2022), "Generating, weaving and curating: disciplinary processes for reading literary text", English Teaching: Practice & Critique, Vol. 21 No. 1, pp. 29-43. https://doi.org/10.1108/ETPC-06-2021-0070

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited

Related articles