Text as Connected Discourse

• Module 1 focuses on text as connected discourse
• The module will look at text and discourse and the difference between the two

Text vs Discourse

• Text relays or communicates information and is often non-interactive; the reader is an observer
• Discourse is a social event of multi-layered communication in verbal, textual, visual, and audial media
• Discourse has an interactive social purpose
• Studying text involves studying the written words that communicate information like structure, theme, meaning, and rhetorical devices
• Studying discourse involves studying who is communicating with whom, through what medium, and for what social purpose

Text as Connected Discourse

• Discourse happens when reading

Reading Models/Theories

• Reading is an interactive process between the reader, the text, and the context
• Comprehension is the main purpose of reading

How Reading Happens

• Bottom-Up Theory (Text-Based): Printed text signals processing in the brain, leading to comprehension
• Top-Down Theory (Knowledge-Based): The schema initiates reading as the brain recognizes symbols in the printed text, leading to comprehension
• Interactive Theory: The reading process can be initiated by either the text or the reader

New Ways of Reading

• Locating: Searching for a website using its title and sponsor, or locating specific information within a website using search tools
• Evaluating: Assessing the relevance and accuracy of multiple hyperlinks and information on a webpage, and evaluating potential biases
• Synthesizing: Combining information from multiple sites and providing evidence for why a certain website is best suited for a purpose
• Communicating: Sharing facts and accurate hyperlink addresses

Critical Thinking Skills Objectives

• The students should be able differentiate critical and non-critical thinkers
• The students should be able to identify lower and higher order thinking skills
• The students should be able to formulate and answer questions using higher-order thinking skills

Critical Thinker vs Non-Critical Thinker

• Critical thinkers uses a complex thought process which leads to reasoned judgements, helps assess thought processes, and solve problems effectively
• Critical thinking can be employed by actively listening in class, formulating questions, writing reports, explaining ideas, making projects, and analyzing processes
• Non-critical thinkers accept what they are told
• Non-critical thinking is based on emotions
• Non-critical thinking leads to people jumping to conclusions without proof or evidence

Example

• A critical thinker will provide solutions to global warming based on verified sources found
• A non-critical thinker may disregard the solutions to global warming if they were not discussed in class

Levels of Thinking

• Benjamin Bloom, an American educational psychologist, published Bloom's Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain in 1956 which classifies 6 levels of thinking important for learning
• To proceed to the next level, the current one must be mastered first; this system includes Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation
• In 2001, Lorin Anderson and group of psychologists revised the original taxonomy
• They changed the names of the levels and used verbs to denote an active process of thinking: Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating, and Creating

Lower-Order Thinking Skills

• Lower-order thinking skills are used to understand the basic story line or literal meaning of a story, play, or poem
• These include Wh questions, teaching relevant lexical items, and relating to grammatical structures when relevant

Keywords for LOTS

• Who
• What
• Where
• When
• Do you know...?
• Can you identify...?
• Name.....
• List......

Mastering Text

• Once a student has mastered the basic understanding of a text, s/he is ready to move on to the next level which involves using that information in some way

Higher-Order Thinking Skills

• Higher-order thinking skills are used to interpret a text on a more abstract level
• Higher-order thinking skills can manipulate information and ideas in ways that transform their meaning and implications

HOTS for Analyzing Texts

• Predicting
• Applying
• Inferring
• Sequencing
• Identifying parts and a whole
• Classifying
• Comparing and contrasting
• Explaining patterns
• Explaining cause and effect
• Distinguishing different perspectives
• Problem solving
• Uncovering motives
• Generating possibilities
• Synthesizing
• Making connections
• Evaluating

Bloom's Revised Taxonomy

• Creating: Generating new ideas, products, or ways of viewing things, designing, constructing, planning, producing, and inventing
• Evaluating: Justifying a decision or course of action, checking, hypothesizing, critiquing, experimenting, and judging
• Analyzing: Breaking information into parts to explore understandings and relationships, comparing, organizing, deconstructing, interrogating, and finding
• Applying: Using information in another familiar situation, implementing, carrying out, using, and executing
• Understanding: Explaining ideas or concepts, interpreting, summarizing, paraphrasing, classifying, and explaining
• Remembering: Recalling information, recognizing, listing, describing, retrieving, naming, and finding

LOTS vs HOTS

• Lower Order Thinking Skills: Answers are given in the reading and students state or recite answers
• Higher Order Thinking Skills: Answers are NOT provided and students use information from the reading to figure out the answer

Conclusion

• Lower level questions align with remembering, understanding, and lower-level application levels of the taxonomy
• Lower level questions are appropriate for:
• Evaluating students' preparation and comprehension
• Diagnosing students’ strengths and weaknesses
• Reviewing and/or summarizing content
• Higher level questions requiring complex application, analysis, evaluation, or creation skills
• Questions at higher levels of the taxonomy are usually most appropriate for:
• Encouraging students to think more deeply and critically
• Problem solving
• Encouraging discussions
• Stimulating students to seek information on their own