RM Winter 2017 FINAL

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Reading Matters
Teaching Matters
Reading Matters | Volume 17 • Winter 2017 | | |51|
Focusing on Comprehending
Persuasive Text
Our work has helped us to see that graphics in persuasive text
is an especially important focus for K-5 lessons. When students
ignore graphics in persuasive text, they run the risk of missing
out on key parts of writers’ arguments. Persuasive text may not
always include graphics, but, when it does, graphics most often
supplement the written text by offering additional explanations
or introducing new evidence. Also, graphics may include direct
appeals, or “tools used to get a particular audience on your side”
(Duke, Caughlan, Juzwik, & Martin, 2011, p. 149), not featured in
the written text. One of the books we used in our work, Save Our
Earth, included a graphic of a large quantity of dead fish floating
on the top of a lake, with the caption, “These fish died from
pollution in Lake Trafford, Florida, United States” (Stewart, 2005,
p. 15). The graphic was designed to supplement ideas in the
written text, by showing a consequence of pollution and evoking
horror at the high number of deaths. Ignoring the graphic
undermines the writer’s attempt to convince students that
polluting fresh water may be harmful and needs to be avoided.
For the last five years, we have been striving to understand
what elementary students remember when they read persuasive
text on their own and how students’ memory for persuasive
text changes with increased reading experience. In our
research, we have asked second through fifth graders who were
identified as on-grade-level readers by their teachers to read
aloud and orally recall stand-alone chapters in trade books.
We were interested in their unassisted memory for persuasive
text. Rather than asking specific questions about the chapter,
we encouraged students to continue recalling ideas until they
indicated they were finished. Michael’s recall at the opening
of this article is one example of what students remembered.
We have learned from Michael and his peers that attention
to graphics is a surprising gap in elementary readers’
comprehension of persuasive text (Martin & Myers, 2016). The
students in our study devoted uneven attention to graphics
when reading and recalling persuasive text. They seemed
to pay progressively less attention to graphics from second
to fifth grade. Also, those who recalled the fewest ideas
attended disproportionately to texts’ graphics. They tended
to devote too little or too much attention to graphics. The
second through fifth graders taught us that they need help
learning to focus appropriately on graphics in persuasive text.
Teaching Students to Focus
Appropriately on Graphics in
Persuasive Text
Michael and his peers’ uneven attention to graphics
suggests that teaching elementary students about the role
of graphics in persuasive text and how to integrate graphics
with ideas in written text may hold promise for increasing
their comprehension of persuasive text. Lessons which
include authentic literacy activities, read alouds, discussions,
and comprehension strategy instruction may help students
learn to focus appropriately on the graphics in persuasive
text (e.g., Duke & Martin, 2015; Duffy, 2014; Haria & Midgette,
2014; Romance & Vitale, 2012; Williams et al., 2005).
Authentic Literacy Activities
Authentic literacy activities involve “reading and writing of
textual types, or genres, that occur outside of a learning-to-read-
and-write context and purpose” and “for the purposes for which
they are read or written outside of a learning-to-read-and-write
context and purpose” (Purcell-Gates et al., 2007, p. 14). Authentic
literacy activities support students’motivation and learning,
by providing a need-to-know and clarifying when and how to
use what is being learned to read texts on their own. Recently,
we have been collaborating with local elementary teachers to
include authentic literacy activities in lessons intended to help
students to focus appropriately on graphics in persuasive text.
We have found three categories of tasks to be especially useful:
Classroom or school infomercials and advertisements.
Infomercials and advertisements are useful because they often
communicate key reasons and evidence through graphics.
Examples of tasks in this category include (a) advertising and
applying for classroom jobs, (b) selling and buying items in the
classroom or school store, (c) searching for and stocking the
classroom with new supplies, and (d) convincing future students
to enroll in favorite classes or classrooms. Student-created
infomercials and advertisements such as Come and Teach at
Our School
may be included in K-5 lessons.
Student reviews and editorials. Among the most common
persuasive texts encountered outside of school, product reviews
and editorials offer opportunities for students to share their
experiences and opinions with peers. Examples of tasks in this
category include (a) convincing peers to select books to read
for pleasure, (b) helping classmates to decide whether to buy
or bring lunch tomorrow, (c) encouraging administrators to buy
(and students to choose) apps or games for use in the classroom,
(d) sharing and learning about peer reactions to events, and
(e) formulating opinions about “hot” issues. Persuasive texts
which could be used in K-5 lessons might include newspaper
editorials and columns and online texts such as KidsVuz
), SlimeKids Book Reviews
, or Spaghetti Book Club
Book Reviews for Kids ).
Content area units of study: White papers, speeches,
and public service announcements. White papers, speeches,
and public service announcements [PSAs] frequently feature
curricular topics, enabling students to simultaneously learn to focus
appropriately on graphics and address content area standards.
Examples of tasks in this category include (a) understanding and
responding to current events and scientific issues (e.g., genetic
engineering of food, immigration); (b) electing students to classroom
offices; (c) resolving school issues (e.g., uniforms, bullying); and
(d) making classroom decisions. Student-created persuasive texts