Evaluating Multiple Perspectives...

Evaluating Multiple Perspectives...

Deligencia, Nick

IL

Lafferty, K.E., Summers, A., Tanaka, S., & Cavanagh, J. (2016). Evaluating multiple perspectives: Approaching the synthesis task through assessing credibility. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 59(5), 587-598. doi:10.1002/jaal.475

Summary:

This article examines a synthesis performance task aligned to the Common Core State Standards.  The authors “focused on differentiated instruction...based on the...controversial events on Mt. Everest in 1996” which allowed for the increased CCSS emphasis on informational text.  Students analyzed survivor accounts and assessed each author’s credibility.   Students also examine non-print texts (documentary film, YouTube videos, etc.) that deal directly with the event and also indirectly (as in effects of high altitude on the human body) to build background knowledge.

Evaluation:

Worth reading, or at least skimming.  None of the individual elements are particularly impressive, but this is another instance when the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.  

The authors provide enough detail regarding their design and decision-making processes (and several resources) that one could recreate with relative fidelity the lesson/experience if desired.  “Common Core” and “Differentiated Instruction” are big buzzwords in my district, without a lot of support regarding the actual how to get it done.  

Assessing credibility is an important element of literacy, so lessons to support development in that skill area are worth stockpiling if you work in a school library.  The “Take Action” sidebar near the article’s conclusion lists “steps for immediate implementation” that are generic enough to make sense, but still leave a lot of leg work to be done.

IL-Analysis and Synthesis