Reading is “the process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language” (Snow et al., 2002). (From www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB8024/index1.html)
Evaluators are encouraged to assign a zero to any work sample or collection of work that does not meet benchmark (cell one) level performance.
| Capstone | Milestones | Benchmark | ||
| 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |
| Comprehension
See Annotating, Inferencing, and Vocabulary Strategies. |
Recognizes possible implications of the text for contexts, perspectives, or issues beyond the assigned task within the classroom or beyond the author’s explicit message (e.g., might recognize broader issues at play, or might pose challenges to the author’s message and presentation). | Uses the text, general background knowledge, and/or specific knowledge of the author’s context to draw more complex inferences about the author’s message and attitude. | Evaluates how textual features (e.g., sentence and paragraph structure or tone) contribute to the author’s message; draws basic inferences about context and purpose of text. | Apprehends vocabulary appropriately to paraphrase or summarize the information the text communicates. |
| Genres
See Previewing and Writing in the Disciplines. |
Uses ability to identify texts within and across genres, monitoring and adjusting reading strategies and expectations based on generic nuances of particular texts. | Articulates distinctions among genres and their characteristic conventions. | Reflects on reading experiences across a variety of genres, reading both with and against the grain experimentally and intentionally. | Applies tacit genre knowledge to a variety of classroom reading assignments in productive, if unreflective, ways. |
| Relationship to Text
Making meanings with texts in their contexts
See Questioning. |
Evaluates texts for scholarly significance and relevance within and across the various disciplines, evaluating them according to their contributions and consequences. | Uses texts in the context of scholarship to develop a foundation of disciplinary knowledge and to raise and explore important questions. | Engages texts with the intention and expectation of building topical and world knowledge. | Approaches texts in the context of assignments with the intention and expectation of finding right answers and learning facts and concepts to display for credit. |
| Analysis
Interacting with texts in parts and as whole.
See Analyzing. |
Evaluates strategies for relating ideas, text structure, or other textual features in order to build knowledge or insight within and across texts and disciplines. | Identifies relations among ideas, text structure, or other textual features, to evaluate how they support an advanced understanding of the text as a whole. | Recognizes relations among parts or aspects of a text, such as effective or ineffective arguments or literary features, in considering how these contribute to a basic understanding of the text as a whole. | Identifies aspects of a text (e.g., content, structure, or relations among ideas) as needed to respond to questions posed in assigned tasks. |
| Interpretation
Making sense with texts as blueprints for meaning
See Paraphrasing and Summarizing. |
Provides evidence not only that s/he can read by using an appropriate epistemological lens but that s/he can also engage in reading as part of a continuing dialogue within and beyond a discipline or a community of readers. | Articulates an understanding of the multiple ways of reading and the range of interpretive strategies particular to one’s discipline(s) or in a given community of readers. | Demonstrates that s/he can read purposefully, choosing among interpretive strategies depending on the purpose of the reading. | Can identify purpose(s) for reading, relying on an external authority such as an instructor for clarification of the task. |
| Reader’s Voice
Participating in academic discourse about texts
See Synthesizing. |
Discusses texts with an independent intellectual and ethical disposition so as to further or maintain disciplinary conversations. | Elaborates on the texts (through interpretation or questioning) so as to deepen or enhance an ongoing discussion. | Discusses texts in structured conversations (such as in a classroom) in ways that contribute to a basic, shared understanding of the text. | Comments about texts in ways that preserve the author’s meanings and link them to the assignment. |
(Source: AAC&U Reading Rubric)