Differenation Reading Instruction
Start with a brief paragraph about the research problemyou are investigating and the main research question(s). AND: be sure to give this brief piece a substantive title that signals to the reader what your study is mainly about.
Identify one or more bodies of literature that are helpful for informing and framing this investigation. Try to name these literatures in ways other scholars would recognize (e.g., a “literature on teacher education for social justice,” on the “Latino pipeline from elementary to graduate school,” on “international students in the U.S. postsecondary system,” etc.). Your grasp of the literature may be quite incomplete at this point, and you still may not be sure exactly what literature most frames your study. As with other aspects of your work at this stage, treat the assignment as a call for an initial working literature, which will grow during the next several weeks.Explain briefly how and why these literatures are especially useful for the research you are doing.
Briefly describe 3-5 pieces within these bodies of literature that you find particularly useful, perhaps in different ways—for framing your work (in a conceptual and/or theoretical sense), imagining a productive design, identifying the knowledge gaps you will address, developing empirically based ideas about the topic under study, or some combination. Note briefly how these pieces are helpful to you.
Include a working References page, with the above pieces cited (in full APA style) and as many others as you have currently assembled that relate directly to your work. The references may include substantive, conceptual, and methodological references, but the emphasis for this assignment is on the first two—research that sheds light empirically or theoretically on the topic you are pursuing.