Attendance to notable terms promotes narrative frame analysis when students read multiple expository texts

Narrative frames refer to the ways in which information in media is relayed, organized, and contextualized, in order to provide learners with a structure and a frame of reference for new content. Narrative frames are pervasive and have been found to have an effect on individuals’ attitudes and understandings of various social issues. However, students’ abilities to identify and analyze narrative frames during reading have rarely been examined in prior work. In this study, we examine whether two experimental manipulations are able to increase students’ attendance to and analysis of narrative frames when reading four texts addressing a contemporary social issue (i.e., a proposed new housing development). An experimental design was used. Students (N = 141) were randomly assigned to receive a definition of narrative frames, or not, prior to reading and asked to identify notable terms during reading or not. Then, students were asked to read four texts, offering various contrasting perspectives on the construction of a new affordable housing development. Finally, students completed open-ended questions tapping overt and covert narrative frame identification and analysis and multiple text integration. Although providing students with an explicit definition of narrative frames did not improve performance, asking students to attend to notable terms during reading improved overt narrative frame analysis scores. Additionally, students identifying more notable terms during reading was associated with higher overt and covert narrative frame analysis performance. Attending to notable terms during reading may be one means of fostering students’ analysis of overt and covert narrative frames.