Do students really know how to read online?

The following quote from the weblog of Will Richardson, an advocate for the use of communication technologies in education, caught my attention:

[Online reading] is one of those areas where the kids are doing it already and the educators in the room don’t have much to go on in terms of what the differences are or any substantial practical experience. Federman makes the point that when new technologies enter the classroom, teachers see change. Students, on the other hand, see the status quo.

In his post, Richardson discusses the article "Online Literacy is a Lesser Kind: Slow reading counterbalances Web skimming" by Mark Federman. Richardson also admits that without an intentional, personal effort to read longer texts more often, increased effort was necessary "to do sustained reading and thinking [and] to stick with complex narratives."

Online literacy is necessary in our current world and in the future. Obviously, continuing to require long texts as part of academic work continues to provide students the opportunity to learn and practice the related traditional but important literacy skills.

So a question hanging out there seems to be what can teachers and parents do in order to help children transfer some of those skills to online reading and, therefore, further practice those skills?

P.S. I have no answer. However, I wonder if something like the recently released 39 Clues book series from Scholastic would help (at least for younger students) or is it just creative marketing. I haven't seen a novel from the series (but probably will since my son would like it), but it appears to promote some sort of bridge between offline and online reading, (Also, seems to bridge the trading card frenzy familiar to anyone with elementary aged boys.)

Motivate writers via blogging

During the conversation at our last Teachers and Tablets meeting, Fred our English department chair made a the statement that writing submitted just to the teacher is practice. That and the rest of the conversation concerning writing, one-to-one computing, and chapter four of Mark Warschauer's book Laptops And Literacy: Learning in the Wireless Classroom gave me an idea on how a weblog might be used with writing.

Whether the main purpose of the assignment is to develop a particular kind of writing (i.e. persuasion) or to practice writing in order to more deeply understand a particular topic (i. e. a historical event or work of literature) this activity seems like it might be useful for high-school or possibly middle-school students.

What I propose is that a class blog be setup such that every student in the class have the ability to post an entry as opposed to just a comment. (The Upper-School Reading Team and MS book review blogs are examples at D-E.) Students would then be assigned to go out and find a piece of writing on the Internet (another blog would allow trackbacks, defined below) that raises an opinion on a topic.

If the purpose of the lesson is to practice a particular kind of writing such as persuasion then students could be allowed to find something expressing an opinion different from theirs on any topic in which they have a strong interest. Otherwise, students could assigned a particular topic. In some cases, it might make senses for the teacher to identify a collection of sites or weblogs that focus on the a particular topic being studied. Some search engines that specialize in searching weblogs, which could be used by either a teacher setting up a lesson or by students searching themselves include Technorati, Google Blogsearch, and others.

After finding something appropriate to read and respond to, each student would then post a reply on the class blog to what they read. This reply would be done as a "trackback" comment to the original post. A trackback shows up as a comment to the original post (if this feature is supported by both blogs). Its function is to promote communication between blogs. An except of the post would appear on the original blog as a comment with a link back to the students post on the class blog. (If the automatic trackback isn't supported, a student could just manually post an excerpt with a link to the full post.) This post on TabletTails is an example of using this procedure to comment on a Teachers and Tablets post.

This assignment could have the following advantages:

• Students need to evaluate the writing and credibility of an outsider whom they can't assume is an expert.
• Students have to critically read to prepare for writing.
• Students' writing has the potential to be directed to a particular audience besides the teacher.
• Students have the opportunity to be motivated by the chance of their writing being read by an outside audience.
• The opportunity for authentic feedback on the topic is possible through the original writer seeing the comment and responding.
  

If any teacher at D-E is interested in pursuing this, please let me know. We have already have the software available, and I am happy to discuss it further or help you get started.

By the way, if you checkout the Teachers and Tablets webblog, don't let the label "Listen to podcast of article", which refers to the audio files mislead you. The audio recordings are not the text of the blog posts. Sometimes the discussions are closely related to the text of the blog posts, and sometimes the conversations wander from what is written. However, they have all been very good so if you have some interest in one-to-one computing and literacy, give a listen, and post your reaction as a comment to the blog.

Reading and writing for an audience

The discussion of a common reading experience for all students and faculty in the upper-school (grades 9-12) and the recent article adopted by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) with regard to 21st century literacies raises an idea that is not necessarily original but also not something going on yet at D-E as far as I know.

Update on 3/3/07: I'm pleased to report that my statement above was incorrect. D-E's first experiment with student blogging started in our Middle School in early February with the Umpleby Independent Reading Book Review Site. The blog was setup for a similar purpose to what I am suggesting except that students read and wrote about a variety of books rather then a common reading experience.

While I would prefer this comment to come from a full-time classroom teacher and not me (as some people see me as having a "techie" agenda), here it is anyway rather than risk the idea not occurring to others who might support it.

It is worth kicking around the thought of encouraging or at least providing a place for students and faculty to publically share thoughts on the book that is chosen while it is being read or shortly after finishing it. Doing this in the one-shot, adult-lead discussion group fashion like has been done in Community of Readers has value. However, an asynchronous opportunity to write might appeal to different students (and maybe faculty) in different ways and might also prolong the conversation.

One way to do this that has seen increasing use in schools nationally and internationally is through a web log (blog). (What you are reading now is a blog although it is not a good example of what I'm suggesting.)

Teachers or students can write "journal" entries that anyone on the Internet can read and comment on. (For example, you can click on Comments or Post a Comment at the bottom of this blog article to write your reaction on what I'm saying.) In addition to the obvious benefit of just encouraging students to write, posting articles publically can give some students extra incentive because they consider the audience more authentic than writing just for their teachers. In some cases, others outside of the school who have also studied or have experience with the work (including professionals and sometimes even writers) have commented on students writing presented this way and that could be quite a motivating factor for students to continue to write.

While we could also do this with a Blackboard discussion group, it would not have the public access that has the potential to make a positive difference in some students interest and engagement in writing about what they are reading.

That fact that the Executive Committee of the NCTE adopted a statement on February 15 that includes using communication technologies as an essential skill for twenty-first century readers and writers is also interesting and relevant. (Will Richardson, a prolific educational blogger, writes more about this NCTE statement and literacy at the blog Weblogg-ed.)