Reading in the Digital Age

1. FramtidensSkolbibliotek OBSlIngenforanmalan Malmo University 23 April 2009 Carol Gordon Rutgers The State University of New Jersey cgordon@scils.rutgers.edu Reading in the Digital Age

2. 20th Century: Recreational Reading Library collection centered Reading motivation Broadening reading interests Free Voluntary Reading (FVR) Sustained Silent Reading Summer Reading 21st Century: Reading for Understanding Digital reading environments, Unmediated reading materials Reading in the content areas Strategic Reading Standards for 21st Century Learning The Changing Role of the School Librarian in Literacy

3. Reading digital text • Readers have developed new strategies for handling the huge volume of information. • The role of paper is changing. • People have begun to read on their screens. • Mobile devices provide a better medium for reading • Reading is passive and less interactive. Let them print! Annotation Gathering Clipping Sharing

4. Rules of Thumb Never give a child something to read that is at instructional or frustration level if you expect him to read it independently. Children should only be given reading materials at instructional level if: • They will be instructed during the reading • They will be shown how to use strategies • They will be instructed in the use of strategies

5. Clues to Reading Levels • Independent: Can read completely on their own with 95%+ accuracy. Good comprehension. • Instructional: Can read 75%+ on their own. Some comprehension. • Frustration: Below 70% accuracy with little or no comprehension. • How many words do they read incorrectly? • How many do they stop and self-correct? • How long does it take to read? • What can they recall and discuss? On-the-Fly Assessment

6. Strategic Reading: Raising Consciousness about Comprehension The first step is to make them conscious. When comprehension breaks down, many students skip sections or words that are confusing and pick the text up again where they can understand it. The problem is, they have lost valuable information and opportunity to improve their own reading. Strategies That Work. Goudvis & Harvey

7. LITERACY AND INQUIRY THROUGH THE INFORMATON SEARCH PROCESS Information Search Process Tasks Initiation Selection Exploration Formulation Collection Presentation ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------→ Feelings uncertainly optimism confusion clarity sense of satisfaction or (affective) frustration direction/ disappointment doubt confidence Thoughts vague---------------------------------------→focused (cognitive) -----------------------------------------------→ increased interest Actions seeking relevant information----------------------------→seeking pertinent information (physical) exploring documenting Information-to-knowledge experience Stages of the Information Search Process represent critical Zones of Intervention

8. Task Initiation Actions Feelings Thoughts Interventions: Check for prior knowledge; Activate prior knowledge K-W-L Charts; concept maps; visuals reflection sheet. Other strategies: Skimming books for headings, tables of content, glossaries, indexes, pictures Reading selected passages to build background knowledge Building motivation and engagement, but not the false confidence of surfing the Net Avoid information overload (Use print sources; webquests) No note taking! Identifying personal interests. E-mails and blogs

9. Prior Knowledge Research shows that there is no difference between the recall of good and poor readers when their prior knowledge is the same. Therefore, prior knowledge can be instrumental in improving reading comprehension.

10. Concept Mapping Inspiration software: http://www.inspiration.com/

11. Activating Prior Knowledge Before reading begins, it is essential to activate students’ prior knowledge to: • Help them to focus on the topic • Give them concrete information to begin researching • Act as a tool to unravel confusion about the topic • Provide a solid foundation for research

12. Activating Prior Knowledge Tool: K-W-L Chart 17

14. What I know What I now want to learn How can I find out? What I learned What can go into a terrarium? How often should I water it? Can insects live in them? How can I use a digital camera in my classroom? Is it easy to use? Digital K-W-L About my learning She recorded her answers on pieces or paper and created a video from the pile of cards by flipping them. She used a digital camera to photograph a series of chart-paper diagrams of a terrarium activity. Then the images were assembled into an animation, suitable for presenting in PowerPoint, or over the web. In the original presentation, our subject, Lia, had designed her presentation to be displayed in a "flip-chart" manner. This is a great method for supporting student presentations in an elementary school classroom -- whether or not the teacher uses the high-tech or the low-tech method.

15. K-W-L will… • Focus students on the topic and organize the information that they already know. • Raise questions generated by the student. • Inspire confidence in student’s ability to complete the project. • Provide a starting point for strategic research rather than unfocused searching.

16. Using Visuals to Assess Prior Knowledge • Why pictures? • They inspire questions and interest. • Provide a tangible element when focus blurs and clarity is elusive. • Offer a starting point. • Offer support of a group working with similar themes, situations.

17. Visuals The Research Assignment Topic: Battles of the U.S. Civil War Questions: What has emerged for you as potential interests and topics? What connections have you made? What information have you generated?

18. Reflection Sheet What do you collectively Know about the American Civil War? Photographs: Which One captures your attention?

19. Topic Selection Thoughts Actions Feelings Interventions: Blogs, Wikis, Webquests Other Strategies: Avoid information overload (Use print sources; webquests) Identifying personal interests. E-mails and blogs; No note-taking; clearing up misconceptions; anchor experiences; Helping students choose reading materials (Picture books); Making inferences from book covers, illustrations; Mental modeling; Thinking aloud; Tracking thinking; Sifting topic from details

20. Blogs are a social networking tool that helps student express their thoughts in writing beyond the wall os the school. They encourage critical thinking and social learning. • Literature blogs can elevate the quality of discussions and elicit broader participation from students • Research blogs become a forum for students to talk about their progress and difficulties during inquiry units of study. Blogs Add audio or video or both for Multi-tasking

21. Set up wikis for collaborative group projects with faculty and students • Students use wikis to brainstorm ideas, develop rough drafts and peer edit (Writing Process) • The teacher posts exemplars • Experiment with blogs and wikis to build a 24/7 readers’ advisory Peanut Butter Wikihttps://www.pbwiki.com

22. What to do with Wikipedia • The teacher takes the class through a key Wikipedia article on a topic related to the course, pointing out its strengths and weaknesses, and inviting the class to edit it • Students use other sources to determine accuracy of the facts in a Wikipedia article • The teacher assigns groups of students to evaluate Wikipedia articles, using research from other sources as an evaluative tool • The class takes on specific Wikipedia articles. The first group of students • creates the articles and successive groups update and expand them. • A collection of “teacher approved” articles can be produced in many subjects, making Wikipedia better as time goes on.

23. More Sites http://webquest.org/index.php Literature Learning Ladders http://eduscapes.com/ladders/themes/webquests.htm San Diego City Schools: Literature-based Projects http://eduscapes.com/ladders/themes/webquests.htm Linda’s Links to Literature http://www.lindaslinkstoliterature.com/lll/login.htm

24. Focus Formulation Feelings Thoughts Actions Interventions: Blogs, Wikis, Webquests; text-to-self connections Other strategies: Identifying personal interests. E-mails, internet, blogs Gradual release of responsibility; Pair/four-way shares; Keeping a journal

25. Text-to-self: Exploring the Self A student will more readily connect a text to herself before connecting to other outside influences like other texts and the world around her. This skill, when made conscious, creates empathy and critical thinking. Students will make more specific choices about focus and clarity of their project in a more independent fashion.

26. Feelings Thoughts Actions Information Collection Interventions: Sticky Notes, Making connections text-to-text; text-to-world; self-monitoring Other strategies: Gradual release of responsibility; Reading between the lines (making comparisons); coding text with sticky notes; Highlighting, Graphic organizers; concept maps (note collection + analysis); Distinguishing important from less important ideas; Drawing inferences; Blogs; emails; Zoomerang/Survey Monkey; Databases; Websites; Info lit instruction for digital environments

27. Sticky Notes: Reading with a Pen Take reading out of the abstract realm Allow students to interact with the text and have a record of their questions and ideas. Gives voice to student questions, concerns, confusion and vocabulary issues Students begin to color code their notes. This is a pre-writing process

28. Graphic Organizer: What’s a Workhouse? Read the excerpt on Victorian workhouses and with a small group, complete the modified KWL chart.

29. Making Connections as Strategy When students can connect to a work, idea, picture, it stimulates the activation of prior knowledge and their interest in the topic. Types of connections: • Text-to-text • Text-to-self • Text-to-world

30. Text-to-text The Hero saves the day. If s/he can’t, supernatural forces do! Good over comes evil

31. Text-to-World: The Connection Scrooge rejects the idea of helping the poor. This comes back to haunt him when he pleads for mercy from the ghost of Christmas Present. The ghost throws Scrooge’s own words back at him: “Are there no workhouses?”

32. Student Work Dear Mr. Scrooge, My name is Julia Rose. I’m the wife of Bret Rose. His name may sound familiar to you because at one point in time he worked for you. My husband has too much pride to ask for such a huge favor, but will you please give him his job back, or at least consider it? The workhouses are a terrible place to live and to try to raise children. Families are split up and people are treated like the scum of a stray dog’s paw in this place. My husband was sentenced to three weeks bread and water for meals just for saying hello to me one day during lunch time. Everyday it’s the same routine – get up at dawn and work until nightfall. Our daughter has just turned 9 this past March and they have her out in the fields picking and planting crops with her bare hands. I know you must get many of these letters daily, but please, I beg of you, Mr. Scrooge, give my husband his job back, or any job. Sincerely, Julia Rose

33. Observations About Students’ Work • What is most interesting about the letters students wrote was that they involved children in some way. They identified with the material in an elemental way and experienced it personally. • From here, students were able to discuss the underlying reason for the workhouses on their own – “they just hid the poor from the rich,” one student said before a journal workshop. • Students were able, on their own, to identify and discuss the political nature of the workhouses and what purposes they truly served in the 19th century. They were able to achieve that critical analysis and connection on their own.

34. Self Monitoring Student’s Interpretation of the text completed before class discussion or reflection. Copy of text students are reading/students record information Revised Interpretations that occur after class discussion or reflection. Students interact with Information to make Meaning.

35. Presentation Feelings Thoughts Actions Interventions: Authentic Learning Tasks, Formative Assessments (rubrics, journals, checklists, portfolios, peer review of drafts, self-evaluations) Making connections; Making inferences; Predicting; Analyzing; Synthesizing; Re-telling to synthesize; Evolving thinking by summarizing + personal responses; Seeking answers to questions that have none; Production tools-PowerPoint; Web design; Word Processing to academic formats; Citation Machine; Word Processing (writing is synthesis)

36. The Diary of Anne Frank… In Search of Truth You are an Investigative Reporter for YTN (Youth Television Network). You have been assigned the job of research- ing and writing a news story about holocaust survivals. Your arch rival, Mat Fritzlinger, from YBC (Youth Broadcasting Company) recently made a public statement denying events recorded in The Diary of Anne Frank. According to him the diary is a hoax. He, along with many others, believe none of these events, or any events like them have ever taken place. Your job is to gather and publish data that will persuade Mat and his followers to seriously question their beliefs. http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/lewis/annefrank/t-index.htm

37. INQUIRY THROUGH THE INFORMATON SEARCH PROCESS Information Search Process Tasks Initiation Selection Exploration Formulation Collection Presentation ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------→ Feelings uncertainly optimism confusion clarity sense of satisfaction or (affective) frustration direction/ disappointment doubt confidence Thoughts vague---------------------------------------→focused (cognitive) -----------------------------------------------→ increased interest Actions seeking relevant information----------------------------→seeking pertinent information (physical) exploring documenting Information-to-knowledge experience Stages of the Information Search Process represent critical Zones of Intervention

38. Guided Inquiry for Knowledge Construction Guided Inquiry is carefully planned, closely supervised targeted intervention of an instructional team of school librarians and teachers to guide students through curriculum based inquiry units that build deep knowledge and deep understanding of a curriculum topic, and gradually lead towards independent learning. Guided Inquiry is grounded in a constructivist approach to learning, based on the Information Search Process developed by Kuhlthau, for developing students’ competence with learning from a variety of sources while enhancing their understanding of the content areas of the curriculum. Vygotsky Kuhlthau Novice Uncertainty Constructivism Meta-cognition Expert Understanding Zone of Proximal Development Zones of Intervention

39. Literacy Learning in the 21st Century Twenty-first century readers and writers need to be able to:  Develop proficiency with the tools of technology;  Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally;  Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes;  Manage, analyze, and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information;  Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multi-media texts; and  Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments. National Council of Teachers of English http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Magazine/CC0183_Brief_Literacy.pdf

40. Research-based Practices for Literacy Learning Aligning literacy efforts in preschool and early grades with middle and high school assures a continuum of instruction and learning.Twenty-first century students need to gather information from multiple sources, evaluate their reliability, and apply their findings effectively.Twenty-first century technologies can engage students in learning.Twenty-first century assessment be different becauseof technology. IMPLICATIONS: EARLY CHILDHOOD LITERACY; PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT; PERFORMANCE-BASED ASSESSMENT; STRONG TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE IN SCHOOLS