Reading and Learning in a 21 st Century World:

1. Reading and Learning in a 21st Century World: The New Literacies of Online Reading Comprehension Donald J. Leu New Literacies Research Lab University of Connecticut donald.leu@uconn.edu

2. The New Literacies Research Team

3. Important Funding and Support From: • Ray and Carole Neag • The Carnegie Corporation of New York • IES, U.S. Department of Education • The National Science Foundation • North Central Educational Research Lab • PBS • The Annenberg Foundation • William and Flora Hewlett Foundation • Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation • Australian Council of Educational Research • OECD • Schools and teachers around the world.

4. Viewing the Classrooms of Tomorrow By Visiting the Classrooms of Today

5. Grade 2: Morning Message of the Day

7. Grade 7, Language Arts: Online International Projects Yeah! I got some great ideas. Let me send them to Tomas and Ben in the U.S. Jose, Costa Rica We’re on it! Making a web page now. Hey! Let’s do Gary Paulson??? Ben and Tomas, Willimantic, CT Monique, South Africa

8. These Classrooms Prepare Students for Their Reading and Learning Futures • Online reading comprehension as problem based learning. • Many of these reading skills not yet fully captured in our Common Core Standards

9. The Big Ideas • Changes in a global economy require fundamental changes in reading education. • The Internet is this generation’s defining technology for reading. • Research: The Internet requires new literacies -- additional online reading comprehension skills. • Current research at the New Literacies Research Lab in 1:1 and Assessment • The Common Core Standards and central educational policies at the state level, from a new literacies perspective.

10. I. The World Is Flat: Changes In A Global Economy Require Changes In Education The “General Motors” Model of Economic Management • Command and control • Lower levels of education required. • Wasted intellectual capital • Highly inefficient • Lower productivity • Little innovation • Little need for higher level and creative thinking. Wasted intellectual capital

11. In a Flattened World: Opportunities Expand butCompetition Increases • How do economic units increase productivity? Flatten The Organization into Problem Solving Teams Greater Intellectual Capital Use = Greater Productivity Define problems Locate information Critically evaluate information Synthesize and solve problems Communicate solutions These teams take full advantage of their intellectual capital to the extent their education system has prepared them for this.

12. Which tool has been used by economic units to increase productivity and compete? The Internet • Recent productivity gains are due to using the Internet to share information, communicate, and solve problems (van Ark, Inklaar, & McGuckin, 2003; Friedman, 2005; Matteucci, O’Mahony, Robinson, & Zwick, 2005). Define problems Locate information Critically evaluate information Synthesize and solve problems Communicate solutions

13. Implications For Education? • Problem based reading and learning essential • Effective online information and communication skills required. • Internet literacies have become central. • In short: fundamental change.

14. II. The Internet Is This Generation’s Defining Technology For Reading and Learning

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17. The Workplace Has Changed • Recent productivity gains are due to using the Internet to share information, communicate, and solve problems (van Ark, Inklaar, & McGuckin, 2003; Friedman, 2005; Matteucci, O’Mahony, Robinson, & Zwick, 2005). This generation’s defining technology for reading.

18. Our Students Have Changed • Students aged 8-18 in the U.S. spend more time reading online per day than reading offline: 48 minutes per day vs. 43 minutes per day. (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2005). • In Accra, Ghana: • 66% of 15-18 year olds report having gone online previously; (Borzekowski, Fobil, & Asante, 2006).

19. Public Policies:Nations Respond • Finland has provided all teachers with 5 weeks of paid, release time professional development at integrating the Internet into the classroom, using a national training model (Svedlin, Personal Correspondence). This generation’s defining technology for reading.

20. Public Policies: Nations Respond • Japan has broadband in nearly every home that is 16 times faster than the broadband in US homes for $22 per month. (Bleha, 2005) This generation’s defining technology for reading.

21. Public Policies: Nations Respond • Mexico is implementing e-Mexico, a policy designed to provide every citizen and every school with an Internet connection (Ludlow, 2006). This generation’s defining technology for reading.

22. International Assessment Initiatives from OECD • 2009 PISAInternational Assessment of Reading – Digital Literacies • Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) – Problem Solving in Technologically Rich Evironments This generation’s defining technology for reading.

23. The U.S. situation.Not a single state in the U.S. measures... • ...students’ ability to read search engine results. • ...students’ ability to critically evaluate information that is found online to determine its reliability. • …the reading of online information to to solve a problem. This generation’s defining technology for reading.

24. Not a single state measures... • ...students’ ability to compose clear and effective email messages in their state writing assessment. • all students to use a word processor on their state writing assessment.* *See Russell & Plati, 1999; 2000; 2001. They report effect sizes of .57 – 1.25 for word processor use on MCAS. See also Russell & Tao, 2004 who report 19% more 4th grade students classified as “Needs Improvement” would move up to the “Proficient” performance level with word processors.

25. National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) • Recently, NAEP made a deliberate decision to exclude online reading comprehension from the 2009 NAEP reading framework in the U.S. This generation’s defining technology for reading.

26. What Can We Conclude? • The Internet is this generation’s defining technology for reading. • We need to begin now to implement policies around this perspective.

27. III. Research: The Internet Requires Additional Online Reading Comprehension and Learning Skills

28. Where We Started Our Work • “… the Internet…requires readers to have novel literacy skills, and little is known about how to analyze or teach those skills.” (RAND Reading Research Study Group, 2002. p. 4). The new literacies of online reading comprehension

29. Online and Offline Reading Comprehension May Not Be Isomorphic (r=0.19, n = 89, N.S.) Online Reading Comprehension = ORCA Blog Offline Reading = Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT) of Reading Comprehension Leu, D. Castek, J., Hartman, D., Coiro, J., Henry, L., Kulikowich, J., Lyver, S. (2005).

30. The New Literacies Of Online Reading Comprehension: Problem based reading and learning • Read to identify important questions; • Read to locate information; • Read to critically evaluate the usefulness of that information; • Read to synthesize information to answer those questions; and • Read to communicate the answers to others. (Leu, Kinzer, Coiro, & Cammack, 2004, p. 1570) The new literacies of online reading comprehension

31. A Preliminary Model

32. An Example of Online Reading ComprehensionReading About Martin Luther King The new literacies of online reading comprehension

38. IV. Ongoing Research at the New Literacies Research Lab:Internet Reciprocal Teaching (IRT)

39. IRT: Phase ITeacher-led Basic Skills • Teacher-led demonstrations of basic Internet use skills and cooperative learning strategies • Explicit modeling by teacher • Largely whole class instruction • Mini-lessons as transition to Phase II

40. IRT: Phase IICollaborative modeling of online reading strategies • Students presented with information problems to solve. • Work in small groups to solve those problems. • Exchange strategies as they do so. • Debrief at the end of the lesson. • Initially: locating and critically evaluating • Later: Synthesis and communicating.

41. A Phase II Task

42. IRT: Phase IIIInquiry • Initially, within the class. • Then, with others around the world. • Internet Morning Message of the Day • Student Online Collaborations

43. THE ORCA PROJECT • A project designed to develop valid, reliable, and practical assessments of online reading comprehension. CT, Maine, and NC. (IES, USDOE) • Three formats: Multiple Choice, Open Internet, Closed Simulated Internet

44. Professional Development: The Central Issue • Two models under review

45. The Maine Professional Development Collaborative

46. Massachusetts New Literacies Summer InstituteMicrosoft Training Center, Cambridge

47. State Policies from a New Literacies Perspective • Assessments: Are The Rich Getting Richer and the Poor, Poorer? • Defining the Problem Determines the Outcome • The Common Core Standards: Which 15% Would Advance Your Students?

48. Current Standards and Assessments Enable the Rich to Get Richer and the Poor, Poorer Those who require our support the most with online reading comprehension, those without home access, actually receive our support the least in schools. Current policies may increase achievement gaps

49. A Second Challenge for Policy Makers:Defining the Problem Correctly A literacy issue Technology standards are separated from subject area standards Online learning is separated from subject areas Specialists are responsible Online information and communication skills are assessed separately from subject area knowledge. A technology issue • Technology standards become integrated within subject area standards • Online learning is integrated into each subject area; • Every classroom teacher is responsible • Subject area assessments and online information skills are assessed together.

50. A Third Challenge: Common Core Standards Do Not Recognize the Changes To Reading • The Good News: • Higher Level Thinking Skills Receive Important Focus • “Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole.”