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Hodgson goes on to state that, based on the National Council of Teachers of English, the reason or purpose behind reading a particular piece, online or off, impacts the way students go about reading. His son (the 12 year old mentioned above) could not articulate the choices he was making or the reasons for making them. I found myself nodding my head as I was reading this, making connections to my own classroom. When we work on researching online and I watch students work, their 'mouse work' is frenetic. I curse the addition of a scroll wheel on a mouse during these times; while students are 'reading' they are scrolling up and down the page, with no measurable pause between the up and the down. How can they find anything this way?
Since beginning the ITDML program, I have been getting better at reading deeply online. Initially I was printing out the readings, but decided that would not be feasible to do with the lengths of some of the readings. I have, instead, developed strategies for reading online that I now consistently use. I set up my workstation at a table or desk with the computer on the left and a notebook open on the right. I bring up the assigned reading on the screen and make it really BIG - I'll zoom in until it fills the entire screen. Then I take notes on keywords, important quotes, or anything else I would have highlighted in a printed copy.
The format of the information affects my perception of its status (validity/rigor) and my ability to read it deeply. PDFs with multiple columns per page are more difficult for me to read deeply yet most of the time are better organized with bold headings and keywords than online sources like blog entries and articles. The structure of the PDF, which typically has one or more pages of resources at the end, gives more credibility and weight to the topic, which makes me force myself to read more deeply and more slowly. Julie Coiro summarizes this approach into three elements of Reading Comprehension: text, activity and reader.
It is important to be aware of the way online reading limits me and the strategies I have had to implement when doing so. If, as an adult with many years of research, college and online reading experience, I still need to evaluate and redesign my strategies, then so do my students who are younger with fewer years experience. I do not believe that these 'digital natives' as some may call them are inherently wired to read deeply online. They still need teachers to scaffold their experiences by helping them vet proper text, define the activity and tailor it to their abilities as individual readers.
Based on our readings this week, there are many ways that teachers can apply the understanding of online reading comprehension to their teaching. Coiro states that the teacher's purpose must be clear in order for the students to comprehend the readings before them (Coiro, 2003). Teachers must set the stage for the readings by clearly defining the purpose of the readings and identifying important questions and problems that students will solve as a result of the reading (Leu, et al, 2013). We should also model skills we would like to see our students utilize by way of mini lessons and workshops on topics like summarizing, scanning for keywords and phrases, taking a critical stance when evaluating a site's legitimacy, and sifting through search engine results. Providing adequate time for reflection is also a critical component of online reading. Teachers can ask questions like "How do you know?" and "Why did you click there?"
Allowing students to struggle is essential, as long as there is a purpose behind doing so and the task has been well defined. In the Online Reading Comprehension Video Strategy Exchange, we see a group of four boys who are searching for mp3 players. They want guidance, and lots of it. I could feel the tension, the boys' frustration, as they struggled with "What do I do?" and my favorite, "I can't find anything." The teacher scaffolds each step as he checks in (Was that Ian? I think that was Ian.) by restating the instructions, encouraging them to trust their partners and most importantly not doing the work for them. The task had clearly been well defined and search terms and keywords had been discussed prior to filming. When the teacher comes back around during the fourth installment of the series, he summarizes the work accomplished and guides them to the next step. The body language of the boys changes significantly over the course of the videos. In the beginning, they are turning toward the teacher, holding up their cups, calling out for help. By the fourth one, they are turning their computers towards each other and talking to the group. The teacher in this case applied the understanding of how students read online and what they need in order to be successful to this lesson.
Coiro, Julie. "Exploring Literacy on the Internet: Reading Comprehension on the Internet: Expanding Our Understanding of Reading Comprehension to Encompass New Literacies." The Reading Teacher56.5 (2003): 458-64. 2003. Web.
Hodgson, Kevin. "Strategies for Online Reading Comprehension."Strategies for Online Reading Comprehension. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2014.
Leu, Donald, Charles Kinzer, Julie Coiro, Jill Castek, and Laurie Henry. "New Literacies: A Dual-Level Theory of the Changing Nature of Literacy, Instruction, and Assessment." Theoretical Models and Processes of Reading (2013).
O'Byrne, Ian. "Online Reading Comprehension - Strategy Exchange - Part One." YouTube. YouTube, 2008. Web.