Monday, October 8, 2007
Exploring Online Reading Comprehension
As you read the articles by Coiro and Coiro & Dobler, reflect on the differences in your processing approaches when you read print text vs. online text. Note differences in specific strategies that you use. Also, note specific ideas from the articles that you could use to support your students online reading. Remember to prepare a question for Dr. Coiro for next class period and post it at the end of your blog entry.
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21 comments:
At times, I find online or hypertext to be a very complex. The nuance and beauty lies within the dynamic systems of linking, cross-referencing and visual representations. Strategically, I approach online text as non-linear activity where I feel engaged in interactions with all my senses. I can actually hear and see the performance of a poem or a play, or 3 dimensional diagrams or graphs in informational text. I find myself following tangent lines of thinking and information seeking which is not as prevalent in my paper-based reading.
I am guilty of still viewing paper “books” as the primary equipment of knowledge acquisition. But unfortunately this remains a one to one relationship and increasingly unappetizing for children of the Conceptual Age. To quote my sister “textbooks are boring” and so paper-based texts, in some ways for many students, are becoming stumbling blocks in the classroom. The problems grow more acute when students want or need something beyond the semantic content of basic paper materials.
Teachers and students stand on the cusp of a revolutionary change. We can only glimpse at this point what it entails. Certain things are clear even now. Students know and have access to a vastly greater quantity of online materials, which paper-based texts could never hope to achieve. I must prepare my students for the transformation. Coiro makes reference to solid strategies that currently help my students explore paper-based informational text and will neatly translate to online text. These strategies include scanning, making predictions and judging validity and bias. It is imperative to support my students with online text by helping them navigate around irrelevant and capricious information. As students will be exposed to immeasurable amounts of information, my job will demand empowering my students with meta-cognitive approaches to separate valid and invalid resources in order to effectively learn from online reading.
One big difference I notice in my processing approaches when I read print text vs. online text is the fact that print text I can write notes in the margins, underline and highlight important information and then go back and look at my notes in the future to refresh my memory. You can’t do this with online text and I have a hard time not being able to write notes, highlight, etc… I like having something tangible right in front of me to see. Even our class articles I print off to read vs. reading them online. I think a lot of this has to do with the way I was taught.
After reading the articles it is apparent that as educators we need to help prepare our students for 21st century skills. Part of our job is to walk students step by step through navigating the internet and teaching them how to use the web effectively. I liked the different examples given in the study done with 6th graders. One lesson was simply teaching the students how to read in a website context. Once this was taught the students were asked to answer questions that were designed to encourage the students to remain within the pages of one informational website while locating specific facts found in very different locations and in multiple media forms within the site. I feel that this task is difficult for even adults at times. If we struggle with this then how are we supposed to effectively teach our children about it? If we are responsible for this are we going to be given adequate training to help us prepare our children for the future? I feel as though I am at a point in my career where I could successfully teach the children this, but is everyone in our profession at the same point? How do we get everyone on board? Will the state create assessments testing the student’s knowledge on web based activities?
I like how Dr. Coiro discusses the four challenges that face students as they use the interet. She lists them as the following questions: What Link Should I follow? How do I Navigate Within a WebSite? How do I know the Information is True? and How do I Synthesize Without Copying? She also gives an example of an activity that models effective strategies to help students meet each one of the above challenges. These examples were very meaningful to me as I plan to implement them into my teaching over the next few weeks.
Question for Dr. Coiro from Sara B., Tina B. and Tara W.
As educators it’s our responsibility to prepare our students to become 21st century learners. However, as educators we don’t feel adequately prepared to do so. How can we fully prepare our students to become computer literate, use effective strategies to become problem solvers, and effectively navigate the internet in order to fully comprehend text?
Even though I think of myself as kind of “old-fashioned” in terms of my views on technology, the Internet is my predominant source of information. For instance, most publications that are printed also have an online version. For obvious reasons the online version is more up-to-date. The News & Observer can have an article come out on Tuesday morning, and by Tuesday afternoon there are so many new developments that the morning story is obsolete. Another thing I enjoy about online reading is the chance to incorporate listening and viewing. For instance, the other day I was reading about two jazz musicians who played the trumpet. An article described the difference in sound and technique between the two artists. I was able to go to Itunes and amazon.com to hear sound clips of each musician. Obviously, this provided me a richer experience than just reading about it. However, it is also true that when I am reading something seriously rather than leisurely I almost always print it out. Because I always highlight, underline, and make notes to myself on what I read, I find it harder to retain information that I read on a screen.
I found both of Coiro’s articles informative. I particularly appreciated the concrete suggestions she made in “Making Sense of Online Technology.” From my own experience, I would agree that online reading requires traditional literacy skills plus more complex ones. As Coiro notes, students navigating online text benefit not only from prior knowledge of the subject, but require prior knowledge about how websites work (homepages, links, maps, etc.). Rather than being able to scan through a book to find information, they have to choose from a “multiple layers of text hidden from view.” There is also the factor of “cognitive overload.” The Yahooligan page Coiro shows in her article, for instance, is “busy” to say the least. Finally, the ability to self-regulate is even more necessary with online text than it is with traditional text. As we were discussing in another reading class, this skill is something teachers need more focus on.
I thought that Coiro’s strategy for helping students evaluate search results was concise, effective and adaptable to many grade levels. I also like the “Think and Check Critical Reading Activity (although I think the need to teach students to be critical of media was just as important pre-Internet). The challenge we face, as Coiro explains, is ensuring that the new demands do not widen the gap between proficient and struggling readers. Just as students need repeated exposure and guided interaction with printed texts, they need the same opportunity with online texts—another reason why programs like the Maine Learning Technology Initiative are especially worthy of notice.
After reading Coiro’s articles, it is apparent to me that it is of great importance for teachers to begin to instruct students on how to develop strategies to comprehend material beyond printed text. As teachers we must move beyond confining ourselves to only using printed materials within our classroom. The “text-book” only days are long gone for our students now and our future students. We must begin to teach our students how to use, evaluate, infer, monitor, and comprehend text online. The Internet is a huge source of information for our students, so it only makes sense for us to help them use this information to the best of their ability. This will involve our students using higher order thinking skills to navigate through the complexities of the World Wide Web.
As I read I began to think about I approach printed material differently than I do online text. First of all I am a very visual, tactile learner; similar to Sara, I like to highlight, underline, and write in the margins as I read something. It is difficult to do this when I am reading an article online, so I end up printing out endless pages so I have the ability to do this as I read. If I have something printed out in front of me I find it much easier to go back and flip through the pages of the text to locate information. I feel that it is sometimes difficult for me to do this with online text, because it may require me to back track through links and other websites. This constant back tracking can be quite frustrating sometimes. However, online text has made my research more efficient. My approach to researching a topic has changed, as the use of the Internet has become more prevalent. In high school I remember going to the library for hours as I tried to write my term papers for history and English. I sifted through book after book, trying to locate information. Now when I do research all I really have to do is open my laptop and I am connected to tons of online text about my research topic. My approach to researching using a book is completely different from my approach to researching on the Internet. I don’t take notes the way I used to, instead I copy and paste relevant information into a document, cite the sources, then go through to synthesize and interpret the material to write the report. Instead of looking through the index of a book, I now use the Internet to in a way sift through an “index of websites.” I will say that I am much more efficient with my research now that I use the Internet. When I use the Internet (online text) I find myself being more aware of the reliability of the information that I am using. I am much more careful and I look into what websites may be useful and those websites that may provide me with insufficient and incorrect information. I feel that when I use the Internet I closely monitor and try to be more evaluative of the credibility of the websites I am using. I do not find myself self-regulating as much when I read books or printed text.
I feel that Coiro gave me some valuable information that I can use in the future when I have my own classroom of students. The most valuable information that I will carry with me in the future are the four challenges that students will face when using the internet. Students must be equipped with four necessary skills as they confront these skills and navigate the Internet. They must be able to search, navigate different sites, evaluate these sites, and synthesize the information. As I teach literacy in the classroom, I will make sure to include these four skills within my content-area lessons because I feel this is what will make my students successful in the future. Two things that I found very valuable were the “Think and Check Critical Reading Activity” (Figure 2) and “How to Synthesize Online Sources” (Figure 3). Both of these would be great things to incorporate into a classroom to help students develop higher order thinking skills, which involve evaluating and synthesizing. These can help students break down the information into manageable parts. As Coiro and Dobler found in their study, we must be aware that comprehending online text is more complex than comprehending printed text. Students must be able to use “more complex dimensions of reading comprehension as they actively search for and locate information on the Internet” (Coiro & Dobler 2007). It is our job as teachers to guide our students to be able to do this successfully.
When reading print text, I tend to be more focused. I normally highlight and dog ear the pages so that I can go back to information if necessary. I also feel like I’m absorbing and comprehending the text better because I can be in a more comfortable position when reading. Online text tends to be more difficult for me to read. It takes me longer to locate the information because I get easily distracted. I sometimes click on links that lead me away from what I was reading. I also become more fatigued and strain my eyes more. I do feel that online text is beneficial for short amount of reading and the online dictionary increases my comprehension. If I stumbled across an unfamiliar word in print text, I would keep reading. It also depends on whether what I’m reading is informational or narrative.
I don’t have any techniques in particular that I use to support my students online reading. I teach kindergarten and we don’t navigate the web. As an educator, however, I can support my students online reading by, first, motivating them and making them interested in what they’re about to read so that they can connect and apply their prior knowledge of the topic and text structure with inferential reasoning and self regulating reading abilities.
Secondly, I feel that it is important to teach students about internet search tool (beyond Google). There are so many websites that stem from other websites, that the further you search, the further away you end up from your actual topic. We experienced this first hand during our web search reflection. Coiro explains that students must learn how to evaluate which links are most important and most relevant during their searches. By encouraging students to “stop, think, and make predictions” about sites that they’re exploring on paper, rather than online, because they’re being led further away from their intended links.
These are the types of lessons that we should be teaching so that our students can navigate the web properly, become successful at reading online text, and become 21st Century Learners.
I am more of a “book learner” than an “online learner.” I love the tangibility of books, they are there for me to consume over and over again. I can go back to a book a week after reading it for the first time and reread the SAME thing that I read the first time. Books are concrete. Online sources are intangible and fluid. You can read something on a website at 9:00 in the morning and go back at 12noon, and the information can change. Sara B. wrote about highlighting, taking notes, etc. when using print text, things that are not applicable to online texts. Going to school, that is how I was taught to do research. We were schooled on making note cards, highlighting important facts and information, to make notes in the margins. Those skills are no longer applicable to online texts. It makes using online texts for research difficult for people my age and older, which means that most teachers are unsure how to research using online texts, let alone teach their students how to research using online texts.
As a graduate student, I find it important to be able to research different topics online. I am not the best at reading online texts and interpreting what is valid and important information. It takes me longer to research a topic online than it does in texts. It takes me a considerable amount of time to determine the validity of a site, and then once that is accomplished, to make sure the site actually holds the information that I need. I am becoming more comfortable with online research, but I feel like it is similar to teaching an old dog new tricks. It will take me a while to be comfortable with researching online. With my comfort level being low, it is difficult for me to teach my students about online research with ease and confidence. Luckily, I teach kindergarten, and online research is not high on our list of things to accomplish. However, I do introduce my students to the internet and research online.
Next week, we will be learning about fall and what animals do in the fall. I talk to the children about different sources that they can use to locate information about animals and their fall habits. We use books, magazines, encyclopedias, newspapers, and the internet. When talking about using the internet to do research, I do discuss looking at the sites with an adult and looking at other sources to validate what is being said on the sites they are looking at. As a class, we surf the web and locate different, valid sites and make a list of good places on the internet to look for information about animals. It is important to introduce the students to safe searching on the internet, to give them a model of how to check for website validity, and what to do when you realize that a site is not valid.
Question for Dr. Coiro from Kim F., Lisa H., and Heather W,:
The research suggests that at least four types of prior knowledge were used by successful readers that included knowledge of the topic, knowledge of the text structure, knowledge of search engines, and knowledge of website structures. How do you think this research finding will translate to students who have limited prior knowledge? Will they be able to successfully navigate and read texts on the Internet? If not, what are the most effective ways to improve their online reading comprehension?
As a 20th century learner it is no surprise that I prefer to read texts in print. I love to curl up with a book in the bath, or tote a great novel to the beach. I also prefer to have a print copy of educational text. As I read I tend to underline, write comments, circle important points and even write personal comments in the margin. I write down my connections, underline intriguing vocabulary words, and even make comments to authors. My reading text on line lacks this form of interaction with the text.
Having said this, when I do read on line it hold a sense of community that paper lacks. While I am reading the text, I am somehow equally aware I am among a community of people who are also reading the text. Online text provides a freedom in making connections. Because I am among a community of readers, the level of prior knowledge is no longer limited to just my own. Through hyperlinks I can dig deeper into various subtopic and then if needed I dig even deeper through search engines. For me as a read I greatly enjoy this. I don’t have to think as hard about connections because the online text makes the connections for me, all I have to do is be willing to read the hyperlinked information to learn more.
As a reader I love this, but as a teacher I worry about the long term effect of this. If the student is being given a path to learn more about something in the text (thus make a connection to another topic), how will they learn to do this type of thinking on their own? Activating prior knowledge, Making connections, and inferring meaning are such crucial parts of learning that I sometimes worry that the internet will somehow allow us to stop participating in thinking and evaluating what we are reading. Another concern I have is that sometimes the hyperlinks leads to so much information, that it’s almost like information over load. Many times I have gotten so caught up in the layers of information under the text that I have become confused about what it is that I was originally trying to learn.
I guess like everything there needs to be balance. On Line text is an incredible tool, but as a teacher I need to be leading students to make their thoughts more explicit. I need to be teaching them strategies to sift through the layers of information and be able stay focused and not become overwhelmed with information. I need to create projects that allow my students to read on line, use hyperlinks, and document their information. At the same time I need to be teaching my students to capture their thoughts while their reading and then have my students reflect on what they discovered. In essence, what I am having my students do for paper text I need to be doing for online text as well, and to add to that I need to help my students learn to sift through the layers of information in order to help broaden and deepen their prior knowledge.
Question: There is an old saying that the media doesn’t tell you what to think. It tells you what to think about. It seems that in some ways online reading is similar to this saying in that the hyperlinks tend to guide your thinking process. While this can be very useful for leading a stream of thought, what are some strategies for bringing in more “out of the box” connections to online text reading?
I find it helpful to use online or hypertext environments to began my investigations or informational searches. I also find it useful to get quick facts. I set out with a question in mind and I adapt my question to the information I find, especially if I need to narrow my search. I find the Internet most helpful for finding headlines or sketches of information. I am very interested in the variety of ways the Internet and hyperlink context present information. After watching a video or listening to a radio show, I often develop new perspectives that I may not have otherwise. Recently, though, I have begun my searches on the Internet, and wasn’t nearly as efficient as I thought I would be.
If I need to gather lots of information, I am more comfortable reading books, because the information is organized and gathered in one place. I like using libraries and having information arranged by the Dewey Decimal System. Additionally, I find that I personally interact more with information when I have it on paper in front of me. I am better able to study for long periods of time, and I find it helpful to organize my thoughts by writing in the margins. Because my printer ran out of ink, I read both these articles on the computer screen. Whenever I do this, I develop a headache after fifteen minutes and my eyes feel strained and I often lose my place. Additionally, because of the columns within the structure of the article, I continuously had to scroll up and down the pages. I scribbled notes on notebook paper, but I missed having the opportunity to write in the margins and highlight noteworthy passages.
I found the author’s short article very helpful, and I can imagine performing each of the exercises with my students. I think they would be very helpful in confronting the outlined challenges: What link should I follow?, How do I navigate within a website?, How do I know this is true?, and How do I synthesize without copying? I would also use graphic organizers to compare and contrast the reading strategies of online sources and printed material. My question/comments for the author: Are there circumstances where you would recommend one source over the other? In the research article, the researchers interviewed successful online navigators, I am curious whether the author has met with struggling readers, and what they have to say about their experiences with online reading comprehension.
Reading online text is challenging for me at times. I find that I am easily distracted and only skimming the text. When I have a paper copy in front of me I can make notes and highlight and tend to be less distracted. When I need to do research I do go to the internet first, but find myself a little overwhelmed. I tend to go on sites that are not really helpful. I was never taught how to do research and read informational text online. Therefore, I think it is crucial that we prepare our students and teach them the skills they need to be successful at reading online texts and completing research online.
Both of Coiro's articles were both inofrmative and insightful. Based on my own experience, I agree that reading online text requires traditional reading skills as well as other additional reading comprehension skills. I teach kindergarten and the students do not search the internet on their own. But I think it is important to start building the prior knowledge they will need in the future.
Coiro's activities to introduce students to reading digital text were most beneficial. Coiro provides lots of great tips on how to teach the students how to navigate the internet. Teaching students which link to follow, how to navigate within a site, finding which information is true are all important tasks to know before researching on the internet. I really liked the "Think and Check" activity to know if the information is reliable. I would use all of these activities with a class if I taught an older group of students. Coiro's article gave me some things to think about on how to start preparing our students and introduce them to the internet.
When I was in the classroom, I wanted to incorporate technology in any way I could, but the main reason I limited what I used was my comfort level. Even if I knew how to use the technology, I was not always sure of how to instruct students to use it in an effective manner.
Coiro's articles made me really think about reading comprehension with online texts. I know that I am also victim to not truly comprehending the online texts I encounter -- sometimes I click on a page and it is so busy that my mind just shuts down and does not want to take the effort to sort through the text, other times I take so long to figure out the layout and maneuver the website that much of the content is lost. I think that although Coiro speaks mainly of students struggles and comprehension with online texts that we as instructors must first tackle these challenges.
I think that the Webquest that we are doing in class has really given me insight into how to use the Internet effectively. Many times I have given students an assignment that requires them to do online research, but I have realized that I do not provide them with the proper guidance they need in order for the activity to be meaningful.
I realize now that as instructors we need to become prepared in these skills so that we can better prepare our students.
I think that so many of us will always value printed text because that was the method in which we were instructed. It may be that our students and those to come will value online texts just as much because that is the medium in which they are learning.
Regardless, the immediacy in which you can find information and link up with people all over the world online needs to be valued. I know last week when I dropped a candle and got wax all over my carpet, I did not think twice before rushing to my computer and pulling up the internet to find out what others that have experienced the same thing have done .... and their shared stories of what worked helped me to solve my problem. If I had to go to the library and research it, I would have not been able to get nearly as much of it out because the hours in which I could have done so would have been limited. With the Internet, information is accessible every second of the day.
Tina S. has posted our question at the end of her blog for Coiro.
I completely agree with what Tina B said in that printed text tends to keep my attention longer than online text. Not only are books more portable, you can underline, highlight, dog-ear, and get back to the same page as often as you want without having to sign in, search for the page, log in to the library site, etc. In addition, I am able to sit and read a novel all the way through without becoming overly tired, but reading online text for more than a few minutes usually gets me dizzy, or will give me a headache...probably due to the fact that I forget to blink!! While the internet clearly is the best resource we have for finding information on absolutely anything, it is also very distracting because there are always those numerous advertisements and links that draw your attention away from what you are there to read or study. I think "sensory overload" is an appropriate term to describe many of my experiences with online readings.
As our students become more and more internet-savvy on their own, and as they progress through grades that increase their exposure to and comfort with using the internet and technology, I think it is imperative that we teach them how to effectively navigate through such an abundance of information, while trying to minimize distractions and feelings of helplessness if they are not able to read as well from as a screen as they do from a textbook. My question has to do with those students who are not at the top of their class in regard to their reading skills. Should they be given the same amount of exposure to the internet (for reading purposes) as those students who are well able to deal with this new learning tool? Or will those students suffer from inability to learn new strategies? On one hand, you want them to become better users and online readers...but if they don't have the required skills, it may be quite frustrating for them. Yet, if you do not give them the necessary exposure to online reading, what other means do they have by which to improve??
Brad Gregory
Adam Gutschmidt
One major difference between my paper-based reading and online reading that I noticed (and struggle with) is that with paper-based reading, I have to read EVERY SINGLE WORD and I won't let myself skip around and read different parts of the text first. I also noticed that I zone out more easily when reading paper texts. This makes me a really slow reader. Interestingly, when I am reading the same paper-based texts online (like a pdf file), I am able to read more quickly. Perhaps I am more actively engaged when reading even traditional texts online because the use of the computer is more interactive. Also, I have noted before that with online searching/reading, I take more time to find information simply because I become interested in other information that I was not intending to encounter. Using a print based text can be quicker because I am less likely to encounter and become interested in extra information.
As I was reading the Coiro article, examples of how online reading/researching is similar (while more complex) to informational reading made make me think about how we can help students make these connections between traditional text reading and online reading. Teachers could structure series of lessons that begin with printed text and move to internet texts.
An important skill in traditional reading is to preview the text. Especially with informational texts, students need to examine what features the text offers to help them gain more meaning (indexes, table of contents, bold words, charts, graphs, photos, etc.). Many of these features are used in internet texts, and you could use this prior knowledge to help students make explicit judgments about the features an online site is using. Getting students to realize the features of an online site (or info text) takes a lot of teacher-led previewing and modeling before it becomes an independent skill. So, silly me, in the past I have not really taken the time to explicitly go through the features of online sites with my students(like sidebars, categories of information, and thinking about where the best place to find certain information would be). Now I realize that this is a must, especially given that many students still struggle with more static reading.
Question from Tammy and Denise:
As Coiro and Dobler's research suggests, traditional strategies for reading are combined with more complex skills when reading online, multilayered texts. As teachers evolve to incorporate online reading strategies, how do you suggest we balance the foundational needs of ELL and struggling readers with their needs as conceptual age learners?
I find it very difficult to read online text in terms of remembering the material that is written. Because I tend to get bored easily when reading informative text (yes, I can connect with my students on this!), I have to highlight certain areas and make notes in order to remember details. Therefore, I find reading online text to be quite tedious. I will make notes about what I read, and then when reviewing the notes, I’ll discover that I have to go back and re-read the material that is printed online. I find it much simpler when I have the text right in front of me when reviewing notes that were written on the print text itself. This is why more often than not, I will print out articles to make it easier for myself in the future. Call me old-fashioned, but this is the method that works best for me.
Reading Coiro’s article “Making Sense of Online Text” was really one of those “A-HA!” moments for me. Too often, I have assigned research for my students to do online while assuming that they knew the proper websites to use for research and information. Yet, they have frequently come to me and informed me of conflicting details in their research, and I have had to launch into the reputable website speech. By doing a quick activity like Coiro suggested in the article, I can help my students evaluate the effectiveness of a website and therefore, limit their problems when conducting online research. I have also assumed that since my students have been subjected to 21st century resources such as the Internet for quite some time now, they know and understand how to navigate through websites with ease. Again, I have discovered my students getting caught up in some of the “pretty” aspects of websites rather than the useful aspects. Again, by demonstrating how to move through a website, I can expand my students’ resources in a timely manner.
All four of the strategy lessons that were in Coiro’s “Making Sense of Online Text” were helpful to the point that I am going to seek permission to share this article with my entire high school faculty. I have had teachers in other disciplines come to me and ask why their students were simply cutting-and-pasting material for a website, and I have had to explain that sometimes the students don’t understand how to synthesize the necessary research for a required paper. With an emphasis being placed on incorporating technology into literacy, it is important for teachers in all curriculums to understand the need to use the Internet with a better purpose.
Question for Dr. Coiro from Elizabeth and Tori:
Much emphasis in literacy and research skills is placed on English/Language Arts teachers. Other than having other teachers read this article, what are some suggestions to give teachers of all disciplines for incorporating online comprehension into their lessons?
When comparing comprehension strategies I use when reading online vs. print text, I am much like Sara. I prefer to have a tangible article or book in my hands that I can write on and highlight than to read it online. These strategies help me understand and remember what I have read better. However, with all of the multimedia available with online reading, it is often more interesting and enjoyable to do research online. In other words, if I am reading for pleasure for a brief time or doing research, I prefer online reading. But if it is something lengthy such as an assignment, textbook, or novel, I prefer print text. As for processing approaches, I never realized how complex navigating hypertext and comprehending was until I read these articles. As an adult with some previous knowledge and use of the internet, I feel fairly comfortable navigating my way around to find the information I need, and do not think about the mental processes I am using as I am doing it. However, for students who are low-achievers (such as the ones I teach), I believe that navigating the online world can be very difficult due to all of the self-regulated reading steps that must be used, as Dr. Coiro discussed in her study: Plan, Predict, Monitor, and Evaluate. In addition, the use of forward predictive inferencing to navigate information internet text is a higher and more difficult thinking skill, which Dr. Coiro explains is different from the predicting and inferencing done when reading print text.
As a reading resource teacher, my students do not typically do any online reading with me. We do not have access in my room to computers and therefore use only printed text. However, for my WebQuest, I will be taking them to the computer lab and will need to teach them the strategies shown in Dr. Coiro’s study to be used effectively by the 6th grade students. I do have the same concern as Sara, though, that as teachers we are not currently being given the training to teach our students these skills, and the greater concern that the online comprehension gap will continue to widen between high-achieving and low-achieving readers.
Here is our question for Dr. Coiro from Jessica Ezzell, Jeaneen Ajluni, and Melanie Bocarro:
Based on this study and your research, what is your prediction about the future integration of online reading comprehension into America's K-12 curriculum?
Again, I find myself in a difficult place as the content I typically read online for school is PDFs of academic journal articles. Issues such as navigation and retention are not as applicable as they will be for young students who are using the Internet to learn about various subjects. Having said that, I feel there is one key variable that I can relate to when it comes to this topic; time.
In our fast-paced world, everyone is trying to find the answer to their question as quickly as possible. Whether we are looking for the answer in a book or on a website, we do not want to waste time finding out what we need to know. Because time is often so critical, we need to hone our searching skills in order to find the answer quickly. This is one skill that young students need to learn and it is one that I am still trying to improve upon. I believe the best thing anyone can do when searching through a vast amount of information to find an answer is identify key words. When searching, if you can locate certain key words in either the title or description of the artifact you are looking at, the likelihood that that artifact will provide you the answer increases. This means that the searcher has to establish what those key words are before (s)he can begin their search. This will then also help the searcher enter the appropriate terms into the search engine to begin their search. Once the engine responds with a list of sites, the searcher shouldn’t necessarily just begin clicking on the first link and hope that it is the best one. Take a second and look at the description of the sites on the first page. If none of them seem to provide the searcher with what they are looking for, go back and refine the key words. Likewise, when you are in the library and have located the section that has books on the subject you are researching, look at the titles and try to find the ones that best fit with what you are specifically looking for.
When it comes to finding the answer and retaining the information, organization is vital. The way books and internet sites are organized will have a significant impact on how well they will be read. Because of this, the searcher needs to first do an overview of the artifact’s organization. If you can’t determine the information flow or if it is not broken down properly into sections that are applicable to what you are searching for, then perhaps you need to move on to another artifact. I was surprised, given the importance of organization, that there was not more of a focus in Coiro’s articles on the different type of websites out there for students to research. The organization found on a wiki, blog, and personal homepage vary considerably. Likewise, how a student reads each of these pages is also going to vary. I realize that baby steps must be taken in order to teach students how to properly read and understand online text, but the variation in websites is an aspect that should not be ignored.
After reading the two articles, there are a few questions I am left with: 1) Has the research conducted by Coiro and other similar academics resulted in a change in the way web designers construct webpages? In other words, how much consideration is given to young readers when creating information on a webpage? 2) Given the increasing ease with which young people can create content on the web (blogs, wikis), what impact does Coiro see this having on how we teach children how to read online. Can creating their own webpage increase a child’s online reading comprehension?
If I had to choose between reading print text or online text, I would have to choose print text. When I read a print text I am able to write notes, highlight information that I feel is important, and underline. You cannot do this with an online text. When I read I have to highlight or write notes because it helps me remember what I have just read. If I do not do these things I have a hard time remembering the information that I just read and going back to pull things out. With a print text I am able to read it anywhere. I do not have to sit there in front of the computer and read it. When I do read something on the Internet my eyes will sometimes start to bother me and I will not read all of the text. I will usually just skim through it. With the articles that I have to read for class that are an online text, I will print them out. I have to be able to highlight information from the text. Plus when we go over the article I have to have it right in front of me to be able to talk about. When I want more information about a topic I will start out by looking for an online text, but when I cannot find what I am looking for or the Internet is going to slow I will turn to a book to get the information.
I teach kindergarten and we do not do a lot with online text. I will use online text to get ideas or information to use in my classroom, but the students do not use online text.
I thought that the article Making Sense of Online Text by Coiro was interesting. I liked how she gave ideas to help with reading an online text. She also discussed what you should do before you choose a text to read. She mentioned how you need to make sure that the text is true. I never myself asked that questioned when reading an online text. I see how you would have to as a teacher teach that to your students. You would not want your students reading information that was not true. I think that it is important to teach students how to read an online text because online texts are being used a lot more. Plus if we want our students to be successful with reading online text then we as teachers need to teach them how to.
The way people process information is complex, unique to the individual, and different when they are faced with different types of text. When I read printed text, I tend to retain the information better because I can highlight key information or make notes in the margins. I oftentimes print online text so that I can use these strategies to help me internalize the information. However, I love to read online text. The fact that so much information is readily available to you at the click on a button makes online text convienient. I agree with Coiro in that you have to have traditional literacy skills in order for online text to be a valuable resource.
After reading Coiro's articles, it is very apparent that educators need to begin teaching students how to approach online text. Navigating online text, checking the validity of the information, and narrowing down searches are all skills that students need to be able to use. She gave valuable information and stratgies to use with kids. Coiro did a great job explaining the challenges that students face when approaching online text. The strategies that she gives to help students process the information will be valuable to my teachinhg. Students need to be able to search, navigate, critically evaluate, and synthesize the information that they read on the Internet.
My goal now is to use the information she provided to help teach my students the 21st century skills that they need. I think that teacher modeling is a key strategy to use when teaching these types of skills. Terms and vocabulary are also important. I will use the "Think and Check" activity and they "Synthesizing Template." I share the same concerns and questions that Sara stated in her response. We are aware that students need these skills and it is our job to help teach them the things they need to successful. However, we need the traiing and resources in order to make our teaching effective. Federal, state, and local governments need to get on board and create an initiative to make technology a priority. I also think that it is important for all educators to be somewhat on the same page.
Question for Dr. Coiro: (Yorke, Heather, and Andrea)
In your article your article "Making Sense of Online Text" you stated that
"difficulties ecxperienced by less skilled readers are compounded when
reading on the Internet." How do you think this is going to affect the progress of our low level reading students in the classroom as we approach a time when a new technological literacy is required? How do you think we
can prevent them from falling even farther behind the rest of their peers?
We are currently revamping our comprehension strategies at my school, so Coiro’s article was an insightful complement to the strategies that we are trying to implement this year. As I read Coiro’s article, I found myself shaking my head in agreement especially in regards to inferring constantly while one reads online. I realize how much I actually do this while navigating through websites. It seems natural to me, but Coiro made me realize how important it is to break down the inferring process into manageable steps for our students to process.
As a learner, I enjoy utilizing both print text and online text—however, for completely different purposes. I too, like many in our class, love the tangible nature of fiction—its accessibility and mobility seems irreplaceable (however, I know this exemplifies my current breach with reality).
However, when researching anything--from a good restaurant to an intervention for a child in my classroom, I utilize the Internet. Thus, I am constantly reading online text. I realized that I self-regulate my reading subconsciously. After reading Coiro’s article, I began analyzing myself through the entire process of researching sensory processing disorders. I was “thinking and checking” through seven different websites until I found some interventions which I could implement in my classroom. However, during my search, I did become distracted easily as I navigated to several websites offering to sell me resources (Amazon). Very tempting…
Through reading this article, I realize that we need to devote a section of our comprehension instruction solely on online text. It could even be used to extend my lessons on inferring, which I will teach next quarter. The practicality of the skills that Coiro introduced is necessary for our students to be ready to be learners of the future.
I must admit, some of these students have more precise and effective strategies for reading online text than I do. When online text is used rather than printed text so many new layers of literacy skills and experience are introduced. The study by Coiro and Dobler illustrates that while background knowledge of text is crucial, equally imperative is that students have familiarity with the workings of the Internet. The Internet also contains such a vast amount of information that skills in deciphering what sites are accurate and created by reliable sources are necessary. With printed text reading, the information is often limited to one or two sources considered to contain precise information.
I find that my use of the Internet as a source of research is often limited to topics that are of personal interest to me rather than assigned information for classes. If I use the Internet to search for teaching related topics, articles or lesson plan ideas I will most likely print the text. Although, I am capable of reading nonfiction text online I find that if I really want to take the most from the piece I still like to highlight it and write notes in the margins.
While reading these articles my thoughts were focused on my fourth grade students and the emerging readers in younger grades. I think that the expectation of students to conduct research online starts before middle school and teachers at an elementary level need to increase the instruction of research methods. I wonder if reading should be taught differently in its early stages so that reading online text is incorporated as soon as printed text is introduced. In this time when so much of our information is available on the Internet should students be instructed online as they begin to learn reading strategies and comprehension skills or is it developmentally inappropriate? Do students need the printed text reading foundation before than can successfully navigate the Internet? I would also be interested in learning if students that are poor readers with printed text become more motivated to read when research is conducted online.
I personally find it harder to read text online rather than in print format on paper. When I have assignments where there are online articles I prefer to print them off to read, highlight, and take notes rather than reading it off of the computer screen. I also think it is harder for me to spend a lot of time reading text online because my eyes start to hurt as I stare at a lite up computer screen. When I am reading text from a book I can move around, adjust the lighting and angle of the text. When I am unable to print off text from the computer then I have a pen and pencil in hand to take notes and write down key points and ideas.
I believe that is important to use online print especially when there are complementary videos and pictures. In the past the primary way I have integrated online text in the classroom is through research projects and having students read articles online to find out information. However, there are many ways that I have learned to use online text in the classroom. I plan to start using it for stories that go along with units, specifically stories that have songs to accompany the main idea. I plan to use it to teach poetry and to look at different types of genres. The internet also enables students to receive a much wider range of information than books and other forms print text. Online text allows students to access much more information in a much easier fashion. I hope to use online text more often in my future classroom.
Similarly to many of the other students who have posted, I would rather read printed text if I am responsible for retaining it. I need to annotate the text by underlining, highlighting, and writing questions and notes in the margins to help me process the information. I also find it helpful to be able to revisit my notes and easily find the parts of the text that I underlined, or originally thought were important. When reading articles for class, I usually print them first in order to read them and retain more information.
I would also rather read a novel or a magazine in printed text. It is much easier to curl up with a good book as opposed to sitting at a desk with a computer. I prefer “old fashioned” reading for many texts and purposes; however, reading from the Internet has positive benefits as well. For example, articles on news sites are up-to-date and provide current information at the click of a mouse. I would also rather research using the Internet as opposed to sifting through printed journals or other printed texts in the library; however, once I find what I need on the Internet, I still want to be able to print it and take notes on the paper.
I was concerned when I read “one wonders if the greater complexities of online comprehension may lead to even greater gaps in reading performance between higher achieving and lower achieving readers,” (pg. 243). I worry about students who are already below grade level in regards to their reading level and how they will succeed as more assignments and research become Internet-based. How will we provide necessary scaffolding to support these readers in both print-based text and Internet-based text at the same time.
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