Online Reading Comprehension

I decided to jump outside my comfort zone and tackle a topic that has intrigued me for years--online reading comprehension. What do students understand of what they read online? How do their reading strategies differ? As classroom teachers, how can we best support students?

The new lines of research in this area are fascinating and filled with ideas to consider. Basically, the main points can be summarized like this:

-Online reading comprehension is different from offline reading comprehension, in ways that we still don't understand entirely;

-Methods for teaching offline reading comprehension don't always transfer well to online reading comprehension;

-Students don't always transfer what they know and can do in social situations to academic reading situations;

-Collaborative learning activities are especially helpful for online reading comprehension, as students learn new tech skills readily from each other.

I'll be presenting about online reading comprehension at the Pennsylvania Educational Technology Expo and Conference...stop by and check it out!

Resources for learning more:

Research in Learning Technology: Online journal with enough articles to keep you reading and thinking for weeks!

Literacy Beat blog: This post explains how to frame digital reading as inquiry.

Jill Castek's site: Lots of resources and journal articles related to online reading.

CAST Strategy Tutor: An online tool to support reading.

Looking at the interplay between online and offline reading comprehension: A 2009 presentation by Julie Coiro.

ORCA: A presentation about the Online Reading Comprehension Assessment, to be released at some point in the future.

New Literacies of Online Reading Comprehension and Research: A presentation by Dr. Donald Leu.

Texts for Digital Think-Alouds and Multimodal Activities

Cornell Feeder Watch Cam: Lots of visual images to discuss and explore.

MV Fram Expedition Blog: A blog of a ship's journey to Antarctica. Many students are unfamiliar with the backwards chronology of a blog.

Frolyc: Create your own multimodal activities and publish them to student iPads.



References

Bearne et al. 2007. Castek, Jill, L. Zawilinski, J. G. McVerry, W. I. O'Byrne, and D. Leu. (2008). The new literacies of online reading comprehension.

Brumberger, Eva. (2011). Visual Literacy and the Digital Native: An Examination of the Millenial Learner. Journal of Visual Literacy.

Dobson, Teresa, and J. Willinsky. 2009. Digital Literacy. In D. Olson and N. Torrance (Eds), Cambridge Handbook on Literacy.

Henry, Laurie, J. Castek, W.I. O’Byrne, and L. Zawalinski (2012). Using Peer Collaboration to Support Reading, Writing, and Communication: An Empowerment Model for Struggling Readers. Reading and Writing Quarterly, 28.

Hinrichsen, Juliet, and A. Coombs. 2013. The five resources of critical digital literacy: a framework for curriculum integration. Research in Learning Technology, v. 21.

Littlejohn, A., Beetham, H., and McGill, L. 2012. Learning at the digital frontier: a review of digital literacies in theory and practice. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 28:6.

Malloy, Jacquelynn, J. Castek, and D. Leu. 2010. Silent Reading and Online Reading Comprehension. In Revisiting Silent Reading: New Directions for Teachers and Researchers, E. Hiebert and D. Reutzel, eds.

Walsh, Maureen. 2010. Multimodal Literacy: What Does It Mean for Classroom Practice? Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 33:3.

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