BY: HEATHER BEAVER, JOY DAUGHTRY, AND JENNIFER HAMBLEY Digital Books and Primary Literacy Skills

Guiding Question: Do digital books/e-Books promote literacy development in elementary students?

Article #1 Title: Reading electronic books as a support for vocabulary, story comprehension and word reading in kindergarten and first grade by Ofra Korat (2010) The Study:  90 kindergarten and first grade students in Israel  What impact, if any do e-books have on reading comprehension and vocabulary development for students in kindergarten and first grade?

Article #1 Method:  Students assigned randomly to a control group or experimental group  Experimental group: five sessions with an electronic version of an age-appropriate children’s book  Control book: Students taught the same book based on standard curriculum practices (Such as teacher read-aloud) Findings:  Children in both grades using the e-book exhibited significant progress in word reading, vocabulary development, and story comprehension when compared with the control group  e-books were more beneficial for kindergarteners for word meaning  e-books were more beneficial in helping 1 st graders in the difficult task of “story production”

Article #2 Title: The efficacy of electronic books in fostering kindergarten children’s emergent story understanding, by M. T. de June and A. G. Bush The Study:  18 kindergarten children in the Netherlands were selected  Goal: To compare the effects of children’s story comprehension when working independently with e-books, compared with the effects on reading comprehension of printed books read aloud to children by adults

Article #2 Method:  Each student participated in 12, five minute sessions.  Each student participated in three different conditions:  1.) Interaction with the oral reading rendition of an e-book  2.) Having a text read-aloud to the child by an adult  3.) Control scenario (not specified by the authors what the “control” condition entailed)  After each session, children were videotaped re-telling the story they just heard. The tapes were transcribed and coded for analysis. Findings:  Children are not distracted by added animations in an e-book.  The children’s understanding of the e-book was comparable to their level of understanding after repeated adult-led readings of the same book

Article 3: a Qualitative Case Study Digital Readers: The Next Chapter in E-Book Reading and Responses Main Questions How can wireless digital reading devices support primary readers in their reading processes as they read and respond to digital texts? How do wireless digital reading devices advance e-book readership as they offer new avenues for accessing and manipulating texts?

Amy Winnie 7 yr old Caucasian Female Primary language English reads at a beginning 2 nd grade level. 8 yr old Asian female speaks Chinese as first language Chinese and English as second language Reads at fifth grade level Digital Readers: Participants

Digital Readers: Methods Researcher observed Amy and Winnie read the same e-book using Kindles for 40 minutes daily over a period of 3 weeks. Data: field notes and interviews with students, parents and teacher

Literature Responses New literacy Practices digital notes provided insights into readers’ thinking Types of responses: understanding the story, personal meaning making, questioning, answering and literary evaluation Font size adjustment Dictionary Text to Speech (Audio) Preferred Kindle for reading experience Digital Readers: Findings

Main Question Participants How do e-books compare with printed books in the support of LSES children’s EL with and without adult assistance? 128 children from 12 Kindergarten classes in LSES neighborhoods in Israel (Results only reflect 52 students) Mean age 5.8 Nearly equal distribution of males and females All children has same curriculum, including basic computer training Electronic and Printed Books With and Without Adult Support as Sustaining Emergent Literacy

Methods Each student randomly assigned to one of the following groups: Printed book (PB-control) Printed book with Support (PBS) E-book without support (EB) E-book with support (EBS) four book reading sessions (15-20 mins) 3 trained adults provided support for EBS and PBS groups during and after session Multiple measures of EL before and after the interventions.

Data Sources Multiple sources used to asses EL before and after Intervention including: Recognition of letter name (.86) Letter -sound connection. (.93) Phonological awareness (.97/.93) Word Reading test (.87) Modified CAP (.78) -results of pre-tests used to divide students into initial low and high EL

FINDINGS The EBS group demonstrated the greatest improvement in emergent literacy. Data Analysis MANOVA and regression used to control for initial differences in pre- test scores and demographics ELEBEBSPBSPB Low High

Article #5 Title: Bimodal Reading: Benefits of a Talking Computer for Average and Less Skilled Readers The Study:  18 average readers and 18 less skilled readers in 8 th and 9 th grade in New York  Is bimodal presentation more effective than either visually or auditoy presented passages in terms of comprehension for average and less skilled readers?

Article #5 Method:  All students participated in three sessions (one for each grade level *6 th, 8 th, 9 th based on Fry Readability graph)  They read one passage using each condition in each session (one auditory, one visual, and one bimodal)  After each passage, students orally answered 10 open-response comprehension questions. Findings:  Average readers answered more questions correctly than less skilled readers.  Less skilled readers benefited significantly from bimodal presentation.  For average readers, bimodal presentation was only significantly superior to auditory presentation.

Article #6 Title: Electronic Books: Children’s Reading and Comprehension The Study:  year-old students in England  Does the medium of presentation affect children’s comprehension?  Are there particular features of the medium that might be responsible for any advantage in reading comprehension?

Article #6 Method:  Two Reading groups:  51 students read The Magicians of Caprona 25 read a printed version with a printed dictionary 26 read an electronic version with an online dictionary  81 students read an extract from The Little Prince 29 read a printed version 26 read a CD-ROM version without voice narration 26 read a CD-ROM version with voice narration  After reading, students took a multiple choice comprehension test.

Article #6 Findings:  There was no significant comprehension difference based on electronic and non-electronic mediums, but there was a difference between the group that used the CD-ROM and the group who used the CD-ROM with narration.  There was a significant different in dictionary use for the first group.  18 of 24 students used online dictionary  1 of 25 students used printed dictionary  Why would this not cause a difference in comprehension?

So, do digital/e-books promote literacy development in elementary students? E-Books appear to be at least as effective in promoting the ability to re-tell the elements of a story as read-alouds by adults and interaction with traditional print text. However, not all studies agree that there is a significant difference in achievement when using e-books. More extensive studies are needed.  Larger sample size  Long-term studies

Digital Readers: Classroom Implications Offers teachers assessments of comprehension and reading behaviors Allows teacher to provide targeted differentiated instruction Supports independent use of reading strategies

E-Books: Further Implications E-books should be incorporated into Kindergarten literacy centers in LSES schools E-books with a narration feature aid student comprehension the most.