Digital Tools to Promote Close Reading Lindsey Thompson Professional Development Coordinator, Delaware Community Schools Teacher Consultant and Co-Director of Technology, Indiana Writing Project lthompson@delcomschools.org

Why teach digital reading skills? Digital texts promote skimming allow easy connection to additional information make collaboration easy Why teach digital reading skills?

Close reading in a word document Word (and programs like Google Docs) allow students to interact with the text by Commenting Highlighting Linking Making bold, italics, etc. Close reading in a word document

When to use word documents for close reading When you want students to Develop background information Understand allusions Use comments to explain a concept Link to their sources Differentiate ideas Identify times a particular word or phrase is used When to use word documents for close reading

Group Annotations Why use group annotations of a text? Students can learn from each other’s comments. All comments are in one place for easy access by students and teachers. Everyone will notice or connect with different parts of the text, so a more thorough annotation can be complete together. Group Annotations

Tools for Group Annotation NowComment.com Google Docs Diigo Tools for Group Annotation

Image analysis Images Students Might Analyze Charts and graphs Advertisements Paintings Photographs Videos Political cartoons Image analysis

Image analysis What to “read” in an image Make predictions about a topic Explain what objects mean Identify different parts of the image Label the objects Explain how the parts contribute to the whole Image analysis

Tools for image analysis http://www.szoter.com/ www.thinglink.com (my favorite, but paid) Tools for image analysis

Application to your classroom Make a plan for how you might use digital tools to promote close reading in your classroom. Take a couple minutes to think of how you could use this in your classroom. Application to your classroom