21 st Century Readers: Teaching Comprehension Strategies Using Digital Text

With text no longer relegated exclusively to the pages between the cover of a book or a magazine, the shift from paper to digital texts has brought on a whole new form of literacy. This upheaval in how we read brings with it new opportunities for learning as well as new challenges. -Matt Renwick

Transliteracy Transliteracy is the ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks. from “Transliteracy: Crossing Divides” in FirstMonday

Comprehension Struggles  Comprehension break downs & Fix-up strategies  Text Features in digital text  Visualizing  Close Reads

With traditional text, our students can… identify main idea. evaluate multiple perspectives. identify author’s purpose. compare and contrast characters. annotate.

With digital text, our students should be able to Identify main idea (expository text) Evaluate multiple perspectives (expository text) Identify author’s purpose (expository text) Compare and contrast (expository text) Annotate (expository text)

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Digital Natives They are digital natives, but still need… practice, strategies, explicit instruction, and guidance.

What goes wrong?? Traditional Text Text is too long Boring Tired Print too small Digital Text Distractions – ads, web features Text/font size Hard to annotate

How do we fix it? Digital Text Problems difficulty navigating (we are comfortable with text features in traditional text) distractions – links, ads, etc. text size noise distractions Fix-Ups find comparable features in digital text zoom in to the text I need zoom in/out use audio features w/ headphones We must identify the problem before we can fix it!

Text Features Find a comparable feature with digital text – Table of Contents – Index – Glossary Identify common locations on web pages for navigational tools What text features do our students usually ignore or overlook in traditional text? How does this carry over to digital text?

Text Features in Web based text

Visualizing Using apps to help students visualize in something they enjoy and it increases comprehension. "Proficient readers spontaneously and purposely create mental images while and after they read. The images emerge from all five senses as well as the emotions and are anchored in a reader's prior knowledge." -- Keene and Zimmerman, Mosaic of Thought

Carnegie Mellon University - Visualizing Faculty at Carnegie Mellon University have used the following apps in assisting visualization of concepts with graduate students What difficulties might we encounter for the instructor and/or the student? How can we avoid through preparation/address when these arise?

Aurasma in a Classroom

Close Reads What do we require of students during close reads? What difficulties do they have using digital text? Digital Annotation Tutorials - sophia.org

Practicing Digital Annotation Revolutionary War Lino Board

Bibliography Cooper, Charles. “Teaching With Aurasma.” Video. YouTube website. “Information Visualization Tools.” Article. Carnegie Mellon University website. “Response: A Good Reading Lesson Does Not Put Standards Before Students” Article. Education Weekly. 04/response_a_good_reading_lesson_doesnt_put_standards_before_students.html