Literacy and Technology

1. Literacy and Technology Khalia Booth EDUC 7201T T6B: Seminar Appl/Thry and Research I Fall 2010 Professor O’Connor-Petruso October 19, 2010

2. Table of Contents • Statement of the Problem….. 3 • Literature Review….. 4 • Statement of the Hypothesis….. 8

3. Statement of the Problem • At P.S. X, several students in Ms. Y’s class have difficulty with reading comprehension, despite various reading strategies presented within class time to aid their literacy skills. Can the presence of electronic books with their built-in dictionaries, accessible highlighting, and re-sizable text assist these students in their reading comprehension skills?

4. Literature Review Technology as an assistant to teachers: Balajthy, E. (November 2007) Technology and Current Reading/Literacy Assessment Strategies The Reading Teacher, 61(3), pp. 240-247 DOI: 10.1598/RT.61.3.4 Teachers can assess students in a variety of ways such as online access to student records such as running records which are accumulated over the school year with teacher comments and observations, therefore making it easier for teachers to see a year-to-year growth of a student’s literacy skills from previous grades/schools. Barone, D. and Wright, T. E. (December 2008/January 2009) Literacy Instruction with Digital and Media Technologies The Reading Teacher, 62(4) pp. 292-302 DOI:10.1598/RT.62.4.2 A teacher’s use of a laptop program for his classroom shows how he has integrated the technology with his lessons by having his students start the day with a computer-based prompt,; when reading a book, the students create a book blog for online discussions; and there are websites that the teacher has chosen to have his students practice vocabulary that is tailored for his students’ needs. Britten, J.S. and Cassady, J.C. The Technology Integration Assessment Instrument: Understanding Planned Use of Technology by Classroom Teachers (2005) Computers in the Schools Vol. 22, No. 3/4, pp. 49-61 DOI: 10.1300/J025v22n03_05 Teachers can take the creation of their lessons from simple word-processor based assignments to Power-Point presentations that push the level of learning one step further by adding a web-link that connects with the lesson. The web-link is encouraged to foster student interaction by having them interact with online pen-pals or connect with an author of a book they’re reading for class discussion.

5. Literature Review, Page 2 Technology’s use in the classroom: Moallem, M., Kermani, H. and Chen, S. Handheld, Wireless Computers: Can they improve learning and instruction? (2005) Computers in the Schools Vol. 22, No. ¾ , 2005, pp. 93-106 DOI: 10.1300/J025v22n03_08 A program that gives a classrooms a set of PDAs and examines the teacher/student reaction to the technology. Students were favorable to the HWCs, but expressed concern about the lagging wireless access. Teachers liked the HWCs for the support/enhancement of the lessons and easier reading of student assessment, but had issues of trouble shooting with the absence of a tech support. Rhodes, J. A. and Milby, T. M. (November 2007) Teacher-Created Electronic Books: Integrating Technology to Support Readers with Disabilities The Reading Teacher, 61(3), pp.255-259 DOI:10.1598/RT.61.3.6 Students with disabilities with literacy struggles can have an easier time re-telling their stories via computers and creating their own electronic books that serve as the basis for a classroom library for the rest of the school year. Sternberg, B.J., Kaplan, K. A., and Borck, J.E. Enhancing Adolescent Literacy Achievement Through Integration of Technology in the Classroom (July/August/September 2007) Reading Research Quarterly 42/3 pp. 416-420 DOI: 10.1598/RRQ.42.3.6 This is an examination of the various possibilities that technology can be used in the classrooms. E-mail exchanges for book discussions, online courses that give greater flexibility for the students in managing their education in difficult times, computer-based assessment of student class-work that gives the participating student feedback on their literacy development and the professional development of teachers regarding technology in the classroom are all aimed to increase student achievement with regards to literacy.

6. Literature Review, Page 3: Technology’s Effect Upon the Students: Blachowicz, C. L.; Bates, A.; Berne, J., Bridgman, T.; Chaney, J., and Perney, J. (2009) Technology and At-Risk Young Readers and Their Classrooms Reading Psychology, 30, pgs. 387-411 DOI: 10.1080/02702710902733576 Examines 18 classrooms and observed the reactions of teachers and at-risk students towards the technology. Teachers grew comfortable with the technology, while the students remained actively engaged in computer programs that worked beyond the “workbook with a screen” mode of education. The technology enabled differentiated instruction for the students’ which opened the eyes of the teachers who acknowledged that with the technology present, she would never have given the students the individualized instruction he/she needed. The at-risk students saw their own growth and concrete examples of their learning to the point that they felt that they were actively achieving something of value in their presence in the classroom. Chera, P.; Littleton, K.; Wood, C. (May 4, 2006) Interactions with Talking Books: Phonological awareness affects boys’ use of talking books Journal of Computer Assisted Learning 22, pp. 382-390 The use of talking books with boys who have low phonological awareness helped to significantly improve their phonological proficiency. There was a deeper engagement with the talking book that was appropriate to their age level and being encouraged to chime in with the book as it is reading to them helped give the boys confidence in their word reading skills. The boys who had higher phonological awareness were able to engage with the talking books on a more advanced level by being able to decode the text independently, but turned to the speech portions of the book to help them when needed.

7. Literature Review, Page 4 Technology’s Effects Upon the Students (continued): Korat, O. and Shamir, A. (October 25, 2006) Electronic Books versus adult readers: Effects on children’s emergent literacy as a function of social class Journal of Computer Assisted Learning (2007), 23, pp. 248-259 DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2279.2006.00213.x It was found that students from lower socio-economic status scored higher using electronic readers than students with higher socio-economic status. The threshold for achievement for the students from high socio-economic status was higher than those from lower SES, therefore making their achievement of high scores much more difficult to obtain and harder to discern over whether the presence of electronic books for them was as effective as electronic books for those of lower SES. Zucker, T.A., Moody, A.K., McKenna, M.C. (2009) The Effects of Electronic Books on Pre-Kindergarten-to-Grade 5 Students’ Literacy and Language Outcomes: A Research Synthesis J. Educational Computing Research, Vol. 40(1) 47-87 An overview of various studies that have examined the effects of e-books from pre-kindergarten to fifth grade. It was found that in some studies in the lower grades (Pre-K to 3), students scored better after having an electronic book read to them with an adult present rather than reading the e-book on their own. The Pre-K to 3 students were also found to be easily distracted by electronic books that had an overabundance of interactive features and thus gained low scores on reading comprehension and re-telling. The students who worked with electronic books that simply had text, text-to-speech features and in-book explanations of what certain words meant scored higher.

8. Statement of the Hypothesis Over a period of two-three weeks, six students from P.S. X’s fifth grade classes who struggle with reading comprehension will be given a set of books. Three will choose books from an electronic book library and the other three will read books from the print library. Their motivation is to use the books they have chosen as the basis for a short book report and a brief reading comprehension quiz.