[MOSAIC] Online Reading Comprehension

[Joy]

Yesterday I attended a lecture by Donald Leu, "How Reading Comprehension Has Changed While We Weren't Looking."
   
  I learned that online reading has some novel literacy skills; however, many connected back to Ellin's work. Questioning is very important. Students must be able to identify important questions because in order to do a search or analyze the results they have to know what question they are trying to answer. They must citically evaluate the usefullness of the information, or determine importance. They must synthesize the information in order to answer their questions. Finally, they must communicate what they learn to others. Dr. Leu asserts that your create your own text with each click.
   
  The biggest problem he sees is that there is no correlation between state reading tests and online reading. Evidently the US is way behind the rest of the world in this respect. He showed us data that indicates that being able to read online well is not correlated to high/low reading abilities, and that the kids who tested poorly in traditional reading actually scored the highest for online reading. He believes teaching online reading skills to the less able readers is the way to go (rather than allowing students who finish first to go online, he suggests starting the lowest readers online, and allowing them to teach and scaffold their peers.)
   
  I join faculty, staff, and graduate students at NC State today for a lunch discussion about the "New Literacies" today. I hope to learn more, and make more connections. This is fascinating. 
   
  Has anyone else had any experience with this? Do you see the things he describes?


                Joy/NC/4
  jwidmann at rocketmail.com
  How children learn is as important as what they learn: process and content go hand in hand. http://www.responsiveclassroom.org
   









       
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