Bringing the Book Club to the 21st Century: eReaders and Literacy Intervention
An adapted version of this post was published on Ed Tech's website, found here.
"Hey, Mr. Renwick, when are the iPads coming in?"
"They're not iPads - they are eReaders. I am not sure."
two days later
"Hey, Mr. Renwick, when are the iPads coming in?"
"They're not...nevermind. Soon!"
This is a continuous conversation I have been having with one of my 4th graders. He, along with nine other 4th and 5th graders, will soon be receiving eReaders. They are members of our after school book club, which also serves as a reading intervention. Our goal is simple: Get our most reluctant readers to start reading habitually. We believe that introducing digital books as part of our available library of texts will further engage our students in this most critical skill.
Why go digital?
The book club students are not lacking in available books to read. Before it started, one of our reading teachers purchased many high-interest, easy-to-read texts for the students from a local book store. In addition, the book club meets in our school library media center. They are surrounded by stories.
Yet proximity does not necessarily mean all students will read. They have had access to these books for years. Why haven't they picked them up yet? After reading the current research on digital literacy, we felt eReaders can increase levels of engagement with our reluctant readers in a way that print has not thus far. These students, like many their age, go home after school and play video games or interact on social media. The diffference is the chance that they will pull even the most engaging text out of their bag to read independently is less than likely when compared to their peers. But with an eReader, even the basic ones we have purchased, the relevancy of reading goes up for these students. We are speaking their language: Technology.
Two Types of Text: Differentiating Our Instruction
It is not that technology is the end all, be all for our students' reading diet. We see it rather as a segue to a more literacy-centric life. Words are words. The whole point of reading is to be engaged and informed. The actual comprehension, enjoyment and learning happens inside one's head, not in the text. Both the print and digital word provide the same thing - an opportunity to experience someone else's life, a far away world, or a different culture than our own. The text, regardless of the format, is the vehicle that takes us there.
That being said, reading print versus digital text requires a shift in instruction. For starters, students can see their progress with a print book by simply looking at the thickness of the remaining pages. We will have to teach them how to assess their reading volume with the percentage complete data on the bottom of the screen. Second, annotating and highlighting important passages in a digital text only demands a touch of the screen. With print, a packet of sticky notes plus a pencil would be necessary to curate text that resonated with the reader. As well, there is a certain getting used to when reading on an eReader for the first time. We are swiping pages instead of turning them. We can increase the font size if the type is too small on an eReader. Print books don't require a charge every month or so. As much as students enjoy their technology, it comes back to good instruction to show students how to use it efficiently and effectively.
A Balancing Act
Our book club students were allowed to choose the texts to be downloaded on the eReaders. As we navigated through all the choices, we slowly realized that there weren't a lot of nonfiction books that work with our simple eReaders. That makes sense. Many newer nonfiction books have lots of graphics, which lend themselves better to print at this time. It provides a great point I plan to make with our students: Life long readers rely on a variety of formats when interacting with texts, both digital and in print. In the mean time, if an eReader gets a student to pick up a book more often, I say why not?