Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Topic: E-Books

10-second review: Uses e-books to encourage responding to reading.


Title: “E-Reading and E-Responding: New Tools for the Next Generation of Readers.” LS Larson. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy (November 2009), 255-258.


Quote: “Many e-books allow for markups or annotations by the reader. The fifth graders I observed inserted sticky notes in response to the text. For example, the note in Figure 1 captured the reader’s thought process in the form of a personal query and was placed directly on the page in close proximity to the relevant passage. When annotating, students did not concern themselves with proper writing conventions and mechanics but rather focused on transferring their thoughts onto paper as quickly and effectively as possible. Students used invented spellings, letter and number abbreviations, and emoticons: ‘Poor him…he brought it on himself, 2 bad 4 U.’ ”


Comment: How about using sticky notes with traditional texts? How many teachers teach students to annotate as they read? Underline? To summarize? To note quotes worth saving? It is possible that e-books make such a process easier. There’s always the concern about writing in the public school textbooks. Nevertheless we should emphasize how to interact with text, whether traditional text or e-book. It’s the interaction that is important. RayS.

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