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Volume 1, Issue 4 ISSN
1528-5804
Print Version
Article
and Commentaries Submit a Commentary
Dail, J. (2001). Responding to the new issues in
literacy instruction. Contemporary Issues in Technology and
Teacher Education [Online serial] , 1 (4) .
Available:
http://www.citejournal.org/vol1/iss4/currentissues/english/article2.htm
Responding to the New Issues in
Literacy Instruction
JENNIFER S. DAIL
Florida State University
Barbara Pace's article, 'Amazon, eBooks, and
Teaching Texts' raises the significance of metacognition as a
fundamental educational goal. As I read, I found myself stepping
back, just as I have at various points in my career, and asking
myself, 'How did I learn to do that when I read?' Like most, I
cannot pinpoint a tangible, descriptive moment in my education.
However, despite my inability to recall such a moment, the 'how'
becomes a critical issue when I am teaching students reading
strategies or teaching prospective teachers how to do so. Many
current theorists and practitioners (Burke, 2000; Robb, 2000) of
reading advocate instilling metacognitive strategies such as
self-monitoring as students think about what works and does not
work when they read and correct their strategies. Although the
development of such strategies takes time, teachers can instill
such strategies in students by repeatedly modeling them and
encouraging students as they track them through such means as
journaling, conferencing, and observing. The dilemma with teaching
metacognitive strategies to students resides in the modeling. One
cannot help but wonder how teachers might approach this task when
many are just beginning to reflect on such processes in themselves.
How can we model and teach students something with which we still
struggle?
Furthermore, how can we train both ourselves and
our students to become more critical readers who possess an
awareness of the material we subconsciously filter out? Pace refers
to Rosenblatt's (1988) discussion of 'selective attention' in which
learning hinges upon 'how we focus on the different elements of an
environment in which we are immersed.' How can we become more aware
of these elements that exist but that we do not see easily due to
our personal sets of experiences? How can we teach students to
understand their reading as a unique process?
The use of online bookstores and their many
resources to select books has potential as an excellent
metacognitive tool. A search for a class or group of texts as Pace
described, complemented by the vast information available on these
sites, requires readers to engage in several levels of problem
solving, to slow down and take a moment to consider various books
and question why they are considering some books over others. We,
teachers and students, unknowingly use these strategies on a
regular basis, yet fail to make these decision-making processes
explicit. So many teachers of reading simply take their students to
the library and say, 'Pick a book to read.' How? Why?
Concerns of Technology in the
Classroom
The concept of eBooks has many positive
applications in a classroom environment, as Pace asserts, but, as
with any technology, regardless of its simplicity or complexity,
concerns accompany its introduction into the classroom. The
plethora of quality reading material that eBooks provide for a
classroom is not insignificant by any means, and the instructional
implications become limitless. The eBooks and readers provide
occasions to make the processes of reading visible to a classroom
of students. The strategies that Pace suggested provide a new lens
through which to engage reluctant readers and challenge the fluency
of every reader. Nothing proves more exciting for students to
genuinely connect and interact with a text, and there is nothing
more rewarding for a teacher than to witness such an event. The use
of eBooks raises many questions of equal access, which every
teacher educator needs to address, including
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What about limitations of availability
of computers?
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How can we deal with the reluctance of teachers to
embrace technology?
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How can we become more creative in designing
classroom arrangements to facilitate these literary
activities?
Changes Technology Brings to Reading
Even in a classroom in which every student is
fortunate enough to have a computer available, is some elusive
intangible quality of printed books lost to technology? I picture
students in my own middle school language arts classroom passing
around a few precious copies of the latest book, usually Harry
Potter, that they are interested in and pointing out passages,
laughing, and discussing it as they share it. Students cannot very
well pass around a computer and interact in such a personal manner.
They cannot curl up comfortably upon piles of old pillows and
simply read. There is a certain quality that such actions bring to
enhancing the reading process, to making it more 'real' in the
sense that a book is something that students can take with them and
read anywhere. It is hard to imagine such a quality accompanying a
computer, even in this age of laptops; perhaps that is a new
educational challenge?
The use of computers for reading raises additional,
pedagogical questions:
While eBooks provide a more linear form of text
than the hypertext that students encounter on the Internet, it is
not identical to that of the printed page. For example, students
cannot easily and quickly flip back and forth from page to page to
reread and compare passages on the computer as they can with a
printed text. Instead they have to scroll and hunt for passages
with less of a side-by-side comparison.
The possibility that e-mail discussions among
students raises is excellent. Who can find fault with incorporating
reading and writing in the form of meaningful discussion? If such a
program were implemented in a classroom, the issue of availability
of computers and equal access rears its ugly head again. Many
logistics would need to be worked out for this great exchange of
words.
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Would students e-mail each other at school or from
home?
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If from home, what about those who do not have
computers or Internet access?
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What about issues of Internet safety?
Moving Beyond Pace's Project
Although Pace employs these technology-based
strategies and resources with prospective teachers, many of those
future teachers will replicate such experiences for their own
students in some manner. It is something that they will have
experienced that is new, exciting, and comfortable. Pace utilizes a
rich discussion in her class in which students share their
experiences in reading such stories and 'look for similarities in
the paths they have cut through the material.' Questions for
valuable research include:
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How similar are the paths students
discovered?
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Was there a distinct pattern that emerged or was
it erratically individual?
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If a distinct pattern emerged, to what was it
attributed?
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Were there distinct metacognitive steps?
The steps taken in this project to heighten teacher
awareness of their own reading processes are fascinating and
applicable in any literacy classroom. We need to witness classroom
applications of such technology enhancements as learning tools and
see how various classrooms answer some of the issues raised.
References
Burke, J. (2000). Reading reminders: Tools,
tips, and techniques . Portsmouth, NH: Boynton Cook
Publishers.
Robb, L. (2000). Teaching reading in middle
school: A strategic approach to teaching reading that improves
comprehension and thinking . New York: Scholastic.
Rosenblatt, L. 1988. Writing and reading: The
transactional theory (Technical Report No. 13). Center for the
Study of Writing.
Contact Information:
Jennifer Dail
1900 Centre Pointe Blvd. Apt. #265
Tallahassee, FL 32308
Phone: 850-645-3303
E-mail: jsdail@mindspring.com
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