Blog Post 3: Technology Implementation Strategies

Over the last few years technology in the classroom has become an expectation.  Teachers and librarians incorporate various forms of technology daily to teach and at the same time give students the opportunity to review skills and create new products using technology.  One current trend is to have young students use devices to read digitally in addition to reading traditional picture books.  This practice can be very beneficial when done right.

There are numerous benefits to using digital picture books with beginning readers.  One of the most obvious assets is that kids like them.  They are engaging, interactive, and hold students’ attention.  Young students are having fun while they are also developing valuable skills.  Digital reading helps develop the same early literacy skills as printed picture books.  Students who use this technology gain knowledge in “phonemic awareness, phonics and concepts about print, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension” (Cahill & McGill-Franzen, 2013, p. 32).  This can be especially helpful to students who are struggling as well as English language learners.  The interactive features of digital books provide built-in support.  For example, the story can be read aloud, and the words are highlighted as they are read so the student can read along.  Also, some books give the option to choose different reading levels so that many students can enjoy the same story but at a level that is right for them to read.

While it is true that digital books can be beneficial to students, the quality of the books used makes a difference. In order to see positive results, teachers and librarians must choose quality digital books.  The structure of the story itself is just as important as the design of the electronic book.  While the experience may be fun for students, without quality text to read, digital books won’t help students to progress and grow in early literacy skills.

There are several factors to consider when choosing digital books.  The text itself should be engaging, have well-developed characters, and be interesting and easy to understand (Cahill & McGill-Franzen, 2013, p. 34).  The images are equally as important because they add to the story and assist young readers by giving them clues to reading and understanding unknown words.  High quality digital books also have expressive narration that adds to the story and interactive features that enhance students’ reading experiences. 

Digital picture books can be used in several ways in the classroom and library.  I plan on using digital books with my struggling readers to work on fluency.  Using books with the record feature will allow my students to hear themselves read the text.  This recording will allow them to hear what they’re doing well while at the same time give them the opportunity to set meaningful goals to grow in reading fluency.  Students will be able to track their progress by using the record feature every couple weeks.  I would also like to use digital books with all my students as a model for writing.  Students will have the opportunity to read several digital books, and identify the elements that make it an interesting story to read.  They could then use those experiences to help them create their own digital books using apps such as Story Maker and My Story.  Digital books will provide my students with a different reading experience from traditional printed text, and I can’t wait to see the positive impact they have.

References
Cahill, M., & McGill-Franzen, A. (2013). Selecting "app"ealing and "app"ropriate book apps for beginning readers.
     The Reading Teacher, 67, 30-39.