While working on this project with my 5th grade boys, I decided to check out a few websites to see what others have found on this same topic. The main question that I wanted to answer was “Can technology motivate reluctant readers, and how?” After going over my work, and that of 4th grade teacher Jacquie Fitch, I believe that technology can indeed motivate reluctant readers. On the first day that I had the opportunity to work with these three boys, I could already tell that they DID NOT like reading at all, and groaned at the mention of working with books. As I read on that day, only one of the students became even moderately engaged. The other two were gazing off at other students and staring up at the ceiling. But after letting them work with the technology during the lesson, the boys instantly became more motivated. Having worked with them only three times, I could already see huge improvements. On the last day all three of them were extremely engaged with the text, asking questions, making predictions, and getting excited about what we were reading. I know that this dramatic increase in motivation and attention was due to the incorporation of the technology, which all of these students loved and were always really excited about. Fourth grade teacher Jacquie Fitch saw similar results when she began incorporating IPods into her literacy instruction. She took a group of her reluctant readers and let them listen to their books being read on IPods, instead of having them read independently to themselves. What she found from this was that she had no students showing off task behaviors when using the IPods, instead they were all extremely engaged. She also notes “I also observed an increase in student motivation to read chapter books when they knew the iPods would be used. It was exciting to see students who had previously struggled with reading on their own performing well with iPods in class” (Fitch, 2010). So based on my research and that of Jacquie Fitch, I believe that technology does encourage reluctant readers by keeping them on task and giving them more motivation to read books.
My second question that I wanted to answer out of this was “How might technology be used to enhance reading instruction?” In my lessons, I used the technology as a fun way to reinforce what we had been discussing in the lesson. We would read the books and then talk about some literacy concept, followed by a brief session working with some technology. Just the promise of getting to work with this technology at the end of every lesson was enough for the students to stay motivated and engaged throughout the reading. Authors Ann Holum, Ph.D., and Jan Gahala, M.A. also agree that technology can be used to help readers. They say that “Technology is most effective when it is used as an adjunct to traditional reading instruction. "A consistent finding from investigations of reading curricula is that brief, but regular, computer-based reading lessons can enhance reading achievement” (Holum, & Gahala, 2001).They recommend technology that supports the student’s reading development such as audio books, electronic talking books, and programmed reading instruction. Their approach is geared more towards using the technology for the actual reading, which I think is a great idea. One website that I found particularly helpful during my research has been http://webtools4u2use.wikispaces.com. Originally created for school media specialists, this has been a great resource for me in looking for ideas of things to do in the classroom. I, for example got my idea of the newspaper generator as well as toondoo.com from this website. Both of these were great ideas that the students really enjoyed working with. At this site there are just lists upon lists of links that take you directly to each site. I know that this is a resource that I will definitely be using more in the future.
In summary, from working with my students and by looking at these three resources, I have found that technology definitely does encourage reluctant readers and that it is best used as a supplement to regular reading instruction. I’m so glad to have chosen this topic for my project, and I know that this is information that will be very useful in my future classroom.
References:
Fitch, Jacquie. (2010, April 08). Innovation grant: jacquie fitch. Retrieved from http://wiki.canby.k12.or.us/groups/ipodusergroup/weblog/d9af6/
Holum, Ann, & Gahala, Jan. (2001, October). Critical issue: using technology to enhance literacy instruction. Retrieved from http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/content/cntareas/reading/li300.htm
Webtools4u2use. (2011). Retrieved from http://webtools4u2use.wikispaces.com/
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