Category: computer usage for reading

Student Developmental Processing Lag

Student language development was stunted during the pandemic. Students were put in “rooms” with computers. This led to a “student lag” in developing cognitive processing skills. Students are struggling to upload and process language, and analyze and synthesize the information with stored knowledge for future use. You can hear student brain strain as they scrabble to process the information, often struggling to locate old information and hold new information long enough to make the necessary connections to process spoken and written information. Students are now working overtime to build and perhaps struggling maintain brain connections. This lends to many tired and overwhelmed students who often become frustrated. Students will often checkout of the learning process with or without proper interaction and instructional scaffolding. Students who lack intrinsic motivation will likely fall further behind. Intrinsic motivation pushes them to power through the struggle to develop the necessary connections to process information.

Many students didn’t have “normal” interactions with extended relatives, neighbors, classmates, or community members during the pandemic. These nonplanned community interactions usually stimulate the development of oral language capabilities that assist in developing written literacy skills. These skills are interwoven. Students also didn’t receive the “normal” opportunity to build and strengthen brain connections that students usually need to function within a regular school day. Many of these connections are developed through natural social interactions. Students may also develop part of these brain connections through purposeful instructional lessons that allow for practice of taught skill.

The severity of the processing lag will differ depending on different possible factors. Some of those factors are noted below:

  • Student Age. Students are typically pruning unneeded brain connections during their preprimary years of education. Children typically have major cognitive changes around age 7 and 10-12 that correspond with physical developmental changes. Children between the ages of 2 and 6 spend a large amount of time mimicking their surroundings.
  • Reading on a digital device. This usually develops skimmers of the words/passages, which decreases their ability to read deeply for accurate comprehension. This also affects their short-term memory development and use.
  • Lack of interaction with individuals of higher cognitive processing skills
  • Lack of investigative activities that require interaction outside of their home, like travel or trips to the local museums
  • Lack of reading instruction and materials that may require the interaction of other individuals
  • Lack of exercise
  • Learning how to use technology
  • Adjusting to longer usage of technology…staring at a computer screen, television or video game
  • Less time writing manually. Manual writing assist in learning how to process and use information. This also assists in memory formation.

Students may need a few years to “catch-up” to their grade-level expectations. This may be shortened through explicit instruction. Students will be lacking necessary background information (foundational or prior knowledge) that may further impede the learning of new concepts. This may increase the need for differentiating and scaffolding of instruction and learning opportunities to ensure participation and ownership of new information taught. Patience may be one of the bigger pieces of the “catch-up” phase.

References

Piaget, J. & Inhelder, B. (2000/1966). The psychology of the child. New York, NY: Basic Books.

Wolf, M. (2018). Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World. New York, NY: HarperCollins.

Proven Instructional Models and Technology That Increases Student Intrinsic Motivation

As our nation moves to a more independent or on-line form of instruction students that are more intrinsically motivated will likely be more successful.  Students are born with natural or intrinsic motivation—curiosity, ambition, and emotions (Wilson & Wilson, 1921).  Student inner, intrinsic motivation usually moves them towards participation in an activity that they enjoy.  Student inner motivation may also give them the desire to participate in activities that they may not enjoy, but will move them forward in the completion of a task or goal.  Student environment usually creates a desire learn how to read, comprehend, and write.  There are also proven instructional methods that usually increase student intrinsic motivation to learn.  The following methods may increase student engagement, involvement during on-line instruction.

The first three instructional methods rely on technology.  Research has proven that technology in general usually increases student intrinsic motivation to become engaged in the process of learning.  Technology is a good tool, but educators need to be mindful of the purpose and the amount of time that students are spending in front of an electronic screen.  As the type and amount of screen time may be hindering student reading ability.  In Dr. Wolf’s (2018) book Reader Come Home, she states that electronic devices may limit student ability to develop deep-reading processes.   Deep-reading involves many connections or parts of the brain to fully comprehend the written words.   Deep-reading also requires more energy than skimming.  To maintain and increase the brain connections necessary to comprehend written words students need to regularly exercise deep-reading skills as they mature (Healy, 1990; Wolf, 2018).   The skills of deep-reading can be taught in a viral environment.

  • The U-Learning Method uses mobile computers that can adapt to different learning environments, allowing students to learn on location (Hsiao, Line, Fang, & Li, 2010). This type of instruction allows students to have access to resources in the field.  U-Learning also allows students to record research notes, video, and pictures.  U-Learning can be used for independent or small group learning.
  • Student web pages usually increases intrinsic motivation (Dredger, Woods, Beach, & Sagstetter, 2010; Reed-Swale, 2009). Students develop and maintain web pages that are overseen by the teacher.  Students have the opportunity to write about topics of their interest.  Students usually enjoy the opportunity to express their thoughts, while working at their academic level.
  • Digital applications usually create ambition or intrinsic motivation (Saine, Lerkkanen, Ahonen, Tolvanen, & Lyytinen, 2010; Servilio, 2009; Yang, 2010). Digital application instruction gives teachers a platform to teach students how to problem solve in a non-threatening environment (Yang, 2012).  Some digital applications allow for differentiated instruction (Saine et al., 2010; Servilio, 2009).  Digital instructional games allow students to visually connect letters and sounds (Saine et al. 2010).  Computer applications, digital games can be a positive resource to use within the classroom.
  • The Project-based Learning (PBL) model usually increases student intrinsic motivation and reading achievement, in particular comprehension (Chu, Tse, Lou, & Chow, 2011). The PBL approach gives students the opportunity to explore, collect information, analyze data, and present findings.  The PBL model also gives students the opportunity to select a topic for a research project based on the teacher’s guidelines for that lesson.
  • Interdisciplinary Units usually increase student motivation to participate in instructional lessons (Opitz, 2011; Chu, Tse, Loh, & Chow, 2011). Research suggests combining two different subjects into one assignment to spark student interest in the instructional lesson.  Students may enjoy one of the subjects and despise the other subject; however, the subject they enjoy will usually motivate them to complete the assignment.  When literacy instruction is integrated with other subjects or projects of interest student intrinsic motivation and literacy achievement usually improves.  Student motivation also increases when they are allowed to choose the topic of study under the direction of the teacher.
  • The Flow-Learning Model was developed for the study of nature (Cornell, 1998). Flow-learning includes four stages that provide instructors with a framework to present instructional lessons—provides for a natural beginning, middle and end to the instructional lesson.   The stages are: (a) awaken student enthusiasm or curiosity, (b) narrow student attention towards the topic of instruction, (c) practice or direct experience of the lesson, and (d) student reflection of their interaction or practice of the lesson (Cornell, 1998).  The flow-learning model can give students the opportunity to see, watch, touch, and experience the lesson (Hsiao, Lin, Fang, & Lee, 2010).  The flow-learning model allows for all instructional groups and can be adapted for use in the outdoor or indoor instructional setting.

References

Chu, S.K.W., Tse, S.K., Loh, E.K.Y., & Chow, K. (2011).  Collaborative inquiry project-based learning: Effects on reading ability and interests. Library & Information Science  Research, 33(3), 236-243.  doi: 10.1016/j.list.2010.09.008

Cornell, J. (1998).  Flow learning.  Retrieved from http://www.csun.edu/~vcrec004/rtm351/Flow%20Learning%20Summary.pdf

Dredger, K., Woods, D., Beach, C., & Sagstetter, V. (2010).  Engage me: using new literacies to create third space classrooms that engage student writers. The National Association for Media Literacy Education’s Journal of Media Literacy Education, 2(2), 85-101.

Healy, J. M. (1990).  Endangered Minds.  New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Paperbooks.

Hsiao, H.-S., Lin, C.-C., Fang, R.-T., & Li, K.-J. (2010). Location based services for outdoor ecological learning system: Design and implementation. Educational Technology & Society, 13(4), 98-111.

Opitz, M.F. (2011) Transcending the curricular barrier between fitness and reading with fitlit. The Reading Teacher, 64(7), 535-540.  doi: 10.1598/RT.64.7.8

Reed-Swale, T.W (2009). Engaging digital natives in a digital world teaching more than web design. Synergy Learning, 22(128), 22-25.

Saine, N.L., Lerkkanen, M.-K., Ahonen, T., Tolvanen, A., & Lyytinen, H. (2010). Predicting word-level reading fluency outcomes in three contrastive groups: Remedial and computer assisted remedial reading intervention, and mainstream instruction. Learning and Individual Differences, 20(5), 402-414. doi:  10.1016/j.lindif.2010.06.004

Servilio, K. (2009).  You get to choose! Motivating students to read through differentiated instruction.  Teaching Exceptional Children Plus, 5(5), Article 5.  Retrieved November 7, 2012 from http://escholarship.bc.edu/education/tecplus/vol5/iss5/art5

Wilson, H.B., & Wilson, G.M. (1921). The motivation of school work. Cambridge, MA: The Riverside Press.

Wolf, Maryanne (2018).  Reader, come home.  The reading brain in a digital world. New York, NY:  HarperCollins.

Yang, C. Y. (2012). Building virtual cities, inspiring intelligent citizens: digital games for developing students’ problem solving and learning motivation. Computer & Education, 59(2), 365-377.  doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2012.01.012.

 

Book Reading Activities

COVID-19 temporarily changed how we live our daily lives, in particular how we educate our youth.  Most schools have gone to a “long-distant”, digital format to continue providing instruction and practice for students to continue their formal education.  Students have more time to read and should be making this a top priority.  This is one of the most important educational practices a student can do during this time.  Students should be reading novels or books that have longer story lines.  Students should be reading books closer to their reading ability.  Many educational sites are offering free downloads of novels for students to read.  Most school sites also have books that can be downloaded or read on-line.  Students who are not used to reading written words on electronic devices may struggle at reading and processing the written words.  So, this may make the process of reading and comprehending written words slower than  normal. 

The following options are possible exercises that students can do at home to increase reading achievement.  Most of these options can be used with either non-fiction or fiction books.  These practices usually increase student knowledge and cognition.  The exercise of reading continues to strengthen and develop brain connections that increase student literacy abilities.  These “brain muscles” should have regular exercise.

  • Keep a journal about what they have read each day or time they read.  This journal can include pictures that convey a character or passage of what they have read.
  • Write a summary of each chapter, four to eight sentences. Writing a paragraph that has a topic sentence followed by detail sentences or sentences that describe the details of the chapter, and a conclusion sentence about the chapter.
  • Write a summary of the book. This summary should include details about the beginning, middle, and end.  The amount of details that should be included in the summary will be different at each stage of the maturation process.  Students can also include details about the major characters and pictures about the different settings and characters, etc.
  • Draw a picture of your favorite character(s). Students should include four or five colors to express the character.  The process is especially helpful for younger students.  I have taught many older students who also enjoy this process. Older students should be held accountable for writing about the picture.  I often have students write a paragraph. 
  • Described the main character(s). Students might describe what they look like, what the character(s)enjoy, what they don’t like, and how the character(s) spend their time.
  • Described the setting of the story. Students might describe one setting or several settings of a novel.  Students might include pictures and written words to describe the setting of the story.  Some of the information displayed by the students may be inferred information.  This means that each written description or picture may be different, as we all have different backgrounds of knowledge. 
  • Draw a picture of the setting or favorite scene in the book.
  • Describe the problem or climax of the book. This is something that not every student can grasp, some may need discussion to fully comprehend or pinpoint the problem or climax of the book.
  • Face-time (or contact through an electronic device) a relative, classmate, or friend to describe the plot of the story, character, chapter, etc.
  • Buddy read; this can be accomplished in different formats. Younger students can read aloud to higher level siblings, older students can read aloud to younger students.  Students can read the same book, using an electronic device or a phone.
  • Read to a pet. Most students love to read to a pet.
  • Read aloud to self. This engages the hearing and well as the visual senses to process the written words.  This is especially helpful to early or struggling readers.
  • Discuss what your reading with a classmate, parent, friend, or relative. This may need to take place using an electronic device.  
  • Read with a parent. The student and parent take turns reading.  They might read either every other line of a story, read every other paragraph of the story, or read every other page of the story.  The format is usually dependent on student ability.  I prefer reading every other paragraph.
  • Develop a 3-D model of your favorite setting or part of the book.  The 3-D model can be made of play-dough, clay, wood, tin foil, beans, paper, or anything that you may have on hand.   

 

Enjoy this time to read and explore, travel through books!  

 

 

 

Why are we losing ground in the reading acquisition?

The 2019 National Assessment of Educational (NAEP) reading results show that the national reading scores fell 2% percent in Grade 4 and 4% in Grade 8. This does not sound like much until you put the number of students that one percentage point represents, approximately 1,500 students. One state, Mississippi, continued its positive climb. While 17 states scored 3%-4% points lower than the previous year. And the remaining states remained unchanged from the previous year. This means that the number of students reading at Basic or Below Basic grew from 63% to 65%. It is important to note that this is a sample of students from each state.

So, what is going on? What has created the backward descend in reading acquisition? One plausible reason maybe the time that students are spending in front of an electronic device. Students often spend one to three hours using a digital device at school and then another two to four hours looking at an electronic device at home. During this time students may be reading short messages or posts often written in uncomplete sentences. Students may be spending time scanning headlines or a few sentences of an article. Students might be interacting with the latest electronic game that may offer some occasions to read, usually incomplete sentences. In addition, I am observing that more and more teachers are using mostly “on-line” curriculum or lessons that require students to spend large amounts of time in front of the computer. This may be hindering student reading ability, as time spent in front of an electronic screen may limit student ability to develop deep-reading processes (Wolf, 2018). Deep-reading requires students to read the words at a slower rate, so that the words can move through the circuits of brain to pick up prior knowledge or come alive with meaning. Deep-reading is an interactive activity that uses more energy. Skimming or light reading requires less energy. In addition, current research is suggesting that students struggle with comprehending information in an on-line format (Cavalli, et al., 2019; Kanniainen, Kiili, Tolvanen, Aro, & Leppänen, 2019).

Furthermore, technology/computers change the way students process written language. The brain is an organ that will adapt to function within its environment. If the environment is rich with positive conversations and interactions of individuals of higher cognition then an individual’s brain will build circuits to function in that environment. Research suggests that students who have interactions with individuals of higher cognition usually learn, retain, and reuse information at a higher rate (Vygotsky, 1929). If the environment is rich with limited interactions of individuals and or limited exposure to conversations of higher cognition then the brain will build circuits to function in that environment. The brain needs regular mental and physical exercise of cognition as it matures to develop and maintain connections necessary to deeply process and comprehend verbal and written words (Healy, 1990; Wolf, 2018).


References
Healy, J. M. (1990). Endangered Minds. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Paperbooks.
Wolf, Maryanne (2018). Reader, come home. The reading brain in a digital world. New York, NY: HarperCollins.
Vygotsky, L. (1929). The problem of the cultural development of a child II. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 36, 415-434. Vygotsky Reader, Blackwell. Retrieved from htts://www.marxists.org/archive/Vygotsky/works/1929
/cultural_development.htm.

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