I just read the Click and Jane article from the New York Times magazine and thought...What is reading? Is it black type against white pages or can it be a colorful animated game on a computer monitor? I always thought it was printed text on paper between a colorful illustrated cover with a summary on the back. But I'm a 20th century teacher in a 21st century world. I'm sure my middle school students would have a different point of view. My 8 year old daughter does.
After reading the article, I was navigating the Starfall site and she commented.."Mommy are you playing on that site? I used to play there in kindergarten and first grade during computer (class). It was the only site we were allowed to play on." When I asked her if she liked playing there and reading the stories, she said she did but "I'm too old for that now. I read Magic Tree House chapter books."
I wasn't impressed by the story I read in Starfall. I clicked on the flower story and thought the story itself was boring and difficult to navigate. There was no prompt to tell me to pick a packet of seeds to complete the sentence. I did however, enjoy the One More Story site. Even though it didn't have the fancy animation with the cute bug and monster, the story book I read in the tour was cute. I thought this site had helped readers by highlighting the words as they were being read so the reader could understand when to turn the page, click the arrow, and continue with the story. I also liked that the option to mute the voice was offered.
Maybe Roland Barthes would consider me lazy because I like reader geared books rather than the thought provoking writer geared.
All in all, I enjoyed the article. The sites were fun because I can use them at home with my younger daughter. Although, I'm sure if given the opportunity, my middle school students would have fun too!
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I thought that the One More Story site might be a good site for children needing to improve reading fluency, if the books selected are at their independent and instructional reading levels. Children could echo read or read along with the audio voice and eventually read the book without the audio support. This would be just one of many ways to improve reading rate and expression. In addition, this site could be used for children needing practice retelling a story using story elements. Having the text read aloud, would enable children to focus on comprehension strategies that help them accumulate text, make connections, visualize and infer meaning.
ReplyDeleteI do not have a problem with younger children looking at the illustrations and turning each page by clicking on the icon while a good book is read aloud (it is interesting to hear stories read by a variety of voices), but I am not sure of the benefit of highlighting each word in the text as the word is read aloud in a challenging text for three year old children.
I liked the fact that the words were highlighted as the text was read aloud in the One More Story site. Highlighting each word helps beginning readers to learn 1:1 correspondence (tracking) amd also directionality (left to right). However, I believe having the child actually point along would be more beneficial. I agree with Maureen that children may be able to increase their fluency by using this site. A computer program which I am piloting with my struggling readers (grades 3-6) is Read Naturally. Students listen to stories read at their independent reading levels and then practice rereading several times. Children also have opportunities to type predictions and answer comprehension questions. After each story students are able to see their progress on a bar graph. At first I thought the continuous rereading of stories might become boring but the students seem to truly enjoy it. They are increasing their reading rates and expression on the stories in the program. I am curious to see if this will transfer to new stories by the end of the year. Have you ever used any fluency computer programs with your students?
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