Using Technology to Enhance Reading: Innovative Approaches to Literacy Instruction

Enhance students' reading abilities with technology. Discover how technological resources can improve the effectiveness and breadth of reading instruction to build student knowledge. Read real-world accounts from literacy experts, and learn how their methods can be adapted for your classroom. Explore how to foster improvement in student learning using a variety of tools, including interactive whiteboards, tablets, and social media applications.

Benefits:

• Gain insight into ways to incorporate technology into reading instruction.
• Obtain guidance on choosing progress-monitoring tools to best address your students' needs.
• Discover strategies to engage students in vocabulary instruction, and help students interpret informational texts.
• Learn how to use various tools to spark group discussions about literature.
• Determine how to continually assess students' connections with the assigned reading material.

Contents:

Part I: Reading Foundations
Chapter 1: Foundational Reading Competencies Supported With Technology: Phonemic Awareness and Word Recognition
Chapter 2: Rethinking Foundational Reading Skills: Making Room for the Complexities of Digital Texts
Chapter 3: Using Tablets to Teach Foundational Skills: Matching Apps to Student Needs

Part II: Reading Fluency
Chapter 4: Podcasts: Adding Power and New Possibilities to the Readers Theater Experience
Chapter 5: Student-Produced Movies as Authentic Reading Fluency Instruction
Chapter 6: Audio-Assisted Reading Builds Reading Fluency

Part III: Reading Vocabulary
Chapter 7: Post-Reading Vocabulary Development Through VSSPlus
Chapter 8: Bringing Words to Life Through Student-Created Vocabulary Videos
Chapter 9: Self-Regulated Vocabulary Learning on the Internet

Part IV: Comprehension of Informational Texts
Chapter 10: Using the Multimodal Explanatory Composition Strategy to Respond to Informational Texts
Chapter 11: Annotation Apps: Supporting Middle School Students' Interpretation of Science Texts
Chapter 12: Online Research and Media Skills: An Instructional Model for Online Informational Texts

Part V: Comprehension of Literary Texts
Chapter 13: Digging Deeper With Reader Response: Using Digital Tools to Support Comprehension of Literary Texts in Online Learning Environments
Chapter 14: Coding and Connecting Complex Literature
Chapter 15: Linking Through Literature: Exploring Complex Texts Through Hypertext Literary Analysis

Part VI: Reading Across Disciplines
Chapter 16: Classroom Blogging to Develop Disciplinary Literacy
Chapter 17: Using eReaders to Enhance Literacy Instruction in the Content Areas
Chapter 18: Supporting Inquiry With Digital Texts in School Disciplines

Part VII: Motivation for Reading
Chapter 19: "I Wanted to Film, So I Read the Book": Filmmaking in the English Classroom
Chapter 20: eBooks and eReaders: Removing Obstacles, Improving Motivation
Chapter 21: Using Literacy iPad Apps for Reading Motivation

Part VIII: Reading Assessment
Chapter 22: Literacy Assessments in the Digital Age
Chapter 23: Developing and Assessing Fluency Through Web 2.0 Digital Tools
Chapter 24: Using Blogs as Formative Assessment of Reading Comprehension

Timothy V. Rasinski, PhD, is a professor of literacy education at Kent State University. As a researcher, author, consultant, and presenter, he focuses on reading fluency and word study, reading in the elementary and middle grades, and readers who struggle. His research on reading has been cited by the National Reading Panel and published in Reading Research Quarterly, The Reading Teacher, Reading Psychology, and the Journal of Educational Research. He has also taught literacy education at the University of Georgia and was an elementary and middle school classroom and literacy intervention teacher in Nebraska for several years.

Tim served a three-year term on the board of directors of the International Reading Association and for seven years was coeditor of The Reading Teacher, the world's most widely read journal of literacy education. He has also served as coeditor of the Journal of Literacy Research. Tim is former president of the College Reading Association, and he has won the A. B. Herr and Laureate awards from the College Reading Association for his scholarly contributions to literacy education. In 2010, he was elected to the International Reading Hall of Fame.

Tim has written more than two hundred articles and authored, coauthored, or edited over fifty books or curriculum programs on reading education, including the best-selling The Fluent Reader.

Kristine E. Pytash is an assistant professor in teaching, learning, and curriculum studies at Kent State University's College of Education, Health, and Human Services, where she codirects the secondary Integrated Language Arts Teacher Preparation Program. She is a former high school English teacher. Kristy's research focuses on using disciplinary writing, understanding the literacy practices of youth in alternative schools and juvenile detention facilities, and preparing teachers to teach writing. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, English Journal, Voices From the Middle, and Middle School Journal.

Richard E. Ferdig, PhD, is the Summit Professor of Learning Technologies and is professor of instructional technology at Kent State University, where he works in the Research Center for Educational Technology and the School of Lifespan Development and Educational Sciences. He has served as researcher and instructor at Michigan State University, the University of Florida, the Wyzsza Szkola Pedagogiczna (Krakow, Poland), and the Università degli studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia (Italy). At Kent State, his research, teaching, and service focus on combining cutting-edge technologies with current pedagogic theory to create innovative learning environments. His research interests include online education, educational games and simulations, and what he labels a deeper psychology of technology. In addition to publishing and presenting in the United States and internationally, Rick has also been funded to study the impact of emerging technologies, such as K-12 virtual schools.

Rick was the founding editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations. He is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, serves as a consulting editor for the development editorial board of Educational Technology Research and Development, and is on the review panel of the British Journal of Educational Technology. Rick earned his doctorate in educational psychology from Michigan State University.