Golden Apple
By Diana Knudson
Help your Students Learn to Read Thoughtfully Using a Tech Tool
The key to getting students to read deeply in any format is to have them engage with the text in meaningful ways. In the digital space, that means disrupting a pattern of skipping around, writing short chats and getting lost down the rabbit hole of the internet. It means teaching kids ways to break down a complex text, find key ideas, organize them and defend them. Practicing those skills in class can be time-consuming, but it also builds good digital reading habits that hopefully become second nature (Schwartz, Katrina. Strategies to Help Students Go Deep When Reading Digitally, Mindshift, 2016).
It appears the major goal for teaching students to read digitally is to slow them down. They need to learn to focus on the text, and then incorporate the idea of discourse at the center of reading digitally. Stop, talk, visit, explore the topic with a partner or group. Technology can be a threatening format to lead students to read deeply if it silences discussion. Technology can be an isolating tool if not used carefully. We always want to think how to capitalize on the powerful learning that happens in social, collaborative spaces.
I hope you will be excited to witness the unveiling of our Summer Institute April 3. Go to gtccmt.org—click on Summer Institute and plan on joining us this summer for some learning and major fun.
Congratulations to February's gift card drawing winner, Nicole Hedstrom, Holy Spirit Catholic School. Keep reading the Golden Apple to find out when our next drawing will be announced.