Writing Online

This chapter reminded me a lot of what we are doing in our class at this very moment! We are learning new information by reading the chapters in the textbook and then writing about it. We are using this blog to relay information that we have learned and talking about what we like and dislike about the chapters. I thought that this chapter was very engaging because it really put online reading and writing into a new perspective for me. Throughout the last 6 chapters I was still skeptical about online learning. I really like the traditional reading over the computer reading because I like the hands on experience. Over the past chapters I have really learned more and more about all of the great learning tools that we have and am starting to appreciate technology more.

            I liked the portion of this chapter that talked about the blogs. It talked about how you have to make sure you understand the difference between audience and purpose. I agree with this because being a future teacher and teaching writing to students you need to make sure that they are using the appropriate language in the appropriate contexts. The book gives a great example where it uses the sentence “This iz so rad!!!” This would be a comment that would be used on facebook or twitter if you are talking causally to your friends. We need to teach our students this. That this would not be a very appropriate comment for an in class blog or if you are commenting online on a newspaper article. This just brings back up that as teachers we should always be modeling and scaffolding!

            I also liked the pages on collaborative writing. When I was younger I always benefited from this. If I was having a hard time brain storming what I wanted to write about or details for what I wanted to put into my essay or paper this was always helpful. With this type of writing the students can work together to plan, draft and edit their writing. This is also helpful for students to learn to work together and problem solve. I thought that this was a very helpful chapter for future teachers!

Using E-tools to Scaffold Comprehension of E-Literature

The first line from this chapter that really caught my eye was, “Young children learning to read and struggling readers benefit from the support of hearing a story read aloud and from the opportunity to read along to stories written on their reading level” (Johnson, 2014). I liked this sentence because I agree with it 100%. From experience I know that you can learn better when hearing another person read out loud to you. I think that whether a computer or a teacher is reading out loud to you is beneficial. This way you get to hear how all the words are pronounced and how the story flows. This can be very helpful for students that are struggling with their vocabulary or ELLs.

I found the online annotations to be really helpful. As a future teacher the online sticky notes seem like a great tool. I have never used these before. These sticky notes can be a very useful way to monitor your students reading. If the student is reading from an online source they would be able to make notes and mark pages that are giving them trouble (just like if they had regular sticky notes in a traditional book). The student can mark words that they are struggling with or a page they may need to come back to.

Another quote from this chapter that I liked was, “Modeling how to use strategies flexibly to solve different comprehension tasks becomes even more important as technologies rapidly change and new forms of literacy emerge” (Johnson, 2014). This plays a huge role in a classroom because technology is always changing. Us as future teachers need to be aware of this and change the way we teach with the technology. We have to be flexible and learn with the students through all the problems that technology might have. A good example would be with this class because we are all learning how to work through the technological problems together and be flexible to work around it and try other ways and websites.

Sites and Selection Criteria for Ebooks

I learned a lot from this chapter! I did not realize how many different types of reading styles and interactions there were online. I think that ebooks can be a great thing but can also be distracting for students. In my opinion, I think that when students are using this online books they should always be monitored to get the most out of the experience and comprehension.

            I think that the interactive books seem really cool! After doing the online animation assignment I realized how creative the internet can be. I had never done anything like that before and it was a great experience for me to try it out and design my own version of a childhood story. The story I picked was Cinderella. It was great for me to pin point the most important parts of the story an put them into 10 slides with my own words and animation. I thought the movements of the characters and the music you could add in the background was the best part.

            I think that the best type of online book would probably be the E-Narrative for older children. I think that this is the best because older children have an easier time using the computer. They also understand how to navigate and type on a computer faster, and tend to usually become less distracted. I think the E-Narratives are great because it does not just read you a story. The students have access to multiple different websites and hyperlinks to help comprehension and vocabulary. However, I also think it is very important for the teacher to model how this should be done before hand so the student knows what they are doing and will not get off topic when clicking through all of the different hyperlinks.