It was exciting to read these first two chapters of Digital Reading: What's Essential in Grades 3-8 by Franki Sibberson and William L Bass II. Click here to read more about #cyberPD or click here to join the Google+ discussion group! It's a pleasure every summer to participate in this knowledgeable group. I've taught gifted middle school students in a mixed 6, 7, 8 core classroom in an independent school. I moved from the classroom 5 years ago to be the school's literacy coach, then this year took over a class again. Now I've retired, but still am so interested in what everyone might share about how they are doing with integrating digital reading in their classrooms. (note: I just realized that my page numbers are aligned with the ebook, not the print book (a digital challenge?). I am adding the print page number, too, after the first page number.)
These first two chapters were good introductions to the authors' premise, that important things always happen in a great reading workshop, but things they are a changin', and it's time to include, and USE, the digital world now available to us. Perhaps especially we need to consider that it's most readily available to our students!
What I liked:
The Introduction: The further examination of what close reading means, and the "Implications for Instructional Policy". p. 11, x I would add that because these implications include so many new things for integration into the workshop, teachers need added PD within the staff, across age levels, in order to share what they're doing and why, what resources are helpful (like this text). Additionally, on p. 12, xi, there are the suggestions for "Policies on Formative Assessment". Like we as teachers have become readers and have realized how important it is to be readers, now we also need to examine how we are using, and learning from, digital and complex texts. To use an old cliche, "it's a whole new ballgame". After a bit of searching, I found one article from Educational Leadership that looks interesting: "Re-thinking reading assessment in a digital age: How Is Reading Comprehension different and where do we turn now?" You can find it here.
I also liked that Franki and Bill shared the "opportunities to deepen understanding of topics. . ." to help prepare teachers. p. 13, xii.
Chapter One: I enjoyed the student examples of Marissa's and Julia's differences in reading practices when examined closely. And Sara's story of her disconnect because of the inability to use her devices in school.