A successful case study in teaching literacy with technology

Barone, D. & Wright, T.E., (2008). Literacy instruction with digital and media technologies, The Reading Teacher, 62(4), 292-302.


This is one teacher's experience of using laptops in his fourth-grade classroom demonstrates successful approaches to teaching with technology. Todd, the second author teaches at Fernley Elementary, a rural Nevada elementary school with about 565 students. In order to gain an understanding of what learning is like in this classroom, it is shared from a narrative centered perspective of a student, Michale, to bring the use of technology as a tool to life.

Routines in Michael's Literacy Instruction

As soon as Michael entered his classroom, he takes out his laptop to check the class webpage and pick up files that his teacher has prepared for the day, including learning centers, writing prompts, graphic organizers, digital worksheets, URLs, media files, or corrected work. He then synchronized his class calendar with the teacher's so he has the up-to-date homework and event schedule. Then, he checks to see what the morning sponge is (an activity to keep students engaged as Todd checks in with individual student). This activity, along with the class webpage, demonstrate teh hybridity evident in new literacy documents, where students use word processing, drawing, or music in a single document. (Lemka, 1998)

The teacher leads the class through a short lesson on a reading comprehension or vocabulary strategy. When the story is completed, Michael spends a substantial part of their literacy block arranged in a Seat-Center-Circle organizational structure, where technology is integrated throughout the first two parts in which students work independently. In Michale's case, he does one of the three things: respond to a writing prompt on his computer that is directly related to the story that day; complete a digital practice sheet or worksheet; or a book study where multiple titles of books related to the theme of the core program are offered.

During breaks, students can stay in classroom and engage in non-instructional activities, which is particularly enjoyable for those who do not have internet access at home.

Differentiated Literacy Instruction

It is expected for Todd to prepare students for high-stakes assessment, like the other teachers, therefore, students shifted to a differentiated literacy instruction, written. He has students read articles from the KidBiz website and then complete the thought questions which are questions or written prompts related to one article that call for students to use information from what they have read to write a constructed response, very similar to criterion-referenced test constructed response questions. Then, he leads students i a discussion about the writing traits, ideas and content before they actually start writing and confers with individuals about their writing and how to improve it while students are writing, which demonstrates the movement from traditional literacy practice, such as reading a book, to new literacy through web writing.

End of the Day Routines:
Michael picks up his homework from the server and tucks his laptop into his backpack, getting ready for out-of-school learning.

Do new technologies result in student learning?

Corio (2005) indicated that there were improvements noted in comprehension when teachers were give instruction in new technology use. Warschauer (2006) also documented gains in motivation, writing competency, and critical thinking when laptops were used in the classroom. However, the biggest hurdle when using new technology in the classroom is that most assessments evaluate student's performance on their traditional literacy and content knowledge. Teachers at Fernley routinely examine the assessments that students complete, both formative and outcome, and then refine their instruction. Since 2002, Fernley has made AYP (adequate yearly progress) each year and during 2006-7, they qualified as a high achieving school for the growth in students who reached benchmark criteria.

It's encouraging to see it happen at Fernley successfully taking students on the journey of new literacy through technology. It takes not only the fund and support from the principal/school. The more important issue lays on teachers' knowledge and attitudes about new literacy and the use of technology. In other words, helping teachers understand the advantages of using technology in their classroom and providing them professional training in the use and application of technology in classrooms are on top priority. As Dr. Schmidt and Denise mentioned in class last week, it has been found that students surrounded by new literacy instruction do not do worse in traditional assessments, which I think is critical. This at least has won us a ticket to bring technology into our classrooms. What we need to do now it to continue trying until we find ways for technology to take our students performs better, both in traditional as well as in real life assessments!

One word of note, this article is actually long. I chose to show Michael's typical day because the example speaks for itself in establishing new literacy among students through technology. If you are interested in reading the whole article, I can send you the file.