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When I think back to my own teaching experience from over a decade ago and compare it to the way my three elementary aged daughters learn today, there are more than a few differences. In the early 2000’s every child had a library card; and weekly trips to the library, along with whatever encyclopedia or textbook they could get their hands on might have been their primary means of gathering information. If the book you needed for your biography report was checked out, you chose a different person to write about. You may have visited a museum for your art history report or the aquarium for the marine biology science project you had due. The students I taught had a bin they could visit with their leveled reading selections to pick from and an anthology textbook from which skills were taught and practiced. There were no reading websites, or tablets to download stories onto and whenever possible, we had older students come into the classroom, to mentor the younger ones. (This practice is still of value, by the way, and hopefully is still taking place.) We worked with what we had!
Fast forward 20-ish years and we find a whole new system in place. With the explosion of social media, school aged children today navigate a whole new world of both print and digital texts. Within moments of a quick search, plentiful information on any and every topic are overwhelmingly available. With so much information at their fingertips, it is important that teachers (and parents) guide young learners in their search for high quality, accurate, and trusted resources. Today there are eBook subscription services that can give kids over 20,000 books to choose from in just a few clicks. For the academic subject of reading, students cannot only find books digitally, but can also find new ways to make note of their ideas and questions in real time.
Remember the colorful sticky notes we used to have on the top of every page of our books? Students today can blog about their findings, set up an online journal or start a virtual chat session to work with partners or groups. Vocabulary enrichment in the digital world is also a little different with the utilization of digital dictionaries. I remember sitting with a good old-fashioned dictionary and thesaurus in my lap, as I read, for almost every subject I studied or planned for my students. Teachers today can hyperlink complex words and phrases with videos and explanations for their students. Pretty cool, right? Assessment practices have also changed greatly by how teachers today can follow a student’s progress in reading ability and level.
Reading habits, speed and comprehension are all easily measured with various programs geared towards the modern language arts world. A typed essay today can be read, proofread, edited and passed back and forth 10 times before it becomes a final copy thanks to our digital world. I remember the 125 papers I had to grade by hand when I taught middle school. I must have had more than that many red and purple pens back then! Talk about a time consuming, laborious challenge that has been greatly alleviated.
Luckily, at the root, what is truly important will never change. Reading will always be an invaluable skill. Children need to be surrounded by print and books in both their classrooms and at home. Reading every day to your child, with your child, or having them read independently will always be vital for success, at every age level. In our way too busy and rushed society, there is no greater value to instill in young minds.
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