Merging New Technologies and Traditional Approaches to Reading

Merging New Technologies and Traditional Approaches to Reading

Quinetta Sampy
University of St. Thomas
EDUC 6326
Educational Research and Scholarly Writing

Tara Tuchaai Ph. D.

February 7, 2015

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Abstract
This is a narrative essay that focuses on my experience with the exposer to
technology in an English Language Arts classroom with a particular emphasis on
secondary education. I explain in my narrative the difficulty of accepting an English
class that was no longer learning solely through the traditional modes of teaching
English. This narrative also uses educational sources to support the importance of
integrating technology for the benefit of students ability to develop a higher
engagement in reading text in ELA classrooms. The purpose of this essay is to
explore the correlation between technology and the increase in student
engagement through the use of a specific personal anecdote.
Keywords: technology, literature, engagement, English and Language Arts,
secondary

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Merging New Technologies and Traditional Approaches to Reading

Every day in room M315 during sixth period, NO! was the usual response that I
received from a student on a regular basis. Whether it was verbal or non-verbal, my request of
asking her to either read or write remained the same. Daisys resistance to participate in what I
treasured was absolutely foreign to me. Tediously, I marched into sixth period every day over the
course of five months ready to battle whatever was holding Daisy back from loving literature as
much as I did. I was defeated. None of the techniques that I just knew would win Daisys interest
worked. However, all of that changed on January 12th when Daisy entered my class with her new
laptop. She, like rest of her classmates, had just received a school issued laptop to use for the
remainder of the school year. When class began that day, I asked sixth period to open their
laptops and to begin reading; surprisingly, Daisy complied. When I also asked the class to type a
response to what they read, again Daisy complied. Not only was there compliance but there was
evidence of higher order thinking in her analysis of what she was reading in the response that she
submitted. I could not believe my eyes or my ears! Finally, Daisy was beginning to engage in
class and actually giving English a chance.
At first glance, I was quick to assume that Daisy and I were complete opposites. Unlike
Daisy, when I was her age, it was nearly impossible to catch me without a book in my hands. I
was always eager to discover a new world or meet an intriguing character with every page that I
turned. I remember writing journal entries about these places and people while gripping my
pencil so tightly that I often had calluses on my fingers. However, this was nearly two decades
ago and much has changed. Daisy made me realize that students in secondary education are no
longer intrigued by the feel of an actual book in their hands or the feel of the pages as they glide

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their fingers through them. Instead, students would much rather read from a digital screen and
compose text on a keyboard. Dr. James Billington, the former librarian of Congress, once stated,
Kids arent as excited by books today as older generations were. Were fretting about how to get
their attention. Well, they belong to a television generation and a computer generation. They are
accustomed more to the screen than the page (as cited in Kay & Montgomery, 2000, p. 8). What
Daisy and other high school students like her prove is that technological resources that are made
available to educators and students promote engagement and higher order reading skills. Once I
was able to transform my entire approach to literacy in my English and Language Arts (ELA)
classroom I was then able to introduce literature in a more appealing manner to students who do
not typically read from a traditional book.
When I became a teacher three years ago, I thought about all of the English teachers that
inspired me and developed my passion for literature. I also contemplated how these teachers
were preparing me for the world and how to communicate with others. What I failed to consider
was that although their traditional modes of teaching reading and writing were beneficial for me
I could not limit myself to teach my students in the same ways and expect them to be ready for
the world that they will be living in a decade from now. Tracy J. Tarasiuk explains that in our
current and future ELA classes that, instead of limiting their focus on teaching students to read
using textbooks and write using paper, schools should expand their notions of literacy
instruction and treat it as reading and writing for the purposes of communicating in many
traditional and contemporary modes using multiple tools and resources (Tarasiuk 2010). Just as
my English teachers used computers to prepare me to write essays on word processors I must
also do the same for students like Daisy who will be reading and writing more text through
digital mediums in the future than they currently are. What I was trying to do over the span of

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those five months was teach Daisy about literature the same way that I had years ago. Although
my intentions were meaningful, it was just not as impactful as they day she entered my class with
her computer. It became apparent to me that the English curriculum should encourage educators
in ELA to adopt new tools of technology to support their students engagement for reading text.
My approach to exposing Daisy to literature and seeing her become more engaged in the
text was completely wrong. Even though I took class surveys over what type of books my
students like to read, I never considered to ask how they liked to read. Once I discovered that
Daisys preference was reading on her laptop, I began asking other students how many of them
preferred to read the same way. Out of 175 surveyed from my six classes, 97 students also
preferred reading from digital devices. According to a survey also conducted by the Pew Internet
and American Life Project, 87 percent of secondary students go online daily and describe the
Internet as a virtual reference library that helps them quickly locate information, communicate
with friends, and satisfy curiosity (Strom, P., Strom, R., Wing, & Beckert 2010). It is not that
Daisy, or any other student like her, did not like to read it was simply that she found less
satisfaction from reading from a traditional book. Tarasiuk explains that information and
communication technology (ICT) is the modern day students literacy and that as educators this
should be acknowledged and respected in order to engage our students in what we expect them to
read in our classes (Tarasiuk, 2010).
What Daisy proved to me was that we were not opposites as much as I thought we were.
What I began to notice soon after she received her laptop was that she has an avid hunger for
literature. She shared with me that she likes to read the works of unpublished authors on an
application called Wattpad. When I asked her why she never shared this with me she said that I
was always telling her to put her cell phone away during class, which is how she able to access

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the application. It then became clear that we shared a similarity in more ways than one. There
was not only one person in M315 saying No! there were actually two. Daisy was responding
no to my traditional approach to literature while I was also, unknowingly, saying no to
Daisys technological approach to literature. I now have an understanding that the two, literature
and technology, will need to coincide in my ELA classroom in order for my current and future
students to be successful in developing an interest in literature. Students like Daisy remind us
that the world that we live in is constantly evolving as is the way we communicate and receive
information. Whether it is a physical book or a computer screen, the importance lies in
introducing literature to students in whichever format they prefer to help them develop a love for
reading.

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References
Beach, R. r. (2012). Uses of Digital Tools and Literacies in the English Language
Arts Classroom. Research In The Schools, 19(1), 45-59.

Doggett, S. L., & Montgomery, P. K. (2000). Beyond the Book: Technology Integration Into the
Secondary School Library Media Curriculum. Englewood, Colo: Libraries Unlimited.

Strom, P., Strom, R., Wing, C., & Beckert, T. (2010). Adolescent Learning and the
Internet. Education Digest, 75(6), 10-16.

Tarasiuk, T. J. (2010). Combining Traditional and Contemporary Texts: Moving My

English Class to the Computer Lab. Journal Of Adolescent & Adult Literacy,
53(7), 543-552.