How Reading Comprehension Has

Changed and What We Need To Do

About It

Donald J. Leu
New Literacies Research Lab
University of Connecticut
donald.leu@uconn.edu

Houston, Texas
September 24, 2009
The New Literacies Research
Team
(Extended Family Portrait)
Important Funding and Support
From:
• Ray and Carole Neag
• The Carnegie Corporation of New York
• IES, U.S. Department of Education
• The National Science Foundation
• North Central Educational Research Lab
• PBS
• The Annenberg Foundation
• William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
• Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
• Australian Council of Educational Research
• OECD
• Schools and teachers around the world.
 The Big Idea :
The Internet Is A Reading
Comprehension and Learning Issue,
Not A Technology Issue
Major Points
1. The Internet is this generation’s defining technology
for reading and learning.
2. The Internet requires new literacies -- additional online
reading comprehension skills. What are these skills?
3. My 15 all-time best ideas about how to teach new
literacies in classrooms with more limited access.
 I.
The Internet Is This Generation’s Defining
Technology For Reading and Learning
 A New Literacies Quiz:
With Prizes

1. How many individuals currently have access

to the Internet and regularly read, write, and
communicate online?
A. 511 million
1.5 billion individuals;
B. 253 million
1 out of 5 people in the
C. 754 million world!
D. 1.5 billion

2. How many adolescents in Accra,
Ghana report having gone online?
A. 5%
B. 66% 66% or 2/3 of
C. 37% adolescents!
D. 51% (Borzekowski, Fobil, &
Asante, 2006)
3. In 2005, did adolescents in North America
read more on the Internet or more with
books and other printed material?
A. On the Internet On the Internet!
B. Offline in books, etc. In 2005, students aged 8-18
C. The same for both. spent 48 minutes per day
reading on the Internet and
only 43 minutes per day
reading offline. (Kaiser
Family Foundation, 2005).
4. Which nation manufactures the most
software in the world?
A. The U.S.
B. Indonesia
Ireland!
C. India
(Organization for Economic
D. Ireland Development and Cooperation,
2004)
5. Which nation provides all teachers
with 5 weeks of paid, release-time,
professional development at
integrating the Internet into the K-12
curriculum?
A. The U.S.
B. Indonesia Finland!
C. China
D. Finland
6. Which nation, in North America, is
implementing a plan to ensure Internet
access to every home and every school
to prepare its citizens for the 21st
century?
Mexico!
A. Canada
Mexico is implementing its
B. Mexico eMexico plan right now. See
C. The U.S. http://www.e-mexico.gob.mx/
7. Which nation provides Internet
connections for all households at
speeds 16 times faster than U.S.
broadband for $22 per month?
A. Taiwan
B. Australia Japan!
C. Japan (Bleha, 2005).
D. The Ukraine
8. How many states, in the U.S.,
measure students ability to read
search engine results on state reading
assessments?
A. 10
0!
B. 15 Not a single state.
C. 0
D. 2
9. How many states, in the U.S., permit
the use of word processors on state
writing assessments for any student
who wishes to do so.
A. 1
B. 5 0!
C. 24
D. 0
10. How many states assess online
reading comprehension in their
state reading assessment?
A. 0
B. 2
C. 5 0!
D. 8
How did you do? The rubric

 10-8 = New Literacy Leader

 Demand an immediate raise!

 7-4 = New Literacy Expert

 Demand an immediate raise!

 3-0 = New Literacy Learner

 Demand a trip to Finland and then

an immediate raise!
 What can we
conclude?

 The Internet is this generation’s

defining technology for reading.
 We place our students at risk by
our continued inaction.
Current Policies Appear To Increase
Online Reading Achievement Gaps
The Hidden Reading
Achievement Gap

Those who require our support the

most with online reading
comprehension, those without
home access, actually receive our
support the least in schools.

Current policies may increase achievement gaps

II. The Internet requires new literacies --
additional online reading comprehension
skills.
Initial Evidence That Online and Offline
Reading May Not Be Isomorphic

(r=0.19, n = 89, N.S.)

Offline Reading =
CT State
Reading Test

Online Reading
Comprehension=
ORCA Blog

Leu, D. Castek, J., Hartman, D., Coiro, J.,

Henry, L., Kulikowich, J., Lyver, S. (2005).
 Additional Evidence:
Predicting Online Reading Comprehension

R2 Additional R2 Additional R2
Offline Reading Prior Knowledge Online Reading Total R2
Comprehension Comprehension
.351* .074 .154* .579*

Offline Reading Comp.=

CT State Coiro, 2007
Reading Test

Online Reading The new literacies of online reading comprehension

Comprehension =
ORCA Quia
A central question: What skills and
strategies appear to be important for
successful online reading comprehension?

 Reading to Define a Problem

 Reading to Locate Information
 Reading to Evaluate Information
 Reading to Synthesize Information
 Reading and Writing to Communicate
Information

The new literacies of online reading comprehension

A Preliminary Model
An Example of Online Reading
Comprehension

Reading About Martin Luther

King

The new literacies of online reading comprehension

A student informant,
think aloud strategy

 Online Survey (1,025 7th graders)

 Top 50 online readers
What We Learned About Reading to
Locate Online Information:
“the .com strategy”
 [13:38 … highlights address bar, types in
www.savethepacificnorthwesttreeoctopus.com …, presses
enter and waits]…
 [15:22 …types in www.savethenorthwesttreeoctopus.com
(deletes pacific), presses enter and waits]
 [16:01 … http://www.savethenorthwestoctopus.com
(deletes tree) and waits]
 S: I wonder why it’s not coming up. [long pause]
[indecipherable] [long pause]
 [17:10 … types in savethepacificnorthwestoctopus (adds
pacific) … The new literacies of online reading comprehension
What We Learned About Reading to
Locate Online Information:
the “click and look” strategy
 In our entire population, of those who
obtained a page of search engine results,
approximately 50% did not read them.
 “Click and Look” strategies used

The new literacies of online reading comprehension

What We Learned
About Reading To
Critically Evaluate
 100% percent thought the site. Save the Pacific
Northwest Tree Octopus, was reliable;
 More than 50% reported it to be “very reliable.”
The Failure to Think Critically
About Information on the Internet

 R: You, um, what if I told you that this site was

not at all reliable and that the information was
not true.
 S: I would say that you were wrong and that
maybe you used a different a website and it’s
just called the same thing because the stuff I
found out was everything I needed to find out
and some other stuff that I didn’t need to know
so I think it’s very reliable and I disagree with
you.
The New Literacies Of Online
Reading Comprehension:
 Read to identify important questions;
 Read to locate information;
 Read to critically evaluate the usefulness of that
information;
 Read to synthesize information to answer those
questions; and
 Read to communicate the answers to others.
(Leu, Kinzer, Coiro, & Cammack, 2004,
p. 1570)
The new literacies of online reading comprehension
III. My 15 Best Ideas About How To Teach
New Literacies In Classrooms
 1. “Borrow” good ideas
 Google:
4th grade classroom home page
1st grade classroom home page
 Get connected to online resources.
2. View Online Videos of New
Literacies in the Classroom
3. Use Starfall.com for early
reading development
4. Use Read Write Think at All
Levels
5. Use Internet Workshop as An
Instructional Model
Videos
6. Use ePals (free, student safe
email)
7. Include the reading comprehension
skills of locating information
8. Teach critical evaluation
9. Help the last become first
10. Explore the potential of
Wikipedia
11. Explore the use of a Ning
(ning.com)
12. Try Out Ideas from Internet
Reciprocal Teaching
 Phase I: Teacher-led Instruction in
Basic Online Skills
 Phase II: Problem-based Learning of
New Literacies Skills
 Phase III: Internet Inquiry
 13. Use Internet Project
 Internet Morning Message of the Day
Project
14. Use Blogs
 Mary Castle’s first grade blog
http://michellesmelser.blogspot.com/
 Mr. Thompson’s second grade classroom blog
http://gcs.infostreamblogs.org/tthompson
 Mary Kreul’s 4th grade class
http://mskreul.edublogs.org/
 Mr. Monson’s Grade 5 Blog
http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=59644
 TAS Grade 3 ESL
http://grade3esl.blogspot.com/2008/08/welcome-to-20082009-school-year.html
15. Keep a patient heart and
help others on their journeys.
 The Big Idea :
The Internet Is A Reading Comprehension
and Learning Issue, Not A Technology
Issue
Major Points
1. The Internet is this generation’s defining technology for
reading and learning.
2. The Internet requires new literacies -- additional online reading
comprehension skills. What are these skills?
3. My 15 all-time best ideas about how to teach new literacies in
classrooms with more limited access.
4. Internet Reciprocal Teaching: teaching online reading
comprehension in 1:1 contexts.
5. Teaching Communication skills: Blogs, wikis, google docs,
epals, and Nings
The Challenges Of Change
Yes, this is not easy stuff!
As Challenging As Change
Appears, We Know This…
The Leadership That You
Provide…
Determines The Future Our
Students Achieve!

Thank you for

everything that
you do!!!