This article provides great insights
on the use of digital story applications with young readers versus traditional
paper book stories. The authors of this article conducted a study of digital
story apps and their differences as well as strategies to teach young readers
on how to navigate these differences. The study findings suggests that young
readers need to master book handling skills and the use of print features present
in paper books first before mastering them in digital stories.
The
article suggests creating a classroom culture of openness to change. With
technology ever changing in the world we live in, it is important to teach
students to adapt and be willing to seek changes. Digital story applications
vary in icons and narrative features. It’s important to provide a think-aloud
and demonstrate to students how to navigate their way through digital stories
prior to exposing them independently. It’s also important to teach young
readers the importance of following along with narrative features, whether it is
through highlighted text or a single word highlighted. Teaching students the
basics of turning pages and interacting with text is also important.
An important
take-away I had from this article is to teach students the process of reading a
digital story. There are many benefits to digital stories including providing
students with opportunities to listen to stories independently and increase
their vocabulary through highlighted audio text. The article highlights the
importance of walking students through the process of opening the app,
selecting the correct narrative icon, demonstrating tracking highlighted text,
and turning pages. While reading this article, I thought of how to apply this
to my teaching and I would project the digital story on the SmartBoard in my
classroom so I could easily display the story and icons. I could then easily
walk my students through a think-aloud on the process and showcase more than
one kind of digital story. By doing this, my students will become more open to
exploring and initiating icons across different digital story applications.
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