From online news articles written at five different reading levels to algorithms that create personalized vocabulary lists, ed-tech tools are rapidly expanding the ways in which teachers can differentiate their literacy and reading instruction.
Experts say the new technologies have the potential to transform learning, one child at a time.
鈥淭he problem up to this point is that when we鈥檝e designed curriculum, we鈥檝e done it with a mythical 鈥榓verage student鈥� in mind, then tried to fix the curriculum after the fact to address the needs of particular children,鈥� said Bernadette Dwyer, a lecturer in literacy studies and education at Dublin City University, in Ireland, who has done research in both Europe and the United States.
鈥淏ut digital tools can help us anticipate the needs of children upfront, particularly for struggling readers,鈥� said Dwyer, who is also a board member of the International Literacy Association.
To better understand the new landscape, Education Week spoke with researchers, industry officials, and a representative from Graphite, a Consumer Reports-style website with ratings and recommendations on ed-tech tools run by the nonprofit Common Sense Media.
Here鈥檚 what they recommended:
1. Customize Texts to Each Student鈥檚 69传媒 Level
Digital tools have made a well-established classroom literacy practice more efficient and powerful, said Heather Schugar, an associate professor of literacy at West Chester University in Pennsylvania.
鈥淯p until a few years ago, the most dedicated of elementary teachers would send home plastic bags with books [written] on children鈥檚 individualized reading levels,鈥� Schugar said. 鈥淭oday, that seems to be a practice of the past.鈥�
Instead, a growing number of teachers are using online products like Raz-Kids, which offers a wide variety of e-books written across the full range of reading levels, allowing teachers to easily assign each student a text written at the level that is just right for him or her. (Other tools take the inverse approach, adapting each individual text to a number of different reading levels.)
Both strategies are valuable, Schugar said, because research has long made clear that students make the most progress when they are reading in their 鈥渮one of proximal development"鈥攖he sweet spot that鈥檚 neither too frustrating nor too easy.
One of the more popular such tools for older students is Newsela, a Web-based software program that provides daily news articles, each adapted to five different reading levels, in both English and Spanish.
A big benefit, said founder and CEO Matthew Gross, is that students of different skill levels can now share the experience of reading about the same topic, while also getting to read text that is appropriately difficult for them personally.
Other tools that take this approach across the K-12 grade span are Accelerated Reader and LightSail.
2. Allow Teachers to Target Specific 69传媒 Skills
A solid grounding in research around effective literacy instruction is what often separates the good apps from the bad, believes Madeleine Heins Israelson, an assistant professor at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John鈥檚 University in Minnesota.
Earlier this year, Israelson published an article in the journal The 69传媒 Teacher titled 鈥淭he App Map.鈥� In the piece, she broke reading instruction down into its component parts, such as understanding letter sounds and building vocabulary, then urged teachers to consider digital tools that reflect the established wisdom about the best ways to build each skill in students.
An example: Rather than just looking for a 鈥渞eading app,鈥� Israelson suggests, an early-years teacher might instead look for a tool that will help a subset of her students hone their ability to recognize common 鈥渟ight words.鈥�
Then, the teacher might vet potential apps to make sure they鈥檙e actually focused on what researchers say are the correct sight words. The teacher might also consider whether students will be expected to use the app on their own or with the whole class, and independently or with an adult. Finally, the teacher might gauge whether the tool鈥檚 potential digital benefits, such as engaging interactive features, will outweigh their potential downsides, such as being distracting.
That same process can be applied to tools promoting early-literacy skills ranging from phonemic awareness (e.g., letter sounds) to comprehension (e.g., the ability to understand and summarize material, answer questions, and make predictions) to writing, Israelson writes.
Different students might need different tools, based on the specific reading skills they need to develop.
Examples of the hundreds of tools on the market for such skills include SpellingCity (for early learners), Lexia 69传媒 Core5 (which targets the full range of foundational reading skills), and ThinkCERCA (which is focused on building 鈥渃lose reading鈥� and writing skills in older students.)
3. Diagnose and Respond to Individual 69传媒鈥� Strengths and Weaknesses
Big educational publishers are in on the action, too, especially when it comes to using 鈥渁daptive鈥� technologies that adjust based on individual students鈥� abilities.
Take a company like Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which recently acquired popular digital-reading-intervention software READ 180 as part of its purchase of Scholastic鈥檚 ed-tech division.
Among other features, the software aims to expose students to many more words than they might otherwise encounter, then help them to understand the meaning of those words more deeply than they otherwise might have.
Here鈥檚 how it works: After students choose topics they find interesting, the software provides texts written at a level that fits their sweet spot of difficulty. As the students use the software, it analyzes how they read and perform on subsequent vocabulary quizzes and exercises. From there, READ 180 seeks to identify which words each student understands and can read and spell, as well as how quickly the student can do each of those functions.
Based on the results of that analysis, the software will make sure that the words a student doesn鈥檛 understand show up in future vocabulary exercises and reading passages given to that student. The reading level of that next text will also be recalibrated based on the results of the new analysis.
It鈥檚 not just algorithms doing the work, stressed Margery Mayer, the executive vice president of Houghton Mifflin鈥檚 intervention-solutions group. The software also aims to help teachers differentiate their instruction by providing them with a constant stream of data about what students can and can鈥檛 do, as well as by making recommendations for how to group students based on their specific strengths and needs.
鈥淓mpowering teachers with digital tools is a big direction where everyone is headed,鈥� Mayer said.
Different digital tools of this type allow for different roles for educators. Examples include Achieve 3000 (which also provides leveled texts) and i-Ready.
4. Encourage Teachers to Offer Customized Supports
Digital tools and interactive e-readers can also allow teachers to customize the reading experience for students鈥攁nd make themselves an integral part of each student鈥檚 reading process.
Take, for example, digital reading platforms such as Benchmark Universe. In addition to its library of 2,500 interactive e-books, the software includes annotation tools for students to take notes and highlight; digital 鈥渟ticky notes鈥� for teachers to leave prompts for individual students, groups, or the entire class; and options for teachers to modify the text in customized ways that could include embedding videos, introducing graphic organizers, and adding voiceover directly into the book.
Jeffrey Knutson, a senior manager for education content with Common Sense Media, said educators are particularly excited about those types of tools because they allow for customized, in-the-moment supports.
鈥�69传媒, and that relationship between words and the mind, is so personal,鈥� Knutson said. 鈥淚 think the digital tools that allow teachers to kind of insert themselves into that experience are really great鈥攖hey allow for a level of scaffolding that鈥檚 hard to reach [otherwise].鈥�
Downsides can include too many distractions that interrupt the reading flow for students. It can also be extremely time-consuming for teachers to provide different videos, prompts, and notes for every student, even when done in a digital world. Other similar platforms include Actively Learn, Curriculet, and Subtext.
5. Have 69传媒 Show What They鈥檝e Learned in Different Ways
Digitally differentiated literacy and reading instruction isn鈥檛 just about software, or even educators, targeting students in ways that are specific to their own needs and preferences.
It鈥檚 also about providing students with digital tools that allow them to demonstrate their own learning in customized ways鈥攖hrough multimedia creation and storytelling, collaborative writing, and more.
That could mean features that allow students to record themselves reading aloud, so they and their teachers can then check how fluent they are.
Or tools like BookBuilder, which allow students to compose, edit, and share their own e-books.
Or even iMovie, Skype, and Google Docs鈥攁ll popular consumer products (for creating and editing videos, video-based communication, and collaborative writing, respectively) that Dwyer of Dublin City University said can be powerful tools to get students actually demonstrating so-called 21st-century skills.
鈥淭he promise of technology 鈥� is around promoting higher-order-thinking skills,鈥� Dwyer said. 鈥淚 think it goes a lot deeper than just having texts on different reading levels.鈥�
