Leu Keynote at the Summit on Reading: School Library Journal
NRC 2009
1. Central Issues In The New Literacies Of Online
Reading Comprehension: Shifting
Conceptions Of Reading Comprehension,
Instructional Practices, And Assessments
Donald J. Leu
New Literacies Research Lab
University of Connecticut
4. A Central Issue:
How Do We Frame The Problem?
Needed: Broadly Conceived New
Theories and Constructs, Collaboratively
Constructed, Sensitive to Continuous
Change.
Digital Literacies?
21st Century Literacies?
Web 2.0 Literacies?
New Literacies?
5. A Dual Level Theory of New Literacies
(Leu, O’Byrne, Zawilinski, McVerry, & Everett-Cacopardo, 2009)
Upper Case
New Literacies
1. New skills, strategies, dispositions, and social practices
are required by new technologies.
2. These are central to full participation in a global
community.
3. They regularly change as defining technologies change.
4. They are multiple, multimodal, and multifaceted
5. Typically, they are socially constructed.
(Coiro, Knobel, Lankshearer, & Leu, 2008)
social networking
multimedia meaning
construction
lower case
new literacies
multiliteracies
text messaging gaming
online reading comprehensionmobile devices
•construct problem
•locate
•evaluate
•synthesize
•communicate
new literacy studies
6. What do we know about the
new literacies of online
reading comprehension?
We have many more questions than answers.
It often appears to be a problem solving task.
Online readers construct the texts they read,
through the links they follow.
Some struggling offline readers are quite
proficient online readers.
Reading comprehension is somewhat different
online. How it differs is not fully understood.
7. Changing Conceptions of Reading
It appears that online reading
comprehension includes these areas,
some of which require additional skills
and dispositions:
Constructing the problem
Locating information
Evaluating information
Synthesizing information
Communicating information
8. We need to understand better how
three key areas of online reading may
be important bottlenecks for achieving
proficiency:
reading to locate information;
reading to critically evaluate information;
reading to communicate information.
Changing Conceptions of Reading
9. Changing Conceptions of
Reading
Some challenged readers read better online
than high performing offline readers (Castek,
et. al, in press; Coiro, 2007).
Why? (case study evidence)
Read online at home each day.
Excellent locating skills
Shorter units of text reduce fluency issues
Online readers choose texts - greater engagement
Web pages are graphic images, a strong suit
10. Changing Conceptions of Practice
We will move quickly to 1:1 computing
contexts in classrooms
1-1 computing contexts fundamentally
change instructional opportunities and
constraints.
Collaborative, problem based learning
models: Internet Reciprocal Teaching
Students as teachers
Teachers monitor and distribute skills with
new tools like Apple Remote Desktop.
12. Changing Conceptions of Practice:
Professional Development
These new contexts will require
extraordinary amounts of professional
development, delivered in new ways,
with new technologies.
Whether we have the leadership, the
resources, the models, is open to doubt.
13. Changing Conceptions of
Assessment
. Not a single state assessment
measures the ability to…
critically read online information to evaluate
source reliability.
… read search engine results to select the
best link for an information problem.
Nor, indeed, any aspect of reading online to
solve information problems.
14. Changing Conceptions of
Assessment
NAEP decided to exclude online
reading comprehension from the 2009
NAEP reading framework.
Little evidence of any online reading
comprehension skills in the preliminary
National Core Standards.
15. Changing Conceptions of Assessment
Needed: Assessments that include the
assessment of online reading
comprehension skills that are reliable,
valid, easy to score, and easy to
interpret. (Examples: ORCAs, PISA
Digital Literacies, PIACC).
17. Central Issues In The New Literacies Of Online
Reading Comprehension: Shifting
Conceptions Of Reading, Instructional
Practices, And Assessments
Donald J. Leu
New Literacies Research Lab
University of Connecticut
