Chapter 6

     The sixth chapter of the book, “Reading, Writing, and Literacy 2.0: Teaching with Online Texts, Tools, and Resources, K-8,” discusses using e-tools to scaffold comprehension of e-literature. When reading this chapter, I was intrigued by the WebNotes description. In my own learning I have always found sticky notes a useful, organized strategy for learning. I had never heard of this before and I think this would be very useful when using online literacies and e-books within the classroom. When looking to explore this website, I realized that the site is no longer available. However, there are many websites available that provide similar services and tools to accomplish the goals for learning like with WebNotes, which is now Kami. 

     There are many different resources that can be incorporated and explored within a classroom to enhance and build literacy development. There are traditional print and digital materials that can be used when teaching and assessing the literacy development of children. The digital text environments support self-regulation and monitoring of comprehension. Digital environment can extend monitoring and self-regulation strategies, and two important scaffolds for supporting monitoring and self-regulation are online annotations and vocabulary and background knowledge. The digital environment can offer vocabulary support, such as an online dictionary, for exploring word and concept knowledge. Creating podcasts of students reading their book talks, which the chapter discusses, I agree is a great way to engage students to help share their reading, thoughts, and opinions with others and encouraging other students to read books the class enjoys. This strategy can also help practice and improve fluency. 

     Technology resources are a more modern way of teaching, and very different to use than traditional print materials. However, I realized as I was reading, that even though there are major differences handling and using traditional print materials versus the digital environments, the ways of teaching and evaluating comprehension strategies are the same, just simply adjusted to meet the needs of the students and environment being used.