Curating

Curating seems to be the latest trend for digital readers.  This is new to me, but Scoop it has the scoop on curating.

You can be the 'curator of your favorite topic. 
Create your topic-centric media by collecting gems among relevant
streams Publish it to your favorite social media or to your blog.'

Reading Lists

A few weeks ago I mentioned I was gathering books for my summer reading list.  Besides my shelves (note the plural use of shelf) and printed lists of titles (another use of the plural form), I used suggestions in this article, How to Create an Awesome Summer Reading List.


Actually the ideas presented in this article are good for creating any reading list or getting recommendations for reading.  Though I have plenty of books on my 'to read' shelves and downloaded on my Kindle, sometimes I just do not feel like reading a few.  Then I find other titles I am more interested in reading.  You know, some times you feel like a book.  Sometimes, you don't!
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Digital Reading

I found this blog post very interesting:  What if reading on the computer means we don't get it?  My reading comprehension is certainly better when I have a printed copy  of whatever on my desk.  I think I take more time to read rather than hurrying to read the computer screen quickly so I can get on with my clicking!

I chose three different articles that are about the level that I would normally assign for current events, two of them from the New York Times. For Grade 6, this can be a fairly challenging reading level. Each article was followed by five questions related to comprehension of the key information from the article. The subject of each article was familiar but the information was ‘new’ to the students. I did the experiment with both of my Humanities classes – about 40 students.

For article one, students read entirely online. They could take notes on paper or using an online tool.

For article two, students read a pdf version stripped of all ads (using the ‘READER’ function of Safari). They could then take notes on paper or using Preview (which allows them to take notes and highlight the text easily).

For article three, students received a paper copy of the article and could write on it if they needed to. If I am being honest, this article was in fact the longest and most complex.

The results?

For the first article (reading online), the class average was 68%, a D+.

For the second article (a pdf version that allowed note-taking), the class average was 72%, a C-.

For the final article (a paper copy), the class average was 89, a B+.