Rachel, the second-grade teacher in this article, used electronic books creatively in her classroom. I was struck by the way in which this method could bypass the funding obstacles that often arise. Using the electronic books could level the playing field in school districts that cannot order class sets of books, keep their libraries up to date, or provide the resources that wealthier schools can provide.
The use of the electronic books also was highly adaptable to readers of different levels. One could imagine that providing books that suit all of your students’ readability levels could get quite expensive and time consuming. But the e-books provide a way to really focus in on each student’s needs.
In a middle school or high school science classroom e-books could provide opportunities for students to collaborate in book clubs with trade books, get supplements to their textbook, or a teacher could design a lesson based on a book available online.
Mark’s recreational reading program in the inner-city seems like a beneficial program for those kids. However, I recall from our Literacy in Secondary School class, that promoting recreational reading does not reap any benefits statistically. From the standpoint of providing structured after school activity that promotes education, this program seems wonderful, but if its goal is to encourage recreational reading, there could be better methods.
