Julie Coiro

Predicting Reading Comprehension on the Internet: Contributions of Offline Reading Skills, Online Reading Skills, and Prior Knowledge.

This study investigated the extent to which new reading comprehension proficiencies may be required when adolescents read for information on the Internet. Seventh graders (N = 109) selected from a stratified random sample of diverse middle school students completed a survey of topic-specific prior knowledge and parallel scenario-based measures of online reading comprehension. Standardized reading comprehension scores were also collected. Results indicated performance on one measure of online reading comprehension accounted for a significant amount of unique variance in performance on a second measure of online reading comprehension after controlling for standardized test scores of offline reading comprehension and topic-specific prior knowledge. Furthermore, there was an interaction between prior knowledge and online reading comprehension, such that higher levels of online reading comprehension skills may help compensate for lower levels of topic-specific prior knowledge when adolescents are asked to locate, critically evaluate, synthesize, and communicate information using the Internet. The author discusses a series of alternative interpretations of the data as well as their implications for literacy theory and research.

Talking about Reading as Thinking: Modeling the Hidden Complexities of Online Reading Comprehension.

This article highlights four cognitive processes key to online reading comprehension and how one might begin to transform existing think-aloud strategy models to encompass the challenges of reading for information on the Internet. Informed by principles of cognitive apprenticeship and an emerging taxonomy of online reading comprehension strategies, I introduce think-aloud instructional models for explicitly teaching students how expert readers approach, interact with, monitor their understanding of, and respond to online information texts. Over time, think-aloud strategy lessons in online reading environments help students recognize, label, and define a range of more and less familiar online cueing systems and related reading purposes. In turn, students can begin to actively consider additional strategies for effectively comprehending and using the range of informational texts they encounter on the Internet.

Examining Peer Collaboration in Online Inquiry

Abstract This study examines peer collaboration among four pairs of seventh graders who read online to determine what caused the downfall of the Mayan civilization. More and less productive collaborative interactions are presented through snippets of dialogue in which pairs negotiated complex texts. Few examples of how teachers can skillfully facilitate collaborative interactions currently exist, despite the call for these skills in the Common Core State Standards. Teaching ideas that support collaborative online reading are featured. [Supplementary materials are available for this article. Go to the publishers online edition of The Educational Forum for the following free supplemental materials: set of printable graphic organizers to support collaborative online reading and cross-curricular web resources to support critical evaluation of online content].

Rethinking Academic Literacies: Designing Multifaceted Academic Literacy Experiences for Preservice Teachers.

This manuscript introduces a multidimensional framework for academic literacies to help instructors become more aware of different aspects of literacies and how they might be used to plan and orchestrate meaningful, multifaceted literacy experiences in their classes. More specifically, this broad framework for literacy and learning explicitly considers the overlapping role of argumentation, digital inquiry, collaboration, and innovation as they are applied to continuously evolving disciplinary literacy practices. The framework is applied to a course designed for pre-service teachers that integrated several aspects of academic literacies and offered some pedagogical guidelines to support their literacy development. A summary of the different domains of academic literacies and research-based pedagogical guidelines is provided to assist teachers in various disciplines and educational levels in applying the framework in their own instructional contexts.

The New Literacies of Online Reading Comprehension: Future Directions

Abstract Research in four areas has the potential to dramatically improve how practitioners address the challenges of integrating digital texts and tasks into their literacy curriculum. Advances in defining and measuring key components of online reading comprehension are rapidly emerging. In addition, instructional models, such as Internet reciprocal teaching (IRT), can lead to the acquisition of online reading comprehension, but teachers need access to sustained professional development that is aligned with their own learning goals.

New Literacies: A Dual-Level Theory of the Changing Nature of Literacy, Instruction, and Assessment

Today, the nature of literacy has become deictic. This simple idea carries important implications for literacy theory, research, and instruction that our field must begin to address. Deixis is a term used by linguists (Fillmore, 1966; Murphy, 1986; Traut & Kazzazi, 1996) to define words whose meanings change rapidly as their context changes. Tomorrow, for example, is a deictic term; the meaning of “tomorrow” becomes “today” every 24 hours. The meaning of literacy has also become deictic because we live in an age of rapidly changing information and communication technologies, each of which requires new literacies (Leu, 1997, 2000). Thus, to have been literate yesterday, in a world defined primarily by relatively static book technologies, does not ensure that one is fully literate today where we encounter new technologies such as Google docs, Skype, iMovie, Contribute, Basecamp, Dropbox, Facebook, Google, foursquare, Chrome, educational video games, or thousands of mobile apps. To be literate tomorrow will be defined by even newer technologies that have yet to appear and even newer discourses and social practices that will be created to meet future needs. Thus, when we speak of new literacies, we mean that literacy is not just new today; it becomes new every day of our lives. How should we theorize the new literacies that will define our future, when literacy has become deictic? The answer is important because our concept of literacy defines both who we are and who we shall become. But there is a conundrum here. How can we possibly develop adequate theory when the object that we seek to study is itself ephemeral, continuously being redefined by a changing context? This is an important theoretical challenge that our field has not previously faced. The purpose of this chapter is to advance theory in a world where literacy has become deictic. It suggests that a dual-level theory of New Literacies is a useful approach to theory building in a world where the nature of literacy continuously changes. We begin by making a central point: Social contexts have always shaped both the function and form of literate practices and been shaped by them in return. We discuss the social context of the current period and explain how this has produced new information and communication technologies (ICTs), and the new literacies that these technologies demand. Second, we explore several lowercase new literacies perspectives that are emerging. We argue that a dual-level New Literacies theory is essential to take full advantage of this important and diverse work. Third, we identify a set of principles, drawn from research, that inform an uppercase theory of New Literacies. Then, we present one lowercase theory of new literacies, the new literacies of online research and comprehension, to illustrate how a dual-level theory of New Literacies can inform new literacies research that takes related but different theoretical perspectives. We conclude by considering the implications of a dual-level theory of New Literacies for both research and practice.

New Literacies and Adolescent Learners: An Interview With Julie Coiro

JC: I have always had a passion for understanding what makes people literate and productive as learners. I’m fascinated by the range of strategies that readers use to make sense of the world around them, and I tend to gravitate toward ways of supporting learning for information and knowledge application in new settings. As I watch people make the transition from learning with books to learning in digital spaces, I usually focus first on the cognitive and metacognitive processes that they use to navigate and negotiate these dynamic online contexts. My time with the New Literacies Research Team from 2001 to 2007 at the University of Connecticut clarified my thinking about the skills, strategies, dispositions, and practices that readers need to understand and use the information they encounter on the Internet. For instance, our team’s work in several schools enabled me to observe firsthand that while skilled readers use many of the same strategies across both online and off line reading tasks (e.g., activating prior knowledge, determining important ideas, monitoring understanding), they also employ additional reading strategies to make sense of online texts. Some of these additional, or new, reading strategies include generating digital queries, scrutinizing search engine results, and negotiating multiple representations of text. Online readers also spend much of their time monitoring their reading pathways to evaluate whether they are moving closer to or further away from relevant and reliable information that suits their reading purposes. More recently, I’ve become intrigued with how learners interact with each other around online texts in relation to these cognitive reading processes. By exploring the forms and functions of student interactions during online reading activities from a more social constructivist lens, I’ve discovered new ways of thinking about productive online reading and knowledge construction. It’s been interesting to watch how pairs of students scaffold and support each other’s thinking in online reading situations in ways that extend beyond what Research Connections

Wondering + Online Inquiry = Learning.

Digital information sources can form the basis of effective inquiry-based learning if teachers construct the information and exercises in ways that will promote collaboration, communication, and problem solving.

Comparing the Quality of Third, Fourth, and Fifth Graders' Social Interactions and Cognitive Strategy Use during Structured Online Inquiry.

This study examined the social and cognitive interaction patterns of third, fourth, and fifth graders as they collaboratively read on the Internet and responded to an inquiry prompt. Data analysis revealed patterns of cognitive strategy use that intersected with social forms and functions of dialogue. Dyads that exhibited higher levels of cognitive strategy use and mutually collaborative social interactions were better able to accomplish the inquiry task. Pairs who read with little or no meaningful discussion were less successful. These contrasting cases show the range of interaction patterns that may occur during co-constructive inquiry-based online reading. Findings can inform the design of instructional scaffolds to foster productive dialogue and strategic reading in online spaces.

Advancing Reading Engagement and Achievement through Personal Digital Inquiry, Critical Literacy, and Skilful Argumentation

This chapter outlines three interconnected lines of work conducted in the USA to advance reading engagement and achievement from a new literacies perspective of online research and comprehension. These areas focus on developmentally appropriate practices for supporting educators and learners as they use the Internet for personal inquiry, active citizenship, and the exploration of controversial issues from multiple perspectives. Emerging work in all three areas can help re-envision reading instruction to better address continuing gaps in achievement and motivation among diverse learners and the cultural shift that new technologies and online inquiry have brought to our conceptions of teaching and learning in a digital age.