| I see the same thing in my library. And of course we're assuming the kids actually read what they print. A few years ago I had a case-in-point experience while manning the reference desk at the local public library where I moonlight. A middle school student came in with her dad, looking for information on the youth of a president--did he have siblings, etc. I found a reliable article and printed it. The student, with dad watching, then said to me, "Now what do I do? Did he have brothers and sisters?" While I was taking a deep breath, dad said, very forcefully, exactly what I was thinking about how to put tactfully: "YOU HAVE TO READ IT!!!!" My school requires research papers each year. Again, we show students how to use databases to find information. I know they print and save
articles. We show students how to do a works cited page. But both the teachers and I agree that the piece that's missing is how to extract information from the articles and synthesize it in their papers. In some of the co-taught classes, the teacher and special ed teacher do sit down with individual students, talk about key points, highlighting, taking notes, etc., but by no means is this done with every student. I think all this relates to their reliance on the "images" tab even when looking for information. They can handle captions. They don't want to read long pieces. Much as I love the Eyewitness books for browsing, I blame them for this attention deficit when it comes to researching. Kids have become accustomed to believing they can find all the info they need in a sound or print bite. What does this mean for testing online when it involves reading long passages?
To be honest, I'm not sure it makes a difference whether the text is online or on a piece of paper; students seem to have difficulty with any form of extended reading. --- On Fri, 3/8/13, IRENE KWIDZINSKI <kwidz@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
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