Concepts of Online Text: Examining Online Literacy Skills of Elementary Students
Christie Bledsoe2018, Reading Horizons
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Abstract
Reading online text presents unique challenges for elementary students as they develop and extend fundamental literacy skills to various media. Traditional assessments of concepts about print inspired the authors’ research, which applies a similar approach to address “screen handling” instead of book handling. The purpose of their ongoing research has been to develop an instrument to assess concepts related to online reading. The Concepts of Online Text (COT) assessment measures knowledge of online navigation and text features. Quantitative analysis of student performance data using the COT has the potential to provide developmental insight into elementary students’ proficiencies in conducting internet research and to provide input to teachers for targeted instruction. In this article, the authors share results from administering the instrument to 80 elementary students in first through fifth grades.
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