While observing classrooms, it’s common for me to see students staring at screens during independent reading time.
Chromebooks mainly but also tablets and, in some cases, even phones.
But, why?
Are screens better at improving reading than actual books? Do they deepen comprehension, speed up fluency, or enhance vocabulary acquisition?
No, they don’t. In fact, any use of technology during independent reading time is a bad idea.
Here’s why:
They’re not actually reading.
If students are allowed to access programs that include a narrator or characters acting out the text of a book, then they’re just being entertained.
They may derive some benefit, but it’s terribly inefficient. To improve reading, students must have to engage all areas of the mind needed to decode and comprehend a book at their level.
If they’re able to read at all (and thus have graduated the phonics stage) then a physical book is the answer to maximum rapid improvement.
The research is clear.
From reading fluency to better comprehension, it’s no comparison. More and more research is showing that old-fashion books are better for kids than the images blue-lighting their faces.
Students think they learn better from a screen because they’ve been conditioned to believe that technology is always better. Sadly, many teachers and educational leaders believe the same.
You, however, know better and are in position to buck the trend and prove to students that reading great literature on tree pulp is the best way to acquire a love of reading and see galloping improvement.
They need escape.
If you insist your students read independently on their laptops, know that you’re raising their biological stress response and increasing their anxiety level—as screen time is proven to do.
Your students need escape more than any generation before them. They need to get lost in The Secret Garden. They need to explore Narnia. They need to experience the pastoral rhythms and pure love of Charlotte’s Web.
They need healing time away from the metal, glass, and plastic and feel the natural fibers on their fingertips. The weight and substance alights the imagination like nothing before or since.
Courage
When it comes to improving reading, as well as inspiring the love of reading, new isn’t better.
It’s worse.
Furthermore, you may want to revisit the classics. They’re classics for a reason. To fight boredom, don’t give into the temptation of sugary entertainment.
Instead, give your students the very best literature.
Prove to them with a single book that the experience can be more deeply satisfying than just about anything else in their life.
Even setting aside the academic benefits, it is the alternative view of their world, a perspective unfamiliar and away from screens, that can pave the way to a mentally healthier and happier life.
But you must have the courage to say no.
You must swim against the tide, risk being called a Luddite, and make the tough decisions that are in your students’ best interest.
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My students tell me every year that they prefer to read on paper. They feel they can focus better. They like annotating on paper as well. Annotating on the computer is not the same. I try to use printed sources as much as possible. Unfortunately, we have mandatory reading tests on the computer.