Collaborative and physical interactive reading

Observations revealed that the students in this study were reading collaboratively and interactively within the context of screen texts. In Grade 3.1 students’ technological use was limited to computers and the interactive whiteboard whilst in Grade 3.2 students were observed reading from tablets as well as computers and the interactive whiteboard. Through observations I could compare and contrast how students made sense of text within the two classrooms. Reading in Grade 3.1 was mostly carried out through the context of books whilst students in Grade 3.2 were observed reading on screen more frequently. Data showed that in the latter context students were observed collaborating more whilst reading even when they were expected to read on their own.

This was evident through one of the observations conducted in Grade 3.2. The desks in this particular class were formed in groups of four and during a particular lesson one student from each group was asked to pick an envelope. Each envelope

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had a link to an online e-book which the children had to read on their own. The students were told that after the reading session they would have plenty of time to share their ideas about the story to the other members of their group. The children were also told that one member from each group could share the story to the rest of the class. During this lesson I chose to observe a group of four children who were reading an online book titled ‘A zebra called Dottie’.

The students were all observed looking at the picture on the title page before proceeding to the actual reading of the print. One of the students turned to the boy next to him and told him, “I wonder which one is the zebra. They look kind of

funny to me… and the one in the middle doesn’t really look like a zebra.” The

other boy nodded and smiled. Whilst the children were reading it was noted that they stopped reading at particular instances through the story and made certain remarks to themselves and others such as “this is funny” or “what does ‘hideout’

mean?” The students were noted to giggle at one point whilst a student also

stopped to tell his friend that she could “google the word ‘hideout’ to see what it

means”. Another student also offered to look it up for her on her own dictionary

app; “I’ll check for you on ‘Dict Box’… mmm… hideout… it’s a secret place, it

says it’s a hiding place, a hideaway”. The other two boys at the table stopped

reading and seemed amazed at the fact that the dictionary app could also pronounce as well as define the words typed. One of the boys scribbled ‘Dict Box’ on the last page of his notebook before continuing to read.

This particular scenario emphasises the point made in the previous section in relation to audiobooks. While this is not about audiobooks, it is showing that the spoken word is part of reading in the digital context, and this is very much valued by the students and seen as beneficial to learning. It was also observed that even though the students were directed to read on their own, they were observed reading in an independent manner but somehow they were still aware of what each other was doing and seemed to enjoy the collaboration. This was evident when the students were observed asking questions to each other, reflecting, helping and assisting each other. This interplay between independent and collaborative reading was observed on a number of occasions whenever tablets or class computers were

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being used. However this was not observed when the children were reading from a book.

Whenever students were asked to read an e-book or any form of text on screen, students were seen to read, process, reflect, share and sometimes also discuss the content being read. In the episode reported for example, a student shared his views on the picture found on the front cover, another explained that she did not know the meaning of ‘hideout’, another volunteered to help her and another also took note of the name of the app because he was impressed that the dictionary could

“actually read the words out for you”. Episodes such as these were very common

when students were observed reading on screen and each time students were observed asking questions to each other and engaging themselves in very short discussions. The children themselves were also observed collaborating together whenever the reading involved problem-solving. This was observed during a particular reading activity where the children had to read a number of sentences about four children and they had to match the right Christmas presents to fit each personality and character. The students were observed collaborating with others whilst working on their own device.

This episode was observed and recorded through field notes; [Descriptive notes] “During today’s English lesson students were encouraged to carry out an activity

on their tablet… I continued by asking the children to login into Fronter using their ilearn login details. I told the students to click on the link provided and explained how the game should be played; “First you need to choose one of the children’s names, information about each child will be provided. Then you need to see which gifts are ideal for each child. If the gifts chosen are the right ones Father Christmas will go down the chimney and give the presents to the children... if you get a wrong answer Father Christmas will not move’. The students were encouraged to play the game on their own tablet. [Interpretive notes] It was noted that although

students were encouraged to work on their own tablet, students collaborated together in order to successfully play and finish the game. Students were observed working and discussing in small groups even though they were directed to work on their own. It was further noted that this type of collaboration was accepted by

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everyone and the students were not ‘punished’ for not working independently. Whenever a student encountered difficulty in reading a word or understanding a sentence, students were observed asking the student sitting next to them even though I was able to assist them.

An activity such as the one described above showed that students collaborated more when they were engaged in a reading activity which involved an element of problem-solving on their tablet. Additionally, students preferred to collaborate and solve such issues with other students rather than call upon their teacher. This implies that this wider definition of reading, which is emerging from a use of technology, is actually going to challenge aspects of accepted classroom discourse in Maltese schools. Through the data collected it was also observed that all students at different reading levels were more motivated to read on screen. This appeared to be because they were assisted through their reading by their peers and because the reading process entailed an activity at the end of the reading. The same finding was gathered by Simpson et al. (2013) who stated that:

… students tend to share ideas when working with tablets by modelling their actions to each other. Both the Canadian and the Australian example provide evidence of interaction, collaborative and participatory learning when the students read and write on the tablets. An important finding highlighted in the analysis from both research sites shows that different levels of readers (struggling and high fluency) would equally partake in touch practices together. As a result, students with mixed reading abilities were more inclined to work together with the tablets than with printed texts (p.128).

During another recorded observation it was also noted that when students read on their tablet or computer they often extended their reading to include role play with toys. This was observed when two students were watching a video on YouTube. During the observation one of the boys wanted to press the ‘escape button’ because he did not find the video interesting. The same student took out two figure toys and started playing with them whilst handing one of the toys to his friend. The students imagined that the toys were the same characters found on the video and engaged themselves in a role play. This episode showed how technology promoted

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collaborative reading of text, which led to further speaking and listening amongst students. The screen text in this episode paved the way for a collaborative exchange, using a role play scenario. This in turn meant that the child who was previously disengaged with the text was given an opportunity to engage with the text and enjoy it. Through this situation the children crossed into the realm of imagination and cross referenced between the ‘virtual’ world and real life.

Additionally, when the students were engaged in reading activities on their tablets they appeared to engage with the text in a number of ways; for example, students were sometimes observed standing up to make a point. My data revealed that in particular reading in the 21st _{Century seems to involve a lot of touch; students were} seen to tap, slide, scroll, zoom in and out, touch, click and hover over text whilst reading from the tablet. Therefore, students were seen to collaborate and engage themselves in physical interactive reading.

In contrast during book reading observations conducted in Grade 3.1 and Grade 3.2, it was noticed that students were passive readers most of the time. When students read from a paper-based resource they were observed solely looking at pictures, holding the book, turning the pages and following the print with their finger. When a student was asked to read in class the other students listened and followed and whenever children were asked to read something from the interactive whiteboard they normally remained in their seated position. It was also noted that when students were asked to read from books, there was silence in the classroom and a number of students were observed gazing around the classroom or pretending to read. This again showed that students had the tendency to read more passively when reading a book text.

It is important to note that this this study was conducted in Malta and other contexts would probably encourage more collaboration more generally. This adds an original contribution to knowledge as it shows that the students even in this very traditional and formal context are naturally challenging this formal and traditional discourse when they read on screen. Data analysis has also revealed that this has benefits for children’s learning, as data clearly showed that students were sharing ideas and learning from one another. The fact that observations showed that

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children were reading collaboratively within the context of screen text is especially significant, given the context of this study.

In sum, data from my study revealed that digital technology encourages readers to become active learners. Students were observed interacting through their reading, and online and screen reading motivated the students to continuously respond to the printed text. In addition, data also showed that students made use of a number of skills and these came easily to them and at no point was there the need for the teacher to explain how to use such reading paths. Whenever students encountered a difficulty they seemed to prefer collaborating and asking their peers rather than the teacher. Other skills which came easily to the students included how to use a search engine, how to narrow down the search made, how to change the tablet’s general settings, how to use the camera function, how to take screenshots and how to rotate the screen.

In conclusion, data from this study has showed that students collaborated more when reading was carried out on the tablet or computer screen than during book reading. While previous literature has shown similar findings, this current study revealed that students not only collaborated amongst themselves more when working on screen but also opted to consult their peers whenever they read through technological devices. Whilst the Maltese classroom context seems to encourage students to work in a silent manner, students were praised when they shared ideas and collaborated together whilst working on screen,

Conversely, students who were observed reading from books did not speak to others whilst reading and whenever they did not understand or could not read a particular word they always opted to ask the teacher for her assistance rather than their peers. It can be argued that it is useful for children to read collaboratively in this way. Through this type of reading students were ‘active’ learners because they were observed discussing, analysing and solving. These are all very important skills which on screen reading promoted. It can be argued that these skills are important because reading is not simply about comprehension and fluency. When students read on screen, they were observed asking their peers for assistance and seemed more ‘comfortable’ engaging through reading on screen.

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On the contrary, data from this study showed that students related reading from books as a more ‘formal’ activity to the extent that students were observed only asking the teacher for assistance rather than collaborating with each other. It would be important for policy makers and educators to acknowledge such differences and give value to on screen reading, as through this type of reading students seemed more focused, enthusiastic and made use of various skills which encouraged learning through collaboration. Having said this, the following section will show, however, how students believed that on screen reading sometimes ‘alienated’ the reader from the ‘actual’ reading of printed text. The section which follows will compare and contrast other differences which were reported in relation to reading on screen as opposed to traditional practices of reading.