Topic: Strategies for Reading on the Internet

10-second review: Suggests that teachers use think-alouds to demonstrate to students how to read information on the Internet.

Title: “Teaching Online Comprehension Strategies Using Think-Alouds.” Angel Kymes. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy (March 2005), 482-500. The secondary school publication of the International Reading Association (IRA).

Summary of strategies when reading on the Internet:

Awareness of purpose.

Skimming or scanning text to determine relevance to purpose.

Reading selectively, focusing on sections relevant to purpose.

Making associations with new ideas to prior knowledge.

Making assumptions and hypotheses and then revising them, if necessary.

Maintaining a dialectic between new ideas and prior knowledge and revising prior knowledge that is inaccurate based on text or rejecting new ideas from text that are inconsistent with prior knowledge.

Discovering new meanings of words.

Rereading or note-taking to remember key ideas.

Questioning and interpreting or paraphrasing text to the point of having imaginary conversations with authors.

Evaluating text structure and quality.

Reviewing.

Thinking about how to use the information in the future.

Comment: This article helped me to become more conscious of what I do when I read online. The suggested technique is to read something on the Internet and think aloud as you read it to demonstrate to students how you read on the Internet. RayS.