eBooks for SR?

We have silent reading time during the second period at my school. During that time, students must read a novel which is not studied in their English class. We don’t allow textbooks, newspaper, magazines, and manga/comics as they could be skimmed rather than read. ALso, it is “reading for pleasure”, so homework or studying would not meet the parameters of SR. For the last few weeks (since the beginning of the school year), I found out that about 1/3 of the class didn’t like reading at all. Although all the students bring SR books to read within the parameters of SR now, it took about a month for them to bring one and some of them still feel uncomfortable reading it.

I teach Math 8 Tech (Math 8 in Tech Immersion Program), but I didn’t allow them to read something on the Internet during SR. It’s because it was hard for me to monitor if they were doing SR rather than playing online games. Moreover, I didn’t expect them to read something on their iPhone, because I couldn’t monitor if they were reading or playing games or doing something else. No one has brought an eBook reader yet, so I don’t know what to do if a student brings one.

However, as a teacher in the Tech Immersion Program, if all the students had the eBook reader, I have a positive feeling that students would have liked reading more. The only reason I don’t allow any electronic devices during SR is because I can’t monitor if they are all doing SR. Unlike iPad or iPhone, you can ONLY read using the eBook reader. So I hope that students enjoy reading more with this cool device that they don’t get distracted and can focus on reading more. As long as I can monitor students and am certain that all of them are reading during SR, I would recommend them to use electronic devices.

Deb

Posted in: Week 06: eBooks