eBooks for silent reading

I have seen some posts about Silent Reading and eBooks during this week. This remind me that this was good activity that is not so popular these days (at least in my context). Today I see my students every day less engaged with activities related to reading and writing. When I am revising assignments and tests I find lots of writing and spelling mistakes. I think that silent reading would help them to develop writing skills and learn more about spelling. I am thinking that one of the reasons that might explain this is their lack of reading and exercising writing. Plus, today students are less motivated than before to read books (not saying that all students when I was a child were motivated to read)…. or at least the students that I work with. So, why eBooks for silent reading? eBooks could be useful because it would stimulate attention by motivating students to use devices that are innovative and fit more with their likes and interests. Also, thinking in long term, it could be more affordable (and maybe sustainable) to have an eBook than buying lots of books.  By reading you are in through with words and you can be confronted to different writing styles. With the perfection of this technology, I am sure that some day all e-readers will be able to make annotations, comments and highlight ideas through their eBooks. When they can do all these things, I think that students will be able to develop skills that will lead them to write properly.

 

Angela.

Posted in: Week 06: eBooks