A Kindle Program of Their Own: Second graders try out ereaders, courtesy of librarian Kathy Parker
RSSBy Lauren Barack
Teacher Dawn Stuedemann reads Thanksgiving on Thursday (Random, 2002) every year with her second-grade class at Seneca (IL) Grade School. But this fall, five students flipped pages of the fictional book, volume 27 in the popular “Magic Tree House” series by Mary Pope Osborne, on brand-new Kindles—part of a new trial in the tech-savvy school district to see how ereaders impact reading comprehension among its youngest students. “I’m always looking for ways to incorporate more reading in the classroom,” says Stuedemann. “I was very excited because I had never used a Kindle myself, and I could learn with the kids.” Spearheading the project is Kathy Parker, the library media specialist for Seneca’s K–4 and 5–8 libraries, as well as Seneca High School, who had launched a 2009 pilot project placing 18 Kindles in the hands of seventh and eighth graders. That program flourished, enabling Parker to expand the number of Kindles in the middle school to 117 this year—a result she eventually hopes to repeat with the younger grades. “I knew I wanted to see the Kindles in the K–4 building,” says Parker. “I thought it would be great to offer them to the second, third, and fourth grades, especially to those kids who are struggling readers.” But first up were five of the highest-level readers in Stuedemann’s second-grade class, who jumped full speed into the pilot in November, learning how to turn the Kindles on and off, change font size, highlight text, and even how to hold the device comfortably—not such a simple task for small hands. Yet by the first week, Stuedemann says, the Kindles were already helping the children monitor their own comprehension, as they asked themselves questions while reading, and even selected text they wanted to share with their fellow participants in the Kindle program. “What a powerful tool to make the kids feel they are responsible for their own learning,” says Stuedemann. Despite her past success integrating Kindles into Seneca’s curriculum, Parker knew that getting permission to introduce the device to younger grades would require research to prove it would work with the youngest students. So she dug online, finding a lesson plan for grades 2–4 by Lotta C. Larson, an assistant professor of elementary education at Kansas State University, called “Going Digital: Using e-Book Readers to Enhance the Reading Experience.” With state standards and instructional plans built into the lesson, Parker knew she could use the plan to support her proposal to launch the Kindle program with second graders. “I met with our superintendent, Eric Misener, on how would I like to approach it and with K–4 Principal Lynn McGhee, who’s a Kindle user,” says Parker. “She was totally on board.” Stuedemann, too, is sold on Kindles—especially after borrowing one for a few days before launching the pilot with her kids. Now up to speed, she’s still amazed at how eager and unafraid her young students are with the technology and is very excited to see how they score on reading tests after they finish the seasonal “Magic Tree House” story on their ereaders as opposed to the printed page. “They don’t have that fear of learning something new,” says Stuedemann. You might also like: The Kobo and the Alex Ereaders Compared
Dawn Stuedemann (left) and Kathy Parker (right) working with students.
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