Reading Between The Pixels: Parent-Child Interaction While Reading Online Storybooks

To examine whether parent-child reading of online storybooks might elicit the same sorts of interaction that have been observed for joint reading of traditional books, an exploratory study was conducted with seven parent-child dyads. Each dyad was observed while reading two online storybooks that presented branching stories that incorporated “choice points” at which readers chose the path that the story would follow. Results indicated that parents and children engaged in many of the same behaviors found in past literature involving traditional storybooks, and that utterances involved similar levels of abstraction. When choice points were reached in the stories, it was typically the preschool children who selected the path that the story would take, either by themselves or with their parents. In this way, children not only saw and heard the stories, but also helped to determine the course of events, with implications for emergent literacy.     

Triggering Discussions on Ethics and Values: Cases and Innovative Case Variations

When designing instructional activities focused on issues of ethics and values, teachers commonly search for cases that generate effective discussions. Such cases often are short, open-ended, realistic, incomplete, and impactful. The last quality may result from visual images and emotional content. Some alternatives to simple individual reading of a case, which is a traditional opening approach, help increase the case's impact severalfold—for example, video and slide-tape versions. Other alternatives offer ease of preparation and presentation—for example, staged readings. Seventeen innovative variations are offered in this paper as options that can match particular circumstances of the instructional venue.