I just read this article in the NY Times. It's about how many teenagers are no longer reading books, and instead spend their time reading online. Should this be considered literacy? In a way, I think so. I think that being literate means being able to critically examine many different types of work, such as newspaper articles, books, movies, art, and even online readings. As we move further into the technological age, I think that it's important to include the internet in with teaching literacy.
In the article, the author interviews Nadia, a teenager who reads 'books' online. Her spelling is poor, as is her grammar. It's interesting because the author gives some examples of the 'books' Nadia reads online. They are full of spelling errors and incorrect grammar. Perhaps the extent of online reading is not all that it's cracked up to be.
If you're interested, check out this article. It's a bit long, but a really interesting read.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/books/27reading.html?em&ex=1217304000&en=9e2f89919889abd4&ei=5087%0A
3 comments:
Ah ha!
She reads fan fiction (the girl from the article I mean). No wonder she can't spell and has terrible grammar. Most of the people (but not nearly all) who post their writing on that site are younger (middle school and high school). I started reading there because a bunch of my students wrote. There are some wonderful stories but also an awful lot of "Their having a good time over they're." It hurts me. But at least it gets the kids writing and reading which is more than I can say for my nephews and niece.
(-:
If you are curious as to what fan fiction has to offer, here is a link to a random story that is based off of Harry Potter:
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2156663/1/The_World_Without_Me
Hey Shannon,
Great minds do think alike! Anyway, I think that this is an interesting topic as well. And I definitely do prefer books as well, but I think that internet reading is really important because it is how I get most of my factual information... yet I think that there has to be a mix of both online reading and books!
Autumn
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