Making Sense of Online Text
“Making Sense of Online Text” by Dr. Julie Coiro is article published in ASCD’s Educational Leadership. Dr. Coiro describes why reading online requires additional skills and knowledge that are different from those required to read printed texts. She outlines some of these skills related to evaluating an Internet search result lists, navigating a selected website, evaluating information found online, and synthesizing information read across websites.
In “Making Sense of Online Text,” Dr. Coiro presents a compelling explanation for why students need to learn specific online reading comprehension skills. She clearly describes lessons and strategies that teachers could incorporate as part of their classroom instruction. To teach students how to evaluate an Internet search list, for example, Dr. Coiro shares that teachers could print a sample search list for students to evaluate with a series of guiding questions. She gives an example of a graphic organizer with specific questions about information on the search list, as well as follow-up questions (e.g., “How do you know?”). All of the strategies presented in the article (e.g., “seven steps for previewing a website”) are highly applicable to middle and high school curricula.