The purpose of this article was to offer guidance to educators in evaluating the strengths, weaknesses, and most effective uses of commercial reading assessment suites. We provide three resources to help educators who are responsible for making instructional decisions in reading using formal screening, benchmark, interim, and progress-monitoring…

Literacy teachers often feel underprepared to provide instruction that integrates technology in meaningful ways. Yet, there is evidence that teachers can be supported to overcome this barrier through professional development using a framework for instructional planning. Although efforts to support teachers' short-term technology integration have…

The design, publication, and features of contemporary narrative picturebooks have been impacted by the digital revolution and the emerging popularity of digital reading devices. Considering both the affordances and the limitations of digital picturebook apps can help readers, teachers, parents, and other educators make better decisions about the…

The Common Core State Standards advocate more writing than previous standards; however, in taking a college and career readiness perspective, the Standards neglect to emphasize the role of context and culture in learning to write. We argue that sociocultural perspectives that pay attention to these factors offer insights into how to interpret and…

As portable devices become increasingly available in elementary classrooms teachers are expected to use these new technologies to engage students in both traditional print-based literacy learning and digital literacies practices, such as multimodal composing. Teachers face the daunting task of integrating apps into their current research-based…

Anecdotal records have long been used as a means of formative assessment. This article explores how traditional anecdotal records can be enhanced with digital technology. Using a portable device and one of many available note-taking applications, teachers have the opportunity to create a richer picture of the student. Highlighted in this Teaching…

There is a wide range in the educational qualities and overall quality of interactive storybook apps for tablet computers (ebooks). Minimally, ebooks for young children present illustrations on a screen, accompanied by an oral reading of the text. Today's ebooks can also include animation, zooming in and out, musical scores, sound effects,…

Building on existing research applying app maps (Israelson, 2015), the authors take an ideological orientation to broaden app evaluations and consider participatory literacies, social and communicational practices relevant to children's everyday digitally mediated lives. Drawing from their North American elementary classroom studies on children's…

Beginning with a brief rationale for selecting quality digital picture book apps for beginning readers, the authors describe the elements of digital picture books and provide a brief review of the instructional benefits of digital picture book use for beginning readers. They then present a detailed taxonomy for selecting quality picture book apps.…

The Common Core State Standards call for an expanded view of literacy instruction, one where children learn to critically consume and produce text using technology and media. This article describes how a Digital Writers' Workshop can be a vehicle for integrating multimodal composition into the classroom. It offers general workshop principles and…

Describes an instructional program developed for children with severe disabilities. Discusses how the combined use of technology and child-centered instruction resulted in the active participation of these severely disabled students in reading and writing activities. (SR)

Discusses finding grant money for computer technology for whole language classrooms. Offers advice on writing grants. (SR)

An innovative, technology-enabled elementary school literacy program was implemented in a large urban school district. The program revolved around having student-adult pen pals read the same books and correspond about them. Statistical comparisons showed that program classrooms outperformed students in comparison classrooms on the SAT-9…