Digital Highlighting as Formative Assessment of Reading Comprehension

• In Event: 60.083 - Roundtable Session 19
  In Roundtable Session: 60.083-15 - New Literacies Strategies for Literacy Development

Abstract

This proposal describes the results of an investigation into the relationship between the types and patterns of student highlights in a digital text and their comprehension of the text. A digital e-reader was developed that allows students the ability to highlight moments of inference in a text. Highlighting is a minimally intrusive activity, unlike many other reading comprehension interventions.

A sample of seventh grade students, N = 250, read a short story using the e-reader, then took a posttest measuring their comprehension of the story. A neural network analysis was employed to examine the nature of the relationships between the highlights and comprehension of the text. Results indicated that a pattern is evident, particularly when highlight types are examined.

Authors

• Jonathan Cohen, Georgia State University

• Audrey J. Leroux, Georgia State University