How do elementary students read poetry together? Elementary students’ reading practices using digital annotations

Abstract

The Zoom platform provided students in recent online classes, which had been necessitated by COVID-19, with opportunities for active expression using digital annotations. This study explores the experience of elementary students reading poetry using digital annotations and its usefulness as social constructivist reading. As such, we conducted a case study of an out-of-school literature class that used Zoom annotations, and collected data through participatory observation, activity materials, and interviews from 16 participating students. The data were analyzed by coding and categorizing common themes in two processes—annotation generating and sharing. We found that the digital annotations facilitated students’ comprehension of challenging texts. They shared their thoughts and reflected on each other’s opinions while generating and sharing annotations and socially constructing their appreciation. Digital annotations are significant in that they reveal the cooperative reading processes of students transparently, and they allow social annotations in literature classes in accordance with the interests and needs of the elementary students.