Digital Texts and Student Engagement

In the past year, one instructional practice that has gained traction is the use of online children's picture books or digital texts. Teachers use these (often free) online resources in various ways during literacy instruction. The purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate how preservice teachers and inservice teachers can plan for the effective use of digital texts in their literacy instruction. This chapter provides a conceptual framework for teachers to apply when using digital texts as read alouds in their classrooms. Further, this chapter describes how teachers can actively engage their students when using this text type with their students. Often, a main concern of teachers when using digital texts is how to actively engage students with this text type. Teachers want to plan meaningful literacy instruction that includes digital texts, which means they want their students to engage with the texts they are reading. This chapter demonstrates how using a conceptual framework while planning for early literacy instruction can guide student engagement while using digital texts.