Literacy Mini Series: Part 3 - Managing the Impact of Technology with Core Tenets of Effective Literacy Instruction
This is the third article in a 3-part series that examines the impact of technology, like texting and instant messaging, on literacy.
In Part 1 of this series, I talked about the best way to mitigate any potential negative impacts, and in Part 2 I discussed the first of three core tenets of effective literacy instruction.
The three core tenets of effective literacy instruction are:
- Structured Intervention
- Active and Generative Use
- Integration of Skills
In this article I’m going to talk about “active and generative use” and “integration of skills”.
Active and Generative Use
We get stronger with skills when we use them actively instead of passively. Kind of like how you can’t learn to drive by simply sitting in the passenger seat; at some point you have to get behind the wheel. This is referred to as “active” use.
When we use skills in “generative” ways, we’re taking a skill or concept and applying it across different situations and contexts (Walsh & Blewitt, 2006). For example, you might learn that you can use a certain letter to spell one word; but since you’ve developed an understanding of what that letter represents, you can also figure out how to use it in other words.
Working on skills like phonological, morphological, and orthographic knowledge form the foundation for structured literacy intervention (Henbest & Apel, 2021). However, in order to be proficient, kids need regular opportunities to have this “active and generative” use.
A lot of kids do just fine with the standard reading curriculum delivered in most schools; even with the influx of screentime and “txt-spk”.
However, some kids need things to be more intensive and direct; especially if they have diagnoses that impact learning. Even though school curriculums do involve a lot of structured teaching strategies, a lot of skills need to be learned implicitly.
When skills are taught implicitly, instead of someone sitting down and explaining the skill directly, kids have to figure it out on their own as they’re practicing other skills. For example, as they’re reading, they might pick up on the meanings of vocabulary words or the spellings of words they’re encountering for the first time.
Also, when kids are writing, they have to remember how to spell words, formulate sentences with different vocabulary, and problem-solve to figure out how to spell words they might not have learned before. It challenges them to apply the skills they’ve been learning; but in this struggle those skills become stronger. The average elementary school student can learn thousands of new words each year, and a lot of it happens during these challenging reading/writing tasks (Kucan, 2012).
Kids are learning things implicitly all day long, which is a good thing because there’s no way teachers could cover every single skill kids need to know.
When a student has a diagnosis such as dyslexia, it’s much harder for them to pick up on language skills implicitly (like phonological, morphological, or orthographic information). They also may need much more structured instruction before they are able to be independent with “active” and “generative” use (Bahr et al., 2020). This means they often need assistance transitioning to more difficult application tasks. For example, instead of learning how to spell a word and immediately being able to use it while writing an essay, they might need additional practice using the spelling pattern one word at a time or in individual sentences.
However, once kids DO start to grasp on to literacy concepts, having LOTS of opportunities to practice is essential for retaining the skills.
Think of it like a muscle that gets stronger after being flexed repeatedly. Now that we’ve introduced technology into the mix, we have to make sure that kids are “flexing” the right muscles. With phonology and orthography, there is some potential to practice these skills, even if you’re using a device; but some essential skills can be practiced more effectively when you’re using pen and paper.
When you’re spelling a word with a pen and paper, there isn’t any device to generate the rest of the word for you once you’ve written the first few letters. Instead, you have to think about the sounds in the word, think about the written symbols, and then generate them. It requires a lot more effort and attention and is way more “active and generative”.
When we skip right to using a device, we rob ourselves of the opportunity to go through this learning process that enables us to develop proficiency.
Additionally, technologies such as spell-check and autocorrect require at least some proficiency with reading and spelling in order to use them effectively.
When we try to skip the “struggle” at the beginning stages, with pen and paper, we may unintentionally prolong the delay because we’ve skipped over a prime opportunity for learning.
As you practice spelling and reading over time it no longer feels like hard work because your brain processes the written symbols and makes sense of them more efficiently.
This is essentially what’s happening when words become “sight words”. Your brain has gone through the process of thinking through the letters and sounds so many times for that particular word that you can process the written symbols, pair them to relevant sounds, put them all together, and collectively recognize it as a word that means something.
It only seems like we’ve “memorized” it because the process has become fluid because we’ve developed automaticity. This is what needs to happen in order for us to have automaticity with reading and spelling.
Limited opportunities means less automaticity, and using devices too soon and too often can limit the opportunities kids have to practice foundational spelling skills.
When it comes to morphology, the same issue can come up. You do technically have the opportunity to use these skills; but the rules get a bit fuzzy. You can skirt around them and avoid truly using the morphological skills you might need to read a text or write a paper or write a professional email.
For example, in the word “because” there are two morphemes. “Be” and “cause”. Both of those things are extremely valuable for kids to know because both of them can be used in other words as well. If a child knows how to spell “cause” in the word “because”, they can remember how to spell that word part in other words as well. Alternatively, if they’ve learned that “cuz” can also mean “because”, they have an additional variation.
Kids with strong language skills can often transition from “text” spellings and true spellings. They also might have had enough practice with the skills that they’ve solidified them and don’t need additional opportunities to use them. But for kids who struggle, making this transition might be more difficult (Fallon & Katz, 2020). That’s why they often need extra practice with key foundational skills like I describe here.
Integration of Skills
With phonological, morphological, and orthographic skills, you’re never truly working on just ONE skill at time; they impact each other and you can’t always isolate them.
For example, when you’re talking about morphology, you also have to think about how words are spelled, so you’re also working on orthography. When you think about how to spell word parts when you’re focusing on morphology, you also have to think about the individual letters and sounds; so you’re still focusing on orthography and phonology at the same time (Kucan, 2012).
However, “integration” doesn’t happen in the same way across contexts. For example, you have to integrate a different set of skills when writing versus typing. For writing, you have to use letter formation skills; while for typing, you’d use keyboarding skills.
With devices, accessibility features that have opened up a lot of opportunities for people with disabilities. For example, texting makes communication accessible for the Deaf. Text-to-speech features allow text to be read to people so they can listen as an accommodation. We can also use voice dictation for messages, which means that you can bypass spelling and typing altogether when appropriate.
These are all good things because they make it possible to connect in new ways. One of the best inventions (in my opinion) is the audiobook. Audiobooks not only make it possible for us to listen to books while we do other things (driving, walking, making dinner), but they also make it possible for struggling readers to listen to books independently that might be above their reading level. This can expose them to language skills they might not have otherwise encountered.
With texting (and devices in general), we have things like autocorrect and word prediction. On one hand, it can increase typing speed. On other hand, we might not have the chance to really think about the way a word is spelled. This takes away part of the “active” component we’d normally use to spell a word when physically writing, so we don’t have to fully integrate skills in the same way we would if writing without those features. Additionally, editing and proofreading is still required, and we still need strong reading and spelling in order to do this; which is why we shouldn’t try to bypass reading instruction because technology is available.
When you factor in the informal grammar rules with texting and abbreviations, we don’t get the same level of integration with morphology either.
The other concern with devices (phones in particular) is that most applications have features that are designed to be addictive. That means that it’s easy to pick up your phone with the intention of sending a quick text to a friend; but get sucked into a rabbit hole of notifications. This might end up taking time away from opportunities to do other, more productive things.
In Conclusion
So, where does this leave us? The takeaway is that now that we’ve been bombarded with a ton of new technology, we need to make sure we don’t forget best practices for developing foundational literacy skills.
That’s why I created the Word Study Toolkit for SLPs. I originally designed it for SLPs providing language therapy (and it’s perfect for that!), but I’ve had parents and teachers find it useful as well).
When I mentor SLPs, the component that I often emphasize the most is morphology. I also emphasize orthography because it’s so closely related (and also overlooked). In the Word Study Toolkit, I give you the nuts and bolts you need to start working on both of these areas with your kids.
When people start to realize how important these skills are, they usually want some type of complicated curriculum or hierarchy. While we can certainly work up a hierarchy when working on morphology, there is no one “perfect” order to start working on morphemes. You can make a lot of headway with few simple protocols like this one and a list of different morphemes to cycle through. That’s also why this toolkit can be used for students as young as early elementary school all the way through high school. For the younger kids you can start with just a few, more common patterns in the toolkit.
You can learn more about the Word Study Toolkit here.
Dr. Karen Dudek-Brannan is the founder and owner/operator of Dr. Karen, LLC, a company focused on empowering therapists and educators to design interventions that support language, literacy, and executive functioning. She has a doctorate in Special Education and Director of Special Education and Assistive Technology credentials from Illinois State University, as well as a master’s and bachelor’s from Illinois State University in speech-language pathology. She spent 14 years in the school systems and has held various roles in leadership and higher education teaching and mentoring clinicians. She is the host of the De Facto Leaders podcast, where she shares evidence-based practices, her own experiences, and guest interviews on topics relating to education and healthcare reform. She currently holds a management role with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.
You can connect with Dr. Karen on LinkedIn here.
Sign up for her “How to Be Evidence-Based and Neurodiversity-Affirming by Supporting Executive Functioning” training here.
Download her “Executive Functioning Implementation Guide for School Teams” here.
Listen to the De Facto Leaders podcast here.
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