Journal of Research in Innovative Teaching - National University

Because electronic texts are increasingly common in schools, researchers wanted to know how
much reading teachers estimated, using time spent as an indicator, their students read on the
Internet as a class activity (see Table 8). It was no surprise that primary teachers estimated that 0
to 15 minutes were spent reading on the Internet for class. However, the upper grade teachers
also reported similar results, with 47 percent reporting the same amount of reading on the
Internet and 36 percent reporting between 16 and 45 minutes.
Table 8
Internet Reading Tasks
Internet Reading/week Primary Upper Total
0-15 minutes 31 9 40
16-45 minutes 7 7 14
46-60 minutes 3 1 4
1-2 hours 2 1 3
2+ hours 0 1 1
Discussion
The literature of the field describes the value of using small-groups, partners, and independent
reading activities (e.g., Cunningham, Hall, & Defee, 1991; Lapp, Fisher, & Wolsey, 2009;
Daniels, 2002), and this is reflected in the reading tasks teachers were most likely to assign at
both upper and primary grade bands. This shift may be seen as an improvement over the reliance
on whole-class oral reading activities reported by Beach (1993). Indeed, teachers at both upper
and primary grades reported they were least likely to assign reading tasks as homework or to
assign students to read aloud to the entire class.
Whole-class oral reading of the round-robin style or popcorn style appears to be out of
favor or fading from the repertoire of elementary teachers’ reading approaches, though these
techniques are still used. Round-robin reading approaches may have class management benefits
manifested as what appears to be on-task behavior, yet the outcome of such reading is that as one
student reads while the teacher evaluates that reading, little specific instruction in reading skills
is provided. In whole-class oral reading, in round-robin or popcorn styles, one student reads
aloud while the others in the class are directed to read along silently. In practice, this is not what
students do; often, proficient readers have read far ahead in the text and are thus not “with the
class,” and the less proficient readers have either drifted off the task or are worried about their
turn to read aloud and display for the class their lack of proficiency with the task. Whole-class
oral reading may also place an undue focus on the task of reading aloud (e.g., pronunciation)
rather than on reading for comprehension (Rasinski & Hoffman, 2003). While there are
important attention/capacity issues to consider, multisensory learning and instruction has deep
roots that go back decades into the educational literature with many examples of successfully
balanced integrations (e.g., Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001; Sadoski & Willson, 2006).
Similarly, the popcorn style of reading requires students to read very short sections of
connected text. During reading, the teacher or a student calls the name of another student, who
must then pick up reading where the previous reader left off. Popcorn reading is more
problematic than round-robin reading in that students must read word-by-word to avoid being
caught off-task. Reading word-by-word may work counter to goals for phrase reading and
reading for comprehension. Where the practice persists, it may be attributed to the idea, noted
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