Reader Response Meets New Literacies: Empowering Readers in Online Learning Communities

This article describes how fifth-grade students created collaborative online learning communities while discussing and responding to literature on an asynchronous message board. At their own initiative, students constructed and posted various types of literature response prompts, which elicited rich responses from their peers. Types of identified student-constructed literature response prompts include (a) experiential prompts, (b) aesthetic prompts, (b) cognitive prompts, (d) interpretive prompts, and (e) clarification prompts. Although specific guidelines were not given about the length or content of students' prompts and replies, they clearly established their own expectations and "rules" for appropriate conduct and contents on the message board. The author also discusses the changing roles of teachers and students in the new literacy classroom, the importance of building collaborative communities and expanding those into virtual learning spaces, and the value of offering support and encouragement to students and teachers in the rapidly changing technology-rich classroom.

Larson, L.C. (2009, May). Reader Response Meets New Literacies: Empowering Readers in Online Learning Communities. The Reading Teacher, 62(8), 638–648. doi: 10.1598/RT.62.8.2