Abstract of

Examining Ways Readers Engage With Websites During Think-Aloud Sessions

James Damico

Mark Baildon

Findings from this study of how two pairs of eighth-grade students each transacted with a website during think-aloud sessions at the conclusion of a curricular unit on Mexico and migration highlight the ways the students engaged in three interrelated tasks:

1. Identifying and making sense of “new” information

2. Evaluating claims and evidence

3. Considering ways to use the site in the writing of their own narrative

While these findings represent ways that these students demonstrated proficiency with literacy practices in beginning to read websites in more disciplined and disciplinary ways, they also point to two key challenges: contextualizing and corroborating sources of information and setting purposes for reading websites in a dynamic learning context.

Abstract from Damico, J., & Baildon, M. (2007, November). Examining Ways Readers Engage With Websites During Think-Aloud Sessions. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 51(3), 254–263. doi: 10.1598/JAAL.51.3.5