Logged On: Third-graders' Views on Interactive Websites for Struggling Readers

Many American children are struggling with their reading skills despite vast efforts to address this problem. This study investigated children?s interactions with websites aimed toward struggling readers. A sample of five third-graders were introduced to the Reading Upgrade and Ticket To Read websites and were involved in a pair of think-aloud interviews. The think-aloud interviews involved students verbalizing their thoughts as they were asked to perform a set of specified tasks. This method served as the most direct way to receive information about the thought processes of the students. The students said about the websites that they liked having a list of choices, a reward system, and an intriguing selection of reading passages. They disliked the quantity of questions, the length of the reading passages, and the difficulty level in some cases. The results are discussed in relation to how digital media of this type can serve as supplemental instruction for struggling elementary readers.