Digital+Text

**Digital Text**

 * Digital or Electronic Text is text stored as strings of characters. In most classrooms books or handouts are the main media in which teachers deliver content to students. Adjusting a standard print format to accommodate different learners can be time-consuming.

The flexibility of digital text makes it a great option for customizing text to the needs of different learners. Digital text can be searched, rearranged, and read aloud by a computer. And because it is so flexible, it is often a perfect option for students with disabilities. The National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS) are working to create a standardized format that will allow alternate versions of text designed to meet the needs of students with visual, physical, hearing, learning and cognitive disabilities. While it is being developed, there are still many books and historical documents which have been converted to digital format, for access via a computer.

The “Digital Text” tip will direct you to many sources of free and subscription-based digital content. The tip on “Searching” will assist you in finding the best content using specialized search engines. || Think of one or more of your students who would benefit if:* the text was larger or easier to see? These adjustments can be easily done with electronic text and will help you differentiate instruction for a wide range of students. Ideas for instruction are discussed further in the Digital Enhancement tip area. ||
 * **Who does it help?**
 * they could hear text read aloud?
 * they could highlight or cut and paste the important points, or mark words that were unclear?
 * there was a summary of the article that could be read before reading the whole piece?
 * There are numerous internet resources for digital text, with more sources being developed all the time. Many books and historical documents have been converted to digital format, for access via computer. New writing is being done to take advantage of hyperlinking and multi-media. See Digital Book Libraries (over 90 sites listed). ||   ||
 * **How does it work:**

First, **download the free handout** on [|eText resources] for all age levels.

__Examples of Free Books Online__
 * Internet Public Library provides links to books, documents, magazines, and more, organized by topic. KidSpace at the site links to picture books, children's books in Spanish or French, kids poetry, elementary science, and other curriculum areas.
 * Project Gutenberg provides over 6000 books. A search for exploring the west produced 17 titles on the Oregon trail, Buffalo Bill, crossing the Rocky Mountains, etc. Each document is downloadable in plain text or zipped format and will then open in your web browser. They can also be opened in any application that can read plain text, including all word processors.
 * University of Virginia's E-Book Library features 2,200 publicly-available e-books including classic British and American fiction, major authors, children's literature, the Bible, Shakespeare, American history, African-American documents, and has a new center on religion and democracy. Material can accessed in HTML (web version) for online viewing (or cut and pasted into a word processor), and can be downloaded as both an E-book for Microsoft Reader and Palm-readable text for the [|Palm Reader.]
 * The Baldwin Project provides customizable display for online reading of children's literature from 1880 - 1922, including over 350 Nursery Rhymes, Fables, Folk Tales, Myths, Legends and Hero Stories, Literary Fairy Tales, Bible Stories, Nature Stories, Biography, History, Fiction, Poetry, Storytelling, Games, and Craft Activities.

__Inexpensive Books Online__ [|Bookshare.org] has over 12,000 titles of books that are still in copyright. These are available for an extremely reasonable subscription fee for teachers who work with student's that have an identified visual or print disability.

The Accessible Book Collection has selected over 500 books with a high interest/low reading level and gives detailed information on reading level for each title, as they are mainly audience is youth with learning disabilities. Subscriptions are $50 per year.

Examples of free digital text:* The Tell-Tale Heart
 * Heidi
 * Oliver Twist
 * Tom Sawyer
 * Little Women
 * Kidnapped
 * The Silver Balloon
 * Dragonwings
 * Mary Poppins
 * The Jungle

Examples of historical information:* Rosa Parks
 * Star Spangled Banner
 * Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech
 * First Across the Continent: Lewis and Clarke
 * Bill of Rights

Examples of magazines and newspapers* New York Times Learning Network
 * Fossil News
 * TIME for Kids
 * National Geographic Online
 * Ranger Rick Online
 * ZuZu (online kids newspaper)
 * Many local daily newspapers are also available online

How to use Digital Text in your classroom:* Find a selection of text that you would use in class. An example might be Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. Copy and paste it into a word processing program. > > **Tips for Implementing:** > Educational Sources of Digital Text for Background and Research Related Resources [|The Digital Reader: Using eBooks in K-12 education]
 * Classroom Examples:**
 * Think about changes that could be made to enhance the reading experience for individual students.
 * The text can be changed visually, by altering the size and color of the font, or adding more space between lines.
 * Words and phrases can be underlined, bolded or highlighted. This can be done to draw attention to certain facts or new vocabulary.
 * The text can be changed in terms of organization, giving a summary or an outline view.
 * The text can also be placed in a box on one side of the page, with room on the other for student notes or questions.
 * Questions for students to answer or background information can be inserted close to the relevant section of text.
 * Text can be broken into manageable chunks, with generic prompts inserted to remind students to apply a strategy (e.g., summarizing, predicting, questioning, clarifying, and visualizing).
 * The speech can be enhanced with an image of Dr. King, an audio clip of the first few lines of the speech, or a timeline of the civil rights movement. (Once enhanced, the same text documents can be used repeatedly, with or without further modification.)
 * The computer can read the text aloud.
 * Students can copy and paste words they don't know into an online dictionary, which will also read them aloud.
 * Students can work with the text to produce their own summary or interpretation of the speech.
 * You can print your enhanced version for students to read, or to be used as a worksheet.
 * Thinkfinity
 * Web Quest
 * KidsClick: Web resources organized by subject, with estimated reading level and links to text on sports, recreation, literature, geography, history, science, math, etc. ||  ||