Reading & Literacy
 

Literacy and Technology

Technology offers new opportunities for families to learn and play together and at the same time support literacy.

Television, Videos and Movies

When watching TV or movies, you can support literacy:

  • Watch with your children and ask questions to check for understanding.
  • Encourage them to ask questions of their own. 
  • Talk about the ideas in the shows.
  • Analyze what you have watched like movie critics, comparing it with other films and providing opinions about the quality of the film or video.
  • Relate the shows to real-life experiences they have had.

Internet

A lot of information is available through the Internet, but not all of it is accurate and reliable. You can help your children get quality information online:

  • Use your public library card to access online resources, such as magazine articles and encyclopedias.
  • Help them figure out the best words to use to search for information on a topic.
  • Encourage them to seek different points of view and multiple sources of information.
  • Help them evaluate and ask questions about the information that they find. For example: 
  • Who wrote it and why was it written? Is it fact or opinion? Does the author tell you how he or she knows the facts? Does this information fit with other information found on this topic?
  • Pay attention to what your children are seeing on the computer. If you don’t know much about using the computer yourself, ask your children to teach you what they have learned.

 

Use sites that are designed to help children search the Internet:

Use sites that recommend other sites that are safe and appropriate for children:

Communicating Through the Internet

The Internet provides many opportunities for people to connect with others. Young people often e-mail and chat online with their friends after school. It’s important to make sure your child is using the Internet in a safe, appropriate way. These rules are also important for youngsters with cell phones.

  • Know the people your children are talking to online.
  • Make sure they do not give out personal information.
  • Make sure they use only appropriate chat sites.

Audiobooks and Downloadables

Books on tape or CD or in electronic format are available at the library and in bookstores. They let you listen to or view books in the car, on the train or anywhere an audio player can go.

An increasing number of books are available electronically through the public or school library (e-books). These may be checked out and downloaded to your computer. At the end of the checkout period, the file will disappear from your computer and be automatically checked back in to the library.

The Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library (http://talkingbooks.nypl.org/) operates a books-by-mail program that delivers thousands of recorded and Braille titles postage-free. Residents of all ages from New York City and Long Island are eligible for these services if they have difficulty reading standard printed materials because of blindness, visual impairment, some physical disabilities or a reading disability (such as dyslexia) resulting from organic dysfunction. For further information, see the New York City Resources page within the Literacy Resources section.