just like generations of students before them. But here, they're just as likely to find their subject matter on the Internet as the printed page, as likely to tap compositions and critiques into a netbook — or, in one student's case, an iPhone — as commit them by pencil to a notebook.

"They know that reading online or reading a textbook is part of their lives," Roberts says. "I don't think they see it as either this or that. I think they're incorporating both."

Our culture has been moving toward prizing efficiency over taking time to do things," Kleinfeld says, "and we've been moving in that direction for decades." As state standards and national policies embrace the relationship between technology and language, specific skills have emerged as central to new literacies.

In a 2006 article in the Handbook of Writing Research, "The Effects of New Technologies on Writing and Writing Processes," he explains that his series of three studies of 9- and 10-year-olds with severe spelling problems showed that these students' legible words increased from 55 to 85 percent, and their correctly spelled words rose from 42 to 75 percent.

In developing the program, Greig worked with University of Oregon researcher and pioneer in computer-supported studying Lynne Anderson-Inman to test its effectiveness with kindergarten students. Using the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills test, Greig tested the group of students every two weeks on pre-reading and early reading skills, such as naming letters, phonemic awareness, and ease of decoding nonsense words accurately. After six weeks of using Reading Buddies, Greig says, "We saw kids who had been operating at the 10th and 20th percentiles moving up to the 40th and 50th percentiles." At the end of the 10-week pilot, Grieg says, "[Students] were at or above the test's benchmark."

The Reading Buddies program promotes the school's whole child approach, Greig says, by encouraging multiple modalities—such as visuals, tracing letters, auditory, and songs—and requiring students to discuss the material with parents or an adult family member in the home.