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"There's no doubt that the experience of reading online is different than reading in print, but does it affect comprehension? While several studies have found student comprehension and retention are lower on digital devices, could it be that students just need to learn the right tools to enhance their digital reading? Maria Konnikova explores the research and theories behind reading in her New Yorker column."

The seven tips here offer some advice if you want to read faster while maintaining reading comprehension. "Whether you skim a blog post, peruse files for work, or browse through a book, you most likely do some type of reading every day. But slogging through dense passages of text can be time-consuming, mentally exhausting, and hard on your eyes."

How to teach text structures for better reading comprehension and improved retention. Teachers of history, science, and other subjects are now expected to weave literacy instruction into their teaching of content. But how should they do that? What are the most effective ways to help students learn to read challenging content-area texts? This article breaks down the research behind explicit teaching of text structures and includes a video that shows how to do it (Great for content-area literacy)

This site offers a comprehensive, easily searchable, fully-indexed, and freely accessible digital library of historical sources related to the creation, ratification, and amendment of the United States Constitution.

"6 simple strategies that we can teach our students to drastically improve reading comprehension." Link to downloadable posters

A comprehensive post about how you could approach the 2014 theme "Connect to reading"

Professors Sameer Hinduja ( and Justin Patchin are the co-directors of the Center for Cyberbullying Research. As researchers, they delve into and provide "up-to-date information about the nature, extent, causes, and consequences of cyberbullying among adolescents." They have released a Cyberbullying Quiz to jump start faculty discussions. The quiz is short (15 true/false questions) and each answer also includes the supporting research. In addition to the quiz, they have also published a comprehensive Cyberbullying Fact Sheet that is written for educators, administrators, and parents.This might be useful as a handout for a teachers or parents.

Having the "same" text written for different levels of English comprehension can be a life-saver for a multi-level class of English Language Learners or for a teacher with a mainstream class that includes some students that are facing other challenges. They can be an important tool for differentiation. Listed here are a few sources where you can get these different versions other than creating them yourself.

From Common Sense Media. " Scope & Sequence tool to find age-appropriate lessons that address digital literacy and citizenship topics for your classroom. You can browse by grade band or click a category to highlight the lessons that address that topic. From professional development materials, to student interactives, to lessons and assessments, and family outreach materials, our comprehensive curriculum is turnkey to implement."

This online, gamified reading log rewards kids for reading and motivates them to read more. After logging their most recent reading, they answer a CCSS-aligned comprehension question. They earn Wisdom Coins for logging their reading and answering the questions, which can be spent in the Owl Store where they buy virtual accessories for their Owlvatar. The reward system motivates kids to read more every day and gives teachers a chance to monitor what students are reading outside of the classroom. different priciing options

Tool to share, record and assess reading and comprehension

"10 activities to use with any nonfiction book or other informational text. The goal was to get kids more engaged in reading. They are simple but effective and could be adapted in a variety Of ways.

"Depending on your point of view, content on the internet can be a vast collection of treasures or a big pile of gold specks mixed in with an even bigger pile of dirt.  This has given rise to content curation, the process of finding the gold among the dirt, as a very popular online activity. At its most basic, content curation is the process of finding, organizing, and presenting content from the flood of information and media that inundate the web by the second.  Similar to museum curators, content curators sift through a seemingly never-ending amount of digital objects to unearth individual items worthy of being showcased for a specific audience."