THE IMPACT OF E-READERS ON COMPREHENSION AND READING INTEREST.

The purpose of this study was to increase the summer reading engagement of local high school students who were identified as struggling readers. This project was developed collaboratively between a small southeastern liberal arts university, a local community high school, and the public library. Funding was provided by the Alabama State department of Education Special Education Office. Twenty high school students struggling with reading were nominated by their teachers to participate in a summer reading program. Nominations were based on their previous summer reading success as determined by their Accelerated Reader (AR) and Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) reading test results. Nine students participated in the program. Participants attended an orientation in which they were provided with training to use the reading devices and additional parameters of the program, after which they were given a Kindle e-reading device to use for their summer reading. The summer reading books were downloaded onto their device prior to distribution. Each high school student met weekly for one hour with a university student mentor who was reading the same e-books. University mentors provided technical and reading comprehension support throughout the summer. The objectives of this project were as follows: to increase summer reading engagement and comprehension of participating high school students; to provide university students with the opportunity to support struggling readers in the community; and to identify the impact of reading books on an electronic device (i.e. Kindle) versus reading traditional books. Results indicated an increase in reading comprehension scores and motivation of high school students as compared to the previous summer. University students reported overall favorable experience with this community service learning opportunity. Anecdotal records indicated the e-readers were a good motivational tool for struggling high school students [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]