Every day offers an opportunity to build critical thinking and digital skills. Allow your child to explore new information, hone reading and thinking skills, evaluate what they find, and talk about their findings. By using smartphones, tablets, and laptops, parents guide and support the development of lifelong literacy for their kids through technology.
- Encourage your child to READ everything on a screen. Ask them what predications they can make about where links or menu items will take them. Focus on "close reading" of any screen/page/information on a page. Close reading (making sure to take in anything and everything on a page/site/app) focuses on deep analytical skills and helps students to identify, infer, inspect and construct new meaning in all aspects.
- Allow children under 10 to read in chunks (no more than 500 words) or view videos in chunks (no more than 3-5 minutes) and ask them to write or jot down notes about what they saw or read and their thinking about what they consumed.
- Avoid just showing your child "where" the icon is located or where the bookmark is located.
- Allow students to create in apps and or sites (Google products, drawing apps,)
- Encourage your child to play digital citizenship games to practice safety on the internet. Facebook recently launched their kid version, but there are plenty that you can use as well including Common Sense Media and BeInternetAwesome from Google.
