Researchers suggest that youth involvement with digital texts and online media is essential to developing critical readers and writers in the twenty-first century (Alvermann, 2008; Buckinghann, 2003; Doering et al., 2007; Sperling & DiPardo, 2008; Stone, 2007; West, 2008). The phenomenon of literacy is changing rapidly and creating a paradigm shift from traditional literacies to 21st century multiliteracies that require students to communicate through technologies and multimedia texts. "Although literacy has been commonly defined as the ability to read and write, we now live in an age of multiple literacies" (McLaughlin & DeVoogd, 2011, p. 278). Particularly, digital literacies propose a world of many opportunities to engage in technologies, apps, social media, and videos to explore, learn and connect with other people, mainly children and adolescents (Rowsell, Jennifer & Morrell, Ernest & Alvermann, 2017). Internet technologies have rapidly changed the face of reading and writing, as well as, how readers and writers engage with texts and share ideas in many formats (Lankshear & Knobel, 2011; Leander, Phillips, & Taylor, 2010). Reading instruction and literacy instruction are constantly changing and developing new definitions as new technologies require new literacies (Coiro, Knobel, Lanshear, & Leu, 2008). Most importantly, these new literacies are evolving as rapidly as new ways of communicating and locating information on the Internet. Literacy practices are being redefined daily and having the ability to effectively communicate in these new electronic spaces have implications on language development and the perceptions of the roles of technology (Lankshear & Knobel, 2011). Unfortunately, today, there are many classrooms that continue to lack sufficient access to technology and clear understanding how to integrate technology (Hutchison & Reinking, 2011). The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore students’ reading strategies and engagement with online informational texts, and how their reading practices affect reading comprehension. Using a qualitative single-case study design, participants were six sixth-grade students (three girls and three boys) with varied reading levels and Internet reading experiences from a class of 26 students in a middle school in eastern United States. Data was collected through individual think-aloud interviews with the researcher and the opportunity to complete three different Internet tasks. Findings suggest students in this study use reading practices and strategies similar and different to traditional reading and the Internet presents a need for a set of more complex skills to read, navigate, and comprehend texts online. The implications of the research, recommendations for educational stakeholders, and recommendations for future research are discussed.
