Connecting a Computer Center to Themes, Literature, and Kindergartners' Literacy Needs

Linda D. Labbo and Linda Sprague,
with M. Kristiina Montero and George Font

Life in a kindergarten classroom is made up of an ebb and flow of routines, rituals, celebrations, circle time, play time, center time, school schedules and timetabling, and the teacher's skillful orchestration of learning activities. When a computer center is thrust into a smoothly running classroom, the natural rhythms of kindergarten life may be thrown out of whack temporarily, while the teacher and students figure out the role that the computer will play in curriculum and instruction.

Although computers were becoming commonplace features in early childhood classrooms by the early to mid-1990s (Becker, 1993), many teachers -- if not the majority -- are uncomfortable with how to make the best use of them (U.S. Department of Education, 1999). In particular, teachers wonder how to design computer center activities to meet the individual needs of children at various levels of literacy ability.

This article describes how we, a kindergarten teacher (Linda Sprague) and a university-based research collaborator (Linda Labbo), utilized ongoing observations to design thematically connected and literature-based computer-related activities to meet the varying literacy needs of the children within the life of the classroom. This work is part of an ongoing longitudinal, qualitative study we are conducting with our research assistants, Kristiina Montero and George Font, to explore young children's opportunities for literacy development in a kindergarten classroom computer center. The case studies of Joey and Beth, two students in the kindergarten classroom, are drawn from a larger data set of 21 case studies collected during the 1999-2000 academic year. These two case study narratives are just a small sample of the many stories that may provide much needed direction on how to embrace a computer center as a powerful learning tool that can complement the naturally occurring rhythms of classroom life and help meet the literacy needs of young children.

Who and Where We Are

Ms. Sprague and Ms. Wade posed in front of a classroom computer
Linda Sprague (right) with Ms. Wade

Linda Sprague has 7 years of experience teaching kindergarten and has had a computer center in her classroom for 3 years. Her unflappable nature, optimistic outlook, sense of humor, and affection for young children help make her classroom a comfortable place for learning. She has had a teaching aide, Ms. Wade, who has been with her for several years and who often spends center time helping children accomplish assignments.

Linda Labbo, a researcher from the University of Georgia, has spent 2 of her 6 years of research on kindergarten children's computer use in Linda Sprague's classroom. Kristiina Montero and George Font, research assistants from the university, collected data at least two times a week during various semesters between 1998 and 2000.

Linda Sprague's kindergarten is part of a suburban elementary school, built in the 1990s. As a result of a district decision to give parents a choice of schools for their children, the school's demographics have shifted over the last several years from a predominately European American student body to a population of diverse races, socioeconomic classes, and ethnicities. The kindergarten itself is a comfortable place for learning, where patience, optimism, humor, and affection are very much in evidence. The 21 children in this classroom in the 1999-2000 school year were accustomed to the presence of observers, who documented their opportunities to learn about literacy in the computer center as they interacted with various software programs.

The computer center houses three computers, set up on a long table in a corner of the room. Each computer has two kindergarten-sized chairs placed before it to facilitate collaboration and to provide a place for children to sit and watch their peers if they are waiting to use a computer on their own. The classroom also had a digital camera, and the computers were connected to a printer that was housed in the school's media center.

 the computer center

Deciding on a Case Study Approach

We decided that a case study analysis was appropriate because it would allow us to conduct an in-depth, intensive examination of children's literacy-related experiences at the computer. For the purposes of this article, we identified two children through a typical-case selection process (LeCompte & Preissle, 1993). A typical-case selection seeks participants who possess attributes of a typical person from within the culture or phenomenon being studied. In this instance, we wanted to identify for case study two students who were experiencing literacy difficulties and who might benefit from working at the classroom computer center. Through a process of elimination, the choices were narrowed down to 6 children from the whole-class group of 21. Next, by reviewing and discussing the students' assessment portfolios, we continued to narrow the field, finally deciding on Joey and Beth.

In what follows, we weave together the two case study narratives from qualitative data sources that include field note observations, interviews with key participants, researcher reflective journal notes, descriptions of children's computer operations and interactions, transcriptions of children's talk, print-outs of children's work, and documentation from literacy assessments administered in the classroom three times during the academic year. It is also worth noting that the case study stories are faithful to the chronological order in which events occurred. Our intention with this descriptive approach is to give readers insight into how our ongoing observations and discussions figured into the decision to provide children with three distinct types of computer experiences.

Case Study 1: Joey

A taller than average African American boy, Joey struggled with many aspects of literacy, even though at 5 years of age, he was already able to decode words and read simple text. Interestingly, Joey's ability to read had not made him a star in the classroom. On the contrary, his ability somehow set him apart from his peers in a negative way, though he did seem by nature to be a quiet loner in his learning style.

In a school district academic achievement report, Linda Sprague indicated that Joey had some difficulties in following her directions, adhering to classroom rules, and staying on task while doing group work. In the spring of 2000, he was identified as having a behavioral disorder (BD) and began leaving the classroom for BD services during the language arts time block -- a development that worried his teacher, who was concerned that Joey was missing out on important reinforcement of literacy concepts.

Joey's drawingAccording to literacy-related assessment data in his portfolio, Joey had difficulties in the following areas:

Joey's drawings of people reflected the drawings of much younger children. For example, in a picture about wanting to become a “baby ctr” (babysitter) one day (shown at left), Joey drew himself with eight babies to watch over, using circles with simple facial features for the heads and bodies that consisted of two stick legs jutting from the circles. His lack of fine motor control persisted late in the school year. Linda Sprague was hopeful that his time at the computer center would not only mediate this lack but would provide Joey with additional classroom time for literacy skills acquisition and reinforcement. She also believed that working in the computer center, positioned as it was in the corner of the classroom, would suit his solitary style of learning.

Joey's early computer experiences. Joey's computer-related experiences during the first half of the academic year were less beneficial for him than we had expected. For example, during free-choice center time, when children could select which center activity they would like to do, Joey would usually gravitate to the computer center -- where he consistently took the stance of an unfocused window shopper. The result was that his time at the center was frequently unproductive:


It is free-choice center time today and, as usual, Joey is acting like a computer program window shopper. That is, he has spent the first five minutes of his computer time clicking from screen option to screen option with little obvious goal or direction in mind. When I ask him if he is looking for a special program he shrugs his shoulders and shakes his head, no.

He is working alone at the computer which is placed in the far right corner. He has decided to work with Jump Start Kindergarten, a program which provides him with many game-playing and informational resource options. Even though I have seen a pattern of this behavior before, I am fascinated with his window-shopping activities. Over the course of the next twelve minutes he spends two minutes clicking through a calendar of the months of the year, four minutes coloring a digital picture, one minute trying to get out of the calendar which he accidentally accessed, three minutes playing a game that requires him to use the mouse to intercept falling objects, and finally spends the last two minutes of his allotted time coloring a few figures on another digital coloring book picture.

As Joey silently clicks from screen to screen, I'm aware of snippets of conversation from two children who work at the next computer: “I can do that...” “Make it go...” “Listen to this....” (I hear a ripple of shared laughter as the two boys next to Joey enjoy a screen effect.) “I want to get out of this one,” says the boy who controls the mouse. “Leaving is not easy,” the other replies wisely. I can't help but wonder if working at the computer isn't easy for Joey, who sits in self-imposed isolation in the computer corner. (Labbo, reflective field notes, October 1999)

It is important to note that Joey was very familiar with the software programs he selected to use and was not engaging in the type of scattered exploration of “screenland landscapes” (Labbo, 1996) that many children benefit from when a program is new.

Case Study 2: Beth

Beth, a sleight, blonde, European American girl who sucks her thumb when she gets tired or worried, was in her second year of kindergarten. She has a January birthday, so she would have been a middle-year first grader if she had not been retained. The previous year she had attended a large, urban school in the southeastern United States. Unfortunately, Beth, her mother, and her brother were physically abused by her father before her mother obtained a divorce. Beth's unstable home life resulted in a transient school experience. She was a member of this kindergarten class for 7 weeks early in the 1999-2000 school year, then she moved with her mother to another county just before the winter school holidays, returning in March 2000 before moving away again after only 26 days.

Data from Beth's district academic achievement report indicated that she routinely followed teacher's directions, treated others with respect, followed classroom rules, and stayed on task in large or small group work. In other words, Beth was fairly easy to overlook amidst the hustle and bustle of daily life in a kindergarten classroom. She had learned to adapt easily to new situations and she tended to blend into the background among her more outgoing peers.

According to literacy assessment data in her portfolio, Beth had difficulties in the following areas:

Beth seemed to enjoy writing and was able to use a combination of drawing and invented spelling to tell stories. She liked to work and play with her girlfriends in class and on the playground. Ms. Sprague hoped that she would also benefit from social interactions at the computer center.

Beth's early computer experiences. Beth's initial experiences at the computer center created unintentionally stressful interactions with her peers. As represented in the reflective field notes, instead of collaborating with others on software activities that might support her literacy development, Beth consistently took the stance of a “mouse warrior,” with the result that her computer time was frequently unproductive:

Beth and many other children seem to engage in mouse wars and, for all of her shyness in other classroom situations, Beth has become a Mouse Warrior. Mouse Warriors seem to take many forms but it always relates to issues of power/control and consistently occurs when children wait in what I call the “me next” chair -- a chair next to the computer where a child waits for his turn.

The “I'm next” Mouse Warriors are impatient waiters who:

When Mouse Warriors are actually in control of the mouse during their turn at the computer, they tend either to ignore those who are waiting, to offer various incentives for waiting (“I'll be your friend if you'll wait”), barter (“give me ten more turns, then I'll give you a turn”), or to relinquish control. Beth tends to relinquish control.

Seldom do the children self-select to share the mouse unless they are close friends. I've noticed that some girls, like Beth, put up a struggle for a while, but tend ultimately to defer to boys who wish to take control of the mouse.

Beth has tried to interact with Dr. Seuss's ABC, a software program, during her last three visits to the computer center; however, Cody (a European American boy) consistently disrupts her attempts to do so. During their last encounter, Cody asked Beth 15 times in a two-minute time period if he could take over. (Labbo, reflective field notes, September 1999)

Identifying Problems with Computer Center Experiences

Along with our observations of unproductive time in the computer center, we observed that many children with low literacy abilities were not benefiting from interacting with programs designed to provide them with practice on literacy skills (e.g., alphabetic order, letter identification, sound-symbol relationships). Field notes and participant interviews suggested that Joey, Beth, and other children often engaged in nonstrategic game playing when they interacted with programs that tended to be too difficult or complex. In other words, they randomly clicked on the screen until they happened upon a correct response. Interviews with the children indicated that they did this not to learn about the correct response or the literacy skill, but to play the game in a way that allowed them to see the resulting reward for getting the right answer -- usually a multimedia special effect. In other words, the children's objective was to play the game, not to learn.

After school one day, we asked ourselves how we could arrange for collaborative learning opportunities at the computer center and avoid the mouse wars. We realized that our assumption that the children would be eager to serve as guides or collaborators had been flawed. We began to suspect that there was just something about being in that “Me next” chair that fosters a warrior mentality. We also began to suspect that the mouse wars could be occurring because the children did not share a common goal, a common purpose, or a common strategy for how to proceed. Could window shopping and nonstrategic game-playing behaviors also be indicators that the children needed more guidance at the initial stages of their computer explorations?

Trying a New Approach

The nature of Joey's and Beth's engagements with literacy at the computer center began to shift in positive ways over time as different approaches to focusing and designing computer-related activities were tried. We had numerous after-school and early morning discussions, as a result of which Linda Sprague decided to try connecting computer center activities to unit themes and literature that was read aloud during whole-group circle time. “After all,” Linda reasoned, “all of the other centers in the classroom relate in some way to the theme or book we're reading. Why shouldn't the computer center as well?”

We began to take cues for how to fit the computer into the literacy curriculum from the way that noncomputer-related classroom life unfolded. We were struck by the variety of formats for literacy learning that we encountered as we analyzed the field notes for the type and duration of activities assigned within the 10-day thematic units around which the curriculum was structured. Our analysis indicated that three general types of activities were routinely assigned:

  1. Targeted moments
  2. Spur-of-the-minute ideas
  3. Thematic connections

In the following section we discuss these activities and provide examples of either Joey's or Beth's enhanced and individualized computer engagements within them.

Targeted moments are similar to teachable moments. In this kindergarten, they consist of activities that take 5 to 10 minutes to complete. During a 10-day unit on community helpers and jobs, there were more than 12 targeted moments. For example, after listening during circle time to Mike Thaler's The Cafeteria Lady from the Black Lagoon, a story about how a child's worst fears about cafeteria food are dispelled when he learns that hamburgers and french fries are on the menu, each child was given an index card with a picture of an imaginary disgusting dish on one side. The children were to turn the cards over and quickly draw and label a picture of a tasty dish that could really be found in the school cafeteria. They were asked to turn in their work before they left the circle time setting. Although the activity only took about 5 minutes to accomplish, field notes indicate that, during it, children of various literacy abilities engaged in high levels of story-related conversations, encountered new vocabulary words related to food, and used invented or conventional spelling to label their drawings.

We began to wonder if there might be similar literacy benefits for children if they were invited to engage in brief, highly focused activities at the computer center. In Joey's case specifically, we wondered if such activities could supersede his tendency to window shop through programs and enable him to focus on specific literacy skills. Linda Sprague invited Joey to begin his computer time with a short, focused talking book activity. (Talking books are interactive digital versions of stories that employ multimedia features such as animation, music, sound effects, highlighted text, and modeled fluent reading. Interactive play modes allow children to click on and interact with various text or media features [Labbo & Kuhn, in press].) Linda directed Joey to spend the first few minutes clicking on or highlighting words he knew on the first screen from the talking book version of Mercer Mayer's Just Grandma and Me and trying to think of rhyming words. He could then check if he was correct by reclicking the word (Labbo, 2000).

 screen shot from Just Grandma and Me
Screen shot reproduced by permission of Mattel Interactive.

On the first screen/page of the story, Joey listens to the text expressively read aloud. Next he clicks on the words we and went. “Do those rhyme?” he asks Ms. Sprague.

“No, those start with the same sound. Remember, rhyming words sound the same at the end. So if we click on... [she clicks on the word we and they listen to the story narrator say the word aloud] then I try to think of another word that ends the same....W-eee-eeee, like...” [she pauses].

“Me?” Joey responds in a questioning voice.

Ms. Sprague grins and nods her head. “Right on!”

Joey goes on to click several times on the words me and we on the page. It's as if he's reaffirming and concentrating on how those words have the same ending sound. Joey clicks on the words we, me, and then he pauses with the cursor arrow over the word the.... “I wonder.... Does t-h-e rhyme with me and we?” he asks.

“It depends on how you say it,” Ms. Sprague responds. “Try it out and see.”

He clicks on the and sighs when it is pronounced “tha.” What is interesting is his recognition that the final e in a one-syllable word should have a long e sound. His interaction provided him with a moment of clarification. (Labbo, field notes, March 2000)

The interactive features of the CD-ROM talking book allowed Joey to predict which words on the screen might rhyme, and then to check his prediction with a simple click of the mouse. This purposeful sampling is a far cry from his original nonstrategic game playing, a stance he took toward interacting with software when he had no specific focus for learning in mind.

Spur-of-the-minute ideas usually consist of child-initiated, spontaneous activities that can be accomplished with little prior planning and that make use of available materials. These types of activities result from children's comments and questions, serendipitous events, or objects that children bring to school. For example, during the unit on careers and community helpers, the children were given a homework project. Each child was to take home a “job pouch” made from a piece of construction paper folded in half and stapled on the edges, in a way that left the top of the pouch open. The following note was attached:

Dear Parents,

We are learning about different types of jobs and careers. We invite you to write about and send a picture of you doing your job in this “job pouch.” Your child will share the information about your job with the other students. Please return your filled pouch by Monday. Thank you for helping us with this important topic.

Sincerely,
Ms. Sprague

Joey's policeman business card

Beth's dentist business card

The following Monday, the children began to share their job pouches. One child's contained a picture of his mother, a veterinarian, at work, a description of a typical day at her veterinary office, and a business card with a logo depicting a puppy and a kitten. Most of the children had never seen a business card and they began to ask questions about what a business card might look like for people in various occupations. As their enthusiasm grew, Linda Sprague spontaneously decided to invite them to go to the computer center to design business cards for jobs they would like to have.

First, Linda demonstrated for the children how to use artistic tools in the KidPix Studio Deluxe software package to make a business card by designing one for herself. Next she invited Joey and Beth to select and bring with them to the computer center a children's book to use as a resource for creating a business card. Ms. Sprague guided a discussion about which job-related objects in the illustrations might be used on a card to represent a particular job. Joey brought Edith Kunhardt's I'm Going to Be a Police Officer and Beth brought The Crocodile and the Dentist by Taro Gomi.

Linda then assisted the children by typing in their dictation before they discussed and selected stamps to match their career choice. After this, she left the center and allowed Joey and Beth to complete the project on their own. Joey and Beth worked together to create a policeman business card for him and a dentist card for her. Interestingly, Beth's card shows the waiting room as well as some of the tools one might find in a dental or medical office. In a later conversation, Linda Sprague indicated that she felt the children had worked collaboratively because they had a common goal but shared differing areas of expertise as they used the computer program's tools to accomplish particular tasks.

We were pleased with this brief computer-related activity for several reasons. In only about 10 minutes, Joey and Beth had the opportunity to practice giving their address and phone numbers, to think in graphically symbolic ways as they selected stamps to represent careers, to watch their dictation represented in print on the screen, to read the business cards of other children, to stay focused, and to learn multimedia composing skills.

Thematic connections are carefully planned, multilayered activities that fit with children's literature read in class or within a thematic unit. Many of the activities designed for thematic units in this kindergarten involve the children in multiple opportunities to learn key concepts in various ways. For example, during a unit on transportation, children listened to books about different forms of transportation, drew pictures of different types of transportation in the art center, assembled cut-outs into paper models of modes of transportation in the independent work center, made picture graphs of the different ways they travel to school in the math center, and wrote stories about a trip they had made in the writing center. During another unit on the wind, Linda Sprague read aloud Pat Hutchins' The Wind Blew and the children then made kites in the art center, which they flew during recess. They cut and pasted a “sequence of events” worksheet that illustrated the stages of making and flying a kite. They turned on a fan in the classroom and predicted which objects on a tray might fly in the wind during a science activity.

Additionally, in the wind unit, the children were invited to engage in two computer-related experiences that added yet another layer of involvement with the key concepts and the trade book: a targeted moment and a multimedia writing activity in which they responded to Hutchins' story. To begin the first, Linda Sprague gave some direction to the children:

“See if you can find something about the wind when you look at the CD talking book Just Grandma and Me. Then be ready to talk about all the things you noticed when you come to group time. Share the mouse this way: after the first person finds two things about the wind on a screen page, let the other person, the partner, have two turns. Then switch again until you've finished.” (Labbo, field notes, March 2000)

Those few words spoken made a huge difference for Joey and Beth, who were then able to use computer time in beneficial ways during a targeted moment. The children in the class now had a common purpose (to find things about the wind), a common goal (to be able to discuss what they found out during the next group time), and a common process (to share the mouse as each noticed things about the wind). The conditions that had been established by the teacher allowed Joey and Beth to collaborate successfully with other children when their turns came to go to the computer center. Beth was able to avoid mouse wars, and Joey moved beyond window shopping. Both children overcame their tendencies to take a nonstrategic game-playing stance, by focusing on concepts that were supported by the content and interactive features of the software.

Interestingly, both children made intertextual connections between a screen of the talking book version of Just Grandma and Me and The Wind Blew, which had been read aloud:

Joey and Cole have just found the screen page that shows the wind blowing Little Monster away as he holds onto the handle of a beach umbrella. “Did you see that?” Joey asks Cody. “The wind blew him right up in the air.” Cody replies, “Cool. I didn't notice that before.” Joey makes a connection to the read aloud: “Grandma's hat could fly away, too. Like the hat in the book Ms. Sprague read, and that guy's too. That guy sitting up there” [points to the lifeguard]. (Labbo, field notes, March 2000)

 screen shot from Just Grandma and Me
Screen shot reproduced by permission of Mattel Interactive.

Beth works with Tonesha and they take turns clicking two items or words on the screen, just as Ms. Sprague has suggested. Beth has focused on clicking on words to begin with. She clicks on and hears read aloud the words wind and umbrella. Tonesha also clicks on the word umbrella, then on the picture of the umbrella on the screen. She hands over the mouse with no problem. Mouse wars aren't occurring. Beth clicks on the word wind again, then comments, “You can't click on a picture of the wind because you can't see it.... You couldn't see the wind in Ms. Sprague's story [the book that had been read aloud] either.” (Labbo, field notes, March 2000)

In a second activity, children were invited to use KidPix Studio Deluxe to respond to The Wind Blew by creating a computer picture and story about things that they might see blowing in the wind. In describing this activity, Linda Sprague reminded the children that all the things that blew away in the wind in the story they'd discussed were related to the people in the story. For example, a man lost his umbrella, a man lost his hat, a little girl lost the balloon she was carrying, and so on. Therefore, Linda asked them to think in logical ways about what they might be carrying that could fly up into the wind.

a page from Joey's story

Both Joey and Beth had the opportunity to extend on the story and to engage in important literacy skills during this activity. Joey worked alone in the computer center and was obviously engrossed in the task at hand. He carefully crafted a Christmas holiday scene with a combination of drawing tools and stamps. When he was finished, he asked Ms. Sprague to type in his story as he dictated. Joey's story is complex, entertaining, and definitely related to the theme. Interestingly, he has taken Ms. Sprague's suggestion: the things blowing in the wind are objects that could certainly belong to the characters in the story.
a screen shot from Beth's story

Beth created a scene and story that closely adhered to the read-aloud book. She composed a story that consisted of stamped pictures, drawn lines, and text (e.g., “The wind blew and blew”). She began by stamping the pictures of a man and a baby. She added a rain cloud in the sky. As she looked through the options for stamps, she thought aloud: “Hmm. What would be in the wind for the baby?” She found a picture of a ball, which she transformed into a balloon by drawing a line for a string. She was able to create a picture that met the objective of selecting wind-blown objects that could belong to the main story characters.

Lessons Learned and Promising Directions

Over the course of the school year, we discovered that a classroom computer center can fit beautifully into the ebb and flow of kindergarten life when the teacher finds ways to use the technology to support children's literacy needs and to enhance the thematic units and literature-based activities occuring in the classroom. It became apparent that a thorough working knowledge of software content and features was necessary if rich computer-related activities were to be designed. Linda Sprague came to believe that she needed to become as familiar with the software as she is with some of her favorite children's literature. While it is undoubtedly time consuming to preview and try out all aspects of the available software, the results for children are certainly worth the effort.

Some very interesting and unique learning occasions for the two case study children, Joey and Beth, arose from brief targeted moments, spur-of-the-minute ideas, and thematic connections. These type of activities provide children with opportunities to develop richer understandings of concepts, discover intertexual connections, and engage in interactive, multimedia practice supportive of their literacy needs. We invite other teachers who design similar learning opportunities to share their ideas and experiences with us by sending an e-mail to Linda Labbo.

References

Becker, H.J. (1993). Decision making about computer acquisition and use in American schools. Computers and Education, 20, 341-352.
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Labbo, L.D. (1996). A semiotic analysis of young children's symbol making in a classroom computer center. Reading Research Quarterly, 31(4), 356-385.
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Labbo, L.D. (2000). 12 things young children can do with a talking book in a classroom computer center. Reading Teacher, 53(7), 542-546.
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Labbo, L.D., & Kuhn, M. (in press). Weaving chains of affect and cognition: A young child's understanding of considerate and inconsiderate CD-ROM talking books. Journal of Literacy Research.
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LeCompte, M.D., & Preissle, J. (1993). Ethnography and qualitative design in education research (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Academic.
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U.S. Department of Education. (1999). Teacher quality: A report on the preparation and qualification of public school teachers (USDE Pub. No. NCES 1999-080). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
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Children's Literature

Gomi, T. (1984). The crocodile and the dentist. New York: Scholastic.

Hutchins, P. (1974). The wind blew. New York: Scholastic.

Kunhardt, E. (1995). I'm going to be a police officer. New York: Scholastic.

Thaler, M. (1998). The cafeteria lady from the black lagoon. New York: Scholastic.

Computer Software

Dr. Seuss's ABC. (1995). Novato, CA: Brøderbund.

KidPix Studio Deluxe. Novato, CA: Brøderbund. [Editors' Note: This package is reviewed elsewhere at this site.]

Jump Start Kindergarten. (1997). Torrance, CA: Knowledge Adventure.

Just Grandma and Me. (1997). Novato, CA: Brøderbund.

About the Authors

Linda D. Labbo, an associate professor at the University of Georgia (309 Aderhold Hall, Athens, GA 30602, USA; e-mail llabbo@coe.uga.edu), teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in the Department of Reading Education, where she previously served as a principal investigator for the National Reading Research Center. Her research interests include young children's literature- and computer-related literacy development and multicultural issues. She has published in numerous professional journals, including The Reading Teacher, Reading Research Quarterly, Journal of Literacy Research, Language Arts, Social Studies and the Young Learner, Peabody Journal of Education, and The Journal of Social Studies Research. She is editor of MicroMissive, the journal of the IRA Special Interest Group on Microcomputers in Reading.

Linda Sprague received her preservice teacher education at the Unviersity of Georgia and has 7 years of teaching experience in kindergarten. She currently teaches at Whit Davis Elementary School in Athens, Georgia, USA.

M. Kristiina Montero is a graduate student in the reading education program at the University of Georgia (kmontero@coe.uga.edu). Her research interests include sociocultural aspects of language and literacy, bilingualism and biliteracy, multicultural and international children's literature, and critical pedagogy.

George Font is a graduate student in the Department of Reading Education at the University of Georgia (e-mail gcfont@home.com). His research interests include comprehension, digital technology, constructivism, cultural studies, hermeneutics, and situated cognition.

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Citation: Labbo, L.D., Sprague, L., Montero, M.K., & Font, G. (2000, July). Connecting a computer center to themes, literature, and kindergartners' literacy needs. Reading Online, 4(1). Available: http://www.readingonline.org/electronic/labbo/



Reading Online, www.readingonline.org
Posted July 2000
© 2000 International Reading Association, Inc.   ISSN 1096-1232