Apps in literature-based classroom instruction: Integrating reading and response through traditional and digital media

This article focuses on meaningful integration of literature-based instruction and digital technologies, sharing apps that have supported response to literature in a first-grade classroom. For over two decades, the field of children’s literature has been incorporating more digital technologies into publication of and access to texts. From early computer and CD-ROM adaptations of print picturebooks to the extensive visual and aural interactivity of the newest literature apps, what and how children read has changed significantly in recent years. Changing also are the options children have to respond to literature using digital tools (e.g., Damico & Riddle, 2006; Wood & Jocius, 2014). In this article, we share a few of our favorite apps for supporting response to literature in Lisa’s technology-forward first-grade classroom.