Engagement or Distraction?

Recently, my students were working on writing blogs in response to literature they were reading.  We had a mobile lab, and students were working individually on computers, but they were sitting in groups with others who had read the same book, just in case they wanted to discuss aspects of the book while they worked on their posts.

One particular group was comprised of all boys, two of whom would be typically be labeled as 'reluctant readers.'  They had read Heroes by Robert Cormier, and were working as I circulated around the room to ask and answer questions.  While I was across the room near a different group, I heard one of the boys ask (to no one in particular), "Who wrote this book?"

I was just about to call out "Robert Cormier" when I bit my tongue.  Wait, I thought. He has a book sitting on the floor beside his desk with the author clearly written on the front.  He has three peers around him (all with their own copies). He has a computer. He can figure this out.  Hey, if I want students to be independent learners, I better give them a chance to do so.

And that's when I watched it happen.  Being a 21st century learner, he ignored the book near his feet and went straight to Google, where the top hit sent him to Wikipedia.  He quickly found the information he wanted, but instead of stopping there, he read through the rest of the page about Robert Cormier.  He read off a couple of other titles by Cormier, and the rest of his group became curious.  So they too jumped on Wikipedia.  "He wrote a book called I Am the Cheese!" one laughed.  Another remarked, "And The Chocolate War.  This guy must have a thing for food."

It continued: "He was from Mass.""Look at his picture--I didn't think he would be that old"  "He was born in 1925?!  Wait, when was this book written?...Oh my gosh, he was like 70 when he wrote it!"

They called me over.  "Did you know he wrote a book about cheese?  And one about chocolate?" (Well, yes, but they're not really about cheese or chocolate.)  "Have you read any of them?" (Yeah, actually, I have The Chocolate War over on that shelf. It's about a kid who's freshman at a private school.  He's a little guy on the football team and he gets targeted by a group of bullies.)

And slowly their attention drifted back to their blogs.

Many teachers would have called that distraction.  Get back to work on your assignment.  You shouldn't be on Wikipedia.  My sense, though, was not that this was distraction, but engagement at its best.

My sense was confirmed at the end of the period when one of those 'reluctant readers' asked if he could borrow my copy of The Chocolate War.