We are working through our Horror Story Genre Unit. The final part of preparation is that students need to pick two stories to read out a pool of five. Since we are a 1:1 district I posted the pdfs of these stories in Google Classroom. Being cautious I printed off a half dozen copies of each of the short stories because there is typically one or two students who have dead devices or prefer paper copies. What I observed through all of the different sections of my 8th grade English classes was that my low scoring kiddos were the ones to scoop up the paper copies. Now I am sure that there has been research completed on paper copies vs digital and the retention of plot, but I found it to be really interesting. This morning I chatted with a couple boys as to why they went for the paper copies and they said that it helps them stay focused and they feel like they are making progress in the story by turning the pages. I would not have remotely considered the last comment as a reason why but it makes sense. If they struggle with reading they need to physically see that they are working towards a goal. This was one of those moments of clarity as to how technology really does need to be balanced.