In 2014, the Virginia State Reading Association (VSRA) created strategic goals as part of our transformation process alongside ILA—then the International Reading Association. One of our goals was to create an initiative that supported a specific area of literacy instruction in our state.
Through discussion with the Virginia Department of Education, our focus became nonfiction. In looking at statewide tests—graphs, charts, and maps appeared to be the most challenging to students—and thinking about students’ comprehension of nonfiction texts, we began to dive more deeply into our topic, and we narrowed our focus to informational texts.
We combined the I in informational and the T in texts to create the acronym in the title of our initiative: “Got IT?”
Developing Got IT?
Authors of informational texts use various formatting tools such as boldface, italics, color, captions, headings and subheadings, and graphics. These tools require readers to understand why the author uses them and how they inform readers of new information. Informational texts provide needed opportunities to support inference, cause and effect, and drawing conclusions skills that, regardless of fiction or nonfiction passages, are all areas that seem to need support on our statewide tests.
Our Got IT? mission is to explore this genre in depth, provide professional development opportunities for our members, and clarify misconceptions within the genre. In addition, we aim to improve students’ ability to navigate and to compose informational texts by improving their comprehension of how text features, graphics, and text structures work.
The first task for us after creating a timeline of what we wanted to accomplish was to lay the foundation for what informational text is so that we are all using the same language. Just like in an informational text, we created a glossary of terms with definitions we use within our work on our statewide initiative. Terms such as flowcharts, graphics, cross-section diagrams, insets, sidebars, and surface diagrams are among a list of 20 technical terms found within informational texts. This glossary list is on our website and can be disseminated to parents and educators across Virginia.
Throughout this past year, we completed the following items and activities to support our initiative and unify our focus.
Slover Library kickoff
Our kickoff activity was held at the Slover Library in Norfolk, VA, in August 2015. This was the first VSRA Board of Directors meeting for our new year. Members of the Board developed activities with informational texts and read books to students. For K–2 students, we introduced charts, diagrams, captions, and informational text vocabulary. For grades 3–5, we focused on bold wording, italics, the table of contents and index, headings, and informational text vocabulary. For the middle school level, we discussed the index and informational text vocabulary.
We spoke with parents about the types of informational texts their children may see in school. All students were invited to participate in a “make and take” workshop, and all participants were able to choose informational texts to take home with them. Bare Books, Lakeshore Publishing, Really Good Stuff, and Scholastic provided us with materials to give to students who attended.
Professional development activities
In the fall of 2015, our Leadership Team worked to determine activities we could accomplish throughout the year to support the initiative. For example, the Public Relations Committee hosted a Twitter chat to focus on informational texts used in the classroom. The Parents and Reading Committee focused on distributing informational texts to parents and students at our annual conference. The Young Writers Committee created a Got IT? writing contest with a focus of students producing informational texts about their summer vacations.
Our November 2015 Leadership Meeting focused completely on our initiative. We collaborated with the Virginia Science Museum, Radford University, and Lakeshore Publishing—all of which either provided staff development or donated materials. For example, the Virginia Science Museum shared online resources available to parents, students, and educators, while Radford University shared a list of professional informational science texts for educators.
Also during the meeting, we asked the leaders of our local councils and committee chairs to form four small groups based on their localities within the state. We call these groups “quads.” The purpose is for groups of leaders who live near each other to develop lists of resources around our state. Leaders in the quads identified authors, maps, science museums, local attractions, and anything that would support the Got IT? initiative. We combined the information and published it on our website so parents and educators would have access to resources in their local communities.
Last winter, we identified informational texts in our Virginia Readers’ Choice List, and we’ve developed a partnership with The Nature Generation, another nonprofit, to consider some of their award-winning books on next year’s voting ballot.
During our conference in March, we placed an emphasis on informational texts by inviting a representative from the Virginia Department of Education, who provided updates on our statewide tests, and speakers such as Nell Duke and Donalyn Miller, who shared insight on informational texts that support instruction.
The future of Got IT?
Our plan is to continue promoting our initiative and to capitalize on the idea of quads. We are hoping that we will be able to build strong collaboration among counties and local councils in the quads and that they may work together to provide professional development opportunities for members in their areas.
We also hope they may want to cross over the boundary lines so we can continue working together to reduce illiteracy across our state.
Tiffany Erdos Brocious is the 2015–2016 Virginia State Reading Association (VSRA) President. During her presidency, VSRA received the ILA Distinguished Council Award. An ILA member since 1991, she is a K–5 literacy coach for Loudoun County Public Schools.
This article originally appeared in the November/December 2016 issue of Literacy Today, ILA’s member magazine.