Literacy Now

Putting quality books into the hands of kids can change their lives, but how do educators find the right reading material for students? This month’s #ILAChat focuses on using booklists, like the recently released Choices reading lists, to find appropriate, engaging, and diverse books to fill classroom libraries and to recommend to readers of all ages.

Each year during Children’s Book Week, ILA releases the Choices reading lists. Composed of three different lists—Children’s Choices, which is cosponsored by the Children’s Book Council; Young Adults’ Choices; and Teachers’ Choices—the project is a nationwide effort to compile each year’s favorite, newly published titles into carefully selected, easily accessible lists. The goal is to ensure every classroom has a wide range of guaranteed enjoyable reads for students by providing them with these recommendations. What better way to empower young readers than to fill their classrooms with books chosen by the readers themselves?

Follow @ILAToday to join our #ILAChat hosts Jennifer Fox (@JenniferFox13) and Shannon Miller (@shannonmiller) and to let us know what you think about this year’s Choices Reading Lists results. The chat will take place Thursday, May 11, at 8:00 p.m. ET.

Jennifer Fox was a team leader for the 2017 Teachers’ Choices list. She worked to receive, review, and distribute this year’s titles to schools across one of five regions of the U.S. She recently completed her doctoral studies at the University of Missouri with a dissertation study entitled, “Secondary Literacy Teachers’ Use of a Twitter Chat Community for Voluntary Ongoing Professional Learning.” When she’s not busy sifting through piles of children’s literature, she is a tech-minded professor in Bolivar, MO, as well as a wife and mother of two.

Shannon Miller served as the K-12 district teacher librarian at the Van Meter Community School District in Iowa for 8 years. She is currently an international speaker and consultant, as well as author of the award-winning blog The Library Voice. Shannon is also the Future Ready Libraries and Project Connect Spokesperson, Buncee's Teacher Librarian Advisor, and Cantata Learning's Teacher Librarian Advocate. She has a passion for education, librarianship, technology, and social media. She is also a wife and mother to three amazing children.

Follow @ILAToday and use the hashtag #ILAChat to join the conversation.

For the past 16 years, the One Book, One Community campaign in Central Florida has put thousands of books in the hands of local school children. This year, the International Literacy Association is cosponsoring the initiative along with the Orlando Sentinel Media Group and Publix.

The premise for the program is simple:  one book is selected for students, parents, teachers, and other community members to read and discuss together through a series of events, all with the purpose of promoting literacy.

The 2017 book selection is Frindle (1998, Atheneum) by Andrew Clements. The story follows fifth grader Nick Allen as he navigates the consequences of one ridiculous, yet seemingly harmless, classroom prank. Hilarity ensues after the entire class starts participating, as well as members of the whole town.

The One Book, One Community campaign runs April 9 through May 16 and is expected to involve more than 100 schools. Throughout the initiative, students ages 5–12 can participate in reading events, word games, and literacy activities related to the book at library locations across Orange and Seminole counties.

Click here for more information about the events.

Clare Maloney is an intern at the International Literacy Association. She is currently seeking a BA in English from the University of Delaware.

The education community lost a leading literacy advocate in February with the passing of Susan Mandel Glazer, a past president of the International Reading Association (IRA), now the International Literacy Association (ILA). Glazer was a professor at Rider University in New Jersey for 45 years, where she founded the Center for Reading and Writing as well as the graduate program for reading specialists. A prolific author and researcher, Glazer will be greatly missed. The following is a tribute written by Linda B. Gambrell, also a past president of IRA, who served on the Board of Directors alongside Glazer.

Susan Mandel Glazer was a literacy scholar and trailblazer who was committed to serving struggling readers and was recognized for her many contributions to literacy education worldwide. We were fresh out of our doctoral programs when I met Susan, and she was already involved in establishing what would become her lifelong passion: the Center for Reading and Writing at Rider University.

Sadly, Susan, a past president of IRA, passed away in February at the age of 78. Although she will be remembered for her many publications and presentations, she will continue to be known most of all for her spearheading leadership in serving students who struggle with reading and writing.

I first met Susan at an IRA conference in the mid-1970s. She was making a presentation with one of her mentors, Morton Botel, and I was presenting with my mentor, Robert M. Wilson. The four of us crossed paths in the convention center and our mentors introduced us.

A couple of years later, my husband had a job transfer and we moved to Yardley, PA. We made a quick trip to the area to look for a house, and we booked a room in a nearby hotel. As we walked in, it was clear there was a huge IRA state conference in progress. As we were checking in, I looked up to see Susan walking out of the exhibit area.

As fate would have it, this was a very fortuitous encounter. Anyone who has had the pleasure of knowing Susan would not be surprised to learn that when she heard my husband and I were moving to the area, she immediately took us under her wing. She introduced me to literacy leaders throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey, she invited us to lovely dinners, and she took us to the best restaurants in the area. Susan was gracious and giving, and she had a deep and abiding love for her profession. She was a magnificent teacher, a productive scholar, and an innovator in developing university centers to serve struggling readers and writers.

I had the pleasure of serving on the IRA Board of Directors during Susan's presidency from 1994–1995, along with Rich Vacca and Jerry Johns. Rich remembers Susan as "the consummate literacy educator. She loved her work, her students, and her colleagues. We will miss her dearly." Jerry and Susan shared an intense commitment to students who struggle with literacy learning. He remembers her "dedication to the reading and writing clinic at Rider University, along with her many professional publications that resulted in significant contributions to our field."

Susan was an exceptional literacy leader and scholar. Her enthusiasm for literacy, warm smile, and contagious laughter will be missed by all who knew her.

Linda B. Gambrell, past president of IRA, is a distinguished professor of education in the Eugene T. Moore School of Education at Clemson University where she teaches graduate and undergraduate literacy courses. She has served as a reading/literacy development consultant throughout the United States and internationally.

Ease and efficiency—educators have time for nothing less. To help you get the information you need when you need it, ILA has streamlined access to its journal content.

• A new user-friendly look: Designed to help subscribers access online journal content faster than ever before, the new ILA Journals Hub makes it easy to find the most cited, the most read, and recently published journal content.

• Easily searchable: Searching for the material you want is easier than ever. Enter a topic or an author and search articles in one ILA journal or among all three: The Reading Teacher, Reading Research Quarterly, and Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy.

• Access the same favorites: The free virtual issues and open source articles are now simpler to find and read in the Hub.

Get more familiar with this improved access to your journal content with these detailed instructions.

Ready to get started? If you already subscribe to a journal, access the Hub by signing in to your account on literacyworldwide.org, clicking My Account & Journals, and selecting a journal under My Journals. If you’d like to add a journal subscription to your ILA membership, please contact Customer Service.

Let us know what you think about the new Hub! E-mail your feedback to customerservice@reading.org.

The International Literacy Association (ILA) released the 2017 What’s Hot in Literacy survey findings today, revealing wide gaps between what educators across the globe consider important topics in literacy education and those garnering the most attention. Among the surprising results: Digital literacy, as well as assessment and standards, although widely discussed in educator circles, rank lower in importance than other issues among the more than 1,500 literacy leaders from 89 countries and territories surveyed.

“An analysis of survey findings from a cross-sector of literacy leaders from Argentina to Zambia indicates a need to redirect conversations around literacy with a focus on what is important to literacy educators,” said ILA Executive Director Marcie Craig Post. “Identifying these gaps, and then developing solutions to narrow them, will help the global community move the needle on literacy.” 

This year, respondents were asked to rate 17 topics in terms of how hot and important they are to literacy education at both their community and country levels. Hot was defined as trending—the topics related to literacy that are receiving the most attention in the classroom, in conversations with other educators, and in the media. Important was defined as topics that are most critical to advancing literacy for all learners.

Here’s a look at some of the key findings:

• Parent Engagement should be a higher priority, according to survey respondents. It had the largest gap between hot and important ratings at both the community and country levels.

• Teacher Professional Learning and Development is extremely valued by educators. Although it would be easy to label this both hot and important, that’s not the case, according to respondents. For instance, at the country level, only 47% rated it as very or extremely hot, while 71% rated it as very or extremely important.

• Assessment/Standards is viewed as a hot topic, but not as important to respondents. It ranked No. 1 among all hot topics at the community and country levels, but it fell to No. 10 in terms of actual importance at the country level and No. 12 at the community level.

In addition to featuring report highlights and feedback from top literacy professionals in Literacy Today, the entire report is also available with open access on ILA’s website. On Thursday, Jan. 12, ILA’s monthly Twitter chat will feature What’s Hot results and Sam Patterson at 8:00 p.m. ET. Join the conversation on social media using #ILAchat during the chat or #ILAWhatsHot at any time.

The What’s Hot in Literacy survey was created 20 years ago by Jack Cassidy, past president of the International Reading Association (IRA), now ILA. Cassidy compiled responses from about two dozen literacy leaders on “hot” and “cold” topics each year. The results were published annually in IRA’s member newspaper, now Literacy Today magazine, and they traditionally helped foster relevant professional development, promote timely research, and shape conversations around literacy education. His last report was published in 2016.

April Hall is editor of Literacy Daily. A journalist for more than 20 years, she has specialized in education, writing and editing for newspapers, websites, and magazines.