Literacy Now

Patricia S. Koppman, a distinguished educator who left her mark on the San Diego State University community and the literacy community at large, died on November 9. She was 88.

Koppman served as the 1988–1989 president of the International Reading Association (IRA), now the International Literacy Association. She began her career as an elementary school teacher, reading specialist, and principal before teaching at San Diego State College—which would soon become San Diego State University.

A prolific author and editor, Patricia's contributions to the field included books such as School Grammar Made Easy and Word to Learn and Review: Activities to Build Reading Skills, as well as multiple teacher guides and student early reader books.

Her commitment to literacy education was recognized through the numerous awards she received throughout her career. In 1991, she was honored with the Special Service Award from IRA for her years of service to the organization, which extended beyond the presidency. She also actively participated in IRA's Parents and Reading Committee, showcasing her dedication to advocating for family involvement in reading education—one of the areas of research she was most known for. She was recognized as a fierce advocate for listening to children and forming meaningful connections with parents to help them understand the role they could play at home in their child’s reading education.

In 1987, Patricia was honored with the SDSU Alumni Award of Distinction, recognizing her outstanding service and significant contributions to San Diego State University, where until recent years she was highly involved in the university’s retirement association.

Patricia leaves behind an indelible legacy as a leader, teacher, author, and advocate who devoted her life to the pursuit of knowledge.

Emy Tomita  

District Bilingual Literacy Coach, Aldine Independent School District, Houston, TX

How did you begin your career, and what led you to your current position?

I began my teaching career as a fourth-grade bilingual teacher in the suburbs of Houston. I taught language arts and social studies within different bilingual program models (transitional, one-way, and two-way dual language) for eight years. Then I moved to the middle school level and worked as a librarian and language arts special education teacher before I accepted a position as a bilingual literacy coach.

What is the biggest challenge in your current role?

My biggest challenge in my current role is to work with classroom teachers to de-implement ineffective literacy practices, but also continue building teachers’ capacity on how to teach literacy through a content-based curriculum.

What are you reading (personal or professional)?

I am reading many Reading Teacher articles related to multilingual learners, dual language education, and the science of reading. The last article that I read was “The Science of Reading Progresses: Communicating Advances Beyond the Simple View of Reading” by Nell K. Duke and Kelly B. Cartwright. I am also listening to the book Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear during my commute to work. Lastly, I am reading Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students by Zaretta Hammond with other literacy coaches in my school district.

How long have you been a member of ILA, and how has membership influenced your career?

I had been an ILA member on and off for several years when I was a classroom teacher. This last time, I have been a member since 2021 because having the membership allowed me to have access to all the literacy research articles and best teaching practices that make a positive impact in my career.

What do you consider to be your proudest career moment?

My proudest career moment as a bilingual teacher was to present about the use of mentor texts to support emergent bilingual students’ writing development at the Texas Association of Bilingual Education conference. As a literacy coach, my proposal to present about implementing realia to make content-based curriculum accessible to multilingual learners was accepted in the National Association of Bilingual Education Conference. 

What do you like to do when you’re not wearing your educator hat?

When I am not wearing my educator hat, I like to travel to different places, read free-choice books, attend literacy conferences, attend literacy events with my daughter, and just be a learner.

What advice would you give a new teacher that either you received or wish you had?

Not to give up this profession in your first year of teaching because it is one of the hardest.

What is a little-known fact about yourself?

That I was born in Brazil and my grandparents on both sides, mother and father, are Japanese. So, I don’t look like a typical Brazilian. My first language is Portuguese. Brazil has the largest number of Japanese descendants out of Japan.

What can literacy educators do to motivate kids to want to read?

Literacy educators can help kids to learn what they like to read and allow them to read what they like to read in class. They create the habit of reading, and if teachers model to them how to think and talk about book with friends like in book clubs, this will motivate kids to be a reader for life.

What do you believe is the biggest challenge in literacy education today?

The increasing number of book bans because books are “mirrors and windows” for readers. Kids need to have access to all types of books so they can see themselves and feel the sense of belonging, but also, they need to access diverse books and different topics so they can accept others and learn from others who are different from them.

When did you know you wanted to become a teacher?

I knew I wanted to become a teacher when I was in sixth grade because I loved reading books and my language arts teacher.

Who was your favorite teacher when you were growing up, and why?

My favorite teacher when I was growing up was Ms. Sylvia because she was knowledgeable, fair, and had high expectations.  

Which professional development books have you found influential in your education?

There are so many professional development books that I found influential in my education. In bilingual education, Biliteracy From the Start: Literacy Squared in Action by Kathy Escamilla, Susan Hopewell, Sandra Butvilofsky, Wendy Sparrow, Lucinda Soltero-Gonzalez, Olivia Ruiz-Figueroa, and Manuel Escamilla and Teaching for Biliteracy: Strengthening Bridges Between Languages by Karen Beeman and Cheryl Urow. In literacy, Jennifer Serravallo’s books taught me strategy ideas to become a better reading and writing teacher.

What is the most important lesson you learned from a student?

The value of perseverance and hard work, especially from undocumented students. Even though they face many adversities, their drive to succeed by learning a new language and their effort is admirable.

What is your favorite book to give as a present/recommend to friends?

My favorite book to give as present/recommend to friends is Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover because, in my opinion, this book shows the power of education and how it can transform a person’s life.

What book hooked you as a reader for life?

In my home country, a book series that hooked me as a reader for life is The Adventure of the Fat Boy’s Gang (As Aventuras da Turma do Gordo) by Joao Carlos Marinho because this book series kept me hooked months after months until I read the whole collection. Due to this series, I also started reading books in English when I came to the U.S.

Which hosting city of an IRA/ILA annual conference did you most enjoy visiting and why, or what are some of your favorite moments from an IRA/ILA annual conference?

The hosting city of the ILA annual conference that I enjoyed visiting the most was Boston because it was my first time attending this conference, and I remember how impressed I was with the quality of this conference. During this conference, I bought my first ILA shirt.

What has changed the most in education since you first started in the field?

What has changed the most in education since I started is the use of technology in schools, mostly due to the pandemic. While many schools had technology, I believe teachers and students were not so dependent on electronic devices before the pandemic.

Want to spotlight an ILA member, chapter, affiliate, SIG, or AUA? Email literacytoday@reading.org for more information!

Disclaimer: The viewpoints expressed in blog posts on this website are those of the individual writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of ILA. We have taken reasonable steps to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in blog posts but do not warrant the accuracy or completeness of such information.

 

The International Literacy Association (ILA) announced today the winning authors of its 2023 Children’s and Young Adult Book Awards—a unique literary honor that shines a spotlight on newly published authors of both fiction and nonfiction who show exceptional and unusual promise in the field.

This year’s winners (authors who must have published their first or second book in 2022) were selected from more than 300 submissions. Now in its 48th year, the ILA Children’s and Young Adult Book Awards feature several notable names among previous winners including Lois Lowry, Patricia Polacco and Juana Martinez-Neal, to name a few.

Their topics vary and all authors are chosen based on a variety of benchmarks for each age group, but they share commonalities: exemplary writing style and story elements, and the ability to draw in readers through contemporary relevance and engaging themes that make their books must-haves for any diverse classroom and school library collection.

The 2023 award winners are as follows:

Primary Fiction

• Winner: Young Vo for Gibberish
• Honor: Pearl AuYeung for The Best Kind of Mooncake (Page Street Kids)

Primary Nonfiction

• Winner: Shaelyn McDaniel for Hello, Opportunity: The Story of Our Friend on Mars (Page Street Kids)
• Honor: Justin Anderson for Narwhal: The Arctic Unicorn (Candlewick)

Intermediate Fiction

• Winner: Sarah Guillory for Nowhere Better Than Here (Macmillan)
• Honor: C. C. Harrington for Wildoak (Scholastic)

Intermediate Nonfiction

• Winner: Barbara Binns for Unlawful Orders: A Portrait of Dr. James B. Williams, Tuskegee Airman, Surgeon, and Activist (Scholastic)
• Honor: Olivia Meikle and Katie Nelson for The Book of Sisters: Biographies of Incredible Siblings Through History (Macmillan)

Young Adult Fiction

• Winner: Andrea L. Rogers for Man Made Monsters (Levine Querido)
• Honor: Jas Hammonds for We Deserve Monuments (Macmillan)

Young Adult Nonfiction

• Winner: Jetta Grace Martin, Joshua Bloom and Waldo E. Martin, Jr. for Freedom! The Story of the Black Panther Party (Levine Querido)
• Honor: Achut Deng and Keely Hutton for Don’t Look Back: A Memoir of War, Survival, and My Journey From Sudan to America (Macmillan)

“Students will welcome the opportunity to turn the pages of these authors’ unique stories, which seek to build diverse, inclusive and cohesive communities,” said Sonja Ezell, chair of the ILA Children’s and Young Adult Book Awards Committee and a clinical assistant professor at The University of Texas at Arlington. “Representing mirrors, windows and sliding glass doors, their books illuminate the power of kindness, friendship and acceptance, as well as explore the vastness of our planets and a bold accounting of history that will spark discussion, inquiry and passion. The universal themes will contribute to conversations honoring the identities of all.”

Additional information can be found on the ILA Children’s and Young Adults’ Book Awards page.

The International Literacy Association (ILA) announced today that Diane Lapp, distinguished professor of education at San Diego State University, is the recipient of its 2023 William S. Gray Citation of Merit—the highest individual honor awarded by the organization.

Akin to a lifetime achievement award, the William S. Gray is reserved for those who have made truly outstanding contributions to multiple facets of literacy development, including research, theory and practice.

Lapp was inducted into the Reading Hall of Fame in 2005. She began her career as an elementary school teacher in Kalamazoo, MI, before attending Indiana University for her doctorate (where she served as a research assistant for Roger Farr). She joined San Diego State University in 1978 following an eight-year stint at Boston University. Throughout her career, she has taught elementary, middle and high school, and she currently serves as an instructional coach at Health Sciences High and Middle College, a charter school in San Diego.

Lapp’s areas of research and instruction focus on readers who struggle (as well as their families and teachers), particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. She has authored, coauthored and edited hundreds of articles, columns, texts, handbooks and curriculum materials. One coedited book, Handbook of Research on the Teaching of the English Language Arts, is considered one of the most comprehensive works in the field. A fifth edition from Lapp and Douglas Fisher is in press.

She is also the coauthor of Literacy in the Disciplines: A Teacher’s Guide for Grades 5–12, Teaching Reading to Every Child, Teaching Reading: A Playbook for Developing Skilled Readers Through Word Recognition and Language Comprehension, and Close Reading of Complex Texts.

“When I learned I had received the William S. Gray award, I felt many emotions. I was honored, humbled, excited, and also very appreciative to my nominators who believed in me,” Lapp said. “I also thought about my numerous students and hoped that as their teacher, I had exemplified Gray’s philosophy of planning instruction based on observance of student performance. Finally, I reminisced that my career has afforded me many professional opportunities to engage in research and publishing, but my greatest pride is that I continue to be a teacher of many ages.”

Many of Lapp’s contributions to the field were done in collaboration with researcher James Flood—so many in fact that ILA has an award in their name: the Diane Lapp & James Flood Professional Collaborator Award.

In addition to decades of service to the field at large, Lapp is a longtime member of and contributor to ILA. She is the former chair of ILA’s Literacy Research Panel, and she has served regularly as a conference presenter, digital events speaker, committee member and author.

She is a previous coeditor of The California Reader, the journal of ILA affiliate California Reading Association, and she currently serves on the review board for ILA’s The Reading Teacher and Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy.

The William S. Gray Citation of Merit is named in honor of one of literacy education’s foremost pioneers and the first president of the International Reading Association (now ILA). Past recipients include P. David Pearson, Steve Graham, Nell K. Duke, and Jeanne S. Chall.

Joining Lapp in this year’s ILA awards and grants program are 12 other educators and literacy leaders:

• Lori Bruner, Michigan State University | Timothy & Cynthia Shanahan Outstanding Dissertation Award for “Word Learning Opportunities in Preschool Storybook Apps”
• Rachel F. Knecht, University of Nevada, Reno | Steven A. Stahl Research Grant for “The Effects of a Syntax-Focused Reading Intervention on Middle-School Students’ Syntactic Knowledge”
• Jan Lacina, Texas Christian University | Jerry Johns Outstanding Teacher Educator in Reading Award
• Kyley Pulphus, Louisiana State University | Helen M. Robinson Grant for “The Writer Is the Sun: A Case Study of a Culturally Responsive and Antiracist Writing Workshop”
• Marianne Rice, Florina Erbeli, Christopher G. Thompson, and Melissa Fogarty, Texas A&M University, and Mary Rose Sallese, University of Alabama at Birmingham | Dina Feitelson Research Award for their Reading Research Quarterly article “Phonemic Awareness: A Meta-Analysis for Planning Effective Instruction”
• Chase Young, Sam Houston State University, and Timothy Rasinski, Kent State University | Diane Lapp & James Flood Professional Collaborator Award
• Mai W. Zaru, Southern Methodist University | Jeanne S. Chall Research Fellowship for “Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies With Immigrant Families”

More information can be found on ILA’s awards and grants page.

The International Literacy Association (ILA) announced today the next editor team to lead the organization’s most popular journal, The Reading Teacher (RT)—and the group is the largest, most diverse team named in the publication’s history.

The editor team includes

	Rachael Gabriel, Professor of Literacy Education and Director, Reading and Language Arts Center, University of Connecticut, United States
	Claudia Rodriguez-Mojica, Associate Professor of Teaching, School of Education, University of California, Davis, United States (effective July 1)
	Allison Briceño, Associate Professor and Coordinator, Multilingual and Multicultural Literacy M.A. Program, San José State University, United States
	Navan Govender, Lecturer, Applied Language and Literacy Studies, University of Strathclyde, Scotland, United Kingdom
	Eliza Braden, Associate Professor of Elementary Education, University of South Carolina, United States
	Sanjuana Rodriguez, Associate Professor of Literacy Education and Codirector, Academy for Language and Literacy, Kennesaw State University, United States
	Roberta Price Gardner, Associate Professor of Literacy Education, Kennesaw State University, United States
	Melissa Derby, Senior Lecturer and Codirector, Early Years Research Centre, University of Waikato, New Zealand

New editors to focus on inclusive, equity-oriented literacy education

Gabriel is a former member-at-large on the ILA Board of Directors and was serving in 2020 when the ILA journal editors issued a joint call to action on how the literacy and research community must contribute to overcoming racial injustice. The application statement prepared by her team of editors show that they are poised to carry on that call.

They outlined a vision that builds upon RT’s strengths and seeks further avenues for creating united global communities through the journal’s authors, reviewers, and readers.

“Our team includes diverse expertise, experience, and perspectives, yet we share a similar goal for RT: to ensure it not only reflects but leads the field in inclusive, equity-oriented literacy education,” the team wrote. “Together, we bring with us insights from practice, research, lived experience, and diverse approaches to scholarship, allowing us to tap into the productive force of our differences to help push the field forward.”

The team’s combined research interests include early literacy, the role of family in building foundational literacy skills, equitable practices for multilingual students, critical literacies, discipline-specific literacy instruction, diverse children’s literature, and the intersections among literacy, language, race, ethnicity, gender, and culture.

Unique to this team: They plan to alternate through the role of senior editor so they each have the opportunity to take the helm during their tenure. Gabriel and Rodriguez-Mojica are first up as senior editors.

“We are all limited by what we can imagine and that to which we have been exposed,” the team wrote. “By convening the largest and most diverse editorial team in the journal’s history, we aim to expand what is possible for practitioners and researchers alike.”

The incoming team’s four-year term begins June 15, 2023, and concludes June 30, 2027.

Their first year overlaps with the final year of outgoing editors Tanya Wright, Michigan State University; Patricia Edwards, Michigan State University; Laura Tortorelli, Michigan State University; John Z. Strong, University at Buffalo, New York; and Emily Phillips Galloway, Vanderbilt University, Tennessee.

Nicola Wedderburn, executive director of ILA, said there were multiple high-quality teams considered during the application process, but the seamless collaboration of this group was unmatched.

“Their geographic differences were anything but a barrier. In fact, the varying perspectives and region-specific knowledge that they bring to the table is one of the aspects that makes them a perfect team for this role,” Wedderburn said. “Their vision and mission for the journal strongly aligns with ILA’s vision for the future. Our organization is committed not only to serving but also to representing educators around the globe.”

RT is the leading global journal for educators of literacy learners up to age 12, offering high-quality, evidence-based teaching tips, and ideas plus the teacher perspective. The reach and influence of the journal is extensive. RT had 1.2 million article views in the last year and has a circulation of more than 6,700 academic institutions.