Literacy Now

The IRA Board of Directors has appointed IRA Past President Carrice Cummins to serve as Vice President for the remainder of the year, filling in for IRA Vice President Maryann Manning who died suddenly last September. Cummins’ tenure in this interim role will conclude on the last day of the IRA New Orleans Conference, May 12, 2014, when current IRA President Maureen McLaughlin hands over the gavel to IRA President Elect Jill Lewis.

Cummins’ appointment will not affect the current election cycle, which is due to commence later this month. Voting members of IRA will elect next year’s Vice President, who will take office on the last day of the New Orleans Conference, May 12, 2014, along with the other newly elected members of the Board. The Board will postpone, until a future time, any decision on filling the vacancy that will arise when Cummins’ interim appointment is concluded.

Maryann Manning’s sudden and untimely death was a shock to all of her colleagues on the IRA Board. In selecting Carrice Cummins to serve out the year in her stead, the Board secures the participation and services of someone uniquely situated to join in the Board’s ongoing deliberations. Carrice began her presidential term around the same time that Marcie Craig Post, IRA’s Executive Director, took office. Many of the critical strategic initiatives which the Association is currently immersed in were commenced during Carrice’s presidency, making her selection for the pro tem role a logical choice.

Now at full strength, the IRA Board, in tandem with the Executive Director and staff, continues to address strategic priorities while the important day-to-day work, including planning an outstanding conference for New Orleans, proceeds apace.

The International Reading Association’s “Invent Your Future” International Literacy Day theme inspired many teachers around the world to create projects to motivate their students to read and to dream. We are excited to announce the three winners of the “Invent Your Future” contest, who will receive Sony Xperia tablets.

Second Grade Scholars Say “Reading Rocks”

When Hope Valley Elementary School teacher Elisha Cliette discussed the many places and adventures literacy could lead her “second grade scholars,” International Literacy Day morphed into International Literacy Week. The events in this North Carolina school included “Invent Your Future Day,” where students dressed up to show what career they wanted to have when they grew up and “Get Lost in a Book Day,” where students dressed up as a character in one of their favorite books. Then they held “Read to Me Day,” where their principal and assistant principal read aloud to them followed by “Partner Reading Day,” where the students were assigned different partners to read with throughout the day. They finished the week with a “Reading Rocks, Dance Party!” Cliette played some of their favorite songs, and they danced along with their favorite book in hand!

Marching on Washington to Celebrate Literacy

In September 2013, The Sheridan School’s third year celebrating International Literacy Day, the sixth grade students collaborated with teachers Noel Sheppard and Susie Baker-Lapp (sixth grade teachers), Emilie Greene and Ilva Olinto (art teachers), and Vicki Masson (world language teacher) to create an assembly based on the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. The students in this Washington, DC school reenacted the march, focusing on the importance of literacy for the future, 21st century literacies, and literacy is a tool to help us invent our own futures.

Students created march placards and chants to inspire the marchers, and speakers made clear the meaning of literacy. Also, each sixth grade student was responsible for a “family-style” group of students from across the school. The silhouette of a kindergarten student was traced around on black paper, and then each group brainstormed all the ways in which literacy facilitates inventing the future—all the careers and qualities, benefits and advantages of a future informed by literacy. Approximately 180 children worked in 26 groups, each led by a sixth grade student, and then shared their ideas at the end of the assembly. The visions were many and varied, including “go to Belgium,” “be a dermatologist,” “become a doctor,” “wisdom,” “hope,” “teacher,” “scientist,” “build buildings,” “Lego creator,” “make skateboards,” and “be an author.” After the presentations, the silhouettes were arranged on a wall of the lunch room, with samples of the placards above, as a reminder of the assembly and as a protest installation.

Breaking News in Massachusetts

To celebrate International Literacy Day at Horace Mann Middle School in Franklin, Massachussetts, Reading Specialist Erin O’Leary and 8th Grade ELA teacher Mary Cotillo invited students to invent their future by pondering, envisioning, and writing headlines featuring their future accomplishments.

They began by researching headlines from history and sharing positive examples with their students. They introduced the idea to students on the morning video news on the Friday before International Literacy Day on September 9. Cotillo reminded students of the project via Instagram and offered extra credit.

At lunch on Friday the teachers placed models and headline writing templates on the tables (so teachers didn’t have to pass out anything). Due date flyers posted on the cafeteria doors were coupled with strategically placed extra templates as students exited the building, and the teachers decorated the area around the collection boxes in the lobby with balloons and streamers. When only a few headlines trickled in, they circulated among tables shouting, "Write your headlines! Grab a friend! I have extras! I have markers! GO! GO! GO!!"

By the end of the day, they had about seventy headlines which they proudly displayed in the HMMS lobby. Other teachers in their building put their own spin on the idea of helping students invent their futures. One eighth grade social studies teacher showed an inspirational YouTube video about high school students who are changing the world with their ideas. A seventh-grade social studies teacher read a UN article talking about literacy's role in preventing poverty. His seventh grade counterpart and the administrators tweeting their headlines.

To learn more about International Literacy Day or to view our event kit with lesson and activity ideas, visit our International Literacy Day webpage.

Sara Long is an editor/content manager at the International Reading Association.

Kenji Hakuta, Stanford University, a member of IRA’s Literacy Research Panel, will present a free webinar this afternoon sharing his thoughts on how the Understanding Language Initiative is working to meet the language demands of the Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards.

The webinar, entitled "The Understanding language Initiative in Supporting Attainment of Content and English Language Proficiency Standards," will take place 2:00-3:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time (5:00-6:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time).

To register now, go to https://www4.gotomeeting.com/register/610648807

Think your students can spend an extra 10 minutes a day reading and then record their progress? Perhaps you should register your classroom to take part in Fast Break for Reading, a joint project between the International Reading Association (IRA) and the American Basketball Association (ABA). The program runs from November 18, 2013 until March 14, 2014 and is sure to delight any student or teacher interested in sports.

2013 Fast Break winners from the 
Raymond E. Voorhees School in NJ

What Students Gain from Participating in Fast Break for Reading

Fast Break for Reading has many incentives for students to read and log their daily 10 minutes. All students receive a certificate for participation and a ticket to an ABA game of their choice. In addition, a grand prize is granted to a diligent student who reads the most total minutes with a teacher who has the greatest minutes for their classroom. The student who wins this grand prize gets to attend an ABA finals game, including a paid round trip airfare for them and two chaperones with a one night hotel stay.   

Teacher Benefits for Registering their Class in Fast Break for Reading

Students are not the only ones who can attend ABA games. The teacher who has the greatest number of minutes read by their students also wins a grand prize, a paid trip airfare for two to an ABA finals game including a one night hotel stay. In addition, all teachers are awarded a free IRA E-ssentials digital publication for participating and are eligible to become a teacher liaison. Teacher liaisons are an important component in Fast Break for Reading. These volunteers work alongside ABA teams and coordinate events such as assisting students in attending an ABA game, scheduling ABA events at schools, and arranging the Buckets & Books Program. Teachers who donate their time as liaisons are awarded a team jersey and access to any ABA team game.    

Buckets & Books Program for All

Attending an ABA game is exciting, and it can be helpful in other ways too. At any ABA game books can be donated. These books will go to nearby schools and be used in their reading programs. In addition, anyone who donates books for the Buckets & Books Program can get 50% off the general admission cost. This is a wonderful way for everyone to participate and help their local schools.

Another Slam Dunk

Last year participants read for over two million minutes total in Fast Break for Reading, and this year we hope to attain four million minutes read. Visit /fastbreak to review the rules and specifications, and to join in the fun.

Chelsea Miller is the strategic communications intern at the International Reading Association.

 

A Message from IRA President Maureen McLaughlin and IRA Executive Director Marcie Craig Post:

Our hearts and prayers are with the people of the Philippines as they struggle to recover from the typhoon that struck and devastated the archipelago nation this past weekend. Events like this remind us of our common frailty as human beings in the face of natural disasters. They also call upon us to do what we can to assist the survivors in the hard times ahead as the national rebuilding process begins. 

Photo Credit: Mike Gonzalez

The news images circulated to date have been gruesome. Here in the U.S., we who have known the suffering caused by Katrina and Sandy cannot even fathom what a more intense cyclonic storm would be like. As Haiyan bore down on the Philippines, our thoughts were of our many IRA colleagues there, including past IRA board member Sally Labanda and the members of the Reading Association of the Philippines with whom we have shared so many wonderful collaborations over the years. We anxiously await news of their fate, and we pray that they are safe and well.

Thoughts of the children, many of whom have now suffered catastrophic personal loss, give us the most concern. We earnestly hope that all persons of good will who are there on the scene will rally to the aid, protection, and care of the orphaned and displaced children in this hour of dire need. Here are links to organizations deploying aid to the region:

• Doctors Without Borders - www.doctorswithoutborders.org
• International Committee of the Red Cross - www.icrc.org
• International Medical Corps' Emergency Response - https://internationalmedicalcorps.org
• International Rescue Committee (IRC) - www.rescue.org
• Save The Children - www.savethechildren.org
• United Nations' Childrens' Fund (UNICEF) - www.unicef.org

(As always, check the credentials of charitable organizations on www.charitynavigator.org before giving.)

Much will have to be done. In the hardest hit areas it will be quite some time before life returns to anything resembling normal. And, of course, schooling will suffer disruptions until the major safety and health challenges have been met. During this transition, we at IRA pledge to work diligently on determining how we can marshal our limited resources and generous volunteers to help the country’s teachers and school officials restore the education process when the opportunity arises.

In the meantime, we appeal to our members to consider making a personal donation to any of the accredited international aid agencies who are assisting the Philippine recovery effort. Please help them do everything they can to save lives and relieve the suffering.

As an association of literacy professionals, let us never waver in our important work of strengthening the knowledge, comprehension, ingenuity, self-reliance, and courage of young people everywhere, that they may have what it takes to endure and survive life’s harshest challenges, and bring consolation, support, and encouragement to those around them whose burdens are severe.