Literacy Now

Wilkie, principal at McVey Elementary in Newark, DE, is the first recipient of ILA’s inaugural Corwin Literacy Leader Award, which honors a district or school administrative literacy leader who has worked to increase student literacy achievement by advancing professional development, instructional resources support, and the development of literacy programs. To learn about 2018 award and grant opportunities, visit our Awards & Grants page.

At McVey Elementary School, books are everywhere. They are hidden under desks as students read surreptitiously during class, displayed on decorative bulletin boards in the hallways, tumbling out of lockers, and even strewn throughout the cafeteria, having strayed from the “borrow and return” pile.

But it hasn’t always been this way.

“We knew that we had to change what literacy looked like at McVey. Our students did not show a love of reading and writing—they saw it more as a chore. A lot of reading instruction was being done in the classroom, but there wasn’t a lot of reading being done by the students,” says principal David Wilkie.

McVey’s literacy transformation began in April 2016 when ILA received a grant from an anonymous donor as part of the Delaware Community Foundation’s Fund for Children’s Literacy. The grant was to be used at a public elementary school in Delaware to build a culture of literacy through professional learning opportunities for staff, schoolwide reading programs, and family engagement.

ILA chose to use the funds at McVey on the basis of the school’s history of high staff retention and strong leadership. In its first year, ILA decided to focus on professional development; the grant covered the cost of Wilkie and seven other staff members and teachers to attend the ILA 2016 Conference & Exhibits in Boston, MA.

“Most of us had never attended an ILA conference before. We didn’t really know what we were walking into,” says Wilkie. “We were reenergized; we came with so many ideas. We met as a team every night at dinner. Our dinners were about two to three hours long because we were sharing information and talking about what we could do at McVey.”

At one of their dinners, the group decided that the theme of the school’s literacy makeover would be “wonder.”

“We felt that our students had lost that sense of wonder at an early age,” says Wilkie. “They were all about asking questions in the early years, but by third grade, they start losing that.”

The once-plain walls at McVey are now vibrant “wonder walls,” covered in questions—some content related, some general—written by students. Every “Wonder Wednesday,” the questions are read aloud and answered by teachers, students, or Wilkie himself during morning announcements. Wilkie says plans for “wonder centers” and “wonder windows” are in the works.

Over the past year, ILA and McVey have collaborated on a series of initiatives to help build a culture of literacy at the school. The grant also covered support from Carrice Cummins, professor at Louisiana Tech University, who is working with Wilkie to identify the school’s main challenges and to establish a long-term plan. With her assistance, McVey has set up four professional development experiences related to interactive read-aloud training.

Wilkie believes that everyone at McVey—from the cafeteria servers to the P.E. teachers—needs to be involved in the project, excited by the mission, and committed to a set of shared goals.

“A big part of this is shifting the mind-sets of teachers from teaching stories to teaching a love of reading and the importance of reading,” he says.

Cummins helped to implement interactive read-aloud, independent reading time, and schoolwide and gradewide author and book studies. Last year, all the fifth graders read Bridge to Terabithia (HarperCollins), which culminated in a Skype session with author Katherine Paterson.

Wilkie says his approach to literacy education is grounded in choice; he wants the students to feel a sense of ownership over their reading habits.

“One class took a survey about what they enjoyed this year that they hadn’t in the past, and the majority made comments like ‘Thank you for giving us more time to read books and to choose books we like to read,’” he says.

This year, 23 teachers and staff members attended the ILA 2017 Conference & Exhibits in Orlando, FL.

When asked about next steps, Wilkie says they are looking to get parents and the community more involved. Since starting the project, he says several parents have noticed a shift in their child’s attitude toward reading. One even said it’s a challenge to get her child to stop reading long enough to hold a conversation over dinner.  

 “He was always a reader but he wasn’t always this passionate about reading,” says Wilkie. “But now, he can’t put the books down.”

Alina O'Donnell is the editor of Literacy Daily.

I spend my days oscillating between two versions of myself.

The first is Lindsay, the mother. My two daughters are seven and one, and they are willful, brilliant, demanding little tyrants. As a stay-at-home mom, much of my time every day is spent with my daughters, feeding them, dressing them, teaching them, and generally making sure they are happy and healthy.

No small task.

Most nights I collapse into bed, desperate for a few hours’ rest before the morning breaks and the exhausting, isolating task of caretaking begins again. I have always known I wanted to be a mother, but oh, I was not prepared for how hard it can be to give and give and give, and wonder if it will ever be enough.

But this is the experience of being a mother.

The second is Lindsay, the writer. I am a daydreamer, a silly heart, a creator of worlds and places and characters as dear to me as if they were real. As a child, I hoped that I would one day be a published author, and when I saw my debut book, Hour of the Bees, on shelves in bookstores, a new fire was lit—to tell every story I have inside me. To write, to be fearless with my pen, to illuminate with my words, to bring honesty and beauty and searing, sparkling magic to readers, and to stop only when I am dead.

No small task.

Most nights I fall asleep immediately, already plotting what sentences I will write when I wake—sometimes the words tease me out of sleep when it is still dark, whispering to me across the shadows. I have always known I wanted to be a writer, but oh, I was not prepared for how it feels to give and give and give, and wonder if it will ever be enough.

But this is the experience of being a writer.

And on most days these two versions of myself feel at odds—they battle for my attention, for my energy. They fight to be the defining Lindsay, but every once in a while I have a day where the two of them melt into one.

The day when I opened the email telling me I was an ILA Children’s and Young Adults’ Book Award winner in the category of intermediate fiction? That was one of those days.

I looked up from my notebook, up at my sweet girls, and the connection was forged—the immense privilege I have of writing for children, of shaping their world, of opening a window of magic into their lives—that is celebrated with this award, which I share with the teachers who work with young children in classrooms and encourage their imaginations through literacy.

There is a Lindsay who gets to mother my darling girls, and a Lindsay who gets to write books that children read with their teachers, books that hopefully develop a lifelong love of reading and learning for these minds. I am so, so grateful to the International Literacy Association for highlighting Hour of the Bees. This is such a great honor, to be recognized by an organization that looks at stories for children, every day, and to be seen as enough. I am delighted that my second novel, Race to the Bottom of the Sea, was released this month—it affirms that not only does writer Lindsay belong in this world, she thrives.

Lindsay Eagar won the ILA 2017 Children’s and Young Adults’ Book Award for Intermediate Fiction for Hour of the Bees.

Yesterday, Iran literacy project Read With Me was announced as a candidate for the 2018 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA)—the world's largest children's literature prize, designed to promote interest in children's and young adults' literature.  

Each year, the award’s jury selects nominating bodies from around the world, all of which must demonstrate “expert knowledge” of children’s and young adult literature. ILA was one of only six U.S. organizations, among 226 total nominating bodies, to nominate a candidate this year.

As ILA’s nomination committee members began to discuss potential candidates, they looked at previous award winners. How had they used the funding? How many lives had it changed? The committee wanted to support a cause that would have a far-reaching and sustained impact.

“We felt strongly that a project that could really monetarily use the support in the most impactful way was the one we wanted to support,” said nomination committee member Junko Yokota.

It didn't take long for Zohreh Ghaeni’s name to come up. Yokota had served alongside Ghaeni on several international award juries, including the International Board for Books of Young People, and had continued to follow her work in promoting children’s books in Iran.

A lifelong activist, Ghaeni was twice arrested and detained for her political beliefs, journalism, and human rights defense work, which focused on youth education.

“From the time I was 19, I knew I wanted to work with children in poor villages. I was so worried about the children that I left my university learning to work directly with them. I brought books from Tehran, I read to them, I played with them out in nature,” said Ghaeni, in her personal statement. “That was the first time that any teacher had come to them to offer such an opportunity. But teaching 20–30 children was not enough; I wanted to do more.”

During her second, eight-year-long term in person, she did not have access to books—an experience that served as a harrowing reminder of the power of words. Once released, she began to research the history of children’s literature as a means of ideological control. Ghaeni realized she may not be able to change the education system that was oppressing young minds, but she could empower the children to help themselves, through literature.

Her time spent in prison inspired her to found Read With Me with the goal of promoting lifelong reading habits in underserved areas in Iran. Today, the organization leads two-day workshops every three months for teachers, librarians, and volunteers, who learn how to facilitate productive read-aloud and discussion, foster literacy skills, and lead creative activities that support learning.

Over the past decade, Read With Me has reached more than 7,000 children and young adults across 75 remote villages in Iran, trained more than 500 teachers, distributed 25,000 books and 60,000 learning activities, and established more than 90 Read With Me small libraries.

Beyond these numbers, Ghaeni said the most important measure of success of Read With Me is the impact on children, teachers, and volunteers involved. Not only have the children developed a love of books, but have shown improved vocabulary, pronunciation, comprehension, concentration, communication, confidence, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.

Yokota said that collaboration is at the core of everything the organization does.

“Even the name, Read With Me, was very intentional. They don’t read to the children, they read with the children,” she said. “That kind of deep thinking can be found in every aspect of the organization.”

The committee members also recognized the organization’s emphases on high-quality literature, paired with strong professional development—key tenets of ILA’s mission.

“It’s an approach that allows teachers to get training in how to use the books with children, how to engage them to use lit in meaningful ways,” said Miriam Martinez, chair of ILA’s nomination committee. “It not only encompasses good literature, but empowers teachers with professional development.”

If awarded the prize, Ghaeni plans to expand the organization’s operations and continue to help more children and young adults make meaningful changes in their lives.

The recipient will be announced in Stockholm and Bologna following the jury’s final meeting in March 2018.

To learn more about Read With Me, visit the organization’s website and YouTube channel.  

To learn more about the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, visit alma.se/en.

Alina O'Donnell is the editor of Literacy Daily.

Northrop, assistant professor of literacy education at Cleveland State University, Ohio, is the recipient of the Outstanding Dissertation of the Year Award, honoring an exceptional dissertation completed in the field of reading or literacy. To learn about 2018 award and grant opportunities, visit our Awards & Grants page.

Laura Northrop brings a former journalist’s mind-set to the field of literacy research, where she approaches each challenge like a news story, seeking a deeply contextualized understanding of the reader’s world.

After a brief stint in journalism, Northrop decided she wanted to go into education. Her first teaching job was in the Chicago public school district. Although she taught grades 6–8, most of her students were reading below a middle school level. During this time, she became increasingly interested in struggling readers, particularly in the middle school context, and she decided to pursue a PhD in education policy analysis from the University of Pittsburgh.

“I wanted to know, what’s the difference between children who enter kindergarten with low-level literacy skills, and go on to have average achievement, and those who enter with low literacy skills and continue to struggle?” Northrop recalls. She explored this question in her dissertation “Breaking the Cycle: Cumulative Disadvantage in Literacy.”

Northrop’s research focuses on teacher attrition, instructional practices, and cumulative disadvantage in literacy. She believes literacy success lies at the intersection of choice, parenting behaviors, and instructional intervention.

“It really is an alignment of child, home, and school factors. The child has to be motivated to want to be a better reader, the parents have to be on board, and teachers have to be knowledgeable enough to provide the right interventions at the right time,” says Northrop.

Alina O’Donnell is the editor of ILA’s blog, Literacy Daily.

Guthrie is the recipient of the William S. Gray Citation of Merit Award, recognizing a nationally or internationally known individual for his or her outstanding contributions to the field of reading/literacy. To learn about 2018 award and grant opportunities, visit our Awards & Grants page.

John Guthrie has devoted his career to exploring what he believes is the “big, empty hole in human development for reading”—motivation.

He discovered this uncharted territory while serving as codirector of the National Reading Research Center, funded by the U.S. Department of Education.

“The theme was motivation and engagement. We said, let’s shine a light on this topic that hasn’t gotten high awareness. What are motivators for students, and what kinds of classroom contexts and teacher practices boost motivation and engagement?” Guthrie recalls.

Guthrie’s research focuses on the positive relationship between reading motivation and literacy achievement. He says skill and will go hand in hand.

“If a student is relatively well motivated in several different ways, they then become engaged in reading. They’re putting out effort, following their passion for reading. Motivations drive effort, energy, and enjoyment,” Guthrie says.

Guthrie, who received both his master’s and doctoral degrees in educational psychology from the University of Illinois, began his career as an assistant professor of education and project director of the Center for Social Organization of Schools at Johns Hopkins University. In addition to his stint at the National Reading Research Center, he has served as the director of research for ILA and director of the Center for Educational Research and Development at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Although he retired in 2007, Guthrie is currently involved in four research projects examining motivation in digital literacy. Like the field itself, his research has evolved to reflect the increasing multimodality of 21st-century texts.

Guthrie says his research is helping to establish new tools in digital literacy engagement. Right now, he’s studying how computer systems can teach struggling readers in a way that’s motivationally adaptive (responds to the motivation of kids), helping teachers to develop practices that inspire a fuller range of motivations.

When asked how he felt about receiving ILA’s William S. Gray Citation of Merit, Guthrie says he is humbled to receive an award named after one of his idols.

“William S. Gray was my hero when I was working at ILA. He was one of my inspirations in terms of how he read and how he wrote and what he did,” Guthrie says. “It is a special honor to have this award linked to him.”