Literacy Now

Did you know that F. Scott Fitzgerald, considered one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century, had terrible grammar? His first drafts were full of spelling and punctuation errors, giving his editor quite the headache when pulling out the masterful content beneath the mistakes.

If only he had Grammar Girl, aka Mignon Fogarty, around to help. Luckily for us, we do. Although she probably won’t help you write the next Great Gatsby, she can guide you through the murky waters of tricky comma rules and obscure apostrophe standards. Grammar Girl knows that mastering grammar can sometimes feel like learning a second version of English—especially when zealous grammar experts pounce at the first sign of error—so she is committed to being a friendly and educational voice in the English learning world.

Join our #ILAchat on at 8:00 p.m. ET on Thursday, May 12, to hear from the grammar hero herself as we discuss how to make grammar less scary and more fun for casual writers and published authors alike. Topics to be discussed include the changing rules of grammar on social media, teaching styles as opposed to rules, and the always charged Oxford comma debate.

Fogarty is the founder and managing director of Quick and Dirty Tips, an online resource for all things punctuation, style, and business related. With a range of experience in both writing and editing, Fogarty strives “to be a friendly guide in the writing world.” Her award-winning Grammar Girl podcast has thousands of subscribers, and her equally popular blog was recently recognized as one of Writer’s Digest’s 101 Best Websites for Writers.

Follow #ILAchat and @ILAToday at 8:00 p.m. ET on Thursday, May 12, to join the conversation about the sometimes scary but never boring world of grammar.

Nicole Lund is ILA’s communications intern.

General Session speakers will spark some of the most engaging and dynamic conversations at ILA 2016 Conference & Exhibits. This year, five distinguished speakers who embody the definition of “literacy leader” are united by their love of words and drive to share the power of literacy.

Newbery Medal and Coretta Scott King Author Honor winner Kwame Alexander will speak at the Opening General Session Saturday, July 9. Alexander is not only an award-winning author, but also a poet, literacy advocate, and founder of Book-in-a-Day and LEAP for Ghana, two organizations devoted to empowering youth through literacy. Alexander will be discussing the power of language in both marginalizing and empowering children, emphasizing the importance of instilling confidence through literature.

“Every child has the potential to really excel at reading and writing,” Alexander said in a recent interview in Literacy Today. “Do we give them that opportunity?”

Author, speaker, literacy advocate, and current college student Adora Svitak has seized every opportunity that has presented itself in her young life. After publishing two books before age 11, Svitak delivered a now-famous TED Talk titled “What Adults Can Learn From Kids” in 2010 when she was 12. Its success is seen in the numbers: The video has since garnered over 4 million views and has been translated into more than 40 languages. Now 19 and a student at the University of California, Berkeley, Svitak continues to write and advocate for global literacy, with a special focus on embracing technology and empowering youth and will share her vision at Opening General Session.

“Living in a digital-driven world means that people are losing out on more by not being able to read and write; it also means that more people who are literate but aren’t using their abilities to their full potential need to be able to think critically about the content they’re consuming and, occasionally, mindfully disconnect,” Svitak said in Literacy Today in March.

Closing General Session Monday, July 11, will have the theme of social responsibility with three speakers who advocate for literacy in very different ways.

New York Times best-selling author and award-winner Laurie Halse Anderson will speak about how researching and writing her Seeds of America trilogy changed the way she sees the United States and increased her sense of responsibility to her readers. Well-known and widely applauded for addressing difficult topics in her novels, Anderson spent the past 25 years researching the often dark and painful history of America for her work. Crediting literature for enriching her knowledge of history and cultures, Anderson’s presentation at the Closing General Session is sure to be engaging for her longtime readers and literacy advocates alike.

Microsoft’s Director of Worldwide Education Strategy Steven Duggan, another dynamic TED presenter, will address the ever-growing significance of the relationship between technology and education around the world and particularly in developing countries where quality education is scarce. A former school teacher who has worked in education for more than 30 years, Duggan is a member of the Governing Board of the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (IITE). He will expound on his work in bringing technology to the classroom, a hot topic for teachers and advocates who want to stay on the cutting edge.

Struck by the vital importance of enabling youth through literacy, reading support specialist and nonprofit founder Ana Dodson is a member of ILA’s inaugural 30 Under 30 class of literacy leaders. Dodson urges others to “believe in your ability to change the world by adding positive energy into it,” as she works around the world to not only impact literacy herself, but also inspire others to take up the cause and lead in their own ways.

Born in Peru and adopted by American parents as an infant, Dodson founded Peruvian Hearts when she was 11 to provide food, clothes, medical care, and financial support for higher education to impoverished girls. Now in its 13th year, Peruvian Hearts combines enhanced educational opportunities with mentorship and service to equip young women with the skills to break the cycle of poverty.

The ILA 2016 Conference & Exhibits will be July 9–11 in Boston, MA, with more than 6,000 attendees eager to cultivate new teaching practices. With over 300 sessions, including several new additions to the schedule, and the popular Preconference Institutes on July 8, the weekend is sure to be a memorable one. Learn more about what’s coming up at this summer’s conference. Register today.

Nicole Lund is ILA’s communications intern.

The ability to speak multiple languages is a coveted skill in today’s economy. The goal is to create a learning environment that promotes language acquisition while making the curriculum accessible to everyone. For policymakers and educators worldwide, the question is how to foster that environment in an era of tight budgets, diverse priorities, and political sensitivities.

Schools that truly embrace multilingualism report higher levels of community engagement and academic achievement across the board. If implemented poorly, though, such programs can further marginalize groups that aren’t proficient in the dominant language.

To stimulate fresh thinking on this critical topic, the International Literacy Association (ILA) recently convened a roundtable with a distinguished group of advocacy and policy experts in Washington, DC. In a wide-ranging conversation led by award-winning journalist Diane Brady, experts shared their thinking on the best practices and priorities for achieving true multilingual learning. In a three-part blog series, we’ll explore the key takeaways from the conversation.

In many schools, language instruction is limited to “foreign language”–specific classes that emphasize vocabulary and grammar. There is little opportunity to use the language outside of these classes or to experience the culture around the subject language. By contrast, dual language and tri-language programs are more likely to immerse students in multiple languages throughout the school day, incorporating foreign language instruction into core subjects such as history, science, and mathematics. The result: Greater fluency and literacy in those languages as well as higher academic scores in other subjects. 

To secure these gains, school leaders need to adapt material to the different language needs of students and their parents and make efforts to celebrate their cultures. Hector Montenegro, regional practice leader with Margarita Calderón & Associates, a consultancy on English language acquisition and dual language instruction, noted that the most effective programs are led by people who “value the language, make it the norm to speak multiple languages, and have structures in which the students become proficient and master the language.”

Montenegro cited the case of an international, dual language school in El Paso, TX, as evidence of the broad-based impact that multilingual learning can have. “At Alicia Chacon Elementary, where English and Spanish are the dominant languages used, each student is in one of four schools—Russian, German, Chinese, and Japanese. The students begin the third language in the second grade. By the time they reach the fifth grade, they travel to the country of the third language they’re learning. These students are going to high schools that are also dual language. They’re graduating with full scholarships to Ivy League colleges and universities. These kids are fluent in three languages.”

As Marcie Craig Post, executive director for ILA, explained, “Where multiple language takes hold, the school has embraced this. It doesn’t happen in a classroom with the French teacher or the Mandarin teacher. It becomes part of the embedded culture.”

ILA developed Frameworks for Literacy Education Reform in response to today’s complex and evolving education landscape. With an increase in English learners, high-stakes testing, and digital technologies driving new modes of teaching and learning, challenges for the classroom teacher are mounting. The new white paper’s frameworks serve as a high-level rubric that school administrators and policymakers can use to create or assess reform proposals. In this blog series, we’ll take a closer look at each of the frameworks.

When all is said and done, education is about student success. Building the best schools, preparing teachers for a 21st-century classroom, and investing in education reform will mean nothing if we aren’t focused on the students who cross the threshold every day.

Adding to the educational system’s shortcomings, about 20% of children live in poverty in the United States. This rampant poverty—and near-poverty—puts students at a further educational disadvantage when it comes to both technology access and early language and literacy acquisition. For many, the achievement gap starts even before a child gets to the first day of school.

“This was not a difficult section for our subgroup to write,” said Doris Walker-Dalhouse, a lead writer on the student support framework of the Frameworks for Literacy Education Reform and professor of literacy at Marquette University in Wisconsin. “We wanted to focus on the aspects of students' lives outside of the classroom that impact their engagement in learning within school settings and influence their long-term growth and development as citizens in a democratic society.”

For example, many families don’t have computers, tablets, and mobile devices in the home, nor do they have access to the Internet in the neighborhoods and communities. This technology gap further compromises students’ exposure to new literacy education experiences and hinders their preparation to thrive as adults in an increasingly digital society.

At school, students also need to grow every year to perform at or above grade-level literacy standards. Effective teachers can help this growth happen. When students are not performing at grade level, curriculum and instruction must be adjusted, whether through extended day, week, or year programs, or by using additional measures that include students’ social and emotional growth as a guide to the best practice in individual instruction.

“I believe that while it is a challenging framework,” said Walker-Dalhouse, “teachers and schools that focus on educational equity for their students will seek opportunities to change their practices and advocate for resources and programs that will improve educational outcomes and social-economic conditions for the children, communities, and families that they serve.”

The complete white paper, Frameworks for Literacy Education Reform, can be found here.

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

When you attend the ILA 2016 Conference & Exhibits in July, you’ll find that the fun is not limited to the Exhibit Hall and the conference rooms. Plan time to explore the sights, sounds, and tastes of Boston, and remember to schedule in the special extracurriculars ILA has planned.

On Friday, July 8 at 7:10 p.m., watch the Boston Red Sox take on the Tampa Bay Rays at Fenway Park for our Literacy Night at the Ballpark event! This night out is the perfect way to relax and get excited for the weekend ahead. Remember last year’s game at St. Louis’s Busch Stadium? If you do, then you know we had to do it again. There’s no doubt Boston is one of the biggest baseball towns in the United States, so join your fellow attendees and baseball lovers for the game and special pregame ceremony, in which educators and ILA will be honored. Ticket proceeds will benefit ILA literacy initiatives, so you’ll be supporting our cause while sitting back and enjoying America’s favorite pastime and maybe even some hot dogs and Cracker Jacks. Tickets are going fast, so get them now!

After a jam-packed, session-filled Saturday learning and networking, get an energy boost with ILA’s first-ever Steps to Advance Literacy 5k Sunday, July 10. We decided that a 5k would be the perfect way to take our mission from the conference to Boston’s city streets. Register now and take Sunday morning to run, jog, or walk the city—all in the name of literacy! The 5k begins at 7:30 a.m.

ILA is proud to partner with Reach Out and Read, a nonprofit that incorporates books into pediatric care, for this event. ILA is focused on leaving behind a lasting legacy in each conference host city, so each year we strive to do something to benefit the entire community. “If we are able to make a visible impact on the whole community and get more people talking about literacy, then we will have achieved our goal in creating this 5k,” said Stephen Sye, Associate Executive Director of ILA. With the help of exhibitor donations postconference, we will be distributing books to Reach Out and Read.

The ILA 2016 Conference & Exhibits will be held July 9–11 in Boston, MA, with more than 6,000 attendees eager to cultivate new teaching practices. With over 300 sessions, including several new additions to the schedule, and the popular Preconference Institutes on July 8, the weekend is sure to be a memorable one. Learn more about what’s coming up at this summer’s conference. Register today for the conference.