Literacy Now

Alan E. Farstrup, who served as the executive director of the International Reading Association (now International Literacy Association) from 1992–2009, passed away October 31 from complications related to a recent stroke. 

Alan’s long period of service touched many. He was an indefatigable advocate for research (he served as IRA’s director of research 1985–1991) and the professional development of literacy teachers and school-based literacy professionals. He was an ardent supporter of the state council network and of our international affiliates. He kept a world map on his office wall covered with colored pins marking the countries he had visited to meet with members and work with colleagues to advance the cause of literacy.

Earlier in his career, Alan was a Peace Corps volunteer and served as a graduate teaching assistant to P. David Pearson, noted researcher and founding chair of ILA’s Literacy Research Panel, when Pearson taught at the University of Minnesota in the mid-1970s. The two became lifelong friends.

Amid the press of his administrative duties, Alan found time to coedit with S. Jay Samuels the three titles of ILA’s influential What Research Has to Say series on the topics of reading, vocabulary, and fluency instruction. He was also an active member of the Reading Hall of Fame.

Tall and ever-smiling, Alan always exuded a personal warmth that was his most endearing quality. He was genuinely interested in exploring all manner of project and program ideas. Supportive and encouraging by nature, Alan relished his interactions with board members and ILA staff. He decorated the headquarters conference room and hallways with group photos of both.

At annual and regional conferences, and at the world congresses, Alan’s meet-ups and appointments kept him constantly on the move, as he toiled to grow new contacts and forge new partnerships.

During his tenure, ILA (then International Reading Association) undertook joint efforts with the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) to develop standards for English Language Arts, the Carnegie Corporation to develop guidelines for literacy coaches, and the Marco Polo Partners Consortium to develop the award-winning online resource ReadWriteThink.

Of equal importance, under Alan’s leadership, the Association’s website, formerly reading.org, underwent a major upgrade to support online interactions and e-commerce transactions with members, and new agreements for digitizing the content of our journals were entered into. Alan understood the strategic importance of digital technology as a driver of new literacies.

Alan was a congenial leader, fully absorbed in his work and fully appreciative of all those with whom he worked. He would never pass in the hallway, the parking lot, or the coffee room without stopping to chat. We will miss him dearly at ILA, and in this moment of grief we celebrate his long service and the grace with which he gave it.

We offer our deepest condolences to his family along with our sincerest gratitude for all that he accomplished on behalf of our membership.

In our upcoming Google Hangout on Air, we are joined by authors and advocates who want to get diverse books into the hands of students around the world.

It began with a Twitter exchange and has since evolved into a full-fledged movement: The #WeNeedDiverseBooks (WNDB) campaign seeks to increase the number of diverse books on classroom shelves and spread awareness about the lack of multicultural representation in literature. According to their mission statement, WNDB is a “grassroots organization of children’s book lovers that advocates essential change in the publishing industry” and recognizes all diverse experiences, including LGBT gender diversity, individuals with disabilities, and cultural, ethnic, and religious minorities.

Join us at 8:00 p.m. EST Oct. 27 for the Hangout on Air featuring these distinguished guests:

Shane Evans is known for his work as a picture book illustrator, but he has also delved into graphic and web design for clients including Nike, and the Kansas City International Jazz Festival. Winner of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, the Coretta Scott King Award, and the Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding nonfiction for Children, Evans’s work is often influenced by his travels to Africa, South America, Asia, Europe, and the Caribbean. Most recently, Evans illustrated Taye Diggs’s Mixed Me! and Chocolate Me! Mixed Me! was released Oct. 6.

I.W. Gregorio identifies as a “practicing surgeon by day, masked avenging YA writer by night.” A founding member of WNDB, she currently serves as the organization’s vice president of development. Gregorio’s writing has appeared in The Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, and Journal of General Internal Medicine. Her debut novel, None of the Above, was inspired by an intersex patient that she met during her residency. 

Miranda Paul is a children’s author and executive vice president of outreach for WNDB. Her books One Plastic Bag and Water Is Water were named Junior Library Guild selections, and she was a guest presenter at the Library of Congress Young Readers Center. In addition to writing children’s books, Paul is the administrator of Rate Your Story, a website that encourages aspiring writers.

Angie Manfredi is the innovative head of youth services for Los Alamos County Library System in New Mexico. She replaced her library’s reference section with graphic novels and manga—boosting circulation and the library’s reader base. She thinks outside the box of what must be to what could be. Manfredi does not believe in gendering books, and she served as the moderator for a session titled “Girls Like Fart Jokes and Boys Have Feelings.” In her own words, “Miss Angie doesn’t believe there are books for boys or girls, there are just books.” She was named the Association for Library Service to Children Member of the Month in February 2014.

From what makes a book diverse in the first place to why those books are necessary for majority and minority students alike, ILA’s Google Hangout on Air will address more about the benefit and need for diverse books.

The Hangout on Air will be live-tweeted. To join the conversation on Twitter, use #ILAHangout.

Alexandra Baruch is ILA's communications intern.

The International Literacy Association (ILA) today issued a position statement based on recently published research from Rita Bean, which appeared in Literacy Research and Instruction, organizing school-based specialized literacy professionals into three distinct roles: reading/literacy specialists, literacy coaches, and literacy coordinators/supervisors. While responsibilities often overlap across these roles, there are specific distinctions in terms of the primary emphasis and professional qualifications required to be effective in each role.

In the past, literacy specialists who worked with students, coaches who supported teachers, and supervisors who played an evaluative role at the school or within the district were often in a single position.

“Our research findings indicated clear distinctions among the roles of these three types of literacy professionals,” said Bean, professor emerita in the University of Pittsburgh School of Education's Department of Instruction and Learning and lead investigator for the research that provided the foundation for ILA’s position statement and accompanying brief. “We also learned that the preparation they received did not ready them for these multiple roles.

“While each role is distinct, our research showed a commonality among these roles—the ability to lead and inspire is required by every literacy leader,” Bean added. ILA’s position statement emphasizes this finding by noting that, regardless of role, “all specialized literacy professionals need leadership, facilitation, and communications skills to perform effectively.”

Given the increasingly rigorous state standards, there is a tremendous need to help struggling students, support teachers in implementing these new standards, and provide ongoing evaluative insights to ensure that schools have the right resources to advance literacy.

“Declining test scores across the country indicate the need for increased emphasis on quality literacy instruction. Students, teachers, and schools need the resources that specialized literacy professionals provide,” Bean said.

ILA’s position statement and accompanying research brief provides school administrators with guidance on how to define the role of each specialty and to clarify what type of literacy professional their schools may need to hire. The descriptions aim to help those hiring literacy professionals to better understand what skill set is required and which qualifications to look for in the hiring process. Further, the new definitions will support college and university teaching programs in developing curricula to better prepare teachers for these specific literacy positions.

Review the full report here.

Studies indicate that as many as 1 in 5 students have dyslexia and related learning disabilities. With a number that high, it is likely that every teacher will have one or more students with dyslexia in his or her classroom. Helping these students to learn and succeed requires at least some basic knowledge about dyslexia. Thursday’s #ILAchat will cover what dyslexia is and how to help, in addition to providing an understanding of the most effective accommodations for those who struggle with reading and spelling.

Kelli Sandman-Hurley is the cofounder of the Dyslexia Training Institute (DTI), where she provides professional development for education professionals in the area of interventions for students with dyslexia. Sandman-Hurley has a doctorate in literacy and a specialization in reading and dyslexia. She and her team at DTI also provide one-on-one reading and spelling therapy at their centers in San Diego, California.

Learning Ally is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that supports students with dyslexia and other reading-based disabilities such as blindness and visual impairment. The organization provides the world’s largest library of accessible human-narrated audiobooks for students with disabilities, along with extensive community support for parents and professional training for teachers. 

Join @ILAToday on Thursday, October 8 at 8 p.m. ET. Remember to hashtag #ILAchat to keep the conversation rolling.

As you may have noticed, the International Literacy Association (ILA), formerly the International Reading Association (IRA), has a whole new website! Much like we’ve transformed from IRA to ILA as an organization, our website has also evolved from reading.org to literacyworldwide.org.

ILA’s new website has a simplified and streamlined look but still includes the research-based member resources you need for teaching all levels of literacy. The best part? It’s much easier and faster to find the tools and topics you’re looking for with our enhanced search function and newly added Get Resources page.

Check out the step-by-step instructions below to learn how to find member resources—fast—using the new website features.  

Let’s get started, so you can start putting ideas into action in your classroom right away!

Sign in

When you go to literacyworldwide.org, sign in with your ILA member username and password at the top right-hand corner of the screen. (If you’ve forgotten either of these, click on “Forgot Username?” or “Forgot Password?” to retrieve them.) Not a member? Learn more about joining ILA and ILA’s membership benefits now.

Get resources

When you hover over Get Resources in the main navigation menu, you will see the Get Resources dropdown menu. Here, you can click on and explore Reading Lists, Literacy Daily Blog, Books, ILA E-ssentials, Units and Lesson Plans (where you’ll find ILA Bridges), Journals, and Literacy Today Magazine.

Select a topic and narrow your search

Once you choose a type of resource from the drop down menu, you can zero in on a specific category within that resource. For example, if you’re looking for ILA E-ssentials that deal with 21st-Century Literacy Skills, you would select ILA E-ssentials from the menu, scroll down to the topics below, and then click the “+” next to 21st-Century Literacy Skills to see all the available ILA E-ssentials for this category (like “The SHOTS Strategy” article, shown in the example below).

Access now

When you click on the ILA E-ssentials article title, you’ll go straight to that article’s page, where you’ll find an overview of what’s inside and the option to access it immediately. Remember, you have to be signed in to see the “ACCESS NOW” button!

Search more specifically

If you’re seeking something more specific—graphic novels, for example—you can also search by typing the topic you’re looking for in the search bar (next to the yellow magnifying glass). After entering your search term, click the yellow magnifying glass to start your search.  

Read through your results

Your results will reveal all the online resources that mention the specific topic you searched, as well as how many times the topic appears on the website. (Here’s a tip: If you’re looking for a phrase and getting too many non-specific results, try searching again using quotation marks around the phrase, as shown in the screenshot.) Click the underlined article title to view a result.  

Filter your search

You can easily filter search results even further—by content type, student level, or topic—using the options on the left hand side of the screen. Please note that you can filter search results by one content type, student level, and topic at a time. Simply check the appropriate boxes, then scroll down and click “Filter.” Your new results will then appear. At any time you can change your filter by checking or unchecking boxes and reapplying the new filter by hitting “Filter.” Clicking “Clear Filters” will uncheck any boxes and return you to your original, unfiltered results.

We hope this simplifies and speeds up your search for ILA member resources and makes it easier for you to get the research-based tips, advice, ideas, and tools you need to transform lives through literacy!

Want to share your thoughts on our new website and new features? We’d love to hear from you! Please share your feedback with us by e-mailing membership@reading.org.