Literacy Now

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.

International Literacy Day is over, but reports are streaming in from all over the world about how schools celebrated and continue to celebrate.

This year,  in the International Literacy Day Activity Kit we spotlighted The Philippines with activities framed around the history and culture of the country. Not only is the Philippines a very active affiliate, but its people have shown great strides in improving literacy rates to 97.5% literate over the last 30 years.

Students, educators, and elected officials all got in on the ILD fun with singing, dancing, and read-alouds. There were also dozens of Little Free Libraries launched that day alone as a ILA-suggested ILD service project.

Arlene B. Arcillas, mayor of Santa Rosa, Laguna, visited five schools on ILD, participating in Little Free Library ribbon cuttings at all of them and taking the time to read to hundreds of students during the course of the day. The different events also included singing and dancing, and distribution of new backpacks to students.

In Hyderabad, India, there was an assembly in the morning at Oakridge International School, followed by two activities during the day. Alfaaz involved “expression through writing” and Cuentos was “story reading sessions in mother tongue.”

In the U.S., The Episcopal School of Dallas called on Filipino natives from the community to share the country’s culture in the classroom. Students also used the ILA Activity Kit to reinforce lessons.

“We learned about modes of transportation and saw a jeepney and video from the Google Tour,” said Allison Hogan, a primer teacher at the school. “Later in the day, students drew a tricycle on an iPad and made a tricycle using wooden wheels, pipe cleaners and straws. [It was] a great STEAM activity.”

Just one day into the school year, Central Jamaica Reading Association (CJRA) set out to celebrate ILD inside and outside of the classroom. Read-alouds were held by parents, community leaders, and educators. CJRA led the construction and launch of a Little Free Library and affiliate representatives went to the Pediatric Ward of the Mandeville Regional Hospital to distribute reading and writing materials to patients.

In Illinois, at least three Little Free Libraries were opened. The Illinois Reading Council (IRC) built two in one day at the state library, one of which was planted outside of their office in Normal, IL. They were, appropriately, filled with books from IRC’s Illinois Reads program. Maria Schlup, a reading specialist at an elementary school in Palatine, IL, spearheaded the creation of the first Little Free Library in her community, but the plan is to make several more for area parks and schools.

Finally, at ILA headquarters in Newark, DE, we held a ribbon cutting for our own Little Free Library. With materials, books, and labor donated by staff, the library itself cost ILA nothing to construct or plant. A ribbon cutting was held on ILD which featured local and state legislators and the reading of a proclamation from Delaware Gov. Jack A. Markell naming Sept. 8, 2015, Literacy Day in the state.

Keep the movement going! Download the free activity kit today or build your own Little Free Library, then share your photos and stories with mailto:social@reading.org.

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

This year, we celebrate the 20th year of the What’s Hot in Literacy Survey, published in the latest issue of Literacy Today. Results from previous surveys have been cited in numerous publications, translated into multiple languages, and replicated in several countries including Denmark, Rumania, and the United Kingdom.

In addition, previous results of the annual survey have guided professional development within schools and have played a key role in situating the timeliness of current research. In a brief overview, we share how the 2016 survey was constructed, the approaches used to select this year’s respondents, and the methods used while analyzing the results.

Each year, a purposeful sample of 25 literacy leaders completes the survey. The literacy leaders who responded to the 2015 survey played a key role in constructing this year’s edition by reviewing the items listed on the 2015 survey and making suggestions for revisions. This process resulted in a 30-item survey for 2016. In addition, three topics appeared for the first time: oral language, teacher evaluation for literacy, and teacher preparation and certification.

The 2016 literacy leaders all hold a national or international perspective on literacy. Many of them have served on boards of prominent literacy organizations, or as editors of major journals. Together the 25 leaders create a diverse group representing various  ages and job categories such as classroom teachers, administrators, and college professors. 

The percentage of ILA members in each region of the United States determines the number of literacy leaders interviewed in that region. Representing the East for 2016 were Julie Coiro, Rona Flippo, Donald J. Leu, Jill Lewis-Spector, Barbara Marinak, Susan B. Neuman, and Marcie Craig Post. From the Southeast were Richard Allington, Donna Alvermann, Estanislado Barrera IV, and Linda Gambrell. The Great Lakes area was represented by Nell Duke, Patricia Edwards, Timothy Rasinski, William Teale, and Timothy Shanahan. Julianne Scullen represented the Plains area, while the West was represented by Diane Barone, Douglas Fisher, and P. David Pearson. Other areas included the Southwest, represented by Katy Landrum and Chase Young; the Rocky Mountains, represented by Ray Reutzel; Canada, represented by Shelley Stagg Peterson; and outside North America, represented by Bernadette Dwyer.

We interviewed the literacy leaders by phone, Skype, or in person during the summer months. Each interview began with the reading of a standard 178-word paragraph explaining that a rating of “hot” and “not hot” would not be a measure of his or her personal interest in a topic, but instead would refer to the amount of attention the item was currently receiving. Next, each of the 30 items from the survey were read aloud to the respondent and a rating of “hot” or “not hot” was assigned. In addition, the respondent stated whether the item “should be hot” or “should not be hot.”

The final step was analyzing the results. This involved tallying the collected ratings. Items receiving 100% consensus among the literacy leaders were reported as “extremely hot” or “extremely cold.” Items receiving 75% consensus were reported as “very hot” or “very cold,” while those receiving 50% consensus were reported as “hot” or “not hot.”

Read about the results of the What’s Hot in Literacy Survey in Literacy Today magazine (formerly Reading Today).