Literacy Now

The International Literacy Association issued its Preliminary Report on Teacher Preparation for Literacy Instruction Tuesday, the first of a two-part report by its Teacher Preparation Task Force, reviewing U.S literacy teacher preparation and how state departments of education differ in their requirements. The preliminary report uncovered inconsistent standards and criteria for preparing teachers on how to teach literacy.

“While there are limitations to this data and further review is underway, our initial findings show that few states require coursework related to preparation to teach literacy,” said Deanna Birdyshaw, cochair of the ILA Teacher Preparation Task Force. “Further investigation of both state and preservice teacher preparation programs is necessary. The data contained here reflect the first phase of our study of what states’ requirements are for preservice teachers in terms of developing their skills as literacy instructors.”

The 13-member task force is cochaired by Elizabeth Swaggerty, associate professor of Reading Education at East Carolina University, in addition to Birdyshaw, lecturer at University of Michigan, and includes leading literacy experts from across the United States.

The task force used a two-part procedure to inform this preliminary report. The first part included compiling information about requirements for teacher preparation in literacy from 50 state education department websites between July and October 2014. The task force then interviewed state education department officials from 23 states to confirm the data collected and to increase understanding of how literacy instruction was addressed in the certification guidelines.

The second-year goal is to interview Teacher Education Programs officials, administrators, and professors in all 50 states to determine how they are integrating the guidelines.

Implications of findings

“Our primary takeaway is that all stakeholders need to be involved in the conversation about how to improve preparation of preservice teachers to design and implement instruction that increases the literacy learning of children in kindergarten through grade 12,” Swaggerty said. “We hope this initial report is a starting point for that conversation.”

Given the importance that state education standards and assessments play in the review of Teacher Education Programs, analysis of the data suggests:

• Research that investigates preservice program features that prepare candidates to develop students’ literacy across all grades and in all disciplines should be conducted. This research should be shared with all stakeholders, particularly state departments and teacher preparation programs.
• Collaboration among all educational stakeholders, particularly state education departments, teacher preparation programs, and K–12 educators, is necessary to improve the preparation of candidates to teach literacy. State guidelines for preservice teacher preparation should make explicit reference to what candidates should know and be able to do in relation to literacy instruction.
• All preservice teachers should be required to participate in activities during their practica that develop their ability to design literacy instruction and monitor literacy growth.

In considering the findings, the task force recognized three primary limitations to the research.

• This is a preliminary report with the second phase ongoing.
• Teacher education programs are in transition, with state education department officials from 15 of the 23 states interviewed stating that changes were being made to teacher certification requirements in the coming year.
• State education officials interviewed were knowledgeable about the teaching requirements, but not necessarily experts in the areas related specifically to teaching literacy.  

“Today’s teachers must be well prepared to help students acquire the literacy skills they will need to learn, work, and live in a complex world,” said Dan Mangan, ILA’s Director of Public Affairs. “The preliminary work of this task force has helped us to better understand the landscape of state-level standards and criteria for teacher preparation for literacy instruction through a research-validated framework. We look forward to insights from the second phase of the task force to determine how best to move ahead to ensure the more than 250,000 new teachers entering the work force annually are prepared.”

To read the full text of the report, visit http://literacyworldwide.org/prelimprepreport.

As students prepare to head back to school, teachers are busy readying their classrooms with new and exciting ways to keep kids engaged. For third-grade teacher Colby Sharp, graphic novels are a vital option to get kids reading in the spirit of making their own literary choices.

Join Sharp and four graphic novelists, Dave Roman, Jenni Holm, Matt Holm, and Kazu Kibuishi, at 8:00 p.m. ET August 25 for our next Google Hangout on Air. Sharp will share his perspective on the power of graphic novels in the classroom while our other guests will delve into why they write their books and why they think they are powerful.

The Hangout guests see a variety of options in graphic novels, from students using characters as a mirror of themselves to student collaboration in the creation of their own stories to teachers who can team up to use a single novel across all school curriculums.

Here’s a little more about our guests:

• Colby Sharp is a cofounder of the Nerdy Book Club, a blog designed for lovers of reading that covers everything from book reviews to personal anecdotes. Sharp, a third-grade teacher in Parma, Michigan, believes that books have the power to help kids achieve their goals and follow their dreams.
• Dave Roman is the author of the graphic novels Teen Boat! and Agnes Quill: An Anthology of Mystery. His Teacher Guide Design Your Own Academy brings his Astronaut Academy series to the classroom, including worksheets for students to create their own characters, settings, and comics. The activity kit encourages kids to analyze relationships between main characters and their antagonists and promotes storytelling through visual art. Roman’s latest project is Starbunny Inc., a web comic for all ages.
• Jenni Holm, a New York Times best-selling children’s author, has been the recipient of three Newberry Honors for her novels Our Only May Amelia, Penny From Heaven, and Turtle in Paradise. She collaborates with her brother, Matthew Holm, on two graphic novel series: Babymouse and Squish. Babymouse, one of the first graphic novel series for children, received the 2013 Eisner Award for Best Publication for Early Readers (up to age 7).
• Matthew Holm began drawing comics in middle school and has not stopped since. After drawing several pages for his sister’s book Middle School Is Worse Than Meatloaf, he went on to work with her on the making of Babymouse. Holm and his sister have produced 20 Babymousebooks in addition to 6 installments of the best-selling Squishseries.
• Kazu Kibuishi is the art director, cover artist, and editor of the critically acclaimed comic anthologies Explorerand Flight. Kibuishi is the founder of Bolt City Productions, a production studio dedicated to creating books for young readers. His debut graphic novel Daisy Kutter: The Last Train and his New York Times best-selling graphic novel series Amulet engage all readers—exploring familiar themes drawn from the challenges of growing up.

Follow the conversation on Twitter at @ilatoday and #ILAHangout to find out how you can enter a graphic novel giveaway.

Olivia Duke is ILA’s communications intern.

As part of ILA’s We Love Graphic Novels Week (August 10–14), this month’s #ILAchat will give educators an arsenal of ideas on how to get graphic novels into the hands of their students to motivate them to read.

Nick Provenzano (@thenerdyteacher) will be on hand to share his thoughts on the value of graphic novels and how to best incorporate them into the classroom. The chat will offer suggestions for how to convince skeptical parents and administrators and how to address the art in graphic novels.

Provenzano, an award-winning teacher and technology curriculum specialist at Grosse Pointe Public Schools, has gained a following of thousands of educators through his popular blog The Nerdy Teacher, an educational technology blog that focuses on integrating technology into the classroom. He is the organizer of TEDxGrossePointeSouthHS, one of the few high school–organized TEDx events in the United States, and he hosts his own iTunes podcast, #NerdyCast, where educators talk about teaching, learning, and pop culture.

In #NerdyCast installment “Graphic Novels (Comics) = Literature,” Provenzano talks about the importance of graphic novels in the classroom: “I’ve been an advocate for graphic novels in the classroom, comic books, whatever you want to call them, but there’s always been this pushback—a roll of the eyes from people that still think that comic, or graphic novels, are just those thinks kids read under the covers at night.”

Provenzano said he uses graphic novels to help his students better grasp lessons from more traditional texts. Images paired with concise text help to reiterate what the students have already learned and are especially helpful for visual learners.

“You need to find what’s best for your students based on what’s out there,” he said. “That’s true whether it’s a traditional novel, textbook, or even a graphic novel. Not everything is for everyone.”

Provenzano challenges teachers and librarians to look at incorporating graphic novels in the curriculum in the same way they would incorporate traditional texts.

Join @ILAToday on August 13 at 8:00 p.m. ET. Make sure to follow and use the hashtag #ILAchat to keep the conversation going!

Olivia Duke is ILA’s communications intern.

In the Philippines, the ability to read and write is a priority, so any effort to promote literacy by the government, organizations, or even private individuals is celebrated.

“It is through literacy that one is empowered to interact in his community and realizes his worth, what he can do and eventually make him do things that contribute in sustainable development of his society,” said Department of Education’s (DepEd) Literacy Coordinating Council OIC Dina Ocampo in a speech during the 2014 National Literacy Conference and Awards.

That “community” progressively expanded, based on the country’s literacy data collected through the national census. Results from the National Statistics Office’s 2010 Census of Population and Housing (CPH) show that 97.5% of the 71.5 million individuals who are 10 years old and older were literate or could read and write—an increase from the 2000 CPH record of 92.3%.

Prior to World War I, the literacy rate in the Philippines was at a dismal 20%. But it was one of the countries that experienced rapid school expansion in the late 1930s, according to United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) 2006 Education for All Global Monitoring Report, and, as a result, literacy rates rose to the middle range during the 1950s (35%–75%). UNESCO has said literacy transitions are linked to educational expansion.

The same findings echoed the observations of Dr. Michael Alba, a research fellow and professor at De La Salle University-Manila. In his journal article, “Estimating Literacy Rate: A Study Relating Literacy Rate With Combined Gross Elementary and Secondary Schools Enrollment Rate,” he attributes the growth of literacy rates in the Philippines to the formalization of the education system there and its success in achieving its basic objective: to prioritize literacy skills for students.

From the top

Shifts in the country’s education system were rooted in structural changes and policymaking bodies throughout history.

The creation of regulation surrounding education took some 70 years to evolve and 1960 and 1970 literacy data did not include education offered outside regular classrooms, including community learning centers and public halls, for out-of-school youths, dropouts, and differently abled (documented as “nonformal education”). The establishment of the National Manpower and Youth Council, the agency tracking nonformal education, Alba said, made a huge impact on the 1980 literacy rate improvement to 91.79%, according to UNESCO figures.

For John Arnold S. Siena, a director for the National Educators Academy of the Philippines, part of DepEd, the high literacy rate in the country and the 95.24% school participation of children in elementary schooling were achieved through the campaign of the government, particularly DepEd, to bring more school-age children to school. He said initiatives that focused on this goal include the following:

• The Alternative Learning System, which provides opportunity for out-of-school youths to use the education services of DepEd and take the accreditation and equivalency test, paving the way for further education

• Open high school and night school opportunities

• Establishment of schools in areas without schools

• The Kindergarten Law, which makes attending kindergarten a requirement

Literacy-specific initiatives include the following:

• Every Child A Reader Program, which mandates all schools, school divisions, and regions to develop interventions addressing reading in schools based on certain assessment techniques such as the Philippine Informal Reading Inventory (Phil-IRI)

• The Library Hub, established nationwide, in which a vast collection of book titles appropriate for children of various ages is located and in which the books are circulated in schools and made part of the learning competencies of the children

• A focus in K–3 curriculum on language development, including reading

• The mother tongue–based multilingual education as part of the K–12 program (under this program, teachers are trained to teach mother tongue competencies to prepare for learning of a second language)

• Journalism program RA 7079, which offers teacher and student training in journalism

• Activities throughout the year, including Book Week and National Reading Month

A shared goal

By 2000, organizations inside and outside of the Philippines measured youth literacy rates between 95% and 96.6%.

The Philippines committed to Education for All (EFA) 2015 Goals at the World Education Forum in Dakar, resulting in the Philippine EFA 2015 National Action Plan, “Functionally Literate Filipinos: An Educated Nation.” This plan focuses on achieving wider access to education and life skills programs, a 50% improvement in levels of adult literacy (age 15 and older), and remarkable learning outcomes in literacy, numeracy, and essential life skills.

Siena said he provides continuous support to teachers and other personnel critical to the reading program in schools. For example, the DepEd provides training, support materials, and guidelines on how to operationalize early literacy programs.

DepEd is currently finalizing the policy on Learning Action Cell implementation and strengthening. According to Siena, this is envisioned as “a sustainable and cost-effective means of supporting teacher development.” He added that Learning Action Cells are group-based intervention toward improving teaching practice, and that the reading program, especially in the K–3 stage, will benefit substantially from the intervention.

“The Department of Education also seeks to develop more reading experts from the ranks of teachers through scholarships, long-term trainings, locally available or abroad, to help strengthen the reading programs,” Siena said.

But education reforms and literacy projects cannot be in the hands of DepEd alone. Schools implement their own strategies to contribute to literacy development, like the Reading Literacy Extension Program (RELP) of the University of Northern Philippines (UNP) in Tamag, Vigan.

The effectiveness of RELP, as assessed by Ocarna Figuerres, provided “remarkable” improvement, noting in particular the popularity of the program and the growth of subsequent local literacy programs.

Book drives initiated by the private sector are also popular in the Philippines, such as the Philippine Toy Library, which collects books, board games, and even musical instruments; Sa Aklat Sisikat Foundation (With Books, One Will Be Famous); and Books for a Cause, a movement that distributes books to schools located in remote areas.

The teacher’s role

“One more notable aspect about the project is that the lessons were tested through demonstration lessons in the different schools of Naga City and were revised to incorporate the collective suggestions and feedback of teachers,” says Anna Bella F. Abellera, an English teacher at Naga Central School I. “This project is really a huge collaborative effort of teachers and the city officials and community as well.”

Abellera believes that people should never give up on guiding and inspiring children in achieving literacy.

“It may be redundant to say, but I always ask myself, ‘How many lives did I touch lately?’ Or ‘How many did I inspire today?’”

Len Cristobal is a freelance writer, blogger, and editor from the Philippines.

The International Literacy Association (ILA) recently announced that USA Today Charitable Foundation (USATCF) has joined ILA to further support the cause of eradicating illiteracy around the world. The foundation will operate under the ILA umbrella organization as a separate, supporting foundation with its own board of directors.

The foundation, which is now known as the Foundation for Impact on Literacy and Learning, is a 501(c)(3) organization that provides educational programs for elementary, secondary schools, community colleges, clubs, and after-school activities and programs in specific disciplines or curriculum areas.

“By joining ILA, the foundation provides yet one more engine in our pool of resources to
support our work to advance literacy for all through our global network of more than 300,000 literacy practitioners in 75 countries,” said Marcie Craig Post, ILA’s executive director. “We see this as an adoption of a like-minded, like-missioned group that shares a similar commitment to literacy and education efforts.”

Post said that, for ILA’s membership base, the foundation’s activities will complement members’ efforts on the ground and is another step forward in the organization’s journey as ILA.  

There will be no change in ILA’s operations or structure; it assumes oversight and fiduciary responsibility for the foundation. The foundation will have its own board and brings a donor base and resources to conduct projects and offset any overhead expenses. The foundation’s independent board of directors will include previous members of the USATCF board, Akin Harrison, vice president, associate general counsel and secretary of TEGNA (formerly Gannett), and Ross Schaufelberger, former executive vice president and chief operations officer for USA Today Sports Media Group. Diane Barrett, retired vice president of USA Today/Gannett Publishing Services and USATCF’s former president and board chair, will serve as the ex-officio voting executive director. Post will serve as board chair and additional board members will be recruited.

The USATCF board sought out ILA as a potential partner to enable the foundation to continue work supporting and building alliances that enhance innovative, instructional programs and community outreach. Long affiliated with USA Today newspaper and its parent company Gannett, a recent corporate reorganization prompted the foundation’s search for a new supporting partner.

“The USA Today Charitable Foundation’s vision has been to engage, enlighten and inspire today's students and educators by opening their classrooms to the real world,” Barrett said. “Our donors represent global and national companies and not-for-profit organizations who have collaborated with us for over a decade to bring exceptional initiatives and resources to schools in the United States. We are eager to grow the reach of our work through our affiliation with ILA.”

Additional questions about the Foundation for Impact on Literacy and Learning can be sent to customerservice@reading.org.