Literacy Now

Contributed photo Jacob Sendolo (center in yellow) in happier times.

For months, news services around the world have issued reports on the Ebola epidemic that has savaged West Africa. Since March, there have been over 17,000 reported cases of Ebola and more than 6,000 deaths in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. Liberia, the worse-hit country of the Ebola outbreak, with more than 3,000 deaths, has fought this deadly virus with a severely strained public health infrastructure weakened by 23 years of a brutal dictatorship and civil war. Schools have been closed, food is in short supply, and many people are unemployed due to the crisis. News reports have typically spoken of the toll Ebola has taken on healthcare workers—doctors and nurses who have died valiantly in the line of duty, but they have not been the only victims of this deadly virus. In the last week of November, Jacob Sendolo, principal, teacher and long-term officer in the Liberian affiliate of the IRA, also died from Ebola.  His death will be felt deeply.

 

I met Mr. Sendolo six years ago in 2009 in Monrovia when he was the principal of a school piloting a new literacy program, “Liberia Reads,” developed by our Florida-based non-profit, the Children’s Reading Center (CRC) in partnership with the Liberian YMCA.  Mr. Sendolo, as principal of a YMCA school, jumped at the chance to have several of his primary grade teachers trained in phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, and comprehension strategies. He attended all of the training his teachers underwent and agreed to limit the size of his classes in the early grades and keep classroom books and instructional materials secure. In 2011, he became a founding member of the Association of Literacy Educators (ALE), the first IRA affiliate in Liberia. In subsequent years, he became an assistant trainer in the Liberia Reads project, participated in ALE sponsored workshops to instruct teachers in other Monrovia and up-country schools in Liberia Reads literacy strategies. He enjoyed showing teachers how reading strategies could also be applied to math and served as one of the presenters at the first Liberian IRA national conference held in July 2014. During this time, Mr. Sendolo was also pursuing his bachelor’s degree at the University of Liberia.

The best proof of Mr. Sendolo’s dedication to his profession was at his own school. His YMCA school is typical of most schools in Liberia with concrete block walls, a zinc roof, and hand-painted blackboards. Like 95% of Liberian schools, it has no electricity or running water. Six years ago when we first visited the school, classroom walls were bare, students did not have reading texts, and teachers had almost no literacy training. But at an unannounced visit by a CRC consultant in November 2013, it was clear a metamorphosis had occurred. Walls were no longer bare, but covered in student work, word walls, ABCs, and phonics blending ladders. Teachers were on task teaching literacy strategies and all primary students had reading texts and were engaged with instruction. Best of all, norm-referenced assessments indicated that the majority of Mr. Sendolo’s students were learning how to read.

Mr. Sendolo died after contracting Ebola at a traditional funeral for a teacher who everyone had been led to believe died of other causes. Two other Liberia Reads teachers at his school were also exposed. His loss brings home how the damage of Ebola will last long after the disease is eradicated in Liberia. Mr. Sendolo touched many lives through his strong work ethic and his dedication to improving literacy levels in Liberian children. He will be sorely missed.

Geri Melosh is longtime member of the IRA and principal of the Children’s Reading Center Charter School in Palatka, FL. She and her husband served as Peace Corps volunteers in Liberia in the ‘70s. She returns to Liberia regularly to help run literacy programs.

Every student is different, any teacher worth his/her salt knows this. But how are they different and how should teachers adjust their strategies to include students performing at the top of the class while not leaving everyone else behind?

#IRAChat on Thursday will address those questions with Jennifer Marten and Russell Cox. Marten, the Gifted and Talented Coordinator for the Plymouth Joint School District in Plymouth, WI, develops building- and district-level professional learning and maintains her blog, Teach From the Heart. She boils her thoughts on the changing face of education into plain speak and addresses everything from federal mandates to the deep history she has in her home district where she is now seeing the children of former students in the classroom. She is working toward a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction Leadership at Marian university in Fond du Lac, WI.

Russell Cox has taught students in all grades during his 16-year tenure and is currently the sole teacher of gifted students in several buildings spread across a rural area in Missouri. He is heavily active in social media where he taps Twitter and his professional learning network for advice and inspiration.

In addition to be literacy-focused himself, Cox is also married to a library media specialist in his home district.

Marten and Cox are ready to take questions addressing the unique needs gifted students have in the realm of literacy: how to keep them as part of a larger class without being bored, how to let them soar without getting lost, and how to foster a lifelong love of reading that many of these type of students seem to be born with, but still call for encouragement.

The chat will be 8 p.m. EST Thursday, Dec. 11. Don’t miss a tweet by following #IRAChat and check in on IRA’s twitter account.

April Hall is the editor of Reading Today Online.

For 60 business days, International Reading Association staff took on the International Literacy Day (ILD) 60-for-60 challenge. The challenge was implemented in classrooms across the globe to incorporate an additional 60 seconds of literacy into every day with fun, interactive activities. The goal? To establish a literacy “habit.” If we were going to ask educators to take on the challenge, we would, too.

We began with “Would you rather…” questions, asking staffers to select from just two options. Who would you rather take to prom, Ophelia or Juliet? Would you rather be a superhero or supervillain? Most answers during that two-week stint had us laughing at our desks.

“Can I go with neither? I mean they both died, and who needs that aggravation, am I right?”

“Supervillain! A Superhero has too many battles, enemies and, for some reason, also seems unhappy. So what if people don’t like a villain. I could take the day off and pick and choose my battles.”

Then, moving on to Word of the Day, we emailed out mostly unfamiliar words to staff members and asked that they respond with a sentence using that word or use it in conversation as much as possible during the day.

We were pretty impressed with our staff’s vocabulary.

Daralene Irwin, front end developer in Business Solutions at IRA, recognized “frabjous” as a Louis Carroll Stevens invention first used in Through the Looking Glass and shot back a line from “The Jabberwocky.”

Dan Mangan, director of Public Affairs, admitted to hearing “palaver” regularly during childhood to chastise against “idle talk.”

Director of Finance Linda Marston said that was her favorite activity (and one we revived in the penultimate week of the challenge). “Trying to use (the word) throughout my daily conversation was very interesting and thought-provoking,” she said.

Next, we imagined our trip to the International Space Station and what we would pack up if we were leaving Earth for an entire year.

From our favorite albums to our most cherished keepsake, we were asked to go as small as 3-inches-by-3-inches for meaningful items to put in our Astronaut Preference Kits.

By working through a number of writing prompts, like “Tweet it Loud, Tweet it Proud” and “Six Words in 60 Seconds,” these literacy minutes were a welcome break from the routine and a terrific way to get to know each other better.

“It’s surprisingly hard to create a new daily habit, even when you’re only committing to 60 seconds a day,” said Rachel Krall, IRA development manager. “I realize now why it’s so hard for some people to find 30 minutes to work out when it’s not part of their regular routine!  I thought the activities were a nice mental break from our workday, and I’m sad the 60 days have passed.”

At times it was difficult to maintain our dedication to the challenge, but we heard back from educators out there, some of whom said they would continue with their 60-second exercises all year long. We were all excited to hear how classrooms were faring across the country and around the world.

“I’m curious to find out how they made it work,” Krall said. “School days are already packed, and even though 60 seconds doesn’t seem like a lot, I’m sure it wasn’t easy to find the extra time.”

A number of teachers in Hyderabad, India, who showed us samples of their students’ writing and how they chose writing prompts and incorporated the activities into their everyday schedules.

“My class of grade 5 participated in the ILD 60-for-60 Mission and I am really amazed to see the results,” Anushree Arora shared. “The students not only showed their writing skills but also displayed high levels of thinking skills. I never thought a 60 second activity can benefit them so much. For 60 days, my students waited eagerly every morning when I would be asking them to do the 60 second of writing.”

What’s more, we didn’t just hear from reading teachers. Recognizing that literacy is important in every curriculum, educators from every subject shared their experiences.

Elementary music teacher Teri Nieveen of Adams, NE, merged music into the challenge by selecting a weekly musical term for her students to read, spell and define in the music room.

“We also discuss other meanings of the word, or ways the students see the word outside of the music classroom,” Nieveen said mid-challenge. “It's helping us develop a musical word wall!”

Thelma Kastl, a STEM teacher at West Wilkes Middle School in Wilkesboro, NC, participated with her 160 students by reading articles together for extended periods of time.

“As an educator, parent and grandparent I appreciate this program and hope that it continues,” she says. “Thank you for this opportunity to inspire students to read more.”

Thank you for taking this challenge with us. We look forward to hearing more about your experiences now that it’s over. Feel free to tell us more at social@/.

Morgan Ratner is a communications intern for International Reading Association.

As November quickly comes to a close, the International Reading Association reflects on the month dedicated to project-based learning tips and techniques. Focusing on key skills in communication, collaboration, and critical thinking, PBL is often cross-curricular, incorporating technology and driving questions to connect students to the world outside their classrooms, and, of course, relies on literacy in all subject areas.

Our Twitter #IRAchat with the Buck Institute for Education’s Suzie Boss and Myla Lee revolved around incorporating inquiry-based learning, engaging students in reading, writing, and listening skills, and taking part in analyzing text and finding evidence to support statements. The chat also highlighted how students learn with each other and, more importantly, from one another. Contributors to the chat stressed the importance of teamwork, finding texts that benefit all readers, and modeling dynamic learning with technology.

Nell Duke, PBL advocate and author of Inside Information: Developing Powerful Readings and Writers of Informational Text Through Project-Based Instruction, said PBL is critical to taking classroom teaching to the next level of efficacy. Her book is co-published by IRA and Scholastic.

“Providing a purpose for students' reading and writing beyond simply learning to read and write or practicing reading and writing supports students' development,” Duke said. “PBL offers one way to provide such a purpose. PBL provides an overall framework into we can place many valuable instructional moves, such as teaching comprehension strategies and teaching students to tailor their writing to their audience.”

The PBL teaching style is gaining more attention and momentum from educators, but there’s still a long way to go to implement the practice into schools. It is important that we continue to revisit PBL techniques and look to see how we can apply PBL strategies into education across all ages and all subjects.

“We have more to do as a field to sort out what constitutes PBL,” says Duke. “We need to sort out how best to involve literacy instructional techniques that we know to be effective, such as text structure instruction and teaching editing strategies, in project-based approaches. Finally, we need to find ways to make PBL more practical for more teachers.”

Reading Today Online posts included a check-in on an innovative school program starting in Missouri, the Maker Movement used in a school library, and tips from educators on how to effectively use PBL in the classroom.

Morgan Ratnor is a communications intern for International Reading Association.

Here is a comprehensive list of November’s PBL-centered posts:

Putting Books to Work: Primates: Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birutė Galdikas—Using a nonfiction text can open a world of project-based learning possibilities.

Super Practical Project-Based Learning Ideas—Some tips and leads on incorporating PBL in the classroom.

The ‘Maker Movement’ Has a Place in All Disciplines—This maker movement isn’t necessarily something new, I have allowed my students to play and tinker with reading and writing.

#IRAchat: Literacy’s Role in Project-Based Learning—The November #IRAchat will answer questions focused on literacy’s role in project-based learning with experts.

Using PBL Within “The Standards”—New educational standards make instructional demands. Using project-based learning is a great way to follow through.

Innovative School Program Highlights PBL—Quest@GHS is an innovative high school program utitlizing project-based learning to foster critical thinking.

PBL: Many Paths, One Destination—Julie Ramsay shares four strategies she uses for PBL in her classroom.

How Project-Based Approaches in Literacy Could Go Terribly Wrong (Or Powerfully Right)—Project-based education has a lot of potential for literacy development, but also potential pitfalls.