Literacy Now

For several years I’ve heard the debate as to what constitutes a book worthy of our students’ time. With the onslaught of prescriptive reading programs, for many students there seems to be a decline in a love of reading. Much to my frustration, I witnessed this in my own students. A couple of years ago, I wrote a piece called Finding a Love of Reading Faster Than a Speeding Bullet where I shared how comic books and graphic novels opened the door to reading for my students. They became enthusiastic readers.

At last year’s IRA conference, Rick Riordan said that as teachers it is our responsibility to get the right book in the hands of the right child. He went on to say that making these connections can change a child’s entire perspective on not just reading, but also the world.

I was reminded of both of these events this year when we had a student from China join us who spoke and read no English; we will call him Chao. For the first couple of weeks, we struggled to find ways he could participate in our reading and language arts class activities. Chao never complained, but it was evident that he was quickly reaching a frustration level where he would completely shut down.

One of the activities in which my students engage is blogging about what they are reading. I thought this might be a good place to begin. Using a digital translator, I discovered that Chao loved graphic novels. We went to the library together and he caught sight of Jeff Kinney’s “Diary of a Wimpy Kid.” The child who lived in constant frustration immediately lit up. With very broken English and the digital translator, Chao excitedly told me that he had read all of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books in Chinese.

He checked out the first book on that visit. When his peers were engaged in free reading, he would sit with an English copy and a Chinese copy of “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” and his digital translator. He would literally spend large chunks of reading and language arts block each day deciphering and reading the book. By the time he was on the second book, I noticed a change; Chao was no longer using the Chinese version of the book. He came to me and asked if he could try blogging about his favorite part of that book.

I watched as Chao tediously typed out his first reading blog. As soon as his blog went live, his peers immediately began commenting upon his post. They were so amazed at his ability to write in English. When they asked Chao how he learned English so quickly, he smiled a big smile and held up his copy of “Diary of a Wimpy Kid.” He told them how by using that book, he had learned how to read and write in English.

So in a world where there may debate about what books are suitable for the classroom and which are not, I stand steadfast in the power of finding that right book for each student. You just never know how one book can completely open up the world for that child. Thank you, Jeff Kinney for opening up the world for Chao. All of our lives are forever changed.

You can hear Jeff Kinney speak at the IRA 59th Annual Conference General Session on Saturday, May 10.

Come see Julie D. Ramsay present “The Global Read Aloud: One Book to Connect the World” at IRA’s 59th Annual Conference, May 9-12, 2014, in New Orleans, Louisiana. 

Julie D. Ramsay is a Nationally Board Certified educator and the author of “CAN WE SKIP LUNCH AND KEEP WRITING?”: COLLABORATING IN CLASS & ONLINE, GRADES 3-8 (Stenhouse, 2011). She teaches ELA to sixth graders at Rock Quarry Middle School in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. She also travels the country to speak, present, and facilitate workshops in applying technology to support authentic learning. Read her blog at juliedramsay.blogspot.com. 

I have been thinking a lot about what courage and resilience have to do with being an effective literacy teacher. Our educational systems and society as a whole not only need teachers who are courageous, but teachers who are resilient in the face of adversity. It is the resiliency that I see in many of my first grade students that inspires me and helps me tap into my own courage and resilience to learn, research, and find the most effective practices to make a lasting, meaningful impact on my students.

We all have students who, despite all the odds against them and/or a lack of family support, are resilient or have the potential to be resilient. These students have opened my eyes and created a sense of urgency that it is my job to consider ways to build their resiliency with opportunities to become strong, successful readers, writers, and communicators. In turn, this builds their self-esteem and can guide them in becoming strong, healthy, successful children.

This understanding of resiliency is what gives me the courage to slow down and reflect on what some of my most at risk students need to help scaffold them to the next level. I have experienced first-hand that when I have the courage to provide my most at risk learners with what they truly need, it helps move them forward while building their resilience and my own.

All students need to learn their letters, sounds, and sight words. They need to learn how to blend CVC words, comprehend text, and utilize the skills and strategies it takes to be successful readers and writers. But for my most at risk students, before they get to the skills and strategies, they need someone to care about them and make them see themselves as smart, capable readers and writers. In some cases they need someone to sit beside them and read to them because they have never had that experience.  

Last year I had a First Grade Friend that came to me at a pre-A level. She knew a few letters and sounds, could scribble some lines, and was able to write the first letter of her name. Most mornings she came to school in the same clothes she had on the previous two days. She was disheveled, often exhausted, and rarely ready to learn. Her coping mechanism was to crawl under the tables and hiss like a mean cat. One of the first things she said to me was, “I hate reading and writing. I can’t do it because I’m stupid.” Her first intervention would be working on a “Can do Attitude.”

I had to find out what she was interested in and what she could do. She really loved kitties. I found some kitten coloring pages and our brief one on one time was spent coloring and talking. I would share with her how I really liked the colors she chose for her kitty. I would say, “See? You can do it! ” I would have her repeat that a few times—I can do it! I can do it! I can do it! We slowly moved to playing letter recognition games and used tactile activities to practice writing letters. Each baby step forward was something she found she could be successful at and gave us reason to celebrate!

This student also received extra attention every morning from a volunteer who would take the student to our small conference room near the office. I went to the dollar store and bought combs, brushes, pony tail holders, etc. The volunteer would fix the girl’s very unkempt hair into a pony tail, or whatever style she wanted. The student would come back beaming with pride.

During our reading workshop, one of this student’s interventions was to meet with a paraprofessional educator, find a cozy spot in the classroom, sit side by side, and enjoy having someone read to her. She discovered she loved Clifford books. As the year went on she was in a small skill/guided reading group in addition to the one on one read aloud time.

She enjoyed making Clifford books and was successful drawing, coloring, and labeling her Clifford pictures and finally began writing about Clifford. I also enlisted the help and support of our principal and school secretary. They were happy to take a few minutes to celebrate with this student when she had successfully read from one of her Danny books, or was able to write about something important to her, like her kitty.

Each small success seemed to lead to less time under the tables meowing and hissing like an angry, wild kitty. By the end of the year this student loved school and was seeing herself as a successful reader and writer. She had made more than a year’s worth of growth, but more importantly she now saw herself as a reader and writer. She was confident and hopeful. Her courage and resilience continues to inspire me to be a courageous and resilient teacher by stepping outside of the box and the pacing guide to try and meet the needs of all my students.

JoAnne Duncan

As I look back on my reading life, I was lucky. For some reason, I possessed a natural ability to read. (Have you read research on this argument? Some people are natural readers?) However, I read about as often as I saved my paper route money. Yet, for some reason, I was in the highest reading group. Essentially, I owned my reading life from the start. Do our students?

As a teacher, I see many readers are learning to read and they have to work at it. This is dangerous ground, truth be told. As some students have to learn to read, watching other readers read seemingly naturally is very frustrating. Confining these learning readers, I have found, only disenfranchises them more. So, I release control, sort of.

Students’ interest in reading starts with less teacher control. I can teach reading, I can guide reading, and I can offer opportunities to read in the classroom. I cannot control or take possession of my students’ reading lives.

So, I let students manage their reading. Of course, they need to learn how to manage their lives and they need to learn to be sensible about their reading. Creating and modeling such boundaries is important to their success. Read for 30 minutes a night is a rule, a dictation, not a boundary. Aim to read a chapter book a week or 40 books a year is a boundary that can be surpassed with praise and acclamation.

p: CarbonNYC via photopin

First, I invite students to explore books they have no interest in. There is always an instructional decision behind the choice and typically I try to gear the book choice to their needs and potential interests. For instance, just because Jack likes hockey, that doesn't mean he likes Matt Christopher books on hockey. Actually, in class, we try to locate themes, conflicts, and life issues that students are interested in.

Jack, again, likes hockey, but hockey doesn't define him. Actually, Jack lacks confidence. He always starts new books and never sticks with one. I offer him “Rump” by Liesl Shurtliff. Turns out he loves the book, but won't tell anyone why. And it’s not because the book is a favorite genre, fantasy. That's a secret Jack and I have together. Now, he is interested in reading. He tries to be everyone's friend. As the classroom teacher, the manager of the curriculum, I have to make choices. Students don't often like it, but they understand my stance. Why?

Second, independent reading is really theirs. It's their choice and they have the freedom to move about the cabin, err, the classroom library. I don't assign them books unless there is a reason. There will be a literature circle or guided reading for that purpose (which is often tied to discovering new interests). Again, freedom is not free reign, I am still monitoring their choices. This, of course, eliminates levels. My kids ARE NOT going to the book store to ask staff for a book at their level.

I model and raise these readers to make choices: What do I want to learn about? What's something I haven't tried yet? Tanya said that book was great, I think I'll try it. If Janice wants to read seventeen “Who Was...” books over the next two months (about a book every two days) who am I to stop her? I know the books are “2nd-3rd grade level,” but there is a reason she is interested in those books and how much will you wager, that leads her to other, more complex biographies or other non-fiction text on that person or topic? Independent reading cannot be dictated by a level. That is like turning a horse out in a box stall and calling it a pasture. There is no room to move.

However, there are safe boundaries to institute as well. I need students to explore themselves and their reading lives within reason. Like my sixth graders who read “Twilight.” Just because it's in the book order or that the two guys are “hot” doesn't mean the book is good for right now.

I read “Slow Getting Up” by Nate Anderson when school started. I loved the book and told my students why I read it. Now, my football adoring students wanted to read the book because they were interested in football. The “level” of the book was not challenging, but they were NOT going to read this book. The premise was football, but the frequent adult themes, activities, and “locker room” talk were not appropriate for my students. Instead, I handed the book off to other teachers to model how I share reading ideas with people my age. You would not ask a child learning to ride a bike to ride down a rocky hill, even though they may want to. Rather, we have to teach them how to handle their bikes and have the right tools available, so when they mature into riding down rocky hills, they can.

Students in my class learn to read what they can manage. We do this, sometimes, with a mathematical formula. For example, students might sit down and read “Wake Up Missing” by Kate Messner. I ask them to keep a few boundaries in mind: What would it take to finish the book inside a week?

If their response is, I can't finish the book in a week, a conference might be in store to discuss book selection or support their personal reading management.

“Wake Up Missing” is 264 pages. If you follow the “minute-per-page” guideline, the book should take 264 minutes, or 4 ½ hours. (If you're a “thinking” reader, like me, which is a different story, you might go two minutes per page, for a total of 9 hours.)

If students are genuinely reading 30 minutes a night (which, by the way, is well-below research based norms) the book should be done in nine days. While that is not a week, nine days is OK.

But that means nine straight days? What about a day off from reading. (Truthfully, students think they have to read every night, which twists its way around to not reading at all, because they “have to read tomorrow night anyways.”)

A night off is a reason to manage a reading life. Reading nine days in a row is perfectly unreasonable. The idea of not reading should not be punitive.

Going back to “Wake Up Missing,” I try to guide students to read the book five days over the week. That, at most, is an hour a night, something sixth-grade readers should be doing anyway at this level.

If the book winds up going nine days because the student read for an hour every night and really delved into the thinking aspect, there is no reason to be upset with reading a book in nine days. The reader has to play with this cycle and I need to be present to mentor them. This mentoring is often not found in the level of the book, but in learning how to be a reader.

Often, I see readers switch to a “lower-level” book after this to read a book in less time or just to read something simple.

As an adult, have you ever done that? I have. I call it a newspaper, magazine, or a book of interest—rock 'n roll bios or horse racing books.

The truth is, if “Wake Up Missing”can be read in somewhere around a week and the student finds the appropriate time to make reading possible, the student has discovered one way to regulate their reading lives at their level. This ability, sense, judgment is not acquired instantly. Rather, significant time in conferring and mini-lessons is required to model and provide feedback to the readers.

Flaws in this method exist, but it’s a lot better than telling a student what book they should read, when they should read it, and what they have to know from it.

I have to trust my readers to read, take risks, and make mistakes.

The premise is that in the intermediate grades (4-6) there is no longer a race through levels (to meet grade level benchmarks, etc.), but a necessity to incubate within a level. Forget levels. Maturing readers just need to be nurtured and swaddled in reading. We did not race our infants to walk, why do turn reading into a race?

The bottom line: mold the readers, but give them reasonable boundaries to work with, allow them to move through the ebb and flow that is reading. In the end, the more you tell a reader what, where, and how to read, the less they will read and the less they will know about themselves as a reader. We have to learn through experimenting, and reading in grades 4-6 offers us this laboratory.

Come see Justin Stygles present “Close Reading and Critical Literacy: Song Lyrics—The Ultimate Teachable Moment, Grades 4–8” and take part in “Advisory Committee of Teachers (ACT) - CCSS: Integrating New Standards into the Classroom and Comparing Approaches in Ireland” at IRA’s 59th Annual Convention, May 9-12, 2014, in New Orleans, Louisiana. 

Justin Stygles is a Grade 5/6 ELA/humanities teacher. He is currently writing a book with Corwin Literacy. Justin recently became a National Board Certified Teacher.

As long-time teachers, we recognize the power of reading. We know that reading is absolutely essential to people’s success both in and out of school. But sometimes we worry that the power of reading obscures its pleasure, at least in public policy discussions. That’s why we undertook a study of the nature and variety of the pleasure young people take in their out-of school reading, especially their reading of texts that are often marginalized by schools: romances, vampire stories, horror, dystopias, and fantasy.

p: Leonie Vienna via photopin

What we found was that young people were amazingly articulate about the playful pleasure they derived from entering a story world; the pleasure that stemmed from using their reading to do inner work, that is, to think about the kind of person they wanted to become; the intellectual pleasure of figuring out the puzzles texts provided; and the social pleasure they derived from using their reading to connect with others.

And they were equally articulate about why pleasure should be central to teachers’ practice. Here’s Bennie talking about her beloved Harry Potter books:

Teachers should read these books. If you can grab kids with what already excites them, then you are on the way. I never understood why school picks the books that they do except that they are important—but they are not as relatable to us. And as a direct result kids weren’t into it and it was all like pulling teeth. Start with what kids are already excited about. You can teach the same lessons and build the same skills and have more willing participants.

Think of the implications: What would happen if we resolved to follow Bennie’s suggestion and to make pleasure a primary concern in our instructional planning? We think that the implications of this resolution are enormous. One implication is that we would have to be mindful of the variety of pleasures that readers can take from their reading and not privilege intellectual pleasures—the enjoyment taken from figuring out how things work, the characteristic province of school.

To be sure, the participants in our study took pleasure in making thematic generalizations, in figuring out metaphors, in carefully analyzing the aesthetic choices an author makes, in making subtle distinctions among related genres, intellectual pleasures all. But we also saw the pleasures of entering a story world and living through a character’s actions, of trying on a character’s perspectives and thinking about what it might mean for how one wants to live, of sharing one’s reading with friends. We should choose texts and provide instructional environments and supports that promote this variety of pleasure (or let our students choose those books and provide ways for them to share these pleasures with each other).     

Another implication would be to work to expand the range of texts in which students can take pleasure, taking care as we do so to teach in a way to engage students in experiencing the pleasure of texts that they might not select on their own while recognizing that it might not be easily forthcoming. Let’s think about what our resolution might say about selecting texts. Student choice is safer than teacher choice. Variety is safer than similarity.

We are not calling for eliminating the study of classic or challenging contemporary literature. Our respondents talked on occasion about how they took pleasure from such texts. What we are calling for is embedding the teaching of those texts in contexts that foster the pleasure students can take from them. Such contexts would involve inquiry models of teaching, in which groups could read different books addressing an essential question in small groups such as literature circles, and then share what they had learned and experienced with other groups.

Another implication is making interpretive complexity equal to text complexity in planning.  Vampire novels might not appear in many curricula, but look at the kind of thinking they fostered in Jaycee:

Being a teenager is partly about struggling to be more adult and have more adult relationships…I think a real struggle of more adult relationships is making sure they are life-giving in both directions. I mean, we all have these needs so you have to be careful about not being a vampire and sucking someone else dry, or hurting and discarding them. But you have to be really careful not to let someone do it to you too, like dominate you, just because you like being liked or feeling attractive or whatever. I think it’s a real danger.

She’s clearly engaged in making complex inferences about the texts she’s reading, just the kind of inference-making the Common Core State Standards call for. And she does so in service of becoming the kind of person who she wants to become, a deep form of inner work.

Finally, making pleasure more central to our practice would mean providing plenty of opportunities for choice. Although the readers in our study experienced similar kinds of pleasure, the texts that fostered those pleasure very different.

Here’s Callie talking about what she called dark fiction:

So if I were responding to a situation in a fiction state of mind, I would probably be like the teen heroine in this fiction state of mind where something horrible happens to them, but then they emotionally grow and strive above it. That’s my fiction voice. But a more realistic dark character, something really horrible happens and I have no idea what to do and I think and I ponder about what the possibilities are as I try and try desperately to overcome this situation but never really do and end up moving on with this situation that still is left hanging. Like, because that’s a way more realistic way of life.

And here’s Kylie’s comment about the romances she loved to read:

The [heroine] has to make things clear to her love, and usually has to organize things…for them to be together which she has to do one step at a time because usually things are pretty complicated! And then they have to really see and really care about each other—hopefully forever. HEA [Happily Ever After], baby!

What book is going to appeal to both young women? Hmm. If we’re committed to maximizing our students’ textual pleasure and if we can’t know what books our students are going to take pleasure in, we have to let them choose, at least on occasion.

We want to be the kind of teachers who help our students fall in love with books in ways that foster a life-long devotion to reading. If we are to succeed, then we need to keep—at the forefront of our attention and in all of its various forms—the rich, complex, and profound pleasures of reading.

Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, is a professor of English education at Boise State University and was a middle and high school teacher for 15 years. Jeffery has written more than thirty books, among them are: “You Gotta BE the Book; Engaging Readers and Writers With Inquiry;” and “Improving Comprehension With Think-Aloud Strategies.”

Michael W. Smith is currently a professor in the College of Education at Temple University and has 11 years’ experience teaching high school. Michael has written a wide variety of articles and contributing chapters, as well as more than a dozen books, including “Authorizing Readers: Resistance and Respect in the Teaching of Literature;” “The Language of Interpretation: Patterns of Discourse in Discussions of Literature;” and “Understanding Unreliable Narrators.”

Jeff and Michael’s previous collaborations include: “Reading Unbound: Why Kids Need to Read What They Want – and Why We Should Let Them, published by Scholastic [NASDAQ: SCHL];“Reading Don’t Fix No Chevys: Literacy in the Lives of Young Men” (winner of NCTE’s 2003 David H. Russell Award for Distinguished Research in the Teaching of English); “Going With the Flow: How to Engage Boys (and Girls) in Their Literacy;” “Getting It Right: Fresh Approaches to Teaching Grammar, Usage, and Correctness;” and “Fresh Takes on Teaching Literary Elements: How to Teach What Really Matters About Character, Setting, Point of View, and Theme.”

Every child deserves a champion, an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection, and insists that they become the best that they can possibly be.” -Rita Pierson

Teaching is all about making connections, connections with your students, connections with other teachers, and connections with your community.

Margaret Muthiga is a senior teacher at the Kilimo Primary School in Nakura County, Kenya. This primary school in Kenya is a government owned school that has an enrollment of 594 with a student-teacher ratio of 42.4 and this means there are 74.3 pupils per classroom in 8 classrooms. Margaret teaches year three this year and has over 50 students. She makes connections not only with her students, but also with her community. She started a “Why Wait Reading Club” which has two children from each class (24 students in all). They act as class librarians and mentors for those in their class that need help with reading. Every year these students help to organize “Orphan’s Day” at the local orphanages. There are a tremendous amount of orphans in her country due HIV and AIDs, negligence, rape, or Female Genital Mutilation.  

Last year, her reading group visited the Haven of Hope Orphanage. Children in this orphanage are two months old and older. “Being connected to a children’s home and thinking about the less fortunate in our society has always given our pupils something to look forward to,” said Margaret. Her group reads with the children and helps to teach them reading skill games and activities. These children are so poor that even taking care of their basic needs is a struggle. They do not have access to reading books so when they see the students from the school, they are overjoyed.

Margaret humbles you. I met Margaret in Chicago at the International Reading Association Convention. She told me about her school and I was truly in awe of everything that she does. Being around Margaret, you feel just how truly special she is.

When Margaret attended the IRA conference in San Antonio the next year, she was sent home with an extra suitcase loaded with pencils, colors, magic markers, erasers and other school supplies for her to use with her students. I also received a grant from the Nebraska State Reading Association to purchase a computer for Margaret to use at her school. They did not have a computer in their school, and they are now using it to record the books in their library.

This year Margaret and her “Why Wait Reading Club” students visited the Lion’s Club Children’s Home, a girls’ orphanage that houses children from 9 to 20 years old. Her school received grant money from Global Operations of the International Reading Association. Children at the home were eager to see and read new books, and have books read to them by the students at Kilimo Primary School.  Pupils brought a few story books, but they also brought donated food and clothes and this year they had a special gift of pencils and erasers from Margaret’s friend in the United States.

Singing and dancing were evident upon their arrival. Margaret’s students love singing and dancing. Pupils greeted and hugged each other and everything was great. The compound and rooms were swept and cleaned, and then they washed the clothes of the younger children. Games were played including football, netball, sliding, and hide and seek. There were so many children that one would wonder where they all came from. Again, the story is the same. They are orphans because their parents have died of HIV/AIDS, were neglectful; the mothers were raped, or other sad cases. Margaret encourages us:

“Life is a journey and if we have to leave a mark of hope in our classes, we must uphold justice for these small ones. Education is the key to their success. That’s why, we the ACT (Advisory Committee of Teachers), with the help of our affiliates, must give our all to these small ones under our care. Laugh with them and cry with them, for the ladder of success is best climbed by stepping on the rungs of opportunity. Individuals play the game, but teams win championships. We have goals and plans to reach them. We are like a ship that has set sail with a destination. Goals are not only absolutely necessary to motivate us. This is why I say; commitment leads to action. Action brings your dream closer. Be born TEACHER!”

We are a literacy experts, and we can make reading connections with others who do not have the ability whether it is a child in your school or half way around the world. But as Rita Pierson said, “…it is not impossible. We can do this. We are educators. We are born to make a difference.”  

Mary Lou Benesch currently teaches Title 1, grade and grade 4 reading, and grade 5-6 social studies. She holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Wayne State College, a media specialist endorsement from the University of Nebraska at Kearney, and a Masters in Educational Reading Specialist from Concordia University.

Margaret Muthiga is a senior teacher at Kilimo Primary School in Nakaru County, Kenya, mmuthigaus@yahoo.com.

Teaching in ACTion is a series from the Advisory Committee of Teachers (ACT), an International Reading Association committee comprised of exemplary reading and literacy teachers from around the world. Educators who best exemplify the mission of IRA are chosen from a pool of applicants to serve a three-year term. Among other responsibilities, the main charge of ACT is to be the conduit between IRA’s members and the board of directors.

ACT invites member to engage in the conversation by sending responses to us. ACT’s goal is to get a feel for how members feel about current hot topics, so that we may better serve members by sharing their concerns with the board of directors.