Literacy Now

Samuel Clemens once said, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics." Of course Mark Twain plagiarized this quote from him and took vast credit but the point still remains: big data about education consumes us these days and it’s getting out of hand. In fact, it’s gotten so nutty that we not only have tremendous amounts of statistical analysis but we also have meta-analysis, where statistics are provided to give us new statistics about competing and corroborating streams of statistics so that we can remain properly—and statistically—well-informed for future statistical analysis.

So how does a reading/literacy person make sense of all this kooky math? I mean, every time I see statistics about schools posted by some sort of fancy survey group, indubitably populated with PhD types (who love to use words like indubitably), instead of providing answers, their data seems to prompt at least three new questions from me for each new stat I ingest.

p: a2gemma via cc

And so, in keeping with the spirit of the times, I am going to provide a few examples that mean nothing individually, but collectively…well, they don’t really mean all that much either.

Example A: Here’s some data that says 99.5% of teachers spend their own money on school supplies.

Question 1: Who are the .5% and how come they don’t owe the rest of us some cash?

Question 2: Have I ever seen a district administrator of high rank pony up for nary a colored Sharpie out of their own wallet?

Question 3: In the print age we bought our students paper and pens. Does this mean in the digital age we’re gonna have to pay for iPads?

Example B: Here’s some data which estimates that “by the year 2020, there will be 123 million high-paying, high-skill jobs in the United States but only 50 million Americans will be qualified to fill these positions.”

Question 1: Is this 83 million American student shortfall something we directly blame our current crop of educators for, or are we gonna have to wait until 2020 to actually do the official finger pointing?

Question 2: Is being a teacher considered a “high-paying, high-skilled job,” a “high-skilled job,” or “a job you good-for-nuttins” are lucky to even have?

Question 3: Is it comically tragic or tragically comic that Question 2 is so on point?

Example C: Here’s a piece of journalism that says that 90% of Americans said schools should take a role in combating obesity.

Question 1: Does this shirt make me look fat?

Question 2: Shouldn’t schools stay away from conversations about personal liberties and instead focus on the things we want them to teach like religion, sex and guns?

Question 3: Is Common Core gonna test this?

Example D: Shockingly, these stats point out that over 3 million students drop out of American schools each year.

Question 1: Do they all run for Congress or just the first coupla hundred?

Question 2: If John had a nickel for every kid that dropped out and Mary was selling lemonade at two dollars per glass, how many brownies could Cindy afford if a train was travelling southeast at 15 knots per metric hour?

Question 3: Wouldn’t an optimist look forward to the fact that 20 years from now there will be 3 million new self-help books authored by self-made millionaires who didn’t need no stinkin’ school (And either does you!)?

Example E: According to this piece of data, both 9- and 13-year-olds scored higher in reading and mathematics in 2012 than students their age in the early 1970s. Seventeen-year-olds, however, did not show similar gains.

Question 1: Isn’t this just more proof of why we need to lower the national drinking age to 9?

Question 2: Isn’t this an unfair comparison, because in the early 1970s the United States was caught in a quagmire of a war most of its people didn’t even support or know why we’d got into in the first place while in 2012 the… Oh. Um. Yeah. Right.

Question 3: Can’t we just combine reading and math into one new category called “readamatics,” add both score totals together and then give ourselves extra credit for doubling our academic ratings in less than an hour?

Here are a few other gems:

• “Democracy is an abuse of statistics.” (Jorge Luis Borges)
• “He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp posts—for support rather than for illumination.” (Andrew Lang)
• “If your experiment needs a statistician, you need a better experiment.” (Ernest Rutherford)
• “A recent survey of North American males found 42% were overweight, 34% were critically obese and 8% ate the survey.” (Banksy)

And finally, please remember the words of Gregg Easterbrook who said, “Torture numbers, and they'll confess to anything.”

Alan Lawrence Sitomer was California's Teacher of the Year in 2007. He is also the author of multiple works for young readers, including Nerd Girls, the Hoopster trilogy, THE SECRET STORY OF SONIA RODRIGUEZ, CINDER-SMELLA, and THE ALAN SITOMER BOOKJAM. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and daughter. In addition to being an inner-city high school English teacher and former professor in the Graduate School of Education at Loyola Marymount University, Alan is a nationally renowned speaker specializing in engaging reluctant readers who received the 2004 award for Classroom Excellence from the Southern California Teachers of English, the 2003 Teacher of the Year honor from California Literacy, the 2007 Educator of the Year award by Loyola Marymount University and the 2008 Innovative Educator of the Year from The Insight Education Group. A Fun Look at Our Serious Work appears quarterly on the Engage blog.

Summer means longer days, bare feet, barbeques, suntan lotion, and great books to read. Without papers to grade and lessons to plan, we can finally kick up our feet and at long last dig into that stack of books piled up by our beds!

p: ruminatrix via photopin cc

It is important for us as educators to read—to experience firsthand not only the reading strategies we teach our students, but most importantly the joy of lifelong reading for pleasure. Donalyn Miller, sixth grade teacher and popular author of THE BOOK WHISPERER: AWAKENING THE INNER READER IN EVERY CHILD (Jossey-Bass, 2009), suggests the power of sharing your reading life with your students by explaining what you find interesting, appealing, or challenging in the books you are reading. She says it is important for students to trust us not only as their teacher but as a fellow reader.

Are you a true reader? What does it mean to “be a reader”? This past school year I decided to come clean and admit I’ve not always been a reader. Usually the students or teachers I am in front of quietly stare at me in disbelief. Then I explain that I read in school but didn’t learn to LOVE reading until, at 26 years old, I married into a reading family where books made their way into dinner table discussions. Heads nod and once in awhile a teacher will pull me aside to privately admit that he or she still doesn’t really love to read but is working on it.

Researchers point to evidence that as a group, teachers may not be reading much for enjoyment (Lesley, Watson, & Elliott, 2007). One may argue that the demands of teaching and personal lives cause teachers to do very little personal reading. The National Endowment for the Arts (2007) study “To Read or Not to Read” concluded that Americans are reading a lot less. Many adults do not read even one book a year.

Plenty of people know how to read but are not true readers. A reader reads often, talks about books with others, and passes judgment on books (Oczkus, 2012). Readers carry their treasured books in purses, backpacks, and totes, allowing the pages or digital devices to transport them at a moments notice (Oczkus, 2012).

Regie Routman (2003) suggests we keep a log of our reading as teachers and share our reading habits with students. Over the years I’ve not always been able to share every title due to the nature of the subject matter in adult novels (such as murder mysteries). However, I do report how many books I’m reading at the same time and my thoughts on reading. I am a bit behind this year as I read more nonfiction texts related to Common Core Standards. Excuses, excuses! This summer, I am ready to get lost in some great fiction and nonfiction reads. And my son (age 21) and I are reading and discussing books related to our faith (at his request!).

Here is a sampling of what is in my summer book stash. Please note that for each book I’ve included an explanation of why I want to read it and of WHO brought me to the book. This information will be important to share with students as we teach them to be part of a community of readers.

Lori’s Summer Book List

Book: BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS: LIFE, DEATH, AND HOPE IN A MUMBAI UNDERCITY by Katherine Boo (Random House, 2012)

Why I’m reading it: I’ve seen it in the reviews and am curious. Is one of the year’s best books on several lists. It takes place in India, in the Annawadi slum where the author lived for three years.

Who recommended it? My neighbor handed it to me when I was out walking the dog. Her book club loved it!

Book: LOTS OF CANDLES, PLENTY OF CAKE by Anna Quindlen (Random House, 2012)

Why I’m reading it: I am a huge Anna Quindlen fan, so when one of her books comes out I rush to read it. This is a collection of her essays, my favorite genre of hers, about friendships, solitude, family in light of a big birthday.

Who recommended it? I saw a review in the newspaper.

Book: LEAN IN: WOMEN, WORK AND THE WILL TO LEAD by Sheryl Sandberg (Random House, 2013)

Why I’m reading it: This is on the bestseller list, too, and is the topic of women and their progress. Thirty years after women became 50 percent of the college graduates in America, men still hold the majority of leadership positions in government and industry. Need I say more?

Who recommended it? A friend of mine is on Sheryl’s launch team for the Lean In community. Plus Sheryl is everywhere in the news right now!

Book: UNBROKEN: A WORLD WAR II STORY OF SURVIVAL, RESILIENCE, AND REDEMPTION by Laura Hillenbrand (Random House, 2010)

Why I’m reading it: I gravitate to all WWII stories. This is a true POW inspiring account.

Who recommended it? A teacher friend who boasted that all her middle school reluctant readers (especially boys) devoured it. Just look at the Amazon reviews; most of them five-star—4,685 and counting!

Book: THE SILVER STAR by Jeannette Walls (Simon & Schuster, 2013)

Why I’m reading it: I have read GLASS HOUSES and other books by this author and I love her style. This is about a girl who challenges injustices in the adult world.

Who recommended it? Our local bookstore sent their monthly email, featuring this book.

PROFESSIONAL BOOKS

Book: CLOSE READING OF INFORMATIONAL TEXTS: ASSESSMENT-DRIVEN INSTRUCTION IN GRADES 3-8 by Sunday Cummins (Guilford Press, 2012)

Why I’m reading it: I am reading everything I can find on close reading.

Who recommended it? My friend, Joan Masaryk does book reviews for reading councils and raved about this one.

Book: SUMMER READING: CLOSING THE RICH/POOR READING ACHIEVEMENT GAP (LANGUAGE & LITERACY) by Richard Allington and Anne McGill Franzen (Teachers College Press & International Reading Association, 2013)

Why I’m reading it: We tried Dr. Allington’s idea for giving kids to read in the summer at one of my schools with great success. I want more!

Who recommended it? I heard about this one from the International Reading Association.

What’s on YOUR summer reading list? Please share!

Lori D. Oczkus is a literacy coach, author, and popular speaker across the United States. Tens of thousands of teachers have attended her motivating, fast-paced workshops and read her practical, research-based professional books. Lori has extensive experience as a bilingual elementary teacher, intervention specialist working with struggling readers, and staff developer and literacy coach. Her most recent book with IRA is BEST EVER LITERACY SURVIVAL TIPS: 72 LESSONS YOU CAN’T TEACH WITHOUT.

References

Lesley, M., Watson, P., & Elliot, S. (2007). ‘School’ reading and multiple texts: Examining the metacognitive development of secondary-level preservice teachers. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 51(2), 150–162.

Miller, D. (2009). The book whisperer: Awakening the inner reader in every child. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

National Endowment for the Arts. (2007). To read or not to read: A question of national consequence. Washington, DC: Author.

Oczkus, L. (2012). Best ever literacy survival tips: 72 lessons you can’t teach without. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Routman, R. (2003). Reading essentials: The specifics you need to teach reading well. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.



Reflections of a Former Aliterate Reader

Summer Reading for Grownups

Five years ago, I was at a training to which my district had been sending teams of teachers. I teach first grade. We were learning about progress monitoring our students using nonsense words, creating instructional groups based on one-minute timed screening outcomes, and were told that the most effective way to teach reading was to follow a scripted program.

I wanted to stand up and scream.

My blood began boiling and I could feel my face turning red. This was all mentioned in the first five minutes of a seven-hour training. I didn’t know how I was going to make it through the entire day.

I ended up lasting for about an hour.

p: rore via photopin cc

When the presenter started mocking teachers and stated that “teachers who do not want to change and follow this model…teachers who stray from the script to follow a student’s lead…just think it’s all about them and they need to get over it,” I knew I was done. I closed my binder, calmly stood up, looked around the crowded room, and walked swiftly out of it.

By the time I got to my car I was crying. How could this be happening? How could so many districts be sending teams of teachers to “literacy” trainings like this? I cried the entire forty miles home and vowed to become a literacy advocate for students and teachers. I would no longer just close my door and be quiet about the malpractice I was being asked to perform while I kept doing what I know to be effective, joyful, literacy practice.

During the time our district was sending teams of teachers to trainings like the one above, many of my colleagues and I were attending trainings that used a workshop model. At those trainings we were learning about how to use the Gradual Release of Responsibility Model to create a framework which provided students with meaningful practice with reading and writing. I had done my masters work and a Classroom Action Research Project on the positive effects of using the Daily 5/CAFÉ as a literacy framework. I had read Michael Pressley’s work on what exemplary teaching looks like in a first grade classroom. The work of Richard Allington, Marie Clay, Debbie Miller, Reggie Routman, David Fisher, Fry, Fountas and Pinnell, Linda Gambrel, Gail Boushey, and Joan Moser guided my literacy instruction.

Following a scripted program and progress monitoring on nonsense words was definitely not in any of the literature that I reviewed. Taking time to get to know students strengths and needs, however, was. So was finding out what my students were interested in, providing them with choices, and using the gradual release of responsibility model. Giving students time to read books at their level and write about self-selected topics, meeting with them in small guided groups in addition to conferring with them one on one, and knowing how to use running records as a way to monitor progress—these were all things I was learning in my self-guided PD.

Students need to know and understand that reading NEEDS to make sense. We need to teach them many strategies to comprehend, read with accuracy, fluency and they need to expand their vocabulary. We don’t need pacing guides, scripted programs or Basal Readers. According to Richard Allington, what we need is to provide teachers with 60 hours of quality professional development. Allington states, “Professional development should be a personal professional responsibility as well as an organizational responsibility. In other words, each teacher has a professional responsibility to continue to become more expert with every year of teaching. Each district has an organizational responsibility to support the professional development of each member of the faculty.”

My district now has new leadership that values teacher’s professional expertise. Instead of closing my door, I opened it wide to share the positive effects of using a workshop model with my colleagues, parents, administrators and our local university. Our first grade team stood together to say that reading nonsense words does not make a deep-thinking reader. We spend our instructional time modeling to students that reading should make sense. If you come to a word you don’t know, cross-check it—does it look right? Does it sound right? Does it make sense? We spend a lot of time teaching all of our readers this strategy, which uses all three of the cuing systems. So why, then, would we monitor our most at risk students on nonsense words? They don’t look right! They don’t sound right! And they DON’T MAKE SENSE!

We came up with an alternative plan. We now monitor sight word progress and use running records to monitor independent reading levels. This allows us to use teachable moments with each student on their reading behaviors, as well as notice which strategies they are using and which ones they need help with. We are able to monitor word study and spelling using WORDS THEIR WAY by Bear et al.

We need to continue on this path, using the research to stop the pendulum from swinging. Instead of just closing our door and continuing to use best literacy practice when a hurricane of unfounded mandates swirl around us, we need to share what we are doing, why we are doing it, and the positive impact it has on student learning.

We need to be a voice for our students.

The money our district spent on basal readers, testing, and programs could have been spent on classroom libraries with a wide range of levels. It could have been spent on district wide literacy professional development.

We need to work diligently to advocate for best literacy practice for all of our students and not allow the pendulum to keep swinging.

JoAnne Duncan received her Master’s degree in elementary reading and literacy from Walden University. She teaches first grade at Mt. Stuart Elementary School in Ellensburg, WA, and is currently working with colleagues to try and help prevent summer learning loss by starting a community book mobile as well as a summer literacy learning in the parks program. She is an advocate of best literacy practice for students and teachers.



One Equally Effective but Lower-Cost Option to Summer School

Words: The Power of a Shared Vocabulary

I know how reluctant teens can be to immerse themselves in history because I was one of them (perhaps surprising to admit for an author of historical fiction!). In the Scottish education system, at around 13 years old you’re given the choice of studying either geography or history. I chose geography. Why? Because history seemed irrelevant and stuffy—date-laden text illustrated with grainy photographs. The curriculum itself felt dusty and uninspired: coal mining and the industrial revolution, the First World War and so on. It wasn’t for me…or so I thought.

p: Xavier Donat via photopin cc

Even though I shied away from history lessons in school, I did love the idea of time travel when I was young. As a child my parents took our family to Scottish castles and country houses in the way that a North American kid might visit national parks. These castles have rooms preserved as they would have been used at the time, containing furniture, fabrics, clothes and objects from everyday life. Experiencing these details, I wondered how a girl my age might live as a Laird’s daughter, playing piano in the music room or as a scullery maid toiling in the kitchens. That was when history was fascinating for me— when my senses and my imagination were engaged.

My historical novel, BELLE EPOQUE, is set in Paris the year the Eiffel tower was under construction (1888-89). I was inspired to write the book when I read a short story by Emile Zola. “Les Repoussoirs” (“Rentafoil” in English) is about an agency of unattractive women rented out as accessories to rich socialites to make them appear more attractive by comparison. It wasn’t my intention to write a novel set in turn of the century Paris. Rather, it was my desire to know what it felt like to be an ugly girl for hire that led me to write the story. I had a visceral reaction to the Zola tale, and couldn’t stop imagining what it would feel like to be in the shoes of one such beauty foil—it was the “what if” moment that led me to write a novel.

The connection I made with the historical context of the Eiffel tower came later. I knew I wanted to set the book during la belle époque. Aside from the fitting irony of the name—the age of beauty—it was a time of peace, prosperity, and a blossoming in art, music, and technology. But as I researched more about the period I was surprised to learn just how unpopular Eiffel’s (now infamous) tower was at the time. Considered a monstrosity, an eyesore, I realized it was the perfect metaphor for my main character, Maude. Unlike the rest of Paris, she is impressed by Eiffel’s iron construction, and finds some comfort in its unique appearance. “Maybe something unrefined can also be beautiful,” she reflects.

“Only connect,” said E.M. Forster in his novel HOWARD’S END. That’s been my mantra towards fiction writing in general, but I think it resonates in particular for historical fiction. Thinking back on my process for creating BELLE EPOQUE, I found my character before I discovered the world events framing her story. And here lies the key to making history come alive—the human connection. As a writer, if my interest is piqued when I discover the person (real or fictitious) behind historical events, this is the same for young readers.

To write a historical novel, the writer’s task is to make history breathe, to make it feel tangible—it’s a feat of world building. In researching BELLE EPOQUE, I brought history to life in different ways—through art, music, novels, poetry, photography, and even food. I researched facts about 1889 French society, of course, but my Paris of 1889 is also the Paris of my imagination. And I was inspired by everything from period film scores to Toulouse Lautrec’s poster art.

I made many discoveries during the process of writing a novel set at the turn of the century, but what fascinated me most in comparing life then and now, weren’t the stark differences in technology, class divides, or gender inequalities—but the similarities to our present world. The experience my main character, Maude, goes through is so resonant for teens today—particularly girls. Who manages to escape adolescence without feeling ostracized at some point?

Paris was a society obsessed with beauty, with an explosion of advertising and self-improvement where women were encouraged to attain some impossible physical ideal. What delighted me in writing the novel was when I could draw a parallel between our world and that of belle époque Paris. What is history, then, if not a lens through which to see ourselves? Like science fiction, it is our world yet different. We engage with history when we recognize ourselves.

I write what I’m curious about. And I think teens will devour historical fiction (and history lessons) if their curiosity is peaked and their imaginations are engaged—and most of all, if they can see themselves reflected in the past.

Elizabeth Ross studied French and film studies at university in Scotland. She lives in Los Angeles, California, where, when she isn’t writing, she edits feature films. Her debut novel, BELLE EPOQUE (Delacorte, 2013) was published earlier this week. You can visit her at www.elizabethrossbooks.com and follow her on Twitter @RossElizabeth.



5 Questions With... Ruta Sepetys (BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY)

Digging for Details that Make Historical Fiction Delicious

5 Questions With... Clare Vanderpool (NAVIGATING EARLY, MOON OVER MANIFEST)

Recently, I joined seven other authors—Jeffrey Salane, Tui T. Sutherland, Kari H. Sutherland, Sarah Mlynowski, Josanne La Valley, Geoff Rodkey, and Rita Garcia-Williams—on a panel at New York’s excellent Books of Wonder. The title of the panel was “Middle-Grade Adventures.” Within the group, there were some pulse-quickening stories of dragons and renegades, heroes and refugees, mermaids and magic mirrors. These were adventures in the classic sense of the word.

My debut novel, GENIE WISHES, is a relatively quiet book—a slice-of-life book. It’s a ten-year-old girl named Genie’s first-person account of her fifth-grade year, during which she is elected to be her class blogger and must regularly and publicly address the school’s assigned blog theme of Wishes, Hopes, and Dreams. The story isn’t set in a fantastical world. There’s not a single death-defying dash. The only nonhuman creature is a fluffy lap dog named Lulu, and at one point in the book, what’s at stake is a hamster eraser. At first, I wondered how GENIE WISHES and I would fit into this adventure panel.

But then I remembered that adventures come in many flavors, and that my book contained the kinds of adventures that kids confront every day. The way friendships can change over time and cliques reorganize a class. The way socioeconomic differences you never noticed before can gradually become apparent when you’re older. The way a body can turn hilly and smelly and start sprouting hairs like a Chia Pet, all because you’ve hit a certain age. (Honestly, is there any crazier or more inevitable experience than puberty?) These were, in fact, adventures—adventures in growing up.

And Genie does take risks in the book—not Indiana Jones-type risks, but risks nonetheless. For instance, putting herself up for class blogger at all is a bit nerve-wracking for this relatively quiet girl. Then she has to figure out what to write about. And later, she has to gather her might to tell the boys in her class what she thinks of some of the pranks they’ve been trying. And though her single dad is a sweet, gentle guy, it still takes some courage to ask him to take her bra shopping or encourage him to sign up for an online dating service. No fifth-grade year, or any year for that matter, is without some degree of risk.

When I was a kid, I read all kinds of books, books about dark hallways and poltergeists and girl detectives and the rest. But the book I cherished—the only one I reread again and again, in the apartment I shared with my mother—was ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT’S ME, MARGARET. That book felt like a cross between a best friend and an older sister. It delivered exactly what I needed in my own middle-grade years, and even a bit beyond them. It was funny and serious and intimate and revealing. It filled in the outlines of the anatomy books I’d seen, addressing feelings and practicalities that those books did not. ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT’S ME, MARGARET did for me what it did for so many of the other girls I knew. It humored and entertained us while also teaching and reassuring us.

It wasn’t until I’d finished writing GENIE WISHES that I realized how much it owed to this Judy Blume classic. Although Margaret and Genie confront somewhat different challenges in the course of their stories (for instance, Genie isn’t dealing with the questions of religious identity that Margaret faces, and Margaret is a bit older), the characters share a fairly direct, confessional tone.

Authors write the books that they’d like to read, and children’s authors are no exception—they’re just writing for the younger selves they remember being. So, because I’ve always loved illustrated books, I also did line drawings to accompany the story, drawings of everything from Genie’s favorite flats to the “little Mom shrine” (a photograph and a bottle of her deceased mother’s perfume) she keeps in her room.

When I talk to kids who’ve read GENIE WISHES, girls especially, I get the sense that the book has done for them what I hope it would have done for me when I was their age. It has addressed the valid and serious issues that they confront on a daily basis while also providing some levity and reassurance that they have within them what they need to weather change in their lives. It’s a slice-of-life book, and I wanted it to be the most accurate, all-encompassing cross-section of one particular girl’s life that I could make it. Growing up is a part of life, and life is weird and funny and grim and joyous and short and long and tedious and invigorating—in short, it’s an adventure.

Elisabeth Dahl writes for children and adults from her home in Baltimore, Maryland, where she also works as a copyeditor. GENIE WISHES (Amulet Books/ABRAMS, April 2013) is her first book. Her website is ElisabethDahl.com, and on Twitter she’s @ElisabethDahl.



5 Questions With... the legendary Judy Blume!

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