Literacy Now

Take a closer look at the words students find difficult to access, and you’ll see that a majority of them contain one or more letters with variable pronunciations, such as the “o” of on, off, often; in only, once, other; or the “ough” in thought, through, tough. Sure, in the very early stage of learning to read, some children have other problems, such as reversing the letters “b” and “d,” or difficulty blending the sounds of letters into words. But the most common stumbling block tends to be the phonic irregularity of many English graphemes.

If all English graphemes had just one pronunciation, like the “ee” of keep, sleep, deep, Anglophone children would learn to read much faster than they currently do. Instead of needing an average of three years to become proficient readers, they would require merely one, as users of other alphabetically written languages do (Seymour et al, 2003, British Journal of Psychology).

In the 1960s and ’70s, the schools which experimented with the Initial Teaching Alphabet (ITA)—a more regular spelling system for English—found that nearly all pupils were fluent by the end of their first school year. Nearly all learned to write quite confidently in one year, too.

Unfortunately, children had to leave the utopia of ITA at the end of their first school year and switch to normal spelling. For the ablest readers, this caused only a minor setback. They were quickly steaming ahead again. Changing from regular to irregular spellings was very detrimental to the progress of the weakest learners, the ones whose poor literacy progress tends to cause most concern. Perhaps prolonged use of regular phonics, before exposure to common irregularities, has the same effect on some children now?

Just over half of all English words contain some unpredictably used letters (cut, come, couple). Half of those pose reading difficulties as well, particularly the most used ones (one, to, four—cf. bone, go, our).

Helping children cope with phonic inconsistencies is the hardest part of English reading instruction. For the majority of children, parents are the main providers of this help, by patiently listening to them read on a regular basis and gently helping them to access the words they keep getting stuck on, such as should, shoulder, touch.

After umpteen encounters with such words, children eventually learn to read them as wholes, on sight, just as they do when learning to put names to faces. But for pupils who don’t get much help with learning to read at home, who have to make do with just what they get at school, those words are much more troublesome.

Their difficulties made me look for a way of making them a little less dependent on one-to-one help at school. Working as a voluntary assistant with struggling six-year-old readers, I did not merely help them to access the words they found tricky. I noted down all the ones which tripped them up in their remedial lessons with me.

photo: J. Robertson via photopin cc

The words differed slightly between individuals. One girl, for example, kept getting exceptionally stuck on the word “father.” Mostly, the same few dozen words with irregular spellings (e.g. group, soup, touch; break, bread; friend, field) were causing problems for all of the weaker readers, and for very obvious reasons.

This led me to test how the children would cope with them when they were respelt more simply (groop, soop, tuch, brake, bred; frend, feeld). Finding that they could read them easily, I began to use such respellings for helping them to learn to read the tricky words at home.

I would fold a sheet of paper in half and write down the words which stumped them in one of our lessons as a column. I then opened up the sheet and respelled them more simply opposite. For example:

thought	thaut
believed	beleevd
through	throo
washed	wosht
said	sed
people	peepl
could	cuhd

I respelled them using the main English spelling patterns for those sounds, but this was impossible for words like could; because the short /oo/ sound has no unique spelling of its own (put, foot, woman, would—cut, root, wobble, wound). I therefore spelt it , and the pupils had no difficulty learning that stood for short /oo/.

I gave them the sheet, with never more than seven words, to take home for revising in their own time. They were instructed to try and read them with their correct spellings and to use the respellings only for checking that they were getting them right, or to help them out if they could not do so.

Their reading quickly improved noticeably. One girl kept asking why we could not spell like that all the time, since it made reading so much easier, and I used to reply that that was a very long story. But if it was up to me, we would be amending at least some of the spellings which cause predictable reading difficulties for nearly all children.

Chinese children learn to read with the Roman alphabet first. They then learn to memorize the difficult Chinese pictograms with the aid of alphabetic subheadings, until they can dispense with them. Using simpler respellings for tricky English words is a similar method—and one we can use to help struggling readers cope with them as best we can.

Masha Bell is a retired English teacher and independent literacy researcher. She’s the author of the e-book SPELLING IT OUT: THE PROBLEMS AND COSTS OF ENGLISH SPELLING (2012). You can visit her on the web at www.EnglishSpellingProblems.co.uk.

[The views and opinions expressed in this blog post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the International Reading Association or its Board of Directors.]

by Judith Hayn

Erlings, Fridrik. Fish in the Sky. Sommerville, MA: Candlewick Press, 2012.

Adolescents have the same yearnings and issues no matter where they live in the world. Josh Stephenson is 13, and his teen world in a coastal Iceland city seems to be falling apart. He lives with his single mom and yearns for his dad’s love although Dad has moved to the countryside with his pregnant girlfriend. Dad has just sent his son a stuffed falcon for his birthday, and the bizarre gift adds to Josh’s confusion. His flirtatious 17-year-old cousin Trudy comes to live with them, and his bedroom is her corridor to the unlockable bathroom. Josh’s obsession with a lovely classmate and his fear of showering after gym class lead him to fake an excuse for missing school; his adventures on his own add to the reader’s enjoyment and empathy. Josh wants, like most other teenagers, to be accepted and not feel like that fish in the sky.

This is an appealing coming-of-age story that speaks to every teenage guy, plus a wealth of information for the teen girl seeking to understand those mysterious creatures. A light-hearted and deft emotional touch makes the book an entertaining and enlightening read. Erlings is a multi-talented Icelandic artist whose novel, recently translated into English, delineates with humor and poignancy that difficult journey from adolescence to manhood—one of the best reads out there for those 12 and up.

Dr. Judith A. Hayn is an associate professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

This article is part of a series from the Special Interest Group Network on Adolescent Literature (SIGNAL).

This post originally appeared on the Engage/Teacher to Teacher blog in March 2012.

If you ask a group of kids about their heroes, you’ll get responses ranging from Uncle Bob, to Tom Brady, to Batman, to Taylor Swift, and, yes, to Chuck Norris. I know this because I’ve asked this question at more than a hundred schools across the United States over the past year.

After I listen to the usual mix of family members, athletes, actors, and comic book icons, I follow up with a different question: What makes someone a hero?

The students usually do a good job on this one. They talk about helping others, being brave, inspiring people, being a leader, and saving lives. Sometimes they joke around about capes and tights, but in general, they get it.

Personally, I boil it down to this: Heroes do what they believe is right even when it’s hard.

Fantasy literature does a wonderful job examining heroes. Ancient tales gave us daring figures like Odysseus, Achilles, and Beowulf who survived quests, fought wars, and slew monsters. In modern fantasy, we sometimes discover less likely heroes, including peace-loving hobbits, children transported to other worlds, and boy wizards.

I have always loved heroic stories. I’m drawn to larger-than-life adventures, and I’m seldom more moved than when a hero risks life and limb because of strong convictions. Whether we’re talking about Frodo and Sam enduring grueling hardships because they love the Shire and need to save it, Harry Potter going to face Voldemort even though he knows it will cost him his life, or William Wallace holding true to his convictions while being tortured, I can’t help but be moved by people who care so deeply about something that they’re willing to sacrifice everything.

Since I write fantasy, and since fantasy offers the opportunity to portray heroes, and since I’m fascinated by heroes, I wanted to write a series that would explore heroism in a fresh way. I particularly wanted to consider how somebody can be a hero in a world that has grown cynical about heroes.

When I was a kid, I had heroes similar to the students I speak with now. Some of my heroes were fictional, like Luke Skywalker or Indiana Jones. That bled over into admiring the actors who portrayed them. My dad has always liked the Dodgers, so I idolized players like Steve Garvey and Ron Cey. Also, my Grandpa “Cyclone” Davis was a World War II pilot who fought in the Pacific Theater. He was one of the few pilots who got off the ground on the day Pearl Harbor was bombed, and he helped escort the Japanese when they surrendered at the end of the war. Hearing his war stories would leave me amazed and thoughtful.

Some of our traditional American heroes have been athletes, actors, and politicians. I had boyhood heroes who fit into those categories. Maybe times changed, or maybe as I got older I saw more clearly, but thanks in large measure to the seemingly endless scandals reported in the media, many athletes, actors, and politicians stopped seeming like hero material to me. My grandpa never let me down, but some of my other heroes did.

I believe our world has grown somewhat cynical about heroes. We understand the potential disparity between public and private personas. We question motives. We doubt intentions. We’ve been burned by people we’ve admired turning out to be less noble than we might have hoped or imagined.

Sometimes I wonder how anyone can be a hero in a world like ours. What can I do if I’d like to examine this concept, but I don’t want to point fingers, because I realize that nobody is perfect, including me? One option would be to explore the concept in a fantasy story.

Fantasy need not be synonymous with nonsense. In a fantasy story, we don’t have to completely abandon reality—we can just change some of the rules. At times, fantasy can serve as a useful way to look at real world problems from a safe distance.

This is largely why I wrote Beyonders. I imagined a world called Lyrian, where an emperor has been systematically getting rid of the heroes. Not by killing them. If he kills the heroes, he’ll turn them into martyrs, which could inspire others to rise up. Instead this emperor wants to break the heroes. He wants to buy them off. He wants them to betray their ideals. He wants to turn them into sell-outs. He wants them to look and feel like failures, so others will think twice before opposing him. He wants to kill the idea of heroism.

I imagined a world where people had good reason to doubt their heroes, a world where few aspired to heroism anymore. The first book in the Beyonders trilogy is fittingly called A WORLD WITHOUT HEROES.

My next step was to bring some potential heroes to this world. I chose a pair of young teenagers from our world, Jason and Rachel. At first they are reluctant heroes. They have to care about Lyrian before they would be willing to sacrifice to help save it. As the story progresses, they end up on a path where they must learn to become heroes. They also help inspire some of Lyrian’s broken heroes to come out of retirement.

Those broken heroes are among the characters that most interest me. Some have been physically broken. Others betrayed their ideals. As we watch them trying to regain their dignity, we get to look at heroism from some interesting perspectives.

More than anything, I want Beyonders to take readers on a fun ride. I spend a lot of my time telling students that reading can be fun, and my books need to back up that claim or I’ll look like a big liar. But for my intellect, a big part of the enjoyment of writing Beyonders has involved considering heroes and heroism in some new ways. In the first Beyonders book, we see Jason and Rachel learning to become heroes as they interact with some of Lyrian’s broken heroes. In Book Two, we watch Jason and Rachel become fully invested in Lyrian, and some of the broken heroes unite in a rebellion. And in Book Three, we get to see some of that heroic sacrifice that I love so much.

Stories can help us make sense of our lives. Social situations are routinely portrayed in stories, including books, television, and movies. Such stories influence our attitudes and opinions. We get examples of stupidity, intelligence, obnoxiousness, wit, cruelty, humor, and so forth, which help us to recognize such things in our daily living.

I don’t mean to suggest that my books will give anyone a complete understanding of heroism. I hope that in Beyonders, teachers, students, and parents can find meaningful examples of different kinds of heroes making tough choices as they face a variety of interesting hardships. If that suffices to fuel some useful thinking and discussion, I’d consider the effort a success!

Brandon Mull is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Beyonders and Fablehaven series, as well as THE CANDY SHOP WAR. He resides in Utah, in a happy little valley near the mouth of a canyon with his wife and four kids. Brandon’s greatest regret is that he has but one life to give for Gondor. Find out more about him and his books at www.brandonmull.com.

by Marjie Podzielinski

Recently, my fifth grade students and I were able to log into a live Scholastic webinar and watch J.K. Rowling in Scotland read Harry Potter aloud. What a remarkable feat for my students. Webinars can really bring the world alive to students and teachers alike.

I started with Scholastic webinars last year when there was an author panel with Kirby Larson, Lois Lowry, and Andrea Pinkney. My “lunch bunch” students brought their lunches to the library and enjoyed this author visit for the DEAR AMERICA series. This launched their reading for all of the DEAR AMERICA books throughout the year. Scholastic also has webinars for continuing education, covering all sorts of topics that teachers need in today’s classrooms. These can be watched at your leisure and can be used for continuing education credit. Many help highlight topics from the Common Core. On October 24, my fourth graders watched Taylor Swift launch her Read Every Day campaign. They loved learning that she has always been a reader and writer.

DiscoveryEducation also offers a variety of webinars.

I was able to participate in the Big CleanUp with Philippe Cousteau in June. This was a call to action for student’s to participate in cleaning up our planet. Watching the webinars live is so fun because participants keep a running dialog during the event that provide teaching ideas while the speaker is talking. You are inter-acting with students and teachers all over the world.  Integrating this into class instruction broadens the horizons of all our students.

Also, edweb.net is an online community for sharing with educators all around the world. Webinars are offered on a variety of subjects and are archived for later viewing. These also include technology sessions which are so important for our students.

Booklist Online provides a variety of webinars, The topics range on reluctant readers, Common Core State Standards, Graphic Novels, and other ways to engage readers in your classroom. It is a wonderful way to hear about the latest books being offered by publishers. You merely register with an email address. The login info will be delivered to your mailbox. If you cannot attend on the date of the webinar a follow up email will come with how to access the archived webinar. If I miss a session during the week I can always make it up later.

I highly recommend that you add webinars to your own professional development. With tight budgets they avoid the costs of travel and hotel expenses. Experts in the field are sharing their knowledge and expertise, all from your computer. These sessions will enlighten your students and yourself.

Marjie Podzielinski is a librarian at Coulson Tough School in The Woodlands, Texas. 

This article is part of a series from the International Reading Association Technology in Literacy Education Special Interest Group (TILE-SIG).

The International Reading Association offers recordings of webinars from our Common Core State Standards series. This series included presenters Elfrieda (Freddy) H. Hiebert, Lesley Mandel Morrow, Timothy Rasinski, Nell K. Duke, Timothy Shanahan, Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and Diane Lapp. Visit the IRA webinar webpage for more information.

photo: loco's via photopin cc

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, I find myself making a different sort of list than usual. I live by lists—things to do, things to buy—but now I am making a list of things for which I am thankful. I have, of course, listed my children. I love my job and am grateful for my wonderful colleagues. When I think “big picture,” I think I am most thankful to have been graced with the life I have lived. What luck, to be born in America, to have the freedoms I have. And I am overwhelmingly thankful for those who sacrifice to allow me to continue to live this way.

Thirty years ago, on November 13, 1982, people with similar feelings of gratitude erected a monument to those who made the ultimate sacrifice in Vietnam. In recognition of that occasion, I offer you this lesson. It’s been a student favorite since I started teaching it over eight years ago. I hope your students enjoy it as well.

My literature anthology includes the Walter Dean Meyer’s short story “The Treasure of Lemon Brown.” I augment my instruction of that story with a (highly edited) excerpt from Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried.” There are edited excerpts available “out there,” and I’m sure you can find one that suits your needs. I stray from the traditional edit because I teach eighth graders, and I have no desire to explain that Lieutenant Cross doesn’t really want to touch Martha’s knee all night long. But I digress…

The kids love the O’Brien piece, especially the boys. Read it aloud, and you could hear a pin drop. They are entranced, hanging on every word.

So, the first day of the lesson, I read aloud and let them ask questions, and we process together. We identify the physical things the soldiers carry, and then discuss the heavier emotional burdens. We discuss how the things the soldiers carry reveal their character then I haul out my overstuffed pocketbook and demonstrate how I can use the contents of my purse to reveal details of my character. For example, the comb, brush, nail file, nail polish, and three tubes of lipstick reveal my vanity, while the armless Darth Maul action figure and receipts from Justice make my maternity evident. I use these items to springboard into emotional weight; I carry the love a mother has for her children and the insecurities all women have about their appearance. (Eighth grade girls eat that up.) Then the students go through their own backpacks, compiling a list of physical items they carry with them and matching them to corresponding emotional weight. For homework, they draft a one paragraph “Things I Carry” piece.

In class the next day, I introduce them to the word “syntax”—the purposeful use of language for effect. While I’m sure you could go quite in depth with this lesson in high school, I limit my focus to four devices: asyndeton, polysyndeton, anaphora, and parallelism. With each word and definition I present, I provide a passage from “The Things They Carried.”

Asyndeton is the deliberate omission of conjunctions. So I use the sentence “They carried Sterno, safety pins, trip flares, signal flares, spools of wire, razor blades, chewing tobacco, liberated joss sticks and statuettes of the smiling Buddha, candles, grease pencils, The Stars and Stripes, fingernail clippers, Psych Ops leaflets, bush hats, bolos, and much more.” We read it aloud as written, then again, trying it out with “and” inserted periodically. We discuss the change in rhythm and how the lack of conjunctions makes the list seem longer, more overwhelming, and the effect that has on the reader.

Polysyndeton is the use of multiple conjunctions, especially where some could be omitted. For this, I use “They carried lice and ringworm and leeches and paddy algae and various rots and molds.” Again, we read it aloud as written and then again leaving out the conjunctions. We discuss how the syntax impacts the reader.

Anaphora is the repetition of a phrase at the start of neighboring clauses. That’s easy; simply pick any two or three sentences with multiple uses of “they carried.” Discuss how the reader is reminded over and over again just how burdened the soldiers really were by the repetition of the phrase “they carried.”

Parallelism—giving two or more parts of consecutive sentences the same structure to provide the whole piece with a definite pattern—is also easy: “Mitchell Sanders carried a set of starched tiger fatigues for special occasions. Henry Dobbins carried Black Flag insecticide. Dave Jansen carried sandbags that could be filled at night for added protection. Lee Strunk carried tanning lotion.” (If you’d like a nicely formatted handout to use with your cherubs, email me at mzcotillo@gmail.com, and I’ll send one along.)

After the ideas are defined and exemplified, students revise their original piece, gradually adding in each device. To add another layer, students can then swap drafts with other students for them to identify the syntactic devices in each other’s writing. They can type up a final draft and have a well-written, highly personal piece of writing for their portfolio.

A handy side effect of this lesson: syntax is a helpful to get around the sticky issue of grading personal writing. If you feel you must grade the final product, you can grade for style, not content, and that should help students understand you’re grading the writing, not them.

Oh, and one last word of advice? Have the tissues handy for when you read them.

Mary Cotillo is an 8th grade ELA teacher at Horace Mann Middle School in Franklin, MA. Mother to two children, she enjoys engaging in light saber battles and hanging out on soccer fields. She earned her National Board Certification in 2009.