Literacy Now

Although many insist on blaming some children’s disinterest in reading primarily on the distractions caused by electronic gadgets in their lives, a child who finds it difficult to read is unlikely to pick up a book and read it, gadgets or no.

By the end of the third grade, students are expected to be able to read independently and proficiently. However, current indicators in fluency and comprehension are extremely low in many parts of the world, and a vast number of children are embarking on their fourth-grade journey while struggling with the most important skill needed for academic success.

The struggle in reading and the reluctance to read are strongly connected. The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), defines the reluctant reader as “the teenager who, for whatever reason, does not like to read.” I took the liberty to extend this definition to include the children of 9 years old and above, because this is the age when they are supposed to be proficient in reading and may not be. Here, we find a vicious circle in which struggling readers become reluctant readers that don’t improve their proficiency and on and on. We learn reading by reading, and we will enjoy it more when we are better at it.  

Addressing this issue has become a matter of priority for policymakers, educators, and publishers. Many approaches include the use of technology to encourage reading; however, the production of new, innovative, and diverse reading programs is an urgent necessity.

I have struggled to find fun fictional reading material for children over the third grade threshold in Arabic, both as a bookstore owner and as a mother. During the past decade, production of Arabic picture books has experienced relative growth, though it is still modest and lacks diversity. The young adult genre has always benefitted from classic literature written for adults. Nevertheless, the tweens arena is sorely lacking, filled mostly with translations and sporadic original attempts. So I decided to write for tweens, and I was determined to write a series. I learned from my childhood experience that if readers like a title in a series, they will look for the next one. 

The idea of writing a series fascinated me. It meant creating long-term characters with many stories, a variety of experiences, and a diversity of themes.

Soon after the launch of the Hind and Saif series, I was invited to schools to meet students, many of whom were reluctant and struggling readers. Talking to students firsthand was priceless and rewarding and made me realize that I created a special niche through which I could offer my young readers an enchanting reading experience that they will seek to repeat outside the classroom, transcending any academic obligation. Such experiences are the first steps towards creating readers—lifelong readers—and thus breaking the vicious cycle of reading reluctance.

Flora Majdalawi

Suzy, known as “Zu”, is devastated when she hears the three words from her mom: “Franny Jackson drowned.” Franny was Zu’s best friend. Zu couldn’t believe that Franny had drowned during her vacation in Maryland because Franny was a good swimmer. The only explanation that made sense to Zu is that an Irukandji jellyfish sting caused Franny’s death. In her notebook, Zu wrote, “Maybe she is dead because of that jellyfish sting.” To prove her theory, Zu studies jellyfish and secretly plans her trip to Cairns, Australia, to meet a jellyfish expert. As Zu recalls her memories with Franny, it is revealed that Zu’s friendship with Franny was over long before Franny’s death. Zu felt sad and betrayed as Franny, who used to be her best friend, was fading out in Zu’s life. While Zu clung to the long-gone friendship with Franny, Franny hung out with other girls who didn’t care much about Zu. Zu’s emotional journey begins before and continues after Franny’s death. 

Cross-Curricular Connections: Language arts, science, geography

Ideas for Classroom Use

Changes in Friendship

Zu and Franny used to be best friends, but their friendship falls apart as they enter middle school. Franny made new friends, leaving Zu alone. Do you think the friendship between Zu and Franny naturally fell apart or do you think Franny intended to break up with Zu? Do you have friends like Franny who you like but the friendship falls apart? What do you want to say to Zu or Franny about the change in their friendship?

Speech Collage

In the YouTube video, the author of The Thing About Jellyfish, Ali Benjamin, said this book is about a lot of things. What do you think this book is about? If you have to pick one keyword for the theme of this book, what word that will be? In class, each student can take turns, and students will be able to hear the recurring words as well as with the new words that they didn’t say.

“Travel Route”

Zu attempts to fly to Cairns, Australia, to meet Dr. Jamie Seymour, professor of biology and jellyfish expert. Find Cairns, Australia on the map. How far is it from your home? If you were Zu, what would your travel route look like? Plan your trip from your home to Cairns, Australia. How long it will take? What do you need to prepare for this trip? What do you need to know about Australia before you fly?

K-W-L Chart on Jellyfish

Zu studied the topic of jellyfish and gave a presentation in class. Make a K-W-L chart on jellyfish. K: What do you know about jellyfish? W: What do you want to know about jellyfish? L: What did you learn about jellyfish? Briefly research jellyfish online. Share your findings with your small group members.

A Note to Zu

Zu thinks to herself in the book, “I knew I didn’t deserve happiness.” Assume you happen to hear this when Zu was saying it to herself, and you want to write a note to her. What do you want to say in your note as a friend? How might your note help her to feel better about herself?

Additional Resources

Author Ali Benjamin on The Thing About Jellyfish: A short video clip on the author’s introduction of the book, The Thing About Jellyfish. Some of publishers’ online reviews are included at the end of the clip.

Author Ali Benjamin’s homepage: More information about Ali Benjamin and her books.

Additional Literature With Similar Themes

Addie on the Inside. James Howe. 2012. Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

Fish in a Tree. Lynda Mullaly Hunt. 2015. Nancy Paulsen.

Jongsun Wee is an associate professor at Winona State University in Winona, MN, where she teaches Children’s Literature and Language Arts method courses.

In recent years, educational software developers have offered the adaptive method as an innovation in language learning, but the concept of internal differentiation emerged decades ago. This response to the behaviorist approach considered that all students learn in the same way, but the development of new theories has changed this idea.

In the case of English as a foreign language, the assumption that students have different learning characteristics was influenced by the nativist, cognitivist, and interactionist theories.

From the nativist perspective, language learning is a biological mechanism regulated by the language acquisition device that processes input in the foreign language. Cognitivism, in turn, considers that learners act, construct, plan, and analyze their learning on the basis of internal and mental processes. The interactionist theory assumes the learners’ heterogeneity, meaning that mediated interaction among individuals with different knowledge levels, is the key to an efficient learning process.

All of these theories (and more) have guided the development of new methods and teaching practices, but using the same method with different learners within a group counteracts the importance of heterogeneity.

Despite the effort of language courses and schools to create an environment that uses methods to respect differences, choices made exclusively by schools become contradictory. Not only surrounding cognitive aspects but also cultural, social, and ethnographic elements that have singularized the way people behave which, in turn, affects how they learn a foreign language.

Furthermore, the massive use of Internet tools and other technological devices in the classroom also demands the development of different literacies and the consideration of the constant differentiation during the learning process.

The use of technology emerges as an efficient way to account positively for the differences among learners to promote self-identification, autonomy, and motivation. Therefore, technological devices and the Internet can be useful in developing individual courses for singularized individuals who are in constant transformation. But it needs to be authentic. The application of some social and ethnographic data to the same foreign language course (with modifications), the difference in progress, or the possibility of teachers determining, through technology, what and how students learn cannot be called truly adaptive. Adaptive learning must take into account all differences to create different courses with varied methods and content according to the needs of each student. Not only this, but it is necessary also to consider we are all individuals in constant development. An adaptive course must be modified according to student development during the entire process.

It is complex but possible and promising. Adaptive learning will help create new learning environments (online or face-to-face) where learner differences are not only respected but an underlying concept in the foreign language learning and teaching processes.

Erica C. M. Coutrim is a PhD student in Languages and Education at the University of São Paulo, Brazil. Gustavo Fuga dos Reis is an honoree on ILA’s 2016 30 Under 30 list. He is the CEO and founder of 4YOU2, a self-sustaining social entrepreneurship-focused venture that has served more than 5,000 language learners in Brazil.

Reading in the same ways day after day can become a habit. Habits are not choices, and by nature we tend to lack awareness of what we are doing when we are involved in them. As a result, we become stagnant and often unaware of the other choices and possibilities that exist. If I always tie my shoes in the same way, I no longer even think about it and I forget there are other ways. If I always read a book in the same way, I miss other dimensions and may end up skimming the surface. As more and more focus is placed on reading with rigor we can think about what rigor really means. It is likely not reading by habit and instead involves reading deeply with choices in mind.

The habit loop

The best-selling, influential book The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, by Charles Duhigg (2014) brought attention to habits and began to clarify the difference between habits and choices. Duhigg explains the habit loop, which consists of a three-step process. First, there is a cue or trigger. When the cue happens, our brains begin to identify the routine we should follow on the basis of previous experiences. The loop ends when there is a reward. After a while of following this loop, our routines become automatic and we no longer have awareness of what we are doing and it no longer feels like a choice. Duhigg explains:

When a habit emerges, the brain stops fully participating in the decision-making. It stops working so hard, or diverts attention to other tasks. So unless you deliberately fight a habit—unless you find new routines—the habit will unfold automatically.

When we read by habit, our brains are not working very hard and we might not be making decisions that help us more deeply understand our books.

Consider Tim, a third grader, who reads in the same way every day, no matter what the text. He reads and follows the character’s actions, not noticing the character’s motivations, emotions, or relationships. As he reads, Tim asks himself the question, “What did the character do?” over and over. It was not until Tim began talking to his reading partner, Michele, about her books that he realized there were other elements to pay attention to—he was stuck in a habit loop. Michele is a reader who tends to think about why the characters are making the choices they do. She tends to ask herself the questions, “Why did she do that?” and “What is motivating her now?” As Michele and Tim had conversations, they began to realize there were multiple ways to read a book and they had choices concerning what they wanted to think about. They might not have consciously chosen their reading habits, but they still had them.

To help students become aware of their reading habits you might do the following:

• Model how you, the teacher, reflect on the habits you tend to follow as a reader.
• Create a class habit chart and invite students to share their habits so they can begin to change them.
• Offer students a few minutes before independent reading time to jot down a plan for what they are going to think about as they read. Students can look back at their plans and see patterns they might want to change.
• Pair up students to discuss how their reading habits might be not only helping them as readers but also limiting their thinking too.

Turning a habit into a choice

“Once you can break a habit into its components, you can fiddle with the gears,” Duhigg said. Perhaps we always sit in the same seat at lunch. Maybe we always tie the left shoe before our right one. The small repetitive acts add up to living a lot of our lives without awareness, on “autopilot.” The clearest example for me is driving home after a long day. It is scary to arrive home and realize I was not paying attention at all, that my mind was on autopilot, and I somehow made it home and don’t remember the drive. Best-selling author Don Miguel Ruiz teaches something called “non-doing.” Non-doing is when you consciously choose to break the pattern you always do. That could mean tying the right shoe first or sitting in a different seat at lunch. When we practice non-doing, we are giving ourselves new perspectives and bringing awareness back into our lives. From awareness we can make choices. As a reader this might mean choosing to focus more on the characters’ motivation rather than reading by habit and paying attention only to the plot. Readers can choose their own “non-doing” strategy.

To help students change a habit into a choice you might do the following:

• Connect the strategies you teach to when a reader would choose them. This helps readers view strategies as choices.
• Give students a few minutes at the end of independent reading time to reflect with a partner about what habit they broke and how it had an impact on their thinking.
• Read aloud and discuss books showing a character that broke a habit. A few of my favorites are The Incredible Book Eating Boy, by Oliver Jeffers, The Old Woman Who Named Things, by Cynthia Rylant, and Naked Mole Rats Get Dressed, by Mo Willems.
• Use a visual to show the habit loop and explain it to students. Let them know that the way to change a habit is to replace the old routine with a new one.

Remember that sharing our habits is not about judging them or beating ourselves up for having them. We all have habits, and they all help us in some way. The key is to realize when we are stuck in a reading habit and turn it back into a choice.

Gravity Goldberg is author of Mindsets and Moves: Strategies that Help Readers Take Charge(Corwin 2016) and coauthor of Conferring with Readers(Heinemann, 2007). She leads a team of literacy consultants in the NY/NJ area and presents to teachers across the United States. At the heart of Gravity's teaching is the belief that everyone deserves to be admired and supported. She can be reached viae-mailand onTwitter.

As teachers, we work alongside students, witnessing their thinking and learning process. We see students as writers, readers, listeners, speakers, and viewers.

However, in many “data-driven” schools, the “data” dominating meetings and students’ narratives do not have student or teacher voice but mostly reflect standardized, multiple choice tests.

Data analysis companies are thriving while schools purchase subscriptions for access to online software to analyze state and local standardized test scores. The information from the analysis—spreadsheets cross-referencing students with standards, demographics, teachers, other students—is not bad, especially because it provides teachers with multilevel reports.

In Texas, lead4ward (including staar4ward) is cited in nearly 700 school budgets as part of schools’ improvement plans, professional development plans, and district improvement plans, sometimes allocating hundreds of thousands of dollars to one company.

This phenomenon is not limited to Texas. Schools across the United States are using “data-driven” to communicate sound decision making to stakeholders. However, two major stakeholders are being left out: students and teachers.

Data help us make informed decisions, but we must be aware of what the data assess, what we are valuing, and what the data’s limitations are.

Some leading education websites and books romanticize the idea that “data” help educators “determine essential standards” students will be retaught and retested for mastery. This means standardized tests determine what is taught and standards with low passing rates are taught more. Sometimes “data” also determine what standards and vocabulary are not taught because they are not tested.

Some schools systematically allocate “standards” to grade levels, omitting them from others. Standards are sometimes segregated when schools “determined essential standards” to teach students of low-performing demographics to help “guarantee” higher scores and show growth on the federal Annual Yearly Progress report. In some “data-driven schools,” standards are no longer a promise to every student but conditional to standardized test data.

Standardized tests do not tell us why students do not understand something or how to help them. Yet some schools created local “high-quality interim assessments” to address the why and how. This approach validates more testing but continues to focus on test performance versus students’ actual thinking process.

As educators, we can determine why students are struggling. During guided reading, we have the ability to determine what influenced students’ cues. Did the meaning, syntax, or visuals have an impact on the child’s reading? We can even dig deeper by noting the actual elements of the text the student used for each cue and the patterns in which students used them. A teacher can witness a student make a mistake and then determine the cause, not just determine the standard.

When working in a small group with students or one-on-one, we have the opportunity to acquire qualitative data that reflect where understanding broke down. Sometimes we realize that a student is nothing like the standardized test data, whereas other times we see that the data were a small glimpse of a student’s true mastery of a standards.

Without looking for root causes, we are missing essential teaching opportunities. As a student who was labeled an English learner, I valued every time a teacher recognized that I knew something and recognized that my mistake was oversight or error. Let’s not miss opportunities to validate students.

Additionally, the data-driven phenomenon is often accompanied by interpreting standards solely within testing rigor, limiting the depth of concepts and standards to how they appear on tests. In Texas, some schools teach only first- or third-person point of view and not as perspective in order to “stay true” to the Texas standards.

Even the formatting of material, with student materials looking exactly like the test, robs students of the opportunity to learn 21st-century computer literacy skills. We cannot rob students of learning about formatting and leveraging material for varying audiences out of fear students will “be so shocked” by the test looking different from daily work that they will perform badly. Students need authentic texts in authentic formats.

Let’s add students and teachers back into data-driven schools by recognizing the limitations of standardized test data and empowering teachers to determine root cause of students’ struggle(s) in order to provide sound intervention. Let’s teach students more systematically versus teaching the test more systematically. We can know all students as writers, readers, listeners, speakers, and viewers.

Ilce Perot is currently an international literacy consultant and English learner specialist for LitLife, Inc. Ilce has traveled the United States and internationally supporting teachers of students across a range of settings including bilingual, ESL/ENL/ELL, Spanish education, and dual language programs. Ilce is currently pursuing her doctorate degree in education.