Literacy Now

Luis was a particularly brilliant boy in my seventh-grade English class in South Los Angeles. But like particularly brilliant kids can sometimes be, Luis initially decided that on all accounts he knew better than I did and that his teacher was the enemy.

He fought me often and openly, but one thing I absolutely knew that Luis did not was that he was fighting himself far more. Luis desperately wanted to be right—and he often was, and insightfully so—but he thought the only way he could truly be right was if he proved his teacher wrong. He petulantly questioned and countered my every decision, idea, or answer.

Standing firm

Of course, I stood up to Luis’s antics and outbursts, which I saw as thinly veiled attempts to antagonize and show me up. With supreme confidence and utter calm, I nipped in the bud contention for contention’s sake. Other times, I simply ignored his futile attempts to undermine my classroom culture of willingness, wisdom, wonder, and worth.

Luis just could not get it through his hard head that my great pleasure was to give him all the glory, especially if he could politely explain why his answer was better than my own interpretation. He saw his classmates—many of whom were nowhere near as astute as he was—routinely earn praise, not only for their cooperation and courtesy but for their intelligence and effort. Why Luis chose to deny himself these same pleasures was beyond me.

Still, I allowed him to make his own choices and to stew in his own juices. As Luis pouted, I could see he hated me and that in his own mind he was certain I felt the same about him.

The transformation

With time and a great deal of patience on my part, Luis eventually came around. Toward the end of the first semester, he finally decided it was better to earn my admiration than my curt rebuke or cold disregard. We butted heads so many times he eventually learned this was a battle he was never going to win with his contrary attitude.

More to the point, Luis ultimately realized he was never going to win if he kept denying himself my heartfelt congratulation, the excitement of my engaging curriculum, and the rewards of rigorous academic success. Luis had been the oddball, not his teacher. He had made multiple attempts to get the other students to join in his cynicism of me, but his negativity was no match for the positivity the others were already reaping while in my class.

Luis began respectfully raising his hand to earnestly ask me some profoundly relevant question or to add his keen point of view to the discussion. In the end, he cut his losses and joined us as a pleasant, productive participant of our class community. 

A shared epiphany

One day when we were well into reading The Outsiders, Luis called me over to his desk and asked me a question I could see deeply perplexed him.

“Mr. Ward, I don’t get it. Soda and the other Greasers keep telling Ponyboy that his brother Darry loves him, but he can’t see it for himself. No matter what they say, Pony is convinced that Darry doesn’t want him around and hates him.”

I was just about to give Luis some pat answer about Ponyboy’s character but found myself saying this instead: “Well, Luis, sometimes we can’t see what is right in front of us because we are too caught up in our own ideas and emotions.

“Remember at the beginning of the year when you thought I was a jerk and you just assumed I didn’t care about you at all? None of that was ever true; but no matter how much I told you I was on your side or the other kids said I was cool, you wouldn’t believe it until you were ready. You drove me crazy for a while there, dude. But it was worth the wait, don’t you agree?”

Luis simply grinned one of his rare grins.

Persistence, patience, and a sound game plan pay off

I assure you, when it comes to nurturing children, it is always worth the wait. Fortitude, persistence, and patience do pay off—but only when a teacher also steadily offers every student the things they need most.

In the end, what I learned from Luis—and every single kid I have ever taught—was that the joys of mutual respect and familiar routines, supportive relationships and sincere recognition, profound relevance and inspiring recreation, and reassuring readiness and progressive refinement deeply resonate with all children. Ultimately, I wore down Luis’s resistance by making the entirety of his classroom experience irresistible.

Robert Ward has taught English at public middle schools in Los Angeles for over 20 years. He is the author of three books, including the upcoming, A Teacher’s Inside Advice to Parents: How Children Thrive With Leadership, Love, Laughter, and Learning. Visit Robert’s website and blog, or find him on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

If you work in a school, you’ve had the conversation many times: The one where a group of dedicated and well-educated professionals sit in a room and look over the data, wondering why the test scores didn’t go up. Everything that could possibly have been done to raise test scores was done. “We tried everything!”

• We explained to students the importance of the test, over and over again.
• We shared individual scores with students and held goal-setting conferences throughout the year.
• We talked about the test at every staff meeting. 
• We taught students how to navigate online questions.
• We modeled how to use all the special features of the online test format.
• We asked our test questions throughout the year in the test format.
• We provided practice tests.
• We taught the students the academic language likely used in the test questions.
• We modeled how to best answer multiple choice questions.
• We had a pep fest, complete with a flash mob and inspirational video.
• We provided a protein-packed breakfast to ensure students didn’t have rumbly tummies during test time.
• We provided peppermint during the test to increase their brain activity.

Still, our scores are flat. Level. Stagnant. How can this be?

Do we need a new reading program? More interventions? Different interventions? Another incentive program? More professional development? Are we providing the wrong professional development?

The focus on the test is missing the point. The best way to make our students better readers isn’t to teach them about how to answer multiple choice questions. The best way to make our students better readers is to make them readers.

What if we ask the question, How often do our students read? Do we have them reading throughout the school day? Are they exposed to different types of texts? Are students expected to use what they have read to consider new perspectives, to solve problems, and to step outside themselves, or are they reading to complete a set of carefully worded multiple choice questions?

Are there unopened textbooks in our classrooms with stiff bindings because we found it is easier to just tell the students what they would be reading instead of allowing them to read? Under the guise of getting through all the content, did we forget to let students read to discover for themselves? 

If students roll their eyes and complain when they are asked to open a book, perhaps it isn’t entirely their fault. Do we give our students authentic reasons to read?  Do we model excitement for the insights we gain from reading?

Our best schools make literacy everyone’s responsibility. Everyone reads. In every content area, teachers talk about the specialized text structures and other intricacies of their discipline. Students both read and write in every classroom. Having a “next read” is as important as having a current one. Students aren’t skimming to find the answers to fill-in-the-blank questions, they are reading deeply to compare, to synthesize, to form an argument, to create something new.

The next time you are asked to take part in the conversation about stagnant scores, steer the conversation away from test prep and toward the outcome that is most important—making all students readers. Remind your colleagues that this is more important than any test score.

Julie Scullen is a former member of the ILA Board of Directors, and has also served as president of the Minnesota Reading Association and Minnesota Secondary Reading Interest Council. She taught most of her career in secondary reading intervention classrooms and now serves as Teaching and Learning Specialist for Secondary Reading in Anoka-Hennepin schools in Minnesota, working with teachers of all content areas to foster literacy achievement. She teaches graduate courses at Hamline University in St. Paul in literacy leadership and coaching, disciplinary literacy, critical literacy, and reading assessment and evaluation.

In a study of over 8,000 primary and secondary students conducted in England and supported by the National Literacy Trust, one half of the participants reported not only liking to read but also believing themselves to be proficient readers. Researchers presented distinctions between confident readers and those who were dissatisfied and less confident. The research suggested that three overriding goals are vital to the cause of improved reading performance.

First, create a culture that encourages enthusiastic readers. The study suggested matching the actual interests of readers with the menu of reading materials. Second, engage boys with reading by involving male role models and engaging boys in the creation of the school’s culture. Third, support parents’ efforts to encourage children’s reading at home through home–school practices to create a habit of student reading.

Regardless of instructional methodology, consistent application of reading strategies is a prerequisite for reading proficiency. It has long been realized that the opportunity to individually choose reading material can be a source of motivation to continue to read. Curriculum experts warn us not to provide students with the option of not reading—some will always choose not to read. Ask students what book they will be reading today. Of course, this inquiry presumes that the opportunity to read literature as an integral component of the school program is available and acceptable. 

As one accumulates years of teaching experience frequent feelings of déjà vu may occur. In his teaching experience, this writer initiated a new reading practice known as “individualized reading” into his classroom.

This pedagogy continues in some contemporary classrooms as a vehicle for delivering a deeply rewarding reading experience for teacher and students. Some writers express a preference for a focus on literature rather than reading methodology during teacher preparation due to a conviction that children’s literature is the basis for effective reading instruction. Others also insist that we must convey to students it is not what they choose to read but that their commitment to read that matters. The more students read real books, the more opportunity they have to apply the skills we wish them to acquire. My fifth grade students consumed 1,354 books during one year of individual reading choice.

Stories challenge the reader’s ability to reflect on his or her beliefs and assumptions about diverse and unique individual persons. This is the insight reading holds for all learners. Indeed the power of stories is insurmountable. All of the world’s great teachers employed the vehicle of stories—Gandhi, Confucius, Jesus, and Gilbran, to name a few—to reflect on life’s dilemmas, enabling us to confront them without having to actually live through them. Consider the dilemma in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as Huck confronts the choice of turning Jim, the slave, over to the slave traders as he weighs what’s “right” against what “don’t feel right” about turning over the man with whom he has become so empathic, but conflicted. In the wordless storybook Sing, Pierrot, Sing, we can engage children by asking them to create a story as we guide them through each page. Children may offer many different stories demonstrating that meaning can be constructed in the mind of the individual not solely from the words on a page. Why do stories help us to teach so effectively? They reveal who we are to ourselves.

Another advantage of stories becomes evident when they serve as explicit models of human behavior. They tend to do so in a manner that is more vivid than any bland or logical entreaty. The most compelling representation of storytelling for children is found in literature written for them. Let’s not squeeze the bountiful stories of children’s literature into the classroom; rather, let’s proactively invite the lessons of children’s literature to form the basis of instruction in reading. Thus, we can create a classroom culture that engenders confidence and self-efficacy for all our students, while delineating the instrumental role of coreader with children for their parents.

John R. McIntyre is a professor in the Educational Administration and Supervision graduate program at Caldwell University in New Jersey. He began his educational career as a fifth-grade teacher and a reading specialist. He earned his doctorate at Rutgers University and held a number of positions in educational administration, including school superintendent.

The Bitter Side of Sweet. Tara Sullivan. 2016. G.P. Putnam’s Sons.

Ages 15+

Summary

The Bitter Side of Sweet, which received four-star reviews from Kirkus, Booklist, Publisher’s Weekly and School Library Journal, tells the story of Amadou, Seydou and Khadija, but in reality it is the story of thousands of children whose names, faces and fates are unknown to us. A word of caution about this young adult novel and its topics—the events in the story are difficult to read about, and readers will likely finish the book with an altered view of the world. In addition, it is a story that will remain with readers for a long time, if not forever.

Fifteen-year-old Amadou is from Mali, however, he and his 8-year-old brother, Seydou, find themselves working on a cacao farm in the Ivory Coast. Like many young people from their village, and across Mali, Amadou and Seydou left home to find work as the droughts and poverty that plague the country have made survival a daily struggle. The brothers planned to work for a season in the Ivory Coast and then return to their home and family with their earnings. But that was over two years ago and before they realized that they wouldn’t be workers on a farm, but rather slaves. If someone doesn’t meet the day’s quota, talks back, attempts to run away, or commits any other kind of infraction that person faces a severe beating, withholding of food, other forms of torture, such as being locked overnight in the tool shed, or worse.

Seydou is the youngest on their cacao farm and Amadou, as his older brother, is extremely protective of him. Amadou is also wracked with guilt for what he sees as his part in getting Seydou into this inhumane situation. As a result of this protectiveness and guilt Amadou lets Seydou do very little of the more difficult or dangerous work, especially wielding a machete. Therefore, Amadou must often complete the work of two in order to keep himself and Seydou fed and safe from beatings. And when he isn’t able to do the work of two, he sacrifices his food for Seydou and takes the beatings in his place.

Amadou’s dreams and life change radically as the result of two unimaginable events. The first event, which ultimately leads to the second, is the arrival of Khadija. It’s not unusual for new boys to be brought to the cacao farm to slave away alongside the others. However, they are usually brought in groups—Khadija arrives alone. Most new boys arrive scared and meek—Khadija arrives like a wildcat, fighting, biting, and trying to escape. Finally, in the two years that Amadou and Seydou have been on this cacao farm all the boys who have arrived have been boys—Khadija is a girl, which may be the most shocking part.

Khadija is undeterred and continues her fighting and attempts at escape. During one of her earlier escape attempts Khadija, who has been tied to a cacao tree by one of the bosses, tricks Seydou into getting close enough that she can snatch his machete and cut the rope that binds her. When Amadou discovers what happened he fears for Seydou’s life as the retribution from the bosses for “helping” Khadija escape will no doubt be severe. Amadou quickly assumes the blame for Khadija’s escape and while the bosses are not very convinced by his flimsy explanation of what happened, they are all too happy to punish someone. Amadou is forced to accompany one of the bosses, Moussa, as he tracks and recaptures Khadija. When the three return to camp Amadou receives the most vicious beating of his life.

Amadou is forced to stay and work at the camp, with Khadija, for several days as his injuries are still too bad to allow for him to easily climb cacao trees and chop down the cacao pods. His anxiety over Seydou’s safety is eased slightly by Seydou’s first successful day without him, but it continues to consume him as he tries to get enough work done at camp to impress the bosses and return to their good side. But these efforts are short lived as after a few days of being forced to work at the camp, Moussa returns from the day’s work with news of the second event that radically changes Amadou’s dreams and life. Moussa informs Amadou that he will be returning to work in the fields tomorrow as the crew lost a boy that day. When Amadou asks which boy, Moussa responds “Seydou.”

The rest of The Bitter Side of Sweet tells of their journey to freedom and the horrors, kindnesses and realities they encounter on the way. Khadija shares her story and Amadou begins to understand why she is how she is, but even as he gets to know her better he feels like he knows less and less about her and her life. Along the way they, and the reader, learn more about the cacao and chocolate industry including the vast expanse of land and people, willingly and unwillingly, involved in the business of producing chocolate and the lengths that are gone to for profit and power. After reading this gripping novel chocolate will never taste as sweet.

Cross-Curricular Connections

Social studies/history, geography, economics, journalism, and math

Ideas for Classroom Use

Dying to Tell a Story

As Khadija shares her story with Amadou she explains that she ended up at the cacao farm because she was kidnapped from her home. She also reveals that her mother is a journalist and has been researching a secret topic, one that has prompted threatening phone calls to their home. Khadija believes that there is a connection between her mother’s research and her kidnapping.

Unlike journalists in the United States who have the protection of the First Amendment, journalists in other places around the world often face retribution, threats, and even death as a result of the stories they research and publish. This can happen in the United States as well, but it is more widespread in other parts of the world.

The Committee to Protect Journalists reported that 69 journalists died on the job in 2015. Of these 69 deaths, 47 were victims of murder, with at least 28 of these 47 murder victims receiving death threats before they were killed.

The topics presented above provide a wealth of teaching and learning opportunities. Some of the issues or ideas that can be explored are as follows:

• Freedom of speech is protected in the United States by the First Amendment. What does freedom of speech mean? What protections does the First Amendment provide for freedom of speech?
• What are the topics or stories that have led to the threatening or killing of journalists? What do these topics or stories have in common? What do the threats and/or killings related to these topics or stories indicate about the topics and/or stories?
• In the era of Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms, the reporting of news is changing as is the field of journalism. Is journalism becoming obsolete? What is the role of citizen journalists in this new era?

“I count the things that matter.”

The first line of The Bitter Side of Sweet is “I count the things that matter.” Amadou goes on, “Only twenty-five pods. Our sacks need to be full, at least forty or forty-five each, so I can get Seydou out of a beating. Really full if I want to get out of one too.” Amadou spends his days obsessed with meeting the daily quota of cacao pods in order to protect him and his brother from a beating and hopefully to get them some food for the day.

Quotas rule the lives of many, such as those being paid by piece rate, those working on an assembly line, or those who work on commission. Piecework is when workers get paid a set amount for each item or unit they make or action they perform; for example, a seamstress may get paid for each collar she sews on to a shirt. Although not limited to the jobs held by children, women, and the working poor, the jobs held by these populations often involve quotas, piecework, assembly lines, or commissions.

In order to explore the pressures of working under a quota an assembly line can be created in the classroom. For example, students could assemble a predetermined design out of Legos, with each “worker” adding a specific piece or two to the total. There is an abundance of topics related to this type of work, including:

• What types of industries use assembly lines? Why do these industries use assembly lines? What are the benefits of an assembly line?  What is it like to work on an assembly line? Who regulates assembly lines? What does it mean for consumers when they buy products that have been made on an assembly line?

• What industries rely on piecework? Why these industries? What is it like to do piecework? Who regulates piecework? What does it mean for consumers when they buy products that have been made through piecework?

Where Did This Come From?

The world has become a global marketplace; a single product can pass through numerous steps and hands before it arrives at our local store for us to purchase. The Bitter Side of Sweet provides insight into some of the beginning steps and hands involved in the making of the chocolate that we love. Sullivan also provides glances at some of the other steps in the production of chocolate, such as the transport of the dried cacao seeds to large warehouses.

Have students select a product and research the steps involved in its production. Students should consider the “who” involved in each of these steps as well as the “what” of the steps. If a product has steps that occur in different locations, students can create a production map that traces the route of a product and its components as it moves towards completion.

What’s Fair About Fair Trade?

In her author’s note, Sullivan mentions fair trade chocolate. She says, “Fair trade chocolate, produced by companies that guarantee a minimum price to growers even when international prices dip, is by no means the only answer. Nor is it an answer free of its own complications, as any long-term solution must address empowerment and education as well as economics. However, it is one way of tackling the root problem: the grinding poverty of the small growers who produce cacao.” There are many aspects about the idea of fair trade products that can be taught and explored; here are some possibilities:

• What does it mean for something to be fair trade?

• What kind of products can be considered to be fair trade? What do these products have in common?

• What is the impact of fair trade on workers? What is the impact of fair trade on employers? What is the impact of fair trade on consumers?

Additional Resources and Activities

Resources for Teachers: Chocolate Production and Child Slavery: On her website, Tara Sullivan, the author of The Bitter Side of Sweet, provides teaching resources for both of her young adult novels. Sullivan provides suggestions for what readers can do if they have been inspired to action by The Bitter Side of Sweet. She also discusses the idea of fair trade chocolate and supplies a list of other resources on the chocolate industry and modern day slavery.

“The Dark Side of Chocolate”: This 45-minute documentary is a great companion to The Bitter Side of Sweet as it provides visuals for many of the objects, locations, and events that occur in the novel such as the cacao pods themselves and how they are harvested.

Additional Literature With Similar Themes

Diamond Boy. Michael Williams. 2016. Little, Brown.

Iqbal. Francesco D’Adamo. 2003. Atheneum.

Sold. Patricia McCormick. 2006. Hyperion.

Trash. Andy Mulligan. 2010. Ember/Random House.

Aimee Rogers is an assistant professor at the University of North Dakota. She is a member of the reading faculty and teaches children’s literature courses. Aimee’s research interests include how readers make meaning with graphic novels as well as representation in children’s and young adult literature.

Our students’ learning and independence happen one intentional moment at a time. As we start the school year, just how do we best plan for these incremental steps toward truly independent and engaged readers?  I’ve found it helpful to focus on a handful of key milestones each month so I don’t become overwhelmed and distracted by everything I want to accomplish across the year. In this post I share Reading Milestone Calendarsthat remind us of the key moments in our fall reading classrooms.

What to focus on in September

Although focusing solely on structures in September to create a solid management routine can be tempting, I’ve found that getting independent reading up and going from the start is equally important. On the very first day of school and every single day afterward, I make sure students have books in their hands that they can read and actually want to read.

Students can organize books in the classroom into bins by category and topic—and not only is this task great for reading, but it’s also a terrific ice breaker. Students create labels for these book bins such as “Tear Jerkers,” “For Dreamers,” “Crime Solvers” and “For Adventure Seekers.” Rather than label the books by reading level, I suggest you keep the level on the inside or cover of the book. When choosing topics for the larger categories and labels for book bins think, “What would kids actually say to one another in a book talk?” Students tend to be motivated and engaged by topics they care about much more than a reading level label.

Getting students turning pages is one thing, but it’s jump-starting our own curiosity as teachers that matters most, because our reading instruction is only as good as the quality of our last mining expedition. As I’ve written about in my book, Mindsets and Moves (Corwin 2016), right from the start of the school year we can take on the role of a Miner, uncovering what—and how—each of our students read. In order to get to know students well and value who they are as people and readers, we observe them in action, talk about their process, and listen to them read. By getting to know students well, we can make sound instructional decisions for the rest of the school year.

By mid-September, assess your students’ current reading stamina and set a goal for how much more they will be able to read by the end of the month. If they can read for seven minutes on day one, aim for about 15 to 20 minutes in a few weeks. You can chart your progress, share strategies for building focus, and talk honestly about setbacks and challenges. Stamina is developed over time and requires our patience.

By the end of the month (if not a little sooner) introduce students to their reading notebooks. A reading notebook is not a place to complete assignments for the teacher. Instead, it is a place for students to document and develop their thinking about the texts they read. Give students choices right from the start about what they write down and how they choose to write it. Show examples of structures such as a timeline, t-chart, bullets, and visuals, but allow students to decide what works for them. Build excitement for these notebooks by having a gallery walk of decorated notebooks, discussing how you will use them in the coming year, and letting students know they are in charge of what and how to record their thinking. These notebooks become a boon to conferring and formative assessment.

A third initiative in the march toward independence is to dare to make yourself known as an independent reader. We have known for years about the benefits of sharing with students the magazines we read to relax with on trips, favorite authors, guilty pleasure “commercial” fiction or “geeky” science reads, but this September and throughout the year, model your mindset and goals as a reader. Spend time every week in your read-alouds, minilessons, and conferences showing students how you reflect on your strengths and challenges and then how you go about forming personalized goals for yourself. For example, I might share how I tend to focus so much on predicting the plot that I read too fast and miss out on some of the author’s vivid language and word choices.  Once you have modeled this process, invite students to do the same. No need to worry if the goals are “good” yet; instead, focus on the process of setting a goal, as this helps students develop ownership of their reading lives. Students can work with a partner to talk through their self-reflections and help each other choose strategies that will help them accomplish their goals.

The Reading Milestones Calendar offers these reminders and reflective questions you can use when planning for September. There’s a link at the end of this post so you can print your own.

What to focus on in October

If we look ahead to October, we can build on the solid foundation we laid in the previous month. Much of the work we began in September will carry over such as building stamina and reflecting on and setting new goals. We also continue to get to know our students well taking on the role of a Miner.

Begin a weekly book talk ritual in your classroom by giving students approximately 10 minutes to share some of their book recommendations with a partner or small group. Older students can write reviews or create a class Goodreads account or book talk blog. Model how to give a book talk and how to sell your book so others will want to read it. We know books become popular when students tell one another about them, so create space where students talk about books on a regular basis.

While continuing to be a miner, take on the role of a mirror, offering feedback to students about how they are reading and what is working for them. Like a mirror, you reflect back on them their own process as readers, which is profoundly supportive to students’ independence and self-concept as readers. When we take the time to explain to students that we see them, really see them, and value all they already know how to do, we build a respectful and trusting relationship. In so doing, before jumping in and teaching new strategies, you are supporting what students already know how to do by reinforcing it and explaining how it helps them as readers. Students will be more willing to develop ownership and independence when they trust you and feel safe to take risks in the classroom. This mirroring work is all part of moving students from a fixed mindset about their abilities to a growth mindset.

You’ll find some reminders of these milestones in the October calendar. You can print your own copies of both of these calendars here.

Good luck with your reading milestones! Remember: Nothing is accomplished overnight. Be patient with yourself and your students, and don’t forget to record your celebrations on this calendar too. Time to celebrate gives us a boost and motivation to go after the next one.

Gravity Goldberg is a literacy consultant and author of Mindsets and Moves: Strategies That Help Readers Take Charge (Corwin, 2015) and coauthor of Conferring With Readers: Supporting Each Student’s Growth and Independence(Heinemann, 2007) in addition to managing her blog. This post is one in a series on how teachers can create more independence in the classroom by embracing new roles. She also can be reached via Twitter.