Literacy Now

What brings a crowd of children running to our university campus each summer to read and write for a week? Camp Digi-Lit, of course! For four years, eager campers ready to engage in the reading and writing processes have overrun the College of Education on The University of Akron campus. Youngsters take over the Center for Literacy, the computer labs, and the entire campus because it serves as their classroom during this engaging and fun-filled summer reading camp aimed at keeping kids immersed in literacy learning over the summer. By the last day, each Camp Digi-Lit camper has written an e-book, recorded a reading of that e-book, and presented it to family and friends during a ‘meet the authors’ reception at the close of camp.

Summer reading setback, summer reading loss, summer slump, summer reading gap—no matter what you call it, this concept has been well-established for more than 100 years (W. White reported on it in 1906). Studies continue to show that summer vacation can have a negative impact on reading development. Students experience summer learning loss when they aren’t engaged in educational activities, which is especially true for children of families with low socioeconomic status, according to D.T. Burkham and his colleagues in Sociology of Education. Camp Digi-Lit offers a curriculum, staff, schedule, and environment adaptable to campers’ varying personalities and skill levels. Staff who are experienced camp counselors and educators skillfully incorporate quality, effective literacy learning into a learning-oriented, yet relaxed, environment. Campers play team games using an iPad app to scan codes, find clues in a scavenger hunt, send out tweets, and blast seltzer rockets then write the instructions for others to replicate.

Camps can be effective providers of summer learning opportunities especially when designed to maximize authentic reading, writing, and presenting opportunities tied to a theme. Camp Digi-Lit includes an ongoing storyline where campers try to figure out a mystery or create a story for private publishing and production with the Camp Digi-Lit Design Company. The camps are designed for different age groups, and camp activities are closely aligned to Common Core standards for the appropriate grade levels. One-on-one support works with whole group, small group, and individual instruction designed to teach and reinforce skills needed to create the e-book, presentations, or activities adapted to campers’ individual skill levels.

Planning the curriculum, keeping it relaxed

In a 1996 meta-analysis, H. Cooper and his colleagues found high-quality summer programs with the most effectiveness were small, individualized programs including parental involvement. Both in a solo study and in a joint study with T.G. White, J.S. Kim concurred, reporting that it is not simply access to books that matters but reading guidance to insure children understand what they have read. At Camp Digi-Lit, books are matched to children’s reading level, and interest and instruction is scaffolded just as it is in school.

Camp Digi-Lit is packed with authentic reading and writing activities throughout the week to keep the children actively engaged including a weekly mystery story that is presented in daily e-book segments. Campers read the daily installments and figure out the day’s clues through a variety of activities. Campers have been known to enlist parents with help decode clues, provide background information and wait a few more minutes at the end of the day while the camper finishes just one more sentence, paragraph, or page. Parents of campers report that many campers go home and continue to read, create props, and actively talk about ideas for the developing story. Past campers have even asked parents to take them to the library for research!

During Camp Digi-Lit guest speakers regularly engage campers with a range of topics. Past speakers include a high school student who has her own web-based business, illustrators, authors, a radio station manager, web-based news reporters, a comic book creator, and a police detective who always has great information to add to campers’ forensic research.

Transliteracy tools in daily curriculum

The newest generation of campers expects a learning environment that integrates today's digital tools, accommodates a mobile lifestyle, adapts to individual learning styles, and encourages collaboration and teamwork. To meet the changing demands and interests of our learners, this camp focuses on nurturing the skills necessary to become proficient in mobile learning and well-versed in transliteracy skills.

Being transliterate (able to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools, and media) is becoming an essential disposition in modern society. With an increasingly wide range of communication platforms and tools available to anyone, what it means to be “literate” is rapidly evolving. A focused transliteracy initiative can help provide a foundation for a new type of student learning experience that leverages digital tools to create innovative learning communities and creates a new vision for literacy learning with technology.

Daily activities include a plethora of both reading and writing tasks which include decoding QR codes messages in order to crack the case, reading a variety of materials and media, researching and following directions online to complete forensic science experiments, and of course compiling both written and oral reports. Campers write skits, plays, and more as each camper figures out a suspect. All campers use a digital toolset comprised of iPads, iPods, digital cameras, and computers in combination with a traditional literacy tool kit that includes paper, markers, and pencils. Using this blend of new and traditional tools allows campers to create well-polished e-books, posters, videos, directions sheets, and more.

Each camper writes an original story and then incorporates digital storytelling resources to bring their story alive online. Students begin by using PowerPoint and subsequently transfer their knowledge and understanding of this tool to other digital applications. Pre-service teachers and camp counselors work with students as they transfer the pencil-paper story starters, graphic organizers and artwork to PowerPoint slides. Campers learn to edit with guidance, and then are encouraged to ask other campers to review their story. This relaxed approach to peer editing has been very successful and has added to campers’ excitement at the end of the week when each story is presented.

Campers are also responsible for creating an e-book edition of their story including all digital content necessary to tell their story. These multimedia e-books often contain photos, videos, audio, and text components and are exported in a file format that allows others to read them on a variety of tablet and smart phone devices. A small suite of apps including Book Creator, My Story, Pic Stitch, Photo Crop, and a variety of other apps are available on iPads and iPods made available for campers to use for digital media creation. Campers present their e-books at the Camp Digi-Lit closing ceremony during which each is projected onto a large screen so peers, siblings, and proud parents can enjoy the end product.

Camp Digi-Lit is fun, engaging, and collaborative, and included a variety of authentic reading and writing experiences that can help alleviate summer reading loss in populations of students who need it the most. Campers experience a relaxed, encouraging, creative learning environment in which individuality and out-of-the-box thinking is embraced.

Lisa A. Lenhart is a professor of education at The University of Akron and the director of the Center for Literacy. She holds a PhD in curriculum and instruction from Kent State University.

Jeremy S. Brueck serves as associate director of the Center for Literacy at The University of Akron where he provides professional development for pre-K-16 teachers. He holds a PhD in elementary education from the University of Akron.

Pamela Oviatt is a literacy coach at The University of Akron's Center for Literacy. She has a Master’s degree in education.

Shelley Houser is a literacy coach at The University of Akron's Center for Literacy. She has a Master’s degree in education.

Afif graduated from college in 2011.

It is the middle of the year for my fourth grade class at Abqaiq School in Saudia Arabia. The class consists of only 11 students, one of which is my daughter Marie. The students hail from various ethnic backgrounds: American, Canadian, Jordanian, Lebanese, and Pilipino, etc. Afif, a Lebanese boy, has some type of a syndrome and so far no one is able to tell us exactly what it is. All we know is that he is severely learning disabled with an IQ of about 75.

Afif is very social, I believe the term medical professionals use is “cocktail personality.” The other students really like him, but the school administration isn’t sure what to do because they know that as the years progress, he will fall further and further behind. His mother and father are at their wits’ end. They know Afif will most likely have to go back to Lebanon for a special program. The problem is that in Lebanon, special schooling for someone like Afif means possibly being sequestered away in a facility built for warehousing rather than educating. It’s basically a holding tank for people they have deemed uneducable. His mother is becoming frantic. Teachers in the upper grades are concerned, to say the least. What if they get Afif? What are they going to do with him?

All I know to do with Afif is to keep plugging away with the basics. I set him up with lots of partner reading. I work with him on letter recognition and phonemic awareness activities. Afif enjoys listening to stories.

He likes to talk about the pictures. Still, in fourth grade, he can’t read a lick.

He has other talents, though. In math one day, I hold up a number chart with numbers from one to 100. As I am going over the chart with him, I notice he has a very good understanding of number order. As I am looking at the chart with the blank back facing him, he touches a spot—without being able to see through it—on the back of the chart and says “81!” I flip the chart over to see where he is pointing and damned if he isn’t touching the correct spot. The amazing thing is he is looking at the chart in reverse order. I began to quiz him with my eyes on the front and his on the blank side.

Young Afif when he was Kevin Baxter's student.

“Afif, where’s 21?”

 

“Here!”

“Correct! 75?”

“Here!”

Afif finds the numbers on the chart without seeing it and whether it is upside down, or backwards. Amazing, I think, just like Dustin Hoffman in the movie Rainman. His understanding of the chart does not translate to other areas in math, though. He can only do rudimentary addition and his other math skills are negligible.

At the moment though, we are focusing on books. Holding up a book about African animals I ask, “Afif, what are these pictures showing?” Sitting directly across the table from me, Afif picks up a book quite unannounced and suddenly, inexplicably, begins to read. I look up from the book I’m holding and my jaw drops.

“Afif—you’re reading!” He looks up at me and says with a sly grin, “I know.”

His reading is stiff. He is pronouncing the words of his book very carefully. However, he is, without a doubt, reading. I say again, “Afif, you’re reading!”

He continues smiling as he reads away. To make sure he hasn’t just memorized something he heard before, I find another book on the same level and hand it to Afif. “Here’s a funny book, Afif. Will you read it to me?” Afif accepts the book, looks over the cover carefully, and opens it to the first page. Then he begins to read.

Feeling I need to document the moment, I tell Afif to keep reading to himself as I stand up and walk across the hall to my colleague teaching the other third grade class.

I grab her by the shirtsleeve and drag her to my room. She looks at me as if I’m insane.

I say, “Listen to this.” As Afif continues to read, tears fill her eyes, because she knows what this means. The fact he can read now means Afif will be staying with us, because if he can read, he can learn other things as well. The school will be able to accommodate him.

Now I am curious as to what may have caused, seemingly from out of nowhere, Afif’s sudden ability to decode words. Sometimes reading is like cracking a safe—when the tumblers align, a world of possibility opens. I don’t know what “tumblers” I helped Afif align, I just kept trying different combinations. I do know I am always curious about how children use language, and that curiosity has driven me to learn as much as I can about the process of language development. I try to apply that knowledge in my classroom. The best advice I ever received about teaching reading, whether phonics, phonemics, or whole language, was: use whatever works.

In Afif’s case maybe he was just ready to read. Probably the constant exposure to sounds, letters, words, rhymes, and pictures he received over the years kicked in and it all began to make sense to him. The tumblers simply fell into place. A connection was made. Whatever it was, I felt blessed to witness it. These moments are why I continue to teach.

Kevin Baxter holds a master's degree in early childhood education, a bachelor's degree in elementary education and is a certified teacher of the gifted. He has taught pre-school though fifth grade and has also taught master's level courses on reading disabilities at the University of San Diego. He spent 12 years teaching in Saudi Arabia and conducted teaching workshops in various countries around the world. He currently resides in Asheville, NC, and was a Buncombe County Schools Teacher of the Year.

Muffin is a therapy dog, specializing in reading assistance.

I became interested in using therapy dogs to motivate reluctant readers after I adopted a sweet, timid Golden Retriever named Muffin.  Although everyone knows that kids and dogs are a winning combination I (as a former teacher of English and professor of teacher education specializing in literacy development) initially expressed skepticism that dogs trained to assist children with reading could help them become better readers. But then I learned about research-based international organizations, such as Reading Education Assistance Dogs program for registered therapy dogs.

The goal of programs like R.E.A.D. is to improve children's reading and communication skills by having a child read to a dog. R.E.A.D. dogs are registered therapy animals who, along with their owner/handlers, volunteer at schools, libraries, and many other settings as reading companions for children. As a literacy instructor, I was particularly heartened to learn that for the specialized reading certification, the handler/pet partner must demonstrate knowledge of general literacy tutoring skills and how to support young readers, including English Learners.

Emerging Research on Reading Dogs

I still found myself, like most teachers, looking for results, especially in light of the 2007 NAEP reading scores indicating only a slight rise in fourth and eighth grade scores since 1992, despite all the attention on literacy.

The Delta Society, an internationally recognized therapy animal association, cites the research of Robert H. Poresky and Karen Allen that children’s cognitive development can be enhanced through pet ownership and that just the presence of a dog can lower the blood pressure of children reading aloud. Delta also published the results of a pilot study of 10 children at Bennion Elementary in Salt Lake City in 2002 who participating in the R.E.A.D. program revealing that children increased their reading comprehension and skills as much as two to four grade levels in one year.

Until recently, studies of reading dog programs with significant numbers have been unavailable because such programs are designed to have one child read with one animal. However, several UC Davis researchers, in collaboration with the Tony La Russa Animal Rescue Society of Walnut Creek, conducted two studies with the All Ears Reading program of third graders in California and Washington. The study confirmed that children who regularly read to dogs significantly improve their reading scores. Over 10 weeks of reading once a week to a dog, participants improved their reading skills of fluency and accuracy by 12 percent over the control group which showed no improvement, according to a report in The Sacramento Bee. Studies like this support anecdotal claims that through reading with the assistance of animals children raise self-esteem, build confidence and improve reading skills.

Muffin’s Story

Although she is now a certified R.E.A.D. dog, my dog Muffin was a rescue dog. When she arrived in my home she was timid, fearful of most things, and reluctant to trust anyone.  It took time, patience, and a lot of repeated positive experiences to build her confidence. When she became a reading dog, I thought that hearing about Muffin’s new-won confidence might be valuable to share with children who were reluctant readers as many children are reluctant to read for fear of ridicule or lack confidence or motivation.

I decided to put together a book about Muffin for children to read. My idea was that Muffin’s book would feature pictures of her with sentences describing her actions and activities. That way, children could get to know the dog and her story, and then maybe want to share a little bit about themselves. I hoped they would begin to feel comfortable enough to want to read to her. Teachers of reading know that students during the pre-reading stage need to develop purpose, motivation, and background knowledge about the subject matter of the text, as stated by researchers Suzanne F. Peregoy and Owen F. Boyle. For many a child there is no better motivation to read than doing so while reading a book about the dog you are petting.

In the spirit of wanting the book to be really inviting, I selected a purple cover with Muffin’s picture on the front. I picked out her best glossy pictures and each page had a picture and a caption with a sentence or two about Muffin. Some of the pictures were about her liking to hike or learning to swim. Some of the pictures had her dressed up for Halloween or sporting a sun hat in the summer. Some were funny and some were serious, but each of the pictures provided an opportunity for us to share a little bit about Muffin and get to know the children who were snuggling up beside her.

Muffin’s book was finished in just enough time for the local community library-sponsored R.E.A.D. event at the children’s library. On the day of the event, I packed a purple blanket for kids to sit on and her new book with the purple cover. I tied her bright red reading dog scarf around her neck. When we arrived at the library, the room was filled with kids and other reading dogs. Each child received an age-appropriate dog themed book and was assigned a canine reading partner/handler. I really had no idea what to expect.

After our first couple of sessions, a pattern began to emerge. Muffin curled up on a bench and each child curled up right with her. When I asked them if they wanted to read a book about her, they remarked: “Could we read Muffin’s book again?” or “Muffin has a friend named Chloe—that’s my name!”

When a 12-year old reader saw the picture with the caption, “Muffin is learning to swim,” the comical-yet-fearful look on Muffin’s face caused her to share some fears of her own. “Was Muffin scared when she learned to swim?” she asked. She then offered up, unprompted, “I was scared when I was in the hospital. I was there for a year, but now my cancer’s in remission. I wanted to read to a dog today because there was a dog who came to visit a lot when I was in the hospital.” And read she did, an entire book about a service dog—including the acknowledgements.

Dogs Serve to Motivate

It was clear that Muffin’s book had the intended effect. About 10 different children waited in line to read to Muffin over the course of our two-hour visit. All the while she was hugged, petted, stroked, and fussed over.

Although I may have been somewhat of a skeptic at first, I can say now with confidence that a dog can be an incredible motivator for a child who is learning to read. Although I realize not all students have experienced the adversity of illness or feel passionate about animals, reading to a dog can offer a non-judgmental, safe place for children to practice their reading skills in a fun environment. These days Muffin is always in demand at libraries and classrooms, even with the most reluctant readers. To date, there are over 2,000 trained therapy teams in more than 49 states. Find out if there’s such a program near you.

Dr. Deborah G. Summers, Ed.D. is a professor of secondary adolescent literacy, the director of the School of Education at California State University, Chico and the co-author of Socially Responsible Literacy: Teaching Adolescents for Purpose and Power (2014, Teachers College Press). A secondary classroom teacher for 15 years, her research interests focus on the ways literacy practices help adolescents to become full participants in a pluralistic society.

photo credit: santheo via photopin cc via photopin cc

Being a teacher means embracing constant change. Yet all too often, teachers are told when, how, and why to change. In this monthly column, Mrs. Mimi takes on creating change for herself by rethinking old practices and redefining teaching on her own terms. 

It’s SUMMERRRRR! Shall we shout it from the rooftops together? One of my favorite things about teachers is that if you ask most teachers what their plans are for the summer, many of them will say, “Reading!” Okay. Most teachers will say “sleeping late” and then they will say, “reading,” but you get what I mean, right?

My summer reading plans are intense. I have had a growing stack of books on my nightstand for weeks that has climbed to perilous heights over the spring. I have collected books recommended by friends, a couple of books that were gifts, two new books by my favorite authors, and a few gems I discovered by pouring over book reviews online. I also have a list of titles going on my phone and several downloaded books waiting for me on my iPad. Don’t even ask me about the pile of professional books on my desk—those are definitely in the mix too.

I was laying in bed trying to decide which book to turn to first. Did I want to read something light or something more involved? Did I want to read to learn or to be entertained? Whose world did I want to dive into first? I took some time to luxuriate in the decision—after an entire school year filled with making a million decisions every minute, this was one decision I wanted to linger over.

As I looked through my carefully curated titles, my mind began to wander to my students. (Another reality of summer: our students and classrooms are never that far from our minds, are they?) With the go-go-go climate that has been created in schools, do my students have the opportunity to luxuriate over the decision of which book to read next? Are they free to carefully curate a selection of books to put on their “Read Next” pile? Am I taking enough care to help them develop their reading preferences and identities in the face of such an intense focus on data, testing, and accountability?

I took a quick moment and jotted down all the purposes for reading represented in the pile I had collected over the last few weeks. I also jotted down how I found the various titles in my pile. I want to be sure to capture my reading life as authentically as possible so that I can help my students recreate these experiences and opportunities in our classroom. Where can I create spaces for children to share their book recommendations with one another? Am I helping them to cultivate favorite authors and genres? Am I providing spaces for them to read for a variety of purposes?

There is nothing we can do about the larger school climate or your particular school’s fixation on data. I mean, I guess we could wear head-to-toe leather and stage a political uprising, but I’m tired, aren’t you? It was a long school year. However, we can use our summers wisely to rejuvenate ourselves and refocus our instruction on a broader goal for the teaching of reading beyond passing to the next level. Our primary job is to create lovers of reading who are capable of selecting, engaging with, and using text in dynamic ways. A great starting point is to think about why we love to read and how we began our love affair with books.

No matter how late I sleep and how many times I go to the grocery store in the middle of the day (!!), my teaching is always on my mind. Summer is the perfect time to find a bit of mental space to reflect on how I can improve on my practice and bring back some much needed authenticity and joy. Sometimes you just need to sit on the porch with a cup of coffee and a good book to be a better teacher.

And while we are on the subject of summer reading, did you know that yours truly has a book coming out this August? Well I do! And it’s all about how to find and maintain your own fabulousness—because you are and you owe it to yourself to let it show.

Pre-order Jennifer's book, "Be Fabulous: The Reading Teacher's Guide to Reclaiming Your Happiness in the Classroom" now and look for its release in August!

Mrs. Mimi, a.k.a. Jennifer Scoggin, is a teacher who taught both first and second grades at a public elementary school in New York City. She's the author of the upcoming “Be Fabulous: The Reading Teacher's Guide to Reclaiming Your Happiness in the Classroom” and“It's Not All Flowers and Sausages: My Adventures in Second Grade,” which sprung from her popular blog of the same name. Mimi also has her doctorate in education from Teachers College, Columbia University.

Have you ever thought about where fonts come from? They’re just on your computer, right? But, how do they get there and who created them? Is it possible to make your own?

As a former first grade teacher, I made a lot of charts in my classroom. Teachers, and students, would tell me all the time that I had really nice handwriting. I didn’t really think too much about the compliments until I purchased my first iPad a few years ago and stumbled upon a font creation app in the App Store called “iFontMaker.” This purchase was a major game-changer for me and my students and was an inexpensive investment for the high yield return.

Basically, the app turns your handwriting into a font. The app provides one space per letter, punctuation mark or symbol, which the app calls a “glyph.” Using either your finger or a stylus pen, you “pen” each capital letter and lowercase letter of the alphabet, each number 0-9, and every punctuation mark and symbol that is contained on a keyboard. Once you have finished the 96 glyphs per complete font, you are ready to export and create your font. As fast as you can hit the curvy arrow in the upper right corner of your iPad, your font is created and saved on the app’s server. If you choose to “publish” your font, or make it public, it is stored in the app’s gallery (2ttf.com/gallery). Over the last two years, I have created over 190 fonts to use in my classroom. I know you are thinking, “how is it possible to create over 190 fonts that are that different?” But, you can and I have. Like authors, illustrators, typographers, even greeting card designers are coming to realize, fonts play an important role in text display and text meaning. Some fonts are thick, some are thin, some have a fill, some have curls or even dots—the creative possibilities are endless. Have you checked out the new paper bags at McDonald’s lately? Most of the fonts used on the bag look like hand drawn fonts. The way the font is positioned on paper also lends to the mood and message of the text, which are all considerations and text features we want students to pay attention to while reading.

This year I played around with students creating their own font when publishing their own pieces of writing. When I say this app is a game-changer, it really is, times 10, for students. Talk about buy-in to the writing process and the publishing stage, students are much more eager to write when they know their own personally-created font is waiting for them on the computer. (Once the font goes to the app’s server, you have the option to download the font as a true type file, (.ttf) which is stored on the user’s hard drive in the computer’s Font Folder. Once installed to your computer, your font will appear in the drop-down menu of fonts in all word processing and word publishing programs.)

In addition, when students create a font, they become close observers and readers of font details in texts they read. Students will have a deeper understanding and appreciation for different attributes of fonts, and a font’s role in a text. Frank Serafini wrote, “traditional fonts used in many written texts were naturalized to the point that readers were not expected to pay attention to their design, rather they were expected to look past the typeface used to retrieve the content represented.”
Therefore, if these font features are elements we want students to pay attention, what better way to bring this to their forefront then letting them be the creators of their own fonts? When students become creators of their own fonts, they pay attention to font attributes including size, color, style, thickness, shadows, and mood of the font. Students are now in the driver’s seat to create fonts to help create the mood and meaning of their own writing. Students can create fun, playful fonts when they want to send a fun, playful message. Students can create thick, bold fonts when they want to send messages of a character’s power and greatness.

Like anything, creating a font takes some practice—students can either sketch out their font on paper first, or “have a go” at creating it right in the app because the undo button is an option on every glyph. Students today are not afraid to “do it wrong” thanks to the undo button. So give it a go yourself, and then hand the font creation process over to your students, and watch their own writing and reading become more empowered.  Personalized fonts are also compatible with Wordle and photo apps like Phonto. These two applications allow users to upload their own fonts for more personalization.

Jen Jones is a K-5 literacy and intervention specialist in Raleigh, N.C. You can follow her on Twitter at @hellojenjones. Her blog is Hello Literacy.