Literacy Now

"Teaching is a work of the heart" is the motto of Angelique Kwabenah, our July International Reading Association (IRA) Member of the Month, and she demonstrates it daily. Angelique is a reading specialist for the Washington, DC Public School’s (DCPS) Incarcerated Youth Program. The Program promotes academic rigor, provides opportunities for academic success through experiential learning, and fosters a climate that both develops and supports students and welcomes the involvement of parents and community partnerships. Angelique is one of the dedicated teachers that use literacy to enable students to acquire the academic knowledge, interpersonal skills, and values necessary to become productive community members. In this interview, she shares her path to this challenging role and what keeps her going.

How did you begin your career, and what led you to your current position?

I began my career in 1994, as a fourth grade teacher in Prince Georges County Maryland. I taught in the county for five years and then worked as a reading specialist for five years. I transitioned to my current position as a Reading Specialist at the District of Columbia Public Schools Incarcerated Youth Program, ten years later.

What is the biggest challenge in your current role?

The biggest challenge in my current role as a reading specialist in a correctional setting is motivating my students to read and I use a variety of resources and strategies to get them excited about reading, such as music, poetry and popular culture.

What are you reading (personal, professional, or even children's/YA)?

I am currently reading Slam by Walter Dean Myers in preparation for my summer workshop course.

What do you consider to be your proudest career moment?

My proudest career moment took place this year, when I was selected by Scholastic as the Read 180 Stage C Educator of Excellence for 2013-2014. I was awarded $1500.00 and got the opportunity to attend the Model Schools/Read 180 Conference in Orlando this year.

How long have you been a member of IRA? How has membership influenced your career?

photo credit: Angelique Kwabenah U.S. Secretary of Education and Angelique Kwabenah.

/>I have been a member of IRA for 15 years and the resources and professional development have been an invaluable part of my personal growth as a literacy instructor.

 

What do you like to do when you're not wearing your educator hat?

When I am not wearing my educator hat, I love to travel domestically and internationally. Favorite locations include: New York, Las Vegas, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. I also love to read!

What's the best advice you could offer someone new to the profession?

The best advice I would give to new teachers is to be fair, flexible and to have fun!

Do you want to suggest an IRA member for the Member of the Month feature interview? E-mail readingtoday@/.

photo credit: woodleywonderworks via photopin cc

Every semester, on the last day of the literacy methods course I teach, I ask my pre-service teachers to write a six-word memoir as a form of reflection. I show them the funny, moving, irreverent YouTube video created by SMITH Magazine and Harper Perennial called “Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure,” and, after watching, I give them some time to write. Their six-word memoirs run the gamut from funny to moving to irreverent, as you can see from the memoirs my created this semester.

Then we get to the point where we need to move beyond reflection and ask “So what? What does this have to do with teaching kids? How might we use this in a classroom?” This is an important question in a methods class, where the line between theory and practice shifts, and students start to own what it means to be teachers. Together, we came up with a list of how they might use six-word memoirs with the students they came to know and care about over the course of the semester, and how they imagine using six-word memoirs with students they have not yet encountered.

Here are our top five ways to use six-word memoirs in a classroom:

As a Form of Introduction. Students come to a class with different life experiences. Some have summers filled with camp, vacations, books, and wonder. Others have summers filled with taking care of younger siblings, staying indoors and watching television, angry adults, and unhealthy food. As teachers, regardless of where we teach, we never know who is joining our community or what they bring with them. Six-word memoirs offer students a safe way to share a small piece of who they are and what matters to them. Older students might want to watch the version of the six-word memoir project compiled by HarperTeen.com in order to find inspiration and mentor texts.

Writer’s workshop is a model emphasizing both structure and choice. The beauty of six-word memoirs is that structure is built into the fabric of this writing, but so is choice. When using six-word memoirs as a method of introduction, students can pick content and decide how much of themselves to share. They can share their favorite book, the number of siblings they have, or the fact they miss someone who is no longer here. The choice within the structure is theirs and theirs alone.

Write from a Character’s Point of View. While six-word memoirs and all of the applications are exciting, this is a particular favorite of mine. There are so many ways six-word memoirs might be used within the context of reader’s workshop! Thinking for a moment of a whole-class read-aloud, each student might be asked to write a six-word memoir from the perspective of a different character at the end of a book. Certainly, very few books would have enough characters to assign every student a different perspective (we’re not reading Game of Thrones in elementary school!), but it’s always interesting to see how students write the same character differently. As an example, let’s take a look at a current favorite of mine, Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin, by Liesl Shurtliff. In this book, students can write six-word memoirs from the perspectives of Rump, Red, Opal, King Barf, the aunts, the trolls, pixies, Frederick and Bruno, and the miller. They might even write six-word memoirs from these characters at different points in the story, showing their perspective as it changes (or doesn’t) over time.

This same idea can be repeated as an independent reading activity, a literature circle discussion prompt, or a way in to a partner reading conversation. Asking students to put themselves in the shoes of a book character is hard work, and writing a six-word memoir as if they were that character raises the bar just a little bit more.

Writing Across the Science or Social Studies Curriculum. While the 140-character limit of Twitter feels like an imposition of brevity on many older students, imagine what the limit of six words feels like! The six-word structure can be used as either a memoir or a structure for summary in the content areas. First, let’s explore the six-words as a memoir in content areas.

We often ask students to write biographies of those who are famous in the disciplines they study. Earlier this year, my son, a first grader, was asked to write a report on an “American hero” (he picked Paul Revere.) As I was getting ready to write this post, I asked him what he remembered about his “hero,” and he replied as I feared, “ummm… nothing?”

Over the course of a school career, students study any number of historical figures from around the world and across disciplines. They write long reports about these people, sometimes drawing pictures or presenting what they have learned (or memorized) to their class. What if we asked each of our students to write their figure’s memoir as well? These figures have an abundance of information associated with them, but six words would be something to take away, something these students might remember for the long haul.

The six-word structure can also be used as a method for summary of content areas. It is a useful tool when thinking about formative assessment, exit tickets, and helping students think about the big ideas of a concept or a unit of study. When looking across a class full of six-word summaries, it’s easier to see if they “get” the big idea than when looking at 27 full-page summaries.

To be fair, learning to summarize in six words takes some practice. Students will want to summarize in five words, or eight. Writing in six words takes skill, and as a method of formative assessment it might not seem like the point. There is a certain habit of mind, however, that comes with thinking of just the right words to say what you want to say. 

As a Connection to the Arts. It’s always interesting to hear from my pre-service teachers once they leave my class and carry on with their studies. I’m never sure what they will take with them, what will “stick.” One student of mine loved the idea of six-word memoirs, and decided to try it with kids she was working with in a summer camp setting. She was an art counselor working with all ages, and asked the kids to caption one painting project, a favorite setting, with six words.

Using the six-word structure as a connection to the arts is a natural fit, because this is an arts-based project in the first place. My student used it as a link to painting, but it could be used to caption a self-portrait (memoir plus self-portrait, oh my!), to describe an abstract work, as a placard for a sculpture, or the dedication on an artist’s nameplate. Moving out of the realm of visual art, the six-word structure could be used to describe what a song or piece of music makes you feel, or a dance, or any other performance. The brevity of the six-word structure makes it an ideal form for this type of review.

As a Form of Reflection. I began this post discussing how I use six-word memoirs with my own students as a form of reflection. I ask my pre-service teachers to reflect on our time together, on what they have learned, and how they have grown as teachers and students. I am a firm believer in the power of reflection, and I have seen the six-word structure help my students grow in their ability to reflect.

I think the power of this lies in the limits. It becomes easy to reflect over the course of pages, to talk about strengths and weaknesses, what you liked and didn’t like, where you excelled and where you will continue to grow. It is harder, of course, to be reflective in six words. It is harder to find voice in six words. You have to make a choice: do you want to be funny, or serious? How much do you want to share? You can be awfully honest in just six words, you can choose to put it all out there. Or you can find a cliché, string your words together, hide behind the limit.

This goes for young students, too. We can ask students in elementary school to reflect upon the type of readers they become over the course of a school year, or the type of mathematicians, or how they changed as writers or scientists or questioners. From our initial prompt, students can reflect in any number of ways. They can be silly or serious, thoughtful or rushed. They can use every word of their allotted six and think wisely about punctuation, or try to argue that “and” shouldn’t really count as a word.

And so, in the spirit of the six-word memoir, here are my six words (in addition, of course, to the title): “Six-word memoirs: powerful teaching tools.”

Jenny Rich is an adjunct instructor in the School of Education at Rider University in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, and a doctoral student at Rutgers University. You can find her on Twitter at @jdrich219.

Students come to us with a wide variety of background information and “knowns.” We can’t control what we get sent to us, but we can control what we do with it. There is no other grade responsible for the amount of growth that kindergartners are expected to make, there is also no other grade more misunderstood. Kindergarten is the best and worst of education today. To see a child make their first connection in a kindergarten classroom is unforgettable and “the best moment” can come in the form of writing their name, matching letters, determining rhymes or reading stories. It could also be a smile, an attempt, or a choice made carefully. Consequently, kindergarten is also littered with “the worst moments.” In today’s era of pacing guides and continuums developed to complete a set number of skills in a set number of meetings—regardless of developmental milestones—kindergarten teachers are faced with the ongoing internal debate of what is appropriate for 5-year-olds and what is expected. Regardless, we cannot use the excuse, “They can’t do it, they are just kindergartners.”

Seriously! Just kindergartners? What does that even mean? Are we just teachers? No, we are the most important people in the lives of school children and we can determine who they can become. Just kindergartners? Nothing makes me crazier than when teachers, administrators, and so-called specialists give the excuses for children not performing BEFORE they give the children the tools they need to achieve.

As a veteran kindergarten teacher, I presented a workshop on emergent writing at the Virginia State Reading Association Conference several years ago. The workshop offered attendees several methods for teaching writing, ideas for editing, lessons for mechanics, and rubrics for assessment. The key to teaching writing to emergent learners is the same as it is for teaching any other skill: strategic well-planned lessons with consistent modeling and ample practice. Using what they know (letters, letter/sound associations, word wall activities) takes away the fear of writing. They can be taught to rely on themselves and refrain from asking “how do you spell that?” Teaching the beginning basics of mechanics can be as easy as a song and practice. Using student friendly rubrics can provide students with the skills to self-correct and self-monitor their writing. I provided work samples and student products showing compositions of four, five, six sentences and more. I showed journals with concise stories containing a beginning, middle, and end and some even contained a surprise ending, demonstrated voice and used inspired word choices. After the presentation several attendees came up to talk about my ideas and see the student’s work samples up close. Many were taking pictures and asking questions. An administrator from a struggling school system came to me and started the conversation by saying, “I think you are lying.”

“Excuse me?” I was stunned and even confused.

“I don’t think these are kindergarten samples,” she continued.

“Excuse me,” I repeated. “Who are you?” I asked.

“I am ABC from XYZ Schools and kindergartners can’t do that. Writing isn’t tested in this state until fifth grade, so why would you start ‘teaching’ (she said with air quotes) kindergarten students to write. They can’t do it.”

Well, as you can imagine, I was taken aback. First, she had questioned my honesty, but most importantly, she had questioned my students. Not a good plan.

“You don’t know me and you don’t know my students, but these are, in fact, their products from good teaching. Don’t tell me kindergartners can’t do that! You may not have faith in kindergarten students, but if you teach them, they will write.”

This was the most blatant assault on my integrity I have ever encountered. But more importantly, she had doubted my students and that hurt. My students work hard every day and don’t doubt their ability. In fact, they don’t know failure is an option, because it isn’t. Lessons are carefully crafted with success in mind.

I offered the administrator an open invitation to my classroom. She was welcome any day and any time. She declined. When the conference was over, I emailed this administrator, again inviting her to my classroom. I told her I would put her name on the guest list through the end of school and I asked her to come unannounced. She did not return my email and she never visited.

 

Don’t tell me kindergartners can’t do that!

Giving kindergartners the tools, the practice, and the confidence to write will open their eyes to a new avenue of exploration. They will want to write stories. They will want to edit their writing to make it better. They will want to write to entertain, inform or persuade their audience. It is an achievable goal for everyone.

I tried to conduct myself as professionally as I could with her. But my internal conversation wasn’t so professional. I truly believe one of the biggest struggles of her school system is her. She didn’t believe in her teachers or the students in her system. How can students be expected to be successful on any writing test if they aren’t taught strategically and consistently from the earliest stages of learning? You can tell me the teachers aren’t educated on how to teach kindergarten students. You can tell me the school system isn’t providing adequate professional development on how to teach kindergarten students. You can even tell me your expectations for kindergarten students are set too low. But don’t tell me kindergartners can’t do that!

 

Cathy Collier is a reading specialist at Great Bridge Primary School in Chesapeake, Virginia with an additional 15 years as a kindergarten teacher. She has her B.S. in Special Education, a master’s degree in Special Education and a certified reading specialist. She is the immediate past president of the Virginia State Reading Association

photo credit: Jagrap via photopin cc

Each semester, when I announce to my students that they will be in writing groups, I see the same fearful eyes and frustrated faces.

I know that many of them have worked in writing groups in infrequent, sporadic ways and received feedback limited to grammar and surface-level comments. Because of this, they view peer editing only as a proofreading exercise and often do not trust their peers to provide meaningful feedback. Needless to say, writing groups are not always an easy sell to my students.

They were not always an easy sell to me either. In my secondary classroom, I had students “partner up” to read final drafts. Then, when I enrolled in an English education doctoral program, I was introduced to semester-long writing groups of three to four students in a pedagogy course required of first year composition instructors at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

This pedagogy course taught me how to value the insight of fellow writers who have vastly different backgrounds and interests. As the semester progressed, I realized the ways in which their feedback improved my work. The “partner up” activities I had my students do could have never led to the substantive revisions that the sustained, semester-long writing group did.

Through participating in a meaningful writing group in my pedagogy course and facilitating them in my own first year composition courses, I have come to value the power of writing groups and believe they can work from the primary to the secondary to the college writing classroom.

One aspect a lot of teachers question is how writers with different ability levels can help one another. But the truth is, writers can learn from both effective writers and ineffective writers. In addition, writers who do not have substantive content knowledge can still offer meaningful feedback. Lastly, writing groups emphasize the social aspect of writing.

Here are some simple strategies for how to incorporate writing groups into your writing classroom:

Start small. Don’t feel that you have to create year-long writing groups from the get-go. Try them out for a unit or one writing assignment that will go through many drafts. Solicit responses from your students and reflect on how it went. Make changes as you go forward.

Be random. One question that often arises is how to organize students into writing groups. Some instructors take inventories of their students and observe students during the first few class meetings so as to make writing group decisions. My writing group placements are mostly random, and I generally have three to four students in a group.

Model what soliciting effective feedback looks like. Effective feedback leads to substantive revision. Writers who ask meaningful questions to their peers often receive better feedback, which improves the quality of their writing. Not preparing students to solicit effective peer feedback minimizes the effects of feedback and often results in students doing simple grammar edits of each other’s papers. Ask students to create 2–3 specific questions before engaging in the peer editing sessions. These questions should not be “yes” or “no” questions.

photo credit: Room 216 via photopin cc

Model what effective feedback looks like. To prevent students from just providing comma edits, they need to be taught how to give effective, substantive feedback that will lead to revisions. After students are arranged in their writing groups, select a model paper and model how to answer a writer’s questions. Help students see how you provide solutions to problems in the writer’s piece so as to help the writer make more meaningful revisions. Participate in your students’ writing groups sometimes so as to model the types of conversations peers should be having with one another.  

Help students understand they do not need to take all feedback. Writers need ownership of their writing. Help students understand that they do not have to take all of the feedback that you or their peers provide. Design a minilesson around helping student writers find a balance between maintaining their own voices and ideas as writers and incorporating peers’ feedback.

Have students reflect on their feedback. Ask students to reflect on whose feedback they used and what kind of feedback was most helpful. Use these comments anonymously during a minilesson to help your students understand the kind of feedback that helps your community of writers.

Do not assess students’ drafts Even though I often provide students feedback in addition to their writing group members’ feedback, every once in a while I have the students peer edit their drafts without me looking at the drafts. Students are still tempted to take only what you say about their writing. So step aside during some writing workshops so as to help your students value their peers’ feedback and to show them that you value the feedback they provide to one another.
But perhaps the best ways to answer the whys and hows of writing groups is to participate in a writing group yourself. It was not until I participated in a sustained writing group that my own anxieties about the practice began to fade. Sharing your experiences in writing groups with your students will also give you credibility as you facilitate your students’ writing groups.

Kathryn Caprino (kcaprino@live.unc.edu) is a Ph.D. candidate in Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research interests are English education, writing pedagogy, technology in the secondary English classroom, and young adult literature. She teaches an English methods course and has taught first year composition. She has also been a teaching assistant in a children's/young adult literature and middle grades methods course. She supervises student teachers and is the social media coordinator for the Adolescent Literacy Alliance adolescentliteracyalliance.ning.com.

I will be forever grateful to Danny Dog for motivating many of my first grade friends to want to read and write.

The Danny series, published by MaryRuth Books, was one of the best investments our district purchased as an intervention/motivating choice for my first grade classroom library. When I saw these books at the 2013 IRA conference in San Antonio I knew I needed them. At the time I had no idea what kind of lifelong impact these books (and Danny) would have on my heart.

A little background: The Danny books are written by Mia Coulton, a former reading recovery teacher. These books are filled with real pictures of Danny and his friend Bee, and tell of their many adventures. The full-color photographs work with appropriately spaced text to enhance word recognition for emerging readers. Each book uses high frequency words and natural oral language—making it a top choice of reading specialists and their students. Who couldn’t resist the silly antics of Danny,a beautiful yellow lab?

I started the year off with Danny songs, shared Danny read-alouds, Danny interactive writing, big Danny reading charts, etc. I decided Danny would be my beginning of the year theme. I had leveled Danny books from A-H so all students could have a chance to share in our Danny discussion. Everyone fell in love with Danny, especially some of my most struggling readers. They found they could be successful reading and writing about these books.

I also decided to purchase the Danny stuffed dog. He was a very popular friend to read with at read to someone time. We all took turns getting to read with our stuffed Danny. Kids were so motivated and engaged with these books that many kids did not want to stop as we would end our reader’s workshop.

One of my most at-risk students—socially, emotionally, behaviorally, and academically—due to family adversity clung on to our Danny stuffed animal like a lifeline. She couldn’t believe the stuffed Danny Dog was the same Danny in the books from which she was learning to read. She was at a Pre-A level at the beginning of the year and struggled to write her name. She was in a sight word intervention, as well as a letter naming and sounds intervention, and everyday she read Danny books in a small guided skill group as well as receiving one on one reading time. One of her interventions was to have a para pro just sit and read to her. Her book box was filled with Danny books and she even had a Danny writing journal. This student’s courage and resilience was beyond belief and inspired me to continue on the Danny path.

She was finding great success in reading the Danny books and by the middle of the year she had moved up to a level F. She was able to write about Danny and could express herself through pictures and words. She was always at the area where the Danny Books were kept. I kept them near my small table area so that I could always easily access them to add to student’s book boxes.

I attended a conference for three days in January and when I returned my little friend called me over and said she needed to tell me something important. I have taught my students that if there is something in the classroom that they feel like they need, they can’t just take it because that would be like stealing. Instead they need to just ask me to borrow it and I will let them and then they can return it. Well, my little friend said, “Mrs. Duncan while you were gone I had to borrow Danny because I needed a friend at home. I brought him back and he is fine.” I was so proud of her and so thankful to have something in the classroom that she considered a friend that could make her feel safe and secure at home.

Every day she grew more confident as a reader and writer. She was going through some rough times at home and what normally would have been acting out at school turned in to wanting to read more Danny books.

I was very sad to find out that this friend would be moving. She was very sad to leave us, too. She was also worried about leaving Danny and all of the wonderful Danny books behind. I knew the moment she told me she was going to miss Danny that I would be giving her our stuffed Danny to take with her. I will never in my life forget the look of awe and thankfulness in her eyes when I told her she would be taking Danny with her to keep forever!

We secretly slipped Danny in to her backpack at the end of the day. She asked if she could take some Danny books with her when she moved. I already had them in a baggie with a special note. She hugged me so tight and thanked me the most sincere, heartfelt thank you I have ever felt. I had to fight back the tears. I smiled and said,“Danny will be there to always remind you what a smart, beautiful reader and writer you, and that you have a teacher who loves you and is very proud of you!” Danny truly helped lay a foundation of reading and writing for this courageous and resilient little friend.

I was so touched by the power of this reading intervention that I called MaryRuth Books to share the entire story. I thanked them for sharing their beautiful yellow lab, and their reading recovery expertise. A few days after my phone call with MaryRuth Books, I received a box from them in our office. I immediately opened it and there was a new stuffed Danny Dog, ready to read and make a difference to motivate my eager, first grade friends.

 

JoAnne Duncan (jduncan@eburg.wednet.edu) received her master’s degree in elementary reading and literacy from Walden University. She teaches first grade at Mt. Stuart Elementary School in Ellensburg, WA. She is an advocate of best literacy practice for students and teachers, which includes using a workshop model to help differentiate instruction.