Literacy Now

You may recognize International Reading Association (IRA) member Shanne Bowie from the February/March issue of “Reading Today” in which she and Gerri Settoon wrote a lovely piece welcoming colleagues to Louisiana for the IRA Annual Conference in May. Bowie is the current President of the Louisiana Reading Association and a longtime elementary school teacher. In this “Reading Today” interview, she shares her inspirations, proudest moments, and what refreshes and renews her spirit.

When did you know you wanted to become a teacher?

I wanted to become a teacher in Kindergarten when Mrs. Frasier read to me while I sat on her lap. Later in high school, I wanted to become a teacher because I thought they got summer vacations. My first year to teach, I knew I wanted to become a teacher when my sixth grade student didn't want to leave my room on the last day, and she tearfully said, "No one will ever care about me like you." I knew then, I wanted to become a teacher.

Did any children's literature influence your decision to become a literacy educator?

I loved Hans Christian Anderson's tales as a very young child. I would make up my own tales to tell my sister. Later, I was fascinated by Caddie Woodlawn, a story of a frontier girl. I loved it because she was a tomboy just like me. I promised myself when I became a teacher, I would read Caddie Woodlawn every year, and I have done so for the last 28 years.

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

I began my career in a sixth grade classroom, but my heart was really in the lower grades where I have spent most of my time as an educator. I came to my current position the year after I completed National Board certification. My school is known for its literacy emphasis and deep commitment to helping children learn to read and write well. I knew it was the place for me.

What can literacy educators do to motivate kids to want to read?

I believe the most important way to motivate kids to read is by modeling reading. Show them reading is fun by reading books you love to them. When children see a teacher's love for the written word it opens a door to a world of which every child can be a part. The teacher can then get down to the basics of what the child needs to be able to read a good book with fluency.

Which professional development books have you found influential in your education?

I come home from an IRA conference with several new reads. Staying abreast of best practices, latest research, and cutting-edge techniques is key to continued professional development for me. “The CAFE Book: Engaging All Students in Daily Literacy Assessment and Instruction” by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser validated for me a teaching style I already used, but they modeled a way to organize the literacy block that was easily implemented. Their techniques really release the power of personal reading growth to the students. I recently read “Text Complexity: Raising Rigor in Reading” by Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and Diane Lapp in a professional book study. The authors focus on instruction and assessment of complex texts through close readings and complex discussions. I'm currently reading “Notice and Note” by Kylene Beers and Robert Probst. IRA's website has a wonderful resources section with recommended reads.

How long have you been a member of the International Reading Association?

10 years. I learned about IRA from another teacher. She encouraged me to join. After I attended my first conference, I was hooked.

How has membership influenced your career?

The professional growth experiences I have received through my IRA membership are without measure. I have never attended a conference that I didn't return with techniques to implement, professional and children's books to read, new professional contacts, and a renewed commitment to my profession. IRA's website has a wealth of resources to access daily. Check it out!

What are you looking forward to doing at the Annual Conference in New Orleans?

I am looking forward to networking with other professionals and hearing the "rock stars" of education that IRA always provides at conferences. I know I will leave New Orleans motivated and energized to teach children at my school. I won't forget to enjoy some delicious food and culture of the historic city of New Orleans either.

What do you consider to be your proudest career moment?

The day I became a National Board teacher was pretty up there, but my proudest moment in my career so far was when I was a new teacher and Clinton, a struggling reader, read fluently for the first time. He smiled, and I cried.

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

When I'm not wearing my educator hat, I travel quite a bit. I recently went to a bookstore in Lyon, France. I quickly had to find the English section. I also read and write for fun!

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

I would advise new teachers to find a professional teacher/mentor who is devoted to children. I would encourage them to attend professional conferences like the International Reading Association conference. They should be a part of their local reading council, too. I would invite new teachers to read professional books. Finally, I would tell them to allow relaxation time to refresh and renew their spirit, so they can return to school energized and ready to teach children to read and write well.

Sara Long is an editor/content manager at the International Reading Association.

As long-time teachers, we recognize the power of reading. We know that reading is absolutely essential to people’s success both in and out of school. But sometimes we worry that the power of reading obscures its pleasure, at least in public policy discussions. That’s why we undertook a study of the nature and variety of the pleasure young people take in their out-of school reading, especially their reading of texts that are often marginalized by schools: romances, vampire stories, horror, dystopias, and fantasy.

p: Leonie Vienna via photopin

What we found was that young people were amazingly articulate about the playful pleasure they derived from entering a story world; the pleasure that stemmed from using their reading to do inner work, that is, to think about the kind of person they wanted to become; the intellectual pleasure of figuring out the puzzles texts provided; and the social pleasure they derived from using their reading to connect with others.

And they were equally articulate about why pleasure should be central to teachers’ practice. Here’s Bennie talking about her beloved Harry Potter books:

Teachers should read these books. If you can grab kids with what already excites them, then you are on the way. I never understood why school picks the books that they do except that they are important—but they are not as relatable to us. And as a direct result kids weren’t into it and it was all like pulling teeth. Start with what kids are already excited about. You can teach the same lessons and build the same skills and have more willing participants.

Think of the implications: What would happen if we resolved to follow Bennie’s suggestion and to make pleasure a primary concern in our instructional planning? We think that the implications of this resolution are enormous. One implication is that we would have to be mindful of the variety of pleasures that readers can take from their reading and not privilege intellectual pleasures—the enjoyment taken from figuring out how things work, the characteristic province of school.

To be sure, the participants in our study took pleasure in making thematic generalizations, in figuring out metaphors, in carefully analyzing the aesthetic choices an author makes, in making subtle distinctions among related genres, intellectual pleasures all. But we also saw the pleasures of entering a story world and living through a character’s actions, of trying on a character’s perspectives and thinking about what it might mean for how one wants to live, of sharing one’s reading with friends. We should choose texts and provide instructional environments and supports that promote this variety of pleasure (or let our students choose those books and provide ways for them to share these pleasures with each other).     

Another implication would be to work to expand the range of texts in which students can take pleasure, taking care as we do so to teach in a way to engage students in experiencing the pleasure of texts that they might not select on their own while recognizing that it might not be easily forthcoming. Let’s think about what our resolution might say about selecting texts. Student choice is safer than teacher choice. Variety is safer than similarity.

We are not calling for eliminating the study of classic or challenging contemporary literature. Our respondents talked on occasion about how they took pleasure from such texts. What we are calling for is embedding the teaching of those texts in contexts that foster the pleasure students can take from them. Such contexts would involve inquiry models of teaching, in which groups could read different books addressing an essential question in small groups such as literature circles, and then share what they had learned and experienced with other groups.

Another implication is making interpretive complexity equal to text complexity in planning.  Vampire novels might not appear in many curricula, but look at the kind of thinking they fostered in Jaycee:

Being a teenager is partly about struggling to be more adult and have more adult relationships…I think a real struggle of more adult relationships is making sure they are life-giving in both directions. I mean, we all have these needs so you have to be careful about not being a vampire and sucking someone else dry, or hurting and discarding them. But you have to be really careful not to let someone do it to you too, like dominate you, just because you like being liked or feeling attractive or whatever. I think it’s a real danger.

She’s clearly engaged in making complex inferences about the texts she’s reading, just the kind of inference-making the Common Core State Standards call for. And she does so in service of becoming the kind of person who she wants to become, a deep form of inner work.

Finally, making pleasure more central to our practice would mean providing plenty of opportunities for choice. Although the readers in our study experienced similar kinds of pleasure, the texts that fostered those pleasure very different.

Here’s Callie talking about what she called dark fiction:

So if I were responding to a situation in a fiction state of mind, I would probably be like the teen heroine in this fiction state of mind where something horrible happens to them, but then they emotionally grow and strive above it. That’s my fiction voice. But a more realistic dark character, something really horrible happens and I have no idea what to do and I think and I ponder about what the possibilities are as I try and try desperately to overcome this situation but never really do and end up moving on with this situation that still is left hanging. Like, because that’s a way more realistic way of life.

And here’s Kylie’s comment about the romances she loved to read:

The [heroine] has to make things clear to her love, and usually has to organize things…for them to be together which she has to do one step at a time because usually things are pretty complicated! And then they have to really see and really care about each other—hopefully forever. HEA [Happily Ever After], baby!

What book is going to appeal to both young women? Hmm. If we’re committed to maximizing our students’ textual pleasure and if we can’t know what books our students are going to take pleasure in, we have to let them choose, at least on occasion.

We want to be the kind of teachers who help our students fall in love with books in ways that foster a life-long devotion to reading. If we are to succeed, then we need to keep—at the forefront of our attention and in all of its various forms—the rich, complex, and profound pleasures of reading.

Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, is a professor of English education at Boise State University and was a middle and high school teacher for 15 years. Jeffery has written more than thirty books, among them are: “You Gotta BE the Book; Engaging Readers and Writers With Inquiry;” and “Improving Comprehension With Think-Aloud Strategies.”

Michael W. Smith is currently a professor in the College of Education at Temple University and has 11 years’ experience teaching high school. Michael has written a wide variety of articles and contributing chapters, as well as more than a dozen books, including “Authorizing Readers: Resistance and Respect in the Teaching of Literature;” “The Language of Interpretation: Patterns of Discourse in Discussions of Literature;” and “Understanding Unreliable Narrators.”

Jeff and Michael’s previous collaborations include: “Reading Unbound: Why Kids Need to Read What They Want – and Why We Should Let Them, published by Scholastic [NASDAQ: SCHL];“Reading Don’t Fix No Chevys: Literacy in the Lives of Young Men” (winner of NCTE’s 2003 David H. Russell Award for Distinguished Research in the Teaching of English); “Going With the Flow: How to Engage Boys (and Girls) in Their Literacy;” “Getting It Right: Fresh Approaches to Teaching Grammar, Usage, and Correctness;” and “Fresh Takes on Teaching Literary Elements: How to Teach What Really Matters About Character, Setting, Point of View, and Theme.”

Every child deserves a champion, an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection, and insists that they become the best that they can possibly be.” -Rita Pierson

Teaching is all about making connections, connections with your students, connections with other teachers, and connections with your community.

Margaret Muthiga is a senior teacher at the Kilimo Primary School in Nakura County, Kenya. This primary school in Kenya is a government owned school that has an enrollment of 594 with a student-teacher ratio of 42.4 and this means there are 74.3 pupils per classroom in 8 classrooms. Margaret teaches year three this year and has over 50 students. She makes connections not only with her students, but also with her community. She started a “Why Wait Reading Club” which has two children from each class (24 students in all). They act as class librarians and mentors for those in their class that need help with reading. Every year these students help to organize “Orphan’s Day” at the local orphanages. There are a tremendous amount of orphans in her country due HIV and AIDs, negligence, rape, or Female Genital Mutilation.  

Last year, her reading group visited the Haven of Hope Orphanage. Children in this orphanage are two months old and older. “Being connected to a children’s home and thinking about the less fortunate in our society has always given our pupils something to look forward to,” said Margaret. Her group reads with the children and helps to teach them reading skill games and activities. These children are so poor that even taking care of their basic needs is a struggle. They do not have access to reading books so when they see the students from the school, they are overjoyed.

Margaret humbles you. I met Margaret in Chicago at the International Reading Association Convention. She told me about her school and I was truly in awe of everything that she does. Being around Margaret, you feel just how truly special she is.

When Margaret attended the IRA conference in San Antonio the next year, she was sent home with an extra suitcase loaded with pencils, colors, magic markers, erasers and other school supplies for her to use with her students. I also received a grant from the Nebraska State Reading Association to purchase a computer for Margaret to use at her school. They did not have a computer in their school, and they are now using it to record the books in their library.

This year Margaret and her “Why Wait Reading Club” students visited the Lion’s Club Children’s Home, a girls’ orphanage that houses children from 9 to 20 years old. Her school received grant money from Global Operations of the International Reading Association. Children at the home were eager to see and read new books, and have books read to them by the students at Kilimo Primary School.  Pupils brought a few story books, but they also brought donated food and clothes and this year they had a special gift of pencils and erasers from Margaret’s friend in the United States.

Singing and dancing were evident upon their arrival. Margaret’s students love singing and dancing. Pupils greeted and hugged each other and everything was great. The compound and rooms were swept and cleaned, and then they washed the clothes of the younger children. Games were played including football, netball, sliding, and hide and seek. There were so many children that one would wonder where they all came from. Again, the story is the same. They are orphans because their parents have died of HIV/AIDS, were neglectful; the mothers were raped, or other sad cases. Margaret encourages us:

“Life is a journey and if we have to leave a mark of hope in our classes, we must uphold justice for these small ones. Education is the key to their success. That’s why, we the ACT (Advisory Committee of Teachers), with the help of our affiliates, must give our all to these small ones under our care. Laugh with them and cry with them, for the ladder of success is best climbed by stepping on the rungs of opportunity. Individuals play the game, but teams win championships. We have goals and plans to reach them. We are like a ship that has set sail with a destination. Goals are not only absolutely necessary to motivate us. This is why I say; commitment leads to action. Action brings your dream closer. Be born TEACHER!”

We are a literacy experts, and we can make reading connections with others who do not have the ability whether it is a child in your school or half way around the world. But as Rita Pierson said, “…it is not impossible. We can do this. We are educators. We are born to make a difference.”  

Mary Lou Benesch currently teaches Title 1, grade and grade 4 reading, and grade 5-6 social studies. She holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Wayne State College, a media specialist endorsement from the University of Nebraska at Kearney, and a Masters in Educational Reading Specialist from Concordia University.

Margaret Muthiga is a senior teacher at Kilimo Primary School in Nakaru County, Kenya, mmuthigaus@yahoo.com.

Teaching in ACTion is a series from the Advisory Committee of Teachers (ACT), an International Reading Association committee comprised of exemplary reading and literacy teachers from around the world. Educators who best exemplify the mission of IRA are chosen from a pool of applicants to serve a three-year term. Among other responsibilities, the main charge of ACT is to be the conduit between IRA’s members and the board of directors.

ACT invites member to engage in the conversation by sending responses to us. ACT’s goal is to get a feel for how members feel about current hot topics, so that we may better serve members by sharing their concerns with the board of directors.

by Nell Duke, Elizabeth Moje, and Annemarie Palincsar
University of Michigan
February 26, 2014

In Michigan, as in a number of states, the legislature has been considering a bill to mandate retention for any students who do not score above a certain level on the state's third-grade reading test. Here we share a memo we submitted earlier this year in response to this proposed legislation (legislation that continues to evolve). To learn more about recommendations for state reading policy, please see:
/reading-today/research/post/lrp/2013/10/31/nga-report-on-early-childhood.

Memorandum

To: The Honorable Lisa Posthumus Lyons, Michigan House of Representatives; The Honorable Amanda Price, Michigan House of Representatives

From: Drs. Nell K. Duke, Elizabeth B. Moje, and Annemarie S. Palincsar, University of Michigan

Date: January 13, 2014

Re: Written commentary on HB 5111

Thank you for the opportunity to provide commentary on House Bill 5111. Please note that our commentary draws in part from commentary generated by Albert Wat, senior policy analyst in the Education Division of the National Governors Association (NGA) Center for Best Practices, with whom one of us (Duke) worked on the NGA Early Literacy Expert Roundtable and co-served on the Education Commission of the States Early Learning Caucus.

We share legislators’ aim to improve literacy outcomes for Michigan’s public school students. However, as discussed below, a focus on retention is not supported by research, and many research-supported policies and practices for improving literacy education are not included in the bill.

The focus on retention is not supported by research. The preponderance of research evidence from many different research fields does not support mandatory retention as an effective approach to addressing the problems of low levels of literacy achievement. Most studies find either no effect or negative effects (e.g., Jacob & Lefgren, 2009; Jimerson, 2001; Shepard & Smith, 1990). Although a few studies point to short-term gains following retention, these gains do not endure (e.g., Reschly & Christenson, 2013; Silberglitt, Appleton, Burns, & Jimerson, 2006; Wu, West, & Hughes, 2008). There is no evidence that retained students "catch up" to their peers and stay caught up (e.g., Alexander, Entwisle, & Dauber, 2003). Males, minority students, and students from low-income families are the most vulnerable, with respect to retention. In fact, there is an extensive body of research that points to possible negative long-term impacts of retention (e.g., Chen, Liu, Zhang, Shi, & Rozelle, 2010; Jimerson, Anderson, & Whipple, 2002; Pagani, Tremblay, Vitaro, Boulerice, & McDuff, 2001). Retention in grade—especially after third grade—is a powerful predictor of dropping out of school (although the mechanism for this is not well understood) (Roderick, 1994). In fact, studies conducted by economists indicate that for all demographic groups grade retention is significantly linked to lower earnings in the workplace later in life (e.g., Eide & Showalter, 2001). Moreover, recent research suggests negative impacts of retention on the classmates of retained students (Goffried, 2013). Even Michigan families whose children are not at risk for being retained should be concerned about the ill effects of a mandatory retention policy.

Literacy achievement in Florida is often cited as evidence that a heavy focus on retention is advisable. However, Florida instituted a number of reforms aimed at literacy improvement—including reforms that do have a solid research base—thus it is unclear whether retention specifically contributed to Florida’s levels of literacy achievement. A longitudinal study of one of Florida’s largest districts determined that retained students experienced neither short- or long-term gains when compared to those who had been administratively promoted; neither retained students, nor their administratively promoted peers, reached proficiency on the reading assessment of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. Further, 60% of the students retained in this study were male, 43% were Black, 31% were Hispanic, and 81% received free- or reduced-cost lunch (Dennis, Kroeger, Welsh, Brummer, & Baek, 2010).

State policymakers should be strongly discouraged from instituting retention in the face of a preponderance of evidence that retention will not, in the end, serve Michigan students and families well. They should, instead, be strongly encouraged to invest in early education, in improving K-3 instruction, and in maintaining literacy instruction through grade 12 and, specifically, in the subject areas of middle and high school.

If the legislature proceeds with a focus on retention despite contrary research evidence, Michigan policymakers should consider a more flexible use of the strategy than offered in the current version of the bill. Dr. Wat notes that in Colorado, essentially, a student not scoring at a proficient level at the end of third grade would trigger a meeting between the teacher, the parents, and any other critical school personnel, in which retention is raised as a possibility. The group would then make a decision together, which has to be approved by the school district superintendent or a designee. This approach has the advantage of involving key stakeholders and allowing local flexibility with some state-level oversight. You can read the language in Section 22-7-1207 of the legislation. At the same time, the law requires the district to track how children do whether or not they are retained and report to the state (see Section 22-7-1213). Oklahoma also has a similar provision.

Investing in early education has much stronger support in research. Prevention, for example in the form of pre-kindergarten programs, is a much more effective strategy for improving literacy (e.g., Barnett, 2001). Among other benefits, early education addresses the fact that by the time children reach kindergarten, there are already significant achievement gaps, most notably by socioeconomic status, in language and literacy development (e.g., Lee & Burkham, 2002). Moreover, early intervention can substantially reduce the need for retention. For example, here in Michigan, a state-subsidized pre-kindergarten program (formerly MSRP, now GSRP) was shown to improve literacy and math achievement at grade 4 and make it much less likely that students are retained (saving the state $11 million per year, according to a 2005 report from Lamy, Barnett, and Jung). States such as Oklahoma and Wyoming have been successful at providing universal pre-K education and have begun to see ways in which they can close the gap in the language and reading skills of children from low- and middle/high SES as they begin kindergarten. The successful pre-K programs include a home component in which parents and caregivers are provided with support to learn how to support the development and learning of young children.

Improvement of teacher preparation and professional development is strongly supported by research. There is a great deal of research evidence that improving the quality of teacher practice around literacy improves students’ educational outcomes (e.g., Darling-Hammond, 2010). Many of the states that have enacted 3rd grade reading legislation have some provisions that speak to this issue. In addition, districts such as those in Washtenaw and Livingston counties, that have invested in middle- and high-school literacy professional development for teachers and in literacy-rich subject area curricula have shown gains in their students’ overall and subject-specific literacy achievement.

Some states have focused heavily on teacher quality and teacher professional development in their legislative efforts around literacy. For example, for a subset of particularly underperforming schools, Connecticut’s law requires one literacy coach and four reading interventionists for each school. The legislation from Connecticut also requires the state education agency to devise a new professional development plan for teachers and principals around literacy instruction. New Jersey’s state education agency invested in a corps of literacy coaches as part of its strategy in the early 2000s to raise reading proficiency in the lowest-income districts in the early grades. Coaching is also part of Florida’s strategy—with this component enjoying research support.

States can also use the teacher certification and literacy specialist certification processes to increase the rigor of teacher preparation and professional development. The literacy standards for teachers and reading specialists in Michigan are out of date and not aligned with the International Reading Association Standards for Reading Professionals (2010). Massachusetts is one example of a state that has engaged in legislative efforts to increase the rigor of requirements for educator licensure and preparation program approval. “Performance based” certification requirements, in which candidates demonstrate their knowledge and skills in real classrooms, are also an avenue some have identified as promising.

Policies should be sensitive to the distinct knowledge and skills that teachers need with different age groups of students. Effective teachers of early elementary-age students need expertise that is different from expertise necessary to successfully support adolescent students’ literacy learning.

Research supports attention to continued and subject-specific literacy development across the grade 4-12 span. Many sources erroneously imply that there is something magical about third grade, but a robust body of evidence indicates that it is ineffective to attend only to reading development in the early years with the hope that students can apply those early literacy skills to increasingly complex texts and literacy tasks.  Continued support for learning to read even after students have demonstrated basic word reading and comprehension skills is essential. Indeed, many specific approaches to improving literacy after third grade have been shown to be effective (e.g., Greenleaf, Schoenbach, Cziko, & Mueller, 2001; Guthrie et al., 2004; Pearson, Moje, & Greenleaf, 2010; Romance & Vitale, 1992; 2001; Schoenbach & Greenleaf, 2012; Snow, Lawrence, & White, 2009).

Some sources argue that reading by the end of third grade is so important because after third grade, students “read to learn” rather than “learn to read,” but this is an outdated notion that no longer describes education in the United States. With the Common Core State Standards, students are expected to read to learn from kindergarten. First they learn through teacher read aloud and then, by the end of first grade, by reading informational texts themselves. And to meet rigorous expectations for end-of-12th grade literacy skills, students will need continued instruction in reading throughout their school career. Similarly, while some have thought that instruction in K – 3 should focus on learning to read words, and instruction in grade 4 and above on comprehension and learning from text, a federal panel reached a consensus that comprehension instruction, including instruction in reading to learn, must occur in K – 3 (Shanahan, et al., 2010). Further, some students will need instruction in word reading even in grade 4 and beyond (e.g., Biancarosa & Snow, 2006; Carnegie, 2010; Snow et al., 2009). Unfortunately, in policy and practice K – 3 often sees more attention to contributors to word reading, such as phonics, alphabet knowledge, phonemic awareness, at the expense of meaning-based skills, including oral language development (speaking and listening), comprehension, and vocabulary (e.g., Duke & Block, 2012). This may partially explain poor performance on the MEAP, which requires not only word reading but comprehension as well. Many states thus include definitions of reading that entail comprehension as well as word reading skill (see, e.g., the language from Massachusetts bill, lines 28-37).

Moving forward in state literacy policy
The National Governors Association is actively working with states on policies to support early literacy (http://www.nga.org/files/live/sites/NGA/files/pdf/2013/1310NGAEarlyLiteracyReportWeb.pdf) and would be very happy to provide assistance in the further development of policy in this area (although the governor’s office would need to be involved in the request). The three of us are each called on to inform literacy policy in other states, and would also be happy to contribute to the development of policy initiatives here in Michigan. As policymakers continue to shape the state strategy, some of the questions that may be worth considering include the following:

• Can changes be made to state policies related to child care subsidies or licensing to enable more quality services and instruction in child care settings?
• Is there a way to expand pre-K services? In Minnesota, they offer matching funds and technical assistance to targeted school districts to use Title I money for pre-K.
• Can the state further invest in home visiting programs to increase parents’ capacity to support literacy and language development at home?
• Can the state increase attendance in full-day kindergarten programs? (The Education Commission of the States paper on kindergarten could be helpful in considering this.)
• Michigan law requires that every student who does not show proficiency on the reading portion of the MEAP in 4th or 7th grade shall receive “special assistance reasonably expected to enable the pupil to bring his or her reading skills to grade level within 12 months.” MCL 380.1278 (8). Can the state do more to implement this existing law?
• Can summer reading programs, which have been shown to improve and help close gaps in literacy achievement, be encouraged from the state level?
• Can adolescent and subject-area literacy development be foregrounded and supported with requirements for more course work in teacher education and for sustained professional development on adolescent literacy for academic subject-area teachers?
• Can middle- and high-school curricula and course offerings be developed to better support adolescent students’ continued literacy skill development?
• Can better and more plentiful text materials be made available throughout all schools in the state to ensure that our children and youth are provided opportunities to read high-quality, challenging, and engaging texts in a range of subject areas?

Again, thank you for the opportunity to comment on this bill and for all you are doing for Michigan’s children. If you require any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us.

References

Barnett, S. W. (2001). Preschool education for economically disadvantaged children: Effects on reading achievement and related outcomes. In S. B. Neuman & D. K. Dickinson (Eds.), Handbook of early literacy research (pp. 421 – 443). New York: Guilford.

Darling-Hammond, L. (2010). The flat world and education: How America’s commitment to equity will determine our future. New York: Teachers College Press.

Dennis, D. V., Kroeger, D., Welsh, J., Brummer, R. and Baek, E. (2010). The road thus far: Long-term academic outcomes of Florida's third-grade retention policy. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Literacy Research Association, Fort Worth, TX. 

Duke, N. K., & Block, M. K. (2012). Improving reading in the primary grades. In I. Sawhill, R. Murnane, & C. Snow, (Issue Eds.), Future of Children, 22(2), 55–72.
Eide, E. R., & Showalter, M.H. (2001). The effect of grade retention on educational and labor market outcomes.  Economics of Education Review 20, 563–576. 

Gottfried, M. A. (2013). Retained students and classmates' absences in urban schools. American Educational Research Journal, 50, 1392–1423.

Greenleaf, C., Schoenbach, R., Cziko, C., & Mueller, F. L. (2001). Apprenticing adolescent readers to academic literacy. Harvard Educational Review, 71(1), 79-129. 

Guthrie, J. T., Wigfield, A., Barbosa, P., Perencevich, K. C., Taboada, A. M., Davis, H., Scafiddi, N. T., & Tonks, S.  (2004). Increasing reading comprehension and engagement through Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction, J Ed Psych, 96.

Lamy, C., Barnett, W. S., Jung, K. (2005). The effects of the Michigan School Readiness Program on young children’s abilities at kindergarten entry. The National Institute for Early Education Research Rutgers University. nieer.org/resources/research/multistate/mi.pdf

Lee, V. E., & Burkham, D. T. (2002). Inequality at the starting gate: Social background differences in achievement as children begin school. Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute.

Pearson, P. D., Moje, E. B., & Greenleaf, C. (2010).  Literacy and science: Each in the service of the other." Science 328: 459-463.

Romance, N. R., & Vitale, M. R.  (1992). A curriculum strategy that expands time for in-depth elementary science instruction by using science-based reading strategies: Effects of a year-long study in grade four. J Res Sci Teach, 29(6), 545-554.

Romance, N. R., & Vitale,M. R.  (2001). Implementing an in-depth expanded science model in elementary schools: Multi-year findings, research issues, and policy implications. Int J Sci Ed, 23(4), 373-404.

Schoenbach, R., & Greenleaf, C. (2012). Reading for understanding: How Reading Apprenticeship improves disciplinary learning in secondary and college classrooms San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. 

Shanahan, T., Callison, K., Carriere, C., Duke, N. K., Pearson, P. D., Schatschneider, C., & Torgesen, J. (2010). Improving reading comprehension in kindergarten through 3rd grade: A practice guide (NCEE 2010-4038). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from whatworks.ed.gov/publications/practice guides.

Snow, C. E., Lawrence, J., & White, C. (2009). Generating knowledge of academic language among urban middle school students. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 2, 325-344.

(For biographical information on the authors of this report , http://sitemaker.umich.edu/nkduke/home; www.umich.edu\~moje; http://www.soe.umich.edu/people/profile/annemarie_sullivan_palincsar/)

This article is from the International Reading Association’s Literacy Research Panel. Reader response is welcomed. E-mail your comments to LRP@/

It was a beautiful spring afternoon, downright hot, and the sprinklers were on the lawn at the school, all quiet at this late hour. It was a nice school in a quiet suburb—fairly advantaged in the scheme of things.

It was the mid-1990s. A colleague and I were there to check out their new equipment. The admin had gotten help from IBM to set up a couple computers with a new program. Clunky by today’s standards, this software let you walk down a path in the forest, notice a sparkly bit on a tree, and lo and behold, click it and there’s a bear cub peering out at you. Sure we make fun of it today—but at the time, it was part of appreciating nature. Specifically, it related to our district environmental centre on a lake outside town. 

Don’t get me wrong: everyone has their passion and computers were the cutting edge at the time. But I was appalled to think folks were so excited about this—couldn’t we just spend money to take the kids out there? 

This centre in the forest was a jewel for our district. All grade fives got a week’s stay, but teachers wangled it for other classes if they could. Of course, some kids have outdoorsy adventures with their own families—but most do not. For many children, some spiders in the shrubs, or watching the crows pull crusts from the trash can on the playground are what counts as a ‘nature experience.’ 

p: woodleywonderworks via photopin

I experienced a powerful disconnect—it was rude to scoff at what the principal was clearly so proud of. But how could it compare? Why sit at a machine when we can give kids real experiences, dipping up tadpoles, laughing and getting soggy and muddy themselves. Or listening for the strange sounds in the forest when we would sit so quietly, and being really cold at night in their sleeping bags on the rustic beds in the cabins. In the morning they can fry eggs and pancakes like real campers.

Of course, this software was just the beginning. Amazing to think how far we’ve come—the next year we were all internetted and thinking Netscape was so cool. Now it’s 2014. YouTube, Facebook and Twitter were all created in the mid-2000s, just a few years ago—but we barely recall “the time before”. 

“...[T]echnology changes so rapidly that it clouds our memory of things as they existed but a few years before... We lose a part of our humanity, a historical sense of our recent selves.” (Bauerlein)

So we rush forward feeling ‘the future is now’, having heard our whole lives that we were teaching kids whose later lives we could not imagine. 

The lure of it all is inescapable—and I’m right there with you. Browsing dozens of URLs, falling down any number of rabbit holes. The world is fascinating, and every reference, every image—it’s all right there at your fingertips.

Teens text hundreds of times a day and keep their phones nearby day and night. Parents don’t dare suggest cutting off Facebook and texting—it’s a new “place”, an entirely new layer of socialness. You might as well say they can’t go to the mall with a friend. And parents don’t want their kids left behind—they clamour for more SmartBoards, raising money with bake sales, even while the playground equipment needs sprucing up. But it creates a frenzy, this siren call of gizmos.

We know the curriculum is fragmented as it is. It takes longer than you thought to set up the activity—writing or maybe a craft. Finally everyone is pretty much into it. There is a happy buzz —but you are watching the clock: it’s snack time prior to recess, or someone’s delivering the lunch and milk orders. Or you must get the spelling pre-test done. “Stop, everyone—put that away, we’ll work on it tomorrow...” 

As teachers we get caught up in that rush of many demands, but children and parents will thank us if we can ourselves present a calm demeanor. We should reassure people, “It’s okay. Really.” As educators our job is to step back and find this balance—to give adequate time to each lesson. In some ways “less is more.” 

A favorite teacher of teachers used to say, “Stop interrupting the children!” The forty-five minute period seems far too short to do the intro and get into quality work—the work that requires thought and depth. 

In the past few decades we have really learned how to use great interactive approaches. When hyped in advance with rich sensory details—“imagine the smells, the sounds”—even small children can form an ‘Oprah’ style panel that responds to deeper questioning from their peers. 

“So how did you feel, Cinderella, when you saw your sisters in their fancy clothes, going out the door to the party?” Or, “Were you afraid, when the fairy godmother said the coach would turn back into a pumpkin if you were late?” 

Not only do these take time in the set-up, we know that kids, when put on the spot, need time to think—‘wait time’. Your children can be trained to be very courteous in this regard. “Just wait, give him a moment,” while you all listen briefly to the furnace fan and the classroom noise next door. It’s a thoughtful pause.

Another approach uniquely offers a structure for study in depth. It generates excitement through the very natural power of “the hunt” and the satisfaction we feel when we find new treasures. Learning in Depth (LiD) is the brain child of Kieran Egan, whose earlier work helped teachers vividly tap into kids’ imaginations with the power of story.

The structure of LiD is audacious to consider: in a child’s first year of school, he or she is assigned a topic they’ll work on individually for their entire school career, spending one hour each week to learn everything imaginable about the topic. Looking at the suggested topics chart, we see they are all nouns—bones, mountains, stone—though some are more abstract or broad such as humour or counting systems. Others are already a lifetime study for adults—musical instruments, sacred buildings. The sheer diversity offers rich performance and display opportunities over the years—weaving and spinning, Olympic games, dance. 

The notion that the topic is assigned brings an instant response from many—why not let kids choose? In fact, the point is made that all these topics are worthy of great depth of inquiry and pursuit. It proves the point, in not being your choice—not dinosaurs, not Lego. You can easily imagine how ‘apples’ leads to a visit to an orchard, an interview with an orchardist, cooking, and categorizing. The apple in myth and history—odd to think both Eve and Snow White fell to its juicy temptation.

Whether apples, bridges, or castles, the school community creates a ‘buzz’ around this event—the day you learn what your topic is to be. To take one topic year after year gives children a lot of scope with technology, a variety of presentation forms, collaboration opportunities, and not least, real world connections. It can be argued this is a holistic approach at its best.

Schools and families involved often praise LiD. A wealth of resources and examples of student work can be found on the LiD website. 

Step back and remember our sunny day with the sprinklers and a little bear in the tree on the screen. We will learn the technology along with our kids, but we must make wise choices to show how the sensory richness of the world can be brought to every hour. 

As adults we know what feels good, what wholeness and balance feel like. So too we must nourish some calm in our own classrooms. Children need time for play and exploration in the material world. It will sound odd to say, but now we must actually build it in, since many do not get much time for it otherwise. 

Don’t forget—less is more.

Linda Rightmire offers workshops and mentoring sessions on a structured partner reading approach that emphasizes Allington’s Six Elements of Reading Instruction. She also tutors students in individual and group reading sessions, and works as a teacher on call in the Kamloops-Thompson School District in British Columbia. Her articles have appeared in the regional daily newspaper and elsewhere.