Literacy Now

As an eighth-grade English language arts teacher with 45-minute periods, my time with students has always seemed far too short. When my district switched to 90-minute blocks for language arts classes a few years ago, I thought I would finally have the time I needed to teach and ensure my students completed their work. However, after a lot of reflection and discussions with colleagues, I realized my long-standing practice of not assigning much reading homework was undermining my instructional time—even with the longer block.

When we moved to the longer blocks, along with a switch to a new language arts curriculum, it seemed logical to have students do the reading assignments in class. It’s a common practice, and it made sense because the text complexity of the new program was a big change for my students. But the result wasn’t what I expected. My pacing suffered terribly.

Let them do at home what they can handle on their own

Good reading instruction encourages students to revisit a text for multiple purposes, and I was doing that. But having students read the text first during class and then also do a deep analysis of the reading material in class was repetitive and, frankly, a little boring.

My colleagues and I realized we needed to assign the reading material as homework to improve our pacing and convey high expectations. Our eighth-grade students were capable of wrestling with the text independently for a first read. They could wonder about a text while doing homework, and then, as a class, we could all move to deeper levels of understanding through a variety of classroom activities.

For example, one of the core texts we read is All Quiet on the Western Front, and the homework for one lesson includes reading a dozen pages while annotating for emotional responses (or lack thereof) of the men in the Second Company. In class, students share what they find and then purposefully reread the text to answer additional text-dependent questions. That rereading promotes deeper learning and ensures all students are accessing the text, even if they missed the homework.

When first reading a book or other text on their own, I ask students to jot down what they notice and wonder, which serves as an entry point for our lesson in class. This supports them in reading longer, more complex materials with greater comprehension.

It’s important to help students, especially middle school students, become more self-directed and take ownership of their work. That will help them as they move up into high school and college. By asking students to complete more work outside of class, I’m supporting my students, not letting them down.

This approach makes especially good sense with reading, which doesn’t involve lab supplies or computer programs—just a quiet corner and a book, which they hopefully can find at home.

Four strategies to support and motivate students with reading homework

Making the shift to assigning reading at home rather than in class can be challenging, but it is worth the effort. Good reading instruction gives students multiple opportunities to engage with the content, so if a student doesn’t complete the homework, they will still have a chance to engage with the text. Over time, students will be more intrinsically motivated to complete the homework so that they can engage with their peers during class. Here are some strategies to try:

• Assign homework, especially reading homework, that is closely tied to what students are doing in class.
• Ask students, through homework prompts, to engage with reading by noticing and wondering about it. In class, use practices to encourage even deeper levels of analysis with your support and peer support.
• Give parents an entry point for discussions with their kids by providing a question related to the reading homework. Send the question through email or posted in a virtual space.
• Use tools like Equity Sticks to randomize student selection during class discussion. Write the names of your students and place them in a jar. During class, select a stick from the jar to check for understanding, ask for reflections, and have that student share thoughts on a reading. Making the process random removes any teacher bias, but you should also ensure your students know that they can pass at any time free of consequence or scrutiny.

I know homework seems out of date in some teaching circles. Kids are busy, and they need downtime, not busy work. But giving students rich reading assignments to engage with from home is hardly busy work. Rather, it’s an instructional approach that can help improve their literacy skills and free up time during the school day for more robust teaching and learning. I’ve found it’s hard to argue with that.

Krystle Gleason, an educator with 16 years of experience, has taught both high school English and eighth-grade language arts. She currently is an eighth-grade teacher at Mad River Local Schools in Dayton, OH. She also works part time as a PD facilitator for Great Minds, the developer of the Wit & Wisdom English language arts curriculum. She is passionate about helping each of her students reach their potential.

Distance learning at the height of the pandemic took its toll on students academically and emotionally. Even though most students are back in class this year, things aren’t quite back to normal. Most are wearing masks and many are living with the impact of COVID-19 on their lives and in their communities. In our work with schools, we hear that students continue to crave connection and higher levels of engagement.

But how do we help students stay connected and engaged in deeper learning when being at school still means communicating through masks, dealing with student and teacher absences due to COVID-19 exposures, and catching up on lessons and learning experiences lost to distance learning? There is, of course, no one solution to the problem, but many educators are finding that project-based learning (PBL) provides a way forward by developing knowledge and skills through authentic learning experiences that generate student interest and enthusiasm.

Authenticity is a key feature of high-quality PBL. In our ongoing work codesigning and researching project-based learning with high school English language arts teachers in Colorado and Michigan, we created a set of literacy-related PBL projects that teachers can adapt to their own ELA curriculum and community. Students and teachers have given us great feedback on these resources and report that the most successful projects are those that feel real and important,  projects that call for students to do work that they and other people care about.

For example, a ninth-grade student we’re calling Sara (to protect her privacy) was in a project-based ELA class at a high school in northern Colorado. In one project, her teacher, Robert Laurie, supported his students to be “human interest storytellers” and consider the questions “What happened here?” and “How do authors use time, place, and perspective to tell a compelling story of what happened?” In project-based learning classrooms, students often have choice and voice in creating final products, and that was the case in Mr. Laurie’s classroom, where students could present their stories in a variety of formats. Sara ended up creating a short video, or “digital story.”

Her experience demonstrates the three main ways project-based learning activities can be authentic:

• to the learner
• to others
• through the tools and practices used

Sometimes, as was the case for Sara, a project is authentic in all three ways.

Authentic to the learner

Sara found the project to be personally relevant to her, as did many of her peers. First, the class read a series of short personal vignettes, such as one about the 2013 floods in Colorado in which days of historic rainfall led to massive flooding and dangerous mudslides. Then the students wrote vignettes based on the same themes but tied to their own lives and experiences. The themes included “a decision,” “your neighborhood,” “an event,” and “someone you know.”

After Sara wrote four personal vignettes, she chose the most compelling to build out into a video story. It told about the invasive back surgery she experienced a little over a year before because of her scoliosis. She felt the vignette was meaningful because it was so personally difficult and important to her and to her relationships with others. Composing a more elaborate story was an opportunity to dig= deeper.

Authentic tools and practices

When it came to how Sara went about making her video, she followed practices that professional filmmakers use—scripting and storyboarding—to plan the sequence of her video content, narration, and images. After doing some research, and with the guidance of her teacher, Sara used a software program called WeVideo that uses the same kinds of conventions that high-end video editing programs use. These tools and practices provided essential elements of scaffolding, as the storyboard provided a means for laying out the pieces and working on the flow, and the WeVideo program enabled Sara to try out the ideas in her refined storyboard.

What she was doing was authentic to film production as well as English language arts. Rather than asking students to complete separate, isolated assignments to fulfill ELA standards, Mr. Laurie integrated standards-based instruction into the long-term project. He supported Sara in developing skills such as effectively expressing herself and telling a compelling multimodal story. Part of the drive to craft and hone a compelling story came from the third element of authenticity: making sure it resonated with others.

Authentic to others

The ultimate goal of this project was to create a product that Sara would be proud to share in a public film festival. Mr. Laurie organized the festival with a flyer advertising the films that would be shown and scheduled it for a time when parents could come. After the screening, Sara admitted to feeling nervous because the project was so personal. But she said she was glad she decided to share it. She noted that it was “a way for me to connect to my parents about this, because one of the problems that I had after my surgery was that they tried to be there, but I didn’t really feel like they were taking care of me. They got angry at me, and I got angry at them.” After they watched the video, Sara and her parents talked about those tensions with the benefit of looking back.

Project-based learning can be a great way to engage students in deeper conversations not only with their peers but also with their families and the community around them, particularly through public presentations with authentic audiences. In the case of Sara, it led to a rich dialogue with friends and family about a topic on which she became an expert.

Bring PBL into your classroom

We know that project-based learning can feel daunting at first. However, it’s worth giving it a try. The teachers we have observed and worked with almost invariably attest to it being worthwhile, especially in these challenging times when young people are so in need of joyful learning experiences that feel meaningful to them. If you’re wondering where to start, just ask your students. They know what’s authentic to them!

Joe Polman and Alison Boardman are professors at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education. Polman is a professor of learning sciences and human development who specializes in project-based learning environments. Boardman is an associate professor of equity, bilingualism, and biliteracy who explores literacy instruction that is supportive of all learners in inclusive classrooms. They are coauthors, with Antero Garcia and Bridget Dalton, of the book Compose Our World: Project-Based Learning in Secondary English Language Arts, a finalist for the Literacy Research Association’s Edward B. Fry Book Award for best books in literacy research and practice in 2021. They also are codevelopers of the ninth-grade ELA curriculum highlighted in the book.

The tutor’s exasperated look was clear in my monitor. Her first-grade student had disappeared once again to seek out a toy to share and her literacy tutoring session had become another episode of show and tell. The tutor was looking to me, her coach, for help. It was up to me to lead and guide.

How could we engage this student in a meaningful learning activity in this new online world?

A pandemic challenge

The COVID-19 pandemic brought about a rapid transition from face-to-face to online teaching for most educators. Our Literacy Research Center and Clinic at University of Wyoming had become accustomed to one-on-one tutoring in a physical space in triads: elementary student, undergraduate tutor, and literacy coach. When we had to move tutoring to an online environment, it brought many challenges.

The largest of these challenges was how to teach writing. Our traditional approaches to supporting young writers were no longer possible, at least not without creative adjustment. When a student wrote and showed their writing, the text would often appear backward on the camera. Keyboarding for some students was laborious, and students limited their production because typing was a slow process and they lost their train of thought or lost interest, frustrated by their inability to produce a text in a timely manner.

For the youngest of students, the challenges were numerous. They were now learning how to negotiate the online platforms while learning literacy skills. They also were not in physical proximity, so keeping them engaged and focused on the tasks became problematic. They learned to turn off their sound and their camera, and distractions were numerous as they worked in their homes. One of our first graders even began to ask her Alexa device for spellings, which brought a moment of brevity. This particular first grader is also the one featured in the opening who turned each tutoring time into a show and tell session about her toys. It became clear that we were going to need to work with her interests if we were going to engage her in reading and writing.

Let’s try an old approach

The tutor and I met to debrief after a particularly challenging tutoring session, and we discussed how to work with writing in an online environment. During our conversation, I found myself discussing a language experience approach (LEA) to writing for this student. This approach was one I’d used with young students earlier in my career, and I thought it might work in our new reality.

Could we take her stories about her toys and turn them into a dictate story, typing them live as she dictated, and then use them for a text to practice reading? We decided to give this a try during the next few sessions.

Success celebrated

A good reminder

LEA has been around since the 1960s. Some references even say it has been used since 1920. It has been used most recently to support adult learners and English learners. As a literacy teacher, I hadn’t thought about using this approach with young readers and writers for a very long time. This use during a tutoring session was a strong reminder of its benefits. The student saw her thoughts and story appear in written text in real time. She saw oral language become written language. She successfully authored a text that could then be used for reading practice. She was engaged and motivated and produced a text that served as a model for further writing.

Of course, the student also engaged in her own physical writing over time in the tutoring sessions and that aspect of writing development is important. Beginning with this approach, though, served to build confidence and modeled the writing process for her, keying off her oral language and interests.

Even though it was used out of necessity when transitioning to an online environment, the success experienced was a good reminder that this type of approach can work in any learning environment to create and support the authoring of text and to allow students to begin to form an identity as a writer and reader.

Instructional tips

• Find opportunities. When students seem disengaged or frustrated with writing, this can be one method for engaging them. It makes their thinking visible in print and uses their authentic language to produce a text for reading practice.
• Connect reading. You are creating an authentic text. Encourage students to read the text for a variety of purposes and audiences.
• Support all students. This approach can be adapted for a variety of student needs.

Amy Spiker is the newly appointed executive director of the Literacy Research Center and Clinic at the University of Wyoming. She teaches literacy courses to preservice and inservice elementary teachers.

Organization, neatness, and structure have never come naturally to me. I will be the first to admit that I am one of the least organized people you will ever meet. My to-do list rarely gets finished; I have a desktop that is a mosaic of mismatched files and downloads; my office is cluttered with books, sticky notes, and note cards; and don’t even get me started on my closet. Perhaps my penchant for clutter, chaos, and disarray is why I have such a love for writing and teaching it.

Writing is messy

You see, real, honest, authentic writing is messy. Real writing is that early morning, just-out-of-bed look—not the “I’m ready for my close up,” pretend this is how I look at 5:00 a.m., Instagram post–worthy version. Nah. Real, authentic writing does not just emerge polished and ready to publish. Instead, it often requires practice and work. To quote Dolly Parton in Steel Magnolias, “It takes some effort to look like this!” and writing is no different. It is a unique process, complicated and non-linear. Recursive and dynamic. The writing process is organized chaos. Fragments falling. Sentence puzzles taken apart and put back together. Words omitted. Words added. There is no one right way to write. And this is why I love it.

And this is why students need to write often and for a variety of purposes: They need practice. Authentic writing is rarely formulaic, neatly contained, and boxed in. It can’t be reduced to a clever acronym where students fill in the blanks and respond, and it certainly isn’t something that we can race to complete. Because real writing looks messy, it requires deliberate planning and purpose, strategic thinking and decision making, and careful consideration and awareness of audience and purpose. Plus, writing often and for a variety of purposes not only helps students become better writers but also aids in their development as readers.

The only way that students will get better at writing is by writing. Writing engagements can be used in any content classroom, at any time, and with any audience. Regardless of a student’s reading or writing skills or level, there is some type of writing that they can do daily.

Parachute Writings

I use the term Parachute Writings (PWs) to describe quick writing opportunities that can be easily deployed in the classroom. PWs can be dropped into just about any lesson and require limited up front preparation.

Just like parachutes prevent skydivers from crashing into the ground, PWs offer an element of safety for students. They are quick, low stakes, and flexible, which provides students the opportunity to practice multiple writing skills for a variety of purposes and audiences in short bursts.

PWs can be conducted with a partner or in a group setting, which offers another level of safety. Think about real skydivers: Before they attempt a solo jump, they take part in tandem jumps as part of their learning and training. Writing is no different. Building confidence in writing often is achieved through collaborative exercises and peer engagements.

PWs can be dropped into lessons at multiple points in your teaching on a frequent, daily basis; however, you need to be mindful about when the writing should be deployed and where. Although versatile and flexible, there is a specific element of purposeful implementation when using PWs. When planning PWs and adding them into lessons, it is helpful to consider the overall objectives and goals of the lesson.

Here are some easy PWs that you might try in your own teaching.

• Drop Drafts are great PWs that can be used at any point in a lesson. Have students stop what they are doing and write for a minute or so (this can be in the form of a prompt or question posed by the teacher or other writing task). Remind students that this writing is only going to be seen by them so they will be more likely to write truthfully and freely. After the students finish their Drop Draft, have them crumble up their papers and “drop” them in the trash on the way out the door. Because this PW is not graded or read by peers, it can be used not only for clarification or understanding of content but also for sensitive, non-academic issues.
• Quick writes (QWs) are some of the easiest PWs because they can take on multiple forms with the click of a pen. In a flash, QWs can transform into a whole different writing engagement based on the context and purpose of the lesson. These quick bursts of writing are often shared with peers or extended later into more developed pieces of writing. Plus, quick writes offer students the ability to read and respond to a variety of texts using any number of activator questions or thinking prompts.
  
  Easy QWs might involve a small excerpt of text such as song lyrics, a short passage from a novel, or a poem. You might ask students to write about what the piece reminds them of, have them borrow a line from the writing, or pick out words they like. You can also use images, movie clips, and objects for QWs. For example, one summer I used slices of watermelon as a descriptive writing QW for my students. QWs are great not only for daily writing but also for extension opportunities. If students connect with a particular QW, they can choose to extend it to a more developed piece later.
• Hear This is a strategy that works extremely well with listening and speaking lessons, highly descriptive texts, or concepts that require students to visualize material. An easy way to incorporate this type of writing is in tandem with highly descriptive material. As the text is read aloud to the students, they draw what they hear, thus creating a physical visual of the material. After students have created this visual accompaniment to the read-aloud text, have them add words from the text on sticky address labels or sticky notes and affix them to the drawing. This is a great way to teach not only listening comprehension and visualization but also textual evidence.

Regardless of the subject area or grade level, offering students multiple opportunities to write helps them grow into strong, confident writers. Try deploying one of these Parachute Writing activities into your lessons and watch your students soar.

Interested in reading about more high-interest, engaging ways to get students to write? Pick up a copy of Write Now and Write On: 37 Strategies for Authentic Daily Writing in Every Content Area to learn more about easy-to-implement writing ideas for students.

ILA member Rebecca G. Harper is an associate professor of literacy at Augusta University, Georgia. She serves as an invited speaker and keynote presenter for a variety of literacy conferences and delivers literacy professional development sessions across the United States. Her research interests include sociocultural theory, critical literacy, and content and disciplinary literacy. She resides in Aiken, SC, with her husband, Will, and children, Amelia, Macy Belle, and Vin. You can follow her on Twitter and on Instagram.

Literacy opens the door and opportunity to freedom—to engage in a world separate from the one in which you reside. If you allow yourself to enter, your options are endless. Frederick Douglass said, “Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” Literacy offers that opportunity. It opens a door to freedom that can be conceived only once it is obtained.

However, lacking in this ability connects to a prison of the mind, a prison that holds many of our Black and Brown children hostage, and a prison that can prevent all students from experiencing the joy that we know literacy can bring to their lives.

Teaching to dream

Finding the joy in literacy requires the ability to dream. We know our students come with many different needs and differences. But the ability to dream should be afforded to everyone regardless of skill level or ability. A dream is a cherished ambition, aspiration, or ideal.

As educators, we must believe for our students what they sometimes do not believe for themselves. Your dreams for your students’ achievements and expectations go hand in hand and can open the door for a reality that can supersede your greatest expectations. Having great aspirations for your students will increase their desire to reach them.

Research has proven that high expectations improve performance. What you believe about your students can be a motivating factor in or a deterrent to their progress. You may see scores you don’t like or a curriculum that does not support your aspirations for your students. But I urge you: Do not allow your eyes or your present reality to deter your dreams. Believe what can be. Help your students by allowing them the freedom to dream. Let the dreams that you have become the goals that you set. Communicate the dreams you have about your students to them so they know you believe. Make your dreams visible so students can see them. Display vision boards so students can connect with what you envision.

Help make dreams become reality. Push for necessary changes to curriculum. Do not let policies stifle the possibilities that are endless when dreams and high expectations collide.

Time for change

I can speak confidently because of my special education background. I have seen students find their joy in literacy. For eight years, I was immersed in it. I taught high school life skills. My struggle daily was having to use a reading program that lacked both a focus on phonemic awareness and texts that were grade-level appropriate. Students’ reading levels were between first and fourth grade but their ages were 14–21.

Once my district found a program that concentrated on phonics, as well as grade-level culturally responsive texts with diverse representation and relevant topics, dreams became realities. I saw Lexile levels soar 30 to 50 points in three months. Confidence that I never saw before in the eyes of my students appeared, and I saw the doors of opportunity and possibility open, and areas of darkness become lightened.

Opportunities were on the horizon for my students. That same possibility can exist for more students if we just begin to shift the narrative and change our perspective. I never stopped dreaming no matter what my reality was. Because of that, I firmly believe that all students can walk in freedom and the joy of literacy.  

Trenèe Chimère Lurry has been a special education teacher for the past eight years. She is a firm believer that representation matters and there is a greater need for it in our schools. This led her to pursue her master’s in educational leadership, which she completed in May 2021.

This post is a companion piece to the July/August/September issue of Literacy Today, ILA’s member magazine, which focuses on the theme of Joy in Literacy Instruction.