Literacy Now

Janiel Wagstaff always wanted to be a teacher, but didn’t realize the role literacy would play in her career. Once she came upon the strategies of a literacy coach, she was hooked and is the author of professional development books and workshops in addition to serving as a literacy coach and ELA coordinator at a K-6 school in Utah. She now adds picture book author to her resume with the Stella Writes series about a student who tackles all sorts of writing. Wagstaff also maintains a blog on literacy.

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

I come from a family of teachers and grew up instinctively knowing what I wanted to do.  When I was young, I made a classroom in my closet complete with a desk, supplies, artwork on the walls and stuffed animal pupils.  I created, completed, and corrected assignments.  I had no doubt of my major in college, driving straight through to my degree.  My first teaching assignment was second grade in a portable classroom out behind the school.  We had one tiny slice of a window and it was much like back to teaching in a closet!  That was more than 25 years ago.

Back then, we did a whole lot of worksheets.  That first year, I realized my students weren’t making the progress in reading and writing I’d expected.  We were working so hard, yet spinning our wheels. My “low kids” were still low at the end of the year.  That frustration led me to continue my studies, searching, in particular, for literacy strategies that would make a real difference for my young readers and writers.  I was fortunate to discover teaching methods that worked and my greatest joy was watching students come in struggling and go out thriving. They talked endlessly about favorite books, and moaned when it was time to end our writing workshop each day.  I was hooked.  I was a “literacy person.”

This passion for literacy has taken me in and out of the classroom.  I taught full-time at the university level, but couldn’t stay away from the energy of kids!  Currently, I work as a full-time literacy coordinator, supporting literacy learning by working with teachers and students in two K-6 schools in my district.

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

ILA has been important to me throughout my entire career.  I joined right away and relished curling up in the evenings with The Reading Teacher and attending and presenting at our state chapter conferences.  I wrote a few short articles for RT, published some 20 years ago.  This early success in the ILA community was thrilling and fueled my desire to learn, teach, and share with other educators, and write even more.  Ten published books later, The Reading Teacher is still one of my favorite go-to resources.

I learn so much attending and presenting at ILA’s state and national conferences.  The opportunity to hear and meet many of my literacy heroes is invigorating.  I always return home from these events with renewed energy and purpose.  I have to also mention the incredible support available through ILA’s many online outlets.  As a member of ILA, I can learn and reenergize 24/7!

What do you consider to be your proudest career moment?

For many of us, our proudest career moments happen when our students succeed.  After all, we got into this profession to impact learners.  Triumphs with particular students tend to stand out.  One kindergarten year, I had a student who struggled, struggled, and struggled to learn to read and write even at the most emergent levels.  Others in the class were charging forward, using alphabet-knowledge they worked so hard to acquire as real readers and real writers.  Meanwhile, this student was foundering. I had assessed, used all my tricks, completed several interventions, and involved the parents, with no progress.  Something was truly holding this little guy back and, even with many years of teaching under my belt, I couldn’t figure out what it was.  Even though he was only a kindergartner, I knew something was blocking his success and it wasn’t just a matter of his tender age.  Luckily, with the help of our school’s speech pathologist, we were able to find a pathway to reach him.  He began to grow and by the end of the year, he was a success story.  But his tale doesn’t end there.  This student is now 20 and, to this day, he keeps in touch with me.  His family recently thanked me for recognizing his difficulty early on and doing something about it.  Best of all, this young man loves to write.  He writes poetry and short stories.  He’s using writing to reflect on his place in the world.  He shares his compositions with me and with others on the internet, hoping to one day be published.  Write on!

I also have to mention an incredible recent career moment.  After writing with students for so many years, I was finally able to celebrate the teaching, learning, and joy of writing by publishing three picture books about an avid little writer named Stella!  Stella writes a narrative in one book, an opinion in another, and works collaboratively with her class to compose an informative text in the third.  The best part is she is real.  She has trouble, she gets stuck, she uses writing strategies, she perseveres, she writes for real purposes, and she believes in the power of writing.  Her teacher, Ms. Merkley is an excellent model and Stella is, too.  She’s a little writer to connect with other little writers.  Creating these delightful books has been a dream come true!

Your website has a header: “All Things Literacy Because Literacy Matters in All Things.” Can you talk a little about what you mean by that?

Literacy is everywhere and critical for success in every facet of our lives.  I think our number one job as teachers is to support children in becoming proficient listeners, speakers, readers, writers, and thinkers.  It is equally important to help every child develop a love of literacy, recognizing the many different benefits reading and writing afford us. Losing oneself in a book for enjoyment or to simply escape can be as therapeutic as keeping a journal or composing a poem to tease-out one’s feelings.  Literacy is not just important for college and career—literacy is important for a healthy, happy life!  

Coaching is a hot topic right now. What do you enjoy most about that work? What’s the greatest challenge?

Funny, what I enjoy about coaching most is also its greatest challenge!  I love working with kindergartners at 9 a.m. on phonemic awareness, then jumping up to sixth grade at 9:30 to work on argumentative writing.  The diversity of the students, the lessons, the strategies, and the pace of the work is all very exciting.  Working hand-in-hand with teachers is also rewarding and coaches wear many hats.  The job keeps me on my toes, constantly learning.  The challenge comes when I’m feeling wiped out by 2 p.m. and there’s still important work to do! 

What advice would you give a new teacher that either you received or wish you had?

My best advice is to strive to make learning purposeful and joyful.  When students see a real purpose for their hard work, they love to work hard at learning.  Help them feel important.  Show them they have power.  When you teach something think, what might I have students do with this growing knowledge?  How might they share what they’re learning beyond our classroom walls?  How can our learning benefit or impact others?   Ask the students themselves for ideas.  Find a real purpose, encourage them to work for it, and you will enjoy joyful learning.

Yes, everyone has their “bad days” and teaching is a real challenge; sometimes it feels we run and run but can’t keep up.  Here’s a tip that will help keep things in perspective.  Post a class picture of your own child or a cherished niece or nephew right next to your computer.  When the going gets tough, look at that picture.  See that precious child standing among his classmates and think, ‘What kind of a teacher do I want for him?  What kind of a classroom do I want him to be a part of every day?”  Then make that your classroom.  Make your decisions based on what that teacher would do.  Be that teacher because every single one of your students is just that precious.

April Hall is editor of Reading Today Online. She can be reached at ahall@/.

Four years ago I came across Drive by Daniel Pink. This professional reading continues to empower my teaching practice. Drive focuses on how to avoid meaningless work by engaging in work for a purpose. Pink’s writing focuses on three specific characteristics of work: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. He describes autonomy as the urge to direct our own course, mastery as the drive to improve, and purpose as the reasoning behind what we do.

Still today I take to heart what Pink wrote. Not only do I apply it to my personal life, I also implement it in my classroom. I have found it is difficult to have students work towards a larger purpose by asking them to hang their work outside the classroom. Instead, I look for ways to learn outside of the classroom while asking the students to work with a purpose. We then harness Twitter, Skype, and other technological vehicles to connect the student’s work with other classes, organizations, and businesses to ensure students are working for a purpose.

This year my students participated in the National Association of Independent Schools Challenge 20/20 program. This program is an Internet-based program teaming three classes to find solutions top global problems. To start, we connected with our partner schools in Rochester, NY, and Vitoria, Spain, to work on global biodiversity. Each class pursued a project covering one problem in their area. Our projects had the same enduring understandings of empathy, compassion, and collaboration. While working globally, we also connected locally with programs including The Dallas Zoo’s program about conservation and The Dallas World Aquarium’s shark program. These programs heightened my student’s passion for the subjects and allowed us to tie in other studies such as art, Spanish fluency, and literacy. We researched the geographic locations of shark habitats using Google Earth and learned about a global demand for shark fins driven partially by a cultural desire for shark fin soup.

The students then researched how we, as young learners, could solve this problem. This lead us to an organization called Sharks 4 Kids. One of the major components of Sharks 4 Kids is to educate and help kids learn to advocate for sharks. My students took this to heart and decided to collaborate on a book, All About Sharks, which we will share with the other classes in the Challenge. We are in the process of recording our book in both English and Spanish to post on YouTube to share globally.

The students ate up the shark research so much I tied in reading and writing nonfiction. I scheduled a field trip to The Dallas World Aquarium and each student picked an animal to research. They wrote four chapters with different chapter titles such as “Where Boas Live,” “What Boas Eat,” “Boa Babies,” and “Fun Facts.” I told students they would take photos of their researched animal during our trip. The reason was two-fold: first, students will have a purpose on the trip, second, for copyright issues. My librarian and I collaborated on our digital citizenship goals. Our goal included students citing sources and at this point in the school year this can be a bit daunting. While brainstorming solutions, one was for students to take pictures of the animals themselves.  We will also have students illustrate pictures in addition to using the Book Creator app.

My favorite moment so far this school year unfolded when we arrived at the aquarium. The sight mesmerized the students. As we forged ahead to the first exhibit, I heard squeaks and squeals of “Hey Marshall, look at your animal the three-toed sloth.” The students not only knew the facts about their animal, they knew their peers’ animals. They took their learning and owned it!

To keep the excitement going after these trips, I have planned Skype sessions with the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB) to hear the story of a rescued penguin named Beakie, Digital Explorers to hear about coral reefs, and Yoga Foster to participate in an ocean yoga lesson.

I know this can sound like a lot. I want to urge educators to start small. Take one question from a child or one topic and go with it. Make a list of local and virtual ideas. My favorite virtual ideas are Skype in the Classroom and Twitter. Talk with colleagues and ask for help. Our Spanish teacher helped me with the aquarium field trip by tracking animals using Google Maps and the students learned animal names in Spanish. They are also writing a sentence in Spanish about their animal for their book. The art teacher at my school tied in photography. She taught students how to take photos and the importance of light when taking photos on the trip.  

Once you start you will be simply amazed at how the learning extends outside of your classroom. Hold on tight and get ready to be amazed.

Allison Hogan is a primer teacher at The Episcopal School of Dallas in Texas where she teaches kindergarten and first grade. She holds a bachelor’s in communications from the University of North Florida and a graduate degree in education from Southern Methodist University where she specialized in reading and English as a Second Language. She has been recognized as a Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development Emerging Leader and a National Association of Independent Schools Teacher of the Future. She can be found on Twitter at @AllisonHoganESD or @PrimerESD.

Kindergarten is such a transitional time in the life of a 5-year-old and the crucial time to begin an exciting path to lifelong learner. That being said, it is critical Kindergarten teachers fill the emergent writers with tools for the rest of their school careers. One is how to write a story in a sequence. The easiest way is with something most of you have in your classroom, sequencing puzzles. You know that kit, the one with the three puzzle pieces that obviously fit together because the pictures go together—AND there is only one way for the pieces to fit.

It certainly isn’t the best activity to assess or even practice their sequencing skills, but let’s not throw the puzzles away too quickly. Use that puzzle set in a center to inspire writing in a sequence.

Put a set of the puzzles together under the document camera and have the students tell the story while pointing to each picture. “I see a jar of popcorn. I cook the popcorn. I eat the popcorn.” Introduce the students to the words: first, then, and last. Ask them to restate the sentences, adding those introduction words. “First, I see a jar of popcorn. Then, I cook the popcorn. Last, I eat the popcorn.” Practice this sequencing activity with a few completed puzzles each day for a week. Each day emphasize using the words first, then, and next.

The following week, revisit the puzzles. While the puzzles are displayed, write a sentence for each puzzle piece as a whole group. Providing a sheet with the transition words on it, students will create one story a day for a week. “First, I see the cow. Then, I milk the cow. Last, I drink the milk.” Once the students have practiced the art of orally telling a story in the correct sequence and writing the story with transition words, this becomes an independent center. I cleverly call it, “First, Then, Last.” I know it isn’t creative, but the students know exactly what to expect. I put three sets of puzzles in a resealable bag. The students choose a bag, and put the puzzles together. After they choose one puzzle they get a sequencing paper and start their independent story. This center can remain for the next several weeks or for the remainder of the school year. The same bags can be used because students choose a bag and a different puzzle to write the story. Eventually, the writing paper is replaced with word cards (first, then, last) and students can add more details to their stories as they are comfortable.

Eventually, students may add a comment about how much they like or don’t like milk or even about how it would be to milk a cow. Providing simple sequencing lessons lets a student experience success with writing. Each success puts another writing tool in their toolbox and future teachers can build on this skill to increase the rigor and expectations.

Cathy Collier is a reading specialist at Great Bridge Primary School in Chesapeake, VA, 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.

Happy New Year! Each year, educators are fortunate to have two opportunities to celebrate a new beginning. Filled with the anticipation and excitement of a brand-new school year, we often make resolutions to improve various aspects of our instruction. Now, as we ring in 2015, it’s a perfect opportunity to consider three small changes that will positively impact our students’ learning as we transform our literacy teaching to support them in meeting higher standards.

Strive for balance

Balance. It’s something we all aim for in our personal lives—a balanced diet, a balanced budget, a balance between work and play. Maintaining balance is essential in the era of higher standards. I’ve heard of many questionable instructional practices and shiny packaged programs being mandated in the name of Common Core. It’s time to use common sense! Wise teachers, like you, know better than to abandon the research-based stages of gradual release and proven practices like read-aloud, guided reading, and independent reading.

Now, more than ever, children need to hear rich literature read aloud on a daily basis. When carefully-selected literature is surrounded by collaborative conversations, listeners’ comprehension of complex text soars. Not only do we surround texts with discussion, but we also use them as mentor texts to demonstrate the strategic moves of proficient readers. Then, we scaffold as our readers try out what they’ve learned during guided practice. The descriptive feedback we provide, whether in small-guided reading groups or in individual conferences, is the key to nudging readers toward independence. Finally, to apply all of this learning in authentic context of self-selected books, students need ample time to engage in supported independent reading. Learners thrive in classrooms where caring educators know their readers, are knowledgeable about books, and can put the perfect book in each reader’s hands. With the words of great literature singing in their ears, students in balanced literacy classrooms are more likely to become confident, capable readers.

If you’re looking for more ideas or research to support the need for independent reading check out IRA’s recent Position Statement on Leisure Reading and Scholastic’s Open a World of Possible campaign. For more common sense information on finding balance in the Common Core Era see IRA’s Literacy Implementation Guidance for the ELA CCSS or Regie Routman’s recent blog post on Scholastic Administrators Site .

Notice the world around you

From your interactions with adults to conversations with children—words matter. No one educational researcher has had a greater influence on my thinking about words than Peter Johnston and his books Choice Words and Opening Minds.

From him, I’ve learned that every word I say in my classroom has a profound impact on the way students view themselves and view each other. For the new year, I challenge you to add one simple question to your daily conversations with students. Ask your students, “What do you notice?” Since this questions has  no one “right” answer, it invites children who typically don’t participate to join the discussion. In addition, your avid noticers will find something interesting to share about any topic. In fact, just before Winter Break, we were studying the digraph “ch.”

Here’s the brief noticing conversation we had:

Kira: I notice that the word Christmas begins with a “ch.”
Christian: So does my name!
Me: Hmmmm! What do you notice about the words Christmas and Christian compared to the ones we’ve written on our “ch” chart?
Aarav: They make the /c/ sound and the words on our chart make the /ch/ sound.

This simple, yet powerful, exchange would not have happened if my students weren’t avid noticers. As Peter Johnston says, “To notice—to become aware of—the possible things to observe about the literate world, about oneself, and about others can open conversations among students who are noticing different things.”

“Let It Go!”

I know you love the penguin unit that you’ve been teaching for the last 20 years. I know because I used to teach one, too. I spent hours creating the activities and, over the years, bought a lot of penguin books for our classroom library. Certainly, if we’re going to focus on helping students achieve higher standards, we can’t do everything we’ve always done plus more. Because our instructional time is precious, we have to focus our attention on the learning experiences that will propel students toward higher standards, which may mean giving up the beloved penguin unit. In our school, we have meetings where we celebrate “brave abandonments.” We cheer and encourage teachers who make intentional decisions to abandon a routine, practice, or activity to make more instructional time for authentic and purposeful literacy experiences. In the words of Elsa from Frozen, “It’s time to see what I can do. To test the limits and break through.” As you ring in 2015, ask yourself, “Can I let something go to make more room for meaningful literacy experiences?”

What other small changes would you suggest to your colleagues as they transform their literacy instruction to meet higher standards? Share your stories at social@/.

Maria Walther is a first-grade teacher, literacy consultant, and Scholastic author. Her latest book Transforming Literacy Teaching in the Era of Higher Standards comes out this month. Find out more at her website or follow her on Twitter.

This is an invitation, a moment to pause, think big, and reclaim your children’s voices in the classroom. This is an invite to twist.

I am fortunate to have frequent visitors to my classroom. Many of them are students in the graduate education courses I teach in the summers and evenings. Often, as my visitors depart, they ask, “What do you do to make your classroom work and how can I do it, too?” This question is BIG and bewildering, because our community of learners is built atop a mass of small decisions grown out of my larger philosophy of how students learn.

I roll just outside of tradition. It is hard to encapsulate the theories that build up our days, but as I reflect, there are some specific decisions or “twists” that, over time, have changed the way my kids “do school.” I call them twists, because they are small tweaks on big traditions offering new opportunities, ways of seeing, and possibilities for who "drives the bus." I would like to shine a light on my top 10 twists sitting just outside of the ordinary but have brought out the extraordinary in the children I teach.

Leave your walls blank for the first day of school

Give yourself a break. Step back from the luring calls of websites like TeachersPayTeachers and Pinterest. Throw away all of your commercial posters, and open up the year with bare bulletin boards and walls. Watch how your students become empowered as they make the classroom their own.

Ditch behavior management systems based on penalties and rewards

Take down the behavior chart, review the research on motivation, and invite students to take the lead in running the classroom. Try out community meetings, one-on-one conferences, and empathy as chief tools for helping students grow emotionally and socially.

Let your students choose their seats

Each week invite students to select where they sit in the room. Choice seating prompts students to have authentic conversations about learning styles and peer collaboration and increases their level of ownership for the places where they thrive. Encourage students to construct and reconstruct desk and table configurations to best fit the learning goal.

Step away from the copier

Take one day when you step away from the copier and refrain from using any previously copied worksheets and materials. Instead, invite students to orally tell stories of their learning, reflect in a spiral notebook, or use a variety of artistic representations to show what they know. Notice what happens when students no longer need to learn how to “complete” the worksheet and instead concentrate on experiencing the content on their own terms.

Take a wonder walk

Take a walk with your students across campus, in the surrounding neighborhoods, or simply through the halls to another part of the building. Before you walk, voice an intention—to search for environmental print your students might use in their poetry, to capture dialogue by unexpected bystanders to serve as inspiration for their writing, or to notice how the desks in different classrooms are arranged and why. These walks engage students and extend the learning spaces in your classroom.

Try oral storytelling

Throughout the day tell oral stories. Invite professional storytellers, parents, school employees, and members of your larger community in to tell their story. Storytelling builds empathy, awareness, and connections while building the foundational skills for growing lifelong writers and readers.

Give your leveled library a vacation

Un-level your library and discard your buckets with letters indicating who can and will read what particular books. Then engage your students in thoughtful conversations about how to select books that grow them as readers, and how readers select different books for different purposes. Invite students to reorganize the library in a way that best fits their needs.

Create a student-teacher writing/reading dialogue journal

Each week ask students to write to you in a composition book about what they are writing and reading. Then respond narratively to their journey. Occasionally, send the composition book home and ask parents to join in on the written conversation. Use this book to engage students in the talk of real writers and readers, to show the interconnection between writing and reading, to highlight individual trends, and to document growth over time.

Read books that spark critical conversations

Read provocative books aloud to your students that speak to issues of race, power, poverty, sexuality, and gender. Engage students in oral and written conversations on whose voices are heard, whose are silenced, and why.

Put the Lined Paper Away and Step Away From the Stapler

Provide students with multiple types of paper to write on including plain white, lined, and colored. Instead of giving children pre-made blank books, invite ownership and innovation by letting them take charge of the stapler and tape dispenser.

Want to share your classroom twists? Email them to social@/.

Dorothy Suskind is a fifth grade teacher at St. Christopher School in the Richmond, Va., area and an associate adjunct education professor at University of Richmond.