Literacy Today - June 2019 by DanielleZ

LITERACY TODAY July/August 2019 Volume 37, Issue 1

Behind the Scenes • Creating the ILA conference • ILA 2019 General Session speakers Chelsea Clinton, Pedro Noguera, Renée Watson, and Hamish Brewer • Keys to a culture of literacy

Contents 2

EDITOR’S NOTE

LIT BITS

ILA UPDATE

Keys to a Culture of Literacy: Equity, Access, Relevance, and Joyful Interaction Online Exclusive: Beyond Teachers and Principals: Creating Districtwide Eﬀective Literacy Programs, by Mark Weakland and Carrie Zales

ILA LEADERSHIP Executive Director Marcie Craig Post

Behind the Scenes On the cover: Adora Svitak on the screen during the ILA 2016 General Session

RESEARCH INTO PRACTICE

Decoding Digital Literacy: Developing 21st-Century Skills for Today’s Learners

ILA 2019

12 16 20 24 28 32 36

Creating a Culture of Literacy: The ILA 2019 Conference Preview Behind the Scenes: Creating Your Conference Experience Chelsea Clinton: In Her Own Words Sound Bytes From Pedro Noguera Fortiﬁed Through Words: Renée Watson on Owning Our Stories One More Round With Hamish Brewer The ILA 2019 Research Address

THE ENGAGING CLASSROOM

38 40 42

The Power of the Classroom Library: Why Every Classroom Needs This WellCurated Resource for Students Disrupting Your Texts: Why Simply Including Diverse Voices Is Not Enough Literacy and Democracy: Engaging Readers, Nudging Humanity Online Exclusive: STEM Collaboratory: Grounding STEM Lessons in Literacy and Literature, by Denise Frazier

THE ILA NETWORK

Sharing Successes in the Keystone State: Inspiring Literacy Initiatives Across Pennsylvania

EVENTS

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

Volume 37, Issue 1 July/August 2019 EDITORIAL STAFF Managing Editor Colleen Patrice Clark Editors Christina Lambert & Alina O’Donnell

LITERACY LEADERSHIP

LITERACY TODAY

2019–2020 BOARD MEMBERS Kathy N. Headley, Clemson University, President; Stephen Peters, Laurens County School District 55, Vice President; Bernadette Dwyer, Dublin City University, Immediate Past President; Juli-Anne Benjamin, Marion P. Thomas Charter School; Kia BrownDudley, The Education Partners; Wendy Carss, University of Waikato; Rachael Gabriel, University of Connecticut, Storrs; Beverley E. Harris, Mico University College, University of the West Indies; Kenneth Kunz, Monmouth University; Susan Paasch, Sauk Rapids Public School District; Julia Reynolds, Allendale Public Schools; Laurie Sharp, Tarleton State University ADVERTISING For information, contact Megan Ferguson at 800.336.7323 x 417 or advertising@reading .org. Acceptance of advertising does not imply endorsement. ABOUT US Literacy Today is the bimonthly membership magazine of the International Literacy Association, a nonprofit that strives to empower educators, inspire students, and encourage teachers with the resources they need to make literacy accessible for all. SUBSCRIPTIONS Literacy Today (ISSN 2411-7862, Print; 24117900, Online) is included in the cost of ILA membership. To join, visit literacyworldwide .org. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Literacy Today, PO Box 8139, Newark, DE 19714-8139, USA. CANADIAN GST: Registration number R-129785523. Publications Mail Agreement No. 40033039. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to PO Box 503, RPO West Beaver Creek, Richmond Hill, ON, L4B 4R6. CONTACT US CUSTOMER SERVICE 800.336.7323 customerservice@reading.org EDITORIAL 800.336.7323 x 446 literacytoday@reading.org Write to Literacy Today, PO Box 8139, Newark, DE 19714-8139, USA. MAILING LIST RENTALS ILA rents mailing lists only to groups approved by the Association. Members can have their names removed from lists rented by writing to ILA Customer Service or emailing customerservice@reading.org. © International Literacy Association

EDITOR’S NOTE

THE POWER OF WORDS

Colleen Patrice Clark Managing Editor cclark@reading.org

o me, the next best thing to attending the ILA conference, as an ILA staff member, is putting together the conference issue of Literacy Today. Attending conference is an amazing experience. It’s when we get to interact with our members face to face and see the hard work of our programming and meetings and events teams come to fruition. Speaking of which, check out page 16 for our behind-the-scenes feature on just how much preparation goes into creating the conference. What I love about this issue, though, is that it’s when the countdown really begins. It’s when I learn more about our speakers and their powerful words that lie ahead. The features on this year’s General Session speakers will get you excited about their message too. Starting with author and early literacy advocate Chelsea Clinton on page 20, you’ll find her thoughts on how words empower the next generation to take action. On page 24, you’ll get a peek at researcher and

equity advocate Pedro Noguera’s Twitter presence. If he can inspire change and legions of followers in 280 characters or fewer, just imagine what his keynote will be like. On page 28, you’ll hear from author Renée Watson, as she shares a personal account of how coming to understand the power of her own words changed her life. And, finally, on page 32, you’ll meet Hamish Brewer, an award-winning principal whose philosophy comes down to one word: relentless. Take in their words, and get ready to join us in New Orleans where there are 500+ speakers who have important messages to share. Get inspired, be sure to network, and don’t be afraid to share your own ideas. Remember: Your words have power too. Warmly,

Editor Search Open for The Reading Teacher The International Literacy Association invites applications from qualified members for the position of editors of The Reading Teacher (RT). This prestigious editorship functions as a two-person team of either two coeditors or one editor with one associate editor. These volunteer positions have a term of 6 years: The first year overlaps with the current editorial team, and the subsequent years constitute the volumes for which the new editors provide material. Editor search open: August 1, 2019 Application deadline: October 15, 2019 Term: June 1, 2020, to May 31, 2026 Volumes: 75 through 79, publishing July 2021 through May 2026 RT is the leading peer-reviewed journal for educators of literacy learners up to age 12. Its special emphasis is primary and elementary classroom instruction, and its readership consists of school-based educators, university researchers and scholars, literacy consultants, administrators, and policymakers. Qualified applicants must be recognized experts in the field of literacy education of learners in this age group and in professional development of pre- and inservice teachers; they must also demonstrate a commitment to translating sound research to practice. For further information and application instructions, visit www.literacyworldwide.org/rt-call.

literacyworldwide.org | July/August 2019 | LITERACY TODAY

LIT BITS

The Results Are In ILA is pleased to announce the newly elected members of the ILA Board of Directors, including our new vice president, Stephen Peters, superintendent of Laurens County School District 55 in South Carolina. Our three new Board members-at-large are: Kia Brown-Dudley, director of literacy and development, The Education Partners, New York

Peters

Brown-Dudley

Rachael Gabriel, associate professor of literacy education, University of Connecticut, Storrs Laurie Sharp, associate professor and assistant dean of Undergraduate Studies for First- and Second-Year Experience at Tarleton State University, Texas Their terms run from 2019–2022. To learn more about our newly elected leaders, visit our interview series at literacyworldwide.org/2019board.

Gabriel

Sharp

ILA recently signed onto a letter, organized by the Association of American Educators Foundation, sent to U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and leaders in

ILA Joins 75 Organizations Calling for Greater Teacher Diversity

Congress addressing the lack of teacher diversity in U.S. classrooms. The letter reports that 53% of public school students are children of color, whereas only 18% of teachers identify as a person of color. Studies show this disparity causes overall lower achievement, especially among at-risk students and students of color. The letter states, “We believe that increasing teacher diversity elevates the teaching profession and improves the lives and outcomes of all students,” and calls on all parties to play a role in addressing the problem. View the letter and lend your support at aaeteachers.org/diversity.

literacyworldwide.org | July/August 2019 | LITERACY TODAY

Advocating for Children’s Rights to Read In May, ILA published an advocacy manual to guide literacy partners in protecting the right to read. The manual is an extension of ILA’s Children’s Rights to Read campaign, which launched with the goal of ensuring every child, everywhere, has access to the education, opportunities, and resources needed to read. Categorized into five audiences (teachers and reading/literacy specialists, administrators, librarians, families and caregivers, and policymakers), the manual includes targeted action items for each audience and concrete next steps they can take. Download the advocacy manual at rightstoread.org/ takeaction.

Where We Stand The following literacy leadership briefs from ILA are now available or will be published soon. Check out literacyworldwide.org/statements for these new pieces: Published in June, Principals as Literacy Leaders presents a framework, consisting of challenge, clarity, and feedback and their related indicators, that principals can employ to “ensure equitable practices that nurture students’ self-efficacy and lead to comparable academic outcomes.” Meeting the Challenges of Early Literacy Phonics Instruction, which will be published in July, describes key characteristics of effective phonics instruction as well as common obstacles related to instruction and how to overcome them.

Remembering Alan Crawford With great sadness we announce the passing of Alan N. Crawford, emeritus professor of education at California State University, Los Angeles. Crawford leaves behind a long legacy of championing best practices in literacy instruction, especially for English learners. rners. A longtime member of ILA, he served as president of the California Reading Association n from 1986 to 1987, as a representative of the International Reading Association (IRA) RA) to UNESCO for many years, and on the editorial review board of Lectura y Vida, IRA’s former Spanishlanguage journal. In 2018, Crawford and his colleague, Charles Temple, were awarded the ILA Constance McCullough International Research Grant. The two used the funds to launch nch the Reading-Krio project, an effort to promote native language literacy instruction in Sierra Leone. Working with local authors, they translated more than 20 books into Krio, the local language. LITERACY TODAY | July/August 2019 | literacyworldwide.org

They were also developing a training program to prepare first-grade teachers to teach beginning reading in Krio and other local languages. Through his work, Crawford hoped to strengthen collaboration between ILA and other global literacy institutions. “He deeply cared that ILA be international and that it be a real two-way street,” Temple says. “There really are things you learn about “The literacy and about teaching when you lit travel to other countries.” Temple will most remember Crawford’s dry, understated sense of humor and the kindness he extended to everyone he met. “He was not the one to put himself forward, but he was just hi genuine and kind. If a group of us went genu to some foreign place, he was the one who made a personal connection with everyone in the room,” Temple says. “I don’t know how he did it, but he did.”

ILA UPDATE

On Student and Family Engagement In my current work, I have been focused on engagement and how we, as teachers, can engage with students, families, and communities. John T. Guthrie describes in part that engagement is “a merger of motivation and thoughtfulness.” Teachers are essential to student engagement that ignites thoughtfulness and motivation. In designing lessons, we draw upon the curriculum and examine the world around us as we observe our students’ needs and interests. Gay Ivey and Peter H. Johnston link student engagement with learning that is relevant, allows choice, and incorporates time to talk with fellow students. Opportunities to engage in learning that appropriately and steadily builds upon each subsequent task flourish through success and praise. So how might we extend this engagement from the classroom environment into the family setting? Let me share one example. I recently received Bao Phi’s book A Different Pond (Capstone Young Readers) as a gift. The text tells the story of a fishing trip between a dad and his son. But it’s more than a fishing tale. The themes link to understanding diversity of others and their cultures, the economy of living in America and its impact on families, and the power of story that bonds our history to the present. All of this is wrapped into the simple richness of family. Here’s a book that can be shared as a read-aloud in the early grades but thematically extended to jump-start discussion among older students. War, culture, survival in a new country. Relevant topics, certainly. Family connections, definitely. As a teacher, I can also use A Different Pond to create student-engaged investigations into the current cost of living, the impact of war upon families, and the difficulties of relocating from

one country to another. As for the power of story, students may interview older family members to learn about their struggles and joys growing up. Simple stories can tell about connections that span across generations. My instructional interest also extends into the stories my students might one day tell their own children about simple life lessons presently experienced. For additional professional development information, I encourage you to access ILA position statements, briefs, and papers from our website, literacyworldwide.org, under Get Resources. I particularly recommend the following: Engagement and Adolescent Literacy (2019) Expanding the Canon: How Diverse Literature Can Transform Literacy Learning (2018) The Power and Promise of Read-Alouds and Independent Reading (2018) Characteristics of Culturally Sustaining and Academically Rigorous Classrooms (2017) Don’t forget to also visit ilaconference.org for registration information about our ILA 2019 Conference, Oct. 10–13, in New Orleans, LA, featuring keynote speakers Chelsea Clinton, Pedro Noguera, Renée Watson, and Hamish Brewer. I look forward to seeing you in New Orleans!

Kathy N. Headley President of the Board literacyworldwide.org | July/August 2019 | LITERACY TODAY

ILA Gives You Choices! Looking for a good book? Check out the 2019 Choices Reading Lists—vetted by students and teachers themselves: Q

Children’s Choices

Young Adults’ Choices

Teachers’ Choices

Become an ILA Choices team leader! For project details and to access all three lists, visit

literacyworldwide.org/choices

LITERACY LEADERSHIP

KEYS TO A CULTURE OF LITERACY Equity, access, relevance, and joyful interaction By Julie Scullen

e Julie Scullen (jscullen1@me.com), an ILA member since 1990, is a teaching and learning specialist for secondary reading in the Anoka-Hennepin School District in Minnesota, working with teachers of all content areas to foster literacy achievement. She teaches graduate courses at Hamline University in St.

ducators are often asked, “How do we build a strong culture of literacy?” Within a secondary setting, this question is particularly complicated to answer. Middle and high school students are bombarded daily with a myriad of entertainment options, literally right in the palm of their hand. Literacy leaders and teachers often face disinterested, distracted, and dormant readers. By the time students get to secondary school, the focus has shifted. Our culture is vastly and necessarily different from that of elementary schools, and we must build a culture of literacy differently—with an eye toward adult literacy demands. We know this: Secondary school administrators rarely spend hours on a roof in the cold waving to gleeful high school students or reluctantly kiss a pig because their middle-level students reach a reading goal. A lasting culture of literacy isn’t created with contests and rewards and it isn’t measured in test scores. It’s about equity, access, relevance, and joyful interaction. It’s about an enthusiasm and a commitment by all staff—not just the English language arts (ELA) teachers—to ensure that all students have a text in their hands they are excited to read. Staff must value student choice as well as believe in the power of reading beyond the traditional, one-size-fits-all definition. A culture of literacy means students see themselves as readers, which means students must do the following:

Paul in literacy leadership and coaching, disciplinary

See themselves in texts

literacy, critical literacy, and

Culturally relevant and inclusive texts are essential—or nothing else matters. Students need to see themselves, and their own culture, reflected in the texts they are assigned across the curriculum. Time and space must be dedicated to students thinking of themselves as readers and writers of social studies, mathematics, science, health, and world languages. Students should have frequent opportunities to experience other perspectives, and they should be encouraged to build bridges between worlds. They should have a say in what has relevance in their classrooms.

reading assessment and evaluation.

See relevance and authenticity When embracing and celebrating a culture of literacy, students read and write these relevant texts for authentic reasons. Students witness literacy as necessary and valuable in the lives of adults. Staff must embrace and value student choice as well as believe in the transformative power of reading. In a school with a strong commitment to literacy, teachers rarely spend time telling students the key points in a text through a lecture. Instead, students read the text themselves, perhaps multiple times. Excerpts of crucial

literacyworldwide.org | July/August 2019 | LITERACY TODAY

passages are analyzed and discussed across every discipline, and teachers use strategies and effective practices appropriate for their content. When a culture of literacy within a school is strong, students’ responses to text are deep and thoughtful. Their answers aren’t forced, and students don’t furtively look around for possible answers from which to choose. Teachers in every classroom ensure students engage meaningfully with text every day.

See joy in literacy When a school system is committed to literacy, it is clear as early as within the hiring process. Potential staff members are asked, “What are you reading?” and

“What would you recommend to our students?” Administrators, custodians, cooks, the school nurse—they are all able to talk about and celebrate something they read lately. Staff members model what active literacy looks like, from mundane to practical to joyous escape. Teachers themselves read with the hope of connecting a book to a student. Students need to see all staff members as readers, not just the ELA teachers. A real culture of literacy requires a commitment by a group of passionate people whose reach extends far beyond the library. How do you know if your building has a culture of literacy? If you have to ask, there’s work to be done—but there’s a plethora of personal and professional resources to help you get there.

ILA 2019 Julie Scullen, Cornelius Minor, Donalyn Miller, Carol Jago, Julia Torres, Minjung Pai, and Terry McHugh will lead one of the 10 institute sessions on Institute Day on Thursday, Oct. 10—Spark a Culture of Literacy: Build Positive Adolescent Reading Identities Through Relevance, Equity, and Access. The other institutes are Balanced Literacy: Reading and Writing Instruction in Elementary Classrooms Changing Phonics, Vocabulary, and Spelling Instruction: Implementing Word Study in Classrooms, Schools, and Districts Finding Joy, Purpose, and Clarity in Our Teaching: Responsive Teaching in Any Instructional Context ILA 2019 Research Institute: Research Into Practice It’s Never Too Early and Never Too Late: Leading P–12 Literacy in High-Need Schools Jump Into the Early Literacy Trenches: Focus on Your Students, Leave With a Plan! Learning Is a Connection Project: Social-Emotional Literacy Through Project-Based Learning Unpacking ILA’s Standards 2017: Roles and Responsibilities of Literacy Leaders We’ve Got Problems, and We’ve Got Work to Do: Roles, Tools, and Approaches for Engaging in Anti-Racist Practices in Schools and Classrooms For more information, visit ilaconference.org.

LITERACY TODAY | July/August 2019 | literacyworldwide.org

GETTING STARTED Advocating for Children’s Rights to Read: A Manual for Enacting the Rights in Classrooms, Communities, and the World (rightstoread .org/takeaction) ILA Choices reading lists: Children’s Choices, Teachers’ Choices, and Young Adults’ Choices (literacyworldwide .org/choices) ILA literacy leadership resources, such as Engagement and Adolescent Literacy, Creating Passionate Readers Through Independent Reading, and Expanding the Canon: How Diverse Literature Can Transform Literacy Learning (literacyworldwide .org/statements) “Teach This, Not That: Disrupting Texts in the Secondary Classroom,” an #EdCollabGathering session with Kim Parker and Tricia Ebarvia The Book in Question: Why and How Reading Is in Crisis (Heinemann) Taking the Lead on Adolescent Literacy (Corwin)

ONLINE EXCLUSIVE The digital edition of Literacy Today includes an additional Literacy Leadership article by Mark Weakland and Carrie Zales about how curriculum administrators can help create eﬀective literacy programs. Print readers: Log in at literacyworldwide.org/ literacytoday to read the digital issue.

ONLINE EXCLUSIVE

BEYOND

TEACHERSAND PRINCIPALS Creating districtwide effective literacy programs By Mark Weakland & Carrie Zales

Mark Weakland (mark@ markweaklandliteracy.com), a longtime ILA member, is an author, literacy coach, and consultant.

t is common knowledge that too few children leave schools with strong reading skills. As articles often point out, the latest NAEP results show 65% of U.S. school children read below grade-level proficiency. Many argue this lack of reading achievement is due to ineffective teaching. Yet we know that many teachers do employ effective teaching and move their students, year after year, to important reading benchmarks. Therefore, teaching that lifts students to grade-level proficiency does exist within school systems. This effective teaching, however, has yet to achieve the critical mass necessary to move the majority, let alone all, students to reading success. From our perspective, one reason effective literacy instruction has yet to take root in the majority of classrooms is that too few school districts employ administrators with a deep knowledge of literacy instruction. Another is that many districts have not developed a system for creating and running an effective, districtwide literacy program.

Talented teachers in island classrooms

Carrie Zales (czales@ plattscsd.org) is assistant superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction in the Plattsburgh City School District in New York.

Over the years, as we have worked in multiple capacities in various districts, we have seen talented teachers move most, and sometimes all, of their students to key reading benchmarks. But literacy success across buildings and districts is something we have rarely seen. Why? Rather than being system dependent, literacy success is still teacher dependent. It exists mostly in isolated classrooms staffed by skillful teachers. Sometimes these successful teachers communicate with others. From this communication springs further accomplishments. We call this phenomenon the “spark plug effect.” It happens when a strong literacy program takes root in one classroom and then spreads horizontally to other grade-level classrooms. Successful and dynamic teachers can sometimes “fire up” others in their grade level. This ignition looks like teachers talking in the halls, sharing at grade-level meetings, and even observing in one another’s classrooms. Working together, a grade-level team can move their students to greater heights in reading, writing, and spelling. The spark plug effect gives us hope that literacy success can be replicated beyond the occasional classroom. But without administrative leadership rooted in deep literacy knowledge, only horizontal success will occur. Why? As currently envisioned, a teacher’s role is to help students achieve growth within the classroom, not to oversee the instructional practices of other teachers across entire grade levels.

literacyworldwide.org | July/August 2019 | LITERACY TODAY

Can principals bring about vertical success? The short answer is sometimes yes, but more often no. One reason principals may be unable to ignite literacy success in their schools is that they lack an in-depth understanding of reading theory and instruction. Many principals are not reading specialists, nor have they studied the workings of literacy deeply. Their backgrounds may be in mathematics, history, or physical education. Thus, they may not know what literacy elements to focus on, de-emphasize, look for in classrooms, and so on. Also, they may lack classroom experience or know more about secondary administration than primary. Principals are also incredibly busy with the day-to-day details of running a school. They manage budgets, plan safety programs, attend board meetings, look to the needs of teachers, handle parent complaints, fill in when there aren’t enough substitutes…the list is long. A constant barrage of demands necessitates triage. Creating and then managing a literacy program may not be high on the list. Building and managing an effective literacy program is an endeavor that demands a deep knowledge of how literacy works, as well as month-tomonth management over many years. For districtwide literacy success, curriculum administrators are needed.

Curriculum administrators can create the system Curriculum administrators typically have the necessary expertise and focus to help their districts create a system of literacy teaching and learning. “Curriculum directors are in a position to provide principals with high-quality professional development in effective literacy instruction and establish a blueprint for teaching excellence,” says Cheryl Soloski, assistant superintendent of Armstrong School District in Pennsylvania. “This blueprint provides a detailed framework on the essential components of effective literacy classrooms.” From this blueprint, an effective literacy program can be built horizontally across a grade level, vertically through grade levels, and

then again horizontally across a number of schools. Curriculum administrators also have the power to create a literacy team, made up of masterful teachers, that forms the foundation of a system capable of building, implementing, and maintaining an effective literacy program. The responsibilities of a literacy team are many: choosing assessments, analyzing data, identifying issues, prioritizing core reading components, creating a comprehensive literacy plan based on best practices, and even training others in that plan and its associated practices. But building and managing a districtwide system takes more than a literacy team made up of highly capable teachers. It also takes a curriculum administrator, one who can ensure that the district’s school principals can carry the literacy torch in their schools. Principals who are also literacy leaders are necessary for districtwide success

LITERACY TODAY | July/August 2019 | literacyworldwide.org

because if principals don’t understand the “why, how, when” of literacy, then they are unable to model, or even have, literacy expectations for their teaching staff. And if they don’t have rigorous expectations based on solid reading theory, they won’t be able to hold teachers accountable. Helping principals reach the level of literacy leader is a vital role for district curriculum administrators, who can provide professional development and exercise oversight. Helping to guide teachers as they work within literacy leadership teams is also an important role. Working together, teachers, principals, and curriculum administrators can create and manage a system for instituting effective literacy practices across classrooms, grade levels, and buildings, thus raising the number of students who exit their schools with strong reading and writing skills.

RESEARCH INTO PRACTICE

DECODING DIGITAL

LITERACY

Developing 21st-century skills for today’s learners By Gaston Saux & Jazmín Cevasco

Gaston Saux (gsaux@psi .uba.ar) and Jazmín Cevasco (jazmincevasco@psi.uba .ar), both ILA members since 2018, are research fellows at the Argentinean Scientific and Technical Research Council and associate professors at the

nce upon a time, medieval European monasteries devoted rooms to copy and write manuscripts. The few people who were able to access and read those scripts had a heavy influence on Western literary culture and history. Such times are long gone. Accessing written information has never been easier. A 2018 Pew Research Center report informed that almost all teenagers in the United States connect via smartphone or computer several times a day— half of them almost constantly. In this context, a lot of sporadic reading occurs: checking social networks, forums, and blogs, or searching for information online. Such digital contexts are familiar to most young readers. Yet there are new challenges concerning how to dose, integrate, evaluate, and determine the relevancy of information. Digitally literate readers are expected to be good at searching and selecting, integrating, and critically evaluating information, and educators have a crucial role in ensuring that students develop these 21st-century reading skills. Considering these challenges, we aim to translate three key findings from research in cognitive psychology on digital literacy into practical recommendations for educators.

University of Buenos Aires. Their research interests

1. Digital literacy is rooted in traditional literacy.

include text comprehension

To master digital reading, students must have good comprehension skills, which means being able to make sense out of written text, integrate meanings coherently with prior knowledge, and use this acquired knowledge in new situations. The best model on digital literacy combines these traditional skills with specific digital talents. Addressing digital literacy at school should not substitute but, rather, complement learning the basics of traditional reading. Having background knowledge about the type of text one is reading and about the reading activity itself ensures a good reading outcome. Teachers who aim to foster digital literacy should ensure that students practice good old-fashioned reading—and lots of it.

processes, learning and technology, and functional reading.

2. Source evaluation must come forward. In addition to traditional skills, digital literacy requires other abilities. Readers must understand and operate the structures and organization of the internet (e.g., engines, sites, links)—the so-called operational skills. But another set of skills, related to dealing with the mechanisms of knowledge production and dissemination of information, seems to really challenge both readers and educators. The notion of information source is critical to understanding these skills. Texts have always been written and made available by sources. However, until recently, distinguishing a commercial leaflet from a scientific article was easy. Now the differences are more subtle. Being aware that texts are produced and spread with a communicative intention, and knowing how to use this knowledge purposefully, has become a distinctive skill of proficient digital readers.

literacyworldwide.org | July/August 2019 | LITERACY TODAY

Sourcing helps digital literacy in two ways: First, it contributes to the assimilation of scattered perspectives into an integrated representation of discourse. Second, it allows readers to examine the validity of the contents by prompting the evaluation of why and for whom a text was made available.

3. There are many ways of interacting with texts. In 2017, a group of international researchers reported a simple finding. They wanted to understand why teenage students in Germany, knowledgeable about the benefits of sourcing while reading, did not apply this knowledge in school. Some participants replied that sourcing is not something they are normally asked to do at school. In other words, critical reading is not expected. Yet digital literacy is about knowing that texts are made available by sources as much as it is about understanding when and how to apply this knowledge. Students can interact with a text differently depending on the reading task. Thus, students should be taught when and how they need to read critically. Teaching students to integrate and evaluate multiple texts through sourcing may seem like a massive undertaking. However, short-term, theory-driven classroom interventions can foster this

skill. For example, a 2018 study conducted with French ninth graders reported an improvement in students’ critical use of sources after only three 1-hour sessions. The intervention was focused on teaching students how three elements (authors’ competence, authors’ motives, and whether the text had undergone a validation process) could be used to foster the critical evaluation and use of online texts. As a result, students improved their selection of links, produced more references to reliable sources (e.g., a scientific journal), and decreased the use of references to less reliable sources (e.g., a personal blog) in a transfer task. These focused interventions work because teenagers do not need to learn from scratch what sources are. It is more about fine-tuning their preexisting notions, practicing, and bringing sourcing forward by signaling its significance in current reading practices.

A strategic approach Contextual variables traditionally have been considered as external factors by cognitive models of reading. The digital revolution is helping to flip this idea by extending the concept of reading to include a phase in which strategic decisions on when, what, and how to read are made on the basis of the context and purpose of each reading act.

LITERACY TODAY | July/August 2019 | literacyworldwide.org

This idea has two important educational implications: First, teaching reading should be broadened to include advanced skills, such as teaching young readers about the versatility of reading contexts and about reflecting on what one is being asked to do with a text. Second, readers’ interpretation of the context should be considered when explaining why students fail in reading tasks (e.g., Is the student’s interpretation of the task instructions in line with the educator’s goal?). Digital reading challenges readers to be more strategic and analytical. To keep up with changes, the social representation of what reading means must expand. New instructional programs are needed to teach the skills that will reduce the literacy gap within and across communities. Digital literacy is possible for everyone, granted a clear, theory-driven plan to integrate digital reading skills into school curricula.

FURTHER READING Britt , A.M., Rouet, J.-F., & Durik, A.M. (2017). Literacy beyond text comprehension: A theory of purposeful reading. New York, NY: Routledge.

ILA 2019 CO

CREATING A OF LITE How can educators and administrators create the environment students need to reach their full potential in the classroom and beyond? By infusing literacy in every aspect of education! At ILA 2019, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll learn how to create and grow a thriving culture of literacy in your school, district, and communityâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;one that inspires and empowers students and teachers and sets them up for greater success.

NFERENCE

New Orleans, LA October 10–13

A CULTURE ERACY Why ILA 2019? ƒ A FOCUS ON LITERACY: ILA 2019 offers a robust and well-rounded program of research-based and peer-reviewed sessions on hot topics and best practices in literacy. ƒ AN EMPHASIS ON EQUITY: ILA believes that literacy is the pathway to equity in education, and it drives everything we do—including this conference, which will help you create an inclusive learning environment. ƒ RESEARCH + PRACTICE: ILA 2019 is where research meets practice. Here you’ll find evidence-based ideas for classroom instruction and community engagement.

ILA 2019 CO General Session Speakers

CHELSEA CLINTON

PEDRO NOGUERA

RENÉE WATSON

HAMISH BREWER

New York Times bestselling author, early literacy advocate, and vice chair, Clinton Foundation

Groundbreaking researcher and advocate for equity in education

Award-winning author and founder of I, Too, Arts Collective

Educational disruptor and school turnaround specialist

Core Conference (October 11–12) Experience two full days of professional learning on the topics you want, delivered in a variety of formats. Core Conference registration gives you access to the ILA General Session, 300+ educational sessions, 100+ exhibitors in the Exhibit Hall, and countless networking opportunities.

Maximize your learning by adding another day! INSTITUTE DAY* (October 10)

Select from 10 interactive, full-day courses that allow you to take a deep dive into a literacy topic of interest with leaders in the ﬁeld. Topics include early literacy, research into practice, responsive teaching, literacy in high-need schools, implementing word study, engaging in anti-racist practices in schools and classrooms, building positive adolescent reading identities, and more.

CHILDREN’S LITERATURE DAY* (October 13)

This full-day event for children’s literature enthusiasts and educators features keynote addresses, author panels, educator sessions, a plated lunch, and access to an exclusive book signing event. Author Meetup tickets are available for an additional fee.

*Additional registration is required.

ILA members save up to $200 on registration

NFERENCE

New Orleans, LA October 10–13

Highlights WELCOME TO ILA 2019 EVENT*: Laissez les bons temps rouler (let the good times roll) at this exclusive event in the Exhibit Hall on Thursday, October 10. Mix, mingle, and explore new products before the conference starts. EXHIBIT HALL: Check out the latest classroom innovations and cutting-edge resources and take advantage of additional learning opportunities (and freebies!) here. EQUITY IN EDUCATION PROGRAM: Interactive programming, inspiring panels, and collaborative work sessions allow you to explore the intersection of literacy, equity, and social-emotional learning across all four days of the conference. EDCAMP LITERACY**: Take charge of your professional learning at this free, attendee-driven, peer-to-peer learning unconference. LITERACY NIGHT AT MARDI GRAS WORLD**: Go behind the scenes of Mardi Gras with fellow attendees at this event, where you’ll see ﬂoats from the famous parade, sample tasty cuisine, listen to a live party band, and more. *Open to ILA Core Conference attendees and Institute Day participants **Additional registration is required (fees may apply)

Featured Speakers

DAVID KIRKLAND Leading national scholar and advocate for educational justice

DONALYN MILLER & COLBY SHARP The Nerdy Book Club blog cofounders and authors of Game Changer! Book Access for All Kids

TRICIA EBARVIA

DAVE STUART JR.

Educator, teaching fellow with The Educator Collaborative, and cofounder of #DisruptTexts

Award-winning educator and author of These 6 Things: How to Focus Your Teaching on What Matters Most

The conference for Ŷ Classroom Teachers Ŷ Reading/Literacy Specialists Ŷ Literacy Coaches Ŷ Principals Ŷ College/University Faculty Ŷ Researchers Ŷ Librarians Ŷ Administrators Ŷ Preservice Teachers Ŷ Nontraditional Educators

ilaconference.org/preview Call 855.202.6379 (U.S. & Canada) or 303.731.1048 (all other countries)

ILA 2019

ILA 2019: Creating your ILA conference experience By Kelly Bothum

HEN ATTENDEES ARRIVE in New Orleans, LA, for the International Literacy Association (ILA) 2019 Conference, they won’t have to worry about navigating the convention center, accessing Wi-Fi, looking for water refill stations, or even finding the nearest bathrooms. All of that—and much more—will have already been done by the ILA staff handling the behind-the-scenes logistics of a dynamic conference that draws 5,000 educators from around the globe each year. From constructing the conference Exhibit Hall and deciding on room placements for speakers, to helping with dietary needs and mapping out shuttle routes for attendees, ILA staffers work hard to make the conference the benchmark of educational professional development.

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SCENES Their attention to detail allows attendees to focus on what matters— listening to internationally renowned speakers, networking with fellow educators, and getting inspired by other literacy leaders. “This conference is meant to be a one-stop shop for anyone in the literacy realm,” says Becky Fetterolf, professional learning manager for ILA. “If you are a classroom teacher, an administrator, a reading specialist, or librarian, we want to make sure you can take something back to your school.”

By the time attendees head into the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans this fall—October 10–13, to be exact—ILA staff will already not only have been on-site for several days, ensuring finishing touches are perfect, but also be deeply entrenched in the planning for the 2020 conference and beyond. “It’s like creating a strategic plan every year,” says Valerie Sumner, ILA’s director of meetings and events. “We look at the conference through the eyes of those who are attending. We focus on what you see when you arrive at the airport, when you get to the hotel, when you look at the app to see the speakers. All those little pieces are strategically discussed and planned so that it all comes together. It seems like it naturally happened, and that’s the goal.”

Bringing the vision to life

Atlantic Fish Co.

Cornelius Minor speaking during General Session at ILA 2018

The ILA conference lasts four days, bookended by Institute Day and Children’s Literature Day, but the prep work starts long before the first speaker takes the podium. ILA teams begin mapping out the logistical pieces of the conference puzzle more than a year in advance. ILA carefully considers a range of criteria when selecting a city and securing agreements for a convention center to host the conference (often solidified

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anywhere from three to five years in advance). A typical convention center will have 30 to 40 rooms of varying sizes that can handle the 300 sessions that take place over the four-day span. High on the list of conference must-haves is a city with good access to an airport and flight options. It also needs about 2,500 hotel rooms for the estimated 5,000 attendees and exhibitors. Walkability is tricky. The city needs to be accessible on foot, but hotels and conference sessions should be in relative proximity or be on a shuttle route to keep attendees from growing tired. Once a city is selected, Sumner says, the meetings and events team is dispatched to the host city to prepare for the marketing, professional development, and other critical needs of the conference. Even while latestage conference planning is going on in New Orleans, several teams from ILA will already have been visiting Columbus, OH, the site of the ILA 2020 Conference. Michele Jester, program implementation manager for ILA, was part of the team from ILA that visited local education and library officials earlier this year to learn more about Columbus’s educational and literacy environment. The team also helped to identify opportunities for interaction, partnership, and sponsorship.

“It’s about getting people in the city excited about us coming,” Jester says.

Crafting the theme The theme of this year’s conference is “Creating a Culture of Literacy.” Fetterolf says programming began more than a year ago with brainstorming about potential keynote speakers and presenters who embody the theme. The process includes soliciting abstracts a year in advance from people who hope to present. Approximately 800 proposals are received, but only about one third are accepted due to a combination of space availability and the desire to craft a manageable conference experience that offers something for everyone without being overwhelming. Over the course of four days, the conference will include hundreds of sessions, featuring speakers with different topics and formats and in front of audiences of varying sizes. The General Session is the largest, and that’s where the biggest names—and audiences—can be found. This year, the lineup features Chelsea Clinton, Pedro Noguera, Renée Watson, and Hamish Brewer. Previous years have seen Octavia Spencer, Laurie Halse Anderson, Kwame Alexander, and LeVar Burton. In addition to one-hour speaking sessions, there are smaller, two-hour, roundtable-style workshops where attendees can experience a more handson approach. Poster sessions round out the offerings, allowing people to individually present their own research in literacy in an informal, conversationfriendly format. Given the number of presenters needed, the ILA team has more than their share of work just selecting speakers. It’s a tricky process that

sounds a bit like a fantasy football draft, only featuring literacy superstars instead of athletes. To help simplify the process, each year, Lara Deloza, ILA senior communications manager, and the team create their own classification system using sticky notes, index cards, and spreadsheets, color-coding potential speakers on the basis of a number of factors including topic, availability, and diversity of background, thought, profession, and location.

A final criterion for consideration, for presenters other than General Session and featured speakers, is peer review. At least three people are asked to score each prospective speaker on a scale of 1 to 10. The higher the overall peer score, the better that person’s chances of being asked to present. “If you get a 30, you’re going to get on the program,” Fetterolf says. Unlike some conferences, most speakers aren’t compensated by ILA for their participation. The majority of General Session speakers, for example, come courtesy of a publishing company—such as Clinton for this year.

Room to grow—or a no-show

“It’s really a numbers game,” Deloza says. “It’s a math equation.” Availability during the conference matters, but it’s just one factor to consider. A mix of voices—authors, researchers, and scholars—is also sought. Diversity is a major driver, Deloza adds, but the goal is to recognize diversity in ways beyond race, age, gender, and ethnicity to include experience and educational background, among other considerations.

Fetterolf says one of the most frequent questions attendees and speakers ask regards the size of the room that is assigned to a speaker. Room assignments can vary from small spaces for under 100 people to larger areas that can accommodate 600 people for featured speaker sessions. It takes a bit of prediction—and sometimes luck—to determine the best size room for a speaker, Sumner says. Considerations include professional interest in the topic and the speaker’s own past crowd draw. There have been times where a speaker’s popularity has meant a fully packed room with people standing outside the door and additional people allowed in only when someone else leaves, per the restrictions of the local fire marshal. Conversely, there also have been times when a speaker was expected to be a big draw but attendance was lower than expected. “We do collect data of room attendance. We do data crunching,” Jester says. “We guess as best as we can.”

THE ILA 2019 CONFERENCE: BY THE NUMBERS

808 proposals received 363 proposals accepted

4 General Session speakers 5 featured speakers

46 authors at Children’s Literature Day

4 Author Meetups 10 authors per meetup

10 institutes 25,000 average steps a day 25+ education hours available 40 session rooms 100+ exhibitors 16 motorcoaches 12 hotels

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Ready for long days—and anything else During the four-day conference stretch, it’s not unusual for staff to literally be on their feet for 14 or more hours each day. Thanks to the popularity of fitness trackers among ILA staff, we know that works out to about 25,000 steps a day each day of the conference, on average. (The unofficial daily record is 31,000 steps for one weary-footed staffer.) Veteran conference staff know there is little downtime during these days, but they like the opportunity to interact with attendees. ILA staff are not hard to find. All staff attend conference events in their signature Meyer lemon yellow conference shirts and gold name badges. “You’re hands-on the whole weekend,” Jester says. “We’re the first ones to get there and the last ones to leave.” Like any good team, they can hustle on the fly. When bad weather caused a power loss at the ILA 2017 Conference in Orlando, FL, the staff continued registering attendees by hand. They quickly reconfigured meeting spaces in San Antonio, TX, in 2013 when conference organizers discovered they were missing two previously scheduled rooms. Security and safety plans previously put in place meant there was a protocol when a pregnant woman became overheated and fainted during one of the sessions. “You just have to be ready for anything,” Jester says. Many of the last-minute challenges come from helping attendees locate missing cell phones, purses, or personal items. As much as the staff tries to anticipate attendee needs, there can be a few surprises, like realizing that conference-goers are walking in a different direction in the convention center than organizers expected. “As you are there walking around, you see it’s not what we thought,” says Amy Taylor, meetings and events coordinator, of the conference center layout and signage. “Then you need to go ahead and make that adjustment on-site.” The preponderance of women in education often means a quick reconfiguring of bathrooms to accommodate the disparity. This year, that also includes greater accessibility to gender neutral bathrooms.

A personalized experience Over the years, the ILA conference has changed to better represent the needs of its attendees. Jester says gone is the one-size-fits-all approach, replaced by a more personalized experience that’s built upon the goal of connecting and enriching the experience of those attending the conference. Sumner says a good example is the conference program, which used to be a cumbersome, 400-page book that weighed attendees down. About four years ago, ILA switched to a mobile app that provides a continuous update of the day’s events. The response has been overwhelmingly positive, and it has helped cut down on printing expenses. The program is still available in a smaller printed form—only about half the number of pages—but most users opt for the app, Sumner says. Even the most well-planned events usually have a hiccup or two, and the ILA conference is no exception. Fetterolf says attendees sometimes get frustrated by the room sizes, issues with lighting, or unexpected programmatic changes. But it’s their passion for education that overshadows any issues that may arise during the conference. ILA staff witness firsthand how attendees feel so strongly about the work they do. That perspective helps when trying to smooth over any logistical problems. “They’re really invested,” says Wes Ford, ILA digital communications

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associate. “It makes sense they get so passionate about it.” For example, at last year’s Equity in Education program during the ILA 2018 Conference in Austin, TX, Ford says one attendee wept in appreciation for the panel on LGBTQ equity in the educational space. “He said, ‘Thank you for making me feel seen,’” Ford says, adding that the educator often saw work being done to ensure students felt seen, but he never felt seen as a teacher. That man’s reaction, Ford says, validated the work done by the team during the conference. “It matters to us. We don’t want them to feel like we are ignoring them. We are as passionate about their education as they are.”

Witness it for yourself At the time of publication, there are just 13 weeks until ILA 2019. That’s about 90 days until showtime. And yet, the behind-the-scenes work doesn’t end when the conference begins. You wouldn’t know it—and that’s by design. Part of the job is making sure you get not only a seamless conference experience but also a sense of how valued you are for the work you do every day. “This is the one time of year when we get face-to-face time with our members,” Deloza says. “It reminds us of why we do what we do and why it matters. It’s all for them.” ■

Kelly Bothum (kelly.bothum@gmail.com) is a former newspaper reporter who now works as a communications specialist for the University of Delaware.

ILA 2019

CHELSEA CLINTON: IN HER OWN WORDS 20

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The ILA General Session speaker on early literacy, motherhood, and her message for educators By Lara Deloza

he United States may have met Chelsea Clinton when she was a seventh grader in 1992, but now she’s a New York Times best-selling author, a literacy advocate and, as of the summer of 2019, a mother of two with a third child on the way. She spends her time empowering young readers—and older readers, too—and she doesn’t think twice about taking on bullies both on and off social media. Her books speak to the issues she feels most passionately about—female empowerment, kindness, equality, global health, the environment, and endangered species. She hopes her newest book, Don’t Let Them Disappear (Penguin), will show kids the difference they can make in the world no matter how young they are. She has been traveling the country talking to kids about how they can be changemakers and turn their passions into action.

All those reasons (and more) are why we’re so thrilled to have Chelsea Clinton speak at the International Literacy Association (ILA) 2019 Conference. Her inspirational work not only speaks to creating a culture of literacy, but also helps drive the change needed to get there on a global level. But don’t just take our word for it—take hers.

On her connection to NOLA “Last summer, I had the opportunity to visit New Orleans, where we launched a new partnership between Children’s Hospital New Orleans and the Clinton Foundation’s Too Small to Fail initiative to engage pediatricians, physicians, and medical staff to help raise awareness among parents, grandparents, and caregivers about the importance of early learning and brain development. “Through this work, every baby born at Touro and West Jefferson Family Birth Place, LCMC Health partners, now leaves with a children’s board book, a onesie with bright graphics, and a booklet reminding parents of how important their role is in their baby’s brain development when they talk, read, and sing with them from birth.”

On a child’s first teachers “Reading and talking to kids shouldn’t be a luxury. We need to support all parents so they have time to invest in their kids and access to books to read together.”

On starting off strong “Research shows that almost 60% of children come to kindergarten unprepared, lagging behind in early language and literacy skills. They are then more likely to fall further behind in school every year after that, less likely to go to college, and less likely to get the job of their dreams or earn an income that their work ultimately deserves. “I’m so passionate about this work because I fundamentally believe that every child deserves the best start in life. Not being prepared for kindergarten is a lifelong tax that no child should bear, and it certainly isn’t a kid’s fault or their parent’s fault.”

On the importance of access “The first five years are critical to a child’s brain development, which is

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why Too Small to Fail works to support parents and caregivers with tools to talk, read, and sing with their babies from birth. “To do that, we work with local communities including librarians, pediatricians, faith leaders, and national partners like Univision, Scholastic, and Spotify to surround families with language everywhere they spend time—at home, on playgrounds, in laundromats, grocery stores, and even bus stops. We try to go wherever families spend time [and provide] resources and tools to support parents and other caregivers to be kids’ first teachers.”

On her newest book “The biggest inspiration for Don’t Let Them Disappear came from all the kids I’ve spoken with—in my own life, in research for previous books, on book tours—who passionately shared their love and concern for animals, especially endangered species. All animals play a crucial part in the health of our planet, and it’s devastating to think that even one species, like African elephants or rhinos, could be extinct in our or our children’s lifetimes.

“I decided to write this book about just a few of more than 16,000 endangered plant and animal species that are deserving of our attention, respect, and protection, and to hopefully inspire and equip young people to do something to save the animals they care about that are also so vital to our planet. “It’s the book I wish I had as a kid, and I’m so excited to be able to share it with young readers today.”

On empowering the next generation “I’ve been privileged to meet a lot of young people who are doing incredible things in areas they’re passionate about, and I’ve been able to see the impact they have when they are empowered by the adults around them. We’ve also seen this throughout history. For example, in [the United States] during the 1970s, young people played a critical role in saving the bald eagle. “Stories have an amazing ability to spark the imaginations and dreams of readers of any age. I hope through sharing stories of women who persisted throughout history, or what we can do to save endangered species, that young people are inspired to make the positive difference they want to see in our world. Then I think it’s important that, as adults, we listen and help inform and empower them to take action.”

On the impact of motherhood “My kids are my biggest inspiration. Thinking about the type of world I want them to grow up in drives everything I do—through my writing, teaching, and work with the Clinton Foundation— and I want to ensure that I’ve done everything possible in my small way to make the world a healthier, safer, and more equitable place for them and their generation.”

On tackling Twitter trolls “I think everyone has an obligation to stand up [against] what we see as wrong and unacceptable—in person and online. I think that is particularly true for anyone

WHAT’S ON HER BOOKSHELF? “It changes almost daily, but we love anything by Mo Willems. We couldn’t imagine bedtime without the Pigeon or Elephant and Piggie. We’ve also read [Robert Munsch’s] Paper Bag Princess (Annick Press) more times than I can count! [My daughter] Charlotte is obsessed with sharks, so right now [Barbara Taylor’s] Encyclopedia of Sharks (Miles Kelly) also gets top billing. We’re trying to expose them to as many different types of stories as we can, and are lucky to get many recommendations from friends, family, and colleagues.”

who has a platform, whether in our schools, our workplaces, or publicly. “I also recognize that social media is a tool—one that can be used in the best sense to help inspire positive action—and I use it as an opportunity to shine a light on the issues, people, and causes that are close to me and I feel are deserving of our attention. “It is also important to take breaks from social media and our phones. We use both sparingly on the weekends and try to never use either around our kids.”

On the power of readalouds “Reading in our family is hugely important, and Marc and I read to our kids every night and often in the mornings, too—and a lot on the weekends. We love seeing their excitement and listening to (and trying to answer) all their questions about what we’re reading together. I know that reading and talking are good for their brain development, [but] it is also an experience we treasure.”

On her new podcast “Why Am I Telling You This? will feature conversations with a few of the people we find so inspiring—some already well known and others who you may not have heard of—to hear about their experiences, their work, and explore

some of the big issues that are facing our world today. “We have the honor of working with remarkable individuals who are doing incredible things—helping LGBTQ asylum seekers in the U.S., reducing the stigma around menstruation for women in the slums of Mumbai, combatting the opioid epidemic by expanding access to the lifesaving reversal drug Naloxone, just to name a few.”

On speaking at ILA 2019 “I’m honored to be included in this year’s program and excited to share Don’t Let Them Disappear with the educators in the audience. My hope is that it can spark and support conversations in classrooms and elsewhere about these endangered animals and others, and what kids can do to help!”

Lara Deloza (ldeloza@reading.org) is the senior communications manager at ILA.

ILA 2019 Hear more from Chelsea Clinton when she speaks during General Session on Friday, Oct. 11. For more information, visit ilaconference.org.

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ILA 2019

SOUND BYTES FROM

Pedro A. Noguera Twelve tweets that speak volumes about the ILA 2019 General Session speaker By Colleen Patrice Clark

he bio on Pedro A. Noguera’s Twitter profile says it all. Primary interests: urban education, race and policy, changing the world. A quick scroll through his feed and you’ll see just how appropriate it is. His passion for the teaching profession, equity in education, and social justice is apparent. And of course, he puts action behind his words. Noguera is a professor at UCLA as well as the founder of the university’s Center for the Transformation of Schools. His research focuses on the ways in which schools are influenced by social and economic conditions. A frequent speaker and presenter, he is the author of 12 books and has won several awards for his research and advocacy efforts aimed at fighting poverty. For more on him, just take a look at some of what you can learn through his online presence. Then, listen to him speak at ILA 2019, where you’ll hear his passion for yourself—as well as his message about how you, too, can change the world.

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He knows there is more to education than memorizing facts.

He understands how inequity affects student learning, and he actively advocates for the underserved.

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He knows how hard educators work—and how much they deserve in return.

He’s not shy about expressing where he stands on important issues.

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He shares the message that literacy is at the heart of learning in a way that makes people stop and listen.

ILA 2019

Colleen Patrice Clark (cclark@reading.org) is the managing editor of Literacy Today.

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Hungry for more than 280 characters at a time? Hear Pedro A. Noguera speak during General Session on Friday, Oct. 11. He will also speak during Fridayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Equity in Education Program event at 11:00 AM. For more information, visit ilaconference.org.

photo courtesy of David Flores Photography

ILA 2019

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FORTIFIED THROUGH WORDS A lesson in owning our stories

By Renée Watson

y mother taught me that words are meant to be spoken. Once, after my siblings and I had been put to bed and the noise of the house had hushed to a loud stillness, I could hear her in her bedroom whispering something. I tiptoed to her bedroom and stood at the door, which was cracked open just enough for me to see her at her desk, lamp on, glasses on, Bible in her hand. She wasn’t talking to anyone. She was reading. I didn’t understand why she was reading scriptures out loud to an empty room. Up until then, I thought reading out loud was for story time in the classroom or at bedtime just before saying good night.

Because my mother was the eyesbehind-her-head kind of mother—a woman with supersonic hearing who knew if I was sneaking to talk on the phone to a crush or my best friend—she heard me. Without turning, she said, “Renée, do you need something?”

I asked her why she was reading out loud. She answered, “Spoken words are powerful words.” Even now, my mother hangs inspiration on the walls in her bedroom—scriptures on loving your neighbor as yourself, quotes, song lyrics, poetry. She knows most of them

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by heart, she recites them in times of hardship. “Words fortify,” she says. *** I inherited my mother’s love of words. When I was a girl, I loved walking to the North Portland Library. I remember browsing the aisles for the next book in the Ramona series

(HarperCollins) and picking up Judy Blume’s Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (Atheneum) for a second, third, and fourth time. I related to Ramona and Margaret, often feeling like the not-good-enough, not-smartenough younger sister and obsessing with my girlfriends over who was ready to wear a training bra and who had started her period. Reading these novels made me feel less alone and let me know that other girls my age had the same questions and fears, the same desires. But I was also different from these characters. I was black. I was fat. I didn’t see these identities represented in the novels my library had, so I turned to poetry. In middle school, I started reading the poetry of Maya Angelou, Lucille Clifton, and Nikki Giovanni. Nikki’s poems “Knoxville, Tennessee” and “The Reason I Like Chocolate” taught me that even the small things could be celebrated, that the ordinary could be worthy of a poem. Maya and Lucille wrote about their bodies in a way I had never seen. I cherished “Phenomenal Woman” and “Homage to My Hips.” A new confidence was birthed in me. In their poems, I saw the everydayness of black women right alongside our resilience and strength. Their poems inspired me not only to keep reading but also to tell my own stories. As a young black girl, I knew there were assumptions and stereotypes about me. Adults were often speaking for me or about me. Statistics of what would happen to girls like me, who grew up in neighborhoods like mine, felt like a prophecy I had to prove wrong. I wanted control of my own narrative. My journal became a storehouse of words. Reading poetry taught me how to write. Not just the rules of writing, but how to put emotion on the page. How to use the pages as a container for all my questions and fears. I wrote poems about my parents divorcing, about my grandmother and how sad I was that she died before I got to say goodbye. I wrote odes to my

dark skin and my thick hair. I wrote about the rose bush that grew in our front yard. How barren it would be in one season but then bloom fire red, teaching me about patience. I wrote about the sweet taste of marionberry pie, the sourness of huckleberries. Somewhere in those pages between poems about first loves and heartbreaks were poems about Mulugeta Seraw, an Ethiopian man murdered by skinheads in my community. I wrote and wrote and wrote. But I never read these poems out loud. *** “You’re going to fail the final,” my English teacher told me one day when I refused to read my poems to the class. The oral presentation was a significant portion of the grade. I was terrified. I didn’t mind writing poetry. I didn’t even mind people reading my poems. But I had never considered reciting my words. Sure, I had read aloud in class before and I loved reading picture books to my younger cousins. I had even performed in plays and recited Easter speeches in front of the congregation at my church. But this was different. This was reading my own words, my own story. My desire to get a good grade outweighed my fear, so I stood up, walked to the front of the class, and opened my mouth. It was just a whisper. That’s all I could muster. I didn’t make eye contact with anyone and I held the paper too close to my face. My teacher stopped me. “You chose these words for a reason. Say them with some meaning,” he said. “You never know, someone else might need to hear what you’ve got to say.” I tried again. I managed to hold the paper down so I could at least make eye contact with the audience. By the end of the presentation, my voice was owning the words. I was louder, stronger.

I don’t know if my teacher intentionally planned to teach me a lesson about the power of my voice. I don’t know if he knew of someone in the class who could really benefit from hearing my words. It could be that it really was about the grade. Maybe it was about teaching public speaking skills. But nothing is ever just one thing. I learned so much about storytelling that day. Speaking my story made me feel powerful and the poem took on meaning in a different way once it leapt off the page. Hopefully, my classmates got something out of it. But even if they didn’t, I did. I was fortified. *** I believe there are many ways to speak. We all have a choice to use or not use our voices. To engage or to keep to ourselves. When I teach writing workshops with young people, we talk about our artistic voices. We talk about how what we create is a way of speaking up for what we believe. We talk about our everyday voices, how we can be kind with our words, how we can use our words to bring comfort to someone. I push my students to read widely, to take in stories they relate to and don’t relate to. I encourage my students to write their world. As it is, as it can be. I invite students to speak their truths. Together, we explore the relationship between reading, writing, and speaking. Together we hold space for each other—we fortify each other, and ourselves.

ILA 2019 Renée Watson will take the stage during the ILA General Session on Friday, Oct. 11. For more information, visit ilaconference.org.

Renée Watson (@reneewauthor) is a New York Times best-selling, Newbery Honor, and Coretta Scott King Award–winning author. Her most recent books include Watch Us Rise, coauthored with Ellen Hagan, and Some Places More Than Others (Bloomsbury), due in September.

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Photo by Robert Merhaut

ILA 2019

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ONE MORE ROUND WITH HAMISH BREWER The ILA General Session speaker on how a relentless attitude can change anything By Colleen Patrice Clark

amish Brewer just doesn’t know when to quit. When it seemed like the world was against him growing up—a broken home, an environment impacted by drugs and alcohol, a shortage of teachers who believed in him—he ignored the naysayers. Despite being told repeatedly that he wasn’t smart enough or academic enough, he went on to be the first of his family to go to college—followed by a master’s degree and a soon-to-be doctorate.

In 2011, the New Zealand native took on the role of principal at Occoquan Elementary School—an underperforming Title I school in the state of Virginia. Within just four years, however, that changed, with the school going from underperforming to receiving the honor of National Title I Distinguished School—facts that helped lead to Brewer being named a Nationally Distinguished Principal in 2017.

Much of it is thanks to Brewer and his staff being relentless. That word is the root of his philosophy. Relentless spirit. Relentless optimism. Relentless love. That love is now the basis for his turnaround efforts at Fred Lynn Middle School, a school within the same district as Occoquan, which was also an underperforming school. Brewer was named principal at Fred Lynn in 2017, where he faced several challenges

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including disengaged students, low morale, and test scores so low that it had been a number of years since the school was accredited. The question now: Can he lead them to the same distinguished title? Clearly, he’s no stranger to challenges. (In fact, he once broke his back in a fire truck accident. The former volunteer firefighter has six pins in his back to prove it.) And he’s no stranger to overcoming them.

One of the many murals along the hallways at Fred Lynn

Brewer with Byron Cracknell, a principal visiting from Australia

It’s not simply about getting students to perform better, he says. It’s getting them to believe in themselves and see the possibilities in their future. It’s about showing them love. It’s about showing them opportunity. And the same goes for the teachers: It’s about bringing their passion back to the surface and reigniting a culture of relentless optimism. And, critically, it’s about proving others wrong. Because he doesn’t know when to quit, and he doesn’t want you to either. “It’s not about struggles,” Brewer can’t stress enough. “It’s about providing hope.”

“There’s no greater fight” School turnaround looks different each time it occurs. At Occoquan, Brewer says it was about growing instructional practices, establishing a culture of risktaking, being creative, and embracing what he calls “educational senses”— look, feel, touch. They went deskless. They introduced collaborative tables and authentic, hands-on experiences. They focused on basic acquisition of skills and a strong literacy program. At Fred Lynn, the turnaround can already be seen in the numbers. The school has overcome a number of challenges by improving schoolwide

discipline, student, teacher, and parent engagement, and test scores. The school has grown from just over 1,000 students to a nearly 1,350-member student body in two years that includes over 40% English learners and more than 85% from economically disadvantaged families. The school also was not accredited when Brewer came on board. Just one year under Brewer, however, and they became fully accredited by reaching their benchmarks in English language arts, math, and science instruction. Now he’s got his eyes on the National Title I Distinguished School honor again, which he refers to with students and staff as “the national championship.” Language like that helps get buy-in and build excitement. The academic culture of the school is now something the students want to be part of. Brewer describes it as a “relentless, gang, all-in mentality.” Everyone wants in on this impenetrable force that can’t be disrupted. “We support each other, lift each other up, and have each other’s back,” Brewer says. “With this idea, we are ready to answer the call. You take on one of us, you take on all of us.” That may sound brutish or crass, especially when you combine it with Brewer’s tattooed appearance—and did we mention he rides the hallways on a skateboard? You might even say it sounds like a gimmick. But he’s quick with the reminder that kids are skilled at seeing through fake façades. “There are no games behind this. You’re either going to put the work in or you’re not,” Brewer says. “You can’t pretend. You get found out real quick if you’re fake.” This relentless “all-in” spirit is one students, staff, and families feel connected to and they become active stakeholders in the turnaround mission. “The No. 1 thing we talk about here is family,” Brewer says. “When you fight for family, there’s no greater fight.”

“Let’s prove the whole world wrong” The first changes at Fred Lynn were all about visibility. They changed lightbulbs to reduce the yellow and introduce a more natural feel. They brightened up hallways with beautiful murals painted by Brewer and staff, complete with inspirational quotes and

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leaders to look up to: Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and Malala Yousafzai, among others. And being visible himself is another key. Brewer moved the principal’s office from the typical location—an exterior space by the entrance/exit— and repurposed a meeting room in the middle of the school so students would have to walk past his office repeatedly every day. Not that he’s typically there. He’s more often seen rolling around the halls, if not on his skateboard then with his mobile desk. And his voice is heard every single day, starting with the morning announcements when he’s giving students his daily reminders. Chief among them: “If no one told you today that they love you, Mr. Brewer is telling you today that he loves you.” Introducing the character traits of love and kindness came first. Then came the academic shifts. There has been “a massive focus” on engagement, literacy, and ownership. And it’s not just ownership of their work, but of their whole school. “We talk about leaving our school better than when we found it,” Brewer says. “We share that their successes can be life successes. This is bigger than just now. It’s setting them up for next year, for high school, and for life.” In addition, there is much less emphasis on exams than there used to be. “We don’t talk about exams,” Brewer says. “We talk about amazing instruction each and every day. When you focus on that, the exams take care of themselves.”

You have to believe 100% in students for them to succeed, Brewer stresses, and they have to see it. When you believe in students, everybody buys in and trusts each other. “We make it bigger than just school,” Brewer says. “We tell the kids, ‘Let’s prove the whole world wrong.’”

“It’s an opportunity” When Brewer made the move from Occoquan to Fred Lynn, students followed him because the school is in the same district and is a feeder school to Fred Lynn. Some teachers, however, made the move too because they wanted to follow his leadership and energy. Brewer says that, just as students can see through a phony, so too can teachers. “I created ownership with my teachers,” Brewer says. “You can’t lead from the back office. You have to trust your teachers to make decisions, to be the professionals they signed up to be.” He always tells them: When we look in the mirror, can we say we were better for our kids today? He also works to ensure teachers share his mentality: Teaching is not an obligation. It’s an opportunity. As a result, there’s a renewed confidence among teachers at Fred Lynn and there are no longer siloes of instruction. Everyone shares a common mission and understands that they can only be better, together. “You’ve seen this movement from delivering content to teaching content,” Brewer says. “They’re evolving their

THE MORE YOU KNOW During our interview, there was a teacher tournament happening in his office on an old Pac-Man/Galaga video arcade machine—yes, in his office. After our call, he was heading right into an interview with a job applicant. There’s one question he always asks potential educators: What’s the biggest challenge you’ve ever had to overcome? “I want to know what they’re willing to fight for,” Brewer says. He’s always loved skateboarding, but since becoming an educator, the skateboard has taken on new meaning. Kids are often told to avoid skateboarders. “Those kids aren’t ‘the right kids,’” Brewer recalls being told. “Well, every kid in the school deserves to be advocated for. Every child in the building matters.” To illustrate that, Brewer gives out skateboards as rewards for a variety of reasons such as academic achievement, behavior, citizenship, and advocacy.

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practices. We went from whole-group teaching to small-group differentiated instruction in a two-year span with a focus on planning. My teachers are fired up to plan.” “Teachers are amazing,” Brewer adds. “They rise to the occasion.”

“One more round” Among the murals painted along the hallways at Fred Lynn is a large boxing ring. It’s hard to walk past it and not feel more mentally prepared to tackle whatever is in front of you. Spray-painted above it are the words One More Round. “It’s this whole metaphor for not quitting,” Brewer says. “Life doesn’t give you a handout. There’s going to be obstacles in life, and what you do about those obstacles and how you respond to those obstacles and how you respond to adversity really defines your character and who you are.” The metaphor plays a big role in the culture at Fred Lynn. Brewer even recently brought in UFC mixed martial artist Paul Felder to give a fight demonstration and talk to the kids about grit, determination, and never giving up. That’s part of the legacy Brewer wants to leave behind—someone who won’t give up. “We won’t quit on ourselves, each other, or our school,” he says. “We’ll get back up again and again.” And that’s very much part of the message he’ll be bringing to ILA 2019. “Don’t ever quit on a kid,” Brewer says. “Give them the opportunity to read. Give them the opportunity to write. Give them the opportunity to change the world.” Fight for that, he says. Be someone who just doesn’t know when to quit.

Colleen Patrice Clark (cclark@reading.org) is the managing editor of Literacy Today.

ILA 2019 Don’t miss Hamish Brewer during General Session on Friday, Oct. 11. For more information, visit ilaconference.org.

ILA 2019

THE RESEARCH ADDRESS AT ILA 2019 Talking the “ Dos & Don’ts of Writing Instruction” By Alina O’Donnell

i Alina O’Donnell (aodonnell@reading.org) is the communications strategist at ILA and the

t’s often said that reading and writing are inextricably connected. They draw upon shared knowledge bases and work in tandem to help students learn across all content areas. Studies have proven that, when students practice reading, they become stronger writers—and the opposite holds true as well: As students write more frequently, their reading comprehension improves. Yet despite a large body of research establishing this connection, writing is an often overlooked tool for improving reading skills and content learning. The research address at the International Literacy Association (ILA) 2019 Conference, “The Dos & Don’ts of Writing Instruction,” provides practitioners with research-based information about how writing improves reading while making the case for teachers, literacy specialists, and administrators to place greater emphasis on writing instruction as an integral part of school curricula.

editor of ILA’s blog, Literacy Daily.

A new format This year’s format will maintain the traditional research address but add a roundtable discussion, creating a space for more participatory, engaged, and self-steering conversation. With a more intimate setting and focused content, the roundtable discussions will allow participants to connect with like-minded professionals, ask questions, bounce off ideas, and receive feedback in real time.

The kickoff The event will kick off with opening remarks by Douglas Fisher, professor of educational leadership at San Diego State University and a past president of the ILA Board; Diane Lapp, distinguished professor of education in the Department of Teacher Education at San Diego State University; and David Kirkland, associate professor of English education in the Department of Teaching and Learning at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. The session cochairs will provide a brief overview of today’s literacy landscape, mapping some of the challenges that prevent effective writing

Graham

Fisher

Lapp

Kirkland

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instruction in the classroom as well as potential avenues for growth and change.

Writing as a powerful driver for reading comprehension Following is a keynote by Steve Graham, a leading expert on the educational psychology of writing. Graham, the Warner Professor in the Division of Leadership and Innovation at Arizona State University’s Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, has dedicated more than 30 years to the study of writing. His research focuses on identifying the factors that contribute to writing development and difficulties, developing and validating effective instructional procedures for teaching writing, and the use of technology to enhance writing performance. Graham is a past editor for leading journals such as Exceptional Children and Contemporary Educational Psychology and the author and editor of several books, including Powerful Writing Strategies for All Students (Brookes), Handbook of Writing Research (Guilford Press), and Best Practices in Writing Instruction (Guilford Press). In recent years, he has been involved in the development and testing of digital tools for supporting writing and reading through a series of grants from the Institute of Educational Sciences and the Office of Special Education Programs at the U.S. Department of Education. Graham will share his insights into the connection between reading and writing and discuss a series of studies that have examined four factors— writing strategies, skills, knowledge, and will—that play an important role in writing performance and development. His keynote will make a compelling case for emphasizing writing in the classroom and across content areas.

to unpack, critique, and expand on the points put forth by Graham. Participants can choose to attend any of the 14 group discussions, facilitated by table leaders who are experts in specific aspects of writing. Each table leader will explore one contemporary topic on writing instruction. The leaders will approach all topics through a lens of equity with the goal of improving outcomes for all students. Following is the full list of table experts and topics: “Emergent Writing Instruction,” Sharon O’Neal, professor, Texas State University “Elementary Writing Instruction,” Brian Kissel, associate professor, University of North Carolina, Charlotte “Middle & Secondary Writing Instruction,” Kristen Campbell Wilcox, associate professor, SUNY Albany “Scaffolding for ELs,” Danling Fu, professor, University of Florida “Preparing Writers for the Workplace,” T. DeVere Wolsey, professor, The American University in Cairo “Self-Regulation,” Karen Harris, professor, Vanderbilt University “Spelling While Writing,” Malatesha Joshi, professor, Texas A&M University “Motivating Writers,” Zoi Philippakos, assistant professor, University of Tennessee “Writing Assessment,” Margarita Gomez Zisselsberger, assistant professor, Loyola University “Technology: No Replacement for the Teacher,” Kay Wijekumar, professor, Texas A&M University

Deep dive into topics of interest

“Digital Writing,” Troy Hicks, professor, Central Michigan University

Following the research address, attendees will have the opportunity

“Preparing Culturally Responsive Writing Teachers,”

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Marva Solomon, associate professor, Angelo State University “Writing and Reading Connections Across the Disciplines,” Jennifer Serravallo, teacher, author, and consultant, New York City “Inclusive Writing Instruction,” Sharlene Kiuhara, assistant professor, Utah University

Tangible takeaways Kirkland, an ILA 2019 featured speaker who also serves as executive director of the Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools, will provide the closing keynote. A leading national scholar and advocate for educational justice, his transdisciplinary scholarship explores intersections among race, gender, and education, focusing on the relationship between literacy and incarceration. Kirkland’s presentation, “Gaining and Sharing Knowledge: Reading and Writing Joined Forever,” will outline key takeaways from the event as well as next steps educators can take to help students cultivate strong reading and writing skills in the 21st-century classroom. Participants will leave with easy-to-implement strategies and methods, grounded in culturally sustaining pedagogy, that promote academic achievement. For more information about the Research Address, as well as a list of other featured research sessions at ILA 2019, visit ilaconference.org.

ILA 2019 The Research Address at ILA 2019 will be held on Saturday, Oct. 12, 3:00 PM–4:30 PM. For more information, visit ilaconference.org/iplanner.

THE ENGAGING CLASSROOM

Donalyn Miller (thebookwhisperer@gmail .com), an ILA member since 2005, is an awardwinning Texas teacher and author of several books about engaging children with reading. Her latest book, coauthored with fellow Nerdy Book Club cofounder Colby Sharp, is Game Changer! Book Access for All Kids (Scholastic).

THE POWER OF THE

CLASSROOM LIBRARY Why every classroom needs this well-curated resource for students By Donalyn Miller & Colby Sharp

Colby Sharp (colbysharp@ gmail.com) is a husband and

eachers continuously evaluate what resources and opportunities best support students’ academic and personal reading development. A classroom library can be an important resource for language arts teachers. Students in classrooms with well-designed classroom libraries interact more with books, spend more time reading, demonstrate more positive attitudes toward reading, and exhibit higher levels of reading achievement.

father of five. He teaches fifth grade in Parma, MI. Sharp is a cofounder of Nerdy Book Club and he serves on the Nerd Camp Michigan team.

One moment in the classroom library Kids stroll into Mr. Sharp’s classroom, after lunch, on a Friday afternoon, with just a few weeks left in the school year. Hailey approaches Mr. Sharp and says, “I do not like this book I am reading.”

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Before Mr. Sharp can respond, Reese pops into the conversation, “Come here! I’ll show you the greatest book I have ever read.” Another student, Paige, overhears the conversation and follows them to their classroom library. “You need to read Elly Swartz’s Finding Perfect. It is the best book ever,” Paige says, clutching the book in her arms. “No, you should read Wonder,” says Reese. “Everyone should read Wonder. I cried three times.” “But I don’t like sad books,” Hailey replies. “I know you don’t, but it’s Wonder,” Reese says, rubbing the cover. “What about Abby Cooper’s Sticks & Stones? It’s about this girl that has words show up on her arms when people say things about her. So good,” Reese says as she hands the book to Hailey. “I’ll give it a try. Thank you!” Hailey says as she walks back to her seat. Reese grabs Finding Perfect and begins reading it as she walks across the room. It’s clear that Colby’s students see the classroom library as a resource enhancing their reading lives and their relationships with each other.

Creating an effective library Classroom libraries best meet young readers’ needs when collections include books from a range of voices and perspectives, current titles reflecting up-to-date information and relevant stories, and a variety of formats, reading levels, and topics. Effective classroom libraries can do the following: Scaffold avid, wide reading. When given access to a wide range of books and ongoing support to read them, all students read more. They need access to books in order to become engaged readers. Support students’ development of book self-selection skills. With more opportunities to self-select books, students’ book selection skills improve. Each time students select a book to read, they fine-tune their book selection

ability and learn more about themselves as readers. A classroom library allows students to have many at-bats. The best time to help students grow as book selectors is when they need a book to read. Cultivate reader-to-reader relationships. With proximity to books, students’ conversations naturally include their reading experiences. Students swap book recommendations, preview books together, and share enthusiasm and criticism for the books they read. Students enjoy what they read and show higher interest in reading when they have other readers to talk to on a regular basis. Evolve in response to students’ needs and interests. You cannot build effective classroom libraries by purchasing a prepackaged box. The best classroom libraries meet students’ needs in your community, which varies. No one-size-fits-all set can be this responsive. As students’ reading experience and engagement grows, their reading needs and interests change. Adding titles that are new to students throughout the school year keeps their reading enthusiasm high and builds a collection reflecting the students in the room. Feed classroom instruction. Classroom libraries provide ondemand referents during lessons and conferences. Teachers can pull books from the classroom library to illustrate and inform students’ understanding of concepts discussed in class. Students can see connections between books and ideas as instruction occurs. Studying the elements of genre? Examining text features? Comparing and contrasting effective leads? Easy access to books in the classroom provides authentic examples that support and extend instruction. Meet students’ reading needs in real time. We could never send our students to the school library as many times as they need to go. Imagine if 10 students need to swap books at the same time! What if the school library is closed for testing, meetings, or inventory? Is there ever a time when kids’ book access at school should disappear?

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Coexist with school libraries and librarians. Students need books everywhere. It’s not a competition. You could never replace a well-funded, well-curated collection (developed by a librarian) with satellite collections around the school. On the other hand, there is nothing sadder than a literacy classroom without books. The most effective reading communities forge reading relationships between all of the adults and young people in the school community and center the school library as the hub. We recommend that any school striving to build classroom libraries must deeply involve the school librarian in the process. Your librarian is likely the only person in your building who has been formally trained (or has experience) in how to build a book collection and current trends in children’s and young adult literature. Why would you bench your most qualified player? Require systemic and institutional support for funding and curation. A 1,000-book classroom library costs at least $5,000 to create. Every school year, teachers need funding for books to accommodate students’ interests, new publications, and changing curriculum demands. When we decide not to fund classroom libraries, we decide that our teachers’ families will subsidize this resource for our schools. Recognizing the power of classroom libraries with students over the years, we cannot imagine teaching without one. Every student needs fingertip access to books and opportunities to grow as readers in a strong reading community. Classroom libraries can help!

ILA 2019 Donalyn Miller and Colby Sharp will present a featured speaker session on Friday, Oct. 11, 1:00 PM–2:00 PM. For more information, visit ilaconference.org.

THE ENGAGING CLASSROOM

DISRUPTING

YOUR TEXTS Why simply including diverse voices is not enough Tricia Ebarvia (tricia.ebarvia@gmail.com) is a high school English teacher, a Pennsylvania Writing & Literature Project codirector, Heinemann Fellow, and #DisruptTexts cofounderâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;but above all, she is an advocate for literacy instruction rooted in equity and liberation.

By Tricia Ebarvia

n May 2019, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) released its Hate at School report. Using information gathered from teacher questionnaires and news media reports, the SPLC found an alarming uptick in the number of incidents of hate and bias occurring in U.S. schools. Teachers reported that the most common driver of these incidents was racial or ethnic bias, with anti-LGBTQ bias a close second. Furthermore, a majority of these incidents occurred in spaces where adults were present: 32% in classrooms and 37% in shared spaces such as hallways, bathrooms, or other parts of the building. Think about what that means. The majority of incidents of hate and bias occur in the presence of adults.

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As teachers, we do our best to make sure that all of our students are safe and seen in our schools. But the truth is that even the most well-intentioned teachers will miss things—harmful things— sometimes in our own classrooms. What might be the microaggressions, for example, against Indigenous students, students of color, and LGBTQ students occurring in our classrooms that teachers—who are overwhelmingly white in the United States—may not notice? What unexamined biases do we as educators bring into our classrooms that could have a potentially harmful impact on our kids? As literacy teachers, we have one of the most powerful resources available to fight against hate and bias: We have stories. The stories—and, more important, the counter-stories, the counternarratives—that we choose to share with students are instrumental in helping all our students be seen and heard, appreciated and understood. This is especially critical for students from communities whose stories are too often oversimplified, misrepresented, or rendered invisible in the dominant culture and mainstream media. Thus, centering and amplifying minoritized perspectives can help to foster community and the type of solidarity that counteracts and perhaps even prevents incidents of hate and bias in our schools.

Steps to take I am heartened by the inclusion of more diverse voices in the curriculum, but the truth is that it’s not enough. Although schools may bring more “diverse” texts into the curriculum, these “contributions” and “ethnic additive” approaches, in the words of researcher James A. Banks, do little to actually change the system of power that marginalized those voices in the first place. After all, efforts to “diversify” the curriculum have been going on for decades, yet we know that inequities persist. Furthermore, “diverse” curricula can often mask systemic problems, including the fact that black, Latinx, and Indigenous students continue to be underrepresented in higher level academic courses while also disproportionately disciplined. To be clear, including more diverse voices in our curriculum is an important, necessary step. Our

students deserve windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors, to borrow language from scholar Rudine Sims Bishop, that represent the richness of their own lives and the lives of others. But our efforts cannot end there. We must interrogate not just what we teach but how and why. Some suggestions to think about: Begin with the premise that public schools never intended to educate all children equally and look for the ways in which this holds true today. Likewise, the curriculum has never been neutral, but always ideological. In making decisions about what texts to include, look for the voices that are marginalized or missing and bring those voices into your text sets. Consider the role that race and whiteness have played in your own socialization, particularly around your beliefs about schooling. How does your own racial socialization inform not only the types of texts you may value, but also the types of instructional choices you make? Center the counternarratives. Although pairings of traditional canonical texts with voices of color offer rich possibilities for comparison, diverse texts can also stand on their own. Include a diversity of voices within marginalized groups. To what extent are you perpetuating or challenging stereotypes based on your patterns of text selection? Be mindful of the positionality of texts and the message this positionality sends. Are diverse voices centered in the curriculum as core and mentor texts, or are they optional? Does the entire class read The Great Gatsby while the books by authors of color are offered as summer reading, book clubs, or literature circles? Know your purpose for adding or removing a text. Creating a more inclusive curriculum is not simply about replacing texts written by “dead, white males.” It is about addressing the racism, sexism, homophobia, and other problematic issues reflected in these texts—and choosing better.

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Keep the issues facing people of color current. Racism is not a problem of the past, solved by the Civil Rights era, but a continuing problem today. Create text sets that show the complexities of these issues in both historical and contemporary contexts. Resist colorblind readings of texts. If a text includes any form of bigotry, be sure to address and unpack this with students. Otherwise, students might see silence as tacit acceptance of these attitudes. Understand that not all oppression is the same. Anti-black racism manifests itself differently than sexism, and drawing a false equivalence among them can cause more harm. Learn and relearn the history of Indigenous people, people of color, and the LGBTQ community. Because we often use literature to better understand people and time periods—and because our own understanding of history is often incomplete, if not inaccurate—bringing a more accurate understanding of history when we study a text is critical. Reading books like An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States (Beacon Press) can be critical in this work.

Disrupt the system It’s no doubt that equity work can feel overwhelming, especially as many of the problems in education are systemic. But as #DisruptTexts cofounder Kim Parker recently reminded me, people make up systems. And if we are people committed to equity, then we must understand our role in these systems and how we might disrupt them. So diversify the curriculum, yes— but let’s not stop there.

ILA 2019 Tricia Ebarvia will present a featured speaker session on Saturday, Oct. 12, 9:00 AM–10:00 AM. For more information, visit ilaconference.org.

THE ENGAGING CLASSROOM

LITERACY AND

DEMOCRACY Travis Crowder (stephencrwdr@gmail

Engaging readers, nudging humanity

.com), an ILA member since 2018, is a middle school English language arts (ELA) teacher at East Alexander Middle School in Hiddenite, NC. He has taught for 10 years and has experience in both middle and high school levels. He currently teaches seventh-grade ELA and social studies and works with the gifted and talented students in his school.

By Travis Crowder

t’s Monday morning, and my students have just settled into independent reading. The sounds of reading—turning pages and rhythmic breathing— are subtle yet still audible as I make my way, clipboard in hand, to different students. I stop for a few moments with Hunter and ask, “Would you mind talking to me about your book?” In this interlude, he discusses characters in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 (Simon & Schuster), questions they are asking, and problems that have risen since the first page. After outlining our conversation in my notes, I move to another student, Karina. When I ask if I can join her for a moment, I jolt her out of the reading zone. She is reading Meredith Russo’s If

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Their feelings matter, and where there is disengagement, there is a story I want to know. I Was Your Girl (Flatiron), and when I extracted her from such a deep state of reading, she was in the midst of a pivotal scene in the story. I tell her to keep reading; we can chat later. Other students are engaged in their books, and in the time we have left for independent reading, I retreat to one side of the room and just observe. When I announce that our reading time has ended, several students linger in their books for just a moment longer, reluctant to let go of the story just yet. Existing in an oasis of story mesmerizes them. And I feel honored to work beside them. Karina’s and Hunter’s reading lives have intersected with gorgeous books and indelible characters, moving them as thinkers in the world they inhabit. Fahrenheit 451 provides Hunter with a grim view of a world without books and choice. Powerful thinking about transgenderism in If I Was Your Girl allows Karina to elevate her own understanding of identity. Both books enrich the humanity of the reader, something I want all students to experience. A reading life offers pleasure, and I want students to experience the joy of a voluminous and varied reading diet. And, yes, I want this for every student. But, beyond that, I want kids to know that books are models of the world, and they equip readers with tools to nudge the world in positive directions. In conversations with Karina and Hunter, I have asked them to consider how these texts are nudging them to promote change.

Nudging disengaged readers I recognize that not all students come to my room prepared to plunge into narratives and to examine all

that is noble or evil in our world—or even just to find a book that they are willing to read for a sustained amount of time. Each year, kids arrive in my classroom with their own personal story about reading. Prior experience with books has stained or embellished students’ impressions. Some beam at the prospect of another year of reading, whereas others bemoan the expectation. I recognize the value of engagement with texts and know how books have the capacity to move students to promote change in the world. So often, though, students enter as disengaged readers. I choose to believe that I can reach them. Students may disengage because of access, low interest, an overemphasis on “right” answers, little or no validation of their visceral responses, testing, or all of the above. When readers come into my room, I take their reactions to reading seriously, knowing that above all else, I am teaching human beings. Their feelings matter, and where there is disengagement, there is a story I want to know. I meet them with books, with options, and with patience. They have a place in this world and their experiences are part of the fabric of humanity. I sit beside them and listen to their stories. And I meet them with books, ones I am certain will capture their hearts. This year, two students caught my attention early on. Tanner and Grace entered my classroom with a negative

opinion of reading. They refused to do much reading outside of class, and during independent reading time in class, they would stare at single pages for stretches of time. Conversations with them were pleasant, but nudging them forward was problematic. They offered beautiful insights into poems we discussed in class, mentor texts we studied, and short stories we read. However, developing a reading life did not rank high on their lists. I refused to give up hope. Knowing students is a huge part of the work I do to move them as thinkers and readers. I have to meet them where they are in their learning journey and nudge them from that point. Some kids come to my class as disengaged readers, certain that reading is not for them. Like my friend Donalyn Miller, I tell my students that not reading is not an option and I work carefully to match them with books that will speak to their interests. But I do understand their disengagement stems from somewhere. Like Penny Kittle encourages again and again, I listen to them, and I take their resistance seriously. I want to know who they are and understand the stories about reading they bring with them.

Nudging the world Imaginative thinking thrives in the heart and mind of a reader. Emerson believed strongly in literacy’s power to influence the world. In his eyes, reading was a critical element of a democratic society. I agree. I believe that my students are the leaders of tomorrow. Books breathe life into our thinking and open our minds and hearts to the possibility of change and progress. I consider myself fortunate

Books breathe life into our thinking and open our minds and hearts to the possibility of change and progress.

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to see how hearts and minds can change with the power of books. Not long ago, several of my formerly disengaged readers elevated my thinking during their reading conferences. Grace, whom I mentioned earlier, was reading Clare Dunkle’s and Elena Dunkle’s Elena Vanishing (Chronicle). By reading this book, she deepened her understanding of eating disorders and, as a result, began crafting poems that she wants to share with a broader audience. After Tanner finished Walter Dean Myers’s Monster (Amistad), he was curious about capital punishment and the ethics surrounding it, and sought more books to give him answers. These students are reading the world and witnessing through story how people, real and imagined, have wrestled with questions that remain unanswered in our world. But with reading, they are entering the conversation.

Democracy demands a literate populace. Our current political climate demonstrates a need for empathy. Again and again, the news is replete with hateful rhetoric, and without a voluminous and varied reading life, kids will enter their adult lives unprepared to combat such evil and vitriol. Reading has the capacity to teach empathy. Books give readers—in the

words of Kelly Gallagher—imaginative rehearsals, opportunities to stand beside characters and see the world with them. I lift my voice with a chorus of other ones, believing that with books, students are challenged, engaged, and empowered. And, yes, I believe that with books, students have the power to nudge the world in hopeful directions.

ONLINE EXCLUSIVE

ILA 2019

The digital edition of Literacy Today includes an additional Engaging Classroom article from Denise K. Frazier, Purdue University Northwest, about grounding STEM lessons in literacy and literature, complete with a list of picture book recommendations. Print readers: Log in at literacyworldwide.org/ literacytoday to read the digital issue.

Travis Crowder will join Laura Robb and Evan Robb on Saturday, Oct. 12, for a panel titled, “A School Filled With Readers: How the Principal, Literacy Coach, and Teachers Change a School’s Reading Culture.” For more information, visit ilaconference.org/iplanner.

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ONLINE EXCLUSIVE

STEM

COLLABORATORY Grounding STEM lessons in literacy and literature By Denise K. Frazier

Denise K. Frazier (frazierd@pnw.edu), an ILA member since 2012, is an assistant professor of literacy education at Purdue University Northwest in Indiana.

here is a new classroom at Westville Elementary, one of my university’s rural, partner schools. It’s a vibrant STEM Collaboratory funded by the school, the parent teacher organization, and a one-time 2018 Monsanto Grant. The grant is a part of the Grow Rural Education Program, which supports STEM-related initiatives in public schools. Westville’s classroom is called a STEM Collaboratory because students work and learn together. I had the opportunity to observe a lesson recently. This innovative classroom is led by seasoned professional Christine Ton. Ton spent the last 19 years in a fourth-grade classroom, recently accepting the challenge to create a STEM curriculum for first- through sixth-grade students. Students now receive 40 minutes of STEM education per week. The school created one full-time teaching position by combining STEM education with a recently vacated part-time

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physical education position. Both are taught as part of the weekly special subject schedule.

STEM-based literature Westville wanted to ground the STEM curriculum in literacy. Ton attended a STEM conference at Purdue University, where she learned about Picture Perfect STEM. The program mixes STEM curriculum with engaging picture books so students see the real-world connections of STEM. Students engage in discovery as reading comprehension strategies are embedded in the curriculum. Although there are many scripted STEM programs available, the school wanted the flexibility to build their own curriculum to best meet the needs of their students. The backbone of the curriculum is based on perseverance and learning from mistakes. These themes emerge from books used with fifth- and sixthgrade students such as Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty (Abrams) and The Inventor’s Secret: What Thomas Edison Told Henry Ford by Suzanne Slade (Charlesbridge). The latter tells the story of Henry Ford seeking out Thomas Edison to learn his secret for success. After Ford explained to Edison what he had done in an attempt to invent an affordable car, Edison exclaimed, “Keep at it.” All units are grounded in literature. For example, a fifth-grade unit on cars was introduced with the book If I Built a Car by Chris Van Dusen (Puffin). The inspiration of this picture book came from a game the author played with his brother. His family took frequent road trips where the boys would talk about how they could change the family car to make it better. The students related to this and brainstormed ideas on how to improve cars. For instance, one student suggested vibrating seats to make long rides more comfortable. When another student suggested a robot-driving car, connections were made to current self-driving cars. The end papers of the picture book showed engineer sketches of cars, and the terms concept car and prototype were discussed.

Picture books allow students to understand and retain discipline-specific vocabulary words embedded in engaging and relatable texts. Vocabulary Disciplinary literacy refers to using literacy in the disciplines—in this case, STEM. In science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, experts read and write differently in order to create knowledge. Therefore, using disciplinary vocabulary in STEM education as students learn the way words are used in these areas is important. In Van Dusen’s book, an engineer wanted to design a car that moved like a boxfish. The class discussion focused on people looking to nature for inspiration and the teacher introduced the term biomimicry. She told the story of the engineer who developed Velcro after removing burrs from his dog, examining how the hooks and eyes of the burrs caused them to adhere to the fur. Picture books allow students to understand and retain disciplinespecific vocabulary words embedded in engaging and relatable texts.

Application Recently, I sat in on lessons that provided background knowledge to anchor the lesson on assembly lines. Students also learned about several important people in the STEM field and the skills needed to be successful. Students designed and tested bridges and, most recently, learned about Henry Ford before they made their own prototypes of a balloon-powered car. Today’s lesson incorporated media literacy by watching a Bill Nye (“The Science Guy”) video of an assembly line. Students learned Henry Ford worked tirelessly, finally designing an assembly line in which auto workers stood in the same spot while cars moved along the line, allowing one car to be

LITERACY TODAY | July/August 2019 | literacyworldwide.org

manufactured every minute. The video ended and a student asked, “Was that real?” Students were then presented with the challenge of designing an assembly line to construct a dozen foam race cars in the shortest time possible. Ton explained that the class had a “client” who needed an efficient assembly line to construct their foam race cars. Students formed engineering teams to design the best assembly lines for “Foamies Car Corporation.” Picture Perfect STEM supplied the mock corporation letter that listed the criteria and constraints for the challenge while the school purchased foam car kits online. Student teams brainstormed, discussed the criteria, and negotiated team member tasks to complete the job in the most efficient manner. The ideas and procedures were recorded on a planning sheet. Although students generated a variety of ideas, they did not think through the importance of sequencing as the cars moved along the line. During the trial run, some groups discovered they had planned each step and assigned team member jobs along the assembly line, but in a haphazard way that did not make for easy movement of the car among the team members. For instance, struggles occurred as one team member was responsible for two consecutive steps of removing the tires from the foam tire sheet and putting the tires on the axles, resulting in other team members wasting time waiting for the car to reach them. After the first assembly line trial run, team members were given time to reflect and reevaluate to improve their plan, which is the next critical step for growth through the engineering design process.

For some groups, reevaluation simply meant changing the order of steps or team member jobs, whereas other groups had to rethink their entire design. The trial run resulted in groups taking up to 20 minutes to build 12 cars, with the most efficient groups coming in at around 12 minutes. Following the redesign, the second assembly line run resulted in almost every group improving their time, some by up to 50%. Through engaging, hands-on learning, this unit helped students discover the importance of the redesign/improve phase of the engineering design process. It is this critical step that requires perseverance and that made an enormous difference in their assembly line runtime.

Literacy in STEM I had the opportunity to debrief with Ton, and her passion was palpable. She is excited about the addition of the STEM curriculum and wants her students to see its significance. “I want them to know it’s the crazy ideas that are innovative,” she said.

Literacy needs to be recognized as a key component of STEM. By including fiction and informational texts, discussion, media literacy,

writing, and discipline-specific vocabulary, students are able to make authentic connections and see the value of STEM education.

ENGINEERING PICTURE BOOKS Below are great examples of picture books to use with STEM lessons for kindergarten through sixth grade. K–2 Dreaming Up: A Celebration of Building by Christy Hale (Lee & Low) Engineering in Our Everyday Lives by Reagan Miller (Crabtree) The Handiest Things in the World by Andrew Clements (Atheneum) Iggy Peck, Architect by Andrea Beaty (Abrams) 3–6 If I Built a Car by Chris Van Dusen (Puﬃn) Inventing the Automobile by Erinn Banting (Crabtree) The Inventor’s Secret: What Thomas Edison Told Henry Ford by Suzanne Slade (Charlesbridge) Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty (Abrams)

ILA’s Literacy Glossary— Together, we can define our profession, one word at a time

Learn more and share your feedback at

literacyworldwide.org/glossary 10

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PD RESOURCES FOR LITERACY EDUCATORS Use ILA’s professional development resources to make an impact on all levels of learners in your classroom. Choose from a variety of materials that can boost your skills, help you develop new and practical classroom strategies, and keep your professional momentum going all year long! Choices Reading Lists Position Statements Research & Standards Literacy Today Magazine The Reading Teacher, Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, and Reading Research Quarterly Journals

BROWSE ONLINE literacyworldwide.org/get-resources

THE ILA NETWORK

SHARING SUCCESSES IN THE KEYSTONE

STATE

Inspiring literacy initiatives across Pennsylvania By Aileen Hower

Aileen Hower (aileen.hower5@gmail.com), an ILA member since 2008, is president of the Keystone State Literacy Association.

he Keystone State Literacy Association (KSLA), the Pennsylvania affiliate of the International Literacy Association (ILA), is celebrating 50 years of literacy leadership across our state this year. At our fall statewide leadership meeting, we took the time to share about the wide variety of chapter projects and initiatives currently being implemented. There was a great deal of positive energy around widespread sharing of ideas. After a gallery walk, chapters were able to elaborate on some of the most innovative ideas. Chapter leaders enjoyed hearing about similar and new ideas for how to serve our members and communities. It was an awe-inspiring time of collaboration and connection. A few commonalities emerged from the ideas shared. Most ideas fell into the following categories: professional learning, advocacy, and engaging with families and communities.

Professional learning Throughout the state, KSLA chapters hold “Teachers as Readers” events to talk about and promote the reading of current children’s, middle grade, and young adult books. Many councils invite the coordinators of the Keystone to Reading Book Awards to present on the current books that students can read and vote for. The Keystone to Reading Book Awards is a yearly recognition of a current picture, poetry, or chapter book, awarded annually at our state conference. The awards are chosen entirely by Pennsylvania students. Across the state, especially in chapters such as Central Western, online and in-person professional book clubs are being held with members, other local teachers, and teachers from other parts of the state. At times, such as with the Brandywine Valley Forge and Delaware Valley chapters, miniconferences are held to engage with teachers in specific areas and at times outside of our annual conference. This year, topics include “Building Community With Social Justice Poetry,” “How to Talk About Race in Your Classroom,” and “Raising Social Awareness Through Conversations and Mentor Texts.”

Advocacy A few chapters, such as Franklin County, share literacy information and establish partnerships with local doctors’ offices, as well as provide books to children during wellness checks.

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Franklin County was also recognized by Pennsylvania’s deputy secretary of education for their work in collaborating with the local intermediate unit to service students who attend a migrant education summer program in their area. We continue to host department of education representatives at our annual conference as well as invite a “standing” member, who focuses her work on language arts, to attend our biannual leadership/statewide meetings. Various chapter leaders attend department of education meetings to share the latest research about literacy with various divisions and statewide initiatives.

Engaging with families and communities Our Lancaster-Lebanon chapter gives their Celebrate Literacy Award to local literacy initiatives such as “Police, Read to Me.”

Susquehanna Valley holds “Read to Me Please” summer reading programs for preschool students at a local playground. Many of our chapters participate in laundromat library projects. Books are collected throughout the year at chapter events and baskets are placed in local laundromats so children have something to read while their family is there. In some chapters, books are also donated to women’s shelters or in places where children wait while their parents attend a court hearing. A number of chapters, such as Schuylkill, have established Story Walks through local parks. Across the state, chapters are partnering with other community organizations such as Kiwanis, Salvation Army, the United Way, and local libraries. The ideas shared at our meeting were as diverse and unique as each of our local chapters. Most recently, chapters have been holding casual

get-togethers for networking and have even been offering painting, massage, and relaxing coloring events to boost teacher morale. Those chapters that serve regions that are large in square footage work to host regional or online events. Chapters that represent more diverse populations or urban centers stay committed to serving those communities, ensuring children receive books and families and caregivers learn helpful ideas for promoting literacy in the home. Especially in a time when teachers find attending large conferences difficult, but still desire to keep their literacy teaching skills sharp, all chapters serve their members by hosting authors and professional development speakers, and studying the latest in literacy research. We are so proud of all of our members and thankful for our local leaders for their tireless love of and commitment to promoting literacy throughout a lifetime.

Editor Search Open for the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy The International Literacy Association invites applications from qualified members for the position of editors of the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy (JAAL). This prestigious editorship functions as a two-person team of either two coeditors or one editor with one associate editor. These volunteer positions have a term of 6 years: The first year overlaps with the current editorial team, and the subsequent years constitute the volumes for which the new editors provide material. Editor search open: August 1, 2019 Application deadline: October 15, 2019 Term: June 1, 2020, to May 31, 2026 Volumes: 65 through 69 publishing July 2021 through May 2026 JAAL is the leading peer-reviewed journal for educators of literacy learners ages 12 and older. The journal reflects current theory, research, and practice in support of effective literacy instruction. Readership includes middle school, secondary, and postsecondary classroom teachers; university researchers and scholars; literacy consultants; administrators; and policymakers. Qualified applicants must be recognized experts in the field of literacy education of learners in this age group and in professional development of pre- and inservice teachers; they must also demonstrate a commitment to translating sound research to practice. For further information and application instructions, visit www.literacyworldwide.org/jaal-call.

LITERACY TODAY | July/August 2019 | literacyworldwide.org

EVENTS

JULY 2019 9–12 Australian Literacy Educators’ Association Conference Melbourne, Australia alea.edu.au

AUGUST 2019 4–7 European Conference on Literacy Copenhagen, Denmark cph2019.dk

14 Northwest Montana Back-ToSchool Literacy Conference Kalispell, MT koppesm@sd5.k12.mt.us

20–22 Pan-African Literacy for All Conference Kampala, Uganda literacyuganda.org

SEPTEMBER 2019 14 Indiana State Literacy Association Conference Indianapolis, IN indianareads.org

25–27 Latin American Congress for the Development of Reading and Writing Conference Lima, Peru

OCTOBER 2019 3–5 Illinois Reading Council Conference Peoria, IL illinoisreadingcouncil.org

10–13 International Literacy Association 2019 Conference New Orleans, LA ilaconference.org

17–18 Montana State Literacy Association Conference Billings, MT montanareads.org

18–19 California Reading Association Conference Sacramento, CA californiareading.org

FEBRUARY 2020

MARCH 2021

6–8

21–23

Wisconsin State Reading Association Conference Milwaukee, WI wsra.org

North Carolina Reading Association Conference Winston-Salem, NC ncreading.org

7–8

25–27

Oregon State Literacy Conference Portland, OR oregonread.org

Alaska Cross Content Conference Anchorage, AK akliteracy.org

MARCH 2020

30–Nov. 1 Keystone State Literacy Association Conference Hershey, PA ksrapa.org

North Carolina Reading Association Conference Winston-Salem, NC ncreading.org

26–28

6–7 Connecticut Reading Association Conference Southbury, CT ctreading.org

APRIL 2020

8–9 Literacy Association of Ireland International Conference Dublin, Ireland literacyireland.com

14–15 Arkansas Literacy Association Conference Little Rock, AR arareading.org

15–16 New York State Reading Association Conference Albany, NY nysreading.org

12–13 Massachusetts Reading Association Conference Quincy, MA massreading.org

22–24

Virginia State Reading Association Conference Roanoke, VA vsra.org

NOVEMBER 2019

APRIL 2021

FEBRUARY 2022 3–5 Wisconsin State Reading Association Conference Milwaukee, WI wsra.org

MARCH 2022 2–3 Massachusetts Reading Association Conference Quincy, MA massreading.org

20–22 North Carolina Reading Association Conference Winston-Salem, NC ncreading.org

APRIL 2022 OCTOBER 2020 1–3 Illinois Reading Council Conference Peoria, IL illinoisreadingcouncil.org

4–5 Massachusetts Reading Association Conference Quincy, MA massreading.org

MARCH 2023 DECEMBER 2020

21–22

6–8

West Virginia Reading Association Conference White Sulphur Springs, WV wvreading.com

Literacy Association of Tennessee Conference Murfreesboro, TN lat.wildapricot.org

DECEMBER 2019

FEBRUARY 2021

8–10

10–13

Literacy Association of Tennessee Conference Murfreesboro, TN lat.wildapricot.org

Wisconsin State Reading Association Conference Milwaukee, WI wsra.org

26–28 North Carolina Reading Association Conference Winston-Salem, NC ncreading.org

Please email intldev@reading.org to confirm dates and locations of international events. To have an ILA-affiliated event added, send event information to literacytoday@reading.org.

literacyworldwide.org | July/August 2019 | LITERACY TODAY

Bridge Research to Practice: Live With the Author Get the inside scoop about Reading Research Quarterly articles from the authors who wrote them. Check out these podcasts and videos to learn about each authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s background; find out what the author would tell teachers, parents, principals, policymakers, and other stakeholders based on the studyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s findings; and more!

literacyworldwide.org/rrqauthorinterviews

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

news & notes

Kowalczyk Recognized as a LifeChanger of the Year Sandra Kowalczyk, a reading specialist at Patrick Marsh Middle School in Wisconsin, received a LifeChanger of the Year Award from National Life Group. LifeChanger of the Year is an annual program that recognizes K–12 educators “who are making a significant difference in the lives of students by exemplifying excellence, positive influence, and leadership.” Kowalczyk was one of more than 800 nominees and just 16 winners. This isn’t the first time Kowalczyk, who is known as an inclusive educator who brings global experiences into her school for her diverse student population, has been recognized. The recipient of multiple U.S. Department of Education Fulbright-Hays summer travel awards—which have brought her to countries such as Peru, China, and India—Kowalczyk also received the Association for Middle Level Education 2018 Educator of the Year Award and the 2018 Butler-Cooley Excellence in Teaching Award. She was also a Top 50 Finalist for the Varkey Foundation 2015 Global Teacher Prize.

MCCLURE RETIRES AFTER 40 YEARS Amy McClure retired from Ohio Wesleyan University this school year, where she was most recently serving as Rodefer Professor of Education and chair of the Education Department. She worked at Ohio Wesleyan for an impressive 40 years, where she also served as codirector of the Honors Program for over 30 years. McClure has been honored for her many contributions to the university with the Bishop Herbert Welch Meritorious Teaching Award, Robert K. Marshall Award, Spirit of Arête Award, and Ohio Council of Teachers of English Language Arts College Professor of the Year. She is also a past president of several organizations, including the Ohio Council of the International Reading Association.

Former IRA President Edwards, White Publish New Book Patricia Edwards, member of the Reading Hall of Fame and professor of language and literacy at Michigan State University (MSU), and Kristen White, professor of education at Northern Michigan University, released Partnering With Edwards Families for Student Success: 24 Scenarios for Problem Solving With Parents (Teachers College Press) in April. Edwards served as president of White the Board for the International Reading Association (IRA, now the International Literacy Association) from 2010 to 2011. Their book, also authored by MSU’s Rand Spiro, Lisa Domke, Ann Castle, Marliese Peltier, and Tracy Donohue, aims to develop teacher confidence and build sensitivity when interacting with caregivers and families who speak different languages and may come from different cultural, racial, and social backgrounds.

SAMMONS NAMED READING ADMINISTRATOR OF THE YEAR Brian Sammons, principal at Grundy Center Elementary in Iowa, was named the Iowa Reading Association’s Reading Administrator of the Year. The award is given to “professionals who have demonstrated leadership in promoting literacy.” Sammons does so by leading book talks and organizing author visits for students to keep them engaged and excited about reading. He is also known for organizing the Mock Caldecott Awards each year, for which students read books and vote for the ones they enjoyed the most.

Chandler-Olcott Publishes New Book Kelly Chandler-Olcott, Laura J. & L. Douglas Meredith Professor for Teaching Excellence at the Syracuse University School of Education in New York and coeditor of ILA’s Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, published her latest book, A Good Fit for All Kids: Collaborating to Teach Writing in Diverse, Inclusive Settings (Harvard Education Press), in June. The book is a resource for teachers by providing insight and other information regarding inclusive classrooms and the most effective methods for encouraging writing education in diverse learning environments.

GOLDEN APPLE AWARD GOES TO PATTERSON Deb Patterson, a reading recovery teacher and reading interventionist at Valley View Elementary in Wisconsin, was named one of the Golden Apple winners of the Green Bay area, an honor reserved for the most outstanding educators in the area. Patterson received the award with her school’s Literacy Team, which also includes Ann Brennenstuhl, Stacie Schabow, and Sheryl Stathas.

WILLIAMS NAMED A DISTRICT EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Kelly Williams was named executive director of teaching and learning for Oak Ridge Schools in Tennessee. Williams has been with the district since 2013, where she has served as a reading specialist, literacy coordinator, and supervisor of Title I. She previously worked for the University of Tennessee and as an elementary and middle school teacher in Philadelphia, TN.

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social scene

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

One Final Lesson It is possible to engage students during the very last week of school! Just check out this recent exchange we observed on Twitter, in which an authentic, modern take on literary analysis had eighth graders happily working until that final bell rang:

Be sure to follow @ILAToday on Twitter, where youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll ďŹ nd conversations and connections like this one every day. Bonus: View the digital edition of Literacy Today at literacyworldwide.org/literacytoday and click on the images above to access the tweets and photos.

LITERACY TODAY | July/August 2019 | literacyworldwide.org

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

reﬂections

Roads Old and New

riving back from Austin, TX, last July felt like flying. The road back to Houston is pretty enough: rusting barbed wire fences, rolling hills covered in bluebonnets rising and falling like waves on the ocean. I left the International Literacy Association (ILA) 2018 Conference ready to conquer the world, feeling euphoria course through my nerve endings, yearning to write about my experience, seeking more of those who share this passion for literacy. I knew, as I left ILA 2018, that I was rushing back to a new school, a new team, and that newness would be both a challenge and a blessing. What I later learned was that I would find myself welcomed with open arms. The energy of those I met in person at ILA 2018, or revered from afar, filled me with confidence and reminded me that traveling familiar roads can lead me back to people and places that provide comfort and much-needed reassurance as I face what is certainly the greatest work I’ll ever do. Soon, I’ll follow a new road that will lead me east, through the crawfish farms on the Louisiana border, to Lafayette, and on to the Big Easy: New Orleans and ILA 2019. This time, though, I won’t be at ILA as an attendee. By some stroke of luck, my badge will read: Presenter. Nor will I be traveling that road alone; I’ll ride in the company of two teachers who are passionate about literacy in ways that I can describe only as inspirational. Finding familiarity in the passion for literacy that my coworkers embody empowers me to continue down that new and unfamiliar road. Megan Thompson and Helen Becker, two incredible educators, feel the pull of that road too. That subconscious force that compels them to advocate for students and teachers in our school and across our country. As culture creators,

By Charles Moore they throw their hearts and souls into their work. Teaching feels a lot like traveling down a road. Sometimes I feel too robotic, like my GPS took control, and other times I feel lost in time and space with a sense of panic spreading over my consciousness like spilled ink. But when I lean on our culture, our literacy ethos, the panic and fear vanish, and suddenly those postconference emotions emerge from the work we hurl ourselves into every morning. Creating a Culture of Literacy, this year’s conference theme, implores us to bring our best ideas together. Roads far and wide converge on New Orleans in October and, at this point of convergence, literacy culture will reflect on itself and radiate back across our world, empowering teachers and students to explore their place in it. Please join us at ILA 2019. We’ll be the trio with coordinating outfits and nervous—but determined—expressions on our faces.

Charles Moore at the First-Timers Event & New Members Meetup at ILA 2018

ILA 2019 The trio of Charles Moore, Megan Thompson, and Helen Becker will present “Not Averse to Verse: Using Novels in Verse to Engage English Language Learners” on Saturday, Oct. 12, from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM. For more information, visit ilaconference.org/iplanner.

Charles Moore (mooreliteracy1@gmail.com), an ILA member since 2017, teaches sophomores and juniors at Clear Creek High School in League City, TX. He blogs monthly for threeteacherstalk.com.

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