Literacy by Lisa

Another semester has come to an end, and reflection has now begun. What did I do that helped my students to grow as teachers? What did I do that failed miserably, and how can I correct that for my future students? What do I want to keep in my lessons, and what do I need to get rid of or revise? However, this is not only a time of reflection but one of planning for the next semester. This is where I truly get excited since it is a time of starting over with a clean slate.

This coming semester I will be teaching an undergrad course entitled “Foundations of Reading.” I have taught this many times as a graduate course, but this will be the first time I will be teaching it to preservice teachers. As with any course I begin thinking about what do I want the students to have learned by the end of the semester. Then I wonder how I will get them to that point. The latter is what I would like to think about in this blog.

When I think of foundations, my literacy brain automatically goes to the 5 Pillars of Reading. Then I think about reading models and theories. I emphasize these heavily in my graduate course, but I need to remember that these are preservice teachers just learning about what it is to be a teacher. They lack the background knowledge that inservice teachers possess in regards to teaching. Building background knowledge will be key. Before starting with reading foundations, perhaps these students need to be reminded of what it was like to be a reader. Oh, they ARE readers in the sense of academic reading, but I would bet my life it has been a long time since many of them have read for enjoyment!

Enjoyment – Do we allow ourselves to enjoy reading? As I wrote in a previous blog, I almost feel guilty for reading a book just for pure enjoyment. But isn’t that where reading begins? Children enjoy having books read to them. Children enjoy looking at the many books in a library. I think giving my students “permission” to enjoy a book is where I will start with this class. This will be interesting to see if they allow themselves to enjoy a good book instead of thinking about what a waste of time aesthetic reading is when they could be working on school work.

Motivation – Is it possible to motivate preservice teachers to read? Hmmmm . . . How do we motivate younger students to read (and by younger I mean K-12 students). Read alouds? Book talks? Just talking about books we have seen or heard about? Extrinsic motivation is solidified in preservice teachers because they want that good grade, but isn’t there more to reading than just a grade? I would dare say not for college students. I think a number of preservice as well as inservice teachers have given up the intrinsic motivation due to seeking a degree, but we need to get that back. If we want our students to be readers, we must also be readers ourselves. Model the joy of reading – that will need to be a focus.

Realization – As a literacy professor, I have the responsibility to enlighten my preservice teachers about the students that they are going to teach one day. The phrase “There is a reading crisis” can be just that – a phrase. It is knowledge, but do my preservice teachers realize how bad the crisis is? Do these preservice teachers (especially middle school and high school preservice teachers) know that 1/3 of their students will not be able to read the textbook put in front of them (2019 NAEP reading scores)? Do they realize that another 1/3 of their students will be able to read but struggle with the textbook put in front of them? It is easy to point the finger at early childhood and elementary teachers since isn’t it their job to teach reading? A goal in my foundations class will be to open my preservice teachers’ eyes to their responsibility of helping struggling readers read the text put in front of them. No blame game – let’s just learn.

Oh, theories and models are important to know, but I do not think the impact of these will be felt until the very foundation of reading is laid. These three things (enjoyment, motivation, and realization) are foundational for preservice teachers to experience in order for the rest of the reading structure to stand. My students may not remember all of the theorists or even be able to recite all of the pillars of reading, but I will strive for them to become better readers so that they may turn around and model for their future students what it truly means to be a reader.

I have been asked this question a few times and decided to write about something that I love to do – Workshop Presentations.

A little over 30 years ago, I went to my first educator’s conference and was excited to learn from seasoned teachers. I listened intently as these presenters gave me ideas on how to be a better teacher. As a rookie teacher, I was amazed at how much these educators knew! I found a connection to their experiences and thought, “One day I want to do what they are doing.”

Now here I am – 30+ years later – doing just that. I enjoy meeting teachers from all over the US and beyond. I listen to their stories. I try making a connection to what they are doing. I want to help them – give them a nugget of knowledge and have them run with it and see their students’ knowledge flourish. I have had the pleasure of presenting workshops on vocabulary instruction (The coat hook is key), content area reading instruction (Who is supposed to teach this?), writing instruction (Who can write without a traffic light?), tricking students to read (Acid Rain!), and math literacy (Camels, camels everywhere!). These are just a few of the nuggets I get to share.

In the next 3 months I am excited to meet teachers in the following places: Spartanburg Reading Council, Greenville Reading Council, LitCon 2022: National Reading Recovery Conference, and the South Carolina Council of Teachers of English. It is a pleasure to work with those who attend these workshops. I have a hard time accepting that I am the “seasoned teacher,” but there is no greater joy than to pass on what knowledge I have to current and upcoming teachers.

So I may not meet my goal of writing on my blog every month but know that I am out and about with phenomenal educators doing my best to support and further literacy.

My first year of teaching was in a second grade classroom. Oh, the things I learned that year! Second graders could be so cute. They would give me lots of hugs every day. They grossed me out by pulling on their loose teeth. They sometimes told me extremely funny stories about their families ( I didn’t believe ALL of them). But this one student always liked to bring me shiny red apples. They were sooooo delicious, and I looked forward to getting those apples until one day . . .

Yes, it was bound to happen. I took one big bite, and there it was. A worm. Not just any worm – a LIVE worm. It’s wiggling body stretching itself from the innermost part of that apple as if it had been trapped and was eager to experience freedom. After quickly spitting out what was in my mouth, I was relieved to find that the worm in the apple was totally intact – whew! But after that day, when that student brought me an apple, I did not quickly bite into it as I had in the past, but instead, I now carefully cut it open to see what may or may not be inside.

So what does a worm in an apple have to do with literacy? Well, you see, the apple that I bit into many years ago had no outside indication of contamination. The skin of the apple was bright red with no bruises or tiny holes – I always checked. The apple seemed perfect. Yet, within that perfection there was an imperfection, and that imperfection was only discovered once the apple was opened (or bitten in my case).

Let’s think of our students as those apples, and the skin of those apples are their reading abilities. It is easy to look at reading abilities on the surface. A student reads fluently. A student gets all the multiple choice comprehension questions correct. A student seems to be an avid reader during the time of silent reading. But what is underneath that surface? Is the inside as perfect as the outside, or could there be something on the inside that keeps that student from truly being a proficient reader?

The only way to know what is on the inside of an apple is to look – I mean REALLY look. Don’t be deceived by the red shine and the unblemished skin. Trust me. I know! The only way to truly know a student’s reading abilities is to assess the skills he or she possesses. Just because a student reads fluently does not mean that the student is fully comprehending the text. Just because a student can correctly answer a multiple choice question about a text does not necessarily mean that he or she comprehended the text. Students can be good guessers!

I dare say that there is not a reader – young or old – who does not have a “worm” hiding in them. Every reader can always become a better reader by working on some type of reading skill. It’s easy to overlook the shiny red apple readers in our classroom and zoom in on those who have an obvious blemish on the surface, but let’s not forget that those perfect shiny red apples can be hiding a worm, too.

Phonics. Whole Language. Balanced Literacy. Here we go again . . . What is the best way to teach a child to read? The Reading Wars are decades old, and the pendulum is still swinging back and forth. Should teachers focus on phonics? Should they immerse their students in authentic texts? Should there be a little bit of both?

How a child learns to read is debatable. Have you ever seen or read the book Theoretical Models and Processes of Reading? After having to read many parts of it for my PhD program, I remember saying to my professor, “Can we EVER know EXACTLY how one learns to read?”

Well, the Wars are back – or did they ever go away? Recently I read an article that blasted Lucy Calkins as well as Fountas and Pinnell for their lack of emphasis on explicit phonics instruction. The author of the article made some valid points about the importance of explicit phonics instruction, but I felt she had unfairly critiqued Calkins and Fountas and Pinnell. First, she stated that Calkins’ curriculum emphasized using picture clues or skipping the word entirely when one encounters an unfamiliar word. She said that these two “strategies” do not help a student figure out an unfamiliar word. Secondly, she went after leveled books stating that a student should not be pigeon-holed into a level and not be allowed to go on to harder texts until he or she has mastered the level.

I do not disagree with the importance of explicit phonics instruction. It does not hurt any student to have this type of instruction. But is explicit phonics instruction the BEST way to teach a student how to read, and should we dismiss other ways that may be helpful? I remember being taught phonics rules such as this: “When ‘c’ comes directly before the letters ‘e’, ‘i’ or ‘y’ we use the /s/ sound. In other cases we use a /k/ sound.” That’s great except when you have the word “ocean”or “muscle.” Depending on whose research you read, there can be up to 50% of our English words that do not follow any phonics rule, so how should we teach the other 50%? Would immersing students in authentic texts help? What about looking at picture clues or skipping the word and using the context clues to figure out a word? Do we just throw those out because they are “guessing” strategies that may not be the best or considered scientific?

I will write briefly on leveled texts. It is my understanding that leveled texts are to be used in GUIDED READING – not every time a student reads. We want our students to be learning how to read with a text that is at their instructional level. We want our students to feel successful with a text so that they will take a risk and push themselves to read harder texts. The author of the article made it sound as if once a student was assigned a level, they could not read anything else – hmmmm . . . that sounds like the very popular Accelerated Reader program. Now that is a totally different topic that I could really give my opinion on, but I digress from the purpose of this writing. I do not think Fountas and Pinnell ever suggested this pigeon-hole method of reading.

So back to these current day Reading Wars. I tell my preservice teachers that reading curriculum should not be a one-size-fits-all approach to teaching reading. Some of their students will need an emphasis on phonics instruction. Others may need to be immersed in authentic texts. Others may need a mixture of both. How will you know what your students need? Be involved in their reading. Where are they struggling? How best can you help them in the reading skills they are lacking? If you are depending on the reading curriculum to give you what is needed for every student, you will be one frustrated reading teacher. Let the curriculum be the guide, and DO NOT forget that every student needs what is best for him or her. Where the pendulum swings should be seen as individualistic as each student’s needs are for learning how to read.

The following is the research study that my colleague and I conducted during the quarantine when schools were closed and the online learning environment was thrust into the forefront of education. We wanted to see what the similarities and differences were in the perspectives of parents and teachers regarding this new way of teaching and learning. It was an eye-opener!

Teacher and Parent Perspectives of the Online Learning Environment Due to COVID-19 (pp. 24 – 34)

rb.gy/22n46w

As I stated when I started this blog, I will write about my thoughts and ideas about literacy. You won’t see me giving lists of citations of research although what I write is based on research and, of course, my personal experiences. I want to be practical in my writing – thoughts that give the readers something to think about and possibly help to strengthen their teaching. Hence, the topic for this blog – Reading Aloud to Middle Schoolers.

I loved teaching middle school. Those students were probably my favorite to teach. The students were old enough to be semi-independent and yet young enough to still do those “childish” things like cut and paste (literally – not like on a computer), color, and my favorite activity – reading aloud. Don’t get me wrong, some of my middle schoolers felt they were “too cool” to do those things in the list, but I knew deep down they were enjoying each activity.

As an elementary teacher, I always took time every day to read out loud to my students – usually after recess. It was a time for them to relax from all the excitement they had on the playground. I also can remember the smell of the 20 or so sweaty bodies! Some things you just don’t forget no matter how much time has passed! However, when I moved up to middle school, I thought, at first, that the students would be too OLD for having me read aloud to them. Boy, was I wrong!

One day I decided to experiment with my class, and for the first 5 minutes of the hour, I read to them with the lights off. I can’t remember the title of the book now (it has been 30 years ago!), but I remember that it was a “Who Done It” book. I did not tell them anything about the book including the title, and I did not tell them what I was going to do. I just started reading. My students were not sure what to make of it. Why did she turn off the lights when we entered the room? Why is she reading this book to us? She must be mad!

At the end of the 5 minutes, I stopped, and just like that I closed the book, turned on the lights, and began class as I normally would. My students looked at each other wondering what just happened. It was quite humorous.

The next day, I did not read for that 5 minutes. But the following day I did – 5 minutes, lights off, abruptly stopped, started class. On the fourth day, it was clear that the students were not sure what I was going to do at the beginning of class. I read to them as I had the day before. Day 5 was interesting though. I just started class (no reading) and one of the students blurted out:

“Aren’t you gonna turn the lights off?”

“No.”

“But I have to know what happens?”

“What happens?”

“You know . . . to the guy in the river looking for that other guy.”

“Oh, he drowns.” (I lied)

(Gasps across the room) “No, that cannot happen because he is the main person in the story, and he has to live to find that other guy.”

“Really? What makes you think that the other guy is so important to find?”

And the conversation continued for a few minutes. The students were intrigued, and they cheered when I went over and turned off the lights.

So what did I learn from my little experiment? Middle schoolers are NOT too old to have a teacher read to them. My reading was short. My reading grabbed their interest. My reading taught them literacy skills without their knowledge. For the rest of the year I read to my students 2-3 times a week. The students looked forward to having the lights turned off. I watched as their literacy skills strengthened. This was a time of pure enjoyment.

Fisher, D., Frey, N. & Hattie, J. (2021). The distance learning playbook: Grades K-12. Corwin.

My Rating: 5 stars . . . 2 thumbs up . . . 10 out of 10 . . . Highly Recommended

I will start off by stating that this book was not what I thought it was going to be. I thought it was going to be like most resource books – full of strategies, some useful and some not. Don’t get me wrong – it does have strategies in it, but this book goes far beyond just strategies to use in distance learning.

This book is a PLAYBOOK. Think about what that means, particularly in the sports world. A playbook is used by coaches to develop plays or strategies for winning, and then coaches turn around and teach these plays to the athletes. The authors of this book are the coaches, and the teachers/readers are the athletes. Throughout the book the authors (through short videos, quotes by educators, and the writing itself) keep encouraging you by emphasizing, “You CAN do this!” It was like being in a huddle before a game and feeling the adrenaline rush. Not only did I feel like I could TEACH more effectively through distance learning, but I also couldn’t wait to start working on my class and implementing what I had learned from the playbook.

My overall impression of this book is that it is something you must interact with in order to get the most out of it. It is a workbook in that you really need to start at the beginning and work your way through it. Each module (there are 9 in all) builds off the one before it. You can’t cherry pick through this book. If you do, you will miss the connections between the modules. Module 1 starts off with the importance of taking care of yourself (interesting that this is FIRST), and Module 9 ends with how to make learning better for both students and teachers. The modules in between lead you through the steps of creating an effective distance learning classroom to the best ways to assess, grade, and provide feedback to students.

I believe that this is a great book for a teacher book club or used for PD – I don’t mean 1 session of PD, but multiple weeks! Throughout the modules, there are times to pause, reflect, and make connections. This is perfect for a group setting so that ideas can be shared with one another. Veteran teachers, however, have the background to dig deeply into these reflections, whereas, a first year teacher may find the reflection pieces a little bit more difficult to answer. But we can all learn from each other!

The book includes over 50 short video clips, and I can say that I enjoyed watching each one. Each has a specific purpose, and I gleaned so much valuable information from them. I must say I truly enjoyed watching the video of Nancy Frey near the beginning of the book encouraging teachers by letting them know that we got this! There are video clips of teachers describing how they handle distance learning – great information! Each video is short but packed full of encouragement and resources. What better way is there to learn than by listening to other teachers?

If you are thinking about getting this book . . . DO IT! No matter what the future looks like in teaching, this book will be a valuable resource to you. Hats off to Fisher, Frey, and Hattie! They did not let me down.

As we are nearing the beginning of a new school year, I wanted to give some hope to those who are concerned about the literacy gap caused by the COVID-19 school closings some 5 months ago. The concern by parents and teachers alike is that children have not retained the information taught to them before and perhaps even during the shutdown. There will be regression particularly in the area of literacy. This concern is a valid one, but giving hope is what I am here to do.

There is a simple way to start bridging the literacy gap. This is not a new idea. In fact, research has been done on this idea for decades and has shown its effectiveness on a child’s literacy development. If the idea has been researched for decades, then why am I writing about it now? Think of it like this. You know you should exercise and eat right. You plan when you are going to turn over this new leaf. You make your preparations: new exercise clothes, exercise equipment, recipes in hand to make healthy meals, etc. You make it through that first day. Whew! A little exhausting but you look forward to the next day. Right around Day 3, your willpower is lacking. You think, “I can skip just one day.” Then one day turns into 2 days which turns into 3 days. And before you know it, your exercise clothes are buried in the drawer, your exercise equipment is collecting dust (or laundry), and those healthy recipes are replaced with chocolate chip cookies! Who hasn’t been here? Some of us multiple times.

So here is the connection. The idea to bridge the literacy gap is to read to or with children. Really? That’s it????? I can hear the moans and groans since this idea is not anything you haven’t heard before. But really think about it. Think about its importance. Think about what it really means to read to or with a child. Let’s go back to the exercise example. There is great determination to exercise at the beginning, but as the days wear on, so does our enthusiasm. Exercise and eating right takes mental determination as well as physical determination. So does reading to or with a child. Things get in the way. Other priorities take precedence. At first, that time set aside to to read is actually looked forward to. But as the days wear on, the reading dwindles. And before you know it, there is no reading occurring.

As this new school year is about to begin in its many forms, let’s work together to make time each day (or if that is not possible at least every other day), to read to or with a child. Start slow – 5 minutes a day – and work up the stamina to add to that time. Just as consistent exercise improves our health, so will consistent reading be a step in the right direction for bridging the literacy gap.

When my students ask me what I love about teaching, I always answer the same way – I get to have a small influence on the lives of every student in my class. As a teacher educator, my goal is equip my soon-to-be teachers with some knowledge of literacy that they will be able to pass on down to their future students. So let’s say my 100 or so preservice teachers each year have a future class of 20 students of their own. My influence has reached over 2000 students during the year that they are teachers! My mind is boggled when I think about how many students I have had over the past 30 years and how many lives each one of those students has touched with just a kernel of what they learned from my courses!

I was reminded of this a few weeks ago when a former student of mine sent me photos (see below) of her adorable son with a book she credits to my reading about 13 years ago in our Teaching Reading class at Saginaw Valley State University. She messaged me saying that she loved this book when I read it in class, and she knew one day she wanted to read it to her own children. I laughed at the pictures and then tears came to my eyes. The impact of my little kernel of read alouds has been passed on down to another generation! This message along with these pictures made me start to reflect on teachers in my past that had an influence on my literacy world.

So in a very small way, I want to thank the following teachers who ignited the fire in me for my love of literacy:

Sharon Swain (my cousin), my first grade reading teacher. She pushed me to read those BIG first grade words when I was unsure of myself.

Mrs. Kerns, my second grade teacher. She placed in my hand Little House in the Big Woods. I couldn’t get enough of Laura, Mary, and Pa after that!

Mrs. Crawford, my third grade teacher. I must have been the teacher’s pet since she allowed me to read a book to the class during Read Aloud time on numerous occasions.

Mrs. Bonner, my fourth grade teacher. It was in her class that I fell in love with the Boxcar Children, Mrs. Piggle Wiggles, and Mr. Popper’s Penguins.

Mrs. McVitti, my fifth grade teacher. I will never forget the day she handed me How to Eat Fried Worms. I couldn’t put it down!

These names are just the tip of the iceberg of those who have influenced me. As teachers of literacy, we will never know the extent of our influence on the lives of readers, but one thing is for certain. Our unknown influence reaches far beyond what we can ever imagine.

Who are the people who have influenced your literacy world?

I always tell my preservice teachers that a successful teacher is one who can be FLEXIBLE. No, I don’t mean they can touch their nose with their foot (but that is definitely a sign of flexibility!), but instead I want them to know that at any moment everything that you have planned can be turned upside down and a new path must be forged.

The past few days have stretched teachers like no other time in their teaching careers. I want to applaud each and every educator who was given 24, 48, or possibly 72 hours to transform a physical classroom into an online learning environment. This was NOT an easy task, and the learning curve was steep. But you did it!

Here is where I am amazed at how the educational community has come together for the good of the students. My feed on FB is flooded with resources that teachers are sharing with each other. Educational companies are providing free resources that can be used in the online learning environment. Authors of children’s books are giving online read alouds. Artists and illustrators are providing drawing classes online. Weathermen are giving online science lessons. Museums are giving virtual tours. There are so many links to educational sites that it makes my head spin. These are just a few of the ways in which the educational community is helping out and supporting teachers and students while they are at home.

Teachers spend hours preparing to teach their students face-to-face but going to an online environment in a matter of days is a beast. So THANK YOU to all who have had to be flexible and to all who are helping during these school closings. May we continue to work together and when all is said and done, may we continue to support one another. The teaching profession is like no other profession, and teachers have shown how a profession can unite, move forward, and be the best one can be when faced with adversity. What greater lesson can be seen by our students?