Literacy by Lisa

So this is a confession post that maybe someone can relate to. I read. I read a lot. I read research about reading. I read journals about reading. I read posts online about reading. I read my students’ assignments about reading.

And that is the problem.

I rarely read for pleasure, and the reason is that I feel guilty when I just sit and read, and it is not related to my profession. As I write this post, I have 3 YA books sitting on my coffee table – collecting dust. I have renewed them 2 times from the library. I have a goal to read these books and to give my opinion of them on my blog. I get ready to read and my brain starts thinking – There are dishes to do. There is laundry to do. The house needs cleaning. There is yard work to do. There are assignments to be graded. There are courses to revise. And it seems that the list just keeps getting longer and longer.

I try to be reflective in my teaching, and maybe now is the time to become reflective in my reading habits. I have tried making goals – 30 minutes a day of pleasure reading. I started the goal at 1 hour and THAT fell through. This 30 minute goal isn’t any better. But perhaps the goal is not what is important. Maybe it is my mindset that needs to change. I guess I could connect this to how one must think about eating healthy (now there is something else I do not do but 1 step at a time!) It is a lifestyle change. I used to love to sit and read – becoming so immersed in a book that I couldn’t put it down. In a former post I talk about the joy of reading and how students lose that so quickly once they enter school. What has replaced my joy? Life’s busy schedule. I am busy – that is true. But I must step back and 1) not feel guilty that I am not doing other urgent or what seem urgent things and 2) give my brain some space to imagine, to dream, to just enjoy the simple pleasure of reading.

When was the last time you just sat and read a book for the sheer joy of reading? If it has been a long time, then let’s change our mindset together. What is that familiar phrase? So many books. So little time. I’m going to make the time. How about you?

After a very crazy, busy week, I can finally take some time to reflect on my learning at Heinemann’s Multi-Day Institute “Curiosity Across the Curriculum: Pursuing Engagement, Literacy, and Action through Inquiry.” What a time of learning it was!

I must be honest – when the day came to travel to Charleston, SC, I was in a “Do I really want to go to this” mood. It had already been a long week, and I truly wanted to just stay home and sleep. I found out very quickly once the institute started that I had 3 exciting days ahead of me. This was not like a conference where you pick and choose your sessions, but every session built on the last one so you didn’t want to miss a single meeting. We were asked to choose a grade level group and that group became your “family.” You learned from them. You read with them. You researched with them. This was nothing I had ever attended before. You didn’t want to let your group down so you became an active participant in each session.

There was the key – Active Participation. I wanted to learn.

Here are my take aways from this phenomenal weekend:

1. We can’t expect our students to do anything that we haven’t done/experienced ourselves.
2. We are not ready to teach a child until we know ten things about them. (Donald Graves)
3. Content teaching should not be about filling students with content knowledge to spit back on a test. Content teaching is about teaching your students how to better UNDERSTAND, THINK ABOUT, and REMEMBER their content area studies.
4. “Most children spend their whole school day without asking a single question or engaging in a sequence of behavior aimed at finding something new.” Susan Engel
5. See, Think, Wonder (This strategy is something that I had known about for many years and really did not understand the depth of it until this PD. We used it many times throughout the weekend, and the more I used it, the more I wanted to learn about what I saw, what I thought, and what I wondered.)

I will stop at 5 take aways but there were many more! Sometimes educators think they have arrived in their teaching, or they think that they do not have the time to learn more about their profession. I told my preservice teachers this week that when they stop developing their knowledge as a teacher, and when they stop reflecting on what they do, that is the time for them to get out of the teaching profession. They are not only short changing themselves since education changes rapidly, but they are also short changing their students. Students need teachers that are the best, and when teachers stop growing in their profession, they are no longer at their best.

I was tired going into this institute, and I was exhausted coming out of it, but I want to be the best professor that I can be, so I will never stop learning. What about you?

A new year! I’m always excited to start a new year. I don’t do resolutions since I usually break them by January 2, but I do like to make goals. So what will my goals for Literacy by Lisa be for 2020?

Goal 1: Stay connected. It is easy as a university professor to become disconnected with classroom teachers. I left the classroom as a job, but I don’t want to leave the classroom as a professional. There is so much change that happens each year, and I want to know what changes and how that affects the educational world. If you are a classroom teacher, please feel free to contact me with topics of interest to you, and I will do my research and write on that topic. Let’s stay connected!

Goal 2: Read. I am toying with the idea of doing book reviews of children’s and YA literature. This is a goal that I will have to be disciplined in accomplishing, but I need to stay current with what students are reading. Do you have any suggestions of books that I should read and review?

Goal 3: Write. I feel that writing is my way of getting a message out to educators. I frequently speak at conferences which I LOVE to do, but that is usually only a 60 minute conversation, and I may or may not see the attendees again. But writing possibly reaches more educators. It connects ideas – not only mine but all who read this blog. Discussions can get started and develop all through a piece of writing. I encourage everyone who reads this blog to add to the conversation through the comments. I can start the discussion, but it doesn’t go very far when I have to reply to my own writing!

I want to thank you for spending a few minutes reading my thoughts and ideas. With these 3 goals before me, I hope to broaden and deepen not only your knowledge base of reading but also mine.

Here’s to a wonderful 2020!

You may be doing everything right! Over the past 12 years I have observed many teachers lead guided reading groups. I remember when Fountas and Pinnell rolled out their Benchmark Assessment System, and school districts quickly jumped on board for using leveled books – goodbye basal readers! Like watching anything for several years, the guided reading lesson started taking on a new identity. What was originally introduced by Fountas and Pinnell began looking like what we used to do with basal readers (a one-size-fits-all approach). For this blog I wanted to highlight the steps of Fountas and Pinnell’s approach to guided reading and let you decide how close you are to these original steps.

Step 1: Assess a student’s reading skills. This is done by using an informal reading inventory (IRI). Fountas and Pinnel have their own Benchmark Assessment System but truthfully, most any IRI will do. I highly recommend the Flynt/Cooter Comprehensive Reading Inventory 2. This IRI has both Early Literacy Assessments as well as assessments for finding a student’s independent, instructional, frustration, and listening comprehension levels. To me, it is imperative that you use an IRI not only to find a student’s reading levels but also to analyze a student’s miscues. Just listening to a student read and making an educated guess on what his or her reading levels are without the use of an IRI could possibly skew the effectiveness of grouping students to do guided reading.

Step 2: Group students based on determined instructional levels and/or needs. I hate to say this, but this is similar to the high, medium, and low groups used for many years (and I think I can confidently say that these, unfortunately, are still used in classes today). What I mean by similar is that the groups are homogeneous. Students with the same instructional reading levels are put into a group. There could be more than three groups. I observed a 4th grade class with six different groups (one group whose instructional level was 6th grade; two groups whose instructional level was 5th grade; one group whose instructional level was 4th grade; one group whose instructional level was 3rd grade; and one group whose instructional level was 2nd grade). These groups are fluid meaning that students can always move to another group when their instructional level changes.

Step 3: Choose books that are on the instructional level of the students. Fountas and Pinnell do make this easy when using their system since leveled books do come with their program. This could become more difficult and time consuming if you need to find leveled books on your own.

Step 4: Start with a mini-lesson. What skill do your students need? How can this skill be applied to the reading they are going to be doing? How are you going to motivate them to read the text? Is there an essential question that you want answered after the reading?

Step 5: Students read independently. Here is where I have seen the many deviations from what Fountas and Pinnell intended. Each student is going to read the text at the same time but NOT at the same speed. The student will whisper read at his or her own pace. This takes a lot of practice since students are used to doing choral reading – everybody reads the same words at the same time. While the students are whisper reading, you are listening to each one, taking note of skills in which the student may be struggling.

Step 6: Have a discussion with the students. Now that the students have read, you 1) check comprehension, 2) review the skill from the beginning of the lesson, and 3 ) answer the essential question.

These steps are not set in stone, but they have been the most effective ones that I have seen. Only you know your students and what works for them. I hope that you will consider these steps as just a refresher on how guided reading should, or perhaps I should just say COULD, be effectively used in your classroom.

A few years ago I went to a literacy PD day at a local school. I wanted to see first hand why teachers groaned about PD days. I arrived early and sat near the back of the room so that I could have a full view of the setting. The teachers filed in – some joking about the amount of coffee they already had that morning. Others carried in stacks of paper topped off with multiple red pens. The principal introduced the speaker for the morning, and the teachers politely applauded as the speaker walked to the front of the room. The next 2 hours seemed like an eternity. I observed some teachers constantly checking their phones. Others graded papers. Some left the room several times and returned with more coffee. Now you may be thinking that these teachers were being disrespectful to the speaker – and perhaps we could go that far, but when the session was done, I had a whole new respect for those PD groans.

Here is what I took away from the session:

1. I was told implicitly, of course, that I am not teaching literacy correctly, and if I do everything that the speaker instructed me to do, literacy miracles would happen in my class.
2. I walked out with a 21 page, single-spaced handout of all the literacy strategies that I should be using in my instruction. Who has time to sift through 21 pages?
3. I was discouraged and frustrated.

I talked with some of the teachers later that day and asked them what their thoughts were regarding the PD session. The general consensus was that PD was a waste of time, and judging by what I saw, I wholeheartedly agreed – at least for the session that I sat in. I asked them what they thought would make a productive PD literacy session (something they would want to go to) and here is what they said.

1. “Ask us about what we already do regarding literacy.” PD should be a two-way street. Teachers do not want to be told what they should be doing by someone who does not know what the teachers already do.
2. “Ask us what our strengths and weaknesses are regarding teaching literacy.” Teachers know what is working for them and what is not. A speaker may not have this insight and assume that the teachers are doing very little that is productive when it comes to literacy instruction.
3. “I want to come out of a PD session with something – even if it is only one thing – that is really useful.” Seeing a 21 page handout of literacy strategies does not make teachers excited to use them. I dare say that the handout was filed away in a dark place never to see the light of day ever again.
4. “There is no follow up after the session. The speaker leaves, and we just go back to what we were doing. It would be great to try something new and then get together again and share. Or have some kind of support to help us develop the literacy strategies to see if they really work.” Yes, teachers actually want to improve, and support is the key. I think of this as a book club mentality. If you know you are going to be held accountable for something (such as reading certain chapters in a book) then you are more likely to do it. And once the discussion begins, it is hard to stop!

So what is my purpose for writing about PD on my blog? I guess I would like to see PD sessions become something that teachers are excited to go to instead of something that is endured. The importance of literacy cannot be understated, and sessions that encourage teachers to become more effective in their literacy instruction will impact the reading development of all students. Let’s start listening to what teachers want and giving them the support that they need, and hopefully, those groans will turn into cheers!

What happens when you put a stack of books in front of a toddler? You see excitement as he or she opens the book and holds it out for you to read it. When the reading is finished, you hear the word “Again!” You smile and start reading it one more time. You finish. “Again!” you hear. “Again” never seems to have an ending. The toddler eagerly looks at the pictures and helps you turn the pages. He or she may also say the words with you since, you know, the book has been read at least a hundred times. When one book is finished, another one is quickly grabbed out of the pile by a little hand and pushed into yours with the anticipation of hearing another story.

Fast forward a few years . . .

A stack of books is placed in a 4th grade classroom. What do you see? A small portion of students will look eagerly for that one book they want to read, but there are some that want nothing to do with the books. Oh, they may look at the cover – possibly crack it open – but then the book is tossed back into the pile. “Again” is replaced with “I hate reading” or “I’m not good at reading.” How is it that in just a few years’ time the joy of reading has vanished and in its place is apathy?

I’m not here to blame anyone or anything of stealing the joy of reading. I’m just going to give a few observations that I have made that might help with understanding where the joy went and how to get it back.

What happens to reading when a child progresses through school? I dare say that reading begins to look like a school assignment. A third grader was asked if he read books at home. His response was “No, reading is a school thing.” A fourth grader was asked the same question. “No, I just read what I’m told to in school.” When asked if he liked to read, the third grader (Joey) said that he likes to look at the books when he goes to the school library, but he is told that he can only check out the books with the blue dot on them. That response puzzled me until I saw what he meant. I was sitting in the school library when I saw Joey’s class enter. The teacher reminded the students that they were to check out two AR (Accelerated Reader) books, and they only had 15 minutes to find them. I watched Joey as he went over to the shelf where the yellow dot books were. The books were colored coded with dots so that the students knew what leveled books they could choose from. Joey ‘s books had blue dots on them. He chose a yellow dot book and then quickly chose a green dot book. When his teacher saw what he had chosen, she told him that he had to put those books back and choose the ones with the blue dots. I watched as Joey slowly returned to the bookshelf and with a heavy sigh take two blue-dotted books without even looking at the covers. Joey’s teacher came over to me and said, “I just don’t understand why Joey doesn’t want to read.” Ummmmm . . . Could it be that Joey would like to choose something other than a blue dot book to read? I understand the idea behind AR, and perhaps I will someday write my thoughts regarding AR, but I think AR is good in theory, but the practice is lacking substance to truly get students, particularly struggling readers, engaged in the process of reading. The AR illustration is only to show that some students feel trapped into reading a certain type of book. It is not to condemn the practice of AR.

How can we get students once again excited about reading? Here are a few tips.

1. Let your students see YOU read. When was the last time you shared with your students a really good book that you thought they might like to read? When was the last time you read silently when the students were silently reading? We hear about modeling reading and, I think, sometimes we show students how we want them to read, but we do not model our own silent reading in front of them. If we show joy in reading, hopefully, that will rub off on our students.
2. Are you giving your students a choice of what they can read? I totally understand that we do not want our students to get a steady diet of books that are way below or way above their reading level. But think about how you would feel if you were told you were limited to reading only that which is on your reading level.
3. Make reading exciting. Please get rid of the old book report templates. There are many activities that can replace the book report that actually get students to WANT to read books. I recently saw a bulletin board in a second grade classroom that displayed students’ book recommendations. The teacher worked with the students on how to rate books and how to write a teaser to make others want to read the book. The books had a wait list because so many students wanted to read each other’s books.

I do not believe the joy of reading is gone forever especially for the students who do not like to read. I think that it has just been lost or misplaced, and teachers have the map for finding the hidden treasure we call “joy.”

Oh my! Did I really use that title???? Why yes, yes, I did! I believe it fits perfectly with today’s question: What is literacy?

For many years literacy was seen as the ability to read and write – a definition that was short, sweet, and right to the point. But as does everything in education, it has evolved. The problem, as I see it, is what it has evolved into.

Recently I googled “literacies” and counted over 50 literacies listed in articles, websites, blogs, advertisements, etc. Here are a few: digital, media, recreational, disciplinary, civic, multicultural, information, functional, content, early, developmental. critical, visual, game, financial, new, textual, and ethical. Whew! I could go on but I know readers skim over lists, and the list is not the point of this blog. It seems as if every day there is a new word connected with literacy, and it becomes part of the growing list. Maybe I should create a new literacy. Let’s see . . . Fuel gauge literacy. Did you know that most, if not all, vehicles have a picture of a gas pump on the fuel gauge, and next to the gas pump is a small arrow that indicates which side your gas tank is on? Can’t remember which side of the car to put gas in? Look at the gas gauge. Congratulations! You are now proficient in gas gauge literacy! (I wonder how many of you are going to check your gas gauge to see if there really is an arrow.) I jest, of course, about this type of literacy, but one’s head does start to spin when facing all these literacies.

I spent some time reading through the definitions of each of the literacies that I found. Some definitions were long. Some were short. Some used really big words that I must admit, I needed to look up. Others were more friendly. But I discovered a common thread! The thread consists of 3 components: Capture, Comprehend, Communicate.

Let’s start with CAPTURE. Whatever the literacy, something is being captured: words, numbers, symbols, sounds, ideas, pictures . . . This would be the “reading” portion of literacy.

Next is COMPREHEND. This is the understanding or interpretation of what has been captured. This occurs in one’s head and cannot be seen.

Finally, there is COMMUNICATE. This is the ultimate goal of any literacy. Communication of one’s comprehension can be done through writing, creating, playing, speaking, or demonstrating. There are numerous ways that one can communicate his or her understanding of that which was captured.

So where does this leave us as educators when it comes to literacy? Everyone wants a piece of the literacy pie – at least 50 do that I could find! It really is not about the number of pieces but the essential ingredients that make up the pie. I suggest we as educators remain focused on the 3 key ingredients of literacy (capture, comprehend, communicate) so that any literacy – created or yet to be created – can be mastered.

Welcome to my blog on LITERACY! I have been thinking about this blog for quite some time and finally decided to take the plunge and just write about my thoughts on different topics related to literacy. And that is just it – these are MY thoughts. You may agree or disagree with them, but my goal is to start conversations. Keep your mind open, and I will do the same on this journey of exploring and learning!

L is for literacy, learning, language, listening, levels . . .