Literacy Daily

For years I have wondered if a book should be considered a school supply. Recently, I posed this question to parents, educators, and “friends” on social media.

As a research question, I must concede that clarity is lacking; the question is rather open-ended. I expected the respondents to assume I meant an independent reading book. I posed the question because I sought to evaluate what parents think about ensuring students come to school with their own independent reading book.

Twenty-four hours after posting my question, I gleaned two major observations.

First, either due to vagueness or the open-ended nature of the question, many people considered a “book” to be synonymous with a textbook. Second, most educators agreed that a book should be a school supply. Parents and community members felt that books should come from the classroom, or at least a library.

Before I discuss the results, I would like to share some information. I am not a data analyst; I am merely making conclusions based on the information posted. Second, I posted my question in two forums: my personal Facebook page and a closed group representing parents. My “friends” consisted of colleagues and coworkers from my current career fields and several previous jobs as well as friends and acquaintances from high school, college, and today. Many of the responses on my personal page were from current educators. The closed group included parents from a rural community whose children were enrolled in the local school system.

As educators, we should consider the implications and questions that need to be raised beyond this very informal study. I wonder how many students, past and present, consider reading to be an act performed in a textbook?  Is this why a certain number of students do not read beyond school? Does this suggest that students who have experience reading independently outside of the classroom are more likely to become lifelong readers? 

Because I did not define a book as a trade book or an independent reading book, I can see why many parents revolted at the notion that a book be considered a school supply. What parent wants to invest in a basal reader or a textbook? However, if they believe I am the sole supplier of independent reading, I am quite concerned about that value of reading in a maturing reader’s life. There is a strong reality that, although we impart the value of reading, our students might be resistant because reading is not prioritized in the child’s overall existence. This also places a tremendous, and honorable, responsibility to ensure the best books are available to my students for independent reading so that they may be inspired to read beyond the limitations of our school day.

My question did not consider whether one book constitutes a school supply for an entire year, much like a package of pencils. Nor did my question suggest an invitation for consistent participation in the class book order.

To conclude, regardless of socioeconomic circumstances, the idea of a reading book as a school supply was met with heavy resistance. Although reading is the integral component of education, books are materials that many people consider a responsibility, if not an obligation, of the school. Although I agree that our schools and district have a fiduciary (or moral) obligation to stock and maintain classroom libraries for the sake of readers, I am left to wonder how invested families are (again, disregarding those who do not have the time or resources to support independent reading habits) in the development of reading and lifelong reading outside the classroom.

If I can take anything away from my tentative, informal research, it’s that we have no greater responsibility than to show our students that reading is more than a practice performed in a classroom and to help readers develop their relationship with an individual text and the desire to seek reading beyond our brick and mortar walls. Our responsibility begins with an earnest commitment to curate classroom libraries.

Justin Stygles is a fifth-grade teacher in Wiscasset, Maine. He’s taught for 15 years in various settings. You can follow him on Twitter at @justinstygles.

For readers of all ages looking for an escape from the ordinary, the new fantasy and science fiction books we review in this week’s column provide just the ticket for adventures rooted in the “real” world (with magical twists) as well as in imaginative realms created by the expert world-building talents of authors and illustrators.   

Ages 4–8

Backyard Fairies. Phoebe Wahl. 2018. Knopf/Random House.

A young girl hunts in her backyard and woods for signs of fairies and other magical creatures. “Have you ever found, while out on your own … / A tiny, magical somebody’s home?” In addition to enjoying the gentle, rhyming text directed at them, readers will delight in seeing what the girl does not in the earthy illustrations (created with water color, gouache, collage, and colored pencils): fairies in trees, pixies braiding her dog’s hair, a cave of magical creatures under her feet. After sneaking out of bed one night to follow the music of elusive magical sprites, she returns home, wondering if they really exist, and awakens in the morning with a special crown of flowers in her hair.
—NB

Cat Wishes. Calista Brill. Ill. Kenard Pak. 2018. Houghton Mifflin.

A hungry cat wishing for something to eat as he prowls through the woods pounces on a wiggly snake. Although Cat doesn’t believe the snake’s promise to grant him three wishes for its release, he lets Snake go. While continuing to voice his skepticism, Cat gets three wishes: something to appease his hunger (a fish), somewhere to shelter from the rain (a cozy house), and a friend. The friend turns out to be a small girl whose wishes for the same things were also granted by Snake. Calista Brill’s spare, repetitive text peppered with onomatopoeic words and Kenard Pak’s soft edge watercolor and digital media illustrations make this animal fantasy a good read-aloud choice.
—CA

The Dragon and the Nibblesome Knight. Elli Woollard. Ill. Benji Davies. 2018. Godwin/Henry Holt.

While flying through a storm in search of “a bite of a dribblesome, nibblesome, knobble-kneed knight” (the favorite food of Dragons of Dread), Dram, a small green dragon, crashes into a lake. James, a young knight who has never seen a dragon, strips off his armor and rescues what he thinks is some rare kind of duck. When they meet again on Sports Day at the castle, their true identities are revealed. Will Dram bite? Will James fight? Their model of good behavior leads the knights of the kingdom to recognize that dragons aren’t simply beasts and the dragons to vow not to nibble on knights—"though every so often, they sort of . . . forgot.” Colorful, detailed cartoon artwork adds to the fun of reading this delightful tale of mistaken identity and friendship.
—CA

The Yin-Yang Sisters and the Dragon Frightful. Nancy Tupper Ling. Ill. Andrea Offermann. 2018. Putnam/Penguin.

On the very day that twins Wei and Mei were born in the village of Woo, a dragon named Frightful stretched his long, scaly body across the Dan-Tat Bridge, blocking the villagers’ passage across a gorge. Nothing would budge him. From birth the different personalities of the twins were evident, and their Auntie YiYi predicted that they would grow up to fight the dragon together. And finally they do, but in a surprising way. “‘With a little yin,’ said Wei. ‘And a little yang’ said Mei. ‘Together we make the perfect pair.”’ Andrea Offermann’s intricately detailed illustrations, rendered in pen and ink and watercolor, beautifully picture the scene for this tale set in ancient China. Adults reading this picture book to young children may want to talk about the Chinese philosophy of Yin and Yang with them.
—CA

Ages 9–11

The Spinner Prince (Pride Wars #1). Matt Laney. 2018. Houghton Mifflin.

Thirteen-year-old Leo, heir to the throne of Singara, a futuristic world of highly evolved lions, must keep secret that he is a Spinner, a teller of tales. In a society that believes only in science and fact, discovery that he has this uncontrollable “fiction affliction” would result in exile. Leo faces threats from both outside and within the walled kingdom. Are the Maguar planning an invasion? Is his life under threat from Tamir, his older cousin who has named himself the new Singa-Kahn?  Leo will need to use his special magical power as a Spinner to save himself and Singara’s future. Laney includes a list of folktales from different cultures and traditions upon which the stories Leo tells in this first book of his action-packed animal fantasy series are based.
—CA

The Stone Girl’s Story. Sarah Beth Durst. 2018. Clarion/Houghton Mifflin.

Twelve-year-old stone girl Mayka, created by her master stonemason human father (who also carved her living stone animal companions), worries when Turtle’s marks fade and he stops moving. With her father dead and no one to repair the unique marks that tell their stories and give them life, Mayka leaves her secluded mountain home, accompanied by flying stone birds Risa and Jacklo, to find a stonemason to save them. Arriving in the city of Skye as it prepares for the Stone Festival and where strict rules limit the power and actions of carvers, she uncovers the sinister plot of a stone carver engraving illegal obedience marks into a secret army of cretures and a giant monster. Mayka makes allies and uncovers unexpected solutions to thwart the enslavement of all stone animals as well as to save her friends in this adventurous fantasy.  
—NB

Ages 12–14  

The Door to the Lost. Jaleigh Johnson. 2018. Delacorte/Random House.

Rook, who can draw doors with chalk to other dimensions, and best friend Drift, who has tricks of her own, were among the magical children in the skyship that sailed from the world of Vora into Regara City in the world of Talhaven just before the portal arch connecting the two worlds exploded. With no memories or family, Rook and Drift have grown up refugees in a land that distrusts magic of any kind and survive by transporting others to safer places. When a young fox-turned-boy bursts through one of the doors and joins them as they elude rangers, their lives intertwine with the wizard Dozana, who tries for the biggest power grab of all, enough magic to destroy Regara, before escaping to a new world. It falls on Rook, Drift, and Fox to use their returning memories and magical powers to save their adopted world.
—NB

Magic, Madness, and Mischief. Kelly McCullough. 2018. Feiwel and Friends.

Thirteen-year-old Kalvan Monroe’s ordinary life flips upside down when he discovers that he has fire magic with the gift of persuasion, that he has bound Sparx (a snarky, ageless, talking fire hare) to him, and that his evil, controlling stepfather is the true Winter King. If that isn’t enough, his emotionally fragile mother may have some magic of her own, but her ability to function in is dissipating quickly. Kalvan, Thomas (his best friend), and Sparx must solve three clues to recapture the hidden Corona Borealis before the culmination of the Saint Paul Winter Carnival—and bring down the Winter King—or the crown will not be passed on to Summer, resulting in dangerous consequences for earth’s climate and seasons. This imaginative middle-grade fantasy will engage readers with its non-stop action and healthy dose of humor.
—NB

Ages 15+ 

The Apocalypse of Elena Mendoza. Shaun David Hutchinson. 2018. Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster.

Few believe that 16-year-old Elena Mendoza was the product of a virgin birth, but after she heals Freddie (a girl on whom she’s had a crush) from a bullet wound and the shooter is “raptured” up in a bright beam of light, things change. Elena struggles to ignore the voices of inanimate objects (the siren on the Starbucks coffee mug, My Little Pony, Lego Gandolf) telling her she has been chosen to save humanity, but with people raptured worldwide in increasing numbers after each healing, her best friend, Fadil, a devout Muslim boy, believes her gift is from God. Elena is not sure. As the FBI investigates her, people continue to beg for healings, and Carmen Ballard, an attorney, hires Elena’s weak stepfather to kidnap her for an anonymous client, Elena finally devises a plan that will either save or end the world in this inventive and thought-provoking fantasy.
—NB

Ink, Iron, and Glass (Ink, Iron, and Glass #1). Gwendolyn Clare. 2018. Imprint/Macmillan.

Sixteen-year-old Elsa lives on Veldana, a new world written into reality by a 19th-century French scriptologist, Charles Montaigne. Her mother, Jumi, a scriptologist, has continued expanding Veldana by writing in its worldbook, and is training Elsa to become its caretaker. When the Veldana worldbook is stolen and Jumi abducted, Elsa travels to Earth through a portal to locate the worldbook and rescue her mother. Fearing for her safety, De Vries, a friend of Jumi, settles Elsa in at Casa della Pazzia, a residence for children with special talents in three branches of science: scriptology, mechanics, or alchemy.With three gifted allies she makes in the Casa, Elsa embarks on a dangerous mission to find and rescue her mother that will also involve them in a diabolical political conspiracy. The author’s note provides a context for this steampunk fantasy that provides an alternate history of actual political conflict over unification in 19th-century Italy. A sequel, Mist, Metal, and Ash, will be out in February 2019.
—CA

When Light Left Us. Leah Thomas. 2018. Bloomsbury.

The Vasquez children are in mourning after Donovan, their dad, leaves, but when Luz, a shimmering figure, appears in the New Mexico canyon behind their home, he fills that grief as a father-substitute who brings personal gifts: basketball prowess for 17-year-old Luke, vivid memory images for 14-year-old Ana, and friendship for 8-year-old autistic Milo. However, as Luz’s plays with their minds and then leaves them, each sibling loses something precious, and the void is back. In an unexpected unfolding of events, the family learns that Luz is a parasitic alien who manipulates humans only to learn more about, and to control, them—so when he returns, they know he must be stopped. And their mother, Maggie, is concealing a secret that will change everything they think they know in their struggle as a family to understand the truth and heal.
—NB

Nancy Brashear is Professor Emeritus of English from Azusa Pacific University, in Azusa, California. Carolyn Angus is former director of the George G. Stone Center for Children's Books, Claremont Graduate University, in Claremont, California.

These reviews are submitted by members of the International Literacy Association's Children's Literature and Reading Special Interest Group (CL/R SIG) and are published weekly on Literacy Daily.

I have long advocated that our literacy classrooms would do well to design instructional opportunities that connect students with online writing communities. Doing so gives students authentic audiences for their creative work, helps them develop important digital literacy practices, and bridges in- and out-of-school literacies in meaningful ways. In particular, I have argued that fanfiction spaces such as archiveofourown.org and fanfiction.net, where writers post creative works based on their interest in storylines, settings, characters, and worlds from existing books, television shows, and other media, offer important scaffolds for writers and allow teachers to meet literacy standards as they guide youth to write for online audiences.

My continued research in this area and my role as a literacy teacher educator have also helped me grapple with the myriad challenges that teachers face when trying to incorporate online communities into their writing instruction. For example, I have written about the privacy concerns that teachers face when they consider whether to recommend that youth participate in a particular digital space.

In an article published in the October 2017 issue of Literacy, my coauthors and I shared about our experiences with bringing digital spaces into more formal learning environments. We pooled the lessons learned from Alecia Magnifico’s work with preservice and inservice English teachers who participated in the #walkmyworld project, Deborah Fields’s use of Scratch-based collaborative design challenges in an elective computing class, and my experience teaching a three-week high school elective class that guided students in publishing their fanfiction and other creative writing in online communities.

Our collaboration helped us better understand the tensions that arise when educators seek to take advantage of informal online spaces within their classrooms. We recognized that, although much of the research about online communities highlights success stories, when all students are required to participate in an online space, experiences will be mixed. Not every student will feel comfortable sharing his or her writing with strangers. Not every student will receive constructive feedback from the online audience. Although many online communities welcome the posting of works-in-progress, not every student will want to share such projects when they know their teachers and classmates might also see this unfinished work. These and other tensions emerged when we examined our experiences.

I offer the following tips for teachers to consider as they design opportunities for students to share their writing in online communities.

• Guide students in examining a variety of online communities. Rather than mandating that all students share their writing on the same site, scaffold students’ evaluation of many different sites and empower them to choose whichever one best suits their expectations as well as genre and interaction preferences.
• Tap into students’ expertise about online communities. Although it may be beneficial for teachers themselves to have some familiarity with sharing writing in an online community, it is not a requirement. Learning who among your students might already participate as readers or writers in online communities allows a teacher to leverage that experience. Give knowledgeable students roles as mentors or guides who introduce their classmates to the inner workings of their preferred online community.
• Explore authentic assessment opportunities. Online writing communities have their own ways of assessing quality, often through narrative reviews and less descriptive rating systems (including giving “likes” or “favoriting” a piece of writing). Rather than assessing their contributions to an online community using school-based norms or rubrics, students can submit evidence of community engagement. 

I offer these suggestions to help interested literacy teachers connect their students to online writing communities in ways that begin to navigate the tensions revealed in our research.

Jayne C. Lammers is an associate professor and director of the secondary English teacher preparation program at the University of Rochester’s Warner School of Education in New York. She can also be reached on Twitter.

This article is part of a series from the International Literacy Association Technology in Literacy Education Special Interest Group (TILE-SIG).

Writing workshops are a common daily feature in many classrooms, including my own. However, the work used to feel robotic. Writing time was not enjoyable, students did not see themselves as authors, and their craft was not improving. The workshop was not working.

To reinvigorate our writing workshop, I studied Katie Wood Ray’s text, The Writing Workshop: Working Through the Hard Parts (And They’re All Hard Parts) (National Council for Teachers of English). After simple adjustments and a willingness to let students lead and guide learning, our writing workshop began to work for all involved.

Immersion in examples

Modeling, allowing students to observe the writing process, is an important component of writing workshop. Although I modeled and cowrote with them, the students were not trying new techniques or growing in their writing. Ray is a proponent of mentor texts— quality examples of writing that spark students’ ideas about the craft and technique used to create the texts. Moving from only teacher modeling to the inclusion of great mentor texts was one of the first essential adjustments I made to my writing workshop.

During writing time, we studied rich mentor texts and discussed the authors’ choices. Leveled texts were also shared with students to allow them to make more decisions about their writing. The availability of independent-level texts after the minilesson allowed students to study text structure and gain ideas based on personal interest and choice during independent work. Additionally, we examined samples of past student work so students could further understand quality writing at their grade level.

After being surrounded by texts, the students were quicker to engage during writing workshop time. There were fewer conversations that began with “I don’t know what to write about,” and students explored new techniques in their writing.

Writers don’t always write

Recognizing not all instructional time in writing workshop needs to be spent writing is another essential adjustment to teaching. Rather than walking students through an artificial writing process, they should be given the freedom to decide what work needs to be accomplished in their writing.

Ray describes how students learn what authors do and how to use their time accordingly. My students know during writing workshop they can look at mentor texts for ideas, finish a draft, or start something new. This empowerment improves student productivity due to the motivation students gain from making their own choices. Time on task is maximized because students need not wait for others to finish to advance to the next step.

The students realize the value of their time during writing; although they may not be doing the same task as their peers, they all recognize they are working as authors.

Let’s customize it

One day during a writing conference, a student who was struggling with the mechanics of writing noticed yet another letter written incorrectly. I encouraged him to fix it. His hopeful response was, “Can’t we customize it?” This led me to another insight and adjustment to writing workshop: allowing students and their work as authors to determine the sequence of lessons and conferences.

Instead of assigning topics or tasks for the week and following scripted lesson plans, writing instruction is designed on the basis of students' previous weekly work and where they can be guided as writers. At the end of each week, students are asked to choose and submit their best writing sample. These pieces are graded using a district-created rubric. Recognizing the need to customize, I look for trends across the writing samples. Significant areas of need, such as adding details or using transition words, become the focus of whole-group minilessons. With every lesson based on student needs, the immediate relevancy increases engagement.

After noting where whole group instruction needs to occur, I make piles with all the papers, using the rubric to decide who needs support in areas such as word choice, conventions, organization, and so forth. Armed with a conference plan for the following week, I can meet with each student and provide targeted instruction and customized learning.

Using this adjustment has yielded improved student rubric scores, indicating quantitatively improved writing. Further, students are more engaged during writing because the instruction is relevant to their current interests and work.

Students are the experts

A final adjustment in writing workshop is letting students be the experts in the room by providing sharing time and guiding questions to elicit partner feedback. In this way, students ask and answer questions about the elements of their work. The authenticity of these questions gives students ideas and inspires potential revisions.

Further, students frequently take the role of expert writers throughout the workshop. One student, trying to think through an idea, began asking me a question. Before I could offer any suggestions, another student who was diligently illustrating her book said, “I can help with that!” Empowered to coach each other during writing time, students’ workshop productivity increases because of the immediate availability of help from their peers.

Take action

Implementing these adjustments in the classroom and moving to authentic, student-driven writing has improved student engagement and quality of work. As we began making these changes, one student was explaining the book series she was creating. After explaining her action plan and how she might make changes based on feedback, she said, “Then they’ll go into the world!”

Her comment epitomizes the climate this approach to writing workshop has created. The students no longer think of writing as the completion of projects assigned by the teacher; they are invested in their work and believe in themselves as authors. Students are doing the writing work.

Jennifer Bekel, an ILA member since 2009, has a master’s degree in education and interdisciplinary studies and a master’s in reading. She is currently a third-grade classroom teacher and EL coordinator for the North Scott Community School District in Iowa. The writing practices described in this article were originally implemented in her first-grade classroom.

This Thursday, September 13, at 8:00 p.m. ET, #ILAchat and #globaledchat will join together for a single conversation focusing on the newly released Children’s Rights to Read, looking specifically at the role of educators in enacting and upholding these rights for students.

As ILA President of the Board Bernadette Dwyer notes in the introduction of The Case for Children’s Rights to Read, “As literacy educators, we are responsible for delivering on the promise inherent in these rights. Whether we are working in the classroom or preparing the next generation of teachers, we have a responsibility for every student entrusted to our care. We must enact these rights in classrooms and schools and work with others to ensure the same in homes, communities, governments, and societies.”

Alas, Dwyer could not be with us for this chat. Taking up the mantle in her stead, we have a few members of ILA’s Board of Directors—Juli-Anne Benjamin, Kenneth Kunz, Stephen Peters, and Jennifer Williams—and Heather Singmaster, representing #globaledchat, who are graciously letting us use their Twitter chat platform to expand the reach of this conversation.

Benjamin is a veteran educator who has dedicated her life in the service of children, both nationally and internationally, having taught in South Africa and recently in New Delhi, India, at Delhi Public Schools. Benjamin loves to read and is devoutly committed to building culturally relevant and sustainable classroom libraries. She champions read-alouds in literacy lessons and grounds instructional practice in building and curating sound relationships with teachers and students and culturally aligning books that serve as windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors into the diverse experiences and worlds of children.

Kunz began his career as an elementary school teacher in the New Jersey Public Schools after receiving his bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education and English from Kean University. In 2007, he received recognition as an outstanding teacher through the New Jersey Governor’s Teacher Recognition Program. Passionate about literacy instruction, he holds a master’s degree in Reading Specialization and a doctorate in Teacher Leadership from Rutgers University.

Peters has been a classroom teacher, assistant principal, principal, and director of secondary education. Most of his experiences have been in schools that made significant growth in short periods of time, thus resulting in both National and State Blue Ribbon distinction. Currently, Peters is superintendent of schools for Laurens 55 School District and is founder of the nationally recognized Gentlemen’s & Ladies Club programs, which provide options for thousands of at-risk and honor students throughout the United States.

Williams is recognized as a transformational leader in education; she has dedicated herself for over 20 years to the field of education through her roles as a school administrator, literacy specialist, and classroom teacher. Her personal mission is to make literacy accessible for all and ultimately to bring about appreciation of shared stories and celebration of diversity of experience and perspective.

Singmaster is associate director at the Center for Global Education at the Asia Society, where her work focuses on international benchmarking and integrating global competence into Career Technical Education (CTE) programs as well as state and national policy. She leads the project, Mapping the Nation: The Case for Global Competence and is host of Education Week’s Global Learning blog. Currently, she is working on a set of online professional development modules and resources to support the CTE field.

We’re excited to hear from both the #ILAchat and #globaledchat communities jointly on Thursday, September 13, at 8:00 p.m. ET about these Rights, which resonated the most with you personally, how you plan to implement them in your classrooms and schools, and what support you think educators will need to ensure these Rights to Read for every student.