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    Celebrate ILD by Nominating a Literacy Champion for ILA’s 30 Under 30

    By Alina O'Donnell
     | Sep 08, 2017

    30 Under 30 On International Literacy Day (ILD), we celebrate the strides we have made, while reflecting on the challenges that remain, in our goal of literacy for everyone, everywhere.

    The good news is that global literacy is higher than ever before—91% of people ages 15–24 are literate. Literacy rates are 13% higher among youth than adults, a sign of progress.  

    The bad news is that these numbers hide major age, gender, and regional disparities; a whopping 750 million adults—two-thirds of them women—still lack basic reading and writing skills.

    In recognition of ILD, we invite you to nominate a literacy champion for ILA’s next 30 Under 30 list. Founded in 2015, the program shines a spotlight on young innovators, disruptors, and visionaries who are leading efforts to overcome the challenges of today’s education field and to advance our vision of a literate world for all. 

    Previous honorees span multiple sectors—from educators to advocates, from app developers to social entrepreneurs, and more—including John Maldonado, an English and special education teacher from Queens, NY, who embraces technology to help students with autism  communicate and develop literacy skills; Shiza Shahid, cofounder of the Malala Fund, a nonprofit that works to secure girls' rights to a quality education; and Andrew Sutherland, founder of the free vocabulary study app Quizlet.

    “Though their passions, initiatives, and backgrounds span wide, every single one of our 30 Under 30 honorees has, in some way, helped deliver high-quality literacy instruction to classrooms, communities, and the world,” says ILA Executive Director Marcie Craig Post. “We look forward to meeting the next generation of literacy champions and to sharing their stories with our global community.”

    The next 30 Under 30 class will be featured in the January/February 2019 issue of Literacy Today and across ILA’s platforms (in blog posts, Twitter chats, and more). Each honoree will receive a complimentary ILA membership, be recognized at an upcoming ILA conference, and join a dynamic network of champions.

    Nominations are open to all literacy educators and advocates who are under 30 years old (as of March 1, 2019) and are making outstanding contributions to the field. Click here for the official nomination form, which must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. ET on June 1, 2018.

    Find the complete lists of previous honorees here, and catch up with last year’s class to see what they’ve been up in our follow-up feature in the September/October 2017 issue of Literacy Today, out now.

    Alina O’Donnell is the editor of Literacy Daily.

    On International Literacy Day (ILD), we celebrate the strides we have made, while reflecting on the challenges that remain, in our goal of literacy for everyone, everywhere. The good news is that global literacy is higher than ever before—91% of...Read More
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    Philadelphia Nonprofit Empowers Students to Make a Difference

    By Alina O'Donnell
     | Sep 06, 2017

    Mighty Writers Protest 1On August 12, a group of mostly African American, Muslim high school students stood in front of Philadelphia’s City Hall, waving handmade demonstration signs. One had drawn a raised, clenched fist, emerging from black bars. Another, a rainbow-colored American flag.

    Four teens read aloud the group’s list of demands, which ranged from fully-funded schools to prison reform.   

    “…Nobody should be treated differently. We are all human, we all deserve the same equal rights…”

    Two hundred and fifty miles away, in Charlottesville, Virginia, a different kind of protest was brewing. Not even 24 hours later, hundreds of torch-bearing white nationalists, neo-Nazis, and Ku Klux Klan members would descend upon the city to protest the removal of Confederate monuments across the South. A collision of protesters and counterprotesters would erupt in violence, leaving one person dead, 19 injured, and millions more angry, scared, and sad.

    In the aftermath of tragedies like what occurred in Charlottesville, educators have the capacity to inspire collective action, starting in the classroom.

    That’s exactly what author Peg Kern is doing at Mighty Writers, a nonprofit dedicated to  teaching students ages 7–17 to think and write with clarity. From August 7–11, she led the organization’s first Power to the People! protest workshop.

    Mighty Writers Protest 2The students spent the first two days studying the platforms of historical and modern social movements, drawing inspiration from the Radical Monarchs, ACT UP, Sylvia Rivera, Angela Davis, the Black Panther Party, and Black Lives Matter, among others.

    “I wanted to give them a deeper sense of the legacy of social movements and their place in those legacies.” said Kern. “We’ve always done a terrible job of teaching civic activism. This is critical, critical history, and you can’t step into your historical role if you don’t know who came before you.”

    Kern asked the students to choose an issue they care about and to write a short paragraph expressing their point of view. She helped them weave their paragraphs into a three-page declaration that combined personal experience, history, and fact to assert their collective platform on education inequality, immigrant and racial profiling, sexual assault, police brutality, religious discrimination, mass incarceration, drug sentencing, healthcare access, and LGBTQIA rights.

    The last lines of the declaration read “Welcome to Philadelphia. This is what we believe, what we want, and who we are.”

    On the last day of the workshop, the students marched a mile down Broad Street to City Hall, where four volunteered to read the declaration.

    Juwayriya Abdul-Hadi,15, chose to write about mass incarceration, an issue that has impacted her own family. She said she doesn’t often have opportunities to be heard by her teachers and classmates at Central High School, which enrolls more than 2,200 students.

    Mighty Writers Protest 3“I want people to understand that even though we’re young and people might not listen to us, we have a voice and we need to be heard too because we’re the next generation and people after us have to learn and be educated too,” Abdul-Hadi said.

    Most of the students had never attended a protest previously.

    “This is the first time I’ve actually done something with a group of people, in front of City Hall or anywhere, really, saying what’s on my mind,” said 14-year-old Jayanna Taylor.

    Kern said the students were nervous initially, but became more confident as they marched.

    “They felt substantial,” she said. “They felt significant.”

    Kern said she hopes the students left with a sense of ownership over their city and their fate, and the confidence to participate alongside the adults in their communities in future movements.  

    “I think this is survival skill. It always has been, in this country but especially now. It is necessary.”

    Mighty Writers was founded in 2009 with the mission to teach kids to think clearly and write with clarity. The organization offers free programs for students from elementary through high school at centers in four diverse Philadelphia neighborhoods, including one bilingual location for Spanish-speaking students. Mighty Writers offers daily afterschool academies, long- and short-term writing classes nights and weekends, teen scholar programs, mentorships, College Prep courses and college essay writing classes. You can find them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

    On August 12, a group of mostly African American, Muslim high school students stood in front of Philadelphia’s City Hall, waving handmade demonstration signs. One had drawn a raised, clenched fist, emerging from black bars. Another, a...Read More
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    These 2018 ILA Award and Grant Applications Are Now Available

    By Alina O'Donnell
     | Aug 30, 2017

    ILA AwardsThe International Literacy Association’s (ILA) awards recognize excellence and showcase best practices in literacy research, instruction, and advocacy. Applications for the following awards and grants must be submitted by January 15, 2018—don’t wait until the deadline is looming!

    Applications are now open for:

    Children’s and Young Adults’ Book Awards: These awards are intended for newly published authors who show unusual promise in the children's and young adults' book field. Awards are given for fiction and nonfiction in each of three categories: primary, intermediate, and young adult. Books from all countries and published in English for the first time during the 2017 calendar year will be considered.

    Dina Feitelson Research Award: This US$500 award recognizes an outstanding empirical study published in English in a refereed journal, submitted by author or others. Publications from January 2016 through December 2016 are eligible for the 2018 award.

    Elva Knight Research Grant: ILA members apply for this US$5,000 grant for research in reading and literacy.

    Helen M. Robinson Grant: ILA member doctoral students apply for this US$1,200 grant to assist at the early stages of dissertation research in the areas of reading and literacy.

    Jeanne S. Chall Research Fellowship: ILA members apply for this US$5,000 grant to support reading research by promising scholars.        

    Jerry Johns Outstanding Teacher Educator in Reading Award: This US$1,000 award honors college or university teachers of reading methods or reading-related courses. Applicants must be ILA members.

    Maryann Manning Special Service Award: ILA members apply or are nominated by peers for this award, given annually to a member who has demonstrated a lifelong commitment of distinguished service in the field of literacy.

    Nila Banton Smith Teacher as Researcher Grant: ILA member classroom teachers who undertake action research inquiries about literacy and instruction apply for this US$5,000 grant.     

    Outstanding Dissertation of the Year Award: ILA members who have completed dissertations in any aspect of the field of reading or literacy between May 15, 2016, and May 14, 2017, are eligible to apply for this award. Summaries of winning dissertations are published each year in Reading Research Quarterly, ILA’s leading global journal.

    Steven A. Stahl Research Grant: ILA member graduate students who have at least three years of teaching experience and who are conducting classroom research apply for this US$1,000 grant.

    William S. Gray Citation of Merit: ILA members who have made outstanding contributions to multiple facets of literacy development—research, theory, practice, and policy—apply or are nominated by a peer for this award.

    The remainder of our awards will open on October 1, 2017. Applicants are encouraged to read all criteria on our Awards & Grants page before applying. Questions about the application process should be directed to Wendy Logan at wlogan@reading.org

    Alina O'Donnell is the editor of Literacy Daily. 
    The International Literacy Association’s (ILA) awards recognize excellence and showcase best practices in literacy research, instruction, and advocacy. Applications for the following awards and grants must be submitted by January 15, 2018—don’t...Read More
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    Here’s How You Can Help Libraries and Schools Affected by Hurricane Harvey

    By Alina O'Donnell
     | Aug 28, 2017

    Book DriveILA extends its deepest sympathies to those who have lost loved ones, livelihoods, homes, and stability to the destruction of Hurricane Harvey.

    Each year, natural disasters create devastating, long-term impacts on education. Here are several ways you can help rebuild schools, restore educational services, and revive hope and empowerment to generations of children and their communities.

    Help for libraries: 

    • The Texas Library Association’s Disaster Relief Fund awards grants to libraries to help in recovery efforts. Donate directly online or purchase a TLA Coloring Book ($10 for a set of two). All proceeds go directly to the fund.
    • Dollar General, in collaboration with the American Library Association (ALA), the American Association of School Librarians (AASL), and the National Education Association (NEA), sponsors Beyond Words, a school library disaster relief fund for public school libraries affected by a disaster. Grants are to replace or supplement books, media, or library equipment in the school library setting.
    • Scholastic will be accepting requests from schools and making donations to help rebuild library collections via their Possible Fund. Teachers in the affected areas will also receive 500 bonus points to help them rebuild their classroom libraries.
    • Simon & Schuster will be donating 250 “Best of Titles” to public or school libraries damaged by the storm or the related flooding.

    Help for schools:

    • School systems in need of instructional materials—either because of enrollment of students displaced by Hurricane Harvey or from property damage caused by the hurricane—can create an online list for donors to access through the Texas Education Agency’s Instructional Materials Assistance web page.
    • Teacher and education writer Larry Ferlazzo wrote a blog post that compiled the “Best Resources for Learning About Hurricane Harvey.”
    • Microsoft is providing data/application recovery assistance to school districts and institutions experiencing outages caused by Hurricane Harvey.
    • The American School Counselor Association published a list of resources that parents and educators can use to help children cope with natural disasters.
    • The Texas Computer Education Agency (TCEA) encourages affected educators, librarians, and administrators to create projects in Donors Choose to replace critical learning resources. Add the hashtag #TCEA to each project and TCEA will help to promote the need using their network of members, exhibitors, sponsors, partners, and contacts.
    • New York City-based nonprofit Where To Turn, which provides services to victims of tragedy, is looking to get in touch with schools in Texas to ask what supplies they may need for the upcoming school year.
    • The Texas American Federation of Teachers (Texas AFT) and the National Education Alliance (NEA), have started relief funds to support members who are educators. 
    • Students who want to raise money to aid victims of Hurricane Harvey can sign up in groups through the WE Schools programs and have their fundraising matched dollar-for-dollar by the Allstate Foundation up to $250,000. 
    • Adopt a classroom project impacted by Hurricane Harvey through friEdTechnology's Hurricane Harvey Adopt a Classroom Project.

    Check out Charity Navigator’s Hurricane Harvey page for a list of more general relief efforts.

    Alina O’Donnell is the editor of Literacy Daily.

    ILA extends its deepest sympathies to those who have lost loved ones, livelihoods, homes, and stability to the destruction of Hurricane Harvey. Each year, natural disasters create devastating, long-term impacts on education. Here are several ways...Read More
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    Overcoming the Digital Divide, Step One: Increasing Funding for Technology and Internet Access

    By Alina O'Donnell
     | Aug 21, 2017

    This is the first installment of a four-part, how-to blog series on overcoming the digital divide, an extension of ILA’s latest brief.

    Kids With iPadsInternet access and equipment are but the tip of the iceberg when it comes to creating or growing a classroom technology program. Once the infrastructure is in place, schools and districts will continue to stretch their dollars for maintenance, training, technical support, software updates, and more.

    Despite shrinking resources, savvy educators are still finding ways to bring technology into the classroom—and you can too. Here’s how.

    Reprioritize existing funds

    Seven years ago, Meriden Public Schools, an urban school district in Connecticut where more than 70% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, didn’t have a single device program. Today, all 8,000 students across 12 schools have access to high-speed Wi-Fi, 1:1 devices, online classes, adaptive software, a peer-to-peer tech buddies program, and even full-time technology integration specialists.

    Meriden Public Schools has since been named a District of Distinction by District Administration and one of its elementary schools was named a Model School by the International Center for Leadership in Education. The district was also featured in Edutopia's Schools That Work series.

    Not bad for a district that hasn’t seen an increase in municipal funding in eight years.

    So, what’s their secret?

    If you ask Barbara Haeffner, the school’s director of curriculum and instructional technology, she’ll say it was making technology a priority.

    “Some of our students don’t have any access at home like their peers in the suburbs,” she says. “What we provide them really opens up opportunities.”

    Haeffner says once the district invested in 1:1 devices, they began to save money on textbook, paper, and printing costs.

    “Anytime we were looking to buy textbooks, we said, ‘OK, is there a digital component that can better meet needs of our students?’” she says.

    Apply for grants

    As Meriden Public Schools’ digital transformation started to take shape, the administrators eventually looked for outside funding sources—supplementing their budget makeover with grant money from the Nellie Mae Education Foundation and Rise Education Foundation.

    According to Haeffner, the key is finding a grant that matches your district’s specific goals and objectives.

    “Grant funding has to be aligned with the work we’re doing in the district. We really look at the district’s goals and where we’re going, and if it’s aligned, we’re on board. Otherwise we don’t pursue those opportunities,” she says.

    Applying for grants can be a tedious, time-consuming, and continuous process. Schools that are working to build ongoing tech programs may want to consider hiring a full- or part-time grant writer.

    Schools can also save time by taking advantage of easy-to-use grant databases to search for specific types of grants, such as:

    Procure government funding

    In September, the U.S. Department of Education will finalize state accountability plans for implementing the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). According to the Center for Digital Education (CDE), the law authorizes new funding streams that can potentially help states and districts invest in technology. The funding allowances include:

    • A new Title IV block grant program called the Student Support and Academic Enrichment grant program through which districts can use up to 60% of funding for innovative technology strategies;
    • Title II funding for professional development that focuses on technology and the use of data;
    • and Title I flexibility, which provides new requirements and opportunities that could motivate states/districts to concentrate more on technology as part of broader initiatives.

    The CDE published a 40-page handbook to help states and districts unlock ESSA’s potential. Titled “ESSA, EdTech and the Future of Education,” the handbook provides guidance on “how to take advantage of these new opportunities and suggestions on how to integrate them with a broader strategic vision to guide teaching and learning.”

    Fundraise

    Fundraising has come a long way from box top clippings and bake sales. Today, anyone from venture capitalists to Facebook friends of friends can transform a classroom with just a few clicks. Easy, cost-effective, and engaging fundraising ideas include:

    • Crowdfunding: Programs like Donors Choose and Digital Wish eliminate the tedious search process by connecting teachers with prospective donors. Typically, teachers create a classroom profile and a “wish list” of technologies they need for a specific classroom project. Donors then give to the project of their choice. Teachers can also share the crowdfunding page with their personal networks through social media.
    • Recycling fundraisers: Classrooms can also raise money (and help save the environment!) through FundingFactory, a free program that encourages the donation of empty toner and ink cartridges. As the items are recycled, the school earns points that can later be exchanged for educational technology or cash. Check out Scholastica Travel Inc.’s “Awesome Fundraising Ideas: Recycling Fundraisers for School Trips” for a list of similar recycling fundraisers.

    Apply for teacher awards

    Many teacher award programs, such as the NEA Foundation’s Awards for Teaching Excellence, grant winners cash prizes to spend in their classrooms. Check out The New Teacher Project’s (TNTP) list of 10 Awards for Great Teachers for more 

    Secure corporate partnerships

    Digital Promise, a nonprofit authorized by the United States Congress to spur innovation in education and improve the opportunity to learn for all through technology and research, was founded in the strength of public–private partnerships, according to Erica Lawton, senior communications manager. 

    “As an organization, we see this as a community issue,” says Lawton. “You need the partnership of multiple stakeholders to tackle these challenges.”

    Inside Philanthropy encourages schools to look for regional or state employers who “need a robust, smart workforce in your community.” Even mega-corporations such as Motorola, American Honda, and Chevron take community-based approaches to STEM K–12 giving, often offering small- and mid-sized grants in cities where they operate.

    These win-win partnerships are good for both the businesses and the students—schools get a chance to experiment and innovate, while businesses practice corporate responsibility and “road-test” their products.

    Looking ahead

    While charitable grants, fundraising campaigns, and corporate partnerships offer patchwork solutions to the digital divide—Haeffner believes these means are only as strong as the school’s leadership.

    “Our teachers are our most important asset; without them we wouldn’t be able to make these gains,” she says. “Salaries are one of our big expenses because we need people to be there with our students.”

    With teachers’ support, students are not stopping at mastering these digital skills; they are taking their digital learning into their own hands.

    “We have teachers who are truly facilitators now; the students will come in and say, ‘Hey, I found something better,’” Haeffner says. “As our students are becoming more tech-savvy, they are really pushing teachers as well.

    To explore the rest of this four-part series, visit the links below:

    Overcoming the Digital Divide, Step Two: Critically Frame 21st-Century Skills

    Overcoming the Digital Divide, Step Three: Provide Resources

    Overcoming the Digital Divide, Step Four: Advocate


    Alina O'Donnell is the editor of Literacy Daily.

    This is the first installment of a four-part, how-to blog series on overcoming the digital divide, an extension of ILA’s latest brief. Internet access and equipment are but the tip of the iceberg when it comes to creating or growing a classroom...Read More
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