Literacy Now

The Carlton Innovation School in Salem, MA, has been on quite a journey. For many years, we were an under-performing school. This year, however, we were recognized with the Massachusetts Reading Association’s Exemplary Reading Program Award and were designated a Level One school by the Massachusetts Department of Education.

Our journey hasn’t been an easy one, but it is one rooted in our desire to help students become readers and writers who think deeply, love books, and have high expectations for themselves.

A culture of reading

One of the first things people notice when they enter our school is that we have books everywhere. There are book racks tucked into hallway corners, art books outside of the art room, and new favorites outside of the library.

We also have three large bookcarts on each floor in the hallway. They are stocked with leveled texts in a range of genres and interests. Students can stop by as often as needed to pick “just right” books to read during independent reading time each day and at home each night. The carts guarantee that our students have books of their choosing in their homes.

Kiara Eveleth, a fifth-grade student at Carlton, feels the books in the carts are a major contributing factor to her love of reading. “I think it’s great that we choose our own books,” she says. “It gives us choices about what we read instead of everyone reading the same book. I get to have a book that I’m really into that makes me want to read more and more.”

Students can often be heard at the carts talking about books and suggesting titles to peers. Teachers also stop and talk with students about their choices and make recommendations. The culture extends beyond students and teachers as well, as parent volunteers work in the library most mornings to help students make their selections.

A yearlong celebration

Our students and staff work hard every day, but we also celebrate reading in fun ways throughout the year. Every winter, for example, we have a reading Snowball Slam. Students earn paper snowballs by reading and recording books on logs, and then they “slam” their snowballs on classroom doors in a schoolwide competition to have the most snowballs. We announce weekly totals for how much each class is reading and which class is leading the slam. This past winter, our students read more than 39,000 books or chapters.

One unique event is our annual Vocabulary Parade, used as a kickoff to winter break. Students and staff dress up to illustrate vocabulary words in interesting ways (think a roving cardboard rowboat full of sailors for the word nautical) and we walk the runway to themed music while the audience attempts to guess our words.

Even our monthly assemblies are rich with literacy. Our principal reads a book that is projected on a large screen to the entire school. Students stop and talk with partners at various points. Sometimes, they discuss the author’s craft or what they think the theme is, or they debate various sides of an argument.

At Carlton, we even reward students with language. If students are noticed exhibiting one of our school values, they wear a sticker prompting others to ask them how they earned it. All day, teachers and staff engage with that student and talk about how they exhibited the core value.

How we got here

Everything we do fosters language and literacy development. Our teachers work hard throughout the day to ensure students have opportunities to read, write, speak, and listen every 20 minutes.
  
Our school has turned around in student achievement and culture over the past five years. One major change was that we began using a balanced literacy approach within a diagnostic teaching model. We determine what each student needs to grow as a reader and a writer through formal and informal ongoing assessment, and then we design small group instruction to move students, ensuring everyone is making progress.

We use the workshop model to structure the different kinds of instruction our students need each day. Classrooms have at least 2 hours and 15 minutes of literacy workshop every day. We use the Lucy Calkins Units of Study for our focus lessons in both reading and writing workshop and explicitly tie the required standards to these lessons. The workshop involves a brief focus lesson, guided practice, and independent practice with conferring, strategy groups, and guided reading instruction, and ends with a group share.

This structure allows teachers to strategically plan whole-class focus lessons that are based on the standards with guidance from the Lucy Calkins Units of Study, while providing diagnostic instruction on students’ development as readers with increasingly complex texts to foster deep thinking and comprehension.

I would love to say that what we do is easy, but we know that teaching students to read in balanced, authentic, and meaningful ways is not an easy task. At various points along this journey, easier alternatives were suggested. Each time, however, we took the hard road because, in the words of our principal, Jean-Marie Kahn, the students in front of us are “inconveniently human.” They do not fit into one-size-fits-all programs—nor should they.

They come to us unique with different backgrounds and experiences. Meeting them where they are and taking the hard road to promise that they leave us better than they came to us—with self-confidence, a love for reading, and a desire to work hard that will stay with them long after they pass through our book-filled halls—is our job.

Shawna Erps, an ILA member since 2015, is a literacy coach in Salem, MA. Her background is in early childhood education and literacy. She played an integral role in the turnaround initiative at the Carlton Innovation School.

The first day back to school can be a struggle for teachers and students alike: Students would rather be at the beach or sleeping in, and teachers need to find ways to bring their students’ minds back into the classroom. Is it possible to beat this new-school-year slump and reengage students so soon after summer vacation has ended?

This month’s #ILAchat host, Don Goble, will answer these back-to-school questions and more Thursday, August 11, at 8:00 p.m. ET. In addition to his roles as international speaker, published author, and video producer, Goble is a full-time multimedia instructor at Ladue High School in St. Louis, MO, so he knows the new-year woes. During the August chat, he will be touching on topics such as back-to-school classroom prep, first week routines, and how to use technology as a tool for engagement.

As a Lead PBS Digital Innovator (2014), the National Journalism Education Association’s Broadcast Advisor of the Year (2015), and most recently, the International Society for Technology in Education’s “Making IT Happen” award winner (2016), Goble combines technology with literacy perhaps more than the average teacher. Not only is he a recognized Apple Distinguished Educator (2011) and avid Apple user, Goble is also published through Apple Education, with three iBooks—Six-Word Story, Six Unique Shots: Enhancing Writing Through Multimedia; Interview an Expert; and Gateway2Change.

Be sure to follow #ILAchat and @ILAtoday Thursday, August 11, at 8:00 p.m. ET to join the conversation and discuss ways to reinvigorate students after three long months out of school.

Samantha Brant is ILA’s communication intern.

When Closing General Session wrapped up at the ILA 2016 Conference & Exhibits in Boston on Monday, the energy was as high as it had been when attendees first walked through the doors of the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center  for Opening General Session.

At the opening Saturday, it became clear that this year’s conference was going to be addressing the very real issues that are unfolding around the world before everyone’s eyes. The conference theme, Transforming Lives Through Literacy 2.0, is not only about embracing a digital world, but also using literacy to open dialogues about what separates students in their communities and helping to inform social, emotional, and political literacy.

Diane Barone, outgoing ILA Board President, opened the session discussing the roles of educators in the coming months to talk with children about tragedies going on around the world, from Minnesota to Bangladesh.

Adora Svitak, an author who gave a TED Talk at age 12 about what teachers can learn from their students that has garnered 4.3 million views, asked “What is literacy for?”

“Literature sparks conversations about feelings,” she said. “How can we set the stage for emotional literacy if the stories we encounter teach us the lessons that only certain people are worthy?”

She said there is a “systemic failure to implement empathy in tandem with literacy. Literacy and love must always go together…. So I ask again: What is literacy for? All of this, and all of us.”

Dynamic author Kwame Alexander took the stage next and shared passages from his books in the context of social equality.

“Books do not discriminate, words do not segregate,” he said. He recalled a story about a question he got during a signing of his picture book Surf’s Up.

“'I have kids in my library,'” a librarian said. “'I have to know—what color are the frogs?'”

He continued. “I said, ‘The question is much more interesting than any answer I could give you.’

“If we decide what books girls read, boys read, we'll end up with the adults that we despise.”

The theme of literacy as a tool of equality continued throughout the conference via sessions, author talks, and attendee discussions through the long weekend.

When ILA 30 Under 30 honoree Ana Dodson took the stage Monday afternoon for Closing General Session, she shared her experiences bringing education to young women in Peru.

A native of the country who was adopted by an American family, Dodson visited her homeland and saw the effect of illiteracy and inaccessibility of education.

To bring the point home, she shared a video of a Peruvian Hearts scholar, a girl named Jessica whose sister was a former Hearts scholar. Jessica had taken a college entrance exam four times before getting a spot at the university, but wasn’t going to be able to afford transportation, tuition, or supplies. In the video, Jessica was given a box inside of which was an application to apply for the program’s scholarship.  When she processed what she was looking at—within seconds—Jessica and her entire family broke into sobs. Tears also fell in the auditorium.

After Dodson’s captivating story, Steven Duggan, Director of Worldwide Education Strategy for Microsoft Corporation, came to the stage to share how educators and non-profits can make a difference in their classrooms and around the world through failure.

He used the example of Chekhov, the app Microsoft developed to take books to developing countries where children may not have a literate person in their home.

“Giving a child a book when there is not a literate parent or peer in their home is as good as giving them a rock,” he said. So in trying to solve the international illiteracy problem, they looked to mobile technology for help.

“We thought, what if literacy was an epidemic for which the vaccine was already in their back pocket?” he asked. Microsoft worked on a mobile app where books could be created, downloaded, and read or have it read to children. After $500,000 spent on development and training, the app failed. Not a single book was created.

Adjustments were made through the failure and Chekhov is now the most popular app available in their app store.

He said failure is frightening, but necessary.

In the final address of Conference, The New York Times best-selling author Laurie Halse Anderson addressed a similar issue of fear in the context of ending injustice through education.

“Literacy is our super power!,” she yelled. “We deserve capes!”

She talked about the cycle of the hero, how a problem is identified, a potential hero is approached, and the struggle that ensues as “the hero stands in the threshold” before coming to the rescue.

She spoke about institutional racism, American history, and what has to happen to finally bring equality to all people.

“Our nation is standing on a threshold,” she said. “Children around the world are looking for heroes. They are looking for you.

“When we walk out those doors in a moment, we will cross the threshold. Please join me in the greatest revolution the world has ever known—a revolution that is based on love.”

April Hall is editor of Literacy Daily. A journalist for 20 years, she has specialized in education, writing and editing for newspapers, websites, and magazines.

There are conversations in the classroom that are hard to have. They can be about history; they can be about what is happening in a neighborhood today; they can be about what’s happening around the world.

The ball often lands at an educator’s feet. How can the conversations start? How can they be worthwhile? How can a conversation change anything?

Cornelius Minor facilitated an on-the-fly addition to the 2016 ILA Conference and Exhibits program in Boston Sunday simply titled “Impromptu Conversation Led by Cornelius Minor.” The session was meant to engage ILA colleagues about how to talk about recent tragedies around the world—events that have had conference attendees talking, that have had the media enraptured, that have left most people flummoxed about what to do next.

Minor, a staff developer for Teachers College at Columbia University and a strong advocate for equity in the classroom, did not spend an hour rehashing new stories from the last month, nor did he rail against injustices. Instead, he took the time to show how to model a conversation about a difficult topic using a method that could be used on a variety of subjects or tailored for a variety of classrooms.

His philosophy is that to talk about emotionally charged or difficult topics effectively, you need to start simple. He showed a silent cartoon clip about the impact a situation had on one individual. Despite great room for interpretation of the clip, he allowed for little discussion, which served as a way of collecting thoughts and readying oneself more before communicating.

Questions were posed including, Why did you come? How do you feel? How do you hope to feel? Starting in partnerships, the standing-room only group dialoged. Eventually, discussion groups of two, four,  eight, then whole-room discussed more challenging questions about the role literacy educators play in getting students to talk about tough topics.

There was talk about dominant and minority communities, parental reaction to difficult conversations, and reaction to assumed opinions.

Attendees included classroom teachers, school administrators, researchers, and parents in the form of exhibitors and other support staff. In conversations that sometimes became emotional, Minor asked several questions, including How do you engage parents who don’t want teachers to raise difficult topics in the classroom? Then questions moved on to others people asking What can I do? How can I effect change? What is next?

Between questions, Minor encouraged people to take time to think before speaking. In between answers, when emotions began to run high, he paused the conversation for 15 seconds to “reset” the room and did the same each time four people had shared. He said whether it is group of adults or students, it’s important to take  time and keep balance in the room, and pausing or moving the conversation is one way to guide students through thoughtful discussion.

When the discussion continued, one man said it’s important to realize these issues and tragedies are not about the abstract, they are about life.

“I need us to realize the topic we’re talking about is not academic,” he said.

Another added, “The structure in school is not reflective of the reality our children are living in.” He said children come into schools worried about what is happening in their neighborhood and across the country as much, and sometimes more than, adults. That ignoring their concerns and their needs to share their feelings is to deny their voices.

“This is not a one-size-fits-all answer,” said a district superintendent. “We’ve quieted the voices of our children. We’ve quieted the voices of our teachers. We need to let teachers do their work.”

At the end of the hour, Minor suggested work continue through the creation of a letter teachers could submit to administrators about how important it is to talk to students about controversial topics including race, sexuality, and gender. He also suggested working on a “courage toolkit” that would give educators ideas on how to approach difficult conversations with fellow teachers and administration, and even how to build trust with parents.

In the end, many stayed behind to continue the conversation; Minor said he would be in the room as long as anyone wanted to stay. And while there were no concrete answers when the crowd broke up, there was the beginning of a community.

April Hall is editor of Literacy Daily. A journalist for 20 years, she has specialized in education, writing and editing for newspapers, websites, and magazines.

As state education officials begin implementing the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), there are as many questions as there are answers. On Saturday, the International Literacy Association hosted an expert panel on ESSA at the ILA 2016 Conference & Exhibits in Boston, MA, where key stakeholders shared their impressions of the law, identifying ESSA’s many opportunities and challenges.

Replacing No Child Left Behind (NCLB), ESSA shifts the responsibility for devising school accountability plans back to the states, giving them added flexibility in dealing with underperforming schools, and it also offers new pilot program opportunities.

Of all the issues that have risen since the passage of ESSA, none have proven more contentious than how to implement ESSA’s requirement that Title I funds be used to supplement, not supplant, state and local funding, which needs to be equal to or greater (per pupil) than the average spent in non-Title I schools in the district.

Terra Wallin, program and management analyst for the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education, addressed this and other aspects of ESSA during her keynote address for the panel discussion.

“The clear goal is to do better for our children in education,” Wallin said. She said some of the many things ESSA accomplishes include reducing the burden of testing, making preschool more accessible, and allowing for local innovation.

She noted that all students won’t be expected to be 100% proficient at the same time and ESSA “moves away from a one-size-fits-all approach.”

The law also strives to make effective teachers accessible in all schools, regardless of socioeconomic conditions. ESSA would also allow for more transparency, Wallin said, on such topics as funding per student, disciplinary statistics, absenteeism, and more.

The fiscal support within the legislation has been a point of contention since the bill’s signing. The funding ESSA makes available to qualifying schools must “supplement, not supplant” current state and local funding. ESSA money can also be used to foster “safe and healthy students” through counseling and wellness programs, arts and music programs, AP classes, dual enrollment, and more.

The Literacy Education for All, Results for the Nation (LEARN) provisions of the legislation will make available competitive grants for states to develop comprehensive literacy programs and will be distributed equitably over all grade levels.

LEARN will not solve all problems, several panelists said, but it is a start and an opportunity for schools to get involved in conversations about the new law.

In the end, Wallin assured the educators in attendance that this would not be an overnight transition.

“No plans are due from states this summer,” she said. “States will have the next year to get plans in place.”

The panel portion of the session, moderated by Alyson Klein, a writer for Education Week, then discussed specific aspects of ESSA.

During the initial remarks from the panel, Jacque Chevalier, senior education policy advisor, Minority Staff, House Education and Workforce Committee, spoke to the challenges of finding common ground between Democrats and Republicans during the congressional deliberations on ESSA. Chevalier noted the perspective of Representative Robert C. Scott (D-VA) who challenges education advocates to think of the civil rights of students across cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic lines.

Carrie Heath Phillips, program director, College- and Career-Ready Standards, Council of Chief State School Officers, said she is incredibly pleased ESSA has passed. “There’s a good balance between flexibility for state innovation and protecting students’ rights.” But, she said, she believes the hard work is about to begin in the state planning. “The devil is in the details.”

Nancy Veatch, a 2015–2016 Teaching Ambassador Fellow for the U.S. Department of Education, said she sees ESSA through a variety of lenses. As a teacher and principal of a small rural school in California, she is not only an administrator, but the sixth- and seventh-grade teacher of all subjects in her school.

As her school is in an isolated rural area, one of the most important aspects of ESSA implementation for her concerns the new law’s accountability provisions.

“I need to know ‘How are my students compared to students across the state?’,” she said. “How are my students performing across the country?”

Once she has that information, she can use evidence-based intervention that will work for her students, not a blanket strategy for all students across the country, she said.

“There are many parts of ESSA that are going to have an impact on my professional life, and on yours as well,” she said. “What can you do to make sure you’re at the table?”

She suggested educators take a deep dive into ESSA to learn how they can best use it in their schools and districts and then be vocal with district and state leaders about their ideas.

When the panel opened up for questions from the audience, several people spoke about frustration with state administrators and legislators who didn’t allow school representatives to be at the table to discuss things like funding, standards, or assessment.

Panelists suggested pushing both from the top by filing complaints with congressional representatives and even the Department of Educations and the bottom by petitioning state legislators directly through letters, e-mails, and phone calls.

Ellen Fern, a founder of Advocates for Literacy, offered another strategy for educators who feel as though they aren’t getting legislative support.

“Don’t discount the business community,” Fern said. “The business community can be a powerful force for comprehensive literacy. They need a skilled workforce. Their national leaders are all about (improved accountability and education).”

Klein added another avenue for schools to explore. “And contact the media, contact Education Week. We always want to hear when teachers are being shut out.”

ILA has also provided a guide to ESSA with the Advocacy Toolkit: Every Student Succeeds Act. See it here.

April Hall is editor of Literacy Daily. A journalist for 20 years, she has specialized in education, writing and editing for newspapers, websites, and magazines.