Literacy Now

The International Literacy Association has declared April 14, 2015 Leaders for Literacy Day. On that day, ILA will host critical physical and digital conversations with international literacy advocates and practitioners.

A panel of thought leaders and status quo interrupters will face head-on the topics that will shape the future of literacy across the world. How can educators, governments, and private sector and philanthropic leaders collaborate to develop, assess and share approaches that work in advancing literacy?

“We hope to talk about the state of literacy and policy implications for the future,” said Susan B. Neuman, professor and chair of the Teaching and Learning Department at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development at New York University. Neuman, former U.S. Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education, will be one of the panelists at the marquis portion of the program hosted by the Institute of International Education in United Nations Plaza.

Neuman, author of Giving Children a Fighting Chance, said she will talk about the importance of introducing literacy and reading at a young age to “set the stage for the development of information capital.”

This panel will launch a movement to address the crisis that nearly 800 million adults around the world are illiterate. Including illiterate children, it adds up to 12% of the world’s population. Leaders for Literacy Day will be the first step in mobilizing stakeholders who will be the future of literacy and building a successful society.

The panel will also include Allan Goodman, president and CEO of the Institute of International Education; Steven Duggan, director of worldwide education strategy for Microsoft Corporation; Bernadette Dwyer, a lecturer in Literacy Studies at St. Patrick's College, Dublin City University; David L. Kirp, professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley; and ILA Executive Director Marcie Craig Post. The panel will be moderated by Liz Willen, editor-in-chief of The Hechinger Report. The ILA communications team will live-tweet the panel.

Through the hashtag #AgeofLiteracy, advocates have already shared on social media what they will do to further literacy around the world. On April 14, that hashtag will be used for one-hour intervals of discussion focused on the most important topics facing the literacy community. All discussions will be nonconventional Twitter chats where conversations will develop organically outside of a standard Q&A format.

The conversation on the pre-event Twitter will include:

• How to Engage Today’s Students (12 p.m. ET): keeping interest in the classroom while competing with ever-evolving education reform and technology. Hosted by Becky Fetterolf, ILA acquisitions editor, featuring Pernille Ripp, creator of the Global Read Aloud, Steven W. Anderson, co-founder of #Edchat, and others.

• How to Take Charge of Professional Development (1 p.m. ET): going beyond one-sided lectures to interactive and cyber-propelled PD. Hosted by Tiffany Sears, ILA council advisor, featuring Hadley Ferguson, executive director of Edcamp; Kylene Beers, former NCTE president, current blogger, author, educator, and speaker; Christopher Lehman, founder of The Educator Collaborative, LLC; Loise Gichuhi, education economist and program director of Education in Emergencies at the University of Nairobi; Sara Brown Wessling, 2010 Teacher of the Year and teacher laureate for Teaching Channel; and others.

• How to Become a Powerful Literacy Advocate (2 p.m. ET):  what to do in your neighborhood and around the world. Hosted by Yesly Contrares, program officer for the ILA Global Operations Unit featuring Pam Allyn of LitWorld, Little Free Library, Angie Manfredi, librarian and author of the blog Fat Girl Reading, and others.

Bloggers are also invited to take part by writing about the age of literacy for their audiences. ILA will then share those posts via social media.

Some suggested topics:

• How is literacy critical to the advancement of society today?

• What is needed to advance literacy rates around the world?

• How can governments, businesses, NGOs, and community leaders work together to advance literacy?

Log on to Twitter April 14 at noon and follow #AgeofLiteracy to see what literacy advocates are saying and join the conversation.

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

If you visited our new URL, literacyworldwide.org, recently, you may have noticed the beginning stages of the new ILA website. When we changed our name to the International Literacy Association on January 26, our new logo and colors graced the pages and we began the process of transitioning the thousands—yes, thousands—of website pages, PDFs, and files over in phases. Today, our new website officially launches on literacyworldwide.org and, although there are more exciting changes ahead, we wanted to take a moment to tell you about the improvements you’ll experience now.

What to expect

At the top of each page on the new website, you’ll find quick links to what you need, including signing in to your member account (“Sign In”), joining ILA (“Join”), renewing your ILA membership (“Renew”), the ILA 2015 Conference (“Conference”), and the Literacy Daily blog (“Blog”). 

The new website has five top navigation choices: “Why Literacy?,” “Get Involved,” “Our Community,” “Get Resources,” and “About Us.”

“Why Literacy?” explains the illiteracy problem throughout the world and what ILA is doing to solve it.

“Get Involved” offers you ways to become an ILA Member (“Membership,” “Join”), donate to our cause (“Donate”), talk about literacy (“Join the Conversation”), and find out about councils, affiliates, Special Interest Groups, and the Alpha Upsilon Alpha Honor Society (“ILA Network”). Some of these links will send you to forms and information on the “old” / site; we’re working on transitioning all of the webpages to the new site in the next few months.

The “Our Community” section reaches out to you, our audience, in four areas: “Champions,” “Educators,” “Donors & Sponsors,” and “Partners.” On these pages, you will find stories from people like you, resources tailored to your needs, and what you can do to help fight illiteracy alongside ILA.

The “Get Resources” section has a page that details our offerings and publications: reading lists from Choices and Literacy Daily; the Literacy Daily blog; position papers, statements, and advocacy briefs; books, ILA E-ssentials articles, ILA Bridges curricular units, and ReadWriteThink.org lesson plans; journals; and Reading Today magazine. The links in this section go to the old / site for now. If you browse our hundreds of resources, you’ll see why! We’re still in the process of bringing them over to the new site, and when that happens, we promise you an even fuller, richer experience.

“About Us” is self-explanatory: It tells you all about ILA! The “About Us” page has our new mission, and the “Our Story” page talks about what we’ve done during the past 60 years. See press releases and conference news on the “News & Events” page, and check out our financial reports on the “Financials” page. As always, feel free to click on “Contact Us” to see how to mail, call, or e-mail us.

What’s next

One website! Improved search! And much, much more. Stay tuned for more changes and improvements this summer.

A wide array of literacy experts will hit the stage at the ILA 2015 Conference in St. Louis, MO. Learn classroom best practices, education reform, and quick tips with our full schedule of Featured Speakers.

Saturday, July 18:

Meenoo Rami (@MeenooRami)

A veteran of EduCon, #140edu, Urban Sites Conference for National Writing Project, and others, Meenoo Rami is no stranger to educational conferences. An English teacher at Philadelphia’s Science Leadership Academy, she pushes her students to think outside the box and connect themselves to the world beyond the classroom. Rami is the author of Thrive: 5 Ways to Re(Invigorate) Your Teaching and founder of #engchat, a Twitter chat that engages teachers across the United States to discuss English teaching techniques. She will be discussing the power of networking across classrooms, helping students to become active members of society.

Steven L. Layne (@StevenLayne)

In Defense of Read-Aloud, will highlight successful practices for read-aloud instruction. He is also the author of various children’s books, including The Teachers’ Night Before Christmas, an ILA/Children’s Book Council “Children’s Choice” book. Layne currently teaches children’s and young adult literature courses at Judson College in Elgin, IL and serves as a literacy consultant. Layne is well known for motivating educators through his talks.

Stephanie Harvey (@Stephharvey49)

After working in the public school system for 15 years, Stephanie Harvey worked as a staff developer for the Denver, CO–based Public Education & Business Coalition and is now president of her own consulting firm. As a passionate advocate for children’s reading and writing, Harvey has written many books, including Nonfiction Matters and The Comprehension Toolkit. Her session will include strategic tips for close reading and comprehension in K–12 literacy.

Jennifer Serravallo (@JSerravallo)

As a staffer at Columbia University’s Teachers College Reading and Writing Project and Vassar College, Jennifer Serravallo developed a passion for urban education reform and children’s literature. She is an active blogger and the author of the Association of Educational Publishers award-winning Independent Reading Assessmentin addition to The Literacy Teacher’s Playbook. Serravallo will be hosting a session to engage student motivation and growth through independent reading.

Sunday, July 19:

Pam Allyn (@pamallyn)

Pam Allyn, author, motivational speaker, and founder of global literacy initiative LitWorld, will be hosting a session dedicated to creating practices that meet the needs of students with varying reading and writing experience. As a 2013 Scholastic Literacy Champion, Allyn is the author of Your Child’s Writing Life and is a spokesperson for BIC Kids 2014 and BIC’s “Fight For Your Write” campaign.

Julie D. Ramsay (@JulieDRamsay)

Julie D. Ramsay, a sixth-grade ELA teacher, navigates the world of technology from her classroom and shares what she learns in her regular Literacy Daily column, Plugged In her personal blog, eduflections. She will discuss the importance of using digital tools and thinking critically to collaborate on classroom projects and engage in active writing inside and outside the classroom. She is the author of “Can We Skip Lunch and Keep Writing?” Collaborating in Class and Online, Grades 3–8and speaks at various conferences about student writing practices.

Christopher Lehman (@iChrisLehman)

As the founding director of The Educator Collaborative, Lehman supportsteachers and literacy coaches in implementing rigorous literacy instruction. He will be discussing techniques to assist students with voice-filled writing and critical thinking. Lehman is also the author of literacy books such as A Quick Guide to Reviving Disengaged Writers and Energize Research Reading and Writing.

The ILA 2015 Conference will be July 18–20 in St. Louis, MO, with more than 6,000 educators ready to transform their practice. Key topics affecting literacy featured at the conference include content literacy, children’s literature, classroom engagement, and professional development. In addition to conference favorites, there will be plenty of new features, such as the refreshed Teaching Edge series. More than 120 exhibitors will be on hand with new tools and technologies for all manners of literacy education.

Preconference institutes, which take place on July 17, offer an all-day deep dive into topics including culturally responsive instruction and building literacy through project-based learning. You do not need to register for the full Conference & Exhibits to take part in the preconference institutes.

Learn more about the conference program at ilaconference.org. Register today for the ILA 2015 Conference to take advantage of special Early Bird pricing.

Morgan Ratner is the communications assistant for ILA.

The precious years between elementary and high school are fundamental to student development and academic achievement. To help maximize your middle-level students’ potential, the International Literacy Association (ILA) has made a new cross-journal virtual issue on middle-level education free through July 31.

This publication provides resources and guides for working with middle-level students. MiddleLevel Education features 12 articles from ILA’s three journals The Reading Teacher (RT), Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy (JAAL), and Reading Research Quarterly (RRQ)thatprovide insight to encourage and promote middle-level students’ academic achievement.

From RT

Articles from RT highlight methods that can aid reading comprehension and content literacy in middle-level students. In their article “Reading Thematically Related Texts to Develop Knowledge and Comprehension,” Lynn Gelzheiser, Laura Hallgren-Flynn, Margaret Connors, and Donna Scanlon illustrate how to develop content themes that will ultimately allow students to develop greater genre knowledge. Peter Dewitz and Michael F. Graves also focus on expanding students’ knowledge through transfer and other academic applications in their article “Teaching for Transfer in the Common Core Era.”

In her RT article “Level Up With Multimodal Composition in Social Studies,” Bridget Dalton discusses how teachers can lead students through multimodal composition.

From JAAL

JAAL articles provide guidance for instructing middle-level learners on literacy and language topics.

Dianna Townsend’s “Who’s Using the Language? Supporting Middle School Students With Content Area Academic Language” explores how educators can integrate academic language support into content area lessons. The dynamic of writing in content area classrooms is discussed in “Learning to Write in Middle School?” by Joshua Fahey Lawrence, Emily Phillips Galloway, Soobin Yim, and Alex Lin.

In “Putting Two and Two Together,” Mark B. Pacheco and Amanda P. Goodwin offer strategies and recommendations to support students in determining word meanings. Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey discussing using close reading intervention as a tool for advancing student achievement in “Close Reading as an Intervention for Struggling Middle School Readers.”

The Literacy Lenses column “Independent Reading” by Katy Benning features essays highlighting perspectives on teaching with literacies to stimulate reader reflection.

From RRQ

Engaging struggling readers and unleashing their potential is discussed in articles from RRQ.Greg Roberts, Sharon Vaughn, Jack Fletcher, Karla Stuebing, and Amy Barth study the effects of multiyear, response-based tiered intervention for struggling readers in grades 6 through 8 in their article “Effects of a Response-Based, Tiered Framework for Intervening With Struggling Readers in Middle School.” More classroom techniques are discussed in John T. Guthrie and Susan Lutz Klauda’s article “Effects of Classroom Practices on Reading Comprehension, Engagement, and Motivations for Adolescents.”

Bridging the achievement gap based on income inequality is discussed in “The New Literacies of Online Research and Comprehension” by Donald J. Leu, Elena Forzani, Chris Rhoads, Cheryl Maykel, Clint Kennedy, and Nicole Timbrell.

“Effects of Educational Technology Applications on Reading Outcomes for Struggling Readers” by Alan C.K. Cheung and Robert E. Slavin examines how popular programs including Leapfrog and Destination Reading affect the progress of struggling readers and why.

Madelaine Levey is a communications intern with ILA.

New coeditors were selected for both the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy (JAAL) and The Reading Teacher (RT), International Literacy Association’s peer-reviewed journals for educators of literacy learners.

Jan Lacina

Kelly Chandler-Olcott and Kathleen Hinchman will be coeditors of JAAL, and Jan Lacina and Robin Griffith will be coeditors for RT. All editorships will run from June 1, 2015 through May 31, 2021.

Chandler-Olcott is chair of the Reading & Language Arts Center at Syracuse University where she teaches content literacy. She focuses her research on technology-mediated literacy practices and coauthored Tutoring Adolescent Literacy Learners: A Guide for Volunteers. As the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs of the School of Education at Syracuse University, Hinchman concentrates on literacy methods, examining students’ and teachers’ perspectives towards literacy-related secondary school reform.

Reflecting current theories and practices in support of effective literacy instruction, JAAL serves university scholars, literacy consultants, and administrators. ILA Executive Director Marcie Craig Post said, “The Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy is unique in that it is the only literacy journal published exclusively for teachers of older learners. This requires a distinctive perspective on the literacy practices of adolescents and adults, an area that Kelly and Kathleen have dedicated their careers to.”

Robin Griffith

Focusing on primary classroom instruction, RT provides evidence-based teaching ideas and focuses on critical issues in teaching and professional development.

As Associate Dean of Graduate Studies in the College of Education at Texas Christian University (TCU) in Fort Worth, Texas, Lacina’s interests range from writing instruction to English language learning. She recently completed her term as the editor in chief for the Journal of Research in Childhood Education and holds a doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction/Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages from the University of Kansas. Also a literacy education educator at TCU, Griffith focuses on the critical role that teachers play in helping students become successful readers and writers. She holds a doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction from Texas Tech University.

“The Reading Teacher has provided educators with practical teaching ideas that are grounded in theory and research for more than 60 years,” said Post. “Jan and Robin’s impressive classroom and research experience will be critical in our mission to continue to provide the insightful and relatable content that readers of The Reading Teacher have come to expect.”