Literacy Now

Gail Boushey and Joan Moser are known all over the world as “The 2 Sisters.” Real-life sisters and educators, the woman have more than 60 years of experience combined in K-6 and special education, as well as a reading resource specialist and a literacy coach. As a professional development training duo, they collaborated to find a replicable, reliable way to teach children how to be independent lifelong learners.

The authors of books including The Daily 5: Fostering Literacy Independence in the Elementary Grades and The CAFE Book: Engaging All Students in Daily Literacy Assessment & Instruction, they’ve also written a number of online articles and created professional development DVDs. The Sisters will join International Reading Association at 8 p.m. ET Oct. 9 for the next #IRAchat. Follow along on Twitter to talk with the ladies about the need and value of student choice.

Nine years ago I attended my first Daily 5/CAFE workshop in Cheney, WA. That day changed my life forever. I sat in the crowded audience and hung on every word “The Sisters” spoke. They were witty, charming, wise and warm but most of all they had lived, breathed, and experienced the struggles I was currently having on my own teaching journey. I felt like they were talking to me about my classroom and my teaching as they described their early teaching/learning journey.  Several times throughout the conference I had to contain myself from wanting to stand up and shout, Yes! Yes!! Yes!!!

The Daily 5 created by The Sisters is a framework to structure time for students to develop lifelong habits of reading, writing and working independently. The CAFE system helps students with mastering Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, and Expanding vocabulary.

I attended the workshop on Saturday. On Sunday, I spent the day “redoing” my classroom so when my first graders came in Monday I was prepared to begin implementing the foundational lessons which create and sustain independent, motivated, strategic, and voracious readers. I felt a wave of relief because for the first time in my teaching I had a clear vision of where I was headed with my students and with the support of the Sisters, I knew how I could get there.

After attending their conference I began to consider students’ strengths, the role choice and motivation played in students’ progress, explicit teaching of reading strategies, creating a sense of urgency, one-on-one conferring, classroom libraries, and the gradual release of responsibility. I bought books and more books by some of the educators/researchers The Sisters followed and became a member of the International Reading Association.

The more informed I became, the greater my inspiration grew to do my own Classroom Action Research Project which centered on the impact of using a Student Centered Literacy Framework like the Daily 5/CAFE on students’ literacy growth as well as their love of reading and writing. Through my wide reading, active membership in the IRA, and my research project I came to believe in the process and saw the positive effects the Daily 5/CAFE had for my students, but I also experienced the impact it had on my teaching, learning, and understanding of how all the complex pieces of guiding students fit together to make successful, independent readers and writers. I was also informed, inspired, and empowered to share with colleagues and administrators what was happening in my classroom.

After implementing the Daily 5/CAFÉ here is what it sounded like in my classroom, First Graders stating a reading goal:

“I’m working on accuracy, that means I need to be able to read the words. I’m working on chunking letters and sounds together.”

“I’m working on comprehension, I’m reading a chapter book without pictures, so I’m going to be making a picture in my mind because that will help me better understand the story.”

“I’m reading about mammals. I will jot down my thinking about how lions and elephants are the same and how they are different.”

However, the most inspiring comments to hear from the class at the end of Readers or Writers Workshop is a low groan. “Ohhh! Do we have to stop reading?” or “Do we have to stop writing?” Those words from my students let me know I truly succeeded in reaching them.

We’re nearly halfway through the International Literacy Day 60-for-60 challenge and had a blast with our “word of the day” activity for two weeks.

Every day social media strategist Jayme Gravell e-mailed the entire International Reading Association (IRA) staff with a word and its definition. (She also shared them via our Twitter account.) Some were obscure, some were fun to pronounce, some were downright difficult.

We made the word our own in a few different ways. Some responded to Jayme with a sentence using the word. Others took to social media to share the word of the day with friends and followers, and others worked it into conversation as much as possible, like Wes Ford, IRA digital projects manager.

“‘Hempy’ was probably my favorite word—both the sound and the definition (mischievous; often in trouble for mischief) appeal to me, being a bit hempy myself, but alas I failed to actually use it in conversation,” he said. “‘Rapier’ (extremely sharp or keen) was the one used most often the day it was announced, I think, but with a rapier wit like mine, this is not surprising.”

“Chansonette” (a little song; ditty) may have had the largest reach, spurring an extensive all-staff e-mail chain about a certain IRA director who is known for breaking into one at the drop of a hat. (Dan Mangan, we’re looking at you!)

Our challenge continues! For the next two weeks, IRA employees will be asked what sort of things they would bring if they were headed to the International Space Station for a yearlong mission. This was inspired by the “Pack It Up” activity in our 2014 kit. This week, we’re focusing on items for the Personal Belongings Locker; next week, we’ll turn our attention to the Personal Preference Kit, the items for which must be contained in a 3” x 3” bag.

The Personal Belonging Locker is tight for space, but astronauts have been known to pack books. So of course we asked our staff for three books that would be a must.

Several staffers said they would take the Bible, both for spiritual and literary reasons, in addition to selections including Shakespeare, a favorite installment of Harry Potter, Anna Karenina, and, naturally, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Which three books would you take? Let us know at social@reading.org.

April Hall is the editor of Reading Today Online. She can be contacted at ahall@reading.org.

Join us Tuesday, Oct. 28 at 8 p.m. ET, for our first-ever Google Hangout “on air,” which will be streamed on International Reading Association’s YouTube channel. Our one-hour panel will include “writing thief” Ruth Culham and acclaimed authors Kate Messner, Lisa Yee, David Harrison, and Varian Johnson. Jayme Gravell, International Reading Association’s social media strategist will moderate the discussion.
Ruth Culham is a recognized expert in the writing assessment field and is known for conducting lively teacher workshops. Her current book, The Writing Thief, gives insight on how to use reading to practice writing skills. Writing “thieves” read extensively and use great texts as models for their own writing. The book uses text citations, narratives, and informational teaching concepts to give advice on making the most out of writing instruction. It also provides updated literacy research and thoughts about Common Core State Standards.
Culham’s work draws from over 90 different books to show how adept readers can acquire proficient writing skills and reach their full potential. It discusses how to find the right mentor texts to share with students and how to incorporate traits of writing, such as organization, voice, and word choice, into various styles.

• Messner’s book, The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z. was the winner of the 2010 E.B. White Read Aloud Award for Older Readers.
• Yee’s novels, including Millicent Min, Girl Genius and Absolutely Maybe, have won several awards.
• Harrison is a well-known writer in the literacy world as an author of more than 75 books. His literacy program is the award-winning Sky High on Reading. 
• Johnson is the author of The Great Greene Heist, a Publishers Weekly Best Summer Book of 2014.

Culham will kick off the event with an exercise from The Writing Thief. The panel will go on to discuss the importance of finding great mentor texts and using reading to promote writing abilities. No pre-registration is necessary. Send you greatest challenge in using mentor texts to social@reading.org by Oct. 10 and your issue might be addressed by our panel. Settle in for the stream and work through Culham’s exercises and get the advice of not just one expert, but five. Watch the Hangout live and find out how you can win a free virtual visit from one of our authors.
The Hangout will be aired on the IRA YouTube page at 8 p.m. Oct. 28, but will be archived to watch any time. The virtual visit contest, however, is only available during the live stream.

Are you afraid of Captain Underpants, lead character of Dav Pilkey’s series of the same name? Does a superhero clad only in his underpants spark offensive language, violence, and danger? According to the American Library Association’s “Top Ten Challenged Books 2013”, the Captain Underpants series does that in the mind of many. It was the most challenged book last year and from the most well-known children’s books to relatable young adult novels and classics, books in schools are challenged for sexual explicitness, offensive language, and racism among a host of other reasons.

Young adult favorite The Hunger Games made the list for containing religious viewpoints and being unsuited for the 12-14 age level the story targets. Jeffrey Wilhelm, English professor at Boise State University and author of more than 20 literacy books, taught The Hunger Games as a lead-in to George Orwell’s 1984, a frequently challenged classic. He described how, by reading both books, students were interested in the topics at hand and reading strategy improved. “Reading [both texts] taught current culture and predictions of what might happen, making a text to world connection,” he says. “It is important to have [students reading] books related to their current state of being.”

Here’s the 2013 challenged book list:

1. Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey
   Reasons: Offensive language, unsuited for age group, violence
2. The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
   Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, violence
3. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
   Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, offensive language, racism, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
4. Fifty Shades of Grey, by E.L. James
   Reasons: Nudity, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
5. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
   Reasons: Religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group
6. A Bad Boy Can Be Good for A Girl, by Tanya Lee Stone
   Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit
7. Looking for Alaska, by John Green
   Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
8. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
   Reasons: drugs/alcohol/smoking, homosexuality, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
9. Bless Me Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
   Reasons: Occult/Satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit
10. Bone (series), by Jeff Smith
    Reasons: Political viewpoint, racism, violence

Banned Books Week (Sept. 21-27) is meant to raise awareness of how books are still challenged or even removed as an option for school children. And, of course, there is no shortage of educators willing to speak out against book banning.

Many banned books deal with social issues children and teenagers are faced with. The censorship of such novels hinders students from gaining support through characters that reassure them they are not alone, experts say.

“I think it is a wonderful idea for students to be able to read and discuss books that are ‘edgy’ so once they leave their community to enter the world, they will be prepared to understand people and be tolerant of lifestyles and ideas other than their own,” says Nancy Bauman,  retired librarian and literacy consult. “Books can help students through problems they aren't able to discuss with others, and helps them to feel they are not 'alone' in having feelings that may be different than their peers or community.”

“I see it as limiting the intellectual freedom of students and teachers and an attempt to keep certain points of view from being expressed. By doing so, aren’t we banning ideas and limiting the free discussion of different ideas and viewpoints?” asks Barbara Ward, literacy professor at Washington State University and chair of International Reading Association’s Children’s Literature and Special Reading Interest Group.

“The honest truth is that there is probably something offensive in just about every book being published,” says Ward. “To try to stick to the safe book means lulling yourself into a false sense of complacency and refusing to stand up for anything. That’s a terrible lesson to learn or to teach to someone else.”

Morgan Ratner is the communications intern at the International Reading Association.

There is nothing International Reading Association would ask educators to do that we aren’t willing to do ourselves. So when the International Literacy Day 60-for-60 challenge was launched, asking teachers to engage their students in an extra 60 seconds of literacy-focused activities every day for 60 days, we wanted to get in on the fun, too.  As a staff, we agreed to take part in the challenge and squeeze an extra minute  into our days. Every weekday for 12 weeks, we’ll complete an activity from the ILD 2014 kit (get yours here). The kit contains suggested activities for ages 4 to 15+, including a category that’s appropriate for students of all ages. We’ve chosen variety of activities from each of the age groups and are tackling them in two-week intervals. For example, today we are finishing up the “Would You Rather…” activity (from the ages 4 to 8 section). Every day our social media strategist, Jayme Gravell, sent a question to the entire staff at IRA. We took a minute to think about it and debate our answers with co-workers and/or email a response to Jayme.

Here’s a sampling of our questions and answers:

Would you rather watch a Quidditch match or the Triwizard Tournament?

Anette Schuetz, creative services manager: "Quidditch is a wizarding sport played on broomsticks. Having been accused of riding a broomstick to work, I find this sport engaging!”

Would you rather live in Narnia or Oz?

Sara Long, web content manager: “That is a really tough question! I definitely wouldn't want to live in Narnia when it's winter all of the time without Christmas. After spring returns, though, Narnia is beautiful with all of the talking animals and creatures, but so is Oz. I guess I'd choose Narnia because I'd rather live in a place with a powerful Aslan than a bumbling Wizard.”

Would you rather take a ride in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang or Stephen King’s Christine?

Vicki Morris, accounting and finance assistant: “This is an easy one for me. I would rather ride in Christine since I am a huge Stephen King fan (and I would be nice to her), as opposed to the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (I don’t fly in anything anymore).”

Would you rather have the power of invisibility or the power to fly?

Lara Deloza, communications manager: Hands down: power to fly. Because who wants to be invisible? Sure, it SOUNDS good in theory, but in practice? You’d end up seeing things you could never unsee, hearing things you could never unhear. Plus, flying is just awesome. And you’d save a heck of a lot on gas.

Would you rather take Ophelia or Juliet to the prom?

Bill Hyman, purchasing/facilities/contracts manager: “Can I go with neither? I mean they both died, and who needs that aggravation, am I right?”

Play along with today’s question: “Would you rather have street smarts or book smarts?”

As for our next activity, Jayme will send out a “word of the day” and its definition to staff. The challenge will be to see who can work the word into conversation as much as possible each day. Want to join in? Follow @IRAToday on Twitter starting Monday, September 22. Tell us how you’ve made the word yours over the course of the day!

Don’t forget to share all of your 60-for-60 activities with us. Email stories and photos to social@reading.org or post them to Twitter or the IRA Facebook page using the hashtag #ILD14.

April Hall is the editor of Reading Today Online. She can be reached at ahall@reading.org.