Literacy Now

by Dr. Richard E. Ferdig

The creation and adoption of innovative technologies often provides opportunities to rethink current education practices. For instance, the development of low-cost laptops and their portability helped schools rethink 1:1 technology initiatives (one computer per child). The high adoption of gaming devices at all age and socioeconomic levels gave rise to new thinking about the gamification of learning environments. And the engaging nature of virtual environments have helped teachers reconsider the concept of the field trip.

A new report from the State Educational Technology Directors Association follows suit and asks readers to reexamine and reconsider textbooks and the delivery of content to students. In "Out of Print: Reimagining the K-12 Textbook in a Digital Age", the authors even suggest not calling this new media e-texts or e-books, as they suggest such terminology perpetuates "the old notion of a single textbook per subject as being the optimal source of instructional material" (p. 6).

The authors make a strong argument that there are a variety of important reasons for schools to shift away from traditional textbooks. "It is not a matter of if reimagining the textbook will permeate all of education, only a matter of how fast" (p. 6). The authors note the challenge is that most schools are ignoring digital texts. "The educational environment isn't exploiting digital content for all of the benefits that can accrue for today’s learners. The gap is widening for what we do in our lives—how we communicate, work, learn, and play—and how we’re educating our kids" (p. 5).

According to the authors, the benefits of using digital content (the re-envisioning of the current textbook) are many. Content can be updated immediately; students are no longer required to engage old content just because schools can't afford new print books. Students can also access their texts anywhere they can take their electronic device. And, teachers can push personalized learning immediately to their device. Finally, given the widespread development and availability of open education resources (OER), content can be much richer and more engaging.

The report includes examples from multiple states where e-content is currently replacing traditional textbooks in all content areas. For instance, "the work of CK-12 focuses on middle school and high school Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) subjects; but Utah will be using the platform for support in K-6 and language arts as well" (p. 19). The report also highlights requirements to make this a smooth transition, including recommendations at the policy and practical level.

What impact does this shift have on and for literacy educators? There are at least five considerations.

1. Perhaps the most obvious implication is that literacy educators need to reexamine their current textbooks. What does an anthology of literature look like in a 21st century digital format? How could one draw on the affordances of such tools to move beyond just print stories? How do vocabulary textbooks draw on the promise of personalized learning through just-in-time delivery of differentiated practice and feedback?
2. Successful programs prepared teachers for these transitions. How are we preparing our literacy educators to live in a world where delivery and consumption of content will be electronic?
3. There has been strong argumentation for the connection between literacy, digital literacy, and 21st century literacies. There has also been important research into how students are learning to read and write online. Removing print text will force a deeper understanding of how to best support our readers and writers. As such, there is an immediate need for more funded research in this critical area.
4. A related, critical area of study is multimodal composition. This is the notion that students are not just reading and writing print text in a digital format. Reading and writing is being expanded to include multiple media such as movies, blogs, animations, voice, etc. We need to make sure that the push to digital content does not fall back to print only. And, perhaps more importantly, we have to ensure that teachers and students are not just consumers of such content, but also producers.
5. How can e-content support struggling readers and writers? At the surface level, there is strong argumentation that such text could support such readers and writers more than traditional methods because of the affordances of the tools involved (the report has a timely discussion of CAST's work on UDL). However, just because it can support them does not mean it will do so automatically.

Some are recommending that e-content, e-books, or e-texts completely replace print textbooks within 5 years (p. 3). As literacy educators, we need to not just prepare, but also capitalize on this opportunity to re-think literacy instruction in the 21st century.

Dr. Richard E. Ferdig is a professor of ITEC and the Summit Professor of Educational Technologies at the Research Center for Educational Technology, Kent State University, rferdig@gmail.com.

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

 

by Nicole Timbrell and Jenny Power

Every class consists of enthusiastic and reluctant recreational readers. Online book clubs provide a new way for teachers to use the enthusiasm of engaged readers to influence those who are indifferent towards reading. We (Nicole Timbrell and Jenny Power), two Sydney-based secondary school teachers, combined our professional strengths, as English classroom teacher and teacher librarian respectively, and set out to enhance our students' engagement with recreational reading by adopting online book clubs. We supplemented traditional reading promotion strategies with online book clubs hosted by Good Reads and Inside A Dog, to develop greater interest in recreational reading. By structuring our classes around these online tools, we extended the scope of our role as enabling adults  to provide a stimulating reading environment that reached beyond the walls of the classroom.

Both Good Reads and Inside A Dog provide extensive databases of fiction and non-fiction which allow users to access book covers, blurbs, reviews and ratings for each book. Users create a profile and add books to their "online shelves" as a record of their past, current and future reading patterns. Teachers are then able to construct groups within these websites and invite their students to become part of the class book club. By adopting the model of social networking sites, both Good Reads and Inside a Dog allow users to become online "friends" in order to view one another’s profiles and share reviews and recommendations. The promotion of shared reading experiences among peers, and the ability of students to gain reading ideas and motivation from the more enthusiastic and capable readers within the class were found to be the most appealing features of these websites.

We managed our online book clubs by asking students to:

• Construct profiles to display current, past and future reading choices
• Reply to discussion points posted on the online book club home page
• Set personal reading goals to extend their repertoire and display these on their profile
• Write book reviews 
• Read other students’ book reviews to make and receive recommendations
• Use the search functions of the website to seek recommendations for future reading

Benefits for students participating in these online reading communities include:

• Increased enthusiasm and inspiration to read books their peers had enjoyed
• An ability to better locate and select books for their interest and ability
• Improved knowledge of the etiquette of online communication

Benefits for teachers include the ability to:

• Monitor all students’ reading progress and keep a record for use during discussions with students and parents
• Personalise recommendations and provide individual suggestions for future reading
• Construct closed online reading communities which enable younger students to communicate in a moderated environment
• Set authentic writing tasks due to the publication of reviews and discussion posts to a real audience in a "live" online space

Nicole Timbrell is an English teacher (Grades 7-12) at Loreto Kirribilli, in Sydney Australia.

Jenny Power is a teacher librarian at Loreto Kirribilli, in Sydney Australia. 

Nicole and Jenny share an interest in adolescent literacy, online reading comprehension and new literacies and work together to incorporate ideas from these areas into the English classroom.

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

 

by Judith Hayn

Lange, Erin Jade. Butter. New York, NY: Bloomsbury, 2012.

Butter weighs 423 pounds, and his nickname originates from a particularly repulsive act of bullying his freshman year. He narrates this cautionary tale of the first semester his junior year in a Scottsdale, Arizona, high school. He wants desperately to fit in and to have the girl of his dreams even notice him. The first goal appears to be possible when he sets up a website vowing to eat himself to death online on New Year’s Eve. The scheme to get the girl involves the assumption of another identity as he connects, again online, with his lovely classmate Anna; only she has no picture of him and accepts his fake persona of a rich, athletic student at a private local prep school. The popular kids latch onto the eating to death scheme as a way to amuse themselves at Butter’s expense as he becomes a large pet for the “in” crowd. The whole scenario is doomed from the start while Butter is in denial about the impending catastrophe.

While the reader roots for him to wake up to what is happening and take action, the feelings of self-hatred are too enmeshed in Butter; not even his amazing talent on the saxophone can save him. The discussion of options for obese teens offers avenues of hope, but Butter cannot seem to accept these; even the concerned advice from his therapist and music teacher, along with his mother’s misguided manipulation with food, meet resistance. Donna Cooner’s 2012 book Skinny deals with the same theme although her protagonist is a girl who chooses gastric by-pass surgery. Both are powerful texts and uncomfortable reads for those who struggle with weight and those who don’t but need to understand—many teen reviews of these books on the Internet reveal a disturbing bias about overweight people.

Dr. Judith A. Hayn is an associate professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

This article is part of a series from the Special Interest Group Network on Adolescent Literature (SIGNAL).

As children we often have aspirations for what we want to be when we grow up. For me, I knew I was going to be an actress and live in New York City—I was born with greasepaint running through my veins. Then, as I got older (16 to be exact), I told my mom I was going to medical school and find the cure for cancer. Many years of formal education later, and none of them spent studying drama or medicine, I am finally doing what I was meant to do—teach.

I had many careers prior to becoming a classroom teacher. I worked in Hollywood for a major production company, rubbing shoulders with celebrities. Life was good but something was missing. I moved to San Diego where I met my husband, got married, and studied for my paralegal certificate at the University of San Diego.

The day after graduation we moved to Seattle. For twelve years I worked as a paralegal in major law firms. I enjoyed the work and the people I worked with but still, something was missing. At the end of the day, a big question hovered over my head: what had I truly accomplished in the big scheme of the world? Had I provided the escape of entertainment from the worries of the world? No. Had I provided a cure for anything more serious than the common cold? Not even close.

It was time for me to move on and actually do something. This required that I figure out what I truly needed in my next career.

First and foremost was passion. A close second was meaning. Lastly, but equally important as the first two, was flexibility. I have my husband to credit for the brilliant idea that I consider being a teacher. That profession had never crossed my mind, but once it did, it seemed so obvious. Immediately I thought of my paternal grandmother, who taught in a one-room classroom in the middle of the farm lands of North Dakota. My mind was set and as with everything I do, once I set my mind to it, I run with it!

I started by conducting informational interviews and researching programs at the universities in Seattle. Eventually, I made the plunge. I chose Seattle Pacific University for their rigorous curriculum, certification, small student to professor ratios, and the caliber of their professors.

Five semesters later, I finished the baccalaureate program and was ready to begin my master’s degree in language and literacy with an emphasis as a teacher of reading. I had been discouraged by most of my professors from going on to graduate school. I was told I would price myself out of a job, it would be a waste of my time and money if I planned to only teach elementary students, and the debt would far outweigh the paychecks. My response was, “Why shouldn’t young students have the benefit of a teacher with a higher degree and specialty?” After all, one of the items on my career changing list was “meaning.” I chose to attend Wheelock College in Boston for their intense literacy program, credibility in the teaching field, and their dedication to children, not to mention the opportunity to live on the East Coast for a year.

The process of interviewing for a teaching job began well before I completed my master’s degree. I interviewed in Seattle during spring break and via conference calls. By the time I graduated, I had a job teaching fourth grade.

I worked for five years in a socioeconomically challenged school district. The majority of the students were on free or reduced breakfasts and lunches, spoke English as their second language, and were well behind the state standards in all subjects. Yes, I had my work cut out for me. But I also had excellent training in similar demographics. I felt prepared and ready to put all my hard work to work for my students.

By now I felt I had accomplished the first two items on my new career list—passion and meaning. But one was not quite at 100%—flexibility. As a writer working towards getting my novels and picture books published, I needed more than summers to write. My evenings and weekends were still devoted to my classroom teachings. It was time to make another plunge off another high dive.

I decided to retire from teaching in the classroom, and started my own business of tutoring from my home office.

Once again, I ran with my new career direction. I had all my teaching resources gathered over the years. I also had an awesome classroom library of books that I accumulated over the years. And my practicum in graduate school gave me the resources I needed to perform my own student assessments in literacy. I had everything at my fingertips that I would need to teach—except for the students.

I designed my brochure and started a marketing and advertising blitz. Most elementary schools allowed me to leave brochures in the front office. The local independent bookstores and coffee shops have community boards that are perfect for free advertising, and I was able to advertise on our local township website as well.

I also turned to my teacher colleagues for student referrals, which is how I acquired my first student. He was a fifth grader struggling with the writing process. I worked with him for two years—first on writing, then on reading and math and other special projects. It was very rewarding to be a part of his academic progress. Recently, I received an email from his mother letting me know how much she appreciated my work with her son. He is now a freshman in high school and doing quite well.

Over time one student led to another and another and another. Most of my referrals have been from word of mouth and I have been able to maintain a workload that allows me to have all three items on my list checked-off: Passion. Meaning. Flexibility.

Three years have passed since I made the plunge to go out on my own and I have loved every minute. My students have ranged in age from Pre-K to middle school, both boys and girls. Sometimes they come to me with a specific goal in mind and other times I am their weekly academic booster, supplementing the classroom teachings, filling the gaps made ever wider by budget cuts and changes in the traditional home dynamic.

However, working from home as a private tutor is not for everyone. To be successful you need to be very organized, disciplined with your time, and be able to take the lean times along with the flush times. Not to mention that marketing your services is a constant endeavor.

But if you think you have what it takes or would at least like to give it a try, here are some tips:

• Contact your homeowners or renters insurance to confirm you have the coverage necessary to have clients in and out of your home. You will probably want to increase your liability coverage.
• Have a professional brochure designed that outlines your education, expertise, teaching philosophy, and lists memberships in pertinent organizations (such as International Reading Association or NCTE). In your absence, your brochure will be your one and only marketing tool that will make or break the first impression upon prospective clients.
• Purchase professional business cards. Don’t let the age of your students direct the look of your cards. Avoid a card that is laden with cutesy graphics, that’s too glossy, or that’s printed on flimsy stock. Remember, your audience first and foremost is parents.
• I highly recommend you have formal policies and “house rules” written up that you give to each family upon initial communication about tutoring. Having these in place will help avoid awkward situations later regarding public and private parameters of your home, payment policies, and scheduling, just to name a few.

photo: donovanbeeson via photopin cc

• Create a spreadsheet on Excel or similar program to track payments and sessions by students.
• Prepare file folders for each student that includes the assessments you prepare, lesson notes, and student work.
• Purchase or create lending library cards. I am very old-school about books. I love the actual books and I love to share them with my students. I use library cards to list each book a student borrows, the date they borrow the book and the date it is returned. I also supplement my inventory with books from the public library. (Have a policy about charging for books borrowed if they are not returned within a designated number of days or lost).
• Research the various online teaching resources for additional materials and resources to have at your fingertips. I use the practice pages, booklets, and online manipulatives depending on the student. I have chosen to use ReadWriteThink.org, Scholastic.com, edHelper.com, and Sadlier-Oxford.com. (Some sites require a nominal annual fee.)
• Have a professional website, a professional Facebook page, and a Twitter account that you actually use on a regular basis. I stress the professionalism of all of these social media platforms. One picture says a thousand words and you don’t want those words to portray you in a negative light.

My journey to working as a private tutor was long and by no means direct. Although I have not worked as a professional actress, lived in New York City, or found the cure for cancer, what I have done with my career has and continues to be very rewarding. I have found my passion, with meaning and flexibility.

Going out on one’s own is not for everyone. It takes guts and a certain amount of financial security already in place. However, if you are even slightly considering the big dive I highly encourage you to start with some informational interviews and see where they lead you.

Happy Teaching!

Kathleen A. Hunter, MS is a literacy tutor and aspiring children's book author. You can visit her online at www.KathleenHunterWrites.com.



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ANNIE SULLIVAN AND THE TRIALS OF HELEN KELLER (Disney-Hyperion Books, 2012)
Written and illustrated by Joseph Lambert
Grades 5–12

ANNIE SULLIVAN AND THE TRIALS OF HELEN KELLER by Joseph Lambert is a graphic novel about the early relationship between Helen Keller and, her teacher, Annie Sullivan. The graphic novel format provides a unique perspective on Helen’s world without sound and sight, which is portrayed as dark and shapeless. However, as Helen learns more words from Annie, her world becomes more colorful and defined. Many of the panels include images of hands finger spelling words, which adds another dimension to the text.

The other unique aspect of this graphic novel is the focus on Annie’s life before Helen. Often when the relationship between Helen and Annie is discussed, Helen is seen as the one who overcame many obstacles before achieving success. However, Annie’s life was quite difficult as well and she, too, had innumerable hurdles in her life even before becoming Helen’s teacher.

For example, after the death of their mother, Annie and her brother were abandoned by their father at a poorhouse. Annie’s brother, who was already sick, later died at the poorhouse and left Annie to grow-up alone in the frightening surroundings of the State Almshouse in Tewksbury, Massachusetts. Annie later attended the Perkins Institution for the Blind in Boston, but she struggled there as well, as her feisty personality often got her in trouble.

Finally, this text is a testament to the power of learning and teaching. Helen was considered to be dumb and incapable of learning or living a normal life. However, through Annie’s dedication and persistence Helen became a Radcliffe graduate in 1904.

Passages from Annie’s own writing are included throughout this graphic novel; one passage in particular speaks to Annie’s approach to teaching and is a good reminder to all educators. She writes, “It seems to me that the teacher in a classroom spends much time trying to dig out of the child only what she has put into them. I am convinced that is self-indulgent and a waste of time” (p. 43).

Cross-Curricular Connections: History/Social Studies, Language Arts/English, Visual Literacy

Ideas for Classroom Use:

A World Without Color

As Helen couldn’t see the world around her, Annie had to describe everything to her, including colors. Annie describes brown for Helen as “the color of your dog. And the color of earth, and mud. Some horses are brown. A tree’s trunk and branches are brown. Your hair is brown too” (p. 54).

As a creative writing activity, students could describe colors using their other senses. While this could be a fun activity at any time, it could be particularly helpful in writing poetry. THE BLACK BOOK OF COLORS (Groundwood Books, 2008), written by Menena Cottin and illustrated by Rosana Faria, was created for those without sight. Their book could serve as an example and an interesting discussion piece.

Multiple Viewpoints

There are numerous books, articles, movies and other texts about Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan. Each of these different texts is written from a different perspective. Decisions are made about what information to include and exclude. As a result of these choices, each text provides a different story about these two women. Some of the texts may be more accurate than others, while some texts may focus on emotions rather than events.

Critical readers are able to identify multiple viewpoints in a story and to recognize the impact of these nuances on the information. In this activity, collect as many books, images, movies and other texts about Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan as you can. Picture books, like Deborah Hopkinson’s ANNIE AND HELEN (Schwartz & Wade Books, 2012, illustrated by Raul Colon) would be great for this activity as they are quicker to read and provide different sources of information via the text and the images.

Working in small groups, students should read and explore multiple texts about Annie and Helen. This should then lead into group discussions about the information provided in each text, the decisions made by the author and the illustrator, and how these choices impacted the reading of the text. Students should/could consider the following questions:

• Which text seems the most accurate and why?
• Which text did you like the most and why?
• Does one text seem to provide the entire story of Annie and Helen? Why or why not?
• How does reading multiple texts about the same topic influence your knowledge about or impression of the topic?

Ideally, students will come to realize that there are multiple ways to tell a story and that it is important to seek multiple sources of information when exploring any topic. This is an essential component of critical literacy, and critical media literacy in particular, and is becoming increasingly more important in our sound bite dominated world.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

The purpose of this activity is to develop and hone students’ visual literacy skills. Many theorists in the field of comics and graphic novels, including Scott McCloud (UNDERSTANDING COMICS), discuss the importance of “reading” and understanding visual images. As discussed in the summary above, Lambert makes interesting choices in how Helen’s world is portrayed before and after her learning with Annie.

Select several “before” and “after” panels and encourage students to analyze and compare the artistic and compositional changes and what these reflect about Helen’s changing world. For example, in many of the “before” panels Helen is shown surrounded by black space, but in many of the “after” panels the space surrounding Helen is no longer black and empty, but rather, it is filled with items from her world and in addition to the inclusion of these items in the panel they are also labeled or named.

What do these differences indicate about the changes that Helen is undergoing?

Additional Resources and Activities:

Helen Keller International
Helen Keller International is an international nonprofit organization that was founded by Keller in 1915 in an effort to prevent blindness and reduce malnutrition worldwide. In addition to including information about the organization, this site provides links to additional resources about Helen Keller and her life.

The Annie Mansfield Sullivan Foundation, Inc.
The Annie Mansfield Sullivan Foundation is dedicated to “preserving and honoring the memories of Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller.” Their website provides extensive information about Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller, as well as links to additional information. Many photographs can also be found on the site, which can provide a deeper and/or different understanding of both Sullivan and Keller.

National Braille Press
January is National Braille Literacy Awareness Month. This site is a fantastic source for additional information and resources regarding Braille. The site includes a video about Braille technology as well as a downloadable Braille alphabet card and a biography of Louis Braille.

Aimee Rogers is a doctoral student at the University of Minnesota studying children’s and adolescent literature. Prior to her return to school, Aimee taught high school students with special needs, in a wide variety of settings, for ten years. She misses working with adolescents but is developing a passion for working with undergraduate pre-service teachers. She has a growing interest in graphic novels for children and young adults and is hoping to make them the topic of her upcoming dissertation.



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