Literacy Now

When the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, announces the recipient of the 2013 Caldecott Medal later this month, it will mark the award’s seventy-fifth anniversary.

Named in honor of nineteenth-century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott, the prestigious medal is awarded annually to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children. Many libraries and classrooms make sure they have these award-winning books on their shelves. In honor of the anniversary and to celebrate some of the best picture books published in the past, members of the Children’s Literature and Reading Special Interest Group have chosen to highlight some of their favorites. This week’s reviews cover the early decades of the award, beginning in 1938 and ending in 1970. Next week’s reviews will focus on the more recently honored titles. ReadWriteThink offers a wide variety of lesson plans to accompany a study of the Caldecott winners.

1938 Medal Winner:

Lathrop, Dorothy. (1937). Animals of the Bible: A picture book. Illus. by Dorothy P. Lathrop; text selected by Helen Dean Fish. Philadelphia: Lippincott.

Animals of the Bible, for which its illustrator won the first Caldecott Medal Winner, is actually a collection of Bible stories about animals from both the Old and New Testaments. The original book contains black and white illustrations depicting the earth’s flora and fauna through beautifully detailed drawings. The text that accompanies each picture is from the King James Version of the Bible. There are 27 illustrations including the Creation with Eve’s serpent, some of the animals from Noah’s Ark, Abraham’s ram, the lions from Daniel in the Lions’ Den, the great fish of Jonah, the beast and the Good Samaritan, the pigs of the Prodigal son, Balaam’s ass and many more. In the Foreword, Helen Dean Fish comments:  “… animals so frequently play a part in the most dramatic and beautiful happenings [in the Book] and are often referred to with appreciation and gentleness… creatures to command both awe and admiration.” In 1998, HarperCollins released a special deluxe 60th anniversary edition.

- Karen Hildebrand, Ohio Library and Reading Consultant

1942 Medal Winner: 

McCloskey, Robert. (1941). Make way for ducklings. New York: Viking.

Mr. and Mrs. Mallard are looking for a safe place to make their nest to raise a family. Unlike Mr. Mallard who thinks the Boston Garden is the best place to do so, Mrs. Mallard fears the swan boats there, prompting them to compromise on a spot near the River Charles. Mrs. Mallard says she will meet Mr. Mallard at the Public Garden when the ducklings are trained and ready to travel. When that time comes, the dutiful ducklings line up behind their mother and begin the trek to the park. Mrs. Mallard tries to get her eight little ducklings safely across the busy streets of Boston for their reunion with their father. However, it requires the help of a friendly Boston policeman to get the job done, and the ducklings, spearheaded by their mother, eventually cross the busy streets of Boston to join Mr. Mallard. This lively tale makes for a timeless read aloud for young learners. Deservedly, it is a classic in every way and one that still holds high appeal for today’s young readers. “Follow the journey of Mr. and Mrs. Mallard as they find a safe home to raise their family” on Google Lit Trips using Google Earth to plot the journey by using Google Lit Trips. Born in Ohio, author Robert McCloskey is one of the authors featured in the Choose to Read Ohio where a complete Robert McCloskey toolkit is available. Enjoy the Weston Woods video production of this book, and use the teacher’s guide to accompany the video. Additionally, visitors to Boston can enjoy a stroll in the Boston Public Gardens and view the bronze sculpture dedicated to McCloskey and his memorable ducklings.

- Karen Hildebrand, Ohio Library and Reading Consultant

1948 Medal Winner:

Tresselt, Alvin. (1947). White snow, bright snow. Illus. by Roger Duvoisin. New York, New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co.

This award-winning book opens with a popular poem, “Softly, Gently in the Secret Night.” Snow forms the central theme of this book and starts with the preparation for the first snow. Around the village, the farmer, the postman, the policeman, and his wife prepare for the first snowflakes. When it arrives, the children are delighted and the animals scurry into safer places. Through winter, people fall sick, landmarks become buried, ice ferns form on the window panes, children make snowman, snow house, a snow fort, and then have a snow ball fight. But each day, the sun grows stronger, and the water gurgles until there is no more snow on the ground. People look forward to a glimpse of snowdrops and crocuses to announce spring. The colorful illustrations earned the illustrator the Caldecott Medal in 1948. Teachers can learn more about the illustrator at http://eclipse.rutgers.edu/goose/zam/duvbio.aspx. 

- Rani Iyer, Washington State University Pullman

1957 Medal Winner:

Udry, Janice May. (1956). A tree is nice. Illus. by Marc Simont. New York: Harper & Row.

Trees offer so many gifts to the world around them. Their leafy branches fill up the sky, creating wood-filled panoramas with whispering leaves fluttering in the breeze. Trees are nice because children can climb up and down in them, hang swings in them, and use their sticks to draw in sand. They provide shade and shelter for people and other animals. Trees are everywhere; there are trees in the park, in the yard, in the field, in the forest, on the hills, by the rivers, and near the farms. Although this title is perfect for anyone who loves trees, enjoys shade, and lives in big cities and misses trees, it is also a book for those who appreciate the beauty of nature and have happy memories playing with and around trees. The green-filled illustrations of trees, children, and animals in the book are vivid; tree-lovers are likely to identify the different kinds of trees that are portrayed in the book’s pages: pines, oaks, willows, apple trees, and even bare trees. Reading this book is like walking in the sunshine with light breeze. The book evokes a peaceful and comfortable atmosphere that readers and nature-lovers will savor. Clearly, trees are so much more than being simply nice.

- Ying-Hsuan Lee, Washington State University Pullman

1959 Medal Winner:

Chaucer, Geoffrey. (1958). Chanticleer and the fox. Retold and illus. by Barbara Cooney. New York: HarperCollins.

Readers will delight in turning to this Caldecott Medal-winning book over and over because of its animal characters, its ornate artwork and the book's important messages about being wary of flatterers and taking care not to become too proud. The story revolves around the proud Chanticleer, who delights in his plentiful feathers and distinctive voice. When a fox spies him by himself, he knows he can’t catch Chanticleer without some trickery. He compliments him and then plays to Chanticleer’s desire to be known as for his crowing. As he throws back his head and crows, the fox seizes him while he’s on his tiptoes. All the other barnyard animals and humans try to rescue him, but it is Chanticleer who manages to turn the tables on the fox. When the fox opens his mouth in order to get rid of the others, Chanticleer falls from his grasp and flies to an overhead branch. By opening his mouth when he shouldn't, the fox loses his succulent meal. Both rooster and fox learn valuable lessons and aren’t likely to be fooled again. It’s impossible not to love the black and white colors and the touches of red, green, and gold that are found throughout the book’s pages. 

- Barbara A. Ward, Washington State University Pullman

1961 Medal Winner:

Robbins, Ruth. (1960). Baboushka and the three kings. Illus. by Nicolas Sidjakov. Nashville: Parnassus.

In search of the newborn Christ child, three kings in a sleigh ask the elderly Baboushka to help them. Since it is cold and she is tired, she is reluctant to accompany them and asks that they wait until the next morning. Unable to wait, they press on, and she figures she can follow their tracks the next morning if she decides to do so. Her conscience bothers Baboushka during the night, prompting her to collect a few small presents and look for the baby the next day. But the travelers' tracks have been covered by the snow, and no one has seen the baby for whom she is searching. From then on, she continues her search for the Christ child. The artwork is quite interesting, filled with stylized figures and bright colors with dark tones that contrast with some of the white and black shapes. The images are reminiscent of stained glass windows in some respects and become more attractive with repeated readings.

- Barbara A. Ward, Washington State University Pullman

1962 Medal Winner:

Brown, Marcia. (1961). Once a mouse...: A fable cut in wood. New York: Scribner.

Can a mouse become a tiger? Impossible! Well, read Once A Mouse before jumping to conclusions about the possibilities of shape-shifting. Protected by an old hermit with mighty magic, a mouse is changed into a stout cat, a big dog, and finally a handsome, royal tiger in order to stay safe from other, larger creatures. Proud of being a strong tiger, he walks around the forest with a cocky air. The old hermit cannot bear seeing the tiger showing off and scolds the beast, reminding him of what he once was. Feeling disgraced, the ungrateful tiger threatens him. The hermit understands the tiger’s intention and turns the grand, arrogant tiger back into a timid little mouse. Retold from an India fable in Hitopadesa, Once a Mouse has a simple plot but contains multiple-layered meanings, making it a story that can be enjoyed by both children and adults. The multicolored woodcut illustrations provide an engaging artistic reading experience for readers as each page is turned. 

- Ying-Hsuan Lee, Washington State University Pullman

1963 Medal Winner:

Keats, Ezra Jack. (1962). The snowy day. New York: Viking.

Ezra Jack Keats broke new ground with The Snowy Day when he created the first American picture book with a positive depiction of an African American child as the main character. In addition to winning the Caldecott Medal for this book, he is credited by some for beginning the real impetus for multicultural children’s literature. This book marks a turning point in the world of children’s literature. The story of a young child going out to play in his bright red snowsuit and how he enjoys the new snow is heart warming. He finds it great fun to make tracks in the snow and whack a stick against the snow-laden branches of a tree great snow. Making a snowman and sliding down piles of snow add to his merriment. Trying to hold onto some of the day’s pleasures, he stuffs a snowball into his pocket for tomorrow. After going inside to get warm and head off to bed, he gets up the next morning to find that yesterday’s snowball has melted, but outside, another glorious snow day awaits. The 50th anniversary deluxe edition of the book published in 2012 includes many extra pages of information about the author. Teachers can listen to the entire story read by LaVar Burton and a recent interview at NPR dealing with breaking the color barrier at the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation offers a plethora of resources to educators including the beautifully animated rendition of The Snowy Day. ReadWriteThink offers a “Creative Problem-Solving with Ezra Jack Keats." Read more about the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation in this article.

- Karen Hildebrand, Ohio Library and Reading Consultant

1964 Medal Winner:

Sendak, Maurice. (1963). Where the wild things are. New York: Harper.

As do all of us at one time or another, Max gets carried away with his antics, and his annoyed mother sends him to his room as punishment. But he continues with his wild play, and his room becomes the place where the wild things are, and his imagination runs wild. Naturally, Max becomes the leader of the wild things. The author/illustrator captures perfectly what it’s like to be boisterous, imaginative, and with plenty of excess energy. While the wild things look somewhat frightening with their over-sized heads and facial features, they are also funny in some respects. Most appealing of all for young readers is the fact that these scary creatures can all be tamed by Max. Even the mighty, out-of-control Max runs out of energy too and is ready for a peaceful end to the day. This title is another one of those perfect read aloud titles that children clamor to hear again and again.

- Barbara A. Ward, Washington State University Pullman

1966 Medal Winner:

Leodhas, Sorche Nic. (1965). Always room for one more. Illus. by Nonny Hogrogian. New York: Holt.

Sorche Nic Leodhas (pseudonym for LeClaire Gowans Alger) borrowed from an old Scottish nursery tale and penned a humorous tale where the kindness shown to strangers backfires a wee bit. Written in authentic Scottish brogue, the story begins when a storm erupts on a cold and windy night in the hills of Scotland, and kind- hearted Lachie MacLachlan calls out to all who pass by on the story night, “… There’s room for one more, always room for one more” (p. 3) although he and his wife and ten “bairns” have the house quite full as it is. As the night ensues there are many who accept the invitation, including a tailor, a sailor, a tinker, a lass, an “auld” wife, a bagpiper, four peat cutters and a few others. But now the house is exploding with people as it fills up to the dancing and merriment of the guests until … it collapses around them! Not to worry, the guests all band together and build Lachie a new house, a bigger house, where there is indeed room for one and all. Teachers can read more about two-time Caldecott winner, Nonny Hogrogian, in this School Library Journal article or at her website. 

- Karen Hildebrand, Ohio Library and Reading Consultant

1967 Medal Winner:

Ness, Evaline. (1966). Sam, Bangs, and moonshine. New York: Holt.

The daughter of a fisherman, Sam is prone to telling tales that don’t just stretch the truth a little bit. She tells whoppers of tales that are bigger than any fish a fisherman ever claimed got away. She insists that she has a baby kangaroo and that her mother is a mermaid. But her lying is a way of avoiding the truth about her mother who died when she was younger. Her father insists that she learn to distinguish between fact and fantasy—or what he calls moonshine. But Sam keeps telling her made-up stories. Still, the yarns Sam spins almost result in a tragedy when she thoughtlessly sends a neighbor boy in search of her kangaroo and mermaid as the tide is coming in and a storm is on its way. Her cat, Bangs, heads out to find the boy while Sam remains at home. Only luck and her father’s quick response save the day. As a result, Sam realizes she must stop blurring the lines between what is real and what is not. The illustrations are memorable, filled with gold colors peeking out amid soft swirling greens and grays on the book’s pages. Although the title has more text than some readers might like, it also describes a coping skill to which many children resort when they don't want to face reality—lying or weaving their own version of the life they wish they had.

- Barbara A. Ward, Washington State University Pullman

1968 Medal Winner:

Emberley, Barbara. (1967). Drummer Hoff. Illus. by Ed Emberley. New York: Prentice-Hall.

Filled with ample white space and richly-colored woodcut illustrations, this cumulative tale describes several members of a military unit responsible for bringing all the various parts to make a cannon fire. The men are dressed in ornate uniforms and some, such as Sergeant Chowder, struggle with the things they carry. As something is added to the store of military materials, stoic Drummer Hoff quietly stands by and bides his time. The explosive red, orange, and yellow double-page spread near the book's conclusion makes it clear what the result of all that toting of materials and preparation is. The final page filled with birds building a nest and a spider building a web concludes the book with a thoughtful visual reflection about how Nature always reclaims her own despite the ills done to her by humans. This title is great fun to read aloud because of the soldiers’ names and the rhymes and the repetitive nature of the text. Plus, it’s simply delightful to consider the illustrations.

- Barbara A. Ward, Washington State University Pullman

1970 Medal Winner:

Steig, William. (1969). Sylvester and the magic pebble. New York: Windmill Books.

William Steig, author of Shrek and many other wonderful stories, won the Caldecott Medal for his story of a young donkey and a magic pebble. Sylvester is out walking one drizzly day when he picks up a pebble. While examining it, he wishes it would stop raining and magically, it does stop! Thinking he has discovered a magic pebble, Sylvester hurries home to tell his parents when a lion emerges from the bushes. Frightened, Sylvester wishes he was a rock and could hide from the lion, and he instantly becomes a rock. As time goes by, his parents, friends and police search and search for Sylvester but with no luck. Time passes, and a year later his family goes on a picnic, selecting as their picnic spot the very rock where Sylvester is trapped. His father notices an interesting pebble on the ground, the same magic pebble Sylvester had found. Just as Sylvester wishes he were himself again, his father places the pebble on the rock. In that instant, Sylvester is reunited with his family and the picnic is an occasion of great joy. Some of the original watercolor artwork of William Steig was rediscovered as an exhibit of Steig’s art was being prepared. In 2005 Simon and Schuster released a deluxe edition of this 1970 Caldecott winner with the color reproductions exactly as Steig intended them to be. That volume also includes his Caldecott acceptance speech. Readers may enjoy the Weston Woods video production of Sylvester read by John Lithgow. A teacher’s guide accompanies the video.

- Karen Hildebrand, Ohio Library and Reading Consultant

These reviews are submitted by members of the International Reading Association's Children's Literature and Reading Special Interest Group (CL/R SIG) and are published weekly on Reading Today Online. The International Reading Association partners with the National Council of Teachers of English and Verizon Thinkfinity to produce ReadWriteThink.org, a website devoted to providing literacy instruction and interactive resources for grades K–12.

Stop for a minute and think about all the different ways you use your cell phone beyond making calls throughout your day. Do you use it to read and answer email? Schedule appointments? Get turn-by-turn directions? Calculate the size of a tip you should leave at a restaurant? Send a photo? Look up the meaning or spelling of a word? Log onto Facebook or Twitter?

Now, think about all of the different ways your students use their phones on a daily basis.

The fact is, multimedia changes the ways in which people interact with the world. It also changes the ways your students learn. The trick is to maximize their interest in these pocket-sized computers, and guide students to become analytical and critical consumers and creators.

Educators can (and should) provide explicit instruction for multimedia technology embedded within curriculum in order to equip students with the critical mind they need to make smart decisions about the use of such technology. When given the right environment, with guided and purposeful instruction, students ultimately see the device as a tool from which they can learn, and not a secret they try to hide under their desk.

To increase engagement, connect students’ real-world experiences to classroom instruction, and teach key content material, think about modeling and facilitating the use of cell phones in the following ways:

Get functional. You no longer have to worry about a shortage of equipment, because cell phones have a built-in calculator function. This is an exciting way to work on math problems. Other common functions allow you to utilize most phones as a stop watch, compass, calendar, or voice memo recorder—all of which lend themselves to math, science, social studies, and language arts classes.

Take a picture—it lasts longer. Students can record class discussion for later reference (with teacher and class permission). Lessons can be uploaded to YouTube or the more classroom-friendly TeacherTube, or even your school’s web page. Encourage students to take pictures of important notes, assignments, or group work, essentially creating a “permanent” record they can refer back to.

E-share files. Teachers can send students electronic files to save on photocopies. There are several ways to do this for no cost, and most programs will allow sharing between cell phones and computers. Check out Evernote, Dropbox, or Schooltown to select a free sharing method and start giving and receiving important content information with your students.

There’s an app for that. When it comes to reference guides, there are many free applications students can get for their cell phones that are very helpful—everything from dictionaries to translators. Using these applications can often make the reference process much more desirable.

Make research more fun. Most cell phones have the capability to access the Internet, which affords students instant retrieval of key information during independent, small group or partner work. You no longer have to disrupt class with hall passes or transitions to the computer lab—cell phones can do it for you.

Extend and refine learning. Students and teachers can go deeper or refine knowledge using the free Khan Academy application. Topics such as algebra, chemistry, and more are covered in short mini lessons. These resources can be used to provide one-on-one individualized instructional help/guidance.

Expand your teacher tool chest. Shake things up by trying out some of the cool new teacher tools, such as Poll Everywhere, which gives students opportunities to text answers to you and for you to receive instant feedback. There is also LocaModa, which allows instant feedback but in a social media format using multimedia forms. Another website that supports student responses in real time is Socrative.

Let them go social. Students can text, tweet, or blog responses to questions. They can text the teacher, each other, or just simply analyze, synthesize, evaluate, or criticize content text. This can be accomplished with little hassle and security using Class Parrot. You can also check out Google Voice for additional ways to stay in written contact with your students.

Continue to think outside the box. There are also several activities that become media-based using cell phones, such as a “take-a-picture” scavenger hunt, Geocaching, or representing learning by visual or dramatic representation captured with cell phone capabilities. Invite students to use their phones for homework fun by creating questions that were not answered during learning, and visiting ChaCha to explore answers to share with the class the next day.

photo: Johan Larsson via photopin cc

You may be thinking, “This is all well and good, but what about the students who don’t have cell phones? Or those who did but cannot use them to their full functionality due to cost?” After all, either scenario can cause a digital divide amongst learners.

The first solution to the gap requires you to think beyond a phone. Most of the functions on a cell phone are also available on an iPod or tablet, including texting. But let’s say your school cannot afford to purchase a class set of Kindle Fires. There are ways to obtain them through alternative means, such as by writing a grant.

If you have never written a grant before, then the National Education Association (NEA) offers educators tips for writing grants to educators. You can find the right grant by asking the grants department in your district, or by visiting a site like Teachers Network.

Another way you can get these devices to use in your classroom is to write up a plan, just like you would for a grant, and explain to local businesses what and how you plan to use the electronic devices. Remember to mention the participatory gap and how we all need to work together to close it. Offer advertisement options with the donation of a device, such as their logo or business card on your school website, or a cover for the device with their business logo. You can make affordable custom covers at sites like SkinIt. Be creative!

You could also help close the divide by purchasing classroom devices slowly. For instance, you could get one with department funds and/or teacher lead money. Remember that Apple offers refurbished iPads for a discount.

Cell phones in the classroom can be a powerful resource across the curriculum for both teachers and students in middle and high school classes. Whether students send, find, take, or create with their cell phones inside or outside of the school environment, teachers need to think about the role they want to play in this multimedia literacy. Keep in mind that the use of these digital devices affords benefits beyond measure—especially when used with the right lessons, for the right outcomes, and with the right instruction.

Lisa Fisher is a passionate literacy advocate. In addition to her experiences of being an intensive reading teacher for struggling readers, a literacy coach for middle and high school, and former adjunct instructor at Pasco Hernando Community College, Lisa has written several books, including SURVIVING THE MOVE AND LEARNING TO THRIVE (2011) and READ, DISCUSS, AND LEARN: USING LITERACY GROUPS TO STUDENT ADVANTAGE (2010).

App, App, and Away... Creating a Class of Superheroes, Recording Artists, and Famous Athletes

Tips for Success with Technology in the Classroom

by Jen Scott Curwood

Learning is increasingly global, social, and multimodal. In school, students may use digital tools, including Prezi, Animoto, VoiceThread, and Glogster to engage in collaborative learning and to communicate their content knowledge. More than that, students’ learning may partially or fully take place in online environments. Consequently, I think we need to ask: What does learning look like in a digital age? What motivates young people to learn? What spaces and tools support critical thinking and collaborative learning?

To explore these questions, I draw on the concept of affinity spaces. According to James Paul Gee, these physical, virtual, and blended spaces facilitate informal learning where both newcomers and masters interact around a shared endeavor. Affinity spaces are spread across multiple sites, and can include in-person meeting spaces as well as online websites and social networking tools. In a recent article, Jayne C. Lammers, Alecia Marie Magnifico, and I updated this concept to further define nine key features of affinity spaces:

1. A common endeavor is primary.
2. Participation is self-directed, multi-faceted, and dynamic.
3. Portals are often multimodal.
4. Affinity spaces provide a passionate, public audience for content.
5. Socializing plays an important role in affinity space participation.
6. Leadership roles vary within and among portals.
7. Knowledge is distributed across the entire affinity space.
8. Many portals place a high value on cataloguing and documenting content and practices.
9. Affinity spaces encompass a variety of media-specific and social networking portals.

We argue that learning within affinity spaces is primarily self-directed and interest-driven. Moreover, there are multiple ways that people can participate within the space and explore their passion, whether it’s knitting, running, or traveling.

In my research, I’ve spent the past two years looking at how affinity spaces support young adults’ engagement with literature. As a former high school English teacher, I firmly believe that it’s important for youth to find a book (or an author or a genre) that speaks to them. I don’t want today’s students to equate literature with study guides and vocabulary quizzes. Rather, I want them to read something that changes how they think, how they feel, and how they see the world around them.

Through my research on The Hunger Games, I’ve talked to young adults around the world who love having choice in how, when, and why they respond to literature. Out of school, on their own time, these fans have read The Hunger Games trilogy and are avidly participating in the affinity space. What does this kind of learning look like?

• Through fan fiction, fans explore missing scenes and alternative points of view. To do this, they need to closely analyze the mentor text, understand characterization, and use dialogue as an important part of the plot. FanFiction.net features over 28,000 examples of Hunger Games fan fic.
• Through fan art, they can consider the characters, settings, and events. There are countless examples of Hunger Games fan art, including on DeviantArt and the maps of Panem.
• Through videos, they can storyboard, re-enact pivotal moments in the plot, and share on YouTube.
• Through games, they can closely analyze the text in order to authentically portray a character and engage in role plays, like The Hunger Games RPG.
• Through music, students can write lyrics, compose songs, and share them on Panem Radio.

In many ways, affinity spaces challenged traditional assumptions about the design of learning environments as well as the purpose of digital tools in content area learning. More than anything, I think affinity spaces offer us an idea of what learning truly looks like in a global world.

References: 

Gee, J. P. (2004). Situated language and learning: A critique of traditional schooling. New York: Routledge.

Lammers, J.C., Curwood, J.S., & Magnifico, A.M. (2012). Toward an affinity space methodology: Considerations for literacy research. English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 11(2), 44-58.

Jen Scott Curwood is a lecturer at the University of Sydney in Australia. Her website and blog are at jensc.org.

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

My first job in teaching began in January, after the previous teacher abruptly decided—sometime in mid-December—that the time was right to retire. After my first week on the job, I understood, deep in my heart, why retirement had seemed so attractive for my predecessor.

My classes were a blend of chaos, flagrant insubordination, and pure noise. The warning from my favorite college professor had been proven true—“Who controls the sound in a classroom controls the class.” My classes were not being run by me, but by a small set of loud, rude, squirrely, out-of-control adolescents.

Desperate to establish at least some semblance of control, I was ready to resort to punishment, threats, pay-offs, anything. However, I had nothing to leverage. So, I rummaged around in the teacher storage room and discovered two old “listening stations” that had been discarded years earlier by the Spanish department. Each listening station had 10 sets of headphones linked together by a single cord. I brought my music player to school, plugged in the two listening stations, and instantly was able to pipe in music to all twenty sets of headphones simultaneously.

The next week, I established ground rules for what I hoped would be a successful inducement: Students who did their work in class and who were not marked down for egregious misconduct could listen to music at the listening stations for the last twenty minutes of class on Fridays. To my great surprise, the ruse actually worked. The lure of listening to music, free from my teacherly witticisms for a brief period of time, was sufficiently compelling to change students’ patterns of behavior. The noise level in my classroom declined and students began to tone down the frequency and intensity of disruptions.

photo: bjdawes via photopin cc

Unfortunately, the transformation in my classes had little to do with better teaching; instead, the improvement was the result of a brazen struggle for control over sound. My experience made me think Friedrich Nietzsche was right when he noted that “without music, life would be a mistake.”

After doing a little research, I discovered a plethora of scientific studies on the effects of sound on the brain. One group of medical researchers seemed particularly interested in using music to help speed healing after a traumatic illness or surgery. Indeed, music appears to promote recovery after a stroke (Särkämö et al., 2010), to reduce time spent in rehabilitation (Karagozoglu & Yilmaz, 2012), and to aid in the treatment of patients with schizophrenia and severe personality disorders (Hannibal, Pedersen, Hestbaek, Sorensen, & Munk-Jorgensen, 2012).

According to Julian Treasure, who has several talks on the auditory sense available on the TED website (this one is my favorite), there are four possible outcomes of sound:

Physiological—Sound can affect breathing, brain waves, and the heart. For example, the piercing sound of an ambulance’s siren instantly increases the heart rate and alters brain waves.

Psychological—Sound can affect attitude and the sense of well-being. The sound of a bird chirping may offer an aura of security and serenity, while the sound of a rattlesnake’s rattle can provoke fear.

Cognitive—Sound can enhance or undermine the quality of your thinking. According to Treasure, productivity in a noisy, open office can be as much as 66% lower than in a quiet environment.

Behavioral—Sound can influence behavior. For example, the sound of a concrete drill can make people want to run away, while the sound of ocean waves might make people want to relax and stick around.

The literature on sound has major implications for teaching. For example, if noisy, disorganized environments really do decrease efficiency dramatically, then the effectiveness of my lessons in those first few days of January was probably nil. In retrospect, the unruly and boorish behavior of a few students in my poorly supervised classroom likely caused panic and dread among other students who might have actually wanted to learn something. The anarchy must have been almost as much of a living hell for them as me.

On the bright side, with the right tools and appropriate know-how, sound’s power can be harnessed to achieve dramatic, positive results. Using a music- and singing-based program to teach reading, researcher Susan Homan increased the reading skills of struggling readers (including many incarcerated youth with very low reading levels) by 27 to 214%.

Similarly, the potential for having reluctant writers learn to write more effectively by listening and speaking is quite exciting. By using voice-to-text technologies, students might be able to avoid short-circuits that sometimes occur between the formulation of an idea and getting down words on paper.

I have been trying out some new voice-to-text strategies with struggling adolescent writers over the past year. I’ll be presenting preliminary results this April, at the International Reading Association’s 58th Annual Convention, in a session titled “Learning by Ear: Sound Principles for Teaching Reading and Writing.” (Susan Homan is one of my co-presenters.)

References

Hannibal, N., Pedersen, I., Hestbaek, T., Sorensen, T., & Munk-Jorgensen, P. (2012). Schizophrenia and personality disorder patients’ adherence to music therapy. Nordic Journal of Psychiatry 66(6), 376-379.

Karagozoglu, F., & Yilmaz, F. (2012). Effects of music therapy and guided visual imagery on chemotherapy-induced anxiety and nausea-vomiting. Journal of Clinical Nursing 22, 39-50.

Särkämö, T., Pihko, E., Laitinen, S., Forsblom, A., Soinila, S., Mikkonen, M., Autti, T., Silvennoinen, H., Erkkilä, J., Laine, M., Peretz, I., Hietanen, M. & Tervaniemi, M. (2010). Music and speech listening enhance the recovery of early sensory processing after stroke. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 22, 2716-2727.

Lawrence Baines is a professor of English Education at The University of Oklahoma who has worked in over 350 schools. Baines is obsessed with the peculiar art of teaching writing to adolescents, and co-wrote the book GOING BOHEMIAN: HOW TO TEACH WRITING LIKE YOU MEAN IT (published by IRA) with his buddy, Anthony Kunkel. Visit him on the web at www.lawrencebaines.com.



Lawrence Baines on Romancing the Topic

Study: Musical training tones the mind, enhances learning

Father Time has turned a page in his calendar again and the New Year is upon us. I, for one, am excited—especially because we have inched that much closer to the adoption of the Common Core State Standards.

I spent a lot of time during my break thinking about the new standards. Re-reading them, listening to and contemplating tons of commentary, unpacking and then re-mixing ways to approach them (and so on), and the more I dive in—the more I reflect, the more I internalize and absorb them—the bigger fan I am of adopting Common Core.

Perhaps I could list 20 reasons why this is the case if I truly wanted to make the effort, but instead I’ll focus right now on a lean and pertinent two.

#1: The death knell for weak multiple choice tests has been sounded. Hooray, I say! The fact is, I’m not really sure who amongst us isn’t happy to hear this chime begin to ring throughout the national educational kingdom.

As so many of us know, No Child Left Behind brought us a plague of poor assessments (perhaps the peak of it can be found here), and over the past decade standardized tests have become the unfortunate tail that wags the schoolhouse dog. Principals have been fired over poor test results, teachers have been publicly ostracized—and terminated—over poor test results, and the underground resistance which has vociferously been shouting from the rooftops, “Your tests stink as student performance measures and are actually doing more harm than good to our schools” is about to see the notch of victory be etched into their collective belts.

photo: albertogp123 via photopin cc

Common Core is too complex, too rich, too demanding and too forward-thinking to be captured in a mere A, B, C, or D form of student assessment. In fact, our nation is seeing a bold new series of groups (namely, this one and this one) build better student evaluation mousetraps. Some of the ideas I’ve seen kicked around have me smiling at the notion that, “Hey, this ain’t your momma’s rote memory, lower-level Bloom’s type of test anymore.”

The coming assessments are going to be adaptive, multi-layered, trans-media, technology-based (of course) and far more insightful in terms of actually getting to see what a student really knows than anything we’ve poured billions into over the past ten years.

And yes, they are going to be much more challenging, as well. Which leads me to my second cause for celebration.

#2: The overall academic challenges our students will face will be much more demanding, but also more relevant as well.

The Common Core will raise the bar, and though there are skeptics—some of whom make some credible points —on the whole, I believe that Common Core is an elevation.

• Common Core puts a premium on writing unlike any we’ve ever had before.
• Common Core puts a premium on re-reading and close reading, unlike anything we’ve ever had before.
• Common Core recognizes the interdependent relationship between reading and writing and places a premium on students being able to read well and then write (cogently) in response to what they have read… unlike anything we have ever had before.
• Common Core places a premium on all of the aforementioned occurring in an interdisciplinary capacity—across all disciplines, across all grade levels—unlike anything we’ve really seen before.

This is “life tools beyond the K–12 classroom” stuff. After all, as so much data shows, people who read well and write well attain a sense of success in America that transcends mere income.

Highly literate people:

• Vote more.
• Are incarcerated less.
• Play a more active role in the community.
• Live longer lives.
• And so on…

See, Common Core isn’t shying away from asking more of many, many American students than our classrooms have been traditionally asking of them. “Raising expectations” used to be an empty buzz phrase that admins would casually toss around at their cozy little district offices. With Common Core, expectations have actually been raised and for some folks, the actual sight of this is terrifying.

Being somewhat afraid is a good thing. In a way, American schools have become somewhat stale and those butterflies we’re all feeling in our bellies are a sign, to me, that BIG CHANGE is coming. I’m not alone in thinking that the United States has become too comfortable, too filled with a sense of self-entitlement, and this sense of national hubris could very much be the trigger which precedes a great fall.

Our schools can certainly be more demanding. Common Core plans to tackle this issue head on.

Ultimately, I guess I don’t really have a problem with higher expectations. However, I do have a problem with unrealistic expectations. If the right PD and the resources aren’t provided for the Common Core, and policymakers take a page out of the NCLB playbook and merely want to shame teachers with dubious data without actually making a genuine effort to help them improve their craft, then this column is going to have a different tenor a few years from now.

That’s a promise.

But as the old saying goes, “Don’t fall before you are pushed.” We haven’t not risen to new heights yet, so why pre-suppose that we are not capable of doing so?

Common Core, you hold the promise of a new tomorrow—and it’s the time of year when thinking about new tomorrows excites me.

[The views and opinions expressed in this blog post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the International Reading Association or its Board of Directors.]

Alan Sitomer was named California's 2007 Teacher of the Year. In addition to being an inner-city high school English teacher and former professor in the Graduate School of Education at Loyola Marymount University, Alan is a nationally renowned speaker specializing in engaging reluctant readers who received the 2004 award for Classroom Excellence from the Southern California Teachers of English, the 2003 Teacher of the Year honor from California Literacy, the 2007 Educator of the Year award by Loyola Marymount University and the 2008 Innovative Educator of the Year from The Insight Education Group. He’s the author of six young adult novels, three children's picture books, two teacher methodology books, and a classroom curriculum series for secondary English Language Arts instruction called THE ALAN SITOMER BOOK JAM. A Fun Look at Our Serious Work appears quarterly on the Engage blog.