Literacy Now

The global economic downturn of the past decade has taken an especially hard toll on arts programs—not only in the United States, but across the developed world.

Faced with severe cutbacks in government funding and widespread layoffs—compounded by an increased pressure to improve standardized test scores—many schools and universities are stripping down to a bare-bones, no-frills budget. When this happens, music education, along with other subjects deemed “extracurricular,” is often among the first to go.

This decline doesn’t impact just music educators and young, aspiring musicians. A growing body of research suggests that music education enhances literacy skills that facilitate all other learning.

Christopher Venesile, assistant professor of choral music education and jazz educator at Kent State University, has spent the last 30 years transforming young lives through music. A former public school teacher and teacher educator, he’s witnessed how music education improves student performance and closes achievement gaps.

“I found that the most dramatic impact was on those students who were marginalized to begin with, but who had a deep and abiding love for music and participating in music,” he said. “I’ve seen how their interaction with music helped them to become better students.”

Language processing

Plato was right when he said that music gives “wings to the mind.”

A 2014 study published in The Journal of Neuroscience found that children who took music lessons for two years didn’t just become better at playing an instrument—they became better at processing language.

The study took place in the offices of the Harmony Project in Los Angeles, CA—an after-school program that teaches music to children in low-income communities. According to the organization’s website, 97% of Los Angeles County high school seniors with at least three years’ participation in Harmony Project have graduated from high school and have gone on to college, despite high school dropout rates of 50% in the neighborhoods where they live.

Language and music share the elements of pitch, timing, and timbre. As children become more familiar with these elements through musical instruction, their language-processing skills also improve—enabling them to distinguish nuances in speech more easily, according to Venesile.

“Science shows that when children play music, their brains begin to process these sounds that they otherwise wouldn’t hear,” said Venesile. “Neurophysiological distinction has been shown to aid in literacy.”

Vocabulary growth

Anyone who’s ever heard the song “Fifty Nifty United States” knows that words paired with music are far easier to remember.

According to child psychologist Don McMannis, music activates three different centers of the brain simultaneously: language, hearing, and rhythmic motor control. “By inducing emotions, it also creates a heightened condition of awareness and mental acuity,” he says. As students repeat and memorize a song, the lyrics become etched into their brain.  

A 2009 study in Psychology of Music journal directly compared second graders from two New York City public schools, located in nearby neighborhoods with similar demographics. Only one of the schools included music instruction as a part of the regular curriculum, beginning in kindergarten.

The students were tested for two specific literacy skills at the start and end of the school year: general vocabulary and “verbal sequencing,” or their ability to interpret short sentences and understand their meaning.

When the children were retested at the end of the school year, students who did not receive a music education performed only slightly better on the literacy test, whereas those in the music-rich school scored “significantly higher.” The difference was especially pronounced on the vocabulary test—students who studied music made significant gains on this test, “while scores in the control group remained mostly static,” according to the report.

Development of 21st-century skills

Venesile points to the a cappella movement—which challenges students to find synergy, to improvise, and to self-adjust—as an effective exercise in collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking—core 21st-century skills.

“Most of this music is not written down,” he said. “They listen to a variety of contemporary sounds and decide in a collaborative process how they’re going to flesh out the parts.”

Venesile also encourages the development of these critical skills by infusing his lessons with relevant technologies, such as MuseScore—a free, notation-based program that allows users to write music—and Garage Band—a digital audio workstation that allows users to create music or podcasts.

Although many music educators debate the utility of these apps, Venesile believes they are effective tools for learning advanced musical concepts in an engaging and enjoyable way.

“It’s one of the most exciting times in all of human history for music education,” he said.

Critical literacy

Beyond its many cognitive benefits, Venesile said the music classroom is an ideal space to enhance students’ sense of cultural identity and awareness. When students learn about music, they learn about language, culture, and history.

Venesile believes the increasing diversity of today’s student bodies presents a need to teach a wider variety of musical genres. Looking ahead, he hopes music education programs will embrace more contemporary and vernacular styles that reflect all backgrounds.

“It’s time to invite more than just the model of the marching band, orchestra, and choir to the table.”

To learn more about Kent State University’s School of Music, visit kent.edu/music.

Alina O’Donnell is the communications strategist at ILA and the editor of Literacy Daily.

The holiday season is a great time for educators and students to explore how different cultures express their values, beliefs, and customs. Celebrating classroom diversity, especially around the holidays, helps students to build an understanding and awareness of other cultural practices and to reflect on their own. Following is a list of 10 ways to embrace this time of a year in a culturally responsive manner:

• Encourage students to bring in a dish related to a holiday they celebrate. Ask them to write a recipe card to share with the class.
• Discuss similarities between different holidays. For example, many traditions incorporate the motif of light. Ask students to research the cultural significance of these themes.
• Invite students to create their own holiday. This allows them to contemplate what values and customs are most meaningful to them.
• Connect globally. Contact schools in other countries ahead of time to establish a relationship and form pen pals so students can share traditions around the world.
• Stock your classroom library with books that introduce students to different end-of-year celebrations across the world. Check out this list of multicultural titles for ideas.
• Incorporate a geography and history lesson. Teach students about the origins of modern-day holiday traditions.
• Follow this lesson plan that introduces students to five different countries and the winter holidays they celebrate.
• Ask students to create a Venn diagram comparing their winter traditions to those of their classmates.
• Present students with the writing prompt: If you could give a gift to everyone in the world, what would it be?
• Visit TeacherVision’s list of “Diversity Resources for Holidays” for printable worksheets, activities, and crafts that enhance students' understanding of the various holidays different from their own.

The idea of reading for pleasure is often lost among the various assigned readings and increased emphasis on test preparation. However, strong readers are those who can read and analyze a diverse range of texts. It is important for a student to be able to indulge in independent, self-selected reading both in and out of the classroom. Below is a list of ways to encourage students to read for pleasure as well as tips on facilitating an independent reading culture in your classroom.

1. Host a book club. Book clubs are a great way to cultivate a community of readers that fosters connectivity through shared reading and discussion. Let the club members choose the books collectively—this encourages students to step outside their comfort zone and explore new genres.
2. Collaborate with your local library. Invite staff from the local library to your school to introduce students to the many books, programs, resources, and services available to them. Help them obtain a library card and demonstrate all the ways they can use the nearest public library to their advantage.
3. Host a young author read-aloud. Invite students to read an original story aloud to their peers, educators, and parents. This gives students a platform to showcase their work while helping to build confidence. 
4. Reenact favorite books. Ask students to create a movie version of their favorite book. This is an opportunity for them to display how they envisioned the characters and events. Allow room for interpretation—let students decide a new ending or a twist in the plot they would’ve liked to see.
5. Mystery check-outs. Wrap books in wrapping paper and encourage students to blindly choose a “mystery book.” This is a fun way to help students venture out of their comfort zone with a new author, genre, or series.
6. Make time for independent reading. Set aside around 15–20 minutes per day for independent reading of self-selected books. Encourage discussion afterward to measure students' progress.
7. Lead by example. Join students’ independent reading time! Make sure they see that you put everything else aside to focus on reading. Share your thoughts on the book you’re reading, and model any close reading or comprehension strategies you employ.
8. Host a reading-related event. Host a book fair to promote reading as a passion, not an assignment. Invite parents to visit, encouraging at-home reading as well.
9. Assign a reading log. Ask students to keep track of what and how much they’ve read. Encourage them to write down any questions or comments that may arise, so they can revisit them upon completion.
10. Get parents involved. Remind parents that the time spent fostering literacy outside of the classroom is just as important as time spent inside the classroom. Check out these tips on ways you can support family literacy. 

There is no one right way to successfully inspire independent reading, but establishing a strong classroom culture of reading is an important first step. Visit TeachThought's "25 Ways Schools Can Promote Literacy And Independent Reading" for more ideas.

Samantha Stinchcomb is an intern at the International Literacy Association.           

Five high school students just spent six weeks teaching me how to be a better teacher.

It started in the usual way. I thought I was teaching them. 

As a reading intervention specialist, I spend much of my time in a cubicle, in a space that used to be a classroom but is now repurposed as our district office. In my cubicle, I fill out forms, answer emails, plan professional development, write SMART goals, and perform “other duties as assigned.”

I find, however, that every now and then, I need to surface to work with students and teachers. If I don’t, I forget why I’m in the cubicle: to make certain every one of our students sees success. 

In an effort to try out some reading strategies I’d recently read about in education journals, I asked a fellow teacher if I could borrow a small group of students a couple times a week during her reading intervention class. I asked for her reluctant readers, the ones who consistently neglected to remember their book and take the longest to get on task. Masterful avoiders. Strangely, she was incredibly willing. She provided me with five names and asked how soon I could start. 

I thought that if I brought in truly authentic and interesting reads, they’d devour them, instantly discover the joy of reading, and go on to share that joy with all their friends. No problem. I forgot that these boys didn’t read the journals I did, so they didn’t know how great these ideas were.

The first day I just attempted to get to know them. I was not the first person to attempt to “make them like reading.” I was met with eye rolls and snickers when I asked what they liked to read. One young man even retreated into his hoodie like a turtle into his shell and yanked the strings tight so that only his nose was visible. Another informed me, “Just so you know, I have an attitude problem.”

Lesson one: what I find meaningful is not necessarily what they find meaningful

The second day I brought in Terrible Things by Eve Bunting, an allegory of the Holocaust, depicted by animals. I started in confidently, asking them what they would do if they witnessed someone treating others poorly. Would they step in? “It depends. Do I know them?” It was an interesting conversation, but not as life-changing as I had envisioned. After we finished, one of the students asked why I made them read a story about fish, birds, and bunnies. Clearly, he had missed the point of the book.

Lesson two: cool toys and strategies don’t make reluctant readers want to read

Frustrated, I tried something different. Rather than use the authentic and interesting books, I brought in informational texts and tried to infuse useful reading strategies. Who wouldn’t enjoy a strong informational text when they had cool, colored sticky notes to track their thinking? They were bound to engage, right? Wrong. We read, they dutifully put their sticky notes in the appropriate places, they were compliant. But they didn’t engage or have any type of animated conversation. No one asked for more. I was still headed in the wrong direction.

Lesson three: they will engage, if you ask the right questions

Then something horrifying and wonderful happened. I brought in an article about issues facing youth, but it wasn’t long enough to fill the block of time we had that day. I had to figure out what to do with five disengaged students for 15 minutes until lunch. Panicking on the inside, I stalled. “So, what do you think? Was the author right?” Blank stares. “What do WE think? Do WE think he’s right? I don’t get it.” I carried on. “Yes, tell me what YOU think.” After a few tense moments, one of them spoke. From across the table, someone agreed. Then someone disagreed. I let them talk. And talk.

And then, miracle of miracles, one of them pointed to the article and said something that made my heart skip a beat. “Yea, right here he says that, but I don’t think that’s what he MEANT.” More talking.

The next week, I came prepared with more short texts and very little planned.  I let them lead me.

Lesson four: if you build trust, they will come

I realized what I needed to ask “What do YOU want to read about next? I’ll bring that next time.” And we started a list. 

I had one rule: no politics. Otherwise, we could read and talk about whatever they wanted. They wanted to know more about materialism. Time management. World hunger efforts. Stereotypes.  

In this small group, I could probe deeply. Why are you so sure? How do you know that? What makes you so certain? Now, with trust that comes from consistency and without the pressure of a grade, they could call each other out. “Bro. Seriously, what does this have to do with race? You are so wrong, man.”

Unfortunately, things got busy, and I had things that needed to be accomplished back in my cubicle. I had to stop meeting with the students.

On my last day, we read an article together and had our final conversation. The group went to lunch, except one. He was still reading, and he held up his hand so I didn’t interrupt.

Then, he said the most amazing thing: “Am I allowed to have this article? I want to take it home and finish it.”

And I was able to say, “Yep, it’s yours. And I can show you how to find more on your own just like it.”

They taught me well.

Julie Scullen, an ILA member since 2005, is a teaching and learning specialist for secondary reading in Anoka-Hennepin School District in Minnesota, working with teachers of all content areas to foster literacy achievement. She teaches graduate courses at Hamline University in St. Paul in literacy leadership and coaching, disciplinary literacy, critical literacy, and reading assessment and evaluation.

This piece originally appeared in the November/December 2017 issue of Literacy Today, ILA's member magazine. 

Equipping adolescents to improve their vocabulary proficiency through greater morphological knowledge is not solely an exercise in isolated skills or memorization. Rather, it is a cohesive piece of the greater literacy puzzle that improves learners’ overall reading and writing abilities by strengthening both their vocabularies and their critical thinking skills.

Often young readers are exposed to roots, prefixes, and suffixes as part of early literacy development. However, in many instances—particularly for students in middle and high school—this area of study is shelved until it’s time for skill-and-drill test preparation, that is, standardized testing.

Although it may be important for adolescents to refresh their knowledge of affixes prior to these types of assessments, “one-and-done” cram sessions or other isolated examples are not effective for true morphological acquisition or vocabulary application.

Gaps within students’ vocabulary bases result in vocabulary equity gaps that only continue to widen without explicit, targeted attention. To avoid these gaps, adolescents need classroom opportunities to apply morphological study to authentic literacy tasks.

Practical advice for literacy educators

Literacy educators can provide both middle and high school students with opportunities for improved interactions with morphemes by ensuring that morphological awareness is an integrated part of classroom literacy culture. The key word here is integrated; morphological awareness is found to be most advantageous when it is included as part of balanced literacy curricula and initiatives.

By integrating morphology study within literacy curricula and in conjunction with other proven best practices in literacy, word study becomes a part of students’ literacy “tool kits,” as they individually strive to become more adept readers, writers, and thinkers. To equip adolescents with the skills they need to improve their morphological awareness, educators need to assess vocabulary from a morphological standpoint and authenticate students’ morphological knowledge using relevant literacy tasks.

Begin with a differentiated focus

Within the parameters of morphological study, operating with a differentiated focus is critical to the development of morphological awareness by English learners (ELs). Greek- and Latin-based languages share more cognates (words with similar etymology and pronunciation across languages) with English speakers. Therefore, ELs from Greek- and Latin-based languages have stronger baseline knowledge of morphemes than their native English–speaking peers.

Language teachers should be directly involved in morphology instruction using appropriate formative assessments that measure students’ prior morphological knowledge and their ability to interpret words from a morphological standpoint. Quick, informal, and ungraded tickets in the door or out the door can be used to briefly assess students’ understanding of morphemes. Students can be grouped on the basis of their strengths and weaknesses for more targeted instruction.

Implement strategic instruction

Scaffolding specific morphological word-attack strategies empowers students to learn how to analyze words with the assistance of an instructor or peer, eventually moving toward independent application. Approaching morphology study from a differentiated standpoint allows educators to cater instruction and coaching to the needs of individual students.

For example, students who have a basic understanding of morphemes to investigate basic word families with common roots, such as hydro- or spec would be a good starting point. For advanced students, manipulating familiar roots with various affixes allows students to revisit prior knowledge and build new connections and meaning. All students can keep a running personal glossary in their notes or journals of new vocabulary and new morphemes to which they may refer when reading and writing.

Provide authentic applications

Morphological knowledge, like other literacy skills, should be reaffirmed through authentic reading and writing tasks. Scaffolding text difficulty on the basis of the Lexile levels of texts and on learners’ reading levels directly influences the type of vocabulary with which students interact, and provides opportunities for them to apply morphological knowledge for the ultimate purpose of reading comprehension.

Integrating widespread texts across content areas can be synthesized through text-based writing, through which students apply newly acquired and morphologically rich vocabulary and bolster the critical thinking skills necessary for college and career readiness. For example, if a student encounters a science or social studies text—which are increasingly more common as literacy expands throughout curricula—he or she will need to use morphologically complex words from that text in his or her written reader’s response. If the student paraphrases a morphologically complex word, teachers can aptly assess whether the student understood morphemes and comprehended the text.

Moving forward

Improving morphological awareness among adolescents is best achieved using long-term integration alongside other literacy best practices. Educators who include targeted morphological study in the adolescent literacy classroom provide students with the opportunity to develop vocabulary acquisition skills that will prepare them for college, for careers, and for literacy interactions throughout their whole lives—this, indeed, is something to “root” on.

 Rebecca Hendrix is a third-year candidate in the University of West Georgia School Improvement Doctoral Program as well as a sixth-grade English language arts and reading teacher at a rural northwest Georgia middle school, where she has taught for nine years.

Robert Griffin, an ILA member since 2016, is an instructional leader who inspires culturally and linguistically diverse students to achieve and perform to their highest potential. He is also a part-time faculty member in the Department of Literacy and Special Education at the University of West Georgia.

This piece originally appeared in the November/December 2017 issue of Literacy Today, ILA's member magazine.