Literacy Now

Janiel Wagstaff always wanted to be a teacher, but didn’t realize the role literacy would play in her career. Once she came upon the strategies of a literacy coach, she was hooked and is the author of professional development books and workshops in addition to serving as a literacy coach and ELA coordinator at a K-6 school in Utah. She now adds picture book author to her resume with the Stella Writes series about a student who tackles all sorts of writing. Wagstaff also maintains a blog on literacy.

How did you begin your career, and what led you to your current position?

I come from a family of teachers and grew up instinctively knowing what I wanted to do.  When I was young, I made a classroom in my closet complete with a desk, supplies, artwork on the walls and stuffed animal pupils.  I created, completed, and corrected assignments.  I had no doubt of my major in college, driving straight through to my degree.  My first teaching assignment was second grade in a portable classroom out behind the school.  We had one tiny slice of a window and it was much like back to teaching in a closet!  That was more than 25 years ago.

Back then, we did a whole lot of worksheets.  That first year, I realized my students weren’t making the progress in reading and writing I’d expected.  We were working so hard, yet spinning our wheels. My “low kids” were still low at the end of the year.  That frustration led me to continue my studies, searching, in particular, for literacy strategies that would make a real difference for my young readers and writers.  I was fortunate to discover teaching methods that worked and my greatest joy was watching students come in struggling and go out thriving. They talked endlessly about favorite books, and moaned when it was time to end our writing workshop each day.  I was hooked.  I was a “literacy person.”

This passion for literacy has taken me in and out of the classroom.  I taught full-time at the university level, but couldn’t stay away from the energy of kids!  Currently, I work as a full-time literacy coordinator, supporting literacy learning by working with teachers and students in two K-6 schools in my district.

How long have you been a member of ILA? How has membership influenced your career?

ILA has been important to me throughout my entire career.  I joined right away and relished curling up in the evenings with The Reading Teacher and attending and presenting at our state chapter conferences.  I wrote a few short articles for RT, published some 20 years ago.  This early success in the ILA community was thrilling and fueled my desire to learn, teach, and share with other educators, and write even more.  Ten published books later, The Reading Teacher is still one of my favorite go-to resources.

I learn so much attending and presenting at ILA’s state and national conferences.  The opportunity to hear and meet many of my literacy heroes is invigorating.  I always return home from these events with renewed energy and purpose.  I have to also mention the incredible support available through ILA’s many online outlets.  As a member of ILA, I can learn and reenergize 24/7!

What do you consider to be your proudest career moment?

For many of us, our proudest career moments happen when our students succeed.  After all, we got into this profession to impact learners.  Triumphs with particular students tend to stand out.  One kindergarten year, I had a student who struggled, struggled, and struggled to learn to read and write even at the most emergent levels.  Others in the class were charging forward, using alphabet-knowledge they worked so hard to acquire as real readers and real writers.  Meanwhile, this student was foundering. I had assessed, used all my tricks, completed several interventions, and involved the parents, with no progress.  Something was truly holding this little guy back and, even with many years of teaching under my belt, I couldn’t figure out what it was.  Even though he was only a kindergartner, I knew something was blocking his success and it wasn’t just a matter of his tender age.  Luckily, with the help of our school’s speech pathologist, we were able to find a pathway to reach him.  He began to grow and by the end of the year, he was a success story.  But his tale doesn’t end there.  This student is now 20 and, to this day, he keeps in touch with me.  His family recently thanked me for recognizing his difficulty early on and doing something about it.  Best of all, this young man loves to write.  He writes poetry and short stories.  He’s using writing to reflect on his place in the world.  He shares his compositions with me and with others on the internet, hoping to one day be published.  Write on!

I also have to mention an incredible recent career moment.  After writing with students for so many years, I was finally able to celebrate the teaching, learning, and joy of writing by publishing three picture books about an avid little writer named Stella!  Stella writes a narrative in one book, an opinion in another, and works collaboratively with her class to compose an informative text in the third.  The best part is she is real.  She has trouble, she gets stuck, she uses writing strategies, she perseveres, she writes for real purposes, and she believes in the power of writing.  Her teacher, Ms. Merkley is an excellent model and Stella is, too.  She’s a little writer to connect with other little writers.  Creating these delightful books has been a dream come true!

Your website has a header: “All Things Literacy Because Literacy Matters in All Things.” Can you talk a little about what you mean by that?

Literacy is everywhere and critical for success in every facet of our lives.  I think our number one job as teachers is to support children in becoming proficient listeners, speakers, readers, writers, and thinkers.  It is equally important to help every child develop a love of literacy, recognizing the many different benefits reading and writing afford us. Losing oneself in a book for enjoyment or to simply escape can be as therapeutic as keeping a journal or composing a poem to tease-out one’s feelings.  Literacy is not just important for college and career—literacy is important for a healthy, happy life!  

Coaching is a hot topic right now. What do you enjoy most about that work? What’s the greatest challenge?

Funny, what I enjoy about coaching most is also its greatest challenge!  I love working with kindergartners at 9 a.m. on phonemic awareness, then jumping up to sixth grade at 9:30 to work on argumentative writing.  The diversity of the students, the lessons, the strategies, and the pace of the work is all very exciting.  Working hand-in-hand with teachers is also rewarding and coaches wear many hats.  The job keeps me on my toes, constantly learning.  The challenge comes when I’m feeling wiped out by 2 p.m. and there’s still important work to do! 

What advice would you give a new teacher that either you received or wish you had?

My best advice is to strive to make learning purposeful and joyful.  When students see a real purpose for their hard work, they love to work hard at learning.  Help them feel important.  Show them they have power.  When you teach something think, what might I have students do with this growing knowledge?  How might they share what they’re learning beyond our classroom walls?  How can our learning benefit or impact others?   Ask the students themselves for ideas.  Find a real purpose, encourage them to work for it, and you will enjoy joyful learning.

Yes, everyone has their “bad days” and teaching is a real challenge; sometimes it feels we run and run but can’t keep up.  Here’s a tip that will help keep things in perspective.  Post a class picture of your own child or a cherished niece or nephew right next to your computer.  When the going gets tough, look at that picture.  See that precious child standing among his classmates and think, ‘What kind of a teacher do I want for him?  What kind of a classroom do I want him to be a part of every day?”  Then make that your classroom.  Make your decisions based on what that teacher would do.  Be that teacher because every single one of your students is just that precious.

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

Reading is something most high school students take for granted, but if you ask teachers around the country, they say many students lack the basic literacy skills necessary for learning.

A 10th-grade teacher, Sandi, told us nearly all of her 30 inner-city students are behind in reading by one or more grade levels and need individual and small-group instruction on basic literacy skills. Sandi has little help from her school district to support intervention, but she does her best. She modifies lessons, scours thrift stores for simpler texts, and works with students during her lunch break and after school.

“My heart breaks every day,” Sandi says. “I try to walk a tightrope between teaching the kids what they’re supposed to know for the state standards and coming back to help with really basic skills.”

Research suggests these problems start early in a child’s schooling. If students aren’t reading on level by third grade, they’re likely to fall further and further behind as they progress through school.

Why Is Third Grade So Important?

Third grade is a pivotal point in a student’s development because students are learning to read until third grade. After third grade, students are reading to learn. It’s nearly impossible to learn about state history in fourth grade or solve a word problem in eighth grade without being able to read.

Teachers in the later grades aren’t trained to teach basic reading skills, so if a student hasn’t learned to read by the end of third grade, the student is almost certain to struggle.

Studies by the Annie E. Casey Foundation found that 82% of low-income students aren’t reading at grade level when they enter fourth grade, and students who don’t read at grade level by the end of third grade are four times more likely to drop out of high school.

“Walk around my school during a day of state testing,” Sandi says. “Watch the kids look at the standardized test and, one by one, put their heads down because they can’t read it. The text is too difficult.”

Who’s Seeking Solutions?

Fortunately, a number of powerful players have realized the importance of reading on level by third grade.

The Education Trust has identified reading by third grade as one of its six critical areas worth fighting for, and even the White House is paying attention. In September, the administration unveiled My Brother’s Keeper Community Challenge, a campaign to ensure all young people have access to educational opportunities and reading by third grade is one of its six priorities as well.

School districts across the country are refocusing their efforts, too. In Philadelphia, they’re placing an early literacy coach in every elementary school, and in Denver, they’re aiming to have 80% of students reading at grade level by 2020.

The Education Trust uses its Dispelling the Myth Awards program to recognize schools making a difference. Its 2014 winners range from a rural elementary school in Michigan to an urban pre-K through eighth-grade school in Atlanta. All winners boast high rates of reading proficiency, despite above-average levels of student poverty.

Hard Work Leads to Progress

There’s no secret to solving this problem. The solution lies in what we already know: Students need exposure to reading and good teaching to develop literacy skills, and teachers need targeted training and in-classroom coaching to implement best practices in reading instruction.

Sandi’s students still struggle, but she’s starting to see results, and she knows her hard work is worth it.

“I feel a sense of hope when I see a kid sneaking a novel under the desk,” she says. “If they can read, they can do everything.”

Joel Zarrow is the executive director of Children’s Literacy Initiative. CLI is a nonprofit organization that aims to help teachers transform instruction to enable children to become powerful readers, writers, and thinkers. Prior to CLI, Joel served as a senior advisor and consultant for the New Jersey Department of Education, the associate director of Partners in School Innovation, and a board member for Envision Schools, a charter management organization.

Four years ago I came across Drive by Daniel Pink. This professional reading continues to empower my teaching practice. Drive focuses on how to avoid meaningless work by engaging in work for a purpose. Pink’s writing focuses on three specific characteristics of work: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. He describes autonomy as the urge to direct our own course, mastery as the drive to improve, and purpose as the reasoning behind what we do.

Still today I take to heart what Pink wrote. Not only do I apply it to my personal life, I also implement it in my classroom. I have found it is difficult to have students work towards a larger purpose by asking them to hang their work outside the classroom. Instead, I look for ways to learn outside of the classroom while asking the students to work with a purpose. We then harness Twitter, Skype, and other technological vehicles to connect the student’s work with other classes, organizations, and businesses to ensure students are working for a purpose.

This year my students participated in the National Association of Independent Schools Challenge 20/20 program. This program is an Internet-based program teaming three classes to find solutions top global problems. To start, we connected with our partner schools in Rochester, NY, and Vitoria, Spain, to work on global biodiversity. Each class pursued a project covering one problem in their area. Our projects had the same enduring understandings of empathy, compassion, and collaboration. While working globally, we also connected locally with programs including The Dallas Zoo’s program about conservation and The Dallas World Aquarium’s shark program. These programs heightened my student’s passion for the subjects and allowed us to tie in other studies such as art, Spanish fluency, and literacy. We researched the geographic locations of shark habitats using Google Earth and learned about a global demand for shark fins driven partially by a cultural desire for shark fin soup.

The students then researched how we, as young learners, could solve this problem. This lead us to an organization called Sharks 4 Kids. One of the major components of Sharks 4 Kids is to educate and help kids learn to advocate for sharks. My students took this to heart and decided to collaborate on a book, All About Sharks, which we will share with the other classes in the Challenge. We are in the process of recording our book in both English and Spanish to post on YouTube to share globally.

The students ate up the shark research so much I tied in reading and writing nonfiction. I scheduled a field trip to The Dallas World Aquarium and each student picked an animal to research. They wrote four chapters with different chapter titles such as “Where Boas Live,” “What Boas Eat,” “Boa Babies,” and “Fun Facts.” I told students they would take photos of their researched animal during our trip. The reason was two-fold: first, students will have a purpose on the trip, second, for copyright issues. My librarian and I collaborated on our digital citizenship goals. Our goal included students citing sources and at this point in the school year this can be a bit daunting. While brainstorming solutions, one was for students to take pictures of the animals themselves.  We will also have students illustrate pictures in addition to using the Book Creator app.

My favorite moment so far this school year unfolded when we arrived at the aquarium. The sight mesmerized the students. As we forged ahead to the first exhibit, I heard squeaks and squeals of “Hey Marshall, look at your animal the three-toed sloth.” The students not only knew the facts about their animal, they knew their peers’ animals. They took their learning and owned it!

To keep the excitement going after these trips, I have planned Skype sessions with the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB) to hear the story of a rescued penguin named Beakie, Digital Explorers to hear about coral reefs, and Yoga Foster to participate in an ocean yoga lesson.

I know this can sound like a lot. I want to urge educators to start small. Take one question from a child or one topic and go with it. Make a list of local and virtual ideas. My favorite virtual ideas are Skype in the Classroom and Twitter. Talk with colleagues and ask for help. Our Spanish teacher helped me with the aquarium field trip by tracking animals using Google Maps and the students learned animal names in Spanish. They are also writing a sentence in Spanish about their animal for their book. The art teacher at my school tied in photography. She taught students how to take photos and the importance of light when taking photos on the trip.  

Once you start you will be simply amazed at how the learning extends outside of your classroom. Hold on tight and get ready to be amazed.

Allison Hogan is a primer teacher at The Episcopal School of Dallas in Texas where she teaches kindergarten and first grade. She holds a bachelor’s in communications from the University of North Florida and a graduate degree in education from Southern Methodist University where she specialized in reading and English as a Second Language. She has been recognized as a Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development Emerging Leader and a National Association of Independent Schools Teacher of the Future. She can be found on Twitter at @AllisonHoganESD or @PrimerESD.

Kindergarten is such a transitional time in the life of a 5-year-old and the crucial time to begin an exciting path to lifelong learner. That being said, it is critical Kindergarten teachers fill the emergent writers with tools for the rest of their school careers. One is how to write a story in a sequence. The easiest way is with something most of you have in your classroom, sequencing puzzles. You know that kit, the one with the three puzzle pieces that obviously fit together because the pictures go together—AND there is only one way for the pieces to fit.

It certainly isn’t the best activity to assess or even practice their sequencing skills, but let’s not throw the puzzles away too quickly. Use that puzzle set in a center to inspire writing in a sequence.

Put a set of the puzzles together under the document camera and have the students tell the story while pointing to each picture. “I see a jar of popcorn. I cook the popcorn. I eat the popcorn.” Introduce the students to the words: first, then, and last. Ask them to restate the sentences, adding those introduction words. “First, I see a jar of popcorn. Then, I cook the popcorn. Last, I eat the popcorn.” Practice this sequencing activity with a few completed puzzles each day for a week. Each day emphasize using the words first, then, and next.

The following week, revisit the puzzles. While the puzzles are displayed, write a sentence for each puzzle piece as a whole group. Providing a sheet with the transition words on it, students will create one story a day for a week. “First, I see the cow. Then, I milk the cow. Last, I drink the milk.” Once the students have practiced the art of orally telling a story in the correct sequence and writing the story with transition words, this becomes an independent center. I cleverly call it, “First, Then, Last.” I know it isn’t creative, but the students know exactly what to expect. I put three sets of puzzles in a resealable bag. The students choose a bag, and put the puzzles together. After they choose one puzzle they get a sequencing paper and start their independent story. This center can remain for the next several weeks or for the remainder of the school year. The same bags can be used because students choose a bag and a different puzzle to write the story. Eventually, the writing paper is replaced with word cards (first, then, last) and students can add more details to their stories as they are comfortable.

Eventually, students may add a comment about how much they like or don’t like milk or even about how it would be to milk a cow. Providing simple sequencing lessons lets a student experience success with writing. Each success puts another writing tool in their toolbox and future teachers can build on this skill to increase the rigor and expectations.

Cathy Collier is a reading specialist at Great Bridge Primary School in Chesapeake, VA, with an additional 15 years as a kindergarten teacher. She has her B.S. in Special Education, a master’s degree in Special Education and a certified reading specialist. She is the immediate past president of the Virginia State Reading Association.

Let’s face it: education is, and always has been, a pendulum. It seems as if the people who lead the charge in our educational system feel we have to choose just one way make our children proficient in academics. Then, politicians promote it, college professors seem to be apathetic to it, and, for the most part, teachers accept it, knowing that in a few more years the pendulum will indeed swing back to the other side and strategies and mandates will change yet again.

In the meantime, our students suffer and I wonder, why is there never a middle? We seem to forget pendulums have a middle, directly under the “point of support.” Why then can’t we choose the middle? Isn’t that what we want to be for our students—a point of support?

For our current opposing strategies, consider the sanctioned/safe method of study—Common Core Standards—and, on the other end, a technique that is a little less structured and a little more risky—Project-Based Learning. As often happens, neither of the two “ends of the swing” seem to be the right fit for every child, in every subject, in every situation.

The problem with not recognizing the middle is that we become shortsighted. We start to think all students can learn the same way, and even worse, we believe the same student will learn everything he or she needs to know using that same preferred method. Given our country’s pride surrounding diversity and embracing differences, we should already know this progression just doesn’t make sense. And given current statistics, this theory doesn’t make proficient students, either. 

I do get it. Schools are under significant pressure to perform within the confines of the Standards, and in the minds of administrators it is much easier to perform under what is presumed a stable and more “in the hands of the adult in the room” setting. A given set of standards with specific skill sets does provide a jumping off point for most students and a more discernable way to evaluate progress.

These skill sets, although important, will not provide necessary critical thinking, team-building, creativity, and communication skills needed for our students to survive in today’s real-world scenarios. Furthermore, they will not even provide the skills needed for the students to pass the newest test on the block, Smarter Balance.

On the other hand, PBL provides the opportunity for the student to choose. The teacher no longer does the evaluation or synthesis. Students are actually given the opportunity to formulate their own ideas regarding a given thought or practice. Administrators claim to want this type of learning atmosphere and student, but it has been my experience that they don’t want the methods that will provide them. The push-back for teachers who choose PBL in a Common Core world is often devastating to teachers and students.

Don’t get me wrong. I am in no way trying to say there shouldn’t be specific skill sets all students must know. On the other hand, I am also not saying that supplying the students with “big questions” in which they have to work as a team to examine solutions, ideas, and/or processes is not a necessary part of a true education. So, what is the answer?

• Create assignments that use skill sets included in the Common Core, with the core ideas and values that exist in any respectable project management atmosphere.
• Allow students to use their problem-solving skills. This is a necessity to being successful in life.
• Engage students in reading—anything and everything—and teach them how to talk about it.
• Ensure students have a strong skill-set base in math, reading, and writing. This includes being able to evaluate what’s important, what’s not, and what’s different or the same about both.
• Teach students that every idea, thought process, and text has a sequence. Figure it out and you open the door to meaning.
• Allow students to fail. There is something to be said for the idea that failure builds knowledge and character.

Or…simply find the middle and use a little bit of everything.

Pam Andreavich is a middle school writing teacher at a charter school in Middletown, DE. She is an executive board member for Delaware’s Odyssey of the Mind program.