Literacy Now

Teacher stories poured in during and after the completion of the International Literacy Day 60-for-60 Mission. Some of these educators said they would continue their activities through the rest of the school year and we wanted to share their feedback with other teachers. You can continue to download the mission activities and try them out in 2015. Hear how they did it.

I am so glad my school decided to take part in this initiative. I work in several alternative school facilities where the majority of my students receive only two hours of instruction daily. I used to get so discouraged when my students showed a lack of interest in being read to, they would literally ask me not to read. After making them aware of the program and showing them the video you all sent, along with a few Leland Melvin videos, the children did not want me to just stop reading after 60 seconds. They asked for more until we eventually extended our reading time to about 10 minutes every morning and, even then, they sometimes asked me not to stop. I found that when we did our morning positive affirmations after reading, as we had done every morning, they were much more lively and cheerful as we recited them. I believe this is partly because the books I chose to read to them were books of empowerment, books encouraging positive thinking and showing kindness and compassion to others. Even though the 60 days are over, we will continue our story time in the mornings. Thank you for sharing your excitement for literacy with us.—Lakisha Newman, Day Treatment Alternative Program, Virginia

It was a delightful experience, indeed, to conduct the 60-second activity. The children of my class started off with a sentence prompt for story writing. The activity gave me insight into the creative potential of the class. The 60-second activity helped enhance the thinking skills of the students and I could measure the enthusiasm of the children by the fact most of them used to organize their thoughts and were ready to write. Children thoroughly enjoyed this time. —Kavitha Sanjeev, Oakridge International School, India

I would like to share my experience of spending 60 seconds for 60 days on improving the literacy skills of my grade 4 students. As a grade we decided to encourage students to write a story. Students were enthusiastic about that moment every day to continue the story. They preferred genres of their choice to express themselves. At the end of the program, we picked few samples and displayed it on the soft boards to encourage them.—Prashobha Prabhakaran, Oakridge International School, India

My grade 5 class participated in the ILD 60-for-60 Mission and I am really amazed to see the results. The students not only showed their writing skills but also displayed high levels of thinking. I never thought a 60 second activity can benefit them so much. For 60 days, my students waited eagerly every morning when I would ask them to do the 60 second of writing. It brought a lot of discipline. At the end of 60 days they all shared their stories with each other. I would like to take this forward by allowing my students to go ahead and try their hands at creative writing—60 seconds per day. Now I truly believe that a small investment in time can bring great results!
My class also tried guessing NASA Image of the day once a week. It was great to see them make connections with their prior knowledge. It was a class activity.—Anushree Arora, Oakridge International School, India

My students have been finding a word on their own and learning the meaning every day. They take turns with it and share the meaning in the class every morning. The rest of the class jots down them down and each and every person tries to use the word as much as possible the entire day in their casual conversations. This has helped them to improve their vocabulary and they simply love using the new word in the class.—Pratik Siddharth Thapa, Oakridge International School, India

My grade 5 students participated in the ILD mission (Done in 60 Seconds) and enjoyed it immensely. They showed excellent thinking skills and I was amazed when I read their stories. We started this activity in September and every day in the morning we had a classroom routine of writing for 60 seconds. This also led to the development of self-management skills. At the end of 60 days, they all shared their stories with each other. I would like to encourage my students to continue with their creative writing.—Bhavani Akundi, Oakridge International School, India

Student teacher candidates in my Learning and Teaching in Diverse Environments classes joined in ILD by reading to students for 60 seconds that day.  We continued to read for 60 seconds for 60 days and writing Interdisciplinary Thematic Units about literacy in all content areas. The students were asked to find a fiction and nonfiction (informational text) to read to their students with each lesson. We wrapped up our involvement by using technology (iPads) and QR readers in our class. The campaign “60 seconds for 60 days” was a big hit. We plan to continue into the next semester and follow the happenings on the International Space Station with our astronaut Kjell Lindgren in 2015.—Bonnie Cummings, University of Memphis College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences, Tennessee

Our activities included extra minutes of read aloud time, reading and reciting poetry, giving book talks, writing “Fortunately, Unfortunately” stories, and sharing favorite quotations.—Debbie Eberly, Smoky Row Elementary School, Indiana

I did the challenge with my fifth-grade resource language arts class. We wrote for 60 seconds for 60 days. They enjoyed doing this and reminded me when we were out or had missed a class. After the 60 days were completed, they had the opportunity to share their story with the class.—Lisa Weilacher, Sheridan Intermediate School, Arkansas

(In the first grade) we fired up our engines—we accepted the challenge you placed before us. We kept track of our reading and the word count of books read in class (during the extra reading minutes we added to our reading block). We blasted off and our grand reading total is 544,791 words/933 books. We were thrilled to find we were over a half a million words. The students have now challenged themselves to continue (what you started) and they want to reach 1,000,000! What can I say? My 20 students stayed on track and gave a great effort.—Patricia Whitakes, Philadelphia Elementary School, Mississippi

My fifth-grade class completed their 60 Day Story, and they were all eager and enthusiastic during the process. The next step is editing, and creation of a published book through Studentreasures Publishing. It was an exciting time, and the students looked forward to completing their exercise daily.—Sherry Forbes, International Community School, Georgia

Our third-grade class chose to do the 60-Day Story activity. We started each day by working on our 60-seconds-for-60-days story. We had a different leader each day who passed out our stories, ran the timer, then picked up the stories. We began keeping a 60-for-60 Log Sept. 8 and just finished our 60th day Dec. 8.
Some student comments:
“It was awesome and I really had fun with it. It helped me write better. Thank you!”
“Thank you for the 60-second writing. I love it. It could be another way I could have fun when I'm bored.”
“It was super fun. I became better at writing and I want to do it again, please.”
Our students looked forward to their special minute of writing. Since it was such a short time period, the students stayed highly focused. —Jennifer Spencer, Mt. Nebo Elementary School, West Virginia

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

Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins (25th Anniversary Edition).
Written by Eric A. Kimmel. Illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman. New York: Holiday House.
Grades: PreK – 12

Full disclosure: I am not Jewish. My knowledge of Hanukkah is basic. In addition, I am a strong believer in the idea of avoiding the heroes and holidays approach that is often used to integrate different cultures into our classroom. However, the 25th anniversary of Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins is worthy of notice as is the book itself. The author, Eric A. Kimmel, himself remarks his stories of Hanukkah are not meant to teach about the holiday. “They’re Hanukkah tales that make no effort to teach about Hanukkah,” he has said. His assertion allowed me to feel comfortable writing about this book.

On the first night of Hanukkah, Hershel of Ostropol is looking for a warm place to stay for the night and some delicious Hanukkah food. However, when he approaches the next village there are none of the bright lights and celebrations that he was expecting. The townspeople meet him outside to explain that the village has been tormented by goblins that don’t allow them to celebrate Hanukkah. Hershel quickly exclaims he is not afraid of goblins. The Rabbi tells him what must be done to break the curse. Hershel must spend eight nights in the village synagogu and the Hanukkah candles must be lit every night. However, on the eighth, and final night of Hanukkah, the king of the goblins himself must light the Hanukkah candles.

Readers of Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins are treated to a description of how Hershel outwits the first three goblins. Each of the goblins is larger and fiercer than the one before and requires more to outwit. Hershel defeats each of the six goblins until the seventh night when the goblin king visits him from afar and gives him a reprieve, but warns him about his visit the following evening.

Although it takes all his strength, Hershel is able to outsmart the goblin king as well, which is difficult as the king himself needs to light the eight Hanukkah candles. However, Kimmel, using what he knows about bullies, relies on the goblin king taking great pride in his ability to scare. Hershel asks the goblin king to light the candles so he can see him better and fully appreciate the terror. The king, unaware he is actually lighting the Hanukkah candles, complies so that he may scare Hershel more completely. Needless to say, he is quite upset when he realizes he, too, has been outsmarted by Hershel. Hershel, through his quick thinking, is able to bring Hanukkah back to the village by defeating each of the goblin visitors.

The story of Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins originally appeared in Cricket magazine Dec. 1985 and a few color illustrations from Trina Schart Hyman accompanied it. Kimmel had had no luck trying to publish the story previous to this, but once it appeared in Cricket there was no shortage of publishers interested in the story, particularly with more illustrations by Hyman.

In writing about Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins, Kimmel reveals two interesting, but perhaps contrasting, inspirations for the story. He wrote in The Lion and the Unicorn, “My sources were not Jewish at all. The story comes from a Russian tale, ‘Ivonko, the Bear’s Son,’ in Aleksandr Afanasiev’s classic collection of Russian fairy tales.

Kimmel also found inspiration in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. “I wasn’t interested in explaining or defending the holiday. I wanted to find its spirit. My model was Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, which ignores the religious trappings of Christmas to focus on a universal message of compassion, joy, and goodwill,” Kimmel wrote. I believe readers will agree Kimmel certainly represented the spirit of Hanukkah in Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins.

The beauty of this book and the following activities is that they work for all ages with some slight adjustments.

Cross-Curricular Connections: English/Language arts, art, and social studies/history

Ideas for Classroom Use

Goblins 4, 5, 6 and 7

Readers of Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins are not told how Hershel outwits the fourth, fifth and sixth goblins. And no goblin visits Hershel on the seventh night of Hanukkah. In this activity, students write about the visits of one of these “missing” goblins. Make sure to remind students the goblins get fiercer and smarter as the nights progress so their story for their selected goblin should reflect this progression. This is an activity any age student can complete as the expectations of the story (and the possible accompanying illustrations) can be modified accordingly.

Goblins as a metaphor

In this activity, which can be modified for a wide variety of grade levels and purposes, the goblins are viewed as metaphors. The goblins in Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins can certainly be considered metaphors for Hershel’s—and our own—fears. However, the goblins could also be considered metaphors for the considerable hardships faced by those of the Jewish faith. Younger students can write about their own fears or the possible fears the goblins represent. Older students can conduct research on the many instances of persecution faced by Jews, for example the Holocaust, and compare these to the goblins faced by Hershel.

Luftmensch

Kimmel writes that Hershel is a luftmensch, which is “a character with no visible means of support who lives by his wits.” Children’s literature, particularly folklore, is filled with luftmensch or tricksters. In this activity, have students find other examples of luftmenschs in literature and compare them to Hershel.

Additional Resources and Activities:

9 Legendary Monsters of Christmas: Goblins are not the only evil creatures associated with the holiday season. This article from Mental Floss includes a short description of nine evil creatures from a variety of cultures that appear around the winter holidays. The nine creatures are: Krampus, Jolakotturinn, Frau Perchta, Belsnickel, Hans Trapp, Pere Fouettard, Zwarte Piet, Yule Lads and Gryla.

Eric A. Kimmel’s Webpage: Kimmel’s webpage is full of resources and interesting information about him and his books. Visitors to the website can even hear Kimmel himself read some of his books. His website includes a link to an interview he did on the 25th anniversary of Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins.

A Haunting Anniversary: ‘Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins’ Turns 25: This is a short article from Publisher’s Weekly on the 25th anniversary of Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins.

Aimee Rogers is an assistant professor at the University of North Dakota where she is a member of the reading faculty and teaches children’s literature courses. Aimee’s research interests include how readers make meaning with graphic novels as well as representation in children’s and young adult literature. She can be reached at aimee.rogers@UND.edu.

photo credit: BarbaraLN via photopin cc

I have a slight addiction to books and my first graders take advantage of this on a regular basis. They bat their little eyelashes and say things like, “Man, I wish we had more cowgirl books” or “I noticed on the back of this book that there are more in the series.” This kind of talk and book love leads to a wish list that never ends!

When new books arrive, we gather on the carpet and I hold up each book, sharing why it was chosen for our classroom collection. Reasons include special requests, a popular topic amongst our readers, a book I just knew someone would love because they loved a similar book, amazing illustrations, a missing book from a series, etc. We then discuss where the books should live so we can easily find them.  This is where things become interesting.

When we received a biography about President Obama, I posed the question, “Where should this book about our President live?” One student said, “I think it should go in the famous people tub because he is famous.” Someone else chimed in, “It should go in the biography basket because that is where the other president books are.” The first student agreed and they placed it in the biography tub.

Things do not always settle that easily, though!

Bella and Rosie are two of our favorite dogs, but when we received two of their books about the holidays, a heated discussion ensued. The class was almost completely divided between placing the books in the Bella and Rosie tub or the holidays tub. “If I’m wanting a Halloween story, it would be nice to know there is a Bella and Rosie one.”—Team Holiday Tub “All Bella and Rosie books should go together. Bottom line.”—Team Bella and Rosie. “Maybe we can just get two copies.”—Team Middle. The books ended up being placed in the Bella and Rosie tub because “that is what we do with like characters.” My readers took care of it!

My students have ownership of our library because they helped create it. We start the year deciding which books go together. I have quite a few baskets that I have developed, but I devote time during our readers workshop block early in the year to allow students to dive in, make decisions, and set up our library for the year. We gather on the carpet and sort informational books into piles. These piles will eventually become baskets so readers can easily find books of interest. I always have a few ideas in mind (and only a certain number of baskets,) but as usual, there are surprises. The animal book pile was huge this year. They started dividing the pile into National Geographic Kids, sea life, pets, etc. I praised their efforts (and prepared to purchase additional baskets) and we then moved on to other nonfiction treasures. “Some of these books just don’t fit anywhere.”  I agreed and asked them what we could do with those misfit books. It was determined we needed a spot for “nonfiction books about anything” and so that is what we have. Every time I see this basket, I smile.

Devoting this time to our library hones organizational skills, builds our sense of classroom community, sets the tone that our environment is a safe place to disagree and compromise. It encourages both speaking and listening, as well as decision making. All of this happens while readers are exploring new books that will one day be their perfect read!

Our library has books sorted by genre, topic, author, level, and size—yes, we have one basket just for oversized books. It works for my class and it works every year. It also changes every year and that’s OK. While many will debate how books should be sorted or what percentage should be labeled or not, I think the most valuable piece of a classroom library is student involvement. All of the rest just sorts itself out!

Lyssa Sahadevan is a 13-year teaching veteran and is now teaching the first grade at East Side Elementary School in Marietta, GA. She graduated from the University of South Alabama with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and earned a master’s degree as a reading specialist. She also holds an education specialist certification in curriculum and instruction.

There are many apps that not only can make your life easier, but are free. Some of these are for students and some are for teachers. Here are 10 apps, in no particular order, that you may want to try.

Running Record Calculator: The Running Record Calculator helps you calculate student words per minute read, accuracy percentage, and self-correct ratio. Just input the time, number of words, errors, and self-corrections and your scores will be calculated for you automatically.

Fry Words: The Fry 1000 Instant Words are a list of the most common words used for teaching reading, writing, and spelling. They should be recognized instantly by readers. The words are broken up into unique sets of 10 words each. You can add an unlimited number of new words and customize your lists to suit your instruction.

Remind: Remind offers teachers a free, safe, and simple way to instantly text students and parents. Interactions are safe because phone numbers are kept private and messages are sent with no open replies. Teachers, students, and parents see mobile messages from all their classes in one place.

ClassDojo: ClassDojo helps teachers improve behavior in their classrooms quickly and easily. Teachers can use this app to give their students positive behavior feedback and manage their classes, while parents can check on their child's progress at school. Everything syncs across all of your devices.

Rover: One problem with iPads is they can’t access Flash. With Rover, you can. Rover is a free-to-download education app that streams educational Flash content to your iPad.

Show Me: Want an easier way to handle assignments for absent students? Show Me is a virtual whiteboard. Write on your iPad using your finger or stylus and audio record your voice, and you can immediately play back a tutorial that can be used over and over.

ScootPad: ScootPad is an adaptive learning platform for Grades K–5. It delivers continuously personalized learning experiences for each student, enabling comprehensive practice, accelerated progress, and rapid concept mastery. Teachers get real-time insights that enable proficiency tracking.

Sphere - 360º Photography: Step into the future of photography. See Paris from a hot air balloon, feel the energy from the American Idol stage, and hold onto your raft as you approach Hubbard Glacier. With Sphere, your device is a movable window you control.

iBrainstorm: Instead of note taking and chart paper, students can share their ideas among four different iPads or iPhones with just a flick of the finger.

Prezi: Prezi is a slide-style presentation program that captivates by zooming through a story, visually explaining how ideas relate to each other, and using images and video to enhance presentations while letting students build their presentations collaboratively.

Heidi Marie Rock (heidirock@rockresearchgroup.org), an ILA member since 2007, is president of Rock Research Group, Inc., an educational consulting company providing professional development and grant support services to schools and nonprofits.

Have you noticed the many recent news reports of school purchases of electronic tools and applications, and how teachers are using technology in their classrooms? Such extensive coverage is not surprising; we need to be next-gen schools and educational technologies do have enormous potential to raise student achievement.

Classrooms, such as those at Califon School in Califon, NJ, look like exciting places for kids to learn. I believe, however, that we should tread cautiously, reflecting on some instructional assumptions we may be making, how we determine school budget priorities, and the influence wealthy individuals and giant corporations potentially have on literacy instruction as we go digital.

Possible assumptions

My first teaching position was in a really small town (population 512). I made some assumptions about my students that over time proved wrong: (1) they could all read, (2) they would be excited about learning, and (3) they all got a good night’s sleep.

It turned out that (1) quite a few were struggling readers, (2) they didn’t like school, and (3) many spent weekday evenings at the local bar with their parents. Initially, my incorrect assumptions guided my teaching; as they unraveled, I had to readjust and reconsider how and what I taught.

I wonder if now we are making faulty assumptions regarding educational technology in classrooms. Perhaps we are assuming as fact that:

1. Students prefer to learn using today’s technology over more traditional delivery formats. According to Hewlett Packard’s 2013 study of college students, students appreciated the ease of use of e-books provided, but “contrary to what most would expect, the younger and supposedly tech-savvy students are not all that into e-textbooks. It runs counter to the push for paper-free digital classroom where e-books are often marketed (and touted) as the lower cost (and lower weight) option.” When we personalize learning, we have to take into account whether the manner in which instruction is delivered appeals to both student interests.


2. Students who have access know how to use it. My neighbor has two middle-schoolers. Her daughter is tethered to technology, regularly uploads on YouTube, creates sophisticated PowerPoints for school projects, writes blogs, and easily researches topics that interest her; my neighbor’s son, however, uses digital tools when necessary for writing school papers, but essentially creates a cut-and-paste product. Clearly, though living in the same access-available household, these two children have achieved different skill levels. Even though today’s students may have grown up with new technologies, they are not all whiz kids at using them, nor do they want to be.


3. Proficient print readers will be good e-readers. Not necessarily. A review of the research (Jabr, April 2013) concludes that comprehension of paper text is superior to text read on screen, attributing this to such factors as ease of navigation and sense of control. Additionally, reading paper text appears to be less mentally and physically taxing because e-texts require scrolling in addition to reading. As engineers work to make reading with new technologies similar to the experience of reading on paper, such differences may disappear.


4. Struggling readers will have higher achievement when teaching is enhanced by educational technology. Not all by itself. In a recent report out of Stanford University, Darling-Hammond, Zielezinski, and Goldman (September 2014) cite three factors affecting outcomes for at-risk adolescent learners using educational technology: (1) interactive learning; (2) use of technology to explore and create rather than to “drill and kill;” and (3) the right blend of teachers and technology.


5. Students can do technology-based assignments at home. We’ve heard repeatedly that today’s students are more tech-savvy than their teachers. After all, they grew up with it and many teachers did not. This assumption ignores the digital divide in classrooms. Some students have had access at home since birth; many have not. Pew’s 2013 study on use of the Internet in the U.S. found 85% of Americans use the Internet but only 70% have broadband connections at home, and low-income households comprise the largest group without home access. In income-diverse classrooms, our students will not be on a level playing field if homework assignments are dependent on or advantaged by access.


6. Educational technology improves teaching. Technology itself doesn’t improve teaching. Teachers need classroom support and effective professional development to maximize the technologies; the hardware and software must be user-friendly and meet students’ needs; the pedagogy (which isn’t the technology) must demand high-quality interactions between students and teachers, and among students, with high expectations of all. Giving every student a laptop isn’t going to improve our teaching, and every student having a netbook isn’t an instructional model.

Budget priorities

Are significant dollars allocated to educational technology at the expense of other needed purchases? Tight school budgets require careful choices.

What guides decisions about educational technology? Will we purchase new band equipment to replace instruments that are un-playable, something that probably affects just a few students, or buy more devices for the computer lab, which benefits more students? If the latter, when do band students get needed instruments?

What about more devices for the school’s computer lab versus better adaptive technology for special needs students? Who decides? On what basis? Is there a long-term plan? Are teachers included in the decision making? I expect there’s a wide range of responses to these questions, but as one educator suggests, “Teachers should be designing their classrooms and schools and then discussing, with leaders and technologists, what devices can best support that design.”

School influencers

A quick rush to the clarion call for 21st century digital classrooms may come at a price beyond the cost of the technology itself. Several years ago, I was part of a team awarded a Striving Readers grant for adolescent learners, one of only eight grants awarded that year for this U.S. program. One condition of our receiving this award was that a specific computer-based program would serve as the instructional centerpiece. We had to accept one publisher’s product, unfamiliar to us, and had no opportunity to evaluate its appropriateness for our students.

A review of the research did find the program to have some positive effects on comprehension and general literacy achievement for adolescent learners, but this is not a guarantee of success for ALL students (and they did not all benefit in our program), but no alternatives were permitted.

In 2014, one large company describing its school-based grants explained, “Our grant programs are designed to apply [our] resources to specific projects and programs that fit within our targeted areas of interest ...” If schools are dependent on outside sources to fund technology, we should closely examine the strings that are attached to those monies.

We also cannot afford to mistake education entrepreneurs for educators. As one commentator suggests, “Philanthropy skews education policies to reflect the untested agendas of big donors.” For instance, between 2010–2012, Mark Zuckerburg donated $100 million to Newark, NJ, public schools primarily to support his preferences for charter schools and merit pay for teachers (based on performance and leading to layoffs). According to reports, significant donation dollars also went to consulting firms, reaching neither teachers nor classrooms.

Most of us probably acknowledge, accept, and maybe even admire and applaud the contribution education technology makes to student learning. If we use it judiciously and strategically, examining some of our assumptions and priorities as we plan instruction, our students and our teaching will surely benefit.

Jill Lewis-Spector (jlewisprof1@yahoo.com) is the ILA president and a professor emerita from New Jersey City University.