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Category: Literacy

Jan32019

Happy New Year and Independent Reading!

Image by iam Se7en

Happy New Year! I’m looking forward to the experience of ‘2019. I am especially looking forward to my personal journey and development as a mother, wife, daughter, sister, auntie, friend and teacher.  On the teaching front, I am especially grateful to have an opportunity to implement time for independent reading with my students. With such a hectic teaching schedule, I have found myself veering away from teaching and learning opportunities that are not necessarily a part of the “official” curriculum. To include aspects like independent reading and a field trip, for example, requires time and preparation that is difficult to find in my already time-consuming schedule.  In this New Year, I have made a point to not let time deter me from doing what I am most passionate about as an English teacher/ reading specialist, allowing my students time to select their own reading texts.

In The Power and Promise of Read-Alouds and Independent Reading (2018), the International Literacy Association (ILA) confirms that independent reading is imperative for secondary students as it provides students with choice and ownership in the English classroom. Additionally, classroom libraries (or in my case, the school library) must contain digital and multimodal texts and be diverse in text category (nonfiction and fiction), genre (e.g., fantasy, historical fiction, realistic fiction, myths, autobiographies and biographies, memoir, narrative nonfiction, expository nonfiction), and text level. Students who are exposed to a plethora of these genres begin to understand what features and characteristics are comprised in each. The ILA has found that 91% of children ages 6-17 report that their favorite texts in school are the ones that they selected themselves. Without the opportunity to select their own texts, reading proficiency lags (Allington, R.L., & Gabriel, R.E., 2012).

With this research in mind, I have partnered with my school librarians to create a literary circle or book chat with my students. All of my students will have an extended class devoted to selecting a text of any genre. For the remainder of Term 2, time will be devoted to discuss components of each students’ chosen text. In order to create an environment that encourages empowerment and opportunity for students explore their self-selected texts, I’ve created the following schedule-with room for modification-to be completed within a three-week time period:

Introduction and Novel Selection (Including librarians):

-Students will officially meet the librarians.  The librarians and instructor will share the overall plan for the book chat.  Students will have at least thirty minutes to select a book of their choice for this project. 

Book Chat (Including librarians):

-Students are encouraged to keep a reading schedule and remain within the pages of the schedule (i.e. if the idea is to read about 5 pages a day or a chapter a week, students will remain on task in order to reflect, predict and share their reading journey and experience with their peers). While in the book chat circle, students will share plot details, interesting aspects of text, disappointments, predictions etc…

Book Club Presentation and Social Media (Including librarians):

-Students will have the opportunity to practice writing a book review and summary by sharing their feedback on social media forum (in house). Models for what a “respectful” review should consist of will be shared before students are provided with the opportunity to write their own.  The feedback will be graded based on grammar, vocabulary and thoroughness.

As with all things new, I am nervous about what kinks I might find as we delve into this project. However, as with all things new, I feel enthused and eager about the possibilities of implementing this book chat. If you are interested in learning more details regarding the schedule and the book chat, I am happy to share.  I am also happy to share reflections at the end of our book chat journey.  Until then, I wish you a ‘2019 filled with “new things” and book chats. Enjoy one of my favorite reading tunes from a show that helped nurture my love of reading (way back in the day), Reading Rainbow.


Reading Rainbow theme song
Sep142018

Why is the Essential Question Essential?

Why is the Essential Question Essential?

What is an essential question? I remember when I was in my capstone course at Temple University when my professor posed this question to my cohort and me. He said the essential question is essential for framing a unit. You can “hook” students into whatever stories you read in the unit by connecting all of these stories to a question that they will continue to investigate.

I didn’t quite understand how one question could possibly address all of the texts read in one unit at the time. I initially considered this one question to be quite limiting. I thought, why should we create the same question for reflection across texts? Why not investigate different questions and ideas?…

While reflecting on the challenges I had with constructing an essential question, the jazz tune “I Can’t Get Started (With You)” by Ira Gershwin, sung by Ella Fitzgerald, came to mind; I simply could not understand how one question could apply to all readings. I had difficulties getting started myself.

Today, I understand more than ever before why the essential question is dynamic. The essential question allows for:

  1. Purposeful reading: Students read with intention and use the question as a guide for deeper understanding
  2. A starting point for further investigation: While students are learning how to formulate their own questions, the essential question is a starting point
  3. Higher order thinking: The essential question should be an open-ended question. This creates a space for students to begin investigating other aspects of a given text
  4. Transfer of Learning: The essential question transfers from one reading to the next. Considering this, students have the opportunity to critically think about how this question applies in different contexts
  5. Interdisciplinary connections: Students understand how to apply the question across disciplines for a more dynamic learning experience

Michael Smith (my professor in the capstone course) and Jeffrey Wilhelm both agree in Going with the Flow (2006) that for an essential question to work, it must be debatable and most of all, it must be meaningful. To provide you with an idea of what makes an essential question, the following are five questions created according to the aforementioned criteria:

  1. How can literature serve as a vehicle for social change?
  2. How does conflict lead to change?
  3. What is truth and who defines it?
  4. What is reality and how is it constructed?
  5. What does it mean to be invisible?

Overall, these questions are created while backward planning and reflecting on what is essential for students to know and understand in a unit. Most importantly, these questions help when guiding students into more critical areas of inquiry. What essential questions do you and have you used in your classroom? In what ways have these questions changed the way you approach a unit? I’m looking forward to your comments….

Aug232018

Informing Teaching Goals According to Nation’s Report Card

As a member of the International Literacy Association (ILA @ www.literacyworldwide.org), I have access to national and international reading trends at various grade levels. In addition to this information, researchers in the education field with specific interests in the area of literacy, share strategies, lessons and ideas implemented in classrooms across the country that empower young readers. This past week, I was intrigued by the ILA’s response to The Nation’s Report Card @ www.nationsreportcard.gov (2018), which provides graphs and statistics to show how students fare, overall, with reading proficiency. Overall, nationally, we have flat-lined in this area with no major improvements for the past decade. Unfortunately, the inequalities are most evident in schools where mostly African American, Latino and international students attend.

Why is this the case? According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or the NAEP, this is the case due to systematic misalignment (ILA, 2018). Essentially, All involved in the school system, especially teachers and principals must have an intentional plan to change the course of student reading proficiency levels. Although there is no “…singular solution…”(ILA, 2018) in remedying our flat-lined reading scores, focused attention on curriculum, content and grade-level texts can have a major impact on student interest and ultimately an improved report card.

As an English teacher and reading specialist, this information is most important for informing my teaching goals. The following are ways in which I plan on instructing with the NAEP report in mind:

  1. Allow students the autonomy to select reading materials throughout the year
  • Independent reading projects during at least one term in the school year
  • Share novels, short stories and poems that have made an impact on my life and ask students to do the same
  1. Focus more on end goal curriculum planning
  • What should students know by the end of their four years in school?
  • What should students know by the end of the year?
  1. Embrace other content areas to inform instruction
  • Connect the background information of a focal text with what is learned in other academic courses
  • Collaborate with colleagues across disciplines

The ILA’s report is correct in stating that there is no singular solution to improving overall student reading proficiency (ILA, 2018). We can begin, however, through intentional systematic approaches that aim to serve the student demographic struggling most. If, through research, it is discovered that a particular demographic is achieving at a higher percentage than the nation’s overall report, we should also be willing to adopt that particular demographics’ strategies. All in all, we must “Wake Up” as the late Teddy Pendergrass suggests:

What are your thoughts regarding the Nation’s reading report card? I’m looking forward to your subscription and comments….