May/June 2020
Volume 37, Issue 6
LITERACY TODAY
Shaping
the Future
• Jasmyn Wright on the
power of pushing through
adversity
• Redefining what it means
to meet people where
they are
• Finding connection in a
time of remote learning
literacyw
We Support,
Inspire,
Encourage.
LITERACY = POWER
Let’s Empower
Everyone, Everywhere!
Contents
LITERACY TODAY
Volume 37, Issue 6
May/June 2020
EDITORIAL STAFF
Managing Editor Colleen Patrice Clark
Editor Christina Lambert
ILA LEADERSHIP
Executive Director Marcie Craig Post
2019–2020 BOARD MEMBERS
Kathy N. Headley, Clemson University,
President; Stephen Peters, Laurens County
School District 55, Vice President; Bernadette
Dwyer, Dublin City University, Immediate Past
President; Juli-Anne Benjamin, Great Oaks
Legacy Charter School; Kia Brown-Dudley, The
Education Partners; Wendy Carss, University
of Waikato; Rachael Gabriel, University of
Connecticut, Storrs; Beverley E. Harris, Mico
University College, University of the West
Indies; Kenneth Kunz, Monmouth University;
Susan Paasch, Sauk Rapids Public School
District; Julia Reynolds, Allendale Public
Schools; Laurie Sharp, Tarleton State University
ADVERTISING
For information, contact Megan Ferguson at
800.336.7323 x 417 or advertising@reading
.org. Acceptance of advertising does not imply
endorsement.
ABOUT US
Literacy Today is the bimonthly membership
magazine of the International Literacy
Association, a nonprofi t that strives to
empower educators, inspire students, and
encourage teachers with the resources they
need to make literacy accessible for all.
SUBSCRIPTIONS
Literacy Today (ISSN 2411-7900) is included
in the cost of ILA membership. To join, visit
literacyworldwide.org.
CONTACT US
CUSTOMER SERVICE
800.336.7323
customerservice@reading.org
EDITORIAL
800.336.7323 x 446
literacytoday@reading.org
Write to Literacy Today, PO Box 8139, Newark,
DE 19714-8139, USA.
MAILING LIST RENTALS
ILA rents mailing lists only to groups approved
by the Association. Members can have
their names removed from lists rented by
writing to ILA Customer Service or emailing
customerservice@reading.org.
© International Literacy Association
2
LIT BITS
6
FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
8
ILA UPDATE
LITERACY LEADERSHIP
10
Connected Communities: Keeping Students
From Feeling Isolated During a Time of Remote
Instruction
12
Promoting Social-Emotional Learning, Equity,
and Literacy in Ohio
RESEARCH INTO PRACTICE
14
Improving Word Study: Making Sense of the Spelling System for Students and
Their Teachers
FEATURES
16
Meeting People Where They Are: Allister Chang and Karlos L. Marshall on How
It’s About More Than Physical Location
20
Push Through It: A Day in the Life of Motivational Educator Jasmyn Wright
24
Research in Reading and the Future of Literacy: A Q&A With Nell K. Duke
THE ENGAGING CLASSROOM
28
Reading With Heart: Teaching Social-Emotional Skills Through Literature
30
Rethinking Reading Comprehension: Are We Really Teaching Students to
Read?
32
Defi ning Fluency: Finding the Missing Pieces for Reading Fluency
34
Breaking Down Barriers Through Visuals in English Language Arts
THE ILA NETWORK
36
How One Chapter Celebrates Right to Read Week
38
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
20
2
literacyworldwide.org | May/June 2020 | LITERACY TODAY
LIT BITS
COVID-19:
How ILA Is Responding
The world of education is in uncharted
territory with the COVID-19 pandemic. Following
are just some of the ways ILA has responded. We
encourage you to email us at social@reading
.org with stories of how your communities are
responding so we can continue to share them on
our blog and social media channels.
In response to requests for virtual learning
opportunities, we are offering the ILA 2019
Replay—open-access archived livestreams of
select sessions from last year’s conference.
The content is available for free from
April 1–May 31. Visit literacyworldwide
.org/2019ConferenceReplay to register.
On April 7, we held our first ILA Edcamp Online.
Three discussion topics were selected from
survey responses submitted by educators:
Alternative Access: Connecting When Your
Students Don’t Have Connectivity; Continuous
K–5 Learning During School Closures:
Techniques, Tips, and Tools; and Supporting
Struggling Learners: Instruction and Intervention
in a Virtual Environment. You can read our
wrap-up blog post at literacyworldwide.org
/edcamponline.
We held a webinar with Timothy Shanahan,
“Instructional Level or Challenging Text: Too
Hard or Not Hard Enough?” on May 3. Another
webinar is scheduled with Donalyn Miller, “Making
a Case for Reading Joy,” on May 31. Find more
information at literacyworldwide.org
/DigitalEvents.
We published—and continue to update—a
Literacy Daily roundup post, “Engaging Learning
Through Disruptions,” which includes relevant
ILA resources we’ve made open access, such
as journals content and former members-only
PD pieces, and other helpful (and free) remote
learning resources from other organizations.
Below are some examples, but you can access
the full article at literacyworldwide.org/COVID-
resources.
From the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy
“Hybrid and Blended Learning”
“Teaching, Learning, and Sharing Openly Online”
From The Reading Teacher
“Mobile Documentation: Making the Learning
Process Visible to Families”
From ILA E-ssentials
“Blended Learning”
“Digital Discussions: Using Web 2.0 Tools to
Communicate, Collaborate, and Create”
From Literacy Daily
“Building an Open Narrative With Open Learning”
“Connecting Readers With Online Reading”
“Expand Your Classroom Boundaries Through
Virtual Field Trips”
Editor’s Note: Although the majority of this issue was already complete when the coronavirus outbreak
began causing widespread school and business closures around the world, we wanted to include
needed resources and information about how ILA is working to support educators—both members and
nonmembers. This Lit Bits space has been dedicated to the ongoing situation. In addition, there’s a special
message from ILA Executive Director Marcie Craig Post on page 6.
LITERACY TODAY | May/June 2020 | literacyworldwide.org
We published “Connected Communities of
Literacy Learning: Keeping Students From
Feeling Isolated During This Time of Remote
Instruction,” a blog post from Cynthia Pope,
whose research focuses on distance learning.
She discusses a piece largely missing from
early conversations on these current events:
how to keep students connected with each
other to ensure they don’t lose a sense of
community. We decided to republish her
piece in Literacy Today. Read her article
on page 10.
Adacao Elementary School teacher Tillie Blas delivers books and homemade
treats to students in Guam
We received a letter from Edith Chisala M. Ng’oman,
chair of the Literacy Association of Zambia and
ChildFund Zambia, in which she details the efforts
made by her organizations and the government of
Zambia in promoting literacy education in the midst
of managing the spread of COVID-19. Read it on
our blog at literacyworldwide.org/update-from-
zambia.
We’ve seen many families, caregivers, and
educators implementing innovative techniques and
going above and beyond to reach their children and
their students. Following are just a few examples
that caught our eye.
COVID-19: How You Are Responding
4
literacyworldwide.org | May/June 2020 | LITERACY TODAY
LIT BITS
ILA’s Choices Reading Lists Are Out!
ILA Awards Deadline Extended
The application deadline for ILA’s educator awards and grants has
been extended to June 1, 2020. ILA awards and grants recognize
excellence and showcase best practices in literacy research, instruction,
and advocacy. Each year, recipients include district and school
administrators, graduate students, authors, teachers, technology
specialists, and more—celebrating achievements across a wide range of
backgrounds, disciplines, and areas of expertise. The full list of awards
and grants can be found at literacyworldwide.org/about-us/awards-
grants.
From left to right, ILA’s Marcie Craig Post, Bernadette
Dwyer, and Kathy N. Headley, award-winner Yi-Jui
Chen, and Cynthia and Timothy Shanahan
Reading lists foster excitement for book lovers of all ages. ILA’s annual Choices reading lists—released on
May 1—are no exception. With new titles voted on by students and teachers themselves, even the pickiest of
readers can find a book that catches their eye among the wealth of options across the three lists: Children’s
Choices, Young Adults’ Choices, and Teachers’ Choices.
Children’s Choices
Thousands of students contributed their voice to create this list of nearly 100 fiction
and nonfiction titles, which are split into three age groups: beginning readers, young
readers, and advanced readers. The list, cosponsored by the Children’s Book Council,
is designed as much for teachers, librarians, and families as it is for students. Reading
at a young age requires adult support and encouragement, and this list provides a
solid place to begin encouraging a love of reading.
Young Adults’ Choices
With all the required textbook reading for school, engaging older students in reading
for fun can sometimes be difficult. However, this list of 30 books, cosponsored by
the Children’s Book Council and voted on by thousands of teens, makes carving time
out of a student’s busy schedule easier, thanks to the award-winning titles, diverse
themes, and subject matter that today’s young adults relate to and value.
Teachers’ Choices
In creating this list, educators have the unique opportunity to identify the
titles that they determined will encourage young people to read and that will
contribute to learning across the curriculum. The list of 30 books, split into
titles for primary readers, intermediate readers, and advanced readers, also
appeals to families and caregivers who are looking for new books to hook their
children and middle grade readers.
Download all three reading lists at literacyworldwide.org/choices.
LITERACY TODAY | May/June 2020 | literacyworldwide.org
And the Winner Is…
Congratulations to Mary Morgan, the winner of our
ILA 2020 Poster Design Contest! Mary is a literacy
consultant and an English as a second language
teacher at Lincoln Performing Arts Magnet School
in Kentucky. For the contest, we asked educators to
tap into their creativity and show us their vision for
literacy by answering the question: What does literacy
mean to you?
Where We Stand
The following literacy
leadership brief from ILA is
now available. Check out
literacyworldwide.org
/statements to download
it and see ILA’s entire
collection of briefs and
position statements.
Making Sense of
Elementary School
Reading Scores, published
in March, focuses on the
need to examine current
reading assessments to
ensure they have a clear
purpose, are grounded in
evidence, and are done
only when necessary.
30 Under 30: Time Is Running Out!
The deadline for nominations is fast approaching! If you know a rising leader in the
field who’s changing the literacy landscape, whether in their school, community,
or the world, let us know by submitting a nomination at literacyworldwide.org
/30under30. Nominations must be made by June 1, 2020, to be considered for
the next list.
The Literacy Scene
Educators enjoying a city tour before the start of the 4th Baltic Sea
Conference on Literacy, which was held January 16–21 in Tallinn, Estonia
We’re living in an unprecedented rate of change
with the world at a standstill.
What you knew to be true before you went to
bed on Monday is likely to have shifted by the time
you woke up on Tuesday—or was it Wednesday?
For those of us confined to our homes due to
shelter-in-place orders or self-imposed isolation,
the days seem to blend into one another. (If it
wasn’t for Outlook reminding me of conference
calls and Zoom meetings, I’m not sure I’d
automatically remember which day it was either.
One of those round-robin social media posts asked
what movie best describes how you’re feeling right
now. My response? Groundhog Day.)
Education as we know it has been upended.
School closures that were initially thought to
be short term have been extended indefinitely.
Some school systems have already taken the
action to close through the rest of the school
year. As of mid-April, UNESCO was reporting that
more than 1.5 billion learners—that’s 91.3% of all
enrolled students across 191 countries—have been
impacted. Some universities are preparing for the
possibility of campuses remaining closed long
term and are expecting at minimum a 15% drop in
registration for fall 2020.
Long term, there is no way to predict how this
global pandemic will impact the way we teach and
the way students learn.
Short term, there’s urgency to address some
very specific challenges around equity and
access. These areas of weakness “exposed” by the
coronavirus aren’t novel to educators. In our 2020
What’s Hot in Literacy Report, released in January,
we shared that both ranked in the top five most
critical issues in literacy education. We also found
that the top professional development need of
survey respondents was on using digital resources
to support literacy instruction.
ILA’s Road Ahead
FROM THE
EXECUTIVE
DIRECTOR
What is new is the urgency we’re seeing to
shore up those weaknesses. And the big question
on everyone’s mind is how.
At ILA, we’re focusing on what we can do to
meet your needs—not only the ones you have
today but also the ones you’ll have in the future
during the post-COVID-19 recovery phase. Here
are some of the steps we’ve taken so far:
We launched the ILA 2019 Replay. For the
months of April and May, we are offering
open access to six of the top sessions
livestreamed from last year’s conference.
We held the first ILA Edcamp Online.
Registration for the inaugural event, held on
April 7, sold out within hours of going live.
Look for more of these live, participant-driven
events in the future.
We accelerated the timeline on our digital
events program. This includes interactive
webinars with literacy leaders such as
Timothy Shanahan (May 3) and Donalyn
Miller (May 31). Each are free for members
and available to nonmembers for $45.
Sensing a trend?
Streaming recorded sessions and delivering live
webinars are standard practices for a professional
organization. Adding online peer-to-peer learning
and virtual networking opportunities help round
out the mix.
And in the coming months, you’ll see more
and more organizations either launching or
augmenting collections like these. The value of
high-quality content that’s accessible with a device
and a reliable Wi-Fi connection has never been
greater.
But for us, the work doesn’t end there. In fact,
it’s only just beginning.
Each challenge we’ve encountered has given
rise to a new way of thinking about what we do
and how we do it.
6
literacyworldwide.org | May/June 2020 | LITERACY TODAY
This magazine, for example. We announced in
April the decision to discontinue the print version
of Literacy Today. There are several reasons
for this, but one of the driving factors is that a
number of members receive their subscriptions at
their schools or universities—buildings they won’t
be entering again for an indeterminate amount of
time.
Innovation was another factor. For the past
few issues, we’ve been testing features for the
digital version, such as adding exclusive online
content and embedding links to videos. We asked
ourselves what we could do if we weren’t limited
by print. How could we increase value to members
by shifting our efforts in this other direction? The
possibilities excited us.
Around the time we were having discussions,
we received word from Wiley, the publishing
company that prints and distributes our journals,
that they would be shifting to a digital-only
format until COVID-related restrictions eased and
operations could resume as normal. Although this
didn’t directly influence our decision about Literacy
Today, it did underscore for us that there were
definite advantages to a digital publication that
didn’t depend on print presses and postal service.
We applied this kind of thinking to other areas
as well, such as our conference, set to take place
from October 15–18 in Columbus, OH. From the
beginning, when early reports of this devastating
virus surfaced, our staff has been in close contact
with key officials from the city of Columbus, the
Ohio Department of Education, and the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). We have
been tracking guidelines and recommendations
from the CDC and the World Health Organization.
Even though the event wasn’t scheduled until
October, we knew from the start we did not want
to put on a conference that wasn’t safe for our
attendees, exhibitors, and staff.
Safety has been a top concern of ours from
the start. On March 1, ILA suspended travel for
staff and members of the Board of Directors.
Not long after, we went to a 100% remote work
environment. We also increased the flexibility
of our workday to ease the burden on families
impacted by sudden and wholly unexpected
closures of schools and childcare facilities.
On March 23, Delaware Governor John
Carney issued a shelter-in-home order for the
state (where our headquarters is located) to remain
in effect until May 15. At the time, it was one of
the more conservative measures taken. Carney
told reporters, “I don’t want Delaware to be the
example of what not to do in this crisis.”
We can say the same for ILA: We do not want
to be an example of what not to do. And so in the
end, we made the heartbreaking but necessary
decision to cancel this year’s conference.
Many organizations facing similar scenarios
have opted to relocate their in-person events to
virtual platforms or create hybrid conferences with
both face-to-face and digital components. We
considered those options but ultimately decided to
go in a different direction.
At the time of this publication, we are working
on a new model for professional learning—one
that allows us to be incredibly responsive to what
is going on in your classrooms, your schools, your
communities, and the world at large.
It takes some of the best of what an ILA
conference traditionally offers and combines it
with new, progressive formats that provide a deep,
personalized learning experience. In addition,
we’ll be launching new members-only benefits in
the coming months, including digital resources
informed by responses received from the 2020
What’s Hot in Literacy survey.
Right now, when everything is or feels at least a
little new, we at ILA are embracing the opportunity
to turn to a blank page. What we were is no longer
as important as who we can, should, and will be.
In the eight years since I became the executive
director at ILA, I don’t know that I have ever felt
so much possibility and promise. I sincerely hope
that each and every one of you joins us in forging
this new path and, in the
process, help us be better
in service to you and our
profession.
Marcie Craig Post
ILA Executive Director
LITERACY TODAY | May/June 2020 | literacyworldwide.org
When the theme of the ILA 2020 Conference—
”Shaping the Future of Literacy”—was conceived,
there was no way we could have imagined a
future in which the world would be engulfed in a
pandemic.
As a result of COVID-19, we all entered a twilight
zone where so many of our knowns became
unknowns, where our certainties became doubts,
and where “coming together” to push back this virus
meant “staying apart.”
In Ireland, Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar
gave a most powerful address to the nation on St.
Patrick’s Day, March 17. In it, he noted that in years to
come, history would record that in 2020 “when things
were at their worst, we were at our best.”
Social media abounds with stories that prove
this true of the ILA community. It is heartening to
see how each of you is living the mission and vision
of ILA in this time of unprecedented crisis. With
minimum notice, school and university educators are
maintaining teaching and learning and connecting
with their students daily in virtual classrooms.
Librarians and authors are doing daily read-alouds and
reading bedtime stories to nurture a love of reading
among children. Publishers are providing links to free
resources and webinars for educators. ILA chapters
and affiliates are engaging with their members and
addressing their ongoing local needs.
As a global organization, ILA has stepped
forward to provide free access to select articles in
our journals and publications to everyone, members
and nonmembers. A livestream replay of the most
popular sessions from ILA 2019, including speakers
Pedro Noguera, Renée Watson, Donalyn Miller,
David Kirkland, Tricia Ebarvia, and Dave Stuart
Jr., in addition to the acclaimed “‘What Research
Really Says About Teaching Reading—and Why
That Still Matters” panel, are also being provided
free of charge. In April, we hosted our first and
very successful ILA Edcamp Online that allowed
educators from all over the globe the opportunity to
connect in a real-time virtual event. Virtual learning
events like these will continue into the future.
Shaping an Uncertain Future
ILA UPDATE
We will emerge from this crisis bruised but not
broken, a little bit wiser and a little less sure, more
thankful for social interaction than ever, and with
much to reflect upon.
As literacy educators, we will need to reflect
on what it will take to reach a future where access
to literacy instruction and resources is deemed a
fundamental human right for all. We will need to
reflect on evidence- and research-based strategies
for identifying and addressing the needs of all
students through multiple modalities. Finally, we
will need to reflect carefully on issues of equality of
opportunity and equity in access to technology and
online learning during the crisis—who had access
and who did not, and why.
The theme of shaping the future of literacy
invites us all as classroom teachers, school librarians,
administrators, higher education faculty, researchers,
literacy leaders, and policymakers to join together
to define what literacy education could, and should,
look like in the next decade and beyond.
The goal is to create a shared vision, one
informed both by research and by practice, that
benefits every child, everywhere, regardless of
geographical location, gender, ethnicity, or social
class. This shared vision is now more important than
ever, and we must move forward with hope.
In the words of Seamus Heaney, the Nobel
laureate, “Hope is not optimism, which expects
things to turn out well, but something rooted in the
conviction that there is good worth working for.”
May you continue to be at your best while things
are at their worst—and may
you lean upon each other
(and us) in the process.
Bernadette Dwyer
Immediate Past President of
the Board
8
literacyworldwide.org | May/June 2020 | LITERACY TODAY