Literacy
for All
• Checking your bias at
the door to serve all
students
• Promoting social change
in your classroom
• Centering the lives of
students to achieve
equity
July/August 2018
Volume 36, Issue 1
LITERACY TODAY
Contents
LITERACY TODAY
Volume 36, Issue 1
July/August 2018
EDITORIAL STAFF
Managing Editor Colleen Patrice Clark
Editors Christina Lambert & Alina O’Donnell
ILA LEADERSHIP
Executive Director Marcie Craig Post
Associate Executive Director Stephen Sye
2018–2019 BOARD MEMBERS
Bernadette Dwyer, Dublin City University,
President; Kathy N. Headley, Clemson
University, Vice President; Douglas Fisher,
San Diego State University, Immediate Past
President; Juli-Anne Benjamin, Marion P.
Thomas Charter School; Wendy Carss,
University of Waikato; Beverley E. Harris,
Mico University College, University of the
West Indies; Kenneth Kunz, Middlesex Public
Schools; Stephanie Laird, Southeast Polk
Community School District; Susan Paasch,
Sauk Rapids Public School District; Stephen
Peters, Laurens County School District 55; Julia
Reynolds, Allendale Public Schools; Jennifer
Williams, Calliope Global Education Initiatives
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 2411-7862, Print; 2411-
7900, Online) is included in the cost of ILA
membership. To join, visit literacyworldwide
.org. POSTMASTER: Send address changes
to Literacy Today, PO Box 8139, Newark,
DE 19714-8139, USA. CANADIAN GST:
Registration number R-129785523. Publications
Mail Agreement No. 40033039. Return
undeliverable Canadian addresses to PO Box
503, RPO West Beaver Creek, Richmond Hill,
ON, L4B 4R6.
CONTACT US
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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
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their names removed from lists rented by
writing to ILA Customer Service or emailing
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© International Literacy Association
2
EDITOR’S NOTE
4
LIT BITS
6
ILA UPDATE
LITERACY LEADERSHIP
8
How Districts Can Adopt a New Approach
to Struggling Readers
10
Researchers and Leaders React to the
What’s Hot Report
14
Welcoming Conversations That Promote Civic Agency in Childhood
FEATURES
16
Critical Conversations in Equity With Students and Teachers
18
Improving Academic Achievement by Centering Our Students
24
Checking Our Bias at the Door
THE ENGAGING CLASSROOM
28
A Starting Place for Creating Gender-Inclusive Literacy Classrooms
32
Examining Children’s Literature and Asian and Asian American
Stereotypes
34
Meaningfully Using Digital Tools to Foster Disciplinary Learning
36
A Practical Approach for Literacy Achievement in Secondary Schools
THE ILA NETWORK
38
Taiwan’s New Literacy Program Encourages Reading for Pleasure
40
How the Michigan Reading Association Gets Its Members Involved and
Expands Its Literacy Presence
42
EVENTS
43
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
16
Colleen Patrice Clark
Managing Editor
cclark@reading.org
EDITOR’S
NOTE
or many readers, July is marked by endings
and beginnings. Here in the U.S., for example,
school is on break, vacations are underway,
and it’s time for professional learning and
reflection.
July is also the start of a new volume for
Literacy Today. It’s an opportune time—right
at the midpoint of the year—to take a step
back and reflect. We all know how easy it can
be to chug along “business as usual,” but it’s
important to stop and ask questions. This year,
that meant evaluating the magazine’s annual
themes and features. What are the mainstays
and what should change? What topics aren’t
getting enough attention, and what topics are
getting too much?
The latter sounds familiar. It’s the
framework of ILA’s 2018 What’s Hot in Literacy
Report. What topics are hot, and what topics
are truly most critical?
So it made sense to update the magazine’s
issues for this volume year to mirror the
common important themes uncovered in
our 2018 report: Equity Issues, Personalizing
Literacy Instruction, Building 21st-Century
Skills, Excellence in Literacy Instruction, and
Community–Literacy Connections.
We begin with this July/August issue,
in which we tackle important topics such as
questioning the classroom status quo, living
in and teaching in “the gap” and, perhaps
most important, how to check our bias at the
door. These three components, found in the
feature package beginning on page 16, are
critical for literacy educators who want to
best serve all students.
Let the articles in this issue be
opportunities for reflection and conversation
starters. And let us work together to be the
best advocates we can be for our students.
Warmly,
TIME FOR
REFLECTION
Explore the Latest
Topics and Trends in
Literacy Education
With ILA
Get our research-based perspectives on assessment, diversity,
early literacy, education policy, equity in literacy education,
teacher preparation, and more at literacyworldwide.org/statements.
Interested in ILA’s views on
current topics and trends in
literacy education?
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LIT BITS
ILA Announces 2018 Board
Election Results
We are pleased to announce ILA’s newly elected
Board members, including our Vice President,
Kathy N. Headley, professor of literacy and senior
associate dean at Clemson University, South
Carolina.
Our three new Board members-at-large are:
Juli-Anne Benjamin, English educator,
instructional coach, and leadership mentor
from Newark, NJ
Wendy Carss, lecturer in literacy education
at the University of Waikato, New Zealand
Kenneth Kunz, K–12 supervisor of curriculum and
instruction in New Jersey Public Schools and
president of the New Jersey Literacy Association
Their terms will run 2018–2021.
The entire ILA community extends its best
wishes to the newly elected Vice President and
Board members.
Headley
Benjamin
Carss
Kunz
Out Now:
Standards 2017
ILA’s Standards for the Preparation of Literacy
Professionals 2017 is now available. Developed
by literacy experts across the United States,
Standards 2017 sets forth the criteria for
developing and evaluating preparation programs
for literacy professionals, focusing on the
knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary
for effective educational practice in a specific
role and highlighting contemporary research
and evidence-based practices in curriculum,
instruction, assessment, and leadership. Visit
literacyworldwide.org/standards2017 to learn
more and to purchase a copy.
LITERACY TODAY | July/August 2018 | literacyworldwide.org
The following literacy
leadership briefs from
ILA are now available,
or will be soon, at
literacyworldwide.org/
statements:
Democratizing
Professional Growth
With Teachers: From
Development to
Learning, published
in May, reimagines a
model of professional
learning that allows
educators to participate
in its planning and
implementation.
Transforming Literacy
Teacher Preparation:
Practice Makes
Possible, published
in June, discusses the
shifting landscape
for literacy teacher
preparation reform and
transformative practices.
Improving Digital
Practices for Literacy,
Learning, and Justice:
More Than Just Tools,
coming in July, explains
how educators can
use digital resources
to facilitate more
authentic and equity-
driven forms of literacy
instruction that better
prepare youth for
civic, academic, and
vocational pathways
beyond schools.
Save the Date
If you’re attending the ILA 2018 Conference in Austin, TX, in July or
if you want to get an idea of what you’re missing, tune in to our next
Twitter chat on July 12, hosted by conference speakers Matthew Kay,
M. Colleen Cruz, and Tim’m West, who, along with ILA staff members,
will provide a sneak peek at what to expect. Join the conversation by
following the #ILAchat hashtag.
Deadline Extended!
The nomination deadline for ILA’s next 30 Under 30
list has been extended to July 31. Do you know a rising
literacy star who deserves to be recognized? Submit
a nomination, whether it’s for yourself or a colleague,
today at literacyworldwide.org/30under30.
Where
We Stand
Out Now: Choices 2018
In May, ILA announced
the winning titles of the
2018 Choices reading
lists: an annual selection
of new children’s and
young adults’ books,
curated by students and
educators themselves.
All three lists—Children’s,
Teachers’, and Young
Adults’—show an
increase of titles
featuring an author,
character, or storyline
reflecting diversity in
race, gender identity, or
ability. Compared with
2017, the lists include
50% more diverse
books overall. These
books explore themes
such as racial prejudice and police brutality, religious persecution
and biracial relationships, to name a few. To download the lists or
to apply as a Choices team leader for the 2019–2022 term, visit
literacyworldwide.org/choices.
These days, nearly every organization in the
education space is talking about equity. So much so
that at times it starts to sound like a buzzword. But
educators who have understood the importance
of this work for years and incorporated it into their
practice often ask, “Well, what are you actually
doing? Don’t just talk about it; do something.”
So, we did.
In 2015, we transitioned to become the
International Literacy Association, and our
conference was held in St. Louis, MO, just a few
miles from Ferguson, where riots broke out the
previous summer after the shooting death of
Michael Brown. In 2016, our conference moved
to Boston, MA, which happened to take place the
same week that Philando Castile and Alton Sterling
were shot and killed. It was also the very same
week that an ambush in Dallas, TX, left five police
officers dead and nine more injured.
It was a somber start to a conference that’s
typically a joyful event.
A dear friend and one of our featured speakers in
2016, Cornelius Minor, reached out just prior to the
conference and asked if there’d possibly be a place for
educators to come together, talk about, and process
the events of the week. He wanted a place for us
to heal and offered to help put something together.
Without hesitation, we said, “Yes!”
That impromptu session attracted so many
attendees we couldn’t fit everyone into the room.
Teachers waited outside the door, hoping someone
would leave just so they could claim the seat.
That’s when we knew. If we were going to
honor our mission, serve our members, and give
literacy educators what they were so clearly hungry
for, we needed to do more.
The time for sitting on the sidelines was over. It
was time to not only act, but also lead the way.
At ILA 2017 in Orlando, FL, we launched an
Equity in Education Program, which was extremely
popular and will expand at ILA 2018 in Austin, TX, in
July. This past March marked the debut of ILA West,
Leading the Conversation
ILA UPDATE
an intensive workshop on literacy as a pathway to
equity in education, in San Diego. We have also
published blog posts, magazine articles, and held
Twitter chats along with taking part in several other
initiatives including signing onto amicus briefs,
and we are now looking to develop even more
publications and events to participate in further
advocacy efforts.
This is only the beginning.
ILA’s commitment to equity in literacy
education strikes a chord with me personally. I
experienced firsthand the benefits of high-quality
instruction—all because I was lucky enough to have
been raised by a teacher and attend schools that
valued teacher preparation and offered programs
outside of the standard curriculum.
Had I been born one house to the right or left,
and not had those opportunities, I’d probably be a
very different person. I’ve seen far too many times
what can happen to a child who doesn’t have the
opportunities and support I was lucky enough to
have received. I can honestly say that it wasn’t lack
of ability, but lack of support in the form of current
resources and meaningful teacher professional
development experiences that were the missing
ingredients to success for those around me
growing up. I’m talking about support in the form
of schools that value highly effective teachers and
invest in trained specialized literacy professionals.
And schools in which there’s a culture of literacy,
unrestricted access to culturally diverse and
representative books, and true partnerships with
families.
Having access to that kind of education can
no longer be left to luck. We need to create those
opportunities for all students, regardless of their
zip code or country of origin. ILA believes that
receiving a high-quality education shouldn’t be a
privilege. It’s a basic human right, and we won’t
stop until that promise is fulfilled.
At ILA, our focus has always been on providing
educators with the preparation, research-based
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resources, and professional development and
learning opportunities needed to reach their
highest potential for the sake of every student. We
will continue to do this.
But there are other kinds of supports needed by
today’s educators, things that can’t always be found
in a textbook.
Take a moment and ask yourself a few
important questions: How do you see each child
as an individual? How do you develop the empathy
to understand their unique challenges, even if you
can’t identify with who they are or where they
come from? How do you check your bias at the
door and honor your ethical obligation to meet the
needs of all your students, regardless of personal
beliefs? (Side note: If you have no interest in
answering any of those questions, you might be in
the wrong profession. Just saying.)
We won’t even try to pretend we have all the
answers, because we don’t. You know we don’t.
But we can lead the conversation. We can help
raise awareness of the challenges and work to
provide solutions. We can amplify our collective
voices, share the work that we’re all doing, and
honor our roles in ensuring that every child has an
equitable education.
Tell us what you need to make these things
happen. We’re listening. And we’re doing!
Stephen Sye
ILA Associate Executive
Director
LITERACY TODAY | July/August 2018 | literacyworldwide.org
he beginning of a new school year is a time for teachers and students to make
a fresh start: a new classroom, new routines and, of course, new books. But for
struggling readers, starting over year after year may not be such a good thing.
Research shows that teachers and reading specialists don’t often have
a clear idea of how struggling readers fare long term in their districts.
Additionally, teachers get very little information about the type of instruction
and intervention struggling readers have received prior to arriving in
their new class, and almost no information about how the students do once
they move on to the next grade level. Because of this, teachers and reading
specialists are often left to start from scratch every year when it comes to
the struggling readers in their classrooms. This problem often becomes even
worse when students change schools within the district, such as when moving
from elementary to middle school.
However, districts can better serve their struggling readers by adopting a
long-term, multiyear view toward helping struggling readers.
Action #1: Leverage existing assessment data.
Because of data collection requirements to calculate value-added scores for
teachers, many districts are now in a unique position of collecting longitudinal
data that measure reading achievement on a vertically aligned scale. For example,
the Measures of Academic Performance (NWEA), i-Ready Adaptive Diagnostic
Assessment (Curriculum Associates), and Star Reading (Renaissance Learning)
can be used to measure reading assessment across multiple grade spans.
Districts can use these existing data to take a systematic look at their own
students by determining the different trajectories of growth in reading students
take. Many districts now have an in-house data analyst, and those that don’t
could look to partner with local universities. This type of long-term data can
help districts answer specific questions about their own districts and students,
including:
What are the differences between struggling readers who make progress
and those who don’t?
Is there a grade level where struggling readers are most likely to catch up or
fall behind?
What skills are our struggling readers having the most difficulty with?
Action #2: Communicate district trends in reading to
teachers.
After taking a systematic look at district data, school leaders should take
time during professional development or staff meeting days to communicate
the district trends in reading achievement. Teachers should have a clear
understanding of the long-range development of the students in their district.
Teachers, aided with this knowledge, will have a better understanding of how
the instruction and intervention they provide at a specific grade level fits in with
How districts can adopt a new approach to struggling
readers
A LONG-TERM VIEW
By Laura Northrop
Laura Northrop
(l.northrop@csuohio.edu),
an ILA member since 2002,
is an assistant professor of
literacy education at Cleveland
State University in Ohio. She
is the recipient of ILA’s 2017
Outstanding Dissertation of
the Year Award.
LITERACY
LEADERSHIP
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