March/April 2015
Volume 32, Number 5
Transform
Your Practice
Shaquille O’Neal, Octavia Spencer,
and 300+ other reasons to come to ILA 2015
Becoming a culturally responsive educator
Why schools need to be more teacher-centered
READING TODAY
READING TODAY
March/April 2015
Volume 32, Number 5
Transform
Your Practice
• Octavia Spencer, Shaquille O’Neal,
and 300+ other reasons to come to ILA 2015
• Becoming a culturally responsive educator
• Why schools need to be more teacher-centered
Contents
READING TODAY
Volume 32, Number 5
March/April 2015
EDITORIAL STAFF
Communications Manager Lara Deloza
Managing Editor Colleen Patrice Clark
Senior Staff Writer April Hall
Interns Logan Farmer and Madelaine Levey
ILA LEADERSHIP
Executive Director Marcie Craig Post
Associate Executive Director Stephen Sye
BOARD MEMBERS
Jill D. Lewis-Spector, New Jersey City
University, President; Diane Barone, University
of Nevada, Reno, Vice President; Donald Bear,
Iowa State University; Julie Coiro, University of
Rhode Island; Lori DiGisi, Framingham Public
Schools, Massachusetts; Bernadette Dwyer,
St. Patrick’s College, Drumcondra, Dublin
City University; Laurie A. Elish-Piper, Northern
Illinois University; Douglas Fisher, San Diego
State University; Rona F. Flippo, University of
Massachusetts Boston; Shelley Stagg Peterson,
OISE/University of Toronto; Julianne Scullen,
Anoka-Hennepin School District, Minnesota
ADVERTISING
For information, contact Megan Ferguson at
800-336-7323 ext. 417 or advertising@reading.
org. Acceptance of advertising does not imply
endorsement.
ABOUT US
Reading 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
Reading Today (ISSN 2160-8083) is included
in the cost of ILA membership. To join, visit
reading.org. POSTMASTER: Send address
changes to Reading Today, PO Box 8139,
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CONTACT US
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© International Literacy Association
Facts
About Shaq
Investigating
Octavia Spencer
14
16
2
EDITOR’S NOTE
4
LIT BITS
LITERACY LEADERSHIP
6
Becoming a Culturally Responsive Educator
8
Why Elementary-Level Teachers Need
More Freedom
ANNUAL CONFERENCE
10
Our Author Luncheon Speakers Show Off
Their Artistic Sides
20
An Exhibit Hall Retrospective
22
Our St. Louis Restaurant and Activity Guide
THE ENGAGING CLASSROOM
26
Fostering a Year-Long Love of Literacy
28
The Power of Read-Aloud
30
Digging Deeper into Close Reading
32
Helping Students Take Ownership When Writing From Sources
THE ILA NETWORK
36
How Harris-Stowe State University Turns ILD into a
Co mmunity-Building Event
GLOBAL IMPACT
38
A Look at ILA 2015’s Worldwide Presenters
40 EVENTS
42 MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
In “Creating Lifelong Readers,” an article that appeared in the
January/February issue, we incorrectly named former
ILA Executive Director Ronald Mitchell.
The digital version of the magazine refl ects the change.
photo ©Austin Hargrave/August Image, LLC
MAKE IT
COUNT
’m going to say it: Time flies.
It’s one of the clichés I hate the
most, but not because of its overuse.
It’s because it’s so darn true that it
scares me. How is it March? How is
the school year almost over? How
is our ILA transformation well
underway, and how is conference
just a few short months away?
I could go on. And on. But I’ll
spare you.
My point is that rather than get
caught up in how quickly tomorrow
will be here (don’t go looking at the
clock), we need to stay grounded
by talking about what we can
do today. We want you to get the
support you need and help each
other, too, especially as we enter
this homestretch, and keep your
focus on the prize—changing your
students’ lives.
You’ll find that focus in this
issue, from articles on making
reading a year-round habit (page 26)
to the simple power of read-alouds
(page 28). We’ll also dig deeper into
text complexity and what it really
means (page 30), and how to foster
ownership among students when
writing from sources (page 32).
Fitting with our conference
theme of transformation, we’ll
examine what it means to be a
culturally responsive educator
(page 6), and why it’s so necessary in
today’s world, as well as how some
schools might be able to provide
more opportunities and freedom for
go-getter teachers (page 8).
Transformation is a very
fitting theme. We can’t go through
this evolution to ILA without asking
you to join us on our mission. So
take time to read our conference
coverage, starting on page 10, and
the accompanying Conference
Preview supplement packaged with
this issue. We’re so excited about
the amazing lineup of speakers, but
the best part is the message you will
walk away with from ILA 2015: You
are an agent of change. You are at
the frontlines of spreading literacy
to every corner of the world, and
you hold the power to transform
your practice and your students.
I look forward to seeing many of
you in St. Louis, which (depending
on when you read this) is about
130 days away. Let’s make each day
count.
Warmly,
EDITOR’S
NOTE
Colleen Patrice Clark
Managing Editor
cclark@reading.org
2
March/April 2015 | READING TODAY
Mark Your Calendars
Digital Learning Day is March 13. If you’re looking for ideas, check
out the tools on ReadWriteThink.org—like student interactives and
mobile applications, such as our Timeline and Trading Cards apps.
Then tell us what you’re doing to celebrate by tweeting @ILAToday!
What’s New?
Look for these updates and more on literacyworldwide.org:
ILA E-ssentials
■
“The SHOTS Strategy: Using Complex Narratives to Spark
Independent Thinking,” by A. Vincent Ciardiello, for the
21st-Century Literacy Skills series
ILA Bridges
■
“Pilgrims and Wampanoag of the 1620s—A Unit to
Encourage Perspective for Grade 3,” by Kathleen
Monahan, Laurie Higgins, and Mark Galligan
New e-Book to be Released
■
What’s New in Literacy Teaching? Weaving Together
Time-Honored Practices With New Research, a
compilation based on the E-ssentials series edited by
Karen Wood, Jeanne Paratore, Brian Kissel, and Rachel
McCormack
LIT BITS
4
March/April 2015 | READING TODAY
9.7
Percent of
15-year-olds in 18
countries ranked top
performers in the
inaugural fi nancial
literacy portion
of the Program of
International Student
Assessment (PISA)
Percent that
didn’t meet the
“baseline level of
profi ciency”
The top
performing
region:
Shanghai-China
Students who are more likely to
fi nish a book they picked out,
according to Scholastic’s Kids &
Family Reading Report
Percent of countries
in an Organization
for Economic
Cooperation and
Development
study where girls
outperformed boys
in reading, math,
and science literacy
BY THE NUMBERS
15.3 No.1 9 out of 10 70
Did You Hear?
“Parents in the U.S. are
obsessed with teaching
their kids the ABCs…what
they should be doing is
‘scaffolding’ their children’s
writing.” —Tel Aviv University’s
Dorit Aram, whose study
supporting writing among
preschoolers as a key
to literacy development
was published recently in
Early Childhood Research
Quarterly
Our newest Alpha Upsilon Alpha (AUA) honor society chapter was established
at New York’s Hofstra University. Created in 1985, AUA encourages the
development of personal and professional leadership and service to the field
of literacy. The inaugural members, who join 21 other chapters across the U.S.,
will spend the semester holding book discussion groups, a speakers’ series on
campus, and collecting books for local schools in need.
ILA’s Future Leaders
Welcome to ThisWeek
We’ve introduced a new weekly e-mail called ThisWeek. You’ll
receive fewer e-mails from us (which you’ve been asking for);
but we’ve streamlined the content you want into a more user-
friendly format. If you’ve unsubscribed from ILA e-mails and
want back in, visit literacyworldwide.org/thisweek.
Keep your eye on
your e-mail on
March 23. That’s
when election ballots
will arrive for the
2015-2016 ILA Board
of Directors. Voting
will be open until
April 27, and winners
will be announced in
early May.
Don’t Forget to Vote
READING TODAY | March/April 2015
Kimberly M. Jones-Goods
(kmjones3@ncat.edu)
has a background in
education that spans
10 years as a classroom
teacher and building level
administrator at a K–12
public charter school,
where she was in charge of
the instruction for racially,
culturally, ethnically,
and linguistically diverse
students. She is an adjunct
professor at North Carolina
Agricultural & Technical
State University.
s demographics change, schools must change to meet the needs of students from
diverse cultures. Teachers must capitalize on diverse races, ethnicities, and
cultures in the classroom to have the greatest impact on literacy acquisition.
Unfortunately, a literacy gap exists wherein white students consistently
outperform their diverse counterparts.
In order to close the gap, a greater focus has been given to the Common Core
State Standards (CCSS) instructional shifts in English language arts and literacy.
By Kimberly M. Jones-Goods
LITERACY
LEADERSHIP
THE CULTURALLY
RESPONSIVE
CLASSROOM
Why we need to transform instructional strategies
6
March/April 2015 | READING TODAY
It is stressed now more than ever that
teachers need to capitalize on the
growing racial and ethnic diversity in
their classrooms.
Why culturally responsive
practices are needed
Gloria Ladson-Billings said culturally
responsive practices empower students
intellectually, socially, emotionally, and
politically by using cultural references
to impart knowledge, skills, and
attitudes of inclusion.
These practices also involve using
students’ cultural knowledge, prior
experiences, and frames of reference
to make learning more relevant and
effective. In the absence of culturally
responsive instruction, students
may experience slower literacy
development.
Cultural relevance, or
responsiveness, was introduced
in the early 1990s by scholars who
believed students of color were prone
to low academic achievement due to
the discontinuity between home and
school, which is reflective of some
parents’ views about school not being
important. Ethnically diverse students
are often celebrated culturally, but
within the classroom their culture is
not used as a learning tool.
Robert T. Jiménez suggested a need
to transform literacy education through
examining the cultural and linguistic
backgrounds of students to modify and
adapt the content and instructional
methods. Researchers believe if
educators incorporated elements of
culture and language, diverse students
would show academic growth.
Scholars agree that as students
from diverse backgrounds become the
majority, there will be a greater need to
provide them with an education that is
relevant to their experiences.
Consider Amla
The following anecdote is a real
example of the instructional dimension
of culturally responsive practices:
While transitioning from her
native country to the U.S., Amla
admitted difficulty connecting with
students: “I am from South Africa and
my parents are from India. I am not
used to teaching black and Hispanic
students or seeing the lackadaisical
manner in which some of them take
education.”
In building relationships with
students, Amla had to explore their
lifestyles, culture, and language.
Eating lunch together provided the
opportunity to engage in culturally
based conversations. As a result, many
of the misunderstandings she had
disappeared.
Through analysis of her own
sociocultural experiences, Amla
incorporated cultural ways of thinking
and learning into the classroom. She
expressed she could not rely on prior
knowledge and experiences with the
diverse cultures in her classroom
because these experiences did not
necessarily match the lives and
experiences of her students.
Amla integrated various
perspectives when teaching literature.
She brought in works that related to her
own country to demonstrate her way of
life was not extremely different from
that of her students. She taught them
that racism is a struggle for people all
over the world.
Amla used the movie Skin to have
a critical dialogue. The movie, set in
South Africa during apartheid, involves
the main character, Sandra Laing, a
black child born to white Afrikaners.
Sandra’s complexion was the result of
black ancestry of which neither parent
had knowledge.
While Amla felt the content fit the
theme of racism and other “isms” that
oppress, one student took issue and
asked, “Why do we have to watch this?
What does this have to do with English
class?” When Amla brought up the
lesson objectives, the student replied,
“We’re tired of hearing about your life.
That has nothing to do with us.”
Although the movie met the
objectives, Amla failed to supplement
the lesson with relevant instructional
materials or real-world experiences to
which her students could relate.
Becoming a culturally
responsive teacher
Culturally responsive pedagogy covers
three dimensions: institutional,
personal, and instructional. The
instructional dimension is most
important as it relates directly to
student achievement because it
includes the materials, strategies,
and activities that form the basis of
instruction.
Materials are designed to
effectively teach students how to read
and write using materials in which they
see their own culture. Research shows
students who do not see themselves in
the materials become disengaged.
Strategies allow students to analyze
and construct meaning from their own
experiences. Metacognitive processing
strategies demonstrate the overlap of
the skills they use at home and in the
classroom. Graphic organizers, primary
language reading materials, and basal
texts can be used to teach specific skills
in a primary language and then transfer
them to English.
Cultural responsiveness goes
beyond the celebration of holidays and
requires a complete shift. One obstacle
is many teachers possess limited
intercultural experiences to bring into
the classroom.
However, teachers can become
culturally responsive by respecting and
learning more about the culture and
experiences of all students; adopting
inclusive practices; encouraging critical
conversations on diversity issues; and
validating students and promoting
equity within the classroom.
I believe teachers must have
the motivation and prior training
required to teach literacy in a culturally
responsive way or they will continue
to perpetuate the Western style of
individualism. Because education is
not “one size fits all,” utilizing only
one teaching style prevents culturally
diverse students from reaching their
literacy potential and becoming
productive citizens. ■
Cultural responsiveness goes beyond
the celebration of holidays and requires
a complete shift.
READING TODAY | March/April 2015