AVReading Newsletter October: Growing Our Understanding of Dyslexia

 

As mentioned in the September newsletter, we will focus our attention this year on some of the earlier pillars of reading instruction to help understand the current interventions being employed within our curriculum and to potentially play with some of their elements in our own classrooms. 

To establish some common language, I am going to begin by defining three important terms of reading: dyslexia, phonemic awareness, and phonics.  

The first, dyslexia, is an often used, and largely misused term.  Depending on who you ask, you are likely to get a different answer.  In a general sense, people use it to indicate someone struggling with reading.  Perhaps they have observed that the reader or writer transposes letters backwards or flips the order of the letters as they decode.  Perhaps the reader struggles with multisyllabic or unique words.  Or perhaps they read very slowly and deliberately.  While all of these are characteristics of dyslexia, many times people confuse one or two of these symptoms as concrete evidence of a formal diagnosis, when the severity and frequency of these symptoms probably do not rise to the level of that label.  Technically speaking, dyslexia can only be diagnosed by a trained licensed psychologist or neurologist.  Its most telling indicators include a lack of phonemic awareness (being able to recognize the different sounds that a word has in it), disfluent and error prone oral reading, reduced processing speed, limited knowledge of  orthography / spelling, deficits in working memory, and limits on vocabulary size.   Using the word dyslexia casually can-- like any false positive-- create a number of problems.  Not only would a misdiagnosis lead to unnecessary or even harmful remediations, but it can have a detrimental impact on a reader's sense of efficacy.  Depending on which definition you accept, researchers put dyslexia rates from a small proportion of the population to as many as 15 to 20 percent.  Generally speaking, I am less concerned with the specific label as I am diagnosing where the breakdown is occurring: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, or comprehension.  

This brings us to the term of phonemic awareness.  By and large, as readers, we have not given much thought to the actual sounds that comprise a given word.  Once we mastered the concept as young children, it became almost involuntary.  Phonemic awareness is the first step in the reading journey.  We came to some sort of understanding that words like “cat” have three different sounds in them /c/ /a/ /t/.  There is no print text involved in learning phonemic awareness.  It comes even before we start playing with the alphabet.  

Once people master the principles of phonemic awareness, they begin to learn the alphabet and eventually begin to explore the combinations of letters to create sounds and ultimately words.  Phonics is the study of how these printed letters operate under a system of rules and patterns that we use to decode for meaning.  We learn things like the letters c-a-t indicate three sounds /c/ /a/ /t/ which can be blended together to make the word “cat”. It is learning that words that end with a vowel, consonant, and “e” indicate that the vowel will have a long vowel sound to it and the “e” is silent, along with many other patterns and rules of letters and sounds that enable us to quickly piece together the code of reading.  

For the vast majority of our high school students, they have mastered both phonemic awareness and phonics instruction.  A very small number of students, either because of a neurological condition, a profound trauma, or a significant disruption to their schooling, will need help with phonemic awareness, but the vast majority of our reading impaired students at the high school level struggle with fluency (the ability to read smoothly in phrases), vocabulary (the knowledge of words), and comprehension (the ability to employ strategies to make meaning of sentences, paragraphs, and chunks of text). 

Here are some things you can do to play with rules of phonics in your classrooms:

Word Patterns: Maximize the impact of vocabulary work in your class by choosing to center words that have patterns.  To avoid an elementary feel, I choose words that belong to the pattern but that students might not know.  For example, “irate” might be the focal word. I revisit the pattern -VCE (vowel, consonant, silent e), and then have them repeat and guess words like migrate, elaborate, elucidate, emancipate, reprobate.  

Prefix Patterns: While a number of prefixes are more commonly known (eg pre-, in-, un-), there are a few others that are worth introducing or reviewing:  con- (“with”), sub- (“underneath”, “lower”) , af- (“to”, “towards”).

Suffix Patterns: Unlike prefixes, I like to put up a number of words with the same suffix to simply get students to determine the word type (eg - noun, adjective, verb etc).  For example, I’ll put up five words with the suffix -al (equal, jovial, dismal, brutal, formal), and ask students if they can determine what part of speech they all belong to. 

 

 

Find the full newsletter here.  

AVReading Newsletter September-- READ ACT AV Edition

 

Welcome back to those of you returning! Welcome to those of you who are new.  I am the school’s reading coordinator, and as part of my work here, I publish a monthly newsletter to highlight important literacy and reading topics and practices.  I also administer reading assessments to students when teachers suspect that there might be a reading problem involved.  Additionally, I work with teachers in both full staff sessions and one-on-one appointments to design literacy rich curriculum, develop better assessments, promote reading strategies, and finally to foster environments of engagement.  I also am available to visit classrooms to teach comprehension strategies and open up my own classroom for observations if you are interested in seeing a particular strategy employed in real life.  Please feel free to come to me with questions or concerns you have related to literacy, reading, and / or engagement.  I am here to help!

Each year, I identify a theme or topic as an area of focus for the monthly newsletters.  Last year, the central focus was on building community within the classroom.  This year, I am hoping to take on a few important topics.  For starters, I would like to update everyone on the pending changes to our reading intervention that are the result of the newly passed READ Act.  While this will not mean a significant alteration to most of your classrooms, it will be good to have an understanding of what these changes are and how you might be able to add or  modify a few of your own practices to compliment what is being taught in the intervention courses.  

The READ Act was signed into law in the spring of 2023, and it states that the goal of the legislation is to have every student at every grade (K-12) to be at or above grade level in reading.  It specifically states that districts and schools must now exclusively use evidence-based reading instruction, which is code for moving away from balanced and whole language programs that have been traditionally used as part of reading instruction.  The READ Act mandates a screening / assessment procedure for every student up until third grade, and for all students not at grade level after that using specific tools that have been approved by the state.  The READ Act also mandates that all reading teachers and specialists will need to participate in Minnesota  Department of Education approved professional development that centers reading instruction on six pillars of reading:  phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, and cultural and linguistic diversity.  

At the high school level, this will have an impact on reading interventions, special education, and EL curriculum and classes.  But it will not likely impact content area classes in significant ways-- especially here at AVHS where we already have systems in place to help on-level and co-taught teachers implement literacy and comprehension strategies.  

Still, you will see a shift in some of the reading strategies that I will promote moving ahead.  Previously, much of our emphasis at the high school level has been on the last two pillars:  comprehension and cultural and linguistic diversity.  However, as our data indicates, we have greater need now to address some of the earlier pillars like phonics, vocabulary and fluency.   

So for this year especially, we will focus our attention on some of this terminology and ways we might be able to complement the instruction across the school day.  As the year continues, I will grow the area of focus to include some of the cultural and racial elements that come to play out in our classrooms.  It will be a year where we focus on both reading the word and the world!  Each month, I like to include three, tangible practices that teachers can bring back to their classrooms.  For this month, I’ll offer a few exercises that serve as “word play” and can compliment phonics instruction happening elsewhere. 

Word Chunks: Our content areas introduce lots of interesting and complex words to our students.  They provide an excellent opportunity to play with the phonics of the words without making it feel as though they are children.  Put the focal word on the board and ask students to identify the chunks or syllables.  Say the word and snap or clap on the syllables and have them tally them up.  For example, the word “paradox” has three chunks: /par/ /a/ /dox/. 

Word Parts:  Next, ask them if they recognize any parts or words within the word.  Linguistically, many of our words have a root plus an affix (which can either be a prefix at the beginning or a suffix at the end).  In the case of paradox, they likely will not be able to pick out any word parts, but the word “paradoxical” is easily identifiable as an adjective because it ends in the suffix -al.  

Origins: Words have amazing histories.  A quick glance at etymoline.com will offer you lots of good information.  It’s easy to see the interconnection of words once we see where they came from.  For example, the word paradox comes from the Greek words of para-- “contrary to, beyond, alongside” and doxa-- “opinion”.   It shares a root with other words like paralegal, paramount, paranoid, paranormal, and parable.

See the full newsletter here. 

AVReading Newsletter June 2024-- Honoring the Outlier

 For as much as a sense of community is needed for a rich, transformative educational environment, I am aware that there will always be resisters.  These are students who, despite our best efforts, simply refuse to join the community.  There may be many different reasons for their resistance.  And the truth is, discovering the reason is not always necessary or important.  And despite our own wishes to have everyone included, community does not happen when it is forced upon people.  On a certain level, I understand the nature of a classroom will always include a type of involuntary participation in community and that it will always feel a little contrived, maybe even forced.  Yet there is a distinction between a classroom where conditions are created for students to more willingly join into community, and one where students are coerced into group action.

            For those who resist, careful consideration is needed to engage the students and help them to be successful in whatever ways we can. As we speak, I have two sections of Co-Taught English 9 classes where we have a higher percentage of students on IEPs.  Between the two sections, I have three firm resisters.  These are students who will generally opt out of all large and small group activities.  One will just as likely choose to sit on the floor along the outside wall, as she is to sit in her seat.  One will not return to class after lunch on most days. And one escapes into her phone, refusing to put it away, or when told to do so, will tell us that she will put her phone away but will not do anything beyond that.  

            In my younger days, these instances would generally escalate, if not on a daily basis then slowly over the course of a term when my patience would grow ever thinner with their choices.  

            While I still worry about these students, my approach has definitely changed over time.  The “my-way-or-the-highway” approach will not work.  Resistors will either double down on their original choice, or become ever more resentful of your intrusion.  This is not to say that I am a push over.  Again, my goal is, as Ed Moore suggests, to become a warm demander.  Here are a few thoughts to help navigate resistors.

            Pulling in the Dissenter.  Working with strong willed students requires creativity and time.  For starters, I will often do what I can to establish a relationship with the individual outside of class.  This might mean a visit to their study hall or a walk-n-talk between classes or even a letter or email where we can connect.  I am always surprised by how willingly many of these students will enter into a conversation with me in the hopes that things might improve.  In some cases, I will actually make a point to visit the student once a week.  It sets a precedence where they know I am coming to check in on them, to give them both praise and correction.  

            Take What They Can Give.  This can be a dangerous mindset for me.  Teachers who lower their expectations too much run the risk of never challenging students at all.  This is where I have to work especially hard with other people in the students’ lives who can better gauge what is an acceptable expectation versus one that might be too easy or too difficult.  From case managers to co-teachers to parents and guardians, I am constantly triangulating the data I collect in my personal interactions with information I am getting from these other supportive adults.  

Leave the Door Open.  Part of our jobs as teachers is to have hope even when the student may not.  This can be exceedingly difficult in week ten of the term, when you can see nothing but “zeros” in the gradebook and carry a long list of offenses and insults that have been directly aimed at you.  Leaving the door open requires a considerable amount of fortitude, maybe as much fortitude as it takes students who regularly experience trauma to come to school each day.  I am constantly trying to find ways to let individuals know that they are still a part of our community, even if they spend a lot of energy trying to resist it.  It is a gentle “hello” as they enter the room.  Or it might be a little post it note that I drop off.  It could be a nod of the head.  It’s a willingness to both be firm, and to give them space, but to always let them know that they have a place in your class. 

Read the full newsletter here.  

AVReading Newsletter May 2024-- The Circle

 

          AVHS was built around the idea of a circle.  It began as a quirky, architectural choice in the building’s original design with these massive circular windows that span the height of both floors and look out from the building’s front facade.  In the last wave of remodeling, the circular theme has become infused throughout the building.  Our marquee at the front incorporates the circle, our expansive commons area uses the design in the carpet, massive circles hang from the ceiling, and the newly painted walls are decorated with them.  Even the exterior walls of our theatre follow the curve of a circle, defying the usual square corners of large rooms and buildings.

            It is a different feel from the traditional spaces of schools, where we have become accustomed to hard angles, straight lines, and clean, tidy box-like classrooms.  The choice was intentional.  A circle has a different power and connotation than a line or a set of rows.  Energy flows differently, and there is a stronger sense of connection and community when we enter into circles.  

            It was not until I entered my PhD program-- where class sizes were much smaller-- that I experienced the power of the circle on a regular basis within the classroom.  Many of my courses were set up so that we sat in a circle, shoulder to shoulder.  We came together, joined in the common pursuit of knowledge, sharing and debating our thoughts and beliefs around an invisible axis.  It is much harder to hide in a circle, to duck down and rest your eyes for a little, to check your phone or participate in side conversations without notice.  In that sense, circles are much more transparent.  Throughout so much of my schooling, students would prefer rows and move to the seats at the back of the room, some place where you might have a little more freedom to do what you please, to tune out and move more independently. Circles bring different energy and a different sense of community.

At the secondary level, this is not always feasible.  Packing 30-35 students in a room does not allow many options for rearranging the furniture, or forming circles.  And while it might not be practical to come together in circles everyday, I do make an effort to circle everyone up at least three or four times a trimester.  

Here are a few classroom, circular ideas.

Snap Around.  The Snap Around is a great, low risk class activity, even when you have large numbers.  I use them sometimes for class openings and sometimes for closings.  As an opener, they simply serve as a team builder or ice breaker.  I will bring them to the circle, give them a prompt and have them “snap around” the circle with their responses as quickly as they can.  It might be as light hearted as, “Name your favorite part of fall” or something a little more topical like, “What is the hardest part of reading?”  I also like to do Snap Arounds as a type of formative assessment at the end of the hour.  “Give the title of your book and state the general setting of the story.” This is data!  I learn a lot.  Is the student willing to come to the circle?  Has the student been reading?  Does the student know what “setting” is?  

Name Olympics.  I got this activity from an online resource.  It is perfect for Day One.  And again, it is a low risk but high value ice breaker.  For this, students just need to know their own name!  Form a circle with you in the middle of it.  Tell them that the goal is to say their names one by one moving , clockwise around the circle, as quickly as they can. Time them.  Challenge them to do better on the second, or if you think they can do better, third time.  Then do it again moving counter clockwise.  Then challenge them to do it as fast as they can skipping every third person.  Then have a contest where you start two lines at once-- one moving counter clockwise, one moving clockwise-- and see which line comes back around to start first.  Again, it is fun.  Folks can not  help but hear the names of their peers multiple times, and hopefully there is some laughter. 

Ball Activity.  For this, you need one of those cheap plastic balls (perhaps even a beach ball would do).  On the ball, you will write about 10 different questions related to the day.  Students stand in a circle and toss the ball to someone.  When they catch the ball, they must answer the nearest question they see on the ball.  If need be, I might have two balls and two circles for this as well. 

 

Find the full newsletter here.  

AVReading Newsletter April: Creating Community with Families

 

Creating community in class is important.  Reaching out to families on a regular basis is perhaps just as important to that sense of community. 

Considering our class sizes, this is not an easy or simple task.  Still, the advancement of communication systems has allowed us to more easily reach families.  It might mean a quick email to a parent or guardian or a mass message sent through the school’s course management system.  Letters home through snail mail, conferences, and parent / student orientation nights are also excellent ways to make connections with families. 

With this said, it is still a struggle.  In theory, communicating with families makes a lot of sense.  In practice, it is not easy to do.  Our school days are so hectic and compressed that in some cases we simply forget to make the call home to touch base.  Or perhaps we are so busy putting out immediate fires that we just never really have a chance to get into contact with families as much as we should.  I also get nervous about contacting families.  Although it is rare, I will sometimes run into a rather frustrated parent or guardian who might be well aware of problems in class as described by their own student.  Language and technology can also get in the way.  The end result is that I am sometimes overwhelmed by even the thought of reaching out to families because I know that it simply takes time and a lot of mental and emotional energy to do so.  

When I began teaching the intervention courses for reading, I decided that since the classes were small enough, I would go ahead and make an attempt to contact families every three weeks with an update.  The conversations would always go like this: “Hi, I’m just calling with a quick update on your student’s progress in English.  Do you have two minutes?  Currently, your student has this grade. This is what your student is doing well.  And here is one thing I think your student can work on.  Do you have any questions or concerns?  We have conferences coming up later this month, but if you have any other concerns before then, please feel free to call or email me.  Have a good day.”  

The call has changed my classroom in a number of positive ways. For starters, I inevitably get to learn things about the family and the student that are helpful for me.  I often will ask, “Is there anything you can tell me that will help me become a better teacher for your student?”  Since it does happen every three weeks (for about a total of 12-16 times a year), it is easier to form relationships with these families-- as opposed to those infrequent visits that may or may not happen at conferences.  I have also noticed a change in students and their work.  More than having a “zero” in the column for missing work, they fear the conversation with families where I tell them that their student is missing an assignment. Knowing that the phone call will happen is a game changer for that reason.  I have also noticed a change in behavior.  A student is much more likely to make good choices on a regular basis when they know that I will be consistently calling home.  I will even make deals with students.  I will tell them, “Hey, I’m calling home tomorrow.  I want to give them some good news about how you are doing.  If you do this  or that, I will let them know that I have seen you become more engaged in class.”  

Here are some thoughts on connecting with families.

Calling Home.  Although it is unlikely that you will be able to call all of your students in the way that I am able to do so, you can call some of them.  I have made attempts in the past to call four families a week, trying to reach everyone by the end of a year.  In general, I like to make the calls light, positive and short.  It works best when I set aside a specific time each week to do this.  I also make use of the  phone service that provides translation for families that do not speak English.  This takes a little more set up, but I also find that these are some of my most valuable conversations. 

The Good News Card. In my years of teaching large sections of honors students, I made it a goal to send home a “Good News” postcard to each student at least once a year.  Not only do these help strengthen connections with families, but they are great for the school’s public relations.  Just be sure that the “Good News” messages are sincere and specific.  You can also make these “Good News” calls.  I find that these are especially meaningful for students and families who do not regularly hear good things from school.  I will even ask a class if anyone needs a “Good News” call home.  It is good for me to do.  I am surprised by some of the students who want me to make the call because my impression may have been that they really did not seem to care that much.  

Emails.  Reaching parents and guardians by email is easier than snail mail or phone,  but it is good to remember that not everyone uses or has access to email on a regular basis. Mass emails are a little less effective than personalized ones since people tend to ignore them more often.  It is also good to remember that for those who do not speak English as their primary language, emails pose more of a struggle.  It might also be good to remember that sometimes a family will read the email but not respond.  It may feel like you are sending these messages out into a great void because there are no responses, but I am sometimes surprised to learn that the messages do get read and discussed by families, but that the family does not always feel comfortable in writing a response to me. 

Find the full newsletter here.  

Senior Speaker Materials

 

Guidelines for Writing a Commencement Address

The draft you write for consideration does not need to be a final version, but should give the panelists a clear idea of what you plan to say in your speech. The traditional commencement address has had content which reflects back on the class's experiences and also gives advice or guidance for the future. The tone should be one which inspires and motivates the listeners.

Although the Commencement Address is directed at the graduating class, the message needs to be meaningful and appropriate for the adult audience present as well. Content, language, or style which parents or grandparents might find offensive is not suitable for a Commencement Address.

Humor can be an effective minor element of a Commencement Address. The predominant message, and consequently the predominant writing style, should be serious, thoughtful and inspirational.

 

Format: This a general map of graduation speeches.  It is not required. Feel free to be creative. But as a starting point, you might want to observe the following steps.

 

Introduction--

* Attention getting anecdote

* Establish a theme -- Past speakers have used themes like the qualities of Eagles or the symbolic importance of bridges

* Set purpose or message

 

Body--

* Reflect on events of past 4 years

* Reflect on present status

* Reflect on where things are headed

 

Conclusion--

* Re-emphasize message

* Closing thoughts and anecdotes

 

A few helpful suggestions:

Though you may want to fill your speech with inspirational quotations, and heartfelt thoughts of hope, be careful of overusing clichés. Because they have been used so often, clichés do not always hold much power within a text and tend to be easily forgotten by an audience.

On the other hand, the most memorable speeches are those that tell some type of story. Typically, speakers will use either brief anecdotes or longer narratives to convey their message. As opposed to citing bland clichés that are easy to forget, stories tend to stay with people and carry a stronger emotional and intellectual impact.

 

Here are some samples of past commencement addresses.

2018

2017

2013

2012

AVReading Newsletter March: Changing the Tone

 

As teachers, one of our favorite “go-to” activities for a fun day in class is playing games.  These can be a lot of fun.  I am always a little taken aback how a usually reserved or quiet class can be whipped up into a frenzy when the element of competition is introduced.  It is fun to see these people engaged and even passionate about winning the prize, even when that prize might be something insignificant, like a Jolly Rancher.  

These games are great for review days, where actual test items can be converted into “trivia questions” that students try to answer for individual or team points.  It is an attractive choice for teachers, in part, because there are so many online resources and tools that make “gaming a lesson” quite easy—Kahoot and Gimkit to name a few.  These games are fun and dynamic and a good choice every once in a while.

However, they can also create a tension within a community, especially if those games are carried over long periods of time.  Now for content areas like physical education where students actually sign on for broom hockey or badminton, this is a voluntary choice made by students, or just simply an expectation they have of the class from the start.  However, when we center or design other content areas around the gaming model, it changes the feel of the class. 

So much of our educational system is already founded on a level of competition.  Whether it is the informal competition of students comparing grades and test scores with one another, teachers who curve their grades off the top performers, or the normative scales of most standardized tests.  Whether we knowingly do this or not, we design our classes a little like our free market economy, where we see points or high grades as a highly valued commodity.  This creates a type of competition for those points or high grades. 

This is not to say that we should not have grades or that we should not “curve” tests.  It is simply acknowledging the sometimes hyper competitive atmosphere that schools can foster.  In this atmosphere, there will always be winners and losers. That is the nature of any game.  Unfortunately, this is not always the best environment for students to learn.  

The message here is to simply be aware of the competitive elements we have added to our classrooms. Here are some thoughts about how to adapt our competitive atmospheres to ones that are a little more collaborative in nature.

Goals versus Victories.  Some games can be modified by changing the emphasis from defeating another team or individual to attaining an independent criteria.  For example, if it is a standard trivia question format, the goal can be set at answering seven of the ten questions correctly.  

Extra Credit.  I know that there are some deep philosophical struggles that educators have with extra credit, but I do not have those.  I see it as another tool in the toolbox, especially for some of my students who are regularly disengaged by other attempts.  For some inexplicable reason, some students get more excited by the two points of extra credit than the 100 points they might get if they actually completed their projects.  I like to use the extra credit to get them invested in activities they might not normally want to do.  For example, in a recent letter assignment I offered them a couple of extra credit points for using Shakespearean language.  Or the day before a speech assignment, I gave extra credit points for students who could stand and deliver a 20 second speech without moving their feet, leaning or swaying, and keeping their arms at their sides.  These activities are designed so that they are not out to beat anyone, but to attain a specific standard or target.  

Class Goals.  On occasion, I will set a class goal and then offer a treat or reward if they can meet that goal.  I might tell them that if at least 80% of the class completes a given activity or assignment by a certain date, I’ll bring in donuts!  These simple steps can shift the subtle emphasis away from trying to defeat others to forming collaboratives students can work towards a common goal. 

 

Find the full newsletter here.