Literacy and Technology

Follow Tonight's Presentation Here.

November Newsletter

Sharon Taberski, an independent consultant and teacher of 28 years, recently offered some thoughtful ideas about the design of our classrooms to make them more interactive. She discussed a need to not only construct our spaces to be more interactive, but to also construct our language to encourage interaction.

A recent concern is that we have adopted the language of tests within our classes.  In other words, in teaching to the test, we begin to adopt approaches that require the same type of interaction with our students; meaning that we simply rattle off simple recall or short response questions at the expense of rich conversations and discussions.

In response to this, Taberski believes that there are structural room design things that we can change, curriculum modificaitons, as well as language things we can take on.

The first of these is changing the structure and design of our rooms.  She offered images of classrooms that were designed without desks.  Instead, the room was set up with furniture and chairs placed throughout the room in various set-ups for group work and reading.  It seemed almost radical to envision a room without the rows of desks.  By simply designing the space to accommodate small and large group discussion and interaction, she believes that teachers become more aware of how much they lecture and talk.  Redesigning our spaces allows us to move the center from the front podium of the teacher to the group areas of students.

Additionally, Taberski encouraged teachers to create space for student interaction, which means that within the design of our curriculum and lessons, we empower students to take on more of the talking.  Creating space means developing relationships with and between students so that they feel comfortable sharing and getting involved in the discussions.

Finally, she offered some thoughts on the very prompts we use for our discussions.  Too often, we ask for simple responses versus deep responses.  We ask students to give the answer that we have in our heads, so it becomes a game of “can you read my mind” versus an open and honest discussion on any given topic.  As an alternative to our “What?” and “How?” questions, Taberski offers the following prompts:

• Why do you think this is so?
• Can you say this another way.
• Tell me more
• Can you give me an example?
• What do you think caused that to happen?
• I’d love to hear your thoughts
• How are ___ and __ similar?   

Kylene Beers in Adolescent Literacy (the book we are reading for this year’s Literacy Planning Committee) reiterates this same type of environment.  She writes, “What if authentic assessments were more important than multiple-choice tests?  What if asking the probing questions were valued more than providing the correct answer?  What if learning content in the textbook were substituted for figuring out what to do with that content?”

I believe that the answer would be a pretty engaging and interactive environment, and I encourage you to consider the possibilities of what that might look like in your room.  

Download the full newsletter here.  In this month's edition you will find reading tips for students, plus lessons using stations and close reading.  

Literacy Moment Survey Results

At Friday’s faculty meeting, teachers took a brief survey to indicate their initial impressions of the Literacy Moment here at AVHS.  In this month’s newsletter, I’d like to share a few of those results and observations with you.

Of the sixty four teachers with a non-ninth grade class, forty of them returned a literacy survey, which means these findings represent about 63% of the potential teachers who participated in the program. 

In general, teachers were considerably enthusiastic about the program.  All 40 of the respondents indicated that they participated in the literacy moment.  That is a strong response, though, one should be skeptical of a bias since about 20-25 teachers did not complete the survey.  Thus generalizing from this data is more of a broad indicator versus a detailed picture. 

Bringing Books

According to teacher observations, classes varied in their participation.  About 57% of the teachers stated that 75% or more of the students were bringing books of their own to the Literacy Moment.  

Engaged in Reading

Perhaps the most substantial finding of the survey was the number of students that teachers reported “actively reading for most of the twenty minutes.”  In this case, teachers, overwhelming found that students were engaged in the reading process. 

Seventy-two percent of the respondents stated that nearly everyone was reading for the twenty minutes.  A total of 86% stated that three-fourths of their class was actively reading for that time period, while a mere 14% stated that only half of the students were invovled. 

Classroom Libraries

It was also interesting to note that 37 of the 40 teachers had some sort of classroom library, which is about 93% of the sample.  This was also promising since it indicates a school with a print rich environmnent. 

First Impressions

The last question simply asked teachers for a free response indicator of their initial thoughts on the program.  Nearly all of the respondents were positive in their responses.  One indicated how nice it was to have some time to read.  At least three expressed a surprise at either how many students had books of their own, or how many students seemed to willingly participate in the program.  And another three or so indicated a simple, unadulterated enthusiasm for the program.

There were a few comments of concern.  One indicated a fear that we have too many “alternate schedules,” and while the critique was not specifically against the Literacy Moment, it did suggest a general anxiety over the disruption to our normal schedule.  Three teachers felt that we need to bring the entire school on board.  Two said that it seemed counter productive to have students pulled from class for various school appointments during that reading time, suggesting that it didn’t send the right message.  And one respondent mentioned that they didn’t like having to “police the situation just to make students read.” 

In general, it looks like we are off to a good start.  Chad Clemdening stopped me a few weeks back to re-enforce a thought that I had not remembered.  These students have been through rather extensive independent reading (or SSR) programs in middle school. They are well aware of what a “Silent Sustained Reading” experience should look like.  So many of our fears that students either won’t know what to do, are probably unfounded.  It just isn’t new to them.

 

Again, I will re-state that you should find a system that works best for you.  The amount of structure you want to impose on this depends on what you want it to look like.  With that said, based on my own experiences and the responses of teachers here, I do believe that the majority of students would actually enjoy the unstructured opportunity to read for enjoyment, and the more we get out of the way and let them do it, the better the experience.   

Read this month's full newsletter.  It includes monthly reading tips for students, as well as some tools for measuring student engagement during the Literacy Moment. 

Setting the Right Tone

With this year’s unique scheduling, we have a great opportunity to promote reading and literacy in our building in a powerful way.  Six times throughout the course of our fall trimester, we will provide our 10-12^th graders with twenty minute windows to enjoy the chance to read.  While the popular narrative suggests that no one really reads anymore, the truth is that we probably read more (in text print) than we have ever done before.  In 2005, Gallup found that there had been a 22% increase in U.S. readers who claimed to be actively reading from the data taken in 1957.  And despite the fear that movies and online entertainments have pulled time away from reading, we discover that in many cases they promote it.  Blockbuster hits like Harry Potter, The Hunger Games,  Girl with a Dragon Tattoo, and Twilight all suggest that the book themselves have a symbiotic relationship with books.  Social networking sites have also drawn more people to books, as many take to digital space to express their enthusiasm for texts they read. 

Considering this, I don’t believe it will be as difficult to get people into books as we may think. 

Setting the right tone for theseevents will be important, nevertheless.  While I encourage you to join me after school on Wednesday, September 4^th from 2:30-3:00 in Room 132, I will also provide some helpful suggestions here.  Our first day will be Tuesday, September 10^th, so you might want to plan ahead. 

In terms of prep work, there are three things I suggest. 

1.  Give students ample notice.  Be sure to let them know that the Literacy Moment will be coming up on September 10^th, that it is a twenty minute opportunity to read freely and independently, and that they are expected to have some type of reading material for the occasion—preferably something that has not been assigned as a class reading (magazines would be okay).  

2.  Establish some basic expectations.  (I’ll include a printable “Literacy Moment Book Mark” with expectations in this newsletter.)  First, students will be expected to bring some sort of text to read.  Second, students will be expected to respect the reading time (which means that they will remain quiet and avoid distracting other students). And third, they will be expected to remain engaged in reading (which means this will not be sleepy time or a chance to go online to chat with friends).  

3.  Put together some type of reading library.  I can either help you come up with a “reading care package” filled with a few books and magazines.  Or you can gather one on your own.  Or you can print off some interesting articles or texts related to your specific discipline.  Get creative.  While the expectation is that students should bring their own material, the reality is that some may not.  You probably don’t need a text for everyone, but you might mentally plan on having four or five reluctant readers forget—or even pretend to forget.

As I mentioned in the presentation, you can choose the level of involvement that you feel is most appropriate.  While we hope that you can help to foster a positive community of readers and thinkers, we also recognize that this is neither an area of expertise for you nor even an area where you feel comfortable.  In that case, you may choose to use that time to your advantage (extending a lesson or allowing quiet study time).  After all, you have a greater obligation to do no harm. It would be counter productive to set up an environment where a harsh system of rewards and punishments once again re-enforces the idea that reading must be painful if it has to be forced in such a fashion.

I am always here to help.  While we do not have unlimited resources, we certainly have enough to help all those who might need it.  Come see me today, if you have questions.  

See full September AVReading Newsletter here. 

Eden Prairie Schools Presentation

Today's Presentation


Works Cited for Today's Presentation

Resources
Connected Learning
Integrating Learning and Literacy with iPad and iPhone Apps (O'Brien and Beach, U of M)
Confronting the Challenges of a Participatory Culture
Dig Me: Digital Media Program