Summer Assigned Reading

 Calling All Teachers:  I Need To Hear Your Voice

Since the school year finished, I've been hearing lots of complaints from families about assigned reading taking all the fun out of summer experiences with books.  There are two camps:

1) the parents who kids love to read and will read all summer but feel "constrained" by a book list, required reports to "prove" their reading or assignments during the vacation months.  These moms and dads are telling me that making reading an "assignment" creates an environment where children see it as a chore rather than an adventure.

2) families who don't have a personal connection to the importance of reading for recreation during the summer to protect the reading gains a child has experienced during the school year.  For these families, reading is also a labor, not a pleasure, an assigned task that someone always seems to slip through the cracks with other time demands and distractions.

What Do Researchers and Experts Say?


There are several studies relating to this topic but one I find helpful in addressing our first group is from the American Library Association.   Their findings took into consideration both teacher and student perspective.  This study also provides insight into the use of technology. 

Did you know that there is a research brief on a website called Summerlearning.org?   These ideas began at John Hopkins and you'll find plenty here to raise your level of understanding.  And June 21 of this year, they are sponsoring a Summer Learning Day.  You can visit their website and share your ideas or read to the end of this blog where you'll find a free, grassroots way to touch a child.

Reading is Fundamental, so often in touch with the communities that surround our at-risk populations also comes through with an interesting article entitled A Primer on Summer Learning Loss.  What I appreciated in this article are not only the statistics about summer reading loss which we all know too well but the solutions framed from real schools and school districts.  Duplicating best practices for those who have gone before us AND been successful is one of the best resources we have.

Kids are making a splash with reading in Kansas this summer.  I think any student would find at least one activity at their local library that they would enjoy.

Even Michelle Obama is speaking up on this issue.  Regardless of her husband's politics, she's taking her stand against obesity and pairing it with the idea that summertime is reading time.  Learn more about her support of United We Serve's Let's Read, Let's Move initiative.

Here's a novel idea:  take the ideas from this research and make them a part of a short "mini-study" for yourself, a personal investment in your own professional development this summer.  It will put you in a position to positively impact the summer slump next year.  Set yourself up to start planning to prevent the summer slump at the beginning of the school year.  Make it your goal to not only teach all the strategies and skills but to help your children fall in love with reading and find the book that will get them hooked.

How Do We "Make" Them Want to Read?

I really believe the answers lie in the arena of motivation.  We must give children an authentic, a good reason to read when they are outside the academic arena.  That's why I love Donalyn Miller's approach during her instructional year (you can learn about it in her book, The Book Whisperer and her blog).  She begins working toward summer reading the first day of school by daily crafting her instruction so she builds that key motivation all year long.  She listens to their voices and learns herself how to more strongly motivate students from year to year.  Any student  is much more likely to read if he or she has been in the habit and found it enjoyable and stimulating throughout the school year.  Unfortunately, we seem to separate these key ideas more and more as we become more "curriculum driven" in the classroom.  Don't get me wrong: curricula are good tools but we cannot ignore the motivational piece of the puzzle.  We don't seem to think much about summer reading until it's time for the school year to end.

Answering the question: "why should I read anyway?" honestly and, for our more at-risk students, with a certain level of support, is essential.  Too many "checks" or "requirements" can take the fun out of reading and demotivate rather than motivate. 

But If We Don't Make Reading Assignments, How Are We Going To Know If They Read?

What is your answer to this question?  I'd love your take on your personal experiences with assigned summer readin's effectiveness and the research you have seen (if any) on this subject. What does your specific school or district do ? What would you say to one or both of these families when you send home the "required" reading lists?  Do we have an authentic answer?

A POST SCRIPT

If you are on Facebook, I invite you to visit The Literacy Ambassador's K-6 Summer Challenge cause page and take up the challenge of finding a child to turn on with a book this summer. 

Teachers - Light Your Spark with Families for the Summer Months

Let's Keep Them "In the Pool"

We all know how important the summer months can be for students.  With little stimulation or opportunity, they can lose more than 3 months' progress during the time they are away from school.  Today's post will share resources and information on how you can use these last few weeks to impact summer learning.

I'll begin with a wonderful list of articles, websites, and research from the the State Library of Alaska.  You will find familiar names like Dr. Richard Allington and Steve Kreshan and a few new ones there. 

Here are a few more tools for supporting and encouraging students to read during the summer:

Connect with your local library and other organizations that may be promoting reading with school aged children in your community (booksellers like Amazon and Barnes and Nobles are on board).  Find out what they are doing and publicize those activities and resources with students and families.   My own local library, Huntsville/Madison County Public Library (AL), is offering an End of the Year Summer Reading Party!


Make reading a social event.  Give your students a few extra minutes every day to talk about what they are reading.  Use colorful, florescent index cards or post its and create a cool "What's HOT?" bulletin board. 

Blog or text with your students about what you and they are reading (and viewing) this summer.  You'll need parent permission, but even a core group can make a difference.  I know that you want to be "away" for a while just like the students do but a small investment can yield big dividends.  Set a few guidelines such as how often to post and encourage the online conversation to weave between story lines and characters and what your students are doing during their summer vacation.  You might even see some text to self and text to world connections and squeeze in a bit of authentic writing practice!

Get Families Involved


Families may not understand what can be lost during the summer without reading and writing.  Be sure you share with them a few bits of information and some encouraging resources.  Check out Summer Reading to help moms and dads, grandparents, and caregivers tap into the joy, exploration and fun of reading.
 

Explore the Internet as a Source for Engaged Reading

Hook reading to the Internet!  PBS, Scholastic, and The Collaborative Summer Library Program (an initiative in Minnesota) have all provided online resources and fun stuff to connect to reading. 

ALERT!  Our Voices Need to Be Heard Now

Finally, I 'm asking families to support educators through my blog for parents this week   I'd encourage you to visit and see how you can communicate to your congressmen and representatives in your state about an important amendment being added to the current jobs bill.  It affects your directly!  Letters and sharing need to happen before Tuesday, May 25, as that is the day the amendment will be voted on.  Visit my parent blog and you'll find out more.  While you are there, share the link with families through your classroom newsletter.  They'll be a part of an important "voice of the people" AND find lots of family-friendly resources and ideas for encouraging reading with kids of all ages.

Reading Aloud: More Than An "Old Fashioned Event, If I Have Time" Event

Do you read aloud regularly with your students? 

It doesn't matter how old or young they are, reading aloud with students can have more impact than any other instructional event in your day.  It can be used to grow both reading skills and writing skills (i.e., I'm reading to my 7-8th grade writing class in the photo to the right).  The best part about reading aloud to students; they don't see it as instruction.  The trouble may be that your administrators may not see it as such either.  Here are solutions:

Plan read alouds carefully but deliver them with the instruction element hidden in a cloak of enthusiasm, drama and theatrics.

Pick books that hook, that connect to the experiences and the imagination of the students you will be reading to.  Plan a quick "lesson" document for each book so that you have that ready to draw out when your principal visits and says, "I don't see any teaching going on here."  Here are a few benefits to reading aloud that you can highlight in that lesson plan and connect directly with the instructional pieces you are teaching:

• Reading aloud exposes and highlights new, rich vocabulary (or may even reinforce vocabulary you have taught in social studies or science if you select carefully), thus expanding the number of words a child knows.
• 
  
• Reading aloud gives students opportunity to practice comprehension strategies such as visualization, prediction and questioning, and recognizing a gap in understanding (especially when the teacher is modeling that strongly through a technique like Engaged Interactive Read Aloud).
•  
• Reading aloud builds background knowledge and strengthens mental schemata (the ability to take what they know and bring to a new experience or idea). 

Reading aloud also impacts fluency, phonological awareness, phonics instruction so you get a focus on all of the five key components identified by the National Reading Panel as the cornerstone of reading instruction today.

It also grows writing skills as you share writing together and then discuss whether it is great writing and why or why not.  I love to do this at the start of every writing class or event I conduct.  It turns the brain juices on!

Reading Aloud is an RTI Strategy

Did you realize that reading aloud is a strategy for the popular "response to intervention" approach to addressing the needs of every student?

R. David Freeman, Ed.S. says that "In order to read fluently, students must first hear and understand what fluent reading sounds like. From there, they will be more likely to transfer those experiences into their own reading. The most powerful way for you to help your students is to read aloud to them, often and with great expression."'

LIFT (Literacy Instruction Framework for Teaching) states:  "  that a teacher may choose a read aloud based on a specific teaching purpose, then give explicit instruction on that strategy, and models the strategy during the read aloud.  This is an opportunity for students to hear the teacher’s thinking.  This element offers the highest level of teacher support in the gradual release of responsibility and is the teacher’s opportunity to model.

Education friends Fountas and Pinnell in their book, Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency, Grades K-8,  write extensively about the role of the interactive read aloud.

You can learn more about effective ways to share  read alouds with students and still meet your instructional goals at TLA, Inc  If you are a teacher in preK or Kindergarten, you'll want to check out a more specific description of the Engaged Interactive Read Aloud technique in my new book, Before They Read..

A QUICK P.S.

While I was researching this topic, I found an incredible statement from these incredible researchers that I want to immediately share with you.  I hope you will share this with your colleagues, administration and media specialist (the latter of whom I believe will greatly relieved to hear this clarification of many of their "gut feelings" that over-labeling restricts reading growth.
 
"We recommend that you do not level or label the books in the school library or the classroom library. (You can find this recommendation in the text mentioned above and in Leveled Books, K-8: Matching Texts to Readers for Effective Teaching.) We would not want students to self-select books by level or to think of themselves as a 'level T reader,'for example. They need to be taught to choose books using many different criteria."

As always, I'd love to hear your comments and encourage you to share this blog with your fellow teachers.  We can grow the numbers of visitors and followers but only with your help!

A Quick Post to Share

Testing is over or will soon be for most of you.  Congratulations!  Now you can get back to what you love - teaching!


I recently was honored to speak at the AL Library Association conference and heard again from my friends who are media specialists and librarians that they would like me to do a blog for them.  Abracadabra!  This initial posting, entitled The Literacy Ambassador Club, is simply to solicit ideas for what media specialists and librarians need in a blog.  Will you please share this with the librarians in your life?

I'll be posting again for you in just a day or two but in the meantime, here's a couple of little gifts from The Literacy Ambassador:

a new resource for children's books, The Book Farm, from Blanchester, OH.  They have some good ideas for encouraging summer reading (it will be here before you know it).

secondly, a link to my a master list of all my columns for Educationworld.com.  Scan through and find the one that fits what you are planning for your next few weeks' teaching; there are bound to be several.  I also include ideas for summer reading in the article entitled Summertime Reading.


After you capture one of those quick and resource-rich articles, come back and post your response, your thoughts, your questions or what you're going to do with that spark of an idea you picked up.  I look forward to hearing from you!

A New Look for Book Reports AND An Opportunity to Combine Standards Across Strands

The Brochure Book Report

Do you get groans from students when you announce it's time to write?  Are you running out of ideas for teaching writing?

Now more than ever it is important for teachers to find authentic engaging ways for their students to write.  Otherwise writing becomes a "forced" activity with little perceived value to the student.  And when that happens, little learning is likely to occur and those standards we are so intent on teaching will not likely be internalized.

This past fall in my 10-week writing classes for 3-6th graders and 7-9th graders, one particular assignment became the most popular writing project.  It's a twist on the standard book report and one that your students are bound to find engaging and maybe even fun.

Before Any Assignment, Review Your State Standards

Take a few moments to review the writing standards for your state.  I have chosen to highlight writing standards from the state of GA, likely similar to the writing standards in your state:

ELA5W2:  "The student produces informational writing . . . "  and

chooses a speaker's voice,
develops a controlling idea that offers a perspective,
creates an organizing structure appropriate for the purpose and audience,
includes appropriate facts and details,
excludes extraneous details,
provides a sense of closure, includes appropriate word choice.

ELA4W4 focuses on the writing process and includes elements such as being able to appropriately plan and draft, revise, edit, and publish.

Guidance for the Teacher


One of the most important keys to writing instruction is to be a writer yourself.  Do you write articles for your state IRA affiliate's journal, do action research and document it, write for personal pleasure (a diary or journal, blogging, etc.)?  When you do, you can bring an authenticity to the writing experience. 

For example, I always say to my students early on that "I've been writing for 47 years and I'm not the best writer I will ever be."   Then I add that everyone in the class is likely to be at a different place as a writer but my goal for them is that each will move further down the reading road.  That first statement always surprises my students but it emphasizes the importance of making effort and growing.  The second encourages them and lets them know my focus and commitment to them.  With that approach and a true "writer's workshop" environment, I find that even reluctant writers leave my classes excited about writing and having the skills to be a more competent composer.


To Begin . . .

Ask each student to choose a book to read (choice is very important for students this age).  If they need assistance, chat briefly so you know where their interests lie and recommend a book that matches those interests. Set a specific but reasonable amount of time for them to read the entire text and set aside "snippets" of time (5-10 minutes on a regular basis) for them to read in class.

Once the students finish the assigned books, you'll be ready for the book report assignment,  but it doesn't follow your normal one or two page essay format.  Lakewood Public Library in Lakewood, Ohio has created an online student guide that highlights the main components in a book report of any sort.  The brochure format I've chosen to highlight here offers unique opportunities for writing instruction.

Before your students begin to write their own brochure book reports, bring a collection of locally available brochures (of any sort) to the classroom so students can preview formats, etc.  Allow them to help in collecting these samples as a cooperative approach.

Once they are collected, hand out the brochures to your students in a small group exercise.   Have them highlight together the essential elements they see commonly used in the various types of brochures.  This exercise helps your students identify specific formatting that is used for these types of materials and that they will want to incorporate into their own brochure. 

From this small group activity, take students back to whole group to create a list or even a rubric of essential elements or characteristic of brochure writing together so the entire class will have this at their disposal when they begin to create their individual book report brochures.  Here are a few important characteristics in the brochure format to get you started:

Short paragraphs.
Consistent formatting (paragraph indentations, etc.)

An engaging hook at the beginning that makes you want to read more.


TIP:  You may retain the best examples of commercially-produced brochures from year to year, and "samples" of the best of students' finished work.

Use A Template to Incorporate Technology

Microsoft Office or Word (or most other word processing programs) have templates of brochures that will help students visually organize their brochure book report.  Students may include their own illustrations scanned and inserted, plus photos of the author, etc.  Using the template helps students create strong writing segments with carefully chosen words to make the most of limited space.  Students also love using technology, although you may want them to begin drafting or planning on paper.  Decide ahead of time the point at which you want to introduce the technology piece.

Also use this writing project as an opportunity to review and encourage use of the writing process -- plan and organize, draft, revise, edit and publish (you may have slightly different terms).  Assign one portion of the process at a time, providing writer's workshop opportunities and consultations with the teacher throughout the process to maximize learning and progress.  You may even want to create a time line for each part of the process through which your students will move

The use of technology to create the brochure will also offer you an opportunity to evaluate the students' individual revision abilities if you have them turn on the "track changes" tool in their word processing program (which strikes through but retains anything deleted and highlights in a color any added text). If students are still writing on paper at this point, make sure they provide you with the draft as well as the first revision so you can compare.  This is a terrific tool for honing in on what individual students need to learn in the revision part of the process.

ICING ON THE CAKE

After students have created (and perhaps shared with the class) their brochures, add a unique final step (keep this to yourself until the end).  Your students will probably already be excited about sharing their brochures with one another, but now ask them to write the author a letter, sharing the brochure, and perhaps asking a question or two if the student would like. Have them enclose a copy of their brochure for the author to see.  Most authors are happy to receive a letter from "fans" and many will respond.  Make sure you use this lesson early enough in the year to allow for response time.

Students love this part because it shows them an authentic use for their writing.  They will also be thrilled to share responses they received from real authors and may even want to create a book or hall bulletin board as a class to highlight the responses received.  If you have students who have chosen an author who is not longer living, have them pen a letter "to the author" and ask a special services teacher (librarian, reading specialist, etc.) or public library or local author to respond on behalf of the author of their book (in the author's voice).

I hope this gets  your juices flowing. 
Have you used this format before for book reviews? 
What were your experiences? 
Do you have additional tips that you want to share for the benefit of your fellow followers of this blog (and me)?

I welcome your additions in the comments area.

Additional resources:


IRA/NCTE provides an alternative approach to writing brochures at ReadWriteThink.

Traci Keith, a teacher in the Gorman Independent School District (TX) , also shares an extensive study of the book Bud, Not Buddy on her district web page.  She includes not only brochures and pamphlets but games and other styles of reports.  If you are doing an in depth study over an extended period of time on this book, this is an excellent guide to a variety of activities.

Katherine Chapman who teaches fifth grade at a private school shares a number of genre book report ideas on her Upper Elementary Book Report Ideas posting. 

Finally, my columns for Educationworld.com recently included details about teaching the writing process.  My favorite part is revision where you can really see writers grow and develop as they put the polish, change, add, subtract and move around paragraphs, words, phrases, etc. to make their writing better.  If you use the 6+1 Traits framework and language, revision can be focused on through the lens of word choice, voice, sentence fluency and even organization.

Don't forget: I'd love to hear from you and know your experiences with this unique approach. 
Happy teaching!

Spreading the Revolution! Food for Thought

Hello, friends,

This will be a quick post to highlight a few celebrations of literacy and early childhood education you might want to know about:

The entire month of April is School Library Month.  Kiss a media specialist for all she or he does for you (or at least take a few minutes to send a "thank you" email or, better yet, a sincere "I appreciate" note to that person's supervisor (principal, school administrator, district media and information services director).

Barnes and Nobles Bridge Street in Huntsville, AL is hosting a special event to kick off  Week of the Young Child (see below).  It's April 10 from 12:00 until 3:00PM.  (Don't worry if you see "Kathy Miller" in the announcement at this link - it's a typo that's being corrected - it is me!) 

If you live nearby, come join us for fun interactive activities for both parents of 3-6 year old children and educators from preschool AND kindergarten plus giveaways for teachers and book signings.  After the tea, we'll be having a book signing for me and other authors.

Don't live nearby?  See if your local bookstore might do something similar with local literacy advocates, authors, librarians, teachers, etc.  Either way, email me at tla@readingisforeveryone.org and you can receive a flyer to distribute about our event (or copy to create your own).  Be sure to include APRIL 10 FLYER in the subject line.
 
April 11-17

This year both the American Library Association's National Library Week and NAEYC's Week of the Young Child fall at the same time.  You can find tons of resources on these organization's websites to help you celebrate.

April 12 is Drop Everything And Read Day.  If your school can't devote an entire day to this event, try giving every teacher a kazoo, a whistle, or a bell and encouraging each to designate 3-5 times during the day (not announced ahead of time to the students) in which they will signal it is "drop everything and read" time.  You can set up the "watch for the signal" earlier in the week so students bring ANYTHING they want to read.  Involve parents if you like.

On the very day, be sure to have some juicy reads for those who "forgot" theirs, re-announce the "watch for the signal" (how your day will run), surprise them with a quick 5 or 10 minute break to read several times during the day.  Let the last "drop everything and read" be an explosion of sharing where as many read the best part of what they read (only a sentence or short paragraph each) and see how many you can squeeze into the designated time.  Be sure to capture the titles your students are reading so you can create a list or bulletin board to extend the excitement of the day.

You might also be on the lookout for the annual state of library's report (to be released April 13) and check out last year's plus a few quotable quotes on libraries.  Most of us dread April 15 because of tax day but did you know that it is also Teen Literature Day?

Let your students check out their favorite author's birthdays in April at http://kids.nypl.org/reading/childrensauthorbirthdays.cfm.

Do you know of other reasons (and dates) to celebrate reading (or writing) during the month of April?

If so, post them here or share your own ideas for any of the celebration days above so we can all learn and celebrate reading together!

The Little Engine That Must: Inspiring Young Readers

I just spent a terrific hour talking with J. Renee Gordon of the BlogRadio show,  
Empowering Educators.

We talked about

- the importance of early childhood learning in both preschools/child care centers and at home

- what is essential for kindergarten readiness (and partnerships that foster that) and

- placed a special focus on literacy for children ages 3-6.

Whether you joined us live on the show or want to listen to the podcast later, you'll find information and resources right here.

Findings of The National Early Literacy Panel (2009)

Six early skills predictive of later literacy achievement

1. Alphabet knowledge
2. Phonological awareness
3. Rapid automatic naming of letters or digits
4. Rapid automatic naming of objects or colors
5. Writing or writing name
6.  Phonological memory

Five early skills modernately predictive of later literacy achievement

1. Concept of print
2. Print knowledge
3. Reading readiness (usually a combination of alphabet knowledge, concepts of print, vocabulary, memory and PA)
4. Oral language
5. Visual processing

Studies conducted by Hart and Risley (1995) showed that three-year-old children of professional parents had larger vocabularies than children of parents on welfare.  This finding is less shocking when considered in light of another:  children in professional homes heard 382 words an hour while children raised in welfare homes heard an average of 167 words an hour.  There can be a gap of as much as five times greater in vocabulary between these two groups by the time children reach kindergarten.  This doesn't have to be economically driven, if we can help families, in a supportive way to experience literacy with their children.  If you'd like to do more reading on this research, check out this summary of Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children or find the book itself (a good choice for staff development discussions at your school.  .

On average, according to the American Association of Pediatrics, preschool children watched 2.6 hours of TV on weekdays and 2.7 hours on weekends.  This association, however, recommends that children under 2 years old watch little or no TV.

Here are additional resources to check out on these topics:

PreK Now is an advocates of high quality early childhood experiences for young children

Harlem Children's Zone - 100% of their children are ready for kindergarten for the 7th consecutive year!


100% of third graders at Promise Academies I and II tested at or above grade level on the math exam, and in the English and Language Arts (ELA) over 93% of the Promise Academy I third graders tested at or above grade level, outperforming New York State, New York City and District 5 peers.

The National Association for the Education of Young Children addresses the needs and education of children ages zero to eight.

Want to be inspired?  Visit Inspiringteachers.com.  You might start with The Power of Teaching. 

Don't forget to visit Share A Story:  Shape A Future.   Whether you are a parent or a teacher or just someone how loves children and wants to share the incredible gift of literacy with a child, you should visit this live, week-long (March 8-12) virtual event sponsored by my friends at
The Reading Tub.

While you're on the inspiration channel, join my revolution!   

Whether you are a parent or an educator, you CAN make a difference with your child (or children) when it comes to reading.  The first step is to ENGAGE them, reach out to families and schools and children with the message that reading IS for everyone.  These tools will help you do just that.

Educators, librarians and parents can all benefit from this annotated list of over 180 picture books that can be used with 5-18 year olds to introduce knowledge as a base to understanding textbook contents in science, history, art, math, etc.

Extensive indexing gives educators, librarians and parents a variety of ways to use a picture book a day with great results. The 1-180 listing also provides a convenient "one picture book for each day" approach that follows many familiar themes (such as Grandparent's Day, winter holidays, etc.) throughout the school year.
Available through Inspiringteachers.com. 

Two guidebooks, designed to be used in tandem, one for preschool and kindergarten teachers (Before They Read) and the other for parents of 3-6 year olds (Anytime Reading Readiness).

Here's what others say:

“If you want to turn your preschooler into a lifelong reader, you need Anytime Reading Readiness. It skillfully guides parents as they create a pressure-free love of language and learning in their child.” – Susan Newman, Ph.D., social psychologist and author of Little Things Long Remembered: Making Your Children Feel Special Every Day

“This book is chock full of great suggestions for helping children learn how to read. It includes all you need to put together a wonderful research-based program—a must-read.”
—Susan B. Neuman, former U.S. Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education

Final Words

In closing let me invite you to post your own comments about these topics and to share my parent blog full of fun, practical ideas and information, as well as this teacher blog, with those you know who play those roles. 

One question to ponder that arose during the show:

Does coloring have anything to do with literacy development?  Is there research out there to address this question?

My sense was that it is certainly a pre-writing experience that builds muscles in the hands.  I also know the importance of eye-hand coordination in coloring and in reading, so I see some anecdotal connections there.  If you know of any research, please share it.  Here's a good article about how learning across many spectrums works in early childhood, from ReadingOnline.

Are you inspired?