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ORAcle Spring, 2015 PDF_L - Oregon Reading Association
The ORAcle An electronic publication of the ! Oregon Reading Association Volume 31 Spring, 2015 Number 3 In this issue:! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! President’s Message…..1! Professional ! Development …………..3! Local Council ! News…………………….5! ———————————! Committee Reports:! President’s Message It Takes a Cadre to Sustain a Successful Oregon Reading Associa9on By Katherine Inman, President Lending Library……….9! Lifetime Literacy………9! Teachers as Readers .10! English Language! Learners………………..11 ! Patricia Gallagher! Book Award……….…..12! Intellectual Freedom…14 ! Families and Reading.16! Research and ! Studies ……………..…18! Secondary Desk .…….21! WEB News…………….22! Literacy Grants……….23! ———————————! Calendar.……………… 24! It rained hard and the wind blew this year during the Winter Ins3tute, but the ORA Execu3ve Board breathed a sigh of relief that it wasn’t snowing! This year’s ins3tute would not repeat last year’s catastrophic event when the majority of aEendees were not able to aEend. Instead this year 400 members heard na3onally known speakers Nancy Frey and Douglas Fisher share Rigorous Reading Access Points. On Saturday over 300 aEended concurrent sessions on many different subjects including Common Core Standards, Gallagher Books, Reading Rock Stars, Reading as a Life3me Sport, and Children’s Literature. You may not realize the depth of the planning that enables an ins3tute to take place. Approximately two years in advance, qualified presenters are approached about reserving a date. An ins3tute venue then needs to be secured. Our Winter Ins3tute is always two days, so the venue needs to be able to accommodate a large number of overnight guests and parking, too. Once the speakers and venue are obtained, the publicity trail begins. That includes informa3on on our website and Facebook pages: oregonread.org and facebook.com/ OregonReadingAssocia3on. Flyers, posters, and registra3on materials are sent out to members, councils, and interested par3es. As the publicity is ac3vated, nego3a3ons with the venue also begin. How many and what kind of rooms will be needed? For this year’s Winter Ins3tute ini3ally five rooms were reserved for the concurrent sessions on Saturday. When not enough presenter proposals came in, we had to cut back to three rooms, but we also needed to make sure that the three rooms could hold roughly 100 people. We had to guess that each session would draw approximately the same number of people. When some of the sessions needed more chairs, we moved them on the spot with the help of the hotel’s facili3es team. Technology issues must also be ironed out, and food items decided upon. Usually there is a minimum amount of food dollars that are in the contract. Will there be lunches provided with the ins3tute registra3on, or will it be op3onal? What if there are not enough purchased lunches to meet the minimum food requirement? Will there be coffee and snacks throughout the day? All these are nego3ated ahead of 3me, but changes are some3mes made the day of the ins3tute. (con2nued on page 2) The ORAcle ! President’s Message (continued from page 1) page 2 ! As registra3ons start to come in for the ins3tutes, ques3ons are answered, money is deposited, handouts are printed, packets are prepared and name tags are made. A huge job and responsibility! Because ORA is currently offering four ins3tutes a year, this procedure is repeated mul3ple 3mes. Some3mes we have to wait to hear back from presenters, and some3mes, as happened with the hotel from the Winter Ins3tute in 2014, the hotel breaks its contract with us and a new venue must be found “at the last minute.” This year we are also offering two regional ins3tutes in central and eastern parts of the state which add to the complexity of our professional development schedule. Professional development in the way of ins3tutes is not all that ORA does for our members. Our excellent online newsleEer, The ORAcle, contains ar3cles and informa3on from many of our commiEee chairs and news from most of the local councils. Efforts are in the works to have the ar3cles searchable on our website. And our outstanding website and Facebook pages are brimming with informa3on for members! Currently there are 24 commiEees that provide informa3on, opportuni3es and professional development (examples: Patricia Gallagher Picture Book Award, Literacy Grants, Exemplary School Award). While some of these commiEees only have a chair, most are in need of other members who would like to help on a somewhat infrequent basis. You can check out all of the commiEees on the ORA website oregonread.org. Look under the tab About to find each of the commiEees and their chairs. All of the local councils, commiEees, and execu3ve board of the ORA are looking for posi3ve, enthusias3c, team-‐playing educators who would like to share their talents, skills, and 3me by serving our organiza3on. If you have an idea of something that could improve ORA or where you might be able to serve, and are interested in serving others, please contact me by email: kinman90@gmail.com. In closing, I want to publicly thank all the execu3ve board members, commiEee chairs, and local council officers for all you do to make this a truly awesome Pre-‐K through PhD associa3on. Each one of you is appreciated by me! The ORA Execu9ve Board Thank you. ! The International Reading Association is now ! The International Literacy Association! Why did the name change? We recognize that reading is one part of our focus. Educators in the 21st century must teach a broad set of skills to prepare students for the global workforce. ! What else has changed? Our vision. We believe in the transforma3ve power of literacy, and we will work toward ensuring that literacy is a fundamental, inalienable human right worldwide. Literacy is our cause, our passion, and our reason for being. The ORAcle page 3 2015-2016 ORA Institutes By Dennis Hickey, Professional Development Chair ! Professional Development That Matters The Oregon Reading Associa3on is increasing the number of opportuni3es to obtain high-‐quality professional development during the summer months. Events will be offered in different areas of the state star3ng this summer! Visit hEp://oregonread.org/ for up-‐to-‐date informa3on on all ins3tutes. Summer Regional Institutes! June 23, 2015, Pendleton, Oregon! June 25, 2015, Bend, Oregon! ! Deborah White! Oregon Educator and Teacher of the Year Both events will feature author Deborah White speaking about Close Reading for teachers of grades 2-‐6. Deborah was a standout success last year at our Summer Ins3tute in Eugene. The Pendleton event will take place at the local Red Lion Hotel, while the Bend event will take place at the River House Hotel. Summer Institute! Fall Institute! August 7, 2015! Valley River Inn, Eugene, Oregon November 6, 2015! Embassy Suites Airport Hotel! Portland, Oregon! Presenter ! author/consultant ! ! Ruth Culham! Nationally! noted! educators and ! Heinemann! authors ! Using Mentor Texts to Teach the Craft of Writing Carol Jago Secondary! With Rigor for All Carl Anderson! ! Elementary Assessing Writing ! The ORAcle 2015-2016 ORA Institutes Professional Development That Matters Winter Ins9tute Friday & Saturday, February 12 & 13, 2016 Embassy Suites, Portland Airport Kyleen Beers and Robert Probst! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Literacy presentations for Grades 4-10! Learn more about their work at! http://kylenebeers.com/blog/! !!! !! !! !! ! Kristin Ziemke! Literacy presentation for Grades K-3 Visit her blog at! https://innovateigniteinspire.wordpress.com/ International Literacy Association Annual Conference July 18-20, 2015! ! St. Louis! http://www.reading.org/annual-conference-2015 page 4 The ORAcle page 5 Local Council News Capital Reading Council Emerald Empire Reading Council hEp://crcoregon.wordpress.com By Deborah White hEp://www.literacylane.org By Lynn Woodworth Capital Reading Council had a great mee3ng in January introducing the newest crop of Gallagher Picture Book Award nominees. Board members Mickie French and Terri Hethorn shared the books with aEendees and suggested appropriate ac3vi3es for the books focused on the Common Core State Standards. Books, Books, Books ! Participants Kathy Moran and Marcy Todd Members were then able to check out one of the rota3ng sets of books, including copies of the ac3vi3es and ballots. Don’t forget to have your students vote for their favorites! For the first year, CRC also had a drawing for a free registra3on to the Winter Ins3tute. Any paid member was eligible to submit an entry. Penny Adolf, of Central School District, was the lucky winner this year. Aler the conference, she stated, “Please extend my sincere thanks to the Capital Reading Council for sending me to the ORA conference. I had not heard or read any works from Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey and I am feeling very energized! I will share my new learning with my colleagues at Independence Elementary.” We were happy to provide this opportunity for Penny. ! ! The Emerald Reading Council has been offering workshops that extend and enhance the use of books in the classroom and we have been giving away books to a broad audience of students in our local area and outside the United States. The year began with a workshop, presented by Karen An3kajian, to introduce the five Patricia Gallagher book nominees and ways to use them to meet the CCSS for language arts. In November Karen made the journey to Florence for a second presenta3on to the staff at the Siuslaw Elementary School. In October Marlene Iverson and Sharon Kaplan demonstrated how we could use art and wri3ng to enrich the curriculum using the Patricia Gallagher selec3ons as models. They suggested that students not only respond to these books by wri3ng in their journals but also take 3me to respond to the art by documen3ng what they observed. In par3cular, they might reproduce the elephant’s trunk or the zebra’s leg using the ar3st’s style from In The Wild. In another workshop, Karen returned to show us how reading aloud can mo3vate students and strengthen their skills by using carefully selected kinds of texts. In January, with Judy Davies and Kate Wagoner guiding us, we ventured into wri3ng as a way to communicate by using leEers and a writer’s notebook to respond to powerful texts, photos, and more. They used deeply thought-‐provoking media to inspire students’ responses for mo3vated, reflec3ve wri3ng followed by discussion. Authen3c leEer wri3ng back and forth with (con2nued on page 6) The ORAcle page 6 Local Council News Emerald Reading Council (con2nued) Mid-‐Valley Reading Council ! family and friends also provides another purpose for wri3ng and keeps students engaged throughout the year while their skills improve and meet CCSS. All of the workshops promoted the use of books for student growth, engagement and mo3va3on to develop their skills in reading, wri3ng, and art. hEps://midvalleyreadingcouncil.wordpress.com/ ! By Katherine Inman Our annual Dr. Seuss event in the Heritage Mall to celebrate the famous author’s birthday is designed to encourage area families to share the love of reading. Events included 4 different crals, ! Genng books and more books into children’s hands has long been the goal of the Families and Books commiEee and this year we chose to venture outside the US and help children in other countries have their own books. Since October over 700 books have been given away by Families and Books to children in several senngs. On Halloween night, Gayla opened up her garage to give away books instead of candy. With dona3ons of gently used books from the Emerald Empire Kiwanis Club, Gayla’s commiEee went to work cleaning and inspec3ng books to be given out for other children to read. Alexa, Carol, and Sister Janet have not only helped gather and clean books, they have helped give them out to Head Start children and other groups. The commiEee’s biggest endeavor was to provide a book for each food box that the Salva3on Army gave out over Winter Break. Hats off to these ladies! Then, through a connec3on with author Margriet Ruurs, we learned about the Book Bus Project. In 2008 the Book Bus began delivering books to schools in Zambia and working with children to inspire them to read. The project has grown through dona3ons to provide books for over 10,000 children in Zambia, Malawi, and Ecuador. As a council we helped out by sending a dona3on. Books, books, books! That is what we do here at home and far away. We support literacy by helping our teachers access book 3tles and related ac3vi3es, and by finding venues and ways to get books into children’s hands. reading to READ dogs, Dr. Seuss puzzles, bookmark making, and a book walk with winners receiving a free book, and all receiving free bookmarks. This is one of our favorite events because kids have so much fun. New this year was a small Dr. Seuss inspired poem given to parents encouraging them to read to their children. Japanese culture and educa3on was the topic of our December Evening of Professional Conversa3on series. Stephanie Higgins, just back from Japan, delighted aEendees with her humor-‐ sparked tales of being on the “other side of the educa3on and language table as a parent.” Combining our professional development with a holiday social seemed a great idea as we dreamed of wine, but sipped sparkling cider and consumed hors-‐d'oeuvres of all kinds. Who knew Market of Choice does not have a liquor license so that wine we bought from them could not be consumed on site!?! Our Evenings of Professional Conversa3on con3nued in January with a presenta3on by Cheryl Graham about Common Core Modes and Traits of Wri3ng using Mentor Texts. AEendees learned how to use good literature with the Common Core Standards. (con2nued on page 7) The ORAcle Local Council News Mid-‐Valley Reading Council (con2nued) ! We were excited to learn that our newly formed TAR group in Lincoln City is alive and func3oning well. A huge high five to them! ! Mountain Valleys Reading Council hEps://www.facebook.com/people/Mountain-‐Valleys-‐Reading-‐ Council/100007175838345 ! By Carol Lauritzen In December, Mountain Valleys members gave away 300 new paperback books to children who shopped at the Santa Mall, a service project offering low cost gils for children with small resources. We were glad to be able to add a book of their choice to their Christmas joy. We con3nue to offer free books to those who use the monthly food bank. We are fortunate this winter to have EOU students who are helping with the book distribu3on. Our big event of the year is coming on April 8. We are sponsoring Judy Sierra, an author of many picture books. She will be giving a family-‐oriented presenta3on at Cook Memorial Library. New Mountain Valleys members will receive one free Judy Sierra book! Join now so you can read the book to your class prior to the event. Check the Mountain Valley Reading Council Facebook page for more informa3on. ! Portland Reading Council hEp://pcira.wordpress.com/ By Penny Plavala ! The Portland Reading Council is pleased to sponsor thirteen enthusias3c Teachers as Readers Book Groups and supports each group with a $50 s3pend. ! Portland Reading Council (continued)! Some of the diverse 3tles our book groups are reading and discussing include: -‐ How to Teach Students Who Don’t Look Like You by Bonnie Davis -‐ Lost at School by Ross Greene -‐ Explicit Instruc3on by Anita Archer -‐ Pathways to the Common Core by Lucy Calkins -‐ Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck -‐ Falling in Love with Close Reading by Christopher Lehman ! We would like to highlight the book group at Bridger K-‐8 in Portland Public Schools. The teachers are reading and discussing Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids by Chris Biffle. ! Group facilitator Ceci de Valdenebro says, “ The best part of leading this book club was 3me to collaborate with colleagues and to see them so engaged in their learning and eagerness to apply strategies in the classroom. This book has changed the way I teach.” ! Other book group members men3oned they are learning how to make their prac3ce more interac3ve, key behavior management techniques, and the value of more consistent use of kinesthe3c ac3vi3es. All of the strategies help with student engagement and aEen3on. ! Funding is available to support an addi3onal nine TAR groups. Please contact Barb Keller for more informa3on (barbara.keller@comcast.net) — or see our website for more informa3on:hEps:// pcira.wordpress.com/events/teachers-‐as-‐readers-‐tar-‐groups/ ! page 7 The ORAcle page 8 Local Council News Rogue Valley Reading Council Rogue Valley Reading Council (con2nued) By Julie Rossi ! The Rogue Valley Reading Council held its second annual Barnes & Noble book fair and fundraiser on December 4 & 5, 2014, at the Medford store. Last year’s first-‐annual book fair was snowed out on its second night, but we had good weather and aEendance this year. The fair ran Thursday (4:30-‐7:30) and Friday (4:30-‐9). Events included: • Holiday bookmark making • Snowflake craling • LeEer to Santa wri3ng • Holiday cookies served • Polar Express Story Time and hot cocoa • Prac3cal classroom applica3ons • A chance to share and process ideas with colleagues • Six PDUs The group met on February 26 and will meet again on Thursdays 4:30 p.m-‐6:30 p.m. on March 19, at the SOESD, Medford, and on April 16, at Jackson Creek Pizza, Medford. Umpqua Reading Council! http://umpquareading.wordpress.com/! By Gail Jackson-‐Francis RVRC members brought snacks and supplies for youngsters and young-‐at-‐heart to create crals for the holidays and spread the word about our reading council. If shoppers men3oned us at the cash register, the council received 15% on a Barnes & Noble gil card. We used the gil card to buy books and gils cards for our bookmark contest and for our literacy award recipients. ! Reading Rogues STAR Book Study The Rogue Valley Reading Council began its book study and discussions based on Rigorous Reading wriEen by 2015 ORA Winter Ins3tute speakers Nancy Frey and Douglas Fisher. Three discussions will include: • Handouts/notes from ORA Winter Ins3tute ! January and February are Umpqua Reading Council’s busiest 3me of the year! We hosted a Literacy Leader Recep3on in January for nominees submiEed to the URC board. Yvonne O’Neil, Becky TilleE, Barbara Henneke and Pam Menzie were chosen and honored for their leadership in the area of literacy in Douglas County. Recipients received a cer3ficate from the Interna3onal Literacy Associa3on, a rose in a vase, and a small thank you gil bag. ! During the Celebra3on of Literacy we gave away 650 books at the Reading Fair held at the Douglas County Fairgrounds on February 26, 2015. Earlier in the month on February 4, 2015, winning posters from a poster contest were chosen by URC members. The winners received gil cer3ficates from While Away Books in Roseburg, and posters were displayed at the Reading Fair on February 21, 2015. ! ! The ORAcle page 9 ORA Professional Lending Library ! Terri Hethorn, Chair It was wonderful mee3ng many of you at the Winter Ins3tute! Over 30 professional books are now in the hands of members suppor3ng the teaching of literacy all over Oregon. I hope being able to see and peruse the books helps encourage the use of this great resource available to members. The Lending Library will also be available during Summer Ins3tutes. Check it out if you are going to see Deborah White or Ruth Cullham. Since we are talking ORA Ins3tutes, if you had the opportunity to hear Danny Brassell speak at the ORA Spring Ins3tute, the Lending Library has Readers for Life and Vocabulary Strategies Every Teacher Needs to Know (coauthored with James Flood) available for checkout. The Lending Library offers many books to help with implementa3on of CCSS and there are many other resources to support quality instruc3onal prac3ces. If you are looking for informa3on on reading groups, assessment, making anchor charts, literature circles, using mentor texts, or any other topic related to literacy, we probably have it. The data bank is organized by 3tle but you may not have a 3tle at the 3p of your tongue. If you have a topic in mind and want to know what is available, just send me an email and I will be happy to do some research for you. I can be reached at <hethorn3232@msn.com> Enjoy a professional read and share your knowledge with your friends! Kris3 Miller is the winner of the 2015 ORA Life3me Literacy Award, an award given annually to one who has made an outstanding contribu3on to the Oregon Reading Associa3on. Kris3 has been ORA treasurer for fileen years and formerly was president and treasurer of the Mid-‐Valley Reading Council. Lifetime Literacy Award Miller, who re3red from 30 years of teaching at Waverly and North Albany Middle Schools in the Albany School District, is also ac3ve in other organiza3ons including Oregon Women for Agriculture through which she visits classrooms and shares books related to agriculture. Mother of two and grandmother of two, Kris3 and her husband live on a farm near Albany where they are grass seed growers. Congratula3ons to Kris3 Miller, who has spent a life3me promo3ng literacy and the love of reading. Carol Brown and Kristi Miller The ORAcle page 10 Teachers As Readers Stephanie Higgins, Chair ! ! Grad School, Interviews, and the Unlikely Paperback That Launched My Career ! It was a job I would have loved, and there it was on the board of the career center: a pos3ng for a reading specialist for a Title I middle school in a local district. I immediately applied for the posi3on and was thrilled when I was granted an interview. Newly emerged from my master’s coursework, I couldn’t wait to wow the hiring commiEee with my ‘vast’ knowledge of reading instruc3on, diagnos3cs and interven3ons. ! You’ve been to this interview, I’m sure of it. You’re young. You’re heavy on coursework and light on experience. You’re outnumbered 6 to 1 and your heart pounds in your chest as you do your best to answer the peppering of ques3ons. The air is decidedly tense and any aEempts to dissipate the tension fall flat. ! And so it went for me that day…un3l the last ques3on: ! “What’s the last book you read?” ! Pause. Were they serious? They want to know the last book I read? I had just spent a year buried under textbooks and journals and reports and essays, but in that final ques3on, none of that maEered. Evidently they were serious. They wanted to be sure their new reading teacher was, well, a reading teacher. ! “It was The Notebook. The Notebook, by Nicholas Sparks.” ! Any tension that remained in the room dissolved with that response. Expressions revealed who was a fan and who was not, who had already read it and who hadn’t, and for a few blissful moments the room was charged with the back-‐and-‐forth banter over Sparks’ debut novel. (I’ve since learned my lesson with this tear-‐jerking author, but that’s another story!) The impromptu book discussion came to an end, and with no further ques3ons, my interview was over. “We’ll contact you either way,” they assured, and off I went. ! Decades later, “What is the last book you read?” is the only ques3on I remember from that interview. I recall being thrilled to have had a response! Despite the vast quan3ty of reading assigned that year, there were mercifully the sparest of moments for books of my own choosing. ! That is why the following sta3s3c nearly jumped off the page of my favorite news magazine recently. Truly, I did a double-‐take. According to a poll by the Pew Research Center, 23% of adults did not read a single book last year. Not. One. Book. Really? I am by no means a match for the book horses you’ll find among our ORA colleagues (you know who you are!) but really? Not one book? All I could think was, “How sad!” (con2nued on page 11) ! The ORAcle page 11 Teachers as Readers (con2nued from page 10) The sta3s3c sent me on an informal inves3ga3on of ar3cles, podcasts, and interviews. Some explana3ons for this woeful number? Busy lives. A preference for social media. An inability to sit s3ll. A lack of modeling of 3me spent with the long-‐form wriEen word. ! As teachers, we play a crucial role in the lives of our young readers. We have the powerful ability to undermine some of the above-‐listed deterrents through the example we set and the culture we establish in our classrooms. But how do we send our kids beyond our classrooms with healthy reading habits intact? Donalyn Miller, author of Reading in the Wild: The Book Whisperer’s Keys to Cul2va2ng Lifelong Reading Habits provides five key traits of lifelong readers. Among them is the idea that good readers do a lot of reading, but not necessarily all at once. They capitalize on small pockets of 3me throughout the day, and the cumula3ve effect is a substan3al amount of 3me spent reading. Isn’t a busy classroom a perfect place to model stealing pockets of 3me for reading? ! As you con3nue to enrich your personal and professional lives through par3cipa3on in TAR groups and/or book clubs, know what a valuable and important example you are senng for your students. As Miller reminds us, “teachers engaged in reading are more effec3ve at engaging their students," and there’s no ‘faking’ this, no maEer how busy our lives. ! To finish the story, I was offered the job. Even beEer? They asked me to join their book club. I said yes to both. ! Happy reading! Stephanie Kudos to Oregon Educators! ELL Students are Learning English at a Faster Pace ! Recently, in an ar3cle in the Oregonian, Betsy Hammond reported that English as a second language students are mastering English at a quicker pace, within five or six years, compared to seven years or longer in the past. Hammond notes this is aEributed to various factors including new standards, beEer teaching material, a single test to judge proficiency, more accountability, and training in teaching methods. Kim Miller, Oregon’s director of English learner programs, credits Oregon educator trainings beginning in 2006 by Susan Dutro and Michelle Thelander, co-‐founders of the firm E.L. Achieve. Miller says the state’s improved results stem from closer monitoring and beEer instruc3on. ! English Language Learners Donna Mae Fiore, Chair In contrast to the several factors men3oned that help English language learners acquire English more rapidly, there are many ELL students who do not master academic English in seven years. The reasons that impede students’ acquisi3on of English are as various as those that help. Some reasons that Miller acknowledges are learning disabili3es, arriving in the United States late in elementary school or later, students who move frequently, sporadic aEendance, and schools who offer low-‐quality instruc3on. All of these reasons and more can contribute to the slower progress of ELL students. While some of these impediments are out of educators’ control, Oregon school districts are providing professional development to teachers that use best prac3ces that benefit all our students. To that I say CONGRATULATIONS! Let’s keep up the good work and make improvements in our instruc3on where we can. The ORAcle! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! page 12 Patricia Gallagher Book Award ! Karen Antikajian, Chair More Behind-‐the-‐Scenes Comments from Authors and Illustrators of This Year’s Gallagher Selec9ons ! As promised in the Winter ORAcle, here is some more informa3on from the creators of this year’s Gallagher Award books. Last 3me we heard from Aaron Reynolds, author of Back of the Bus; David EllioE, author of In the Wild; and Henry Cole, illustrator of Three Hens and a Peacock. If you didn’t read that ar3cle, you can find it in the Winter Oracle at hEp://oregonread.org/oracle/. ! Carol Buckley, author and photographer for Tarra & Bella: The Elephant and Dog Who Became Best Friends, writes: The friendship and devo2on that Tarra and Bella had for each other was the inspira2on for the book. I kept their rela2onship private for several years. My concern was that people would not understand their depth of love and would make jokes about them. ! A^er 9/11 America was suffering and frightened. I wanted to help in some small way. I knew that learning about Tarra and Bella would bring joy to many people so I decided to share their story. I first wrote about them in our membership newsleber. The story was picked up by a couple of pet magazines and then caught the eye of mainstream media. CBS did the only piece I allowed to be filmed. They did the rela2onship jus2ce, which was my criteria for allowing them to film. The book was born out of that sequence of events. ! Tarra and Bella’s rela2onship is a shining star, a beacon of hope. In my opinion, the true north of humanity. Ironically, this humanity was demonstrated by two wonderful beings that are not human. But we can definitely learn from them. By their example we can be beber humans. ! Carol has had a long friendship with Tarra as they used to perform in the circus together. She taught Tarra to roller skate and accomplish other amazing feats. You can read more about Carol and Tarra in Carol’s informa3onal books, Just for Elephants, and Travels with Tarra (both with photos). ! From author Eric Kimmel we have some background informa3on about Joha Makes a Wish: As you probably know, the character Joha is known throughout the Middle East. He goes by different names. He’s Goha in Egypt, Joha from Lebanon to Saudi Arabia, Nasr-‐ed-‐din in Turkey. Most of the stories about him are short vignebes; jokes, mostly. He’s o^en presented as a mullah or hodja; someone who makes claims to great learning with lible prac2cal sense. In another sense, he’s also the average man: put upon, bullied, oppressed and robbed by the people who really run things. (That’s one reason why he’s so popular. Not much has changed in the Middle East.) (con2nued on page 13) The ORAcle page 13 ! Patricia Gallagher Book Award (con2nued from page 12) ! This story is not properly a Joha tale. I adapted it from a story from Yemen called “ The Answered Prayer.” The original appears in a collec2on by Adèle Geras called The Answered Prayer and Other Stories. ! In that story the hero finds that all his prayers are going backwards. He gets the opposite of whatever he prays for. The sultan demands that he pray for his wife, who is about to deliver a child. What is he to do? He can’t refuse the sultan. Yet he’s horrified by the thought that by praying for a safe delivery he may cause the opposite. ! Strong stuff! The original had to be so^ened to make it a children’s story. I decided to use Joha as the main character as his wit and humor would make the story less intense. I turned prayers into wishes for the same reason. A wart on the sultan’s nose is funny. A difficult pregnancy is not. ! I debated whether to make Joha’s antagonist a sultan or the caliph himself, as in the Arabian Nights. I decided on making him a sultan, who is just a military strongman. A caliph is a religious figure. I wanted to steer clear of religion. The story worked just as well without incorpora2ng anything that might be seen as disrespecnul to Muslims. (Not that I feared a reac2on; I felt it was the proper way to go.) ! I was delighted when Omar Rayyan was chosen to be the illustrator. Aren’t Omar’s pictures glorious! He knows what the people and the places are supposed to look like. His Joha is the frustrated everyman you see in the newspapers every day. It’s the same face in Tunis, Cairo, Gaza, Baghdad, etc. “All I want is a small measure of self-‐respect, hope for the future, and a decent life for my family. Why is that so hard to obtain?” The sultan is a conceited fop whose idea of governing is to grab as much loot for himself as he can. His soldiers are nothing but bullies, as Joha says. ! I hope that readers, teachers as well as children, will connect Joha Makes A Wish to events in the Middle East today. The people of the region have endured a lot for a couple of thousand years. They expect lible from their rulers and that’s usually what they get. Except every now and then their rage and resentment explode and you end up with Arab Spring if you’re lucky; ISIS if you’re not. Then another sultan emerges to bring order to the chaos (think Egypt), and everyone’s back where they started. ! So, as you can see, authors face many difficult decisions to bring us well-‐craled and entertaining stories that we can learn from. As Lester Laminack said about Three Hens and a Peacock, with this book I want readers to leave with the no2on that we make our best contribu2ons when we embrace our truest self. ! Floyd Cooper, illustrator of Back of the Bus, says his primary pain3ng method is subtrac3on. I use erasers to make the images in my pain2ngs. You really have to see it to fully get it, but it is basically erasing shapes from a background of paint. He says his “mission,” if you can call it that, is to connect with my readers on an emo2onal level and have them come away with a stronger impression of the basic message in the story I am illustra2ng. ! So, enjoy the books. If you haven’t shared them with your students, please do so before the deadline so they can vote and have their votes included in the totals. The next ORAcle ar3cle will publish the final results. If you have sent in votes, you will be among the first to receive the results by email even before the ar3cle is published! For a list of all past Gallagher selec3ons, visit the Gallagher page on the ORA website. To see images of all of the book covers, visit this link: hEp://www.literacylane.org/pg_bookcovers_98_14.html. These are excellent books to add to your school or classroom library and share with students. ! Student votes are due to Karen AnMkajian by May 1st. <kan9kajian@cvccable.net> The ORAcle page 14 Intellectual Freedom ! Allen Evans, Chair Censorship, Fear, and “ The Proper Context” I enjoy a good, inspira3onal sports movie: Rudy; Field of Dreams; Hoosiers; and recently 42. (Side comment: The 2015 baseball season is rapidly approaching. If you have not seen 42 you really should!) In one of my favorite sports films—Coach Carter—which coincidently was released exactly ten years ago—the 3tle character, played magnificently by Samuel L. Jackson, repeatedly prods and challenges his players with the ques3on “What is your greatest fear?” Eventually his players figure out that that refers to a quote by Marianne Williamson that begins with the sentence “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.” (That same Williamson quote also appears in the movies Invictus and Akeela and the Bee. You can google the quote for more informa3on.) OK, hold that thought as I shil gears here. I also really, really enjoy children’s literature. Here, too, I have certain favorites. For a variety of reasons, both personal and professional, one of my “top of the list” authors has long been Bill Mar3n, Jr., and in par3cular his book The Ghost-‐Eyed Tree published in collabora3on with John Archambault and illustrated by Ted Rand. In brief, it is a deligh•ul story of a brother and sister that head out one “dark and windy night” to get milk from the milkman, and how they must confront their fears of having to pass by the ghost-‐eyed tree—“feared by all, the great and the small”—along the road into the town. Mar3n’s exquisite text includes the repeated use of the phrase “Why does mama always choose me when the night is so dark and the mind runs free?” OK, hold that thought also. In previous columns I have discussed the differences between censorship and selec3vity. I have also talked about some of the various books and authors that have been challenged in recent years. For this submission I speculate a bit about the rela3onship between censorship and fear, as well as reflect on a comment from an award-‐winning adult author that helps me keep things in perspec3ve. I pose a ques3on: Is it possible that censorship is rooted in fear? In other words, when someone aEempts to have a book restricted or banned, is it because there is something in the book—an incident, an idea—that the individual is afraid of? Is “fear” even the proper term? Perhaps “fear” is too strong. Maybe “apprehension” or “disquiet” or simply “uncomfortable” would be more appropriate terms. Regardless of the term used, the underlying mo3va3on for censorship is olen based on something that the reader finds offensive, does not want to be exposed to, and does not want others exposed to either. I pose a second ques3on: What are those elements that parents object to, and thus are fearful of? To paraphrase: What is the censor’s fear? The American Library Associa3on provides interes3ng informa3on. The top five reason cited as the basis for challenging a children’s or young adult book are, in order: sexual explicitness, offensive language, unsuitability for the age group (I always have trouble understanding how that is defined), “other objec3ons” (whatever that means!), and violence. OK, I understand those fears (“concerns?”) and can actually appreciate them. They make sense. I know well that content dealing with sexuality, violence and profane language is not healthy or appropriate for all age levels. I have argued before that we teachers and parents absolutely do need to be selec3ve in what our kids are exposed to. (con2nued on page 15) The ORAcle page 15 !! Intellectual Freedom (con2nued from page 14) Censorship, however well-‐inten3oned the mo3ve, may not be the best approach or even the most effec3ve one. Recall that censorship is the aEempt to prevent someone else from reading something. It is when “I” determine that “you” should not have access to it. But is that really even possible? In our contemporary society—whether large urban area or small rural community—and with contemporary media, social media, and informa3on access technologies, it is impossible to censor everything offensive or inappropriate that kids may come into contact with. Even the best inten3ons of being though•ully and age-‐ appropriately selec3ve are easily thwarted. Children come into contact with images, ideas, and ques3onable content all the 3me. Even in my small, rural town of 12,000 people, one cannot drive down the main street of town or even walk on the sidewalk without no3cing the marquee and posters on the movie theater. Many of them are movies that I would not choose for my own children. But there are the images—quite literally—directly confron3ng me as I walk by. The same is even more direct on TV. And let’s not even get started talking about internet and social media! So, where do we go? What is a parent or teacher to do? Being selec3ve in what we proac3vely choose to present to children is only part of the issue. The other part of the issue, I believe, is in “senng the proper context.” Let me explain. At the 2009 Interna3onal Reading Associa3on conference—now known by our new name Interna3onal Literacy Associa3on—one of the keynote speakers was Khalid Hosseini. You will recognize him as the author of The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, and most recently And the Mountains Echoed. During the ques3on-‐and-‐answer 3me that followed his presenta3on, he was asked about how he, as a father of two young (at that 3me) daughters, approached and handled the olen-‐disturbing reality of war and violence portrayed in his books. His answer was insigh•ul. He stated that as a father, he could not shelter his daughters from exposure to the disturbing and unpleasant reali3es of the modern 3mes. Regardless of his best inten3ons and aEempts, they will be exposed to many of those unpleasant elements simply by living in the world. It is in the media, they hear about it at school, they are exposed to it regardless of his desire that they not be. The best he can do, he stated, is to provide “the proper context.” In other words, to talk with them about what they see and hear, to keep the conversa3on honest and open yet also age appropriate. As an adult and as their parent—along with his wife—he is the one that can provide the answers and set the context in an age-‐appropriate manner so that they are not lel to make sense of it on their own. Not sheltering. Not full exposure. Simply that mature adult and parent model that sets the proper context. So, I return to the opening ques3on. What is our greatest fear? Exposure to sexual content, violence, or language that is not age-‐appropriate or perhaps simply in conflict with our personal values? Would censorship completely protect or shelter children from such content? I think not. Even if we aEempt to be though•ully selec3ve in what kids are exposed to the reality remains that too many kids will be exposed to things they are not prepared to handle. Perhaps our greatest fear should be that not enough kids have that adult guidance and mentoring that can set “the proper context.” That may be our challenge as teachers, yet at the same 3me it is something that all of us can provide. The ORAcle page 16 Families and Reading ! Alexa Parker, Chair It’s Not Just About Books: Using Print Media to Develop Children’s Literacy Skills Everyone has heard the proverb “Prac3ce makes perfect.” In learning to read it is the powerful act of reading that contributes to the development of accurate, fluent, high-‐comprehension reading (Allington, RL [2012]. What really mabers for struggling readers?). It’s true that a parent is a child’s first teacher and when a parent demonstrates a strong interest in reading, it reinforces a child’s posi3ve antude toward reading and learning to read. Research shows that children who grow up with books at home come to school with more advanced literacy skills than those children who do not. But not every family has books at home. Some families have to move around a lot, stay with rela3ves, or become homeless. Many families can’t afford to buy books, don’t have a place to keep them, or lack the 3me/resources to visit the public library. In some families the parents can’t read English although they may be fluent in another language. There are many reasons why children are growing up without access to books. Many resourceful parents have found that they can use print media, or environmental print (EP), to introduce their child to many pre-‐reading skills in an easy and enjoyable way. Resources for EP include: billboards, calendars, catalogs, coupons, flyers, gree3ng cards, grocery store ads, labels, magazines, newspapers, posters, recipes, road signs, fast-‐food bags, telephone books, cereal boxes and much more. When a child recognizes words in the world around her, like McDonald’s or Wal-‐Mart, she is engaged in the beginning stages of literacy development. Children get excited about environmental print because they feel they can “read” the logos and signs they see in their daily lives. This builds confidence in young children and gets them ready to learn to read and write. Parents like to use environmental print as a teaching tool because it is inexpensive (or free) and a rich source of informa3on they can talk about with their child. Environmental print can also be used for skill development. The list of ac3vi3es that follows is designed to help a parent talk, read and think with their child. To begin using environmental print, create two or more iden3cal sets of words or leEers. You can use food logos from packaging and junk mail. Find an appropriate “book bag” to store your EP. Zip lock bags and envelopes work well. Matching, Sor9ng and Categorizing Ac9vi9es: Younger children can sort labels by color or shape. Older children can make this a cut and paste project. You can make a version of the games Concentra3on and Old Maid using two matching sets of words or leEers. Make a categoriza3on ac3vity by collec3ng several logos from five different restaurants, five different convenience stores, and five different cereal brands. Help your child to sort the words into three columns or piles and give a name (category) to each one. Make a simple puzzle by cunng apart the leEers of larger version brand name logos for your child to reassemble. Older children can make their own puzzles. (con2nued on page 17) The ORAcle page 17 Families and Reading (con2nued from page 16) Spelling and Lecer Recogni9on Ac9vi9es: Help your child select single leEers to match the leEers in a brand name logo. You can sort logos by the ini3al sound of each brand. This ac3vity can be done by poin3ng at the leEer(s) and saying the sound or as a cut and paste sor3ng ac3vity when the child is more confident. Prepare a tracing ac3vity by prin3ng the brand name underneath the logo for your child to trace and then copy. As a follow-‐up ac3vity, your child can trace and then color larger logos. Field Trips: It is also possible to u3lize Environmental Print outside the home. For example, take a walk around your neighborhood and categorize the different street signs by color, shape or meaning. Walk through a parking lot and iden3fy different car tags, bumper s3ckers and license plates. At the grocery store, you can look for familiar logos or match food items with logos from a newspaper, magazine or junk mail. Music: There are several EP songs on the market. Look for the Sharon McDonald’s CD Tying Shoes and Other Musical Feet. For Older Children: Have your child plan a meal using the food adver3sements from your local grocery store. If possible, ask them to make a list of the ingredients. You can add a math connec3on by senng a limit as to the amount of money that can be spent and asking for an itemized budget. Also, show the novice cook how to take advantage of sale items and coupons. If you have access to magazines or newspapers, look for pictures that tell about our world. Ask your child to collect pictures that could explain life on Earth to a visitor from another planet. You can also use pictures from magazines and newspapers to create stories about people from different cultures or to illustrate your own family tradi3ons. Environmental Print can also be used as a springboard for discussion. For example, pictures of a group of people who need help (such as vic3ms of a fire or flood) can spark a discussion of ways your family might help by sharing 3me, talents or even contribu3ng money. You can look through the classified sec3on of your local newspaper to find jobs held by family members, friends or neighbors. Talk about the kind of du3es these jobs require. Ask which jobs your child might enjoy. Find stories that express two different points of view. Talk about the issues from both sides and ask if your child feels strongly about one of the posi3ons. Or select an editorial that looks at a problem that might affect your family. Ask other family members to share their views on the topic. Any 3me you can find to talk with your child will help develop his/her communica3on skills. You can do this while washing the dishes, sor3ng the laundry, raking leaves or driving in the car. Be sure to showcase your child’s efforts by crea3ng an “art gallery” on the refrigerator door where they can be shared with grandparents, friends and neighbors. Finally, use short, frequent periods for these ac3vi3es rather than occasional, long periods. If your child shows no interest one day, try again another day. For more ideas, visit Sharon McDonald’s web site (www.sharonmcdonald.com) and click on the Environmental Print. The ORAcle page 18 Research and Studies ! Carol Lauritzen, Chair Analyzing Bias in Children’s Literature about Humans’ Rela9onship with Nature ! ! By Ken Winograd, Oregon State University There is an environmental crisis, and the conundrum for many elementary teachers is how to approach this subject with their students. This ar3cle describes one modest teaching strategy to help students reflect on the environment generally: by leading students to cri2cally analyze texts for bias as it relates to nature and its role in a healthy planet. Most of us have grown up in the dominant industrial-‐consump3on culture, which has as its three pillars: consump3on, growth, and militarism. Unfortunately, it has become more and more apparent that this culture is inconsistent with a planet that is sustainable. One central ques3on to consider with your students, perhaps the central ques3on, examines the value of nature in our lives, the right rela3onship between humans and natural life (Shiva, 2014). Since the industrial revolu3on, nature increasingly has been treated as a resource to fuel human-‐made development, as resources to mine, extract, unearth and, in the end, exhaust. A perspec3ve that has dominated human ac3vity for nearly 200 years, nature is a resource; humans have dominion over nature, and we humans reside on the earth separate from nature. However, as indigenous peoples and Buddhists teach, we humans are profoundly interconnected and inter-‐ dependent with all sen3ent life (human and non-‐human). An alterna3ve rela3onship of humans and the natural world understands humans to be one small part of nature and all life, and nature may be used only to sa3sfy our basic needs...and not for profit. A more modest stance in our rela3onship with nature reflects profound respect and even reverence, reflec3ng an understanding that care for all life is indispensable if we are to survive as a race. Researchers have warned that many children have not spent sufficient 3me in nature to develop any kind of respec•ul or reveren3al rela3onship with the non-‐human world. When people do not have early life experiences enjoying the beau3es and mysteries of nature, it is easy for them to become emo3onally detached from nature. Without an apprecia3on of nature, children and their parents are less likely to react when industry degrades, extracts, and exhausts the earth’s resources without any kind of balance or restraint. David Orr (2004) calls this disconnect between people and nature, ‘biophobia,' which ranges “from discomfort in ‘natural’ places to ac3ve scorn for whatever is not human-‐made, managed or air-‐condi3oned (p. 131). Richard Louv (2008) argues that biophobia reflects the dearth of experiences children and their parents have in natural spaces where they play, imagine, create, construct or just be. By ignoring the teaching of nature and not explicitly enac2ng curricular experience that values nature, schools may inadvertently teach students and future ci3zens to have contempt for nature (Bigelow, 2014) which then leads people to par3cipate without mindfulness, in the nature-‐as-‐resource, industrial-‐consumer culture. There is a consensus in the environmental educa3on community that children must spend more 3me in nature, and a great teaching resource on doing this is David Sobel’s Childhood and Nature. School and class gardens, local ecology studies, raising small animals in the classroom, insect terrariums and worm bins also help connect children to the natural world. Besides these kinds of direct experiences, a wonderful indirect way to draw students’ into the natural world is through children and adolescent literature that places nature more prominently in the text. Quality children’s literature (and videos) can be evoca3ve of the mysteries and beauty of the natural world, like books by Barbara Bash and evoca3ve nature videos from Na3onal Geographic. (con2nued on page 19) The ORAcle page 19 Research and Studies (con2nued from page 18) The quintessen3al ques3on facing humankind, now in the context of the environmental crisis, has to do with the purpose of nature and what is (and ought to be) humans’ rela3onship with the natural world. Texts that make this ques3on explicit are useful in helping to generate students’ reflec3on on this ques3on. One text that explicitly contrasts the human/nature rela3onship is Wangari’s Trees of Peace (Winters, 2008). In this true story, Wangari MaEhai leads Kenyan women to resist development projects, which happen to be the exclusive role that men play (in the book). The Green Belt Movement, founded by Wangari, advocates for the preserva3on of forests, since trees are vital to the life of animals who live in the forest, important to the villagers who need firewood, and also as a bulwark from erosion and soil loss. In the story, Wangari “stands tall as an oak to protect the old trees remaining,” saying, “We need a park more than we need an office tower.” She is arrested and jailed for obstruc3ng the deforesta3on and construc3on of office buildings on this land and, later, released to lead a social movement that has now spread worldwide. Here are some ques3ons to pose aler reading Wangari’s story: How are men and women represented in the story? What is the bias of each group regarding the role of nature in rela3on to humans and development? What is the author’s bias about human’s rela3onship with nature? Do you agree or disagree? Of course, it is important to teach children that much of life’s issues and problems do not have easy answers, so it is useful to also ask children to find value in both posi3ons and to find some middle ground. The same basic ques3ons about the tension between the needs of our modern industrial culture and the needs of the natural world can be asked aler reading books like Lynn Cherry’s The Great Kapok Tree, Dana Lyon’s The Tree, and Dr. Suess’ The Lorax. A crucial ques3on for our young learners gets at humans’ rela3onship to nature: Are humans a small part of the larger natural world, or are humans separate from nature and with dominion over nature? In Jane Yolen’s classic book, Owl Moon, a story about a father/child walk in the woods in search of owls, the author’s bias reflects great respect and even a reverence by humans for nature, and a sense that we humans are just a small 3ny part of the grand scheme of things. In most all of Lynne Cherry’s books (see references at end of ar3cle), the natural world of plants and animals dominates images of humans, which tend to take up a small frac3on of the pictures. For children, the experience of gardening can be a powerful link with the natural world. Besides simply as a source of food, gardens can teach us humans about our rootedness to the soil and the no3on of growth, an organizing principle of all life. Peter Brown’s Curious Garden and Sarah Stewart’s The Gardener depict gardens as small but powerful spaces where children and adults can find meaning, connec3on, and peace. Most books will have explicit themes that are unrelated to the human-‐nature rela3onship, even though nature plays a huge role in the narra3ve. In Julie Brinckloe’s Fireflies, boys engage in a summer ritual of catching fireflies and storing them in glass boEles. The protagonist realizes that the fireflies in his boEle will die unless he lets them go free. The publisher on the back cover suggests the theme, the “need to set something free in order to keep it.” I would suggest that teachers, aler reading this book, lead students to reflect on the role of fireflies and other insects in the natural world, the value of all non-‐human life, and the challenge of learning to respect this life. In other books, in fact most books, nature is a backdrop for our human-‐made world, so if not totally represented as benign, nature func3ons to annoy, disrupt or harm humans and the human-‐centered materialist world. In Marjorie Sharmat’s Gila Monsters Meet You at the Airport, a white middle class boy and his family (con2nued on page 20) The ORAcle page 20 Research and Studies (con2nued from page 19) migrate from New York City to a small city in the Southwest. It is a funny text about the foibles of stereotyping. Nature, playing a background role in the book, is depicted as an annoyance and nuisance. In one scene, the protagonist imagines sinng on cactus and screams in pain and horror. In a scene of New York City, the weather is wretched cold, and in another scene, Arizona is wretched hot. In books like these, which are the norm, the climate and ecological environment are background, and humans and their technologies are in the foreground. It is important to help our students no3ce that the natural world, which we depend on for our very existence, is mostly absent from most curricula, children’s literature, and the media. Our industrial-‐consump3on society and school curricula have rendered nature invisible and, worse, as primarily a resource for human technology and material gain. However, children’s writers, teachers, environmental educators and other defenders of the earth increasingly are reframing the nature-‐human rela3onship. Teachers, if you care about the future of our planet and wonder what you can do to help, here is one small but very consequen3al ac3on: Teach students to cri2cally analyze bias, in both literary and expository texts, as it relates to nature: its rela2onship to humans, how its ‘usefulness’ is represented, and its role in a healthy planet. Beyond this, Sobel (2008) and Bigelow and Swinehart (2014) provide more experien3al curriculum ideas. ! References: Bigelow, Bill (2014). How my schooling taught me contempt for the Earth. In B. Bigelow & T. Swinehart (Eds.), A People’s Curriculum for the Earth (pp. 36-‐41). Milwaukee, WI: Rethinking Schools. Bigelow, Bill, & Swinehart, Tim (2014). A people’s curriculum for the Earth. Milwaukee, WI: Rethinking Schools. Brinkloe, Julie (1986). Fireflies. New York: Aladdin Books/Simon & Schuster. Brown, Peter (2009). The curious garden. New York: LiEle, Brown Books for Young Readers. Cherry, Lynne (1995). The cherry and the unicorn. New York: Voyager Books. Cherry, Lynne (2000). The great kapok tree. New York: HMH Books for Young Readers. Cherry, Lynne (2002). A river ran wild. New York: HMH Books for Young Readers. Louv, Richard (2008). Last child in the woods: Saving our children from nature-‐deficit disorder. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books. Lyons, Dana (2002). The tree. Vancouver, WA: Illumina3on Arts Publishing Company. Orr, David (2004). Earth in mind. Washington, DC: Island Press. Seuss, Dr. (1971). The lorax. New York: Random House. Sharmat, Marjorie (1990). The gila monsters meet you at the airport. New York: Aladdin/Simon & Schuster. Shiva, Vendana (2014). Two views of nature. In B. Bigelow & T. Swinehart (Eds.), A People’s Curriculum for the Earth (pp. 25-‐26). Milwaukee, WI: Rethinking Schools. Sobel, David (2008). Childhood and nature: Design principles for educators. Portland, ME: Stenhouse. Stewart, Sarah (2007). The gardener. New York: Square Fish. Yolen, Jane (1987). Owl moon. New York: Philomel Books. ! The ORAcle page 21 Secondary Desk ! Peter Thacker, University of Portland, Chair What CCSS Can Really Be Recently, I joined about 200 educators at the University of Portland for a daylong symposium sponsored by UP’s newly formed Educa3onal Leadership Network. It explored how to teach in a manner consistent with CCSS principles in English/Language Arts and Math. I was lucky enough to par3cipate in two workshops taught by educators who understand both how teachers and students learn. I first joined a workshop, Real World Thinking: Managing the CCSS Shils in the 6-‐12 Classroom, led by Beth Elliot, a secondary literacy coach in the Gresham-‐Barlow School District. We began by reading a most compelling piece by Karen Tankersley (ASCD, 2007) that highlights the need for student-‐based inquiry. Tankersley argues that from an early age students learn that answers to ques3ons lie outside themselves. Teachers are the arbiters of right and wrong. Students are not asked to think for themselves, then jus3fy their reasoning. She argues that our schools value breadth over depth and suggests that in this age students need to “apply the appropriate level of sophis3ca3on to think deeply and process complex problems.” We need to “create classrooms where students are willing to take risks, share their ideas and thoughts, delve deeply into issues and ideas, and take responsibility for their own learning.” So students’ ideas are primary and making mistakes is helpful because we learn through trial and error. We no longer put primacy on genng things right, but rather on exploring possibili3es un3l new solu3ons are found. This is a sea change in educa3on, but one I would argue is extremely worthy and 3mely. Tankersley suggests that classrooms need to encourage collabora3on and ask not only the teacher for corrobora3on of solu3ons, but more importantly rely on student interac3on to gain understanding. This is the intended reasoning behind constructed response assessments: to teach students to come up with novel ideas and jus3fy them as best they can. In the second workshop, one for grades K-‐5 taught by Sarah Hayden, Instruc3onal Coach in the Salem-‐Keizer School District and Samantha Salvitelli, Instruc3onal Coach for Gresham-‐Barlow, I found a wonderful commitment to reading stories and listening to students’ inferences and conclusions without teacher’s interjec3ng their understandings of the story. When we would ask ques3ons or prepare students for a story, one of the leaders would listen for our interjec3ons that would lead students towards our understanding of the reading and ding a bell when we gave our opinions or guiding sugges3ons. This was a terrific way of reminding us that students need to process stories on their own, working with the back and forth between reader interpreta3on and what is in the text. I have seen my own struggling students catch each other in mis-‐readings of text, allowing students to explain their reasoning to one another, then self-‐correct. What a great method to remind students that the answers are within rather than with the teacher. Aler assis3ng us with understanding the inten3on of CCSS assessments in English/Language Arts, Elliot’s workshop centered on close reading in which students (and we as workshop par3cipants were the students) would read for ideas and the arguments that backed them up. A series of sentence starters like “One thing I learned from the story/ar3cle was …because the text said…” helped us to make claims, then find the informa3on that backed them up. (con2nued on page 22) The ORAcle At the same 3me, I just this evening witnessed a student teacher explaining that at her school the emphasis on finding evidence for arguments in reading is taking the enjoyment out of the reading when done to excess. This student reported that her coopera3ng teacher and she had, along with other teachers in their elementary school, decided to stop the head-‐long teaching to the soon-‐to-‐come CCSS assessments and to go back to teaching using a variety of methods of responding to reading to keep it s3mula3ng and focused on the totality of the reading experience. It is here that the inten3on of the tes3ng and the reality of its implementa3on come into conflict. There can be no classrooms in which students independently and collabora3vely explore issues and ideas when teachers are focusing solely on genng ready for constructed-‐response assessments. Policy makers need to address this irony: The very worthy aims of those crea3ng the CCSS may be turning schools into assessment-‐crazed factory assembly lines. Smart ends, poorly constructed means. What is reading for; what creates independent learners? Let’s re-‐start there. page 22 Tim Swanson Web Master (con2nued from page 21) I know, both from my own teaching and from observing many classrooms, that teaching students how to use relevant, meaningful informa3on from texts they are reading is an important task that olen has confounded students. I believe that teaching the skills to do this work is a central aspect of deepening understanding. I was pleased to find that we are genng beEer at scaffolding student learning to do this. WEB NEWS Secondary Desk ! As lovers of literacy, we spend our lives growing the gil of reading in our students, children, and grandchildren. Reading opens up worlds of informa3on and imagina3on, which is where students find their love for literacy. ! Some3mes, it seems like the deck is stacked against us and we really need a breakthrough. This past week, I found two interes3ng breakthroughs in student engagement through using educa3onal technology. Technology is helpful when it is seamless and empowers our students’ learning. I found Sock Puppets and Educrea3ons to fit the bill. ! Sock Puppets is a 30-‐second mul3media presenta3on that is perfect for a book talk. I had my students brainstorm an anchor chart for what a 30-‐second book talk should include, and we created a plan sheet. I gradually released the book talk by reading a mentor text and wri3ng a book talk together as a class. Then, I selected a few students to create the model Sock Puppet book talk. The students were so excited, they were giddy. But, it was a laser-‐focused type of giddy. Over the next few days, small groups of students read books, planned, and created their own 30-‐second Sock Puppet book talks. Here’s a book talk about While We Were Out by Ho Baek Lee. hEp://bit.ly/sockpuppetbooktalk ! Educrea3ons is web-‐based and an ipad app that is an interac3ve whiteboard and records the user’s voice. The app is useful across content, especially in science and math. It can be used as an alterna3ve to a paper and pencil assessment for core knowledge. In my case, I’m using Educrea3ons for students to explain concepts that they are learning in reading groups. Using Educrea3ons, the student or teacher can upload a background image and record a discussion while annota3ng the image. Here’s an example that I made, comparing Barbed Wire Baseball by Marissa Moss with Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki. hEp://bit.ly/educrea3onsbaseball ! Oregon Reading Associa3on is passionate about empowering you to educate students in the skills and enjoyment of reading. We want you to have every advantage possible. As members, you are valued, supported, and deeply appreciated. If you want to collaborate with me on educa3onal technology, please contact me. mr3mswanson@gmail.com ! facebook.com/OregonReadingAssociation Twitter: @OregonReadAssoc #OregonRead www.OregonRead.org The ORAcle page 23 Literacy Grants 2014 - 2015 Winners Nanci Strickland, Chair The Million Word Club – Kelly Deatherage and Stephanie Hemstead – Portland Council Deep Creek Middle School students who read at least 1 million words will celebrate with a field trip that their grant will help to pay for. This project is a way for a broad cross-‐sec3on of students to share their love of reading. Using Mentor Texts to Inspire Young Writers – Terri Hethorn – Capital Council Book sets will be purchased to build a mentor-‐text lending library for teachers in the K-‐3 schools in Dallas. Teachers will work with a coach to develop and plan lessons using these high quality texts. Books for Boys: Inspiring Adolescent Readers – Susan Kluss – Portland Council The grant will help to purchase high-‐interest books that will appeal to high school readers at ACE Academy. By providing current, popular “boy books,” these students can discover that reading for pleasure is a pleasure. Guys Read Gary Paulsen – Ali Kretschmer – Mountain Valleys Council This grant recipient will be purchasing more books by a proven author for seventh grade boys at La Grande Middle School. Small literacy circles will be geared for the struggling or reluctant readers to build on their love of Paulsen’s Hatchet. BaXle of the Books for Title I Readers – K’Lynn Coleman – Mid-‐Valley Council This grant project will purchase books to encourage Philomath Elementary Title I students to gain confidence as readers. With extra 3me and support, they will gain comprehension skills that will help them see themselves as readers. FicMon/NonficMon Book Pairings – Dawn Alexander – Three Sisters Council The 3rd grade students at Redmond Elementary will be reading new books with paired fic3on/nonfic3on 3tles to enrich vocabulary and comprehension, and help to develop research skills. The high-‐interest 3tles will support science and social studies standards, and also provide a springboard for wri3ng. The Heritage Student Book Swap – Kathleen Kulin – Capital Council This grant will support a before-‐school student book swap at Heritage Elementary in Woodburn. Based on the research of well-‐known reading experts, students will volunteer at the book swap and help with prepara3on, guide others to 3tles, maintain records, and build their own literacy skills while helping other students to do the same. Pu[ng the “ Teens” Back in Summer Reading – Angela Lann – Member at large The goal of this project is to bring teens back to the Vale City Library during the summer months. There will be incen3ves and ac3vi3es offered for the par3cipants, including books for students’ home libraries. Being a PosiMve Cheerleader – How to Read to Your Child – Joy Malone – Umpqua Council Parents will be trained how to read with their young children. They will learn how to ask ques3ons and make the most of this opportunity to foster language and vocabulary skills, and be sent home with a book to get them started on their literacy journeys. Teaching With Love and Literacy – Nancy Schaefer – Mid-‐Valley Council First graders in this classroom will have updated resources to build their literacy skills. Grant funds will be used to purchase an online program with books and reader’s theater scripts, as well as high quality children’s literature. The ORAcle page 24 MARK YOUR CALENDARS ! June 23 & 25, 2015………ORA Summer Regional Institutes, Bend and Pendleton! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! http://oregonread.org/! !! August 7, 2015……………………………………………………….…ORA Summer Institute in Eugene! http://oregonread.org/! ! November 6, 2015……………………………………………………………ORA Fall Institute in Portland! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! http://oregonread.org/! ! May 1, 2015………………………………………………ORA Patricia Gallagher Book Award Votes Due! http://oregonread.org/patriciagallagher/ ! ! ! ! February 12 & 13, 2016…………………………………………….……ORA Winter Institute in Portland ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! http://oregonread.org/ ! July 18-20, 2015……………………………………………..…………….……60th ILA Conference! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! 2014-2015! Oregon Reading Association ! Executive Board! ! The ORAcle ! An electronic publication of the! OREGON READING ASSOCIATION! ! President ……………………………..….Katherine Inman! 1880 Tabor St. ! Eugene, OR 97401! kinman90@gmail.com! ! ! Volume 31 • Spring 2015 • Number 3! ! President Elect………………………………Barbara Low! Vice-President………………………..…Nanci Strickland! Past President………………………………Beth LaForce! State Coordinator……………………………Carol Brown! Professional Development/! Membership………………………………..Dennis Hickey! ! dennishickey@outlook.com! Treasurer………………………………….….…Kristi Miller! ! ! ! Secretary……………………………………….Sue Fowler! Web Director……………………………… Tim Swanson! ORAcle Editor…………………………….René Dernbach! Visit the ORA website at www.oregonread.org ! and like us on Facebook. http://www.reading.org/annual-conference-2015 ! Editor ………………. René Dernbach! The Oregon Reading Association is a non-profit organization for teachers, administrators, parents, specialists and others who are interested in reading instruction and promotion of lifetime reading habits. ! ORA is an affiliate of the! International Literacy Association !
