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Teaching and Cheerleading

2023-02-08T18:10:10-05:00October 30th, 2018|Classroom Teaching, General Education, Reading Recovery Teaching, Reflections and Commentary, Teaching|

by Johnny Downey

A month or so ago, I was racking my brain, over and over again to try and find a topic to explore for the wonderful opportunity to guest author on the RRCNA blog. This week, a great idea swept over me. I brainstormed some things I was passionate about, first jokingly, but after looking at my list I realized two of my great passions are great topics to blend into advice.

Some of you who know me know I am a teacher by day, cheerleading coach by evening. I am getting ready to begin years 11 and 15. It seems not nearly as long!  As I’ve illustrated below, there are many things teachers and cheerleaders have in common.

 

GREAT Teachers GREAT Cheerleaders
-On stage at ALL times

-Celebrate EVERY success even when you’re “losing”

-Encourage students to get excited about learning

-Adapt to many environments to meet needs of all students

 -On stage at ALL times

-Celebrate EVERY point, even when we’re losing.

-Encourage others to get excited about the event

-Adapt to many environments, rain, snow, wind, flying balls, etc.

 

Two lessons every Reading Recovery teacher-in-training learns are: (1) use simple language and (2) celebrate/praise the partially-correct in teaching situations. To help early readers, a Reading Recovery teacher learns early on that language is important to every lesson. Having a simple language that is easy to take on provides a child with the tools to internalize the wanted behaviors of learning to read. In cheerleading, we must remember that fans do not know exactly what we want them to say. We need to keep our cheers and chants short and easy to repeat. We introduce phrases, ask for fans to yell with us, and repeat several times in order to get the whole stadium yelling together toward a common goal.

The common goal of learning to read is where our simple language falls in the classroom. If we simplify our language around the reading process, our students can begin to internalize. Take for example my favorite thing in every Reading Recovery beginning lesson, the self-correction. Self-correcting is noticing something is wrong and attempting to do something about it. If our language is quick and simple, “try that again,” “something didn’t look right, sound right, etc.” the student can begin to internalize these simple phrases and metacognitively think about his/her reading.

If our language is full of words, and drawn out, students won’t be able to pick up as quickly. For example, if a teacher said something like, “that wasn’t right,” or “right here you said ____ and this word sounds like ___ at the beginning. Make the ___ sound with your lips. Great! Now let’s make the next sound, and the next, and the next and now let’s put it together.” By this time, the student has totally forgotten about the page they’re reading, and the book! Simple is the way to go!

Celebration is the essence of positivity in the classroom. Reading Recovery teachers let some errors slide in order to build upon the strengths of their students. Cheerleaders will do the same thing. Think of a game where the home team is down by 14, the cheerleaders don’t give up and tell the team everything they are doing wrong (even though they might want to). They get pumped up and tell the team and the fans to keep going! They celebrate and stay positive. Teachers can do the same in their classrooms. There is no need to point out every little thing that is wrong and needs fixing. No one likes that, so why waste the time? Just like a big Friday night game – be the cheerleader for your students.

  • Celebrate when they first recognize they’ve made a mistake and they go back to try something.
  • Celebrate that they’ve noticed! (Worry about fixing it later.)
  • Celebrate when they first recognize the lowercase “b” or “d” correctly.
  • Celebrate when they’ve learned to write their name efficiently.
  • Celebrate if they simply do well on a running record.
  • Celebrate the partially correct, build their confidence, and you can’t go wrong!

Teachers and cheerleaders should remember to use simple language that can be picked up by the students and fans – something that can be the same and repeated when needed. They must also remain positive above all and celebrate even the partially-correct in all situations.

 

Johnny Downy is a Learning Design Specialist with the Forest Hills School in Cincinnati, Ohio.

 

Teaching as a Team Sport

2023-02-08T18:10:11-05:00September 4th, 2018|General, General Education, Reading Recovery Teaching, Reflections and Commentary, Teaching|

by Susan Vincent

This past summer, I watched the Tour de France bicycle race on TV, as I do every summer. I loved waking up every morning to the incredible scenic views of quaint French towns, the majestic Alps, and the spirited fans who lined the narrow streets to cheer on the bicyclists.

What I did not really understand for many years is that bicycling is a team sport. I always viewed cycling as an individual effort, because that’s the only way I’d ever experienced riding a bike. I’ve come to find out, however, these bicycle teams are actually intricate networks of support for the cyclists.

The cyclists group themselves in a clump called a peloton. The peloton helps cyclists ride more efficiently by cutting wind drag. The other riders “draft” for each other in turns, blocking the wind and making it easier to ride. The riders also have outside support. Supporters ride along in cars, handing off water and snacks, or changing flat tires. Communication is also a big part of success, I learned. Riders wear earpieces to get information about road conditions and to get advice about strategy.

Of course, no cyclist would get very far in the Tour de France alone. A network of support is absolutely necessary. It occurs to me that teaching is the same.

When Marie Clay, in all her genius, developed Reading Recovery, she made it a team sport. She established a required professional network for teachers. The network provides teachers “continuing contact” with each other (as we used to call professional learning meetings.) Groups of teachers meet regularly to watch each other teach and to learn with and from each other. Even during the “alone” times of teaching, at the first sign of stagnated learning, a colleague or teacher leader is at the ready to sit beside you, observe a lesson, teach your child, and problem solve with you. You are never really alone in Reading Recovery. You are in a peloton, sometimes drafting for your colleagues, sometimes being drafted by them. Your earpiece is always in place with your professional readings and colleagues to guide you. And of course, the children are always the winners when teachers operate in this kind of team.

My fondest professional wish is that this type of Reading Recovery learning network could grow even larger and more intricate.  Reading Recovery professionals have a wealth of knowledge that could support literacy teachers everywhere. The teaching peloton no longer needs to be bound by geography. We have tools today that didn’t exist in Reading Recovery’s early days. Thousands of teachers meet on Twitter and share educational ideas. Over 4 million posts per day are on education-related topics. Shouldn’t Reading Recovery be a major voice? I think so.

Perhaps Reading Recovery professionals can “draft” for the field of literacy professionals, who have been bombarded in recent years by all kinds of craziness, from NCLB to high stakes tests, to scripted programs. Teachers could use some expert literacy “drafting,” taking us in the right direction, helping us understand how children learn to read and write. If you are a Reading Recovery professional or if you support Reading Recovery, I think you can help the team.

If you haven’t joined Twitter, join. Check out Reading Recovery’s monthly chat by following the hashtag #rrchat. Participate and bring a friend.  If you are a teacher leader, spend some time getting your teachers signed up and encourage them to participate. If you are unsure and in new territory, all the better! You can learn together. There is help available through Reading Recovery.  Soon, Reading Recovery could be a very noticeable voice in a very public forum. It’s important because more children are waiting to be literacy winners! (Let’s wear some yellow jerseys!)

 

Susan Vincent is a faculty member in early childhood education at Miami University Regionals in Ohio. She taught Reading Recovery for 19 years as a teacher and teacher leader. Follow her on Twitter, @ssvincent. Susan will be a speaker at the 2019 National Reading Recovery & K-6 Literacy Conference, February 9-12, in Columbus, OH. Her session is titled: “Accelerating Progress with ALL Readers Through Classroom Instruction”.

A Seat at the Table

2018-09-05T12:49:56-05:00May 29th, 2018|Classroom Teaching, General Education, Reading Recovery Teaching, Reflections and Commentary, Teaching|

by Hollyanna Bates

A Seat at the Table
As a school district literacy coordinator, I worry about literacy. I worry about students learning how to read. I worry about those who find reading difficult. I worry that we aren’t spending enough time creating readers who choose to read.

I have found that I can fend off a little worry when I leverage the worry into powerful actions.  These actions have developed from small steps to well-developed projects. The projects are implemented across our schools in order to impact both reading achievement and a love of reading.  The projects are possible because teachers, administrators, and volunteers work together with the belief that we have to do whatever it takes. We stand firm in the belief that students need access to the behaviors of literate cultures and we aim to provide this access in a variety of ways. We offer our students a seat at the literate table.

 

Summer Books
A few years ago, we read Allington and McGill-Franzen’s research on summer reading and were persuaded to make a change.  We hadn’t seen much success from our traditional summer school model and limited funds reduced the number of students we were able to impact. Since we had surveyed students using Donalyn Miller’s tool in the Book Whisperer, we knew that many students would not read during the summer if we didn’t provide books; many reported having 0-2 books at home.

With district funds and a heck-of-a-lot of grant funding from our local Rotary Club, we have replicated the work of Allington and McGill.  Each student in K-4 gets to choose summer books from a large library we created just for this purpose. Our team researched the newest, most popular titles and cultivated a collection for each school.  Each May we roll out the bins, add some new titles, and invite students to select books to take home for the summer.

 

Author Visits
Our local education foundation has partnered with the school district to provide author visits to all K-8 students each year. Because literate citizens know the names of authors, have books inscribed by authors, and have read several books by a favorite author, we implemented the visits as a way to provide this access. Last year, 100% of surveyed teachers reported that they found the visits effective for these reasons: they built excitement around reading, writing, and art; inspired students to read books; provided access to literate cultures; and built understanding around the writing process. Before the author visit each year, students write letters persuading a committee to select them to eat lunch with the author.  This year, Carlos (pseudonym), a student who is living in poverty and learning English as a second language, wrote, “I want to be picked to eat lunch with the author because it will change my life.” Today, he ate breakfast with Colorado author Todd Mitchell and I think both of them will be forever changed after their time together!

 

Home Libraries
When our district leaders looked at the research related to the number of books children have at home, the number of students who choose to read, and the correlation with achievement, we couldn’t help but take action.  The pilot project was funded by our education foundation and has grown to be funded by every community resource available. Now implemented in our three schools most impacted by poverty, students in grades 3-5 are well on their way to having authentic home libraries. Each month students select two books from the Scholastic order. These books belong to the students and become their home libraries.  In a recent survey, 93% of participating students reported they had read all the books ordered through the project, with 76% of students reporting that they read some books twice.

While I still worry about literacy development of our students, I am proud of the projects we have in place, the opportunities we provide, and the improvements we make each year to help all children fall in love with reading.

RESOURCES
Summer Reading: Closing the Rich/Poor Achievement Gap by Richard Allington and Anne McGill-Franzen
Scholastic Research Compendium on Access to Books

Hollyanna Bates is a past president of the Colorado Council of the International Reading Association (CCIRA) and a Reading Recovery teacher leader/literacy coordinator in Summit School District, Frisco, Colorado. Follow her on Twitter @hollyannabates.

 

 

Any views or claims expressed in The Reading Recovery Connections Blog are those of individual authors, not RRCNA.

 

Taking a Professional Stand in an Age of Confusion

2018-09-05T12:50:03-05:00May 17th, 2018|Latest News, Reflections and Commentary|

by Mary Howard

As I write these words, I am headed home from an incredible visit to Fredericton Canada before leaving again in just a few days. I’m filled with such deep appreciation for this beautiful profession and feel so blessed to continue to play an active role as an educator. One of the many things that sustains me in this continued journey is being surrounded by dedicated and joyful educators who are equally devoted to giving the children who depend on us the very best we have to offer.

As someone who is still actively engaged in education, I hold my responsibility to read and study on a daily basis in high esteem; a responsibility I strongly believe that all teachers must hold dear but sadly, do not. I have expressed my concern for the current state of education on many occasions of late. I find that I am often filled with a sense of loss at a time when there are individuals armed only with a biased agenda doing all they can to thwart our efforts to do this beautiful work.

One of the experiences that meant most to me throughout my career was my Reading Recovery training. Quite simply, Reading Recovery changed my life in more ways than I could possibly verbalize, and the words of Marie Clay continue to ring in my ears. For this reason, The Journal of Reading Recovery is one of my favorite reads. I had just received the Spring 2018 edition the day before I left for Canada so this morning as I ate breakfast, I dove right in. As a dedicated professional reader, I rarely eat a meal without a book, article, or computer screen in front of me. Apparently, this habit causes restaurant servers great angst considering how often I am admonished.

I quickly opened to the Journal table of contents and two articles literally reached out to me, since my growing concerns about this topic rarely relinquish its grip. The first article was written by Rachael Gabriel titled “Understanding Dyslexia Laws and Policies” (page 25-34). It is by far the best article I’ve ever read on the subject and it explained many of the things that few districts or policymakers are willing to clarify. Unfortunately, districts and states love to adopt policy with absolutely no clue why we should even be doing it or whether those who are telling us to do those things have the expertise to back up that advice. As a result, this advice is being put into action in ways that are devoid of any understanding other than a passive act of doing the bidding of others without the benefit of knowledge.

Quite frankly, I was hoping this article would make me worry less and I suppose that in a very small way it did, although mainly because someone was at last willing to offer an honest reflection on this issue. Unfortunately, it also made me worry even more as my greatest fears were recognized. I was astonished to know the unethical ways that this law was–and is–being rolled out and how Structured Literacy is using the dyslexia law as an irresponsible platform to sell narrow practices along with the tools, programs, and resources that embrace those practices.

What I found most alarming is twofold. First is the contradiction of our knowledge that no single approach works for all children. Structured Literacy advocates are suggesting that there is a systematic and singular way to support children identified as dyslexic. They make no attempt to acknowledge that even children given the same ‘label’ are likely to differ in substantial ways and thus will also differ in terms of their instructional needs. They are asking us to trust that a one-size-fits-all approach will be adequate to meet the unique needs of children who are anything but one-size-fits-all.

Perhaps even more disconcerting is the suggestion that the number of students who would benefit from these recommendations is substantial. They want us to believe that students with dyslexia number as high as 20% with no research to support this claim. They want us to believe that their narrow prescriptive approach they claim is good for those identified as dyslexic is also good for all children who have not been identified. This unsubstantiated premise has potential to lead us down a scary path where these narrow prescriptive approaches could spread across our entire school populations. The tragic side-effect of these claims is the attempt to knock down anything in their path that does not applaud this terrifying agenda, including highly effective approaches that have a solid record of success such as Reading Recovery. And the outcome of all of this?

“…it fuels a rapidly expanding market for dyslexia-specific assessments, tools, trainings, and techniques.”

The impact of this unfortunate shift has resulted with programs that support their view such as Orton Gillingham and Wilson Phonics.  As a result, a growing number of related programs, apps, and computer skill-and-drill are flooding the market as profiteers and market-savvy snake oil salesmen stand ready to cash in. And in the aftermath of these changes, powerful approaches such as Reading Recovery have been first on the dyslexia law chopping block. As you are reading this, the dyslexia law and mounting unsubstantiated claims arising from the law are having a significant impact on Reading Recovery professionals and those who have dedicated their lives to children.

Some of these changes are described in Mary Anne Doyle’s incredible article is the same issue of JRR: “Communicating the Power of Reading Recovery and Literacy Lessons Instruction for Dyslexic Learners: An Ethical Response” (page 35-50). I loved everything about Mary Anne’s post, but I especially connected to her reference to how Marie Clay would respond to these recommendations:

“She would challenge the practice of using a label that suggests all learners’ difficulties are similar and mandates one path to literacy acquisition.”

This makes me wonder why we aren’t all questioning this one-size-fits-all prescriptive mentality. Billie Askew offers us a challenge that we should all accept in her brilliant article in the same issue: “What’s So Important About Theory?” (page 5-13). She reminds us to ask “WHY” questions that are the very heart of the Reading Recovery spirit. As a trained Reading Recovery teacher, we were taught to keep WHY at the center of all we did and always to relate our thinking back to theory rather than our own suppositions as demonstrated by Structured Literacy. These questions keep our sights squarely on the needs of our students and our understandings supported by research: Why are we doing what we are doing? How are our choices impacting children in a positive way? What new choices will we make based on what we observe as we teach?

There are no prescriptive answers because Marie Clay taught us all that how we respond to those questions is dependent upon the individual needs of our children. Our focus on WHY (and how) is based on those unique individual needs of the child in front of us. This is a stark departure from what is now being touted in the name of the dyslexia law and the many misinformed groups rising up at every turn. And the most shocking thing of all is that somehow politicians, districts, states, and schools are putting blind faith in those misconceptions.

As I sit back and reflect on these three posts, one of the things that struck me most was a statement by Billie Askew at the beginning of her article. She was referring to her Reading Recovery training in 1987, not long before my own training in the same district where she got her start in Richardson, Texas.

“We were still using basal readers–lock step–perhaps with little thought to the implications for the learners. Teachers may have felt secure with a program that basically said what to do and when, but we had little information about the ways in which children were learning.”

Fast forward to 2018, more than 30 years later, and we are still celebrating the use of basal readers with a lock step approach and little knowledge or desire to know our children as unique learners.

I’d say that’s a heart-breaking giant step backwards, wouldn’t you?

 

 

Mary Howard, author
Twitter: @DrMaryHoward; Facebook: Mary C Howard

 

Any views or claims expressed in The Reading Recovery Connections Blog are those of individual authors, not RRCNA.

Access + Choice + Expert Teacher = Equity

2018-09-05T12:50:15-05:00April 20th, 2018|Reflections and Commentary, Teaching|

by Lynn Newmyer

Last week a few of my former students were peering into my partially open classroom door. They watched as I unloaded a box of new books onto already overstocked shelves and excitedly talked over each other.

“I remember that one – it’s so funny!” “Do you still have those other books that we used to read?” “Wait – that’s a new one! What’s that one about?”  Their eyes were sparkling with anticipation waiting to see if I would ask them to come in and read with me, again. They used to be students who struggled with literacy. Now they viewed themselves as readers. Fortunately, an expert teacher was available just when they needed one.

 

Never Underestimate the Power of Books

In order to become a reader, students need and deserve access to books.

Andrew had just successfully finished his Reading Recovery intervention with me; he had read more than 100 little books. Many had become favorites that he often took home and shared with his family. Two days ago, Andrew’s sister came to his classroom teacher with a note from his mother with a simple request: “Andrew doesn’t have any books at home. Could we please have some?” Immediately the classroom teacher and I found books for Andrew to take home and keep. They would be the start of his own little library.

In their study of four communities, Neumann & Celano (2001) noted the disparity of opportunities between low-income and middle-income neighborhoods in regards to access to print. Two were middle class and two were lower income. No surprise that children in lower income homes had fewer books in their homes than the middle-class children. Fewer opportunities result in the beginnings of inequity.

“Ensuring that books are available to any child at any time of the year will be a good first step in enhancing the reading achievement of low-income students and is an absolutely necessary step in closing the reading achievement gap.”  Allington & McGill- Franzen. (2008)

 

The Motivation and Engagement with Choice and Independent Reading

If students have greater access to interesting books it is more likely that they will want to read and they will probably read more. Chris, another one of my students, read a story about a boy who wanted a large pet spider, much to his indulgent mother’s dismay.

First Chris wanted to read all the other stories in the series. That led him to ask questions and to seek answers about real life spiders. Later he asked me,” Are there more books that are stories with true facts?” Of course there were, and we read them in our lessons. At independent reading time in his classroom, he had an ever-evolving bag of books from his classroom and from my room that he was avidly reading, and during indoor recess he was writing his own book about spiders.

As Donalyn Miller (2009) states in The Book Whisperer, “We teachers have more than enough anecdotal evidence that the students who read the most are best spellers, writers, and thinkers. No exercise gives more instructional bang for the buck than reading.” Being literate requires wide reading with access and choice of many different types of texts.

 

It Takes an Expert

Access and choice are critical, but even if those are part of a child’s environment both at home and at school, are they enough to ensure that a child will become a reader? Probably not, as all my students were not readers…yet. They needed an expert reading teacher.

Richard Allington (2013) states, “We have too much evidence that expertise in reading matters for any child who is struggling while learning to be literate.”  What defines teacher expertise for a reading teacher? The International Literacy Association created standards for evaluating teacher preparation programs for reading specialists. However, not all professionals who work with students that struggle with literacy have those qualifications.

Investing in teacher expertise is a critical piece of equity. Investing in what works for students based upon valid research such as those reviewed programs listed on the What Works Clearinghouse site is just as critical.

Brittany, my new student, was skipping down the hall holding my hand, as we were moving towards my room. She beckoned me to bend over so I could hear her.

” Finally,” she said. “I wondered when anyone was ever going to come and help me I’ve been waiting!”

 

 

Lynn Newmyer is a Reading Recovery teacher leader from Walled Lake, MI.

 

 

Any views or claims expressed in The Reading Recovery  Connections Blog are those of individual authors, not RRCNA.

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