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It's Great to Be Alive

10/27/2014

Yesterday I turned 52. I know this is not really a significant milestone. Lots of people get to this age and it is not nearly as exciting as the turn of a new decade like 40, 50, 60 or more. But I am pretty excited about 52. Being where I am, at this moment in time is cause for celebration. I live in a wonderful place with wonderful people and have an extended network of family, friends, colleagues and even virtual friends who give me strength, encouragement, joy and laughter every day.

This moment in time is particularly sweet for me. Since my last birthday I welcomed a grandchild into my life and experienced a career-changing event that has changed the way I view the work-life balance. It turns out that life is much better when you have this balance. It was forced upon me through some pretty terrible circumstances, which I am slowly coming to view as positive.

Living here, at this time in history, is better than any other time and place I can think of. We live in a country where you don't get put in prison because of your political views. Sure, I would like the world to be less about politics, but at least the government won't lock me up when I don't agree with what is happening. Even though there is still way too much poverty and hunger, we have an overall abundance of everything we need in the United States. When we have the will, we can solve any problem. Even though we still need to stand up for civil rights, we live in a country where men and women of every race and ethnic background have the same basic rights. This only happened very recently so we need to be thankful for the advancement of civil rights and fiercely protective of those rights at every opportunity.

We are living at a time and place where we have access to information and ideas as never before, where we can do anything and dream anything we dare. During my lifetime astronauts went to the moon and a robot landed on Mars. I carry a more powerful computer in my pocket than the first astronauts had in their rockets. Girls now have equal access to sports and go to college even more frequently than boys. There are foods that we have learned to make and share, and music and arts that we love, that weren't here when I was growing up. Cars are safer, homes are warmer and we can hop on a plane to visit all parts of the globe. We don't have to pay for long distance phone calls to our relatives in other states and we can even chat via video. I am friends with people I have never met in person and my life is so much richer for it. Despite what you may believe thanks to our overwhelming access to mass media, we are healthier, wealthier and safer than ever before.

Yes, there are many things that should improve in the world and our country is very flawed. But overall, it is such a great time and place to be alive. I am thankful for the time I have had here so far and look forward to all that is to come. Happy birthday to me!

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Just Right Reading

10/24/2014

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For decades teachers has been trained to provide "just right" reading materials to their students. The conventional wisdom has been that students should operate within what has become known as the zone of proximal development or ZPD. A student should be assigned independent reading that has just a little bit of challenge so that learning occurs without frustration. As a result of this thinking, many school and classroom libraries have been organized around a leveling system. Students are aware of their reading levels and directed to read books that are at just the right level. I thought much of this was solid educational practice until my own son began to read.

Daniel was just finishing first grade when he discovered an illustrated version of Lord of the Rings on the book shelf in our home. He started asking about the book and my husband described the story to him. He said, "I am going to read this book." Keep in mind that Daniel was not even six years old at the time. He was just beginning to read very simple books by authors like Dr. Seuss. Although he was doing well, he was not exceeding first grade expectations. Books by an author like Tolkien would certainly not have been within his ZPD at the time. When he announced he would be reading this book, I just said, "OK," thinking that he would likely just look at the pictures, ask questions and allow us to read to the book to him. But that is not what happened. The summer between first and second grade was the summer that Daniel read Lord of the Rings. He asked for help of course...a lot in the beginning. As the summer progressed he asked for less and less assistance to read the words, but was increasingly interested in talking about the story. He wanted to understand character motivations and plot structure. He craved more information about the fictional world which the characters inhabited. Daniel's interest in the story propelled him far ahead of what he should have been able to read. He finished the book that summer and continued to be an exceptionally strong reader and writer. Daniel is all grown up now and writes for a living. He lives to tell stories and create exciting new worlds for readers and audiences. I shudder to think what may have happened if we had steered him away from the book that drove his obsession with story telling.

By now you may be thinking that my son is the exception. It is a rare child who will read Tolkien before turning six. While that is true, I have seen this sort of scenario play out over and over again. Do you remember when Harry Potter was first published? If you had been around any elementary school kids at the time you would know that reading this book became sort of a right of passage. I personally witnessed many struggling readers begin to find reading independence through the Harry Potter series. It was suddenly very cool to be a reader and kids just craved these stories. Even if they weren't great readers yet, they would struggle and work and struggle some more so they could read Harry Potter. Children who had never before read a whole chapter book, were suddenly devouring a 312 page novel.

Unfortunately, I also witnessed many kids completely shut down in the wake of the Harry Potter wave. The first book in the series was published just as many school libraries were being "leveled." Some teachers and librarians, in their quest to get kids reading "just right" books, denied kids access to Harry; instead directing them to books that were shorter and easier to read. Children were told they weren't good enough at reading yet to read Harry Potter. The adults missed a golden opportunity to create lifelong, enthusiastic readers, that would likely never happen again.

There is research to help us understand the role that interest plays in reading. This article by Denise Johnson and Anne Blair provides a good overview about the role of self-determination and reading success. What we know is that students who are allowed to read what is interesting to them will read more and will naturally choose things with varying levels of difficulty. If we want to help children become lifelong readers, we must help them find joy in reading. Books that are truly "just right" are the ones the kids really want to read.

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Too Many bins, too many books

10/7/2014

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Go into any elementary classroom and you will likely see carefully labeled or color-coded bins containing hundreds and hundreds of books. Teachers sort these books based on reading levels, interests, genres and subject areas. Each child selects books throughout the year that match abilities, interests or topics of study in the classroom. Teachers are constantly on the lookout for new books at as low a cost as possible. They have monthly book sales for their students which yield free books for the classroom. They may be lucky enough to have a limited amount of curriculum money that can be used. Most elementary teachers I know will spend their own money to obtain "new" books at yard sales, in the discount bins at book stores, or the discard tables at libraries. Finding, sorting and maintaining a classroom library that will be engaging for children is a continual and time consuming struggle.

We know that a print rich environment is important for emerging readers. We want them surrounded by texts at all times. Many children come from homes where there are not many, and sometimes not any books. Teachers of disadvantaged students feel even more compelled to provide a wealth of reading materials at school. However, when does all of this become too much? Is there a better way for children to have access to "just right" books in the classroom?

Is there a better way?

As an alternative, what if we were to take the money that is being spent on library books and classroom books and use it to purchase a tablet for each child? Tablets have come way down in price. Decent ones for classroom use can be as low as $160. If each child were issued one in kindergarten, for use through 3rd grade (the highest year we normally see the expansive classroom libraries), the cost per year, per child would only be $40. We could equip each tablet with a digital library such as Myon Reader, for less than $10 per child per year. That means that for fifty bucks a year, we can give EVERY kid access to THOUSANDS of books that can be taken home. Think about a typical elementary school with 500 students. The total cost per year would be $25,000. Although this seems like a tremendous amount of money, if you look at a typical school budget, it is probably doable.

Are there additional advantages?

Digital libraries provide additional advantages. Myon, for example provides a quick assessment and interest inventory for each child. The system selects materials that are "just right" for the student. (Children can also select books outside of these recommendations.) It provides ongoing information for the teacher including what, how much, and how well each student is reading. The teacher can see compiled information for her entire class as well. This replaces the cumbersome (and not always accurate) reading logs that most teachers and parents and grown to know and and not love.

Don't young children need "real" books?

I still believe there is something very special about holding and reading a book with a child. I am not suggesting we are at the point that we should eliminate traditional books. However, our young children live in a world where almost all of their later reading will come from digital sources. We are doing them a disservice if we don't provide them with opportunities to engage with digital books at a young age.

Since our priority in K-3 is learning to read, we should be looking at how we provide as much assess to books as possible. Currently, more than two out of every three children will exit 3rd grade proficient in reading. They will be at risk for a host of other problems if we can't get them reading early and often. Our nostalgic attachment to traditional books should not trump our children's need to learn to read.

Can digital books help make the family connection?

Myon allows each child to download up to 10 books at a time. That means the child can go home every day with 10 books - and no need to access the Internet to read them! Another exciting feature of Myon is the availability of narration and Spanish titles. If family members have limited reading skills, they can still sit with a child and experience the book together by allowing it to be read to them. Spanish speaking families have the option of reading many titles in their native language. These two features provide an incredible way to reach the families of many of our children who come from non-reading homes or homes where English is not the first language.

It's time.

It's time we embraced the technology that is not so new, not very expensive and has the potential to reduce teacher workload, increase the number of books available to children and make connections to families. Our kids deserve no less.

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It's Great to Be Alive

Just Right Reading

Too Many bins, too many books

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