Copy / Paste by Peter Pappas

Picturing the Story - An Interdisciplinary Approach to Culture, Environment, Language, and Learning

I'm pleased to served as an advisor to a new interactive resource for teachers and students. "Picturing the Story: Narrative Arts and the Stories They Tell" uses world art from the permanent collection of the Memorial Art Gallery dating from 1500 BCE to the 20th Century.  Each work has a story to tell, either visually through imagery and symbol, or indirectly through custom and ritual. The stories reflect sacred beliefs, folk traditions, common human experiences, or unique cultural practices. 

Each work of art includes downloadable resources - the story that inspired it, the culture where it originated, the techniques used to produce it, as well as extensive lesson plans, activity suggestions, and recommendations for further reading. The lessons and stories are designed to be used at a variety of grade levels. 

Downloads resources include: 

• Classroom Copy - Printable, condensed version of online materials, copy-ready for classroom use. 
• Curriculum Connections - Organized by subject area:  Social Studies, ELA, Science, Art/Art History. Lesson extensions, children’s book recommendations, and activity suggestions, most with accompanying activity sheets.  
• Learning Skill-based Activity Sheets:  Printable, copy-ready sheets that address specific learning skills, for classroom use with online materials or printed classroom copy. Includes skills such as constructing comparison, identifying context, recognizing sequence and many more.

Every work of art has a story to tell. These stories can explain the unexplainable, teach a life lesson, or celebrate our common human experiences. Each work in this collection is approached from three different perspectives: 

1. Picturing the Story: Viewing a work of art while reading/hearing/seeing its associated story. The story is available as on-screen text, as an audio file voiced by a professional storyteller, in ASL video interpretation, or printable pdf version. In addition, an audio “guided-looking tour” of the work of art by a museum educator helps focus attention on important details and promote visual and verbal looking skills. 

2. Reading the Art:  Understanding the symbolism and references used in this work of narrative art. High-quality images of works of art, with zoom-able details, comparison or supporting images, and interpretive information connect elements of the work of art to its associated story.   

3. Connecting the Culture:  Exploring the cultural and functional context of this work of art. Historical and cultural context information, including maps, supporting photos, and other images, connect the work of art and the story to the cultural background, promoting document-based and inquiry-based learning.  Information addressing purpose or function of work, biographical information on artist (as available), geographical and environmental issues, and process and tools of creation allows the objects’ significance to extend into a variety of curriculum areas.

Details from: 
 "The Fox and the Heron"  Flemish, Frans Snyders ca. 1630-1640 
 "Rama, Sita and Lakshmana Return to Ayodhya"  Indian, Rajasthan, Rajput School ca. 1850-1900

18 Literacy Strategies for Struggling Readers - Defining, Summarizing and Comparing

I've been working with teachers on learning strategies to support the literacy and comprehension skills that students commonly use across the content areas. This pdf includes 18 lessons organized in two ways: by comprehension strategy - defining, summarizing and comparing and by target reader - non-reader, word caller and turned-off reader.  The lessons are designed as templates which teachers can modify to use in their specific subject areas.

Strategies for Struggling Readers 3MB pdf   

There are two key elements that teachers should keep in mind when working in each skill area.

Defining

• Before the formal definition has been introduced, students should be asked to make connections between their prior knowledge and the term.
• After the term has been defined,  students need activities to more deeply process the term.

Summarizing

• Students should be asked to make their own judgments about what’s important to them (instead of just repeating the details the teacher highlights).
• Students will be able to more readily summarize, if they are asked to share what they’ve learned with an audience other than the teacher. 

Comparing

• Students should develop the comparison, not simply repeat the model that we present to them.
• Student should be asked to share what they learned from the comparison.

Motivating Students - A Make and Take Workshop for Teachers

This week I head back to Edison School of Engineering & Manufacturing, to conduct a two day follow up workshop.  Our previous work together identified four target areas: 

1. Motivating students
2. Making learning relevant
3. Student-centered learning strategies
4. Effective use of technology

We are going to start by modeling a "Brainstorm, Group, Label" activity (See Tool 13).  It will also  set our agenda for the "make and take activities" of the workshop. Day two begins by modeling a "Fishbowl Discussion Group" on the topic of effective next steps. We'll use the ideas generated in the fishbowl to design a Strategic Planning Grid (below) to prioritize their staff development for the fall.

Most of our time over the two days will be spent assisting teachers in designing specific lessons. I've assembled some Literacy Strategies that teachers can use as starting points for modify their existing lessons. 

“Non-readers”  for students who lack decoding skills.

“Word-callers” for students who can decode, but lack comprehension skills.

“Turned-off readers" for students who have the decoding and comprehension skills, but lack motivation or engagement.

I'll also be showcasing some web tools that are very engaging for students.

Wordle (text analysis) 

Many Eyes (data and text visualizations)

Prezi  (presentation tool) 

Dipity  (timeline builder)

Bubbl.us (brainstorming)

Flickr Tag Related Tag Browser (image tag analysis)

Using Print on Demand to Publish Your Own Books

New print technologies make it very easy to publish your own books. No need for the information gatekeepers to decide what we read. I’m showcasing a few approaches that may be of interest to my readers. 

Reading recovery teacher publishes new line of early literacy book

MaryAnn and I worked together in the East Irondequoit Central School district while I was the Assistant Superintendent and she was the lead Reading Recovery teacher. I was not surprised when she recently started writing and publishing emergent texts. Although not my area of expertise, it certainly is MaryAnn’s.  She has a remarkable background in and passion for early literacy. She came to the East Irondequoit district just for the opportunity to train in and practice Reading Recovery.

MaryAnn’s Short Tale Press, features “little” books for early literacy that are based on real people and places and authentic life experiences. I can see my own grandchildren in her main character, Colin. This makes her books very appealing to modern children.  Parents and grandparents would be wise to visit her website when gift time rolls around, which we know is all the time! They are also written to be appropriate for students in Reading Recovery, ESL and classroom guided reading.   Visit her website-there is always a new text there - she is a prolific writer / publisher. 

Out of print author tired of rejections turns to self publishing

My dear friend and mentor – Abe Rothberg got tired of rejection notices for his latest works of fiction. Ironic - since his previous books were published by mainstream publishers and favorably reviewed in NY Times, Harper's, Time Magazine, and Publishers Weekly. Plus he was frustrated to see that his previous work had gone out of print. 

We decided to cut out the middleman  - team up and bring a new series of his work into publication. He supplied the manuscripts. I formatted them in Word and converted them to PDF. I designed the covers in Photoshop. We created a free account to publish the books on demand at Lulu.com - a print-on-demand publisher. For more on Abe and his books go to to his site - Abraham Rothberg

Teachers – it’s your turn to become a publisher for your students' writing

I think we need to re-think how we teach writing with a shift in focus from teacher to student.

Old approach:

• Students are asked to write only on the teacher's topics.
• Student writes for the teacher.
• Teacher grades their writing.

New approach: 

• Students can develop topics that matter to them.
• Audience and purpose for writing is identified. 
• Students are asked to reflect on their growth.

We all struggle to create authentic writing experiences for our students. Imagine if they had an opportunity to see their work in print – and we're talking about a real paperback.  Let them go through the process of writing, co-editing, illustrating and designing a book. Rigor and relevance meets motivation and self-directed study. I've gotten so excited by the results that I've done workshops to train teachers. You can see material and sample student books at my website Read > Think > Write > Publish

BTW – I’ve been following Theresa Reagan on Twitter. She’s an Elementary Principal from Michigan who is making great use of Lulu to publish student work.  See her students' books on their Lulu page 

Teaching Visual Literacy: Media Studies Before the Internet

I thought I'd share this recently rediscovered relic from my early days as a teacher. Keep in mind that when I began teaching, educational technology featured:

• Mimeo ~ remember the smell?
• Filmstrip ~ who wants to advance the slides?
• 16 mm film ~ you kids be quiet while I splice the film! 

When the Betamax arrived to my classroom I was in heaven! Back in the late 1970's I started teaching a high school "Media Studies" class. (Pittsford-Sutherland HS, Rochester NY). It was one semester, social studies elective that examined the impact of media on society (mainly TV - and all very McLuhan). 

Duane Sherwood and I were inspired by early TV pioneer, Ernie Kovacs to shoot this 1 minute video. I used it after my first few introductory lessons. That day, instead of their teacher, my students found a TV / recorder in front of the class. The sign instructed them to "watch this video." 

The shot took hours to set up. I attribute my bad acting / missed lines to sitting sideways and trying to keep a straight face. It's just too bad I wore red flannel and khakis that day....

Build Literacy Skills with Wordle

I've always been interested in quantitative displays of information. I've been having lots of fun with Wordle - a free website that creates "word clouds" (or "tag clouds") for text analysis. Simply copy/paste text and in seconds Wordle gives you a visual representation of word frequency. The example below was created by analyzing all the words used in my blog in 2008. Click the screen shots below to enlarge.

While you can directly type into the Wordle text box, I would recommend you copy and past text into it. That allows you to get text directly from online sources or your own text document. Student can either work on their individual Wordles or collaborate together on one. In the later case, it's probably most efficient to gather all their writing into one text document before copy/pasting it into a Wordle. Use tilde sign to create phrases. Example: learning~strategies. Another tip: After you create a Wordle, right click a term to remove it from the Wordle results. 

The site allows you to modify the color scheme, font, alignment and even set the maximum number of words to include in the analysis (example top 100 words, top 50 words, etc) For inspiration on layout see these Wordle samples at Flickr

Wordle output - If you PDF generating software, you can "print" a Wordle to a PDF file. Or you can do a screen capture of the Wordle. Do live Wordles on your smartboard. For a how-to on screenshots click here.

So how could your students use Wordle?

Defining  skills - Before the dictionary comes out, give your students a new vocabulary word and ask them to brainstorm all the word they associate with it. Gather up all the brainstormed words for a Wordle. After the term has been formally defined, repeat the process and compare to the "pre-dictionary" Wordle.

Summarizing skills - As a pre-reading exercise - copy/paste text of reading into  a Wordle and ask students to predict what the main ideas of the reading will be. Another pre-reading option - give them a Wordle of a non-fiction reading and ask them to use the Wordle to generate a title or headline before they see the real article. Post reading - ask them to reflect on the reading based on a prompt (examples - main idea, what you've learned, funniest element, etc). Then collect all their reflections into a Wordle.

Comparison skills - Give them two different accounts / essays on the same theme / event - let them compare the Wordles generated by each. Or you could generate Wordles for two different reading - then let student see if they can match the Wordle to it's corresponding reading.

I've been collaborating with fellow educators on a Google Doc guide to using Wordle in the classroom

Is Visuality the New Literacy?

Kevin Kelly's recent piece "Becoming Screen Literate" (NY Times 11/23/08)  details our transition from text literacy to screen literacy. This movement has great implication for education. Information in our schools is organized in text-based lineal fashion. Our students live in a mosaic, imaged-based world in which visuality has become the new literacy.

Screens are everywhere. YouTube videos and Flickr images have become rich databases of component images and videos for yet new mash-ups and user-generated content. Kelly predicts this visual content will soon surpass our linguistic content as new tools will enable users to search, copy, modify and reassemble visual content with near word-processor efficiency. Kelly writes, 

The rich databases of component images form a new grammar for moving images... After all, this is how authors work. We dip into a finite set of established words, called a dictionary, and reassemble these found words into articles, novels and poems that no one has ever seen before. The joy is recombining them. Indeed it is a rare author who is forced to invent new words. Even the greatest writers do their magic primarily by rearranging formerly used, commonly shared ones. What we do now with words, we’ll soon do with images. 

Below a TimeTube mashup creates a genealogy of most popular user-generated videos tagged Global Warming.

Transforming Information Flow in School Libraries

Schools have long functioned as information gatekeepers. The flow of information in most classrooms is simply teacher > student > teacher. Many whole group "discussions" are dominated by teachers playing "guess what I'm thinking" and feeling the need to validate every student response. Picture the economics teacher in Ferris Bueller's Day Off . "Anyone.. Anyone..?" Much of the rest of schools - textbooks, libraries, labs - support the idea that the adults have the information and will ration it out to students in a measured flow. 

We lament that many students aren't motivated in class. I suspect that's because our students are becoming accustomed to a more horizontal and open information flow. They have an ever growing expectation for more control and functionality over the information they access, save, repurpose and share.

How long do we think public schools will be able to monopolize the flow of academic information? Look around us and see that the traditional information gatekeeper  model is failing. Chicago Tribune? Layoffs at NPR? Christian Science Monitor going to web only? Shouldn't we be rethinking the information architecture in our schools?

In his recent article, "Flip This Library: School Libraries Need a Revolution" School Library Journal (11/1/2008),  David Loertscher,  calls for a  a revolution in thinking about the form and function of information in the school library. He envisions a 

"learning commons - both a physical and a virtual space that’s staffed not just by teacher-librarians but also by other school specialists ... such as literacy coaches, teacher technologists, teacher-librarians, art teachers, music teachers, and P.E. teachers..."

The main objective of the open commons is to showcase the school’s best teaching and learning practices... a typical classroom assignment and library Web site are examples of one-way communication. Adults tell learners what to do, how to do it, and where to find information. But in the new learning commons, homework assignments and library Web sites offer two-way communication.  

... Having done that, note that you have created a revolution in thinking. Directive adults have been transformed into coaches; direct teaching has been transformed into collaborative inquiry. 

Sidebar from the article below. 

Teacher Workshop Evaluation of the Year

As my presentation year draws to close I have to look back on one teacher's evaluation of my workshop that beats them all. The teacher wrote: 

I think the most valuable thing I got out of this was to change the perception of my job from "information dispenser to "designer of learning environments." I really enjoyed it. I usually get  online to look for jobs in other fields during inservice, but I didn't do that once during your workshop. I am actually exited about using this information.

As a 25+ year teacher who sat through many dull inservice workshops, I know what it's like to feel that PD is a waste of time (I usually brought papers to grade.) My nonnegotiable rule is that quality staff development should model what you expect to see in the classroom. "Sit and get PD" emulates what you don't want to see in the classroom. It is essential that the presenter models the instructional technique they are advocating, thus giving the teacher attendees the chance to both experience the technique (as student) and reflect on its use (as educator).

BTW - Here's the basic form I use for workshop evaluations. Pappas-evaluation (68 KB pdf) It usually provide very useful feedback. I might add,  it's been developed over the years with input from teachers who were invited to not only evaluate the workshop, but the feedback form. (Special thanks to Stephanie Malin, Beaverton OR, Literacy Coach for her valuable input on the evaluation prompts.)

Visualizing Data and Text - A Comparison Learning Strategy that Works

Comparing is the most powerful instructional strategy you can use in the classroom. But it's the person who does the comparing that's learning. Therefore, we must ask students to develop the comparison, not just learn and repeat the model that we present to them. (Remember, asking a student to fill out a Venn diagram that you created, is just a graphic form of information filing). After they have designed their comparison, students should also be asked to share what they learned.  A major component of 21st century literacy is finding meaningful ways to share information with others.

Many Eyes is a great new website that gives teachers and students a chance to easily use sophisticated graphic tools to analyze data and create interactive displays. Those who register at the site can use 16 visualization types to present data. My favorite visualization is the "Wordle," which enables you to see how frequently words appear in uploaded text, or see the relationship between a column of words and a column of numbers. You can tweak your word "clouds" with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. Why not have your students use Wordle to analyze a selection of non-fiction text to uncover the main ideas and key vocabulary of the piece? Or they could compare text from different sources. Want your students to more fully understand your course content? Let them use Many Eyes to visualize and discover patterns as a catalyst for discussion and collective insights about information, text, and data. As they say at Many Eyes, "Finding the right way view your data is as much an art as a science. The visualizations provided on Many Eyes range from the ordinary to the experimental."

Here's a few examples of the same data in three different Wordle visualizations that analyze the frequency of words in 30 school district mission / vision statements. 

Click on images to enlarge.

The original data and was uploaded to Many Eyes by PPreuss and used to create the visualization above.  I modified the existing online data set mission / vision statement words with the Wordle tools to represent the same data in different layouts and styles. In this second version (below)  I limited the analysis to the top 100 words.

Here's a third representation of the same source data that analyzes 2-word clusters and displays their frequency in alphabetical layout. Below is  a screen shot of the Tag Cloud, but in its original form at Many Eyes, when I click on any of the word clusters,  a pop-up shows the context of how the cluster is used in different sentences from the source mission / vision statements.

Wow! Looks like we educators have a lot on our plates. Personally I think we might want to admit our mission / vision may simply be  "Trying Hard Not To Become Obsolete."

The Digital Literacy Debate: Are We Really Reading on the Web?

A new series examining the debate on 21st century literacy skills is beginning at the New York Times See: Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading? by Motoko Rich, July 27, 2008.

As teenagers’ scores on standardized reading tests have declined or stagnated, some argue that the hours spent prowling the Internet are the enemy of reading — diminishing literacy, wrecking attention spans and destroying a precious common culture that exists only through the reading of books. ... But others say the Internet has created a new kind of reading, one that schools and society should not discount. The Web inspires teenagers who might otherwise spend most of their leisure time watching television, to read and write. ...Clearly, reading in print and on the Internet are different. On paper, text has a predetermined beginning, middle and end, where readers focus for a sustained period on one author’s vision. On the Internet, readers skate through cyberspace at will and, in effect, compose their own beginnings, middles and ends. More Literacy_Debate_Online,_RU_Really Reading?  120KB pdf

Each medium of communications leads us to codify reality in unique ways. For example, oral communication is very mosaic - we communicate not only with words, but gestures, inflections, and tone. Over time we learn to read all these bits of information and merge them into a cohesive message. Print, in contrast, is very lineal. Writing forces our thinking into some sort of conceptual "meat grinder" that sequences our disparate thoughts together. Following rules of grammar and mechanics, we compose our message into the an equivalent of one long "fortune cookie" of text. The skill set needed to "literate" in speech and print very different as are the relative value we place on effective communicators in each media. A similar case could be made for the unique ways we codify reality in graphic novels, film, video, dance, ASL and so on. Searching and reading on the web is not the same as reading a book.

See the diagram below for distinctions between reading books and online sources (source NY Times). Click image to enlarge

The digital literacy debate will continue to rage on, in the meantime educators and parents need to learn more about how the new media are shaping the thinking and perceptions of our children. Students will forge ahead without us. As Carol Jago of the National Council of Teachers of English stated,  “Nobody has taught a single kid to text message. Kids are smart. When they want to do something, schools don’t have to get involved.” 

Note, I last commented on this subject in my post "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" 

Bloom's Taxonomy: Creativity and 21st Century Literacy

Innovation requires both a strong foundation in content knowledge and the ability to apply that knowledge in new ways - usually across a variety of disciplines. And it requires using all of Bloom’s skills from remembering through creating. Creating is not a skill limited to the gifted. It's something that all students can do - think of it as a new combination of old elements.

Digital technology gives students access to information and creative tools that enable them to be creators as well as consumers of content. New technologies have put students in charge of the information they access, store, analyze and share. You can’t broadcast (lecture) at students.  They won’t be a passive audience. They expect information control and functionality. 

For more, I recommend a site from Andrew Churches, a New Zealand educator who matches Bloom's Taxonomy with instructional technology to move students from lower to higher order thinking skills. 

Students Can Become Proficient Writers - Try a QuickWrite

The recently released NAEP report suggests that only about one-third of our eighth graders and about one-quarter of the nation's high school seniors are proficient writers. The results are not much better than the results of the NAEP's last report in 2002. More

If we want to bring these numbers up, students should be writing on a daily basis in all of their classes. So how do we give students more opportunities to hone their writing skills without overburdening our secondary teachers with loads of papers to grade?

Why not use the QuickWrite strategy.

• As students enter class, they see a prompt on the front board that requires them to revisit a previously lesson. This makes more productive use of the opening minutes of class where teachers are usually tied up in "housekeeping" tasks.
• Students are trained to write briefly, but in complete sentences.
• After five minutes, selected students read their answers aloud to the class. Students are instructed to read exactly what they have written. This requires quick organization of thoughts and prevents rambling oral replies.

The QuickWrite is followed by short discussion. Teachers call on volunteers, drawing out divergent viewpoint:

• “Does anyone have a different idea?”
• “How did those two students' QuickWrites differ?”
• “What do these QuickWrites tell us we should study today?”

This strategy stimulates students’ higher-order thinking about a concept from the previous day. Teachers can easily check for understanding before beginning a new lesson. The class is now ready to link this newly anchored understanding to the content of the upcoming class. 

Most importantly, a QuickWrite gives students a chance to evaluate what they think is significant and share what they've learned with their peers. It restructures the typical teacher-led discussion that too often finds the teacher playing "guess what I'm thinking?"

For more ideas and resources, visit my literacy posts on this blog.

Reluctant Reader as Author

Literacy specialist, Pat Martin,  authored this guest blog on one of publishing projects.
Pat Martin last guest blogged about the Parents' Literacy Publishing Project

Cuyler, a winsome first grader, has published his first book.  The experience encouraged him to exclaim, “I’m going to publish more than 1000 books.  I have so much more to say.”

Mid-way through his second year of formal schooling, Cuyler should be reading about level 9/10 (guided reading text level as described by Pinnell and Fountas).  He’s not.  However, after reading a text created by MaryAnn McAlpin, a retired Reading Recovery teacher, for her grandson, Cuyler was motivated to create his own text using that model.

Writing his personal text benefits Cuyler in so many ways.  His extensive daily vocabulary is supported by actual printed text.  His interests, vehicles of every description and outdoor life, become the basis of his text which further stimulates his daily effort to acquire reading skill.  As such noted advocates for boy literacy as Ralph Fletcher and Michael Gurian note, primary texts and writing prompts seldom deal with the world that interests boys.  There is scant opportunity to connect with the texts, to bring personal experience into the reading/writing or to interact with the text content.

Capturing Cuyler’s explanations and descriptions as a book’s text mimics interactive writing or the daily journal writing in the reading Recovery lesson.  And what child wouldn’t read and reread a book of their pictures and writing?  What better way to achieve fluency?  Certainly a more exciting, engaging and authentic method than grappling through Cuyler’s four inch thick stack of Dolch sight words – a practice he he finds less than engaging. Cuyler now sees himself as a literate individual.  He is excited about the growing up as a reader and writer rather than defeated by the challenges that text holds. 

By providing text that supports him as a reader and validates him as a writer, Cuyler is on the path of literacy.  And he is an excited traveler who wants to know “how many days until we go back to that learning lab so I can publish books.”

For sometime now I’ve been an advocate of new print on demand technologies to give students a chance to publish their learning for an authentic audience and purpose. I’ve partnered with Pat Martin, a literacy specialist and Suzanne Suor, an educational technology consultant, to open a Educational Publishing Learning Lab in Rochester NY. We offer a variety of training packages to assist teachers and districts in taking advantage of the new opportunities in digital publishing. The lab is located at ColorCentric digital publishers, so participants can not only learn how to publish, but tour the facility to see books being made. For more information on how you and your students can publish your own books visit our website Read > Think > Write > Publish

Leadership for Literacy and Learning

Next week (August 6-8), I will present at the Oregon Department of Education’s 2007 Summer Institute: “Strategies for Student Success” at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Oregon. More

I’ll be bringing my TurningPoint audience response system and we will model student engagement strategies with the audience. The last time I was in Oregon, I ran a full day session for over 350 teachers and administrators with a response system and live blog. It includes some great posts by teachers on rigor and relevance in their classrooms. More

Download revised presentation material for each a session below - includes audience response data.

“Rigor, Relevance and Literacy for Middle School Teachers”

Boost student achievement with rigor, relevance and literacy. This session is designed for intermediate and middle school teachers of all disciplines. It will demonstrate that teachers don't have to sacrifice content to help their students achieve academic success. You’ll experience practical examples of how teachers support standards-based instruction in their subject area while improving student skills in vocabulary, comprehension and analysis. This engaging workshop guarantees to be rigorous and relevant to teachers—we’ll actually use the strategies being promoted, not just talk about them! It will feature an audience response system that helps us model a student-centered approach to learning. Teachers prefer workshops that share practical instructional ideas—and you will leave with many strategies ready for use in your classroom.  MS-presentation.pdf (2 MB)

“Rigor, Relevance and Literacy for High School Teachers”

Same themes as the middle school  presentatation with some different examples. HS-presentation.pdf

“Leading for Rigor, Relevance and Literacy”

See what happens when schools share a vision of quality instruction based on Rigor, Relevance and Literacy. The session demonstrates how educators can boost achievement with a consistent focus on common standards-based instructional strategies in a student centered classroom. It is designed for district and building administrators of all levels. The session will demonstrate that teachers don't have to sacrifice content to help their students achieve academic success. This engaging workshop guarantees to be rigorous and relevant to instructional leaders. You'll leave with many new ideas and loads of strategies ready for use with your teachers. We’ll use an audience response system to effectively model a student-centered approach to learning. You’ll experience practical examples of how school leaders can support their teachers while they build student skills in vocabulary, comprehension and analysis. Admin-presentation.pdf  (1 MB)

Teacher Using Books to Form a Link with Ethiopia

Alicia Van Borssum is a very talented ESL teacher who has contributed to our student publishing efforts with The Memoir Project – Memoirs and artwork by three young ESL students from the Ukraine. More on the book at Read > Think > Write > Publish

Alicia is now working to raise funds to bring books and staff development to Ethiopia this summer. I’ve reprinted an article below. For more information about projects for literacy in Ethiopia, go online at www.ethiopiareads.org.  For information about Alicia Van Borssum's effort to bring books to Ethiopia, e-mail her at aliciavb@frontiernet.net. Donations can be made out to Ethiopian Books for Children and mailed to Van Borssum at 15 Fairwood Drive, Hilton, NY 14468. The organization is nonprofit and tax-deductible.

Greece Teacher Using Books to Form a Link with Ethiopia
Jim Memmott
Rochester (NY) Democrat and Chronicle

(January 27, 2007) — If all goes well, Alicia Van Borssum of Hilton NY will be in Ethiopia this summer showing teachers and librarians there about using wordless picture books for language learning and literacy.

Graphic Novels Meet Historical Fiction in New Series for Reluctant Readers

I’m pleased to serve as the historic consultant to the TIMELINE SERIES- graphic novels that falls into the genre of historical fiction. In each novel, a fictional story unfolds against the backdrop of a significant historical event or time period. Among the backdrops on offer are: Qin dynasty China, pre-revolutionary America, medieval Islam, ancient Egypt, Viking Europe, and others … More on Timeline Series

The protagonists of Timeline books are usually young people whose lives are altered when they find themselves caught up in the events of world history. In Pearl Harbor, for example, the young Alison Quigley finds that her life is shattered and her friendships challenged when the Japanese mount a surprise attack on her home island of Oahu. This is the question posed by many Timeline books: what would it have been like to be on the wrong side of the Berlin Wall in 1962? What was it like to be taken as a slave from Africa’s shores? How did it feel to be under siege in Constantinople in 1453?

In Timeline novels, real characters from history make cameo appearances but are only rarely the focus of the narrative. Napoleon features as the ambitious but benevolent uncle who meets his Waterloo in Napoleon’s Last Stand. In Trapped in Gallipoli, readers catch a glimpse of the young Mustafa Kemal, decades before he became the founder of the modern state of Turkey. In Pearl of the Tsars, Catherine the Great is the steely monarch who will do anything she can to ensure the throne passes to her son, Paul. We see her through the eyes of her (fictional) niece, Elise.

The line between historical fact and fiction is deliberately blurred in the Timeline novels. The books can be read as satisfying stories in their own right, having the structure of traditional fiction. But the reader also comes away with the experience and knowledge of other times and other places, of real people who made their place in the history books. The fiction in the novels is balanced by the fact in the Time Outs at the end of each chapter, pages that focus on the historical side of things in more detail. In the Introduction and Moving On sections, readers are given the historical context for the story they are reading.

So Timeline is neither fact nor fiction—but something in between. While the text is kept simple for the series’ target audience of “reluctant readers,” these readers will have to work hard to grasp the balance that each novel strikes. The graphic novel format, too, comes with its own conventions. The vivid illustrations will be an irresistible draw, but to follow the action, readers will have to parse the “grammar” of the graphic novel format. The result is a series of books that should increase readers’ ability to navigate the twists and turns of fictional stories—while providing a ‘lite’ introduction to world history.

Parents' Literacy Publishing Project

I’m very excited by a project designed by a Patricia Martin, a friend and colleague. The project engaged parents as literacy partners with their children. It included opportunities for parents to reflect on their learning and reading experiences with their children. Pat documented the entire project in a book, published using print on demand technology. For more information on how you and your students can publish your own books visit our website Read > Think > Write > Publish

Pat describes the project:

"The increased attention to high-stakes testing and charter schools should re-emphasize the need for public schools to engage parents, as well as, students in the daily classroom learning experiences.  Of course, it’s not the Parent Association, room mother, field trip chaperon who needs a nudge to be involved in school activities.  Disengaged parents may be new to a school district, occupied with child-rearing responsibilities, isolated by culture or language or a victim of negative school experiences.  Some districts have found successful methods for reaching out to the disengaged parent.

The Parent Project is one district’s response to the growing absence of parent involvement.  Based on the work of James Vopat, The Parent Project – A Workshop Approach to Parent Involvement, the district created a planning team that included several parents to plan and implement a series of parent workshops. During each workshop the parent leaders and teachers coached targeted parents to become partners in their child’s literacy development.

The workshops were planned to include fun, learning and reflection. As much as possible, the parents experienced learning much as their child would in the classroom. Parents were given the opportunity to practice each session’s learning with their child through carefully designed take-home activities.  The next session began with a sharing of parental insights during these practice activities.  Parents and teachers captured their experience in a personal journal.

Additional characteristics of the Vopat model build a sense of community and shared commitment among the participants. 
• Family meal with teachers and administrators before each workshop
• Child care for all children during the workshop
• Transportation to the workshops

The final product, beyond a published book, was evident.  The five original teachers elected to remain on the CORE team and five additional teachers volunteered to join the CORE team for the next training session.  Three-fourths of the parents elected to form a Parent Alumni Group to continue the workshop experience.   Half of those parents also volunteered to serve as Parent Leaders with the next set of parents.  Parents “graduates” of The Parent Project are volunteering in classrooms because they believe that they are an integral part of the educational scene."

Pat' blog "Literacy is All" / email

Proficient readers may not be proficient writers

Educators have focused on developing reading programs with the assumption that reading and writing are complementary skills.

Writing Next, a recent report by Carnegie Corporation states, “Writing is sometimes seen as the ‘flip side’ of reading. It is often assumed that adolescents who are proficient readers must be proficient writers, too. If this were the case, then helping students learn to read better would naturally lead to the same students writing well. However, although reading and writing are complementary skills whose development runs a roughly parallel course, they do not necessarily go hand in hand. Many adolescents are able to handle average reading demands but have severe difficulties with writing. Moreover, the nature of the relationship between reading and writing skills changes over time (Fitzgerald & Shanahan, 2000). Researchers know that reading and writing often draw from the same pool of background knowledge—for example, a general understanding of the attributes of texts. At the same time, however, writing differs from reading. While readers form a mental representation of thoughts written by someone else, writers formulate their own thoughts, organize them, and create a written record of them using the conventions of spelling and grammar.”  Full report here 1.4 MB pdf

New digital technologies give students the opportunity to publish high-quality books under the guidance of their teachers. I am promoting digital publishing at conferences, school-based training and my website Read > Think > Write > Publish. The power of publishing enables students to think like writers, to apply their learning strategies and to organize and express their learning.

Literacy in a Copy / Paste World

Opening Day Faculty Keynote Address
Grayson County Schools, Leitchfield, KY July  28, 2005

New technologies have put students in charge of the information they access, store, analyze and share. Yet many schools function as if they still controlled the flow of information.

The copy / paste culture creates a bottom-up takeover of the information flow. Our students can be creators as well as consumers of content. New technologies have unleashed individual and collective creativity and redefined the meaning of literacy in the digital age. This presentation answers the questions:

“What is literacy in the 21st century?”
“What can schools do to promote a new literacy in the copy / paste world?”

It explores exciting new opportunities to reinforce literacy and interact with students, colleagues and information in ways that can revitalize teaching and learning. Download Literacy-in-a-CopyPasteWorld.pdf (1.7 MB) pdf handout

I also ran a one day training session "Strategies for Rigor and Relevance" for about 130 Grayson County middle and high school teachers. We used my TurningPoint audience response system to gather teacher feedback and guide our discussion and planning. Here's a report of the responder data Download Grayson-Audience-Response.pdf  (144 KB) pdf. TurningPoint can produce a variety of reports and can even track results by individual responder. Want to know more about TurningPoint response systems? Contact Mike Venrose at mvenrose@turningtechnologies.com