Dr. Catherine Maderazo, Associate Professor, CSU FullertonDr. Catherine Maderazo, Associate Professor, CSU FullertonReading Educators Guild Annual Breakfast, March 16, 2013.Reading Educators Guild Annual Breakfast, March 16, 2013.

Finding our HeartbeatTransforming Reading Education through Heartfelt Language & Literacy Pedagogy

Einstein said, “It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.”

Breathe. Pause. Reflect. Renew.

• Changing Curriculum: Addressing the Common Core• From teaching reading to technology and content area driven language arts.

• Transforming our curriculum and practice.

• Waking Up: Moving Forward with Open Hearts and Minds • Quick look at where we’ve been and where we need to go.

• Finding the resiliency and agency to continue.

• Addressing the Challenges and Realities of the Next Decade• Return to relationship-driven & responsive pedagogy

• Increasing engagement, self-efficacy & lifelong learning for both teachers and learners.

• Fostering a love of learning

Common Core State Standards & Teaching ReadingCommon Core State Standards & Teaching Reading

No Single “Best” Practice• Teachers need to select

judiciously from evidence-based instructional practices to meet needs of diverse learners.

• Learning cannot be considered without attention to the environment or context.

Variables that effect learning include -

• Affective environment• Authenticity of tasks• Social Environment• Parental Involvement• Types of Materials

Comprehensive Literacy Instruction

• All students achieve full literacy potential.

• Instruction should prepare students to enter adulthood • to participate fully in a democratic society as part of a gloal economy.

• Reading and writing with purpose, competence, ease, and joy.

• Personal, intellectual and social nature of literacy learning • supports the notion that students learn new meanings in response to

new experiences.

Comprehensive Literacy Instruction• Balanced approach with appropriate emphasis on meaning and skill instruction.

• Incorporates evidence-based best practices to suit the needs of all students in whole-group, small group, and individualized instruction.

• Builds on knowledge that students bring to school

• Acknowledges reciprocity among reading processes (e.g. decoding, vocabulary, comprehension, motivation and reading/writing.

• Recognizes that comprehension is the ultimate goals fo literacy learning.

• Emphasizes meaning through open and collaborative tasks that require dialog and critical thinking.

• Provides differentiated and individualized instruction for diverse and struggling learners.

Ten Evidence-Based Best Practices for Comprehensive Literacy Instruction 1.Create a classroom culture that fosters literacy motivation2.Teach reading for authentic meaning-making purposes: for pleasure, to be informed and to perform a task.3.Provide students with “scaffolded” instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency an d comprehension to promote independent reading. 4.Give students time for self-selected reading5.Provide students with high-quality literature across a wide range of genres. 6.Use multiple texts that build on prior knowledge, link concepts and expand vocabulary.7.Build a whole-class context that emphasizes community and collaboration.8.Balance teacher and student led discussions of texts.9.Integrate technologies that link and expand concepts10.Differentiate instruction using a variety of instructionally relevant assessments.

Comprehensive Roles & Responsibilities Teachers:

• Act like coaches

• Incorporate higher-level responses to text

• Provide access to a variety of books (text) and time to access them.

• Are the ultimate decision makers

Students:• Engaged

• Strategic

• Literate

• Receive differentiated instruction

• Independent

• Work collaboratively

Empowering Teachers• Once teachers are empowered by their vision and have at their disposal

a plethora of practices and instructional methods from which to choose, they are free to incorporate and integration of evidence-based practices to provide comprehensive literacy instruction.

• No matter how well a particular practice is shown to be effective by research, optimal literacy teaching and learning can only be achieved when skillful, knowledgeable and dedicated teachers are given the freedom and latitude to use their professional judgment to make instruction decisions that enable students to achieve their full literacy potential.

We can encourage growth, for our students and also in our profession, if we use CCSS as an opportunity to think critically about our reading curriculum, our students, and how we can implement manageable changes to meet the goals of the standards. We have to choose our path.

Pathways to the Common Core (Calkins, Ehrenworth, &Lehman, 2011).

CCSS as Catalyst for Change

Common Core Standards (2010)• Developed in response to Race to the Top by the National Governor’s

Association. The standards have tried to articulate what it means to be literate in the twenty-first century.

• Provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them.

• Standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers.

• Career or College Readiness

The CCSS were framed to meet College and Career Readiness goal for all students. Developing independence Building strong content knowledge Responding to varying demands of audiences, tasks, purposes, and

disciplines. Critique and Comprehension Value evidence Use Technology and digital media strategically and critically Understanding other perspectives and cultures

CCSS and CRG are forcing us to think beyond the NRP Report’s recommendations for phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, and comprehension and create comprehensive literacy programs worthy of these goals.

Reasons for Standards

www.corestandards.org

Language Arts Standards Address: Reading Literature Reading Informational Text Reading Foundational Skills Writing Speaking and Listening Language

These move K through 12 with standards under these headings.

CCSS Reframes Reading as English Language Arts K-12

• The standards establish a “staircase” of increasing complexity in what students must be able to read so that all students are ready for the demands of college- and career-level reading no later than the end of high school.

• The standards also require the progressive development of reading comprehension so that students advancing through the grades are able to gain more from whatever they read.

• Through reading a diverse array of classic and contemporary literature as well as challenging informational texts in a range of subjects, students are expected to build knowledge, gain insights, explore possibilities, and broaden their perspective.

Reading

Because the standards are building blocks for successful classrooms, but recognize that teachers, school districts and states need to decide on appropriate curriculum, they intentionally do not offer a reading list. Instead, they offer numerous sample texts to help teachers prepare for the school year and allow parents and students to know what to expect at the beginning of the year.

The standards mandate certain critical types of content for all students, including classic myths and stories from around the world, foundational U.S. documents, seminal works of American literature, and the writings of Shakespeare. The standards appropriately defer the many remaining decisions about what and how to teach to states, districts, and schools.

Reading Continued

The ability to write logical arguments based on substantive claims, sound reasoning, and relevant evidence is a cornerstone of the writing standards, with opinion writing—a basic form of argument—extending down into the earliest grades.

Research—both short, focused projects (such as those commonly required in the workplace) and longer term in depth research —is emphasized throughout the standards but most prominently in the writing strand since a written analysis and presentation of findings is so often critical.

Annotated samples of student writing accompany the standards and help establish adequate performance levels in writing arguments, informational/explanatory texts, and narratives in the various grades.

Writing

The standards require that students gain, evaluate, and present increasingly complex information, ideas, and evidence through listening and speaking as well as through media.

An important focus of the speaking and listening standards is academic discussion in one-on-one, small-group, and whole-class settings. Formal presentations are one important way such talk occurs, but so is the more informal discussion that takes place as students collaborate to answer questions, build understanding, and solve problems.

Speaking and Listening

The standards expect that students will grow their vocabularies through a mix of conversations, direct instruction, and reading. The standards will help students determine word meanings, appreciate the nuances of words, and steadily expand their repertoire of words and phrases.

The standards help prepare students for real life experience at college and in 21st century careers. The standards recognize that students must be able to use formal English in their writing and speaking but that they must also be able to make informed, skillful choices among the many ways to express themselves through language.

Vocabulary and conventions are treated in their own strand not because skills in these areas should be handled in isolation but because their use extends across reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

Language

Just as media and technology are integrated in school and life in the twenty-first century, skills related to media use (both critical analysis and production of media) are integrated throughout the standards.

Aim is for competence in using media and technology to better comprehend, learn, communicate and create. This is important because literacy is constantly evolving…

Media and Technology

Begin by reading the entire CCSS and what is expected for learning K-12. Become familiar with your grade level, the grades before and after your grade level.

Look at your existing curriculum (CRLA Framework) to determine what is working. Then identify areas for change.

Work collaboratively, across disciplines, increasing the amount of time learners are engaged in language arts and critical thinking.

Change will not happen all at once.

It cannot be prescriptive or top-down.

Where to Begin

Teachers are going to be integral in setting goals for improving language arts curriculum and instruction.

It is the teachers who know the strengths and weaknesses of their current curriculum

Teachers also know their students and how to engage them in learning.

It will be the teachers who will be able to identify evidence to show what is working to meet the standards and what is not.

Professional Responsibility

Cleaver, 2011, suggests that teachers consider the learning experience and help student delve deeper into understanding. This means, closing the textbook, scaffolding learning and moving learners individually towards independence.

We need to foster interdisciplinary studies and celebrate learning and thinking. This may require giving control to our students, allow them to think outside the box, and trust they will ask meaningful questions and engage in learning that reflects real cognitive growth (Pandya, 2012).

Changing the Role of Teachers

McLaughlin (2012) Recommends:

1. Read standards within each category2. Read vertically k-5 to understand what students need to know.3. Within each standard read horizontally to fully understand what the standard encompasses.4. Know how and why to teach for understanding for your particular students. This includes prior knowledge, formative assessments, small group instruction, and making content learning comprehensible.

Recommendations

Reasons to Embrace CCSS Provided urgently needed wake up call

Respects the professional judgment of teachers

Emphasizes higher level comprehension skills

Places equal weight on reading and writing

Stresses the importance of critical citizenship.

Emphasizes reading complex texts.

Clear design with central goals and high standards

Recognizes that intellectual growth happens across years and disciplines.

Calls for proficiency, complexity, and independence

Supports cross-curricular teaching

Access for all students to core

Aims to put every state on same measuring stick

• Comprehensive language arts program

• Balance of direct, guided, and differentiated instruction.

• Meaningful instruction for all students

• More opportunities for student talk and time with texts (Allington & Pearson, 2011).

• Access to content by all students through a greater variety of texts. (Includes electronic texts)

• Break away from scripted programs and methods that do not meet our goals for student learning.

Changes in Literacy Instruction

Conley (2012) sees CCSS as an opportunity for educators to address how and why we read different types of text – multimodal, digital, print etc…

•Key cognitive strategies will be to teach our students problem formation, research strategies, interpretation, and communicating with precision and accuracy.

•Cognition can be expressed visually, orally, or in various forms of writing with or with technology.

Changing Texts

• CCSS specifically calls for 50% narrative and 50% informational text in the primary grades. In the upper grades the ration shifts from equal to more non-fiction. All classrooms should have a range of readable text that are accessible to all students. These texts should reflect digital text and reading on the Internet.

• Texts should reflect perspectives of culture, language, experiences of readers (prior or vicarious) and include all genres (Coleman, 2012; Johns, 2012; Allington & Pearson, 2011).

• Need to use qualitative as well as quantitative measures to consider text difficulty and address comprehension and interest. At LRA conference in San Diego, Pearson stated that there is no one readability formula. The formulas that are now part of the common core document have been added by publishers. Beware.

Recommended Texts

Being engaged with your students using literacy and language to learn content, is something that I believe is needed to renew your practice and commitment to their education.

We need to see reading and learning from the point of view of our students? There are many changes we can make to increase engagement for us all.

Balance classic literature with newer literature, layer texts (fiction + non-fiction)

Creating Curriculum

Guided model of instruction moves learners to independent practice as they build a “situational” model that links prior knowledge to new concepts.

Adaptive model teaches content without assuming anything about students knowledge or experience. This includes increased time for student talk , guided practice with English fluency, and independent reading and choice.

If instruction is not working, they encourage teachers to re-sequence instruction – teachers need to develop expertise in pedagogical design and act as curriculum mediators.

Guided Model of InstructionManiates and Mahiri, 2012

Ecological Model of ReadingComprehension Composition Literary Aspects Language Conventions

Background knowledgePrediction Text ProcessingSummarizingSequencingIdentifying importance

MonitoringClarifyingPlanning

Process1.Planning2.Drafting3.Revising

Literacy ElementsThemePlotCharacterSetting Response to LiteraturePersonalCreativeCritical

Sound/Symbol Grammar Syntax Interaction

Not Necessarily New Just Pieced Back Together

• Project-Based Learning

• Inquiry Based Learning

• Integrated or Thematic Teaching

• Reading and Writing Workshop

• Holistic Learning and Teaching

• Multimedia Projects

• Arts-Based Instruction

www.edutopia.orgHas great resources for these instructional methods.

We all need to act quickly and transform our existing curriculum before others tell us how to do it. We don’t need a script, we need better opportunities to engage in language arts and to use our expertise.

We need to identify our own strengths and learn new ways to engage learners. We can do this through collaboration, mapping, critiquing current curriculum.

We need to be supported, included and heard

We need to involve parents and communities in these changes

For CCSS to Transform our Practice, We Must Be Part of the Change

The materials and methods we are using are not promoting lifelong literacy and they do not foster a real passion for literacy (Gallagher, 2009)

We “seem to be stuck in a skillls-based, content free approach to learning,” (Munson, 2012). Teaching reading void of writing, content integration, nor the arts.

Following “mandated, scripted programs with fidelity; step by step, page by page, without thinking about how children learn to read” (Allington & Pearson, 2011).

Joy in Literacy? How do you feel?

• If we truly want literate citizens who can read and choose to read multiple texts for real purpose – then we have to change.

• It is time to rethink what we want readers to do with their own literacy, help them use literacy to learn, and foster deep thinking and critical learning.

• We need innovative literacy practices that include new literacies, and foster personal engagement in literacy that can lead to new ideas.

Time to Recharge and Move Forward

Engaging Teachers and Learners

Teaching Reading• Scripted Reading Programs

• Emphasis on Accountability

• 90 minute literacy block with little time engaged in reading text

• No time for writing, content area, or arts.

Engaging in Literacy Learning• Rethinking our goals and

standards for language arts

• Enact these for the engagement and understanding of all learners

• Integrating sciences, social studies, and the arts

Engaging the Eye Generation

Broader View of Literacy

• 1. Basic Literacy

• 2. Scientific Literacy

• 3. Economic Literacy

• 4. Technological Literacy

• 5. Visual Literacy

• 6. Information Literacy

• 7. Multicultural Literacy

• 8. Global Awareness

Not just new literacies: Multidimensional

Reading and writing

Listening and speaking

Analyzing and communicating

Through a range of socially contextual symbols, including

Text and images

In any combination

Relevant to the individual or culture

+

Zachary’s Lemur or is it a Meerkat?

If we listen and interact with children while they are engaged in learning we can help them maximize their learning and thinking. We can also help them learn to use the tools necessary to be a literate citizen in a global digital society.

Used iPhoneGoogle, Google Images, Discovery Channel, Maps, Wikipedia.LearnedDistinguishing characteristics, habitat, habits, geography, body parts, …

Lemur?

Meerkat!

Look what I found at the bookstore for

him – a new fictional series

He had already told me that he wanted to be a

NINGENT when he grows up.

(Ninja Secret Agent)

Finding the Resiliency and Agency to Continue• Do meaningful things –

• Most statements of standards or goals include the concept of children becoming “lifelong learner”. Yet in general we fail to arrange for children to play any active role in deciding the purpose of their learning. Indeed, for many children, very little of what they do in school is personally meaningful. With some exceptions, we do not have children actually trying to accomplish things in the world trying to make change. This deprives them of the feeling of generosity, agency and courageousness, along with the bonding that occurs when people work together to accomplish something. We have to teach toward children who, individually and collaboratively, make meaning and do meaningful things.

• Making meaning is good. Doing meaningful things is better.

• Our interactions with children in the classroom influence who they think they are and what they think they’re doing. Over time, the interactions affect children’s values and dispositions – how they value learning, themselves and each other, and whether they become disposed toward resilience, reciprocity, and social justice.

Johnston (2012). Opening Minds:Using language to change lives. P. 122-123.

Language has the power to shape our consciousness and it does so for each human child, by providing the theory that he or she uses to interpret and manipulate their environment.

Michael Halliday

You don’t just teach reading. You teach human beings to use language to learn, to think critical and participate in the world.

Caring & Respect

The desire to understand the learner, and create situations in which the learner will be successful requires caring and respect.

Teachers must develop a sense of themselves and their student, and a relationship of care. The relationship between teacher and student is what mediates the ways in which the student understands the teacher’s interactions.

For example, following the student’s lead and imagining the students logic requires the teacher to decenter – to actually find the student interesting. This means not focusing on themselves or turning teaching into an ego-involving activity. Teachers with judgmental sensibility must lose it, particularly with regard to linguistically and cultural values and practices.

Dozier, C., Johnston, P. & Rogers, R. (2006). Critical literacy: critical teaching. New York: Teachers College Press.

Care & Respect (Continued)

Imaging the student’s logic and point of view requires close observation of what the student does and says, and how he or she does and says it. This requires a personal commitment and respect that casts the logic in a productive light.

Unless the teacher frames and structures activities so their students are successful, waiting for students to figure things out or to self-correct will be unproductive. You cannot follow the student’s lead if he does not know where he is going.

Dozier, C., Johnston, P. & Rogers, R. (2006). Critical literacy: critical teaching. New York: Teachers College Press.

Transforming our curriculum and practice responsively.Transforming our curriculum and practice responsively.

Wobble – Change Makes Us Grow

Ten Conditions that Contribute to Change:

•1. Positive Tension & Discomfort

•2. Personal Commitment

•3. A Recursive Process

•4. Collaboration

•5. Cooperation

• 6. Inquiry

• 7. Risk Taking

• 8. Time

• 9. Reflection & Evaluation

• 10. Feedback

Robb, L. (2000). Redefining Staff Development. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Traditional Training to Professional Study• Teacher passively receives

information from one source.• Teacher is actively involved in

constructing knowledge from many sources.

• Professional Readings

• Theory of LearningRobb, L. (2000). Redefining Staff Development. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Challenges and Concerns CCSS

Developmentally AppropriateTeaching and Learning

Critical you understand literacy development and what is appropriate for students at your grade level.

We need to respect childhood while balancing their need for information.

Reaching kids with special needs.

Meeting the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students We must know the needs and

strengths of ELLs.

We must understand how language is learned, how long it takes to develop an academic vocabulary

ELLs have a right to have access to same content.

We should assess them in ways that show their cognitive thinking.

CCSS Guidelines Regarding English Language Learners

Instruction support to make grade level work comprehensible

Modified assignments that reflect comprehension and cognitive ability

Additional time and opportunities to learn

Additional interaction with peers and English speakers

Build on strengths – prior experiences and interests

Teach language through content areas

Allow for student talk

Differentiate instruction with primary language support

Use sheltered and direct instruction when appropriate

Daily Language Instruction with ELD instruction

Opportunities for structured student talk and groupings that foster verbal interaction.

Fostering a Love of Learning (Agency)• “A child must have some version of, “Yes, I imagine I can do this.” And a teacher

must also view the present child as competent and on that basis imagine new possibilities.”

• Dyson (1999). 396-397 cited in (Johnston, P. (2004) Choice Words: How our language effects children’s learning. Stenhouse.

• Children should leave school with a sense that if they act, and act strategically, they can accomplish their goals. I call this feeling a sense of agency. (Johnston, p. 29).

• Agency enables the learner to be/feel competent.

• The desire for agency persists throughout life and is so powerful, that when people feel there is no relationship between what they do and what happens, they become depressed and helpless.

• How do we arrange for children to encounter problems and act strategically, solve them usually attaching a goal?

• “How did you…?” or “Why do you think…?” questions are essential

Fostering Your Own Sense of Agency

How can you face the changes and challenges of the Common Core and develop your own sense of agency?

•Face problems/challenges.

•Think strategically.

•Solve problems & accomplish goals.

How can you create experiences that support your own agency as a teacher? This is important because we know that teachers make all the difference. If you don’t feel competent then you won’t be able to act.

Honor Your Professional Vision

Professional Vision

Powerful Interactions• 1. Be present

• 2. Connect

• 3. Extend the Learning

Being intentional means:

Tune into the learner before you act. Consider what you want to accomplish and assess the best way to do it with this particular learner in this particular moment.

• You make the difference!• Keep your cup filled (energy)!

• Do a “Me Check”

• Quiet the Static

• Find the humor

• Add personal touches

• Celebrate the learning

• Join with colleagues

• Share stories of success

Donbro, A.L., Jablon, J. & Stetson, C. (2012).Powerful Interactions. NAEYC.

• Pathways to the Common Core (2012)

• The Common Core Lesson Book K-5 (2012)

• Best Practices in Literacy Instruction (4th Edition)

• Mapping the Common Core

Resources for CCSS

You will make the difference. You will make the difference. You already have and you will continue to do so!You already have and you will continue to do so!