"Level-Mania" and the Identity of the Reader

I read something interesting at the Edge of the Forest about leveled book systems in elementary classrooms. A small snip from the thoughtful piece:

In the name of "just right" books, we may be sacrificing real reading experiences that will last a lifetime.

The author seeks to make the point that leveled systems in classrooms which funnel children into baskets of books that match their reading level deny those students authentic ways to develop the 'behaviors of readers' by building 'their own identity as a reader.' Predetermined reading baskets provide fewer opportunities to explore genre, favorite authors or illustrators and provide greater opportunities to read only with the purpose of getting to the next level basket.

Don't get me wrong — by recognizing this piece I'm not arguing against leveled systems. Leveling systems can maximize the instructional value of a lesson by providing a reliable way to match a young reader with a book. They also provide guidance to teachers who are new to the concept of the reader-text match. But I see the author's point about reading ownership.

So, here's the challenge: have kids read on their instructional level (defined here as 90% accuracy) to help develop their skill as readers and, as teachers, engage in all kinds of other behaviors that help children develop their "reading identity". Some tips for doing that, again from the Edge of the Forest :

• Help children find favorite authors.

• Guide them to choose books with characters they might come to love — books where the same character appears in several books

• Ask them about the kinds of books they like, not the level of book they want

• Organize our books in baskets by author, genre, topic and series, rather than by level

• Allow kids to choose books that are too hard or too easy if it fits their purpose

• Talk to kids about my favorite books, authors, and genres

• Introduce children to new books, authors, and genres

• Have conversations with children about new books that I am excited about

• Share ways that I keep up with new books coming out using internet resources

• Share book reviews with children and talk about the kinds of books that sound good to them.

Children work at different paces. Here are some suggestions for how to keep your speedy workers occupied while their classmates finish their assignments.

Research shows that students need at least 90 minutes of uninterrupted reading instruction per day in order for sufficient student reading development, and that this instruction must be dense: systematically delivering explicit teacher directions; scaffolded over time; and differentiated across the classroom. Here is a chart from Just Read, Florida! that provides an example of how to set up a good 90-minute reading block.

Arranging your classroom

Our babysitter is starting her first year of teaching this week. She'll be teaching kindergarten at one of our high needs schools. It's an Open Court school, so while most of her curriculum is already prescribed for her, how she arranges her classroom is up to her. And she's filled with questions!

As a teacher, setting up your classroom is one of the most exciting parts of August! Where should the classroom library go? Where should the teacher desk go? How should the student desks be arranged? In my mind, each decision says something about how the classroom will run and what the teacher values.

For desk arrangements, this site, from Huntington College shows various desk arrangements, and the types of learning encouraged from various styles (my classrooms were usually a variation of the horseshoe or the group work plan). Our own article, Classroom Arrangement, provides guidance about some things to consider when setting up all your furniture.

For classroom libraries, I think I've mentioned this site before, but I'll mention it again because of its helpful pictures and labels. A second good site on classroom libraries is here. I like the breadth of topics on this site, including ways to acquire books, labeling the books, and creating a welcoming spot.

We'd love to hear what has worked for you, August is a great month for veteran teachers to share their expertise! What's your classroom arrangement like?

Encourage students to become better listeners and readers through audiobooks.

Though the goal of classroom management is to head off conflict before it can start, occasionally students will get into fights. These tips from the Southeastern Connecticut Gang Activities Group will help you break up a fight.

How your classroom is arranged can have a big effect on your ability to effectively manage your class. This article discusses some ideas you should keep in mind as you set up your classroom.

These tips on how to keep your classroom running smoothly have been gathered from teachers around the world.

These systems of rewards and consequences emphasize the techniques needed for sucessful classroom management.

Managing a classroom effectively keeps unwanted behavior at a minimum and encourages learning for all students. The following provides suggestions for doing so through the use of consequences, privileges, and positive discipline.

How do you create a classroom library that is both organized and enticing to young readers? Here a teacher illustrates how she set up a classroom library. She provides tips on acquiring books and materials, organizing the shelves, creating labels, and making it cozy.

Desk cleaning, first-year teacher style

Stories from a time when we had "more enthusiasm than commonsense" enable us to share a laugh. As Brenda Powers, editor at Choice Literacy wrote, the most memorable stories often begin with a failure — the bigger the better.

As school begins to wind down for the summer, I always remember one afternoon in May from my first year of teaching. My "classroom," a single-wide trailer behind an old, single-level red brick school, was tiny, cramped and the center of my universe. Twenty-four second graders and I fumbled our way through the year with too few books and 2 reams of paper for copies. By May, we all longed for more space and some fresh air.

Our principal announced that student desks needed to be cleaned, inside and top, before the kids left for summer. As we chatted in the lunchroom one day, a fellow teacher shared her trick for removing the sticky residue nametags and number lines left on desks: menthol shaving cream. "Just have the kids squirt it on and squish it around on their desks. It works like magic!" she said.

A quick trip to the CVS and I was ready. Twenty four cans of menthol shaving cream, twenty four second graders and a young teacher with good intentions. Clean desks were on the way.

You can imagine what happened next. The shaving cream did START on the desks. My kids squirted it on and squished it around. For about 30 seconds. Then, chaos!

It was everywhere! Arms, clothes, hair, floor, books, walls, white foam everywhere. To make matters worse, it turns out that 24 cans of menthol shaving cream is A LOT of menthol in such an enclosed space. And it gets dry. And sticky. And we had no running water, or even a bucket of water with rags (in retrospect, THAT would have been a good idea).

Very quickly, our plans changed. "Hands up!" I cried, "get into line. We're heading to the bathrooms!" Bless their hearts, my twenty-four second graders quickly marched, hands up surgeon-style, through the hall of the school to the group bathrooms. I'm sure I heard more than one teacher snicker as we passed their door.

Lesson learned, and event cemented in my memory! How about you? Care to share a memorable story from a time when your enthusiasm bubbled over?

How running a reading program is like running a campaign

As I write this blog on Wednesday morning after our historic presidential election, I'm struck by an article I read on msnbc.com. Howard Fineman summarized what he saw as Obama's seven-prong approach to his campaign that served him well.

It was easy for me to see how well these same seven prongs could serve schools and districts well as they consider how they teach reading.

Below are the seven prongs as described by Fineman, with each prong's relationship to reading summarized. See what you think!

1. Be decisive. Make an informed, research-based decision about the reading program you're going to use.

2. Have a tight circle. Listen to the voices of parents, teachers, and administrators. Don't go it alone and expect it to work.

3. Stick with the plan. Too often, schools change gears before giving a program a chance to work. If you have evidence that change is occurring, stay with the plan.

4. Sweat the details. Find out how things are working for all your kids: your ELL population, your kids with LD, and other subgroups. Find out what you can do to improve data collection and implementation.

5. Understand your brand. In reading, I think this means the daily reminder that our goal is creating a population of kids who can (and want to) read well.

6. Go digital. For classrooms, this means developing teachers who know and use technology for assessment and teaching.

7. Use caution. Be wary of programs and interventions that claim to have quick and easy solutions for struggling readers.

As I've said before, it's darn hard work, but we can do it!

How young is too young for cursive?

My friend Cathy called to talk about her daughter's first grade teacher. Lilly, her six year old, started complaining about school a few weeks ago, and over the past two weeks the situation has gotten steadily worse. Cathy finally coaxed it out of Lilly that the problem is all about handwriting. Lilly's teacher requires that all school assignments, including spelling tests, be written in cursive. In cursive! In first grade! Lilly's handwriting is apparently not up to par, and she's had to do lots of extra practice sheets to work on her cursive writing. No wonder she hates school!

When I taught third grade, I taught cursive. My students had handwriting workbooks, and right after recess we'd come in and do a page or two of handwriting. The students LOVED handwriting time; it was definitely the quietest part of our day! I still remember looking across the room to see my students, usually with their tongue stuck out the side of their mouth, really concentrating on those loopy lines and "letter shields."

Third grade seemed like a reasonable age to teach cursive; their fine motor skills were fairly good, and their understanding of locatives (words used for spatial and temporal concepts such as "up" or "next to") was solid. But first grade? C'mon! My first-grader is still working on her letter and word spacing. I can't imagine her trying to link two letters together to write in cursive.

Some folks question whether we should teach cursive at all, given that most students will do most of their writing assignments on the computer anyways. Others suggest that maybe kids' interest in learning cursive should be the deciding factor as to whether and when to teach cursive.

What's your opinion? Should we still teach cursive to kids? And if so, at what age should we begin?

I Do, We Do, You Do

Susan Hall, co-author of Straight Talk About Reading and more recently the editor for Implementing Response to Intervention: A Principal's Guide gave a workshop at the Center for Development and Learning's conference. The topic was on teaching the tough phonological awareness skills, and in it she referred to an instructional procedure she called "I Do, We Do, You Do."

As teachers, we're all familiar with this notion; we model, we work through it with our kids and then we release the responsibility to the students. As a variation of scaffolding, this model represents what we know about good teaching: teachers explicitly teach a new skill, teacher and students practice the skill together, and then student demonstrates the skill through practice activities. Corrective feedback and pacing vary by group and by student.

I like the language of I Do, We Do, You Do; it's simple, short, and clear. I can see the practicality of using it with young students as a guide for work throughout the week. I am sure someone has turned this into a poster or has created a neat graphic for their classroom. If you have something like that, please share!

After more than 20 years of research, class size continues to be at the forefront of the educational and political agenda for schools, school districts, and school boards. Here is a snapshot of what research tells us about class size and student achievement.

Like class size reduction, increasing instructional time has lots of common-sense appeal as mechanism for raising student achievement. But more time in school can be costly. These key lessons summarize the current research on different approaches to organizing school time and schedules, beginning with the obvious question: Does more time make a difference?

How much homework is too much? Not enough? Who should get it? These are just a few of the questions that have been debated over the years. While the research produces mixed results, there are some findings that can help inform decisions about homework.

The literacy-rich environment emphasizes the importance of speaking, reading, and writing in the learning of all students. This involves the selection of materials that will facilitate language and literacy opportunities; reflection and thought regarding classroom design; and intentional instruction and facilitation by teachers and staff.

New school year = rough transitions for some

My friend Kathy has a son with mild to moderate disabilities. Henry is going into third grade this year, and I just got an email from her:

"Back to school" has special meaning for Henry. Transitions are tough for him, so these first few weeks of getting adjusted are hard for everyone. I know things will eventually settle down, but I wish these this time of year could be easier. So many tantrums, so many tears.

In Henry's case, he has an IEP in place and a special education team that will be looking out for him. For kids who struggle in school but don't have an IEP, this is a time of year when parents need to be extra vigilant. Do everything you can to make sure weeks of instructional time are not lost — your child doesn't have a moment to lose!

What can parents of struggling students do during these first few weeks of school? Here are a few ideas:

• Set up a conference with your child's new teacher. He or she is swamped right now, but see if you can't find a 10-15 minute window to sit down one-on-one. Advocate for your child's needs within the classroom. This article, Taking a Closer Look: My Child's Academic Success may be helpful.

• Help your child's new teacher get to know your child. What does he like and dislike? What subject areas are challenging for him? What extra support do you provide to your child? What are your goals for the year? Here's an example of a letter written by parents of a student with ADHD.

• Was your child tutored over the summer? If so, see if your tutor would be willing to write a summary of what they worked on and any work habits that may be useful for a teacher to know.

• Breathe. Your child will pick up on your anxieties. Trust that a few simple actions on your part will help your family get off to a great start.

Want to read more on the topic? Check out a new article on our sister site LDOnLine called September Thoughts: Reflections on a New School Year.

My girls are having their first day of school today! I've got a special snack ready, and am planning for a nice quiet afternoon. How do you ease your transition to school?

No more Friday spelling tests!

I think I'll open a can of worms this week and declare that teachers should abandon the age-old practice of Friday spelling tests. You know the routine (because you went to elementary school, and it hasn't changed): students get new words on Monday, "practice" them during the week using various drills; they take a test on Friday, and then on Monday, misspell the words and all the other words that share that spelling feature.

I'm not the only one who advocates abandoning the practice; in fact this blog's title came from a similarly titled 2005 Council for Exceptional Children article. Loeffler, the author, describes how this approach of teaching spelling fails kids who struggle, particularly kids with LD who have poor memory skills. She recommends using a spelling rubric (found within the article) based on student writing as an alternative to Friday tests. I have a few issues with the approach she suggests, but I do think it's a step in the right direction.

Teaching spelling well is a huge topic, one that can't be covered here in a blog post. But it's clear that we need to teach kids to spell in a way that makes sense. We know that spelling supports reading and that accurate spelling of words supports fluent writing. We also know that methods like this just fail our kids.

Let's start a conversation about what we can do to teach spelling well. Is your child a good speller? Do you see the "Friday test, Monday miss" phenomena in your house? How can we make sure each child's spelling words are at the right level of challenge? How can we teach sounds, syllables, morphemes, and something about word origin?

Open House: What does a good classroom look like?

Our school has an Open House the week before school starts. It's always a day or so after we find out our teachers for the year. School is open for an hour so families can help kids find their new classroom, and meet their new teacher. There's lots of nervous excitement in the air!

We start school early here (August 20), so our Open House is next week. The girls can't wait, and neither can I. The promise of a new school year never gets old.

It's fun to look around classrooms too — they're as varied as the teachers. There are a few things I always look for in a classroom. I know that some things can't be seen too early in the school year, but other things set the right tone for me.

First, how's the classroom library? Are there lots of books? How are they organized? If you're wondering if and why that matters, here's a good read: Understanding How Classroom Libraries Work.

Second, does the classroom appear organized? Piles of clutter and paper early on signal an "organizational style" that you may need to get used to. I've seen many classrooms where the teacher workstation took up so much space that there were few places where students could work! If you're in need of some organizational help, see Classroom Organization Sites for lots of resources.

Third, are materials available for student consumption? I always had a writing area in my classroom, stocked with paper, tape, scissors, glue…anything the students might need to carry out their work. I knew that if the materials were out and available, my students wouldn't need to interrupt a reading group to ask for a rubber band or a paper clip. Giving students access also helps build a sense of pride and responsibility within the room.

Last, (and somewhat controversial) is it a "store bought" classroom? I get nervous when I see bulletin boards and walls loaded with posters and graphics from teacher supply stores. In my experience, displays like those are somewhat static, and leave less room for student work and teacher creativity. I'd much rather see just a title on a bulletin board with the understanding that the board (and the class) is a work in progress!

What about you? What makes a big impression on you during Open House?

To address the wide range of individual student variances and needs, reading instruction within one classroom must be data-informed and call on small group instruction and flexible grouping practices. This article delineates routines and procedures to help teachers organize their classroom environment and reading instruction to positively affect student achievement and meet the needs of diverse learners.

Ouch! Tough day for Four Block, aka Whole-Language High Jinks

A new report came out today, authored by reading expert Louisa Moats. In it, Moats takes a hard look at reading programs that market themselves as ones based on Scientifically Based Reading Research (SBRR). The report, "Whole Language High-Jinks," examines Reading Recovery , Four Blocks , Guided Reading, and programs that use a generic "balanced literacy" description. It also includes a comparison of two major approaches to reading instruction (SBRR and Whole Language Derivatives).

The report says this: Some reading programs, in an effort to capitalize on Reading First funding, market themselves as programs that reflect SBBR, when in fact, they do not. Moats' report uses strong language, for example: "Four Blocks is the best example of a whole-language program masquerading as an SBRR program..."[emphasis added]. Moats describes how a good SBRR program 'teaches each component thoroughly, explicitly, and with planned connections to the others. Such programs build in validated assessments of progress so that students who are accelerated and those who need small-group intervention and support are identified and taught accordingly.' The "sheep in wolves clothing" programs fail our neediest students by sharing the following commonalities: teacher modeling (not direct instruction), rely on strategies from the three cueing systems theory, reject systematic decoding, spelling, and grammar instruction, confuse phonemic awareness with phonics, make heavy use of writer's workshop and leveled books, and de-emphasize direct instruction in comprehension strategies.

Several of the blogs I read regularly have also blogged about the release: see Teach Effectively , Joanne Jacobs , and I Speak of Dreams , just announcements, no commentary. I'm eager to see the types of comments that come in. I suspect we'll hear from teachers who use the programs Moats slammed and argue for their 'SBRRness.' Teachers who use some of the "reasonably faithful to SBRR" programs, as described by Moats, ( Open Court , Trophies , Reading Street ) might have their own opinions about teaching with those programs.

I'd encourage everyone to read the report, and if you're inclined, come back and comment. And while I agree with Moats' recommendations for policymakers at the end of the report, does anyone else agree that they seem disconnected from the report's content?

Good rewards provide the incentive for a successful classroom management system. Here are some ideas to get you started.

School spending: Parents and teachers

Molly, Anna, and I went shopping for school supplies yesterday. It's always a bit of a giddy shopping trip; choosing which color for the composition book, 16 or 24 box of crayons, Elmer's or Rose's glue…getting to buy colored pencils…oh my! We were there for at least an hour.

Total cost: $47.00 for two kids.

The trip reminded me of my own teaching days when I'd make my late August trip to the teacher's supply store. I really liked these certain desk name tags that had a number line along the bottom and the alphabet across the top. I always needed clear contact paper to cover the name tags and various other stickers, notes, and supplies. Teaching was expensive!

Just how expensive? According to Administrator magazine, K-12 teachers spend an average of $475 per year on materials for the classroom. Elementary teachers spend a significantly higher amount ($539) compared with middle ($393) and high ($427) school teachers.

iLoveSchools.com, reports that teachers spend over $650 of their own money to buy classroom materials. To ease the burden, iLoveSchools offers a donor-matching service for education. School teachers build wish lists of equipment, materials and supplies. Donors locate teachers a search and offer their donations of new or used items or the cost of the teacher's wish list.

How much are your school supplies this year? And, if you're a teacher, how much of your own money do you plan to spend on classroom materials? Tell us here, and then join a national survey at Edutopia about how much of their own money teachers spend on their classrooms each year.

This is a topic I'll be revisiting throughout the year. My local PTO is trying to figure out just how we can better support our teachers with expenses like this; we do give teachers money at the beginning of the school year, but it's clearly not sufficient! I'll let you know what solutions we come up with.

Teachers, please reorganize those bins!

I read Lisa Koch's essay on Choice Literacy recently. Koch shares a poignant story of her son who desperately wants to read from the "L bin" at school, but his reading skills aren't quite there yet. The book choices in his lettered bin seem dull and dry. Koch watched as her son's motivation to read drained slowly out of him. At the end the piece, Koch pleads with teachers: please reorganize those bins!

If you're not sure what Koch is talking about, she's referring to classroom libraries organized using Fountas & Pinnell's Guided Reading
leveling system. Many, many classroom libraries are organized this way. Books are given a certain letter rating depending on specific characteristics of the text, which are described in various places, including Matching Books To Readers.

Several free databases (like this one) exist to help teachers know how to level a book, and determine which titles are on specific levels. Other grids help parents and teachers know what grade levels correspond to specific letter ratings.

But the real issue is whether kids can (should?) read outside "their" bin and how "their" bin is defined for them. Because I'm sure many teachers will be unwilling to reorganize their bins for a different system, here are three considerations for teachers that may make Guided Reading bins more appealing to parents like Koch:

1. Look through your bins, particularly the lower-lettered ones. Does each bin contain some interesting books? Do they include fiction and nonfiction? Something to keep even the most unmotivated reader going?

2. Re-evaluate your system for having kids read only from specific bins. Is there ever a chance for free choice reading from any bin? This might be a great way for kids to get excited about new authors and series.

3. Perhaps most importantly, re-evaluate every child's bin assignment on a regular basis. What are your criteria for moving a kid in or out of a bin?

I don't know whether these considerations would quell Koch's concerns, but I love to hear what you think. And I'd love to hear your suggestions, too!

The best way to sell a book

Being January, I know lots of parents and teachers have resolutions that include getting kids to read more and different kinds of books.

Around our house, one sure-fire way to pique Molly and Anna's interest in a book is to put it on my nightstand! I usually have quite a stack there...books I plan to read or re-read before handing them over to the girls. Like Harry Potter. It's been 10 years since I read the first one, and I wanted to do the “scary check” before letting Molly read it. Not a day has gone by that she hasn't asked me if I'm finished yet. Apparently I'm taking too long!

As a teacher, I had the same phenomena in my classroom. There was this tiny half shelf in the front of the room on which I kept our current classroom read aloud. As soon as a book appeared there, kids would scramble to the library to get their own copy. They enjoyed following along with me as I read, and I thought that was just fine!

Booktalks are another great way to get kids interested in books. A booktalk is usually a fun, teasing summary of a book told with the passion of someone who really liked it. In my class, we often used booktalks as sales pitches for the next round of reading group books.

In my opinion, the best and most convincing booktalks are led by kids. Who doesn't love those last minutes of Reading Rainbow where the kids talk about books they've read? (If you don't know what I'm talking about, watch the show and you'll be hooked!)

Booktalks can also be led by adults. Scholastic has some video booktalks, mostly done by Scholastic staff. There’s something similar at Podfeed called Bookwink.

However you do it, whether it is by nightstand, shelf, or booktalk, find a way to sell a book to a reader today!

Peer tutoring links high achieving students with lower achieving students or those with comparable achievement for structured learning. It's an effective educational strategy for classrooms of diverse learners, including students with disabilities, because it promotes academic gains as well as social enhancement. This brief discusses three research-supported peer tutoring strategies: Cross-Age Tutoring; Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS); and Reciprocal Peer Tutoring (RPT).

Using volunteers in the classroom

Sometimes parent volunteers require a lot of extra work for a teacher. Other times, parents work as a second set of hands but don't really work one-on-one with kids. Somewhere in the middle is a setting in which the time flies by with both the volunteer and the students benefitting from spending time together.

Here's the system I used for volunteers when I taught second grade. I put a desk and two chairs (one big, one small) outside my classroom door. I put a cardboard cubby box on the desk that contained (1) a file with my class list, (2) a file for each student that contained a book on their instructional level and a work chart, (3) pencils, erasers, and a stopwatch, (4) a choice sheet, and (5) stationery.

The choice sheet described 4 things the students and volunteer could do together. Each time, the volunteer and child would read over the choices, pick one, mark it on their work chart, and get to work. Volunteers typically worked for 10-15 minutes with each child. My kids needed to do each thing one time before they could do something a second time. The choices changed during the year, but not too much. My goal was to keep the activities purposeful and meaningful while also not requiring tons of prep work on my part.

Work Choices:
(1) Read to me! My parent volunteers all knew to come armed with a book they'd like to share with a child. This was often their own child's favorite book, and my kids loved finding out what book a parent brought. When they were done reading, the student would write 2-3 sentences about the book.

(2) I'll read to you! Parent volunteers would listen to the student read the book from their file. The volunteer would make any necessary comments about the reading on the work chart.

(3) Lightning fast! A beginning of the year volunteer training showed the parents how to conduct a timed repeated reading. After a 5-minute reading warm-up, this work choice asked the student read to same passage 3 times, always for one minute. Together they counted words correct per minute and noted the numbers on the work chart.

(4) Let's write a letter! The cubby always held stationery and envelopes. Together the volunteer and student would write a letter to someone special. I'd stamp it and send it home for an address and to be mailed.

It worked for me….what has worked for you?