FROM THE DIRECTOR

Keeping Our Commitment to Children

Last month I highlighted the importance of helping our students become readers who love reading for its own sake. Using Dr. Layne’s Igniting a Passion for Reading as justification for this focus, I emphasized that our efforts will yield long-term results not only for our students, but for the educational, economic and cultural welfare of our institutions and communities. This month I would like to continue on the same theme by focusing on a different, but real and acknowledged problem in our work. Beyond the third grade, we are confronted with the fourth-grade slump and a concomitant decline in reading among middle and high school students. However, Scholastic Online ReadAbout: About the Fourth-Grade Slump, talks about the ‘new’ fourth-grade slump, a phenomenon that they say starts in the fourth grade and extends to the eighth grade and manifests itself as a full blown achievement gap. Here is Scholastic’s explanation of how the ‘new’ fourth-grade slump develops:

• First of all, the contributing factors have multiplied in the last few years. The push to “cover the standards” has crowded out time to teach science and social studies, subjects that engage kids and have the added benefit of teaching academic vocabulary.
• Second, the world outside the classroom has become a much more exciting place, filled with iPods and Gameboys and video on demand. Kids have 24/7, multimedia access to information. School simply hasn’t kept up.

According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2007 Report, while all students show improved reading scores compared to previous years, minority and poor students’ improvement did not result in closing the achievement gap; in short, this has resulted in a slump beyond fourth grade. An added consequence of the ‘new’ fourth-grade slump is that it creates a downward spiral in reading among middle and high school students. Essentially, our efforts at growing life-long readers are constantly being threatened by other social developments and technological advancements.

For example, the Kaiser Family Foundation survey, Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year Olds found that among 8-10 year olds, 40 percent reported that they read a book of their choice; 27 percent among 11-14 year olds responded to this question, a considerable drop of 13 percent. Wow! Among 15-18 year olds, 26 percent reported that they had read a book of their choice. The Scholastic Kids and Family Reading Report shows the ubiquitous nature of the negative reading trend among our students. Among 5-8 year olds, 44 percent of them self-classified as high-frequency readers; that rate declined to 29 percent among 11-14 year olds. Among 15-18 year olds, the picture looks worse, because only 16 percent viewed themselves as readers.

What is going on here? We must face it, the competition is relentless. As a consequence, we cannot continue to operate de rigueur, but that we need to constantly remind ourselves that reading plays a central, if not the only, role in the success of our students in the 21st Century; that reading is the key to unlock all other academic subjects; and that the ability to read well is a boon to our students’ self efficacy. Undoubtedly, the onus is on us to educate students who are “. . . capable decoders of written text . . . [and] are confident, eager readers, fully capable of making the fullest sense of written words and written ideas in many contexts” (Gow 2008).

As I conclude, I am reminded of the words of John Stuart Mill who so eloquently stated, “No great improvements in the lot of mankind are possible until a great change takes place in their mode of thought.” If we and our students are to survive in this cut-throat competition; if we are to make worthwhile reading improvements for our students and encourage them to be life-long readers, we need to heed Mr. Stuart Mill and think, not only differently, but innovatively and with extreme clarity, about our work and our commitment to our students. It is only when we do this that we will experience a sublime éclat.

Yours in the same challenge!

Mbulelo G. Mzozoyana, Ph. D.
Director, Reading First-Ohio

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

NEWS AND UPDATES:

No-Cost Professional Development for Reading First Schools’ Sustainability

As you know, the Reading First Ohio Center has been busy creating online professional development modules for Ohio’s teachers. We now have a strong menu of online courses which include:

• Literacy Coaching in the Schools
• Differentiating Instruction
• Early Language Learning
• Supporting English Learners in the Classroom
• The Five Essentials
• Assess Plan Teach in Action
• School Leadership: Leadership for Learning

Non-Reading First Schools must pay for the support to take these classes this year, but Reading First schools can sign up to use these courses at no cost.

To see a complete catalogue of courses visit www.ereadohio.org and click on the course catalogue or contact e-Read Ohio at ereadohiosupport@uakron.edu or call 330-972-7708.

Professional Development Meeting

March 25, 2010

9:00 AM – 3:00 PM

Location:
Ramada Plaza
4900 Sinclair Road
Columbus, OH 43229

New Research-Based Methods that Use Non-fictional Texts to Increase the Benefits of Reading Instruction: Meeting the Ever-Increasing Literacy Needs of Generation Y Students

Reading First Ohio personnel are invited to attend.

The purpose of this professional development session is to present the most recent research-based instructional strategies for using non-fictional texts in reading instruction. These methods have been demonstrated to significantly increase today's students' literacy abilities, love of reading, and content knowledge. All instructional methods will be described and demonstrated by the presenter. Immediately following each demonstration, participants will have the opportunity to practice each method with a non-fictional text during their time with Dr. Block. Discussions will be held as to how these methods can be implemented in the variety of classroom settings for which participants are responsible. By the end of the session, Dr. Block intends that every participant will have the knowledge and skills to present these new, highly-effective instructional strategies to colleagues in their own districts.

Dr. Block requests that all participants bring a non-fiction children’s book to be used during the training.

Registration is available on STARS. The title of the event is listed as “New Research-Based Methods that Use Non-fictional Texts.”

Literacy Specialist News

Reading First-Ohio Literacy Specialists have reported many worthwhile uses of flip videos in classrooms, benefitting teachers, students, and each other in assessing what best works to promote teacher and student learning. Reports so far indicate that 21 literacy specialists in RF have found many uses of videotaped episodes of teaching and coaching and have engaged other coaches, teachers, PD facilitators, and students in conversations about learning.

• A teacher-coach planning conference shows how a coaching conversation flows when a literacy specialist is strategic in helping a teacher think through her next steps in instruction based on students’ progress. [East Cleveland]
• A teacher-coach debriefing conference features what goes into reflecting on a lesson that begins with a book introduction and is followed by choral reading and echo reading to develop kindergarten children’s fluency. [Portsmouth City Schools]
• Literacy specialists and teachers use the Flip Video cameras to video-tape students at centers and then view the video together with the students to help them see how to conduct themselves and interact with a learning activity. [Columbus City Schools]
• Literacy specialists videotape their professional development sessions to self-assess what works and what they need to do differently to support teacher engagement, professional learning, and change in practice. [Dayton City Schools]
• Literacy specialists and teachers use Flip Video cameras to capture learning in grade level team meetings and classroom lessons, practice reading activities, and student performances, such as Reader's Theater. [Sandusky City Schools]

We applaud the literacy specialists and teachers who "dare” to go public with their work, affording all of us many opportunities to grow professionally and personally in our continual pursuit of learning how to effectively teach all students.