MRA TODAY READ FOR CHANGE May 2021
Editors
Valerie Harlow Shinas, Ph.D. Patricia Crain de Galarce, Ed..D.
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CONTENTS •
Welcome to MRA Today: Read for Change
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2021 Virtual Conference Chair Welcome
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Executive Board List
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MRA Mission
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What are we reading?
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This Teacher Candidate is Anti-Racist: Engaging in Book Study to Cultivate AntiRacism Marlene Correia, Ed.D., Bridgewater State University & Jacquelynne Boivin, Ph.D., Bridgewater State University •
The Power of Book Clubs for Change Carol Cohen, Lesley University
• •
Freeze-Frames: A Coaching Technique to Scaffold Teacher Development Adam Brieske-Ulenski, Ed.D., Bridgewater State University & Michelle J. Kelley, Ed.D, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL "Books can change the world in great ways:" The power of representative texts and criticality Kierstin Giunco, Mission Grammar School & Christine Leighton, Emmanuel College Understanding that Leads to Joyful Teaching and Learning Mary McAndrew, Reading Specialist
The Center for Inclusive and Special Education at Lesley University is committed to developing teachers to be their best so they can support all learners.
Connect and check out updates in our virtual space. Community Hub Site Password: lifts
www.liftscommunityhub.com
Welcome to MRA Today Read for Change
We are thrilled to share with you the first annual MRA Today. Our theme, Read for Change, is named for the theme of MRA’s first Virtual Conference. As editors, the exciting presentations at the conference and the innovative, transformative work of our MRA members inspired us. Leandra Elion, Vice-President and Conference Chair, shares in her welcome message: “no matter the upheavals in our world, reading is a constant tool that leads to change for a new, equitable, and inclusive normal.” How does the act of reading cause change? This edition of MRA Today explores the multiple ways reading may lead to change. We begin this publication with how the right book can transform ourselves, our classrooms, and a school community. The last year has been a year of change in so many ways. The ways we teach and learn have changed. The ways we think about diversity in our schools have changed. There has been one crucial constant; however - we read. We read to nourish our minds and our souls. And we read as a way to inspire change.
“People don’t realize how a whole man’s life can be changed by just one book.” – Malcolm X What is the one book that will change your life? This past year, when Pattie Kelley read Tell Me Who You Are: Sharing our Stories of Race, Culture, and Identity by Priya Vulchi and Winona Guo, she was profoundly impacted. She tells the MRA community: “It has helped me to understand how I can become an agent of change.” In What Are We Reading? Other MRA Board Members share their favorite transformative picks. As it was a book club that introduced Pattie to this transformational book, we are delighted that both of the following articles explore the power of book clubs. As teachers, we need a rich array of professional books that shape our thinking and inform our practice. Early childhood colleagues from Bridgewater State University describe how engaging in book study can cultivate anti-racism, build community, and ignite teacher candidates’ revelations. Marlene Correia and Jacquelynne Boivin chose the book “This Book is Anti-Racist” by Tiffany Jewel to read with their department and then with elementary teaching candidates. The text, coupled with the book club dialogue, supported a compassionate, anti-racist community of reflective practitioners.
“Education does not transform the world. Education changes people. People change the world.” – Paulo Freire During the pandemic, virtual book clubs have broadened the notion of community. Carol Cohen narrates the history and design of book clubs to promote community change. Her personal
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Welcome to MRA Today: Read for Change
experiences, especially this past year, are summarized: “My mind and heart have been opened to ideas and practices around particular themes I might never have considered if it weren’t for a discussion around that month’s book choice.” It is in reading, reflecting, and hearing the stories and ideas of community that we open ourselves up for learning. Collaborative idea-generating is also used in the coaching technique called freeze-frames. The authors of the following article share the use of this freeze-frames technique they learned at IRA. In hopes of improving literacy instruction, Adam Brieske-Ulenski and Michelle Kelley describe the process and illustrate a scenario for implementing this coaching framework. After a professional development experience, the literacy coaches applied new learning, first by demonstrating the new instructional skill, then by freezing the lesson and collaboratively making the instructional decisions, and finally by gradually releasing responsibility. This tool can become a powerful support for the essential role of the literacy coach as we lean into the MRA mission of “literacy for all”. Teacher Kierstin Giunco and her literacy coach, Christine Leighton, share suggestions for other teachers aiming to position literacy as a tool for change. They quote a sixth-grade student activist in their title: “Books can change the world in great ways!” Kierstin describes stocking her library shelves with culturally representative books that affirm every student’s lived experiences. She is careful to include complex texts connected with social issues and books from different perspectives that illustrate resilience and activism. In her classroom, students self-select from these texts, which becomes a social activity when done in pairs.The sixth-grade students used their books to build understanding, engage in dialogue, reflect on their voice, and take action for social justice. This read reinforces that “reading, writing, listening, and speaking are not only fundamental literacy skills but can also be building blocks for social change.”
“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” – Frederick Douglass Learning to read is an equity issue, Mary McAndrew reminds us in her article about school change. Mary shares how her school community collaborated on identifying their problem of practice and the steps they are taking to unpack the complexities of teaching reading. Together, they are changing literacy practices, developing joyful readers, and transforming the entire school community. They urgently move towards developing teacher knowledge and efficacy, leading to the joy found in teaching every child to read. School communities working, inquiring, and reading together can intentionally create change The Massachusetts Reading Association would like to thank the contributions to this first edition of MRA Today. We hope you agree that the articles presented here are inspiring, thought-provoking, and transformative. So, let’s read for change…. – VALERIE HARLOW SHINAS AND PATRICIA CRAIN DE GALARCE, EDITORS
Massachusetts Reading Association | massreading.org | massreading@comcast.net
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Welcome to MRA Today
from Leandra Elion, Vice-President and Virtual Conference Chair, 2021 When I try to capture what we have all been through since early March 2020, the enormity of the changes and the events are so staggering that, at first, I cannot help but default to that overused term – unprecedented. We have never confronted a pandemic, never lost so many of our loved ones, nor have we seen such a disruption to our work and family interactions and witnessed such social unrest and political division. And we long to return to – another overused word ‘normal.’ Platitudes, such as the words ‘unprecedented times’ and ‘return to normal, while true, can be treacherous because they act like a veneer – a façade that, while helping us to manage and the deal with cracks in our world, don’t actually repair what’s broken. We can stop at the realization that things are vastly different and overwhelming – unprecedented – and just long to ‘return to normal’ and not go on to say that normal is going to have to look different, and unprecedented is actually a perfect opportunity for change. It may seem like an overwhelming task – to build a new normal, to make meaningful changes in our world - but all of us, with our passion for language, reading, writing, books, illustrations, texts, teaching, and learning, are actually doing the work of change. When we stress reading – for our students, for ourselves – and when we are critical about what we read, we are changing the world for the better. There have been so many people engaged in the work of making the world safer and more just. The
Calling all Massachusetts teachers in grades K-3 The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education invites you to share your perspectives and expertise! Please participate in the Massachusetts K-3 Survey on Literacy Instructional Practices to inform development of literacy resources and supports for educators and schools. Access the Survey Here: www.surveymonkey.com/r/HC3L6QW This survey is conducted by the Region 1 Comprehensive Center (R1CC) at the American Institutes for Research (AIR) as an independent, third-party effort as part of a statewide literacy needs assessment. The survey should take 15-20 minutes. Participation in this survey is completely voluntary and responses are anonymous. Only the R1CC data analysis team will have access to responses, and responses cannot be linked to individuals. All reporting, including to DESE, will occur in the aggregate. Please contact Angelica Herrera, Senior Researcher, at aherrera@air.org with any questions.
scientists and researchers have brought us vaccines, public health professionals have taught us about masks, health-care workers worked grueling shifts, neighbors and friends have kept up the vigils and protests for equity and justice. And then there are the educators, who have had, dare I say, the unprecedented challenge of – overnight - teaching remotely and then having to go back to in-person teaching at short notice. You are to be celebrated and congratulated and praised and appreciated (and paid more!). You did not give up. You did not abandon your craft and your dedication to teaching children to read and find the books to read. How many of you created videos of read-alouds and scanned texts so that your students could have access to books even when the schools and libraries were closed. You showed your students and the world that we have to keep reading through the change. MRA continues to celebrate and support everyone who is engaged in the important work of building literacy in the context of the social justice imperatives we face. In our Virtual Conference and in this publication, each presenter and author shares the same message; no matter the upheavals in our world, reading is a constant tool that leads to change for a new, equitable, and inclusive normal.
The Executive Board of the Massachusetts Reading Holly Banusiewicz, Immediate Past President Valerie Harlow Shinas, President and MRA Today Co-Editor Lisa Maucione, President-Elect Leandra Elion, Vice President and 2021 Conference Chair Patricia Kelley - Vice President-Elect Patricia Crain de Galarce - Incoming VPElect and MRA Today Co-Editor Mary Wall - Liaison Jen Lindsey - Liaison Joan Tuttle - Past President and Executive Secretary Lisa Rice - Executive Treasurer Nancy Meagher - Past President and Event Coordinator
The mission of the Massachusetts Reading Association is to promote literacy for all learners through professional development, research, publications, and advocacy. MRA serves educators across the state with ten local councils that meet throughout the school year and one special interest council for higher education literacy educators. The MRA Board, made up of local and special interest council members and other literacy professionals, meets four times during the school year. Throughout the year, MRA committees and local/special interest councils offer workshops, presentations, and other events. The largest of these events, the MRA Annual Conference, takes place in April and features nationally known literacy speakers as well as homegrown expertise presented by local educators. All members are encouraged to become involved with MRA through their local or special interest council and the state-wide MRA board. MRA Board members explore their specific areas of interest or expertise through involvement with board committees.
Massachusetts Reading Association | massreading.org | massreading@comcast.net
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CONGRATULATIONS to our Celebrate Literacy Award winners!!
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What Are We Reading? Book Review
Book Title: Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Policy, and Practice, 3rd Edition Author: Wayne E Wright.
– Valerie Harlow Shinas
I must confess - in our busy, changed world, reading for pleasure has become a luxury that I struggle to find time for most days. Well, I read….lots, but I spend most of my time reading emails, journal articles, and student papers. I suspect I am like many of you, with little time to enjoy professional books or other books for my own enjoyment. With that said, I do preview lots of books for courses. Most of these are excellent and well-researched, but you might not find yourself picking them up for great ideas or inspiration when planning for instruction. There is one book, however, that I have taught with again and again. I find something new and inspiring every time I reread the chapters! Wright’s Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners is a must-have book for teachers in diverse classrooms. A rich resource packed with classroom strategies for scaffolding students’ speaking, listening, reading, writing, and viewing skills while teaching standards-based instruction, it highlights the ways that bilingualism and biliteracy benefit students and the entire community. The companion materials are extensive, and all content is accessible. If you are looking for a resource to update your knowledge of evidence-based teaching in the culturally and linguistically diverse classroom, this is it!
Massachusetts Reading Association | massreading.org | massreading@comcast.net
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What Are We Reading? Book Reviews - cont.
Book Title: Reading in the Brain: The New Science of How We Read by Stanislas Dehaene
– Leandra Elion
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Reading is a uniquely human achievement but one that is not innate. As a reading teacher, I knew that the process of extracting meaning from print had to be taught. I had many techniques for showing students how to make the letter-sound correspondences and even more for arriving at the reading and comprehension of connected text. My reasoning, reinforced by my limited observations of students, was that since everyone is an individual, there must be many ways to teach reading. The more strategies, the better! However, this understanding dramatically changed when I read Stanislas Dehaene’s book that presents the evidence from neuroscience that there is one incontrovertible pathway to build an efficient reading circuit. No matter the language or alphabet, efficient readers process print through the left ventral occipitotemporal region in the brain. This visual word form area, or the brain’s ‘letter box’ must be engaged, and as a teacher, I have only 150 milliseconds in which to activate this region. The evidence in this book changed my teaching practice from a barrage of strategies to a much more targeted, explicit, and intentional use of strategies to build the pathway from decoding to comprehension.
What Are We Reading?
Book Title: Tell Me Who You Are: Sharing our Stories of Race, Culture, and Identity - Priya Vulchi and Winona Guo
– Pattie Kelley
This book was the first professional book that I read in order to support my thinking about the changes I needed to make both personally and professionally regarding racism. I participated in a book study last summer after the horrific events unfolded regarding the death of George Floyd and the beginning of the Black Lives Matter movement. This book was instrumental in examining my thinking about race, culture, and white privilege and the impact these three components have had in my life. The format of this book is unique in that the young authors, Priya Vulchi and Winoa Guo, introduce a topic and then share some authentic stories of Americans throughout our country to add context to this study. Realizing that racism was not addressed in the four years, they attended high school; they decided to take a gap year before heading to Princeton and Harvard and travel across the country to collect first-person accounts on how racism impacts marginalized people every day. Compiling over 500 stories, they asked the question: How has race, culture, or intersectionality impacted your life? Intersectionality refers to the fact that race cannot be studied in isolation from other classifications such as gender, class, and other perceived differences. This book has had a profound impact on the way I teach at both the elementary level and the graduate level. It has helped me to understand how I can become an agent of change.
Massachusetts Reading Association | massreading.org | massreading@comcast.net
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What Are We Reading? Book Reviews - cont.
Book Title: Coaching for Equity by Elena Aguillar
– Lisa Rice
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As a literacy coordinator, I work with teaching professionals to help move teaching practice forward in order to grow stronger readers. When I first started in this role, I read The Art of Coaching by Elena Aguillar. It changed my practice by providing a practical and specific coaching framework that I immediately began using. Coaching for Equity is Elena’s latest book focusing on Transformational Coaching for those interested in interrupting inequities in schools. The book is packed with honest, personal narratives explicitly demonstrating what coaching for equity looks like and ways to make every coaching conversation build towards a more equitable world. The book focuses on coaching for equity and provides a structure for relationship building, surfacing strengths, sequencing adult learning, addressing beliefs and behaviors at the same time, and appreciating emotions that can be used for any coaching situation. My favorite is when Aguillar provides examples of skillfully pivot during a coaching conversation that isn’t going as smoothly as possible. If you are looking for an explicit framework for coaching, then this is the book for you! Once you read the book, you will uncover many online resources, including an online book club along with the many resources on the Bright Morning website (https:// brightmorningteam.com/).
What Are We Reading?
EVERY CHILD HAS THE RIGHT to live a literate life every day, in every classroom. — Irene C. Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell
INTERACTIVE READ-ALOUD
SHARED READING
PHONICS, SPELLING, AND WORD STUDY
READING MINILESSONS
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BOOK CLUBS
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PROFESSIONAL LEARNING TOOLS
What Are We Reading? Book Reviews - cont.
Book Title: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy Maybe this book is not on your professional shelf. Maybe this book will seem to be a strange professional selection. Would you ever think that a story about a boy, a mole, a fox, and a horse would be your next best shelf book? Each of the characters shares their fears, how they walk through life, meet challenges, and face disappointment. – Joan Tuttle
Pick it up! It may end up being one of your favorites! How about taking a path with fewer bumps and lots of inspiration every day or especially after having one of those days when you just need a “pat on the back”? Your title or position won’t matter teacher, superintendent, principal, librarian, classroom aide…. Titles are not important in this book. Personal and professional challenges will continue every day, but spend some time revisiting this book over and over again or just one page. A different message may reach you with each visit. Then, be sure to find your boy, your mole, your fox, and your horse. Oh, and have a piece of cake!
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What Are We Reading?
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What Are We Reading? Book Reviews
Book Title: The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson (2011)
– Nancy Meagher
Not a typical professional text, this nonfiction book is a must-read for all of us. Author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities in search of a better life. Wilkerson interviewed more than a thousand people and gained access to new data and official records to write this account of how these American journeys unfolded, altering our cities, our country, and ourselves. If you’ve read The Warmth of Other Suns, I’m sure you’ll agree. In which case, I would recommend Caste (2020), also by Isabel Wilkerson, where the author examines the silent caste system that has shaped America and still defines our lives today.
Book Title: We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom by Bettina L. Love
– Patricia Crain de Galarce
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I was first introduced to this powerful book by my daughter who teaches third-grade and now recommend it to every educator I know. Love’s critical love filled the pages with her lyrical prose challenging me to become a co-conspirator and freedom dreamer. Her text connects a personal narrative that builds an urgent need for all of us in education to create more just, equitable, and joyful learning environments.
What Are We Reading?
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This Teacher Candidate is Anti-Racist Engaging in Book Study to Cultivate Anti-Racism
Marlene Correia, Ed.D. Bridgewater State University Jacquelynne Boivin, Ph.D. Bridgewater State University
In times of immense social justice unrest in the US, Bridgewater State University’s Elementary and Early Childhood Education department has taken it upon themselves to focus on heightening their prioritization of anti-racist education. While the department has always placed value on equality and multicultural understandings, the 2020-2021 academic year began with the department establishing its Anti-Racism Matters (ARM) Committee. The ARM committee is a group of teacher-preparation faculty who come together routinely to discuss anti-racist faculty professional development, curricular integrations of anti-racism, and how they can better cultivate anti-racism in their teacher candidates. The two of us are both active members of the ARM committee and saw this as an excellent opportunity to think critically about how we can better prepare our teacher candidates for their student teaching experience. We wanted to provide enhanced experiences and practice in anti-racism and introspective reflection the semester before their full-time practicum. From there, the idea of a book club evolved. Book clubs are known to serve as gateways for deep discussions, meaningful insights, and lasting introspection. The sense of community that book clubs promote has the potential to ignite ideas and revelations that would have otherwise never occurred. This Book is Anti-Racist by Tiffany Jewell is an approachable text targeted toward upper-elementary to adolescent readers. While the language and eye-catching visuals are intended for younger readers, our entire department’s faculty read this book. We decided to use it as the focus text with all of the teacher candidates seeking elementary licensure. While texts like Robin Diangelos’s White Fragility and Ijeoma Oluo’s So You Want to Talk About Race are powerful texts that delve into similar ideas, we
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This Teacher Candidate is Anti-Racist:
Engaging in Book Study to Cultivate Anti-Racism
appreciated the simplistic and welcoming way Jewell introduces concepts around anti-racism. The text is a gateway for our students to establish a shared understanding of key terminology that they may never have fully understood. For example, Jewell delineates the difference between race and ethnicity. The central ideas are applied to activities and questions that allow our students to apply the understandings presented into their personal, critical reflections. While reflecting on conscious biases and digging to expose unconscious biases is a significant part of this book, the content lends itself to further exploration in a more collaborative platform. We first started this book study with a synchronous session to explain the plan and expectations of the asynchronous portions running throughout the semester. Using our Learning Management Platform, BlackBoard, we created a discussion board forum for each of the book’s four sections. We designed a series of questions that encourage students to share ideas related to the text as applied to current events, classroom considerations, and more. The theoretical framework that guided the development of the reflective questions was grounded in Critical Race Theory (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017; Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995) so that students began to notice the role that race plays in every aspect of life. Questions also utilized ideas presented in Jewell’s (2020) resource guide. To ensure a safe space for this important work, students follow a series of discussion norms that include 1.) assume best intentions, 2.) decided whether to “call out” or “call in,” 3.) be open to change, 4.) practice using the correct terminology, 5.) avoid generalizations, and 6.) remember why we are contributing to this discussion. Students respond to all of the questions in the forum prompts and to at least two peers. Sample questions included: • • • •
What activity, reflection prompt, or metaphor challenged your thinking or understanding? Was there anything in the reading that made you “dig deeper” than you have in the past? In your own words, define solidarity. Provide an example that encapsulates your definition. How do you respond to and prevent microaggressions in your classroom?
The effectiveness of the experience was witnessed by the teacher candidates’ empathy towards one another, the increasingly passionate and personal stances they expressed, and the application into coursework and pre-practicum. In over 400 discussion threads, students contributed deep reflections that showed the transformation from previous thinking to new understandings about the institutionalized inequalities individuals experience every day.
Massachusetts Reading Association | massreading.org | massreading@comcast.net
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BELOW ARE SOME EXCERPTS OF THEIR RESPONSES: "This book has opened my eyes, as I have not read a book like this before. My knowledge was expanded on what racism and race really are in a different context." “In my classroom, we will hold each other responsible for our words and our actions and discuss the effects, both positive and negative. I will work to be aware of what I say and how I say it." The final prompt asked the teacher candidates to reflect on how they changed personally or professionally through this experience. One student summed up what many others also shared, “Through this book club, I feel I am walking away with more knowledge and insight. It's been a springboard for me to continue my own learning.” These responses validated our “change” as a community around reading this text. We encouraged sharing other resources on the BlackBoard site to build further their toolbox of antiracist websites, books, articles, podcasts, curricula, etc. After each of the four sections, we extracted ideas from students’ responses into a culminating message to highlight important ideas that students expressed. The book study concludes with a final synchronous session after students finish reading. During this time, we discuss more education-based questions and provide scenarios that encourage students to push their thinking outside of their growth and development as an anti-racist person, to developing into an anti-racist teacher. Reading for change is just the beginning. These teacher candidates must passionately continue to embark on this anti-racist journey for themselves and for the children who will soon make up their own classroom community of learners.
References Delgado, R., & Stefancic, J. (2017). Critical race theory: An introduction (3rd ed.). New York: New York University. Jewell, T. (2020). This book is anti-racist: 20 lessons on how to wake up, take action, and do the work. Frances L incoln Children's Books. Jewell, T. (2020). This book is an anti-racist educator resource guide. https://www.quartoknows.com/dynamic/files/ product_file/TBIAR-teaching-guideV3-2-4013.pdf Ladson-Billings, G. & Tate, W., IV. (1995). Toward a critical race theory of education. Teachers College Record, 97(1), 47–68.
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This Teacher Candidate is Anti-Racist:
Engaging in Book Study to Cultivate Anti-Racism
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The Power of Book Clubs for Change
Carol L. Cohen, Adjunct Professor Lesley University, Cambridge, MA
I love to read. Curling up with a book allows me to escape back in time, travel to distant lands, and learn something new. Reading serves as a mirror into my soul, asking questions like: what can I do to make positive changes in my life, how can I help make the world a better place, and how can I share what I have learned with others? When I finish a good book, after a brief farewell, I almost always have the feeling that I must discuss what I have read with others. Enter The Book Club, a most extraordinary and rewarding way to share what I have read. I refer to this type of gathering as a “spontaneous community,” whether it be with friends, co-workers, or people I have never met before. For several decades, my reading life, both personally and professionally, has been happily filled with book clubs. Some I lead, some I am a willing participant. No matter the group or the genres, my experiences have all included lively, enthusiastic discussion about how literacy helps explain the past, inform the present, and arm us with the tools to help make changes in the future. My all-time favorite book club choice has been The Secret of Forgetting by Kristen Harmel. With Cape Cod as its geographic base, the reader ventures across the Atlantic to Paris during World War II and in the present day. This beautifully written novel explores difficult topics like Alzheimer’s, the Holocaust, and divorce. At the same time, it describes the smells and tastes of delicious baked goods from the oven in a Cape Cod bakery. I have had the good fortune to be part of several book groups with The Secret
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The Power of Book Clubs for Change
of Forgetting as the focus. While sampling scrumptious pastries made from recipes in the book, we sought to answer questions that naturally arise when exploring uncomfortable topics like hate, family ties, and changes in one’s life. In recent years, I have happily discovered book clubs with superpowers, created when a literary community gathers around a single book. This gathering goes by many names but is known to most as One Book, One Town. In 1998, Nancy Pearl, author, librarian, and former executive director of the Washington Center for the Book at Seattle Public Library, created “If All of Seattle Reads the Same Book “with the purpose of bringing together a diverse group of readers to read and discuss a single book, in this case, The Sweet Hereafter by Russel Banks. In addition to book talks, there were many other activities planned, all promoting discussion and engagement with the book. Nancy Pearl started a phenomenon across America, with hundreds of towns and cities participating while building community with events including cooking demonstrations and author talks. I have been fortunate to be part of many One Book, One Town programs, including the Tri-Town Reads program, which took place in southeastern Massachusetts in the spring of 2019. Library directors from the towns of Mattapoisett, Rochester, and Marion joined forces to create an experience filled with community-building activities centered around the novel, The Muralist by B.A. Shapiro. This work of historical fiction takes the reader on a journey in both New York City and France in the present day and in the 1940s. The Muralist narrates a story of the European refugee crisis during the early stages of World War II and the emergence of the Works Project Administration, better known as the WPA, created by Franklin Delano Roosevelt to draw attention to mural artists. The book combines fictionalized and actual people of the era, such as Jackson Pollack, Lee Krasner, and Mark Rothko, with the most wellknown being First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. She had a significant role in establishing the ARTs division of the WPA, which employed these struggling artists. As part of the Tri-Town Read program, I was asked by Susan Pizzolato, the director of the Mattapoisett Public Library, to present my first-person narrative program called “An Evening with Eleanor Roosevelt.” In addition, I enjoyed attending events, including small book discussion groups and film viewings, including The Grapes of Wrath. I cannot think of a better book to promote discussions for change than The Muralist. The book combines both fictionalized and real people of the era, the most well-known being Eleanor Roosevelt, who had a major role in establishing the ARTs division of the WPA. The four-month Tri-Town Reads program began with a visit from the author, B.A. Shapiro, who talked about researching and writing The Muralist. During the Tri-Town Reads Program, I offered my live, first-person narrative program called “An Evening with Eleanor Roosevelt” at the request of Susan Pizzolato, the director of the Mattapoisett Public Library. In addition, I enjoyed attending many other events, such as small book discussion groups and film viewings.
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Recently, I contacted Gail Roberts, the director of the Joseph H. Plumb Memorial Library in Rochester. I asked her to share her thoughts about her experiences being part of the creative team for the Tri-Town Reads program. She said: “For me, it was a great program series. Susan (Pizzolato) was great to work with and had wonderful ideas. It was a true community event since we partnered with Tabor Academy, the Marion Art Center, and other community groups. I hope the three towns can do something similar in the future. My favorite program was the piano concert at Tabor Academy as it taught me so much about the music that was composed as part of the WPA Arts project as well as a dive into the existence of the WPA projects in our area of Massachusetts”. During the past year, book clubs have been my silver lining. Forced to stay at home and venture out into the world of Zoom, I have enjoyed participating in a few wonderful book club experiences, more than one populated by readers from all over the world. My mind and heart have opened to ideas and practices around particular themes I might never have considered if it weren’t for a discussion around that month’s book choice.
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Freeze-Frames:
A Coaching Technique to Scaffold Teacher Development Adam Brieske-Ulenski, Ed.D
Assistant Professor of Reading Education Graduate Program Chair of Reading Education Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, MA abrieskeulenski@bridgew.edu
Michelle J. Kelley, Ed.D
Professor of Reading Education Coordinator of Reading Education University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL michelle.kelley@ucf.edu
LITERACY COACHING ROLE The International Literacy Association (ILA) provided a clearer vision of what literacy coaching looks like in today’s schools by describing the role of the literacy coach as one that primarily works with teachers with the goal of improving literacy instruction (ILA, 2018). ILA states that literacy coaches need to have a strong understanding of coaching approaches and procedures in order to engage in the coaching work that will raise student achievement. This article addresses one way in which literacy coaches can approach their work with classroom teachers to improve literacy instruction by using a coaching technique called freeze-frames. COACHING FRAMEWORK Coaching techniques are embedded within a larger framework of actions that support the delivery of effective literacy instruction. One such framework outlined by Collet (2012) is called the Gradual Increase of Responsibility. Collet (2012) claims that as coaches work with classroom teachers the coach should employ approaches and procedures that increase teacher responsibility. While this framework is noteworthy, it does lack some practical application in terms of how the coach increases teacher responsibility. Ulenski (2018) began to address this concern by describing the use of the voice-over technique to begin the gradual increase of responsibility from the coach to the teacher. The freeze-frame technique described next will demonstrate how a coach can continue to increase teacher responsibility when working with teacher-colleagues.
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Freeze-Frames: A Coaching Technique to Scaffold Teacher Development
THE TECHNIQUE The freeze-frame technique is a coaching procedure where the literacy coach shares instructional responsibility by inviting the observing teacher-colleagues to provide feedback, share ideas, and ponder thoughts about the next steps for instruction during a lesson with students. In many ways, this could be considered the “we-do” of the coaching framework outlined by Collet (2012), as the coach shifts responsibility from the coach to the teachers. A coach using the freeze-frame technique during a demonstration lesson would pause the instruction to invite teachers into the decision-making process, asking them to discuss how to move forward in the lesson. Then, the coach would incorporate their suggestions and continue teaching. This technique gives teacher-colleagues more ownership in the teaching and has them apply what they learned from prior professional development. By engaging teachers in professional development and then implementing the training in a demonstration lesson through the use of freeze-frames, the coach would be applying the seven characteristics of effective professional development as outlined by the Learning Policy Institute (2017). The following steps are necessary for incorporating freeze-frames into professional learning; 1) the coach and teachercolleague(s) engage in professional development, 2) conduct a demonstration lesson using the freeze-frame technique with an emphasis on the purpose established in the professional development, 3) teacher(s) participate in the observed lesson via freezeframes, and 4) a post-lesson debrief to reflect
"As coaches work to support classroom teachers, they need techniques to help their teacher-colleagues connect their learning from PD sessions to their own teaching via lesson demonstrations."
on the lesson demonstration. The following scenario offers an example of a literacy coach using the freeze-frame technique in a lesson with elementary students while teacher-colleagues observed. In a conference room, the literacy coach and the first-grade teachers review and discuss their learning from a prior professional development (PD) regarding the four-part structure of a mini-lesson, connection, teaching point, active engagement, and link (Calkins, 2017). During this particular PD session, the coach introduced language that can be used in each part of the mini-lesson to help teachers move through the four parts of a mini-lesson when delivering a reading lesson. After the PD session, the coach and teacher-colleagues left the conference room and headed to one of the first-grade classrooms to observe a mini-lesson in action.
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During the demonstration, the coach gathered the first-grade students on the carpet for the reading mini-lesson. The teacher-colleagues sat in chairs in stadium-like seating around the students to be able to observe and hear all interactions. The coach started the mini-lesson by connecting the reading lesson to the previous day’s lesson and stating the teaching point to the elementary students, “Readers study characters to determine if they would be friends with them or not.” The coach then moved into the teaching point of the mini-lesson and demonstrated for the elementary students how he determined if he would be friends with a character in a text. The coach thought aloud as he read a text by sharing his thinking about the character’s actions. After modeling, the coach paused the instruction. The coach told the elementary students to freeze, and then the coach directed his attention to the teacher-colleagues observing. Once all instruction was frozen, the coach used the freeze-frame technique by asking his teacher-colleagues to turn and talk to one another about the components of a mini-lesson they had just observed and the language the coach used in each component as reflected in the PD session they attended right before this lesson demonstration. Additionally, he posed the following questions to his fellow teacher-colleagues, “What should I do next in my lesson? How can I keep the mini-lesson moving?” The coach provided 5 minutes for the teachers to discuss before asking them to share out their ideas. As the teachers shared their reflections and ideas about how to move forward, he was getting his teachers to apply what they learned from their PD training. This allowed the teachers to practice what they were learning about mini-lessons with actual students. As such, the teachers unanimously suggested providing an opportunity for students to practice determining if they would be friends with a character by reading the next few pages to the class. The coach took the teachers’ advice and implemented their suggestions as part of the active engagement part of the mini-lesson. Then, the coach wrapped up with a link that allowed the elementary students to transition from the carpet to their independent reading by applying what they just learned to do as readers with their own texts. Once students returned to their desks, the coach gathered the teachers together in the corner of the room to discuss what they observed about a mini-lesson after engaging in a freeze-frame during the lesson. This allowed teacher-colleagues to reflect on their suggestions for instruction during the lesson and connect their learning from the PD session.
SUMMARY Literacy coaches are specialized literacy professionals supporting and assisting teachers in delivering effective literacy instruction (ILA, 2018). As coaches work to support classroom teachers, they need techniques to help their teacher-colleagues connect their learning from PD sessions to their own teaching via lesson demonstrations. The freeze-frame technique is a procedure that literacy coaches
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Freeze-Frames: A Coaching Technique to Scaffold Teacher Development
can use to support PD learnings. Using freeze-frames allows the coach to invite the teacher-colleagues into the lesson by having the teachers offer suggestions and ideas and then incorporating them into the lesson. As a result, teachers are becoming increasingly more responsible for teaching during a demonstration lesson. The technique also provides teachers the opportunity to reflect on their instructional decisions after watching the coach implement them with students.
References Calkins, L. (2017). A guide to the reading workshop: Primary grades. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Collet, V. (2012). The gradual increase of responsibility model: Coaching for teacher change. Literacy Research and Instruction, 51(1) 27-47. International Literacy Association. (2018). Standards for the preparation of literacy professionals 2017. Newark, DE: Author. Learning Policy Institute. (2017). Effective Teacher Professional Development. https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/ product/effective-teacher-professional-development-report Ulenski, A. (2018). Scaffolding teacher independence: Using voice-overs as a coaching technique. The Primer, 46(2), 18-22.
Call for Articles for the Fall 2021 MRA Primer Dear literacy scholars, It is our pleasure to open this year’s call for research-based articles for the upcoming Fall 2021 MRA Primer. The Primer is a peer-reviewed journal reporting on literacy scholarship. The title for the 2021 edition is: Literacy Learning Reboot: Embracing a Fresh Perspective We welcome submissions of practitioner articles, studies, conceptual papers, and book reviews that report on evidence-based practice. The deadline for submissions is August 1, 2021. We will accept manuscripts of between 5,0008,000 words. All manuscripts should be in final draft format and reflecting APA guidelines. To submit manuscripts, please send your manuscripts in Word to massreading@comcast.net . For further information or questions, please reach out to the Primer Co-editors, Patricia Crain de Galarce at pcrainde@lesley.edu or Valerie Harlow Shinas at vshinasmra@gmail.com. Massachusetts Reading Association | massreading.org | massreading@comcast.net
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"Books can change the world in great ways:" The power of representative texts and criticality Kierstin Giunco, ELA Teacher
Mission Grammar School 94 St. Alphonsus Street Boston, MA 02120 (207) 400 - 6317 kgiunco@missiongrammar.org
Christine Leighton, Associate Professor Emmanuel College leightonc@emmanuel.edu
Reading, writing, listening, and speaking are not only fundamental literacy skills but can also be building blocks for social change. Teachers who ground their literacy instruction in texts, topics, and concerns that are relevant to their students empower them to see how these tools promote social justice. Over the past three years in a middle-grade ELA classroom, Kierstin (first author) has worked with a literacy coach, Christine (second author), to make curricular and instructional decisions that affirm students' lived experiences and promote their views of themselves as advocates. In the sections that follow, we will share Kierstin's classroom experiences and provide suggestions for teachers aiming to position literacy as a tool for change. IMPORTANCE OF REPRESENTATION Kierstin is a White educator working in a classroom with all students of color. Thus, she took seriously the need for her library to serve as both windows and mirrors for her students, including diversity in characters' races, genders, and interests (Bishop, 2015). The duality of this aim was essential when selecting texts: books needed to affirm every student's lived experiences while also fostering empathy for others' perspectives (Mcnair, 2016). In selecting culturally representative texts, Kierstin expanded her criteria to include realistic fiction texts, rather than prioritizing the common reliance on historical fiction so that students could see themselves in varying contexts related to their daily lives (Gangi, 2008). After acquiring culturally relevant books, Kierstin developed a fifth-grade unit that was grounded in these representative texts.
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"Books can change the world in great ways:" The power of representative texts and criticality
To begin this unit, students browsed through books grouped by genre (e.g., fantasy, realistic fiction). For each group, students selected their favorite book and noted their top three preferred genres. While exploring these books, one student pointed to a book and said, "I am on this cover," after noting their physical similarities. Moments like this highlight students' excitement for the influx of representative texts. In addition, this unit paired students with a self-selected partner to cultivate conversations around their texts. For six weeks, students wrote, discussed, and read their texts together, noting ways they were making connections to their own lives. As a result, student engagement increased emphasizing the importance of self-selection and varying participant structures (Giunco et al., 2020). That said, some of the texts did not require complex critical thinking, and we noticed that they were not grounded in the students' hopes and concerns for their community and world. With this in mind, when Kierstin followed the students into their sixth-grade year, she decided to consider criticality and advocacy when selecting representative texts. IMPORTANCE OF CRITICALITY Muhammand (2018) defines criticality as "the capacity to read, write, and think in ways of understanding power, privilege, and oppression… not only to make sense of injustice but also to work toward social transformation" (p. 138). Nurturing students' criticality was a main goal as Kierstin worked to increase complexity of the text selection and help students see the power of literacy to promote social change. She framed her
"Selecting culturally representative texts, Kierstin expanded her criteria to include realistic fiction texts, rather than prioritizing the common reliance on historical fiction so that students could see themselves in varying contexts related to their daily lives."
three-month curriculum as an advocacy unit and asked students to select a social justice topic of importance to them, explore its nuances, and present their learnings to the larger public. To begin, students identified how young advocates used words and actions to speak up for their beliefs. This became the class definition of advocacy and an explicitly stated goal of the unit. To apply these terms into their own literacy experiences, students self-selected and then discussed excerpts from a nonfiction anthology of young advocates (Hoose, 2002). These stories not only served as exemplars of advocacy, but students practiced critically thinking about these young leaders who changed their communities. Next, students responded to the question: "What is something in this world that you want to change?". Their written reflections uncovered various social justice topics on students' minds: environmentalism, Black Lives Matter movement, anti-militarism, animal rights, and immigration. Kierstin used these
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interests to guide her selection of fiction texts that featured youth protagonists grappling with the complexity of social justice issues [e.g. a young Pakistani male fighting against military occupation (Laird & Nimr, 2003)]. Students' input significantly determined the texts because every student could ask for different text options, communicating the importance of their voice in this unit. While reading their fiction texts, students critically reflected on moments of social injustice and acts of advocacy taking double-entry notes on their reactions with text evidence. Students also participated in whole-class comprehension mini-lessons that allowed opportunities to share what they were learning from their individual fiction texts. After six weeks, students used their notes to write a literary essay about the text's larger social justice lessons. Eventually, students combined these essays into a presentation, which they shared with community members in an advocacy showcase. When reviewing students' written products and discussions, we noted that students were seeing the power of literacy, perhaps voiced most clearly by one student who wrote: "I believe books can change the world in great ways." For this student, and the entire class, advocating for change had become a classroom norm, and literacy had become its most powerful tool. GUIDELINES FOR TEACHERS In reflecting on this advocacy unit and its evolution from fifth to sixth grade, we have been inspired by the growth we saw in students' reading engagement and criticality. We end this article with tips for teachers who may want to implement a similar unit: 1. Contextualize student-friendly definitions of advocacy and criticality in real-life examples of young people making change. 2. Ask students to reflect on their interests in social justice, particularly topics of concern in their community. 3. Select a few complex texts and representative texts aligned to students' interests. Let them preview the texts and select the one they are excited to read. 4. While students are reading, provide scaffolds to support their comprehension and connections between their text and their views on the social justice topic. 5. Build towards a culminating presentation of students' developing understanding to a wider audience (e.g. an advocacy showcase).
References Bishop, R.S. (2015). Mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors: Perspectives: choosing and using books for the classroom. Reading is Fundamental.https://scenicregional.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Mirrors-Windows-andSliding-Glass-Doors.pdf (Reprinted from Perspectives: Choosing and using books for the classroom, 6(3), ix-xi, 1990). Gangi, M.J. (2008). The unbearable whiteness of literacy instruction: Realizing the implications of the proficient reader
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"Books can change the world in great ways:" The power of representative texts and criticality
research. Multicultural Review, 30-35. Giunco, K., Leighton, C.M., Balthazar. (2020). Enhancing student engagement through the use of representative texts and grade-level literacy partners. Massachusetts Reading Association Primer, 48 (2). Hoose, P. M. (2012). It's our world, too!: Young people who are making a difference - How they do it, and how you can, too! Square Fish. Laird, E., & Nimr, S. (2018). A little piece of ground. Macmillan Children's Books. Mcnair, J. C. (2016). #Weneedmirrorsandwindows: diverse classroom libraries for K-6 students. The Reading Teacher, 70(3), 375-381. Muhammad, G. (2018). A plea for identity and criticality: Reframing literacy learning standards through a four-layered equity model. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 62(2), 137-142.
Understanding that Leads to Joyful Teaching and Learning Learning to read should be the most joyful experience. Teaching others to read should also be filled with joy. The barrier to that joy is often a lack of teacher understanding of the multiple skills it takes to be a successful reader. When districts roll out curricular resources for reading instruction and provide professional development on how to navigate and implement that curriculum, teachers become smarter about that particular resource but often continue to lack the “why” behind the “how” of the instruction.
Mary McAndrew, Reading Specialist
WHO WE ARE Kelly Elementary School in Holyoke, Massachusetts, is a Title 1 school with about 350 students. English is the second language for over 65% of our students. 21% of our students have been identified as (neuro) diverse learners. In my third year as the Instructional Leadership Specialist, I am working alongside a dedicated staff of leaders, teachers, and support staff. At Kelly School, we are devoting our efforts to professional learning that deepens teacher understandings of the learning required by the standards. We believe that when teachers genuinely understand and are able to articulate the knowledge and the skills that lead to student success, they will be better prepared to be thoughtful consumers of any curricular resource when designing instruction that leads to student success. We see the urgency for our professional growth as an issue of equity. PROBLEM OF PRACTICE At the start of my time at Kelly, our universal screener results revealed an overwhelming problem that we had to respond to with urgency. More than half of our students, 64%, performed below the 50th percentile in Reading, with many performing below the 25th percentile. We learned that even when teachers implemented curriculum and interventions with fidelity, many students continued to show little growth. When we dug deeper into the data of students that were not
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Understanding that Leads to Joyful Teaching and Learning
making gains, we found that many students demonstrated comprehension when read to but revealed challenges with word-level skills. Many students lacked a range of phonological skills necessary to become successful readers. Our focus became identifying the problem of practice contributing to this problem to be confident our efforts would lead to our students growing as successful readers. We listed all of the previous actions, including a research-based systematic phonics curriculum, a daily scheduled WIN block (‘What I Need’ small group targeted support using Fundations and Leveled Literacy Intervention), after-school tutoring, motivational strategies (like book-of-the-month read-alouds), and reading incentives. While each curricular and intervention resource addresses important skills, teachers were challenged with how to diagnose, identify, and target specific instructional needs. This challenge acted as a barrier to an accurate, timely response to student needs and the joy of meeting them. We identified our problem of practice: We lacked a system for ongoing professional learning and support related to deepening teacher understanding of essential literacy skills. THREE YEAR PLAN In response to this problem of practice, we drafted a three-year plan for our Kindergarten through third-grade teachers of reading, including our Special Educators in those grades. This plan includes multiple sessions each year focused on reading and discussing relevant research that leads to the following goals each year: By the end of year one, teachers will ... •
demonstrate a deeper understanding of word-level and language-level skills required to be a skilled reader.
•
be able to analyze multiple sources of data, including student writing and classroom observations, to articulate student strengths on which to build.
•
be able to use current curricular and intervention resources to target instructional needs in a way that reveals new understandings.
By the end of year two, teachers will build on year one goals and … •
articulate a deeper understanding of phonological awareness and its role in becoming a successful reader.
•
be able to access and design resources to target phonological awareness needs.
•
be able to implement targeted phonological awareness intervention and progress monitor student growth over time.
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By the end of year three, teachers will build on year one and two goals and ... •
be able to engage in data discussions across the school year, analyzing multiple sources of data so that specific instructional needs can be identified and targeted, and so progress is systematically monitored.
•
be able to share their practice of literacy instruction in a way that leads to thoughtful collaboration and ongoing professional growth for all teachers of reading.
WHERE WE ARE NOW After four professional learning sessions in year one, ongoing grade-level team meetings, and coaching, we have met our year-one goals. Teachers are now able to articulate word level and language level needs. Teachers are empowered with the knowledge to thoughtfully and strategically navigate our current curricular resources to design instruction that meets student needs, bringing more joy to their craft. In year two, teachers have engaged in two professional learning sessions focused on phonological awareness. The newly launched Mass Literacy site was introduced as a resource for independent learning, research, and instructional resources. When our world turned upside down with the pandemic, our professional learning continued, while applying that learning became more challenging. Our most reliable data includes observations of remote instruction, data discussions, and teacher anecdotes. The joyful teaching and learning experiences observed and shared by teachers are evidence of the impact of our three-year plan. OUR NEXT STEPS We believe that this continued focus on professional learning and support will empower our teachers to more precisely analyze data and responsively target student needs so that more of our students experience the joy of growing as a reader. Our teachers, in turn, will experience the joy of playing a key role in that success. Mary McAndrew is a Reading Specialist with 34 years of experience in urban education. She has spent 26 years in the classroom and has served in leadership roles at both the school and district levels.
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Understanding that Leads to Joyful Teaching and Learning
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