Promoting Literacy Across the Curriculum:

1. Promoting Literacy Across the Curriculum: Addressing a 21st Century Crisis

2. Overview • The Context: PD Leave Research question: How can we create more of a reading culture in the ELI? • The Crisis in Literacy: Is [the lack of] reading “the silent killer” in literacy skills? • What should we do to address this problem?

3. What is the crisis in literacy?

4. Literacy Crisis • Economic development • Inequities in distribution of literacy skills • Insufficient skills in the workforce • Less time spent reading by younger generations, especially boys! “In Education Chinese Students Lead the World.” http://digitaljournal.com/article/301153

5. Adolescent Literacy Trends • PISA 2009 • Girls outperformed boys. • Ss reading less than in previous years. • Ss with the most strategies had highest scores. • Countries that targeted struggling readers improved their scores. Literacy scores by gender at age 15. www.oecd.org/els/social/family/database

6. How Generation M Reads Percentage of Time Spent Reading While Using Other Media 7th- to 12th-Graders in 2003–2004 Percentage of reading time Reading while: • Watching TV 11% • Listening to music 10% • Doing homework on the computer 3% • Playing videogames 3% • Playing computer games 2% • Using the computer (other) 2% • Instant messaging 2% • E-mailing 1% • Surfing websites 1% • Using any of the above media 35% Source: The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, Media Multitasking Among Youth: Prevalence, Predictors and Pairings, (# 7592), 2006 as quoted in To Read or Not to Read: A Question of National Consequence (2007), NEA. Retrieved on October 17, 2011 from http://www.nea.gov/research/toread.pdf

7. What do declines mean for literacy?

8. “…the decline in the percentage of Proficient readers is occurring at the highest educational levels.” (To Read or Not to Read) Table 6C. Percentage of Adults Proficient in Reading Prose, by Highest Level of Educational Attainment Education level 1992 2003 Change Rate of decline Less than/some high school 1% 1% 0 0 High school graduate 5% * 4% * -1 pp * -20% Vocational/trade/business school 9% 5% -4 pp -44% Some college 14% * 11% * -3 pp * -21% Associate’s/2-year degree 23% * 19% * -4 pp * -17% Bachelor’s degree 40% 31% -9 pp -22% Graduate study/degree 51% 41% -10 pp - 20% * No statistically significant change pp = percentage points Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics as quoted inTo Read or Not to Read: A Question of National Consequence (2007), NEA retrieved on October 17, 2011 from http://www.nea.gov/research/toread.pdf

9. Young adults read the least To Read or Not to Read: A Question of National Consequence (2007), NEA retrieved on October 17, 2011 from http://www.nea.gov/research/toread.pdf

10. What’s the link between reading and writing skills? L1: Reading for pleasure correlates strongly with academic achievement. • Voluntary readers are better readers and writers than non-readers. • Frequent readers also score better on writing tests than non-readers or infrequent readers. (“To Read or Not to Read,” 2007) L2 reading skills contribute moderately to better L2 writing skills in Japanese high school students (Ito, 2011)

11. Complaints from Employers To Read or Not to Read: A Question of National Consequence (2007), NEA retrieved on October 17, 2011 from http://www.nea.gov/research/toread.pdf

12. PISA Recommendations • Teach reading strategies. • Close the gap between lowest and highest performers. • Promote and encourage reading for pleasure. • Focus on boys as early as possible.

13. At AUC: What do we know? How much reading is expected during the school year? • 39% of FY students read more than 10 assigned books and packs of course readings. 27% read fewer than 5. How much writing is expected? • 16% of FY students write more than 10 papers between 5 and 19 pages and 41% have written a paper more than 20 pages in length. The Student Experience in Brief: AUC. NSSE Results accessed October 17, 2011 from http://www.aucegypt.edu/research/IR/assess/Documents/NSSE10_Student_Experience.pdf

14. How much time do students spend on homework each week? • 36% of FY students spend more than 15 hours per week preparing for class. 19% spend 5 hours or less. The Student Experience in Brief: AUC. NSSE Results accessed October 17, 2011 from http://www.aucegypt.edu/research/IR/assess/Documents/NSSE10_Student_Experience.pdf

15. 21st Century Learning • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT4EbM7dCMs

16. What should we do?

17. McKenna’s Affirmation “When a child and a book ‘connect,’ so that an extraordinary personal significance is attached by the child to the reading experience, then the belief structures regarding the child’s expectations about reading and books will change positively. When the child’s choices are not guided by teachers attempting to bring about such connections, reading may never be more than an extended series of relatively tedious and largely superficial encounters with print.” (McKenna, 2001, p. 148)

18. Innovative Reading Programs • Reading Ladders • Investigating Big Ideas • Literature Circles/Book Clubs • One Book, One Community • Readers’ Theater • Questioning the Author • Reading Buddies • Reading Olympics • Book talks • Book trailers • Illustrating Book Passages • Book Exchanges on Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Wikis • Modeled Readings (Ts, buddies, recordings) • Book Floods • Reading Workshops • Literary Letters • “Gotta Keep Reading”

19. A current burning question Schools have not been very successful in helping slow readers catch up with their peers. The question is, how can education be restructured in such a way that children at risk become better readers and do not face years of failure? (Verhoeven, 2001)

20. Reading attitudes • Tend to worsen over time and • Worsen more rapidly for poor readers. • Girls tend to possess more positive reading attitudes than boys. • Ethnic group membership is not, in itself, strongly related to reading attitudes. (McKenna, 2001)

21. Positive Effects of Techniques and Materials on Attitudes to Reading • Using high-quality literature • Using questions to activate prior knowledge • Reading aloud to students • Stressing links between literature and the lives of students • Training children in metacognitive thinking • Arranging for students to participate in literature discussion groups • Arranging for children to correspond with college students about reading (McKenna, 2001)

22. Principles for Promoting Reading Motivation • Conceptual themes • Real-world interactions • Support for self-direction • Using interesting texts • Cognitive strategy instruction • Social collaboration • Supporting students’ self-expression (Guthrie & Knowles, 2001)

23. Reading Ladders Begin with the end in mind. (Covey, 1989) Find out where students are on the ladder and bring them where they need to be. (Lesesne, 2010)

24. Quality Thoughtful selection of meaningful, accessible texts Connections to larger, enduring questions Good writing! Compelling writing is better! Provide variety: articles, book(s), films or film clips, visuals (21st century literacy!) Quantity Ferial Ghazoul’s Rule of 12 Books, longer texts Divide into meaningful chunks What readings should we assign?

25. Developing the Strategic Reader Promoting engagement and habits of mind 3 key questions for processing in groups or reading journals: • What did it say? Main ideas • Response: How do you feel? What do you think? • Criticism: How does it connect to what you know? To other texts?

26. Developing Strategic Readers • Promote Active Reading: “How to Mark a Book” • Bring Books to Class. Model text interaction in class. • Create a Purpose: Who is Yali and what is his question? • Point out Text Structure: Titles, pictures, charts and graphs, discourse and structure patterns

27. Developing Strategic Readers • Metacognitive Strategies: Discuss the reading experience • What keeps you reading? Why did you choose this text? Do they like it? What if they don’t understand? • Build awareness of allusions: Cultural, geographical, historical, literary • Honor Student Questions: Make them responsible

28. Vocabulary Strategies • Flashcards for academic and discipline-based words • Online Vocab Collection Sites: Quizlet http://quizlet.com/ • Anki: http://ankisrs.net/ • Determine meaning from context • Roots, prefixes, suffixes • Dictionary Use

29. Making Reading Meaningful • Connect to the bigger, enduring questions Examples • How can you find your best path to fulfillment in life? Does fate shape our lives or do we truly make choices? • What should we let go of and what should we keep? • Connect to local and world events • Connect each new chapter or text to previous ones and to other texts students have read

30. The last word Find ways to make reading fluent and meaningful!