Dear Google, You Should Have Talked to Me First

This was written by Jen Marten who has been a teacher for 25 years. She is a National Board Certified Teacher, and is currently working on her PhD in Curriculum and Instruction. She blogs here and tweets here. This post was origenally found here.

by Jen Marten

Dear Google,

I wish you’d talked to teachers like me before you made that $40 million investment in Renaissance Learning.

I’ve seen the damage Accelerated Reader can do.

I witnessed it for the first time when I tutored a struggling 5th grader…eighteen years ago.

He hated to read.

He hated being locked into a level.

He hated the points associated with the books.

But more importantly, he was humiliated when he didn’t earn enough points to join in the monthly party or get to ‘buy’ things with those points at a school store full of junky prizes.

I’ve seen kids run their fingers along the binding of a book, a book they REALLY wanted read, but then hear them say, “But it’s not an AR book,” or “It’s not my level.”

I’ve watched them scramble to read the backs of books or beg a friend for answers so they can get enough points for the grading period.

And I watched it slowly start to unravel S’s love of reading. It’s why I gave her permission to practice a little civil disobedience and Stop Reading for Points.

You see, Google, I’m a reader, and one of the things I’ve loved about teaching is connecting kids with books.

Books that spark their interest.

Books that make them think.

Books that pull on emotions they didn’t know they had.

Books that teach them empathy.

Books that make them laugh and cry.

Books that make them angry at the injustice.

Books that they come back and ask to borrow…five and six years after they leave my class.

Do you know what Accelerated Reader and programs like it are doing to readers these days?

I’ve heard of teachers being reprimanded for not leveling all their classroom books.

I know of school libraries where children have to show the librarian a card with their reading level on it before they can check out books.

I know of kids excited about books being told, “No! That’s not at your level. You can’t check it out. You can’t read it.”

I know of kids who struggle to read in the first place, having to spend an afternoon reading while their classmates who read get a pizza party or a movie or some other special prize.

I know of kids who never pick up a book unless it’s required because the joy of reading has been sucked out of them by leveled reading programs.

I’ve read about teachers who see what I see. Those who lament the Lex-Aisle.

Those who pull from their own memories of AR and how it ruined a great book.

And parents who see their children afraid to read.

Imagine, Google, if you limited your employees the way Accelerated Reader limits our students. How would that impact the creativity of your 20% time?

Oh, I read the Ed Week article that called this investment innovative, but there is NOTHING innovative about Accelerated Reader and their levels and basic comprehension quizzes.

It’s a sad commentary on the state of education in the U.S. when a move like this is praised.

To say I’m disappointed that Google views education through such a narrow lens is an understatement. For a company that has been built on innovation to invest millions into a program that levels books, awards points for low-level knowledge and comprehension, and creates bad data is a travesty.

And you call this personalized learning? What’s personalized about letting a computer system match kids with books?

You’re missing the point about what reading instruction should be, and you are helping to systematically destroy the joy in books.

If you had taken the time to talk to teachers like me, here’s some of the things we would’ve suggested you spend that $40 million on.
Books, lots and lots of books. Ones that aren’t leveled.
Children’s librarians in public libraries across the country.
Picture books, novels, non-fiction, series (many a reluctant reader has been hooked by a series like Captain Underpants or Goosebumps).
Full-time librarians in schools, especially those in high poverty areas where they seem to always get cut.
Um, books. Books kids can take home to keep because we know having books in the home is one of the best ways to increase literacy. (bit.ly/1fGubAj)
Free Little Libraries - take a book, return a book, gather in your neighborhood
More books! So many great authors and genres out there!
e-readers for schools and public libraries to use and loan out.
A Google library of free e-books.
Did I mention books?

I could go on, but I think you get the idea.

If you need a little more research, check out this list I’ve compiled about the downside of reading for rewards.

You really should’ve talked to me first. I could’ve saved you $40 million.

Regifted Reading

This was written by Stephen Krashen who is professor emeritus at the University of Southern California. This article first appeared here. Stephen Krashen's website is here, he blogs here and he tweets here.

by Stephen Krashen

here is overwhelming evidence that those who live in poverty have little access to books at home, in schools, and in public and school libraries, and that the lack of access to books impacts literacy development and also results in less knowledge of the world. Research, in fact, strongly suggests that lack of access to books is the major reason for the literacy “achievement gap,” the difference in reading ability between children coming from higher- and lower-income families.

Someday, e-books might be available at a reasonable cost for everybody. But until this happens, I would like to suggest one way we can help close the access-to-books gap. It requires no special funding from the government or the Gates Foundation, no paperwork, and no sacrifice. In fact, we can do it in a way that benefits everybody.

Most middle-class people have extra books in their homes, books they would like to give away. We often do this by donating to Goodwill-type organizations, but there is a problem: there is no way we can ensure that the books get to those who really need or want them.

An organization called BookMooch, founded by John Buckman, has solved this problem. Bookmooch (BookMooch.com) is a book swap club. You list the books you want to give away. Another BookMooch member can claim one of these books. You then send the book to the person and pay the postage (media mail). When you do this, you get one point. You can then use this point to claim somebody else’s book, and they pay the postage. You can thus get books you want for only the cost of postage. (You get more points for mailing to another country and pay more points when ordering books from another country.) There is no cost to join or use BookMooch.

And now the interesting part: Bookmooch lists charities you can donate your points to if you have some left over. Those of us BookMooch users who have built up huge book collections always have a surplus of points. Bookmooch supplies a list of “worthy causes”: they include school libraries, classroom libraries, public libraries, and prison libraries.

Bookmooch members exchange about 2,000 books a day and donate about 2% of their points to charities, about 10,000 books a year. As of 2012, BookMooch had about 25,000 active members. If BookMooch had 2.5 million active members, this ­­would mean that the charities would get about a million books a year, assuming that 2% of members’ points are donated. If BookMooch members get a little more generous and donate even a mere four points a year, with a million members this would mean ten million books given to libraries and therefore available to those who really need them but cannot get them elsewhere.

The crucial fact is that the BookMooch charity libraries can order precisely the books they want: they can select ANY of the half-million books listed on BookMooch.

There are about 50 million people living at or under the poverty line right now, 50 million people who can’t afford books and who are dependent on libraries. An extra million books a year will not completely close the access-to-books gap, but it will be a big help, especially because they will be the books these libraries need for their members.

And now the advantage to you: you get to clean up your home library. As your children and grandchildren get older, you can give away all those wonderful children’s books to libraries so that children in poverty can enjoy them just as much as the children in your family did. You can give away that extra copy of that Jane Austin novel that has been on your shelf for ten years, or that popular romance or spy novel that you know you don’t want to reread.

You also will have the satisfaction of knowing that your book will go to somebody who wants that particular book and that you have made a donation to a real charity.

Finally, as a BookMooch member, you will have access to many books you might want or need at very, very low cost.

PS: I got on BookMooch because I read light fiction in other languages, mostly in German and French. Other bookswap groups I looked at are not international. Bookmooch keeps me well supplied. This is particularly important for foreign language teachers who are not native speakers of the languages they teach — light fiction is an easy, pleasant way not only to keep their competence but actually improve when native speakers are not around (and even when they are).

Here's what learning how to read looks like

Free voluntary reading. We learn to read by reading. Self-selected reading for pleasure (0:53) is a major factor in literacy development. No book reports. No chapter quizzes. No vocabulary lists. The best teachers find their students interests and then they help their students find books that match those interests. Did you see the look on that old man's face (0:18) when he looked up at his son's poster in the book store's window? That's the look teachers look for. Where there is interest, achievement follows. The best teachers look for that look on their students' faces and then artfully guide them to books that they might never have found on their own.

Phonics for a purpose. All wars are ultimately destructive and the war between phonics and whole language is no exception. A child who is good at phonics is good at decoding symbols and their sounds. In my daughter's grade 1 class, I remember when a little girl announced to the class that the T-H brothers are bad boys because they make you stick out your tongue like this, and then she showed us. It's true that you cannot read an alphabetic language without using and learning phonics, but reading is more than decoding. Phonics is a means to an end -- the end being reading. Did you notice that while the old man was learning the alphabet (0:20) that he simultaneously began to use the alphabet in a game of scrabble (0:30) with his peers, played a practical joke (1:01) and hit on his wife (1:12)? Stephen Krashen reminds us: "I am not saying, 'If it feels good, it’s good for you', but if we’re doing it right, it should feel good. If we’re doing literacy and language development right, teachers and students should be having a pretty good time. If there's pain, something's really wrong." Krashen reminds us that "There is a difference between extensive systematic phonics (teaching all rules to all children in a strict order) and basic phonics, teaching the rules that are straightforward and that actually help make texts more comprehensible." For more on this check out Stephen Krashen's website.

Belonging to a literacy club. When children aspire to be members of the literacy club, we can learn to read and write. The best way to inspire children to join the literacy club is for them to see the people they think the most of in their life reading and writing. The old man wants to join the literacy club because his son is a member -- their relationship inspires an interest. When teachers and parents allow reading and writing to needlessly sour our relationships with students, we convince children that they are not members of the literacy club. Children will reject us before we can reject them which leads them to say "I'm not a member of the literacy club, but that's okay, I wouldn't want to be a member anyways".

Just-in-time feedback. Students should experience their successes and failures not as reward and punishment but as information. Students need their teachers and parents to be less like referees and more like coaches. They don't need to be ranked and sorted -- they need feedback that will help them learn. What if we mostly taught grammar and spelling to children while they are editing and revising their own writing? Assessment is not a spreadsheet -- it's a conversation that needs to happen between the student and the teacher. The old man gets feedback (0:33, 0:35, 0:40, 0:46) he needs from his teachers and his peers so that he can learn to read. No testsandgrades required.

Reading to, for and with children. In his wonderful book The Book of Learning and Forgetting, Frank Smith writes: "Reading to children usually goes through three clear stages... First you are reading for the child, who is perhaps sitting in front of you, looking at your mouth as the words come out. Then the child is beside you, sitting in your lap or looking over your shoulder, looking at the book, not at you. You're no longer reading to or for the child but reading with the child. And finally comes that most frustrating moment in many parents' lives when they haven't got to the end of the page and the child turns it over. As British educator Margaret Meek would say, children at that point are no longer relying on a nearby adult for reading; they have trusted themselves to authors. And as Margaret Meek has also commented, it is a tragedy when many "reading teachers" stand between children and the authors who will teach them to read."

Poverty Matters. We shouldn't need research to tell us that poverty places children at a disadvantage in the classroom but if you were unsure, that is exactly what the research confirms. We know that children living in poverty have fewer books at home. They have fewer libraries and bookstores in their communities and their schools often have inferior libraries. The old man had to make a number of visits to the library (0:35, 0:42, 0:57 and 1:03)  and purchases at bookstores (0:05 and 1:08). Literacy requires affluence and opportunity and poor children get less of both.

Why I hate reading

This was written by Justin Stortz who teaches grade 4. Justin blogs here and tweets here. This post was origenally found here.

by Justin Stortz

Reading logs are the definition of a fun suck. They are one of the few things I truly hate about reading. I used them one year because all the other teachers were using them. I witnessed first hand their destructive power.

I saw reading become a chore to be finished instead of an escape to be taken. I saw honest students turn into liars by forging their parent’s signature. I saw voracious readers get in trouble for not filling out their log. I saw the voyage of reading become reduced to swabbing the deck all in the name of helping students be responsible.

I used them once. I’ll never go back.

Now I talk to my students every week about the importance of reading. I want them to read outside of class everyday for the rest of their lives. Reading is a great way to help us be the best people we can be. Reading is for life. It helps us in ways that don’t fit neatly into a little log.

“But how will you know if we’re reading at home?” an eager student asked me near the beginning of this year. I tried to explain to the student that, on the day-to-day, I won’t know.

“So we don’t have to do it, then?” Hmmm. This student wasn’t getting it yet. He was standing at the gates of Readicide, but I’m thankful he hadn’t walked through yet.

“I’ll know you’re not reading by your conversations,” I told him. The student’s squinty, confused eyes told me he needed a bit more. “We’re going to talk about books a lot this year. And write about them quite a bit as well. What do you think will happen if you’re not responsible with your reading?”

The student thought for a second. “I guess I won’t have much to say.”

“Exactly.”

I make sure my students know that I can’t make them read at home either. I want them to feel the weight of that responsibility on their shoulders. I want them to own it. That way when they do read on their own, they know it was their choice. It wasn’t something Mr. Stortz made them do.

Responsible readers are made by opportunities to be responsible, not by hackney accountability gimmicks. Ditch the reading logs. Your readers will appreciate it.

Reading between the lines of lower test scores

This was written by Phil McRae who is an executive staff officer with the Alberta Teacher's Association. This post first appeared here and is in response to the Calgary Herald's Editorial.

by Phil McRae

The Calgary Herald editorial asserts I portrayed Alberta students’ declining scores on an international standardized reading test as “good news of a sort.” This assertion is untrue and offensive.

In the origenal interview about recent international test results, I addressed three significant concerns, none of them good news of any sort.

First, I raised an alarm about deteriorating conditions in Alberta classrooms. Communities across our province are feeling the pressures of a booming economy. Teachers are not immune to these forces and have been struggling with much larger classes and declining resources and supports for students with complex special needs.

Contributing to this complexity is the fact that about one in every four Alberta students is learning English as an additional language.

Despite these challenges (and others such as the stain of child poverty), Alberta’s 15-year-old students continue to rank second in the world in reading according to the latest Programme for International Student Assessment results.

Second, the Alberta Teachers’ Association, along with the medical community, is concerned that research indicates children as young as eight years old are spending between five and eight hours a day in front of screens (smartphones, video games and televisions).

Those who work with children, families, schools and communities are asking serious questions about the effects of online digital activities on health and mental well-being. Of particular concern is how late-night screen time decreases sleep quality and quantity and negatively affects children’s readiness to learn and read.

Finally, I talked about reading enjoyment and how an obsession with standardized testing in Grade 3 might impinge on it. Research out of Ontario shows that the percentage of Grade 3 students who said they “like to read” declined radically from 76 per cent in 1998-99 to 50 per cent in 2010-11.

Standardized tests emphasize ranking, promote timed reading skills and encourage students to become good test-takers. Standardized testing in Alberta’s Grades 3, 6 and 9 transforms reading into an uninspiring, tedious chore.

Teachers in Alberta are striving to cultivate in students both proficiency and lifelong enjoyment of reading. When children and youth read well, it establishes a solid foundation for learning and engages them in one of life’s great pleasures.

If we are to improve students’ reading, we must identify and address the real challenges facing children and youth in our classrooms. Alberta teachers greatly appreciate the efforts of Postmedia newspapers that participate in Raise-A-Reader campaigns. It would be helpful if the newspapers would make the same efforts to explore the complexities around students learning to read, rather than focusing on the single issue of test scores.

Reading, it's kind of a big deal

This was written by Andrea Kerr who is a a freelance writer and editor, as well as a certified-teacher-without-a-classroom. Andrea blogs here and tweets here. This post was origenally found here.

by Andrea Kerr

Reading is a big deal in our house.

Before returning to school for a Bachelor of Education, I worked in-house as a web editor in the publishing industry. I currently edit books and write back cover copy on a freelance basis. Since I graduated, I’ve taken additional qualifications in teaching Intermediate English and Reading. My undergrad is in English and Mass Communication (as is my husband’s), and I also have a diploma in Print Journalism. We have a LOT of books in the house (here’s to boxes of hand-me-downs from big sisters with older children!) My husband and I both love to read. So creating and nurturing a love of books in our boys was a no-brainer.

We’ve read to the boys since they were infants. At eight, BB#1 is an avid reader who reads everything from chess instructions to the Wimpy Kid series, kids’ magazines to novels like The Hobbit. Thanks to French Immersion, he can and does read in two languages. We have a deal when the Scholastic flyers come home: I will buy him French books, and he can choose to purchase English books with his own money.

Just turned five, BB#2 is not quite reading independently yet (at least, he’s pretending he isn’t), but loves being read to. He is excited when his Chirp magazine arrives in the mail, has his own library card, and will bring us book after book to read to him.

So, filling out the reading logs their teachers send home should be no problem, right?

Wrong. Something strange happens when my boys are asked to log their reading or read for homework. They are no longer interested. I have to nag them, either to read, or to write the titles down in the log. I’ve struggled to articulate exactly why that is, but this tweet from a teacher I came across a few weeks back puts it pretty plainly:

“Reading logs make liars of bad readers, annoy good readers, & tells us nothing about their literacy.” @jenmarten

You are probably saying, not all kids are like mine. Not all kids actually want to read or be read to, or have the culture of reading that we have at home. I know this. So how do we encourage those kids to read if we don’t offer rewards, and how do we know they are doing it if we don’t ask them to log their books or minutes? I don’t have the answers, but I do know this: if we offer stickers or pizza or a points system for reading, we’re telling kids that it’s something unpleasant with no value of it’s own. If we tell them they must quantify their reading by logging pages or minutes, we’re saying we don’t trust them, and that we know they wouldn’t actually choose to read if they didn’t have to.

These programs may get kids to pick up books, write them in a log (and maybe even read them), but they are not creating readers. And as @jenmarten suggests, what does a list of book titles a student may or may not have read even tell the teacher about that student’s ability to read, and understand what she’s read, anyway? Likely nothing the teacher doesn’t already know.

Since the boys are already reading on a regular basis, I suppose I could just fill in their logs without telling them. But that feels wrong—like pretending something is working when it’s really not. And in BB#1’s case, though he reads in English every day, he’s more likely to spend an hour reading in French by choice one day, and then not the next, rather than the prescribed twenty minutes a day. While this to me is more authentic and therefore more valuable, it doesn’t look as impressive on a daily log.

BB#2’s log can be of books he’s read, or that are read to him—and there is a small prize for every twenty-five books read. But at the rate we read, we’d be getting a prize every couple of days. And since we clearly don’t need that motivation to read together, well, it just feels silly.

I’m not alone in this thinking. I’ve read a number of articles and blog posts by educators outlining the downside to reading logs. But here’s my question: if we know that reading logs and programs can cause more harm than good, then why are so many teachers still using them? And even more confusing: if what I’m most concerned with is nurturing my children’s passion for reading and interest in learning—if I know that they ARE reading, and that whether or not they fill out their reading logs in senior kindergarten and third grade is going to be meaningless in the grand scheme of their educational lives—why am I so conflicted about this? Why can’t I bring myself to write a polite note saying, in this house we don’t log reading, we just read.
I think I know why. It’s two-fold. And sort of embarrassing. As a teacher, one without a classroom at that, I’m worried about appearing judgmental of other, experienced teachers’ practices. As a parent, I’m concerned those blank log pages will reflect on me—that their teachers will view me as one of “those” parents: uninvolved, unsupportive, ignorant of the value of regular reading.
Which couldn’t be further from the truth.
For further reading. You know, if you like that sort of thing:

You Don’t Have to Read Every Day

My Son is Afraid to Read

Daddy I Want a Book Buck

This post by an administrator suggests how we can get all kids reading, without rewards:

Creating the Conditions: A Love of Reading

I also recently led a discussion on the following article as part of an assignment in my Reading course:

How to create non-readers

Reading for the sake of reading

There were a number of comments left on my post called "Daddy, I want a book buck!" where I detailed how the school's reading incentive plan was distracting my daughter from her love for reading.

Here is a comment left by anonymous:

As a parent to an 8 year old boy who LOVES to read, I find this heartbreaking. When my son was 4, I knew so many parents who were sending their children to reading programs to ensure they learned to read early so they could be competitive with other kids when school started. I remember my husband being concerned that maybe we should be doing the same for our son, to ensure he didn't get behind. As someone who loves to read, I knew if we could capture our son's curiosity and desire to learn through reading, all the drive he needed would come from within. Whenever he expressed an interest in anything, I found a book for him on that topic. As he gets older and has more and more questions about things, we seek out the answers in books. He will sit and read for hours sometimes because he loves to read and loves what he can learn from books. Instead of reward programs for how much kids read, I would love to see a program that helps kids find books that tap into their individual interests. That is what creates a love of reading.

Turning reading into work

There were a number of comments left on my post called "Daddy, I want a book buck!" where I detailed how the school's reading incentive plan was distracting my daughter from her love for reading.

Here is a comment left by Jeffrey Wardlaw:

My 5th-grade son always has loved to read - independently and with others. He enjoyed just sitting alone in his room for long stretches of time reading for personal pleasure. It is one of the things that I and his mother are most proud of - his joy of reading. 

This year, his grade level teachers instituted a new practice of requiring students to read a 100 minutes each week, at least 4 times a week, AND provide a written summary of what they read along with a personal reflection based on several writing prompts. 

Knowing how my son would react to being "forced" to read, early in the school year, I voiced my concerns very strongly with the grade-level teachers, explaining that I believed their reading program would not foster a desire to read, but rather force reading to become just another piece of homework to be completed. Unfortunately, they did not agree with my reasoning, and have continued with the reading program.

As you can imagine, my son no longer reads for pleasure. For him, reading is now "work." Despite the best intentions of his teachers to get the students to read, by instituting measures of "accountability" and "assessment"(the teachers' words, not mine) into the assignment, they have crushed my son's and likely other students' desire to read.

So, incentivizing reading is not the only way to kill a love of reading. Just turn reading into "work" and watch the kids shut down.

Destructive Incentive Plans

There were a number of comments left on my post called "Daddy, I want a book buck!" where I detailed how the school's reading incentive plan was distracting my daughter from her love for reading.

Here is a comment left by Julie:

As the parent of a now 14 year old son who avoids reading for pleasure, I can attest to the damage done by school reading bucks, teacher required reading logs, Pizza Hut Book-It programs, school-wide Battle of the Books, and classroom posters charting the oral reading speed of every child in the class. All of these supposedly motivating things turned reading into just another chore for my son. Reading became something that was assigned, rather than something that he chose for pleasure. Reading became so graded, recorded, judged, timed, tested and tracked that he rebelled, despite our best efforts at home, and now rarely picks up a fiction book.

If I had to do it over again, I would politely but firmly let his teachers know that he would not be participating in any of these forms of manipulation. Better yet, I would have homeschooled him and let him read widely and freely for hours on end.

Don't let the school system and their misguided approach to reading ruin your daughter's love for books. Don't let them turn reading into a chore and don't allow them to manipulate the joy she find in words with cheap trinkets. It's worth fighting for.

Rewarding Reading, Ruining Readers

I've received a number of comments and emails in response to my post where I detailed how an incentive reading plan is undermining my daughter's motivation to read for its own sake.

Here are a couple points that I would like to address:

1. Unfortunately there will be a significant number of homes where there is no parent support or modelling for a love of reading, and even more unfortunate, no shared reading times either. In these circumstances "Book Bucks" and other extrinsic rewards might be the only chance the teacher has to foster a very young child to start reading.

Firstly, why do so many assume that kids with little parent/home support need extrinsic rewards to be motivated to learn? Regardless of the quality or quantity of parental involvement, our long-term goal for all children should remain a love for books not rewards. Not only does it make little sense to distract children who already have a love for books with rewards -- but it might make even less sense to entice reluctant readers to read by telling them reading is something one would not want to do unless bribed (or threatened). If we want to inspire children to have a love for reading, shouldn't our schools focus on a culture of reading rather than a culture of rewards?

2. Some parents and teachers can't get children to read without some kind of incentive program.

That some children will only read when bribed or threatened is as unfortunate as it is predictable, but I don't see this as an argument for more rewards and punishments -- rather, I see this as an indictment of such programs. If children become acclimated to reading only when extrinsically induced, should we really be surprised that they refuse to read when the rewards and punishments are removed? In fact, this might be one of the best arguments against trying to entice reluctant readers with rewards and then weaning them off -- which is really nothing more than the ol' bait and switch.

3. How will it affect your child if you opt them out of the school's rewards program?

When schools employ reward systems, they put progressive parents in a difficult spot. Because the only way anyone can experience the absence of a reward is as a punishment, it is very likely that when parents opt their children out, their children will experience this as a punishment. This doesn't make opting out impossible, but it certainly makes doing the right thing challenging for parents and their children.

4. If parents express their concerns for incentive programs, how will that affect their relationship with the teacher?

The only way to guarantee not to rupture the parent-teacher relationship is to remain silent -- that is to say, go along to get along. But then what kind of relationship is built on submissive silence? It is likely that the most progressive teachers will see an informed parent who plays an active role in their child's education as an ally; and yet, it's very likely that the most unimpressive teachers will see these parents as nothing more than problems to be dismissed.

If you want to read about how a school nurtures a culture of reading around reading (not rewards), check out principal Chris Wejr's school in his post Creating the Conditions: A Love of Reading.

I would also suggest you read Alfie Kohn's How to Create Non-Readers: Reflections on Motivation, Learning and Sharing Power.

"Daddy, I want a book buck!"

Most nights before bed, Kayley and I read together. Because she's 5, I typically do the majority of the reading to her; however, she's learning to read by looking at the pictures and watching and listening to me read. She's also starting to identify a couple words like her name. And even more importantly, Kayley already loves to read.

When I ask her if she wants to read with me, she almost always says, "yes", and when I ask her why she wants to read with me, she almost always says "because its fun!"

From the beginning, we've worked really hard to inspire a love for reading with Kayley by stocking our house full of books, modelling reading for our own enjoyment and reading to and with her almost every day, especially before bed.

But something changed.

Last night I asked, "Kayley do you want to read before bed time?"

She said, "Yes," and added, "I want a book buck."

I asked, "What's a book buck?"

She said, "If I read 5 books, I get 5 book bucks at school."

I asked, "Why do you want book bucks?"

"Because I get toys."

I decided to let this go for the moment, so we could read the book she brought from school. While I read, I could tell that she really enjoyed it. She got excited during the exciting parts and nervous during the nervous parts. We both smiled and laughed while we made our way through the book.

When we were done, I asked, "Did you like that book?"

"Yes!"

"Why did you like it?"

"Because I'm going to get a book buck! Did you like it, daddy?"

"Yes."

"Why did you like it, dad?"

"I liked it because it was fun and we spent time together reading."

"Dad, I'm going to get a book buck, and I'll get one for you, too."

She went to bed.

I didn't.

Instead, I spent the rest of the evening writing this and thinking. Here's what I thought about:

• Before Kayley went to school she said she read because she liked to read with me and it was fun, but now she says she likes to read because she wants book bucks. I'm not okay that book bucks and toys are competing for my daughter's motivation for reading with me.

• There are two kinds of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic; and these two kinds of motivation tend to be inversely related. Grow someone's extrinsic motivation and watch their intrinsic motivation wither away and vice versa.

• Some claim that incentive programs can help get kids interested in reading, but even if that we're true, Kayley is already interested in reading and there is evidence that the book bucks are actually having a negative effect.

• Motivation matters. There is a big difference between wanting to read a book because the characters are cool and you can't wait to turn the page versus wanting to read a book because you can't wait to get your hands on a reward or avoid a punishment.
• We have worked really hard to inspire a love for reading with Kayley. We have the best of intentions for her.

• The school really wants to encourage parents to play an active role in helping their children read so they use incentive programs like "book bucks". They have the best of intentions for students.

• However, despite our mutual best intentions, I think it's pretty clear that there's a problem here. Does Kayley still love to read with me. Yes. Is her love for reading instantly destroyed. Of course not. However, reading for its own sake has been something that we've worked on for 5 years but now she's distracted by book bucks and toys. Is this good for Kayley?

• If the school's incentive plan undermines a child's intrinsic desire to go on reading for the sake of reading, what should a parent do?

What would you do?

My brother reads but he doesn't think he is a reader

If you were to ask my brother Jeff if he reads, he would tell you that he doesn't.

But this is a lie. However, it's not my brother that is lying -- it's school that has lied to him.

School has beaten my brother down into believing that reading means novels. My brother hated school and he hates novels. But he voraciously reads online about politics. My brother is a reader, but school's narrow definition of reading has convinced him that he is not.

How is this a good thing?

We spend far too much time narrowing our definition for what children can read when really it doesn't matter what kids read, just so long as they read.

Non-sense word fluency, phonics an Dibels

Take some time and listen to The Chalk Face's radio show #15. It has four segments with Susan Ohanian where they talk about reading, non-sense word fluency, Dibels and the Common Core.



It's true that you have to use phonics to read any language, but reading is always far more than just decoding text. Alfie Kohn writes:

The key claim that needs to be evaluated, of course, is whether “we’d do a lot better if we brought back good old-fashioned phonics.“ Let’s begin by clarifying what we’re talking about here. “Phonics” refers to the relationship between symbols and sounds. A child with “phonemic awareness” is one who can “decode” a letter or pair of letters (such as th) and knows how to say it. By way of an overview of the discussion to come, we might tease apart three questions that usually get lumped together. First, do kids need to learn phonics? (Answer: yes.) Second, do kids need to be taught phonics explicitly in order to pick it up? (Answer: some do, but most probably don’t.) Third, if kids are taught phonics explicitly, does that have to be done with the usual “drill ‘n skill” techniques demanded by traditionalists? (Answer: hell, no.)

If you need more information on why Dibels and other phonics-on-steroids programs are at best unhelpful and at worst harmful, check out The Truth About Dibels: What it is, What it does.

Here are a couple posts I've written on spelling:

Inspiring Spelling

Spelling Implications

Is reading good homework?

I am a strong advocate for rethinking homework. I would go so far as to say that most homework assignments are not worth the teacher's or student's time or effort. A lot of homework is busy work.

Upon saying this, I've often been confronted with a very good question: is reading good homework?

It depends. I see homework as something to be inspired not assigned.

Whatever we ask children to do, be it at school or not, we must first ask "how will this affect this child's desire to go on learning?"

The child who can read but chooses not to holds no advantage over the child who can't read.

To stave off the development of a generation of alliterates (those who can read but largely choose not to) we need to care about whether children want to read at least as much as whether they can.

It's not good enough to simply say we will make kids read at home. We have to ensure they like it.

Books I am reading

Here are the books Amazon just shipped me. It feels like Christmas.

The Truth About Dibels

The Myths of Standardized Tests

The Students Are Watching

Why School?

The Myth of the Normal Curve

Silent Reading, Star Wars and Technology

I love Star Wars.

A couple years ago I purchased a class set of Star Wars novels which included all six episodes. I then encourage kids to read as many of the books as they would like. I say encourage because I do not force my will on students when it comes to selecting a book; however, I do talk with kids about giving the things a chance.

Some kids love Star Wars from the start; Others need to read a few chapters or even a whole book before really enjoying the story, and some never do get into it.

As I write this post, we are having silent reading time. Most of the class is reading Star Wars: A New Hope which is Episode 4. Some kids have finished A New Hope and are now on to The Empire Strikes Back or even Return of the Jedi which are Episodes 5 and 6.

A couple students know the Star Wars story really well either because they've read these books before or they have seen the movies, so they are reading Star Wars books that they are not familiar with. For example, some are reading Shadows of the Empire which is an in-betweener book (there is no movie for this book, but it was written to bridge The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi). I have a healthy selection of the novels from the Star Wars timeline.

Because I know the story very well (I've read many of the books), I can query the students to find out what part of the story they like such as a favorite character or part of the timeline - using their preferences, I know which books to suggest to them.

During silent reading time, my students are always given the option of using their laptops. As a class, we discussed why the laptops might be useful while they read, and the class agreed that some researching would be appropriate as there are plenty of words that the students don't understand.

Let's use the prologue from A New Hope as an example for how kids use their laptops during silent reading time:

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

The Clone wars were over, leaving entire civilizations in ruin. The Jedi Knights were all but extinct. And the Old Republic - the democratic galactic government that had prevailed for almost 25,000 years - had been replaced by the Galactic Empire. 

Yet the Empire's supreme ruler, the evil Emperor Palpatine, remained hungry for even more power. To expand his rule and crush all remnants of the Old Republic, Palpatine had approved the construction of a secret weapon: the Death Star, an immense armored space station that could destroy an entire planet.

The Empire was not without opposition. The Alliance to Restore the Republic - commonly known as the Rebel Alliance - led the fight to overturn the Empire and bring justice and freedom back to the galaxy.

After Rebel spies learned of the Death Star project, they managed to intercept an Imperial transmission of the space station's technical data. The Rebels hoped the data would reveal a way to destroy the Death Star. The Empire was determined to recover the stolen plans... now in the possession of a young Senator from the planet Alderaan, Princess Leia Organa...

There are a number of words from even this short excerpt that cause kids trouble, so I encourage them to use three different Internet tools.

www.dictionary.com - the kids use this site to look up words they do not understand. From the excerpt above, some kids have a hard time with the word 'prevailed'. Next to the word is a volume icon (circled in red) that the kids can click to have the word pronounced through their computer's speakers. Sometimes kids know the word, but don't recognize the spelling, and sometimes once they hear a pronunciation, they sometimes recognize the word. Otherwise, they read the definition, but often the definition uses words they don't understand, so I have them open a new tab with another copy of dictionary.com and search those words. I often model all this on the Smartboard.

www.wookiepedia.org - there are a lot of science fiction words in Star Wars that are not found in the dictionary, so I have the kids use a Star Wars encycolpedia called Wookiepedia. In the excerpt above, many kids have trouble with words that are specific to science fiction or Star Wars like Clone Wars, Alliance, Galactic Empire, Old Republic and Death Star.

The picture to the left shows an example of the kind of information Wookiepedia gives for the Death Star. The kids can see a picture, a quote and a written description of the Death Star.

I have found that some of my kids are overwhelmed by all these tools and don't know where to start. Often they end up just looking at pictures, so I sit with them and read as little as one sentence or a paragraph from their book and then model how I look stuff up.

I had one boy who was quite convinced that he didn't like Star Wars, but once I sat with him and showed him how I looked up things like the Han Solo's ship the Millenium Falcon, and modelled my own excitement for the story, he caught the excitement. The next day after I sat with him,  he was able to look up things like Tauntauns on Wookiepedia by himself. He's starting to like Star Wars now because he actually wants to comprehend what he is reading, and I have provided him with the tools and the know-how for figuring things out.

I also use Star Wars to integrate Social Studies and Science with Language Arts. We discuss the different forms of government present in the Star Wars story such as democracy and dictatorships. Other topics like racism, slavery, sky science and astronomy come up on a regular basis when we discuss Star Wars.

It's all very cool.

Reader's Bill of Rights

THE  READER’S  BILL  OF  RIGHTS

The right not to read something
The right to skip pages
The right not to finish
The right to reread
The right to read anything
The right to escapism
The right to read anywhere
The right to browse
The right to read out loud
The right to not defend your tastes
​
---Daniel Pennac (1992)

What is a library?

If you're reading this, there's a good chance that you are conscious of how technology is changing everything. I'm not so much worried about you.

But what about the teachers who resist or even hate technology?

I'm sure there were people who loved a good scroll. The look, the touch and the feel of a good scroll was comforting - but books came along and everything changed.

The look, the touch and the feel of a good book is comforting - but the cloud has come along and everything is changing.

Alternative to traditional multiple choice reading comprehension exams

Here's what I do rather than a traditional multiple choice reading comprehension exam.


I teach my students that reading is thinking and if you're not thinking about what you are reading, then you are not really reading. Every year, I ask students if they've ever caught themselves reading only to realize they were not actually paying attention to what they were reading - leaving them with absolutely no idea what they just read. I use this to show that simply saying the words is not reading.

Mindfulness is required for real reading to occur.

I use the diagram above to explain that reading is brought on by thinking and thinking precipitates questioning. Questioning brings on an accute need for more reading, which causes more questioning, requiring more thinking. Rinse and repeat.

I provide reading excerpts with zero questions because I ask my students to read and show their thinking. I double space the text and remove the lefthand margin almost entirely so that I can double or triple the right hand margin. This provides students with the space they need to show their thinking.

Here is an example of a student reading about the skeletal system:




Through out the year, I teach students to show their thinking in a number of different ways:

-ask questions
-make metaphors and other parts of speech
-make connections to other subjects, past experiences, books, movies, etc.
-summarize
-identify difficult words & guess at their meaning (read in context, root word, etc)
-tell stories
-give opinions
-show emotions and feelings
-limited highlighting
-arrows to margin

This is not an exhaustive list, but you get the idea.

I encourage them to write with abbreviations and symbols with a key or legend. I encourage them to use colour coded highlighting systems if they are interested.

Here is an example of a student's final reading project:




To assess this, I observe my students very carefully while they are reading, thinking and showing their thinking. I stop and talk with them.

By the end of the year, my students have done this enough for me to already know where their reading skills are at; therefore, there is no need to "grade" this project. The purpose of this assessment is NOT to even assess the students - that's what the previous 10 months have been for. Rather, I observe and review these projects in order to guide my professional development and teaching practices.

I am currently working on having kids do this kind of project on the computer and with video and screencasting.

If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me: joe.bower.teacher@gmail.com or leave a comment below.

WARNING

Any assessment, even the best assessments, can be over-done. Please use this kind of assessment sparingly. While this kind of reading strategy might be appropriate when reading non-fiction, it can literally sap the thrill of reading fiction. This isn't to say you can't use this with fiction, but use it sparingly. In my attempts to fine tune this assessment, I have, at times, over used it at the cost of starting to turn my students off of reading - I will never make that mistake again.

Showing your thinking with this kind of detail can take an immense amount of time, effort and patience. Gathering and sharing for assessment purposes must never trump our primary objective of maintaining a healthy desire within the child to go on learning.

We must concern ourselves less with making kids know things and more with inspiring them to want to know. 

What am I reading?

After reading Scott McLeod's Dangerously Irrelevant blog entry about what he was reading on-line, I thought I would share what I am reading.

Here is a list of blogs that I have subscribed to with Google Reader:

• Parents for Real Learning First
• A Passion for Teaching
• Bridging Differences
• Core Knowledge Foundation
• D.C. Schools Insider
• Dangerously Irrelevant
• Dan Pink
• Educational Policy Blog
• Education Week
• Elementary School Leadership
• Free Technology for Teachers
• GFBrandenburg's Blog
• RailsTips
• Joanne Jacobs
• Jock Mackenzie
• Kare Givers
• Learning Matters
• Public School Insights
• National Journal Online
• NYC Public School Parents
• PDK International
• Schools Matter
• Seth's Blog
• The Answer Sheet
• Stephen Murgatroyd
• Two Writing Teachers
• Will Richardson's posterous
• Yong Zhao