LITERACY NETWORK EVENTS @ the ISTE 2018 CONFERENCE Chicago, June 24 – 27

LITERACY NETWORK EVENTS
@ the ISTE 2018 CONFERENCE
 Chicago,  June 24 – 27

Please make note of and join us at the 3 following exciting events:

1- Literacy PLN Conference Session (1 hour):
Technology-Based Literacy Resources and Practices With Special Promise
https://conference.iste.org/2018/program/search/detail_session.php?id=110855804
Monday, June 25, 8:30–9:30 am CDT (Central Daylight Time)
Building/Room: McCormick Place W176abc

What's new, exciting and inspiring in literacy instruction? Members of the ISTE Literacy PLN and invited guests will present emerging technology-based resources and practices with high potential to improve and transform learning and teaching. Leave this session with ideas, insights and resources ready to impact your classroom and practice.

This will be a fast paced, hour-long event in which educational experts from the Literacy Network’s 2018 Short List of Inspiring Literacy Instruction Resources will present their resources. (See list, below) Find out the story behind these resources, how teachers can best use them with students, and how teachers can acquire them (the presentation will highlight any free opportunities for access or elements the providers make available). There’s an opportunity to ask questions and give feedback to the panel of experts, too.

Resources Presented Will Include:
- Actively Learn        https://www.activelylearn.com/ 

- Fluency Tutor         https://www.texthelp.com/en-us/products/fluencytutor/

- Writable                 https://www.writable.com/
                                 "Teachers talk about Writable": https://vimeo.com/273383341
                                  Edsurge article by Dr. Troy Hicks
 

Classroom Inc.       https://www.classroominc.org/play/ 

https://www.classroominc.org/educator-tools/community-in-crisis/

2-EdTech Literacy Playground
Literacy Network Playground Where Literacy & Coding and Makerspace Collide
https://conference.iste.org/2018/program/search/detail_session.php?id=111057145
Tuesday, June 26, 10:30 am–12:30 pm CDT (Central Daylight Time)
Building/Room: McCormick Place Posters; Level 3, Skyline Ballroom Pre-function, Table 1, Table 2, and Table 3

a)    Coding Literacy: How Hands-on Coding is Impacting Reading and Writing
Get the tools and strategies to use coding for communication and tangible learning to drive student engagement. Play with and learn about robotics, Marbotics Magic Phonics, Osmo Words, KUBO Language Pack, and Cubetto Logic Tiles.

b)   Using Scratch Jr. for Reading and Writing Instruction: Ideas to Meet and Support the Standards in Literacy with Computer Coding
There are many ways to embed computer coding, specifically Scratch Jr., into reading and writing instruction to support the elementary literacy standards.   See samples of how students use Scratch Jr. for reading comprehension strategies such as Summarizing, Parts of a story, Visualizing, Cause/Effect and Book Clubs. Watch student engagement increase when students are allowed to demonstrate their understanding through computer coding.

c)    Ozobots for Phonics and Phonemic Awareness
Check out a cross curricular activity that blurs the boundaries between coding and Phonics. Students will code Ozobots to "trace" their words that either they write or that are written for them. The coding will make the Ozobot perform differently when it hits the selected blend, vowel, silent e etc. This coding will allow students to see a visual representation of phonic skills that they will be learning in the classroom.

d)   Build a Better Book: Storytelling Through "Making"
The Build a Better Book project connects young Makers with a real-world need: the dearth of tactile or multimodal books for children who are blind or visually impaired. We will share how we connect low- and high-tech Maker technologies - including 3D printing, laser and craft cutters, electronics and craft materials - with storytelling and composition to develop literacy skills across a range of grade levels. Explore student-designed projects and learn how to get involved.

e)    Activate, Support, and Reveal student thinking while reading with Actively Learn
Actively Learn is a digital reading platform built to help teachers and students promote literacy and learning. By allowing  teachers to adapt instruction to their students' needs, support them while they construct meaning in the text, and help them understand where students struggle, this tech tools  is extremely robust and never expires. Learn how to adapt this platform to the diverse readers in your classroom.

f)     Making in Language Arts with Wixie & Other STEM Tools
Students need (and want) to practice reading and writing in real-world situations. Creative digital tools let students demonstrate understanding and share ideas by creating products they see in the world around them and sharing them with an audience beyond the classroom. Explore sample projects and instructional supports for literacy tasks that connect to the stories students are reading, develop thinking skills with informational products, build skills in the 3Rs and 4Cs, and yes, demonstrate comprehension.

3-Literacy Network Social Gathering Co-Sponsored by Actively Learn:
Immerse Yourself in Literacy
Monday 6/25 5:30- 7PM CT
*Attendance is limited

Join the ISTE Literacy PLN and Actively Learn for a great night out to connect and socialize with other ISTE Literacy PLN members. On Monday 6/25, we will be meeting at Reggie’s (Bar and Restaurant) for drinks, appetizers, raffles, and games.

Reserve your ticket through Eventbrite (click on the link, below or copy and paste this url in your browser):

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/iste-literacy-pln-actively-learn-social-event-tickets-46305649444

Congratulations to the ISTE Literacy PLN Award Winners! 2018

PLN Leader

Rob Burggraaf

Posted 5/22/2018

The Literacy PLN is excited to share that Tammy Dunbar and Julie Hembree have been selected as the winners of the 2018 Literacy PLN Award for their Cultivate World Literacy submission.  This real-world, project-based learning experience first included more than 120 classrooms from 33 countries across six continents. Through a series of carefully crafted prompts, students start on a path of self-reflection that slowly turns their focus outward to the world around them. Students do in-depth research, using critical thinking skills to learn about why illiteracy exists around the globe, what factors contribute to illiteracy and how they can be agents of change. Students present their findings each week in a digital format of their choice on the Cultivate World Literacy website and/or YouTube channel (which are amplified through social media), providing a platform of communication and collaboration for the sharing of ideas so they can learn from one another and build a foundation for future interactions. Continued collaboration through multiple Skype sessions allows students and educators to make the world their classroom with global resources to help problem-solve and craft strategies to Teach the World to Read.

Tammy teaches 5th grade in Manteca, CA, USA, and Pre-Service Technology at Teachers College of San Joaquin. She has co-authored two global projects: Human Differences ( http://www.humandifferences.com ) (50 countries, 37 schools) and Cultivate World Literacy (http://www.cultivateworldliteracy.com). She is a Microsoft Innovative Educator Fellow and Certified Educator, Surface & Skype Master Trainer, a United Nations #TeachSDGs Ambassador and a TEACH.org Ambassador. She has trained thousands of teachers in being fearless in their use of educational technology through NCCE (Northwest Council for Computer Education), CUE (Computer-Using Educators) and in her own district, Manteca Unified. She Skypes with classrooms and educators around the world to educate and elevate. A popular presenter and trainer (ISTE, BLC, CUE, etc.), Dunbar was 2016 California Woman of the Year, Assembly District 12, a featured presenter on Microsoft's 10/2017 Hack the Classroom event (broadcast to a global audience of more than 50,000), won an eInstruction $75,000 Classroom Makeover Video Contest, wrote a successful Enhancing Education Through Technology federal grant, and named Manteca USD Teacher of the Year.

Julie believes that global collaboration is key to linking students around the world. Formerly a K-12 classroom teacher with specialties in reading, English and digital literacy, Julie has been a teacher librarian for the past ten years. She presents at local and national conferences on education, teacher-librarian topics and technology integration. She is author of the multiple award winning Bulldog Reader Blog where she blogs about literacy, innovation and technology innovation. Her blog has had over 200,000 views from 196 different countries since it began in 2010. She is a member of ALA, AASL, WLMA/WLA and ISTE and regularly presents at the annual WLMA state convention for teacher librarians. She has been featured on Anthony Salcito's Daily Edventures three times. Julie began a Books to Africa global literacy collaboration project in 2012 linking teachers in three countries in sub-Sahara Africa with quality reading materials. Her students have raised over $6,000 and sent more than 5,000 books overseas. In 2015 she spent three weeks in South Africa teaching and collaborating with her partner teachers there. She also collaborates with teachers in Europe on a Book Trailer project, and initiated a Global Poetry Unites Project in April 2016.

Their submission was chosen from among several candidates for clearly demonstrating outstanding contributions to literacy instruction in a digital age, and we are pleased to have the opportunity to recognize them for these contributions. As a winner of this award, they will be honored at the 2018 ISTE Conference & Expo in Chicago.

We hope you will join us in congratulating Tammy Dunbar and Julie Hembree for their outstanding work!

------------------------------
Rob Burggraaf
Instructional Technology Coach
Lexington School District Two
West Columbia SC

Reading with Music at Full Blast:

Using music references and digital media to draw students into reading YA books

A Book Suggestion, Review, and Series of Literacy Activities for Young Adult Readers and Learners by Dr. Rose Reissman

Featured YA Book

Solo by Kwame Alexander with Mary Rand Hess

New York: Harper Collins, 2017.

Grades 9-12

. 

You watch teens immersed in the world of online music, headphones on, swaying to the beat.  While you, an adult ELA educator, may share this passion, Still, you’re accountable for developing your students’ capacity to respond to and comprehend printed text.  You so want them to transfer their intense music engagement to the text at hand.  Fortunately YA literature, with its roots in teens’ passions, offers many baited hooks.

There are numerous major YA works which focus on musicians and, in particular, rock, pop, and hip hop stars.  Not only do these works sometimes engage teen rock star wannabes, but well crafted ones, such as Kwame Alexander’s Solo, can be presented in tandem with the experience of actually listening to the music referenced; perhaps the way the kids love it, at full blast.

Another compelling YA novel in verse (which is the craft format for musical lyrics) by Kwame Alexander is the Newbery 2015 medal winner, The Crossover.  This one, with its evocative cover design of a young man and his guitar, immediately grabs its teen target audience. 

Want to make the guitar on the cover play for teen readers? The following are 5 exercises that the ‘in tune’ literacy educator can, with the support of digital access to music and video, implement to make the experience of reading YA literature enjoyable, relevant, and highly engaging.

Reading with Music Full Blast-Exercise 1

Teens can be asked, prior to reading this book, to discuss top guitarists on the charts and those they consider best in pop music history past or on the current scene.  They can even go online to get sample performance videos; Youtube is a tremendous source for these.  Links to these can be saved and shared  by students one on one via email or as a whole class effort through easy to use, collaboration supporting tech applications, like Google Docs or a class blog (e.g. Google’s free,  Blogger resource).

The lure goes beyond the individual poems/lyrics which nicely encapsulate a detailed history of many great pop music tracks. Solo is the story of Blade, a young man, son of Rutherford Morrison,  a washed up, narcissistic, rock and roll star, Blade Morrison. 

Although it would initially seem that few target readers could relate to his privileged Hollywood teen issues.  Blade’s issues: finding out he’s adopted, being betrayed by his first teen love, being uncertain of his talent or direction, dealing silently with the loss of his adopted mother, dealing angrily with his relapsing, addicted father, ‘got your back, but at your back’ relationship with a sibling, and dealing with public humiliation in front of his peers by his father;  all ae part and parcel of universal teen angst, joy,,, rites of passage.  This work is over 400 pages long, however, because it is related through  extremely readable commentary about key rock and roll artists, as well as through original, cut to emotions poetry it reads quickly, in under three hours.  Who would not chose a work that students would be captivated enough to read in a fell swoop?

Reading with Music Full Blast –Exercise 2

Ask that students listen to the specific music cited at the beginning/ top of the chapter and then, as listeners, react to the music. Sharing it by downloading it or swapping urls of online videos.  They can share commentary found in the book they particularly agree or disagree with within their circle of collaborating learners. This exercise should engage many more musically focused students than are usually engaged in even YA books that are simply about musicians.

 The use of teen focused analysis of musical style and emotional impact and its fit to 21^st century teen reality, makes it a work that is particularly meaningful for adolescents, reading to comprehend life and to mediate its challenges.

The very realistic and richly colored issues of trust, truth, rivalry, transparency, personal image, and parental values, things that affect every teen relationship, are bluntly presented here.  Even the seemingly over the top, addicted rock star father is shown in depth with his own emotional baggage and his own musical passion underneath his reality show and publicity stunts.

While initially Blade, as the adopted son of rock star royalty, with family friends who are pop icons, would not seem relatable to a broad spectrum of teens, his struggles and self questioning about his musicianship, his journey to confront his biological roots,  as well as his openness and willingness to step up help others: all are conditions of young adult life.  Blade follows his bliss and emotions, which is laudable in and of itself.  He also takes responsibility, even though outwardly angry and defiant, for his father and his recovery from addiction.  He maintains text connections with his sister Storm and solidly cares for her well being.   Students can be asked to comment on these texts between siblings and if appropriate/applicable, compare and contrast them with the text they exchange with their own siblings. These can be saved as commentary on how sibling relationships are affected and influenced by text communications.

Most important, within this work, driven by the guitar solos and  lyrics of the fictional Blade, the protagonist’s involvement in supporting a Ghana village in dire need of help.

Blade’s first person narrative of this, not only achingly shares his bleeding heartbreak, but also educates about actual, third world technology, social and medical needs (malaria and the need for mosquito nets).  Students should research the use of mosquito nets and third world illnesses that,  in fact,  kill in the third world.  They can file informational reports and perhaps be challenged to produce poetry or lyrics about how this information impacts their real life geographic peers in other countries.

Reading with the Music Full Blast-Exercise 3

 All students can be challenged  anticipate the sound and style of Blade’s music.  They can check out Kwame’s/ Blade’s actual music online https://youtu.be/qekgoGHkoHg

Beyond their listening, they can comment on how it compares and contrasts with their anticipation of it.  They can even compare it to other tracks they feel it is inspired by.

Reading with the Music Full Blast- Exercise 4

Students can also be challenged, if they enjoyed the book, to reread it in tandem with its playlist site and detail the ultimate reading with the music full blast experience.

In addition, they can do secondary and primary source research about the literacy needs of Ghana and the author’s personal work there, going as directed in the acknowledgements to: http://www.LeapforGhana.org. Finally,  they can follow up on the surprising fact that malaria is a deadly disease in the third world,  by taking the author’s suggestion and learning more at: http://www.Malarianomore.org.

Reading with the Music Full Blast-Exercise 5

For audio learners and music lovers, the work is filled with special domain music terms and references which can be compiled into a glossary. This might be shared on the author’s site as well as uploaded to the class or school library site that will enhance teen comprehension of the book.  Using the chromebooks, students can reference audio files as part of their glossary of terms, making the glossary a lexicographical musical experience.  Who says dictionaries have to be print text only?

 The poems in this work, while certainly reflecting the experiences of its 18yearold guitar strumming hero, also show the influence of great lyric song and poetry writers of the late twentieth century and 21^st century.  Blade was also the salutatorian of his class.  Students can be challenged to identify lines and motifs that show how Blade is influenced by published poets and lyricists in his original work.

The last poem of the novel,  titled “I sing”, which of course brings to mind 19^th  century Walt Whitman, includes the lyric -“I play the song/inside/that’s been waiting.”  The power of the fictional Blade’s being open to his own lyric and adult voice and decisions, lies in its unlocking a parallel openness in readers to play their own inside sing takes on life.  Ultimately “soloing” is the rite of passage to adulthood.

When a story focuses on musicians or listening to pivotal music that drives the plot, encourage readers to "play" those notes full blast!

Other YA books that can be “read with the music full blast” include:

• If I Stay – Gale Forman
• Ballads of Suburbia - Stephanie Huehnert
• Amplified - Tara Kelley
• Audrey , Wait - Robin Benway
• Virtuosity - Jessica Martinez
• Where She Went - Gayle Forman
• This Song Will Save Your Life - Leila Sales
• Just Listen – Sarah Dressen
• Eleanor and Park – Rainbow Rowell
• Wise Young Foul- Sean Beaudoin
• The Heartbreakers- Ali Novak
• Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist-Rachel Cohn and David Levitan
• Good Enough –Paula Yoo
• The Haters- Jesse Andrews
  
  
  Dr. Rose Reissman is the founder of the Writing Institute, now replicated in 200 schools including the Manchester Charter Middle School in Pittsburgh. She is a featured author in New York State Union Teachers Educators Voice 2016 and was filmed discussing ESL student leadership literary strategies developed at Ditmas IS 62, a Brooklyn public intermediate school. roshchaya@gmail.com