Highlights of SCIRA Conference
  Myrtle Beach, SC
 February 16-18, 2006

By Amy Mikell

          Barbara King Shaver conducted a daylong pre-conference seminar on “Differentiated Literacy Instruction.”  Her first point was that a teacher must know students well to truly differentiate and meet each student’s needs.  Teachers can “differentiate process, product, content, and environment based on students’ readiness, interests, and learning styles.”

          To get to know students she recommends using surveys, interest inventories, and  pre-reading activities (such as key vocabulary words: which ones do they know?) and emphasizes the importance of building community early using icebreakers and lots of active involvement in cooperative learning activities.  She also advises teachers to become “assessment junkies” taking time often to check on student progress. 

          Another key element of her presentation was a look at how understanding the theory of multiple intelligences helps to differentiate instruction.  Teachers may administer surveys to help students determine their strongest areas:  linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, spatial, body-kinesthetic, intra-, and inter-personal.  Instructional units may then be designed to provide opportunities for students to participate in various ways, such as presenting skits, writing reports, creating maps, etc.

          For more information, you may want to obtain her book DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION IN THE ENGLISH CLASSROOM (Barbara King-Shaver and Alyce Hunter) available through www.heinemann.com.

          In Friday’s keynote, Dr. Kylene Beers railed against the National Reading Panel’s report for which she said they used only 14 studies and used only data that supported their desired outcome.  A notorious example is the report’s disdain for the value of allotting school time for independent reading.  She also cautioned against relying too heavily on science as it often neglects the art of teaching; brain research only reveals physiological activities and doesn’t also consider the emotional and social factors that impact learning.

          Dr. Beers explained that recent brain research findings should inform reading instruction in two ways.  First, we must teach word recognition well but then move on to focus on comprehension.  Much more time should be devoted to wide reading opportunities, as most vocabulary is acquired through reading.  The goal is “automaticity” which means that readers have a large word bank that allows most of their brains’ energy to focus on meaning rather than decoding.  When automaticity is interrupted, poor comprehension results.

          She distinguishes between automaticity and fluency.  Fluency is a three-part skill: accuracy, automaticity, and prosody (the ability to read with expressiveness needed to make sense.)  For example, “The old man the boat” and “Woman without her man is nothing” must be read with correct expression to make sense.  To help students develop prosody, teachers must read aloud every day using a variety of genre to help students develop what Eudora Welty calls “a reader’s ear.”

          She emphasized that classrooms must be literacy rich so students are exposed to many words.  They need to simply recognize words more than work on them; drills, worksheets, structural analysis all are useful but must not be the whole focus of reading instruction.

          A second finding says that prediction must be used to improve comprehension.  She referred to much more than simple “What will happen next…?” items.  Rather, students must have frequent opportunities to transfer skills and learning to new situations.  To dramatize this concept, audience members had been given stapled sheets of yellow, pink, or blue and told to open them only when instructed.  When we opened our sheets, we were given five minutes to follow the instructions and then were given a “test” to see which group was most successful in remembering the listed words.  Overwhelmingly, the group who had been instructed to “Rate these words by their level of pleasantness” remembered more words than those told to “Memorize the list” or to “Count the vowels in each word.”  The “rating” activity required synthesis (applying old knowledge to new situation) and was more effective than the memorization, which rarely affects long-term memory, and the meaningless counting vowels task (such busy work hinders comprehension and should be avoided.)  Wide, frequent reading aids prediction; for example, students who see poetry often begin to know how poems “act.”

          Dr. Beers exhorted us to remember that teachers are the architects of the learning landscape.  We cannot give up that role to scientists and politicians.  She noted the “digital divide” where children of poverty are often limited to instruction in the basics.  They must be given opportunities to exercise their higher order thinking skills.  Schools are NOT assembly plants!  Rather, classrooms should be like productive “3-ring circuses” with lots of different activities going on.  Schools must nurture individuals, not attempt to produce uniform results (as NCLB seems to mandate.)   Rather, public schools must be like the Statue of Liberty, welcoming all comers and helping them to become life-long learners.

          Dr. Terrell Young (Washington State University) presented “Getting the Most from your Classroom Library.”  Research shows that environment has a huge impact on student behavior, thus your library should reflect your feelings about reading.  The most effective classroom libraries provide at least 8 books per student, contain all genre to reach all readers, are categorized for easy use, offer easy circulation rules, are physically accessible and visually attractive, and regularly provide new books. 

          He cautioned us not to level books by difficulty as that denies students the chance to select for themselves.  He also advised making your read-alouds accessible due to high interest and previous knowledge of those texts.  We should give students frequent chances to talk about their books as that raises comprehension. 

          Cute display ideas include linked books (same topic, different genre), award-winners, “our favorites,” banned books, and “author of the month.”

          Dr. Young stated that just having a classroom library is not enough.  Teacher behaviors also matter.  They should model reading, do book talks, read aloud, and determine their students’ interests.  Research shows that if a teacher “pushes” fiction and non-fiction equally, kids will read both equally. 

Also, 80% of adult reading is non-fiction while 80% of school reading is fiction, leaving an unhealthy gap.

          New this year was a session specifically for education students and interns.  Veteran educators plus a second-year teacher fielded questions from the group.  When asked what professional development had meant the most to them, one responded the Writing Project while another advised watching other teachers in action.  Responses to a query about what resources are most crucial for first year teachers ranged from books of all genre to visually pleasing displays to make their classroom inviting and stimulating.  Another question dealt with how to address cheating and lying among students.  The best approach was said to be working to build mutual respect from the first day and to use lots of community-building activities.

          A question was asked about what type of teacher the panelists would prefer for their own children.  Responses included one who listens, is well-informed about instructional standards and practices, who understands that every child is smart in his own way, who respects kids and has high expectations, who offers lots of variety to make learning exciting, and who communicates frequently with the parents.  Finally, panelists were asked for one tip to help new teachers deal with the pressures of their profession.  Advice included “Never give up!” “Be organized and have fun.” “Remember that each student is someone’s child and should be treated like you would want your own child treated.” “Get to know your kids.” “Create a classroom family.”  Finally, “Create a school family” (colleagues are crucial.)

          Author Carmen Deedy delivered the morning keynote on Saturday, telling the story of how she, a Cuban refugee who was dyslexic, found a love of reading at age seven thanks to the “Library Goddess” (the librarian) at the public library in Decatur, Georgia.  In her unique fashion, Deedy took all of us back in memory to our own first library visits and the excitement of finding that first wonderful book, in her case, CHARLOTTE’S WEB.  She drove home the point that the world is full of code, such as library procedures, that must be taught.  She told of her father, who had learned to read only at age 14 and told his daughter what it had been like.

He said that looking around at all the street signs and store displays was painful since, “Those words did not belong to me.” 

          She ended by reminding us as teachers of our responsibility to help our students learn the world’s codes.  She said that her parents had given her the greatest gift, her life, but that the librarian had given her the second, the love of reading.

          Shannon Cannon (University of California) provided a session, “High-Impact Vocabulary Strategies Using Informational Text.”   She began by reading aloud the picture book  MISS ALANEIOUS  by Debra Frasier, in which the main character thinks in dictionary definitions.  She then urged teachers to use the business concept of “ROI” (Return on Investment”) by using strategies that yield the best results. 

          Research says that by high school graduation, students need 50,000 words to be successful.  Sadly, most students of poverty acquire only 20,000.  This vocabulary gap can be a crucial factor in school failure.  Cannon offered several principals of in-depth word instruction:  integration (connect new words with familiar ideas), repetition, meaningful use, and active engagement.  She cautioned that most vocabulary is learned indirectly, but some must be taught directly and that word-learning strategies will help reading comprehension.

          Some helpful hints are that pre-teaching vocabulary will help students comprehend text, but that the words selected must not be basic words that students already know, or “domain” words that are so obscure they’ll never see them again; rather they should be “mature” words that have usefulness beyond that text. (For more information about “tiers” of words, see research by Beck, McKeown, and Kucan ’02.)  She warned that the dictionary doesn’t always help students understand the words.  Teachers must also provide explanations that use everyday language.  She then provided three activities to use after initially introducing new words.  These activities provide active engagement with new words to reinforce the learning.  One is word associations where you list the new words and ask questions such as “Which word goes with…?” (ex: “accomplice” with “crook”).  Another is asking “Have you ever?” to let students write about a time they might have done that action (ex: “Describe a time you might commend someone.”  Her final suggestion provides an answer to the problem of asking students to use the word in a sentence of their own and the sentence misuses the word.  Instead, provide a list of “Idea Completions” such as “When might you…?” or “The skiing instructor said Maria was a novice on the slopes because…”

          She advised that the best words to teach are new words for an unknown concept; use less instructional time for new words for known concepts, as those can be “taught on the fly.”  Two books she recommends are WORDS YOU SHOULD KNOW (David Olsen) and BRINGING WORDS TO LIFE (Isabel Beck.) 

          She ended her session with a humorous reading from Jeff Foxworthy’s REDNECK DICTIONARY and by showing slides of newspaper cartoons using wacky definitions (B.C. often does this.)

          In summary, this year’s conference provided a great mix of inspiration, research findings, and practical suggestions dealing with huge issues: vocabulary; classroom libraries/wide, frequent reading; and differentiated instruction.  I hope these notes will encourage readers to attend professional conferences and seminars often, as they certainly have huge “ROI” for your practice.

This page updated last on :  08/25/2007