Putting the FUNDS in Reading Is Fundamental

By Bill Henk – There are some things that an education dean just ought to know.  There are some things that an education dean just ought to do.

Well, this education dean just discovered a harsh reality that he should have known and done something about quite a while ago.  And now that I DO know, I really AM going to do something about it –starting right here and now with this post.

Here’s the story.  Recently I was asked if I’d be willing to be Marquette’s spokesperson for the Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) program.  Keep in mind here that RIF is the largest children’s literacy non-profit in the United States.  And also keep in mind that its main thrust is providing access and ownership of free, high quality, age-appropriate books to children living in poverty.

My first thoughts were, ”Why would Reading Is Fundamental need a Marquette spokesperson?  Why would I agree to something like that?  How could I even manage that extra work?”

You see, my summer has been ridiculously busy, and the thought of taking on another professional commitment seemed crazy.  Besides, the RIF program had been around for almost half a century and stood on the firmest of footing.  Why would it need me, or anyone else for that matter,  shouting its praises at all, let alone now?

And that’s when I learned the bitter truth.

Building Immunity & Encouraging Literacy

By Stephanie Rappe – It’s difficult to remember the last time I was in good health since I started my first year of teaching. No amount of hand sanitizer can prevent me from all of the germs and bacteria that travel in a classroom. It seems that if I don’t have a soar throat, I have a fever, and if I don’t have a fever I have a stuffy nose. I’ve come down with some of the most bizarre sicknesses, and every time I see a doctor they tell me it’s the curse of being a first year teacher. However, the doctor also said that after my first year my immune system will be much stronger and more able to fight against all these germs that I encounter on a daily basis. Can’t wait for next year!

On a different note, I’ve been working closely with the literacy coach the past couple of weeks to make the Reading block more engaging and beneficial for the students. We have created stations that the kids rotate through that involve writing, fluency, phonics, vocabulary, comprehension, and whichever reading skills we are focusing on that week. The literacy coach has been in the room to help implement the stations, and it has been so nice having more than one adult in the room. The students are given more individual attention, and working with small groups is much more feasible.

Another exciting reading improvement my class has made is with our school’s Reading Challenge. Each child has a goal of reading 10 books by the end of May. For each book that they read they receive a certificate and a sticker for the chart that is hanging in the main hallway. This chart allows everyone to track each other’s progress and see how each class is doing compared to the other classes and grades. Each child has to complete an independent reading packet afterwards so that I can make sure they’ve read the entire book and comprehended the sequence of events. Once the students read 5 books they get a bracelet and a free 20 minute gym period. Once the students read 10 books they will be able to participate in a Field Day in June. During this Field Day there are planned outdoor activities for the students to take part in.  This competitive reading challenge has vastly motivated my students. It is incredible to see students working exceptionally hard to earn these rewards.

Setting the Record Straight on the “Great” Wisconsin Reading Debate

By Bill Henk – Having followed the ongoing debate in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about the best way to teach reading over the past few weeks, I’m ready to weigh in.    Hopefully I’ll be neither too simplistic nor too technical in addressing some ultimately pretty heady stuff.

It started with a column arguing for a “science-based” approach to reading instruction on the op ed pages, and it’s been followed by letters to the editor on both sides.  The contention has centered on what Governor Walker’s third-grade “Read to Lead” initiative ought to conclude and recommend as far as beginning reading instruction.  The task force has an extremely important overall charge, and its work is rooted in some heavy-duty stipulations about children’s reading proficiency determining whether or not they are promoted to fourth grade.

The members of the task force, including the author of the op ed piece and one of the letter writers, are being asked to decide issues that could conceivably lead to legislation about how children must be taught to read and about how teachers must be trained to instruct them.  In other words, this is a VERY big deal for K-12 education in Wisconsin.

And for what it’s worth, my personal feeling is that these are NOT the types of matters that ought to be grounded in politics or legislated, and I’ll say why in the remainder of this post. 

Technology Promoting Reading

By Steve Ryan – Teaching children how to read is a fundamental principle of every school district, teacher, and classroom.  Children need to know HOW to read.  Undergraduate teacher education programs actively promote reading within their curriculum, just look at Marquette’s Hartman Center.

Reading is critical to the success of any one individual and as such needs to be taught, promoted, and encouraged within our students starting at a young age.

Technology can help to promote reading, especially as we become more accepting of how we define reading.  Our students have grown up in a digital world and as such are active in front of the screen of computers and other mobile devices.  Thus, they are constantly reading something.

Whether that be email, text messages, IMs, blogs, wikis, Twitter, Facebook posts, or anything else electronic, our students are still reading.  We need to recognize the fact that reading can be more than just the touch and feel of the paper held together in a book binding.  Encouraging our students to engage in a variety of formats through reading will only better prepare them for the life that lies ahead.

Our students are exposed to books in the traditional print format or electronically.  Most of our “digital natives” prefer the electronic format of a book more so than others.  I know I prefer an eBook because of the features built in.  The reader can manipulate the text far easier by making annotations, looking up unknown words in a dictionary, or adding special bookmarks to return for a later review.  The reading process becomes much more intuitive because all of the resources are built into the electronic book, as opposed to putting down the hard copy and seeking information elsewhere.

Teachers can encourage their students to read by telling them what they are reading and what they have read.  The connection between the teacher and the students can certainly promote an active reading environment.  In the more traditional sense of reading novels and other books, I’ve recommended Shelfari to teachers within my own district as a means to foster that connection.  Shelfari allows a user to input their own collection of what they have read, what they will read, and what books they are currently reading.  And, a user can add their own reviews of these books.  This website and online environment will only assist in fostering reading as personal recommendations become common as some students don’t always know what to read on a regular basis.

All in all, technology is making reading much easier and available because the access will not be an issue as books can be downloaded and accessed directly from the Internet.  The ubiquity of reading will continue to grow as more and more individuals have their own mobile, handheld devices and schools adopt new methods of acceptable reading to include blogs and newsfeeds.

Technology will only help our students have access to reading and promote it throughout the process.

Who’s Your (Shameful Education) Daddy?

By Bill Henk – The answer to this question is ME, that’s who.  Here I am an education dean no less, and yet I come up short as a parent.   Overall I don’t do  enough to assist — let alone enrich — my beloved daughter’s academic progress, and I drop the ball in other important regards, too.

And let’s face it.  I have NO excuse.

Oh sure, the photo above makes it look like I’m a very supportive and engaged father.  But truth be told, I’ve become one of the many different types of flawed parents who I’ve criticized my whole career.  Yessir, although my daughter is doing very well in school, it’s no thanks to her bad educational daddy.

How bad is it?  Well, imagine this scenario.  The number one piece of advice every literacy educator like myself should give parents goes like this — read with your young child every night.  

There are numerous reasons for doing so – developing print awareness as well as skill in word recognition, word analysis, fluency, and comprehension, not to mention creating a positive attitude toward reading.  All of these reasons make this practice advisable if not vital.  Parents who neglect this responsibility put their kids at risk for reading failure.

So what do I do?  Well, most evenings before my daughter’s bedtime  I conclude that I’m either too tired or too busy to initiate book reading, so I let it slide.  Clearly I should make shared reading a priority, and I don’t.  Seriously, shame on me.

Sadly, what we have here is a classic case of “do as I say, not as I do.” And wait, it gets worse. 

Basketball Memories Inspire Long-Term Literacy

By Katie Simet – Ever wonder how far a single high five, “well-done,” or “nice job” can go with a child?

Just ask the school children in the area who team up with Marquette’s Family Literacy Project.

The Family Literacy Project, operated through the Hartman Literacy and Learning Center and directed by Dr. Kathleen Clark in the College of Education, supports approximately 50 area children each semester by busing them to Marquette’s campus for weekly lessons in reading and math.

While visiting the participating schools last week to do some pre-assessment for the spring term, I had the pleasure of walking and talking briefly with students. It is here in these precious few moments that I was able to ask, “How is your day?” and “What are you learning?” From there I usually introduce myself, explaining that I am there with Marquette University at which points their eyes immediately light up with excitement: the dream of attending Marquette one day is a common one for these youngsters and the anticipation of visiting again next semester is irresistible.  After another inspiring visit to the schools this past week, I couldn’t help but feel proud to be part of such an impactful program that really makes a difference in the lives of students.

Little Things Matter Most

By Anna Luberda — My main job in the first grade is to teach reading.  I have been working with different groups of first graders since September to get them on track with their reading levels.  The students who were doing well are still doing so and the ones who weren’t doing so well have been slowly improving.

It is nice to see the kids responding to my methods that include reading centers, word wallets, independent reading, special reading buddies, etc.

Every student– with the exception of one– seems to love reading time.  This particular student has been struggling since the first day of school and he is continually frustrated with reading.

This student started first grade at a very low reading level.  He performs well in other areas like math and in social contexts, but he just can’t seem to get the hang of reading at a first grade level.  Whenever I work with him, he becomes angry and basically shuts down.  As I was trained to teach high schoolers and deal with a different age group, I have had to adjust to coping with a temper tantrum that involves tears and name calling.  Now that the second quarter of school is almost over I have learned to control his outbursts but he is still unable to read at the proper level.

One of our reading centers involves matching rhyming word puzzle pieces and then writing a sentence using both words.  Almost all of the other students are able to complete this task.  My struggling reader, however, has never been able to form a complete sentence on his own–until last Monday.

It started as a day like any other.  We sat down at our reading center and set out to match some words.  When I asked this student, once again, if he could make a sentence with the words “ride” and “side” I expected a breakdown.  But then, as the heavens opened up and shined down on my little table, the words left his mouth. “I ride on the side of the road.”  It was like a chorus of Handel’s Messiah began to play as I enthusiastically congratulated him on his feat.

I never thought I would get so excited over a kid making an eight-word sentence.  I have been working with this student for four months now, and this was the first time he had shown any sign of progress.  Not only was I exceedingly proud of him, he was proud of himself.  Since then he has been able to make more and more sentences and has even been able to write them without spelling errors.

Seeing the improvement in these kids is one of my favorite parts of teaching.  I absolutely love how excited they get when they learn something new or master a challenge.  First grade is a lot different than ninth grade– it involves more runny noses and tears for sure.  Just as I feel overwhelmed by the everyday annoyances of being around 6 year-olds all day, some little thing like this reminds me just how much I love teaching and experiencing something completely new.

Celebrating Lauren Leslie: Lots More Than A Local Literacy Legend

By Bill Henk — My valued friend and colleague, Dr. Lauren Leslie, served Marquette University, the Milwaukee educational community, and the children of the region with distinction for more than 30 years.  Somehow Dr. Leslie managed to integrate her work as a teacher, mentor, researcher, consultant, and service provider in extraordinary ways that benefited a wealth of others including me.

And so, it’s my honor to pay tribute to her here and now as she enjoys the well-earned fruits of retirement.

Teacher and Scholar

As an instructor, Lauren Leslie prepared countless numbers of classroom teachers and reading specialists over the years.  Her guidance resulted in an array of outstanding educators who have, in turn, deeply touched the lives of the children they teach.  She always set extremely high standards, and her pre-service and in-service teachers learned an incredible amount as a result.  Although her students respected her in the classroom, they appreciated her even more when on the job. That’s where they fully grasped how well she had prepared them for the vital work they do.

What I Did This Summer: Discovering Why I’m Here

By Megan Morman — After being nearly convinced that I would have to spend the summer completely uselessly due to a lack of job opportunities, I saw the email from Dean Henk that informed Marquette’s College of Education students about a summer tutoring opportunity for the Milwaukee Summer Reading Project.

I was first drawn to the fact that it was a reading program, which, since I’m an English major, is my favorite subject to teach. Secondly, the entire program was created “in response to the recent reports of reading failure in Milwaukee Public School.”

I later learned that, more specifically, Wisconsin’s black fourth graders had the worst reading scores this year than black students anywhere else in the country. Dr. Fuller, Dr. Ellis, and others put together this program quickly, but with a lot of heart. Dr. Fuller expressed his outrage to all the summer employees concerning not only the reading scores, but even more how unconcerned others seemed.

The leaders of the program, the student support staff, and the donors represented the Milwaukee community coming together to show that we care about these students and are committed to doing what we can to address this problem – now. The student support staff, or literacy tutors, came from all different backgrounds, ages, and fields of study ranging from high school students to education students to nursing students. I was proud to be a part of such a diverse and hard-working team, one that was so committed to the children in MPS.

How Literate is Milwaukee Anyway?

By Bill Henk — If you’ve ever wondered how Milwaukee stacks up in literacy compared to other major U. S. cities, I’ve got just the source of information for you.

Every year since 2005, America’s Most Literate Cities has ranked the 75 metropolitan areas whose population exceeds 250,000 using six key indicators of literacy.  These studies have been done at Central Connecticut State University by its President, John W. Miller.

As Dr. Miller indicates, he’s attempted to “capture one critical index of our nation’s social health—the literacy of its major cities.”   He suggests that this set of factors measures people’s use of their literacy, and therefore, presents a large-scale portrait of our nation’s cultural vitality.  Specifically, he says,

From this data we can better perceive the extent and quality of the long-term literacy essential to individual economic success, civic participation, and the quality of life in a community and a nation.”