Spotlight on Literacy
Keep Looking Upward

by Rebecca McKay
Director, Literacy and Professional Development

Stacks of junk mail, bills, journals, and boxes welcomed me on Monday morning after the 2007 Winter Conference. I perused all the mail that had accumulated over a week and half by pulling my research journals, gardening magazines, and book orders first leaving the bills on the bottom including the one from the Private Eye Portfolio for 150 jeweler’s loupes which I hid. Having been out of professional reading materials for days, I latched onto the current Reading Today, the International Reading Association’s bimonthly newspaper. I scanned the column for upcoming conferences…um looks interesting as I think aloud about the conference entitled: Every Child Deserves a Literate Life. I hungrily zeroed in on an article that is my perennial favorite: What’s hot and what’s not in 2007 (Cassidy & Cassidy, 2007). Surrounded by a roaring fire, my favorite mug full of coffee, and good reading, I sleepily scanned the bulleted list. Hot topics: adolescent literacy, English language learners, and fluency. Not hot topics: phonemic awareness, preschool literacy, and motivation. Wait a minute! What’s wrong with this picture? Who picks this stuff anyway? Suddenly I am transformed back in time to my Friday afternoon session and I hear the talented science teacher from the carefully chosen video clip quiz a five year old: “Do you believe everything you read?”

My mind raced back to the last twelve years of studying emergent readers who struggle with print. For years, I researched the nuances of motivation and disposition and questioned the research. For reading researchers, motivation might not be a hot topic as the article pointed out. Nonetheless just ask any first-grade teacher serving struggling readers and they will tell you the importance of motivation in the reading lives of their struggling emergent readers.

And now the flash backs begin. Post conference stress syndrome sets in and I am reliving every word I mispronounced and feeling great holes of blackness in time where I am sure I used incorrect grammar, read from my PowerPoint slides, and put the audience to sleep. Worst of all the flash backs is the “Did I make myself clear?” My mind races over and past time as I rethink every conference session particularly Friday, February 2 from 3:00 to 3:30 p.m. Remember? You were there, right? Tell me you remember the six interferences to reading comprehension! Alright, it was late in the afternoon and your group was hyped up on hotel coffee and would not cooperate in the exercise. Let’s keep looking upward and we’ll just forget what happened on February 2, 2007 between 3:00 and 3:30 p.m. at the Stamford Marriott. What happened at the 2007 Winter Conference stays at the conference right? Yeah, right except when struggling emergent readers are involved.

So, I have one more crack at being clear and getting instructional action going by writing this article in Spotlight on Literacy. Let’s survey the research in one sentence. Motivation is made up of two parts: the student’s value of reading and his/her self-concept of themselves as a reader. Where is the control for these two components? I believe the control is within the students and within their teachers. Reviewing the graphic from the session materials, lack of motivation and disposition are interferences to reading comprehension and an easy interference to address with emergent readers. When tackling this interference, it is within our reach to accelerate student progress. There are numerous instructional strategies to alleviate the interferences. I will address one strategy, cross-age tutoring, in this article with a promise to continue this conversation in subsequent newsletter articles.

[Source Alabama Reading Initiative]

Cross-age tutoring and peer-assisted learning are two successful research based strategies that increase moti vation and help build disposition for emergent readers to do the extensive reading practice that is required to cause an upward spiral in their reading development. Cross-age tutoring benefits the emergent reader as well as the more experienced reader. So how can we make this happen? There is no time to waste and this strategy can be put into place within days. Here are the steps to put a program in place that I used for many years and researched. Statistically significant increases in students’ motivation to read and reading self-concepts were shown after twelve weeks. Nonfiction texts were used exclusively for the reading material alongside science response journals. I called this program Book Buddies.

Book Buddy Implementation Steps

• Convince a colleague who teaches students at least two grade levels above your students to join you. If you teach first-grade, third or fourth-grade students would be ideal candidates for Book Buddies. The key to success is commitment on the part of both teachers.
• Use the Mission Possible booklet that I have included to explain to the older students what their role will be over the coming weeks. Give each student a booklet and their choice of nonfiction books to use with their younger reader. As the older students practice reading the nonfiction texts, they will benefit greatly by reading and rereading the books all the while developing their reading fluency. The use of Book Buddy notebooks to record tutoring experiences provides a reflection tool for the students and gives teachers a window into the process. Every few weeks, teachers should debrief with younger and older readers concerning how things are going. Constant teacher monitoring of the Book Buddy reading period is a must.
• After sharing the Mission Possible booklet, role play a reading session with both groups of students who will partner up as Book Buddies. It is essential that students see the process of reading to, with, and by while learning techniques for assisting the younger reader. There are commercial videos available showing the process. If you are on a budget, shoot some video showing Book Buddies in action for use periodically just to remind students of the process.
• Share with the emergent readers the process of Book Buddies and what will be expected of them as readers. The cross-age tutors read once a week with the students for about thirty minutes in the beginning. The reading may consist of reading to the younger student, reading by the younger readers, and echo reading with both students. The time can be increased as the Book Buddies build relationships and disposition.
• Set a date and place for the Buddies to meet. Cross-age tutors are best matched in pairs of the same sex. Providing refreshments for the initial meeting creates a relaxed atmosphere for the Buddies to get to know each other.
• Plan a day and time for the tutoring sessions that remain constant for the entire cross-age tutoring period. You might agree to try a twelve week block of sessions. If things go smoothly, the time can be always be extended.
• The reading experience itself should be monitored by both teachers. It is imperative that students enjoy the reading. Conferences should be conducted with the Book Buddies as they read together. This lends an air of seriousness to the endeavor and teachers can make certain that the process is a rigorous worthwhile process.
  

This is an intervention that cost no money, increases amount of nonfiction reading practice, and builds motivation to read. It truly is a strategy that comes from within. As we reflect upon the 2007 Winter Conference, the urgency to address the needs of our struggling emergent readers grows. Instead of looking back and thinking about what we haven’t accomplished over the last five months of school or looking forward over how little time we have, looking up and to our children seems the best course of action.

Further Reading

Cassidy, J. & Cassidy, D. (2007). What’s hot and what’s not in 2007. In Reading Today. http://www.reading.org/publications/reading_today/samples/RTY-0702-hotnot.html

The authors say this:
“When we began this list of hot topics, we had no idea that it would receive so much attention. Comments come from classroom teachers, administrators, publishers, and college professors. The list is used as an introduction in university courses on literacy trends and issues and as a basis for staff development in schools. The list has been translated into Spanish, summarized in local newspapers, and cited in countless journal articles and books. Last year, a summary of the 2006 “What’s Hot” article appeared in the widely distributed weekly periodical, Education Week.”

Johnston, F., Juel, C., & Invernizzi, M. (1998). Book Buddies. Guilford Press.

Review from Publisher:
Volunteer tutors can make a tremendous difference in the reading skills and the lives of young children. This comprehensive tutorial manual has been developed from the Book Buddies program of Charlottesville, Virginia, the first large-scale model to mobilize hundreds of community volunteers in an alternative one-on-one intervention for children at risk for reading failure. A complete how-to resource for both trainers and tutors in one accessible volume, the book provides guidelines for setting up a successful tutorial program in the early grades and presents a field-tested lesson format for individualized instruction in reading, writing, and phonics. The authors clearly describe how to conduct a wealth of enjoyable reading activities and exercises with students, illustrating each chapter with real-life examples and lively line drawings. Appendices feature reproducible assessment and lesson planning forms, alphabet cards and charts, recommendations and sources for children's books and other materials, and a helpful glossary.

Morris, D. ( 2004). The Howard Street Tutoring Manual: Teaching At-Risk Readers in the Primary Grades. Guilford Press.

Review from Publisher:
This book prepares professionals and students to conduct one-to-one instruction with struggling readers and to conceptualize and develop tutorial programs. Written by the developer of Chicago's Howard Street tutorial program, the manual is grounded in theory and research and incorporates a range of new findings on emergent and at-risk readers in grades one through three. Readers learn procedures for assessing such literacy skills as word recognition, oral reading, and spelling. In-depth case studies are presented.

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