Friday, July 19, 2024

For Those About to Teach--We Salute You!

 Robert Hankes blogs every Friday.

I just saw an ad announcing it’s Back to School time! Not for me! I’m staying home, blogging and writing YA fiction!

But I do think a lot about those brave teachers heading back to the classroom. Some of you probably have ditched your classroom library. Certainly understandable in a climate when you might be fired for having a book on your shelf that someone else doesn’t feel is appropriate. Others of you will fight on, and have books ready at the students’ fingertips because they need access to those books. You all should be proud of yourselves. You have the best interests of the kids at heart. Students will remember your classes fondly—and forget the classes taught by grammarians and comprehension fanatics.

Here are five books I read in the past year or so that I would put on the shelves of my classroom library. That is if I were teaching in Pennsylvania again and not in Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, or any other state that thinks it knows what kids should be reading better than the students themselves. Before you think me hypocritical, I would not recommend these books. I’d recommend students look at the books and decide for themselves whether any of these books are worth reading or not.

1.       This Book Won’t Burn by Samira Ahmed. A mother and daughter move from Chicago to a small town in southern Illinois. The daughter learns that the high school in town is banning books. The rather narrow-minded town is somewhat supportive of this practice. What the protagonist, Noor Khan, does about the situation is worth thinking about and discussing. On the one hand, little wooden mini-libraries in front of your house are cute, and you can stock them with whatever you want. On the other hand, shouldn’t our government make books available to tax-paying citizens? And, if so, who gets to decide what books will be made available? And this book has other things going for it, like romance and some great-sounding food!

2.       Caught in a Bad Fauxmance by Elle Gonzales Rose. It’s a well-written boy-meets-boy romance. It’s not gross or pornographic. The characters are well-drawn, and Devin’s family seems genuine and realistic. The conflict? Devin agrees to pretend he’s the boyfriend of the next-door-neighbor boy. Guess what happens? This is a light, readable novel for those who are looking for such.

3.       The Shadow Club, by Neal Shusterman. Shusterman is an uneven writer. This gem from 1988 is often taught in middle school, but the themes illustrated in the novel would interest and benefit most fourteen- and fifteen-year-olds. The kids who always come in second get together to torment the students who always come in first. And there’s a student in the book who has real issues—where does he fit in? He ends up being used by the second-best bunch. Near the end, one has a change of heart, and there’s a great climactic scene that illustrates we all have worth. It’s a short, fun read.

4.       Out of our League. A collection of girls’ sport stories, edited by Dahlia Adler and Jennifer Iacopelli. Everybody is in this great book. Girls who: are driven, who are disabled, who are trans, who help each other, who fall in love with each other. Great mix of content.

5.       At the Speed of Lies by Cindy L. Otis. What price lies? And what price is paid when people magnify lies to enhance their own character and promote their own agenda? Quinn Calvert, a disabled blogger, watches as a lie takes over the entire population of a high school. It ends up sucking Quinn into the eye of the hurricane that is the school program called Defend Kids. Lies becoming truth and destroying lives as they become as big as life? Imagine that! Timely.

 A  And to all of you ELA teachers mulling over the start of 2024-2025, best of luck to you. In these dark times, you are the light the students seek.

 

Friday, July 12, 2024

Three Reasons You Should Know About Dr. Paul Thomas, by Robert Hankes

Robert Hankes blogs every Friday. 

Surfing the ‘net, “Teaching reading” the worm on my hook, I learned of Dr. Paul Thomas. Some of you probably know of him, particularly if you disbelieve in the Science of Reading and believe in Reader’s Choice. He’s an Education professor at Furham University in South Carolina. More importantly, he taught high school English in rural South Carolina for 18 years before becoming a teacher of Education. He’s written many books and articles and has spoken long and loud about the problems with the Science of Reading. Here’s a fuller list of his accomplishments. https://www.furman.edu/people/paul-thomas/

Reason One: He’s willing to tell the truth to the power. In an article called “Reading as a First-Mile Problem: Recognizing the Role of Poverty and Inequity in Literacy Development,” he says this about what really causes reading problems: what we refuse to recognize is that measurable reading achievement is a marker for the disadvantages of poverty and inequity in both the lives and schooling of vulnerable populations of students (students in poverty, black and brown students, English language learners, special needs students).” Reading achievement doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Where does the inequity come from? Trace it back to 1619. It’s as though slavery put a curse on the United States, and until that wrong of slavery, with all its bias and discrimination, is righted, some problems will persist. “ . . . reform in reading must start with addressing poverty and inequity in every child’s life. Alleviating poverty, addressing food security, improving work opportunities and security, adopting universal health care — these are issues of equity that would allow all students to acquire reading in ways that are now common for affluent students (often before entering formal schooling).” Read Thomas’s whole 2020 article at https://plthomasedd.medium.com/reading-as-a-first-mile-problem-250853afac27

When will politicians address these root problems, and stop making producers of educational “cure-alls” rich?

Reason Two: He takes the long view. In “Misreading the Reading Wars Again (and Again)” (https://plthomasedd.medium.com/misreading-the-reading-wars-again-and-again-d76d4491e568 ) he writes that the Reading Wars “are into their twelfth decade of crisis rhetoric.” Why? Who is affected by whether phonics or Whole Language is taught? For one, producers of reading instructional materials. In last week’s blog I cited that Maryland is spending multi-billions of dollars implementing the Science of Reading, and that’s just one state. Thomas also cites NCTQ—National Council on Teacher Quality—writing, “NCTQ is a partisan think tank exclusively committed to discrediting teacher education. Their reports, when reviewed, are deeply flawed in methodology and typically misread or misrepresent research in order to reach the only conclusion they ever reach — teacher education is a failure! (Like reading instruction, apparently, has always been.) " For more information on the Reading Wars, see Thomas’ article, tracing the rhetoric back to 1942 https://radicalscholarship.com/2023/01/28/the-long-and-tired-history-of-media-driven-reading-wars/

Reason Three: He can laugh about it. At his website radicalscholarship.com, you’ll find his satire on the Reading Wars. Scroll down to where you read about the newest old invention in reading education, something called Fun-X. https://radicalscholarship.com/2024/06/26/new-product-fun-x/ Based on “The Science of Phonics,” practitioners and students will enjoy this refreshing approach:

That’s right, the program is 100% nonsense words:

·       No thinking!

·       No meaning!

·       Just learn the rules and say the nonsense words.

·       Cultural differences? Doesn’t matter!

·       Dyslexia? No worries, the Science of Phonics® shows we are all dyslexic!

 

Fun-X® insures that

·       Everyone memorizes the same rules.

·       Everyone learns the same rules on the same day and the same way.

·       Everyone pronounces the same nonsense words.

·       Everyone takes the same nonsense word test, BABEL® (available in the suite of support materials below).

 

It’ll be a great day when Fun-X is taught across the United States. Everyone starting on the same day.

Wednesday, July 10, 2024

Why Johnny Won’t Read: Summary

So in case you’re only skimming these blogs, here’s the bottom line:

 Students do better on any kind of assessment if they actually do the reading (no duh)

Honors and AP students (the top third) read more than academic students.

·       Academic students (the middle third) read more than general students.  

·       General students (the bottom third) are reluctant to read anything that is assigned, especially if it’s too long, too hard, or too boring.

·       Students are more apt to read something that’s easier than something that’s harder.  In fact, if text is too difficult, students will not read.

·       Students are more apt to read something shorter than something that is too long.

·       As students get older, they become more aware of SparkNotes.  However, not all students rely on SparkNotes.

o   General students: No thanks.

o   Honors students: Will use to double check their understanding.

o   Academic students: Yes please.

 By the way, if you want a quick way to double-check these observations, take a look at another Youtube video produced by Penny Kittle who taught English at Kennett High School in North Conway, New Hampshire. 

 



 

 

Friday, July 5, 2024

What's the Goal of the Classroom--And How Much Will It Cost? by Robert Hankes

 Robert Hankes blogs on issues in reading education every Friday.

Why must everything in America these days be so black and white?

Two interesting articles came out recently.

 

 One was entitled “Giving students reading choices can expand learning, engagement” Author Lauren Barack interviewed Heather Schwartz, practice specialist for the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). I’d never heard of CASEL before. I looked into the program. They have five components: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. Sounds great! I don’t know how they assess it, but certainly we need more young people schooled in these five areas. Ms. Schwartz suggests that when we give students choice in reading, we honor who are students are, and support the students as part of our learning community. The result? Schwartz says reading choice “yields enormous results as educators see their students engaged, motivated and joyful.” I say, Yeah! That’s the kind of school I want to teach in. I want students to find their bliss. You can read the whole article, published 6/26/2024, at https://www.k12dive.com/news/giving-students-reading-choices/719848/ Takes three minutes.

 

A few days later, on July 1st, radio station WTOP reported that the Maryland State Superintendent of Schools, Ms. Carey Wright, said this about the Science of Reading: “It can teach all students to read.” Immediately my red flags were raised. Dyslexic kids, too? Wright added, “It has decades of research behind it that proves that it works . . .” How many decades?

 

According to WTOP, here’s how it’ll work. “While phonics — understanding the relationship between letters and sounds — is part of the science of reading method, Wright said the science of reading also includes vocabulary-building, comprehension and fluency, meaning the ability to read smoothly and accurately.

 

Haven’t we been there before? Have you ever seen a reading program that didn’t include vocab and comprehension?

 

Wright went on to say that students from K through 3rd grade will be screened for dyslexia, and dyslexic students will be given “special help.” Isn’t that admitting that the Science of Reading alone won’t teach all students to read? Here’s the article: https://wtop.com/education/2024/07/it-can-teach-all-children-to-read-marylands-state-superintendent-of-schools-on-literacy-approach/

 

This reform, called “Blueprint for Maryland’s Future,” will cost Maryland taxpayers billions of dollars. I’m no whiz at math, but Google says implementing CASEL costs $130 per student. Maryland has 889,900 students. That’s $115,687,000.

 

Classrooms filled with joy, or classrooms filled with phonics and comprehension skills. Where would you rather teach? Where would you rather send your kids? And why does it have to be all one way, or the other?

Wednesday, July 3, 2024

Why Johnny Won’t Read: Part 5, by Dean Smith

 Dr. Dean Smith blogs on Wednesdays.

 As part of a study to determine which students were actually reading the assigned texts, I conducted a study comparing three ability groups: AP/Honors, Academic, and General. I wanted to know who was doing the reading and who was merely reading SparkNotes.

 The AP/Honors group did read SparkNotes, but they also read the novel. They used SparkNotes to make sure they weren’t overlooking something and to help them identify the symbols, motifs, themes, etc. This left two groups.  The academic classes and the general classes.  Who wasn’t doing the reading but relying on SparkNotes instead? 

 I could have argued for either group.  I figured that maybe the general classes were relying on SparkNotes, but I found out that they weren’t.  Why not?  Because they’re not going to read anything.  They don’t read the novels, and SparkNotes is just another damn thing to read.  It was the academic classes who cheated like bandits.  All they did was read SparkNotes, and they were passing all of the quizzes because of it, but they never read the novels.   

             Just for fun, I took this study up to the university level and worked with a group of students taking an introductory gen-ed literature course.  I didn’t want to look at a class with a bunch of English majors; I wanted to look at a class with a mixed bag so could see what the average “academic” student was doing.  

             I ended up with the same results with the exception of one thing that I hadn’t taken into consideration.  The professor had chosen a mix of what I’d consider young adult novels and classics: Girl with a Pearl Earring; Love Medicine; Catcher in the Rye; House on Mango Street; The Things They Carried; The Golden Compass; Frankenstein; The Reader; and The Girl in the Flammable Skirt.  

             In short, just like my AP/honors students, the English majors in the class tended to read more of the novels than the non-English majors; no surprise there.  The contemporary novels were more popular than the classics in so far as the amount of the novel actually read.  In conjunction with this, the easier novels as measured in Lexiles were more apt to be read than the more difficult novels.  

             And when it came to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, nobody read it.  The prof was flabberghasted (I didn’t tell her ahead of time what the results were.  She found out on the last day of class at the same time the students did.)  “But we had such great discussions” (this is an actual quote).  What was their response?  “SparkNotes.”

             Here’s what I hadn’t taken into consideration.  The two books that were read the most were The Reader and The Girl in the Flammable Skirt.  Why?  Because of sex.   The Reader involves the awakening of a young man by an older woman, and boy oh boy is he awakened, The Girl in the Flammable Skirt is a collection of short stories that basically focus on repressed sexual fantasies. 

             I had to laugh when I realized what these two books were about, but there is a good point in all of this.  We can’t bring The Girl in the Flammable Skirt into a high school classroom, but there is something to be said about introducing contemporary literature that the students would find more relevant and more interesting.  And there’s a lot of good young adult literature out there.  

 

For Those About to Teach--We Salute You!

 Robert Hankes blogs every Friday. I just saw an ad announcing it’s Back to School time! Not for me! I’m staying home, blogging and writing ...