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A source for short videos

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BrainPOP - Animated Educational Site for Kids - Science, Social Studies, English, Math, Arts & Music, Health, and Technology

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10 Animal Research Websites for Kids - The Library Patch

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Kids LOVE animals!! It is the number one "GO TO" research topic for kids, teachers and librarians. Free websites that provide animal facts for kids are one of my most common requests. I have spent LOTS of time searching the Internet for websites that are easy for elementary students to navigate.

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Sunday Cummin's Blog

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Copyright © 2012 Sunday Cummins | TEACHING FOR CLOSE READING | STUDENT GALLERY | RESOURCE CENTER | MEET SUNDAY | SUNDAY'S BLOG | EMAIL SUNDAY

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3 Questions to use when reading and annotating Nonfiction

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Questioning Stance when Reading Nonfiction What surprised me?  I was shocked about . . .  I never thought. . .  I could not believe. . .  Really? What did the author think I already knew?  I did not know. . . .  I was confused by .  . . .  The author assumed . . . .  The author thought I...

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Short Video clips

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Photo Analysis Worksheet- National Archives

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Photo Analysis Worksheet- National Archives

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DPLA provides free digital access to banned books

DPLA has launched The Banned Book Club to ensure that all readers have access to the books they want to read. The Banned Book Club makes e-book versions of banned books available to readers in locations across the United States where titles have been banned via the free Palace e-reader app.

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The Digital Public Library of America brings together the riches of America's libraries, archives, and museums, and makes them freely available to the world.

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Comprehension and Technology: Technology a Powerful Tool for Learning 

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Comprehension and Technology: Technology a Powerful Tool for Learning 

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8 min. Video

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Heinemann is a publisher of professional resources and a provider of educational services for teachers, kindergarten through college.

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Amplify Introduction Video Link: http://www.heinemann.com/products/E07473.aspx

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Our lesson plans are written and reviewed by educators using current research and the best instructional practices and are aligned to state and national standards. Choose from hundreds of topics and strategies.

Find the latest in professional publications, learn new techniques and strategies, and find out how you can connect with other literacy professionals.

Teacher Resources by Grade
Research Basis Strategy in Practice Related Resources
An increasing number of students own Internet-capable mobile devices and are already reading a variety of texts on them. Help students become more critical consumers of their texts by teaching strategies to critically engage with texts on mobile devices.

The International Literacy Association's New Literacies and 21st-Century Technologies position statement states that new literacies emerge with new technologies; these new literacies include engaging with a robust number of multimedia texts and applications. As more students consume information from their various mobile devices, these literacies become increasingly important.

When working with their own mobile devices, students access, read, evaluate, and use a variety of texts within a multitude of environments. Teaching students what actions they need to take while finding information, reading, and taking notes helps them better understand the functionality they need within any given mobile application. However, instructors also need to come to the multi-device party prepared with suggestions for different reading and note-taking applications.

By encouraging students to understand how to critically evaluate and use reading and note-taking mobile applications, instructors help students become more fluent with different technologies as well as more information literate ( The NCTE Definition of 21st-Century Literacies).

Students can access many types of digital texts via their Internet-ready mobile devices. Before explicitly supporting your students' reading on their smartphones or tablets, do the following:

Confirm that students and their guardians realize you're using these devices, and verify that each has a large enough data package to stay within students' data allowances.

Review different mobile reading and note-taking applications. Consider collaborating with fellow faculty with different mobile devices and access to different applications. Some criteria to review include the following:

Reading: the ability to adjust word size, font, and color; inclusion of a text-to-audio option

Highlighting: the ability to highlight text, ideally in multiple colors

Note-taking: the ability to associate notes with pieces of text

Sharing: the ability to share texts, highlights, and notes

Privacy and security

Take pictures/screen captures of specific functions within different applications so you can share them.

You cannot know all the functionalities of every reading and note-taking application; instead, be comfortable with some, and you and your students will teach each other. When you introduce reading on mobile devices, consider the following activities:

Discuss the different ways you interact with a text while reading. Develop a list together of application functionalities students want and need.

Consider having in-class mobile reading time. At first, these sessions may include some conversation about how to work a given application, in addition to discussion about students' reading process and the content. Also consider having students reflect upon when and where they read on their mobile devices.

If you want students to do specific activities, assign things like changing the reading interface, looking up words, highlighting, or taking notes where you ask them to share the results, either through the application itself or through a picture/screen capture.

Discuss the fact that a majority of mobile reading is either texts that individuals have saved for easy access or looking up and reading just-in-time information. Have students discuss times when their friends or family read just-in-time information. Use that as an opportunity to discuss evaluating sources.

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Our lesson plans are written and reviewed by educators using current research and the best instructional practices and are aligned to state and national standards. Choose from hundreds of topics and strategies. Find the latest in professional publications, learn new techniques and strategies, and find out how you can connect with other literacy professionals.

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Most of the LEARN NC Content has been archived using the Wayback Machine. Instructions for how to access that content is below, including links to frequently requested materials.

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Our blog has been a little quiet for a while (okay.. a LONG while..), which I attribute to an abundance of activity, not a lack thereof! A wonderful visit this year by teachers from Iowa, Wisconsin, and Champaign, Illinois reminded us of the importance of documenting and sharing our iPad journey, so the Burley team is making a resolution to post more frequently in 2014.

Now in year four of iPad implementation, our approach to apps has evolved considerably. We started where many teachers start: by combing through the app store, looking for apps for just about everything. And we still get excited when we discover a cool new app -- who doesn't? But as time has passed, we find ourselves settling in to workflows and tools that can be used again and again across the curriculum. We've realized that a powerful, effective technology program can be implemented with just a few simple, well-chosen workflows.

The other title for this post could be Make Stuff, Share Stuff. This is the heart of what our kids do with the iPads, and it can look quite different from teacher to teacher. In some classrooms, students and teachers are fluent creators in a wide range of multimedia apps. In others, people might be building their confidence with one or two creation apps. But the thought process is the same: What can I create to show my thinking, and how can I share it with others?

There are innumerable answers to that question. Here's a list of just some of the possibilities.

Step 1: Make stuff.

a photo of any classroom experience or student work the Camera. (This is the sneaky one - no special media skills required, but it's still powerful to digitize and share current learning!)

a drawing / illustration / diagram / map using Skitch, DrawingPad, PicCollage

Make a comic / advertisement / review / poster using Pages, ComicLife, Strip Designer, Phoster

Make a narrated screencast using ScreenChomp, Educreations, ReplayNote, ShowMe, Doceri, Explain Everything

Make a video / podcast / documentary / book trailer / public service announcement / newscast using iMovie, SonicPics, Reel Director, Videolicious

Step 2: Share Stuff.

- While the Kidblog app continues to be a bit clumsy, there's no denying the power of Kidblog to give students authentic audience and voice. Teachers can maintain a great deal of control over blog access at first and then gradually expand the audience as students are ready. And by using Tags or Categories, kids can post about a wide range of ideas and learning within one organized blog.

- Students can post work, and the teacher can make selected posts public.

Google Drive - Logging classroom iPads into a single shared Drive account gives you a space where you can not only collect files, but you can also make selected files and folders public and share the link with others. This can be done from within the iOS app or from a computer.

- Files saved in DropBox can be made public, and you can easily get a link to those files.

And since sharing doesn't really count if there's no audience on the other end, let's add one more.
Step 3: Put it out there.

Create QR codes linking to your shared work (we use qrstuff.com). Then, post them around your classroom, school, or community, or print them on flyers, newsletters, or student business cards (an idea from my friend Kristin Ziemke.)

Create a TinyURL-an easy web address that parents can type in if you send it home on a flyer. (You can also use bit.ly, ow.ly, or goo.gl to shorten a URL.)

Post a link on your classroom website.

Invite families to come in for a technology open house to explore and comment on student work.

Tweet or blog about it, and see your audience grow!

While that may seem like a daunting list of options, you can start with one item from each category. It doesn't have to be complicated: imagine a teacher who uses just PicCollage, Kidblog, and QR codes to let kids create and share. Make a text & photo collage of top non-fiction books, post it on the blog, and give other readers access through a QR code. Make a collage about reading habits, then repeat steps 2 and 3. Make a collage showing sequential steps to a science experiment, repeat steps 2 and 3. One workflow, multiple uses. With a reliable workflow, you don't have to wonder: what can we make, and what will we do with it once it's done? Your focus can remain where it belongs: on teaching and learning, and on thinking about when to share and how to do so purposefully. You'll know when you and your students are ready to move on to a new creation app. However, you may be surprised how much mileage you can get out of one or two apps as your reasons for sharing grow deeper, and your students use the now-familiar tools to teach others.

As you explore workflows to use with your students, ask yourself these questions:

After some practice, will kids be able to do this independently?

Do I have a supportive classroom culture that promotes student sharing and collaboration?

Do I have systems in place to ensure student privacy, and to ensure compliance with any school or district policies pertaining to online publishing? (For example, we never post photos of students that are identified by their name.)

Here's some closing advice I would share with beginning iPad teachers or with leaders at the start of an iPad rollout: It's okay to start small, but it won't help you in the long run if you start shallow. Initial iPad PD often focuses on pre-packaged publisher apps or on single-purpose skill apps to "get people started." I think this is a mistake. The opportunity to teach and learn with iPads can be a life-changing one, for you and your students. By empowering kids from the beginning to create meaningful work and then share it to inform, persuade, and inspire others, you help students see themselves as thinkers, authors, and creators whose ideas and knowledge have genuine purpose. And you begin a shift in your classroom that gives students ownership over their learning and authentic voice beyond the school walls. That's one of the greatest benefits of classroom technology. Head in that direction from the very beginning, and there's no limit to where you can go.

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Our blog has been a little quiet for a while (okay.. a LONG while..), which I attribute to an abundance of activity, not a lack thereof! A wonderful visit this year by teachers from Iowa, Wisconsin, and Champaign, Illinois reminded us of the importance of documenting and sharing our iPad journey, so the Burley team is making a resolution to post more frequently in 2014.

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Thousands of copyright free and copyright friendly images and photos for teachers and students.

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Looking for ideas for getting photos into your Book Creator books? We've got you covered.

Our last blog post was about understanding copyright and licensing issues when sourcing images, and we're following that up with some research into the best sites on the web to find photos, and in particular for when using an iPad.

So here we go. I've tested all the following sites on an iPad to see how well they work, from an educator's point of view. I've also set some criteria to help rate each service:

Design

This considers not only the aesthetic design but also the way the site works technically, for example - have the designers considered how people will download photos? Do users require an account to download photos?

Ease of navigation

How easy is the site to use - can you find what you are looking for? Is it easy to filter images? Is the search bar in an obvious place? Is it easy to see how to download or save photos?

Search

Does the search return reliable results? More importantly - is the search safe to use by young students in school? Is there a safe search function? What happens if kids try and search for adult keywords like 'sexy', 'porn' or 'guns'?

Quality/quantity of images

It could the best designed site in the world with an excellent navigation and amazing search function, but if there aren't any decent photos at the end of it, the site falls down. We want to see hi-res, well-taken images, with a wide variety to choose from so students aren't all using the same few.

Explanation of licensing

Is it clear how the site has obtained photos, what the licenses are for each photo and how they may be used? Is it obvious once you've done a search that the license is what you hoped it would be?

Website: flickr.com/creativecommons

Flickr is a very, very popular photo sharing site that has been around for ages, and is now owned by Yahoo, meaning that the quantity and quality of photos available is second-to-none.

Starting at the Flickr Creative Commons page, you get an excellent explanation of the various licenses, with a link directly through to a filtered search for any of the licenses.

The filtering options are fantastic, with what seems to be a reliable SafeSearch option (a couple of observations - it would be easy for a student to turn off the SafeSearch, and my search for penguins seemed to return quite a few pictures of dead penguins!).

Having said that, searching for unsafe keywords returns some pretty inappropriate images for younger ones, even with the SafeSearch on. I guess that's the trade-off when there are so many more images available (there are over 1 million images in the Public Domain category alone).

Downloading an image is very simple - you can tap the download icon and actually choose a size you want (a good way of teaching about pixels and file size). When you've chosen, the image will open in Safari ready for you to long tap and save the image to your Camera Roll (or you can Copy it and paste it directly into Book Creator).

Book Creator Support: Working with images

Note, there is also an iPad app for Flickr, but if you install this you will be required to login. If you just intend to search Flickr without uploading photos there's no need to get the app - you don't need an account to search and download photos from Flickr if you access the site with Safari.

The tagline is 'Free High Quality Images' and that certainly seems to be the case (over 520,000 photos and vectors).

It's a great site, and benefits from being curated so all the images do seem to be high quality. The search has some good filtering capabilities and it also scores points for having video as well. The homepage statement about how the photos can be used is excellent.

I guess the biggest problem with this site is that it's not designed with kids in mind, and so the search is definitely not safe if searching for inappropriate keywords. And the site loses points for containing sponsored images from Shutterstock in the first row of results - kids are likely to tap straight onto these.

It's also slightly let down by the fact that you need to sign up for an account to download hi-res versions of the photos. You can get away with long tapping on an image rather than tapping the download button if you're happy with a lower-res photo. You can also enter the Captcha each time instead of logging in.

It's a very well put together site - probably better for use in high school than with younger kids.

What's great about Photos For Class is that it's intentionally set up for schools to use, for free. They automatically cite photos for you, which is a really useful tool for teachers who are unsure about copyright and attribution.

Interestingly, the app doesn't actually have it's own photos - it uses an API to source photos from Flickr. Using Flickr's SafeSearch and their own purpose-built filters, the search is incredibly child-friendly (try any slightly risqué keyword and you get photos of ' adorable dogs '!). This alone might be the best reason to use this app over others.

However, it is quite a basic service - there are no categories of images, and no way to filter images after you've searched. I would say this app works best for use in the classroom with students. If you're a teacher creating your own textbooks, you might find other apps more useful.

The USP of this site is that it searches for free Creative Commons stock photos from all over the internet - over 200 million images! With no curation of images from the search I would expect you'll come across some fairly low quality images, but to be fair most images returned seemed high quality.

I like the categories of images, the way they can be sorted ("interestingness"?!) and the information you're presented with about each photo. If you're a fan of infographics, their blog has a great one about ' How to Attribute Creative Commons Photos '.

This service even has integration with WordPress so you can easily add photos to a WordPress website (or just copy and paste the embed code provided). And if you are happy to login, you can create lightboxes of images which could be useful over time.

There are a couple of concerns though. Providing so many un-curated images means you're putting a lot of trust in their search facility to return photos that actually have the right license. And by default it also means the site is not going to be overly kid-friendly for searching.

Overall, I like the way this site is put together - I could see me using this for the Book Creator blog, for example. So I think this one is better for teachers than students.

School wouldn't be school without copious use of clipart, right? And actually there are definitely times when your creations will benefit more from clipart than a photo, so this site makes the list.

All of the clipart has been uploaded from users and everything on the site is released freely into the public domain, so there are no issues with using these in your books.

OK, so clipart can be very much hit and miss in terms of quality, but there seem to be enough images in their library to find what you need, and the collections and tags make it easy enough to search.

Unfortunately this site does have adverts so be careful using in the classroom. Also look out for the downloading process - if you hit the big red Download button you won't be able to save the image to your iPad Camera Roll (as it downloads as an SVG file). Choose one of the PNG files instead and you'll be ok. [hr]

Other notable mentions

Creative Commons Search - Many teachers use this to search for images. I didn't include it in my main list as it's nothing more than a portal to other sites. It's easy to use as you simply type the search keyword and then click on a service.

Google advanced image search - This is probably a popular search option as everyone uses Google and knows it to be powerful. The filters are great but a bit like Foter, you'd be be wise to click through and verify that the image you're looking at actually has the license that Google says it has.

FreeImages.com - I include this as I've been using it personally for years, back when it was known as sxc.hu. It's since been bought out by Getty Images so expect lots of premium search results too, but it's a great repository of free images.

The Noun Project - I love the iconography on this site, and I've used it many times for other projects. You'll need an account and if you don't want to pay, you'll have to attribute, but it's a great source of alternative images.

Pics4Learning - This site was one of those frequently mentioned by our Book Creator Ambassadors. It benefits from being education-focused, with well organised collections, but it's dated design and use of ads lets it down somewhat, plus it's much harder to use on the iPad than on a laptop.

And the rest...

There are so many sites out there this could be an almost endless list, but here are the other sites I looked at in my research:

Acknowledgements

I want to highlight the following articles which were very useful in my research.

I also acknowledge the input of our Book Creator Ambassadors, who gave recommendations on the tools they use, and Karen Miller, co-founder of DoInk. Apps, who contacted me via Linkedin with her list of photo sources. Oh, and also these wonderful people on Twitter!

What do you think of our list?

Disagree with anything I've said? Have I missed any that you use? Let's share the knowledge and make this article even more useful - post a comment below.

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Dan Kemp is Red Jumper's Community Manager. He spends his time spreading the word about Book Creator and supporting people who use it.

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Our top 5 sites for sourcing great images and photos on your iPad - Book Creator app

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Looking for ideas for getting photos into your Book Creator books? We've got you covered. Our last blog post was about understanding copyright and licensing issues when sourcing images, and we're following that up with some research into the best sites on the web to find photos, and in particular for when using an iPad.

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Informational Text Resources and Strategies

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Information Text Links and Research Links

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Connecting Comprehension and Technology- Video Links

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Connecting Comprehension and Technology- Video Links

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Professional Knowledge Artifact- Active Literacy- Using Tech Tools to Deepen Comprehension

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Be the change, being a teacher, student choice, Student dreams, student voice

It's hard to believe that we have already had 31 days with this incredible new batch of kids. 31 days of laughing, of learning (hopefully), of working to somehow create a community that will matter to all of us. I think we are finally starting to get into the groove of who we are and what we need to do.

As I prepared for this week, it was therefore natural for me to wonder how the students felt. Are they also feeling like we are doing worthwhile work? Are they feeling respected? How can we change our teaching to make it work for them?

Rather than assume, I did what I have done for many years and what I tell others to do all of the time; I asked. On a simple 30-day survey, we asked them a few questions about the class, about themselves, and also about how we have been doing.

As the responses came in, I was startled at their kindness. How many kids said that they wouldn't change the class, that they like what we are doing, and most importantly they feel respected by us. In fact, after giving the survey I had kind of a let down - this what it? All they had to say? And yet, again I am reminded that it is not always what they say but that they have a chance to speak in the first place. I tell our students to be honest, that I have thick skin, that we cannot grow if we don't know what we need to work on from their perspective. And so whether students tell us hard truths or give us amicable reassurances, it is not always what they say but instead that we asked. That we listened. that we did something about the words that they gave us.

So now, we will read more. I will try to speak less (always something I am working on), and I will try to notice the things they have asked me to notice. We are so quick to assume what our students may think or feel, instead just ask them. Whenever you can and whatever you can. I promise you will learn something.
If you like what you read here, consider reading my newest book, Passionate Readers - The Art of Reaching and Engaging Every Child. This book focuses on the five keys we can implement into any reading community to strengthen student reading experiences, even within the 45 minute English block. If you are looking for solutions and ideas for how to re-engage all of your students consider reading my very first book Passionate Learners - How to Engage and Empower Your Students. Also, if you are wondering where I will be in the coming year or would like to have me speak, please see this page.

being a teacher

I get asked a few times a week where I will be speaking next or whether I do a certain type of work with educators. While most of my time is spent in room 235d, Oregon Middle School, with my incredibly funny and also rightfully demanding 7th graders, I am on the road once or twice a month, sometimes more. Summers I am on the road a lot. I love this work with other educators, it is one of the biggest honors and challenges that I have, and yes, I am always interested in working with districts. Being with educators and brainstorming with them is an incredible adventure and I walk away with more knowledge every single time.

So just in case, you are wondering what type of work I do and where I will be, check here.

If you are wondering what types of session I lead, check here.

NCTE is coming up soon and besides NerdCamp it is my favorite conference of the year. Not only do I get to present alongside incredible people, but I also get to learn so much. So if you will be at NCTE, here is where I will be for sure. (Other times I will be in the exhibit hall browsing books or sitting in sessions - don't be afraid to say hi if you want).

Thursday:

Amplify!: Strategies for Elevating Student Voice in the Classroom and Beyond
Thursday, November 15, 2018 1:00-2:15 p.m.

Presenting alongside: Valeria Brown, Matthew Homrich-Knieling, Julie Jee, Christie Nold and José Luis Vilson
Friday:
Cultivating Students' Voices in the Reading/Writing Workshop
Friday, November 16, 2018 12:30-1:45 p.m.

Leading roundtables with: Nancy Akhavan, Pam Allyn, Gretchen Bernabei, Jim Burke, Rose Cappelli, Harvey Daniels, Dr. Lynne Dorfman, Gravity Goldberg, Renee Houser, Mary Howard, Ellin Keene, Brian Kissel, Dr. Lester Laminack, Patty McGee, Donalyn Miller, James Nageldinger, Linda Rief, Pernille Ripp, Evan Robb, Laura Robb and Nancy Steineke.

Creating Passionate Reading Communities: Practical Tools to Engage Every Child, Every Day
Friday, November 16, 2018 3:30-4:45 p.m.
Presenting alongside: Penny Kittle and Donalyn Miller

Saturday:
Breaking Down Stereotypes and Stigmas One Book at a Time
Saturday, November 17, 2018 4:15-5:30 p.m.

Presenting alongside: Leah Henderson, K.A. Holt, Laura Shovan, and Elly Swartz
Sunday:
CEL Keynote - Passionate Readers
I hope our paths cross.

Be the change, being a teacher, Reading, Reading Identity

Our oldest daughter, Thea, has been in intense reading intervention since she was in Kindergarten. This creative, vivacious, book-loving child just could not seem to find the right words when she looked at the letters. And yet she persisted through it all, continually going back to books even if the words proved to be elusive. Like many parents whose children do not come naturally to reading, we have seemingly tried it all. More read aloud, more quiet reading, more strategies, more conversation, more intervention, more of anything we could think of and yet, I will never forget that day in 2nd grade when Thea came home and declared, "Mom, I don't think I am a reader because reading is just too hard...."

I think you could have heard my heart break a mile away.

Because here was a child who had grown up surrounded by books. A child who had grown up being read to. A child who had grown up being surrounded by readers. A child who had seemingly been given every opportunity to be a reader and yet, the foundational skills of reading, the decoding of actual letters to form words, that seemed like it would never happen for her.

So we did the only thing we knew how; we handed her more books, more reading for pleasure, less pressure, more time. And so did her teachers.

A few months later, Thea once again had a declaration to make. "Mom, I'm a reader because I can read this book!" I came to the front door where she stood clutching a book to her chest. She said, "I can't read all the words but the pictures help me figure it out. I have to go read it now to Ida and Oskar..." and she did, and they sat together huddled around this book that had shown my daughter that she was a reader despite her struggles, and she repeated her reading, and she carried that book hugging it to her chest. She placed that under her pillow at night, every day checking to see if it was still there so she could read it one more time. Carried it back and forth to school as she got braver and found more books just like it that also made her believe she was a reader. We still have that book; it is Dogman by Dav Pilkey. Her teacher recommended it to her and our daughter's reading life has never been the same since then.

So when I hear teacher's tell students that graphic novels are too easy. That comic books are not real reading. That it is time to pick a "real" book. That they can read books like that for fun but not for learning, I tend to get a bit upset. You see, comics are what kept me reading long into the night as a child when books seemed like too much work. Graphic novels are what make my students who declare they hate reading actually give it a try. Dog Man and all of the other books by Dav Pilkey are what made Thea believe she was a reader. How can we just dismiss that?

You think graphic novels are easy? Read March by Senator John Lewis. You think comics are just for fun? Read Black Panther by Ta-Nehisi Coates. You think graphic novels don't have substance? Read Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett J. Krosoczka. And then tell me that graphic novels don't belong in our classrooms. That they don't count as real books. That they are just dessert books, or filler, or vacation books or whatever other terms we use to tell kids that that book they just selected is simply "too easy" for them despite their obvious excitement.

Because when you tell a child that the book they have chosen is too easy you may be dismissing the first book they have ever connected with.

You may be dismissing the first book they have ever actually enjoyed.

You may be dismissing the first book they have ever seen themselves in.

You may be dismissing the first book that made them finally believe that they, too, are a reader.

Because you see when we tell kids that a book is too easy we are dismissing their entire reading journey. We are dismissing who they are as readers and just how much work it may have been to get there. We are telling them that their reading journey only has value if they read books that we deem appropriate and that is never okay. Have we gotten so lost in our reading instruction that we cannot see the harm we can do?

So it is time for us all to realize that while comic books, graphic novels, or any other medium that has pictures in it may seem "easy" at first glance, I think the word we are really looking for is enticing, not easy. Is inviting, not fluff. Gives courage, not a cop out of reading. And that these masterful pieces of literature are, indeed, full-fledged members of the book family. Are, indeed, full-fledged literary components that deserve not just to be placed into the hands of our students, but also taught alongside other books. To be held up as shining examples of literary greatness that we should appreciate, promote, and celebrate alongside all of the other books we have.

Thea is still a reader and she still loves Dog Man. She loves Captain Underpants - Tralala! She loves Bad Kitty, Smile, Drama, Lunch Lady, Baby Mouse, Bad Guys, and any graphic novel that comes her way. But she also loves Wishtree, The One and Only Ivan, The Tale of Despereaux, and all of the other books she has read since then. Books she would have never had the courage or gumption to try if she had not found Dog Man. If Dav Pilkey had not had the heart and courage to continue to write books that kids would love even if the adults didn't. I owe our daughter's reading life to him and to her teacher that saw a child who desperately needed to feel like a reader and was smart enough to hand her a graphic novel. Not because she thought it would be easy for her, but because she thought that it was just what Thea needed. And boy, was she ever right.

If you need more information or ideas of why graphic novels and comics belong in our libraries and schools, here are just a few resources shared with me:
Is a Picture Worth a Thousand Words? Determining the Criteria for Graphic Novels with Literary Merit Exploring Literary Devices in Graphic Novels A Printable Educator's Guide to Graphic Novels Ted Talk: Jarret J. Krosoczka How a Boy Became an Artist Annual Reminder that Graphic Novels are Real Reading Raising a Reader Graphic Novels in the Classroom by Gene Luen Yang Why Comics Belong in the Classroom - Gene Luen Yang TedX A Place on the BookShelf for Graphic Novels by Jarret J Krosoczka The Research Behind Graphic Novels and Young Learners Graphic Novels and Picture Books for All Ages by Donalyn Miller Comics Used for Therapy Database One teacher's journey in using Comics with students Facebook group for teachers using comics Research: Graphic Novels in the Secondary Classroom and School Libraries The Power of Manga, Comics, and Graphic Novel Through the Lens of AASL Standards CBLDF Panel Power
Professional Titles:
The Graphic Novel Classroom: Powerful Teaching & Learning with Images by Maureen Bakis
Class, Please Open Your Comics: Essays on Teaching with Graphic Narratives by Matthew L. Miller Graphic Novels and Comics in the Classroom: Essays on the Educational Power of Sequential Art by Carrye Kay Syma Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud If you like what you read here, consider reading my newest book, Passionate Readers - The Art of Reaching and Engaging Every Child. This book focuses on the five keys we can implement into any reading community to strengthen student reading experiences, even within the 45 minute English block. If you are looking for solutions and ideas for how to re-engage all of your students consider reading my very first book Passionate Learners - How to Engage and Empower Your Students. Also, if you are wondering where I will be in the coming year or would like to have me speak, please see this page.

Be the change, being a teacher

I forgot yesterday was a Monday. As I drove home, I couldn't quite wrap my head around why the day did not seem to have gone as planned. Why I had just taken away all yoga balls in our classroom. Why the energy seemed so off, no matter what I did. And then it dawned on me; it was a Monday, and every Monday I leave thinking that I need to change the way I teach. That what we are doing is not working. That surely I should not be writing about the way I teach because if you had been in our classroom, you would have been just a little bit surprised, after all, aren't we supposed to have it all figured out by now?

This morning as I got ready for another day, a child walked in and declared, "Monday's turn me into Garfield..." and I remembered once again, that sometimes Monday's are hard. Sometimes the final class of the day is loud. Sometimes the kid we thought we had helped feel comfortable still does hurtful things. Sometimes I am more tired then I thought I was. Sometimes things happen outside of our classroom that influences our classroom in ways we couldn't foresee, and while all of these may seem like excuses o why the day didn't go as planned, they are not. They are reminders.

Reminders that we are human. Reminders that teaching is never perfect. Reminders that sometimes despite what we plan, despite what we intend, despite what we think a day will be like, it just isn't.

And they are reminders to see the small wins, the small successes that will ultimately shape this year together. Like the kid who agreed to give an audiobook a try despite how much they hate reading. Or the kid who asked for help and never has before. The kid who started yelling but then realized what he did and apologized. The kid who couldn't wait to tell me about the book they finished. The kid who took the time to tell me that no matter what I always seem to be smiling. That no matter what, the 7th grade teachers are all pretty nice.

Those are the reminders we all need but seem to forget as we focus on the things that seem to not work. So I wonder; have you given yourself a moment to realize how much good there has happened? How far we have actually come?

Because if you look you will see the growth. You will see those small changes as these kids figure out how to be more than what they came as. You will see them try. You will see them stretch themselves, even if it doesn't seem apparent on the surface. But you won't if you don't look closely, it is so easy to miss in all of the things that have not yet been figured out.

So if you had been in our classroom yesterday, you may have thought it was a rougher day, and yet, I would have told you; it's just Monday. Tomorrow will be better because that's just how it goes. And you know what, today was a pretty good day, just like yesterday. How about yours?
If you like what you read here, consider reading my newest book, Passionate Readers - The Art of Reaching and Engaging Every Child. This book focuses on the five keys we can implement into any reading community to strengthen student reading experiences, even within the 45 minute English block. If you are looking for solutions and ideas for how to re-engage all of your students consider reading my very first book Passionate Learners - How to Engage and Empower Your Students. Also, if you are wondering where I will be in the coming year or would like to have me speak, please see this page.

being a student, being a teacher, Reading, Reading Identity, student choice

"....well, I didn't finish any books last year..."She turns to me and smiles.

"What do you mean?" I ask, not sure I have heard her correctly, after all, I know what amazing work they do in 6th grade.

"....I just stopped reading them, I didn't finish them. I got bored..."

She puts the book down that she is abandoning and starts to look for a new one.

I love book abandonment. It is something I preach should be a taught skill to all kids, a right even. If you don't like the book, don't read it, it's as simple as that when it comes to building a love of reading. And yet, this year, we have been exposed to a new level of book abandonment. A whole group of kids who never, according to their own recollection, finished a book of their own choosing last year. Not one, not two kids, but many. And they really don't like reading.

Perhaps you have a group like this as well?

So how do you protect or create the joy of reading, when you really need students to experience a whole book from start to finish?

In conferring with many of my students, the obvious place to start is their book selection process. When I ask them how they find their next read, many of them confess to only doing a few things, mainly look at the cover and then start it. They haven't taken the book for a test run, haven't considered the length of the book, they don't really know their likes and dislikes and so when the book turns out to be other than what they expected, they abandon it.

So reading identity is once again where we start. How well do they know themselves as readers? What do they like to read? What is their reading rate? What do they abandon? Is there a pattern? Are they aware of their own habits at all? I start by interviewing them and taking notes, then I also have them reflect on themselves as readers and we track this information. I also check in with them more, how are they doing with the book? How are they liking it?

Book selection comes next. What are their book shopping habits? We refer to the lesson we did at the beginning of the year and help them book shop. Who are their book people? How do they find books to read? What are their preferences? What is on their to-be-read list already? Thinking of all of this can help them with their next selection.

Track their abandonment. While all students are expected to write down finished or abandoned titles, we are finding that many of our serial abandoners do not, so we will help them do that. This is so they can start to see their own patterns; when did they abandon a book, why did they abandon it? How far were they? What type of book was it? What strategies did they use before they abandoned it? They will track this on this form. This is only something we will do with these serial abandoners, not students who abandon a book once in a while. What can they discover about themselves as they look at this information? I also know that some of our serial book abandoners are not on our radar yet, so this survey will help us identify them so we can help.

Teach them stamina strategies. Many of our students give up on books the minute they slow down or "get boring" as they would say. They don't see the need for slower parts to keep the story going. They also, often, miss the nuances of these "slower" parts and don't see the importance of them. So a few stamina strategies we will teach are asking why the story is slowing down and paying attention to what they have just figured out about the characters. Another is to skim the "boring" parts for now so they can get back to the story. While this is a not a long-term solution, it does help keep them in the book and hopefully also helps them see that the book does pick up again. They can also switch the way they interact with the text, perhaps they can read these sections aloud, or listen to an audio version for those parts.

Realize we are in this for the long haul. Too often our gut reaction is to restrict. To select books for the students to read no matter what. To set up rules where they are not allowed to abandon the next book they select, and yet, I worry about the longevity of these solutions. What are they really teaching? So instead, we dedicate the time and patience it takes to truly change these habits. We surround students with incredible books, we book talk recommendations, we give them time to read, and we give them our attention. We continue to let them choose even if we are questioning their abilities to choose the correct book. Becoming a reader who reads for pleasure, or who at least can get through a book and not hate it, does not always happen quickly. We have to remember this as we try to help students fundamentally change their habits with books. Restricting them in order to help them stick with a book can end up doing more damage than good as students don't get to experience the incredible satisfaction of having selected a book and then actually finishing it.

I know that this year, I will once again be transformed as a teacher. That these kids that I am lucky enough to teach will push me in ways I haven't been pushed before. My hope, what I really hope happens, is for every child to walk out of room 235d thinking; perhaps reading is not so bad after all. Perhaps there are books in the world for me. A small hope, but a necessary one.
If you like what you read here, consider reading my newest book, Passionate Readers - The Art of Reaching and Engaging Every Child. This book focuses on the five keys we can implement into any reading community to strengthen student reading experiences, even within the 45 minute English block. If you are looking for solutions and ideas for how to re-engage all of your students consider reading my very first book Passionate Learners - How to Engage and Empower Your Students. Also, if you are wondering where I will be in the coming year or would like to have me speak, please see this page.

assessment, being a teacher, Literacy, Reading

Ask our students what makes them hate reading and many of them will say the work that comes after. The reading logs, the essays, the taking notes when reading, the post-its, the to-do's. Not the act of reading itself. They share their truths year after year and year after year, I wonder how I am going to see whether they really are understanding and learning without making them drown in assignments that make them hate reading. It is a hard balance to find, especially if your students like ours have reading abilities that range from years above grade level to years below.

While the students will be working on other skills with their reading, right now, we are working on increasing stamina and enjoying their books, a skill that some of our students need a lot of work on. When we introduce too much to them to do, that is when they end up not really working on their reading but rather hunting the text for their answer. This is when they start to dislike reading. While being able to disseminate a text and do the heavy work with text analysis is important, I cannot have them do that all of the time, not every time they read. After all, how many adults do that every time they read?

This year, my colleague, Reidun offered up a great idea; the simple notecard. The notecard is unassuming. It is limited in its scope based on its size and it also does not take much time. Rather than writing anything long, which we only do once in a while, when students have been introduced to a teaching point such as writers using emotive language, we then ask them to return to their own self-selected text and look for an example. As they read they find a sentence or two, write it down and hand it to us.

When I have a moment, I am able to quickly scan through to see who got it and who didn't, make a note of it and then figure out who needs to be in one of our small groups. Who gets it, who doesn't. The kids spend most of their time reading, rather than taking notes, and I get a chance to peek into their thought process.

As the year progresses, our skill focus will change, our questions will deepen, and yet, offering students time to "simply" read is something that we will continue to protect every single day. The notecard allows me to peek at skills, to inform my instruction, and to collect data. All without causing a major interruption in their time with the text.
If you like what you read here, consider reading my newest book, Passionate Readers - The Art of Reaching and Engaging Every Child. This book focuses on the five keys we can implement into any reading community to strengthen student reading experiences, even within the 45 minute English block. If you are looking for solutions and ideas for how to re-engage all of your students consider reading my very first book Passionate Learners - How to Engage and Empower Your Students. Also, if you are wondering where I will be in the coming year or would like to have me speak, please see this page.

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Be the change, being a teacher, student choice, Student dreams, student voice It's hard to believe that we have already had 31 days with this incredible new batch of kids. 31 days of laughing, of learning (hopefully), of working to somehow create a community that will matter to all of us.

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The Power of Digital Story

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Digital stories, now both easy to produce and simple to publish, are an ideal way to energize learning and engage students at a deeper level. Digital storytelling creates space for students to pursue topics about which they are passionate, grows their learning around assigned topics, and showcases their learning for peers, teachers, and audiences beyond the schoolhouse, all of whom are able to interact with the storyteller. To allow the power of story to blossom in learning spaces, it is necessary to focus on a few factors that can maximize its effect.

Create Space for Listening

The world is full of story -- just look at the fire-hose blast of Snapchat images, YouTube videos, and those moments of binge-watching Netflix. The noise of this digital information can be overwhelming. It can create a numbness to the outside world and limit the ability to retain and reflect on essential learning. Because of this, places of learning must be places of listening that allow time and space for the speed of life to be digested in a meaningful way. How have you practiced listening to story as a teacher, and how have you created this space for students? The power of digital story comes from the power of the audience that is genuinely engaged in listening to its message.

Persuade with the Head and the Heart

Digital story works because it fills our heads with engaging emotional rhetoric and paves a compelling reason to act or think differently. Emotion alone doesn't make digital story, as the names, faces, and numbers of the situation round out the message. Without the intellectual hook, the emotional plea can sound hollow and appear to be built on a flimsy foundation. The unique nature of digital story -- with its quick visual displays of information coupled with its engaging images of people, place, and planet -- provides the ideal media for amplifying the impact that comes from seamlessly weaving together these areas.

Lead with the Narrative

Great digital stories are rooted in their narrative. The beauty of digital story is that the narrative follows the same story arc that has always been a part of oral and written story. Helping kids become great presenters and great writers will support their proficiency as digital story creators.

Amplify with Images

A thousand words isn't the true power of images. Great images link story elements, humanize the abstract, and force the audience to see invisible people and places. Images are a gateway into the soul of stories. Digital story creators need to select each image with the same intentionality that each word is chosen for the narrative. Beautiful images allow digital stories to be remembered by more people in a deeper way.

Nurture the Process

Classrooms, schools, and districts that are rich in story will better support the learning of students who are already living in a culture of digital storytelling. Teachers, students, and community members need to feel an environment for learning that promotes voice, shares best practices, and celebrates the best of learning. In addition, the best of digital storytelling comes from the art of iteration. Success comes from publishing, revising, editing, analyzing, and tinkering with the craft. Allow time for adults and students to be a part of this powerful practice.

Understand the Tools

The quality and quantity of web-based tools for creating, designing, and making incredible digital story continues to grow. It is important for classrooms and schools to choose a few tools that work for them based on ease, accessibility, and cost, and take the time to really understand those tools both with and without content wrapped around their use. Currently, there are excellent stories being created using online tools like WeVideo and the editing tools within YouTube. Others are using iPhoto, Garageband, and iMovie to craft stunning digital stories that elicit strong emotion from audiences around the globe. In this process, students also have a chance to learn about the importance of using Creative Commons videos and properly crediting artists for their intellectual property. Some excellent student examples of these tools in action can be seen in Emma Bright's "My Defining Moment", MRH Middle School's "Dauphin Island Reflection", and Ollie J.'s "Eleven by Sandra Cisnaros".

Today's best tools for digital story will quickly become relics, so it is also essential to stay in the conversation, listen to what other educators are doing, and see what kids are using in their own creation space, so that the tools and features being used to create story will stay fresh.

Finally, it is essential to share story, personal and professional, successes and failures, because story inspires story. As we see through the beauty of digital story, idea generation, inspiration, and collaboration can only grow. And, in a larger sense, best practices in education will grow and scale whenever we all release trapped or siloed wisdom into the system.

How are you using the power of digital story in your classroom or school?

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Digital stories, now both easy to produce and simple to publish, are an ideal way to energize learning and engage students at a deeper level. Digital storytelling creates space for students to pursue topics about which they are passionate, grows their learning around assigned topics, and showcases their learning for peers, teachers, and audiences beyond the schoolhouse, all of whom are able to interact with the storyteller.

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5th graders Created an ITunesU Reading Course on Reading Nonfiction

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An iTunesU Reading Course Created by Fifth Graders!

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In our last wonderful coaching visit with Jennifer Kean from TCRWP, an observation assessment revealed that our readers lacked self-awareness of setting and achieving personal reading goals. I decided to ramp up/spice up our upcoming nonfiction unit of study by letting students pave their own path for their reading unit.

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Many Resources:  Connecting Comprehension and Technology Padlet- Kristin Ziemke

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Many Resources:  Connecting Comprehension and Technology Padlet- Kristin Ziemke

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Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS): Critical Thinking and Inclusive Discussion

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VTS is an education nonprofit providing schools and museums with curriculum, professional development, and training in critical thinking skills.

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Being a Better Online Reader- The New Yorker

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Soon after Maryanne Wolf published " Proust and the Squid," a history of the science and the development of the reading brain from antiquity to the twenty-first century, she began to receive letters from readers. Hundreds of them. While the backgrounds of the writers varied, a theme began to emerge: the more reading moved online, the less students seemed to understand. There were the architects who wrote to her about students who relied so heavily on ready digital information that they were unprepared to address basic problems onsite. There were the neurosurgeons who worried about the "cut-and-paste chart mentality" that their students exhibited, missing crucial details because they failed to delve deeply enough into any one case. And there were, of course, the English teachers who lamented that no one wanted to read Henry James anymore. As the letters continued to pour in, Wolf experienced a growing realization: in the seven years it had taken her to research and write her account, reading had changed profoundly-and the ramifications could be felt far beyond English departments and libraries. She called the rude awakening her "Rip van Winkle moment," and decided that it was important enough to warrant another book. What was going on with these students and professionals? Was the digital format to blame for their superficial approaches, or was something else at work?

Certainly, as we turn to online reading, the physiology of the reading process itself shifts; we don't read the same way online as we do on paper. Anne Mangen, a professor at the National Centre for Reading Education and Research at the University of Stavanger, in Norway, points out that reading is always an interaction between a person and a technology, be it a computer or an e-reader or even a bound book. Reading "involves factors not usually acknowledged," she told me. "The ergonomics, the haptics of the device itself. The tangibility of paper versus the intangibility of something digital." The contrast of pixels, the layout of the words, the concept of scrolling versus turning a page, the physicality of a book versus the ephemerality of a screen, the ability to hyperlink and move from source to source within seconds online-all these variables translate into a different reading experience.

The screen, for one, seems to encourage more skimming behavior: when we scroll, we tend to read more quickly (and less deeply) than when we move sequentially from page to page. Online, the tendency is compounded as a way of coping with an overload of information. There are so many possible sources, so many pages, so many alternatives to any article or book or document that we read more quickly to compensate. When Ziming Liu, a professor at San Jose State University whose research centers on digital reading and the use of e-books, conducted a review of studies that compared print and digital reading experiences, supplementing their conclusions with his own research, he found that several things had changed. On screen, people tended to browse and scan, to look for keywords, and to read in a less linear, more selective fashion. On the page, they tended to concentrate more on following the text. Skimming, Liu concluded, had become the new reading: the more we read online, the more likely we were to move quickly, without stopping to ponder any one thought.

The online world, too, tends to exhaust our resources more quickly than the page. We become tired from the constant need to filter out hyperlinks and possible distractions. And our eyes themselves may grow fatigued from the constantly shifting screens, layouts, colors, and contrasts, an effect that holds for e-readers as well as computers. Mary Dyson, a psychologist at the University of Reading who studies how we perceive and interact with typography and design online and in print, has found that the layout of a text can have a significant effect on the reading experience. We read more quickly when lines are longer, but only to a point. When lines are too long, it becomes taxing to move your eyes from the end of one to the start of the next. We read more efficiently when text is arranged in a single column rather than multiple columns or sections. The font, color, and size of text can all act in tandem to make our reading experience easier or more difficult. And while these variables surely exist on paper just as they do on-screen, the range of formats and layouts online is far greater than it is in print. Online, you can find yourself transitioning to entirely new layouts from moment to moment, and, each time you do so, your eyes and your reading approach need to adjust. Each adjustment, in turn, takes mental and physical energy.

The shift from print to digital reading may lead to more than changes in speed and physical processing. It may come at a cost to understanding, analyzing, and evaluating a text. Much of Mangen's research focusses on how the format of reading material may affect not just eye movement or reading strategy but broader processing abilities. One of her main hypotheses is that the physical presence of a book-its heft, its feel, the weight and order of its pages-may have more than a purely emotional or nostalgic significance. People prefer physical books, not out of old-fashioned attachment but because the nature of the object itself has deeper repercussions for reading and comprehension. "Anecdotally, I've heard some say it's like they haven't read anything properly if they've read it on a Kindle. The reading has left more of an ephemeral experience," she told me. Her hunch is that the physicality of a printed page may matter for those reading experiences when you need a firmer grounding in the material. The text you read on a Kindle or computer simply doesn't have the same tangibility.

In new research that she and her colleagues will present for the first time at the upcoming conference of the International Society for the Empirical Study of Literature and Media, in Torino, Italy, Mangen is finding that that may indeed be the case. She, along with her frequent collaborator Jean-Luc Velay, Pascal Robinet, and Gerard Olivier, had students read a short story-Elizabeth George's "Lusting for Jenny, Inverted" (their version, a French translation, was called "Jenny, Mon Amour")-in one of two formats: a pocket paperback or a Kindle e-book. When Mangen tested the readers' comprehension, she found that the medium mattered a lot. When readers were asked to place a series of events from the story in chronological order-a simple plot-reconstruction task, not requiring any deep analysis or critical thinking-those who had read the story in print fared significantly better, making fewer mistakes and recreating an over-all more accurate version of the story. The words looked identical-Kindle e-ink is designed to mimic the printed page-but their physical materiality mattered for basic comprehension.

Wolf's concerns go far beyond simple comprehension. She fears that as we turn to digital formats, we may see a negative effect on the process that she calls deep reading. Deep reading isn't how we approach looking for news or information, or trying to get the gist of something. It's the "sophisticated comprehension processes," as Wolf calls it, that those young architects and doctors were missing. "Reading is a bridge to thought," she says. "And it's that process that I think is the real endangered aspect of reading. In the young, what happens to the formation of the complete reading circuitry? Will it be short-circuited and have less time to develop the deep-reading processes? And in already developed readers like you and me, will those processes atrophy?"

Of course, as Wolf is quick to point out, there's still no longitudinal data about digital reading. As she put it, "We're in a place of apprehension rather than comprehension." And it's quite possible that the apprehension is misplaced: perhaps digital reading isn't worse so much as different than print reading. Julie Coiro, who studies digital reading comprehension in elementary- and middle-school students at the University of Rhode Island, has found that good reading in print doesn't necessarily translate to good reading on-screen. The students do not only differ in their abilities and preferences; they also need different sorts of training to excel at each medium. The online world, she argues, may require students to exercise much greater self-control than a physical book. "In reading on paper, you may have to monitor yourself once, to actually pick up the book," she says. "On the Internet, that monitoring and self-regulation cycle happens again and again. And if you're the kind of person who's naturally good at self-monitoring, you don't have a problem. But if you're a reader who hasn't been trained to pay attention, each time you click a link, you're constructing your own text. And when you're asked comprehension questions, it's like you picked up the wrong book."

Maybe the decline of deep reading isn't due to reading skill atrophy but to the need to develop a very different sort of skill, that of teaching yourself to focus your attention. (Interestingly, Coiro found that gamers were often better online readers: they were more comfortable in the medium and better able to stay on task.) In a study comparing digital and print comprehension of a short nonfiction text, Rakefet Ackerman and Morris Goldsmith found that students fared equally well on a post-reading multiple-choice test when they were given a fixed amount of time to read, but that their digital performance plummeted when they had to regulate their time themselves. The digital deficit, they suggest, isn't a result of the medium as such but rather of a failure of self-knowledge and self-control: we don't realize that digital comprehension may take just as much time as reading a book.

Last year, Patricia Greenfield, a psychologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, and her colleagues found that multitasking while reading on a computer or a tablet slowed readers down, but their comprehension remained unaffected. What did suffer was the quality of a subsequent report that they wrote to synthesize their reading: if they read the original texts on paper or a computer with no Internet access, their end product was superior to that of their Internet-enabled counterparts. If the online readers took notes on paper, however, the negative effects of Internet access were significantly reduced. It wasn't the screen that disrupted the fuller synthesis of deep reading; it was the allure of multitasking on the Internet and a failure to properly mitigate its impact.

Indeed, some data suggest that, in certain environments and on certain types of tasks, we can read equally well in any format. As far back as 1988, the University College of Swansea psychologists David Oborne and Doreen Holton compared text comprehension for reading on different screens and paper formats (dark characters on a light background, or light characters on a dark background), and found no differences in speed and comprehension between the four conditions. Their subjects, of course, didn't have the Internet to distract them. In 2011, Annette Taylor, a psychologist at the University of San Diego, similarly found that students performed equally well on a twenty-question multiple-choice comprehension test whether they had read a chapter on-screen or on paper. Given a second test one week later, the two groups' performances were still indistinguishable. And it's not just reading. Last year, Sigal Eden and Yoram Eshet-Alkalai found no difference in accuracy between students who edited a six-hundred-word paper on the screen and those who worked on paper. Those who edited on-screen did so faster, but their performance didn't suffer.

We need to be aware of the effects of deeper digital immersion, Wolf says, but we should be equally cautious when we draw causal arrows or place blame without adequate longitudinal research. "I'm both the Cassandra and the advocate of digital reading," she says. Maybe her letter writers' students weren't victims of digitization so much as victims of insufficient training-and insufficient care-in the tools of managing a shifting landscape of reading and thinking. Deep-reading skills, Wolf points out, may not be emphasized in schools that conform to the Common Core, for instance, and need to meet certain test-taking reading targets that emphasize gist at the expense of depth. "Physical, tangible books give children a lot of time," she says. "And the digital milieu speeds everything up. So we need to do things much more slowly and gradually than we are." Not only should digital reading be introduced more slowly into the curriculum; it also should be integrated with the more immersive reading skills that deeper comprehension requires.

Wolf is optimistic that we can learn to navigate online reading just as deeply as we once did print-if we go about it with the necessary thoughtfulness. In a new study, the introduction of an interactive annotation component helped improve comprehension and reading strategy use in a group of fifth graders. It turns out that they could read deeply. They just had to be taught how. Wolf is now working on digital apps to train students in the tools of deep reading, to use the digital world to teach the sorts of skills we tend to associate with quiet contemplation and physical volumes. "The same plasticity that allows us to form a reading circuit to begin with, and short-circuit the development of deep reading if we allow it, also allows us to learn how to duplicate deep reading in a new environment," she says. "We cannot go backwards. As children move more toward an immersion in digital media, we have to figure out ways to read deeply there."

Wolf has decided that, despite all of her training in deep reading, she, too, needs some outside help. To finish her book, she has ensconced herself in a small village in France with shaky mobile reception and shakier Internet. Faced with the endless distraction of the digital world, she has chosen to tune out just a bit of it. She's not going backward; she's merely adapting.
Illustration by Sophia Foster-Dimino.

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Soon after Maryanne Wolf published " Proust and the Squid," a history of the science and the development of the reading brain from antiquity to the twenty-first century, she began to receive letters from readers. Hundreds of them. While the backgrounds of the writers varied, a theme began to emerge: the more reading moved online, the less students seemed to understand.

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Visual Literacy- National Geographic- Photo of the Day

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Visual Literacy- National Geographic- Photo of the Day

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White Tern, Seychelles - National Geographic Photo of the Day

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A white tern flits through regenerating native forest in the Seychelles in this National Geographic Photo of the Day.

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Visual Literacy- What's Going On In This Picture?

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Visual Literacy- What's Going On In This Picture?

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Intriguing Times images stripped of their captions -- and an invitation to students to discuss them live.

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Daily Infographic | Learn Something New Every Day

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Daily Infographic | Learn something new everydayDaily Infographic

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Award winning infographic site featuring infographic designs and data visualizations to help you learn something new everyday. The internet's best resource for easily digested visuals covering the web's hottest topics from cooking techniques to tech phenomenon.