Lauren Grahame and Tina Bui had the privilege of attending the Adolescent Literacy Summit which was hosted by and held at the International School of Bangkok. The focus of the summit was to look at ways that we can help students build and sustain reading and writing identities for life, as research shows us that too often, by adolescence, students lose their passion for reading and writing. Five experts in the field of literacy— Penny Kittle, Kelly Gallagher, Kylene Beers, Bob Probst and Tom Newkirk— along with the 2016 Newbery Award winner, Matt de la Peña, informed and inspired more than 150 teachers and administrators from a range of international schools.
We came away with lots of ideas to think about as we look to further develop our classroom practices as well as practical strategies to put into place right away. In the spirit of Twitter, here are some of our important takeaways:
To develop readers:
“The first and foremost goal is to raise reading volume.” -Penny Kittle
“What does it matter if you’ve taught every standard, but they leave school as non-readers?” – Penny Kittle
“Engagement + Volume leads to text Complexity” – Kelly Gallagher
“Let’s create lifetime readers, not just school time readers.” – Kylene Beers
“Our passion has to be contagious— passion for books, for students and the belief that there is a book for every dormant reader.” – Kelly Gallagher
“You can’t improve competence without improving confidence.” – Kylene Beers
To develop writers:
“We need to shift the emphasis from task oriented writing to more generative writing. Writing to discover thinking, writing to access and extend knowledge.”
“Do a lot of assessing but as little grading as possible. ‘Everyone improves’ is different from sorting winners and losers.” – Kelly Gallagher.
“Quality of writing is supported by the quantity and the opportunity for experimentation. “ – Nancie Atwell
“Narrative is central to all writing.” – Tom Newkirk
On digital literacy:
“Surfing the web is not the same as daydreaming. It does not provide the same space for self-reflection.” – Kylene Beers
“Just because they’re digital natives, doesn’t mean they know what to do.” – Kylene Beers
“Kids fail at games more than they succeed, but they keep going. They’re resilient and committed. How can we harness that?”
“We want bi-literate brains/readers. Kids need “click and go” reading AND real books.” –
Recommended reading/viewing:
