Hot Topics in Literacy Education for 2015

The International Reading Association released its annual list that forecasts "hot" topics in literacy education. Hot is not the same as important, but indicates an area of high interest or even debate among reading experts.  Conducted by Jack Cassidy and Stephanie Grote-Garcia, the 2015 survey polled 25 leading literacy scholars and researchers to find what's hot and what's not.

2015 IRA LITERACY SURVEY

HOT AND SHOULD BE HOT:

• Common Core State Standards
• Close Reading/Deep Reading
• Digital Literacies/New Literacies
• College and Career Readiness
• Informational/Nonfiction Texts
• Text Complexity
• Argumentative Writing

SHOULD BE VERY HOT:

• Preschool Literacy Experiences
• Adolescent Literacy
• Comprehension
• English Learners/ English as a Second Language

COLD BUT SHOULD BE HOT:

• Literacy Coaches
• Creative Writing
• Professional Development
• Motivation/Engagement
• Struggling Readers (Grade 4 and older)

SHOULD NOT BE HOT:

• Phonics/ phonemic Awareness
• Fluency
• High-Stakes Testing

(Cassidy & Grote-Garcia, 2014)

Cursive, really? This is not your grandmother's third grade

Once again there's a bill in our state to mandate cursive writing instruction in school. Our third graders who take high-stakes tests with the risk of potential grade retention are already tasked with elementary curricula increasingly filled with test content to prepare them for test-taking. Should precious curricular time be spent on handwriting practice when teachers have difficulty squeezing in core subjects like social studies and science?
Nationally, there is widespread agreement that academic subjects and new literacies take precedence over pretty penmanship: in the new Common Core State Standards adopted by 45 states including Indiana, keyboarding is included; cursive is not. Forward-looking districts are equipping students to read, write, produce, and publish on mobile technologies, making the decision to prepare children to function with 21st century literacy tools. In this environment, the time-consuming enterprise of cursive writing instruction seems quaint at best, falling into the nice-if-we-had-the-time category.
Apparently, one can be pretty successful with minimal cursive skills. Look at  Jack Lew, the US secretary of treasury nominee who may soon be signing all our money. How long did it take him to master this signature?

Hot Topics in Literacy Education for 2012

The International Reading Association's 2012 survey of 25 leading literacy scholars and researchers revealed the following "hot" topics in literacy education:

HOT
new literacies/ digital literacies
adolescent literacy
college and career readiness
Common Core standards
comprehension
high–stakes assessment
informational/non-fiction texts
response to intervention (RTI)

SOMEWHAT HOT
early intervention
English as a second language/English–language learners
political/policy influences on literacy
struggling/striving readers (grade 4 and above)
vocabulary/word meaning

NOT HOT
phonics
phonemic awareness
fluency

Finally, there's one topic that literacy experts strongly agreed that:

SHOULD BE HOT BUT IS NOT
Writing

(Cassidy & Loveless, 2011, Reading Today http://www.reading.org/General/Default.aspx)

Critically thinking about new literacies...in the university classroom and in preschool

Cathy Davidson shares some innovative approaches to university teaching and learning here that demonstrate the power in having students learn by producing digital media, not just by consuming it. Davidson's DML blog post shows ways to break down educational barriers that artificially separate readers and writers, consumers and producers, players and critical thinkers, as demonstrated by students who work in media production teams to develop key course concepts into online challenges for their peers. One of the many good things about this approach is that it taps into the digital resources and strengths that students already bring to the classroom.
This is true for early childhood classrooms as well. We can build on students' digital media knowledge and abilities by recognizing technologies as appropriate resources for learning and by allowing children to bring cell phones, digital toys, and popular media into the classroom. For very young children, we're finding that criticality begins with the understanding that a digital text was produced by people rather than somehow magically generated within a screen. Giving children opportunities to make and share their own digital productions helps develop their emergent critical understandings.

How will you use ebooks in your classroom?

Here's an interesting discussion with an embedded YouTube video demonstrating how children's books might work on iPads.

Wondering what to do this July?

Explore new literacies and virtual worlds at the UKLA conference in London:
The Changing Face of Literacy: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow