This newsletter has been created by Wayne RESA literacy consultants for literacy educators. In each issue, you will find Literacy Learning Network updates and information, statewide initiative updates, book synopses, teaching and coaching strategies, and upcoming professional learning opportunities. We look forward to partnering with you as we engage in best practices in literacy instruction for all students.
Literacy Learning Network Updates
2023 Summer Learning Blitz
For the third consecutive summer, Wayne RESA is proud to announce its annual Summer Learning Blitz. As in previous summers, each one-hour professional learning session is free and open to all educators. As we revel in the joy of our profession or aim to rejuvenate our joyful dispositions, let’s celebrate our collective commitment to our students by registering for one or more informative sessions. Together, we will explore engaging strategies in all content areas, intentional assessment practices, research-supported ways to support our multilingual learners, and innovative uses of instructional technology. Sessions will be recorded, and registered participants will have access to both recordings and resources following each session.
Our Commitment: Land and Labor Acknowledgments
Our Literacy Team begins most of its presentations and/or professional learning sessions with a Land and Labor Acknowledgment. According to the New York State Coalition Against Domestic Violence, “A land acknowledgment is a statement recognizing Indigenous people as the stewards of their ancestral lands as a show of respect. It acknowledges the past, present and future relationship of an Indigenous group and their traditional territories.” Similarly, a labor acknowledgment recognizes the formation of our nation and its many communities at the price of others, particularly those whose labor was unjustly and inhumanely acquired. While the reading of our Land and Labor Acknowledgment varies slightly from presentation to presentation, its formal content is as follows: “We begin by acknowledging the land on which we stand is the ancestral land of several indigenous tribes, including the Anishinaabe, or Three Fires, which were comprised of the Ojibway (Chippewa), Odawa (Ottawa), and Potawatomi. Also in the area were the Peoria, Fox, Wyandotte, and Miami tribes. The land was ceded to the United States as part of the Cession 66 in 1807. The tribes named in the treaty were the Chippewa, Ottawa, Wyandotte, and Potawatomi. We encourage you to do more research on the history of this treaty and to consider the motivations behind its creation as well as its long-term impacts on all generations. We also must acknowledge that much of what we know of this country today, including its culture, economic growth, and development throughout history and across time, has been made possible by the labor of enslaved Africans and their ascendants who suffered the horror of the transatlantic trafficking of their people, chattel slavery, and Jim Crow. We are indebted to their labor and their sacrifice, and we must acknowledge the tremors of that violence throughout the generations and the resulting impact that can still be felt and witnessed today.” We have used various resources to craft our land acknowledgment, including the ACLU of Indiana, and our labor acknowledgment, in its entirety, can be credited to Diverse magazine.
Coaching Connections
At the close of our Wayne County Coaching Network 2022-2023 series, we asked our coaches to self-report on the number of opportunities they had to facilitate professional learning for their teachers. 19% of our coaches facilitated professional learning more than 16 times, 39% reported conducting professional learning between 6 and 15 times, and 42% provided professional learning 5 or less times throughout the school year. Since “[c]oaching cycles are the bridge over the knowing-doing gap for many teachers” (McKee, 2022), we asked how many teachers they had coached through a coaching cycle. 41% engaged in cycles with more than 9 teachers, 51% reported working with 3-8 teachers, and 8% were able to work with 2 or less teachers this school year. Our Wayne County coaches continue to grow their practices, reaching more teachers in both one-on-one and group settings. Looking ahead to another year of getting better and stronger!
Statewide Updates
Section 35a(10) of FY 23 State School Aid Act allocates $10,000,000 to MDE to administer and provide training of, in partnership with Lexia® Learning, Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS) (grades K-3), or LETRS for Early Childhood Educators (LETRS EC) (Pre-K) to interested pre-K to grade 6 educators and pre-K-12 certified special education personnel with endorsements in learning disabilities, emotional impairments, or speech and language impairments. Registration for Cohort 5 is open, and the deadline to apply is 08/11/23. Training will start in October 2023. The deadline to apply for LETRS for Administrators is 04/21/23 and training will start in June 2023. For more information please visit the Michigan LETRS website.
Michigan legislators have recently voted to remove the retention component of the Read by Grade 3 law. This change will go into effect in 2024. MDE’s recent memorandum provides additional details.
The Disciplinary Literacy Task Force has created an EduPaths Information Document to facilitate participation in their recently developed online courses. Courses 1-6 are currently live, and Courses 5 and 6 include two parts, Part 1 and Part 2. In addition, Course 1 and Course 3 facilitation guides are now available to support in-person professional learning.
MDE has announced that it will continue to use the SAT as an accountability measure. As planned, the SAT will be converted to an online format beginning in the 2023-2024 school year. For educators wishing to familiarize themselves with the new format, the College Board has created a variety of resources as well as a video. More updates will be coming soon; register for the MDE Spotlight Newsletter to stay informed.
The National Summer Learning Association (NSLA) has collaborated with the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) on summer learning and has developed a new online resource for families to help them partner in their children’s summer learning. In addition to the summer learning program search feature, there is access to resources from leading youth organizations to keep the learning going all summer long. NSLA’s new online family resource, DiscoverSummer.org, has additional resources to help families make more informed decisions regarding summer learning.
The Zekelman Holocaust Center invites educators to attend its Summer Professional Development Academy from August 1–4, 2022. This professional learning opportunity is a follow-up to the Remembering the Holocaust Series hosted by MDE. Spots are limited, so save your seat today! All sessions are free to Michigan educators. For more information and/or to register online, click here. There is also a local opportunity to engage in professional learning from July 10-15 in Farmington Hills. See the flyer for additional information.
Public TV’s Michigan Learning Channel is offering a free summer program that could be used with any after-school organization’s events to keep kids engaged in learning over the break from school. Learn more at https://www.michiganlearning.org/summer/.
The Library of Michigan is pleased to announce the selection of award-winning poet Nandi Comer as the Michigan Poet Laureate. As a part of the 2023-24 Michigan Poet Laureate program, the Library of Michigan and the Michigan Department of Education will support a limited number of events for the Laureate to engage with schools, libraries, and organizations across the state of Michigan. As a part of these limited events, travel and accommodation costs are covered. If you are interested in hosting an event with the Poet Laureate of Michigan, please fill out the form with as much information as possible.
The Eastern Michigan Writing Project is offering summer opportunities for both teachers and students this year. For more information about the 2023 Summer Institute for teachers or the Inkstains writing camps for students, see the respective flyers.
Save the date! The MCTE Annual Fall Conference will held on October 13, 2023, and the Call for Proposals is now open. Proposals are due by July 28, 2023, and proposal acceptance notifications will be sent out in August.
Save the date! The 2024 Michigan Reading Association Annual Conference will be held in Lansing, Michigan, from March 15-17. The Call for Proposals is coming soon!
The Michigan Assessment Consortium (MAC) will be presenting its annual Build a Better Assessment Future conference, which will be held at the Kellogg Center in East Lansing on August 2-3, 2023. Register today!
Books and Strategies
Book Talk
Igniting Passion in Readers of All Ages
Blue
Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond & Daniel Minter
In the book Blue, author Brew-Hammond simplistically crafted words to describe how various shades of blue oceans and the sky encompass our world. The author gives readers insight into how ancient people extracted blue colors from the bodies of tiny snails, plants, and sapphire rocks from mines to paint canvases, dye cloth, and create makeup to accent the eyes of Egyptians. The children’s book is full of rich blue illustrations that capture the historical and cultural essence of the color blue. As children flip through the pages, they will journey across the globe to learn about the cultural significance of blue to Afghan painters and how enslaved Africans labored intensively on American plantations to grow indigo cash crops.
Rhythm of Time
Questlove and S.A. Crosby
Kasia Collins cannot seem to stay out of trouble when it comes to helping her best friend Rahim Reynolds. Home-schooled Kasia is brilliant, but she doesn’t always understand the trials Rahim faces at middle school, especially when trying to dodge the school bully. In an effort to improve Rahim’s image, Kasia builds a cell phone for him that promptly sends him back in time to 1997, the final year his favorite rap group performed together. While at first thrilled by the prospect of hearing Four the Hard Way live, Rahim soon discovers that his interactions in the past have begun to have serious implications for the present. Only Kasia can save him, but the odds seem stacked against them as time begins to run out.
Fahrenheit 451
Ray Bradbury
Amid controversy around book banning and topics of equity and social justice in the United States and globally, Fahrenheit 451 is an appropriate book for teens to embrace as Ray Bradbury encapsulates the significance of liberation, social harmony, and intellectualism. The classic science fiction novel, written in 1953, is a throwback but is relevant to present times. Bradbury wrote a fantasy tale about a government that prohibited freedom of speech by censoring, abolishing, and eventually burning books because they made people uncomfortable. Teenage characters become numb to the violence, death, pain, and unhappiness life and society offer. Book burning erases historical records of literature that cause people to lose sight of what is true or false. In a turn of events, the main character, Guy Montag, a book burner turned book lover, becomes woke when he encounters two outliers: Professor Faber and outcasted teenager Clarisse. Guy joins the Book People in a book revolution to disrupt book burning and the world’s disorder, thereby waking up the oppressed and restoring literacy through reading and oral recitation.
Love Radio
Ebony LaDelle
Prince Jones counsels Detroit’s lovelorn as they call in to his popular radio show: Love Radio. While his advice to his many fans seem poised and mature, Prince has yet to find his match. Then, he meets Dani Ford. While initially uninterested by Prince’s advances, Dani reluctantly agrees to three dates. Prince is sure that he can change her mind over time, but issues at home, work, and school delay him. Simultaneously, Dani struggles to come to grips with an incident that has impacted her confidence and has driven a wedge between her and her friends. As the two desperately work to pull the pieces of their own lives together, they form an alliance built upon mutual admiration, and despite the many interruptions, they finally get their third date.
Restorative Literacies: Creating a Community of Care in Schools
Deborah L. Wolter
Deborah L. Wolter uses the art of storytelling and literacy to support educators in building relationships with students that bring humanity to the forefront. Wolter reminds us that education must come from a communal space of love, care, and compassion to ensure that students’ lived experiences in school are culturally, racially, linguistically, and economically responsive and sustainable. Restorative literacies require all-hands-on-deck (students, families, administrators, and teachers) to center all voices and narratives, repair harm, and reconstruct relationships. Restorative Literacies will enlighten readers and provide examples and strategies to disrupt barriers that dehumanize disenfranchised and disengaged students.
Chatter
Ethan Kross
While reflection is a necessary component of growth, at times our inner voice can throw us into a spiral of self-doubt. Ethan Kross, University of Michigan Professor of Psychology, explores the negative side of our mental chatter and its debilitating effects on our thoughts and actions. Kross explains that we need to distance ourselves mentally in order to gain a more productive perspective, and in his book, he outlines ways to convert our negative thoughts to positive ones that can promote our self-confidence and ensure our successful completion of important tasks. He even includes ways that we can guide others who find themselves in a trap of damaging self-perceptions. Kross recognizes that even as competent adults, we can fall prey to social comparisons that threaten our self-esteem.
Robust Summer Learning: Kinder Camps and Lit Lab
The Essential School-Wide and Center-Wide Practices in Literacy and Mathematics, Prekindergarten and Elementary Grades advocate for “[a] summer learning initiative [that] fosters continued engagement with literacy and mathematics.” For Mellissa Wilson, Project Lead of the Wayne RESA Kinder Camps and Rising 3rd Grade Lit Labs, this essential practice became a call-to-action. Starting small in the summer of 2019, the Lit Labs were designed to provide engaging summer learning opportunities for incoming 3rd graders. The curriculum fuses STEM, maker, literacy, and art activities each week, giving participating districts and PSAs a powerful antidote to summer learning loss. The success of this program, which receives collaborative support from the Literacy Learning Network, the MiSTEM Network, the COSA Collaborative, and Wayne RESA consultants, has contributed to its growth over the past four years despite a global pandemic. This robust summer learning opportunity has also benefitted from our partnership with the Nutty Scientists of Southeastern Michigan, a group of science educators who provide individualized STEM kits for each participating student as well as training for the teachers
implementing the program. In the summer of 2022, a Kinder Camp program was added to provide incoming kindergartners with developmentally appropriate STEM and literacy activities aimed at promoting school readiness. From 2019 to the present, the combined programs have grown from one site to 50+ school sites and more than 3000 student participants. Probably the most exciting aspect of this summer initiative is the data that reports its success. According to 2022 data, 75% of the students in participating Lit Lab sites maintained or increased spring to fall benchmark scores. Of that 75%, two sites showed statistically significant growth. For the Kinder Camps, all measured literacy constructs and observed behaviors showed improved performance over time and were statistically significant. As we consider the sobering after effects of COVID-19, how can we afford not to offer our youth the opportunity to engage in enriching activities that raise their self-perceptions and skills?
Noteworthy News
If you were able to read Nora Lester Murad’s first novel, Ida in the Middle, or plan to use it with your class, a comprehensive unit guide is now available. Created by Luma Hasen and Sana Ben Nacef, this guide provides lessons with before-during-and-after reading questions and activities. In addition, this standards-aligned guide provides important historical context for readers and dispels common misconceptions about life in Palestine.
Professional Learning
| Upcoming Events at Wayne RESA |
See our new interactive 2023-2024 Wayne RESA Course Catalog for links to course offerings, their descriptions, and online registration in Learning Stream. Simply click on the catalog link above, and then click on Literacy in the Table of Contents to peruse our offerings. Don’t forget to check for interdisciplinary offerings by clicking on additional content areas. Many of our professional learning events will continue to be offered virtually. If the format for a session or series is unclear, please contact any of the Literacy Team members for details. In addition, we are proud to announce our fourth annual Equity Leaders Series. The 2023- 2024 Equity Literacy Leaders Series: Restorative Literacies will begin on September 26th. Each session will feature a keynote speaker who will lend their expertise around equitable and restorative literacy practices that center students’ humanity by helping educators cultivate a culture of care and academic excellence. Restorative literacies transcend time, space, and academic discipline. During the first session, former literacy consultant and author Deborah L. Wolter will share stories from her book and discuss how restorative literacies expand our thinking about literacies to restore relationships between students and teachers and students’ relationships with literacies. Wolter will explain how centering the voices of students and educators can repair harm, strengthen agency, develop leadership and sustainability, and recognize literacies and identities. Register for the Restorative Literacies: Creating a Community of Care to attend her session. Other featured speakers for the series include Felicia Rose Chavez, Cornelius Minor, Dr. Maisha T. Winn, and Dr. Dawn Miller. |
Tech Resources: Where can I find...
Gale In Context: Global Issues is designed to support global awareness of social issues and consider the international perspective. This resource empowers learners to critically analyze and understand important issues from a variety of perspectives and is updated 5 times a day with access to primary sources, academic journals, case studies, magazines, newspapers, books, images, podcasts, and videos.
Curious about AI-generated content? Curipod can stimulate interactivity in your daily lessons by adding polls, word clouds, drawings, and more!
Wayne RESA Literacy Team
Michelle Wagner, Manager of Educational Services
Mari Treece, Executive Director of Educational Services
If this newsletter has been forwarded to you, and you’d like to subscribe to it, please contact Laura Gabrion.
33500 Van Born Road • Wayne, MI 48184 • 734.334.1300 • 734.334.1620 fax • www.resa.net
Board of Education
James S. Beri • Mary E. Blackmon • Danielle Funderburg • Lynda S. Jackson • James Petrie
Daveda Colbert, Ph.D., Superintendent