1. Schools with better-staffed libraries have more students who succeed on tests.
2. High schools with computers that connect to library catalogs and databases average about 6.2 percent improvement on ACT.
3. Students that visit the library more frequently receive improved reading and writing scores.
4. Students with access to larger, more current book collections achieve higher reading, writing, and ACT scores.

Click on this link to read the entire report - Power Libraries Make Powerful Learners.

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Have you already completed the FOR-PD course?

FOR-PD is interested in hearing from you! As you know, the FOR-PD course can be rather daunting; we would like to collect success tips from the experts, people like you, the people that have completed the course successfully. What advice would you give someone just beginning the FOR-PD course? What strategies did you use to successfully complete the course? Please share with us what helped you make it through the course. We have set a web page, the FOR-PD Feedback Form, where you can share all your tips with us.

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News From Around The State

Thousands will take intensive reading classes (8/4/05)
More than 600,000 middle and high school students across Florida who failed the reading section of the state exam will take special reading classes this fall for up to 25 percent of their day.

Seniors get crash course in College 101 (8/4/05)
Completing a college application, writing an admissions essay and scoring over 1,000 on the SAT can be a tedious task to finish during the last year of high school.

Florida Department of Education/Macy's 2006 Teacher of the Year (7/27/05)
Congratulations to Samuel Bennett, Polk County, on being chosen as the Florida Department of Education/Macy's Teacher of the Year.

Top ten school districts making gains in math and writing (7/26/05)
Congratulations to all districts making gains in math and writing!


Reading program aims to keep immigrant student's skills fresh (7/25/05)
After school lets out, many students prefer to pick up anything but a book. With few summer school opportunities for students in Palm Beach County, graduate students from Florida Atlantic University teamed up with struggling third-, fourth- and fifth-graders at Belvedere Elementary School in West Palm Beach to keep reading fresh in their minds. The three-week program takes about 60 economically disadvantaged students and matches them with tutors who are seeking graduate degrees in reading education at FAU's College of Education. The program is financed by the Mary and Robert Pew Public Education Fund.

Reading helps life's goals, Bush says (7/24/05)
Bush and many local officials stopped by Beall's Department Store in Wesley Chapel Saturday morning to advocate reading and to officially launch this year's statewide tax-free holiday. Beall's also presented Bush a $23,964 check to benefit the Just Read, Florida! program. Beall's donates two dollars of every children's book sold to the statewide effort aimed toward boosting all Florida children's reading abilities to or above grade level by 2012.

Poor readers improve on FCAT (7/23/05)
More than half of the lowest performing readers in Charlotte County public schools improved their reading skills last year, according to statistics the Florida Department of Education released Friday.

Reading levels of Palm Beach County increasing (7/23/05)
Palm Beach County School District has been recognized among the top 10 school districts having the highest percentage of students scoring in the lowest 25th percentile on standardized tests making learning gains in reading, according to recent statistics released from the Department of Education.

Top ten school districts making gains in reading (7/22/05)
Congratulations to all school districts making gains in reading!

Educators relish reading seminar (7/20/05)
The mystery of how we learn to read keeps unraveling. The latest research confirms good readers automatically make predictions and inferences, ask questions and summarize as they read. They also stop often to think about what they have read: maybe not even realizing they are doing all that. Teachers from across the country attended the second summer of the U.S. Department of Education's Teacher-to-Teacher workshops to hear from other teachers on how they are implementing scientifically-based research in their classrooms.

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Funding Opportunities

InfoSource, Inc. / Integrating Technology and Education
The InfoSource Integrating Technology in the Classroom Grant Program is designed to provide school districts with the InfoSource Learn It! Build It! Share It! suite of online tools and technology training. This program will give districts the opportunity to improve digital literacy skills for teachers, students, and parents. Teachers and students will be able to access internet skills training, testing, assignments, grade books, reporting, chat rooms, discussion boards, file sharing, a lesson plan builder, and a lesson plan library online. Parents can view their child's progress, grades, and activities.

Deadline: December 31, 2005
Funding: varies. Awardees will receive a one-year license for student and faculty use in their school district.
Eligibility: K-12 school districts.
Contact: Brian Gwyn, InfoSource, Inc. - 6947 University Blvd., Winter Park, FL 32792, phone number (800) 393-4636 ext. 144, or email: bgywn@howtomaster.com
Web site: http://www.howtomaster.com/grants/grants.asp

National Geographic Teacher Grants: Exploring New Areas
The National Geographic Teacher Grants program is for educators who involve students in the research and study of geography. Geography or "describing the Earth," involves learning about people and places, understanding human-environment interaction, and exploring connections as well as applying a set of interdisciplinary skills. The National Geographic Society places a special emphasis on advancing the knowledge and appreciation of cultures and on the interrelationship between human aspirations and our planet's natural and cultural resources.

Deadline: September 2, 2005
Funding: Grants up to $5,000 each for up to a total of $100,000.
Eligibility: K-12 teachers and administrators
Web site: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/foundation/grants_teacher.html

This month our focus is on literacy-rich environment. Teachers must create an environment that will engage and motivate students while effectively supporting literacy development. An effective literacy classroom creates an environment rich in print and language. The materials stimulate authentic reading. The classroom is filled with a variety of instructional material. Students work cooperatively to support a community of learners. A literacy-rich classroom contains a library that includes a variety of genres, text at various levels, and includes multicultural text. The environment is carefully planned so as to motivate students to become learners and construct meaning from text.

Many of these concepts are contained in the K-12 Comprehension Reading Plans districts submitted to the Just Read, Florida! Office. The plans call for the utilization of classroom libraries with leveled text, word walls or word charts, and flexible grouping of students for instruction and may include the use of work stations or centers for those students not working with the teacher.

This month, we will specifically focus on text sets, classroom libraries, and word walls. All three of these approaches can be used across grade levels and across content areas to develop a literacy focus in your classroom.

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The research indicates that in order to help struggling readers, teachers should read extensively "in all classes" to build text knowledge and fluency. Teachers must read for longer periods of time and read longer texts. The texts should be linked to the curriculum. One way of accomplishing this link is through the use of text-sets.

Text-sets are collections of books related to a common element, topic, or theme. Themes may include peer pressure, the American Revolution, or even the science concept of sound.  One of the main reasons for using text sets is that they enable all students to be exposed to quality texts from the start. Using text sets enables students of different achievement levels to be grouped together to learn about a given topic, thus allowing for heterogeneous grouping (Opitz, 1998). Text-sets are beneficial because:

• Each student may read a different book, so everyone's knowledge is enriched by the variety of responses.
• Students can read about the same topic and find books at their reading level
• When many titles are read and shared, students become interested in reading books their classmates rated highly.
• Teachers can find titles in their school and public libraries.
• Because only one copy of a book is needed, a variety of books can be purchased rather than multiple copies of single text. The result is greater variety of books at varying reading levels (Robb, 2000).

Other benefits of using text-sets in the content area classroom include: increased engagement, building background knowledge, building content knowledge, introducing or reinforcing vocabulary, and transforming content knowledge (Lefsky, 2005).

Typically, text-sets are unified by the topic they explore. At the same time, they are differentiated by their genres and format. The collection should include a range of different kinds of text all on the same topic. Thinking through the logistics of using text sets will ensure their success and yours.

Opitz (1998) recommends following these steps when developing text sets:

1. Identify the topic you want your students to explore. The topic may come from your curriculum or it may be student generated.
2. Identify your students' general achievement levels. At the secondary level, the achievement levels within a classroom may vary greatly.
3. Locate texts related to the topic of study. The selected texts should span the various levels you have in your classroom. When determining levels, consider interest, levels of predictability, as well as appropriateness for your specific students. Books should also include a range of types of text-chapter books, picture books, informational text, magazines, newspaper clippings, poems, pictures/photographs, question and answer books, primary source documents/artifacts, and web sites.
4. Text sets are ideal for group work. Determine how many students you want to have in a group. Make sure that you have a "just right" text for each student- text that corresponds to the students reading level.

How can text sets be used?

Using Text-Sets for Guided Reading

Text sets can be used during guided reading instruction. Once students are grouped, the teacher provides each student a text and conducts a reading lesson. Below is a sample framework from Opitz (1998).

Before Reading

• Activate the student's background knowledge. Tell students what they will be reading about and elicit information about what they know. As students share their ideas, they should be written down for future reference.
• Set the purposes for reading. One way to set a purpose is by having students complete a text walk or picture walk and asking students to tell what their text is about.

During Reading

• Explain to students what they will be doing.
• Have students read silently to see if their predictions were correct.

During this phase, the teacher should be available to help students.

After Reading

• Plan time for students to tell about their books. The teacher should ask students what their books have in common.
• Complete additional follow-up activities as desired.

Using Text-Sets to Understand Theme

Mathis (2002) describes how she collaborated with an eighth-grade teacher whose class would soon be reading The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. The universal themes the two teachers identified were prejudice, friendship/peer relationships, and search for self, conflict, and loyalty. For their purposes, the teachers decided to use picture books only. They also agreed to use instructional approaches that followed response-based strategies like: modeling a response to picture books, small group reading and discussion of a text-set, double-entry journal, and a final project.

They began their unit by discussing the term theme and what it implied. The teachers modeled using the book Pink and Say by Patricia Polacco and invited students to comment on the theme of the book. From here the students and teachers created a web with examples of the theme from literature, life, television, movies, and other sources. Students then developed similar webs for the themes identified for the Outsiders.

Each group then chose a text-set and each person was to read at least two selections from that set. Students were encouraged to share personal connections, insights, and questions. Student responses included retellings, opinions, intertextual connections, and meaning from both text and illustrations.

During the length of the unit, the teachers began each session by sharing a story from the friendship text-set and let the students explore the connections between the new text and Pink and Say.

As a culminating project, students were to create a final presentation of their responses and insights through some type of dramatic approach to text (for example choral reading or puppet show). The final presentation was an opportunity for students to synthesize their response to the texts, understanding of theme, life experiences, and personal creativity.

As the students read the Outsiders, their insights reflected their experiences with the text sets. Students demonstrated an understanding that many stories can have the same theme even though it is depicted in different ways and that many themes work together to tell one story. 

References:

Lefsky, E. (2005, January) Text-sets: A tool for teaching reading in every classroom. Presentation at 20th Annual Language Arts Classic.

Mathis, J. (2002). Picture book text sets: A novel approach to understanding theme. The Reading Teacher, 75(3), p. 127-131.

Optiz, M. (1998). Text sets: One way to flex your grouping- in first grade, too! The Reading Teacher, 51, p. 622-624.

Robb, L. (2000). Teaching reading in middle school: A strategic approach to teaching reading that improves comprehension and thinking. New York, NY: Scholastic Professional Books.

Students not only need to read a lot, they also need many books they can read right at their fingertips (Allington, 2001). Teachers can foster wide reading of their students through classroom collections that provide a wide array of appropriate books and other materials. Not only do teachers need to provide these materials, but they also have to provide the time for reading to occur. Educational research has proven that access to books and opportunities throughout the day to read improves students' reading skills and reading achievement test scores. For educators concerned about reading achievement, classroom libraries have become an ideal solution.

An effective classroom library will provide books and other materials that meet the skill levels and interests of your students. The classroom library should not be a random collection of books or materials. Books and materials selected should include a variety of genres, formats, and topics.

Experts suggest that a classroom library contain:

• Traditional stories, legends, and myths from various cultures.
• Fantasy and science fiction stories that spark student's imagination.
• Historical fiction that teaches children about the past and accurately reflects the period it portrays.
• Realistic fiction with true-to-life characters, setting, and events.
• Mysteries to intrigue and promote problem solving.
• Picture books with vivid illustrations that make the stories come alive. Yes, picture books can be used with secondary students!
• Poetry to foster critical thinking and love of language.
• Biographies and autobiographies of well known people and perhaps those not so well known, but have a compelling story to tell.
• Reference and informational books to support content area learning and help students learn about the world.
• "Kids can't learn from books they can't read (Allington, 2001)." Books and materials should span every level of reading ability.
• Books should reflect the multicultural nature of our society so that students can identify with characters and learn about others who come from different backgrounds.
• 40 percent of the classroom library should be informational text to build content area knowledge and academic vocabulary.

As you set up your classroom library, keep in mind that your objective is to make it inviting to students. You want them to browse, touch, examine, talk, read, sit, and write. Encourage interaction with the books and foster book discussions among students.

Reference:

Allington, A. (2001). What really matters for struggling readers: Designing research-based programs. New York, NY: Longman.

A word wall is a systematically organized collection of words displayed in large letters on a wall in the classroom (Cunningham, 1995). Word walls are powerful tools, if and when words are discussed and analyzed with students before they are posted (Routman, 2003). For older students, content area words or key vocabulary words are effective resources in the classroom.

In his book, Word Savvy (2004), Max Brand discusses the purposes for using word walls. First, word walls support students' vocabulary development. In the content area classroom, word walls can be used to develop academic vocabulary. Word walls can provide example words, which highlight difficult concepts. Word walls support students' learning of high frequency words. Word walls demonstrate how to collect words found during reading. Word walls provide a space for students to display words that are important to them. And finally, word walls provide a space for students to sort and categorize words and phrases.

There are many different types of word walls:

• High frequency word walls
• Common patterns, phonograms, phrases
• Content/thematic
• Genre
• Current events
• Personal

Word walls are not simply for decor - they are useful works in progress built over time as words are harvested from meaningful contexts (Wagstaff, 1999). Word walls provide support and references for students, and serve as a record for language learning. Here are some tips for making word walls work in your classroom.

• Make Them Memorable- Use text as the context for identifying key words to place on your word wall. Remember, if the key words are any old words, they are likely to be treated as such.
  
• Make Them Useful - The more you use the word wall the more your students will do the same. Demonstrations and think-alouds take only a few seconds, if done frequently, and will give you more bang for your buck. It is important that you show students how to use the word wall. Putting the words up at the beginning of the year and telling kids to use it without showing them how is setting your word wall up for failure.
  
• Make Them Practical- Incorporate word walls into your daily instruction. By incorporating the word wall in daily instruction, students will gain automaticity in using this classroom reference.
  
• Make Them Hands-On- Make your wall interactive by using Velcro or sticky tack. This allows students to go to the wall, remove a word, use it at their desk, and return it.
  
• Make Them Space Efficient- If you lack space, use three-panel display boards. These freestanding materials don't require any wall space, and can be moved around the room and placed on a table for easy visibility.
  
• Make Them Your Way- There is no right or wrong way to build a word wall. What to build, what words to add, and when to add them, all depend on what your students need. Organize your walls in a way that is practical to students. Be creative!

Word Wall Activities

Be A Mind Reader: In this game, the teacher thinks of a word on the wall and then gives five clues to that word.

Brand, M. (2004) Word savvy: Integrated vocabulary, spelling, and word study. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.

Marzano, R. & Pickering, D. (2005). Building academic vocabulary: Teacher's manual. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Routman, R. (2003). Reading essentials: Specifics you need to teach reading well. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Wagstaff, J. (1999). Word wall that work. Instructor, 110 (5), p. 32-33.

Junie B., First Grader: Jingle Bells, Batman Smells! (P.S. so Does May) by Barbara Park and Denise Brunkus (Illustrator)
From the publisher:

It's holiday time, and Room One is doing lots of fun things to celebrate. Like making elf costumes! And singing joyful songs! Only, how can Junie B. enjoy the festivities when Tattletale May keeps ruining her holiday glee? And here is the worst part of all! When everyone picks names for Secret Santa, Junie B. gets stuck with Tattletale you-know-who! It's enough to fizzle your holiday spirit! Hmm...or is it? Maybe, just maybe, a Secret Santa gift is the perfect opportunity to give May exactly what she deserves.

Baloney (Harry P.) by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith (Illustrator)
From the publisher:

The twisted team that gave the world Squids Will Be Squids and The Stinky Cheese Man now delivers a whole lot of Baloney, Henry P. Baloney. Henry is an alien school kid who needs to come up with one very good excuse to explain why he is late for szkola, again. Otherwise, his teacher Miss Bugscuffle promises, it's Permanent Lifelong Detention.

Henry's tall tale of his lost zimulis-received from deep space by Jon Scieszka-is told in at least twenty different Earth languages and graphically recreated in Lane Smith's out-of-this-world illustrations.

The unbelievable trip into Henry's wild universe may be the most original excuse ever for being late for szkola. Or it might just be Baloney. Henry P. Baloney.

Travel Team by Mike Lupica
From the publisher:

Twelve-year-old Danny Walker may be the smallest kid on the basketball court -- but don't tell him that. Because no one plays with more heart or court sense. But none of that matters when he is cut from his local travel team, the very same team his father led to national prominence as a boy. Danny's father, still smarting from his own troubles, knows Danny isn't the only kid who was cut for the wrong reason, and together, this washed-up former player and a bunch of never-say-die kids prove that the heart simply cannot be measured.

Flush by Carl Hiaasen
From the publisher:

You know it's going to be a rough summer when you spend Father's Day visiting your dad in the local lockup.

Noah's dad is sure that the owner of the Coral Queen casino boat is flushing raw sewage into the harbor -- which has made taking a dip at the local beach like swimming in a toilet. He can't prove it though, and so he decides that sinking the boat will make an effective statement. Right. The boat is pumped out and back in business within days and Noah's dad is stuck in the clink.

Now Noah is determined to succeed where his dad failed. He will prove that the Coral Queen is dumping illegally...somehow. His allies may not add up to much -- his sister Abbey, an unreformed childhood biter; Lice Peeking, a greedy sot with poor hygiene; Shelly, a bartender and a woman scorned; and a mysterious pirate -- but Noah's got a plan to flush this crook out into the open, a plan that should sink the crooked little casino, once and for all.

Fade to Black by Alex Flinn
From the publisher:

What really happened on Monday, October 27, at 6:00 AM?

The facts: Alex Crusan, an HIV-positive student, was attacked by an assailant who shattered the windows of his car with a baseball bat. Alex is in the hospital with multiple injuries.

The suspect: Clinton Cole was seen riding his bike in the vicinity that morning. And sure, he has problems with Alex. He might even have harassed him at school. But he'd never do something like this. Would he?

The witness: Daria Bickell never lies. So if she told the police she saw Clinton do it, she must have. But did she really?

The victim: After the windshield shattered, Alex ducked under the steering wheel. But he knows what he saw. Now he must decide what he wants to tell.

Suspect, witness, victim - Three people, three perspectives -- one truth. Who will tell it?

Day of Tears by Julius Lester
From the publisher:

Emma has taken care of the Butler children since Sarah and France's mother, Fanny, left. Emma wants to raise the girls to have good hearts, as a rift in morals has ripped the Butler household apart: Sarah and their mother oppose the inhumanity of slavery, while Frances and their father, Pierce, believe in the Southern lifestyle and treatment of blacks.

Now, to pay off mounting gambling debts, Pierce decides to cash in his "assets." He hosts the biggest slave auction in American history, at the price of his humanity. During these two days, the skies weep on the proceedings below, for although Butler promises Emma's parents not to sell her: money, desperation, and greed enable him to justify his any misdeed. Through flashbacks and flash-forwards, and shifting first-person points of view, readers will travel with Emma and others through time and place, and come to understand that every decision has its consequences, and final judgment is passed down not by man, but by his maker.


Uglies by Scott Westerfield
From the publisher:

When I Was A Soldier (A Memoir) by Valerie Zenatti (Translated by Adriana Hunter)
From the publisher:

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Open Enrollment Registration Ends August 15th

Going, going, gone! Open enrollment registration for the fall sections of the FOR-PD course will close August 15, 2005. To register via open enrollment, go to our registration page and fill out the registration form. If you are unable to register through open enrollment, please contact your district to see if they will be offering a district FOR-PD course.

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Looking For New Facilitators

We are pleased to announce that the new Facilitator Training and Certification Course will be active again this fall. We are calling all interested potential facilitators! The Facilitator Training and Certification Course application process opens on Tuesday, September 6th and runs through Monday, September 26th. Please pass this along to anyone who is interested in facilitating for FOR-PD. Applicants selected for the Facilitator Training and Certification course will be notified on Friday, September 30th.

Basic requirements for becoming a facilitator include:

• Successful completion of the FOR-PD course (scoring at the 80% level or above on all assignments and quizzes).
• A minimum of three years teaching experience
• Master's Degree in reading or other related area
• Advanced knowledge of research-based reading strategies
• Ability to provide explicit instruction in the following elements of reading as they apply to appropriate grades: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension
• Ability to systematically use effective reading strategies that have been tested and have a record of success
• Identified by school or district as a reading/literacy leader

The course is 7 weeks long. It will run from Monday, October 3rd through Monday, November 21st. For specific questions about the Facilitator Training and Certification Course, please email forpdfac@mail.ucf.edu.

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Summer Courses Coming to an End

Many sections of the FOR-PD course will be coming to an end shortly. Summer open enrollment sections are due to end August 22, 2005. If you are wondering when your section is scheduled to close, please check your course calendar.

Tips to remember before your course closes:

1. Make sure you have completed all the discussions and quizzes. You must achieve a passing score of 16 on each. If you have not achieved this score on a particular discussion make sure you go back and revise and repost the discussion.
   
   
2. Make sure you have completed the Post-Course Survey. You can access this by going to the navigation bar to the left of the course content.
   
   
3. Make sure you have completed the Course Evaluation. This is located on the navigation bar to the left of the course content.
   
   
4. FOR-PD will be sending out a report to all districts updating them on who has completed the course.
   
   
5. FOR-PD will be sending all participants who have successfully completed the course a certificate of completion. You will receive this certificate via email. Please keep in mind that some districts require participants to submit a copy of their certificate.
   
   
6. Some districts require participants to turn in their literacy log as part of the course evaluation for staff development points. Please check with your district to find out if you need to turn them in. Some facilitators also require that you turn in your literacy log. Facilitators will supply information on where to send your literacy log.
   
   
7. Participants who do not successfully complete the FOR-PD course will receive a survey via email. Please take the time to provide us with the information we are requesting. This information is used to evaluate the project and to develop assistance to participants.

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FOR-PD Help Desk

Feeling frustrated? Can't figure it out? Don't forget the FOR-PD Help Desk is available.

Summer Help Desk hours are:

Monday through Friday 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Monday through Friday 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Saturday 10:00 AM - 3:00 PM

The phone number is 1-866-863-READ (7323) toll free, Florida calls only. For non-Florida calls only 407-249-4702. Technical support is also available through AOL Instant Messenger, screen name "forpdhelp".


FOR-PD has a new Tech Help Form on the web. Please fill out this form if you are having a technical problem with the FOR-PD course. The form will be sent to the FOR-PD Help Desk and someone will get back to you within 48-hours.




Don't forget to check out the Tutorials and Troubleshooting Guide. Both of these resources provide a wealth of information on the tools used in the course and specific technology problems past participants have had along with solutions to these problems.

This month's number one Help Desk issue was the pop-up blocker. If you have a pop-up blocker on your web browser, you will not be able to access the quizzes in the course. To disable your pop-up blocker, follow these directions: