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The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012 1Editor ___________________________________ Ruth Sylvester, University of South Florida PolytechnicEditor ___________________________________ Sherry Kragler, University of South Florida PolytechnicAssociate Editor ________________________________ Terence Cavanaugh, University of North FloridaAdvertising Manager _________________________________________________________ Evan LefskyEDITORIAL REVIEW BOARDCarole Byrd, Ph.D. _________________________________ Florida State College at JacksonvilleGigi M. David, Ed.D. ______________________________________ University of North FloridaAlthea Duren, Ed.D. ______________________________________ Florida Memorial UniversityTania Mertzman Habeck, Ph.D. _______________________ University of Wisconsin, MilwaukeeWanda Hedrick, Ph.D. _____________________________________ University of North FloridaAndrea Kauffman ______________________________________________ University of FloridaLoren Kaye __________________________________________ Broward County School DistrictDiane Kroeger, Ph.D. ______________________________________ University of South FloridaLinda Martin, Ph.D. ____________________________________________ Ball State UniversityKatie Monnin, Ph.D. _______________________________________ University of North FloridaSuzanne Quinn, Ph.D. __________________________ Roehampton University, London, EnglandTammy Ryan, Ph.D. _______________________________________ Jacksonville University, FLNile Stanley, Ph.D. ________________________________________ University of North FloridaZandra Stino, Ph.D. ___________________________________Nova Southeastern University, FLMercedes Techenor, Ph.D. ______________________________________ Stetson University, FLG. Pat Wilson, Ph.D. _______________________ University of South Florida – Sarasota-ManateeCover image "Sail Through Great Books" by Erin Quinlan of Escambia High School, Escambia Countywinner of the 2011 Florida Reading Association Poster Contest.Additional images courtesy of MorgueFile (http://www.morguefile.com) artists:af011a.jpg by jdurhamLibrary_Pataskala_005.jpg by click

RecommendationsRecommendationsFurther research is needed to enable a better understanding of the non-clinical factorsthat facilitate and act as barriers to hepatitis B testing, vaccination and clinicalmanagement including a better understanding of the extent and influence of stigmaand discrimination across the different affected communities in Australia. Priorityareas for future research in relation to hepatitis B stigma and discrimination include:• Investigating the prevalence and nature of hepatitis B stigma and discrimination inthe Australian context• Exploring any intersection between racism, social and economic inequality, and theexperiences of migration on the hepatitis B health outcomes of migrants, includingrefugee populations in Australia• Developing an understanding of any relationship between levels and quality ofknowledge about hepatitis B, and stigma and discrimination• Investigating whether discriminatory attitudes and practices towards peopleaffected by hepatitis B in their country of origin affect their health seekingbehaviour in Australia• Identifying hepatitis B related knowledge gaps among health care providers,particularly among people working with communities that experience a highprevalence of hepatitis B• Investigating whether the availability of a preventive vaccine for hepatitis Binfluences levels of stigma and discrimination in health care settings• Investigating hepatitis B knowledge gaps among Indigenous Australians and theirhealth and social services providers to identify barriers to testing, vaccination andclinical management, including the role of stigma and discrimination• Identifying or developing standardised stigma and quality of life measures forinclusion in survey based research. The use of standardised measures acrossresearch studies will increase opportunities for comparison of findings betweendifferent populations and contexts• Investigating the social and cultural meanings of stigma for different individualsand populations affected by hepatitis B.Stigma, Discrimination and Hepatitis B: A review of current research4

4 The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012From the President…Maria CallisFlorida Reading Association PresidentWhile this year’s FCAT administration is in the forefront of ourminds, I wanted to take this opportunity to express my appreciation andgratitude for what each of you do every day in classrooms across Florida.It seems as if the teaching profession has been beaten up a bit lately,especially with the changes put in place regarding teacher evaluation, but I am here to share with youthat what you do has not been devalued in any way – in fact, now, more than ever, what you do withstudents is tremendously important.We all know that education is the great equalizer – it does not matter what your background isor what your standing in society may be; a solid education provides opportunity that continuesthroughout a lifetime. When children learn to read, it opens up so many doors for their future. It is thebasis for all other learning. When we teach our children to read and to read critically, we provide themwith a tool that will never dull. With your help, students get to visit and see the wonders of the TajMahal; they can enjoy what the Great Barrier Reef has to offer; they can even visit a place that veryfew humans have visited – the moon. And the magic is that they are able to do this all with your helpright from their classrooms! We provide students with an opportunity of experiential learning theymight not otherwise ever have had.As our state continues to move forward with increased expectations from students and theirteachers, what we do is becoming more and more important. We help students master a skill that willpermeate every other aspect of their lives – that is really a daunting task when you think about it.Through all of the challenges that we face in education, when you look across our state, we aredoing an outstanding job helping students across the academic spectrum, and I am very proud to be oneof your colleagues. I am very proud of the work we do, and I want you all to know that despite theconsiderable noise outside of our classrooms, what we do inside those walls with the lives that wetouch is what matters most.Yours Sincerely ,Maria Callis

The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012 5Call for ManuscriptsThe Florida Reading Journal publishes manuscripts related to literacy research and classroom practice.Research syntheses and creative works are also considered for the journal. The Florida ReadingJournal (FRJ) has a readership of approximately 7000 teachers, literacy coaches, teacher-educators,and literacy researchers.Information for Authors:Authors are requested to submit only unpublished articles not under review by any other publication. Amanuscript (8-14 pages) should be typed, double spaced, not right justified, not hyphenated, andshould follow the 6th edition guidelines of APA (Publication Manual of the American PsychologicalAssociation).Submit online as an email attachment which is Microsoft Word compatible in .doc, docx, or .rtfformat (Mac users please remember to add extensions). Include a cover page this contains themanuscript title, the author(s), institutional affiliation, contact information, and date of submission.Remove any information from the manuscript that might identify the author(s).Manuscripts are first reviewed by an internal review board for appropriateness of the manuscript forthe journal. If it is evaluated as a good fit, the manuscript is blind, peer-reviewed by three members ofthe Editorial Review Board. If the manuscript is accepted, the coeditors reserve editorial rights. Thereview process takes about two (2) months. The acceptance rate is 25%.The journal is published in January, March, and June.Send manuscripts by e-mail as an attachment to frjeditor@flreads.orgCoeditors: Dr. Sherry Kragler and Dr. Ruth Sylvester(University of South Florida Polytechnic)

6 The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012Just Read, Florida! UpdateNew Resources to Improve Reading InstructionAs teachers align instruction to meet the rigorof our course descriptions and the demandsnoted in the FCAT Achievement LevelDescriptors, we know that teaching through theuse of complex text and a process of closereading combined with greater use of these 5instructional processes will increase studentengagement and understanding of content:1. Make close reading and rereading of textscentral to lessons.2. Provide scaffolding that does not preempt orreplace text.3. Ask text dependent questions from a rangeof question types.4. Emphasize students supporting answersbased upon evidence from the text.5. Provide extensive research and writingopportunities (claims and evidence).Close Reading is a strategy that helps you getmore out of reading any text. Close is a finelydetailed, very specific examination of a text, inorder to find the focus or design of the work,either in its entirety in the case, for instance, ofa short poem or, in the case of a selectedpassage. Close reading is micro-reading. It isthe attentive reading of a text. If the text is.short, the entire text lends itself to a closereading. If, however, the work is long, theteacher selects one passage for a close readingand then relates it to the whole work.Close reading assists students with thefollowing:• understanding the purpose in reading• seeing ideas in a text as being interconnected• looking for and understanding systems ofmeaning• engaging in a text while reading• getting beyond ―surface‖ reading• formulating questions and seeking answers tothose questions while readingThe authors of the CCSS have a new resourceto support teachers further developinginstructional units that contain these processes- http://www.achievethecore.org/steal-thesetoolsSource:Just Read, Florida! Fall 2011 -http://secondaryreading.pdshrd.wikispaces.net/file/view/10_Improving+Reading+Achievement_JRF_Fall2011.pdf

The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012 7STRATEGIES FOR VALUING NON-ENGLISH SPEAKING PARENTS:ONE CULTURALLY RELEVANT DEED AT A TIMEDr. Gilbert DueñasAuburn University at Montgomerygduenas@aum.eduDr. Shelly Hudson BowdenAuburn University at Montgomeryshudsonb@aum.eduAbstract: U.S. public schools are witnessing a dramatic enrollment increase in non-English speaking students. Despiteprior legal decisions and attempts by school leaders, there still remains an academic gap between Hispanic students andtheir Caucasian peers. From firsthand visits with Hispanic households, this article addresses strategies for buildingmeaningful home-school relationships and valuing the students’ cultural knowledge..Increasingly, significant numbers oflinguistically diverse families have migrated tothe United States, and their children haveentered schools across the country with thehope of acquiring competency in the Englishlanguage and gaining accessto relevant academicexperiences (Brock, 2001;Civil, 2008; Fitzgerald,1995). Yopp and Stapleton(2008) suggested, ―Educatorsface an unprecedentedchallenge as EnglishLanguage Learners in publicpre-kindergarten through 12 thgrade schools number morethan 5 million, or 10.1% ofthe total enrollment‖ (p. 374).These numbers are up nearly100 percent from a decadeearlier (Short & Echevarria,2004/2005). Furthermore,there are increasing numbersof migrant, Hispanic familiesmoving from their nativehomeland to the Midwest andsoutheast regions of the United States(Lundgren & Morrison, 2003), and laterplacing their non-English speaking children inAmerican public schools with high hopes thatSoy padre de un niño en suescuela. Como puedo yoaprender lo que mi niño estáaprendiendo en la escuela?Yo quiero ayudar mi niñoshacer buenos estudios en laescuela pero yo no habloIngles.As a parent of a child in yourschool, how can I learn whatmy child is learning? I wantto help my children do well atschool but I do not speakEnglish.[Summary of Parent-TeacherAssociation Meeting Minutes,Mar. 2008]their children will succeed in their academicand English language learning.In her ethnographic study of tenMexican immigrant families, Valdes (1996)reported on the importanceof schools discovering andvaluing the cultural capital:prior learning, familytraditions, and the socialand linguistic experiencesoccurring daily within thehousehold that shape theirchildren’s out-of-schoollearning. Educators showtheir respect for these newfamilies in the United Stateswhile learning more aboutthe richness and legacy ofthe Hispanic cultural valuesand family practices thatordinarily scaffoldhousehold approachestoward school learning.Classroom teachers areoften not aware of thecultural differences in literacy practicesbetween parents and school; and suchdifferences in the teaching of children serve asbarriers to communication and academiclearning (McCarthey, 2000). Further,

8 The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012traditional school assumptions of instructionalmethods and literacy practices of Latinostudents are often inadvertently alienating, anddo not recognize the potential value of EnglishLanguage Learner students utilizing a bilingualliteracy skills approach to learn the curriculum(Jimenez, 2001). Epstein and Dauber (1991)state, ―When teachers differ culturally andeducationally from their students or when theyteach greater numbers of students, they are lesslikely to know the students’ parents andtherefore more likely to believe that parents aredisinterested or uninvolved‖ (p. 298).Since passage of the 1974 U.S.Supreme Courtdecision, Lau v.Nichols, that instructedschools to provide aneducationcomprehensible tolimited Englishproficient students,Howe (1994) reported,―School administratorswere still struggling todevelop appropriateinstructional programsto address theparticular culturalneeds of Hispanics‖ (p.42).As a classroomteacher for 7 ½ years ata K-3, inner cityschool withapproximately a 17%Hispanic studentpopulation, I conversed in the Spanish languagewith many Hispanic families—at school and intheir households, tutored their children afterschool or in the summer, and mediated onbehalf of non-English speaking Hispanicparents at school Parent Teacher Associationmeetings, parent-teacher workshops orclassroom breakfast meetings. From thesedialogic events, it became apparent to me, as aPorque no es posible que la escuela nopregunta por nuestra ayuda?Nosotrospodemos soportar la escuelatambién. Tenemos que trabajar muchashoras y hay veces cuando no tenemos eltiempo para ayudar nuestros niños encompletar la tarea. Es importante que lamaestra obtenga una indicación de lamanera que los padres pueden ayudar elniño en sus estudios académicos, porquehay veces que no sabemos cómo ayudarnuestros niños.Why doesn’t the school ask for our help? Wecan also support the school. We often needto work many hours to support our children,and we do not have the time to help ourchildren complete their assigned homework.It is important that the teacher gain someidea of how the parent can help their child’slearning at school because there are timeswhen we do not know how to help ourchildren.[Summary of Parent-Teacher ClassroomBreakfast, Oct. 2007]classroom teacher, that these parents oftenrelied on their prior cultural experiences andschool learning to scaffold their children’s outof-schoolliteracy learning. As I spoke in theHispanic parents’ native dialect, the parentsreadily disclosed how they routinely enrichedtheir children’s literacy learning such asnarrating in their native language historicalaccounts of ancestors, teaching their children towrite letters in their native language to distantrelatives still living in their native country, orhaving kitchen table discussions in bothlanguages on life struggles, a family event orschool experiences.A myriad offactors such as theparents’ limitedEnglish languagefluency; limitedformal education, fearor intimidation of theclassroom teacher,inflexible work hours,and unfamiliarity withthe school’scommunicationsystem, have oftenhowever impededparental involvementin their children’sacademic education(Commins, 1989;Finders & Lewis,1994; Sobel &Kugler, 2007).Speaking in theirnative languageduring visits to myclassroom or in visits to their household to tutortheir children, these Hispanic parents echoed arecurring cultural theme—they viewed theirprimary role is to inculcate moral values intheir children. Similarly, McCarthey (2000)reported Latino families emphasize thedevelopment of autonomous and conformingbehaviors and parental monitoring.Conversely, these parents view their children’s

The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012 9school teacher as the knowledgeable, authorityfigure responsible for providing an academiceducation to their children (Anderson &Gunderson, 1997; Drummond & Stipek, 2004;Lindeman, 2001; Pena, Sep/Oct. 2000).Thus, in the style of David Letterman,what follows are a list of top ten strategies thatschool administrators and classroom teacherscan utilize to forge a mutually respectful,trusting relationship with migrant, Hispanicparents with the aim of supporting theirchildren’s literacy emergence. I arranged thefollowing list based on my household visits andschool conversations with numerous migrant,Hispanic parents over a seven-year period.Through dialogue in their native language, Idiscovered that a home-school connectionfocused on meaningful school learning wouldemerge from communication based on mutualrespect and openness.10) Have the children interview their parentsand write a biography. The classroom teachercan guide student discourse in constructingopen-ended questions to ask their parents abouttheir family upbringing, their earlier schoolexperiences, and favorite hobbies and interests.Back in the classroom, the children can worktogether to write, rewrite, and polish theiraccounts of their parents, which can later bebound in a class memoir honoring thechildren’s family history. This literacy eventoffers a critical opportunity to strengthen theparent-school connection and empower thestudents’ families to find a medium to expresstheir voice and cultural heritage (Burkhart,1995).9) Hold periodic parent workshops. Considerthe school library, a parent’s home, acommunity resource center, or the classroom asthe setting that empowers non-English speakingparents with bilingual intervention to freelyshare household and cultural practices forsupporting their children’s at home learning.Bilingual speaking parents can serve asfacilitators or even workshop teachers to bridgethe language gap between classroom teachersand non-English speaking parents. Throughcontinued dialogue, participants gain access toinformation about strategies used in theclassroom and household to teach literacy andmathematics, and contribute their cultural voiceto how literacy learning experiences areorchestrated in the classroom. Within thisvenue, parents can learn and practice theEnglish language without fear orembarrassment (Enz, 1995; Sobel & Kugler,2007).8) Start a parent-student recognition programthat involves the parents’ native language.Seize opportunities to send home a handwrittennote, in the parents’ native languagethat highlights their children’s special effort orachievement, or to express your appreciation tothe parent for their act of volunteerism orsupport to the school. On a recurring basis, usethe school newsletter to broadcast your parents’involvement. Using letters and written notescreates an informal way of communication withparents that acknowledges cultural preferencesfor communication via personal connections.(Bazron, Osher, & Fleischman, 2005; Howe,1994).7) Host a Family Stories Night. Schedule anevening that allows parents and their childrento visit the classroom and share a special familystory in person—in their native language.Arrange beforehand for their bilingual child ora parent to translate the story so that everyonecan internalize the significance of the parent’smessage embedded in the story. Similarly, theclassroom teacher could arrange for parents tohave written their family stories in a journaland later have their children or someone readaloud and translate the story in class.Alongside, the presentation of a family albumprovides a visual depiction of the family and ofimportant events and memories in their lives.Parents gain greater voice in their children’sschool learning and the dialogue serves topromote respect and understanding for people(Finnegan, 1997; Meoli, 2001).

10 The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 20126) At the start of the school year, let Hispanicparents know that your school and classroomvalue dual-language learning. With the aid of abilingual parent liaison, use an Open House,parent-teacher workshop, or bilingualnewsletters to highlight ways in which EnglishLanguage Learners are encouraged to use theirnative language to express their ideas,questions, and critical thinking duringclassroom discussions and student assessments(Estrada, Gomez, & Ruiz-Escalante, 2009).5) Show parents how they can help, expressyour beliefs that parents are vital to theirchildren’s school learning! It may take awhile—perhaps, several parent-teacher eventson weekday evenings and weekends to gaintheir trust and confidence to build a meaningfulhome-school relationship. However, this iswhat Latino families look for—a classroomteacher whose words and actions show acommitment toward their children’s success atschool and toward the parents gainingknowledge about the school’s operations andbeing treated as an equal partner (Finders &Lewis, 1994; Holman, 1997).4) Redefine our traditional views of parentalinvolvement. Often, Hispanic parents, basedon their own upbringing, focus on the moraldevelopment of their children and place theburden of responsibility for academic teachingon the classroom teacher. Some parents useeveryday experiences such as singingtraditional family melodies, planning andcooking a family dinner, or calculating costswhile grocery shopping. Although some non-English speaking parents may have a limiteddegree of English language fluency, they sitwith their children and use the Spanishlanguage to converse with their children abouta storybook (written in their native language) orabout their children’s day at school (Pena,Sep/Oct 2000; Vandegrift & Greene, 1992).3) Meet families where they are—in theirhousehold or neighborhood. With the aid of abilingual parent, consider doing at thebeginning part of the school year a householdvisitation. Visits can help classroom teachersbetter understand their students’ socialcircumstances such as family and work history,use of code-switching during family discourse,practice of religious traditions, and family andcommunity networks. At the very least, parentteacherdialogue can help erase misconceptions(Allen, 2008; Ginsberg, 2007; McIntyre, Kyle,Moore, Sweazy, & Greer, 2001).2) Acknowledge parents as their children’sfirst teacher. In your efforts to reach out tomigrant, non-English speaking parents seek tolearn, with the aid of a Spanish-speaking parentor an interpreter, of how the family householdand their cultural heritage serve as an importantfoundation and a familiar setting for theirchildren’s out-of-school literacy learning. Beopen minded to the ways in which the parentordinarily nurtures their child’s physical,mental and emotional growth even before thechild walked into your classroom (De La Cruz,1999; Flood, Lapp, Tinajero, & Nagel, 1995;Koskinen & Shockley, 1994). Having created afoundation that values the cultural knowledgeand experience of migrant, Hispanic families,we present the following strategy as thecapstone for connecting with non-Englishspeaking parents one culturally relevant deed ata time.1) Become collaborators, advocates alongsidemigrant, Hispanic families dedicated to schoolreform. Our mantra that is displayed on schoolhallways and advertised at school wide eventsneeds to spell change. As educators, we needto know that Hispanic families view educationas the catalyst to their children’s future success;they are concerned about classroom conditions,overcrowding and dropout rates. Not satisfiedwith the status quo, Latino families are lookingto us, the educators to help them betterunderstand the educational system and ways of

The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012 11making changes to traditional teachingpractices. What we do and how we do it in theclassroom must offer migrant, non-Englishspeaking students equitable opportunities toengage and succeed in a rigorous and culturallyrelevant educational environment (Wadsworth& Remaley, 2007).As teachers and parents begin to openlycommunicate and work together to connectschool and at-home literacy practices,meaningful partnerships can become theframework for promoting student success(Paratore, 2005). Sobel and Kugler (2007)proposed that in an immigrant-richenvironment, traditional approaches towardbuilding parental involvement must go beyondbusiness as usual—personal contact mustoccur, beyond one or two interactions with afaculty member. In forging relationshipsbetween the home and school, Evers, Lang, andSmith (2009) stipulated that efforts to linkclassroom literacy learning with the student’shousehold experiences, such as their parent’swritten stories, could demonstrate a respect andappreciation for culturally diverse families.ReferencesAllen, J. (2008). Family partnerships.Educational Leadership, 66(1), 22-27.Anderson J., & Gunderson, L. (1997). Literacylearning from a multicultural perspective.The Reading Teacher, 50(6), 514-516.Bazron, B. Osher, D., & Fleischman, S. (2005).Creating culturally responsive schools.Educational Leadership, 63(1), 83-84.Brock, C. (2001). Serving English languagelearners: Placing learners learning on centerstage. Language Arts, 78(5), 467-475.Burkhart, A. L. (1995). Breaking the parentalbarrier. The Reading Teacher, 48(7), 634-635.Commins, N. L. (1989). Language and affect:Bilingual students at home and at school.Language Arts, 66(1). 29-43.De La Cruz, Y. (1999). Reversing the trend:Latino families in real partnership withschools. Teaching Children Mathematics,5(5), 296-300.Drummond, K. V., & Stipek, D. (2004). Lowincomeparents’ beliefs about their role inchildren’s academic learning. TheElementary School Journal, 104(3), 197-213.Enz, B. J. (1995). Strategies for promotingparental support for emergent literacyprograms. Early Childhood, 49(2), 168-170.Epstein, J. L., & Dauber, S. L. (1991). Schoolprograms and teacher practices of parentinvolvement in inner-city elementary andmiddle schools. The Elementary SchoolJournal, 91(3), 289-305.Estrada, V. L., Gomez, L., & Ruiz-Escalente, J.A. (2009). Let’s make dual language thenorm. Educational Leadership, 66(7), 54-58.Evers, A. J., Lang, L., & Smith, S. V. (2009).An ABC literacy journey: Anchoring intexts, bridging language, and creatingstories. The Reading Teacher, 62(6), 461-470.Finders, M., & Lewis, C. (1994). Why someparents don’t come to school. EducationalLeadership, 51(8), 50-54.Finnegan, E. M. (1997). Even though we havenever met, I feel I know you: Using aparent journal to enhance home-schoolcommunication. The Reading Teacher,51(3), 268-270.Fitzgerald, J. (1995). English-as-a-secondlanguagereading instruction in the UnitedStates: A research review. Journal ofReading Behavior, 27(2), 115-152.Flood, J., Lapp, D., Tinajero, J. V., & Nagel, G.(1995). ―I never knew that I was neededuntil you called!‖: Promoting parentinvolvement in schools. The ReadingTeacher, 48(7), 614-621.Ginsberg, M. B. (2007). Lessons at the kitchentable. Educational Leadership, 64(6), 56-61.Holman, L. J. (1997). Meeting the needs ofHispanic immigrants. EducationalLeadership, 54(7), 37-38.

12 The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012Howe, C. K. (1994). Improving theachievement of Hispanic students.Educational Leadership, 51(8), 42-44.Jimenez, R. T. (2001). ―It’s a difference thatchanges us‖: An alternative view of thelanguage and literacy learning of Latino/astudents. The Reading Teacher, 54(8), 736-742.Koskinen, P. S., & Shockley, B. (1994).Extending the literate community: Hometo-schooland school-to-home. TheReading Teacher, 47(6), 500-502.Lindeman, B. (2001). Reaching out toimmigrant parents. Educational Leadership,58(6), 62-66.Lundgren, D., & Morrison, J. W. (2003).Involving Spanish-speaking families inearly education programs. Young Children,58(3), 88-95.McCarthey, S. J. (2000). Home-schoolconnections: A review of the literature. TheJournal of Educational Research, 49(3),145-153.McIntyre, E., Kyle, D., Moore, G., Sweazy, R.A., & Greer, S. (2001). Linking home andschool through family visits. LanguageArts, 78(3), 264-272.Meoli, P. L. (2001). Family stories night:Celebrating culture and community. TheReading Teacher, 54(8), 746-747.Paratore, J. R. (2005). Approaches to familyliteracy: Exploring possibilities. TheReading Teacher, 59(4), 394-396.Pena, D. (2000). Parent involvement:Influencing factors and implications.Journal of Educational Research, 94, 42-54.Short, D., & Echevarria, J. (2004/2005).Teacher skills to support English languagelearners. Educational Leadership, 62(4), 8-13.Sobel, A., & Kugler, E. G. (2007). Buildingpartnerships with immigrant parents.Educational Leadership, 64(6), 62-66.Valdes, G. (1996). Con Respeto: Bridging thedistances between culturally diversefamilies and schools. New York: TeachersCollege Press.Vandegrift, J. A., & Greene, A. L. (1992).Rethinking parent involvement.Educational Leadership, 50(1), 57-59.Wadsworth, D., & Remaley, M. H. (2007).What families want. EducationalLeadership, 64(6), 23-27.Yopp, H. K., & Stapleton, L. (2008).Conciencia Fonemica en Espanol(Phonemic Awareness in Spanish). TheReading Teacher, 61(5). 374-382.After a 30-year Air Force career, GilbertDueñas worked for over 7 years as a third gradeclassroom teacher at an inner city publicschool, and in August 2011 he became a facultymember in the Department of Early Childhood,Elementary and Reading at Auburn Universityat Montgomery.Shelly Hudson Bowden is a Professor in theDepartment of Early Childhood, Elementary,and Reading at Auburn University atMontgomery.

The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012 13Florida Reading Association’s Fall ConferenceCall for ProposalsFRA invites all educators, reading coaches, librarians and any otherreading stakeholders to submit a conference session proposal for apresentation at the annual conference. If you are interested insubmitting a proposal for the FRA Conference, go to the following sitefor online submission. If you have difficulty, copy and paste the URLinto your browser window. Here is the link: http://goo.gl/ww4RZFRA 50th ConferenceRosen Shingle Creek ResortOctober 18-21, 2012

14 The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012EFFECTIVE LITERACY STRATEGIES FOR STUDENTS WITH HIGHFUNCTIONING AUTISM AND OTHER PERVASIVE DEVELOPMENTALDISABILITIESLara G. TaylorCynthia G. Simpson, Ph.D.Chad A. Rose, Ph.D.Sam Houston State UniversityAbstract: Literacy and comprehension are the foundation of the core academic content domains, andcentral to educational success. Given the national push for evidence-based practices and teacheraccountability, educators are beginning to look at strategies that are both effective for the majority ofstudents, as well as strategies that have been designed to address individual deficit areas. Students withhigh functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and other pervasive developmental disorders mayrequire differentiated and individualized instruction for literacy acquisition and comprehension skills.Consequently, teachers must possess the pedagogical skills necessary to provide intensive instruction indomains such as phonemic awareness, comprehension, and fluency. Mastery of these strategies can providestudents with ASD and other developmental delays with the skills necessary to increase academic outcomesand achieve more educational independence.The ability to read and comprehend text isdirectly linked to the ability to independentlyfunctioning in society (Chiang & Lin, 2007).Therefore, the National Reading Panel (2000)has defined 5 domains of literacy training forall children: a) Phonemic Awareness, b)Phonics, c) Vocabulary, d) Fluency, and e)Comprehension. Children who develop at anage-appropriate rate are able to utilize literacyinstruction provided within the generaleducation environment with minimal difficulty,while learning the basic fundamentals ofreading. Consequently, children diagnosed withAutism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and otherdevelopmental disabilities may requiremodified and/or adapted instruction forsuccessful acquisition of decoding, fluency, andcomprehension skills (Whalon & Hart,2011).Given the national push for increasedevidence-based practices, a growing body ofliterature has explored effective and efficientmethods of literacy instruction for childrenwith ASD and other developmental disabilities.Fundamentally, however, all teachers whoprovide direct instruct to children with ASDshould have a foundational understanding ofthe extant literature regarding literacyinstruction and use this information to guideinstructional decisions.National Reading Panel: 5 Areas ofLiteracy TrainingEffective literacy instructionencompasses the 5 aforementioned domains(i.e., phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary,fluency, comprehension) as identified by theNational Reading Panel. Although teacherswho are specifically trained in the area ofliteracy have a clear understanding of thesedomains, many teachers who have educationalbackgrounds that emphasized other academicdomains or content areas are providinginstruction to children with exceptionalities ininclusive classrooms. Specifically, literacyinstruction is a fundamental component in allacademic domains, where general educationteachers outside the language arts content areaare required to provide some level of reading orliteracy instruction (Spencer, Carter, Boone &Garcia- Simpson, 2008). Therefore, if youteach, you are teaching reading in somecapacity.

The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012 15In making effective instructionaldecisions in literacy instruction, teachersshould examine each of these domains.Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear,identify, and manipulate phonemes, thesmallest units of sound that affect meaning(Browder et al., 2009). More specifically, ―It isan auditory skill that does not involve viewingprinted words‖ (Browder et al., 2009, p.275).For example, one who has mastered phonemicawareness understands that when you changethe first letter in ―pig‖ to ―w‖, it becomes―wig‖. An individual who has masteredphonemic awareness can accurately identify theauditory difference. Phonics refers to teachinghow to connect the sounds (phonemicawareness) with letters, or groups of letters inorder to read and write one’s language(Browder et al., 2009). Once the foundation ofphonics is mastered, an individual can worktoward vocabulary (being able to identify andunderstand the meaning of specific words),fluency (the rate of reading), andcomprehension (understanding the meaning ofwhat is read) mastery (Browder et al., 2009).Phonemic Awareness and PhonicsInstructionAs previously stated, phonemicawareness serves as the foundation forvocabulary, fluency, and comprehension.Extant research involving decoding strategieswith constant time delay have been replicatedwith a significant growth in learning efficiency(Tucker Cohen, Heller, Alberto, & Fredrick,2008) as well as the effects of stimulussuperimposition and background fading on thesight-word reading skills (Birkan,McClannahan, & Krantz, 2007), as well asstudies on computer aided instruction haveindicated that children identified with ASDcould benefit from instruction in phonics(Whalon, Otaiba, & Delano, 2009). Therefore,direct instruction in phonemic awareness is notonly germane to this population of students; itmay be one of the most critical components oftheir educational instruction.For example, Birkan et al. (2007) usedsuperimposition of the target sight-words ontophotographs of the corresponding activities.They faded the backgrounds until the text wasthe only stimulus left visible. Preliminaryresults suggested that the student was able tocorrectly read 14 of 15 (93%) target sightwords.Follow up probes (44 days later)revealed that the child retained these targetwords. Additionally, the student demonstratedgeneralization of these acquired reading skillsacross different font sizes and colors.Computer-aided instruction, anotherstrategy to effectively promote phonics basedword identification through sight-words, hasemerged as an evidence-based practice withinthe past two decades (Coleman-Martin, WolffHeller, Cihak, & Irvine, 2005; Heimann,Nelson, Tjus, & Gillbert, 1995). For example,in the case study by Coleman-Martin andcolleagues (2005), three participants, withdifferent low incidence disabilities, were taughtdecoding and word identification through threeinstructional methods (i.e.., teacher, computeraided,teacher and computer-aided). Through amultiple conditions design, it was determinedthat the sessions where the teacher andcomputer-aided instruction were utilized intandem demonstrated the highest percentage ofcorrectly identified words. Similarly, Heimannand colleagues (1995) demonstrated theeffectiveness of an interactive multimediaprogram (The Alpha Program) to increase thereading skills in children with autism (Heimannet al., 1995) through a comparison group designof preschool students (i.e., children diagnosedwith autism spectrum disorder, childrendiagnosed with multiple handicaps, andchildren who were identified as typicallydeveloping). Specifically, Heimann andcolleagues (1995) stated:All groups of children showedconsiderable progress during training

16 The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012and displayed significant increases invocabulary as measured by the built inalpha tests. In addition, stronggeneralized gains beyond the alphamaterials were observed in testsmeasuring both word reading andphonological awareness, as well assentence imitation. (p. 475).To extend research in phonemicawareness, Williams, Wright, Callaghan, andCoughlan (2002) conducted a matched sample,crossover design that involved eight childrenwith ASD. The goal of this study was tocompare the progression of reading skills whenusing computer-based and book based learningfor two groups (i.e., computer-based learningand book based learning, book based learningand computer based learning). For both groups,the amount of words read correctly increasedslightly, where no consistent patterns weredemonstrated in improvement of timed data,and all children recorded increases in theirpost-test scores based on the North YorkshireBaseline. However, the group that wasadministered the computer- assisted instructionfirst demonstrated an overall greaterimprovement in concentration and reading formeaning. It was also noted that duringcomputer- assisted instruction, time on task,verbal word use, and spontaneous appropriatecommunication and gestures increased whencompared to book based instruction (Williamset al., 2002).Comprehension, Vocabulary, and FluencyDevelopmentThe National Reading Panel (2000)suggested that ―teaching phonemic awareness(PA) to children is clearly effective. Itimproves their ability to manipulate phonemesin speech. This skill transfers and helps themlearn to read and spell. PA training benefits notonly word reading but also readingcomprehension‖ (p. 2-40). Direct Instructionhas been demonstrated as an effective literacystrategy for increasing comprehension andvocabulary development for children diagnosedwith ASD or developmental disabilities (Flores& Gantz, 2007). Direct instruction is a teacherfacilitatedstrategy that utilizes carefullyarticulated lessons for small group, face-to-faceinstruction, where cognitive skills are brokendown into small units and deliberatelysequenced. Flores and Ganz’s (2009)investigated the effects of a direct instructionprogram (i.e.., Corrective Reading ThinkingBasics: Comprehension Level A) through amultiple probe across behaviors design acrossfour children between the ages of 11-14 withdevelopmental and intellectual disabilities (i.e.,ASD, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder,and mental retardation). A scripted teacherpresentation book, which was divided intodifferent domains (i.e., developing skills,picture analogies, induction, and deduction)served as the administration protocol for thestudy. Results of the study demonstrated thateach participant documented 75% - 100%improvement following the intervention acrossall behavioral conditions, and retained theinformation after six-week absence ofintervention (Flores & Ganz, 2009).Similarly, O’Connor and Kline (2004)utilized a within subjects design to examineteacher--directed strategies for determining theeffects of answering pre-reading questions,completing cloze sentences embedded withintext, resolving anaphora by identifying relevantantecedents, and reading comprehension for 25school-aged students. Results of the studydemonstrated modest increases in passagecomprehension throughout each behaviorcondition. The anaphoric cuing condition,however, resulted in the highest comprehensionscore per mean value (O’Connor & Kline,2004). The results of this study indicate that thestrategies presented have proven effective forsome students with high functioning autismunder ideal conditions.

The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012 17Alternative Effective Literacy StrategiesAlternate effective literacy strategies forcomprehension and vocabulary developmentinclude a balance between teacher-directed andstudent-directed activities. These strategies mayinclude guided reading, cooperative learninggroups, peer tutoring, and computer -aidedinstruction. The use of guided readingstrategies with children who have beenidentified with various disabilities wasexamined by Simpson, Spencer, Button, andRendon (2007). Specifically, this study focusedon guided reading as an effective literacystrategy to increase the reading skills of 11students with dual diagnoses (e.g., speechimpairments, mental retardation, emotionaldisturbances, autism) over a nine month period.Results at the conclusion of the nine monthperiod (i.e., one academic year) suggested thatparticipants experienced a growth in readinglevels ranging from 6 to 24 month, and reportedan increase in reading confidence.To provide a more comprehensiveunderstanding related to specific strategies forproviding effective literacy instruction forchildren with ASD and other developmentaldisabilities, Chiang and Lin (2007) reviewedeleven studies involving 48 individuals withASD and mental retardation. Overall, Chiangand Lin (2007) described effective strategies touse for functional and academic vocabularyperception through sight word and textcomprehension. Specifically, the reviewidentified flash cards, progressive time-delayprocedures, peer tutoring, cooperative learninggroups, incidental teaching procedures, prereadingquestions, anaphoric cuing, completionof cloze sentences, multimedia and computerbasedinstruction as instructional deliverymethods for students with ASD and mentalretardation. Results from each study confirmedthat individuals with ASD are capable ofacquiring functional and academic readingskills through the aforementioned strategies(Chiang & Lin, 2007). However, since a truemeta-analysis was not conducted, a preferentialstrategy cannot be determined.Repeated ReadingsRepeated reading has also beenidentified as an evidence-based strategy forincreasing literacy skills among students withASD. Colasent and Griffith (1998) utilized athematic approach, where material waspresented through a cohesive series of repeatedoral reading passages, to demonstrate thatliteracy skills of students with autism wouldimprove when stories centered on a specifictheme. Additionally, the retell ability ofstudents with ASD was increased whenstudents made visual depictions of the story incombination with documenting story details inwriting (Colasent & Griffith, 1998).In addition to increasing the literacyskills in comprehension and vocabulary, the useof the repeated reading strategies can alsoincrease fluency and sharpen decoding skills(Therrien & Kubina, 2006). Implementation ofa repeated reading strategy is relativelyflexible, and can be conducted using welltrainedpeer tutors or adults. General protocolfor repeated reading follows a distinct stepwiseprogression, where the student will read theleveled passage aloud to the tutor for oneminute. Within that minute, if the studenthesitates for 3 seconds, the tutor will promptthe student to move on or provide the studentwith the word, and the word will be marked asincorrect. Mispronunciations and skippedwords should be marked as incorrect on theassessment form. Following administration ofthe passage, the tutor should inform the studentof incorrect words, say the words aloud, andhave the student repeat each incorrect word.The tutor and student should continue topractice the selected text until the studentreaches a predetermined criterion or reaches thepreset fluency level (Therrien & Kubina, 2006).

18 The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012Effective Literacy Strategies and Multi-Component Behavior SupportsAlthough each of the strategiesaddressed have proven beneficial for theinstruction of students with autism spectrumdisorders, it is of upmost importance to addressthe need to create and maintain a consistent andhighly structured environment that would helpin alleviating any behaviors which maynegatively impact the teacher’s ability toimplement the interventions presented. In eachof the studies presented, it is assumed that theconditions were ideal for instruction of studentswith autism spectrum disorders. The degree ofeffectiveness of the interventions may bedirectly linked to the students’ ability tocomply with academic or skill instructionduring the time period that the intervention isavailable. Combing these specific strategiesalong with multi-component behavioralsupports, such as Positive Behavioral Supports(for review, see www.pbis.org), will assist increating an environment that is equipped toaddress occasional aberrant behaviors, whichare often characteristic of students withASD/PDD. Using Positive Behavior Supportsas a model for a multi-component frameworkfor behavioral support, students are presentedwith varying degrees of supports based onindividual needs and data-based decisions(Sugai & Horner, 2002). These supports aregenerally situated within a whole school,group, and individual context (Bambara &Kern, 2005; Sugai & Horner, 2002), where thesupports increase in intensity as dictated by thestudent’s documented behavioral pattern. TheNational Association of School Psychologists(2001) indicated that the use of multicomponentbehavioral support strategies, suchas Positive Behavior Supports, may helpameliorate challenging behaviors and replacethem with prosocial behaviors. Therefore,coupling evidence-based academicinterventions with the data-based decisionmaking process of a multi-component behaviorsupport system will help teachers address bothacademic deficits as will as provide the studentwith age-appropriate behavioral functioning toincrease student outcome.ConclusionOverall, there are many evidence-basedstrategies for increasing literacy developmentin all five domains identified by the NationalReading Panel for students diagnosed withASD and other developmental disorders.Consequently, future research is critical todetermine a literacy method that is mosteffective for this population of students. A thefundamental level, however, educators mustexamine the individual needs of their students,have a basic understanding of evidenced-basedliteracy practices that have demonstratedeffectiveness with children with ASD, andutilize this information to make informedinstructional decisions.ReferencesBambara, L.M., & Kern, L. (2005).Individualized supports for students withproblem behaviors: Designing positivebehavior plans. New York: The GuilfordPress.Birkan, B., McClannahan, L., & Krantz, P.(2007). Effects of superimpostition andbackground fading on the sight-wordreading of a boy with autism. Research inAutism Spectrum Disorders, 1, 117 - 125.Browder, D., Gibbs, S., Ahlgrim-Delzell, L.,Courtade, G., Mraz, M., & Flowers, C.(2009). Literacy for students with severedevelopmental disabilities: what should weteach and what should we hope to achieve?Remedial and Special Education, 30, 269 -282.Chiang, H. & Lin, Y. (2007). Readingcomprehension instruction for students withautism spectrum disorder: A literaturereview. Focus on Autism and OtherDevelopmental Disabilities, 22, 259 - 267.Colasent, R. & Griffith, P. (1998). Autism andliteracy: Looking into the classroom with

The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012 19rabbit stories. The Reading Teacher, 51,414 - 420.Cohn, A. M. (2001). NASP Fact Sheet -Positive Behavioral Supports. NationalAssociation of School Psychologists.Retrieved December 28, 2011, fromhttp://www.nasponline.org/resources/factsheets/pbs.fs.aspxColeman-Martin, M., Wolff Heller, K., Cihak,D., & Irvine, K. (2005). Using computerassistedinstruction and the nonverbalreading approach to teach word. Focus OnAutism and Other DevelopmentalDisabilities, 20, 80 - 90.Flores, M., & Ganz, J. B. (2007). Effectivenessof Direct Instruction for TeachingStatement Inference, Use of Facts, andAnalogies to Students With DevelopmentalDisabilities and Reading Delays. Focus onAutism & Other DevelopmentalDisabilities, 22(4), 244-251. Retrievedfrom EBSCOhost.Flores, M., & Ganz, J. (2009). Effects of directinstruction on the reading comprehension ofstudents with autism and developmentaldisabilities. Education and Training inDevelopmental Disabilities, 44, 39 - 53.Heimann, M., Nelson, K., Tjus, T., & Gillberg,C. (1995). Increasing reading andcommunication skills in children withautism through an interactive multimediacomputer program. Journal of Autism andDevelopmental Disorders, 25, 459 - 480.National Institute of Child Health and HumanDevelopment. (2000). Report of theNational Reading Panel. Teaching childrento read: An evidence-based assessment ofthe scientific research literature on readingand its implications for reading instruction(NIH Publication No. 00-4769).Washington, DC: U.S. GovernmentPrinting Office.O’Conner, I., & Klein, P. (2004). Explorationof strategies for facilitating the readingcomprehension of high-functioning studentswith autism spectrum disorders. Journal ofAutism and Developmental Disorders, 34,115 - 127.Simpson, C., Spencer, V., Button, R., &Rendon, S. (2007). Using guided readingwith students with autism spectrumdisorders. TEACHING ExceptionalChildren Plus, 4, 2 - 9.Spencer, V., Carter, B., Boone, R., & Garcia-Simpson, C. (2008) If you teach- You teachreading. International Journal of SpecialEducation, 23(2),1-7.Sugai, G., & Horner, R. (2002). Introduction tothe special series on positive behaviorsupport in schools. Journal of Emotionaland Behavioral Disorders, 10, 130-135.Therrien, W., & Kubina, R. (2006). Developingreading fluency with repeated reading.Intervention in School and Clinic, 41, 156 -160.Tucker Cohen, E., Heller, K. W., Alberto, P., &Fredrick, L. D. (2008). Using a three-stepdecoding strategy with constant time delayto teach word reading to students with mildand moderate mental retardation. Focus onAutism and Other DevelopmentalDisabilities, 23(2), 67 - 78.Whalon, K., Otaiba, S., & Delano, M. (2009).Evidence based reading instruction forindividuals with autism spectrum disorders.Focus on Autism and Other DevelopmentalDisabilities, 24, 3 - 16.Whalon, K. J., & Hart, J. E. (2011). Childrenwith Autism Spectrum Disorder andLiteracy Instruction: An Exploratory Studyof Elementary Inclusive Settings. Remedial& Special Education, 32, 243-255.doi:10.1177/0741932510362174Williams, C., Wright, B., Callaghan, G., &Coughlan, B. (2002). Do children withautism learn to read more readily bycomputer assisted instruction or traditionalbook methods? A pilot study. SAGEPublications and The National AutisticSociety, 6, 71 -91

20 The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012Lara Taylor is the Special EducationDepartment Chair and Basic Reading Teacherin New Caney ISD on the sixth grade campusand a graduate student in the Low IncidenceDisability and Autism Program at SamHouston State University. Cynthia G. Simpsonis an associate professor in the College ofEducation in the Department of Language,Literacy and Special Populations at SamHouston State University. Chad Rose is anassistant professor in the College of Educationin the Department of Language, Literacy andSpecial Populations at Sam Houston StateUniversity.

The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012 21Technology:The N-Grams, Witches, and Wizards:Observing words through timeTerence CavanaughUniversity of North Floridat.cavanaugh@unf.eduAn n-gram or ngram, not to be confusedwith a memory engram, the Ingram machinepistol or a scientific unit of mass, is defined asa contiguous sequence of some n items fromtext or speech, in other words, words. So nowyou should be asking yourself, great, but whatcan I do with that? Well think about theconcept of a concordance for a book or anauthor’s work. A concordance would be anelement of the n-gram information for thatword, but a real n-gram investigation would gowell beyond just a book or just an author, andinstead would be looking at everything thatused that word. Sounds impossible, but it’s not.Google analytics is a tool that anyone canuse to analyze word usage in books over time,at least books between 1800 and 2000. TheGoogle Book’s Ngram Viewer(http://books.google.com/ngrams) allows usersto investigate a word’s use and see thepercentages and data for how often that word orphrase appears in print. The books being usedin Google Books now included over 15 millionscanned print edition and over 500 billionwords. This means that we have a new elementthat can be included in a word study. It is also away to look at culture over time by its wordusage, and can be a way to look at how wordschange over time in their use.Figure 1: n-gram of the word ―Pluto‖ from 1800 through 2000

22 The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012Here is an example of a word beinganalyzed. As an old science teacher, I thoughtthat I would start with ―Pluto,‖ since recentlythe planet Pluto was demoted from a majorplanet object to a dwarf planetary body. When Igo to the Ngram Viewer and type in the word―Pluto‖ as the search word and click on theSearch button I get a graph of the word usageover time (see Figure 1). Now, I can see howoften that word appears in print over time forthe books scanned. Notice the spike that occursbefore 1940 - that would make sense as itsdiscovery was in the 1930’s. Also, notice therise in occurrences after 1980, when the debatewas brewing about whether Pluto was a planetor not. I’m sure if the data continued, we wouldsee another spike around 2006 when Pluto wasreclassified. We can also see from the graph,that it isn’t a high use word either, as it maxedat about 0.00018% of word use.You can also use the system to comparewords. Now instead of just typing a single wordinto the search bar, you type in different wordsseparated by a comma. Since the Harry Potterseries just finished and Pottermore has yet tostart let’s consider some of the words used inthat series. Upon researching I found that theword ―wizard‖ occurs over 240 times in HarryPotter and the Deathly Hallows (although I’msure that I could have missed a few in mysearch though the book). And thinking back asa child, I didn’t hear much about wizards, but Ioften did hear about witches. So let’s examinethe word use of ―witch‖ and ―wizard‖ overtime. Typing in ―witch, wizard‖ into the searchand searching gives me a graph display of thetwo words’ appearances over time (see Figure2). Looking at the chart we can easily see thatindeed the word ―witch‖ occurs in print muchmore often than ―wizard,‖ actually at least threetimes as much. But also in looking at the wordwizard though time we might actually see theimpact that J. K. Rowling had, as between 1980and 2000, the word wizard starts becomingmore common.Figure 2: n-gram comparison of the words witch and wizard from 1800 through 2000.

The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012 23Figure 3: n-gram comparison of the words Wizard and Witch from 1800 through 2000.One issue with the ngram viewer tool is that thewords are case sensitive. Look at what happenswhen I do the same search as before, exceptcapitalize the first letter (see Figure 3). Herewhile the word ―Witch‖ is usually morecommon than ―Wizard,‖ wizards really take offaround the 1990s surpassing the word ―Witch‖by nearly double in 2000. Although when youexamine the percentages you find that in 2000,the capital version of wizard was 0.0003% andthe lower case was 0.00015%, and that witcheswere 0.00045% in lower case and 0.00016capitalized, totaling out for wizards then at0.00045% and witches with 0.00061% - sowitches are indeed more common than wizards(at least so far).

24 The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012IFigure 4: n-gram comparison of the words vampire and zombie from 1800 through 2000.was also just recently reading that zombies arethe new vampires, that vampires are going outand zombies are the next big thing - somethingthat I’m starting to see in book publications. SoI ran a comparison between those two terms(see Figure 4). Indeed it looks like zombies arebecoming more common than they use to beand that around 2000, vampires shifted from arising word to a declining use word.Recently, a college student reading a shortstory based on the Cow Jumped Over theMoon, had a problem with the word ―dryly.‖She just didn’t know what the word meant.While she accepted and understood thedefinition when told, it made me wonder. So, Iresearched the n-gram for the word ―dryly‖ andgot its graph (see Figure 5). That word wastwice as common around 1900 as it is today(0.00006%). And while I wasn’t reading in1900, it does help me to understand that shehasn’t been exposed to as many instances to adeclining used word as I have.The Ngram Viewer from Google, giveeducators a new tool in word research. Thinkabout having your students search for wordsfrom your word wall or the books that they arereading and talk about how that word’s usagehas changed though time (good math andscience skill - reading graphs). You can alsouse the graph as a nice visual display aboutsome words in the book that they are reading,such as for your bulletin board, letting them seethe word use though time. This tool gives us anability to do a different kind of Word Analysis,instead of phonics, decoding, or root words, wecan instead look at how often people actuallyuse the word in print.Happy reading with technology.

The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012 25Figure 5: n-gram of the word ―dryly‖ from 1800 through 2000.

26 The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012Children’s Book AwardThe Children’s Book Award program is open to all kindergarten, first, and second grade students in thestate of Florida. Student votes can be submitted by a teacher or librarian after the students have heardor read at least 5 of the books. Submit votes by April 15, 2012 to http://www.flreads.org >Children’sBook Award > Vote on a Book.Activities and ideas for implementing the Children’s Book Award program can also be found at theweb site.If you have any books you would like reviewed for the 2012-2013 Children’s Book Award program,please follow the Recommend a Book link on the Children’s Book Award web site.If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us!Sincerely,Roberta Mann rmann45@comcast.net andJodi Vizzi jodi.vizzi@sdhc.k12.fl.usCo-Chairs/North Florida and South FloridaFRA Children’s Book AwardThe titles for the 2011-2012 school year are:What’s in the EggLittle Pip?By: Karma WilsonGreen Tree FrogsColorful HidersBy: Natalie LunisI Always, Always GetMy WayBy: Thad KrasneskyUgly PieBy Lisa WheelerOscar and the VeryHungry DragonBy: Ute KrauseWonder HorseBy: Emily ArnoldMcCullyGoing Around theSun: Some PlanetaryFunBy Marianne BerkesChristian, the HuggingLionBy: Justin Richardsonand Peter Parnell

The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012 27Book Reviews:Literature:Notable Books for Children and Young AdultsThomas CrispUniversity of South Florida, Sarasota-Manateetcrisp@sar.usf.eduIncluding Diverse Children’s and YoungAdult Literature in Classrooms andCurriculaJust over one year ago, I published my first―Literature: Notable Books for Children andYoung Adults‖ column (Crisp, 2010/2011a), acollection focusing on the most recent winnersof awards for ―diverse‖ children’s and youngadult literature. It seems appropriate, then, thatthe first of these columns for which I served ina more editorial capacity also focuses ondiverse or multicultural literature. In thismonth’s column, Lowery, Oslick, Liu,Rodriguez, and Thibodeaux focus on theInternational Reading Association’s 2010-2011Notable Books for a Global Society lists,sharing brief synopses of selected titlesalongside ideas as to how each book can beincorporated into school curricula.As I’ve stated previously, there has beendisagreement in the field of children’s literatureabout what counts as ―authentic‖ diverse ormulticultural literature (see, for example, thefamous debate between Patrick Shannon[1994], Rudine Sims Bishop [1994], and VioletHarris [1994], a conversation furthered byMingshui Cai [1998]). As Cai (1998) makesclear, there are multiple definitions ofmulticultural literature, but ultimately, I believethat multicultural literature consists of thosebooks by and about populations that havetraditionally been under-represented in media(including literature) and popular culture.Because these depictions remain relativelyscarce (for statistics, see the website for theUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison’sCooperative Children’s Book Center:http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/),available representations carry a great deal ofpower and merit careful, critical attention. Thisis accomplished by asking questions related towho has the ―right‖ to tell which stories (formore on this conversation, see Fox and Short’s[2003] Stories Matter: The Complexity ofCultural Authenticity in Children’s Literature),honoring insider voices, and selecting texts thataccurately serve both as a window and a mirrorfor readers (Cullinan & Galda, 1994).Cullinan and Galda (1994) explain that whenliterature serves as a ―mirror,‖ readers look intothe text and see images of themselves reflectedin the pages. When literature functions as a―window,‖ readers look into the pages of a textand see the lives and experiences of peoplewho are different from themselves; as thesereaders stare through the pane, however, theyalso see reflections of themselves. These twofunctions are equally important: guiding youngreaders toward not only learning about otherpeople and considering a range of experiencesbeyond their own, but providing images ofthemselves: showing possibilities of what theycan be when they are grown and who they arealready (Crisp & Knezek, 2010).Debates about awards for diverse children’sand young adult literature are not new (see,e.g., the Aronson [2000] and Pinkney [2001]debate) and, based upon responses to changesin the Lambda Literary Award’s eligibilitycriteria (see Crisp, 2010/2011b), scholars,

28 The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012critics, and authors of children’s books aboutpopulations that have traditionally beenmarginalized in literature and popular culturedon’t seem to be nearing a consensus as towhether or not these types of awards arebeneficial or detrimental. As Kidd (2007, 2009)argues, awards are not without problems;simply because a book has a seal on its cover orreceives the approval of a particularorganization doesn’t mean it is guaranteed to bea ―positive‖ representation. Readers areencouraged (as is true with all columnspublished in FRJ or elsewhere) to carefullyexamine recommended texts and decide forthemselves how (or whether at all) to includethese books in their classrooms. Certainly, thetexts included in the list below are far fromexhaustive (there is no book, for example, thatprovides representation to—or focuses on theexistence of—LGBTQ people, a populationthat appears to have been excluded from the2010 and 2011 NBGS lists). While the authorsof this month’s column highlight ways in whichthese texts can be used in classrooms, it’simportant to remember that diverse literatureneeds to be included across the curriculumthroughout the year—not only during monthsdevoted to the history of a specific population.Beyond this, the inclusion of multiculturalliterature in classrooms shouldn’t be limited tothose texts used explicitly for teaching: allclassroom libraries should include a range of―authentic‖ depictions on their shelves, booksavailable purely for the enjoyment of all youngreaders.ReferencesAronson, M. (2000). Slippery slopes andproliferating prizes. The Horn BookMagazine. May/June, 271-278.Bishop, R. S. (1994). A reply to Shannon thecanon. Journal of Children's Literature,20(1), 6-8.Cai, M. (1998). Multiple definitions ofmulticultural literature: is the debate reallyjust "ivory tower" bickering? NewAdvocate, 11(4), 311-324.Crisp, T. (2010/2011a). 2010 winners ofawards for ―diverse‖ children’s and youngadult literature. Literature: Notable booksfor children and adolescents. FloridaReading Journal, 47(1), 40-43.Crisp, T. (2010/2011b). It’s not the book, it’snot the author, it’s the award: The Lambdaliterary award and the case for strategicessentialism. Children’s Literature inEducation, 42(2), 91-104.Crisp, T., & Knezek, S. (2010). ―I just don’t seemyself here‖: Challenging conversationsabout LGBTQ adolescent literature. EnglishJournal, 99(3), 76-79.Cullinan, B., & Galda, L. (1994). Literatureand the child (3 rd ed.). Fort Worth, TX:Harcourt Brace College.Fox, D. L., and Short, K. G. (2003). Storiesmatter: The complexity of culturalauthenticity in children’s literature.Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachersof EnglishHarris, V. J. (1994). No invitation required toshare multicultural literature. Journal ofChildren’s Literature, 20(1), 9-13.Kidd, K. B. (2009). ―Not censorship butselection‖: Censorship and/as prizing.Children’s Literature in Education, 40(3),197-216.Kidd, K. B. (2007). Prizing children’sliterature: The case of Newbery gold.Children’s Literature, 35, 166-190.Pinkney, A. D. (2001). Awards that stand onsolid ground. The Horn Book MagazineSeptember/October, 535-539.Shannon, P. (1994). I am the canon: Findingourselves in multiculturalism. Journal ofChildren's Literature, 20(1), 1-5.Have an idea for a ―Literature: ExemplaryLiterature for Children and Young Adults‖column? Submit column manuscripts to theFRJ editorial staff and your contribution will beconsidered for a forthcoming issue of theFlorida Reading Journal.

The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012 29DIVERSITY THROUGH CHILDREN’S LITERATURE: THE 2010-2011NOTABLE BOOKS FOR A GLOBAL SOCIETY LISTRuth McKoy LoweryMary Ellen OslickQing LiuPrisca RodriguezLauren ThibodeauxThe University of FloridaChildren’s literature enthusiasts often eagerlyawait lists of notable and award-winningbooks: the Newbery and Caldecott Award, thePura Belpré Award, and the Jane AddamsChildren's Book Award, to simply name a fewof the numerous awards for children’sliterature. Over the years, many of us read andshare these titles with others in the field,arguing for our favorites but remainingcommitted to reading those that may not havesparked our interest in order to more effectivelyshare our ideas and understand why somestories intrigue us while others do not.Several years ago, we decided to share newmulticultural titles with teachers at the FloridaReading Association annual conference inresponse to the overwhelming interest ofprofessionals looking for texts they could sharewith their students. As different members ofour group have served on the Notable Booksfor a Global Society (NBGS) committee, aReading Special Interest Group of theInternational Reading Association (IRA), webegan sharing these titles with teachers in ourconference presentations. We are alwaysexcited when teachers share with us the ways inwhich they’ve integrated one or more of theprevious years’ titles in their classrooms.Each year, the NBGS committee selectstwenty-five outstanding books for grades K-12.These titles are selected based on themes thatreflect the global diversity of the humannarrative and expand the definitions ofdiversity while bringing the global communitycloser to home through literature. In thiscolumn, we share some of what we believe arethe most exemplary 2010-2011 book titles,providing both brief synopses for each text andoffering ideas upon which teachers may drawin order to begin incorporating these books invarious content areas.Recommended TitlesAjmera, Maya, MagdaNakassis, & Cynthia Pon.(2009). Faith.Watertown, MA:Charlesbridge. 48 pages,$16.95, ISBN: 978-1-58089-177-6. Age: 4-8 yrs.This beautiful book celebrates religioustraditions around the world. Faith stressescommonalities of different religions, includingprayers and meditations, chants and songs, holybooks, cleansing, holy places, holidays andfestivals, important events, dress, food anddrink, and helping others. Colorful photographsand simple text highlight young childrenparticipating in diverse religious activities. Thebook imparts strong messages of respect forothers, making friends, and building peace.Teacher uses:

30 The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012Supplementary book for social studiesto highlight different religions aroundthe worldSpark students’ appreciation andunderstanding of different religionsAdd to a balanced classroom librarycollection in all grade levelsBaskin, Nora Raleigh.(2009). Anything butTypical. New York:Simon & Schuster. 195pages, $15.99, ISBN: 978-1-4169-6378-3. Age: 9-12yrs.Anything but Typical is thestory of Jason, a highfunctioning,sixth-grade boy with autism, whoshares with readers his feelings of not fitting in,even though he tries to follow the instructionsof therapists, helpers, and family members. Helabels the rest of his classmates and teachers asneurotypicals, or NT’s for short. Jason is a deepthinker and an excellent writer, who publishesonline, an outlet for creativity that leads to hisfirst semi-romantic relationship with a femalestudent/writer. The story is an emotional andtrue representation of a student who is―differently abled.‖Teacher uses: Introduce students to individuals withdisabilities Help students understand students intheir class/school who have disabilities Help students with disabilities seethemselves in literatureBausum, Ann. (2009).Denied, Detained, Deported:Stories from the Dark Side ofAmerican Immigration.Washington, D.C.: NationalGeographic. 112 pages,$21.95, ISBN: 978-1-4263-0332-6. Age: 11-15 yrs.Issues of immigration remain at the fore ofmajor discussions in political arenasacross the globe. Bausum presents theexperiences of immigrants who weredenied entry, detained because of theirnationalities, and deported because theyspoke out against inhumane labor lawsand practices. Experiences ofimmigrants from China, Germany,Japan and Mexico are skillfullyportrayed in this volume. The storieseffectively highlight actual people whose liveswere, and continue to be, impacted byimmigration laws.Teacher uses: Students can explore laws andregulations regarding immigration andcitizenship Students can explore immigrantexperiences 20 th and 21 st centuries Students can research the globalexperiences of diverse immigrantgroupsBryan, Ashley. (2009). Wordsto My Life’s Song. NewYork: Atheneum. 58 pages,$18.99, ISBN: 978-1-4169-0541-7. Age: 4-9 yrs.Words to My Life’s Song is a colorful andartistic glimpse into the life of Ashley Bryan,the well-loved and widely acclaimed AfricanAmerican illustrator and author. Bryandescribes growing up during the Depression,his early love of art, and being given theopportunity to practice and express his love ofart at an early age. Today, Bryan still shares hislove of art with children everywhere as hevisits classrooms, drawing, singing, andreciting poems. Samples of his work areartfully woven throughout the text providing anintimate look at this beloved artist’scontributions.Teacher uses: Students can conduct an author study toexplore Ashley Bryan’s work

The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012 31Students can explore the HarlemRenaissance’s importance in AfricanAmerican historyBurg, Ann E. (2009). All the Broken Pieces.New York: Scholastic. 219 pages,$16.99, ISBN: 978-0-545-08092-7.Age: 11-14 yrs.All the Broken Pieces is set after the VietnamWar. Seventh grader, Matt Pin was airlifted outof Vietnam by American soldiers and adoptedby a loving American family. Matt hashaunting memories of the war and blameshimself for his brother’s death. He also hasdifficulties at school and is bullied by boys onhis baseball team. The story affirms thedisasters of war but also illuminates the healingpower of love.Teacher uses: Introduce students to diverse tops likewar, family, and bullying Incorporate into thematic literaturestudies like coping with changes infamily and life Text can add to the variety of literaturefor middle grade classroom librariesCombres, Élisabeth. (2009).Broken Memory: A Novel ofRwanda. Translated by ShelleyTanaka. Toronto, ON:Groundwood Books. 144 pages,$8.95, ISBN-10: 0888998937.Age: 12-16 yrs.Although Emma survived her mother’s murderduring the 1994 Rwandan genocide of the Tutsipeople, she is still haunted by the terriblememories. She has only one goal: to fulfill hermother’s last wish that she ―must not die.‖ Thisstory presents a series of events that lead Emmato catharsis and hope for the future. A powerfulstory that leaves the reader pondering about thedecisions we make and how those may impactothers.Teacher uses: Use as a supplemental text indiscussions of the Rwandan genocide orwar in general Introduce students to stories ofindividuals who have survived war Help students understand the ravages ofwarDeedy, Carmen Agrawith Wilson KimeliNaiyomah. (2009). 14Cows for America.Illustrated by ThomasGonzalez. Atlanta, GA:Peachtree. 36 pages,$17.95, ISBN: 978-1-561-45490-7. Age: 7-10yrs.This is the true story of Kimeli Naiyomah, whoreturned home to his Maasai village from NewYork City and describes the horrors of theSeptember 11, 2001terrorist attacks on theUnited States. Kimeli’s story prompted thetribe to give a heartfelt gift to help Americaheal—14 sacred cows. This important gesturefrom the Maasai population, which isconsidered a poor, nomadic tribe, illuminatesthe powerful statement, "There is no nation sopowerful it cannot be wounded, nor a people sosmall they cannot offer mighty comfort."Teacher uses: Supplemental text for discussions about9/11Introduce students to the Maasai peopleUse to help students understand ―acts ofkindness‖

32 The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012Edwardson, Debby Dahl.Blessing’s Bead. NewYork: Farrar Straus andGiroux. 178 pages, $16.99,ISBN: 978-0-374-30805-6.Age: 9-12 yrs.Help students from variousbackgrounds see themselves inliteratureHelp students understand the valueof every individual regardless oftheir backgroundYoung Blessing leaves anunstable life in Anchorage tolive in a remote village, with agrandmother she hardly knows. As she struggles toadjust to her new life, Blessing quickly realizes thatshe does not fit in with her classmates and fellowInupiaq Eskimos. After finding a cobalt blue beadthat belonged to her great-grandmother, Nutaaq,for whom she was also named, Blessing comes tolearn the stories of her Inupiaq past.Teacher uses: Use as a supplement to history lessons,example understanding Alaska Use as a springboard to teach aboutfamilies and multi-generationalrelationships Use as a coming-of-age supplementEvery Human Has Rights: APhotographic Declaration forKids. (2009). Washington,D.C.: National Geographic. 48pages, $26.90, ISBN-10:1426305117. Age: 7-10 yrs.In 1948, a total of 30 important human rightswere delineated by the United Nations; rightsthat remain important in today’s globaleconomy. This book presents these rights in aformat that can be easily understood andappreciated. Each right is illustrated bybeautiful photography from all over the worldand is combined with poems written by diverseyoung people. The book illustrates the valueand dignity of every individual.Teacher uses: Introduce students to individualsfrom different backgrounds Help students understand thedifferent human rights as set by theUnited NationsGriffin, Paul. (2009). The OrangeHouses. New York: Dial Books.160 pages, $21.00, ISBN: 978-0-8037-3346-6. Age: 14-18 yrs.The Orange Houses interweavesthe lives of three youngcharacters’ who reside in one of New YorkCity’s housing projects. Tamika, a youngteenager who is partially deaf, indulges inturning off her hearing aids and shutting out theworld. Fatima, a recent illegal immigrant to theUnited States, avoids the police, while longingto bring her sister to America and one day visitthe Statue of Liberty. The third character,Jimmi Sixes, a poet, recovering drug addict,and war veteran at just 18 years of age.Together, these three characters form animpenetrable friendship.Teacher uses: Introduce students to individuals withdisabilities Explore themes such as poverty andimmigration Help students gain perspective on theeveryday lives of other people in theircommunityHoose, Phillip.(2009). Claudette Colvin:Twice Toward Freedom.New York: MelanieKroupa. 133 pages, $19.95,ISBN: 978-0-374-31322-7.Age: 12-18 yrs.Nine months before Rosa Parks’ 1955 historicrefusal to give up her bus seat to a whitepassenger (which later lead to the notoriousMontgomery, Alabama bus boycott by AfricanAmerican passengers), a 15-year old student

The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012 33also refused to give up her seat. The young girl,Claudette Colvin, was dragged from the bus,arrested, and later charged. Unlike Parks’celebrated embrace, Colvin was shunned. Oneyear later, despite her neglect, Colvin agreed tobe one of four plaintiffs in the landmarkBrowder versus Gayle busing case whichresulted in the desegregation of Montgomery’spublic transportation system. Colvin’s story isone of hope and courage and a wonderfulexample to others about the resilience of youngpeople.Teacher uses: Use as a supplement in AfricanAmerican history Use as an introduction to exploringunsung heroes of the Civil Rights era. Students can further explore howordinary people around the world havepeacefully lobbied to ascertain civilrights for all citizensKhan, Rukhsana. (2009).Wanting Mor. Toronto:Groundwood Books. 192 pages,$17.95, ISBN: 978-0-88899-858-3. Age: 9-12 yrs.After the death of her mother,Jameela and her father leavetheir home in search for a new life in Kabul.Her father soon remarries, but Jameela istreated like a slave in her own home. She iseventually abandoned by her father in a busymarketplace and is placed in an orphanagewhere she makes friends, learns to read, andhas surgery to correct her cleft lip. Based on atrue story and set in Afghanistan, this storydescribes a young girl’s struggle to find herself.Teacher uses: Introduce students to Afghani culture Introduce students to different types ofliving conditions and family dynamics Help students recognize universalthemes such as self-discovery andacceptanceLin, Grace. (2009). Where theMountain Meets the Moon. NewYork: Little, Brown. 288 pages,$9.93, ISBN-10: 0316114278.Age: 9-12 yrs.Minli and her parents work themselves wearyon the rice fields, with barely enough to sustaintheir small family. Minli is content with her lifeand listening to her father’s fantastic storiesabout the Jade Dragon, the evil Magistrate, andthe Old Man of the Moon. Minli’s mother,however, is unhappy. Minli becomesdetermined to find the Old Man of the Moon,who holds the threads of everyone’s destiny, toconvince him to change their fortune.Teacher uses: Introduce students to traditionalChinese folklore Help students explore what they feel ismost important in life Help students understand the hardshipsof poverty Help students explore the concepts ofgreed and gratitudeMarshall, James Vance.(2008). Stories from theBillabong. Illustrated byFrances Firebrace. London:Frances Lincoln. 64 pages,$19.95, ISBN: 978-1-84507-704-4. Age: 5-8 yrs.Ten Aboriginal creation stories, ranging fromthe creation of Earth to why the frog croaks andthe mystery of death, are translated andbeautifully illustrated using traditionalAboriginal paints and colors. An informationalpassage follows each story, providing thereader with explanations, facts, and historicalinformation. Also provided is a brief history ofAboriginal Australians, a glossary of terms andinformation on Aboriginal symbols and theirmeanings.Teacher uses:

34 The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012Introduce students to folktales fromother countriesIntroduce students to different culturalmoresExplore different forms of art andsymbolism in literatureMurphy, Jim. (2009). Truce:The Day the Soldiers StoppedFighting. New York:Scholastic. 116 pages, $19.99,ISBN: 978-0545-13049-3. Age:9-12 yrs.This nonfiction book tells of an amazing eventin the history of warfare. On Christmas Eve of1914, during World War I, a miracle occurred:spontaneous peace erupted and, for more than24 hours, no fighting took place. Warringsoldiers met in the middle of no-man's landbetween the trenches and exchanged gifts,songs, and Christmas greetings and wishes. Thebook also includes a concise history of eventsthat lead to World War I. The book is full ofhistorical photographs, illustrations, andquotations from those in the events. The specialfeatures at the end of the book promise to be ofgreat value to both educators and students. Ithas a great timeline, extensive notes andsources, and a section with more references forWorld War I resources, books, movies andonline resources.Teacher uses: Use as a supplement in teaching WorldWar I social studies Use to show impact of civildisobedience (soldiers refusing to fight)Naidoo, Beverley. (2009).Burn my Heart. NewYork: Amistad. 224pages, $12.47, ISBN-10: 0061432970. Age:9-12 yrs.In the late 1950s, a series ofuprisings by a group called the Mau Mau led tothe death of tens of thousands of Kenyans.Naidoo weaves a narrative that begins with thefriendship of two boys, Mugo, a Kikuyuservant to the Grayson family, and Mathew, theGrayson’s son. When rumors of Mau Mautakeover surface, suspicions against Mugo’sfamily increase. As disaster strikes the Graysonfarm, Mathew must decide between telling thetruth and betraying his friend.Teacher uses: Introduce students to the Mau Mauuprising Encourage discussions of social justice

The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012 35and human rights Help students understand thecomplexities of imperialism and revolutionNapoli, Donna Jo. (2009). AlligatorBayou. New York: Wendy Lamb.288 pages, 16.99, ISBN: 978-0-385-74654-0. Age: 12-16 yrs.Napoli presents a poignant storyabout early Americanimmigration in Louisiana.Calogero leaves his Sicilian home, after hismother’s death, to help his family in theirgrocery store. When the Sicilians failed tohonor Jim Crow laws, their white customersangrily retaliated. Calogero is barred fromattending the white school and has to learnEnglish from a tutor. As he makes friends inthe local African American community, herealizes the real meaning of segregation.Teacher uses: Use as a supplement to social studies uniton immigration Encourage students to explore the effects ofJim Crow laws in the United StatesNelson, Marilyn. (2009).The Sweethearts ofRhythm: The Story of theGreatest All-Girl SwingBand in the World.Illustrated by JerryPinkney. New York: Dial. 80 pages,$17.15, ISBN-10: 0803731876. Age: 9-12 yrs.The Sweethearts of Rhythm were the firstintegrated all-women’s swing band in theUnited States. In this book, Nelson’s poetryspeaks of the all-girl band’s experiences byutilizing the voices of their instruments. Theyremember how it felt to form the band, musicrising above the hardships of the Dust Bowl,World War II, and segregation. The message ofhope and solidarity through music permeatesevery colorful musical note and scenes areillustrated by Jerry Pinkney in graphite,watercolor and collage.Teacher uses: Introduce students to the first integratedall-women’s swing band Introduce students to topics like WorldWar II, segregation, and the Dust Bowl Help students understand how musiccan foster solidarity Help students understand differentelements of poetryNelson, Vaunda Micheaux.(2009). Bad News forOutlaws: The RemarkableLife of Bass Reeves, DeputyU.S. Marshal. Illustrated byR. Gregory Christie.Minneapolis, MN:Carolrhoda. 40 pages, $17.95,ISBN: 978-0-8225-6764-6. Age: 9-12 yrs.Bass Reeves, a fascinating historical figure, isbrought to life in this nonfiction picture bookfor middle grade readers. Although he was borna slave, Bass Reeves became the first African-American deputy U.S. marshal and the mostsuccessful in American history. This lawmanwas both greatly respected and feared; and heused his wits and intelligence, courage,character, and incredible marksmanship tobring more than 3,000 criminals to justice withfewer than 14 deaths in the line of duty.Teacher uses: Social studies (African Americans afterthe Civil War and other events) Justice system (introduce US marshals) Use as a supplement on peace education

36 The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012O’Brien, Anne Sibley &O’Brien, Perry Edmond.(2009). After Gandhi: OneHundred Years ofNonviolent Resistance.Watertown, MA:Charlesbridge. 181 pages,$24.95, ISBN: 978-1-58089-129-5. Age: 11-15yrs.Using Gandhi as its opening point, thisnonfiction book traces the history of nonviolentresistance by looking at significant advocatesfrom 1908 to 2003. These nonviolent resistorsinclude: Martin Luther King, Jr., NelsonMandela, Charles Perkins, César Chávez, AungSan Suu Kyi, Vaclav Havel, and WangariMaathi and groups such as the student activistsof Tiananmen Square and the Madres de Plazade Mayo (Mothers of the Disappeared) inArgentina. The stories present nonviolentmovements and their potential as vehicles forchange.Teacher uses: Unit on nonviolent resistance (can beread as whole or in parts, as a class orfor resource) Supplement biographies and accountsfrom textbooks Use in a unit on social justice—how canstudents change the world for thebetter?Partridge, Elizabeth.(2009). Marching forFreedom: Walk Together,Children, and Don’t YouGrow Weary. New York:Penguin Group. 80 pages,$19.99, ISBN: 978-0-670-07789-6. Age: 9-12yrs.Drawing from the experiences and perspectivesof children during the voting rights movementin Selma, Alabama, Elizabeth Partridgeprovides readers with a raw glimpse into thechaos and spirit that accompanied the CivilRights Movement. Quotations, songs, andspeeches are woven throughout the narrative asthe young protestors describe what they sawand the things to which they were subjectedduring the months leading up to the march toMontgomery in late March of 1965. Black andwhite photographs with captions complementthe text with moving images of children andadults of all colors coming together to fight forequal rights.Teacher uses: Introduce the Civil Rights Movement Help students identify power relationsin society Look at the historical contexts of youngpeople’s political involvementPerkins, Mitali. (2009). SecretKeeper. New York:Delacorte.225 pages, $16.99,ISBN: 978-0-385-73340-3.Age: 12-18 yrs.After her father emigrates toAmerica to find work; Asha, her sister, andmother move from Delhi to Calcutta to livewith her uncle’s family. Tension builds as heruncle is determined to make all decisions ashead of household, including finding a suitablehusband for Reet. The news of her father’ssudden death in New York forces Asha to makea decision that changes their lives forever.Indian culture and the image of a rebelliousteen are well-depicted.Teacher uses: Use as a coming-of-age storyIntroduce students to Indian cultureHelp students to explore how thechoices they make define and determinetheir futureReynolds, Jan. (2009). Cycleof Rice, Cycle of Life: AStory of SustainableFarming. New York: Lee &Low. 48 pages, $19.95,ISBN: 978-1-60060-254-2.Age: 9-12 yrs.

The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012 37Rice is a common food, but seldom do othersknow how important it is for the people whogrow it. Set in Bali Island in Southeast Asia,the story depicts people who survive by livingclosely in tune with the natural cycles of thewater and soil. The water sharing and croprotation systems have been in effect for morethan a thousand years, but in order to becomethe best rice producer, the ―Green revolution‖which advocated using large amount ofpesticides and fertilizers was born. The naturalcycle of water and soil was destroyed and Balibecame the worst rice producer.Anthropologists and scientists now work tohelp these farmers return to natural farming.Teacher uses: Help students to understand theimportance of rice farming andagriculture in general Introduce students to expository writingand help them form non-fictionschemata Enhance students’ ecological awarenessRussell, Ching Yeung.(2009). Tofu Quilt. NewYork: Lee & Low.125 pages,$16.95, ISBN: 978-1-60060-423-2. Age: 9-12 yrs.Yeung Ying, a young girl in1960’s Hong Kong, lovesreading and is inspired to become a writer.Except for her mother, the family does notthink girls should go to school. Her mother useswhat little money the family has to send Yeungto a private school. This collection of poemsabout a girl’s daily life, her dreams, passion forreading, and courage to face obstacles is full ofrich cultural elements, images andimaginations. Children of all background canrelate to Yeung Ying’s childhood experiences.Teacher uses: Good choice for classroom sharing ongender and social justice issuesHelp students to explore historicalChinese cultureHelp students understandcross cultural childhoodexperiencesStork, Francisco X. (2009).Marcelo in the Real World. NewYork: Arthur Levine. 312 pages, $17.99, ISBN:798-0-545-05474-4. Age: 14-18 yrs.Marcelo Sandoval is a seventeen year-old boywith a high-functioning autism spectrumdisorder. He has always experienced music inhis head that no one else can hear, and hasalways attended a school where his uniquedifferences and abilities have been nurtured andprotected. But the summer before his senioryear, his father forces Marcelo to work in hislaw firm's mailroom with the intention thatMarcelo begin to understand and experience"the real world" and, perhaps, complete hissenior year at the mainstream high school. Atthe law firm, Marcelo learns about many newemotions and ways of life, from competition,jealousy, anger, and desire, to patience, control,wisdom, and strength. When he finds adisturbing photo in a box of documents to bedestroyed, Marcelo finally connects with thereal world and begins to understand his place init. Marcelo learns about pain, suffering, andinjustice in the world, as well as what he can doto fight them.Teacher uses: Introduce students to individuals withdisabilities Help students understand and appreciatestudents with disabilities in theirclass/school Help students with disabilities seethemselves in literature

38 The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012FLORIDA READING ASSOCIATIONBoard of Directors, Advisors, and Staff, 2010-2011Executive CommitteePresident -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Maria CallisPresident-Elect ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Evan LefskyVice President ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Denise PedroPast President ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sherida WeaverRecording Secretary -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jackie ZeigTreasurer ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jeanne PetronioDirector of Membership Development ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Deanne NelsonIRA State Coordinator ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Deanne NelsonPresident’s Advisor ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ellen SupranDistrict DirectorsPinellas County- Margaret AdamsLee County- Shannon BaroneBay County- Kathy FontaineBroward County- Lois HaidPolk County- Rita MeadowsPasco County- Joy MilnerSarasota County – Deanne Nelson/Ann SmithDuval County- Alice SmithPalm Beach County- Darlene StaleyCommittee Chairpersons and CoordinatorsAdministrative Committee Chair ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sherida WeaverAdolescent Literacy Coordinator --------------------------------------------------------------------- Georgina Rivera SingletaryChildren’s Book Award Co-Coordinators ---------------------------------------------------------- Roberta Mann & Jodi VizziConference Committee Chair ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Margaret JanzCouncil Development Chair ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Deanne NelsonGeneral Conference Chair 2012 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Denise PedroGovernmental Relations Committee Chair -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Craig CosdenInternational Projects Coordinator ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Enrique PuigLiteracy Projects Committee Chair --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pam LaRiviereMembership Committee Chair -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Deanne NelsomPublications Committee Chair ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Joyce WarnerPublicity Committee Chair -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rachelle SaintScholarship and Awards Coordinator ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ann SmithStudies and Research Committee Chair ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Enrique Puig

The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012 39Special Interest CouncilsFlorida Secondary Reading Council ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rachelle SavitzReading Supervisors of Florida -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patty AdamsEditorsThe Florida Reading Journal Editors ------------------------------------------------------- Ruth Sylvester and Sherry KraglerThe Florida Reading Journal Associate Editor ------------------------------------------------------------- Terence CavanaughFRA Newsletter Editor ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Heidi MaierLiaisonsFlorida Department of Education --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kevin SmithFlorida Literacy Coaches Association ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brian Dorman2012 FRA ConferenceGeneral Conference Chair ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Denise PedroConference Committee Chair ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Margaret JanzFRA Conference Exhibits/Advertising ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Evan LefskyFRA Council Presidents, 2011-2012Bay– Maggie OdomBroward- Lois HaidDuval– Lisa WellsLee- Shannon BaroneOkaloosa- Angelle CrosbyPasco-Danielle VarcardiponePinellas- Andrea DortPolk-Leslie PhillipsSarasota- Suzanne NaimanVolusia-Debbie McDanielPalm Beach- Marsha Bedasse

40 The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012FRA MembershipPO Box 151555Cape Coral, FL 33915www.flreads.orgCheck Appropriate Box: □ New Member □RenewalName_________________________________________________________________________________E-mail________________________________________ Phone __________________________________(Required to receive electronic journals and newsletter)Mailing Address_______________________________________City_______________________________County______________________________ State __________________Zip code_____________________School or Organization____________________________________________________________________Occupation: □ Elementary Teacher (PreK-5) □ Secondary Teacher (6-12)□District/School Administrator□Retired Educator□Consultant/Representative□College/University Instructor□Full Time College Student□Other____________________________I am a current member of:□ International Reading Association (IRA)□ Local Reading Council______________________________________Referred for membership by a current FRA member? If so, please list bothMember’s name____________________________________________ Member #__________________-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------The membership year is from July 1 through June 30. Membership applications received after March 1 will become effectiveimmediately and extend through June 30 of the following year.Membership Type: □ Regular with electronic Florida Reading Journal (FRJ) $30.00□ Retired with electronic FRJ $20.00□ Full Time Student with electronic FRJ $20.00______________________________Faculty Sponsor’s Signature (Required)______________________College/University□ Regular with print FRJ (includes electronic versions) $60.00□ Retired with print FRJ (includes electronic versions) $50.00Make checks payable to: FRA

The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012 41IRA Individual Membership ApplicationAvailable Online at: http://www.reading.org/downloads/membership/individual-MACF-080626.pdfIRA membership is your best choice for professional resources. As an IRA member you can: Subscribe to top-ratedjournals; register for meetings at the member rate; and buy books and IRA products with your member discount.All memberships and journal subscriptions are for a term of one year. Online ordering is available for regular and studentmemberships and subscriptions, and for discounted packages for those living in countries with developing economies (asidentified by the World Bank). For those who wish to pay by check or money order, or who prefer to fax or mail anapplication, download a form from: http://marketplace.reading.org/memberships/IRA_Membership_Main.cfm.IRA Student Membership Applicationhttp://www.reading.org/downloads/membership/student-SACF-080626.pdf

42 The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012DIRECTORY OF EXHIBITORS AND PUBLISHERSAbrams Learning TrendsZena Carter16310 Bratton Lane, Suite 250Austin, TX 78728800-227-9120zenac@abramslearningtrends.comAchieve3000, Inc.Nancy SitesRegional Vice President of Sales forthe SoutheastPO Box 908Montrose, AL 36559251-490-5015Nancy.sites@achieve3000.comLaura HuntRegional Director of Sales forCentral FloridaBox 130, 992 Osprey CourtCrystal Beach, FL 34681727-269-4572Laura.hunt@achieve3000.comKathleen RolisonRegional Director of Sales forNorth Florida113 Old Mill CourtPonte Vedra Beach, FL 32082904-422-2100Kathleen.rolison@achieve3000.comRafael A. VillalobosRegional Director of Sales forSouthern Florida1091 River AvenueLakewood, NJ 08701office: 786-299-8402www.Achieve3000.comAH-TAH-THI-KI MuseumSara WhiteheadPMB 1003 Clewiston, FL 33440863-902-1113sarawhitehead@semtribe.comAmerican Reading CompanyHeath Hill201 S. Gulph RoadKing of Prussia, PA 19406321-266-4432hhill@americanreading.comBound to Stay Bound BooksGreg Kaiser, Sales Rep.1880 West MortonJacksonville, IL 62650800-637-6586Crabtree ClassroomMary Dolph8083 SE 171 st McAlpin StreetThe Villages, FL 32162800-296-1692dolphread@aol.comAndrea CrabtreePMB 59051, 350 Fifth AvenueNew York, NY 10118800-387-7650andrea_c@crabtreebooks.comCurriculum AssociatesKathy Walsh153 Rangeway Road N.Billerica, MA 01862978-667-8000kwalsh@cainc.comDinah-Might Adventures, LPPO Box 690328San Antonio, TX 78269800-993-4624Fax: 210-698-0095sara@dinah.comwww.dinah.com/www.dzacademy.comEPS/School Specialty Literacy andInterventionJeanne TierneyPO Box 9031Cambridge, MA 02139-9031800-435-7728, ext. 6118Jeanne.tierney@schoolspecialty.comFRA Adolescent Poster ContestGeorgina Rivera-Singletary352-467-5636georgina.riverasingletary@sdhc.k12.fl.usFrog PublicationWendy Alli11820 Uradco PlaceSuite 105San Antonio, FL800-777-3763, ext. 206conferences@frog.comHeinemann PublishingTrudy Johnson941-725-1672Julio DeCastro561-506-9211Houghton Mifflin HarcourtJennifer Behar9400 South Park Center LoopOrlando, FL 32819407-345-3777Jennifer.behar@hmhpub.comSpecialized Curriculum Group;Houghton Mifflin Harcourt9400 South Park Center LoopOrlando, FL 32819Lynne Rubino, Account Manager, ,Mobile: 941-730-1634Email: lynne.rubino@hmhpub.comTony Ulintz, Account Manager,Mobile: 813-857-1809,Email: tony.ulintz@hmhpub.comBeth Webb, Account Manager, Mobile:904-472-5049, Email:Elizabeth.webb@hmhpub.com

The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012 43McGraw-Hill School EducationGroupLynn Brennan8787 Orion PlaceColumbus, OH 43240813-758-3234LBrennan47@gmail.comNational Geographic SchoolPublishing/Hampton BrownDebbie King11834 Magnolia Falls DriveJacksonville, FL 32258904-374-5588dking@ngsp.com95 Percent Group Inc.Carm Bondeson475 Half Day Road, Suite 350Lincolnshire, IL 60069847-499-8217cbondeson@95percentgroup. comNova Southeastern UniversityCedric E. Thompson, AcademicManager (Orlando Site)Email: cedrice@nova.eduPhone: 407-264-5609Audrey Henry, Director of Academic &Faculty Support / ProgramProfessorEmail: henrya@nova.eduPhone: 954-262- 8636Zandra Stino, Program ProfessorEmail: stino@nova.eduMaryann Tobin, Program ProfessorEmail: mt745@nova.eduPearsonDebbie Campbell- Florida DistrictManagerOffice: 850-651-1168Fax: 904-212-1020Cell: 850-240-5009Email:Debbie.Campbell@pearson.comBarbara Densmore-NW Florida SalesRepresentativeOffice: 850-468-0097Fax: 904-212-1758Cell: 850-582-1087Email:Barbara.Densmore@pearson.comMary Farley Cox- NE Florida SalesRepresentativeOffice: 904-273-4944Fax: 904-212-1446Cell: 904-613-3499Email:mary.farley.cox@pearson.comAmber Duonnolo- Central FloridaNorth Sales RepresentativeOffice: 678-475-6268Email: Amber.Duonnolo@pearson.comJohn Ruby- Central Florida South SalesRepresentativeOffice: 239-774-7492Fax: 239-236-1401Cell: 239-438-8378Email: John.Ruby@pearson.comAndy Martinez- South Florida SalesRepresentativePhone: 305-240-3383Email:Andres.Martinez@pearson.comReading Performance SystemJeff Enosjeff@k20ec.com800 401-0154Scott LeDucscott@k20ec.com407 718-3490LukeTevebaughluke@k20ec.com407 970-7048Ed Barnesebarnes@windstream.net229 891-8358JulieWeissjulie@edtechconsults.com904 270-9710JohnBurgessjohn@jbedtech.com561 889-6585Recorded BooksBen O'GradneyLiteracy ConsultantRB Educationbogradney@recordedbooks.com813-957-7397Renaissance Learning, Inc.Julie Vetrone2911 Peach StreetWisconsin Rapids, WI 54494715-424-3636Julie.vetrone@renlearn.comResources for ReadingDiane Zingale, CFOKay Hackbarth, Representative130 East Grand AvenueSouth San Francisco, CA 94080800-278-7323http://www.abcstuff.comRowland Reading FoundationKristin Needham6120 University AvenueMiddleton, WI 53562608-729-2827Kristin.needham@rowlandreading.orgScholastic Book FairsLes Kevehazi3600 Cobb International Blvd.Suite 100Kennesaw, GA 30152404-274-0820lkevehazi@scholasticbookfairs.comScholastic.com

44 The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012Kathy Walsh212-343-7649kathywalsh@scholastic.comMark Barrett760-680-9375markbrr@gmail.comScholastic Classroom & CommunityGroupBarry MoffattToll: 800-754-1194Cell: 941-730-3465Email: bmoffatt@scholastic.comSleeping Bear Press315 E. Eisenhower Parkway,Ste. 200Ann Arbor, MI 48108800-487-2323www.sleepingbearpress.comStop Falling ProductionsSarah Hedrick237 E. 5 th Street #159Eureka, MO 63025800-362-9511info@stopfalling.comSylvan Dell PublishingLee German612 Johnnie Dodds Blvd.Mt. Pleasant, SC 29464843-971-6722Leegerman@sylvandellpublishing.comTexthelp Systems Inc.Jeff Levinson, Regional Sales Director888-248-0652600 Unicorn Park DriveWoburn, MA 01801www.texthelp.comIversen Publishing14525 Millikan Way #80487Beaverton, Oregon 97005tel / fax - 1-888-789- 3101Mark@iversenpublishing.comwebsite : iversenpublishing.comTomorrow’s DreamsPaula Wiggs281 Heritage Hills DriveSpartanburg, SC 29307864-431-0244scqnpw1@bellsouth.netTownsend PressGeorge Henry439 E. Kelley DriveWest Berlin, NJ 08091888-752-6416tpatnj@gmail.comUniversity of Central Florida/Morgridge International ReadingCenterEnrique Puig407-882-6472 (MIRC)Enrique.Puig@ucf.eduUSA TodayJulie ParslowNational Account Director, Education8250 Exchange Drive, Suite 100Orlando, FL 32809407.952.1823 Mobile407.851.2900, ext. 271jparslow@usatoday.comDebby DodgeDirector, Education7950 Jones Branch DriveMcLean, VA 22108772-781-6146ddodge@usatoday.comVoyager/Sopris/Cambium LearningTechnologiesMatt Bratton, Sales SupportRepresentativeVoyagerLongmont, CO303-651-2829, ext. 265matt.bratton@voyagerlearning.comRolando Rodriguez, Regional VicePresident, Gulf RegionCell: 305-431-0053Rolando.rodriguez@voyagerlearning.comJean Correll, Sales Executive, SouthCell: 954-632-6206jean.correll@voyagerlearning.comLazaro GarciaSales Executive, Miami-DadeCell: 954-687-3997lazaro.garcia@voyagerlearning.comDan ParvuSales Executive, NorthCell: 904-223-4242dan.parvu@voyagerlearning.comDavid TraviesaSales Executive, West and PanhandleCell: 813-326-2686david.traviesa@voyagerlearning.comWinsor Learning Inc.Amanda Burnette210 Glen Crest DriveMoore, SC 29369803-606-4188amanda.burnette@winsorlearning.comWireless GenerationManuel Rionda, Executive Director ofEducational Partnerships – Florida &Louisiana55 Washington St. Suite # 900Brooklyn , NY 11201Cell: 305.509.9136800.823.1969 Ext. 274mrionda@wgen.netZaner-BloserMaxine GarberEducational Sales RepresentativeSouth FloridaMaxine.Garber@zaner-bloser.comPhone 561. 376. 4780Toll-Free 800. 248. 2568 Ext. 2541Fax 561. 509. 6969www.zaner-bloser.comTom BernhardtEducational Sales RepresentativeNorth and Central FloridaTom.Bernhardt@zaner-bloser.comCell 727. 642. 6490Toll-Free 800. 248. 2568 Ext. 2571Fax 727. 785. 0103

The Florida Reading Journal -- Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2012 45INSIDE BACK COVER

FRA’s 50 thAnnual ConferenceShingle Creek ResortRegister now for this outstandingconference♦ Attend a variety of break out sessions onnew topics and past favorites.♦ Network with a variety of vendors on newproducts and services.♦ Luncheon with a dynamic Key Note Speaker♦ Door PrizesSubmit your propsoals now!(ISSN 0015-4261)PO Box 151555, Cape Coral, FL 33915