BOOK(re)MARKS

Welcome to the the INDEX of the children's literacy and reading news round-ups and between-the-roundup news feeds, brought to you by Jen Robinson's Book Page and the Reading Tub.

Each week, Jen and Terry cull through various sources - from emails to Twitter - to find news and analysis that will help us better understand the underpinnings of learning to read and help young readers and readers-in-need grow confident in this all-important skill.

We will continue to host the roundups on their blogs. This blog gives us a single repository for putting all the data together.

Mar 9 / ReadingTub

Tools for Reading and Literacy – March Roundup

This is an ARCHIVE EDITION of the Roundup of New Resources published each month at the Reading Tub. This is syndicate for the Book(re)Marks blog to build an archive of literacy and reading tools, resources, ideas, and news. You can see the original edition here.

Franki and Mary Lee at A Year of Reading are my go-to gals for everything 21st Century Literacy. I have been enjoying Franki’s series on using video tools with students. If you’re not sold on the value for literacy, then listen to this: “I think if you walk in and see what kids are doing, it looks like it is just a fun thing. But in reality, I think creating video can be a key to becoming critical readers and viewers. As I continue to reflect on documents that help us think about how literacy is changing and growing as the tools change and grow, I am trying to figure out ways to get this into our kids’ days.” Click here to read the full post and check out how some of those tools are working. You can also learn a lot from their recaps of the 2010 Dublin Literacy Conference, which has been going on … wait for it … yep! 21 years.

Creative Literacy for Kids

Thanks to Educationtipster Kathy Stempke for introducing us to Guardian Angel Kids, a new interactive eZine for kids. ”Children will the love the mascot, an adorable angel gecko named GAK. Stories, games, puzzles, activities, videos and more to entertain and delight your youngsters. This is a site you and your children will want to return to again and again.”

The Book Chook does it again! I’d say that February was a Book Chook techno month, but that’s true all year long! First, Susan introduced us to StoryJumper, which she describes as “another exciting webspace where children can write stories for an authentic audience.” The emphasis is mine – I like the idea that the kids can share their creativity or collaborate with “co-writers.” In a post about Word Clouds, she introduced us to The other site is ABCYa, a free website with educational games for elementary-aged students. “ABCya! educational games are free and are modeled from primary grade lessons and enhanced to provide an interactive way for children to learn.” (emphasis creators) The games were created or approved by certified teachers.

Rather than repeat all of Kathy Stemke’s hard work … I’m going to send you to Educationtipster and her collection of interactive websites for kids. That is one awesome list.

Literacy and Reading Tools for Parents

Carryout Text – This one is good for ANYONE! It is a FREE text-to-audio converter. The potential is limitless … newspaper and magazine articles, books, oh my! (via LarryFerlazzo)

Fruitphonics.com – I found this on at the Scad blog in a post about Mennell Media’s efforts to build interactive online educational tools. ”The aim of the site is to provide all of the basic 44 phonemes and 20 or more more additional ‘blends’ together with the 100+ highest frequency words in the English language.” The videos can be used to help kids with letter sounds and pronunciation. This could be particularly valuable for complementing work with speech therapists and ELL educators.

The Kidlitosphere Yahoo! group doesn’t get many props, but man it is filled with some of the coolest people. One of the new members who just introduced herself is Elizabeth, who goes by the moniker TinyReader and has a blog of the same name. She created the blog to share the ways her roles as mom and teacher overlap. “A new mom brings what she knows about literacy research and teaching to the world of mommies and daddies.” Do check it out. You’ll love her theme posts, like this one with songs of love and peace.

Literacy and Reading Tools for Educators

In the course of clicking through a Google Alert about a literacy study, I found Mendeley Research Networks, which describes itself as “like iTunes(r) for research papers.” It is a FREE research management tool that you can use for organizing, collaborating, and sharing research. You can add additional work to your “library” from anywhere.

Kim Cofino teaches a technology class that helps sixth graders that emphasizes independent learning through project-based activities. She’s laid out the entire class in a post at Always Learning. In addiion to offering the basics of using computer programs, Kim also engages the kids in “digital citizenship” and understanding the ethics of 21st Century literacies. (via the 20 February 2010 edition of The Big Fresh, the Choice Literacy newsletter).

In case you missed it, Abby the Librarian and Kelly Jenson (Stacked Books) have launched AudioSynced, a monthly MEME to talk about audio books. So, what are you listening to? They wanna know!

Mar 3 / JensBookPage

Children’s Literacy and Reading News Round-Up: March 1

This is an archive edition of the March 1st Children’s Literacy and Reading News Roundup, republished here by the authors. You can see the original edition here.

This week’s children’s literacy and reading news round-up, brought to you by Jen Robinson’s Book Page and Scrub-a-Dub-Tub, a Reading Tub blog, is now available at Scrub-a-Dub-Tub, the Reading Tub blog. This week Jen Robinson and I have collected plenty of content for you about literacy & reading-related events; literacy and reading programs and research; 21st century literacies; and grants, sponsorships & donations.

Next Monday, Share a Story-Shape a Future 2010 (aka Share a Story 2010, #sas2010 on Twitter) takes center stage. Jen and I are both heavily involved in the event, so we are taking a 2-week hiatus from the round-up.

Events

Well, we’re getting closer! The National “Read to Kids” campaign finished second in the education category in Change.org’s Ideas for Change in America competition. The Final Round opens today (March 1) and ends Friday, March 11th at 5pm ET. The top 10 rated ideas (out of 60 finalists) will be presented to members of the Obama Administration and media at an event in DC. If you choose, you can help keep the focus on literacy by voting on this Everybody Wins! Initiative. The voting link is the same as the first round http://www.change.org/ideas/view/launch_a_national_read_to_kids_campaign.

Each year, we celebrate Theodor Geisel’s (Dr. Seuss’) birthday with Read Across America day. The National Education Association launched this event on March 2, 1998, now it a national event. From the NEA website: “Read Across America partners Reading Rockets,Seussville, Read,Write, Think.org, and a to z teachers offer a terrific collection of resources. Think Read Across America is only for elementary students? Think again, adlit.org offers ideas and plans for high school and middle school.”

The folks at MrsP.com are celebrating Dr. Seuss’ birthday with a reading idea of her own. Mrs.P.com has worked with iTunes and is offering FREE downloads of the Grand Prize winnersr of their first annual, kids’ writing contest! In honor of this we created a fun You-Tube video to acknowledge the “Be a Famous Writer” winners. From an Email: “The titles are bundled together and can be found at the iTunes Kids TV Store under “Mrs. P Presents”. Select “Pretty Princess and Funky Frog/Spattered Mud and Crushed Petals.” They will be available March 2, 2010 on iTunes and March 15th at MrsP.com (where everything is always free). When they are posted at the MrsP.com website, they will be by her chair under a “blue ribbon.”

The Wessel & Lieberman Booksellers blog recently posted about a fun book-related event. “In honor of 30th anniversary of their BILLY bookcase Ikea constructed an outdoor library, consisting of 30 bookcases, on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. The BILLY is the best selling bookcase in history with over 40 million sold and 3 million a year still being produced. The one day event allowed beach goers to swap books or to buy them with the proceeds going to The Australian Literacy & Numeracy Foundation“. Click through to see photos. Thanks to Jenny Schwartzberg for the link.

As part of the National Read Across America celebration, many schools are planning book and storytelling events as part of “Love to Read week.” As Heidi Eischeid (Fon Du Lac,MI) points out, “to be successful readers and students, children must be frequently exposed to a variety of literature both at home and at school because those experiences help them become well-rounded students.”

March is here and April isn’t too far behind. So now would be a good time to check out the materials available for National Bookmobile Day, April 14, 2010. You’ll find everything from a fact sheet to bookmark and sticker ideas on the American Library Association (ALA) website. You can become a National Bookmobile Day fan on Facebook.

Literacy Programs & Research

Nancie Atwell’s article The Case for Literature (Education Week online, 8 February 2010), is a must-read for those interested in how the national “core curriculum” is coming along. It is filled with some fascinating data, and this conclusion “The irony—and tragedy—is that book reading, which profits a reader, an author, and a democratic society, is also the single activity that consistently relates to proficiency in reading, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress.” Definitely worth clicking through to read. If you are an Education Week subscriber, you can also view an article that distills 30 years of studies on early literacy.

Continuing last week’s theme of the struggles of libraries to find books, The Denver Post has a perspective piece by Carol Eron Rizzoli about how schools are finding new ways to bring books to students. The article highlights a brand-new teacher disappointed to learn that her Detroit elementary school had no library, and what she did about the situation. Link via @RascoFromRIF. See also a lament about library cutbacks from The Book Chook.

School library cutbacks are clearly a global issue … In this week’s SLJ Extra Helping, the headline reads “British Government Says School Libraries Not Mandatory.” The issue is not the value of the services media centers provide, but the need to ensure they are staffed with qualified staff. The government, for its part, does not support dictating that local money must be spent on specific library-related things (staff, books, etc.). Alan Gibbons has created Campaign for the Book, with a petition to PM Gordon Brown signed by more than 5,700 people. Gibbons says that while he agrees that “there has to be the freedom to make local decisions,” the government can set out specific principles and guidance and insist on minimum standards. “If this is not done with sufficient rigor, government is in danger of abdicating its responsibilities.”

Anna Batchelder, a Curriki international consultant, is doing comparative research about teacher use of attitudes toward technology in the classroom. One of the themes that continually arises in her research is the parent-teacher partnership. She talks more about the questions raised in her post at Curriki, and also links to “Parents as Partners” a class sponsored by Open University.

Along a similar line, author Gary Brannigan has openly published Chapter 5 (Evaluation) on his blog, Learning and Reading Disabilities. The chapter comes from Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds, a book he co-authored with Howard Margolis. The text does a great job of outlining the kinds of questions parents might consider asking, which is helpful not only to parents, but also to help teachers prepare an effective conference. (via @GaryBrannigan)

In a report for BBC News, Sarah Travers looks at the question “withe one child in every five leaves primary school here with poor standards of literacy and numeracy, could modern family lifestyles be partly to blame?” She also talks about Booktrust, a nonprofit that gives out free books and encourages families to read together. As soon as the video goes up, we’ll link it.

21st Century Literacies

At the Huffington Post, Ed Hamilton has an article you’ll love for its title: Revenge of the Literate: How Books Will Outlast TV. Hamilton goes beyond the “internet more popular than TV” argument to talk about how kids read differently than we did. “Though I was a reader as a teen, it was always a solitary pursuit. The idea of getting a group of my friends together to hang out in the bookstore would have struck me as wildly improbable, to say the least.” (via @FionaRobyn)

This year’s Teen Tech Week (March 7 to 13), a national event sponsored by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), focuses not on teaching teens how to use computers, laptops, and cell phones, but how to use them SAFELY. Students between the ages of 11 and 14 increase their media exposure to 11 hours and 53 minutes a day, versus 7 hours and 51 minutes for 8- to 10-year olds, according to YALSA. Lots of teens (64%) are creating online content, and 47 percent are posting images in shared spaces. “Understanding what that can mean later in their lives is key, especially as colleges occasionally do Google searches on their applicants, and employers can check out a party on Facebook.” Public and school libraries will hold workshops, online discussions, and other activities to bring more attention to teens and their digital knowledge. (via Laura Barack for SLJ’s Extra Helping)

Grants and Donations

The winner of the first Better World Books Readers’ Choice Literacy Grant is an innovative program that uses therapy dogs to help improve kids reading, the Intermountain Therapy Animals (ITA) R.E.A.D. program. “The reading-challenged kids in the program often suffer from low self-esteem and view reading as a chore. But dogs don’t judge, so reading to them removes inhibitions and helps a child focus. It makes reading fun and creates a positive, memorable experience that stays with kids for a long time.” (via @BetterWorldBooks and @circlereader)

As we mentioned early last month, Target sponsored a Facebook campaign to help five charities would receive a portion of a $1 million donation to fund educational program. After more than 26,000 votes, the United Through Reading(r) Military Program garnered 22% of the vote and will receive $220,000. United Through Reading will use the money to help deployed parents stay connected with their families by creating DVDs of themselves reading a book. The United Way, which works with literacy nonprofit First Book in 75 communities, “won” a grant of $90,000. The United Way will use the money to help children enter school ready to learn, read proficiently by 4th grade, and graduate on time. There is a nice summary of the event and the winners on the First Book blog.

Our thanks to Jenny S for pointing us to the Capstone Publishers Press Release about a donation of more than 3,400 bilingual books to Doctors for Orphans, a nonprofit that delivers aid to orphaned children in Latin America. The organization offers health, education, and literacy services.

Hope does, indeed, spring eternal for the New Hope Library in Northumberland, Ontario, Canada. An anonymous donor came forward to donate $500 and has challenged nine other library supporters (individuals, companies, neighborhoods, families) to match that donation. They’re calling it the Library Lovers Challenge, and it has energized the community. One library lover has donated $1,000! Read more in the Northumberland News (online).

This is our kind of event. In Boston (Jen’s old stomping ground), The Commonwealth Hotel hosted an event for ReadBoston, a nonprofit that promotes reading in the Boston area. About 65 kids ages 3 to 9 wore their pajamas for an evening of singing and reading with ReadBoston storytellers. The hotel matched the $10 suggested donation from each family. All proceeds were donated to ReadBoston’s Storymobile Program. The mission of ReadBoston is to ensure that every child in Boston can read at grade level by the end of the third grade. Programs reach children, from birth through age 8, in school, after school, during summer vacation and before they’re old enough to attend school. Boston is one of the first cities in the U.S. to launch a citywide endeavor to help children learn to read. (via Wickedlocal.com)

Wrapping Up …

The February Carnival of Children’s Literature is now available at Whispers of Dawn, author Sally Apokedak’s blog. My word, she has raised the bar quite high!

Today’s Nonfiction Monday round-up is at Simply Science. Shirley Smith Duke has the event already started with a review of Life-Size Zoo, a finalist for the 2009-2010 Cybils (Nonfiction picture book category). Last week, Jone Rush MacCullough hosted the Poetry Friday Roundup at Check it Out! This week, Danika is hosting at Teaching Books. Thanks for your interest in children’s literacy!

Feb 24 / ReadingTub

Children’s Literacy and Reading News Roundup – 22 February

This is an archive edition of the February 22nd Children’s Literacy and Reading News Roundup, republished here by the authors. You can see the original edition at Jen Robinson’s Book Page.

This week’s children’s literacy and reading news round-up, brought to you by Jen Robinson’s Book Page and Scrub-a-Dub-Tub, a Reading Tub blog, is now available at Jen Robinson’s Book Page. This week Terry Doherty and I have collected plenty of content for you about literacy & reading-related events; literacy and reading programs and research; 21st century literacies; and grants, sponsorships & donations.

Events

This just in from Reading Rockets: “March 2nd is Read Across America Day, the nation’s biggest read-in! Celebrated each year in honor of Dr. Seuss’s birthday, it’s a chance for families, schools, libraries, and communities to join together and celebrate reading. Send an e-card to your favorite book lovers and learn more about this NEA-sponsored event on our Read Across America resource page, where you’ll also find great ideas for integrating Dr. Seuss into classroom and at-home literacy activities. Looking for great book ideas? Browse our themed book lists, featuring engaging stories for children (0-9 years old).”

And here’s another idea for promoting literacy and encouraging community service. The Reading Tub is looking for student reviewers. Terry says: “If you have a reader – or know a reader – who is interested in reading and writing book reviews, we can help! Over on the right-hand side (at the Reading Tub’s blog), I have created a widget that lists middle-grade books for which we need a target audience review (I’m still loading titles). We have an established protocol to guide the student through the review process. The books on our list are easily found, as they include many popular titles in libraries. Help from individual students, student groups, social groups, etc. would all be welcome. We have volunteer opportunities listed with 1-800-Volunteer.org for those who want (or need) a formal record system for tracking their work.”

The NCBLA blog offers another opportunity for taking action. Inspired by the news that the Boston Public Library system may have to close 10 branches and lay off one quarter of its staff, they warn: “There are young people right now who do not have access to libraries because their school libraries have been shut down and their branch libraries have been closed. If you care, raise your voice for libraries in your own community and in our nation! Call, email, write, and fax your local, state, and national representatives and let them know how you feel!”

Other library news was mixed this week. School Library Journal’s Lauren Barack reported last Monday that the Mount Diablo Unified School District in California is eliminating school librarian positions. Wednesday, however, brought the more upbeat news that school librarian positions in Santa Rosa CA have been spared (at least for now) thanks to support from the teacher’s union. A little ray of light in an otherwise dark time for libraries, especially school libraries.

We’ve mentioned these things before, but you still have a few days left to vote for literacy-related programs in the Pepsi Refresh project (vote through the end of Feburary – $1.3M will be given away in various categories, including education) and in Ideas for Change in America (the first round ends February 25th). In Ideas for Change, “the 10 most popular ideas will be presented at an event in Washington, DC to relevant members of the Obama Administration, and Change.org will subsequently mobilize its full community to support a series of grassroots campaigns to turn each idea into reality.” You should obviously vote for what you believe in. But should you be interested, here’s the direct link to vote for Everybody Wins! idea of a National Read to Kids campaign. And here’s the direct link to vote for Reach Out and Read’s Pepsi Refresh proposal to help 25,000 kids enter school more prepared.

Literacy Programs & Research

@DebbieDuncan brought to our attention a feature story by Jennifer Golson from the Star-Ledger about Project Storybook, a program that lets incarcerated New Jersey parents use tapes to read to their children. “The program began at Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Union Township in 2003 through a collaboration between prison officials and children’s author Pat Brisson of Phillipsburg.”

Science Daily reports that a new study found that “the home literacy environment-what parents do at home in terms of literacy-and motivation predict children’s various initial literacy skills, such as letter knowledge and vocabulary, differently across languages. These skills, in turn, ultimately predict future reading ability.” Because English is such a difficult and inconsistent language, the home literacy environment is particularly critical (when compared with other languages). Link via @RascofromRIF. Image credit: Microsoft ClipArt Gallery.

The UK Press Association reports “Children who are read to daily at the age of three are more than two months ahead of their classmates in literacy and maths by the age of five, research has found. Reading is more important to a child’s academic development than teaching them the alphabet or how to count, a study by the Institute of Education, University of London suggests. The study analysed the Foundation Stage Profile (FSP) results – the teacher assessment of five-year-olds carried out at the end of reception year of primary school in England – for more than 10,600 children taking part in the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS).” See also this article by Charlotte Martin in the Sun.

The Telegraph reported recently, in an article by Stephen Adams, on a National Literacy Trust study that found that fewer than half of children between the ages of 9 and 14 read fiction more than once a month. The article says: “Little more than four in 10 boys (42 per cent) regularly open the pages of a work of fiction, while among girls the proportion is only marginally higher, at 48 per cent. By comparison, websites, emails and blogs or social networking sites are now all more popular forms of leisure reading among that age group. ” The actual study, as clarified by the National Literacy Trust, was from research conducted in 2007. Thanks to Jenny Schwartzberg for the link.

Parenting.com has an excellent special report by Lisa Moran on the early literacy crisis. It includes background for why early literacy is important to future achievement, highlights from some ongoing efforts, and suggestions for taking action. Here’s a snippet that caught my eye: “A poll by the Pearson Foundation and Jumpstart found that while 95 percent of Americans consider early childhood literacy an important issue, they were not aware that reading to a child between the ages of 3 and 5 is critical for future achievement.” But do read the whole thing. Link via @TeachStrategies.

You know that Terry and I both like programs that put a creative spin on promoting literacy. So you can understand why we noticed this Greenville News article about a “Pancake Palooza” to celebrate literacy and learning, and this Tennessean article about a Scrabble tournament for literacy. Fun stuff! Despite all of the depressing news about government funding for literacy programs and libraries, I remain encouraged by the endless variety of grassroots efforts.

21st Century Literacies

At KindleBoards.com there is an interesting proposal (and lots of discussion) about the merit of providing used Kindles for low-income/at-risk children as a way of raising literacy rates. Specifically, “refurbished Kindles, and Kindles with minor defects that can’t be sold, [would be] provided to high-risk/low income children or schools at no cost, with the restriction that downloads be limited to free public domain titles (or maybe the massive number of titles between 99¢ and, let’s say $1.99, IF there is a pre-funded account attached, though there are obvious risks and problems involved with such accounts.)”

The NCFL’s latest Literacy Voices Roundup links to another interesting article about technology in the classroom. SCNow.com reports, in an article by Juan Antonio Lizama and Jeremy Slayton, that mobile devices may be the next wave in education, citing a Richmond, VA classroom where students watch historical videos on their iPods. The article does note that “While some schools embrace smart phones, iPods and other hand-held devices for instruction, educators are wary of students’ improper use of the technology and their exposure to the perils of the Internet.”

Terry wrote last week about the ongoing debate on whether or not school libraries still need physical books. Middle school librarian Ms. Yingling responded by sharing her thoughts on technology in her library. Noting the realities of cost, she concludes: “The only way that I see, right now, to get them (the students) the number of books they need for a price that the tax payers in my district can afford is to buy paper books. It is not because I am resistant to technology; it is because I am a realist.”

Grants and Donations

According to a recent press release in the Tucson Citizen, “Make Way For Books, a non-profit organization that promotes early childhood literacy in limited resource areas of Tucson and southern Arizona, today announced it has received a $20,000 grant from Staples Foundation for Learning (SFFL), a private foundation created by Staples, Inc. Funding from SFFL will support Read to Me, Arizona!, a public awareness campaign to encourage parents to read aloud to their children every day, starting at birth.” Link via Jenny Schwartzberg.

According to another news release, “The Dollar General Literacy Foundation strengthens its commitment to education and literacy opportunities for the entire family by donating $500,000 to Volunteer USA. The funds will be used to advance family literacy programs in communities throughout Florida, Georgia and Tennessee.”

In other news, “City National Bank’s Reading is The way up(R) nonprofit literacy program, in partnership with Barnes & Noble, has donated nearly 11,000 new books to schools in the Los Angeles, San Jose, San Francisco and San Diego areas in an effort to promote literacy and support the local community. The donation marks an expansion of Los Angeles-based City National’s literacy program from four schools in California last year to 12 schools in 2010.”

Wrapping Up …

I have some additional children’s literacy links, these focused on helping parents to encourage young readers, at Booklights today. Terry may also have some last-minute literacy and reading links at The Reading Tub. Although with more snow in the forecast, she may be out shoveling the driveway. [Have I mentioned lately how happy I am to be living in California this winter?]

Today’s Nonfiction Monday round-up is at Diane Chen’s School Library Journal blog, Practically Paradise. Thanks for your interest in children’s literacy!

Feb 17 / ReadingTub

Roundup of Reading and Literacy News, February 15

This is an archive edition of the February 15th Children’s Literacy and Reading News Roundup, republished here by the authors. You can see the original edition here.

Welcome to the Cybils Winners/St. Valentine’s Day/President’s Day/Lunar New Year/oh-no-not-more-snow edition of the children’s literacy and reading news round-up, brought to you by Jen Robinson’s Book Page and Scrub-a-Dub-Tub, a Reading Tub blog, is now available at Scrub-a-Dub-Tub, the Reading Tub blog. This week Jen Robinson and I have collected plenty of content for you about literacy & reading-related events; literacy and reading programs and research; 21st century literacies; and grants, sponsorships & donations.

Note: This week’s images are from Morguefile.com. All images link to the original source.

Events

Donalyn Miller has a brief but important post at The Book Whisperer about several effective literacy programs that are slated to lose federal funding for 2011. She notes: “With so many questionable educational initiatives, we must fight to keep literacy programs that have been proven to work.”

Here’s an idea that reminds us of Laurel Snyder’s suggestion to take reading to the mall from last year’s Kidlitosphere Conference. In Tampa Bay, University Square Mall has just celebrated the grand opening its Literacy Learning Center. The center, run by the nonprofit It’s All About Kids, uses almost 6,000 square feet of retail space. The center’s purpose is to “encourage children to read, focus on academics and develop social skills.” Read more in Raena Boston’s St. Petersburg Times article.

Literacy Programs & Research

David Elzey has started a series Building Better Boy Books at his Fomagrams blog. ”Despite this lack of concrete definition [of what constitutes a 'boy book' or 'boy reader'] I still think it’s a vitally important topic of discussion. Boys have this knack for negatively demanding our attentions. They do so by insisting they hate books…But they need us, desperately. They need our help in understanding that reading can and should be a vital and important part of their lives.”

A new study in the March issue of Pediatrics will report that “certain characteristics of children’s home life seemed to make a difference in whether early language problems persisted. One of those was whether parents read to their children on a regular basis. “There is ample evidence that reading to a child can help prevent early problems in child development and learning,” lead researcher Dr. Ingrid Schoon, of the University of London, told Reuters Health in an email.” See more details in this Reuters article. (via @ReachOutandRead)

The Irish Times reports on a study that found that 71% of mothers read a bedtime story to their children “nearly every night.” “Of those, 28 per cent said they read to their children every night, while 30 per cent said they did so most nights. Some 13 per cent said they read to their children every other night. Most of the parents who did not read to their children said their children were either too young or too old. All parents surveyed had at least one child under 10 years. One-fifth of mothers who did not read to their children said their hectic schedules were to blame.” Link via Katie B’s Odds and Bookends column at First Book.

In a commentary for Education Week, Nancie Atwell makes the case for “why literature should continue to be taught in the 21st century.” Atwell says: “giving corporate interests a role in setting education policy is like letting foxes supervise the henhouse. These foxes are not vested in children’s reading books. They are interested in profitmaking—in selling prefab curricula, standards, and the diagnostic, formative, and summative tests that measure them. The irony—and tragedy—is that book reading, which profits a reader, an author, and a democratic society, is also the single activity that consistently relates to proficiency in reading, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress.”

At Kid Tested, Librarian Approved, Maureen pointed out a recent article about The Value of a Picture Book in the January 2010 issue of Psychology Today. Pam Allen not only describes life lessons that kids can learn through stories, but she offers some suggested reading, as well.

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh announced a $250,000 initiative to give every child born July 1 and after a free book. The book is being written for this initiative, which was described in the Queensland Courier Online.

We know that Why Kids Re-Read Books is a re-post at Literacy, Families, and Learning, but it is oh-so-worth repeating it in the Roundup! [Just checking to see if you catch the irony.]

New Hampshire Public Radio recently ran a feature about the Children’s Literacy Foundation’s efforts to “spread a love of reading and writing among low-income, at-risk and rural children”, with emphasis on working with mothers who are in prison.

21st Century Literacies

The New York Times Room for Debate blog takes on the question of whether or not school libraries need books. A number of panelists respond formally (including the headmaster of Cushing Academy, the school that announced last fall that they were getting rid of most of their books), followed by 300+ reader comments.

Grants and Donations

The National Center for Family Literacy blog recently announced: “Applications for the new Better World Books/NCFL Libraries and Families Award are now available! Through this opportunity NCFL and Better World Books will reward and enhance existing family programming and expand literacy-building practices of families in library settings. The three $10,000 grants awarded each year will connect more families to their local libraries and expand their literacy efforts in new and innovative ways. The deadline to apply is March 3, 2010″.

And here’s a fun contest. “Win $5,000 for your school and motivate your students to read! The Raise a Reader program, sponsored by the International Reading Association and Parents magazine, allows your students to log their reading minutes as they devour books throughout the spring. The school with the most minutes read per student enrolled at the school will receive $5,000 for their library. Individual readers are also eligible for great prizes.” (via @linkstoliteracy)

GoUpstate.com reports in an article by Dudley Brown that “A recent study has led some local health care providers to step up their roles in promoting early childhood literacy. The Mary Black Foundation held a special grant cycle following the release of Jumpstart’s September 2009 report, and it awarded $110,000 to three projects focused on early childhood literacy. ” (via Jenny Schwartzberg)

Wrapping Up …

Amy Graves is hosting today’s Nonfiction Monday round-up is at Art of Irreverence. I love her title “Famous First Ladies edition.” Head over to see what it’s all about. Later this week, author Irene Latham is hosting Poetry Friday at Live.Love.Explore. Thanks for your interest in children’s literacy!

Feb 11 / JensBookPage

Roundup of Reading and Literacy News, February 8

This is an archive edition of the February 8th Children’s Literacy and Reading News Roundup, republished here by the authors. You can see the original edition here.

For those of us looking for something to do on a snowy Monday, look no further than Who’s the Baker? an activity Valerie created when she was a student teacher. As Valerie says, “While this activity isn’t exclusively related to children’s literacy, it lends itself well and can be teamed up with some great cookie or baking themed stories.” Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You Eat? anyone?

Events

In a campaign that is near and dear to our hearts, Change.org has submitted the idea for a national Read to Kids campaign that could engage national and local literacy organizations, schools, teachers, parents, authors, publishers and nearly every sector of business and society that understands that our nation’s future depends on our children’s literacy skills. The 10 most popular ideas will be presented at an event in Washington, DC to relevant members of the Obama Administration! Take a minute, vote, and then come back to keep reading. (via Liddle Bee Books blog)

As you know from our Booklights posts last week, we have writing on the mind. In Jen’s Literacy Lights around the Kidlitosphere and my Prompt Idea column, we both offered ways to bring literacy to life with writing. So, it only seems logical that we would highlight the PBS Kids Go! Writers Contest. ”Kids in kindergarten, first, second or third grade can submit their original illustrated stories to their local public television station (check to find nearest partipating stations).

Speaking of contests … Hooray for Books Bookstore (Alexandria, VA) is sponsoring a contest in celebration of Theodor Geisel’s birthdayon March 2, 2010. ” From their Facebook fan page: ”Calling all Dr. Seuss fans! To celebrate Dr. Seuss’s birthday, which is March 2, we invite you to submit your Seussian poems to Hooray For Books! by Saturday, February 27 for consideration in our first-ever Dr. Seuss Contest! If you can’t yet write, draw us a picture of a Seussian-type character. We’ll post the winning poem on our website for the month of March and display all entries in our storytime area during that month.”

Now this is cool! The Center for the Book and theChildren’s Book Council have announced a contest where schools and libraries can win a visit by National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Katherine Paterson. The entry is a 250-words-or-less description that “explains what type of event you would develop if Katherine Paterson were to visit.” Learn more at the National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance website.

The PaperTigers team, staunch advocates of global literacy, have launched the Spirit of Paper Tigers Project. According to the project announcement, “The idea is to donate 100 book sets of 7 carefully selected multicultural books to libraries and schools in areas of need across the globe.” You can view the list of selected titles here.

Speaking of global literacy, literacy nonprofit LitWorld says: “March 3, 2010 has been established as LitWorld’s first World Read Aloud Day to celebrate and encourage the invaluable practice of reading aloud and to bring attention to the importance of literacy across all countries and for all of humanity.” Link via @PamAllyn.

This one is part event, part literacy program … and a little football, too. Thanks to Barbara Hendel’s article in the Toledo Blade, we discovered the Second and Seven Foundation in Columbus, OH. The Foundation, created by three former Ohio State University players, promotes literacy throughout Central Ohio. “The modern definition of literacy is the ability to read, write, use computers, and evaluate information found on the internet. With that in mind, we created the ‘Tackle Illiteracy’ program. Each week during the school year, we travel with various student-athletes from The Ohio State University to different elementary schools in Columbus and read to the entire 2nd grade class. After we discuss the importance of reading, we give each child a book that they can take home and read for fun.” We love that it includes current and former players!!

Literacy Programs & Research

In her post about Katherine Paterson’s response to the iPad being called a “book-killer,” Tasha Saeker offered these thoughts at Kids Lit: ”I’m storing this one away for those cloudy, bleak days when I tire of arguing that libraries and books will live on. I consider it a battery charger for advocates.” We definitely needed a recharge when we saw this …

Sigh! Debra Lau Whelan reports in School Library Journal that “President Obama has delivered a slap in the face to school librarians. In his FY2011 budget proposal to Congress on Monday, he completely eliminated the Improving Literacy for School Libraries grant program, designed to boost academic achievement by providing students with access to up-to-date school library materials.” (Via SLJ Extra Helping)

President Obama’s proposed budget also eliminates funding for Reading is Fundamental. Without RIF, more than 4.4 million children and families will not receive books. Without getting political … Jen and I believe strongly in the power of early literacy, and this would be a very serious blow to at-risk readers. Read what Executive Director Carol Rasco has to say in her Alert at Rasco from RIF, as well as her statement on the RIF website.

In her 10 Tips for Reading with Preschooler post, Dawn Little (Literacy Toolbox) offers some practical ideas for creating a memorable reading experience. Terry liked the suggestion of letting your child act out the story. As a bonus, Dawn has a nice list of books to actively engage kids in the reading process.

At the LiteraBuss, the Buss updates us on his doctoral research: assessing the effects of prepackaged programs and curriculum design on student achievement. One of the consistent themes across all of the articles is that “the single biggest factor on student learning is quality teaching.” [emphasis ours] There is no single point of reference for what constitutes quality teaching, but the Buss is not giving up. “If we can define it, if we can prove that it serves the best interests of children and scores them proficient on those ridiculous standardized tests, there might be a compromise out there that actually hands the reins of education to teachers while keeping the politicians at bay.” Yes!

In an interview with CBC-Parents, literacy experts Dr. Linda M. Phillips (Professor and Director of the Canadian Centre for Research on Literacy, University of Alberta) and Carol McDougall (writer, librarian, and the Founding Director of Read to Me) talk about how infants, babies, and preschoolers acquire the skills that ultimately lead to learning to read and, potentially a lifelong love of reading. From Carol: “Babies’ brains are wired through experience and they need partners to bring this experience – sight, sound, touch – into their lives. Reading is the perfect way to bring that experience to a baby: cuddling up close, hearing a richness of language, and seeing bright pictures in a book. When a baby is read to from birth they grow up associating the positive experience of being cuddled and read to with the joy of reading later on.”

This is a staggering statistic: 45 percent of students being admitted to Kentucky’s public universities show up in need of at least one remedial course and about 33 percent need remediation in two or more courses. That is AT LEAST 1 of every 3 students! In response to this, the 2009 state General Assembly passed legislation that has resulted in a new program created by Dean Mary John O’Hair (Dean, UK College of Education) to “transform classrooms to engage learners at an early age and create a pipeline of students well-prepared to go to college and obtain careers matching their skills and interests.” There are plenty of details in this Business Lexington article by Tom Martin. (via @NAEYC)

And, in our continuing quest to tell you about interesting literacy programs, we have this Indian Express article by Maroosha Muzaffar about a Mongolian children’s book author who run a bookmobile off of a camel. “Travelling vast expanses of his country, with books in tow, Dashdondog wants to enable students in the countryside — the nomadic groups of Mongolia — to “spend their holidays reading books”.” Thanks to Jenny Schwartzberg for the link.

21st Century Literacies

According to an article by Lauren Barack in School Library Journal’s Extra Helping, “Microsoft and the Corporation for National and Community Service has launched a new initiative that empowers middle and high school students to help teachers and staff better integrate tech into schools. “The concept of students as tech support and even teacher support has been around for several years,” says Karen Cator (pictured in article), Director of the Office of Education Technology at the U.S. DOE. “I think what this initiative does is take the best practices and take them to scale.””

Grants and Donations

Have you heard about the Pepsi Refresh project? Pepsi is giving away $1.3M to fund a variety of projects, at different funding levels. If you sign up for the site (or sign in using your Facebook ID), you can vote for up to 10 ideas (out of 729 submitted ideas) each day in February. You can browse the ideas here. We would never tell anyone else what to vote for – there are many, many great causes. But we will point out that three organizations that we regularly mention in the literacy roundups are in the running for a $250,000 education award: Everybody Wins (to provide lunchtime reading mentors), Reach Out and Read (to promote school readiness) and Better World Books with the NCFL (to distribute 1 million children’s books).

Twenty-seven nonprofit organizations working in the six counties that comprise the San Luis Valley received more than $100,000 in grants on Wednesday from Colorado Springs-based El Pomar Foundation. Council Member Valerie Finnegan says ““Education is the foundation for change, and it is wonderful that we have been able to address all spectrums of education from children’s literacy to adult learning with these grants.”” Learn More in the Valley Courier.

Wrapping Up …

Today’s Nonfiction Monday round-up is at Great Kids Books. Stop by to see all the great books Mary Ann Scheur and friends are posting.

This week’s Poetry Friday will likely be romantic or presidential given the long weekend ahead. Lee Wind is hosting at I’m Here. I’m Queer. What the hell do I read?

Thanks for your interest in children’s literacy!

Feb 5 / ReadingTub

Tools for Reading and Literacy – February Roundup

This is an ARCHIVE EDITION of the Roundup of New Resources, republished by the authors. You can see the original edition here.

Before I jump into the collection of literacy tools and resources, I’d like to highlight two, more general resources that offer keys to “process.”

Both of these leads came from The Big Fresh, the Choice Literacy eNewsletter. Although the newsletter is written for educators, both of these pieces can help parents, too.

SCRIBD’s Social Media Checklist for Youth Projects (PDF). It is written for school use, but the tips are good for parents, too. Some of the questions posed offer a good starting place for at-home discussions with older kids. (source: 16 January 2010 edition)
Kim Cofino’s post Making the Implicit Explicit on the Always Learning blog. In the article, Kim reminds us that what now seems second nature to us as computer users didn’t start out that way. “What’s especially interesting about these little, seemingly meaningless, skills is that they truly are transferrable and haven’t changed much over time – they’re certainly not dependent on a specific version of software. Unfortunately, despite their consistency, they often cause a lot of confusion for people who aren’t really comfortable with technology.” (source: 23 January 2010 edition)

Creative Literacy for Kids

In the Jan 8-10, 2010 edition of USA Weekend magazine, Paul Wisenthalhad a list of 5 great websites that let kids get creative.

Crank It Up! which is among the Arthur Games on PBSKids. Be forewarned: maestros will be making (and can record) music using pots, pans, spoons, and more … sometimes all at the same time! (all ages)
Fidgit, part of the PBS Design Squad site, lets kids design and build their own games. They can also challenge their friends! (ages 8 to 13)

Shidonni – This program, a 2009 Parents’ Choice Gold Award winner, was also on Wisenthal’s list. This was really cool. The kids not only draw animals, but they can make them pets (as in give them names) AND design backgrounds for them. (ages 5 to 12)

Leave it to MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology to create a site where kids can create movies, music and video games. MIT Media Lab members created Scratch, which is for ages 8 and up. Talk about multi-media class projects … Whoa. [Image credit: William Lee, MIT Class of 03]

KnightTime by the Hazardous Players is a website offering a serialized audiobook of a fantasy/adventure. You can listen to the chapters online (streaming) or download them to take them anywhere. The creators have artwork on the site to help young listeners see what the characters look like and get little bios about their personalities.

The Artist’s Toolkit ArtsConnectEd has created this interactive website that is just filled with great things to do. There are videos of artists at work (albeit just 2 right now), an encyclopedia of terms, and ways to learn the components of art (shapes, lines, color, movement, etc). In addition to explaining these elements, kids have the chance to take a piece of art and find them, too. The site offers a very professional way of helping learners SEE what words mean (thick line v. thin line) and learn vocabulary, too. I discovered it via the Raven Tree Press hELLo e-Newsletter that offers ideas for adults working with English Language Learners.

Literacy and Reading Tools for Parents

Thanks to Bobbi Newman @ Librarian by Day for her post about learning 2.0 class for parents, a 12-week program sponsored by the Darien (Connecticut) Library. The program kicks off 2 February 2010.

My thanks to Michelle Skamene for her email about ReadingRewards.com. I found the concept intriguing. First, both parents and kids can set up reading goals … I LIKE that! As kids reach goals/benchmarks, the site “unlocks” games and other fun things. I guess I’d describe it as a Webkins-type site (there are probably others, I just know Webkins) with a CRITICAL non-computer component. There are teacher tools, AND because it is a Canadian creation, you can use the site in French, too!

Literacy and Reading Tools for Educators

For the ultimate book talk, look no further than Meet the Author UK, where authors introduce their own books in their own words. “Some of the authors you will know, some are bestsellers, some are newcomers, but they are all speaking in their own words about the books that they are passionate about.” When I last stopped by, there were 1,607 authors video clips in the collection. My thanks to Susan Stephenson of the Book Chook for the link.

This one came to me via eMail from Nick Glass, the founder of TeachingBooks.net, and I saw it mentioned several times in conjunction with ALA awards, but I wanted to include it here. TeachingBooks.net hosts a FREE Curriculum Resource Center for each of the 231 Coretta Scott King Book Award-winning authors, illustrators, and books. You can search by name, book title, award year, or curriculum by audience or subject area. It is really a neat tool, but I particularly liked the book trailer filled with quotes spoken by the award-winning authors. I wish it was longer than 1:41.

Our thanks to @ReadWriteType for the retweet (RT) of an @readtodayannouncement. Both www.literacycenter.net and www.readtoday.net have free Pre-K lesson plans for new followers.

Feb 2 / ReadingTub

Roundup of Reading and Literacy News, February 1

This is an archive edition of the February 1 Children’s Literacy and Reading News Roundup, republished here by the authors. You can see the original edition here.

Events

The third annual Connor’s Courageous Kids Book Fair will be held on February 27 – March 2, 2010 at the Bethlehem Church in Randolph, New Jersey. Connor’s House donates books and reading materials to children with life-shortening illnesses. From the website: “If you can’t come in person you can still participate through the [Scholastic] One For Books program. Every dollar raised through the One For Books program goes directly towards purchasing books for children with life-shortening illnesses. In addition, for every dollar raised through this program Scholastic Books will donate a book to a national children’s literacy program.” Learn more at ConnorsHouse.org. Thanks to Danielle at the Adventures of Two Little Monkeys for the details.

Everybody Wins! reports: “Former Atlanta Falcons defensive back “Big Play” Ray Buchanan, will challenge 250 students at Centennial Place Elementary School to improve reading skills at an event on Thursday, Jan., 28, at 1:30 p.m. The event is in conjunction January being National Mentoring Month.” You can find more details here.

Speaking of Everybody Wins!, they’ve submitted an idea to Change.org’s Ideas for Change in America program. Rich Greif explained to us in email: “The 10 most popular ideas will be presented at an event in Washington, DC to relevant members of the Obama Administration, and Change.org will mobilize its community to support a series of grassroots campaigns to turn each idea into reality. We submitted the idea for a national “Read to Kids” campaign that could engage national and local literacy organizations, schools, teachers, parents, authors, publishers and nearly every sector of business and society that understands that our nation’s future depends on our children’s literacy skills.” To vote for the national “Read to Kids” campaign go here.

It’s well-known that Terry and I are both suckers for inventive programs to promote literacy. So, clearly, are the folks at PaperTigers. In a recent post, Corinne said: “To celebrate National Storytelling Week in the United Kingdom, The Donkey Sanctuary, will be opening its doors to local groups and schools for storytelling sessions in the company of the donkeys!” How fun is that!

The Book Chook also has a post in honor of the UK’s National Storytelling Week. She says: “I think storytelling is a great way to develop literacy skills, but it’s not something we think of immediately when we think of literacy… When kids listen to stories, they are developing their imagination by creating mind pictures of characters, settings and scenes. The repetition of a story strengthens the neural pathways, enabling them to internalise language, and master its nuances. This all has a kind of cumulative effect, so that the more kids listen to stories, the more they want to hear them, and the more they want to tell their own.” She concludes with suggestions for ways to celebrate storytelling this week, wherever you live.

According to Rachel Bailey at Paste Magazine, “Twitter has teamed up with non-profit Room to Read to promote education and literacy worldwide. And what better way to do it than by selling wine? For $20 a pop, plus shipping and handling, you can have a bottle of Fledgling Wine 2009 Pinot Noir or Chardonnay from California delivered right to your door.”

Literacy Programs & Research

Riley Carney has a lovely guest post at The Pirate’s Bounty about why she cares about literacy, and what she’s doing about it. Here’s a snippet: “I created my nonprofit for literacy, Breaking the Chain, when I was fourteen, after learning that 120 million children around the world do not have access to basic education. Children are particularly vulnerable to poverty and exploitation. Only through education do they have the chance to make their lives better.” She goes on to describe several accomplishments of Breaking the Chain, as well as a great new program. It’s well worth a look. [Logo from Breaking the Chain website)

Good Magazine recently ran an interesting feature story by Michael Salmonowicz positing that poor literacy is the common root of attendance, behavior, and drop-out rate problems in schools. The author notes: "As I noted in my recent article on school turnaround in the Phi Delta Kappan, our research team at the University of Virginia learned that of the problematic conditions present in 19 struggling Virginia elementary and middle schools, low reading achievement was the only one found in every school." Link via Everybody Wins!

Speaking of problems in schools, we were dismayed to see a School Library Journal article this week about how the Dearborn school system is eliminating the positions of 13 school librarians, leaving parent volunteers to fill in the gaps. Many other people were dismayed, too (you can see many comments here). We'd also recommend that you read Camille's response at The Book Moot. She says (strongly, citing research on this topic) that eliminating school librarians is going to harm test scores in Dearborn. It's real food for thought.

As reported by Tricia from The Miss Rumphius Effect, a recent study found that "First- and second-graders whose teachers were anxious about mathematics were more likely to believe that boys are hard-wired for math and that girls are better at reading... What's more, the girls who bought into that notion scored significantly lower on math tests than their peers who didn't." Sigh!

Teacherninja (aka Jim) has a detailed post about reasons that schools should avoid Accelerated Reader (AR) programs, referencing an article by Mark Pennington. Jim offers a point by point list of "ammunition" for people looking to resist AR programs.

The Palm Springs Desert Sun reports that "A new literacy program at the President Gerald R. Ford Boys & Girls Club of La Quinta hopes to boost the literacy rates in the Coachella Valley one computer game at a time. The Waterford Program began Monday thanks to a donation by the Waterford Institute, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to use technology to supplement student learning."

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has a nice feature story by Kalen Ponche about a program by which senior citizens tutor young readers, and show them that reading is enjoyable. "The Oasis Intergenerational Tutoring program pairs adults, typically over age 50, with elementary school students who need extra help."

21st Century Literacies

We ran across a post this week (with thanks to Doret from TheHappyNappyBookseller) in which a librarian speaks out in favor of 21st Century Literacies, while faced with a couple of teachers determined to tie students to print resources. Both teachers are requiring students to cut out print articles from newspapers and magazines, and forbidding them to look at online resources. Edi from Crazy Quilts says: "I want to react in some way to these assignments that ignore the vast resources on the Internet that would not only include a plethera of articles, but would allow students to collect,share, discuss and research these articles in a much more contemporary fashion. RSS feeds could be collected on Newser, PageFlakes or Google Reader. Reader’ comments would expand the original story. There are so many ways students could be engaged in technologies which are so much more meaningful to them and to the 21st century work space!!"

On a brighter note, Sarah has a positive report about e-Readers in the classroom, at The Reading Zone. She says: "I had been waiting for an e-reader to pop up in my classroom this year. I was a little worried that if/when it happened, it would cause a disruption. But after students got an explanation, they settled right back into their own books. It was awesome!"

Grants and Donations

At the close of her post about That Magic Age, Rebecca explained that she is working with Women In Need "doing storytelling/ narrative-building in their shelters with children 5-8. If you live in the New York area and would like to get involved please stop by their website. They are a truly wonderful organization doing great things in the city." Do also read Faraway Places, her post at Nurturing Narratives about spending the afternoon reading with the children in the shelter. "When we expose children to books we not only enhance their literacy skills but we also cultivate their own abilities to dream beyond themselves. I was amazed during that class that two picture books [How I Learned Geography and Where the Wild Things Are] had the power to transport these children outside their circumstances and into another reality, a different way to live.”

According to a recent news release from Albany State: “The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) recently announced that Albany State University is one of 269 community organizations and institutions of higher education nationwide to receive grants to host Big Read celebrations between September, 2009 and June, 2010. The 2009-2010 Big Read grant recipients represent 44 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and these municipalities collectively will receive grants totaling $3,742,765.”

Wrapping Up …

Today’s Nonfiction Monday round-up is at Wild About Nature. I also have some additional links for parents about children’s literacy and raising readers in my latest Literacy ‘Lights from the Kidlitosphere post at Booklights. Next week’s children’s literacy and reading news roundup will be at The Reading Tub. Thanks for your interest in children’s literacy!

Jan 26 / ReadingTub

Roundup of Reading and Literacy News, January 25

This is an archive edition of the January 25th Children’s Literacy and Reading News Roundup, republished here by the authors. You can see the original edition at Jen Robinson’s Book Page.

Events

Some teachers in Australia have threatened to boycott school literacy and numeracy tests, if the Federal government doesn’t take action to prevent the test results from being used to publicly rank schools. More details are available in this Newcastle Herald article by Alison Branley.

According to NovaNewsNow, “The Community Policing Office of the Queens County RCMP Detachment is proud to announce that they are hosting the annual WOW Reading Challenge for Literacy charity hockey game between the RCMP All-Star Bisons hockey team and the Bridgewater Nauss Tim-Br Mart Lumberjacks Junior “A” Hockey Club”. We love creative literacy fundraisers like this one, especially when they tie in with sports.

In her latest Muse Briefs post at Rasco from RIF, Carol Rasco says: “Start getting ready now for Clifford’s 2010 BE BIG In Your Community Contest sponsored by Scholastic and partners; grand prize is a $25,000 community grant and there are additional prizes! The contest begins February 1, but you can read the rules now and start your planning”

Literacy Programs & Research

In The Huffington Post, Susan Ohanian airs concerns from reading advocate Stephen Krashen about new literacy-related legislation pending in congress. The article says that the new legislation puts “an emphasis on the “direct instruction” of phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text structure” and that “Not only is this approach to children’s literacy development not supported by scientific research, it runs contrary to good practice.” I especially liked this bit: “If Congress really wanted to help schools develop strong readers, they’d provide funds to strengthen the libraries instead of money for buying skill drill worksheets and standardized tests.” Indeed!

At Literacy, families, and learning, Trevor Cairney has an interesting post about literature as “relational glue”. He says: “Reading involves social relationships among people – teachers and students, groups of students, parents and children, and between an author and his or her readers. The stories that books communicate teach us new things about our world and language and help to build common ground between people.” He goes on to list some concrete suggestions to follow “for reading and writing to assume this important place in the lives of families and classrooms”.

MyPlains.com recently published a feature about helping kids with their reading comprehension. “”You know the constant, ‘I want to challenge my child’”, says Jill Isbell Rhodes, a Reading Recovery teacher with the Long Beach Unified School District. “‘I want to motivate them through challenging material’. But often, for the children that are starting to struggle with literacy that challenge becomes an obstacle.”… “To sit down and enjoy a book because it’s easy, that’s the best thing a parent can help a child do – is find books that are easy,” says Rhodes.”

In the process of discovering an article about increasing children’s literacy skills with talking books (links to PDF) Terry discovered LiteracyBridge.org, with the goal of “[making] knowledge accessible to people living in extreme poverty. Our tool towards the goal is the Talking Book. The article, which describes a project in West Ghana, and the website fascinating, enlightening, heartbreaking, yet incredibly encouraging.

A new study published in the January 2010 issue of Health & Place finds children who live in neighborhoods with higher rates of poverty show reduced scores on standardized tests seven years later – regardless of the child’s place of residence in Grade 7. University of British Columbia researcher Jennifer Lloyd (UBC’s Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP) program) led the study. It is the first of its kind to compare the relative effects of neighborhood poverty at early childhood and early adolescence. (via PhysOrg.com)

PW Children’s Bookshelf reports, in an article by John A. Sellers, that a “report on media usage released Wednesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation found some relatively good news for book publishers, amid findings that generally determined that eight- to 18-year-olds are consuming more digital media than ever. According to the report, called Generation M, total media usage by that age group rose to seven hours and 38 minutes per day in 2009, up from six hours and 21 minutes in the 2004 study.” Link via Katie B’s Odds and Bookends column at First Book.

The Governor of Indiana recently announced a plan to end social promotion for third graders. However, the state’s Legislative Services Agency has said that the plan will cost up to $49 million, and must be tabled because of budget concerns. You can find more details in this Chicago Tribune article by Deanna Martin.

Sadie Jo Smokey reports in the Arizona Republic about a new literacy program centered on children living in apartment communities in central and north Phoenix. The program encourages adults to engage young children in reading.

In the Charleston Gazette, Davin White describes a new literacy program started by a former West Virginia University student. “Jason Parsons wants to make a difference in the Southern West Virginia region where he grew up. He hopes the effort he and other young adults make to improve child literacy pays off, and their example encourages others to give back to West Virginia.” Parsons has started a program that encourages high school kids to donate their old children’s books, which are in turn redistributed to “elementary schools, public libraries, after-school programs and directly to families”.

21st Century Literacies

Here’s one to follow … in Education is Priceless, Anna Batchelder pulls together links about NalandaU (Chennai, India), “a free online university that aggregates video and course content from universities such as MIT, Stanford, Yale, Berkeley and the Indian Institute of Technology.” Fascinating stuff.

At A Year of Reading, Franki Sibberson reviews a new book: The Socially Networked Classroom by William Kist. She explains that Kist: “is realistic in his understanding of the challenges we face as teachers trying to implement social networking. So, he takes time to share ideas no matter what kinds of blocks and constraints you have in your school/district. He gets to the bigger picture of 21st Century skills so that there is an in for everyone.”

On a related topic, we found some literacy on Ms. Heshka’s Grade I H Class blog. Ms. Heshka, a first grade teacher, uses the blog to convey class events, but in a recent post, she also “sent home” some tips for reading with developing readers! “The home reading program we started is going VERY well! Thank you soooo much for doing the nightly reading. I can not believe how much their reading has improved since September. Way to go grade ones!!!”

Via Critique de Mr. Chomp Chomp we learned of a BBC News story about how texting helps children to be better spellers. Sean Coughlan reports that “Children who regularly use the abbreviated language of text messages are actually improving their ability to spell correctly, research suggests… These latest findings of an ongoing study at the University of Coventry contradict any expectation that prolonged exposure to texting will erode a child’s ability to spell.”

At Literacy Toolbox, Dawn Little shares mini-reviews of literacy-related games for the iPhone that her children enjoy.

Although their existence obviously began earlier, the acceptance of comic books and graphic novels as “real reading” seems to us to be a 21st Century phenomenon. The Culpeper, VA Star-Exponent has a nice little column by Laini Bostian defending the presence of comic books in libraries.

Grants and Donations

Schools and nonprofit organizations across the country received more than 109,000 free children’s books through the Verizon Foundation’s recent Season’s Readings campaign. Season’s Readings began in 2001 as a Verizon employees’ campaign to advance the cause of children’s literacy. Since then, more than 2 million children’s books have been donated to children across the country. (via V-Newswire.com, a Verizon Wireless press release site)

Via email news release, we learned that the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation is once again inviting public schools and libraries to submit proposals for mini-grants. “The deadline for submission of proposals for the $500 Minigrant award is September 15, 2010. Proposals are read directly after the September deadline and announcements will be mailed out in mid November. Applications are available exclusively online at the Foundation’s website“.

According to WALBNews.com, “A program that promotes literacy is back up and running in Thomasville. It teaches children to enjoy reading by providing them with free books, but it was suspended because the demand was greater than the supply of books. Twenty thousand dollars. That’s how much the Archbold Hospital Auxiliary donated to Thomasville’s Literacy Committee to continue the Ferst Foundation Project. The Foundation supplies every Thomasville child under the age of five with a free book each month, delivered right to their doorstep.”

According to CNN Money, “RCN Corporation, a leading provider of all-digital television, high capacity data and voice services, has partnered with Tuck’s R.U.S.H. for Literacy campaign to donate more than 1,000 new books to a local school. RCN will use their Smart Cars and vans to deliver the books to Brooklyn Collegiate.”

Another news release reports that Barnes & Noble “announced today that it collected and donated more than 1.1 million books for children in need all over the country during its 2009 Holiday Book Drive, thanks to the generous support of customers and its enthusiastic booksellers. In addition, Barnes & Noble donated another 150,000 books to students in the New Orleans School District through Reader to Reader, Inc., a non-profit organization that distributes books to schools and libraries in need, and 50,000 to Toys for Tots”.

Better World Books reports that “The winner of the first Readers’ Choice Literacy Grant is an innovative program that uses therapy dogs to help improve kids reading, the Intermountain Therapy Animals (ITA) R.E.A.D. program.”

Wrapping Up …

Terry may have some last-minute literacy and reading links at The Reading Tub. At Booklights today, I have the seventh installment in my Tips for Growing Bookworms series. This one is about pointing out when you’re learning useful information by reading (recipes, maps, instruction manuals, etc.). Today’s Nonfiction Monday round-up is at Playing by the Book. Thanks for your interest in children’s literacy!

Jan 19 / ReadingTub

Roundup of Reading and Literacy News, January 18

This is an archive edition of the January 18th Children’s Literacy and Reading News Roundup, republished here by the authors. You can see the original edition here.

Before we jump into the weekly collection of reading and literacy tidbits, we’d like to point you to some folks who offer some ideas for learning about Haiti, or what you can do to help.

The amazing Mitali Perkins had a list of children’s books and Young Adult books set in Haiti at Mitali’s Fire Escape.
At the Reading Zone, Sarah Mulhern offers some suggestions on how to use life’s events and classroom tools to create teachable moments. “We need to grab teachable moments and broaden our students’s world views. We need to teach them to be global citizens.”
TeacherNinja has an eloquent post about CARE and the work they have been doing – and will continue to do in this earthquake-ravaged country.
Rosemary Marotta recommends some books that “that parents or other adults might use to explain this tragedy to their children. Some children might not even be aware of where Haiti is or why it is so poor. I thought it would be a good time to explain Earthquakes too.” See her list at Rosemary’s Reading Circle.
Via Susan Thomsen at Chicken Spaghetti, we have a link to this Rumpus post filled with links on ways to help Haiti. Brian keeps the info current, and has five parts to his More on Haiti series.

Events

Eleven UMass Lowell basketball players recently visited a Lowell school to talk with kids about the importance of reading. The River Hawks website reports: “Members of the men’s and women’s squads took a trip to the local elementary school to share their experiences with reading to the students as part of Read for 2010/Community Reader Day. They visited classrooms of students from kindergarten through fourth grade to discuss their favorite books, how reading helped them get into college and why being a good reader helps in many aspects of life.” Via tweet from @UMassLowell.

Apparently, the above visit was connected to a larger national initiative. We read in Rocklin & Roseville Today that “William Jessup University’s Men’s Basketball team took part earlier today in The National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Reading Program when the 16 member team visited Coyote Ridge Elementary School in Roseville. As part of the annual national literacy program sponsored by the NABC, players and coaches from the NCAA, NAIA and junior college ranks visited selected elementary schools in their area to promote the importance of reading and education to elementary aged children. ” See also a brief story about a school visit by the University of Vermont men’s basketball team.

A new issue of Notes from the Horn Book is now available (subscribe here). This free e-Newsletter from the editors of Horn Book magazine is always engaging reading. This month’s edition includes a wonderful interview with new National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Katherine Paterson. Ms. Paterson says: “I woke up one morning and realized that what I wanted to say to everyone — children, young people, adults — was: Read for your Life. We book people are always preaching about reading aloud to children, but unless you do, you can’t realize how it enriches family life. ”

Planning a birthday party this year? Then you don’t want to miss Rebecca’s ideas for book parties at Nurturing Narratives. I know a certain 8-year-old who would LOVE the Move to the Beat of the Book party. All of Rebecca’s ideas are fun enough to make me think about having a themed party for my 29th *cough* 47th birthday!

You know that we love it when celebrities advocate for literacy. The Charleston Daily Mail reports that actress Jennifer Garner recently spoke up on favor of children’s literacy at the West Virginia governor’s State of the State address. “She called for President Barack Obama and Congress to provide $2 billion in additional funding for early childhood education programs. Garner read to children in a Head Start program in Washington, D.C. before heading to Capitol Hill to meet with several national leaders on the matter. ‘Literacy is the most important thing you can give a child. If you can teach them to read, they can do anything,’ Garner said.”

If you’re in Charleston, Illinois, and you love picture books, head to the Tarble Arts Center at Eastern Illinois University! The Center currently has an exhibit of 30 children’s book illustrations “spanning the last half century.” The illustrations are from the collection of Mariann Dana Younger, an Eastern Alumnus and teacher. The exhibit is open until 21 February 2010.

For the snow enthusiasts among us … the 2010 Snowmobile Ride for Literacy is set for 30 January 2010 in Orillia, Ontario, Canada. Last year’s effort netted more than $1,250 in pledges. The organizers are hoping that with a new year and new decade, they can beat that mark. Thanks to Literacy 911 for the link!

Literacy Programs & Research

At California Progress Report, Dan Aiello recently wrote: “the results of a national report on literacy – conducted annually by Central Connecticut State University – were announced, offering some disturbing news to Californians about the state’s declining literacy levels last year, while presenting a measurable symptom of more than eight years of cuts to the state’s education budgets.” California is no longer the home of any of the top 10 most literate cities in the country, despite having the most cities included. (Image source: Microsoft Clipart)

Speaking of literacy levels, Education Week has published its annual Quality Counts report, with state-by-state report cards, as well as interactive tools. EW has an open house, and the full site is available until January 21. The link is worth exploring, as there are some interesting tools, like the grading calculator, which lets you manipulate a state’s grade by using different weighting systems. Ah, sadistics statistics: set a conclusion and get them to match it.

In last week’s Roundup, Jen pointed out Donalyn Miller’s letter to parents at The Book Whisperer. This week, in a post about the home-school connection on the Literacy Solutions blog, I found this article about why “poor” literacy texts (sometimes called reading junk food) can be just what the doctor ordered.

Matt Ferraguto from Reach Out and Read emailed us this announcement, which we were happy to share. “Reach Out and Read’s National Medical Director Dr. Perri Klass was just named one of Woman’s Day Magazine’s 50 Women Who Are Changing the World. Klass was joined on the list by Oprah, Wendy Kopp (Founder of Teach for America), Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, and Marian Wright Edelman… Klass is a graduate of Harvard Medical School and completed her training at Boston Children’s Hospital and Boston Medical Center. She was President of the Reach Out and Read National Center in Boston from 1993 to 2006 and continues to serve as the National Medical Director for the program.” You can find more details in this Woman’s Day article.

Somehow this slipped by us … In September 2009, the Education Resources Information Center (US Department of Education) published a report Building Preschool Children’s Language and Literacy One Storybook at a Time. According to the abstract, the report focuses on the IRA’s Innovative Configuration tool, which is designed to help preschool educators maximize the benefit of shared story time. What I liked in visiting the site, though, is that the descriptors are linked to other material, so it is find more info about reading aloud to others, emergent literacy, story reading, children’s literature, and more.

The Vancouver Sun reports, in an article by Darah Hansen, that”The neighbourhoods where young children live predict their reading skills several years later, according to a University of B.C. study released this week. The study found that children who live in wealthier neighbourhoods while in kindergarten did significantly better on standardized tests in Grade 7 than children from less affluent areas, regardless of where they lived when they wrote the same tests as teenagers.”

The New York Times recently published a feature story by Jessica Reaves about Chicago’s Open Books literacy organization. The article specifically focuses on Open Books Volunteer Coordinator Ava Zeligson, and her efforts to make volunteering for Open Books a positive and fun experience. For example: “Open Books clearly benefits from its savvy approach to volunteerism: respond quickly to offers of help; make volunteers feel their efforts, no matter how small, are worthwhile; and make the experience fun for everyone involved.”

The Heritage Foundation reported this week that “the Obama administration released the long-overdue first grade evaluation of the federal Head Start program. As expected, the results show that the $7 billion per year program provides little benefit to children – and great expense to taxpayers. The evaluation, which was mandated by Congress during the 1998 reauthorization of the program, found little impact on student well-being.”

21st Century Literacies

At Applied Youth Ministry, Chris Kidd poses an interesting question about teen literacy. After reading Aislinn Laing’s article that asserts teenagers use only 800 different words a day (UK Telegraph), Kidd offers this: “I find this kind of research really bizarre, because at the same time as someone says our children’s literacy is decreasing we also have those who say twitter and other social networking sites make no effect on young peoples language, or even improve their skills. So what do you think – is language ability decreasing, increasing, does it matter.” Stop by and + UR 2c.

Reading makes the above-the-fold front page of a newspaper … with picture of kids reading! That’s a headline unto itself. “Kindling an Interest in Reading” by Rachana Dixit is a Charlottesville Daily Progress article about Deanna Isley, a third-grade teacher at Burnley-Moran Elementary. Isley secured a $5,221 grant from the city to purchase 19 Kindles and $300 in books. She uses the kindles as a tool to complement her other work with the students. “They are primarily used during workshops a few times a week, when students independently do a number of tasks, reading being one of them. At the end of the week, Isley leads discussions resembling book clubs in which her third-graders critically converse about what they read.” She won me over with this …

But at Burnley-Moran, the Kindles are not designed to replace the crates and crates of books that can already be found in Isley’s classroom, she said.
While there is a novelty, Isley said, “I look at it as another tool, or another bin of books.” She added, “It’s still not the same.”

Grants and Donations

SCNow reports, in a story by Jamie Rogers, that “A new Florence County Library System incentive program is enticing children to spend more time reading books from their local libraries this spring. The Read to Ride contest is set to begin Feb. 1 and is open to children ages 3 to 17, said Paula Childers, manager of children’s services for the library system. Children can enter the contest for a chance to win new bicycles, she said. The contest is sponsored by Toys for Tots, the Marine Corps League and the Friends of the Florence County Library”.

MyWestTexasNews reports that “The George W. Bush Childhood Home will kick off its Laura Bush Literacy Program in the coming weeks in hopes of instilling the former first lady’s passion for reading in area children. “We’ll read books with them and just really help them to enjoy the reading process,” said the home’s Executive Director Paul St. Hilaire. The program has been in the works for about a year, St. Hilaire said, and has been fueled both by local donations of books and a recent grant from the Permian Basin Area Foundation.”

Wrapping Up …

Wendie O is hosting this week’s Nonfiction Monday roundup at Wendie’s Wanderings. The roundup is underway, with several books already listed … and Wendie’s Hurrah! for Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream! by Tanya Lee Stone, which won the Robert F. Sibert Informatinal Book medal.

Later this week, Liz will host Poetry Friday at Liz in Ink.

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Jan 12 / JensBookPage

Roundup of Reading and Literacy News, January 11

This is an ARCHIVE edition of the January 11th Children’s Literacy and Reading Roundup, republished here by the authors. You can see the original post here.

This week’s children’s literacy and reading news round-up, brought to you by Jen Robinson’s Book Page and Scrub-a-Dub-Tub, a Reading Tub blog, is now available here. This week Terry Doherty and I have collected plenty of content for you about literacy & reading-related events; literacy and reading programs and research; 21st century literacies; and grants, sponsorships & donations.

Events

Today is the last day to participate in The Screen Actors Guild Awards® online auction to win Red Carpet Fan Bleacher Seats. The SAG Foundation uses the proceeds from these auctions (there are three each year) to support its literacy work. From the press release: “the Foundation’s nationwide children’s literacy programs now [reaches] 100,000 children per week through BookPALS (Performing Artists for Literacy in Schools) and Storyline Online, the Foundation’s Actors Center and Foundation programs providing emergency relief to members in economic distress, emergency funds for members with catastrophic illnesses, video and audio preservation of the creative legacy of SAG members and scholarships for performers and their children.

The First Book Blog offers some hands-on suggestions from Reading Rockets for the upcoming National Day of Service (January 18th, Martin Luther King Day). For example, “Become a pen pal with a young learner.” The post, by Tina Chovanec, also offers links for more information.

In her latest Muse Briefs post, Carol Rasco from RIF asks: “Know of a person, a group or an institution doing something really special to instill/promote a lifelong love of reading ? It’s time to nominate for the National Book Foundation’s Innovations in Reading Prize, 2010 and you may know just the right nomination to make! A number of prizes of up to $2500 each will be awarded. Deadline for nominations: February 17, 2010.”

Literacy & Reading Programs & Research

Educationtipster Kathy Stemke reports in a guest post by Rae Pica that “According to a new study from researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, only 13.7% of child care centers in North Carolina offered 120 minutes of active playtime during the school day.” The post includes book suggestions on getting kids moving. There is an interesting complement to the study in this article about language acquisition at the Continuing Education (ksorc.org) website

Education Week reports that reading aloud to teens is gaining favor in classroms. Mary Ann Zehr writes that “many teachers across the country are reading to students in middle and high schools, too, and some education researchers say more teachers of adolescents ought to be using the same strategy.” Many of the teachers credit Jim Trelease with inspiring this effort. We found the story via @NancyTeaches and @DonalynBooks

We love inspiring stories, and 16-year-old author Riley Carney is an inspiration. In reading her guest post at Elizabeth Varadan’s Fourth Wish, we learned about Breaking the Chain, a nonprofit that Riley started when she was 14. In Riley’s words: “”My love of reading is partially what inspired me to create my nonprofit for children’s literacy, Breaking the Chain. I believe that the way to help people, especially children, break the cycle of poverty and exploitation is through literacy.” Bravo! Do head over and read her post … she is a very articulate young woman, whether she’s talking about her writing process, her books, or the reasons for creating her literacy nonprofit.

And for anyone who might be tempted to take their children’s education for granted, do take a minute to read this blog post from Room To Read. It’s about a father in India thanking Room to Read for providing his youngest daughter with an education. Here’s a snippet: “We get to see Kripa two or three times each term. Her mother misses her especially when there is a festival or family gathering. Sometimes I catch her crying softly at night and I know she is missing Kripa. But, I chide her and remind her that we are lucky that our child has this opportunity and we should encourage her to do well instead of making it difficult for her.”

At the Harvard Graduate School of Education site, there is a very interesting summary of a study by Paola Ucelli and Mariela Paez about the literacy development of bilingual children. “Uccelli and Paez found that, on average, first-grade English narrative quality scores were higher among children who, at kindergarten scored higher on the English vocabulary test, used a greater number of distinct words in their English narrative, and had higher story structure scores on their Spanish narrative. First-grade Spanish narrative scores were best predicted by kindergarten Spanish vocabulary scores.” There is a sidebar that offers suggestions for educators, too. (Via RT of @HarvardResearch via @KidsResearchCtr)

Terry and I were both intrigued by a recent discussion at School Library Journal’s Good Comics for Kids blog. In light of David Small’s Stiches being shortlisted for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, Esther Keller asks whether there’s a perception that all comics are published for kids. She talks with several experts, and the discussion ranges into a general discussion of identifying age appropriateness. I especially liked this part: “whenever I’ve had to consider a title as for an age range, I go to readers in that age range as much as possible and ask them what they think. I know as an adult I’ve lost track of what was great (and what was boring) when I was ten, or thirteen, or sixteen. That helps me answer the question of what makes a title for a teen or a child – if THEY like it.” (via @PWKidsBookshelf)

Now here’s a fun, grass-roots literacy program. According to ROCNow, “The community arts project Benches on Parade will partner with the Rochester Literacy Movement, allowing some City School District students to promote literacy by designing benches. Nine schools will each design and create a bench that supports literacy within the community”.

At Choice Literacy, Shari Frost has a new article chock-full of ways that schools can promote a culture of literacy. Shari uses a sports analogy to motivate the article, asking: “How do sports fans develop that undying devotion and fanaticism? Can it be replicated? Is it possible for students to have the same level of enthusiasm for reading and writing?” Then she gives examples. My favorite (and the one highlighted in this week’s Choice Literacy newsletter), is about a middle school that displays “Currently Reading” posters on each student’s locker. What a great way to show enthusiasm for books! [Joyce Grant at Getting Kids Reading also suggests putting "Currently Reading" posters on kids' bedroom doors at home.] See also this article from the Choice Literacy archives, written by Brenda Power, about school-wide literacy events for families.

Speaking of literacy efforts in and out of schools, reading teacher Donalyn Miller shares a heartfelt letter that she wishes she could send to all of her students’ parents, about the importance of carving out free reading time at home. She explains why she doesn’t use reading logs, and laments that her request that students read for 30 minutes a day is considered less important than other activities, and other types of homework. It’s an eye-opening piece by The Book Whisperer.

21st Century Literacies

Susan Stephenson, the Book Chook, sent us the link to a YouTube video from November 29th, about what it means to be literate in the 21st century, including the expansion of the definition of literacy to include techno-literacies. The producers are teachers with strong literacy backgrounds, and they interview various other teachers over the course of this 8 minute video.

Pratham Books recently posted about a literacy program in Punjab delivered through cell phones. According to the story from FutureGOV, “The five-month programme, initiated by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), targeted 250 females aged 15 to 24 years old in three districts… In this pilot project which ended last month, these learners who have just completed the basic literacy course, were given a mobile phone each. They receive three text messages a day in the local language.” Terry found this story via @Terri4literacy.

Grants and Donations

Voting for the BetterWorldBooks Readers’ Choice Literacy Grant runs through January 20th. Here’s the gist: “Better World Books has funded a USD $20,000 grant to benefit a meaningful literacy project. You, the literacy-lovin’ readers of the world, pick the winner.” There are 10 finalists to choose from, with details provided about each project. We learned about this via email from the Children’s Literacy Foundation (CLiF), one of the contenders. At the 10 Engines blog, you’ll find additional links for literacy program opportunities in New Hampshire and Vermont.

According to a recent news release, “Everybody Wins! USA, a nationally recognized literacy and mentoring organization, has been awarded a $50,000 grant from the Pitney Bowes Foundation. The grant will expand opportunities for low-income youth and the communities they live in by replicating the successful Everybody Wins! Power Lunch program in cities where Pitney Bowes has offices.”

According to Business First, “Toyota Motor North America Inc., through its Toyota Family Literacy Program, has awarded a total of $600,000 to three Louisville elementary schools… The program, which brings parents and children in the classroom to develop reading and English skills, is being coordinated by the Louisville-based National Center for Family Literacy.”

The Gus Bus of Harrisonburg, Virginia, was named one of 50 finalists for a Power A Bright Future grant offered by the makers of Clorox Clean-Up. Late this month, the company will award five grants of $10,000 each to the children’s programs that receive the most votes online at Facebook. Nearly 5,000 submissions were received from across the country. The Gus Bus, part of the JMU Institute for Innovation in Health and Human Services, serves more than 2,500 children each year. The self-described “Reading Roadshow” makes weekly visits to low-income neighborhoods and brings learning and literacy opportunities to families. The bus also provides children with homework assistance and tutoring and helps connect families with resources within their communities. Terry found this via a Newsleader.com article and the JMU website.

And that’s all I have for you here today. Terry will likely have some last-minute links at The Reading Tub. At Booklights today, I have a post about the Cybils shortlists, and how they are useful for parents, teachers, and librarians – really anyone looking to connect kids with excellent books. Thanks for your interest in children’s literacy!

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