Welcome to the April edition of the Tools for Reading and Literacy. This is a monthly annex to the Literacy and Reading News Roundup, a collaborative effort with  Jen Robinson (Jen Robinson’s Book Page), Carol Rasco (Rasco from RIF), and me. I couldn’t do this Tools Roundup without the significant contributions – and incredible research skills – of Susan Stephenson of The Book Chook blog!

In each issue you will find links to articles, websites, and online tools that facilitate the processes of reading and learning. Whether the information is recently published or a couple years old, it’s new to her and may be new to you. Enjoy!

Starting Off

My thanks to Zoe Toft (Playing by the Book) for alerting us to the Guardian’s new Children’s Books podcast series.  With reviews, interviews, and authors reading their works, it will be a terrific go-to / on-the-go resource for expanding our interests (not to mention the TBR pile).

Speaking of podcasts … as part of Share a Story-Shape a Future 2011, I discovered that Barefoot Books has FREE podcasts, too! Barefoot Podcast Storytimes is available on their website or via a FREE subscription on iTunes. You’ll also find fun digital videos, too.

Even while she was preparing for her whirlwind trip to Bologna, Elizabeth Bird (aka Fuse 8) put together a jam-packed link fest for her readers. There is one resource in particular I want to point you to: Kelly Butchers’s The Lemme Library. Kelly has started a meme called Book Talk Tuesday. Kelly is “inviting teachers and librarians to link to a recent book talk or book review that can be used by others- to help purchase new books, learn about new books and to help give us book talk ideas.”  I’m betting that parents can also benefit from those book talks, too!

Resources for Kids

In the 26 March 2011 edition of The Big Fresh (Choice Literacy), Brenda Powers points us to Reading in Action’s book review podcasts for kids.

TeachKidsNews.com provides news (current events, arts, entertainment, arts, sports, politics) in a kid-friendly format. The front page looks like the newspaper front page, and there is plenty of white space, too. (via Kathleen Tilly @TeachKidsNews)

Palace of Stories offers more than 100 audio fairy tales for kids for children ages 4 to 12. There is a subscription service, but the site also has a free podcast story.

Resources for Parents

Learn Fractions – This site is packed with worksheets to help kids learn fractions. The pages are ad-heavy and the owner’s are pitching an eBook, but the worksheets themselves are available for free.

I am so glad that Alida Bunder came out of lurking mode to tell me about her Two2Read blog. This is a parent-focused effort that offers answers to many of our questions, like when should a child be taught to read? and Worksheets v. Play-based Curriculum.

Resources for Educators

Delightful Children’s Books is a great place to go if you’re looking for reviews for picture books built around a theme. For her Read Around the World project, Amy has already built lists for books with the themes of maps, the rainforest, South America and Children Around the World. Amy and her children are now exploring Africa through books.

Kidblog. org – During Share a Story ~ Shape a Future 2011, there were a number of times where blogs for students popped up … and not just on the homework day. Here is a link to a website that might be of interest to those still deciding (or convincing parents there are safe places on the web). (via The Big Fresh)

This one came in just under the wire, when Jayne Gammons introduced herself to the Kidlitosphere Yahoo! Group. Her new blog the ABCs of Reading “integrates the ARTS with BOOKS to teach COMPREHENSION strategies.”  As you can quickly see in her reviews, she combines reading and activities, and she is inviting teachers to share ideas, too.  This will also be helpful for offering parents concrete examples of what the “six comprehension strategies” look like in a classroom.

Unwrapping Literacy

I can always count on Susan to find the coolest videos. This one is for Library Ireland Week 2011. Yes, the books-as-dominoes were really cool, but so was the mix of other technologies and readers included.

This video brings us home to our National Library Week … Way back in the “double oughts” … 2008 to be exact. Did you know that public and academic librarians answer 7.2 million questions each week? I bet you’ve heard one of these … or some similar questions asked in bookstores. For more laughs, check out the Huffington Post’s #BookstorBingo collection. Enjoy.

Thanks for your continued interest in our literacy and reading news series!

Hello reading friends! The March-in-Review  children’s literacy and reading news round-up, brought to you by Jen Robinson’s Book Page, Scrub-a-Dub-Tub, and Rasco from RIF is now available at Rasco from RIF.  Over the month of March Jen Robinson, Terry Doherty, and I have collected content for you about literacy & reading-related events; literacy and reading programs and research; and suggestions for growing bookworms.

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The early February children’s literacy and reading news round-up, brought to you by Jen Robinson’s Book Page,  Scrub-a-Dub-Tub, and Rasco from RIF is now available at Jen Robinson’s Book Page. Over the past couple of weeks Terry Doherty, Carol Rasco and I have collected plenty of content for you about literacy & reading-related events; literacy and reading programs and research; and suggestions for growing bookworms.

We’ve got a wide range of topics for you in this edition, from multiple articles about the importance of play to studies about the positive effect of libraries (expected) and texting (unexpected) on children’s literacy. I was also happy to see Choice Literacy featuring an article about a topic near and dear to my heart: not pushing kids to read advanced books just because they can (see my own piece on this topic: Reading and Grade Levels: Keeping it FUN). I hope that you’ll find something that strikes a chord with you in these stories.

Events

Terry found this one, but she knew that I wouldn’t be able to resist it. The Commonwealth Hotel in Boston is holding their second annual Bedtime Stories Pajama Party on February 25th, to help raise money for ReadBoston, a nonprofit children’s literacy organization founded by Mayor Thomas Menino back in 1995. Here’s a description from a blog post at Spilling the Beans: “Bedtime Stories Pajama Party is truly a magical night for kids, with professional storytellers and performers all night long. Afterwards, kids enjoy a make-your-own hot chocolate bar with various types of hot cocoa and tons of toppings, while parents shop a library of ReadBoston children’s books from local authors.” So fun! Hope that the weather cooperates.

All through the month of February, the NCTE is encouraging people to celebrate the 22nd National African American Read-In. From the event page: “Schools, churches, libraries, bookstores, community and professional organizations, and interested citizens are urged to make literacy a significant part of Black History Month by hosting and coordinating Read-Ins in their communities. Hosting a Read-In can be as simple as bringing together friends to share a book, or as elaborate as arranging public readings and media presentations that feature professional African American writers.”

And if you’re looking for more children’s book-related events, I can think of no better place to look than Anita Silvey’s Children’s Book-A-Day Almanac. Here’s the site summary: “Daily children’s book recommendations and events from Anita Silvey. Discover the stories behind the children’s book classics . . . The new books on their way to becoming classics . . . And events from the world of children’s books—and the world at large.” I’ve started checking this site out every day. Without this site, I might have missed Winnie-the-Pooh Day on January 18th, or Bubble Gum Day on February 4th. Next year, the Book-A-Day almanac is going to be a book, published by Roaring Brook Press/Macmillan.

Literacy Programs and Research

Mel of Mel’s Desk shares a really excellent Caldecott program that she’s run with inmates at the county jail.  This is a unique way to inspire excitement about books! (via Abby the Librarian’s Around the Interwebs)

There was an interesting study presented last week (I learned about it via @PWKidsBookshelf) about what children’s book purchasers are looking for. Some good news, too. According to Publisher’s Weekly, “books ranked number one over all other media for the youngest ages. Even for teens, books outweigh other media by 57% when it comes to having fun.” Also interesting: “bookstores and libraries continue to play a significant role in helping younger children discover books, with 75% of children’s books being purchased in a physical store. Bookstores are the primary place that parents of children 0–6 turn to in order to find out about particular titles, followed by “the child tells me” and public libraries.”

We’ve talked in other recent roundups about the defense of playtime. Last week Dr. Michele Borba shared 11 Surprising Benefits of Play (via @ImaginationSoup, who wonders why this is surprising). Personally, I’m already on board with making more time for play. But I’m hoping that this article reaches a large audience. Because in addition to all of the benefits outlined by Dr. Borba (boosts physical health, creates joyful memories, etc.), I just think kids deserve to play. Don’t you? In a related vein, see this Parenting article with 10 Reasons Play Makes Babies Smarter (via @ReachOutAndRead). It’s quite a nice piece, explaining in non-judgmental terms the many ways why playtime is good for kids, much better than TV or educational DVDs. Or, as my friend Jenny says, “Play is a child’s work.” (Image from hotblack at Morguefile)

According to a recent news release, “Children who use their local library are twice as likely to be above average readers, research has suggested. The study reveals a strong link between library use and a pupil’s reading achievement and enjoyment. The National Literacy Trust report, based on a survey of more than 17,000 eight to 16-year-olds, reveals that almost two-thirds (64.5%) of those who use the library are reading above the expected level for their age. For non-library users, this figure is just 35.5%.” (See also a BBC News story on the same study)

Meanwhile, another UK study found that texting improves children’s literacy. The Daily Mail reports that: “The ten-year study, funded by the British Academy, examined the effect of the use of text messages on eight to 12-year-olds. Researchers found children as young as five who used mobile phones are better at understanding rhymes and syllables in speech. … (The study found) that text use was actually driving the development of phonological awareness and reading skills in children. The study also showed that children were subconsciously practising their spelling by regularly sending text messages.”

Suggestions for Growing Bookworms

We love Choice Literacy’s weekly e-Newsletter, The Big Fresh. On January 22nd, Brenda Power shared a variety of resources for helping kids to choose appropriate books. I especially enjoyed a piece by Shari Frost from the Choice Literacy archives: Just Because They Can Doesn’t Mean They Should: Choosing Age-Appropriate Books for Literature Circles. Although this article is about choosing books for in-class reading groups, I think that it applies well to individual reading, too. Shari discusses the importance of choosing books that kids are ready for emotionally, not moving first graders up to young adult novels just because they “can” read them. An excellent reminder on an important topic. See also this post from 11-year-old Melina at Reading Vacation on how she decides what books are appropriate for her.

There’s a nice piece in the Seattle Times Books section in defense of letting elementary school kids continue to read picture books. Heidi Stevens has quotes from parents and experts on the subject. I especially liked this quote from parent Dawn Lantero “Developing a love of reading is the ultimate goal. Picture books, comic books, e-books, anything with the printed word exposes your child to new vocabulary words and reinforces grammar and syntax knowledge.” See also, from the Sydney Morning Herald, tips to make your child an avid reader. (both articles via @ReadAloudDad)

Also via ReadAloudDad, a piece by Carly Price in the East Valley Tribune (Arizona) emphasized the importance of talking to preschoolers. “Dr. Jill Rosenzweig, a longtime academic who received her doctorate in education from University of Arizona, emphasized the need for extensive parental involvement in her presentation Tuesday in Chandler. “Read, read, read; talk, talk, talk; play music, do everything in your ability to develop language, doesn’t matter what language,” Rosenzweig said on the topic of language development in the home. “If a child is proficient in their own language when they come to school, they’ll learn English so quickly.”"

Dawn Little’s Links to Literacy newsletter has a nice piece about telling stories around the house. Dawn explains: “Storytelling can incorporate all components of literacy (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) and is therefore extremely beneficial.  According to the National Storytelling Network, “Listening to stories is essential to the development of human imagination, creativity, and abstract thought processes.” ” She suggests “a few ways you can use items around your home to guide your children to create stories, both orally or written: ” (via @RileyCarney)

Unwrapping Literacy

Our thanks to Wendie Old (Wendie’s Wanderings) for the link to Why Read Aloud, author Rick Walton’s new blog.  Rick’s goal is to collect stories about how being read to by your teacher affected you, or about how you reading to students has made an impact on them was to set up a blog and to let people write these stories in the comment section.

Salon has an interesting piece about how font choice (they call them hideous fonts) can affect reader interest (and by extension reading/literacy). Terry has dubbed it “TypeFace the Facts” because of the convergence of research, analysis, and e-Readers. [via the Snowed-in edition of Fusenews at a Fuse #8 Production]

According to a recent announcement on Mashable, “Kids in the U.S. now have a chance to design Google’s famous homepage logo and win a scholarship, as well as a technology grant for their school. Google announced today that it’s launching the fourth annual Doodle 4 Google contest with the theme “What I’d like to do someday…” The contest is open to K-12 students in the U.S. The winning Doodle will be displayed on Google’s homepage; its creator will receive a $15,000 scholarship, and his or her school will receive a $25,000 technology grant.”

Carol found (via an announcement in from AASL Hotlinks Feb. 2011) a link to a new PBS documentary that examines digital media in learning. According to Twin Cities Public Television: “Targeted at parents, teachers and anyone concerned with education in America, this one-hour documentary takes viewers to the front lines of an education revolution. Digital Media: New Learners of the 21st Century examines how mobile devices and digital media practices can empower young people to direct their own learning.  Documenting five success stories both inside and out of the classroom, the program demonstrates how digital media, games, smart phones and the Internet are fundamentally transforming the way young people communicate, collaborate, participate and learn in the 21st Century. Featuring leading experts, thinkers, and practitioners in the field, Digital Media is a startling preview of a 21st Century education.”

Today’s Nonfiction Monday roundup is at Wild About Nature.

Thanks for reading the roundup, and for your interest in Children’s Literacy! Terry will be back mid-month with the next roundup.

Hello reading friends! This “end of October” children’s literacy and reading news round-up is brought to you by Jen Robinson’s Book Page, Scrub-a-Dub-Tub, a Reading Tub blog, and Rasco from RIF.  I will be taking a look back each month as well as taking a look ahead as I know we all often get “caught” saying something like “Oh, I wish I had remembered to plan for (fill in the blank) event or week or month that has been designated to focus on a particular topic.” or “I wish I had more information pulled and put in front of me.”

Maggie Stiefvater who keynoted Kid Lit Con kept her audience laughing and at the same time reflecting on “Why Blog?”

Just this past weekend Jen and I were both in Minneapolis for the Fourth Annual Kidlit Con or #kidlitcon where we enjoyed what attendee Toby Speed tweeted upon return home as a Velveteen Rabbit experience:  Ah…there was a whole VELVETEEN RABBIT feel to the whole #kidlitcon day. Everyone is real at last! It was my first KidLitCon and I will work hard to attend in Seattle next year…as I note in my recap of the weekend.  As noted there you can review a compilation of “recaps” as compiled by one of our wonderful hosts, and you can see a listing of tweets from Saturday compiled by Greg Pincus as well as the full weekend’s tweets and follow up messaging.  Again, I say “thank you” to all who planned the great weekend as well as to those who participated in the sharing of information and friendships.

Another meeting this past week was the School Library Journal’s 2010 Leadership Summit titled “The Future of Reading.”  I have had little time to search for recaps of this conference, but I have seen some tweets and did read at NEVERENDINGSEARCH some very interesting observations about the conference, and I encourage you to read the full posting.  Mentioned there is news of a free webcast featuring JON SCIESZKA as part of the fourth annual  Walla Walla Kids Read in March…sign up soon for your students to observe this author in action.

Speaking of digital, virtual, webcasting, and so on, I found this column through tweets on Sunday and appreciate the items noted by Donald Leu in his ”Embracing New Literacies” presentation summary from the SLJ Conference.  Three points I would note for you as food for thought:

• “… no state in this country measures students’ ability to read search engine results during state reading assessments, students’ ability to critically evaluate information that’s found online to determine its reliability, or students’ ability to compose clear and effective email messages in their state writing assessment.”
• “And although a 1999 study by Boston College shows that 19 percent more students will pass writing samples if they use a word processor, not a single state allows them to do that.”
• The digital divide continues? Leu notes ”Neglecting research into online reading comprehension perpetuates public policies that help the rich get richer and the poor get poorer,” Leu says, explaining that 63 percent of kids from households that earn more than $75,000 annually used the Internet at school. But only 36 percent of kids from households earning less than $15,000 annually used the Internet at school.

What about other SLJ Leadership Conference discussion topics?

ALERT!  ALERT! Do not miss Terry Doherty’s postings this week about really scary stuff…literacy data that frightens!

Remember Grover’s Old Spice Guy recently? It’s been viewed more than 24 million times…and there is much more to read about Sesame Street’s position as a hit of the internet for all ages.

It is not too late to make your plans to head to Indianapolis for the November 9-10 National Conference on Summer Learning.  And also be sure to check out if you have not done so already the HOURS OF OPPORTUNITY report reviewing the experiences of five sites in seeking to broaden and increase the quality of out of school time experiences for children all year.  Discussion of this report and other work by the Wallace Foundation will be one aspect of the conference in Indianapolis.

LOOKING AHEAD

Thanksgiving: Last year I posted about my recent experiences that led me to start studying this holiday more, to rethink some of how my family approaches the holiday.  I invite you to read that full post but in short, I invite you to visit the website of Dr. Debbie Reese,  American Indians in Children’s Literature: Critical perspectives of indigenous peoples in children’s books, the school curriculum, popular culture, and society-at-large; and I give you one paragraph regarding the book shown here:  What am I taking away from my study thus far which I realize has not gone deep at all? In brief, from the words of Nancy Brennan, Executive Director, Plimoth Plantation and Margaret M. Bruchac, Wampanoag Indian Program Advisory Committee  in the Foreword to 1621: What you will read in these pages represents new thinking about the people and events of 1621. This book is just one part of a museum-wide effort to reinterpret the 1621 harvest feast, through books, videos, educational materials, and a reenactment that gave birth to these photographs. We invite you to join us here on this shore and view the past from a different perspective. The issue is critical, join me in continuing to learn more.

Black History Month: Having discovered The Brown Bookshelf prior to Black History Month last year and learning about 28 Days Later on that blog during February, I am looking forward to following and learning from this great service this year.  You can review a “Sneak Peak” of SLJ’s Annual “Black  History Month Preview” to be published on November 1; and I found this quote recently at the New York Council for the Humanties’ blog Together-Book Talk for Kids and Parents:  Any character can teach you about yourself, even if that character isn’t of your race, gender or cultural background.

I hope to see some of you at Poetry Friday on the 29th of October at The Writer’s Armchair with Toby Speed and on Nonfiction Monday hosted by Capstone Connect on the first day of November.

Have a great autumn weekend and happy reading!
Carol

Twitter: @RascoFromRIF

Welcome to the mid-December children’s literacy and reading news round-up, brought to you by Jen Robinson’s Book Page, Scrub-a-Dub-Tub, and Rasco from RIF is now available here. Over the past couple of weeks Jen Robinson, Carol Rasco, and I have collected plenty of content for you about literacy & reading-related events; literacy and reading programs and research; and suggestions for growing bookworms.

Jen’s first-of-the-month edition is at Jen Robinson’s Book Page, and Carol Rasco may chime in shortly with some thoughts to close out the year. As you may know, Reading is Fundamental made it past the first hurdle of losing its budget, but there is still work to be done. We love having Carol, but there are millions of children who need her passion and all that RIF has to offer … not to mention a bit of a holiday for Carol, too.

Events

If you are considering a donation to a literacy charity, Zoe has an incredibly comprehensive list at Playing by the Book.  Whether you want to give time, books, or money, you’ll find charities the world over. Zoe has them broken down by country and then alphabetical.

A program that provides books to national and international literacy programs is asking donors to share the Spanish / English children’s books currently being distributed in Cheerios boxes, so that they can distribute them to children in need. See the Darien Book Aid Plan website for more details.

In Sunday’s Statesman Journal (Willamette Valley, Oregon), Kathy Martin features stories about high school students at the Tech Prep Academy who are working to improve literacy among elementary students in Marion County. The Reading for All initiative includes student participation in a project designed to “focus on Community Literacy and Student Success.”  Here is the link to the article. (a Bing feed, via RSS Owl)

Literacy Programs and Research

Melissa Taylor (Imagination Soup) has a wonderful article about bibliotherapy. In Percy Jackson is My Therapist, she shares how Percy Jackson helped her deal with the procedures her 4-year-old endured when diagnosed with a “seizure disorder.” Melissa includes research and interviews that support her thesis that Young Adult (YA) literature is a great stress reliever. Melissa would welcome comments (hint!), so please drop by.

And for another approach to bibliotherapy, check out this Lexington Herald-Leader article about a teen who used books to help cope with being stuck in bed due to a knee problem, and then reached out to bring books to other “children trapped in difficult circumstances. Which is why a charity launched by a teenage girl in Georgia has now dispensed more than 51,000 books to shelters for abused and impoverished children around the country, including in Kentucky.” Thanks to Jenny Schwartzberg for the link.

I know I usually save cool toys – I mean tools – for the monthly roundup, but for those who have received or are getting iPods (or Nook or Nookcolor) and want to fill them with books, I thought you’d want to know about the Audiobook Jukebox! ”At present, Audibook Jukebox has indexed more than 1500 reviews contributed by almost 100 bloggers. The review links can be found by author, title, narrator, genre, and publisher. Types of books range from children’s and family books through most popular adult fiction genres to history, self-help, and religion. No matter what your reading taste, you should be able to find a great audiobook by following the links at Audiobook Jukebox.” (via Michelle @GalleySmith who was retweeting @bookladysblog)

Because we’ll be shifting into “resolutions phase” soon, here is another it-can’t-wait item. Franki Sibberson shares not only her ideas, but her experiments with QR codes in her elementary library.  What I particularly love about her piece is not how she envisions using QR codes for her students, but the ways she can see her students using QR codes!

In a complementary article, Yvonne Zipp has a wonderful piece about “super librarian” Cindy Dobrez in the Christian Science Monitor. She’s got a 20-year winning streak going in her Stump the Librarian game! It’s a great article! (via Mary Ann Scheuer link on Facebook)

In “Wake Up Call, America: Don’t Hit the Snooze Button,” Clay Jenkinson (Bismarck Tribune, North Dakota) opens with some staggering statistics. “A new study shows that the United States now ranks 14th in reading literacy among the world’s nations. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development conducted a study involving 470,000 15-year-old students around the world. The results indicate that the world’s most powerful and important nation is a bonehead in educational standards. The U.S. ranks 17th in science (which is up a little from previous years), and a miserable 25th in mathematics.” This is just the beginning. To read more statistics and experts’ perspectives on how we got this way, check out the full article.  (via Google Alert; Alarm Clock: Gerald R on OpenClipArt.org)

That’s not the only bad news, I’m afraid. The 8 December 2010 edition of Medical News Today summarizes the results of Report Card 9: The Children Left Behind (PDF), a report by the Innocenti Research Center (UNICEF’s independent research center).  This is the first time the study ranks each of the 24 OECD countries relative to health, education, and material well-being for children.  In a nutshell: “Italy, the United States, Greece, Belgium and the United Kingdom, for example, are seen to be allowing their most vulnerable children to fall much further behind than countries like Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Switzerland and the Netherlands. The report argues that the consequences of ‘falling behind’ are enormous for children, as they are for the economy and societies.”  There are other key findings in the full article.  (via RSS Owl feed)

Unwrapping Literacy

It was all I could do NOT to open the roundup with this one … Did you see Awaken young minds with ‘A Book on Every Bed, in last week’s Washington Post? It’s by none other than @AnitaSilvey (Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children’s Book … among many others).  The idea is that for whatever holiday you celebrate, wrap up a book and leave it on a child’s bed so that on “the” morning the first thing they see is a book. (via @RascofromRIF).

I have never met Susan Stephenson, but she CLEARLY knows me well. As y’all know she routinely sends me links that we might want to use for the Roundups.  Here is the note she sent to go along with the link to www.wonder-shirts.com/: “You know you want the Mo Willems pigeon one, Terry. Driven to Read! Is Bill looking for Christmas gifts?” Actually, I want that one AND the Elephant and Piggie one.  [from Susan who saw it at Playing By the Book].

Susan also sent me this link to making Ice Lanterns … which we could well be doing tomorrow if we get those 2 to 5 inches of snow.

I tried every which way I knew to embed this PBS Newshour interview with Stephen Sondheim.  One of the most fascinating aspects for me (and I would imagine many writers) is Sondheim’s discussions about rhymes and how they influence the listener. “A rhyme draws the ear’s attention to the word. So you don’t make the least important word the rhyme word … sometimes you avoid a rhyme you want to fool the ear/listener.]”  That surprise is something that is very subtle. He particularly loves words that are spelled differently but sound alike like rougher and suffer has more impact than rougher and tougher, or colonel and journal. It’s a fascinating nine minutes.

And for a story sure to warm the hearts of all of us who strive to connect children with books, check out this Dalton Daily Citizen article, about how a third grader’s letter-writing campaign is resulting in the opening of a new Books-A-Million store in Dalton, GA. That 9-year-old Charlie struggled to learn to read makes the story that much better.

The early December children’s literacy and reading news round-up, brought to you by Jen Robinson’s Book Page, Scrub-a-Dub-Tub, and Rasco from RIF is now available here. Over the past couple of weeks Terry Doherty, Carol Rasco, and I have collected plenty of content for you about literacy & reading-related events; literacy and reading programs and research; and suggestions for growing bookworms.

Events

The 2010 Winter Blog Blast Tour is going on this week, hosted by Colleen Mondor of Chasing Ray. The WBBT is a week-long series of in-depth author interviews, spread across a collection of blogs. Colleen and the other interviewers work together to ensure a diverse pool of participating authors and genres. I think that the WBBT represents the best of what blogging can be. Do check it out. Colleen will be maintaining direct links to all of the interviews, with quotes, here. [WBBT logo to the right designed by Sarah Jamila Stevenson]

Also ongoing is the December I Can Read Carnival | Celebrating New Readers, hosted this month by Zoe @PlayByTheBook. The I Can Read carnivals celebrate early literacy, easy readers, and short chapter books. Zoe says: “The I Can Read carnival is all about sharing finds, approaches, successes and more when it comes to books aimed at those just beginning to read for themselves, or those consolidating their reading skills. If you’ve a review, commentary, or an experience you want to share on this topic, please leave a comment on this post including a link to your piece and I’ll add you to the carnival.” Posts can be up to one year old.

Various programs out there are working to bring books to kids this holiday season.

• I always donate boxes of books to the Mercury News Gift of Reading Program here in San Jose, a program that gives new and like new books directly to kids in the community.
• I was also pleased this year to see that Readergirlz and First Book are partnering to provide more than 125,000 (!) free books to low-income teens. If you are involved with any programs that work with young adults–schools, after-school programs, church youth groups, community centers, etc.—please let them know that these books are available now (more details at Readergirlz).
• On December 6th, Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) and First Book “announced a partnership to keep the current “Grinch economy” from spoiling the future for many children this holiday season. Together, the organizations are giving the gift of reading by providing 500,000 new books for children in RIF programs nationwide.” More details in this news release.
• And while they aren’t donating books directly, we always like to mention the Toys for Tots programs, since many toys obviously have literacy-enhancement potential. This year, Touchdown for Tots is a partnership with the National Football League.  According to the news release, “Now through December 24, football fans across the country can spread the joy of the holidays while cheering on their favorite team, either at the stadium or when watching the game at home.”

Speaking of sports and philanthropy (and as I am a big baseball fan, as regular readers know), Terry thought I might enjoy this story … the Seattle Mariners have two seasons every year: the playing season and the holiday season. The team’s owners have a very active team-affiliated foundation that works within the community to help those in need. This year, they raised more than $800,000 for various charitable programs in the Northwestern US. The one that caught Terry’s eye was this: PACCAR (a global technology company) donated $100 for every Mariners RBI during the season to Page Ahead Children’s Literacy Program, with the third-year program raising $75,000. You can read all about their activities (with video) here.

Looking forward a bit, Terry and a whole team of literacy advocates have been thinking about the 2011 Share a Story, Shape a Future Literacy Blog Tour (March 7-11). Terry just announced a contest to design logo buttons for this year’s theme – Unwrapping the Gift of Literacy. And, as I mentioned the other day, you can now follow @ShareAStory on Twitter. [Share a Story logo to the right designed by Elizabeth Dulemba.]

Literacy Programs and Research

Terry has recently struck up a conversation with Spectrum Mom, who blogs at Books for Children with Autism.  Spectrum Mom describes how her son engages (or doesn’t) with books of all sorts. She recently wrote a piece for the Toon Books blog about how and why graphic novels are so valuable for kids on the Spectrum.  ”Every reader with autism is different, and no one program could address all their needs. Many are reluctant readers, some are dyslexic, and some are hyperlexic (where the ability to read outstrips the ability to comprehend). Still, readers with autism do share common traits. These include literal thinking, a need for structure, and a tendency to repetitive behaviors.”

Jenny Schwartzberg recently brought to our attention a blog post at Books and Adventures about an Australian literacy program that gives books to babies before they leave the hospital, and continues to teach families to celebrate literacy right up to the start of school.

And for a much more local program, I found an article by Shelly Meron in the San Jose Mercury News (via @RIFWEB) about a Richmond program that will provide stock bookshelves at places kids end up waiting, like laundromats. Kids will be able to read the books there, or take them home. I love it!

I was very pleased to see a CBS News article today (link via @AnitaSilvey) in defense of picture books. The article extensively quotes Dr. Deborah Pope, executive director of the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation, on the continued relevance, and joy, of picture books for kids. “”If a parent pushes a child through their developmental stages too quickly, the child often ends up frustrated and behind later on,” she said. “What’s sadder is that they miss out on something they can never get back — their childhood.” She added, “Picture books nurture a child’s ability to conceptualize.”" Hear, hear!

Suggestions for Growing Bookworms

Not a suggestion, exactly, but certainly further motivation for growing bookworms, @MrsPStorytime (aka Kathy Kinney) has a lovely post about how the books we read as children become a part of us for life. This is something that I’ve always believed. My daughter is only 8 months old, and I already find myself referring back to books that we’ve read when I talk with her. I look forward to building on that for a lifetime, so that when she is my age, she won’t even know which of her cultural references are from books – it will all be part of one rich tapestry.

I’m also trying to talk to my daughter as often as possible. I was already doing this, and felt spurred even more to action by this Huffington Post article by John Medina (link via @ImaginationSoup). Medina discusses research results on talking to your kids, how the number and variety of words matters, and how talking to your young children can actually raise their IQs.  I liked this quote: “Few interactions with children are as much fun as learning to speak their language. As they learn to speak ours, heaping tablespoons of words into their minds is one of the healthiest things parents can do for their brains.”

I was taken by an Education.com article by Julie Williams about how kids who learn to read early don’t always end up bookworms, and that kids will, and should, learn to read when they’re ready and not before. Pushing kids to read before they’re ready can lead to self-esteem problems and stalling out early, according to reading specialist Joanne Rossi. So, “what should parents do? Rossi, like many researchers, recommends a focus not on skills but on a love of reading and books.”

And for more on what NOT to do if you want to grow bookworms, School Library Journal recently wrote, in an article by Lauren Barack, about how “bribing children to read and do well on tests isn’t an effective way to increase their academic achievement in school… Even teachers are being bribed with pay incentives to help get student test scores up. Yet a recent report from the National Center on Performance Incentives at Vanderbilt University says that tactic doesn’t raise student achievement either.”

And finally, my friend Alex, who blogs about nature at Outside In, shared with me an article from my hometown (Lexington, MA), about a local woman who co-authored a new book about reading with kids.  Ashley Dowse reports in the Lexington Patch on “Help Me Get Ready to Read, a how-to guide giving parents and caregivers an approach to reading with children from birth to age 5″, by Susan Marx and Barbara Kasok. Also from Lexington, this happy news about the upcoming opening of a new children’s bookstore downtown (via @PWKidsBookshelf). I would have loved that when I was living there (especially when I was working downtown right after college).

That’s all we have for you today. Terry will be back soon with a mid-month smattering of literacy and reading news. Thanks for reading, and for caring about growing bookworms!

Starting Off

After pondering a question about facts in fiction writing posed by Betsy Bird (aka A Fuse #8 Production), Monica Edinger (Educating Alice) put together a very thoughtful post AND created a chart to help illustrate the idea on a continuum. This is very helpful not only for folks who want to understand the contrasts between fiction and nonfiction, but also for people who are trying to move their child from a complete obsession of books at one end of the spectrum or the other. Want to broaden an “only fantasy” reader’s diet? Then maybe add in a realistic fiction book with similar plot elements.  Thanks Monica!!!

YouTube is launching a new discovery tool called Topics on its labs page TestTube. Topics will allow users to discover high-quality videos about topics of interest to them without requiring the user to enter detailed search queries. (from ReadWriteWeb via RSSOwl)

blekko.com is a search engine that lets you structure your searches. For example, you might want to limit returns by just blogs … which can be helful if you know you read something on a blog but can’t remember which one. As Susan Stephenson explains, Make Use Of (another good source!) explains Blekko’s specialty search engine very well. (via Susan Stephenson of The Book Chook)

Resources for Kids

Footnote.com has more than 70 million (with an M) original, historical documents. Sure you can use it for research papers, but it’s a lot of fun just to browse, too. Search for documents written by General George Washington … or do some genealogy work to build your family tree.

Resources for Parents

Susan also sent along this link to the Reading Assessments page on the Teacher’s College Reading and Writing Project (Columbia University) website. The material is designed to help teachers assess a child’s reading ability, but there is a lot of content that is useful for parents … like how to ask questions to gauge comprehension and what to look for in the answers.

Along a similar line, Jen Farr has some very practical, easy-to-build on Reading Strategies for kids who are emerging readers through independent readers. Her ideas about what to do before you read, while you’re reading, and after your reading are just wonderful … and did I mention easy to do?

You’ll find some of the most diverse, practical ideas for building and strengthening literacy skills in Literacy Lava. Every quarter, Susan Stephenson taps some progressive, beyond-the-book, thinkers who share their personal stories about reading and literacy. This link will take you to the full collection. To read the just-released 7th Edition, click here.  Like what you’ve read? Then be sure to tell the Book Chook herself. Chooks like TLC, you know!

I have two new-to-me blogs to introduce, as well:

• Sleepless Parent’s Blog is “designed to promote discussion and awareness of dyslexia, reading problems, and literacy.” Janet is that sleepless parent who worries about her 8-year-old’s inability to read.
• Spectrum Mom created Autism Reads: Books for Children with Autism to fill a much-needed void. She was continually looking for book recommendations for kids on the spectrum. There was no place to get regular recommendations. Autism Reads is that place.

Resources for Educators

Left to Their Owned Devices - Schools are showing growing interest in using student-owned cellphones and netbooks to build 1-to-1 computing programs (Educatio nWeek – Digital Directions)

Pioneer Valley Books is a literacy-centric publisher of books and tools for “early literacy learners.” What caught my attention is how Kristen organizes the books by “character sets,” making it easy for you to find books that match your interests. The company also has a blog that takes a lot of the “science” and puts it in a context for everyday living.

In her report for Digital Directions, Katie Ash explains how GPS and GIS technologies are being used to help students (elementary to high school) tackle real-world problems in an interdisciplinary and engaging way. GPS units locate specific points based on a place’s latitude and longitude, while GIS makes it possible to map all the points and view them spatially. From Jim Kuhl, an earth sciences teacher: “I’ve always been interested in the cutting-edge technology, especially when the kids are interested in it, and you can use that interest to motivate them to learn about what you’re trying to teach.”

I discovered Joanne Kaminski’s Skype Reading Tutor blog after she started following @ReadingTub on Twitter.  [she is @SkypeReadTutor] What I love about Joanne’s blog is how she shares her experiences tutoring kids online. She offers some details about the books she’s reading, but also adds personal context of that particular session. Like the day she asked kids in Tennessee and Wisconsin about the weather. [How Perspective Changes Everything]

Joanne also introduced me to (via her blogroll) to The Brainwaves and At the Fireplace which may well become my  new go-to sites for 21st century ideas on engaging kids with books.  [Note to Susan Stephenson ... you will LOVE (no ADORE) these sites!]

The mid-November children’s literacy and reading news round-up, brought to you by Jen Robinson’s Book Page, Scrub-a-Dub-Tub, and Rasco from RIF is now available here. Over the past couple of weeks Jen Robinson, Carol Rasco, and I have collected plenty of content for you about literacy & reading-related events; literacy and reading programs and research; and suggestions for growing bookworms.

Jen’s first-of-the-month edition is at Jen Robinson’s Book Page, and Carol Rasco will chime in shortly with some thoughts for November and a look ahead to December at Rasco from RIF. Last week I had the opportunity to (finally) meet Carol in person. During our (*cough* 3-hour *cough*) lunch, Carol talked about the Happy Birthday RIF video contest. Of course I came right home and found them … if you haven’t seen the collection of winning videos, it is definitely worth a look. Oh, to have a scintilla of that kind of creativity!

Events

This is more a phenomena than an event … popular characters from fiction are starting their own Twitter feeds. I have mentioned @The_Pigeon in my own tweets, but I love the idea of following @HalfPintIngalls (who reminded women to vote on November 2) and others. Betsy Bird (A Fuse #8 Production) mentions Peeta from The Hunger Games (which I haven’t read!). Characters coming to life … cool. Thanks to @FuseEight for the links.

The holiday-related events will start coming in fast and furious now, and it only seems appropriate to kick things off with a pair of literacy charities.

On Veteran’s Day, Reach Out and Read launched a virtual book drive to support military families. The book drive will run until Thanksgiving. To support the virtual book drive, you can donate a book or sponsor a child in the program. Several of the books distributed to military children were chosen because they address issues related to separation and deployment. More details in this press release.

First Book, another favorite literacy nonprofit, has announced that it is partnering with Borders and Build-a-Bear workshops to ensure children have a happy Christmas. “From now through Dec. 24, customers shopping at Borders stores nationwide will have the opportunity to donate books and stuffed animals, including Hal Moose©, a Build-A-Bear Workshop furry friend with soft brown fur and antlers. [Isn't he adorable?] Each Borders store will deliver the books and stuffed toys to a local charity. In addition, Borders will kickoff the holiday charity drive by promising to donate $50,000 to First Book! This is ON TOP OF the 10,000 books distributed to low-income schools and programs in the greater Detroit area and First Book’s collaboration with Cheerios to distribute 250,000 books to 24 Feeding America food banks across the country.

Just in time for the holidays, Pam Coughlan is having an ABC Giveaway at Mother Reader.  She’s giving away 50! picture books. There are two separate contests and you can only win one set of 25 books, but wow! Twenty-five books for some of the young readers you adore!

Literacy Programs and Research

As some of you may know, Donalyn Miller (The Book Whisperer) hosts a monthly Twitter chat called #titletalk. In the recent conversation, Sarah Mulhern (The Reading Zone) raised the topic of ARCs (advanced review copies). ARCs are a version of a book that cannot be sold or cataloged by an actual library. Many are donated to charities, many are thrown out. What has come from that discussion is ARCs Float On, a project to get books to potential readers. You can read Sarah’s post and subscribe to follow the #ARCsFloatOn hashtag. If you are looking to donate books or are a teacher seeking books, fill out this matchmaker survey.

I learned about the Black Stallion Literacy Foundation via a KVOA.com (Tucson, AZ) story. The organization helps elementary school kids learn and grow in their reading by starting them on the books about the relationship between kids and horses, and then allows them to meet horses and apply what they have learned. At the website you’ll find information about school programs (love the pic of young boy reading to a horse), community programs, and ways to get involved. There is also a spot on the site that is clearly marked JUST FOR KIDs, too. You KNOW they love that!

We’re thinking about the holidays, and Sherry Early is thinking about next summer. She recently announced her Books for Zambia project on her Semicolon blog. She is collecting books for this orphanage. Sherry has an Amazon wishlist of all the books she would like to send. There are 150 titles to choose from, from folktales to Dr. Seuss.

Congratulations to the Kidlitosphere’s own Liz Garton Scanlon, whose lovely picture book All the World (with Marla Frazee) was selected for this year’s Cheerios Spoonful of Stories program. You can see Liz’s thoughts on this (and how this program helps children’s literacy in general) at Liz in Ink , and read more about this year’s program in US Today.

Two different studies made the news recently about the effect of screen time on kids.

• First, MSNBC.com reported, in an article by Jeanna Bryner, that some preschoolers are watching more than five hours a day of television, and that “nearly 70 percent of the preschool-age children exceeded recommendations by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) for limiting screen exposure (including TV, DVDs, computers and video games) to one to two daily hours.” (via @ImaginationSoup)
• Meanwhile, Beth Harpaz of the LA Times explored the question of which is worse for teens: social messaging time or television time, noting “research has shown that the more time kids spend in front of screens — whether it’s TV or instant-messaging — the worse their school performance. “That doesn’t mean it’s true for every kid, but it makes sense, that for every hour a kid is playing video games, it’s an hour that they’re not doing homework or reading or exploring or creating,”" said Douglas Gentile, a child psychologist and associate professor at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa.

The Readers Digest (UK) just completed a survey of reading and literacy, as well. 91% of parents who answered the survey expressed concern about declining literacy levels amongst children in the UK today, with one in 10 parents (10%) stating they’ve been “shocked” by their own child’s poor spelling and reading skills. Ironically (or not,) parents believe the number-one reason contributing towards a decline in literacy skills amongst children is that they don’t encourage them to read and write more. Here’s how the perceived “causes” break out …

• 36% of parents saying lack of parental encouragement is the top contributing factor,
• 34% say its children spending too much time playing computer games
• 13% believe the top cause is that children are not taking their education seriously enough
• 10% for general disinterest amongst kids in having correct grammar and writing skills; and
• 3% for children not visiting the library as much.

Caught this one via Jen’s retweet of a @Book_Dads. Yesterday @ReadAloudDad offers Five Effective Ways to Read to Your Kids. Read Aloud Dad answers the oft-heard question: how can I possibly make time to read with my kids. [Hint: it only takes 3 minutes].

Kirk Dooley has a lovely article about Callan Harrison in the Dallas Morning News. Callan, now 23, was diagnosed with auditory processing disorder when she was in elementary school. It is a learning disorder on the Autism Spectrum. Callan’s extra credit project in her Implications of Children’s Literacy course at SMU, was so impressive, that her teacher recommended making it a children’s book. So she did! The Girl Who Learned Differently was written for children in kindergarten through third grade. “The book will teach kids with learning differences that it’s OK to feel different,” said Callan. “It’s OK to learn different and OK to be different.” Read the full article in the Dallas Morning News.

Unwrapping Literacy

I know I tweeted about it, but Franki Sibberson’s post Blogging with Ana at A Year of Reading is oh-so-worth sharing again. It has so many layers and so much inspiration. “Ana now sees herself as not only an artist, but an artist and a writer. Ana learned so much from starting with something she was passionate about. Ana has a new confidence this year and I attribute so much of that to her blog.”

Ditto Erin Ocon’s article in Choice Literacy Helping Aaron Find his Voice. “While helping Aaron find his writing voice, I was reminded of my own. I was reminded that when I write, I don’t do it according to formulas, and no matter what advice I get from educational companies, co-workers, or even administrators, I can’t teach according to formulas either. Instead, I want to convey to my students that my writing voice comes through trusting inspiration, and slogging through revision.” I just love teachers! (via the 11/6/2010 Big Fresh)

Starting Off

When I saw that @HesedBooksGifts started following us on Twitter, I visited them and scrolled through some of their tweets. That’s how I found Bella Libreria, the blog of a self-described “twenty-something blogger fresh from school.” The BL chick is “Dusting off the shelves and Experiencing the Magic of the Written Word.” Check out her post filled with fun bookmarks.

LazyReaders.com is home to the Lazy Readers Book Club. Whether you are looking for an adult, young adult, or children’s books … and want one that is 250 pages (or less), then stop by. Dr. Danny Brassell created The Lazy Readers’ Book Club to offer short book recommendations for those who feel they do not have the time to read. From the home page: “My mission is to increase interest in reading by providing cool, short book recommendations for all ages. From interest comes devotion.” Thanks to @WordToons for the introduction.

Here’s another new-to-me social reading site: TheReadingRoom.com. Caroline McLean, Product Director for the company introduced me to the site in an Email. She describes theReadingRoom.com as a social community of more than 70,000 Unique Browsers, 34,000 active members and an average duration on the site of 6mins, well above industry standards. “100% of our audience is only interested in books.” I liked the simplicity of the layout, the front-page access to Google previews of books, and one-click access to read free books.

And another … As part of its 90th anniversary celebration, Scholastic has launched You Are What You Read, a new global social networking site for readers. When you log on to www.youarewhatyouread.com you’ll be asked to list the five books that had the biggest impact on their lives. You’ll also be able to connect with other readers through these shared “Bookprints.” The site also contains the Bookprints of more than 130 “Names You Know” – notable people from entertainment, academia, business, media, publishing, and more. That’s nice, but what grabbed me is that there is also a SEPARATE community for young readers with “kid-friendly information about books and other activities.”

I am a big fan of WorldCat, so when I got an email that they’ve increased the level of detail for more than 250,000 pop and classical music entries, I was tickled … music and books go well together! WorldCat has partnered with allmusic.com and Rovi so that WorldCat users will know more about the music they’re looking at, see the cover art; get song titles, composers, and track times; and track picks, ratings and reviews. Those are just THREE of the new features. Check it out.

For the last post in my pre-Halloween series “Now THAT’s Scary,” I talked about dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia. Each of these are learning disabilities that affect how readers process printed information. In the mid-October edition of Digital Directions (Education Week), Katie Ash has an article about how schools are testing eReaders (Kindle, Nook, iPad, Intel Reader) as a tool for helping dyslexic students. It’s still too early to draw any conclusions, but based on the anecdotal examples Katie provides, the potential seems incredible.

Resources for Kids

FictFact.com is another find-a-book site that lets readers and readers-to-be track down a series. They can find and create a queue for all the books in a series (they aren’t always easily numbered), get notices when new books are released or added, organize all the series you’ve read or are reading, and also create a public profile for sharing books.

Barnes & Noble has launched a B&N Kids Club. Unlike it’s member cards, this is FREE! Of course, they are hoping that you’ll buy books ($5 reward for every $100), but they also offer fun, free stuff, too. There are activity pages you can download; free cupcake or cookie on your child’s birthday; and a free gift from TikaTok. They also have online read-alouds of beloved children’s books. This month it is Maurice Sendak reading Where the Wild Things Are.

Resources for Parents

My thanks to Carol Rasco for passing along her discovery of Anita Silvey’s Book-a-Day Almanac. It may be my browser, but it takes a couple clicks to get it to come up right, but oh man is it worth it. She describes this as a “daily love letter to a book or author.” In addition to offering details about a book and who the right audience is, there is also a calendar of events and trivia for each day, as well. For example, did you know yesterday was National Author’s Day … and has been since 1929, when it was adopted by the National Federation of Women’s Clubs?

At various times over the past few years, this query has come into the Kidlitosphere Yahoo! Group: Help! I am looking for content-appropriate books for my 7-year-old who reads well above grade level. In the past everyone pitched in with their recommendations … now we have a blog: The Little Gifted Reader. Guatemama2000 (aka Valerie) started the blog as a way to share (and catalog) the collections of books she’s gotten for her now 10-year-old daughter.

Books that Heal Kids is another resource I’ve discovered through the Kidlitosphere Yahoo! group. Roxanne is an elementary school counselor and is passionate about bibliotherapy in its purest sense. Whatever you’re child may be feeling – or you may be feeling and want your child to understand – Roxanne probably has a book for that. She has her tag front and center in the left top corner. Definitely worth checking out!

Also be sure to check out this 8-minute video called Raising Readers by Jean Ciborowski Fahey, Ph.D, Education Director of the South Shore Hospital Reading Partnership in Weymouth, Massachusetts and Family Literacy Consultant to the Massachusetts Department of Education. The video is packed with real-life examples s of ways to incorporate literacy into everyday activities. The tune is catchy, the demonstrations are great, and the video illustrates building literacy in other languages, too. (via @kctherapist)

Resources for Educators

Shmoop Online SAT Prep uses kids’ favorite video games (Oregon Trail, Tetris, and Mario Brothers ) as the basis for its test-prep services. The games are “metaphors for various challenges that students will face (and overcome!) on the SAT.” Because Shmoop is a digital curriculum compan, it understands that SAT test preparation needs to include reading, writing, math, and test-taking strategies. Users have access to 500 vocabulary words; 1,000 practice problems in reading, writing, and math; three full-length interactive practice exams; and in-depth review topics. There is also a reward system, and kids can earn Shmoop points (called Shmoints) for top scores. (via Extra Helping, School Library Journal newsletter)

It was bound to happen … and Central Michigan University has beat everyone to the punch. They have created and are teaching the first university iPad literacy course. This is a a pilot course on the potential and uses of the iPad to make sure students/users are getting the most out of it. Think they give you one or is ownership a course prerequisite. I can dream, can’t I? (Cult of Mac blog via RSSOwl)

This from ReadWriteWeb: Open-source publishing platform Omeka has announced today the launch of hosted Web service Omeka.net. While similar in some ways to the content management system provided by WordPress, Omeka is geared towards the online exhibition of library, museum and archive collections. “Omeka is aimed at helping bring academic scholarship and cultural heritage sites to the Internet. By using Omeka.net, scholars and archivists will be able to easily build digital exhibits and publish digital scholarship, while also taking advantage of Web 2.0 tools that foster collaboration and communication.” Can you imagine the possibilities? (via RSSOwl)

The early November children’s literacy and reading news round-up, brought to you by Jen Robinson’s Book Page,  Scrub-a-Dub-Tub, and Rasco from RIF is now available at Jen Robinson’s Book Page. Over the past couple of weeks Terry Doherty, Carol Rasco and I have collected plenty of content for you about literacy & reading-related events; literacy and reading programs and research; and suggestions for growing bookworms.

Before I get into the specific news items, I’d like to take a minute to make a plug for the use of Twitter to find literacy-related news. These days, with a six-month old who is dying to crawl and a full-time job, my blog-reading time is very limited. But I do find myself with various chunks of time when I’m holding the baby, have one hand free, and can read Twitter on my cell phone (I use MoTweets, designed for Windows phone platforms). I have a handful of literacy leaders who I follow (see my newly public @LitRoundupSources list – I find having a small set of accounts to follow on this topic is the key to keeping things manageable). I also have saved searches for #literacy and #kidlit, and find links from other sites through those tags. Then what I do is star the links that I think might be roundup-worthy as favorites, and go back to them when I have more time. I do find other articles from newsletters and magazines that I subscribe to, and emails that people send to me, but Twitter broadens my reach immeasurably.

So, if you’re writing blog posts or articles about literacy, and you aren’t sharing them on Twitter, well, it’s certainly something to consider to expand your reach. And if you’re someone like me who is constantly on the hunt for interesting children’s #literacy and #reading news, Twitter is definitely your friend. OK, on to the actual news.

Events

Today, November 1st, is National Family Literacy Day. “National Family Literacy Day, celebrated across the U.S., focuses on special activities and events that showcase the importance of family literacy programs. First held in 1994, the annual event is officially celebrated on November 1st, but many events are held throughout the month of November. Schools, libraries, and other literacy organizations participate through read-a-thons, celebrity appearances, book drives, and more.” Read more at the NCTE (National Council of Teacher’s of English) Inbox blog.

Carol, our top event scout, found this one. Nominations are open for The Kennedy Center/Stephen Sondheim Inspirational Teacher Awards. From the announcement: “These are the teachers who define us, teachers who widen our horizons and encourage us to explore.  These teachers are touchstones to paths of achieving more than we might have otherwise accomplished, in directions we might not have gone. To celebrate the significant role of teachers in society, The Kennedy Center/Stephen Sondheim Inspirational Teacher Awards will spotlight some of the country’s most inspirational teachers and recognize them for their contributions.” The application deadline is December 15th.

A conference was just held to launch the Reading Association of South Africa, and discuss reading and language challenges. I liked this bit: “conversations held at this conference opened up the idea that literacy is more than what happens at school, it is a daily activity that also occurs in homes and communities.”

Scholastic just launched their new social netw0rking site, You Are What You Read, in which people build their profiles according to the five books most influential in their lives. There’s a nice write-up in Publisher’s Weekly (which I found via @PWKidsBookshelf), which says: “Like GoodReads and other social networking sites for readers, users can find other people with shared literary interests, or “Bookprints,” as Scholastic calls them. Scholastic books don’t appear to get special billing on YouAreWhatYouRead.com, and nearly every book in print from any publisher is available for users to catalog on their profiles. There is a strong celebrity angle to the site, with visible profiles for more than 130 well-known personalities ranging from Bill Gates to Whoopi Goldberg.” Interesting stuff!

Literacy Programs and Research

Dr. Gabrielle Miller shared a very well-received piece at Good Education titled Superman Can Wait, Parents Hold the Power. Responding to David Guggenheim’s new documentary about parents feeling powerless to fight poor school systems, Miller says: “The truth is, though, that parents do have power—tremendous power that they may not even realize. And one of the most effective ways to begin to exert that power begins at home with their child. It doesn’t involve funding, politics, taxes, or school boards. It involves regularly reading with children and starting to take an active role in their child’s education.”

Adobe and Microsoft are working together to fund a non-profit  in Brooklyn, NY. According to Zimmer Barnes, their goal is to “promote raising literacy rates and a general societal enjoyment of literature of all kinds. This NPO, the New York Literacy Society, has been in operation over a decade and promotes unique but vague strategies for achieving their goals.”  More details here.

In his latest Huffington Post column, Reach Out and Read CEO Earl Martin Phalen sat down with Dr. Robert Needlman (aka Dr. Book), co-founder of the organization. Their interview covers a little bit of history and offers tips for parents, as well:  Sometimes you let the child pick. Sometimes you pick, and if it’s not the right book — it doesn’t matter!

Teacher Magazine reports, in an article by Liana Heitin, that “High school students today tend to read an “idiosyncratic” and unchallenging selection of texts and are generally not learning how to do close reading, concludes a recent study published by the Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, and Writers. The study argues that that those factors have contributed to a decline in reading skills among American adults.”

At ParentDish, Honey Berk draws attention to a new study by the NIH that finds: “A mother’s reading skill is the greatest determinant of her children’s future academic success and outweighs other influences, such as neighborhood and family income. So, improving mothers’ literacy skills may be the best way to boost their children’s achievement”. (Via @ParentDish)

Unwrapping Literacy

Terry thought that this article (from the Press in New Zealand) about the secret life of buttons was a neat approach to connecting kids and stories. Here’s a snippet: “Each (button) has a story, a history, especially if it has come from a piece of vintage clothing. Way back, garments were generally secondary to the button. Clothes weren’t washed as often as we do today, but each time they were, the buttons were taken off, and then sewn back on again after washing.”

Suggestions for Growing Bookworms

Joyce Grant from Getting Kids Reading shares notes from her second mother-son book club meeting. This captures it all:  “It’s a great example of parents taking their children’s literacy into their own hands. And anyone can do it – you can do it. Once again, the evening was total chaos… and I wouldn’t have changed a thing.”

At Literacy Toolbox, Dawn Little (@LinksToLiteracy) shares some ideas for using technology to entice boys to read more. I think she has an excellent point with: “Historically, science and math have always interested boys.  Now we have technology which is a newer form of science and math is used to create it.  Hmm.  Sounds right up a boy’s alley if you ask me.”

Speaking of boys and reading, author and father James Preller is looking for photos of fathers reading. He says: “I’ve reached the conclusion that one of the most powerful, positive factors to encourage and inspire boys to read is, very simply, to see their fathers read. Look, there’s dad sitting down with a book. Any book. Fathers don’t just chop down trees, fix door jambs, and watch football. We read, too. It’s a valid male activity, like burping. Think of the power of that simple image. There’s Dad with a book in his lap.” And he’s working on a website to show just that. Please do send him your photos for the developing site fathersread.com. (Via Doret.)

Susan Stephenson, The Book Chook, shares tips for reading aloud with toddlers. She says: “Parents of toddlers have wonderful opportunities to develop literate kids. So much of the play we do naturally with babies – finger plays, nursery rhymes, chat, naming things – grows into extended play that we enjoy with our toddlers.” She recommends, among other solid suggestions, “surrounding your little one with print”. She should see my Baby Bookworm’s board-book-ringed playspace.

In closing, I’d like to send you all off to Aaron Mead’s interview with our own Carol Rasco at Children’s Books and Reviews.  Learn more about the journey that led Carol to RIF, her thoughts on the barriers to children’s literacy in the US, and “some practical ways that ordinary adults can further children’s literacy”.  That last bit is my favorite part of the interview, of course. Carol says: “Talk to/with children. Read to/with children.  Make sure certain books are easily accessible to children year round.  Volunteer in schools.  Give books as gifts to children with whom you celebrate birthdays and holidays and other special occasions…” And more. Don’t miss this great discussion of children’s books and literacy.

Thanks for reading the roundup, and for your interest in Children’s Literacy!

In other hot-off-the-presses Kidlitosphere News, you can find today’s Nonfiction Monday Roundup at Capstone Publishing, and the October Carnival of Children’s Literature at The Flatt Perspective.