“I think ideas are one of the things I do well,” says Susan Anderson-Newham, 2013 Mover & Shaker, block-play advocate, actor, writer, storyteller and, most importantly, the Pierce County Library System’s (WA) early learning supervising librarian. In this interview, Anderson-Newman talks about the importance of collaboration and a good sense of humor, why hands-on play is key to kids’ learning, her inspirations and passions, and her top picture books of all time.
Random House has announced the Random House Teacher Awards, which recognises "dynamic and resourceful teachers" who use their creativity to inspire and successfully instill a love of reading in their students". Open to full and part-time teachers in public schools, the awards will be presented by Crown author Jonathan Kozol at the National Council of Teachers of English annual convention during the "Mentoring Matters" breakfast, held November 16 in Las Vegas.
Awards consist of a $10,000 first place grant, $5,000 second place grant and a $2,500 third place grant payable to each teacher's school. Book donations will be made to winners and runners-up. More information, including application guidelines, can be found here. http://bit.ly/TlaPX8
ABC, Follow Me!
: Phonics Rhymes and Crafts Grades K-1
by Linda Armstrong
Help children with the sounds of letters (phonemic awareness) with this useful book. It also helps them
recognize and differentiate letter symbols.
The lessons are easy-to-implement and correlated to national standards. Included in the book are original, instructional, reproducible black line masters! Crafts are age-appropriate and inexpensive, created with materials most teachers have on hand. >>> http://bit.ly/r0DW58
PARENTS might label it a waste of time but the hours spent surfing the internet, chatting online, and even on the dreaded Facebook appear to improve children's reading skills.
An international online reading test conducted by the organisation for economic co-operation and development (OECD), a group of 17 industrialised nations including Australia, found that moderate computer use at home, either doing schoolwork or socialising, increased children's reading skills, particularly among boys. => http://bit.ly/kFBQAW
G'day everyone! May 23-27 is Australian Library and Information Week and we would like all parents to get involved! Getting your children to love books and reading from an early age is one of the best things we can do to help them develop good literacy skills. It's as easy as singing songs together, making up stories, or borrowing books from your local library.
Imagine not being able to read a thing, not even a road sign
“If you cannot read and write then you are always afraid,” my friend and award-winning Australian Indigenous author, Tara June Winch, once wrote to me over email. “To not be literate – not just practically, but socially, emotionally, economically, to not be able to engage or navigate your world – you are compacted. You are diminished. You are afraid. Literacy stays forever. People are stronger for it. It gives people life and hope to help themselves.”
Tara’s words have stayed with me since I first read them a year ago.
It’s the power of books. Of reading. Of being able to write your name, read a contract, a textbook, a manual, a medicine bottle, a street sign, a warning. We take it for granted. Well, I know I do.
At times I forget that despite the fact we are a developed nation, a number of our own communities are on fire. Particularly our Indigenous communities. => http://bit.ly/l3MwBm
“What is the use of a book,” thought Alice, eerily foreshadowing a critical question in the age of digital media, “without pictures or conversations?”
Soon enough, she plunges down the rabbit hole and finds pictures and conversations aplenty. But her question lingers for us today in modified form. With electronic books — a technology teeming with children’s titles, many of them stunningly rendered for the Apple iPad — mere pictures and conversations are passé, at least pictures that don’t move and conversations that you can’t hear. Nobody has to feel sleepy or stupid anymore, not with a fully charged iPad with a book on it. => http://nyti.ms/iXddyt
Audio books are great for long car journeys or other places where you can't physically read a book, but I'm not sure if they're a great idea for kids who are still building their reading skills. This Lego helmet lets kids simply look at the pictures while the stories are read aloud to them. => http://bit.ly/fgACOE
Poverty and third-grade reading proficiency have a huge impact on high school graduation rates, says a new study by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a private charitable organization that helps disadvantages kids.
Students who don't read at grade level by third grade are four times more likely to leave high school without a diploma than kids who are proficient readers, says "Double Jeopardy: How Poverty & Third-Grade Reading Skills Influence High School Graduation," which studied nearly 4,000 students nationwide. Overall, poverty compounds the problem: poor students are three times more likely to drop out or fail to graduate on time. And poverty impacts even the best readers, with poor proficient third graders graduating at about the same rate as subpar readers who've never been poor. more » » »