Students Unite Through Reading

Joliet Herald News (IL)

October 10, 2008

Sixth-grade students in Stacy Ball's Language Arts Enhancement class recently shared the books they wrote and illustrated with some of their first- and second-grade neighbors at the adjacent elementary school.

Learning Together

Wilmette Life (IL)

October 10, 2008

Avoca School District 37 launched a blended preschool this fall to serve special-needs youngsters, who are legally entitled to preschool services, alongside typically developing children. A full-time speech and language teacher works with the classroom teacher and teacher's assistant to nurture all children's language development.

Bitten! Library Celebrates Love of Twilight Books

Wytheville Enterprise (VA)

October 10, 2008

To bring together ardent fans of the series, the Smyth-Bland Regional Library will host "The Twilight Party" this Saturday. It will feature games like Twilight Scattergories and Twilight charades and music by the Mitch Hansen Band and the Bella Cullen Project, both Twilight series-inspired bands.

Illustrator's Latest Work Gets Capital Showing

San Diego Union-Tribune (CA)

October 10, 2008

Artist and illustrator Kadir Nelson stood onstage at the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C., Sharpie in hand, and demonstrated on a plain white easel board how to sketch Abraham Lincoln. "Practice drawing faces, hands and feet. If you can draw those, you can draw anything," Nelson said.

Lowcountry Hero Robert Smalls Sails Again — In New Children's Book

The Island Packet (SC)

October 10, 2008

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s "American Heroes" series of children's books now includes Robert Smalls: The Boat Thief. He fears it's the greatest story nobody knows. Smalls commandeered a Rebel steamer in Charleston during the Civil War and sailed it past Fort Sumter to freedom. He went on to become a state militia general, state legislator and a five-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

French novelist Le Clezio Wins Nobel for Literature

USA Today

October 10, 2008

French novelist Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio has won the 2008 Nobel Prize for Literature. Le Clezio has written more than 30 novels, essays, story collections and translations. His children's books include Lullaby (1980) and Balaabilou (1985).

Laura Bush Sees Women Neglected in Literacy Push

Associated Press

October 09, 2008

First Lady Laura Bush, a former teacher and librarian, appeared at the United Nations to speak about the U.N.'s 10-year global literacy initiative. She urged nations to focus on increasing literacy skills particularly for girls, women, children not in school, and people in remote areas.

Taking a Test to Predict FCAT Performance

Herald Tribune (FL)

October 09, 2008

The Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test is still four months away, but by using a new assessment tool developed by the Florida Center for Reading Research teachers can "predict" whether a student could pass the FCAT or other standardized tests. The high-stakes FCAT can affect school funding and a child's ability to move up a grade.

Local Literacy Study Shows Boys Prefer Non-Fiction

Sun Chronicle (ME)

October 09, 2008

Middle school literacy specialist Jessie Hemphill knows that pre-adolescent boys will read, and read eagerly, as long as they can choose what they read. To test that theory, she started a boys' book club with "non-readers." The club was the culmination of a graduate studies research project she began three years ago.

Reading for Fun, Literacy, and the Record

The Gazette (MD)

October 09, 2008

About 100 pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students sat on the gym floor at Viers Mill Elementary last week, eyes glued to the man in the rocking chair in front of them as he read the children's book "Corduroy." They were participating Thursday in a nationwide Read for the Record reading day to get them excited about reading in and out of the classroom.

Thinking Globally, Teaching Locally

Washington Post (DC)

October 09, 2008

In the Teach for America program, young educators discover children in need close to home. David Bramlett, a recent Wheaton College graduate, said, "seeing examples of these 5- and 6-year-olds take off in reading, no matter the situation, their being able to step forward and really achieve is a great joy."

Project Aims to Bridge Neuroscience and Schools

Education Week

October 08, 2008

Scientists at Johns Hopkins University are testing a hypothesis that the regions of the brain that control voluntary action function less effectively in children with ADHD. If those children are calling on other parts of their brains to compensate, the effort may leave less room for tasks like planning and organizing. That information was shared here recently with teachers as part of a Johns Hopkins initiative aimed at forging direct and practical connections between neuroscience and schools.

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A Dead Language That's Very Much Alive

The New York Times

October 08, 2008

The Latin class at Isaac E. Young Middle School here was reading a story the other day with a familiar ring: Boy annoys girl, girl scolds boy. Only in this version, the characters were named Sextus and Cornelia, and they argued in Latin. The resurgence of a language once rejected as outdated and irrelevant is reflected across the country as Latin is embraced by a new generation of students.

Children's Clinic Aims to Give Dyslexic Preschoolers a Bright Start

Orlando Sentinel (FL)

October 08, 2008

If you have dyslexia, it's hard to read, and it's nearly impossible to keep up in school. That's why Nemours Children's Clinic Orlando is unveiling a pilot program aimed at helping preschoolers in Orlando with dyslexia and other reading disabilities — before they head to elementary school. "As a research scientist, I can tell you the results are remarkable," said Laura Bailet, executive director of the Nemours BrightStart Initiative.

Back to Basics Paying Off

The Providence Journal (RI)

October 08, 2008

Last year, the Providence school district introduced a new phonics-based reading program called direct instruction — a highly scripted way of teaching reading to students who are performing below grade level. "I've never seen so much growth in my nine years of teaching," said Tom Nolan, a third-grade teacher. "Last year, there were 12 third-graders reading at grade level. This year, that number has more than doubled. This is working for kids who have a hard time decoding words. We're no longer reading over their heads."

Elementary Students Meet the Challenge and Show Their Reading Prowess

Kennebec Journal (ME)

October 08, 2008

Alexis Soucy doesn't mind being quizzed about the books she reads. The 11-year-old Windsor Elementary School student arrived early Tuesday morning to answer 10 questions about "Hoot" by Carl Hiaasen, a book she just finished. Windsor students are challenged each year to read books. And the school uses a computer program to track their vocabulary recognition and total words read.

McCain, Obama, And Leaving No Child Behind

National Public Radio (NPR)

October 07, 2008

This audio story looks at the lessons of "No Child Left Behind," the good and the bad. It then asks Senator McCain's education advisor Lisa Graham Keegan and an Senator Obama's education advisor Linda Darling Hammond what the future of NCLB should be.

(Opinion) The Future of Words

Esquire Magazine

October 07, 2008

Author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers is one of the most ambitious and activist literary figures of his generation. Here he weighs in on "the future of reading."

Opening Books, Minds

The Baltimore Sun (MD)

October 07, 2008

With the aim of sparking a love of reading, a Forest Hill couple has launched a new Imagination Library program that that provides free books to young children.

Reading to Children Early Helps Them Develop Skills for School

The Record Searchlight (CA)

October 07, 2008

September was National Literacy Month, so it's a great time for families to learn more about the benefits of reading to their children. First 5 Tehama, which helps young children in Redding grow up healthy, offers tips for parents to help them raise children to become readers.

Using Video Games as Bait to Hook Readers

The New York Times (NY)

October 06, 2008

This article, the second in a series about "The Future of Reading," looks at how video games are used to spark an interest in books. Increasingly, authors, teachers, librarians, and publishers are embracing this fast-paced, image-laden world in the hope that the games will draw children to reading.

An Early End to the '08 (Education) Campaign

Time

October 06, 2008

Will education be the top issue on voters minds in November? Increasingly, the answer appears to be no. The latest evidence is the decision by two of the country's largest philanthropies — the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation — to stop funding "Ed in '08," a nonpartisan campaign created to make improving education a top priority in the 2008 presidential race.

Books: Humor as a Road to Literacy

The Salt Lake Tribune (UT)

October 06, 2008

The "National Ambassador for Children's Literature," Jon Scieszka, isn't big on formality. Hand him a bubble of pomposity and he'll always stick a pin in it. Pop. Bang. Pow. A former elementary-school teacher, Scieszka says there are two key means to encourage kids to read — and to keep reading. The first is to employ humor, and the second is to broaden the definition of what "acceptable" reading is.

Daunting Timetable Doesn’t Stop Illustrator from Opportunity of a Lifetime

Journal Inquirer (CT)

October 06, 2008

The story of how Courtney A. Martin became a children's book illustrator, and how she completed the artwork for a picture book titled Belva for President — about the first woman to run for president — in a very short two months.

Writer Jon Scieszka Lets Boys Be Boys

Rocky Mountain News (CO)

October 03, 2008

Jon Scieszka's humor has been called wacky, irreverent and subversive, but whatever you call it, one thing is certain: The best-selling author knows what makes kids laugh. Just ask his legions of young fans. A former teacher, Scieszka saw early on that boys lag behind girls in reading. In 2001, he founded the nonprofit Web site GuysRead.com to call attention to boys' literacy. The Rocky Mountain News caught up with the charismatic 54-year-old as he was promoting his latest book, Knucklehead: Tall Tales and Mostly True Stories of Growing Up Scieszka, a collection of boyhood anecdotes.