Archive for Reading promotion

Teachers can get some expert advice on how to keep kids reading over the summer in a new webcast by Reading Rockets.org.

The webcast features literacy experts Ron Fairchild, executive director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Summer Learning and a faculty member at Johns Hopkins University, School of Education; and Dr. Loriene Roy, president of the American Library Association, who discuss ways teachers can entice students to keep their reading skills sharp over the hot summer months. In a section devoted to articles and advice on summer reading strategies, Reading Rockets has also put together a new collection of resources, a virtual “Beach Bag,” that teachers can use to reach out to parents, libraries and other local community groups. View the webcast on the Reading Rockets website.

If you live in Wichita Falls, Kansas, three little dogs want desperately to visit your child’s school.

They’ve come all the way from California with their owner Michelle Nester, who moved to Wichita Falls last month. In the process, these three long-haired Chihuahuas left behind the jobs that they did so well and loved so much in Apple Valley schools: helping children read.

They left behind scores of little children they knew, who would line up for a chance to read to them, who would set their tails wagging at the sight of them. The three dogs—Denver, Mariposa and Mallory—are all certified therapy dogs, trained to sit quietly in the laps of children who need extra practice in reading. Read more in The Times-Record News online.

Eleven limousines pulled up to the front door of Ryan’s Steakhouse in Simpsonville, South Carolina, as a crowd cheered and media waited with cameras and notebooks for the honored guests. Out jumped the day’s celebrities, students from nine Laurens County elementary schools who participated in the Limos for Learning program. They walked a red carpet through the doors into the restaurant to eat a free lunch and experience entertainment from a magician and Michael Cogdill, WYFF-4 broadcaster and children’s book author.

More than 200 students hopped out of the limos Wednesday, April 23, 2008, as the crowd cheered them on. The third- and fourth-graders had qualified for the trip through a reading rewards program started by a Laurens businesswoman five years ago. Since then, it has blossomed into a statewide incentive program, and this year alone, more than 15,000 students have taken a limo ride to a free lunch to celebrate reading goals that they’ve met.

Betsy Ross, president of Limos for Learning, started the program because as a pharmacist, she saw many patients who couldn’t read their own health-care materials. Early intervention was the key, she said. Read more about the program in The Greenville News online.

Laura Bush said she expects to continue her efforts touting education and literacy through her husband’s presidential library and public policy center being built at Southern Methodist University, her alma mater. In an interview with The Dallas Morning News Wednesday, April 23, 2008, Bush said plans are still in flux, but she’s looking forward to having the George W. Bush Presidential Library complex showcase and promote activities she pursued as first lady.

“I hope that out of both the library and the Bush institute that will be there, I’ll be able to continue working on the issues that are important to me. And part of that is education and literacy, including worldwide and especially the education of girls and women in Afghanistan,” she said. Read more in The Dallas Morning News online.

The second Electronic Author Visit, a program sponsored by Simon & Schuster and Ball State University, is scheduled for April 29, 2008, and will feature D.J. MacHale, author of the Pendragon series. Teachers can sign up via the program’s website.

Nearly 80,000 children at 743 schools tuned in for the first broadcast featuring author Andrew Clements (No Talking). During the broadcast, Clements discussed his books and answered children’s questions (a classroom of children was present at the recording, and students at participating schools could submit questions). Ball State records and broadcasts the sessions, which are available as streaming video online, on certain PBS stations and via satellite.

A crop of social-networking websites aimed at bibliophiles are allowing readers to connect with the page--and with each other--in a brand-new "virtual" environment, according to an article and audio story by Martha Woodroof on the National Public Radio (NPR) website.

Woodruff notes that book-centered sites such as LibraryThing, Goodreads, Shelfari, aNobii, and BookJetty, among others, allow readers to keep track of the books they have read or want to read, and readers can also see what others are recommending.

To read the article or hear the audio, visit the following link on the NPR website.

Last week and this coming week, the Learning First Alliance will feature a series of exclusive reading-related interviews on its new blog/website at www.publicschoolinsights.org.

The interviews deal in large part with the challenges of motivating reluctant young readers:

* An interview with best-selling children’s book author Joseph Bruchac
* An interview with the nation’s first Ambassador for Children’s Literature, Jon Scieszka
* An interview with adolescent literacy expert Don Deshler.

The Learning First Alliance is a permanent partnership of major national education associations that collectively represent over 10 million educators, parents and policymakers.

Rolling Readers, a San Diego-based non-profit literacy organization, is welcoming Allison Bechill as a new executive director in 2008. As executive director, Bechill oversees the non-profit organization on a day-to-day basis, including leading funding, volunteer recruitment, book giveaway management, accounting and marketing efforts, as well as spearheading strategic planning. Before joining Rolling Readers, Bechill managed corporate social responsibility activities for the San Diego office of Reed Elsevier, a world-leading publishing company.

The Rolling Readers’ website has also been revamped to provide a more user-friendly interface with explanations about what the organization has to offer and its program needs. A final change in the organization is that Rolling Readers has relocated its headquarters from Mission Valley to Normal Heights, a location central to many of the schools Rolling Readers serves. For more information, visit the Rolling Readers website.

When most North Americans hear about illiteracy, they think it’s a problem in other parts of the world. Given that every U.S. and Canadian child has the opportunity to attend school, literacy rates ought to be much higher, according to author John Corcoran, author and literacy advocate. But poverty, undiagnosed learning disabilities, and sometimes even the education system itself are to blame for more and more children slipping through the cracks.

Mike Chittom, of the Rotary Club (RI) of Tulsa, Oklahoma, has seen the effects of illiteracy firsthand in a third-grade classroom at a local school, which his club supports through a mentoring project. “If every Rotary club could get involved with a school, there is no telling what we could accomplish,” Chittom says. Read about how Rotary International is partnering with the International Reading Association, schools, and other organizations on RI’s website.

Read every day. The prescription almost seems too simple, yet its potential impact for Canada’s health-care system could be sizable.

The importance of reading every day is one of the main findings from Health Literacy in Canada 2008: A Healthy Understanding, a recently published report on the state of health literacy from the Canadian Council on Learning.

The report found that daily reading is the strongest predictor of higher levels of health literacy. On average, as health literacy rises, individuals enjoy better health. And of course, as the health of the population improves, the burden on the health-care system is reduced. Read the article in The Toronto Star online.

A corporate co-founder of the Quills people’s choice book awards that were started three years ago and aimed to combine “populist sensibility” with “Hollywood-style glitz,” announced February 25, 2008, that it will suspend support. Reed Business Information gave no reason for the decision and a company statement did not make it clear whether the awards had been placed on hiatus or ended permanently. A spokeswoman for Reed, which operates such publications as Variety and Publishers Weekly, declined to give further details. Money raised for the Quills Literacy Foundation will be distributed to two nonprofit organizations—First Book and Literacy Partners. Read the article on The Canadian Press website.

For the seventh consecutive year, schools, libraries, and nonprofits across the country will receive thousands of books donated by Verizon employees as part of the Verizon Foundation’s annual Season’s Readings campaign. This year, employees at more than 300 locations will participate in the annual giving campaign with the goal of collecting 200,000 books. The month-long campaign will end December 14. Participating Verizon employees will have the opportunity to donate books to a school or nonprofit in their local area, or purchase books that will be sent to a nonprofit, which will use the books as part of the organization’s literacy programs. This year, the Verizon Foundation has partnered with the National Center for Family Literacy to assist employees in selecting books that are both entertaining and educational for children. For more information, visit the Verizon Foundation website.

With the United States fighting an increasingly unpopular war in Iraq, stories of espionage and critiques of foreign policy were winners at the 58th annual National Book Awards in New York, Wednesday, November 14, 2007. Denis Johnson’s Tree of Smoke, a 600-page journey through the physical, moral and spiritual extremes of the Vietnam War, won the fiction award Wednesday night, while Tim Weiner’s Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA, won in nonfiction. Robert Hass’ Time and Materials, which includes several poems critical of the Iraq war and the Bush administration, won for poetry. The prize for young people’s literature went to Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Each of the winners received $10,000. Runners-up received $1,000. Read more in The Washington Post.

Oprah started it, television personalities Richard and Judy took up the mantle, now everyone is getting into book clubs. Book clubs have been around for years but they’ve never been as popular as they are now. Like knitting and crossword puzzles, they’ve been gradually making the social transition from cringeworthy to cool since Oprah started hers back in 1996. These days, just getting a mention on Oprah—or Richard and Judy’s book club in the United Kingdom—can make a book into a best seller overnight. And now book clubs have made it onto the big screen, with the release of The Jane Austen Book Club in cinemas later this month—and when something hits Hollywood it’s a sure sign that before long we’ll all be doing it, if we aren’t already. Read the article.

Newton and McDonald counties will join the Missouri Humanities Council and other counties and cities in Missouri in becoming a “One Book” community. The program, an outcropping of the Center for the Book, a non-profit partnership between the private sector and the government, was established in October 1977 by former librarian of the Library of Congress Daniel J. Boorstin to promote books, reading, libraries, and literacy.

During the month of November residents of the two counties are being asked by the NewMac (referencing the two counties) Literacy Roundtable, sponsor of the event, to choose the book. The community read officially will begin after all ballots are counted on December 4. Discussion groups and other events centered on the chosen selection will be planned to promote literacy throughout the counties. Read about the plans at The Joplin Independent online.

Dave Eggers’ debut novel, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, hit bestseller lists in early 2000, creating a dedicated fan base. Since then, Eggers has put his celebrity (and his money) behind a chain of nonprofit literacy centers, the first of which, 826 Valencia, opened in San Francisco's Mission District in 2002. There are six cities with 826 centers, including Los Angeles. Earlier this week in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Eggers was honored for this combination of creative work and community involvement with a 2007 Heinz Award in Arts and Humanities. At 37, Eggers is the youngest winner of a Heinz Award, which comes with a $250,000 prize. He is giving the money directly to the 826 centers. Read about him and the centers in The Los Angeles Times.

The Newspaper Association of America Foundation has started a major initiative to engage young newspaper readers. The Foundation has launched a YouTube contest designed to encourage teens to tell how they use newspapers in their lives—for anything from acing their current events test to making weekend plans. Entries will be accepted until Dec. 17. The Foundation will feature links to the most creative videos on its website, and the person who submits the best entry will receive a brand new iPhone and a trip for two to attend NAA’s Annual Convention in Washington, D.C. Read more about the contest on the Foundation’s website.

India’s President Pratibha Devisingh Patil said women’s literacy and education should be treated as a “priority,” at the International Literacy Day Celebration in the capital on Septermber 8. “India is home to the world’s largest number of illiterates and this is a matter of great concern. India accounts for 20% of the world’s out–of–school children and 35% of adult illiterates. When such a large number of the population remains outside the pale of literacy and education, it makes the task of development more complex and daunting. She added that “Women’s literacy and education has to be made a priority. If we make women literate, they will be self–reliant and the beneficial impact on society will be manifold.” Read the article at Gulfnews.com.

In his novel Fahrenheit 451, author Ray Bradbury claims that 451 degrees is the temperature at which book-paper catches fire and burns. Those at the DeKalb Public Library in Illinois are about to put his theory to the test. To kick off October’s Big Read initiative—being held to increase literacy and reading—the library will host a book bonfire. The motivation behind the event is this year’s Big Read book, Fahrenheit 451, a novel about a future in which books are illegal in the United States. Read more about this event, and the Big Read, in this article from the Daily Chronicle.

Long criticized for showing gangsta rap videos and those with scantily clad female dancers, Black Entertainment Television is now taking those images—spiced with profanity and frequent use of the N-word—and remixing them into an audacious animated video promoting literacy and black pride that is drawing both praise and condemnation. Read more about the video in this article from the Los Angeles Times.

Thousands of community events will be held Nov. 1 to mark National Family Literacy Day. But this year, families won’t even have to leave the comfort of their own home to celebrate the importance of reading. The National Center for Family Literacy will unveil Raising a Reader, which provides activities for parents to support their child’s literacy, language and reading skills. This free magazine will be especially helpful to low-income families, whose children hear 30 million fewer words by age 3 than their counterparts who live in households led by professionals. Read more about the magazine’s launch in this article from Newswise.com. Learn more about National Family Literacy Day from the National Center for Family Literacy.

Outside Santa Rita jail in California on a recent Saturday morning, it was business as usual. Bored adult visitors were standing, some sitting, talking or listening to music, waiting for their names to be called. But this Saturday morning there was a little more life than usual. Visiting kids, who normally would be standing with the adults, or maybe splayed on the ground playing video games, were checking out kid-friendly books like Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and Ferdinand the Bull. Read more about a program that puts books in the hands of kids in this article from the website InsideBayArea.com.

To promote reading, first lady Laura Bush brought Curious George for show and tell Tuesday at Driggs Elementary School in Connecticut. She left the other George at home. Bush and U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, who once clashed with Connecticut officials over President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act, used the school as a backdrop to announce $18 million in library grants awarded Tuesday to 300 schools in 28 states. Read more of this article from The Hartford Courant.

Angel LaBoy is not your average school administrator. The educator raps to Dr. Seuss’ ABCs and reggaetones about reading. Unabashedly, LaBoy flaps his arm like a chicken. The 46-year-old assistant principal wants students to keep reading throughout their summer break. Read more about LaBoy’s unorthodox techniques in this article from the Herald News of northern New Jersey.

Ron Sims clearly recalled the day his father told him to do a book report on James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time after his high school teacher told him that “African Americans had no history worth reporting.” Sims, now the County Executive of the Martin Luther King Jr. County in Washington, said that moment led to the changing of the course of his life and allowed him to dispel the stereotypes of African-Americans and the ignorant perceptions of their history that even some teachers espouse. In a keynote speech at the National Newspaper Publishers Association’s Black Press Praise Breakfast, Sims stressed that the link to success is literacy. He challenged the Black Press to step up its critical role in making sure more youth are positioned for that success. Read more of this article from BlackPressUSA.com.

An all-night reading at a local Krispy Kreme of American author John Steinbeck’s 1939 classic The Grapes of Wrath—literature amid chocolate iced glazed crullers—may not rival an afternoon at your local library for quiet. But even as Dana Gioia, the National Endowment for the Arts’ chairman, announces 117 new cities chosen to participate in the agency’s “Big Read” program this year, that’s what you hear: Quiet. Read more about the NEA’s community-level literature program in this article from CNN.com

The popular children’s show Sesame Street will focus on literacy in its 38th season. The new season, featuring famous characters including Elmo, Big Bird and the show’s newest addition Abby Cadabby, will premier Aug. 13 and features a curriculum focusing more on early literacy and language skills. Read more of this article from the United Press International website.

June 15, the deadline to apply for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) 2007 International Literacy Prizes worth US$20,000 each, is fast approaching. Winners will be recognized on International Literacy Day, September 8, 2007. Only governments and international nonprofits may nominate candidates. The principal prizes in 2007 are the International Reading Association Literacy Award, the two King Sejong Literacy Prizes and the two Confucius Prizes. Health is the current theme of the United Nations Literacy Decade (UNLD) and the prizes will focus on the link between literacy and health care, nutrition, family and reproductive health and health-related community development. Read more here and here.

“Americans, particularly young people, face so many competing demands for their attention that keep them from discovering good books,” said first lady Laura Bush, who visited The Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, Connecticut to participate in The Big Read, a nationwide initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts. “But it’s important for all Americans to read our country’s literary classics because these works define us as a nation.” Read more of this article from the Hartford Courant.

South Africa Partners, a nonprofit organization based in Boston, Massachusetts, and the Eastern Cape, South Africa, has launched a book project called Masifunde Sonke (Let Us Read Together), which features 25 South African children’s books. For each book sold in the United States, one is donated to an under–resourced school in South Africa. For more information, visit the South Africa Partners or Masifunde Sonke websites.

What would you do to motivate kids to read? Kiss a pig? Be made into a human ice cream sundae? Spend the night on the roof of a school? Read about these and other crazy things principals do to encourage reading in this article from Education World.

Four wooden packs locked with new padlocks and neatly placed on support structures stand on one side of a tent in the Kamuli District in Uganda. As people stroll by, they cast inquisitive looks, wondering what the contents of the small cartons could be. For the 20 teachers and employees of non–profit organizations gathered in the tent, they are a dream come true. They will take the cartons, which contain 30 textbooks, back to their schools in rural areas of the district. Uganda Development Services is making the books available for four secondary schools and by the end of the year, 10 schools will receive them. Read more at allAfrica.com.

Pizza Hut’s Book It, an incentive program used by 50,000 schools nationwide to reward young readers with free pizzas, is now under attack by child-development experts who say it promotes bad eating habits and turns teachers into corporate promoters. But the program—which has given away more than 200 million pizzas—has deep roots and many admirers at the highest levels of politics and education. It won a citation in 1988 from President Reagan, and its advisory board includes representatives of prominent education groups, including teachers unions and the American Library Association. Read more about the reading for pizza controvery in this article from CNN.

The buses that carry students at B.C. Haynie Elementary School in Morrow are unlike any other in Clayton County, Georgia. The students are eager to sit still and not talk to each other. They are too busy to bother anyone. That’s because they are reading books. Lots of them on every ride. Read more of this article from the Clayton News Daily (Jonesboro, Georgia).

A US$3,000 voucher is now being offered to unskilled and unemployed people across Australia, to help them gain the education and skills they need to get a job. The “work skills vouchers” can be used for basic education courses, vocational certificate courses or accredited literacy/numeracy courses at Department of Education, Science and Training institutions. The work skills vouchers are part of a five-year, $837 million Federal Government Skills for the Future package designed to improve the skills of Australia’s adult work force. Read about it on the NEWS.com.au website.

The 2006 ranking of America’s most literate cities puts Seattle, Washington, at the top of the list for the second year in a row. The America’s Most Literate Cities study, released in December, ranks the 70 largest cities — with populations of 250,000 and above — in the United States. Other cities at the top of the list include Minneapolis, Minnesota; Atlanta, Georgia, and Washington, D.C. in a tie; and St. Paul, Minnesota. For the rest of the rankings and more information on the study’s methodology, as well as links to previous studies, visit the America’s Most Literate Cities website.

A hotel chain now offers books to young guests that they can take away and return on their next visit, and if they do the chain also contributes to a literacy promotion program.

A program to place books in waiting rooms, where young people have little else to do but pick them up, wins a national award for outstanding public service programs.