Archive for October 28, 2007 - November 03, 2007

Asociación Peruana de Lectura (APELEC), a not-for-profit association located in Peru and an affiliate of the International Reading Association, is building a mobile library that can be deployed in communities destroyed by recent earthquakes in Peru.

Organizers of the project, titled “Happiness Is Reading and Writing: A bibliotherapy project for children and families in Peru,” are seeking assistance in obtaining school supplies and other materials.

Interested individuals and councils should contact APELEC representative Gloria Vilchezz (e-mail: gloriavilchezz@yahoo.com) for more information.

Is playtime dying? The childhood staple of play—dressing up, lying in a field and other simple pleasures—is in retreat. Children lost an entire workday of play and 12 hours of free and outdoor time since the mid-1970s, according to a new book. Play has been swallowed by schedule-happy “helicopter” parents, standardized tests, changing family dynamics and even the No Child Left Behind education law, which together stripped kids of hours to hang out or just run around a park like frisky animals. It may seem an innocuous development, but some psychologists worry the loss of play in this era of scheduled childhoods could help explain the growing number of younger children suffering depression, anxiety and other disorders. Read more in The Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

 A teacher in Madison, Wisconsin, who protested the federal No Child Left Behind law by refusing to administer a standardized test learned yesterday (November 1) he will be disciplined for his actions. Middle school teacher David Wasserman said district officials told him he will get a letter of reprimand in his personnel file for insubordination. And they warned he would be fired if he carried out another protest, he said. Wasserman sat in the teacher’s lounge on Tuesday (October 30) rather than give his students the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Exam. Other teachers gave his students the exam, which is used to measure progress under No Child Left Behind. Schools that fail to meet their goals under the law are considered failing and can face sanctions. Read more at Chippewa.com.

English primary children compare well in reading and science with other countries, but “middling” in maths, today’s (November 2) primary review of international standards shows. But the long tail of underachievement is a concern. According to the researchers at Cambridge University, “a consistent and disturbing factor” in England’s results across all three subjects is a wide spread of scores, signifying a much bigger gap between high and low attaining pupils than in many other countries. Read the article at Guardian Unlimited.

A study that scrutinizes 22 teacher-preparation programs in Louisiana says that it is possible to prepare new teachers who are as effective as, or sometimes more effective than, their experienced colleagues. Experts say the study, the first of its kind to come out of a state that has implemented a multi-pronged approach to improving its teacher training, shows that it is possible for states and universities to work hand in hand with teacher–educators to produce higher-quality teachers and consequently raise the bar for the profession. Read the article in Education Week online.

The way people store and access knowledge continues to change dramatically, writes Anthony Grafton in an article titled "Future Reading" in The New Yorker. Yet Grafton says that digitization will not lead to the "infotopia" some people predict. Instead, it will be "one in a long series of new information ecologies, all of them challenging, in which readers, writers, and producers of text have learned to survive."

Grafton traces the history of knowledge collection back to the Library of Alexandria, then discusses current digitization projects and the notion of the universal library. "For now and for the foreseeable future," he concludes, "any serious reader will have to know how to travel down two very different roads simultaneously." Data streams, he says "will illuminate, rather than eliminate, books and prints and manuscripts that only the library can put in front of you."

For further information, read the full article.

National Family Literacy Day is officially celebrated on November 1, but many events are held throughout the month of November. It’s always important to spread the word in your community and build awareness for the importance of families working together toward a better educated tomorrow. For a new free parent-friendly magazine called Cultivating Readers: Making Reading Active and Fun visit the National Center for Family Literacy.

“I couldn’t read until I was in Grade 4.” The statement shocked me because it came from my partner, Adam. He was someone I had always known to be a voracious reader, an experienced teacher and one who has always stressed the importance of literacy and learning to his students. How could someone neck deep in teaching literacy have flown under the radar for so long?

The dictionary defines literacy as the ability to read and write. What it fails to mention is that literacy goes beyond the decoding of words and sentences. Its true core is understanding and making sense of information. Its core is that of attaining knowledge. The inability to read has a far-reaching influence and impact on one’s life. Yet it is a skill we often take for granted. We neglect its direct impact on our health, social interactions, ability to learn and day-to-day functioning. Continue reading this personal commentary in The Toronto Star.

Approximately one in five adults living in Toledo, Ohio, is functionally illiterate, a condition that dramatically affects not only their lives and those of their children, but also the economic well-being of our community. The 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy found that an estimated 30 million adults in the United States read at what is termed a “below-basic” level. Most are native-born citizens who for one reason or another typically read at or below the fifth-grade level. The study also found that 11 million residents, many of them immigrants, are nonliterate in English.

As the digital revolution advances, being unable to read will result in increasingly serious consequences, as a high level of literacy is required to take advantage of the Internet and computers. Read more of this commentary by Jim Funk, executive director of Read For Literacy, Toledo’s volunteer adult basic literacy agency in The Toledo Blade.

Saks Fifth Avenue has announced the launch of Snowpeople, a limited edition hardcover children's book for the holidays. Published by HarperCollins for Saks, the book will be sold at all Saks Fifth Avenue stores across the United States and online. As part of an ongoing relationship with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Saks will donate $2 from every book sold to the St. Jude 2007 Thanks and Giving Campaign.

A celebration of diversity, Snowpeople tells the story of a clan of snowpeople as they search for their individual identities. The book is written by Rick and Ryan Zeeb and illustrated by Trish Burgio. For further information, visit the Saks website and search for Snowpeople.

Young authors in grades 5-8 from throughout the United States are invited to apply for the 2nd Annual Mark Twain Young Authors Workshop, which will be held June 23-27, 2008. Winners will get to spend five days in Hannibal, Missouri, Mark Twain's hometown, to study his life and his use of real life to create fiction. They will collaborate with other young authors and with instructors to develop their writing voice. For the 2007 program, six boys and six girls won full scholarships to attend.

Applications must be submitted by January 15, 2008. For further information, visit the Mark Twain Young Authors Workshop webpage on the Stetson University website.

 Despite the scandals involving Reading First at the national level, a new report from the Center on Education Policy (CEP) finds that the program is being implemented as intended, and it is widely credited by state and local officials for lifting achievement of students who receive Reading First services.

According to the report, Reading First: Locally Appreciated, Nationally Troubled, more than three-fourths of states and more than two-thirds of districts with Reading First grants reported that the program's assessment and instructional programs were important causes of gains in student achievement. The report calls on Congress to increase current levels of funding for Reading First. It also calls for measures to ensure no future mismanagement of Reading First funds.

For further information about the report, visit the CEP website.

The writing is on the wall for schoolchildren—a report says nearly 60% of teachers do not teach writing effectively in all the areas they should. The New Zealand Education Review Office findings follow a report last year warning that writing levels for nearly half the country’s secondary school pupils were at the expected level of primary school children. The primary teachers’ union, the NZEI, says the latest report shows improvements are needed to ensure all pupils receive a good grounding in core subjects. It wants more on-the-job teacher training. Read the article at stuff.co.nz online.

India’s Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari expressed concern over the low literacy level among Muslims, and exhorted the community to confront the evil of ignorance by focusing on “autonomous correction of social customs hampering progress.” He spoke at the convocation ceremony of Jamia Milia Islamia in New Delhi. He said Muslims in India today number about 150 million and constitute 13.4% of the populace. “They are more urbanized than the general population. On the other hand, the literacy rate among Muslims is 59.1%, against a national average of 65.1; it is even lower in the case of female literacy.” Read the article at NDTV.com.

Popular English teacher Kaleb Tierce of Jim Ned High School in Tuscola, Texas, has been placed on paid leave and faces possible criminal charges after a student's parents complained to police about a book on the ninth-grade class reading list, according to a report by Associated Press writer Angela K. Brown appearing on the ABC News website.

The book in question, Child of God by Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Cormac McCarthy, tells the story of a murderer who has sex with his victims' bodies. Tierce, who has not been charged with any wrongdoing, is being investigated for allegedly distributing harmful material to a minor. That is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine.

Students and parents have rushed to Tierce's defense. School officials have since removed the book from the ninth-grade reading list. For further details, visit the ABC News website.

Dan Heath, publisher of Made to Stick, invites teachers to submit stories about classroom lessons that stuck. It can be a story about your own lesson or something you learned from a colleague or one of your past teachers. Simply provide the details of what the teacher did, how the students responded, and why you think it worked so well. Send stories to heaths@fastcompany.com. Authors of the first 100 stories received will get a free signed book. For details visit the Made to Stick webpage.

Educators from O’Fallon High School in O’Fallon Township, Illinois, mentioned at a recent conference in Atlanta that their school fell short of state benchmarks for the Prairie State Achievement Exam. Their counterparts from around the Metro East area gasped. Then, representatives from Edwardsville High School said that they, too, failed to meet annual progress targets on the reading and math tests taken by all Illinois 11th–graders. The embarrassing moment for two top–performing high schools in Southern Illinois shows that even the most well–regarded schools aren’t immune to dings under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. O’Fallon parent Cindy Lafrance said she cares more about the individual scores of her children than the overall performance of the school. “The kids do well and enjoy their classes,” she said. “That’s what matters.” Read more in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch online

 Rep. George Miller (D-CA) has never been one to back away from a brawl—he once warned an adversary that if he wanted to fight, it was going to take a while, so he’d better bring lunch. But as Miller pushes to renew the landmark education law known as No Child Left Behind, he faces so many fights that the fate of the bill is increasingly in doubt. As chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, Miller is sparring with Republicans who see his proposed changes as an unacceptable watering down of the law’s core standards. Teachers object to his proposal to link pay to performance. Even his fellow Democrats are giving him a hard time, largely for not doing enough to soften the law’s most rigid requirements. Read the article in The Los Angeles Times online.

 No South Carolina school districts, including those in York and Chester counties, met Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) standards this year, according to results released today, October 30, 2007. AYP is part of the federal No Child Left Behind Act that requires schools to meet milestones for achievement within various subgroups, including race, those with disabilities and those who receive government-subsidized lunches. Whether or not a school meets AYP is dependent in large part on the percentage of students scoring “proficient” or above on state tests. South Carolina’s standard for proficiency is considered among the toughest in the nation. State Superintendent Jim Rex has criticized AYP for rewarding states that set their standard lower. Read the article in The Herald online.

Education specialists in Iraq are worried about how few girls are attending school. “The fear of losing their children through violence has led many families to keep their children at home but the number of girls kept at home is higher because in addition to the security problem, they are being forced by their families to assist in household chores,” said Sinan Zuhair, a media officer for the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. “Many families have lost their fathers or mothers and girls are asked to stay at home to help to cook, wash and clean. They are the ones paying the price of the violence since they have to forget about their future to be able to help the lives of their brothers,” Zuhair told IRIN. “The problem is worse in the rural areas where religion is being used by fathers as an excuse to justify why their daughters no longer attend school.” Read more at IRIN News.

 The 2008 Government Relations Workshop hosted by the International Reading Association on February 21–22, 2008 in Washington, D.C., will help you strengthen your advocacy efforts and actively impact legislation such as the reauthorization of NCLB. You will learn about federal and state legislative issues and have the opportunity to communicate directly with your congressional leaders or their staffs.

This is a no-cost workshop for IRA members hosted by IRA’s Washington Office and the Government Relations Committee. There is a fully refundable $50.00 registration fee. This fee is refunded upon notification of cancellation or when attending the conference. This policy is to provide an accurate meal count to IRA. We will provide a breakfast and working lunch on Friday. All other related expenses (transportation, lodging, food, and entertainment) are the responsibility of the workshop attendees. Many participants receive funding from their state councils to help pay for costs.

Feel free to call the IRA Washington office with questions regarding the workshop at 202-624-8800 or contact us via e-mail. Updates for the Workshop will be posted on the IRA website, www.reading.org. We look forward to seeing you in February 2008.

In 2006, the International Reading Association, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the Center for Applied Linguistics, the National Association of Bilingual Education, the National Institute for Literacy, the U.S. Department of Education's Office of English Language Acquisition, and Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. embarked on a collaborative effort to address complex questions on helping language-minority students improve their literacy in English.

One result of the collaboration is the new Tapestry for Teachers of English Language Learners. The goal of this resource is to present the research on second-language literacy acquisition and on instructional methods effective with language-minority students. You can access this new resource at the following page on the TESOL website.

Another outcome was a paper released October 22 titled "Key Issues and Questions in English Language Learners Literacy Research." The full text of this paper can be accessed in the Focus on Topics in Reading: English-Language Learners section of the IRA website.

 As lawmakers consider renewal of the 5-year-old No Child Left Behind law, teachers are complaining that it places too much emphasis on testing. Actually, the problem is the lack of a universal test and the unachievable perfection demanded by the law. The 2002 bipartisan legislation calls for all students to be proficient in reading and mathematics by 2014. But the notion that all students will reach proficiency is simply folly—what University of California Berkeley Professor Bruce Fuller calls “well-intentioned pie-in-the-sky.” In almost any social science experiment, perfection is unattainable unless the bar is set too low. If every student succeeds, we haven’t demanded enough of our students. Read more of this opinion piece by Daniel Borenstein in The Contra Costa Times.

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.

It is a truth too rarely acknowledged, that a commuter in possession of a sophisticated electronic device, must be in want of a good book. Put another way, free of the influence of Jane Austen's famous first sentence, I just read Pride and Prejudice on my BlackBerry. And, reader, I liked it. Against all my own prejudices, all my own pride in the history and tradition of the printed word, I liked it. I liked it all so much, I've moved on to Austen’s Persuasion and am, frankly, halfway annoyed at having to take time away from that to write this. What comeuppance will the vain spendthrift Sir Walter receive, and will his deserving daughter Anne find satisfaction?

I hadn't expected to fall so easily under the spell of the e-book. Read more of Steve Johnson's ideations in The Chicago Tribune online.

 Each month, the ReadWriteThink.org Calendar offers quick classroom activities, lesson plans, Web links, and texts pertaining to various reading–related and general interest events. Here is a sampling of the links for November, National American Indian Heritage Month:

November 1: Celebrate National Family Literacy Day!
November 8: Bram Stoker, author of Dracula was born in 1847.
November 12: Celebrate National Children's Book Week.
November 19: President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address in 1863.
November 22: America celebrates Thanksgiving Day!
November 29: Louisa May Alcott was born in 1832.

There also are links relating to other noted authors and events, and more. For further information, visit the website. The ReadWriteThink.org is a nonprofit website maintained by the International Reading Association and the National Council of Teachers of English with support from the Verizon Foundation, and in association with the Thinkfinity consortium. The site provides free lesson plans, interactive student materials, Web resources, and standards for K-12 classroom teachers of reading and the English language arts. Visit the main site.

 Sherman Alexie, who will serve as the Book and Author Luncheon speaker at the 2008 IRA Annual Convention in Atlanta, Georgia, is a finalist for the 2007 National Book Award in the Young People's Literature category for his young adult novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. The winners will be named in November. For further information about the National Book Awards, visit the National Book Foundation website.

A small, closed-to-the-public library at a prison in Munster has received the national Library of the Year award in Germany. The award carries a prize of 30,000 euro ($43,000). The library offers a collection of works in 30 languages to serve prisoners from 50 different countries.

The large library room is filled with bookcases that reach nearly to the ceiling, according to an article by Francisca Zecher published on the Deutsche Welle website. The walls and ceiling are painted with green leaves reminiscent of the ivy that grows along the prison walls outside. "One could almost forget that one is in a prison if it weren't for the bars on the windows and the grates over the lights," writes Zecher.

For further information, read the full article.