Archive for March 02, 2008 - March 08, 2008

Sahar Zeidan Abdel Wareth, who helps her father on the land, could not attend school until she was 12 when a “girl-friendly” school was built near her home in Assiut Province, some 375 km from Cairo, Egypt.

There are thousands of girls like Sahar in poor areas who do not attend school for numerous reasons, including lack of nearby schools, poverty, child labor, perceived low financial returns from education, traditional perceptions of a girl’s role in society, early marriages, and the priority given to boys’ education.

However, thanks to a government and UN-sponsored drive to build over 1,000 “girl-friendly” schools in seven provinces (partly in response to the UN Secretary-General’s Initiative on Girls’ Education launched in October 2000), the situation is changing. Read more in IRIN News online.

From Doris Lessing to Kiran Desai, six women writers who build bridges between different parts of the world express their concerns in the UNESCO Courier, published on the occasion of March 8, International Women’s Day.

British writer Doris Lessing returns to her country of birth, Zimbabwe, and denounces our jaded world. Franco-Ivorian author Véronique Tadjo explains how travels can morph into exile. Spôjmaï Zariâb tells the story of war torn Afghanistan, from her Paris vantage point. Michal Govrin, from Israel, reveals the impassioned dimension of an unending conflict. In the United States, Indian author Kiran Desai questions the fate of belonging to two cultures. Argentine poet María Medrano builds a bridge between the free world and incarceration. All are women between two shores. Read more.

After 60 years of delivering holiday joy to millions of children, the Toys for Tots Foundation has announced its first year-round initiative, the Toys for Tots Literacy Program. The new initiative will provide free books to disadvantaged children across the United States.

The national network of The UPS Store and Mail Boxes Etc. franchisees will serve as exclusive sponsors of the initiative. Throughout March, participating The UPS Store and Mail Boxes Etc. locations will collect $1 donations for its Buck a Book program, where every dollar donated will place a book into the hands of a economically disadvantaged child in that local community. Stores will continue additional fundraising activities throughout the year. To kick-off the program, MBE, franchisor of The UPS Store and Mail Boxes Etc. brands, is donating $125,000, which will distribute 125,000 books to children in need.

To help support this initiative, Scholastic, the world’s largest publisher and distributor of children’s books, will offer a selection of children’s titles to the Toys for Tots Literacy Program at a special, discounted nonprofit rate. As a long-standing partner of Toys for Tots, Scholastic will help the Toys for Tots Literacy Program select age-appropriate books that will not only teach a child how to read but instill a passion for learning.

For further information, visit the Toys for Tots website.

Many parents in Canada find their children's homework is a hassle, according to a recently released study titled Homework Realities: A Canadian Study of Parental Opinions and Attitudes by Linda Cameron and Lee Bartel of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. Many parents believe that expectations are too high for what the child can accomplish and that the amount of homework is too high. They also believe that too much homework reduces family time and creates stress in family relationships. In addition, many parents seem unsure about whether homework has a positive effect on achievement.

Interestingly, both children and parents start out in the early grades with a positive attitude toward homework. That attitude changes by grade 4. There is a strong positive relationship between parental attitude toward homework and the child's attitude.

For further information, read the full report.

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.

With political change coming soon to the nation’s capital, policymakers and national groups are trying to divine what the shifts might mean for the U.S. Department of Education’s long-running, and sometimes controversial, campaign to transform education into an “evidence based” field.

One sign that changes may be afoot is the proliferation of proposals to revise the way the federal government defines scientifically based research in education. The No Child Left Behind Act definition emphasizes randomized experiments over other kinds of research, prompting some critics to complain that it promotes too narrow a view of education scholarship.

However, an Education Department official who spoke at a recent forum on the topic cautioned against going too far in loosening up federal research standards. He said such a step could leave educators to choose programs and products on the basis of fad and anecdote, rather than solid research. Read the article in Education Week online.

The Institute of International Education has announced that applications are now available for the 2008 Toyota International Teacher Program to the Galapagos Islands, a unique professional development program open to full-time secondary school teachers and library media specialists throughout the United States. This is a special chance for educators to visit these remote islands, which house unique ecosystems found nowhere else on Earth.

The deadline for application is May 9, 2008. For further information, access the application form.

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.

On an unseasonably cold day last November in Foley, Alabama, Colby Royster and Michael Peterson, two students in William Bender’s fourth-grade public-school class, informed me that the class corn snake could eat a rat faster than the class boa constrictor. Bender teaches 26 fourth graders, all boys. Down the hall and around the corner, Michelle Gay teaches 26 fourth-grade girls. The boys like being on their own, they say, because girls don’t appreciate their jokes and think boys are too messy, and are also scared of snakes.

The walls of the boys’ classroom are painted blue, the light bulbs emit a cool white light and the thermostat is set to 69 degrees. In the girls’ room, by contrast, the walls are yellow, the light bulbs emit a warm yellow light and the temperature is kept six degrees warmer, as per the instructions of Leonard Sax, a family physician turned author and advocate who this May will quit his medical practice to devote himself full time to promoting single-sex public education. Read about the concept in The New York Times online.

In early 1862, President Abraham Lincoln suggested buying slaves for $400 apiece under a "gradual emancipation" plan that would bring peace at less cost that several months of war. The proposal was outlined in one of 72 letters written by Lincoln that ended up in the University of Rochester's archives and, following a recent digital scanning project, are now available to students, teachers, researchers, and others, according to a report in eSchool News.

The collection also includes more 215 letters sent to Lincoln by dozens of political and military leaders, including General Ulysses S. Grant. For further information, read the full article. You can access the collection at the Lincoln and His Circle webpage of the University of Rochester's Rare Books and Special Collections department.

Judith M. Dixon, a clinical psychologist by training and a sophisticated techie by avocation, is helping to lead the Library of Congress into the digital age. Dixon, 55, who gave up university teaching 27 years ago to join the library’s National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, is a key player on a team working to create a new generation of audiobooks for the library’s more than 700,000 registered blind and disabled users. The goal is to make the digital format the backbone of the library’s “talking book” program by transferring onto special digital flash drives the 60,000 titles that the library has on audiocassettes and giving patrons new machines on which to play them. Read more about the program in The Washington Post online.

How were students in Scandinavian countries able to score so high on a recent international test of math and science skills? A U.S. delegation led by the Consortium for School Networking recently toured Scandinavia in search of answers, according to an article by Meris Stansbury in eSchool News.

The delegation found that educators in Finland, Sweden, and Denmark all cited autonomy, project-based learning, and nationwide broadband Internet access as keys to their success. What the delegation didn't find in those nations were competitive grading, standardized testing, and top-down accountability, all of which are common in U.S. education.

For further information, read the full article.

Millions of young readers joined the celebration of the National Education Association's 11th annual Read Across America Day on March 3. Aimed at raising awareness about the importance of reading, the nation's largest reading event included special appearances by Dr. Seuss's famous feline, the Cat in the Hat, at thousands of Read Across America Day events from coast to coast—including a red carpet celebrity read-in, Cat-a-Van reading tours, spring training read-ins with professional baseball players, U.S. Senate resolutions, and community reading celebrations at Target stores nationwide.

In Compton, California, dozens of celebrities donned signature Seuss gear and read Dr. Seuss classics to more than 750 local public school students. The reading roster included Emmy Award-winning actress Jenna Fischer of "The Office," hotel heiress Nicky Hilton, Corey Feldman of "The Two Coreys," Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian of "Keeping Up With The Kardashians," and more.

To put the "across" into the special reading day, NEA revved up its engines again this year with three Cat-a-Van tours hitting the road to bring the gift of reading to thousands of schoolchildren. Covering more than 1,200 miles, the Cat-a-Van tours will visit 11 states. Lawmakers also lent their bipartisan support to NEA's literacy campaign and its reading cause. On Capitol Hill, Senators Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.) supported a resolution designating March 3 as "Read Across America Day.”

Visit the Read Across America website for additional information on Read Across America Day and the Cat-a-Van Reading Tour. Visit the following page to see photos.

Trainee teachers in New Zealand will be forced into an extra year of on-the-job training under a proposal going to the Cabinet this month. This proposal follows an eight-month examination of the quality of teacher education which has raised serious concerns over the standards of those entering teacher training and the competence of those graduating.

The review drew more than 100 submissions from the education sector, many of them attacking the quality of trainee teachers and training providers. “I have sat on intake panels and have been horrified as to who has been selected for [teacher training] college,” one submission read. Read more about the proposal in The New Zealand Herald online.

More than half of Canadian adults do not have the skills necessary to properly make daily decisions about their health, according to a report released March 3, 2008, by the Canadian Public Health Association. Its expert panel called the low levels of health literacy in Canada “critical” and says a countrywide strategy is needed to solve the problem, especially since health-care systems are becoming increasingly complex.

Only one in eight seniors has adequate health literacy skills, which suggests most may not be able to cope with the health-care system on their own, the panel found. Recent immigrants, people with low incomes and low levels of education, and people for whom English or French is not a first language are also most likely to struggle with health literacy, said Irving Rootman, executive director of the Health and Learning Centre at the University of Victoria, and co-chair of the expert panel.

Even though health information can be found on the Internet, Rootman said a study conducted by the University of Victoria found a minimum of Grade 11 reading skills was required to understand most Internet information in Canada, the U.S. and Australia. Read more about the situation in The Toronto Star online.

When Clearview junior Samantha Caltabiano was asked to read her favorite children’s book to a class of elementary school students at Sewell School in Sewell, New Jersey, she jumped at the opportunity. The National Honor Society student, who dreams of becoming an elementary school teacher, thought the service project for the National Education Association’s “Read Across America” campaign would provide great experience.

“I read Morris Goes to School to Margaret Potalivo’s fourth grade class, and it was such a great time for me,” said Samantha. “We told them to keep reading,” she said of the message that the high schoolers brought to the grade school kids. “When that message comes from people closer to their age than teachers or parents, I think it really means something.”

Schools across Gloucester County celebrated Read Across America on Monday, an annual event held nationwide to focus attention on the importance of reading. Read Across America began in 1997 to celebrate the birthday of Dr. Seuss, author of The Cat in the Hat. The project has grown from a one-day event to year-long program of activities for 45 million teachers, students, and reading enthusiasts from across the country. Read more in The Gloucester County Times online.

World Book Day 2008 in the United Kingdom and Ireland will take place Thursday, March 6. The origins of the day of celebration in these countries come from Catalonia, where roses and books were given as gifts to loved ones on St. George’s Day—a tradition that started more than 80 years ago.

World Book Day was designated by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, and is marked in over 100 countries around the globe. On this day a free book token is given to all school children in the UK and Ireland. The book tokens are for £1.00 in the UK and €1.50 in Ireland. They can be used to buy one of the books that are released especially for the day and cost the value of the token, or be put toward purchasing any other book or audiobook. In other countries World Book Day takes place at a different time of year, usually in April. For further information, visit the World Book Day website.

My motives for starting our family’s tradition of reading in the car were purely selfish: I could not bear the thought of listening to “A Sesame Street Christmas” for another 10 hours. My children had latched onto this cassette on our previous summer’s road trip, and Oscar the Grouch’s rendition of “I Hate Christmas” ran through my mind for days afterward.

As I began to gather toys and trinkets to entertain my three young children on our next 500-mile car trip, I came across a book I had purchased but never opened, Jim Trelease’s The Read Aloud Handbook. Before long, I was sitting cross-legged on the floor, engrossed in his book and assertion that reading aloud doesn’t need to end with picture books and that very young children will listen to chapter books.

This could be the answer to my problem, I thought. Dubious but desperate, I tucked a paperback copy of Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach into my trip entertainment bag. We had barely cleared the city limits when whining set in. I opened the paperback and began to read aloud the tale of the orphaned boy who escapes his wicked aunts by hiding inside a giant peach. See what happens in The Christian Science Monitor online.

 It might be easy to dismiss the toilet-papering project going on inside Penny Cooper’s fourth-grade classroom late last week as having little to do with standardized tests. However, it’s exactly how Cooper, a teacher at Meadow Lark Elementary in Great Falls, Montana, keeps her students at ease a week before they launch into the testing mandated by the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

“This is totally to try and relieve the stress from the test,” Cooper said. “They would be so burned out, but this stuff they look forward to.” Each spring, students across the country participate in week-long testing to determine if students, schools and districts are making adequate yearly progress, as defined by the No Child Left Behind Act. Read more about “stress-busting” in The Great Falls Tribune online.

For 61 years, Toys for Tots has delivered Christmas presents to millions of needy children across the nation. Now, the Virginia-based charity is opening a new chapter in its mission with the launch of a year-round children’s literacy program. The national charity, run by the Marines, is expected to announce the Toys for Tots Literacy Program today, March 3, 2008. The group will collect books and deliver them to the country’s most disadvantaged children in an effort to break the cycle of poverty and youth illiteracy. Read more in The Washington Post online.

Almost half of all new teachers in Australia are planning to leave the profession within 10 years, a national survey has found. The survey of 1,732 public school teachers with one to three years’ experience found that 47.9% expected to leave the profession within a decade. The survey adds to concerns about a looming teacher shortage, with half the permanent teachers in NSW due to retire by 2016. Read more in The Sydney Morning Herald online.

 The International Reading Association has added history to its website as part of its Web Resources: Issues in Literacy section. The IRA website now has a page titled “Focus on the History of Reading: IRA Programs and Resources” along with its many other Focus on Topics in Reading entries.

The new Focus on History page has much information about the History of Reading SIG, but its chief contribution may be its two bibliographies. The first offers “Selected Topics in the History of Reading and Writing” across the world, and the second narrows its focus to “Persons Who Influenced Reading Instruction in Colonial America and the United States.” (Only persons who are no longer living are included.) The Topics bibliography lists books and articles alphabetically on a wide variety of subjects. The more than 130 persons named in the Persons bibliography range from Jacob Abbott, who in 1835 wrote Rollo Learning to Read, or, Easy Stories for Young Children, to the progressive educator Laura Zirbes (1884-1967). Both bibliographies are searchable by individual words.

For further information, visit the Focus on History page on the IRA website.

Under the Eurasia/South Asia Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program (TEA), the U.S. Department of State and IREX (the International Research & Exchanges Board) announce a competition for middle and high school teachers from the United States to participate in a two-week professional exchange program in one of the following countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Georgia, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, or Ukraine.

Eligible applicants must be: 1) secondary-level (middle or high school), teaching professionals with five or more years of classroom experience in disciplines including English as a Foreign Language, English Language or Literature, and social sciences (including social studies, civics, and history); 2) U.S. citizens, and 3) able to travel April 3-17, 2009.

The program is fully funded and provides visa support, round-trip domestic airfare, lodging and meals to attend the TEA U.S. Conference, round-trip airfare from the United States to the assigned country in Eurasia or South Asia, emergency medical evacuation plan, recommended vaccinations, and lodging and a daily stipend in the host country. The application deadline is April 29, 2008.

For further information, download the application form. You also can contact Anne Millazzo of IREX by phone at 202-628-8188, ext 197, or by e-mail at tea@irex.org.