Group items tagged

"Essays and reflections about literacy coaching. These may include book reviews, protocols, videos, or other content to support coaches as they build their repertoire of strategies for supporting teachers' job-imbedded professional learning."

New publications on adolescent literacy issues

"In a research paper titled "Unlocking Literacy with iPad," Ohio English teacher James Harmon found that state-compiled statistics indicate that those students with iPad access in the year leading up to the Ohio Graduation Test had a 6-percent greater chance of passing the test's reading portion than those without, and an 8-percent greater chance of passing the writing portion."

The basic principle of The Flat Stanley Project is to connect your child, student or classroom with other children or classrooms participating in the Project by sending out "flat" visitors, created by the children, through the mail (or digitally, with The Flat Stanley app). Kids then talk about, track, and write about their flat character's journey and adventures. Although similar to a pen-pal activity, Flat Stanley is actually much more enriching-students don't have to wonder where to begin or what to write about. The sender and the recipient already have a mutual friend, Flat Stanley. Writing and learning becomes easier, flows naturally, and tends to be more creative. This is what teachers call an "authentic" literacy project, in that kids are inspired to write of their own passion and excitement about the project, and given the freedom to write about many things through the rubric of the Flat Stanley character.

"Welcome to Guys Read, a web-based literacy program for boys. Our mission is to help boys become self-motivated, lifelong readers. Research shows that boys are having trouble reading, and that boys are getting worse at reading. No one is quite sure why. Some of the reasons are biological. Some of the reasons are sociological. But the good news is that research also shows that boys will read - if they are given reading that interests them. So the biggest part of this site is the collection of book titles below. These are books that guys have told us they like. Our idea is to help guys become readers by helping them find texts they want to read."

Elizabeth (Betsy) Bird, NYC public librarian, Newbery Award committee member, and book reviewer extraordinaire, writes prolific posts about new books, literacy programs, and the publishing world at her blog for the School Library Journal, A Fuse #8 Production. She is widely considered the most powerful blogger in kids' books.

Born-digital Written first for and specifically to be read and viewed from the screen Interactive Requires user action to drive the story forward. Multimedia Uses text, images, music, sound effects, puzzles and games to illustrate and enhance the narrative. A Novel A reading-from-the-screen experience for the "always on" generation. Episodic Each a self-contained story, the chapters become more complex as the narrative unfolds reflecting Alice's age and competency as she develops towards her calling as a game animator and designer. A digital literacy title... Designed originally as entertainment, 'Inanimate Alice' has been adopted by teachers eager to connect with students through media they inherently understand. Created around a high-quality robust text, the content is suitable for the deep-reading and re-reading necessary for academic investigation.

Love this idea of making visual prompts for all different subject areas...even better, having kids make them! How cool!

"On April 3, 1988, the Los Angeles Times Magazine pub­lished a 25-year look ahead to 2013. This year, USC pro­fess­or Jerry Lock­en­our is us­ing the series of art­icles in a gradu­ate en­gin­eer­ing class he teaches."

Great chance to use this authentic text for some deeper discussion and critical thinking...Maybe take a look forward another 25 years from now? What will our world look like then?

It begins with a story start. A story start is the first chapter of the book. The rest of the story is up to you. The story start could be written by a professional writer, a teacher, you or your classmates, or maybe even a celebrity! You write your version of Chapter 2. Take the story where you like. The only limits are your imagination and a word count. At the same time, other BoomWriters will be writing their own version of what happens next. Submit your entry. When you're done (and before the deadline), you submit your entry for review. If it's accepted, you'll get points and BoomDollars. You'll use BoomDollars to purchase accessories for your Boomer avatar. Vote, Vote, Vote! You and the other BoomWriters vote on the entry you think is the best. Of course you can't vote for you own entry, and you won't know whose entry it is you're voting for. You may be able to vote more than once, which is good, as voting also earns you points and BoomDollars. Did you win? If so, then your entry becomes the official Chapter 2 of the book. If not, don't worry because there will be many more chances for you to win. It's a book! The competitions continue until the book is finished. Then, *Boom!* you're a published author! The end result? A real book that you, your friends, family, and the whole world can buy. Imagine that, a book with your name in it that you helped write.

"The Solution to Reading Comprehension"

Current events articles are a great choice for informational text. Students can learn all about news stories and practice reading skills at the same time. If you have a class full of students reading at different levels you'll definitely want to check out Newsela. This fantastic site contains brand new articles everyday. The best part is that you can change the Lexile level of each article by clicking on the one that's right for your students. You can share the same article at a few different levels with each of your reading groups.