Held annually during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of intellectual freedom and draws attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted banning of books across the United States, including books commonly taught in secondary schools.
Here are ideas for celebrating Banned Books Week -- with your students, your children and anyone who believes in having "the freedom to read."
To date, education research shows that good teachers matter a lot, class size may be less important than once thought and nothing improves student performance as much as one-on-one human tutoring.
The potential benefits of technology are greater as students become older, more independent learners. Making that point, Mr. Gates said in an interview that for children from kindergarten to about fifth grade “the idea that you stick them in front of a computer is ludicrous.”
how reading changes on an iPAD or tablet. How could we being using this? when will my school get ereaders? Even I resist carrying my 4 pound book home.
Bypassing Vonnegut, he clicks over to YouTube, meaning that tomorrow he will enter his senior year of high school hoping to see an improvement in his grades, but without having completed his only summer homework.
On YouTube, “you can get a whole story in six minutes,” he explains. “A book takes so long. I prefer the immediate gratification.”
The risk, they say, is that developing brains can become more easily habituated than adult brains to constantly switching tasks — and less able to sustain attention.
“Their brains are rewarded not for staying on task but for jumping to the next thing,” said Michael Rich, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and executive director of the Center on Media and Child Health in Boston. And the effects could linger: “The worry is we’re raising a generation of kids in front of screens whose brains are going to be wired differently.”
Bypassing Vonnegut, he clicks over to YouTube, meaning that tomorrow he will enter his senior year of high school hoping to see an improvement in his grades, but without having completed his only summer homework.
On YouTube, “you can get a whole story in six minutes,” he explains. “A book takes so long. I prefer the immediate gratification.”
is that developing brains can become more easily habituated than adult brains to constantly switching tasks — and less able to sustain attention.
New York, June 10, 2010 – "If school is supposed to help us in the rest of the world, shouldn't school look like what's going on in the rest of the world?" asks 10th-grade teacher Paige Cole, one of nine classroom teachers profiled in Writing, Learning and Leading in the Digital Age (PDF), a College Board–National Writing Project (NWP)–Phi Delta Kappa International (PDKI) report released today on the state of technology resources in the classroom.
Kidblog.org is designed for elementary and middle school teachers who want to provide each student with their own, unique blog.
Kidblog's simple, yet powerful tools allow students to publish posts and participate in discussions within a secure classroom blogging community. Teachers maintain complete control over student blogs.
"The Comic Creator invites students to compose their own comic strips for a variety of contexts (prewriting, pre- and postreading activities, response to literature, and so on). The organizers focus on the key elements of comic strips by allowing students to choose backgrounds, characters, and props, as well as to compose related dialogue (shown at left). This versatile tool can be used by students from kindergarten through high school, for purposes ranging from learning to write dialogue to an in-depth study of a formerly neglected genre. The tool is easy to use, made even easier with the Comic Strip Planning Sheet, a printable PDF that comic creators can use to draft and revise their work before creating and printing their final comics. After completing their comic, students have the ability to print out and illustrate their final versions for feedback and assessment."
An interesting site to review for the Media lit class-- what does this mean for studying popular culture & technology in schools? What does this site shed light on as issues from a critical perspective?
Digital Investigator Training
Digital DIF Investigator
Applying the Digital Information Fluency (DIF) Process
Digital Investigator Training is a way for middle and high school students to learn valuable digital information fluency skills. Educators interested in the teacher's guides should contact us at: 21cif@imsa.edu
Start Here (materials open in a new window.)
In this training course you will learn to:
Power Search for Digital Resources
Evaluate Digital Materials
Use Digital Materials in an Ethical Manner