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This article describes what the Language Immersion Program is (specifically talks about spanish), how it is beneficial, what the drawbacks are, research studies, and how children are effected by using the program. The author's opinion is clear, so in her whole article she has a slightly persuasive tone and she makes the program look and sound amazing to probably everyone who reads it. There is some good information about the program and some research studies, and the benefits/drawback are very interesting.

In the online article "Playing Music can be good for your brain/Stanford study finds it helps the understanding of language", by Sturrock it goes over research done by Stanford. In their study they had two groups of adults, musicians and non-musicians. They found that musical experience helps "the brain improve its ability to distinguish between rapidly changing sounds that are key to understanding and using language."

This article on the CARLA website is about where to find the results of a 1994 questionnaire that was mailed to 140 immersion schools in the U.S. to collect information about the language immersion program, language use, the big picture, developing curriculum, learning in non-school environments, and expressing cognitive operations through the language of immersion.

In Priscilla Griffith and Mary Olson's article, Phonemic Awareness helps beginning readers break the code, the authors give examples of how phonemics help children learn to read. In the article they quote Cunningham as saying "Phonemic awareness has been defined as the ability to examine language independently of meaning and to manipulate its component sounds." This is important because a child is able to break down a word to find out what it is. The authors also state that when children know how to rhyme or can recognize rhymes they have an easier time reading (516). Another example the authors give is when a child is able to break apart the phonemes of a word to create spelling by assigning the letters to represent the sounds (518). The authors believe phonemic awareness is important because "while phonemic awareness is not needed to speak or understand language, it plays a critical role in learning skills requiring the manipulation of phonemes-specifically word recognition and spelling." (518). This is important because the kids should be learning to read and spell by breaking words apart and not just by memorizing whole words.

This review focuses on children's use of communication technology and talks about the possible benefits and drawbacks of its use. How children's learning of language and literacy skills are changing means of communication.

The article, Connecting the Digital Dots: Literacy of the 21st Century, is arguing the point that the types of literacies are expanding every day, and people need to be kept up on them. The authors, Barbara Jones-Kavalier and Suzanne Flannigan, state that to be a fully functioning member of society, you must acquire and understand a new literacy; a digital one. They also state, "Today, we still seek better communication methods, only now we have myriad more choices, along with new tools and strategies and greater knowledge of effective communication". Technologies will not just be used to communicate though anymore, it is being to "create, to manipulate, to design, to self-actualize". In the New Literacy and Education paragraphs, it is stated that classrooms today are less advanced for the students who are being put in them. Almost all of these students are digitally literate, but teachers are presenting ideas in the ways they always have. Maybe, it is not just the classrooms that need remodeling, but the teachers need to attend workshops and become more accustomed to dealing with these new types of literacies. Schools who are looking to hire teachers need to look at what background the interviewees have, or require a pre-requisite for computer literacy. The authors also state that today, students are "digitally savvy". They don't believe that teachers should be re-typing overheads into PowerPoint's. There are so many different technological ways to teach things to students. It just isn't the same anymore to just use a whiteboard and an overhead projector. "As an example, now teachers can do a PowerPoint presentation with streaming video, instant Internet access, and real-time audio-video interaction, and they can do it with relative speed and ease".

Barbara Jones-Kavalier and Suzanne Flannigan in their article "Connecting the Digital Dots: Literacy of the 21st Century" state the reason the definition of literacy has gradually changed through time, will always be changed, and that the history behind why it has changed leads to the definition itself. They assert that through the technological advancements the thought processes in the humans mind have drastically changed; and in order for literacy to keep up with this rapidly changing "E-generation" Jones-Kavalier and Flannigan express that our minds need to be open to this change. They state that "vision combined with practical, recognizable goals and incentives that encourage people to embrace new digital and visual literacy skills individually and collectively" will allow there to actually be a change universally.

This article discusses how literate once meant a person's ability to read and write. Now that technology is rapidly changing, our society is learning to adjust to it. Now, literacy has a new definition. According to the authors, "Literacy includes the ability to read and interpret media (text, sound, images), to reproduce data and images through digital manipulation, and to evaluate and apply new knowledge gained from digital environments." Older generations are having a more difficult time adjusting to it than the teenage generation. Learning technology is starting to seem like learning a new language. Although, it's a priority for society to learn to acclimate to these changes in order to learn and communicate effectively.

"Reading is the most important academic skill and the foundation for all academic learning. If our children cannot read, they are on the road to academic failure. Teaching children to read must be our highest priority." The Orton-Gillingham method is language-based and success-oriented. The student is directly taught reading, handwriting, and written expression as one logical body of knowledge. Learners move step by step from simple to more complex material in a sequential, logical manner that enables students to master important literacy skills. This comprehensive approach to reading instruction benefits all students.

This article spoke about how scholars believe that children who are read to by their family members will most likely have better literacy practices. They have greater tendencies to try and read without any formal instruction compared to those who wait for instruction. They believe that the "comfortable atmosphere" of their own hom and the soothing voice of their mother (or in some cases their father, grandma...etc) generates as reading being something calm rather than a task. Children get to learn about all new things and can be explained to in a way that they can understand. Their parents are able to speak to them in a language easyly understood by their children and be able to meet their unique needs. The connection between real life situations and that of a storybook are made which makes it more simple for a child to understand and actually be able to personally relate to.

Boys, masculinities and literacy: Addressing the issues This article is from the Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, written by Wayne Martino. Through interviews, gathering data and reading over 30 books on boys, masculinity and literacy, he discusses these problems while offering solutions for the "underachievement and lack of engagement" with literacy for boys. (9). Right away Martino explains that not all boys are underachieving but overall test scores have shown a general pattern of boys struggling in literacy practices. He offers many reasons that may be causing this literacy crisis for males, as well as solutions that need to being in schooling.

Sarah M. Butzins article, Integrating Technology into The Classroom: Lessons from The Project CHILD Experience, claims that Project CHILD helps students learn to be independent workers and how to work effectively in groups by developing skills to help themselves and each other when the teacher is unavailable. Butzin realizes that it is uncommon for teachers to want to learn how to implement technology into the classroom and curriculum, but by having three main teachers who each specialize in one subject- reading, math, and language arts- they are able to become experts in utilizing technology and software into their area of expertise.

This video is about what people think about identity. Is in another language, but it has subtitles. It is pretty interesting. Oh and at the beginning its kind of funny, because they ask this young man what's identity? and he said "Sex"