Group items tagged

Many school libraries work hard to try to keep all students but especially boys coming to the Library, reading books and engaging with what they are reading. Many of the strategies work for girls as well as boys and, although an aversion to reading isn't gender specific, every time you investigate some research it always shows that boys read less. This article explains some strategies one library has tried in order to combat boys disengaging from reading. She is not saying these will work for your school, but she has noticed a big uptake in the number of boys in the Library and of course the number of books they are borrowing.

An interesting article comparing the ways in which we read in print and onscreen. The author discusses the results he gathered between 2013 and 201. He obtained data from 429 university students drawn from five countries (the U.S., Japan, Germany, Slovenia and India). The students in my study reported that print was aesthetically more enjoyable, saying things such as "I like the smell of paper" or that reading in print is "real reading." What's more, print gave them a sense of where they were in the book - they could "see" and "feel" where they were in the text.

Some ideas about where to find age-appropriate reading materials for gifted children.

The seven tips here offer some advice if you want to read faster while maintaining reading comprehension. "Whether you skim a blog post, peruse files for work, or browse through a book, you most likely do some type of reading every day. But slogging through dense passages of text can be time-consuming, mentally exhausting, and hard on your eyes."

A good article about developing literacy skills. "All Australian children and young people becoming literate I believe it is vital we understand and define the complexity of literacy. Literacy encompasses the knowledge and skills students need to access, understand, analyse and evaluate information, make meaning, express thoughts and emotions, present ideas and opinions, interact with others and participate in activities at school and in their lives beyond school. "

"6 simple strategies that we can teach our students to drastically improve reading comprehension." Link to downloadable posters

Two of Australia's best-selling children's book authors Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton question the value of the NAPLAN testing. They wonder why attributes such as creativity are not considered. They doubt the NAPLAN testing can offer any offer valuable insights into kids' reading and writing skills. They also make a final statement about the importance and value of teacher librarians.

"A nice class activity when the books being read by the students have specific locations for the settings. You can create a book map using My Maps from Google to highlight the settings in which these texts took place."

"A collection of 15 writers - some alive, some long gone - reading their own words (all fiction, with the exception of William Faulkner, whose Nobel Prize speech is included because it's now often taught alongside his novels and stories, and Joan Didion's memoir, The Year of Magical Thinking). "

"Some of the key pieces of research on literacy over the last decade." The Guardian newspaper (UK)

"The best way to choose a good book is through your child."

"A research project has found that teachers who read for pleasure have better book knowledge and feel more confident, calm and stress-free in the classroom"

"After reading a novel, actual changes linger in the brain, at least for a few days, report researchers. Their findings, that reading a novel may cause changes in resting-state connectivity of the brain that persist, appear in the journal Brain Connectivity."

10 of the best ideas for using technology to promote reading

From Overdrive blog - some ideas for introducing library clientele to your digital collection

Age article about the current situation of TL's in schools. Interviews with Di Ruffles and Cindy Tschernitz of SLAV and author Alison Lester