The more students read, the better they'll read   So, why limit their reading to a pre-set reading level with limited titles available?  Students need opportunities to read easy books to build fluency  - This is ratified in Appendix A, Page 9,  of the CCSS standards.  We shouldn't have to define what level they should read at -- whether easy or hard -- for independent reading.  Students need experience reading complex text to improve their ability to decode meaning when they encounter difficult material - This is based on the research of Marilyn Jager Rand, PhD. Brown University Students will  shift from easy -->  hard  material if it's on a subject of their interest.  - So let them choose what they want and their innate curiosity will compel them to read and achieve understanding, thus raising their reading ability.  Students need curiosity to inspire reading.  They will either have natural curiosity or stirred up curiosity (stirred up by the educator)  Students need a reason to read that is not about 'assignment' - a quest for knowledge or an answer to find.    

As educators pursue CCSS alignment, it is crucial to design curricula and assessment systems that engage students in higher-level thinking tasks that provide opportunities for students to evaluate information. This white paper will focus on one critical thinking skill that students need to learn-how to evaluate

Treat your password like your toothbrush don't share it with anyone and change it often.

NCTE President's commentary: Libraries are not antiquated and are vital for communi- ties and schools! An informed citizenry is the foundation of a democratic society.

And this is the true function of a library: it provides an atmosphere where ideas can be suspended long enough to permit rearrangement. Libraries are the petrie dish of intellect and the information stored there provides the agar of learning. But students themselves muster the work necessary to grow understanding.

coming of age and classics

Primer and Q&A about barcodes

Includes rubrics for qualitative analysis of informational and literary texts

Harry Potter Can Fly H = Homegrown P = Public Domain C = Creative Commons F = Fair Use Homegrown

The CARS Checklist (Credibility, Accuracy, Reasonableness, Support) is designed for ease of learning and use

literate person is perfectly capable of using the tools. They know how to use them and what to do with them, but the outcome is less likely to match their intention. It is not until that person reaches a level of fluency, however, that they are comfortable with when to use the tools to achieve the desired outcome, and even why the tools they are using are likely to have the desired outcome at all.

Professor Eric Faden of Bucknell University created this humorous, yet informative, review of copyright principles delivered through the words of the very folks we can thank for nearly endless copyright terms.

Challenges the premise of digital immigrants and natives, replacing the idea with Visitors and Residents, which accounts for people behaving in different ways with technology, depending on their motivation and context, with categorizing them with respect to age or background.