" 'The Giver,' a powerful and provocative novel, is sure to keep older children reading. And thinking." That's what The Times's book critic said about "The Giver" when the novel was first published in 1993. Today it is one of the most taught (and most challenged) books in middle schools, and a movie version has just opened.
Less than twenty years after the Karmel reforms one of their architects looked back in dismay at what had been wrought. "We created a situation unique in the democratic world," Jean Blackburn pointed out in 1991. "It is very important to realise this. There were no rules about student selection and exclusion, no fee limitations, no shared governance, no public education accountability, no common curriculum requirements below the upper secondary level... We have now become a kind of wonder at which people [in other countries] gape. The reaction is always, 'What an extraordinary situation.'"
AASL has just posted the NEW infographic developed by the AASL Legislative Committee chaired by Connie Hamner Williams! The graphic artist is one of her HS sophomores. It's an educational, positive depiction of the value of school librarians and libraries.
An excellent resource for teachers wishing to engage their students in collaborative fantasy writing. Includes 5 writing tasks as part of the quest incorporating Web 2 resources.
The "Kids & Family Reading Report, 5th Edition" survey from Scholastic launched on January 8 with findings, including what kids are reading for fun, the makings of a frequent reader, and what kids want to read.
Feed readers
are probably the most important digital tool for today's learner because they
make sifting through the amazing amount of content added to the Internet
easy. Also known as aggregators, feed readers are free tools that can
automatically check nearly any website for new content dozens of times a
day---saving ridiculous amounts of time and customizing learning experiences for
anyone.
Imagine
never having to go hunting for new information from your favorite sources
again. Learning goes from a frustrating search through thousands of
marginal links written by questionable characters to quickly browsing the
thoughts of writers that you trust, respect and enjoy.
Feed readers can
quickly and easily support blogging in the classroom, allowing teachers to
provide students with ready access to age-appropriate sites of interest that are
connected to the curriculum. By collecting sites in advance and organizing
them with a feed reader, teachers can make accessing information manageable for
their students.
Here are several
examples of feed readers in action:
Used specifically as
a part of one classroom project, this feed list contains information related to
global warming that students can use as a starting point for individual
research.
While there are literally dozens of different feed reader
programs to choose from (Bloglines andGoogle Reader are two
biggies), Pageflakes is a favorite of
many educators because it has a visual layout that is easy to read and
interesting to look at. It is also free and web-based. That
means that users can check accounts from any computer with an Internet
connection. Finally, Pageflakes makes it quick and easy to add new
websites to a growing feed list—and to get rid of any websites that users are no
longer interested in.
What's even
better: Pageflakes has been developinga teacher version of their tooljust for us that includes an online grade tracker,
a task list and a built in writing tutor. As Pageflakes works to perfect
its teacher product, this might become one of the first kid-friendly feed
readers on the market. Teacher Pageflakes users can actually blog and create a
discussion forum directly in their feed reader---making an all-in-one digital
home for students.
For more
information about the teacher version of Pageflakes, check out this
review:
