This site has interactive lessons to promote oral language in kindergarteners. It has slide shows and activities with pauses for discussion with a partner. I have used it with some of my kindergarten students I have in my oral language group. The categories covered are: families, friends, transportation, food, animals, neighborhood, weather, plants, amazing creatures, and I Know a Lot! It also incorporates some classification and matching games in some of the lessons.

Recalling the people along the way who suggested he couldn't change the world, Barack Obama told a group of young people gathered in 2007 at Cornell College in Iowa: "I have no doubt that in the face of impossible odds people who love their country can change it." This website shares a number of inspiring books that promote the idea of young people helping our communities. I think it is important to plant the seed in children of all ages that they CAN make a difference in our world!

By: Richard Allington (2002) This article by Richard Allington provides a clear-eyed view of what he believes matters most in teaching kids to read - effective and expert teachers. It seems that, finally, those who make educational policy - at the local, state, and federal levels - have begun to recognize just how much good teachers matter. I found this article interesting. A few things were new to me, but never am against being reminded of "best practices" and things we know make good teachers, but tend to forget in our busy lives.

Diversity Lesson Plans and Activities Elementary School Middle School High School Multicultural Education Research Guide For background information on multicultural education of all types and for all levels. This website provides countless lesson links on a wide variety of diversity issues. It has links to the excerpts it recommends you use as well as objectives and essential questions. If you are looking for a lesson for teaching diversity, this is the website for you!

Brozo, William G., 2002. International Reading Association.

http://www.amazon.com/To-Boy-Reader-Engaging-Literacy/dp/0872075087/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331505635&sr=1-1

The author suggests that creating literate males will make a positive impact on society as a whole in regards to employment, addiction and criminal activity. This book is full of ideas and suggestions for getting boys to read and increase their literacy.

It starts out by presenting ten positive male archetypes that the author suggests will serve as entry points into getting adolescent males to read, then goes on to give ideas for each recommended archetype.

Brozo provides multiple ways in which to get boys started with literature, such as interest inventories. I have used interest inventories in my reading classes before to get an idea of where the student's interests lie and feel it gives me a better idea of what types of books to have on the shelves and also an idea of how hard of a sell a certain book I am using in class will be.

He also provides book guides to help guide the teacher and there is an entire literature unit; The Real Men, that walks you through the entire unit to be used to engage boys to read.

Chapters 4-6 have a "boy talk" section that are all written by male adolescents in regards to their lives and reading. There is also a "final thoughts" entry for each chapter where the author sums up what was covered. Finally, the appendix is full of recommended books for each archetype Brozo describes in the beginning divided by types and readability.

This was a very informational book. I believe it would be a worthwhile read for middle school teachers that are looking for ways to engage their male population. It is user friendly and is full of numerous title recommended to increase boy's interests in reading.

This definitely sounds like a worthwhile read! I often feel we kill the joy of reading by always trying to move on quickly and tie every bit to testing! I always try to carefully look at where to stop and discuss a book so as to allow for a flow to develop. Thank you for the review!

"Teachers of English need to reach the tough guys out there, and they are probably not going to do it by prescribing another go at The Sound and the Fury. The problem is not so much that tough guys lack the brainpower to read: they simply do not want to." I like the suggestions given for books to motivate adolescent male readers given in this article. I appreciate how Lawrence Baines has collected information over the years to share with us as teachers.

I always try to do an interest inventory with students and find books that fall into these interests to offer for independent reading time. I also love informational books that center around sports and life oddities, such as Ripley's or Guiness Book of World Records. Boys seem to like these types of books. I have used Sports Illustrated for Kids also as an offer for reading. For class books, I have used "The Air Down Here" by Gil Alicea, a teenage boy from the Bronx. It is written in journal format and tells about his life in his own words. I used this with 8th graders and the boys especially seemed to "grudgingly" get interested and want to read more! I also found that books about aliens, Big Foot, Sasquatch and those types of informational books were interesting to them as well!

The ability to read well is the most important skill children can acquire. Reading ability and the desire to read vary significantly among groups of children, however. This article discusses the results of a study taken in 98-99 of kindergarteners. It provides information on how schools and families can improve the reading skills of native English speaking children, particularly poor elementary school level boys of color. It states that boys typically learn to read at an older age than girls, take longer to learn, and comprehend less easily than girls. It talks about reading genres that boys prefer, such as adventure, science fiction and fantasy and books that have characters like themselves. They discuss the value of reading aloud to students and in providing silent reading time along with a wide variety of books for boys to choose from. Lastly, it gives suggestions for parents and communities to provide opportunities for young people to help engage them in regular reading.

Oh phooey....I forgot to put Journal #1 on my posting and the author....Wendy Schwartz. Here I was so proud I figured out how to get it there too! Sorry! :)

I always try to do a survey with students for likes/dislikes, strengths/weaknesses. I use this information to help students find reading material they are interested in and give them a choice when reading. I also purchased books like Guiness Book of World Records, Ripley's Believe It Or Not, and MythBusters to put on my informational book shelf. Boys seemed to have liked these books very much.