How schools can combat the summer holiday literacy dip. As a charity CEO there are tough times, and good times.
Right now, it's a good time, because despite the tough climate for libraries, support for our children's Summer Reading Challenge has held up strongly, with more libraries than ever before offering the Challenge to children to read six books from their local library over the summer holidays. Between 14 July and September, 98% of UK library services will run the 2012 Challenge which was taken up by 780,000 primary children last year. This year the theme is "Story Lab" which is set in an Olympic Park. Huge numbers of schools and public libraries will work together to inspire children to join in and read in the break from school, a time when literacy levels traditionally fall. The idea for the Challenge came from a kitchen table brainstorm with Anne Sarrag, one of the charity's co-founders, 14 years ago.
Which books could teachers use to encourage reluctant readers? Earlier this week children's writer and former teacher Michael Morpurgo wrote a wonderful guest blog post for the Guardian Teacher Network arguing that we are failing to help boys find enjoyment in reading.
Michael Morpurgo: We are failing too many boys in the enjoyment of reading. Author and former teacher Michael Morpurgo: It's not about testing and reading schemes, but about loving stories and passing on that passion to our children Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian The findings of the National Literacy Trust's report into boys' reading are announced today.
Brain Pickings - Part 4. By: Maria Popova “Those who travel with the current will always feel they are good swimmers; those who swim against the current may never realize they are better swimmers than they imagine.”
Biases often work in surreptitious ways — they sneak in through the backdoor of our conscience, our good-personhood, and our highest rational convictions, and lodge themselves between us and the world, between our imperfect humanity and our aspirational selves, between who we believe we are and how we behave. In the introduction, Vedantam contextualizes why this phenomenon isn’t new but bears greater urgency than ever: Unconscious biases have always dogged us, but multiple factors made them especially dangerous today.
Globalization and technology, and the intersecting faultlines of religious extremism, economic upheaval, demographic change, and mass migration have amplified the effects of hidden biases. Roomthily - thestoryofastory: the nine stages of Story, as... The Best Food Books of 2011. By Maria Popova From farm life to molecular gastronomy, or what The Beatles have to do with the history of menu design.
After the year’s best children’s books, art and design books, photography books, science books, and history books, the 2011 best-of series continues with a taste of the year’s most delectable food books, a literary lobster course of the finest variety. Letter schools could send home to parents about reading. Model letter about books and home reading for schools to adapt to their local needs Dear Parents and Carers.
Flickr. Top 20 Titles for Boys and Girls in Year 5. Top 20 Titles for Boys and Girls in Year 5 Difficulty level averages 4.1 (UK years 5.1), slightly higher than for last year and slightly above average. Boys and girls chose books that were of similar difficulty (girls had been higher in the previous year). Again APC is generally high (0.83 – 0.96), only two titles falling below the 85% recommendation (this is better than last year). Girls liked the Jeff Kinney books somewhat less than boys and preferred Roald Dahl more (as might be expected given that has a male hero). Nine of the top books were common to both boys and girls.
Miffy joins digital age with iPad app. Her distinctive silhouette is recognised around the world.
The classic children's books about her have sold tens of millions of copies and in the Netherlands she has her own museum. But as Miffy the rabbit joins the digital age with the launch of her first app on Wednesday, her 84-year old Dutch creator Dick Bruna says children should start with old-fashioned board and paper books before they move on to tablets. "I think babies and toddlers need to get used to books first, feeling the covers and turning the pages, this is part of their learning," he said.
"I wouldn't want too much interactivity – something to do on every page for instance – as I think that would make it too complicated for a young child. " Bookgeeks.co.uk. Christopher Walken reads Where The Wild Things. Dust Echoes: Ancient Stories, New Voices. Dust Echoes: Ancient Stories, New Voices. 100 Word Challenge – Week 5 - Stuart Road Primary School - Year 6 Blog. Tim Rylands' Blog - to baldly go....... Using ICT to inspire. It is always good to hear other people reading a text with style.
When it is the original author, that adds an extra bit of realism and excitement. Online Storytime, from Barnes and Noble, is a superb collection of children’s books, read aloud, often by the authors themselves. There are some very well known books and all feature the original illustrations and texts. A great way to bring shared texts alive. Stories can be embedded on a blog, or website, as I have done below. Choice Awards: Best Books of 2011. Reading to children has long impact, says OECD study. 8 November 2011Last updated at 14:36 Parents and children reading together at the start of school makes a long impact, says study Children whose parents frequently read with them in their first year of school are still showing the benefit when they are 15, says an international study.
An Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development analysis examined the long-term impact of parental support on literacy. Discounting social differences, the study found children with early support remained ahead in reading. It found a strong link between teenage reading skills and early parental help. Talking together The OECD analysis, based on teenagers in 14 developed countries, found that active parental involvement at the beginning of school was a significant trigger for developing children's reading skills that would carry through until they were teenagers. The report says that parents did not have to be particularly well-educated themselves for this impact to be achieved. Children’s Books: Then and Now. ► Our NEW Android friendly app - brings you our latest exclusives PLUS the funniest videos and pictures from the internet DAILY - in one place.
Encouraging reluctant readers. Norfolk Library and Information Service - Search Results. The Joy of Books. Al Jaffee's Iconic MAD Fold-Ins: The Definitive Collection, 1964-2010. By Maria Popova Half a century of clever visual satire from pop culture to politics, or what Warhol had to do with Whitewater. Al Jaffee’s magnificent anti-authoritarian fold-ins, gracing the inside covers of every MAD magazine since 1964, have been a longtime favorite around here. For the past half-century, Jaffeee, just as brilliant today at 90, has been poking fun at the established political order with his clever satirical cartoons that made no topic, ideology, regime, politician or pop star safe from skewering as the reader simply folds the page to align arrow A with arrow B and reveal the hidden gag image. Now, from Chronicle Books comes The MAD Fold-In Collection: 1964-2010 — the definitive treasure trove of Jaffee’s genius, a formidable four-volume set featuring 410 fold-ins reproduced at original size, each thoughtfully accompanied by a digital representation of the folded image so you wouldn’t have to actually fold your lavish book.
Sudoku (July 2007) Second place (October 1969)