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Audiobooks or Reading? To Our Brains, It Doesn't Matter. If you don’t have time to sit and read a physical book, is listening to the audio version considered cheating?

Audiobooks or Reading? To Our Brains, It Doesn't Matter

To some hardcore book nerds, it could be. But new evidence suggests that, to our brains, reading and hearing a story might not be so different. In a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers from the Gallant Lab at UC Berkeley scanned the brains of nine participants while they read and listened to a series of tales from “The Moth Radio Hour.” After analyzing how each word was processed in the the brain’s cortex, they created maps of the participants’ brains, noting the different areas helped interpret the meaning of each word. They mapped out the results in an interactive diagram, which is due to be published on the Gallant Lab website this week. Looking at the brain scans and data analysis, the researchers saw that the stories stimulated the same cognitive and emotional areas, regardless of their medium. This is Your Brain on Words More Work Ahead. Book length search engine.

The Color of Vowels. What is the color, if you had to choose, of the “oo” sound in “boot”?

The Color of Vowels

What about the “ay” sound in “say”? Researchers asked 1,000 participants this question, 200 of which have synesthesia – a condition in which different sensory and cognitive modalities blend into each other. Interestingly, 70% of non-synesthetes still had a structured answer to these questions. They had a mental map of what vowel sounds had which colors.

Synesthesia is a fascinating phenomenon, that is also a good reminder that our brains are just squishy machines, and they have quirky flaws like all machines. These networks are horrifically complex, and interact with each other is complex ways to create neurological function. Synesthesia is more of a condition than a disorder because it does not necessarily cause any demonstrable harm, and may even be an advantage in certain ways. Explicit Writing Instruction – The No-Nonsense Educator. 13 ways educators can transform literacy. The Five ‘Keys’ to Reading – Five From Five. It’s Not Complicated by Donalyn Miller. How Listening to Podcasts Helps Students Read and Learn. High school English teacher Michael Godsey's favorite work by William Shakespeare is Hamlet. But a few years ago, he stopped teaching his students about the centuries-old classic in favor of a story that was unfolding in the fall of 2014: Serial, the podcast.

The story of Adnan Syed, Hae Min Lee and the community at Woodlawn High School captivated podcast listeners around the world, including Godsey. The story was so engaging, he made listening to Serial in real time an assignment for his students and eventually made podcasts a regular part of his English class. Why Reading Books Should Be Your Priority, According to Science. Why children like to read the same book over and over again. We often hear about the benefits of reading storybooks at bedtime for promoting vocabulary, early literacy skills, and a good relationship with your child.

Why children like to read the same book over and over again

But the experts haven’t been in your home, and your child requests the same book every single night, sometimes multiple times a night. You both know all the words off by heart. Given activities occurring just before sleep are particularly well-remembered by young children, you might wonder if all this repetition is beneficial. The answer is yes. Your child is showing they enjoy this story, but also that they are still learning from the pictures, words, and the interactions you have as you read this book together. Explainer: what's the difference between decodable and predictable books, and when should they be used? A child’s early experiences with books both at home and later in school have the potential to significantly affect future reading performance.

Explainer: what's the difference between decodable and predictable books, and when should they be used?

Parents play a key role in building oral language and literacy skills in the years prior to school. But it’s teachers who are responsible for ensuring children become readers once at school. ReadWoke. Pinterest.com. What Does It Cost? OPINION: Here’s a way teachers can help break down equity barriers in high school: reading aloud to students. It is harder now for high school students to focus on and make sense of long, complex texts, particularly the underserved students who were already struggling with reading.

OPINION: Here’s a way teachers can help break down equity barriers in high school: reading aloud to students

The 24-hour news and entertainment cycle, cellphones, work schedules and family problems are just a few of the pressures competing for teens’ attention. That means when teachers assign the reading of literature for homework and use class time for lectures and quizzes, they may not be providing the engagement necessary to compete with such distractions. One strong solution is to have teachers read aloud to their classes, then move into leading inquiry-based discussions about texts. In this shared-experience vision of reading aloud, students are following along, taking notes with old-school technology: a pencil. Related: Students can’t learn if they don’t show up at school. Teen reading folio report email. Strategies to engage students as readers. School staff as readers.

There are a variety of resources, organisations that have reviews of children's and YA literature, book lists and ideas to help you decide what to read.

School staff as readers

Blogs and publishers Connect to some blogs and publishers’ sites about children's and YA books such as: 25 children's books (and series) that adults will enjoy — Jen Robinson's Book Page blog The Children's Literature Web Guide — links to other children’s literature online resources. Using Hypothesis for private online reading groups for classes. Embedding authentic reading assessments into your class using Hypothesis. 5 Reasons To Start Reading To Your Baby. This is How Literary Fiction Teaches Us to Be Human. Think about every bully you can remember, whether from fiction or real life.

This is How Literary Fiction Teaches Us to Be Human

What do they all have in common? Buy The Book Beloved. Five Clever Ideas to Spark Independent Reading by Kids. There are so many concepts, skills and standards to be covered in any given school day, week or year that it can be easy to forget about one simple activity that promotes autonomy and starts students down a path of lifelong learning — independent reading.

Kids are increasingly immersed in their digital devices, leading some adults to worry that reading for pleasure is in danger of disappearing. But creative school librarians are proving there are plenty of great ways to get kids excited about reading on their own. “Reading is so social,” said Michelle Luhtala, librarian at New Caanan High School in Connecticut during an edWeb webinar. “The strongest reading programs have rules that you have to talk about what you’re reading.” Luhtala is implementing plenty of innovative ideas to get kids reading in her school, but she also asked colleagues around the country to weigh in on great ideas to promote independent reading at every grade level. 1. New Year, New Goals, New and Improved Reading Log. Way back in January 2017, I was trying to figure out how to do more with keeping track of my reading beyond the basics that Goodreads could provide.

New Year, New Goals, New and Improved Reading Log

Enter: my handy, dandy reading log on Google Sheets. I started tracking everything from title and author to the gender, sexuality (if known), race, and nationality of authors and characters. I tracked how much I read (or listened to) and in what formats (helpful since my reading went nearly 100% digital after June). The reading log worked and I kicked my own reading goals in the tuchus: I finished Read Harder AND the Litsy AtoZ challenges, and not only finished 50 books for the year, but beat it by more than 150%.

Some of the categories I tracked worked great—I kept a close eye on my gender breakdown and managed to hit more than 75% books by women for 2017—and some not so much—figuring out an author’s nationality can be really hard. Click here to view the tracker. Study finds reading information aloud to yourself improves memory. Teaching your kids to stick their head in a book this summer. Posted A summer break presents the perfect opportunity for many of us to plough through books that have been waiting in the must-read pile.

Teaching your kids to stick their head in a book this summer

It is also an ideal time to focus on sharing a love for reading with the kids. But if you are competing with screens and children who are reluctant to pick up a book, a summer challenge awaits. Librarians across the country are calling on families to take up the their summer challenge by joining the Summer Reading Club. In Canberra, libraries director Vanessa Little is leading the charge. Edutopia. Raising a Reader! How Comics & Graphic Novels Can Help Your Kids Love To Read! The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is proud to offer Raising a Reader!

How Comics & Graphic Novels Can Help Your Kids Love To Read! , a resource for parents & educators about the learning benefits of comics! This new resource is written by Dr. Meryl Jaffe, with an introduction by three-time Newbery Award honoree Jennifer L. Learning Potential, Australian Government. Strategies to Improve Reading Habits of Middle Schoolers. Tweens are going through a challenging growth period both physically and emotionally; sometimes there is no task more challenging than improving reading habits of middle schoolers.

Strategies to Improve Reading Habits of Middle Schoolers

Reading proficiency is incredibly important, not only for a child’s schooling, but for the quality of his or her life outside of school. Future Librarians: Pro-Literacy & Everything in Between - EasyBib Blog. How to Encourage Students to Read When You Aren't The English Teacher - WeAreTeachers. Even though I am a high school drama and history teacher, it is part of my mission to encourage students to read.

I am a reader. I grew up in a home of readers and follow that tradition. There are piles of books all over my house and more come in regularly. Books are my go-to: when I don’t know something, when I’m stressed, when I’m bored, when I’m happy. My high school students, by and large, are not readers. Since I don’t teach English, reading is not automatically built into my history and drama classes. Reasons Reading Is Important. Theconversation. Many of us will be able to recall the enjoyment of shared reading: being read to and sharing reading with our parents.

However, my research has found that of the 997 Year 4 and Year 6 respondents at 24 schools who took part in the 2016 Western Australian Study in Children’s Book Reading, nearly three-fifths reported that they were not being read to at home. What makes a hero? - Matthew Winkler.

The Hero Archetype in Literature, Religion, and Popular Culture: (along with a useful PowerPoint presentation teachers can download at this URL: )Maricopa Center for Learning and Instruction (users embark on their own hero's journey): American Masters Lesson from PBS for Teachers on George Lucas, the Power of Myth, and the Hero's Journey: an interactive approach to the Hero's Journey: of course, information about Joseph Campbell's works on the subject, on the Joseph Campbell Foundation site:The Hero With A Thousand Faces Hero's Journey (semi-biographical film): the stories of (a) Odin hanging from the world tree, Yggdrasil, (b) the Buddha seated under the Bodhi Tree, and (c) the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

Do all of these religious episodes follow the pattern of the hero’s journey? Lesley University Center for Reading Recovery and Literacy Collaborative. A new way of choosing what book to read next. How to Help Students Develop a Love of Reading.

Critical Reading

6 Techniques for Building Reading Skills—in Any Subject. As avid lovers of literature, teachers often find themselves wanting to impart every bit of knowledge about a well-loved text to their students. And this is not just an ELA issue—other disciplines also often focus on the content of a text. Welcome to Lit2Go ETC. This Is Not a Picture Book: An Irreverent Illustrated Ode to Why We Read. Ways a Parent Can Help a Child with Reading. Vocabulogic: MCVIP – A Multi-Faceted, Comprehensive Vocabulary Instruction Program (Baumann, Manyak, Blachowicz, Graves, Arner, Bates, Cieply, Davis, Peterson, & Olejnik) This post is courtesy of the MCVIP vocabulary research team, which includes primary investigators Jim Baumann (University of Missouri-Columbia), Patrick Manyak (University of Wyoming), and Camille Blachowicz (National Louis University).

Mike Graves (University of Minnesota, Emeritus) has been a consultant on the project, and it has been his research and writing that have formed the basis for the MCVIP instructional framework (see Mike's prior post. Favorite Pins Embedded Into My Staff Development Session! - Ideas By Jivey: For the Classroom. Those of you that have kept up with me this week know that I led staff development at our county's awesome Summer Literacy Institute. A Good Tool to Help Struggling Readers. Teaching Students the Skills of Expert Readers. Research shows that skilled or expert readers possess seven strategies to construct meaning before, during, and after reading a text.

When skilled students read, it is an active process. Their minds are constantly processing information extracted from the text, e.g., questioning the author, summarizing passages, or interpreting images. Contrarily, struggling readers often unthinkingly read the words on the page. How and Why We Read: Crash Course English Literature #1. Explainer: how the brain changes when we learn to read. Right now, you are reading these words without much thought or conscious effort.

In lightning-fast bursts, your eyes are darting from left to right across your screen, somehow making meaning from what would otherwise be a series of black squiggles. 20 magical years of the Harry Potter series (infographic) 7 steps to get the most out of your reading (infographic) Stages of the reader (cartoon) Top Graphic Novel Anti-Heroes According to You. - For Reading Addicts. Literacy MAtters! - Home. How Fantasy Novels Help Us Think Outside the Binary. We all live rich, complicated lives. And yet many of us have a tendency to think of things outside ourselves in the binary of this or that, yes or no, good or bad, right or wrong, male or female, gay or straight.

It keeps life simple, and gives us a feeling of safety and security that the world is—if not likable—at least understandable. Most of the time, reality seems to square with this mode of thinking because on average, most things are close enough to seem like they fit in one category or the other. But every once in a while, life throws you something that simply won’t work within that reductive, binary thinking.

Those moments can be disorienting, upsetting, and at times even frightening. There have been many moments in my life where I was forced to confront the fact that life is not as simple as “this or that”. 25 Reading Strategies That Work In Every Content Area. SMART teaching strategies. Reading Educator. Research evidence on reading for pleasure. Theconversation. Fictional characters make 'experiential crossings' into real life, study finds.

Igniting a Passion for Reading. Hilarious summaries of classic novels? There's a comic for that. Strategies to Help Students ‘Go Deep’ When Reading Digitally. Why Reading Aloud to Older Children Is Valuable. English news and easy articles for students of English. eBooks@Adelaide: Free Books, Online. Reading skills practice.

Current events, lesson plans, quizzes, assessments. English news and easy articles for students of English. Breaking News English Lessons: Easy English News. Edutopia. Tom Hiddlestone Reads As I Walked Out One Evening - For Reading Addicts. Theconversation. 15 Tips for Pulling off Independent Reading Programs - Secondary Sara. 6 Techniques for Building Reading Skills—in Any Subject. MyRead – Four Resources Guideposts. MyRead Guide – Frontloading. The Thinker Builder: Step In, Step Out: A Strategy for Thinking Deeply About Text. Books and Articles by Stephen D Krashen. Teaching Visual Literacy to Students. Super Six. Reading Australia - Secondary. Reading Australia - Primary. Resources for educators of kids in grades 4-12. Excellent Timeline Printables and Graphic Organizers for Your Class. Eyewitness. We Give Books.

Find Your Next Book - Authors, Reviews, Recommendations, Lists. Book Recommendations (USA) Reading Interest Inventories choice page. The Lexile® Framework for Reading. WPSU Education - Blue Ribbon Readers. A Reading from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales : Free Streaming : Internet Archive. Wondrously Infinite Global Library. 40+ iPad Apps for Reading Disabilities.

Leveled Books Database - Resources for Leveling Books. The Solution to Reading Comprehension. Read it! Loved it! Boys.