Reading Specialists K-12 Forum Discussions - School Leadership 2.02024-03-29T12:59:33Zhttps://schoolleadership20.com/group/readingspecialistsk12forum/forum?feed=yes&xn_auth=noTo Light A Firetag:schoolleadership20.com,2013-06-10:1990010:Topic:1601792013-06-10T13:42:48.951ZMichael Keanyhttps://schoolleadership20.com/profile/MichaelKeany91
<p><a href="http://stevemccurry.wordpress.com/2013/06/08/to-light-a-fire/" target="_blank">To Light A Fire</a><span> is a beautiful collection of photographs from around the world showing the “look of reading.”</span></p>
<p></p>
<p><span>Our gift to Reading Specialists!</span></p>
<p><a href="http://stevemccurry.wordpress.com/2013/06/08/to-light-a-fire/" target="_blank">To Light A Fire</a><span> is a beautiful collection of photographs from around the world showing the “look of reading.”</span></p>
<p></p>
<p><span>Our gift to Reading Specialists!</span></p> New research reports examine two reading programstag:schoolleadership20.com,2013-03-26:1990010:Topic:1427182013-03-26T20:16:14.581ZMichael Keanyhttps://schoolleadership20.com/profile/MichaelKeany91
<p><strong>New research reports examine two reading programs</strong><span> </span><br></br><br></br><span>The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) has released two new reports that review research on programs designed to improve reading skills: Read Naturally and Fast ForWord.</span><br></br><br></br><span>Read Naturally is a supplemental reading program designed to improve the reading fluency, accuracy, and comprehension of elementary and middle school students using a combination of books, audio CDs, and computer…</span></p>
<p><strong>New research reports examine two reading programs</strong><span> </span><br/><br/><span>The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) has released two new reports that review research on programs designed to improve reading skills: Read Naturally and Fast ForWord.</span><br/><br/><span>Read Naturally is a supplemental reading program designed to improve the reading fluency, accuracy, and comprehension of elementary and middle school students using a combination of books, audio CDs, and computer software. </span><a shape="rect" href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001L5mShQN5KiBFOIBQSj9gyy7qG3p-25cPupWD97KYqNwNVco8mwi28UoH94ZjdePc7CYGSFWlgtUmwVyMiclwkxJf-01r3Xy1MzIbcCSFDQhHdMKfy5oqXZd4o3MuPy2CykVrCosuVmTKMXuiri_bsnYW9EHX6IasB2FWKfqecW8=" target="_blank">According to the WWC report</a><span>, Read Naturally was found to have potentially positive effects on general literacy achievement for adolescent readers. </span><br/><br/><span>Fast ForWord is a computer-based reading program intended to help students develop and strengthen the cognitive skills necessary for successful reading and learning by adapting the nature and difficulty of the content based on individual student's responses. </span><a shape="rect" href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001L5mShQN5KiChfhaD-TPqwoapcliB4p6wgFFsf0qMRGxxdQfTv8capWLGJBZzl5NLCbjAdJWeaV3JJvOATae0DJbpKEYZrcsgtEuyqE8LQayp70lDosOdhE7wu3nIdRWGBaI27_0H7U9JaCR4d26Uw3IUFo1EvNZBcikOvADZhI4=" target="_blank">The WWC found that Fast ForWord</a><span> has positive effects on alphabetics, no discernible effects on reading fluency, and mixed effects on comprehension for beginning readers. </span></p>
<p></p>
<p>Johns Hopkins University</p>
<p>School of Education</p>
<p>Center for Research and Reform in Education</p>
<p>Research in Brief</p> Close Reading in the Elementary Gradestag:schoolleadership20.com,2013-01-08:1990010:Topic:1311312013-01-08T14:03:33.008ZMichael Keanyhttps://schoolleadership20.com/profile/MichaelKeany91
<p><span><b>Close Reading in the Elementary Grades</b></span></p>
<p></p>
<p><span>(Originally titled “Closing in on Close Reading)</span></p>
<p><span>In this <i>Educational Leadership</i> article, Nancy Boyles (Southern Connecticut University) suggests ways to bring “close reading” – a major theme in the Common Core State Standards – to the elementary grades. “Essentially, close reading means reading to uncover layers of meaning that lead to deep comprehension,” she says. Boyles is critical…</span></p>
<p><span><b>Close Reading in the Elementary Grades</b></span></p>
<p></p>
<p><span>(Originally titled “Closing in on Close Reading)</span></p>
<p><span>In this <i>Educational Leadership</i> article, Nancy Boyles (Southern Connecticut University) suggests ways to bring “close reading” – a major theme in the Common Core State Standards – to the elementary grades. “Essentially, close reading means reading to uncover layers of meaning that lead to deep comprehension,” she says. Boyles is critical of the “ho-hum” text-dependent questions suggested by David Coleman and his colleagues in their Student Achievement Partners handbook. All of the questions have a right answer and none of them will generate real discussion, she says. </span></p>
<p><span>Boyles urges teachers to take students beyond the text and ask deeper questions that they can apply to other texts on their own:</span></p>
<ul>
<li><span>What is the author <i>telling</i> me here?</span></li>
<li><span>Are there any hard or important <i>words</i>?</span></li>
<li><span>What does the author want me to <i>understand</i>?</span></li>
<li><span>How does the author play with <i>language</i> to add to the meaning?</span></li>
</ul>
<p><span>“If students take time to ask themselves these questions while reading and become skillful at answering them, there’ll be less need for the teacher to do all the asking,” she says. “For this to happen, we must develop students’ capacity to observe and analyze.” Delving deeper, she suggests getting students to ask themselves questions like these:</span></p>
<ul>
<li><span>Who is speaking in the passage?</span></li>
<li><span>Who seems to be the main audience for this text?</span></li>
<li><span>What is the first thing that jumps out at me as I read? Why?</span></li>
<li><span>What’s the next thing I notice? Are these two things connected? How?</span></li>
<li><span>What seems important here? Why? </span></li>
<li><span>What does the author mean by _______? What exact words lead me to this meaning?</span></li>
<li><span>Is the author trying to convince me of something? How do I know?</span></li>
<li><span>Is there something missing from this passage that I expected to find? Why did the author leave it out?</span></li>
<li><span>Is there anything that could have been explained more thoroughly for greater clarity?</span></li>
<li><span>Is there a message or main idea?</span></li>
<li><span>How does this sentence or passage fit into the text as a whole?</span></li>
</ul>
<p><span>“Students who learn to ask themselves such questions are reading with the discerning eye of a careful reader,” says Boyles. The next step is to look at passages with the eye of a writer, analyzing:</span></p>
<ul>
<li><span>Imagery, including similes, metaphors, personification, figurative language, and symbols;</span></li>
<li><span>Word choice;</span></li>
<li><span>Tone and voice;</span></li>
<li><span>Sentence structure: short sentences, long sentences, sentence fragments, word order within sentences, and questions.</span></li>
</ul>
<p></p>
<p><span>“Closing in on Close Reading” by Nancy Boyles in <i>Educational Leadership</i>, December 2012/January 2013 (Vol. 70, #4, p. 36-41), <a href="http://www.ascd.org"><span>www.ascd.org</span></a>; Boyles can be reached at <a href="mailto:nancyboyles@comcast.net"><span>nancyboyles@comcast.net</span></a>. </span></p>
<p></p>
<p><span>From the Marshall Memo #464</span></p>
<p><span> </span></p> Which Consonant Strategy Works Better for Beginning Readers?tag:schoolleadership20.com,2012-12-24:1990010:Topic:1297622012-12-24T12:54:31.105ZMichael Keanyhttps://schoolleadership20.com/profile/MichaelKeany91
<p><span><b>Which Consonant Strategy Works Better for Beginning Readers?</b></span></p>
<p></p>
<p><span>In this <i>Developmental Psychology</i> article, three researchers from the University of Iowa/Des Moines report that first graders who worked with words that have variable consonant sounds (<i>bait, sad, hair, gap</i>) performed better than students who worked with words with the same consonants (<i>maid, mad, paid, pad</i>). The first group outperformed the second in reading unfamiliar and…</span></p>
<p><span><b>Which Consonant Strategy Works Better for Beginning Readers?</b></span></p>
<p></p>
<p><span>In this <i>Developmental Psychology</i> article, three researchers from the University of Iowa/Des Moines report that first graders who worked with words that have variable consonant sounds (<i>bait, sad, hair, gap</i>) performed better than students who worked with words with the same consonants (<i>maid, mad, paid, pad</i>). The first group outperformed the second in reading unfamiliar and nonsense words and in applying their skills to new tasks. </span></p>
<p></p>
<p><span>“Statistical Learning in Reading: Variability in Irrelevant Letters Helps Children Learn Phonics Skills” by Keith Apfelbaum, Eliot Hazeltine, and Bob McMurray in <i>Developmental Psychology</i>, August 2012, <a href="http://bit.ly/Rd102n"><span>http://bit.ly/Rd102n</span></a>, spotted in <i>Education Week</i>, Nov. 14, 2012 (Vol. 32, #12, p. 5)</span></p>
<p><span> </span></p>
<p><span>From the Marshall Memo #462</span></p> For Young Latino Readers, an Image Is Missingtag:schoolleadership20.com,2012-12-05:1990010:Topic:1284292012-12-05T13:26:04.650ZMichael Keanyhttps://schoolleadership20.com/profile/MichaelKeany91
<div class="fb_reset" id="fb-root"></div>
<div class="header"><div class="left"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/"><img align="left" alt="The New York Times" border="0" hspace="0" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/misc/nytlogo153x23.gif" vspace="0"></img></a></div>
<div class="right"></div>
</div>
<p></p>
<hr align="left" size="1"></hr><div class="timestamp">December 4, 2012</div>
<div class="kicker"></div>
<h1>For Young Latino Readers, an Image Is Missing</h1>
<p></p>
<h6 class="byline">By …</h6>
<div id="fb-root" class="fb_reset"></div>
<div class="header"><div class="left"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/"><img src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/misc/nytlogo153x23.gif" align="left" alt="The New York Times" border="0" hspace="0" vspace="0"/></a></div>
<div class="right"></div>
</div>
<p></p>
<hr size="1" align="left"/><div class="timestamp">December 4, 2012</div>
<div class="kicker"></div>
<h1>For Young Latino Readers, an Image Is Missing</h1>
<p></p>
<h6 class="byline">By <span><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/motoko_rich/index.html" rel="author" title="More Articles by MOTOKO RICH">MOTOKO RICH</a></span></h6>
<p></p>
<p>PHILADELPHIA — Like many of his third-grade classmates, Mario Cortez-Pacheco likes reading the “Magic Tree House” series, about a brother and a sister who take adventurous trips back in time. He also loves the popular “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” graphic novels.</p>
<p>But Mario, 8, has noticed something about these and many of the other books he encounters in his classroom at Bayard Taylor Elementary here: most of the main characters are white. “I see a lot of people that don’t have a lot of color,” he said.</p>
<p>Hispanic students now make up <a href="http://www.pewhispanic.org/2012/08/20/ii-hispanic-public-school-enrollments/">nearly a quarter</a> of the nation’s public school enrollment, according to an analysis of census data by the Pew Hispanic Center, and are the fastest-growing segment of the school population. Yet nonwhite Latino children seldom see themselves in books written for young readers. (Dora the Explorer, who began as a cartoon character, is an outlier.)</p>
<p>Education experts and teachers who work with large Latino populations say that the lack of familiar images could be an obstacle as young readers work to build stamina and deepen their understanding of story elements like character motivation.</p>
<p>While there are exceptions, including books by Julia Alvarez, Pam Muñoz Ryan, Alma Flor Ada and Gary Soto, what is available is “not finding its way into classrooms,” said Patricia Enciso, an associate professor at Ohio State University. Books commonly read by elementary school children — those with human characters rather than talking animals or wizards — include the Junie B. Jones, Cam Jansen, Judy Moody, Stink and Big Nate series, all of which feature a white protagonist. An occasional African-American, Asian or Hispanic character may pop up in a supporting role, but these books depict a predominantly white, suburban milieu.</p>
<p>“Kids do have a different kind of connection when they see a character that looks like them or they experience a plot or a theme that relates to something they’ve experienced in their lives,” said Jane Fleming, an assistant professor at the Erikson Institute, a graduate school in early childhood development in Chicago.</p>
<p>She and Sandy Ruvalcaba Carrillo, an elementary school teacher in Chicago who works with students who speak languages other than English at home, reviewed 250 book series aimed at second to fourth graders and found just two that featured a Latino main character.</p>
<p>The Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education, which compiles statistics about the race of authors and characters in children’s books published each year, found that in 2011,<a href="http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/books/pcstats.asp"> just over 3 percent</a> of the 3,400 books reviewed were written by or about Latinos, a proportion that has not changed much in a decade.</p>
<p>As schools across the country implement the Common Core — national standards for what students should learn in English and math — many teachers are questioning whether nonwhite students are seeing themselves reflected in their reading.</p>
<p>For the early elementary grades, lists of suggested books contain some written by African-American authors about black characters, but few by Latino writers or featuring Hispanic characters. Now, in response to concerns registered by the Southern Poverty Law Center and others, the architects of the Common Core are developing a more diverse supplemental list. “We have really taken a careful look, and really think there is a problem,” said Susan Pimentel, one of the lead writers of the standards for English language and literacy. “We are determined to make this right.”</p>
<p>Black, Asian and American Indian children similarly must dig deep into bookshelves to find characters who look like them. Latino children who speak Spanish at home and arrive at school with little exposure to books in English face particular challenges. A <a href="http://gse.berkeley.edu/research/earlyeducation/latinopreschooler2012.pdf">new study</a> being released next week by pediatricians and sociologists at the University of California shows that Latino children start school seven months behind their white peers, on average, in oral language and preliteracy skills.</p>
<p>“Their oral language use is going to be quite different from what they encounter in their books,” said Catherine E. Snow, a professor at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education. “So what might seem like simple and accessible text for a standard English speaker might be puzzling for such kids.”</p>
<p>Hispanic children have historically underperformed non-Hispanic whites in American schools. According to<a href="http://nationsreportcard.gov/reading_2011/nat_g4.asp?tab_id=tab2&amp;subtab_id=Tab_3#chart"> 2011 data</a> from the<a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/n/national_assessment_of_educational_progress/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="More articles about the National Assessment of Educational Progress." class="meta-classifier">National Assessment of Educational Progress</a>, a set of exams administered by the Department of Education, 18 percent of Hispanic fourth graders were proficient in reading, compared with 44 percent of white fourth graders.</p>
<p>Research on a direct link between cultural relevance in books and reading achievement at young ages is so far scant. And few academics or classroom teachers would argue that Latino children should read books only about Hispanic characters or families. But their relative absence troubles some education advocates.</p>
<p>“If all they read is Judy Blume or characters in the “Magic Treehouse” series who are white and go on adventures,” said Mariana Souto-Manning, an associate professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College, “they start thinking of their language or practices or familiar places and values as not belonging in school.”</p>
<p>At Bayard Taylor Elementary in Philadelphia, a school where three-quarters of the students are Latino, Kimberly Blake, a third-grade bilingual teacher, said she struggles to find books about Latino children that are “about normal, everyday people.” The few that are available tend to focus on stereotypes of migrant workers or on special holidays. “Our students look the way they look every single day of the year,” Ms. Blake said, “not just on Cinco de Mayo or Puerto Rican Day.”</p>
<p>On a recent morning, Ms. Blake read from “Amelia’s Road” by Linda Jacobs Altman, about a daughter of migrant workers. Of all the children sitting cross-legged on the rug, only Mario said that his mother had worked on farms.</p>
<p>Publishers say they want to find more works by Hispanic authors, and in some cases they insert Latino characters in new titles. When Simon & Schuster commissioned writers to develop a new series, “The Cupcake Diaries,” it cast one character, Mia, as a Latino girl. “We were conscious of making one of the characters Hispanic,” said Valerie Garfield, a vice president in the children’s division, “and doing it in a way that girls could identify with, but not in a way that calls it out.”</p>
<p>In some respects, textbook publishers like Pearson and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt are ahead of trade publishers. Houghton Mifflin, which publishes reading textbooks, allocates exactly 18.6 percent of its content to works featuring Latino characters. The company says that percentage reflects student demographics.</p>
<p>Students should be able “to see themselves in a high-quality text,” said Jeff Byrd, senior product manager for reading at Houghton Mifflin.</p>
<p>But Latino education advocates and authors say they do not want schools to resort to tokenism. “My skin crawls a little when this literature is introduced because people are being righteous,” said Ms. Alvarez, the author of the “Tia Lola” series, as well as “Return to Sender.” “It should be as natural reading about these characters as white characters,” she said.</p>
<p>At Bayard Taylor, another third-grade teacher, Kate Cornell, said that she would love to explore more options featuring Hispanic characters. “It would be more helpful as a teacher,” she said, “to have these go-to books where I can say ‘I think you are going to like this book. This book reminds me of you.’ ”</p>
<div class="articleCorrection"></div> Books to Match Diverse Young Readerstag:schoolleadership20.com,2012-12-05:1990010:Topic:1281592012-12-05T13:23:42.683ZMichael Keanyhttps://schoolleadership20.com/profile/MichaelKeany91
<div class="module insetHFullWidth"><div class="storyHeader"><h1>Books to Match Diverse Young Readers</h1>
</div>
<div class="storySummary"><span class="summary">Introductory chapter books aimed at second, third and fourth grade readers overwhelmingly reflect a suburban milieu with white protagonists. Students of other races and ethnicities seldom encounter characters like themselves in books, and some education experts say that can be an obstacle to literacy. Below, click on titles that…</span></div>
</div>
<div class="module insetHFullWidth"><div class="storyHeader"><h1>Books to Match Diverse Young Readers</h1>
</div>
<div class="storySummary"><span class="summary">Introductory chapter books aimed at second, third and fourth grade readers overwhelmingly reflect a suburban milieu with white protagonists. Students of other races and ethnicities seldom encounter characters like themselves in books, and some education experts say that can be an obstacle to literacy. Below, click on titles that feature main characters who are black, Latino, Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native and read the beginning of each book.</span></div>
</div>
<div id="interactiveFreeFormMain"><div id="FT100000001932059">NY Times</div>
<div class="nytmm_gridGallery"><div class="nytmm_gridGallery_pageControls top"></div>
<div class="nytmm_gridGallery_grid clearfix"><div class="nytmm_gridGallery_loadingBin"></div>
<div class="nytmm_gridGallery_gridItem"><div class="gridThumbMask"><img class="gridThumb" id="gridThumb0" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/us/201212_Reading/Esperanza-Rising-235.jpg"/><div class="nytmm_gridGallery_gridItemKicker"><h3 class="itemKicker">Esperanza Rising</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="nytmm_gridGallery_gridItem"><div class="gridThumbMask"><img class="gridThumb" id="gridThumb1" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/us/201212_Reading/GreatWallofLucyWu-235.jpg"/><div class="nytmm_gridGallery_gridItemKicker"><h3 class="itemKicker">The Great Wall of Lucy Wu</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="nytmm_gridGallery_gridItem"><div class="gridThumbMask"><img class="gridThumb" id="gridThumb2" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/us/201212_Reading/EllRay_Jakes_Is_Not_a_Chicken-235-2.jpg"/><div class="nytmm_gridGallery_gridItemKicker"><h3 class="itemKicker">EllRay Jakes is Not a Chicken</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="nytmm_gridGallery_gridItem"><div class="gridThumbMask"><img class="gridThumb" id="gridThumb3" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/us/201212_Reading/MariaIsabel-235.jpg"/><div class="nytmm_gridGallery_gridItemKicker"><h3 class="itemKicker">My Name is María Isabel</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="nytmm_gridGallery_gridItem"><div class="gridThumbMask"><img class="gridThumb" id="gridThumb4" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/us/201212_Reading/Chickadee-JKT-235-2.jpg"/><div class="nytmm_gridGallery_gridItemKicker"><h3 class="itemKicker">Chickadee</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="nytmm_gridGallery_gridItem"><div class="gridThumbMask"><img class="gridThumb" id="gridThumb5" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/us/201212_Reading/LibertyPorter1stDaughter-235.jpg"/><div class="nytmm_gridGallery_gridItemKicker"><h3 class="itemKicker">Libery Porter, First Daughter</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="nytmm_gridGallery_gridItem"><div class="gridThumbMask"><img class="gridThumb" id="gridThumb6" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/us/201212_Reading/Tia-Lola-235.jpg"/><div class="nytmm_gridGallery_gridItemKicker"><h3 class="itemKicker">How Tía Lola Came to Stay</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="nytmm_gridGallery_gridItem"><div class="gridThumbMask"><img class="gridThumb" id="gridThumb7" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/us/201212_Reading/Alvin-Ho-1-Cover-235.jpg"/><div class="nytmm_gridGallery_gridItemKicker"><h3 class="itemKicker">Alvin Ho</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="nytmm_gridGallery_gridItem"><div class="gridThumbMask"><img class="gridThumb" id="gridThumb8" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/us/201212_Reading/Kickoff-235.jpg"/><div class="nytmm_gridGallery_gridItemKicker"><h3 class="itemKicker">Kickoff</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="nytmm_gridGallery_gridItem"><div class="gridThumbMask"><img class="gridThumb" id="gridThumb9" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/us/201212_Reading/MIAINTHEMIX-235.jpg"/><div class="nytmm_gridGallery_gridItemKicker"><h3 class="itemKicker">Cupcake Diaries: Mia in the Mix</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="nytmm_gridGallery_gridItem"><div class="gridThumbMask"><img class="gridThumb" id="gridThumb10" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/us/201212_Reading/insideoutbackagain-235.jpg"/><div class="nytmm_gridGallery_gridItemKicker"><h3 class="itemKicker">Inside Out & Back Again</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="nytmm_gridGallery_gridItem"><div class="gridThumbMask"><img class="gridThumb" id="gridThumb11" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/us/201212_Reading/Indian-Shoes-hc-235.jpg"/><div class="nytmm_gridGallery_gridItemKicker"><h3 class="itemKicker">Indian Shoes</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="nytmm_gridGallery_gridItem"><div class="gridThumbMask"><img class="gridThumb" id="gridThumb12" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/us/201212_Reading/Sassy_The-Birthday-Storm-235.jpg"/><div class="nytmm_gridGallery_gridItemKicker"><h3 class="itemKicker">Sassy: The Birthday Storm</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="nytmm_gridGallery_gridItem"><div class="gridThumbMask"><img class="gridThumb" id="gridThumb13" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/us/201212_Reading/the-year-of-miss-agnes-235.jpg"/><div class="nytmm_gridGallery_gridItemKicker"><h3 class="itemKicker">The Year of Miss Agness</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="nytmm_gridGallery_gridItem"><div class="gridThumbMask"><img class="gridThumb" id="gridThumb14" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/us/201212_Reading/Make-Way-for-Dyamonde-Daniel-235.jpg"/><div class="nytmm_gridGallery_gridItemKicker"><h3 class="itemKicker">Make Way for Dyamonde Daniel</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="nytmm_gridGallery_gridItem"><div class="gridThumbMask"><img class="gridThumb" id="gridThumb15" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/us/201212_Reading/STAT1-235.jpg"/><div class="nytmm_gridGallery_gridItemKicker"><h3 class="itemKicker">STAT: Home Court</h3>
<p></p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div> Recommended children’s bookstag:schoolleadership20.com,2012-12-03:1990010:Topic:1281272012-12-03T13:36:05.732ZMichael Keanyhttps://schoolleadership20.com/profile/MichaelKeany91
<p><span><b><i>Recommended children’s books</i></b> – Here are the most-recommended books in <i>Reading Today’s</i> 2012 roundup: </span></p>
<p><span>• Children’s Choices: <a href="http://www.reading.org/Libraries/awards/ChildrensChoices2012_web.pdf"><span>http://www.reading.org/Libraries/awards/ChildrensChoices2012_web.pdf</span></a></span><span> </span></p>
<p><span>•</span> <span>Teachers’ Choices:…</span></p>
<p><span><b><i>Recommended children’s books</i></b> – Here are the most-recommended books in <i>Reading Today’s</i> 2012 roundup: </span></p>
<p><span>• Children’s Choices: <a href="http://www.reading.org/Libraries/awards/ChildrensChoices2012_web.pdf"><span>http://www.reading.org/Libraries/awards/ChildrensChoices2012_web.pdf</span></a></span><span> </span></p>
<p><span>•</span> <span>Teachers’ Choices: <a href="http://www.reading.org/Libraries/awards/TeachersChoices2012_web.pdf"><span>http://www.reading.org/Libraries/awards/TeachersChoices2012_web.pdf</span></a></span><span> </span></p>
<p><span>• Young Adults’ Choices: <a href="http://www.reading.org/Libraries/awards/YoungAdultsChoices2012_web.pdf"><span>http://www.reading.org/Libraries/awards/YoungAdultsChoices2012_web.pdf</span></a></span><span> </span></p>
<p></p>
<p><span>“Recommended Reading Lists from Children, Teachers, and Young Adults” in <i>Reading Today</i>, October/November 2012 (Vol. 30, #2, p. 33) </span></p>
<p><span> </span></p> New Literacy Research Infuses Common Coretag:schoolleadership20.com,2012-11-28:1990010:Topic:1276892012-11-28T14:52:19.780ZMichael Keanyhttps://schoolleadership20.com/profile/MichaelKeany91
<h1>New Literacy Research Infuses Common Core</h1>
<h2 class="subtitle">In the 15 years since the National Reading Panel convened, the knowledge base on literacy has grown</h2>
<div class="byline">By <a href="http://www.edweek.org/ew/contributors/sarah.sparks_3549540.html">Sarah D. Sparks</a></div>
<div class="usertoolbox-top"><div class="welcome-box" id="divWelcomeBox"><div>Premium article access courtesy of Edweek.org.…</div>
<div class="free-link"></div>
</div>
</div>
<h1>New Literacy Research Infuses Common Core</h1>
<h2 class="subtitle">In the 15 years since the National Reading Panel convened, the knowledge base on literacy has grown</h2>
<div class="byline">By <a href="http://www.edweek.org/ew/contributors/sarah.sparks_3549540.html">Sarah D. Sparks</a></div>
<div class="usertoolbox-top"><div class="welcome-box" id="divWelcomeBox"><div>Premium article access courtesy of Edweek.org.</div>
<div class="free-link"></div>
</div>
</div>
<div id="fb-root" class=" fb_reset"></div>
<p>The truism that students "learn to read, then read to learn," has spawned a slew of early-reading interventions and laws. But the Common Core State Standards offer a very different view of literacy, in which fluency and comprehension skills evolve together throughout every grade and subject in a student's academic life, from the first time a toddler gums a board book to the moment a medical student reads data from a brain scan.</p>
<p></p>
<p>In doing so, the common-core literacy standards reflect the research world's changing evidence on expectations of student competence in an increasingly interconnected and digitized world. But critics say the standards also neglect emerging evidence on cognitive and reading strategies that could guide teachers on how to help students develop those literacy skills.</p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/11/14/12cc-research.h32.html?tkn=WPLF0AxhE4zShiRo4NHyKWTNb1vPAt%2BdWDaR&cmp=ENL-CCO-NEWS1&intc=EW-CC1112-ENL" target="_blank">Click here to continue reading.</a></p> The Power of Purposeful Readingtag:schoolleadership20.com,2012-10-13:1990010:Topic:1243762012-10-13T14:16:02.079ZMichael Keanyhttps://schoolleadership20.com/profile/MichaelKeany91
<p class="small">October 2005 | Volume <b>63</b> | Number <b>2</b> <br></br><b>Reading Comprehension</b> Pages 48-51</p>
<div><h1>The Power of Purposeful Reading</h1>
</div>
<p class="author">Cris Tovani</p>
<div id="dnn_ctr3664_ViewVCMASCDContentModule_ctl00_blurbContainer"><p class="blurb">To help students master challenging text, teachers must clarify the meaning behind the mission.</p>
</div>
<div id="dnn_ctr3664_ViewVCMASCDContentModule_ctl00_articleContainer"><p>Students often seem mystified…</p>
</div>
<p class="small">October 2005 | Volume <b>63</b> | Number <b>2</b> <br/><b>Reading Comprehension</b> Pages 48-51</p>
<div><h1>The Power of Purposeful Reading</h1>
</div>
<p class="author">Cris Tovani</p>
<div id="dnn_ctr3664_ViewVCMASCDContentModule_ctl00_blurbContainer"><p class="blurb">To help students master challenging text, teachers must clarify the meaning behind the mission.</p>
</div>
<div id="dnn_ctr3664_ViewVCMASCDContentModule_ctl00_articleContainer"><p>Students often seem mystified when asked to determine what is important in an assigned reading. Teachers see this confusion when students' book pages are overly highlighted in bright yellow. Media specialists see it in requests for printing out massive numbers of documents from the Internet. Parents see it when their children complete reading assignments and equate note taking with copying entire chapters. It's frustrating for everyone concerned, but especially for the students. As one of my 11th grade students told me,</p>
<blockquote>Most of the time, I don't like to be told what to think, but at school I have to be told, especially when I read hard stuff. I have no idea what's important.</blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>At the beginning of the year, I ask my students how they know something is important in an assigned reading. More often than not, they reply, "Anything in bold print is important." When I ask why bold print makes text important, they respond, "I don't know why. It just does." Clearly, these students are using ineffective reading strategies that seem logical to them. As Mike Rose notes,</p>
<blockquote>Every day in our schools and colleges young people face reading and writing tasks that seem hard or unusual, that confuse them, that they fail. But if you can get close enough to their failure, you'll find knowledge that the assignment didn't tap, ineffective rules and strategies that have logic of their own.<sup><a name="ref1" href="http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/oct05/vol63/num02/The-Power-of-Purposeful-Reading.aspx#fn1" id="ref1">1</a></sup> </blockquote>
<p></p>
</div>
<div id="dnn_ctr3664_ViewVCMASCDContentModule_ctl00_MaskContentContainer"><p>Several years ago, I surveyed my fellow teachers at Smoky Hill High School in Colorado to find out what skill they thought students most needed to improve their comprehension of assigned readings. The number one response was that students don't know how to determine what is important in the text.</p>
<p>I agree with my colleagues. Being able to distinguish big ideas from minutiae is a skill that adolescent readers desperately need. But how do we teach it?</p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/oct05/vol63/num02/The-Power-of-Purposeful-Reading.aspx" target="_blank">Click here to continue reading.</a></p>
</div> Free online reading softwaretag:schoolleadership20.com,2012-09-13:1990010:Topic:1198682012-09-13T15:21:30.378ZMichael Keanyhttps://schoolleadership20.com/profile/MichaelKeany91
<p><b><i>Free online reading software</i></b></p>
<p></p>
<p>From the Marshall Memo #449</p>
<p>– In this <i>Teaching Exceptional Children</i> article, Nancy Stockall, Lindsay Dennis, and Melinda Miller (Sam Houston State University) recommend the following programs that incorporate the principles of universal design:</p>
<p>• <a href="http://udltechtoolkit.wikispaces.com/Home">http://udltechtoolkit.wikispaces.com/Home</a> - learning tools to enhance learning for all children;</p>
<p>• …</p>
<p><b><i>Free online reading software</i></b></p>
<p></p>
<p>From the Marshall Memo #449</p>
<p>– In this <i>Teaching Exceptional Children</i> article, Nancy Stockall, Lindsay Dennis, and Melinda Miller (Sam Houston State University) recommend the following programs that incorporate the principles of universal design:</p>
<p>• <a href="http://udltechtoolkit.wikispaces.com/Home">http://udltechtoolkit.wikispaces.com/Home</a> - learning tools to enhance learning for all children;</p>
<p>• <a href="http://bookbuilder.cast.org">http://bookbuilder.cast.org</a> - enables users to create, share, publish, and read digital books for young readers;</p>
<p>• <a href="http://www.bookshare.org">http://www.bookshare.org</a> - accessible books and periodicals for readers with print disabilities;</p>
<p>• <a href="http://www.signedstories.com/index.cfm">http://www.signedstories.com/index.cfm</a> - books that readers can view in sign language and with subtitles, also in audio;</p>
<p>• <a href="http://www.mothergooseclub.com/index.php">http://www.mothergooseclub.com/index.php</a> - nursery rhymes with child actors who animate the poems;</p>
<p>• <a href="http://www.carnegielibrary.org/kids/storymaker/storymaker.swf">http://www.carnegielibrary.org/kids/storymaker/storymaker.swf</a> - for creating, sharing, and publishing digital books for repeated readings; includes prompts to help children begin;</p>
<p>• <a href="http://www.wordtalk.org/uk/About">http://www.wordtalk.org/uk/About</a> - a text-to-speech plug-in for MS Word.</p>
<p></p>
<p>“Right from the Start: Universal Design for Preschool” by Nancy Stockall, Lindsay Dennis, and Melinda Miller in <i>Teaching Exceptional Children</i>, September/October 2012 (Vol. 45, #1, p. 10-17)</p>
<p> </p>