The" No-Excuse-for-Not-Reading-During-the-Summer" List

If your child moans and groans about reading over the summer, here are some suggestions to counter all complaints. Brought to you by the International Reading Association and Reading Today, this is a smörgåsbord of suggestions to encourage good reading habits over the summer.




Francie Alexander, chief academic officer for Scholastic, Inc., advices parents that:


1.  Families should set aside a regular time of day when everyone reads. (Model it!)
2.  Hook your kids on a series. If they like the first book, they will like more.
3.  Let your children choose their books.


Linda Gambrell, a past president of the IRA, recommends:


1. Schedule weekly trips to the library.
2. Let your child select books you will read aloud.
3. Let your child read in bed. Extend bedtime only for reading.
4. Buy an inexpensive camera and notebook and let your child create a picture journal of his or her summer.  Read it with her!


Here are some great web resources which promote summer reading and writing:


1. You'll find activities, projects, games, tools, tips and how-to's for kids from kindergarten through twelfth grade on the IRA and National Council of Teachers Of English ReadWriteThink website.  
2. Reading Rockets offers booklists and online activities for parents and teachers.
3. Scholastic Inc has a Summer Challenge which encourages kids to log their summer reading. Last year 63,000 kids logged 35 million minutes!
4. The National Summer Learning Association provides resources for learning in all forms, including reading.

If you like booklists, here are places you can find them:


1. Children's Choices are books which children have evaluated and reviewed.
2. Students can travel across a map of the U.S. by reading a book that takes place in each of the states. Find the fiction and nonfiction lists here.
3. Looking for the 2010 Notable books? You'll find them on a list compiled by the Association for Library Service to Children.
4. The National Endowment for the Humanities has a list of classic literature for kindergarten through 12th graders.


Enough? Now, grab your child, a book, and get reading!

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Celebration Time

I was the proverbial kid in the candy shop picking out books for the tutoring group that I had organized and which was sponsored by Christ Covenant Church. Not too many things can make me happier than being told I could spend whatever I wanted to on books—besides giving the books away and seeing the children's excited responses. On Monday as I headed towards the cash register at Border's with two large piles of books, I hoped that I had chosen ones that would interest the kids—you never can tell if you'll hit home or not. I picked some of my and my own children's favorites—The Yearling, Artemis Fowl
(now in a graphic novel), a collection of Tintin stories, and Shiloh
were among the stack.

Tuesday afternoon we held our end-of-the-year-celebration at one of the tutor's homes. Each child had the opportunity to ride a horse, which was no doubt the highlight of the party. However, I think a close second was that everyone received one or two books. Quoting Linda Gambrrell's message in a recent Reading Today,I told them that one of the most important things they could do over the summer was to read. I hope they got the message!

One of the youngest, a struggling kindergarten reader, looked at his new collection of Frog and Toad and said, "We have these books in school." His little face scrunched up and he seemed confused as to why he was receiving a book that obviously belonged in his classroom.

I squatted down next to him and said, "Now you have your own copy." After that, he walked around showing it to his friends and promised me that he would read it to me in September. I wish I had thought to take his picture, or one of the boy leafing through his book on dinosaurs, or one of his friend who was looking at a book about cars and trying to figure out what a Mad Lib was. I was too busy giving out books, happy that my selections had found new homes with growing readers.

This time of year, many of you receive thank you notes from students and parents. Here are three that made my time with these students worth every minute:

"A simple thank you does not seem to be enough words to say how much we appreciate you and all you've done week after week." (From the parent who weekly brought the 12 students to the church.)

Without editing, from two students:

"Thank you for helping me with my homework and stuff and reading homework to. It was really fun having a tutor for me." A 4^th grader.

"Thank you for doing so much for us. We all know it's the last time we will come to tutoring. We loved your tutoring. I hope you injoyed our company. And I want to wish you all a happy and safe summer vacation." A 4^th grader.

Makes me look forward to September. How about you?

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IRA-2008- Part 2

In her "Ode to David Letterman" Linda Gambrell (president of IRA) presented these as her top 10 reasons for pleasure reading in her keynote address:

10. Reading exercises the brain.

9. Reading helps you become fluent in a second language- text language.

8. The more you read the smarter you get. (Anne Cunningham and Keith Stanovich)

7. Reading takes you places when you have to stay where you are.

6. The reading practice you get from pleasure reading may not make you a perfect reader, but it will surely make you a better reader.

5. People who read are people who achieve. (Benjamin Carson, MD, Pediatric Neurosurgery, Johns Hopkins University)

4. Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read. (Grocho Marx)

3. It is not true that we have only one life to live; if we can read we can live more lives and as many kinds of lives as we wish. (S.I. Hayakawa, educator and politician)

2. The more that you read the more things you will know; the more that you learn the more places you'll go. (Dr. Seuss)

And last, but not least:

1. If you're going to binge, literature is definitely the way to do it. (Oprah Winfrey)
   

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IRA, 2008- Part One

Even for a writer, it is hard to describe the energy and enthusiasm of 20,000 reading teachers, principals, and literacy coaches who came together to learn the latest methods to teach reading and writing. The World Congress Center in Atlanta, Ga. was packed this week with educators to whom "Reading Matters"- as the pin, which I acquired from a vendor selling Teaching the Story proudly, proclaimed. As Linda Gambrell, outgoing IRA president said at the Keynote on Monday morning, "We want our students to be readers, writers, and critical thinkers. Through reading, we become better at understanding ourselves and the world around us." Highlights from this conference were:

• Close to 100 people at my session…and every single educator enthusiastically involved in creating an original character. Together we looked at three mentor texts: Peter Pan in Scarlet, Blue, and Brian's Return
  and how the authors showed their memorable characters FAST- through their feelings, actions, speech, and thoughts.
  
• Selling my book to a woman from the Philippines who started her own K-6 school. To my knowledge, that is the furthest away that Teaching the Story has travelled. (Imagine the stories that those students will write!)
  
• Sharing a room with Margriet Ruurs, author of over 10 picture books as well as several Maupin House books on writing poetry. Sitting on her bed, Julie Graddy (Maupin House's publisher) and I had the privilege of previewing Margriet's presentation on My Librarian is a Camel
  and hearing some of the amazing stories behind the book. Winner of the Silver IRA award for Global awareness, I would recommend this book for children as a window into seeing how children in other countries value books and some very unique "book mobiles" around the world. By the way, Margriet is also the editor for Kids Write—an online magazine where students can publish their stories- a resource which I recommend in my book!
  
• And as pictured here, having dinner with Margriet and part of the Maupin House team: Julie Graddy, Rita Beck, and Laura Lok.
  

  
  

  Stay tuned. More on the conference in my next blog.
  

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