Dr. Seuss and Read Across America

Dr. Seuss is a beloved and prolific children's author whose books remain immensely popular decades after they were first written and have resulted in 11 TV specials, 4 movies, a Broadway Musical, and 4 TV series. His stories entertain, inspire, and educate children (and adults).  And because of all of this Dr. Seuss' birthday has been adopted as the date for National Read Across America.

Read Across America was developed by the National Education Association and works to encourage literacy and education among children and teens. They have an annual Oh, The Places You'll Go College Scholarship for art, which was Dr. Seuss' passion. This year they're also having The Lorax Project to help raise awareness about conservation and the rain forest.  

Which is one of the wonderful things about Dr. Seuss, his stories often framed complex social issues in a way children can understand.  (Granted, not everyone was excited about his children's books involving social commentary.  Loggers were especially upset about The Lorax).  Which makes it unsurprising that in 1941 Dr. Seuss took a break from writing his Horton books and turned to WWII propaganda.

This combined with his wonderful illustrations, and desire to write interesting stories to help children learn to read (Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham use 250 and 50 words respectively and were written as answers to the boring Dick and Jane books that were used to teach children how to read) makes Dr. Seuss the perfect author to combined with Read Across America.

I hope everyone takes some time today to read some Dr. Seuss.

Awesome Resources

I'll be adding these to my links page, but I wanted to make sure to highlight these new internet sites I've found.

ReadWriteThink
This link goes to the after school/parent resource page.  The site explains why different types of learning and learning all year long are so important.

"As adults, we know how important reading and writing are in all parts of our lives. We also know that a passion for reading and writing can help children and teens find ways to understand not only different cultures and worlds but also themselves.  And writing can help them find ways to work through and communicate their hopes, fears, and dreams." (I especially like how they make use of the oxford comma!)
"Research tells us that children and teens who don't read and write outside of, especially during long breaks such as summer vacation, face a big loss in their literacy growth compared to those who continue learning all year long.   This means the summer months and other breaks from school offer wonderful opportunities for families, caregivers, and out-of-school educators to help improve reading and writing."
 - From the Read Write Think printable flyer

ReadWhiteThink breaks their after school and parent resources down by resource types (games, tools and tips, activities and projects), grade, learning objective, and theme (arts, community, careers).  They seem to have about 20-30 activities per grade section (2nd and 3rd grade are together for example) and about 10 tips for parents/teachers on how the help children (some of these are applicable for all grades and others are more specific).  They also have a Podcast Chatting About Books  with series for grades K - 6, and a Podcast for older students, Text Messages which seems to be about research and now to use non-fiction texts.

The Multicultural Toybox
This site is dedicated to helping parents and educators find multicultural resources so that children see themselves, and other cultures/experiences, represented in their toys and books.  The Multicultural Toybox provides recommendations, but also discusses/provides information about why multicultural toys,characters, and stories are represented to all children.  Recently they discussed Sesame Street and Fox News attack of their "liberal" message of acceptance.

You can go straight to their Toy, Game, Craft, & Book Guide, but I really recommend going through and reading the blog entries that also discuss the importance of these types of toys and books.  The Multicultural Toybox is written and managed by Dr. Leslie Madsen-Brooks.  

Examples from Real Life

When I wrote about Reading Levels I explained that different children develop at different speeds and there is no one right level for a child to be on at a specific age or grade.  Now I work with children between the ages of 5 and 10 and see the reality of this every day.  Recently, I had my students make holiday cards for service men and women who would be over seas for the holidays. The results were both adorable and a good example of how children (even ones from similar backgrounds and educated by the same teachers) reach academic benchmarks at different times.

I selected a small collection of cards made by children from kindergarten to 3rd grade that demonstrate the different skills and levels children can be on, even when they are the same age or in the same class.

This card was made by one of my kindergarten students. I helped Megan spell "merry" and "Christmas" but didn't correct her formation of the letters or tell her which letters should be capitalized.  As you can see some of the letters are backwards and they vary a bit in size.  This is all pretty normal for kindergartners.  She did do a very good job writing in a straight line though; better then I would have at her age.

This card was made by another kindergartner.  He decided to interpret a holiday card for soldiers as a soldier card.  He also didn't want any help from teachers with spelling words, but decided to do some letters anyway.  As you can see the letters vary some in size and change between capitalized and lower case letters (pretty much based on his comfort level with writing the different letters).  The boy who made this card is best friends with Danniell, a 1st grader who made the next card.

Danniell didn't receive any help from teachers when making this card; the sentence structure, word choice, and spelling are all his own.  This shows he understands the form letters take, as well as basic spelling, punctuation, and grammar.  His only spelling mistake was "absolutley yors" which is pretty impressive.  Danniell is highly verbal, has an amazing memory, a love for science, and is self-motivated to learn new things. He hasn't had formal testing yet, but it's pretty easy to see he's in the gifted and talented range of academic abilities.  When talking with my teacher friends I often share stories about Danniell and call him my baby genius. (Last year he loved learning about weather and was very interested when we did a month long hurricane tracking project.  Months later he was the only students to retain the information about the general starting points for hurricanes during different times of the year.)

 Amanda, is one of my second graders and one of the less academically inclined of my students. Her penmanship is good for her age, she spelled everything correctly, and she reads within her grade range.  However, she isn't very interested in school or reading.  A lot of the children I work with enjoy reading and play school, Scrabble, and Banana-grams, or practice writing with the white boards, but Amanda doesn't find any of these things interesting.

Violet's in 3rd grade, or 3erd, as she spells it. She didn't receive any help from teachers and spelled "hollyday" the way it sounds, which if this was 300 years ago would have been academically acceptable.  Violet's a good example of an average 3rd grader.  She spells most words correctly, has legible hand writing, and just reached the point where she can read children's chapter books.  She doesn't mind reading or writing, but doesn't love it the way some of her peers do.

This last card is by Anna, another 3rd grader.  She didn't have any help from teachers and spelled "contrey" wrong, but like Violet she spelled it the way it sounds.  These types of misspellings are pretty standard for child in 3rd grade or beyond (unless they have ADHD, dyslexia or some other type of language based special need).  Her handwriting is a bit better then Violet's, and when it comes to reading she has a higher reading level, which is probably most related to her higher print-motivation.

I wish I had more examples from my older students, but they were less interested in completing this activity.  The school also starts tracking students in 4th grade and while my 4th graders have a range of interests, skills, and abilities the 5th grade students are all in the same levels and so are a less diverse example.

The Potential State of Libraries

Cities and states across the country are cutting their library budgets.  Currently the one getting the most media attention is Chicago.  Rham Emanuel's proposed 2012 budget would lay off 363 library employees and cut $11 million from the Chicago Public Library's current budget.  This would reduce the hours of operation for the city's libraries which provide necessary help to students, people searching for jobs, and run special programs that serve over 40,000 children per year.  The group protesting these cuts has a facebook page where you can get updates and offer support for their efforts.

But, as I said, Chicago isn't the only place with Library budget cuts.
Last year New York City Public Libraries lost over 200 employees, however they managed to block further budget cuts because of public support for the libraries and protests against the proposed budget cuts.
In Seattle budget cuts closed all branches of the public library for over a week.
Potential budget cuts of $2.5 million in Denver threaten to close half of the cities public libraries.
In Oakland, CA proposed cuts might result in 14 of the city's 18 public library branches being closed for good.
In attempts to keep open many libraries have had to find creative ways to raise money.

The American Library Association published their 2011 report on The State of America's Libraries.  They found that 65% of people use public libraries every year, 31% of adults and 38% of seniors rank public libraries as the top tax-supported service. 91% of people greatly value the educational and work related information provided at libraries.  93% of people believe libraries should be free.  However, in 2011 US City Mayors reported that cutting library hours, staff, and services was the second most popular way to enact budget cuts.

Public Libraries provide vital services to the community.  Besides housing millions of books for people to borrow or use as references for school work, libraries keep local city and town records of newspapers and politics for citizens to access.  They are often the only place that provides free internet access.  They have free community rooms of groups to use as meeting places.  They have specific resources for students and unemployed people looking for jobs.  Libraries have child services, and sometimes even provide short term child care during specific hours.  They can provide warm places for homeless people in winter and cooling zones during summer heat waves.

You can also visit this sarcastic (warning: uses swears) page for information about all the different things you can use the library for.  

A Child of the Library

Chorus:
I’m a Child of the Lib’ry, it made me who I am,
It taught me about freedom and the fellowship of Man
A sea of story waits for you behind the lib’ry door,
Don’t say we can’t afford them any more.

The Lib’ry’s where I made some friends I’ve known my whole life through
The Walkers and the Blacketts and the Pevensies so true.
Simp the canine cannonball, Galadriel the fair.
The daughter of a pirate king and Paddington the Bear

I’ve travelled South with Shackleton and all his gallant crew
And to the African interior that Mary Kingsley knew
I’ve rode the trackless prairie where the bison used to roam
An travelled round the Universe, not half an hour from home.

And as I grew the libr’y fed my curiosity,
All there for the asking. All of it for free.
It’s there I found the stories that I couldn’t find at home.
It’s where I learned I was myself and not my father’s clone.

So make friends with your library, don’t let it fade away.
Teach your kids the lib’ry’s where you go on Saturday.
Don’t let the bastards tell you they will cost to much to save
While they’re shovelling our taxes down the hole the bankers made

So make a stand for the lib’ry. Stand up while you can.
Stand up for your freedom. Stand for your fellow man.
Ignorance is never bliss, don’t close the lib’ry door.
For a lib’ry lost is lost forever more.

Lyrics © 2011 Piers and Gill Cawley
Music © 2011 Piers Cawley

Licenced under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA License.

Direct Action in the System of Education

First a video from NYC - Occupy the Department of Education

Maryland State Board of Education - Search for the new State Superintendent of Schools
Superintendent's dramatically shape the way education happens in schools.  They can support or suppress the Arts, focus on testing to the exclusion of other programs, support or end extended day programs, and so much more.  Maryland will soon hire a new State Superintendent, but first they're giving everyone a chance to voice what qualities they think the Superintendent should have.  People interested in directly participating in this can go online and complete the survey by November 18 2011, or attend a series of open forums held at 2:30 pm and again at 7pm at each of the following locations.

11/3 - Seneca Valley High School (Montgomery County) 19401 Crystal Rock Drive, Germantown, MD 20874

11/7 - Huntingtown High School (Calvert County) 4125 N Solomons Island Rd, Huntingtown, MD 20639

11/7 - Mountain Ridge High School (Allegany County) 100 Dr. Nancy S. Grasmick Lane, Frostburg, MD 21532

11/9 - Edgewood High School (Harford County) 215 Willoughby Beach Rd, Edgewood, MD 21040

11/10 - Baltimore Polytechnic Institute (Baltimore City) 1400 West Cold Spring Lane, Baltimore, MD 21209

Getting Kids Ready For School

Recently I've been busy getting my program ready for the start of school. Teachers, parents, and students the country over have been buying and organizing supplies and making a variety of plans.  You see plenty of tips about what classroom supplies to buy kids, but the most important aspect of preparing children for school happens in the years before kindergarten.  Prenumeracy and Preliteracy skills are necessary for a successful start to school and are learned at pre-schools and homes in a variety of ways.

Prenumeracy and Preliteracy skills are necessary for children to learn math and reading and range from sorting materials, having a conversation, and holding a pencil.

This being a literacy blog I'll focus on explaining the 6 main preliteracy skills and how to develop them.

Vocabulary
Knowing the names of things is an important precursor to reading.  Most children enter kindergarten knowing 3,000 - 5,000 words.  The more words a child knows the more prepared he or she is for school and the easier reading will be. 

• Using precise language when talking to children helps expand their vocabulary.  Instead of pointing and saying "Bring those here" use object and place words like "Bring the plates to the table." 
• Make sure children spend time outside of the house and point out the names and titles of the animals, people, buildings, and objects you encounter.
• Read a variety of fiction and non-fiction books with your child.  Some books, like Fancy Nancy are created to expand children's vocabulary.
• When speaking to your child occasionally use words they don't know.

Remember children can't expant their vocabularies unless they encounter new words through conversations and experiences.

Narrative Skills
Being able to understand and tell stories and describe things, narrative skills, are necessary for children to understand what they are reading.  Being able to differentiate between the beginning, middle, and end of events and to explain this are important for reading and other cognitive functions.

• Ask children questions about their day.  Help them find and explain the sequence of events by asking questions like "What did you do first?" and "What happened next?"
• When reading to children, or watching a TV show or movie, ask children to summarize the story and explain their favorite parts.

Print Motivation
Print motivation is the interest in and the enjoyment of books.  Some children naturally have a higher print motivation, but it is something that should be fostered in all children. A child with print motivation will play with books, pretend to read, and enjoys being read to and trips to the library.  Between natural inclination and my parents reading to me a great deal my high print motivation kept me liking books despite my learning disabilities and helped me (eventually) become an avid reader.

• Point out and read words everywhere you see them, on signs, cereal boxes, newspapers and everything else.
• Take children to group stories times at libraries and book stores.
• If possible make story time and every day activity.
• Take children to the library and help them find stories they'll enjoy.
• Make sure to keep reading enjoyable by not forcing children to sit still for longer then is natural for them.

Print Awareness
Print awareness is knowledge of how books and writing works.  Children with print awareness know that text is read from left to right and that pages are read top to bottom.  They know that the print on the page matches up with what is being read to them.  Over time children will learn that capital letters signify names and starts of sentences and that punctuation ends a sentence.

• Point to words when reading them.  Make sure to do this with text outside of books to.
• During story time run your finger along under the words so your child sees how words match up with what you're saying.

Letter Knowledge
Letter knowledge means learning the alphabet.  Its learning the names and sounds of individual letters.  You can start teaching letter knowledge to babies before they begin fully talking.

• There are a variety of books and activities made to teach letter knowledge.  Letter blocks, carpets, and alphabet books are ways to introduce your child to letters as babies and toddlers.
• Describe the shapes of letters: B has two bellies, M is two mountains.  Make sure to find ways that make sense to the individual child.  You can also ask kids what they think the letters look like.
• For pre-schoolers try drawing letters in the sand, snow, flour, or while playing with markers and chalk.
• Remember to keep things fun.  The point is to get children comfortable with letters.  Few children have the patience or ability to learn actual spelling befor turning 5 and entering kindergarten.

Phonological Awareness
Phonological awareness is knowing the sounds that make up words. It includes being able to hear and create rhymes, to say words with sounds left out, and putting two words or word parts together to make another word.

• Play silly word games that makes use of rhyming. Like "Anna, bananna, fe fi fofanna". 
• Lots of children books are written in rhyme, make sure to read some with your child.
• Say words with pauses between the syllables. "Rab" - "It" "Wat" - "Er"

Awareness and Aid

Last month the Book List was for Autism Acceptance and I wish this event was happening then.  On May 12 at 7:30 pm Wretches and Jabbers will be shown in 100 cities across the United States.  The movie is about two men with autism, who were excluded from public schools as children, who travel the world and meet other people with Autism Spectrum Disorder.  Here's the web page with city listings.

The PepsiRefresh Project gave a grant to a gentleman who is using it to provide books to public schools in Chicago.  People can vote for the PepsiRefresh Projects they like and the more votes the projects get the larger their grant funding.  You can vote for this project here.

A friend of mine, Elizabeth Handel, runs a literacy program for inmates and their children in Massachusetts.  It's called A Book from Mom/ABook from Dad and was started in 2004.  They take donations of used books to prisions for parents to give to their children when they visit.  If parents can't meet with their children some prisions allow them to record themselves reading the book and then send the book and recording to their child.  It's very local with Handel sorting and delivering most of the books herself, some information about the program is available here.  Sadly A Book from Mom/A Book from Dad is not set up for internet donations.  But if you're in MA look out for bookstores and schools who work with this organization and donate through them