DLD = Digital Learning Day. The day is February 1, 2012. Like soon. We each have 8 days before we wake up and it is February 1.
What can you do to prepare, to learn more about this critical field of “digital”? One suggestion is to read the paper recently released by the Alliance for Education titled THE DIGITAL LEARNING IMPERATIVE: How Technology and Teaching Meet Today’s Education Challenges. Why is this topic important? Take a look at the chart “The Leaking Pipeline” on page 4 of the report. Each of us then needs to ask: What am I contributing to improve the outcomes portrayed as “leaking”?
Of 100 youth entering the 9th grade, 72 will finish high school, 44 will enter college and 20 will finish with a college degree…but 63% of our jobs by 2018 will require some college or more.
And of those 37% of jobs requiring only a high school degree? Already today 44% of our population is competing for those jobs. (Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce)
So next you ask, what does this have to do with children’s literacy and with digital learning day? Stop and think…you know, right?
But what can we do on ONE day, Digital Learning Day? The sponsors are asking each person to DO ONE THING. There are toolkits for all sectors. I plan to open the basic toolkit officially titled Get Started – Inspiration, Basics, and Much More and review some of the resources there – I have so much to learn.
So, are you in? Pledge to make February 1 a learning day for yourself at a minimum?
Happy Reading, Happy Exploring “Digitally”!
Carol
January 24th, 2012
THE DANCING DRAGON by Marcia Vaughan and illustrated by Stanley Wong Ho Foon. Mondo Publishing. 1996.
HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR! Today the year of the DRAGON is ushered in and there is no book better to include than this one all about the dragon dance. The book has a special secret…do you know the secret?
Check back later this week, we’ll share the secret!
Happy Reading, Happy New Year!
Carol
Cover Story is a feature every Monday on Rasco From RIF where I share with you the “face” of a book that has caught my eye or that readers have submitted. I hope you will share your favorite “cover story” possibility with me now and then.
January 23rd, 2012
If you missed the I Have a Dream edition of the Children’s Literacy and Reading News Roundup last week when posted at The Family Bookshelf, we (The Family Bookshelf, Jen Robinson’s Book Page and Rasco from RIF) invite you to check it out now! Terry, Jen and I bring you news every two weeks we find all around the web; and Terry has put together a packed, fun one in recent days.
What were some pieces that particularly spoke to me?
The Book Release Calendar introduced for us by Mr. Schu at Nerdy Book Club. What, you don’t know about the Nerdy Book Club? For shame, do go there now and check out all you have been missing! It’s exactly what it says there, it’s a “community of readers.”
Next to cause me to pause and think was the Nick Kristof op-ed from the New York Times on January 11 THE VALUE OF TEACHERS in which he outlines a new study by economists at Harvard and Columbia universities which ”finds that if a great teacher is leaving, parents should hold bake sales or pass the hat around in hopes of collectively offering the teacher as much as a $100,000 bonus to stay for an extra year. Sure, that’s implausible — but their children would gain a benefit that far exceeds even that sum.” Check out the full article.
I love that video THE JOY OF READING showing “after hours” in a bookstore; and information Terry adds from Publishers Weekly tells you about the film making process including how long it took to make that jewel!
There’s much more, don’t miss it. And while you are there at The Family Bookshelf, check out A Feast for New Readers: The I Can Read Gathering for January 2012!
And I will see you in about ten days with the review of the remainder of January’s news in children’s literacy and reading. I’ve already found my next coveted piece of furniture to share with you and more on the importance of play as well as the need to allow our children to fail.
I leave you with a reminder the National Book Foundation 2012 Innovations in Reading Prize applications are due by February 21. What is this competition? A couple of teasers from the website: Are you part of a school, library, museum, business, website, or other organization that is doing something truly unique and innovative to help foster a love of reading? Or do you know someone who is? If so, you might be a perfect candidate for our Innovations in Reading Prize! And folks, the prize is not only $2500 but also a trip to NYC for a special luncheon AND attendance at the National Book Foundation’s annual dinner where THE books are announced!
Happy reading, have a great week savoring and discussing the awards to be announced Monday morning!
Carol
January 21st, 2012
There’s lots of buzz at RIF today. We’re very excited to announce that RIF and Gerber Life have teamed up to help get more books to kids through Project Open Book — an easy way for you to help spread the
love of reading… and possibly win $1,000!
Starting today, you can visit Gerber Life’s Facebook page, upload a photo of your child into a mosaic, and be entered to win a $1,000 VISA® gift card, a $500 Visa® Gift Card, or one of 100 Crayon Calculators! For every photo uploaded, Gerber Life will donate $1 to RIF, up to $10,000.
$10,000 will help provide books to 4,000 RIF Kids! And I’m sure you’d have a blast using $1,000 or $500 to buy a bounty of books for the little ones in your life. With your help, we can reach our goal and you’ll certainly be a winner to us —now that’s priceless!
Much like RIF, Gerber Life has been committed for over 40 years to helping families plan for a bright future. Their Grow-up and College Plan products have made saving for college easy and affordable for millions of families. Through Project Open Book they are able to share their belief that literacy and learning are the keys to success. We hope you’ll add your child’s photo and tell your friends to do the same. The promotion runs through Feb 13. See ya on Facebook!
January 19th, 2012
Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Martin Luther King, Jr.
It is the time of year our nation honors Martin Luther King, Jr., the youngest person ever to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize; he was 35 when presented this honor in 1964. For me this “long time in coming federal holiday” is also a time of reflection, of thinking how over the next 365 days I can do my part toward realizing the dream Dr. King held for America.
I am a child of the South; what do I remember about Dr. King?
I remember hearing of him most in-depth when he would be discussed in presentations made by the Panel of American Women in our schools and our churches. This panel of women representing different ethnicities and different religions presented the personal experiences of each in her own words, in the skin she inhabited. I will never forget the evening they spoke at my request at a regional church youth gathering in a community near my own…and were refused seating for dinner in a local restaurant. Make no mistake; they would have been refused seating at any restaurant in the part of the state where I lived, if not the full state.
As I left high school and entered college Dr. King was in the news more often, his speeches were discussed at length in classes; and oh, how I wished I was feeling progress in our ability as a nation to be respectful, to be tolerant of one another whatever our differences. I next remember the night the television program was interrupted as a group of us sat in the TV room of the collegiate residence I called home. Dr. King had been assassinated. And I knew. We had made little to no progress. The comments by some sitting there still ring negatively in my ears forty plus years later.
Have we now finally made that progress? Not to the degree I would have hoped back in that high school church youth group, not to the degree I wanted to believe possible sitting in that room on an April evening in 1968. My voice must still speak loudly today, must be joined by other voices.
History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period
of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the
appalling silence of the good people. Martin Luther King, Jr.
January 16th, 2012
This cover image has been jumping from pages and held by my eyes with an equal desire on my part to hold this book in my hands! And on January 31, 2012 ANOTHER BROTHER by Matthew Cordell and published by Feiwel & Friends will indeed be in my hands. Balloons and animals and the implication there are brothers here…loads of fun in store, I am sure of it!
Happy Reading!
Carol
Cover Story is a feature every Monday on Rasco From RIF where I share with you the “face” of a book that has caught my eye or that readers have submitted. I hope you will share your favorite “cover story” possibility with me now and then.
January 16th, 2012
Cold January day holding bright rays of sun
The first is a rather small solitary tree
with closer review showing thin icicles having been carefully placed on limb tips.
The next a mixing bowl of greens and sizes
with some in suffocating bags
Others large and limbs shriveling, curling
as bird rests on limb.
Could this not be again used for birds, for fish?
Memories of family, laughter, some late night quiet tears?
Anticipation, shrieks on THE morning, fears pushed aside,
fears realized?
Now curbside, three days awaiting large truck, impersonal pitch.
Scrapbook of family, inhabitants. Gone.
January 15th, 2012
I am honored this week to be featured on the blog of Kappa Kappa Gamma with a post talking about lifelong reading habits. Kappa Kappa Gamma is a supporter of Reading Is Fundamental; correct that, the members of Kappa are super supporters. Advocacy, financial support and volunteers – what a great gift to young children in need. Thank you, Kappa Kappa Gamma!
A book I feature in the blog post as the first I read in 2012 is MIGRANT.
I mean, take a look at this cover. Very easy to see why it’s on the New York Times Book Review 10 Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2011 isn’t it?! Do check out the blog AND the book!
January 13th, 2012
A couple of months ago I saw the cover pictured here…and I knew I had a Cover Story for a Monday in the New Year. Then before I could post it the day (TODAY!) of debut for the book and this author arrived and in the meantime, I had read so many things about this book and author I knew it had to be more than a Cover Story!
(Schwartz & Wade/imprint of Random)
What a knock out cover! Caroline Starr Rose shared last spring that C. S. Neal would be designing the cover and noted he did the covers for Laurie Halse Anderson’s CHAINS and FORGE. As one who is intrigued by Cover Art and its relationship to the book it envelops, it isn’t everyday there is an artist post or interview as extensive as the one shared on the process of developing this cover by C. S. Neal – take a look! And recently I posted an interview of Neal by Kate Messner, author of OVER AND UNDER THE SNOW which Neal illustrated (and it is his first picture book to illustrate).
Next encounter with MAY B. was in November when a tweet led me to a “sneak peak” of the book at RANDOM acts of READING with a guest post written by Joanne Fritz, noted as a “children’s book guru at Chester County Books and Music in West Chester Pennsylvania.” The book was becoming more and more real to me, more and more on my “get this book” list!
Last Friday RANDOM acts of READING again featured this book with an author interview and one paragraph in particular stood out to me with Rose noting:
As a teacher, I’d always wondered how children with learning
disabilities had fared at a time before their challenges were
understood, especially in the days when recitation and reading aloud
were the major means of instruction. Dyslexia became a perfect obstacle
for a child striving to do better and mirrored nicely May B.‘s the theme of isolation.
And so today MAY B., a book in verse with two stars and selection by Junior Library Guild is born! Happy Birthday, MAY B. and all best wishes to you!
Happy Reading!
Carol
January 10th, 2012
Check out this new article For Reading and Learning, Kids Prefer E-Books to Print Books by Jeremy Greenfield, Editorial Director, Digital Book World.
“I’m very concerned that there’s going to be another digital divide,”
said Carol Rasco, president and CEO of Reading is Fundamental. “I fear
that many of our children in low-income areas aren’t going to have as
much access to the readers themselves or tools needed to read the
digital books. It’s something that is really moving along and we’re
going to leave some of those children behind. They won’t have the skills
needed when schools, all of a sudden, go to e-readers for their
text-books, perhaps.”
January 9th, 2012
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