Parental literacy key to kids’ performance

Mr. Bennett advocates a comprehensive, targeted "reconstruction zone" strategy — expanding educational opportunities for all children in order to address the identified literacy crisis in faltering schools.

This is an interesting proposal, but thinking that we can "fix" children's literacy with interventions solely in the P-12 school system would be a mistake. Children do not exist in isolation. They come from families, and children struggling with literacy most often come from families where the moms and dads themselves have lower literacy levels.

Children will still have problems in school if their parents lack the literacy skills to support their learning.

 

http://thechronicleherald.ca/opinion/1203130-parental-literacy-key-to-kids-performance

Could e-books actually get in the way of reading?

Could e-books actually get in the way of reading?

That was the question explored in research presented last week by Heather Ruetschlin Schugar, an associate professor at West Chester University, and her spouse Jordan T. Schugar, an instructor at the same institution. Speaking at the annual conference of the American Educational Research Association in Philadelphia, the Schugars reported the results of a study in which they asked middle school students to read either traditional printed books, or e-books on iPads. The students' reading comprehension, the researchers found, was higher when they read conventional books. In a second study looking at students' use of e-books created with Apple's iBooks Author software, the Schugars discovered that the young readers often skipped over the text altogether, engaging instead with the books' interactive visual features.

While their findings are suggestive—especially for parents and teachers who have questioned the value of e-books—they are preliminary, and based on small samples of students. More substance can be found in the Schugars' previous work: for example, a paper they published last year with colleague Carol A. Smith in the journal The Reading Teacher. In this study, the authors observed teachers and teachers-in-training as they used interactive e-books with children in kindergarten through sixth grade. (The e-books they examined are mobile apps, downloadable from online stores like iTunes.)

While young readers find these digital products very appealing, their multitude of features may diffuse children's attention, interfering with their comprehension of the text, Smith and the Schugars found. It seems that the very "richness" of the multimedia environment that e-books provide—touted as their advantage over printed books—may actually overwhelm kids' limited working memory, leading them to lose the thread of the narrative or to process the meaning of the story less deeply.

Parents and teachers should look for e-books that enhance and extend interactions with the text, rather than those that offer only distractions.

http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/04/what-types-of-e-books-are-best-for-young-readers

Jennifer Parnell Award for Youth Potential

The Jennifer Parnell Award for Youth Potential

The Jennifer Parnell Award for Youth Potential recognizes youth who demonstrate initiative, personal development, and/or outstanding progress towards their individual goals. The deadline to apply is June 1, 2014.

http://www.kidsmentalhealth.ca/documents/jennifer-parnell-award-for-youth-potential.pdf

Diary of a Wimpy Kid lesson plans!

Monday 28th April 2014, 2-2.30pm

Have you signed your class up to watch  Wimpy Kid Virtually Live yet? Airing in just under three weeks time it's going to be massive - and your class's artwork could star in the show!

Download the FREE lesson plans which are packed with ideas for before and after the event. Specially created, curriculum linked and masses of fun - even the most reluctant of readers will be clamouring to create their own covers.

As for the show itself, author Jeff Kinney will be telling viewers the Wimpy Kid story from first scribble through to international best-selling sensation, there'll be a live draw-along, Q&As and the BIG COVER REVEAL for book 9.  Zoo-wee mama! Puffin better get back to rigging the studio - the countdown has begun.

Suitable for children aged 6-11 years 

REGISTER NOW FOR FREE

How can teachers support meaningful, high-quality student interaction in the math classroom?

Series: What Works? Research into Practice

Authors: Catherine D. Bruce

Collection: Research Materials

This document is part of a research-into-practice series produced by a partnership between The Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat of the Ministry of Education of Ontario and the Ontario Association of Deans of Education.

This research paper asks the question: How can teachers support meaningful, high-quality student interaction in the math classroom? In the math reform literature, learning math is viewed as a social endeavour. In this model, the math classroom functions as a community where thinking, talking, agreeing, and disagreeing are encouraged. The teacher provides students with powerful math problems to solve together and students are expected to justify and explain their solutions. The primary goal is to extend one’s own thinking as well as that of others.

The Monograph also looks at what the research tells us; the value of student interaction; and also some challenges that teachers face in engaging students. As well, the author gives five strategies for encouraging high-quality student interaction, such as students questioning one another and the use of rich math tasks.

Copyright for this resource is held by the Queen’s Printer for Ontario.

http://library.copian.ca/item/12690

 

Drawing as Literacy

Posted by Michael Gough, VP of Experience Design on March 17, 2014 9:00 AM in Creatives, Digital Media, Executive Perspectives

Imagine if our grade school teachers had compared our early school essays to the work of Steinbeck or Kerouac and suggested we just give it up for lack of talent.  We would have a crisis of illiteracy on our hands. However, this is essentially the approach we take with drawing in our children’s’ early education – identifying the “talented” ones and dissuading the rest. I have come to believe that drawing is a fundamental form of literacy and a key to unlock creative modes of thinking.

Observe any designer or artist, and it is clear that drawing is essential for stimulating their creative process. When we activate the whole brain, we think all the way around a given challenge and are more likely to tease out new possible directions or solutions. Without the ability to draw, we wouldn’t have developed the three-dimensional thinking needed for tomorrow’s challenges, especially since those challenges will require novel solutions that require a whole lot of creativity to discover.

When students – our future creatives, inventors, innovators and designers – are empowered to use their whole brains to imagine and to make things, they will begin to develop the skills needed to develop creative approaches to the substantial and seemingly intractable challenges that they will face. When it is their turn, they will come to these challenges with a more complete sense of engagement, and an understanding that the chaotic and complex world that they face is theirs to shape.

The good news is that absolutely anyone can be trained to draw. It starts with an understanding that your hand is as unique as your voice, and that you also have your own way of seeing. Add the right tools to the mix - and you are on your way. It’s a little bit like learning to ride a bike – it only takes practice – and eventually you tease out your own style of drawing.

Fueled to make digital creativity more accessible and natural - Adobe has developed a set of digital drawing tools inspired by the good old fashion analog world: Projects Mighty and Napoleon.  By combining the accuracy, expressiveness and immediacy of pen and paper with all the advantages of our digital products, we are confident these physical tools are perfectly suited to the endeavors of the new creative.

You may never draw like da Vinci or Rembrandt, but with practice you will definitely tease out your own style of drawing.  I am certain that, once armed with the necessary tools, you will be motivated and inspired, and that you will start to develop or increase your creative literacy.

Perhaps it’s time to broaden the definition of literacy – to say that the truly literate can read, write AND draw.

http://blogs.adobe.com/conversations/2014/03/drawing-as-literacy.html