READ.LEARN.GROW

Boys Reading: A Lesson From Cinderella? Alexandra Morrill

"...as early as second grade, fully 25 percent (of boys) had developed a negative attitude about reading." (Trelease, p.156). For two essential strategies to help encourage boys to read click here.

Let's Go Reading in the Car One

Sunday Book Review

Try some summer reading in the car with an audio book list provided by Judith Shulevitz.

Published: May 18, 2012

How did we human beings become the hypersocial creatures we are today?
The biologist E. O. Wilson credits fire, among other causes. In a recent history of human evolution, Wilson offers the following explanation: Fire was precious because it flushed animals out of the brush, then made it possible for people to cook them. Campfires had to be guarded, which made them like “nests” and made us feel safe enough to be “eusocial” or altruistic. Sounds plausible to me. More . .  .

Let's Go Reading In The Car Two

Try some summer reading in the car with a list provided by Judith Shulevitz.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Summer Audio Books

The New York Times Book Review section from May 20th featured an article by Judith Shulevitz, “Let’s Go Reading in the Car” that included the following list of recommended audiobooks to check out this summer. Read reviews for these titles with CLCD.

Benefits of Telling Stories

Storytelling is the giving of a gift, the sharing of an emotion, the passing on of knowledge and understanding, one to the other.

Storytelling helps to facilitate learning without the burden of having to teach.  Story can be based on legend, myth, history, or even on science, mathematics, music, or the family.

Fantasy Literature

Fantasy Literature: Life's too short to read bad books. Read more…

Webzine: Middle School Students

Do you want to write? Do you want to become a better writer? Do you want to learn how to get published? Here's a website just for you. Read more ...

A Gift From Music

Robert (Max Tell) Stelmach When I was young, I hated and feared books. I have a short term memory problem, perhaps as a result of falling out of a two-story window when a baby.

Politically Incorrect

Monkey See Monkey Do Because of a general feeling among many parents and teacher that some topics are politically incorrect for toddlers and young children, I have been thinking about re-writing a few nursery rhymes such as Three Blind Mice, perhaps as follows:

The Gift of Reading

At a very early age, it was obvious; Robert Anderson wasn’t good school material. His grade one teacher used a ping-pong pallet to coax him to read. His first of two grade two teachers used a yardstick with the same intension. Neither worked. Robert failed grade two and three. His grade eight principal told him, “Don’t waste your time. Liberal Arts is not for you.  You’ll never graduate from high school, let alone university.” Robert proved him wrong, but not until he jumped a few difficult hurdles.

Tribute to Dr Seuss

And Early Childhood Literacy Dr. Seuss, Read Across America and 25 words your toddler should know is a short tribute to Dr. Seuss and his lifetime work to encourage literacy in young children in fun and imaginative ways. More

Highlights:

A third of all parents believe other people, such as teachers, are the ones who affect their children’s learning the most. Teachers are important, but they can’t do it all themselves. I would add that the contribution of parents during a child's early years is far more important than suggested here, and that parents reading to their young children are the actual key to literacy. Parents help built the foundation, while teachers help build the house.

The American Academy of Pediatricians suggests parents instill a love for books and language from the very beginning by reading, rhyming, singing and talking with babies from birth. Children learn best through repetition and interaction with their parents.

Rand Whipple

Early Learning Residency at York Day Nursery

Canadian Poems for Canadian Kids

Canadian Poems for Canadian Kids Edited by Jen Hamilton Illustration by Merrill Fearon Subway Books ISBN: 0-9736675-0-9 May not still be available except at your public library, or Amazon.ca Poetry / Humour / Thoughful For Grade 2 - 3

Beyond Words

Teaching without Pressuring the Teacher to Teach or the Child to Learn Stories and songs are natural teachers and create natural paths to literacy. Stir a child’s imagination with stories, songs, and poems, and you feed the roots of their learning. Once memorized, a single sentence from a piece of prose, a song, or a poem, creates a model for many hundreds of sentences to come.

Failure a Means to Success

Michael Jordan “I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.” - Michael Jordan.

Recently on CBC Radio, I heard a discussion between the renowned Michael Enright, host of CBC’s Sunday Edition, and three prominent and concerned educators. The subject for discussion was whether or not the current policy of ‘not failing students’ is ruining their possibilities in later life.

Where would we be today without failure and the subsequent success that failure can lead to? Would we have the telephone, space travel, or modern medicine? Most great scientific and technical advancements have been made because of years and years of trial and error.

Dummies CAN Read

Introduction

Is there such a thing as a dummy? No! Absolutely not! Although children have different natural abilities, every one is born to learn and learn well, if allowed to proceed at their own pace. Unfortunately, many children with reading difficulties are often blamed for their poor reading skills. As a result, they struggle with reading or shun it all their lives.

But wait a minute, lets get UN-serious about this and smile. A child with reading problems is not alone. He or she can be helped.