Children's Literacy and Reading News Roundups at Reading Tub and Booklights: January 18

This week’s children’s literacy and reading news round-up, brought to you by Jen Robinson’s Book Page and Scrub-a-Dub-Tub, a Reading Tub blog, is now available at the Reading Tub. This week Terry Doherty and I have collected plenty of content for you about literacy & reading-related events; literacy and reading programs and research; 21st century literacies; and grants, sponsorships & donations.

Terry begins with a mini-roundup of Kidlitosphere posts relevant to the situation in Haiti. I especially liked this one: "At the Reading Zone, Sarah Mulhern offers some suggestions on how to use life’s events and classroom tools to create teachable moments. “We need to grab teachable moments and broaden our students’s world views. We need to teach them to be global citizens.”"

There's also an interesting 21st Century Literacies article "about Deanna Isley, a third-grade teacher at Burnley-Moran Elementary. Isley secured a $5,221 grant from the city to purchase 19 Kindles and $300 in books. She uses the Kindles as a tool to complement her other work with the students."

Just in case the regular literacy roundup doesn't have enough news for you, I have some additional links related to raising readers in my Literacy 'Lights from the Kidlitosphere post at Booklights this morning. For example:

At Kidliterate, Melissa urges parents not to rush into reading the Harry Potter books to their young children. She says: "If you are reading HP to your kids before you have read them the RAMONA books, LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE, the FUDGE books, most of Cynthia Rylant, A CRICKET IN TIMES SQUARE, STUART LITTLE, and most of Roald Dahl, just to name a fraction of the available books, then your kids are not ready for HP. Shorter books do not equal bad. It is okay to finish a read-aloud quickly. It is okay to tell your child that they are not old enough for HP yet." She also offers a great list of read-alouds that are appropriate for six to eight year olds. I agree with Melissa completely, and I know that Pam does, too.

Perhaps some of you will find time, in the midst of all the excitement about the ALA Youth Media Awards, to peruse some links about children's literacy. Happy reading!

Comments

[MotherReader]

Consider this my official AGREED. We're in such a rush with these kids, that we're moving them past some of the best books. It's time we slow down.

[Jen Robinson]

Exactly, Pam! I guess the more we say it, the more chance there is for a few people to hear...