Thinking about reading

Reading is a cultural activity. This statement may seem obvious, and yet in recent decades an increasing number of educators have considered reading from psychological and even neurological perspectives, as if reading were a process that happens in the agent’s mind and is ultimately regulated by brain mechanisms. (Michael Ben Chaim at The Answer Sheet)

To read more, click the hyperlinked text above.

Books and tweets

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Grand Forks Central Literacy is on Twitter. The above information comes from someone Grand Fork Central Literacy follows. If you want to follow Grand Forks Central Literacy, click on the Twitter icon along the side of the blog.

Graduation rates might be increasing

The nation’s high school graduation rate, which declined in the latter part of the 20th century, may have hit bottom and begun to rise, according to a report to be issued Tuesday by a nonprofit group founded by former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell. (Sam Dillon at the New York Times) 


To read more about the report, click the above.

A terrific reading resource

Since 1956, IRA has been a nonprofit, global network of individuals and institutions committed to worldwide literacy. More than 70,000 members strong, the Association supports literacy professionals through a wide range of resources, advocacy efforts, volunteerism, and professional development activities. Our members promote high levels of literacy for all by:


* Improving the quality of reading instruction
* Disseminating research and information about reading
* Encouraging the lifetime reading habit

(from the International Reading Association website)

IRA's website is rich with resources, including Reading Radio. Here's some information about it, again from IRA's website.IRA Reading Radio airs monthly on the BAM! Radio Network, a radio website for the education community. In each installment, IRA interviews an expert on a key topic relating to reading education.

This month's broadcast is about response to intervention. To listen, click here.

Pilgrim and Turkey for Thanksgiving!

Some things just need to be seen... thanks to Kelsey Peterson and Joe Kalka for being so willing and capable (and funny!)






Happy Thanksgiving, everyone

Must-read book on reading

Strategic Reading: Guiding Students to Lifelong Literacy 6-12 is a book grounded in relationships and built on connections—between generations of learning theorists starting with Lev Vygotsky and extending to George Hillocks and Michael Smith; between learning theory and the innovative practice of that theory in secondary English classrooms; and between teachers and learners engaged in two-way learning in collaborative classrooms.( Marean Jordan at NWP website)

Strategic Reading offers a rich array of resources and tools to help both new and experienced teachers work toward the visionary goal of guiding adolescent readers to engagement, competence, and independence. Although the book provides many concrete classroom-based techniques, as well as stories and figures to illustrate them, its primary focus is not on strategies. Rather, it develops an argument—grounded in theory and supported by extended examples of classroom practice—that "reading and writing should create new meaning, connections, and relationships. Reading and writing, like all effective learning is dialectical and social, and makes use of past and present materials to reach into the future" (52). (again.....from the NWP website)

Click on either of the hyperlinked paragraphs above to learn more.

Strategic Reading: Guiding Students to Lifelong Literacy 6-12
Written by Jeffrey D. Wihelm, Tanya N. Baker, and Julie Dube. Boynton/Cook Publishers, 2001. 254 pages.

Common standards movement

Two treats in one week for common-standards gazers: Idaho becomes the 43rd state to adopt the common standards. But it's provisional, folks; this one still has to go to the state legislature before becoming final.
The board of education adopted the standards on Nov. 17, according to Idaho Department of Education spokeswoman Melissa McGrath. The board first considered them in August, and took the final vote last week after a public comment period in October. Now the standards have to be considered and approved by the education committee of at least one chamber of the legislature, which doesn't reconvene until January, McGrath said. (Catherine Gewertz at Curriculum Matters)

Click the above text to learn more.