Blog Round -Up - Literacy

This week’s blog round-up features a potpourri of blogs and commentaries on literacy—for educators and all their students.

For younger students:

In "Summer Must-Read for Kids? Any Book" (New York Times August 2, 2010), Tara Parker-Pope shares research from two NCTE members at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. Richard Allington and Anne McGill-Franzen ‘s three-year study found that children who read books of their own choice over the summer gained as much, if not more, than children who attended summer school.

Rebecca Alber writes on Edutopia.org (August 4, 2010) asking (and answering) "How Important is Teaching Literacy in All Content Areas?".

Former Secretary of Education Susan B. Neuman notes "Public Media's Impact on Young Readers" (Education Week August 9, 2010) and suggests using public television to distribute high quality literacy resources to families and children of poverty so the children can gain literacy skills they need to begin school.

For high school students:

Holly Epstein Ojalvo and Shannon Doyne write in The Learning Network Blog on "Teaching ‘The Great Gatsby’ With The New York Times" (August 3, 2010).

For college students:

NCTE member Mike Rose, author of many books, including Writer's Block: The Cognitive Dimension, has two August commentaries in The Chronicle of Higher Education. In “Colleges Need to Re-Mediate Remediation " (August 3, 2010), Rose describes his work with a student named Kevin through the remediation program he helped develop at his college. Through the program Kevin was able to build his writing and reading skills and move out of remediation into “regular” college courses. Rose writes again in “Why America Needs a Smithsonian of Basic Skills” (August 8, 2010) and proposes “ a conceptual sea change in the way the nation understands and deals with the issue of academic underpreparation,” including a way to teach students across subject areas.