October 5-October 11—Banned Books Week! “Any book worth banning is a book worth reading.”― Isaac Asimov Isaac Asimov was an American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the “Big Three” science fiction writers. While I have never read any of his books that I am aware of, I love and […]
The plate appears full for the month of October. Let’s carve out some time to observe the below events! Readers and Writers: Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15-October 15) You may also recognize this celebration as:: Latino Heritage Month, Latinx Heritage Month, or Latine Heritage Month. The theme for 2023: Latinos: Driving Prosperity, Power, and Progress […]
“There’s More to the Story”Celebrating National Library WeekApril 23-29, 2023 Why celebrate libraries? Not because I retired as a teacher-librarian at the end of last school year. Not because I love libraries. But maybe loving libraries is a great reason to celebrate. Overall, we can observe and recognize our libraries because they hold many stories […]
A story exists in each of us. I encourage children and adults to find inspiration to write. Ideas can come from a variety of sources: Pictures Newspaper or magazine articles Sunday school lessons or sermons Events in one’s own life Events in other people’s lives Shared conversations (with permission and without revealing sensitive info that could personally […]
Do you have students or children who need a boost of confidence in reading? Readers Theater is a great idea to accomplish this task. I have never observed a child who did not enjoy participating in a Readers Theater performance. Readers Theater is a presentation in which children perform by reading speaking parts of literature […]
As parents, teachers, and librarians, it takes a little creativity to encourage and motivate children to read. I would like to provide a few tips to inspire your young readers. Visit the National Day Calendar (http://www.nationaldaycalendar.com) for interesting themes to celebrate. You can locate themes by the day, week, and/or month. For example, yesterday, January […]
I often tell my students “good readers write and good writers read.” In my opinion, writing and reading are inseparable. The connection between reading and writing is essential to a child’s literacy development. Teachers and parents can nurture a child’s imagination through writing. An article in The Science of Learning affirms the importance of writing […]
Is it a struggle to get your child to read? Your child might say, “I just don’t like to read or “Do I have to read?” Of course, there are many possible reasons for this. However, it is not always the obvious, such as your child experiencing reading difficulties. Some children read well, but do […]
This week, I am straying from my normal post of children’s literacy issues to talk about book festivals. Many book festivals around the country will host them next month, in September, and the months to follow. Fostering literacy and encouraging the enjoyment of literature in young children and even in adults remains to be an important function […]
Do you know of children who do not like movies? I do not. Do you know of children who do not like to read? I do! In fact, over the course of twenty-two years in education, I have run across many children who say they do not like to read. We know there are many contributing […]