The Literacy Coalition of Greater New Haven is testing a new website, still in raw form at:
http://www.literacyeveryday.org
Comments, including suggestions about additional organizations in the region that might be represented on the site (which ultimately will include a Spanish-language version), are invited:
info@literacyeveryday.org
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Summer Reading, Kids Choose
Two recent New York Times columns refer to research by University of Tennessee scholars on the value of allowing children in Florida to select their own books for summer reading.
Tara Parker-Pope:
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/02/summer-must-read-for-kids-any-book/
David Brooks:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0DEFD81E39F93AA35754C0A9669D8B63&ref=davidbrooks
Citing also work from Jacob Vigdor and Helen Ladd at Duke's Sanford School of Public Policy on the negative correlation between North Carolina middle-schoolers' high-speed Internet access and math and reading scores, David Brooks proceeds to contrast the Internet with "the literary world."
Brooks argues the latter "is still better at helping you become cultivated, mastering significant things of lasting import. To learn these sorts of things, you have to defer to greater minds than your own. You have to take the time to immerse yourself in a great writer's world. You have to respect the authority of the teacher. Right now, the literary world is better at encouraging this kind of identity. The Internet culture may produce better conversationalists, but the literary culture still produces better students. It's better at distinguishing the important from the unimportant, and making the important more prestigious. Perhaps that will change. Already, more 'old-fashioned' outposts are opening up across the Web. It could be that the real debate will not be books versus the Internet but how to build an Internet counterculture that will better attract people to serious learning."
One example of the kind of "old-fashioned outposts" Brooks envisions on the Web is the New Haven Review, mentioned in posts to this blog on January 3 and May 5 of this year.
Tara Parker-Pope:
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/02/summer-must-read-for-kids-any-book/
David Brooks:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0DEFD81E39F93AA35754C0A9669D8B63&ref=davidbrooks
Citing also work from Jacob Vigdor and Helen Ladd at Duke's Sanford School of Public Policy on the negative correlation between North Carolina middle-schoolers' high-speed Internet access and math and reading scores, David Brooks proceeds to contrast the Internet with "the literary world."
Brooks argues the latter "is still better at helping you become cultivated, mastering significant things of lasting import. To learn these sorts of things, you have to defer to greater minds than your own. You have to take the time to immerse yourself in a great writer's world. You have to respect the authority of the teacher. Right now, the literary world is better at encouraging this kind of identity. The Internet culture may produce better conversationalists, but the literary culture still produces better students. It's better at distinguishing the important from the unimportant, and making the important more prestigious. Perhaps that will change. Already, more 'old-fashioned' outposts are opening up across the Web. It could be that the real debate will not be books versus the Internet but how to build an Internet counterculture that will better attract people to serious learning."
One example of the kind of "old-fashioned outposts" Brooks envisions on the Web is the New Haven Review, mentioned in posts to this blog on January 3 and May 5 of this year.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
School Supplies, August 24 Event
An April 25 post to this blog had mentioned that New Haven Police Lt. Rebecca Sweeney and other members of the NHPD were launching a campaign to provide books and promote reading across city neighborhoods. This effort is in collaboration with New Haven Reads.
Now Lt. Sweeney is leading the latest installment of an annual event giving away backpacks and school supplies in Newhallville on Tuesday, August 24, 2010 at 4:30 p.m. at 4 Science Park.
To participate in receiving supplies, please register at (203) 946-7827.
To donate a backpack or school supplies, please e-mail rsweeney@newhavenct.net or drop off items at the police substation at 165 Church Street (City Hall) or the Literacy Resource Center at 4 Science Park.
Financial contributions may be made to the Literacy Center with a notation indicating the backpack event.
Now Lt. Sweeney is leading the latest installment of an annual event giving away backpacks and school supplies in Newhallville on Tuesday, August 24, 2010 at 4:30 p.m. at 4 Science Park.
To participate in receiving supplies, please register at (203) 946-7827.
To donate a backpack or school supplies, please e-mail rsweeney@newhavenct.net or drop off items at the police substation at 165 Church Street (City Hall) or the Literacy Resource Center at 4 Science Park.
Financial contributions may be made to the Literacy Center with a notation indicating the backpack event.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Concepts for Adaptive Learning, July 16 Event
Concepts for Adaptive Learning (CfAL), which was mentioned most recently in a June 1 post to this blog, will hold a Friday, July 16 event from 11 a.m. to 12 noon to dedicate the computer training room at the new Literacy Resource Center at 4 Science Park.
RSVP to Michele Moore, CfAL Board Vice Chair, at 203-605-7007 or mmoore705@gmail.com.
RSVP to Michele Moore, CfAL Board Vice Chair, at 203-605-7007 or mmoore705@gmail.com.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Summer Reading at Library, and Books Donated
A June 24 New Haven Register article reports on a project related to Read to Grow, which has been featured in earlier posts to this blog:
"In an effort to help children develop a love of reading, R.J. Julia Book Sellers of Madison this week donated books to more than 16,000 kids in elementary and middle schools in New Haven. The main event took place at King-Robinson School, where about 500 students gathered for an assembly about reading. Four students read short essays they wrote about why they love reading and why it is so important.... A number of publishers donated 40,000 age-appropriate books. Originally, [R.J. Julia owner Roxanne] Coady had asked for about 20,000 books and the publishers doubled the amount. There were more than 20,000 extra books after the event. Boxes of them were left at the school and the excess will be available to librarians, teachers and day care centers.... More than 100 people volunteered time to organize and disperse books to the 38 schools. Coady in 1997 founded Read To Grow, a nonprofit organization that provides books for families of newborns in New Haven.... Her goal is to pique the kids’ interest by showing them that reading is 'something cool' and encouraging them to get involved with it."
http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2010/06/24/news/aa3rjjuliadonates062410.txt
. . .
Here's news of a summer reading challenge from the New Haven Public Library:
http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/summer_reading_challenge_charges_up/
"In an effort to help children develop a love of reading, R.J. Julia Book Sellers of Madison this week donated books to more than 16,000 kids in elementary and middle schools in New Haven. The main event took place at King-Robinson School, where about 500 students gathered for an assembly about reading. Four students read short essays they wrote about why they love reading and why it is so important.... A number of publishers donated 40,000 age-appropriate books. Originally, [R.J. Julia owner Roxanne] Coady had asked for about 20,000 books and the publishers doubled the amount. There were more than 20,000 extra books after the event. Boxes of them were left at the school and the excess will be available to librarians, teachers and day care centers.... More than 100 people volunteered time to organize and disperse books to the 38 schools. Coady in 1997 founded Read To Grow, a nonprofit organization that provides books for families of newborns in New Haven.... Her goal is to pique the kids’ interest by showing them that reading is 'something cool' and encouraging them to get involved with it."
http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2010/06/24/news/aa3rjjuliadonates062410.txt
. . .
Here's news of a summer reading challenge from the New Haven Public Library:
http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/summer_reading_challenge_charges_up/
Thursday, June 17, 2010
New Haven Reads, June 27 Fundraiser
New Haven Reads will hold a fund-raising event on Sunday, June 27.
See http://www.newhavenreads.org
See http://www.newhavenreads.org
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Books by and about Geoffrey Canada
Last year, an August 31 post to this blog cited a book by Paul Tough, Whatever It Takes, that features Geoffrey Canada and the Harlem Children's Zone.
Paul Tough had visited New Haven in May 2009 to benefit All Our Kin. His book illuminates the promise, lessons, costs, and context of Geoffrey Canada's ambitious social and educational venture.
Among the researchers Tough discusses is Joseph K. Torgesen, whose findings on the value of early intervention with struggling readers merit wider attention. Some information on Torgesen's work appears here:
*http://www.fcrr.org/science/sciencePublicationsTorgesen.htm
*http://www.readingrockets.org/article/225
Years earlier, Canada himself wrote Fist Stick Knife Gun (1995), about his own youth and how it has shaped his efforts as an educator, nonprofit leader, and policy advocate.
Fist Stick Knife Gun includes the following passages in which Geoffrey Canada emphasizes the importance of reading in his own development, as well as the social pressures that led him -- outside of school -- to downplay his academic interests:
"I kept my rich school life and my love of books to myself. While others might know I was in the 'smart' class, they also knew that I didn't act like it (p. 34).... The year was 1964 and I was in the sixth grade at P.S. 99. I had learned my lessons well both in school and on the streets. I found school, though, to be the lesser challenge. I loved reading, and my mother, who read voraciously too, allowed me to have her novels after she finished them. My strong reading background meant an easy time of it in most of my classes. The streets were a different matter. I had fought enough to have gotten a reputation as one of the smart kids you'd better not mess with (p. 70)."
Paul Tough had visited New Haven in May 2009 to benefit All Our Kin. His book illuminates the promise, lessons, costs, and context of Geoffrey Canada's ambitious social and educational venture.
Among the researchers Tough discusses is Joseph K. Torgesen, whose findings on the value of early intervention with struggling readers merit wider attention. Some information on Torgesen's work appears here:
*http://www.fcrr.org/science/sciencePublicationsTorgesen.htm
*http://www.readingrockets.org/article/225
Years earlier, Canada himself wrote Fist Stick Knife Gun (1995), about his own youth and how it has shaped his efforts as an educator, nonprofit leader, and policy advocate.
Fist Stick Knife Gun includes the following passages in which Geoffrey Canada emphasizes the importance of reading in his own development, as well as the social pressures that led him -- outside of school -- to downplay his academic interests:
"I kept my rich school life and my love of books to myself. While others might know I was in the 'smart' class, they also knew that I didn't act like it (p. 34).... The year was 1964 and I was in the sixth grade at P.S. 99. I had learned my lessons well both in school and on the streets. I found school, though, to be the lesser challenge. I loved reading, and my mother, who read voraciously too, allowed me to have her novels after she finished them. My strong reading background meant an easy time of it in most of my classes. The streets were a different matter. I had fought enough to have gotten a reputation as one of the smart kids you'd better not mess with (p. 70)."
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