Junta for Progressive Action, Adult Education

A recent Yale Daily News article treated adult education for immigrants in New Haven, including GED classes offered in Spanish through a partnership between New Haven's Adult and Continuing Education program and Junta for Progressive Action.

Junta and its executive director, Sandra Trevino, participate in the Greater New Haven Literacy Coalition.

http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/city-news/2009/12/04/junta-supports-spanish-geds/

http://www.juntainc.org/

http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2009/11/literacy_coalit_1.php

The Greater New Haven Literacy Coalition recently held a Literacy Forum at the new Literacy Resource Center at 4 Science Park in Newhallville.

Read to Grow with Edward M. Kennedy Jr.

Read to Grow, whose executive director Susanne Santangelo is a Greater New Haven Literacy Coalition board member, held its annual luncheon on November 13. This year's event featured Edward M. Kennedy Jr.

A New Haven Register article appeared the next day:

"Kennedy Recalled at Literacy Group's Annual Luncheon"
http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2009/11/14/news/new_haven/a3-neread.txt

For more on Read to Grow's early literacy work, see:
http://www.readtogrow.org/

Literacy News

* Tomas Miranda received a Hispanic Leadership in Education award from the Hispanic Professional Network of Connecticut in September 2009.

* Junta for Progressive Action marked its 40th anniversary at an October 2 event and was featured in a New Haven Register article:

http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2009/10/05/news/new_haven/a1_mon_junta40.txt

* An October 29 Literacy Forum (previewed in an October 18 post to this blog) was described in New Haven Independent and New Haven Register articles below:

http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2009/11/literacy_coalit_1.php

http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2009/10/26/life/announcements/doc4ae5849ac2e15633638488.txt

* Read to Grow and R.J. Julia Booksellers have been selected to receive the Clifford W. Beers "Kids Are Our Business" service award on November 20. Also, Read to Grow will host Ted Kennedy Jr. as speaker at its annual luncheon on November 13.

Thursday, 10/29 Literacy Forum

Margie Gillis of Haskins Laboratories and Literacy How, Inc. will be the featured speaker at a Literacy Forum on Thursday, October 29.

Her topic:
"Bringing Research into the Classroom, One Teacher at a Time"

coffee 8:00 a.m.
discussion 8:30-10 a.m.

Literacy Resource Center
4 Science Park
New Haven 06511

All are invited; RSVP to:
info@gnhliteracy.org

Amelia Earhart, "Breathe the Sky" novel

With publicity growing about a Mira Nair movie about Amelia Earhart, I am looking forward to reading a new novel about Earhart by Chandra Prasad. The book is called "Breathe the Sky":

http://www.chandraprasad.com/Breathe_the_Sky.php

Having read a couple of other books Chandra Prasad has written, I'm confident the latest work by this New Haven-area author will appeal to many readers, too.

--Josiah Brown

International Literacy Day, September 8 -- and Local Reading

Tomorrow is International Literacy Day, as Maureen Wagner reminded Literacy Coalition colleagues. From the UNESCO website:

"This year, International Literacy Day will put the spotlight on the empowering role of literacy and its importance for participation, citizenship and social development. Literacy and Empowerment is the theme for the 2009-2010 biennium of the United Nations Literacy Decade."
http://www.unesco.org/en/literacy/advocacy/international-literacy-day/

. . .
Here in New Haven, Schools Superintendent Reginald Mayo said in a visit with kindergarteners last week:

“Boys and girls, we want you to be successful. The way that you do that, is ... you have to read, read, and continue reading. . . . You need to turn the TV off and — what? — read, read, read,” he said. “If you read, you will go to college, and you will be successful.”
. . .
Courtesy Melissa Bailey's September 4 article in the New Haven Independent and Elizabeth Benton's September 5 article in the New Haven Register:

http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2009/09/class_of_2026_g.php

http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2009/09/05/news/new_haven/a1_--_kindergarten.txt

August Fiction and Non-Fiction

On the eve of September, here's an update on recent summer reading, including one work of fiction and two of non-fiction.

Both my wife and I found Jhumpa Lahiri's latest collection of short stories, "Unaccustomed Earth," hard to put down but ultimately less satisfying than her superb earlier collection, "Interpreter of Maladies." (In between, her novel "The Namesake" was also impressive and made into a movie starring Kal Penn.)

Paul Tough's "Whatever It Takes" profiles Geoffrey Canada and his leadership of the Harlem Children's Zone. The author had visited New Haven in May to benefit All Our Kin. He 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

Richard Nisbett's "Intelligence and How to Get It: Why Schools and Cultures Count" is a compelling counter -- as Derek Bok and William Bowen's "The Shape of the River" had been -- to Charles Murray and Richard Herrnstein's "The Bell Curve." Nisbett's book deserves a broad audience. He distills a considerable review of research into a cogent argument for nurturing child development and student learning.

Best wishes to students and educators for the new academic year. . .

Josiah Brown
for the Greater New Haven Literacy Coalition