Readicide - How Schools Are Killing Reading

Readicide - How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It

by Kelly Gallagher

http://www.stenhouse.com/shop/pc/viewprd.asp?idProduct=9158&r=sb091211&REFERER=

( read the first chapter on-line.)

---------------Description---------------------------

"Read-i-cide n: The systematic killing of the love of reading, often exacerbated by the inane, mind-numbing practices found in schools. Reading is dying in our schools. Educators are familiar with many of the factors that have contributed to the decline -- poverty, second-language issues, and the ever-expanding choices of electronic entertainment. In this provocative new book, Kelly Gallagher suggests, however, that it is time to recognize a new and significant contributor to the death of reading: our schools."

International Children's Digital Library

I recently came across this link for the International Children's Digital Library:
http://en.childrenslibrary.org/index.shtml
There's a wide range of material, some good, some uneven, but if you find a good title, you can use it with a Smartboard or Projector. Many languages represented. (Some books can be read in a couple of different languages.)
"The ICDL Foundation's goal is to build a collection of books that represents outstanding historical and contemporary books from throughout the world. Ultimately, the Foundation aspires to have every culture and language represented so that every child can know and appreciate the riches of children's literature from the world community"
English Picture book sample

Daniel's Ride

Sets organized by language...

French Picture Books
Spanish Picture Books

The same designers have released an iPhone app that works with the ICDL to create stories on an iTouch or iPhone. (Blog article)

"Children writing books on mobile phones? That certainly seems unlikely - so how did we get to the point where actually built an app to support it?" (Finding the App

Looking for a place for students to publish?

For the website: "Teen Ink, a national teen magazine, book series, and website is devoted entirely to teenage writing, art, photos and forums. Students must be age 13-19 to participate, register and/or submit work. Distributed through classrooms by English teachers, Creative Writing teachers, Journalism teachers and art teachers around the country, Teen Ink magazine offers some of the most thoughtful and creative work generated by teens and has the largest distribution of any publication of its kind."

http://www.teenink.com/

You can also download PDF versions of the magazine

http://www.teenink.com/Issues/2009-December.php

Christmas Countdown Widget

If you like adding seasonal items to your library website, you might be interested in this widget from "SpringWidgets"

This happy little tree counts down the days until Christmas. If you go to the site (LINK), you can download the html code. If you're using a FirstClass website, when you paste in the code on your own page, you'll need to change the style (Look under the format menu for style) and change it to "Literal HTML". Your visitors will see the tree instead of the code.

(You'll also find other countdown widgets here: http://widgets.primarygames.com/countdownclocks/index.htm)

Streaming Author Interviews

If you click on the link, and scroll down to the "Books Alive" tab. You'll see a list of author interviews.

http://hcpsstv.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=2