News at the Week’s End

Well, at the end of week one, the *new plan* seems to be working. Well, except for the Goodreads/Twitter snafu. [Thanks Sheila for alerting me the old-fashioned way … email!].

√2008 is closed out (book-wise).

√ Blog pages and links are getting updated as I plod along through the reader (thanks to all for so many great links this week).

√Books are better organized and being cataloged for the reading year ahead.

You may have seen at least a few of these posts, but just in case …

Over at readergirlz (rgz), Lorie Ann Grover has posted the announcement for Teen Book Drop 2009 (aka TBD 09). In her cross-post, Little Willow tells us about last year’s event:  “YALSA and readergirlz organized a massive, coordinated release of 10,000 publisher-donated YA books into the top pediatric hospitals across the country and encouraged people to donate books to hospitals, schools, libraries, and gathering spots in their communities.” You can click here or click the button on our sidebar for the full scoop.

In the Reading Zone, Sara got her students engaged in the *adult* discussions about the Newbery. They read the recent commentary, wrote a summary, and then added their own thoughts.  A great way to get kids engaged in using reading as a tool for independent thinking, no?

Meg Ivey has a post at the National Center for Family Literacy blog that links you to the new National Early Literacy Panel report. The NELP study is a comprehensive look at understanding early literacy. It weighs in at 260 pages, and is highly technical. There were a few quick things I pulled from the Executive Summary (starts on page 13).

• Phonological awareness (auditory processing/understanding) plays a pivotal role in literacy development.
• Home and parent intervention programs “yielded statistically significant and moderate to large effects on children’s oral language skills and general cognitive abilities.”
• One-on-one and small group interventions work best in helping children achieve their full potential.

USA Today had an article with updated stats (2007) on the leapfrog growth of  homeschooling. As the author points out, there is a hole in the analysis, though, because homeschooling parents aren’t generally inclined to answer  survey questions from the government.

Happy Friday. Oh! Go Gators … You did the SEC proud. But wait ’til next year. We’ve got Lane Kiffin now.