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• Reading field loses luminaries

  9/8/2010 4:45:00 PM

  The reading field lost two major luminaries in recent days: John Chorlton Manning and Edward Fry. Manning, a longtime professor at the University of Minnesota, passed away on September 6. Manning served as IRA President from 1985-1986 and continued as an active friend and major benefactor of the Association throughout his life. His deep interest in working with public schools led him to establish the IRA John Chorlton Manning Public School Service Award, a US$10,000 award for "professors of reading education who have demonstrated their commitment to public education."

  Over the years, Manning served on IRA committees, wrote for IRA publications, and spoke at IRA conferences at all levels. He received the Association's Outstanding Teacher Educator in Reading Award in 1989, and in 2010 he was inducted into the Association's President's Inner Circle for his "overwhelming generosity and his contributions to reading education and IRA."  His many contributions to the reading field include participating as a principal investigator for one of the individual studies comprising the famous First-Grade Studies, which were published in Reading Research Quarterly in summer 1967 and remain among the most influential reading research studies of all time. He is a member of the Reading Hall of Fame.

  Fry, creator of the Fry Readability Graph, died on September 2 at the age of 85. A longtime professor at Rutgers University, Fry served as president of the National Reading Conference and is a member of the Reading Hall of Fame. He was the author of more than 30 books and more than 100 articles. One of his major interests was education in Africa; he taught at the University of Zimbabwe and developed the University Press at Africa University in Zimbabwe.

  IRA General News

• Happy Literacy Day!

  9/8/2010 4:30:00 PM

  September 8 marks the worldwide celebration of International Literacy Day. This year the celebration revolves around the theme "Literacy and Women's Empowerment." At a ceremony in Paris, UNESCO presented US$20,000 literacy prizes to programs from Cape Verde, Germany, Nepal, and Egypt. The awards ceremony was followed by the launch of the Knowledge and Innovations Network for Literacy (KINL). Created with support from Verizon Foundation and Microsoft, the Network is a virtual workplace where literacy researchers and practitioners can link up, share knowledge, and debate literacy topics online. It is scheduled to be operational beginning November 1, 2010. For further information about the UNESCO celebration of International Literacy Day, visit this UNESCO webpage.

  Meanwhile, the International Reading Association joined with the Brookings Institution in an International Literacy Day celebration in Washington, DC. This event featured the presentation of the cutting-edge literacy report Early Reading: Igniting Education for All, published by RTI International on the urgency to support, especially in developing countries, accurate and timely reading assessment and teacher preparation in reading education for K-3 age groups. Visit this page on the RTI International website to access the full report.

  In remarks made at the Brookings event, IRA President Patricia A. Edwards said that the new report offers valuable data on what is needed as a next step in moving education forward on a global level. "We need to focus on reading instruction," Edwards said. "The development of education policy needs to expand to include providing resources to teachers to become better teachers and to continue to measure what we are doing and its impact on the core mission of schools."

  Watch for further coverage of International Literacy Day in the next issue of Reading Today.

  Global Literacy

• Virtual education a top priority for Race to the Top winners

  9/8/2010 10:00:00 AM

  While public education experts have been debating the priorities that weighed most heavily in round two of Race to the Top, a report issued by an online education organization shows most of the 10 winning states submitted strong online learning proposals. According to a story posted online today by Education Week, a review of the applications of all 19 RTT finalists by Virginia-based International Association for K-12 Online Learning, or iNACOL, indicates that winning states are ready to use the funds to offer more online opportunities and make needed state policy revisions. What’s more, some of these states are in regions that have traditionally been hesitant to embrace online learning. Read more at Education Week online.

   

   

   

  Technology

• Between the Lions roars into 10th season

  9/8/2010 8:35:00 AM

  On the heels of positive research results released in August by the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication, the Emmy Award-winning series Between the Lions roars into its 10th anniversary season with 10 new episodes beginning September 20 on PBS Kids (check local listings for details).

  The study indicates that Between the Lions, when combined with teachers who are equipped with curriculum materials and who have received training, has a major impact on preschool literacy skills. For instance, the study indicated that within an experimental group of children exposed to the Between the Lions curriculum, students' letter sound scores, one of the more sophisticated and challenging early literacy skills, improved by nearly 300 percent.

  For further information about Between the Lions, visit the program's webpage. For further details about the study, visit the news page of the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication.

  Professional Resources

• RIF, US Airways conduct reading promotion campaign

  9/8/2010 8:30:00 AM

  Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), the oldest children’s literacy organization in the United States, and US Airways have kicked off the third year of “Fly with US. Read with Kids.” This program is designed to demonstrate the importance of reading with young children. A key component of the program will include the Read with Kids Challenge, where participants can log the amount of minutes they spend reading to children. The nationwide goal is to achieve 10 million minutes between September 1 and October 31. Readers can register to participate and log the number of minutes they read to children on an ongoing basis.

  Since the partnership first launched in 2008, US Airways and RIF have helped log a combined total of 14 million minutes read. As part of the Read with Kids Challenge, participants will be entered to win prizes, including a grand prize drawing of a Walt Disney World® Resort vacation package from US Airways Vacations. US Airways will also reward individuals who donate to RIF with gifts including Dividend Miles. People who donate at least $25 through the program will receive Maisy Takes a Trip, a special edition book by best-selling author Lucy Cousins. To sign up for the challenge or to make a donation, visit the "Fly with US. Read with Kids" website.

  During the campaign, RIF and US Airways will host reading celebrations in Charlotte, N.C., Philadelphia, and Phoenix. The events will feature a RIF book distribution where children get to choose a book for their own home libraries, family-friendly activities, and read-alouds where US Airways employees will interact with students and families.  

  Reading promotion

• DC school head could be forced out after primary

  9/7/2010 9:09:44 AM

  The scenario is familiar in the District and big cities across the country: An ambitious leader is appointed to reform schools. Policies and practices are upended, five-year plans unveiled, a flurry of initiatives launched with high hopes.

  After two or three years, political pressure from interests and constituencies unhappy with the changes forces the newcomer out.

  Enter a successor, with a new agenda. That is what many supporters of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee fear will happen if Fenty loses to D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray in the Sept. 14 Democratic mayoral primary. Read more in The Washington Post online.

  Policy

  Issues in the News Urban Issues Socioeconomic Factors Standards

• Book juggling aficionado tells all

  9/7/2010 8:53:55 AM

  Many people are serial readers — they pick up one book and read it cover-to-cover before putting it down.

  And then there are poly-readers like Julia Keller. The Chicago Tribune cultural critic juggles four, five, or even six books at any given time, never able — or willing — to choose just one. Some have frowned when Keller mentions how many books she's reading, she writes in a recent column. But she's nurtured her habit not because she's flighty or easily bored — or even because it's her job to read many books at a time. It's just because she finds life is simply better when lived among multiple books.

  There's nothing like the joy of accidentally stumbling on synergy between two books, says Keller, when a plotline or location in one is enriched by a scene in another. And in an age of rampant multi-tasking, Keller asks, why not? Read an interview with her at NPR online.

  Feature

  Reading promotion Opinion

• U.S. targets illiteracy among Afghan forces

  9/7/2010 8:40:00 AM

  The U.S. military is mounting a massive effort to help teach Afghan soldiers and police to read after concluding that literacy is "the essential enabler" to the local security forces' success, writes Andrew Tilghman in Army Times. The literacy rate for incoming Afghan army and police recruits is about 14% to 18%, according to Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, head of the NATO-led effort to train the Afghan national security forces. The literacy training is vital in creating reliable army and police forces, which are viewed as essential to the U.S. mission in Afghanistan.

  Overall literacy rates in Afghanistan are among the lowest in the world, according to a report by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. For further information, read the full Army Times article.

  Global Literacy

  Issues in the News

• Celebrate National Punctuation Day

  9/7/2010 8:25:00 AM

  September marks National Punctuation Day in the United States, and event organizer Jeff Rubin invites people to participate in a National Punctuation Day Haiku Contest, with the winners receiving "a plethora of punctuation goodies." Send your best 5-7-5 (syllables, that is) poetry to Jeff@NationalPunctuationDay.com, and let the literary games begin! Haikus must be received by September 30 to be considered for prizes.

  To see some great examples of punctuation haikus or to learn more about National Punctuation Day, visit the event website.

   

  Community Events and Updates

• The "right way" to read a book ... depends

  9/3/2010 8:00:00 AM

  Auriane and Sebastien de Halleux are at sharp odds over The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, but not about the plot. The problem is that she prefers the book version, while he reads it on his iPad. And in this literary dispute, the couple says, it’s ne’er the twain shall meet. “She talks about the smell of the paper and the feeling of holding it in your hands,” said de Halleux, 32, who says he thinks the substance is the same regardless of medium. He added, sounding mildly piqued, “She uses the word ‘real.’ ”

  By the end of this year, 10.3 million people are expected to own e-readers in the United States, buying about 100 million e-books, the market research company Forrester predicts. This is up from 3.7 million e-readers and 30 million e-books sold last year.

  The trend is wreaking havoc inside the publishing industry, but inside homes, the plot takes a personal twist as couples find themselves torn over the “right way” to read. At bedtime, a couple might sit side-by-side, one turning pages by lamplight and the other reading Caecilia font in E Ink on a Kindle or backlighted by the illuminated LCD screen of an iPad, each quietly judgmental. Read more of this article in The New York Times online.

  Reading promotion

  Libraries Feature Technology Socioeconomic Factors Literacy and Technology Opinion

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