Literacy Support in NYC

We recently learned about an exciting new initiative from the New York City Department of Education – their Equity and Excellence Initiative. One pillar of this platform is called Universal Literacy. The DOE has called for universal literacy for all public school students by the end of second grade; they believe that with the right supports, by 2026 all students will be reading on grade level in second grade. To jump start this process, 103 new hires joined the DOE team as dedicated reading coaches in the spring of 2016, and they all received intensive training over the summer. Their role is to work with the younger elementary grades’ teachers and administrators to provide dedicated literacy support. Over the next few years, all elementary schools will have access to a dedicated reading coach with specialized training. If your child is having difficulty with reading or just needs some extra support, it may be a good idea to find out what your school is already doing to improve literacy in its K-2 classrooms. A dedicated coach may already be on staff.

One of our favorite organizations, Advocates for Children of New York (AFC), recently published a new fact sheet on literacy. AFC is a local organization that protects the rights of our city’s children most at risk of school failure or discrimination. Their website has an extensive list of guides for parents about navigating your way through the school system. Their new literacy fact sheet is called "Parent-Teacher Conferences: Questions to Ask your Child’s Teacher about How Well He or She is Learning to Read and Write."  It provides a very detailed list of questions to ask teachers during conferences, including more targeted questions for when there are concerns about the progress your child is making.

Another noteworthy literacy document on the AFC website is called "Questions & Answers about Literacy: A Fact Sheet for Families of Students who Need More Helping Learning to Read and Write." This fact sheet provide a brief overview of the Response to Intervention framework, which is one way that schools figure out which students need extra support and what level of support they require. It also has information on how to find the right person in your district to talk to about getting help, and it outlines the rights of families surrounding the special education evaluation process. The fact sheet includes some descriptions of other services to consider, such as classroom accommodations and structured multi-sensory reading instruction, a Yellin Center favorite.

The AFC website is chock full of resources, including a guide to early intervention services in NYC and their short podcast about the NYC high school application process. They are a terrific independent, nonprofit resource, always deserving of support. 

The Case for Reading Aloud to Kids – Of All Ages

Most of us know by now that reading aloud to young children is critical. Listening to stories helps children build familiarity with the way books work, increases receptive language and critical thinking skills, and establishes positive feelings about reading. But Rebecca Bellingham, an instructor in the Literacy Specialist Program at Columbia University’s Teachers College, believes that reading aloud shouldn’t stop once children are able to read for themselves.

In a recent TED Talk, Bellingham explains that adults are simply more proficient at reading than children. This means that grown-ups can demonstrate the kind of prosody that good readers use: emphasizing certain words, slowing down during important parts and speeding up during suspenseful parts, and pausing to wonder in appropriate places. A truly skilled reader will ask questions of the text, too, which is something easily demonstrated by an adult reader. Modeling all of these good practices gives the young people listening implicit instruction about what they should be doing in their own minds as they work through a text. 

Bellingham advocates reading aloud at home for other reasons, too. Both kids and adults may spend time within the same four walls, but she worries that, more and more, individuals are interacting with their own screens and not each other. Parents who read to children can use the book as conduit for connecting with their kids. Simply sharing the journey of a good story can be a bonding experience, and books can spark important and interesting family conversations.

Here are some recommendations for reading to young people, especially at home:

• Allow your audience to have a say in the books you choose. Remember that chapter books are excellent read-aloud candidates; even though reading aloud is appropriate for all ages, it will be difficult to get a twelve-year-old excited about listening to The Cat in the Hat. 

• If possible, preview the text ahead of time. A quick skim will help you plan how you might want to use your voice to make the story come alive.

• Ask what happened during last night’s reading before you begin a new section. Reviewing text that’s already been read is a great habit for any reader of any kind of text.

• Model the way the story affects you. Pause after the author says something profound to show that it was worth thinking about. Allow joy or sadness to creep into your voice in appropriate places. Make comments and ask unobtrusive questions aloud (e.g. “I wonder why she did that;” “Who is this guy?”) but then keep right on reading. We don’t’ recommend asking your kids to answer comprehension questions about reading at home; the primary goal of leisure reading is to be pleasurable, and you don’t want anyone to be put on the spot and start to shut down. They’ll get plenty of comprehension questions in school. 

• Many children won’t want to sit still while listening, and that’s OK. Drawing or coloring or building with Legos can be a great way to keep kids' hands occupied while their minds are focused on the story. We know one family in which the children used evening storytime to pair clean socks that had just come from the dryer while their mother read to them!

Reading Recovery Works!

The Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) has released a promising evaluation  of Reading Recovery, a popular program used for early intervention with students at-risk for low literacy outcomes. The intensive program pairs low-achieving first graders with a trained Reading Recovery teacher for 30 minutes of one-on-one work over a period of 12 to 20 weeks.

Because of positive results from a previous study, the US Department of Education granted funds to expand the program in 2010, and the evaluation took place during this period of growth. Resources were used to train over 2,000 new Reading Recovery teachers, allowing more than 23,000 students to receive individualized services. In addition, nearly 114,000 children received from whole-class or small-group instruction.

The results were impressive. Reading Recovery students outscored the control group on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) by an average of 14 to 16 percentage points. In addition, ITBS indicated that these students had attained 1.4 months’ worth of reading improvement more than a control group, which was taught using a different curriculum.

CPRE’s findings are even more striking when one considers that the Reading Recovery students were previously identified as being at-risk. Early detection and remediation of reading difficulties is critical, and we’re delighted that this simple program can strengthen the potential of the most vulnerable kids.

Literacy Lessons from Teachers College - Phonics

I recently attended an exciting two-day conference on literacy in the elementary and middle grades hosted by faculty from Columbia University’s Teachers College. Through lectures, readings, discussions, and collaborative group work I learned a great deal about the implications of current research on literacy assessment and instruction. I look forward to sharing what I learned about phonics, vocabulary, reading comprehension, and writing with readers of the Yellin Center’s blog!

Phonics instruction, which teaches children to appreciate the sounds that make up language and link those sounds to letters, is one of the first steps along the path to becoming a reader. It was, therefore, a fitting topic to begin the conference at Teachers College. Some of the main points covered were:

The Reading Wars

Beginning in 1870 and continuing for more than a century, two opposing schools of thought debated the best way to reading. Proponents of phonics instruction believed that teaching alphabetic coding skills was the best method. They felt that a systematic approach to the decoding process was the only way to achieve word recognition skills. Whole language disciples, on the other hand, believed that reading evolves naturally, like speech, when children are exposed to rich, high-print environments and that the focus of instruction should be on making meaning rather than on learning decoding procedures. Current research indicates that an either-or approach isn’t the answer, however.

What Works

Studies suggest that reading instruction should incorporate systematic, explicit phonics instruction alongside lessons about strategy use; in other words, good instruction should include elements of both phonics and whole-language.

Readers form connections between the spellings of words and the way they are pronounced. These connections are facilitated by an understanding of two things: 1) phonemic awareness, or the ability to understand the discreet sounds that make up language, and 2) knowledge of the alphabetic system. Put another way, word recognition is helped by phonics. But developing readers also rely on pre-existing knowledge about language, like knowing word meanings and grammatical sentence structures. This proficiency with language allows kids to use meaning to help them make predictions about words. For example, most children with no literacy knowledge could probably guess what word probably completes the sentence “Yesterday, David XXX a sandwich for lunch.”

Importantly, good instructors teach not only the rules but show beginning readers when and how to use them. Young children should have an arsenal of strategies ready at hand when they encounter an unknown word and should recognize when to use each one. If they can’t sound out the word, perhaps they can look at the pictures for help. If there are no pictures, they may be able to look at the first letter and think about the meaning of the sentence to guess what word probably belongs.

Unfortunately, no single curriculum is best for every student. Different kids will find it easier to be successful with different methods. But curriculum that provides a balance is likely to be most effective.

The Best Texts

Finally, studies show that students need to interact with various kinds of texts. So, controlled texts (books used only for instruction that contain words that follow carefully chosen patterns) are excellent instructional tools but should not be used in isolation. Children should have the chance to read authentic texts, too, across a variety of genres.

Stay tuned for additional posts about vocabulary, reading comprehension, and writing!

Read and Rise Program Cultivates Literacy

A meeting at The Yellin Center yesterday among educators and others looking to improve outcomes for young children in New York City's Harlem neighborhoods, gave us the opportunity to meet Shirley H. Smith, Ph.D., who serves as a consultant to Scholastic, Inc. Dr. Smith introduced us to Scholastic's Read and Rise Program, part of the Scholastic FACE initiative -- Family and Community Engagement. Read and Rise is one part of the FACE mission to work with families and community resources to build early language development and literacy skills in children and address the fact that some 35% of children begin school without the language skills they will need to succeed.

Read and Rise is designed to reach parents and caregivers to help them to build oral language and other pre-reading skills in their children by building on the child's primary language and familiar culture. Such basic everyday things -- reading aloud, sharing songs and stories, and talking about cultural traditions -- are emphasized as ways families can help prepare their young children to start school ready to learn to read. In fact, the program is based on research that demonstrates the impact of early language development and home environments rich in books and reading as factors in long-term academic success.

The program includes a workbook for parents of children from infants and toddlers through third grade, including stories to read aloud, suggestions for engaging children in reading, and recommended books. There are separate books to read aloud along with a guide for parents as to how to maximize the reading experience for their children. There is also a web version of the program as well as information on how community organizations can obtain grant funding to enable them to implement Read and Rise. 

First Book Offers Incentive to Promote Diversity in Children’s Publishing

Browsing the shelves of a children’s bookstore can be a delightful experience. But just a few minutes in nearly any store or library reveals a disturbing disparity: Though young readers are increasingly diverse, the vast majority of children’s books feature characters that seem cast from the same mold. Most are about white kids from white families. Few characters with disabilities or different sexual orientations appear even as supporting characters, let alone as featured protagonists. According to Kyle Zimmer, CEO of an organization that distributes free books to needy kids called First Book, this is a big problem. It’s harder for children to be enthusiastic about reading when the books available don’t feel relevant to their lives, and this puts millions of kids at risk for lowered reading achievement.

In an interview with NPR, Zimmer pointed out some troubling statistics: In a survey of 3,600 children’s books, only 3.3% starred African American kids and 1.5% featured Latino children. According to Zimmer, research by First Book indicates that kids are far more likely to become enthusiastic readers when they “see themselves” in books. And she adds, importantly, that the benefit of diversity in books extends beyond groups outside the majority; all kids can benefit from reading about the experiences and perspectives of different groups.

Ezra Jack Keat's wonderful books
 feature African American children

To promote diversity in publishing, First Book has launched a new project. Stories For All  offers an incentive to publishers by offering them a guaranteed market for books about characters from under-represented communities and groups. Publishers can present books by unpublished authors that promote diversity to First Book and they will buy 10,000 copies of each of the best ones.

First Book, by the way, is an incredibly worthy organization worth checking out. To date, almost 90,000 classrooms and non-profits have signed up with First Book, meaning that millions of children now have books to call their own. And their programs have been so successful that school personnel report elevated test scores, more literacy activity at home, and tripled interest in reading among kids who get books from First Book. Their call to promote diversity in publishing is just one more expression of the group’s innovative thinking; First Book has dreamed up some very inventive ways to get books into the hands of deserving kids. Their Marketplace sells heavily discounted books to community programs and schools that serve children in need. And their Book Bank is a clearinghouse for publishers’ unsold inventory, allowing excess books to be donated to millions of kids.

If this has got you interested in books about diverse characters, check out our post “Girls of Color Star in Three OutstandingTransitional Book Series” for some suggested titles. We hope these titles will tide you over until Stories for All bears fruit and launches fresh offerings into the market. 

Looking at Reading Skills of Students with Learning Difficulties

The folks at the Arise Coalition (Action for Reform in Special Education) have done it again -- putting their considerable knowledge and influence behind a movement to improve education for New York City school kids. We've written before about the Arise Coalition, looking at their report on the need to improve transition from high school for students with learning and other challenges.

Now they have undertaken an initiative to address the discrepancy in reading skills between students with disabilities and their classmates. In a note to supporters announcing this initiative, the Coalition noted, "In 2013, only 6% of students with disabilities in New York City met state standards in English, as compared to just over 26% of their peers without disabilities who met those same standards." They observed that even for those opposed to standardized testing, these are disturbing results. This is especially true because similar differences have been seen nationally in Common Core tests given to fourth and eighth graders.

This effort to improve reading skills is just getting underway, but the Coalition has compiled a list of resources for individuals and organizations who want to know more about building literacy in students with learning challenges. It is such a useful list that we are including it here in its entirety, with thanks to the Coalition:

The International Dyslexia Association: http://www.interdys.org/
The Iris Center: http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/
LD Online: http://www.ldonline.org/
National Center on Accessible Instructional Materials: http://aim.cast.org/
National Center for Learning Disabilities: http://ncld.org/
National Center for Special Education Research: http://ies.ed.gov/ncser
National Center on the Use of Emerging Technologies to Improve Literacy Achievement for Students with Disabilities in Middle School: http://www.cast.org/research/projects/udio.html
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development: http://www.nichd.nih.gov/Pages/index.aspx

We were especially pleased to see that two of the resources listed are part of CAST - The Center for Applied Special Technology, where Dr. Yellin is a member of the Board of Directors.

Reading Club – No Girls Allowed!

Research continues to show that boys have more trouble reading than girls and, even more troubling, that boys’ reading skills are worsening. Instead of wringing his hands, inimitable children’s author Jon Scieszka (the genius behind The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, The Time Warp Trio series, and other much-loved books) took action. Guys Read, a website rich with resources for bringing books to boys, was the result.

The homepage states, “research…shows that boys will read – if they are given reading that interests them,” and the site puts its money where its mouth is by offering a huge, diverse list of all kinds of books that, according to the site, “guys have told us they like.” The list is divided into categories, some familiar (Historical Figures, Funny) but many that are delightfully unexpected (Dragons, Mysterious Occurrences, At Least One Explosion). The lists are not categorized by reading level, alas, but there is a list called “For Little Guys” that should be helpful for guys who are early readers. Older guys will have to click on titles that seem appealing to them to find information about the book’s genre, how many pages it has, and what ages the book would be most appropriate for. They can even rate the book if they've already read it to help other guys. The lists are huge and varied, ranging from picture books like Jumanji to the wonderful tomes that make up the Redwall series. In addition to all these suggestions, Guys Read selects a Book of the Month, which is featured on the homepage. Looking for another way to find great titles for guys? Check out the “This Guy Reads” section, which features male authors’ lists of favorite books.

Jon Scieszka

The site provides resources even if a guy isn't in a reading mood. “Guys Listen” contains a list of audiobooks that might catch a guy’s fancy. And “More Stuff for Guys” includes drawing lessons, comics, and a link to an archive of back issues of National Geographic magazines.

Whether the guys in your life are book lovers or reluctant readers, they’re sure to love Guys Read.


Above images CC by Jon Scieszka

Winners of the 2012 Children’s Choice Book Awards

The start of a new year inspires the publications of many "best of" lists. One of our favorites is the Children’s Choice Awards, a list of outstanding new books selected annually by 12,500 children around the country who choose what they like best from over 500 of the year’s best offerings. And (drum roll, please) the results for 2012 are in!

The Children’s Choice Awards are a nationwide search for the best books out there, chosen by the people who matter most: the kids themselves. Organized by the International Reading Association and cosponsored by the Children’s Book Council, Children’s Choices aims to help young readers find books they will enjoy. Between 20 and 30 books are presented for each of three levels of readers: Beginning Readers (kindergarten through second grade), Young Readers (third and fourth grades), and Advanced Readers (fifth and sixth grades).

The same principle is behind Teachers’ Choices, which identifies about 30 books selected by education professionals as excellent choices for curriculum use. And teens can peruse the Young Adults’ Choices list to learn which new novels their peers liked best. Each list presents the titles in alphabetical order, a brief description of the book, and a picture of the front cover.

Access all three children's lists, in age order. Maybe you’ll want to show them to a reluctant reader in your life, choose the perfect gift for a special child, or get some ideas for your own reading!

Motivating Reluctant Boys to Read

Most teachers will tell you that when it comes to motivating their students to read, boys are a much harder sell than girls. We've certainly met lots of boys who are voracious readers, but we agree that when we ask kids if they read for fun, boys are more likely to scoff, “No!”

This aversion to reading is a problem. In the younger grades, pleasure reading builds important fluency skills. And, as they get older, kids acquire more and more of their vocabularies from the words they encounter in text rather than from words they hear in conversation.

A recent article* in The Reading Teacher caused us to reflect on our experiences in language arts classrooms and libraries over the years. While it can be tough to engage boys in literature, here are some considerations we've found to be helpful when making reading recommendations:

Genre

Many boys seem to like books that are action-packed or funny. Some parents shy away from offerings like Captain Underpants, and this is understandable. Still, we like to see boys engaged in reading, even if they’re reading silly books. All too often, boys find themselves forced to read the kind of “classics” embraced by their parents and teachers. This can lead to listless reading and hostility toward reading in general, which is a scary prospect. Graphic novels and humorous books, frivolous as many adults consider them, may be just what’s needed to spark a boy’s interest in reading. (We've seen boys enthralled to discover Roald Dahl for the first time, so don’t forget that his canon includes many funny stories. And Calvin and Hobbes is practically unparalleled in its use of sophisticated vocabulary.) Another genre often not considered by adults or by boys themselves is non-fiction. Boys seem to be keen to learn about things that interest them and this tendency should be whole-heartedly embraced. Offer boys factual books like the wonderful Eyewitness series, developmentally appropriate magazines about topics that fascinate them, and, if they’re ready, newspaper clippings. Pleasure reading should be just that – the chance for boys to read what they enjoy. Let them experience more traditional literary experiences at school while they build a love of reading at home.

Topic

Boys tend to gravitate more toward books about sports and action-packed adventures. Sports books by authors like Matt Christopher (grades 3 and up) and Mike Lupica (grades 5 and up) indulge boys’ fascination with athletics, and most of them teach important lessons about sportsmanship, fairness, and perseverance. Adventure books abound as well. Malcolm Rose’s Traces series for instance (grades 5 and up), chronicles the adventures of prodigy Luke Harding, the youngest person ever to qualify as a forensics investigator, as he attempts to solve crimes based on evidence the criminals left behind. Boys love these realistic, adventurous novels. They also seem to be particularly captivated by survival stories. Point boys toward My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George (ages 8 and up) and the Hatchet series (grades 4 and up) by Gary Paulsen. Many boys also find science fiction enticing. Start with futuristic reads like Feed by M.T. Anderson (ages 14 and up) and The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer (ages 12 and up).

Choice

Boys (and girls, for that matter) should be given plenty of choice when it comes to picking out their leisure reading material. Parents and teachers should feel free to offer plenty of suggestions, but a boy is most likely to be engaged in the texts he chooses himself. And engagement in text is critical for building comprehension, fluency, and vocabulary skills. After all, aren’t those the reasons we want kids to read independently in the first place?


*Senn, Nicole. (2012). “Effective Approaches to Motivate and Engage Reluctatnt Boys in Literacy.” The Reading Teacher, 66(3).

Photo: Katie Hiscock / Creative Commons

Build Your Child’s Fluency with Online Books

What if James Earl Jones could help your child read with expression? Visit Storyline Online  and you’ll see that this idea isn’t as far-fetched as it sounds. This wonderful site, developed with support from the Screen Actors Guild, features a host of celebrities like Jones, Betty White, Ernest Borgnine, Amanda Bynes, and Elijah Wood reading classic children’s books like Harry the Dirty Dog and The Rainbow Fish. The videos are hosted by YouTube, and we recommend turning on closed captioning by clicking on the small CC button on the lower right of the window. Encouraging your kids to read along as they enjoy the stories will build their fluency. And who better than professional actors to give your children lessons on prosody (the pitch and pace of one’s voice as one reads and speaks)? Challenge your kids to describe how the actor’s voice changes when they read an exciting part or a sad part, or how they use their voice to emphasize a certain word. Remind your child to try doing the same when they read to you.

Another site worth visiting – though this one lacks celebrities – is Inkless Tales. There are several short stories about the adventures of a character called Fanny Doodle and her trusty poodle, read aloud for students and accompanied by pictures. There are also a number of stories about animals that contain words from the Dolch list*, written in bold text to help parents or teachers preview the words with kids before reading. In both cases, the child can read along with the text as they listen to the narrator.

How to Get the Most Out of Digital Books

To build fluency, your child needs to read along with the stories as they listen. Some of the stories are so engaging that your child may want to listen to them again and again, building familiarity with the texts and helping children to recognize the words. Ask kids to say the words aloud along with the recording. If listening to a book at full volume will be distracting to other members of your household or classroom, children can listen through headphones. Ask him/her to whisper the words, or mouth them silently. Another option is to buy or construct a whisper phone. To make your own, obtain about six inches of PVC pipe and two 90-degree joints. Place one joint at each end of the straight piece of pipe so that you have the shape of a phone receiver. When the child whispers into the phone, the sound will travel clearly into his/her ear but be nearly inaudible to others in the room.

Happy Reading!

*The Dolch list is a list of 220 high frequency or sight words compiled by Edward William Dolch, PhD. According to Dolch’s survey of popular children’s books, these are the most commonly used words in children’s literature, accounting for somewhere between 50% and 70% of all words children encounter when reading. Unlike true “sight words,” many of the Dolch words can be decoding using standard phonics rules. Because of the frequency with which they occur, many reading teachers believe that learning the Dolch 220 by sight is an important milestone in reading fluency.

Technological Innovation for Individuals with Reading and Print Disabilities

I spent time this past week in Bellevue, Washington, just outside of Seattle, at the AER International Conference, sponsored by the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired.

Jim Fruchterman

Before I gave my own presentation on Understanding the Individual Learning Needs of Visually Impaired Students, which looked at the professional development The Yellin Center is doing with the New York Institute of Special Education, I had the opportunity to attend a terrific talk by Jim Fruchterman, founder and Chairman of the Board of Benetech. Fruchterman is a former rocket scientist and a 2006 MacArthur Fellowship winner (among other accolades). Benetech grew out of his interest in reading machines for the blind and has grown into an organization that uses technology to address unmet social needs -- from making reading materials accessible to all readers to improving landmine detection.

Fruchterman spoke about Benetech's signature program, Bookshare, which "provides people with print disabilities in the United States legal access to more than 50,000 books and 150 periodicals that can be converted to Braille, large print or synthetic speech." Bookshare's resources are provided free to most students and at a nominal cost to the public. (Read an earlier article from our blog about Bookshare).

Fruchterman discussed his work, and that of Bookshare, in making print media broadly available, not only in Braille, but to individuals with reading and print disabilities and ADHD. He discussed iPad, iPhone, and Android applications directly connecting to Bookshare and spoke about the importance of making all materials available in MP3 format. It was particularly interesting to hear of a major initiative now underway to make visual material, such as maps and graphs, more accessible to those with visual disabilities.

Take a look at the Benetech website to get a full sense of the important work they are doing in so many areas.

Award-Winning Audiobooks

We love audiobooks. Not only are they entertaining, they allow children whose decoding skills are less developed than their language skills to access important literary concepts, vocabulary, and background knowledge. Students who read along with audiobooks reap even greater rewards because seeing words while hearing them builds fluency. And of course audiobooks are perfect for summer, when a good story can make hours in the car fly by.

The selection of titles available in audio format is growing, making it difficult to choose good ones. For those unwilling to be stuck with a subpar recording of an otherwise great book, the Audie Awards are a lifesaver. The Audies are sponsored by the Audio Publishers Association and presented to recordings that demonstrate excellent narrative voice and style, vocal characterization, appropriateness of audio format, and enhancement of text. As well as the award for audiobook of the year, outstanding books are considered for awards in a wide variety of categories, like biography/memoir, classics, humor, business, and mystery. There are also categories for books read by the author and for multi-voiced performances. Young people should check out the finalists and award winners in the Teens, Children Under 8, and Children Ages 8-12 categories. The website of audiobook magazine AudioFile presents a list of finalists and winners in each category, and would-be listeners can access full reviews and even hear a short sample of texts that seem appealing.

In addition to the awards lists, AudioFile is host to a wealth of audiobook reviews. So before committing to that book intended to entertain your family in the car for the next 30 hours, consult this list to be certain you’ve picked a winner. 

Book-Finding Websites

Here at The Yellin Center, many kids who are considered reluctant readers tell us that they like reading, if they can only find the right book. This caveat proves to be a frustrating challenge for both kids and their parents and teachers alike. The three websites below, however, may provide much-needed help in the search for that perfect next book. All three are easy enough for most children to use themselves and will allow kids and parents to make informed choices about their reading lists. Note that all three sites can search through titles for all ages, so children can use them to find books similar to The Hungry Caterpillar while parents can use them to decide what to read after The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

What Should I Read Next? is about as no-frills as its name suggests. Type in the title of a book you enjoyed and uncover a list of recommended titles. The site allows users to link easily to Amazon where they can learn more about the books on the list and purchase them. Users should double-check recommendations before purchasing, as some of the results from this site can be a bit unusual. A search for titles like Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie yielded many great choices, like Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patrician MacLachlan, Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Mongomery, and All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor. Jon Scieszka’s The True Story of the Three Little Pigs seemed a less relevant match, however.

YourNextRead is both user-friendly and visually appealing. Simply type in the title of a book you enjoyed and similar books will appear in a colorful diagram. Click on the image of a recommended book to read a brief description and reviews of the book, and if none of the suggestions are appealing (or if you’ve read them all), look for the More Books option at the bottom of the page to see even more suggestions. A search for books like James and the Giant Peach yielded The Fantastic Mr. Fox, also by Roald Dahl, Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh, The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, and many others. Hovering the mouse over the book will cause various thumbnail links to appear, allowing the user to easily find the book on Amazon, save it to a favorites list, email the title to a friend, preview sections of available books, and more.

Membership (free) is not required to useYourNextRead, but members can save searches and view their search history, so it may be worth the time it takes to sign up.

GoodReads works well for those looking for a spur-of-the-moment recommendation, but users who use it to record their reading may reap the biggest benefits. Nonmembers can simply visit the site, click on Recommendations, and start searching by genre. We clicked on “young adult” and found loads of titles appropriate for readers between the ages of 14 and 21. Descriptions of the books are easy to access: simply hover the mouse above the image of the book’s cover. A helpful text box on the right of the screen offered Related Genres such as Young Adult Fantasy, High School, and Coming of Age for further refining searches. And by scrolling down there were lists galore, with titles like “Most Read This Week,” “Best Creative Plots (w/ Love),” and “Best Young Adult Realistic Novels.”

As above, users don’t have to create an account to use GoodReads, but membership has great benefits. Members can enter and rate books they’ve read, and based on their preferences the site will recommend other similar books to them. Keeping such a record can be fun and rewarding for kids. Additionally, the site will save books in an “I want to read this” list for future reference.

Teen Reads

Teen Reads is an outstanding resource not only for teens, but for their teachers and parents as well. This website is a gold mine of book suggestions and reviews geared toward young people.

Users can sign up for the site’s monthly newsletter, or, for those who just can’t wait that long between installments, browse hundreds of book reviews and author interviews. Teens may enjoy participating in polls, which will allow them to compare their opinions and experiences with those of their peers around the country and world.

The site also features various contests for teens. For instance, entrants can submit their contact information for the chance to win the monthly Grab Bag, containing a selection of books. And for would-be authors, there are writing contests, too; for example, this month teens can submit a short story that puts a modern twist on a classic story for the chance to win an e-reader, gift certificates, and more.

Photo: Monterey Public Library via Flickr Creative Commons

Six Ways to Prompt Students to Think Critically About Text

Here are a few suggestions of concrete ways to prompt the student(s) in your life to look beyond the surface-level meaning as they think about a text. Even very young readers can take advantage of these ideas with plenty of scaffolding and suggestions during conversations. Allow older readers to ponder and discuss their ideas with less support. Remember that a “text” needn’t always be a novel; it can refer to a poem, short story, article, song, letter, advertisement, picture book…

1. Develop a Metaphor

Encourage students to think of situations that remind them of the text. These can range from personal experiences to world events.

“The story in The Lorax is like what is going on in many rainforests around the world. Trees are being cut down, and species are losing their habitats and being driven to extinction.”


2. Be Philosophical

Prompt students to think about which universal truths or themes are explored in the text.

“Gatsby couldn’t forget about Daisy, the way it is always hard to forget ‘the one that got away.’ He had always been insecure about who he was, and felt he wasn’t good enough for Daisy. Because of this lack of confidence, he arranged his whole life to shape him into the kind of person she could be with.”


3. Get Emotional

Ask students to reflect on the emotions the text made them feel. Be sure to prompt them to pause throughout the reading process so that they can track how their emotions change as the text progresses.

“I felt many conflicting emotions at the end of A Tale of Two Cities. I was touched that Carton would sacrifice himself and pleased that he had found goodness within himself that he didn’t know existed. At the same time, I was very sad that he was going to be executed. Still, his sacrifice meant that Darnay and Lucie would get to be together, which made me happy.”


4. Analyze

Challenge students to consider why did the author/creator made certain choices in writing the book. Consider its format, language, setting, etc.

“At first, the format of The Color Purple made it difficult to read, and all the spelling and grammatical errors made me think that Celie wasn’t very smart. But later, I realized she was actually very wise, and I really liked reading her thoughts in her own words because it seemed so much more authentic.”


5. Find Intertextual Connections

Can students think of books, movies, songs, poems, etc. that bear similarity to the text being studied?

“Aslan is a Christ-like figure in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe because he allows himself to be killed by the evil witch in order to save Peter, Edmund, Susan, and Lucy. Just like in the Biblical story, he comes back after everyone thinks he is dead and gone forever.”


6. Critique

Ask students whether they think the text was effective. Did it convey the author’s/creator’s point? Might it have been improved?

“The Rosie the Riveter ads are well done because they make women look powerful, which would encourage American women in the 1940s to join the war effort. Her face is tough, but still feminine enough that women would believe that she was similar to them.”

Image used under Creative Commons by Horia Varlan

Reading Aloud ... Every Day

On March 7, LitWorld, a non-profit organization which promotes global literacy, will launch its third annual World Read Aloud Day.

According to LitWorld, 739 million people across the world are illiterate, and participation in events like World Read Aloud Day helps raise awareness of the problem. In addition to collecting books and providing literacy instruction to people across the globe, Pam Allyn, founder and director of LitWorld, hopes to promote the love of reading even to those who have already mastered reading skills. Last year, 200,000 participants from 60 countries and all 50 United States participated in World Read Aloud Day. Allyn hopes to reach 1 million participants in 2012.

To register for participation in World Read Aloud Day, visit LitWorld’s webpage.

A post on the New York Times Learning Network Blog includes Tips and Tools for World Read Aloud Day by Wendy Gorton, as well as a link to an extensive list of "Great Read-Alouds" from the New York Times.