About - Literacy Matters! The Literacy Matters! portal is for teachers, librarians and researchers to use advocacy and research purposes on the importance of literacy and reading.It has been developed to support the Literacy Matters! campaign, devised and launched by the Literacy and Reading Section, the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA). 9 infographics that promote reading In this post you’ll see the most convincing infographics that encourage to read, and raise awareness of the importance of reading. Reading is a privilege, but many people think it’s like nothing more than a duty. Well, even if it’s a duty, it still brings this nice warm feeling of getting smarter and smarter with every page.
Profile : Doreen Kimura A young male university student sits at a table, ready for the test, while a female graduate student gets her stopwatch ready on the other side of the table. She gives him a sheet of paper that has rows and rows of little pictures on it and starts the stopwatch. The fellow taking the test is getting $10 to sit for a half hour checking off pictures that match. (See example test question on page 86.) As soon as he finishes one page, she puts another one in front of him, until two minutes are up. Then she gives him other, similar tests.
Does Preschool Matter? For many kids, the most important years of schooling come before they can even read. Consider the groundbreaking work of the Nobel Prize-winning economist James Heckman, who has repeatedly documented the power of early childhood education. One of his best case studies is the Perry Preschool Experiment, which looked at 123 low-income African-American children from Yspilanti, Michigan. (All the children had IQ scores between 75 and 85.) When the children were three years old, they were randomly assigned to either a treatment group, and given a high-quality preschool education, or to a control group, which received no preschool education at all. The subjects were then tracked over the ensuing decades, with the most recent analysis comparing the groups at the age of 40.
Six things you can do to get boys reading more The OECD consistently finds girls perform significantly better than boys in reading. This gap can also be observed across the Australian NAPLAN reading data. Research suggests reading more can improve literacy outcomes across a range of indicators. But girls typically read more frequently than boys, and have a more positive attitude toward reading.
5 Reasons You Need Fiction I’ve heard pastors and longtime Christians argue against reading fiction since it’s “not true.” But great literature can be an avenue of profound blessing and an ally to teach us to anticipate the kingdom of God in all of life. If we’re moved when we come across an ancient oak swaying beside a brook in a sunlit valley, we don’t immediately try to justify its existence. If we’re sensible, we don’t think, You know, this tree would be much better if it had a Bible verse carved into it. We let it be, and we praise God for it. YLTsig EVO discussion The Comprehension Hypothesis vs. The Skill-Building Hypothesis: Why accept a delayed gratification hypothesis when the gratification never comes? Developing Academic Language: How the language teaching profession has backed the wrong horse. Pleasure and Ecstasy: Is language acquisition a junior ecstasy? Link to recording of presentation Stephen Krashen is Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Southern California.
Assessment Statement High stakes- Important stakeholders Improving teaching and learning is in the national interest. For individuals and for our nation, higher education opens doors to economic prosperity and civic engagement. It provides the tools to make new discoveries and improve the quality of life. It is understandable that students, parents and others want to be sure that the educations we provide are meeting the highest possible standards. Reading for pleasure — a door to success Research points to certain factors that increase the likelihood of creating engaged readers. Choice relates to motivation Choice, interest and motivation are highly related. Surveys internationally suggest most children are more likely to read for pleasure if they can choose their own books (Gambrell, 1996, as cited in Clark & Rumbold, 2006 ). But, as Clark & Rumbold, 2006, state 'To affect reading behaviour they must subsequently choose to read that book over any other available activity'. Access to books is essential
NAPLAN, Reading and Teacher Librarians October 30, 2016 by NovaNews So can there be a link between reading achievement scores as measured by NAPLAN testing and the presence or absence of Teacher Librarians in schools? Sue McKerracher, Chief Executive Officer of ALIA (Australian Library and Information Association) seems to think there most definitely is an impact to be had, particularly when she states the obvious in a recent release on the ALIA website: ‘School libraries and teacher librarians are well placed to contribute to improving student skills in reading, digital literacy, critical thinking and research skills. However we see only a small number of teacher librarians on staff compared to other specialist teachers in schools.’ McKerracher goes on to quote research completed by Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) to back up her claim:
Educators struggle to combat dropout rate disparities - Richmond Times-Dispatch: Local News: Posted: Monday, January 14, 2013 12:00 am | Updated: 10:04 am, Sat Apr 19, 2014. Educators struggle to combat dropout rate disparities BY RANDY HALLMAN Richmond Times-Dispatch Richmond Times-Dispatch Black students account for a disproportionate percentage of dropouts in the Henrico County school system. Noam Chomsky on the Purpose of Education by Maria Popova On the value of cultivating the capacity to seek the significant. In this talk based on his presentation at the Learning Without Frontiers conference in January, philosopher, linguist, and cognitive scientist Noam Chomsky — easily one of our time’s sharpest thinkers — discusses the purpose of education. Despite the slow pace and the cheesy AfterEffects animated typography, the video is a treasure trove of insight on everything from the role of technology to the pitfalls of policy.
20 Indispensable High School Reads The specter of World War II, with its themes of totalitarianism, social fragmentation, mass surveillance, and the decline of individual freedom, looms over many of the novels. Dystopian novels form a major category: Orwell’s Animal Farm, William Golding’s allegory The Lord of the Flies, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Kurt Vonnegut’s absurdist comedy Slaughterhouse-Five, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, and McCarthy’s The Road join Nineteen Eighty-Four here. Thinking back on my days as a high school English teacher, it feels like I missed an opportunity to teach dystopia as a theme. There’s a wealth of material to draw from—and it’s both high quality and accessible to a broad range of high school readers. A recurring pedagogical issue emerged as teachers joined the conversation: How should educators balance challenging books—works by Shakespeare, for example—with the students’ desire for choice? The List of Indispensable Books