Classroom

As the authors of new title on inquiry and literacy note, "simply reading about science" cannot replace the "actual doing of science." Here are a few new titles that offer guidance and suggestions on incorporating hands-on and project-based learning in science and other classrooms.

The very language of the Common Core State Standards calls for librarians’ key skills: research; equipping students to access, evaluate, and synthesize information; and strengthening literacy. Paige Jaeger, a coordinator of school library services in Saratoga Springs, NY argues that librarians can build a strong case for a seventh shift in the CCSS: research.

Libraries are in prime positions to take advantage of President Obama’s recent call for an increase of funding and attention to for early childhood education. Early learning has been an integral part of public libraries’ services to children for decades, and the recent increase of grant-funded programs can further extend children’s librarians’ reach into their communities. Wondering where to start? SLJ has compiled a list of grants for libraries seeking new ways to finance early learning initiatives, big and small.

Some summer camps offer what schools straining under reduced budgets and months of test prep can't—and they aren't just for the wealthy. Turn your library into a clearing house of information for kids and their parents about the range of programs available to them.

The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents (ALAN) of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) has announced the finalists for the 2013 Amelia Elizabeth Walden Book Award for Young Adult Fiction. No surprises here - just some tough decisions to make. Former winners include Lauren Myracle (Shine, Amulet), Francisco X. Stork (The Last Summer of the Death Warriors, Scholastic) and Kristin Cashore (Fire, Penguin).

Student sports fans (in this case, baseball fans specifically) can leverage their outside-of-school literacies to comprehend and appreciate the sophisticated cartoons and high-level text.

For the growing numbers of us searching for online courses, as well as online educational resources, the portals are quickly growing in both number and size. Finding the best or most relevant content may be a challenge.  Sites like Kayak take care of of the would-be traveler with a cross-portal search, but what’s the would-be [...]

Launched in 2010 by the Dizzy Feet Foundation to encourage Americans to dive into dance for fun and exercise, National Dance Day takes place on Saturday, July 27. Featuring wiggle-inducing picture books, eye-dazzling nonfiction, and even a graphic-novel autobiography, this list provides a sampling of the wealth of materials available to inspire and inform young dancers and celebrate the joy of movement.

Filmmaker Cullen Hoback's work represents a treasure trove of ideas for those who want to connect domestic spying and the death of privacy to civics, media studies, ICT, and political theory—not to mention information literacy and digital literacy specifically.