Ideas

The Common Core State Standards place strong emphasis on vocabulary, and librarians are in a prime position to actively support this shift. This month's "On Common Core" column shares how, including selecting read-alouds with robust language, helping students find engaging (and challenging) nonfiction books that match their interests, carefully choosing titles for reading lists, and initiating independent reading incentives.

Starting later this year, Bing For Schools  will offer schools in the U.S. the option to tailor the Bing experience for K-12 students by removing all advertisements from search results, enhancing privacy protections and the filtering of adult content, and adding specialized learning features to enhance digital literacy.

Media literacy discussion points covering novel-to-film adaptations, marketing, genre, screen violence, and more.

Back in May I shared Elissa Malespina’s media-rich, interactive Choices Summer Reading list.  She created it for her South Orange (NJ) Middle School readers using Apple’s iBooks Authors. She hosts the list on the Bookry platform and it feels very much like those cool magazine apps we flip through on our tablets. Randie Groden just shared an alternate [...]

Only one in three parents of children ages eight and under reads stories to their kids each night, according to a new survey by the literacy organization Reading is Fundamental (RIF) and Macy’s.

More than just a craze, the interest in zombies points the way towards a new kind of literacy engagement.

As the end of the school year approaches, school media specialists and teachers are equipping their students with lists of books to read over the summer break. Meanwhile, public librarians are prepping for their busiest season. From audiobook classics to DIY fun, the following is a compilation of tools that can be used in the summer months (or even throughout the year). SLJ's summer reading resources page will be updated continuously, so check back for new materials.

I had to share this wonderful idea from Sarah Mulhern Gross’s recent Infotopia post: Beyond the Book: Infographics of Students’ Reading History!   Sarah, a high school English teacher, was excited about sharing her lesson with the school library community. Sarah describes herself as a book evangelist.  She shared her interest in having students think about some of the books that have affected [...]

Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) is offering a library amendment to the immigration bill that the Senate is considering this week. The amendment, #1223, would make public libraries eligible for funding for English language instruction and civics education, and would also add Susan Hildreth, the director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to the Task Force on New Americans. The American Library Association (ALA) is asking its members to call their Senators in support of Reed’s amendment.