Literacy

The 2013 Australian School Library Survey, conducted by Softlink on behalf of Australia's school library associations, has again revealed a positive relationship between a school’s literacy results and its library’s resourcing levels, the company announced today.

Face it.  The news is not written for most of our kids, especially those who are struggling readers or new English learners. I showed Newsela to my ELL and several of my ELA teachers early this semester and we have some devoted fans. Launched in June, and the winner of a Gates Foundation Literacy Courseware Challenge, Newsela publishes articles [...]

In an August issue of SLJTeen, we covered a program run by University at Buffalo’s Center for Literacy and Reading Instruction that matched graduate students with 180 elementary school students to advance their reading and writing schools over the summer. We asked readers to tell us about other programs like it, and the Southeast Regional Library (FL) stepped up with their collaboration with University of North Florida's education undergrads.

Sesame Workshop has partnered with the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation to launch a new early literacy initiative, Every Day is a Reading and Writing Day. The program aims to be a free bilingual, digital resource made up of tips, games, and activities designed to improve a child's reading and writing capabilities from an early age.

Thanks to a partnership with nonprofit literacy organization Reading is Fundamental (RIF), McDonald’s will be offering print books in its Happy Meals from November 1–14, 2013. The company will also provide free ebooks from DK publishing via its McPlay Happy Meal app.

Through the innovative Business Book Link Project, dozens of small local businesses in western Massachusetts have adopted elementary and middle schools in order to supply underserved kids with hundreds of books. The program is the brainchild of Link to Libraries, a Springfield, MA-based literacy group that also operates in Connecticut, Vermont, and New York.

Librarian Jennifer Prince reviews BiblioBoard, a database offering ebooks, primary sources, and that can store locally created materials.

Mary Pope Osborne, children’s literacy advocate and bestselling author of the "Magic Tree House" series, will kick of the first annual Magic Tree House Reading Buddies Week in New York City on Friday, October 11, at the 92nd Street Y, Random House announced today. The week (October 12–19) will be a celebration of reading that pairs younger readers with older, more experienced ones.

The very limitations of the book are its strengths, according to journalist and author Annie Murphy Paul, speaking at School Library Journal’s 2013 Leadership Summit in Austin, TX.