Literacy

Encouraging students to celebrate and use the rich portals of the ever-growing Creative Commons movement to find copyright-friendly media is an instructional no-brainer. Teaching students how and when to flex their fair use muscles–how to decide when their use of copyrighted media is truly transformative–is a greater challenge.  But it is a challenge we must [...]

"Librarians are ideally positioned to become cultivators of students' interests," according to Annie Murphy Paul. A journalist and author, Murphy Paul sheds light on the latest cognitive research on this critical component to reading and learning in SLJ's November 2013 cover story.

There are moments in the sleek-but-not-too-flashy adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game when the film takes flight. It feels like child’s play, and the audience forgets briefly that the on-screen kids, the smartest in the world, are being groomed to kill at a Battle School in space. The screenplay hews closer to the book than a potential franchise template.

 The Mozilla Foundation has launched a new  Web Literacy Standard intended to serve as a roadmap for competent Web use and comprising “the skills and competencies people need to read, write, and participate effectively on the Web,” according to Mozilla’s site. Launched during the nonprofit organization’s October 25–27 Mozilla Festival, the Standard features recommendations for [...]

Teens interested in Ender's Game—both the acclaimed science fiction novel and its big budget film adaptation opening this weekend—may be curious about the recent controversy surrounding author Orson Scott Card’s outspoken views. Fortunately, the library offers an ideal safe intellectual harbor for teaching the media literacy skills that allow them to explore critical thinking questions about the role of social politics and media, and to examine ways in which we might begin to separate art from the artist.

The Book App Alliance aims to help locate quality book apps amid the tides of Disney, Dora, and Dr. Seuss products. Alliance founders also want to foster best practices.

Librarian Misti Jenkins, formerly an English teacher at the Nashville, TN, high school she now serves, shares her experiences in adapting from a predominately Spanish-speaking population of English Language Learners (ELL) to one that is comprised largely of Nepali and Burmese refugees. Here are her recommendations for ways to reach out to all students, regardless of their backgrounds.

TeachWithMovies offers access to more than 350 lesson plans and learning guides for movies and films. I’ve long been a big fan of reading and studying movies. I’ve been a fan of this site’s rich curricular materials for many years. I just discovered that I do not need to re-subscribe. The site is now available for free (though it will [...]

The Dollar General Literacy Foundation has awarded a Youth Literacy grant in the amount of $246,806 to the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) and the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). ALSC and YALSA will use the funds to support El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Children's Day/Book Day), Teen Read Week, and summer reading for teens.