Reading Rockets: Articles: Today's Reading News

Study: Math Skills at Age 7 Predict How Much Money You'll Make

Fri, 17 May 2013 13:29:13 GMT

PROBLEM: So far as we're able to predict a child's likelihood of leading a successful life, it's no secret that the assets we're born with (intelligence) or into (socioeconomic status) are important. But to what extent do learned abilities, like basic academic skills, fit into that equation?

PD Program Targets Cross-Curricular Reading and Confidence

Fri, 17 May 2013 13:28:48 GMT

Two topics we've been hearing a lot about recently are reading (especially how the common core will change its instruction) and social/emotional learning (which many teachers believe can boost achievement--and which the common core does not touch). At an event in downtown Washington yesterday, panelists discussed a professional development program that attempts to brings the two together and, according to several studies, is having positive effects in both areas.

Julia Steiny: School Recess Is Good For Kids' Mental Health

Fri, 17 May 2013 13:28:17 GMT

"I'd pull up, park, and the doors to the cafeteria would open. Teaching assistants herded the kids out to some grass. There was no real equipment, just a bin with 2 wiffle balls, no bats; 3 rubber balls, two deflated, no pump. The kids stood there for about 7 minutes and then got herded back in. I imagined herding cows out to graze. Except that they couldn't graze. They stood. I noticed the kids looked kind of sad, uninvolved, and not wanting to be there." And that, my friends, was those kids' recess.

Podcast: Rating Early Elementary Teachers When Reliable Data Don't Readily Exist

Thu, 16 May 2013 13:05:12 GMT

Despite a dearth of reliable data on children's progress in those grades, school districts and states are moving ahead with new systems for evaluating teachers that require the inclusion of data on students' outcomes. The experiments are already underway as part of a national push to use students' test scores as one of multiple measures of how well teachers are doing their jobs. In the early grades -- pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, first and second -- this is problematic, given that standardized testing data does not exist for such young children, and what does exist is primarily focused on basic literacy skills.

Common Core Supporters Firing Back

Thu, 16 May 2013 13:04:44 GMT

Supporters of the Common Core State Standards are moving to confront increasingly high-profile opposition to the standards at the state and national levels by rallying the private sector and initiating coordinated public relations and advertising campaigns as schools continue implementation. In states such as Michigan and Tennessee, where common-core opponents feel momentum is with them, state education officials, the business community, and allied advocacy groups are ramping up efforts to define and buttress support for the standards -- and to counter what they say is misinformation.

Building a Playground: 'Construction Kitties' and 'Dig, Dogs, Dig'

Thu, 16 May 2013 13:04:19 GMT

As the wildly successful "Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site" has shown, stories about trucks need not be tough. There can be warm, fuzzy elements amid the concrete and scrap metal. Even a teddy bear can find its way in. Perhaps there's just something appealing about the juxtaposition of soft, fluffy animals and heavy-metal loaders, which feature in two new picture books this season. In both "Construction Kitties," by Judy Sue Goodwin Sturges, with illustrations by Shari Halpern, and "Dig, Dogs, Dig," by James Horvath, a crew of smiling pets get to work building -- what else? -- a playground.

The Most Important Problem Facing American Children Today

Thu, 16 May 2013 13:03:58 GMT

What is the most important problem facing American children today? According to the Academic Pediatric Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, it is the effects of poverty on the health and well being of young people. But, they concede, there is no sustained focus on childhood poverty, or a unified pediatric voice speaking on the problem, or a comprehensive approach to solving it.

Tools for Teaching: Developing Active Readers

Wed, 15 May 2013 13:30:32 GMT

Adults forget all that they do while reading. We are predicting, making connections, contextualizing, critiquing, and already plotting how we might use any new insights or information. Yep, we do all that when we read. As teachers, we need to train students in each of these skills, and begin to do so early on. I was recently in a second-grade classroom where 70 percent instruction was in English and 30 percent in Spanish. Most of the children spoke Spanish as their first or home language.

John Jensen: Setting the Conditions for Boys -- and Everyone -- to Learn

Wed, 15 May 2013 13:30:12 GMT

In his article "Solving the 'Boy Crisis' in Schools," (Huffington Post, May 1, 2013), Michael Kimmel notes statistics indicating boys' worse achievement in school than girls. He suggests boys' perceptions of masculinity as the determining variable; what, in boys' eyes, is respectable as "real work." While boys and girls may indeed view classroom work alternately, a different elephant stands in the room.

Head Start Centers Feeling 'Sequester' Pain

Wed, 15 May 2013 13:29:50 GMT

When the automatic federal budget cuts known as sequestration went into effect in March, Margaret Molloy and her staff at a Head Start agency in the Tucson, Ariz., area started looking for places to make cuts. Child-Parent Centers Inc., which oversees 40 centers serving nearly 2,800 children in the southeastern part of the state, made plans to scale back on classroom supplies, learning materials, and conference travel. Some center maintenance, such as painting, would be deferred the upcoming school year.

Utah Charter School Nurtures Entrepreneurial Spirit

Wed, 15 May 2013 13:29:27 GMT

A new charter school in Utah wants to equip students in kindergarten through ninth grade with a solid foundation in business. Students' daily lessons are peppered with concepts like sales and marketing, finance and entrepreneurship, says first-grade teacher Tammy Hill. "And that plays into leadership and improved math skills. And finance plays into every part of their lives."

Doctors Deviate from Guidelines When Treating ADHD in Preschoolers

Wed, 15 May 2013 13:29:04 GMT

In 2011, the American Academy of Pediatrics released guidelines on how doctors should treat preschoolers with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The first step should be parent and/or teacher-administered behavioral therapy. If symptoms continue, the next step is medication with methylphenidate, better known under the brand names Ritalin or Concerta.

Opinion: Are We Creating Readers or Scavengers?

Tue, 14 May 2013 13:06:37 GMT

Students need to learn how to digest what they read rather than simply scan text for the answer to a question, science educator Fred Ende writes in this blog post. Ende notes many exams seek responses that allow students to "scavenge" texts, and he proposes three ideas -- including rewording questions -- to help teachers ensure students gain a deeper understanding of reading material.

Charting Pre-K's Value for All

Tue, 14 May 2013 13:06:19 GMT

When President Barack Obama announced his support for universal preschool in his State of the Union address this year, he rekindled a fierce debate. Supporters praised universal preschool as an excellent "investment" in the nation's future workforce. Critics lambasted it as yet another example of wasteful federal spending.

How Teachers Use Pinterest in the Classroom

Tue, 14 May 2013 13:06:01 GMT

Long a favorite among craft enthusiasts, the popular DIY site Pinterest, in which users "pin" online images to virtual pin boards for later reference, is gaining ground in education. Educators using Pinterest in the classroom have access to professional development resources, lesson plans, curriculum ideas, and more. Locating online educational resources can put even more demands on teachers' time, which is often already stretched to the limit. Pinterest lets users organize resources and ideas in one central location, as opposed to bookmarking sites and then visiting those sites multiple times in order to remember what each site contains.

DPS Wants Colorado to Make Training to Teach English Learners Mandatory

Tue, 14 May 2013 13:05:07 GMT

Three kindergartners waited gleefully as Heather Christman showed them a clear plastic bag filled with miniature cars and blocks. The children, all English-language learners, had just finished reading the book "My Car." They would use the blocks and the cars to give examples of words they learned: faster, slower, ramp, bridge, over and under. Christman teaches at Denver's Goldrick Elementary School, where about 70 percent of the students are learning English. She had no experience working with English learners when she moved to Colorado from Alabama eight years ago to begin a teaching career.

'Balanced Literacy' Approach Wins Reading Wars in Columbia Schools

Mon, 13 May 2013 13:38:08 GMT

Grayson, a 6-soon-to-be-7-year-old first-grader at Derby Ridge Elementary School, reads steadily with a quiet confidence, which cracks only slightly as he fidgets during a tough word or phrase. Listening closely, his teacher Sara Howes takes notes about his progress. It's a routine Grayson knows well. Every week, he gets 30 minutes of one-on-one time with Howes in Reading Recovery, a "safety net" program the Columbia Public School District uses to help teach reading and literacy to first-graders.

Creative Ways to Keep Kids Learning this Summer

Mon, 13 May 2013 13:37:39 GMT

For families, summertime is all about active fun -- from vacations to ballgames, and fireworks to poolside picnics. But being on-the-go can mean lots of downtime in transit and waiting for activities to start. While research shows that students can lose up to two months' worth of learning during the summer break, parents can seize the opportunity to turn downtime into a time for purposeful entertainment, and keep kids off the summer learning slide.

Laurie Rogers: Ten Hard, Pressing Questions for Public Education

Mon, 13 May 2013 13:37:15 GMT

I was asked recently to articulate to a legislator my thoughts and concerns about public education funding and accountability. Ah, so much to say ... about funding; accountability, the Common Core initiatives, and the McCleary Decision on education funding. Legislators love to give more of our tax dollars to K-12 education, but they aren't good at pursuing accountability or transparency from administrators and school boards. That's partly because they listen too much to the Edu Mob, and not enough to We, the People.

Opinion: To Close the 'Opportunity Gap,' We Need to Close the Vocabulary Gap

Mon, 13 May 2013 13:36:42 GMT

Dear Deborah, Thanks for inviting me to join you on your blog. Even though we disagree on many issues, I have great respect for you and the work you've done in your career. As I write this, I'm returning from the Education Writers Association annual conference, held this year at Stanford. I spoke on a panel about the "opportunity gap" with professors Sean Reardon and Prudence Carter. Reardon, as you know, recently published a fascinating but sobering study about the growing income achievement gap.

A New Way to Track Pre-K--Hourly: Part 2

Mon, 13 May 2013 13:36:19 GMT

In a blog post from earlier this week I examined the issues of funding streams and dosage. We currently have no way to track a state-funded pre-K center's level of funding or the different ways it is funded. We also have no reliable way of measuring how some pre-K programs supervise children for much longer than others because we rely on a vague binary measurement of "half-day" versus "full-day". In this post I will explain how we can fix these problems.

Proper Role of Ed-Tech in Pre-K a Rising Issue

Fri, 10 May 2013 13:01:53 GMT

Maren Herman's preschool classroom is filled with educational devices to entice a 3-year-old: toys, finger paints, books galore. And among the tools Ms. Herman uses in her classroom at Shady Lane School in Pittsburgh are two iPads and a laptop computer. On a given day, children might use a software app called Handwriting Without Tears to practice tracing letters. On other occasions, the iPad has been used to stream music fit for a king during a pretend royal ball. From Ms. Herman's perspective, tablet devices such as iPads are just one of many tools appropriate for early learning -- when used with the understanding that they're not intended to supplant other developmentally appropriate materials.

Appreciating Teachers (For a Change)

Fri, 10 May 2013 13:01:27 GMT

This is Teacher Appreciation Week (so declared by the National Education Association), a fine moment to say something nice to or about teachers, who have been put through the ringer in recent years. Why has teacher morale been plummeting, as evidenced in poll after poll? You can, in large part, thank reformers who have moved to end or reduce teacher tenure, make teacher evaluation partly dependent on student standardized test scores, tell teachers what and how to teach, etc., etc. So here, in the spirit of the week, are some nice -- and occasionally amusing -- thoughts about teachers.

Despite Improvements, Mississippi Schools Continue to Struggle

Fri, 10 May 2013 13:00:50 GMT

Although a recent Harvard University study ranks Mississippi at number 13 when it comes to the academic improvement of its students, real academic proficiency remains an elusive goal, Yahoo News reports. People born in Mississippi remain the least likely to have a high school diploma of native-born Americans from any other state even as current governor Phil Bryant reiterates that the strength of the state's education system will determine its future economic success.

Head Start Exceeds Requirement That Half of Teachers Earn BA in Early Childhood

Thu, 09 May 2013 14:49:19 GMT

According to recent budget documents from the Department of Health and Human Services, the Head Start program has surpassed a statutory requirement that half of Head Start teachers have bachelor's degrees in early childhood by September 30, 2013. In fact, according to the Department, 62 percent of teachers had earned the degree by fiscal year 2012.