Link: Device
A new Franklin Electronics gadget encourages 9- to 13-year-olds to improve their spelling via an electronic spelling bee and other games. Up to six people can compete, and the signal from the hand-held gaming device can be connected to a television for easier viewing.
Link: The Star Ledger
Next time you see kids wearing ear buds and a smile, don't assume they're rocking out to Hannah Montana. They may be listening to the classic novel "The Secret Garden."
Portable listening devices -- now a decade old and ubiquitous among American children -- are being used to listen to audio books, in part shifting comprehension from the written to the spoken word.
Link: The Dallas Morning News
Ali Cardaropoli's learning disabilities five years ago kept her from reading her own birthday cards, but in May she will graduate as valedictorian of her Texas school with experience not only acting in school plays, but writing one of her own. "She doesn't quit," said English teacher Jennifer Allen. "... I've never had a student like her."
Link: The Sacramento Bee
Michael Buckley did not grow up loving to read. Beyond comic books, nothing much interested him. He wasn't a reluctant reader, he says, just a bored one.
Then, when he was in fourth grade, a school librarian collared him for never having checked out a book. She urged him to try Beverly Cleary's "The Mouse and the Motorcycle."
He resisted, but she persisted. Cleary's funny, spirited story about a frisky boy mouse changed Buckley's life. It made him laugh, and he started looking for similar funny books.
Link: Alameda Times-Star
ON TUESDAY, the children in Chau Nguyen's first-grade class at Garfield Elementary School made snowmen, birds nests, hamburgers — even a foot-high tornado and a bicycle — out of clay.
Wearing oversized T-shirt smocks, they mashed, squeezed and rolled the squishy substance into shape, their enthusiasm sometimes causing them to shout out to Nguyen or the visiting art coach, Lisa Ostapinski, without raising their hands.
"Whenever we have art, they're so happy," Nguyen said. "It makes my day."
Link: North County Times
ESCONDIDO ---- Sunday isn't a day most students expect to spend with their teachers, but the Escondido students who spent Sunday afternoon on stage at the Escondido Arts Center didn't seem to mind.
The students on stage, from the 10 classes participating in the school district's literacy through the arts program, were being recognized for their hard work in the program.
Now in its second year, My Story: Literacy through the Arts, gives Escondido fourth- and fifth-grade students the chance to develop artistic and language skills simultaneously
Link: NKY.com
A Web-based literacy program is designed to help struggling teens boost their reading-comprehension skills. One high school principal decided to offer the Achieve 3000 program, and the 65 freshmen who've enrolled have made major strides both in terms of their reading abilities and their behavior, she said.
Link: DetNews.com
Visualize this: lrn 2 read 2day
When I started teaching, I never dreamed that I'd have to remind students not to use shorthand like that to write, "Learn to read today." But technology such as text messaging and chatting online has created new challenges for teachers and parents, especially when it comes to encouraging children's reading and writing skills and preparing them for future jobs. "
Link: MuskogeePhoenix.com
Medical and educational authorities now know that learning disabilities are not outgrown. Children with learning disabilities become adults with the same disabilities. Those who were not helped educationally during their school years now find themselves inadvertently a part of today's national statistics, categorized as functionally illiterate. They are reaching out, exposing themselves, to give learning another try, and that takes courage.
Link: LD Online
Many kids struggle with reading. One estimate is that about 10 million children have difficulties learning to read. The good news is that 90 to 95 percent of reading impaired children can overcome their difficulties if they receive appropriate treatment at early ages.
