The Reading is Fundamental (RIF) staff has selected the final nominees for the
RIF Multicultural Books Giveaway. There were lots of posts on days 3 and 4 of Writing about Reading, but several were by finalists from the first round. The last two finalists for the RIF giveaway are ...
Jen and xx join Tess Alfonsin (Reading Countess), Eric Van Raepenbusch (Happy Birthday Author), and Tif (Tif Talks Books) on the ballot. The top two vote-getters will win a 50-book set of Multicultural Books donated by Reading is Fundamental. Voting is now open and will stay open until 12:00 noon (EST). We encourage you to read each of the five nominated posts and select the ONE that you think captures the essence of a reading life.
As soon as I have the name and some information about the school/public library Jen and xx pick, I will add that to the poll. [It is a wee bit early on the West Coast!]
Look at this!!!! Look at all my friends! I am so excited for all of you who are listed. If you check out my sidebar, you will find MANY of these blogs listed as the Best 100 Book Blogs for Kids. I think it is WONDERFUL!
(I tried to tag all my cyber buds, but there were too many!)
The final panel.
The final panel after a chock-full day.
Who were these lucky bloggers?
The Reading Tub; Ernestine from Reading is Fundamental; Gina from PBS Booklights; and Jen from Jen Robinson's Book Page.
The topic: coming together, giving back. Individual bloggers, acting as individuals, can only do so much. So "coming together" can be as simple as a multi-blogger targeted blog, such as Guys Lit Wire. It can be about a book blast tour, like those organized by Chasing Ray, which is driven by bloggers.
Then there are the various literacy initiatives that different bloggers have either started or joined or promoted. Share A Story, Shape a Future is a literacy blog tour; "to encourage each other to reach beyond ourselves and do it in a way that we are neither judging nor instructing others." Mark your calendars; March 8 to 14, 2010, is the next Literacy Blog Tour. And, by the way -- this event is in Chase's.
Gina spoke of the history of Booklights and PBS; how it was started and pulled together. Just another great example of how blogging can be more about "me." (says the blogger who is all about me.)
I loved hearing Ernestine talk about RIF and Carol Rasco's entry into blogging (Rasco from RIF) and tweeting. RIF is as old as I am (um, actually, I'm a few months older, lol); and it's a great reminder to all of us that blogging and social media is not about the new kids on the block. They have provided "4.5 million children with 16 million new, free books and literacy resources each year." Yep, that's millions.
Finally, Year of Reading reminded us of the National Day of Writing. Which was two days ago; and because I knew my timing would be off, I blogged about that a few days ago.
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© Elizabeth Burns of A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy
Want to know what's going on in the world of children's and young adult book blogging? Spend an afternoon at Jen Robinson's Book Page.
Yes, we can read our bloglines and Google Readers; we can see what has been tweeted about and the like.
But you know what? That is still a lot of work. Sometimes you can read all that; but other times, you want someone else to say, "here are the things you really want to know."
And that's where Jen Robinson's Afternoon Visits is a gift. She offers a balanced mix of literacy news, book reviews, new bloggers, old favorites, and the like. Find out about new blogs; catch up on people you've followed for a while. If like me, you come back from vacation and mark everything "read" even if you really didn't, you can read Jen's afternoon visit posts and pretend you read it all.
It's an unbelievable amount of work, to go through all the blog posts and news reports in a variety of arenas (literacy, books, publishing, libraries, education, homeschoolers, blogging), pull out the interesting and noteworthy items, make sure it's balanced and fair and has something for everyone, put it together in an appealing format, and well hell, I'm tired just thinking about it.
Prefer your news sent to your email? Jen has a Growing Bookworms Weekly Newsletter you can subscribe to. And here I thought I was fancy, with a subscribe to my posts via email thingee from feedburns. You want to know a secret? I think Jen has secretly cloned herself. Either that, or she never sleeps.© Elizabeth Burns of A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy
“What do you all say to the idea of some sort of international campaign to encourage reading aloud to kids? A campaign for literacy, if you will, but one focused specifically on the benefits of parents and teachers reading aloud to kids.”
These are the words of Jen Robinson, from Jen Robinson’s Book Page, that I just read about five seconds ago and had to quote immediately. Please go to her blog and read this post for yourself–right now. Then let’s start talking about how this important work can begin.
This is the right time. In the United States, my home country, we have a president with two young daughters. In Thailand, my country of residence, we have a Prime Minister whose sister wrote the international best-selling children’s book, The Happiness of Kati. And in your corner of the world?
I’m sure there are events happening all over the globe that point to the Year of the Ox launching the Era of Reading Aloud to Children–let’s talk about this. Let’s make this happen.
Here are some random tidbits for your picnic basket:
First, thank you thank you thank you to Tarie of Into the Wardrobe for awarding alphabet soup a 2008 Brilliante Weblog Premio! I am humbled and honored to be mentioned in the same list as Just One More Book, Brooklyn Arden, and Bloomabilities.
Have you read Marjorie Coughlan's fabulous interview with Jen Robinson over at papertigers.org? Lots of insight and inspiration, with Jen explaining why books, reading, and literacy mean so much to her and what she hopes to accomplish with her fabulous blog, Jen Robinson's Book Page. I am totally blown away by her commitment and dedication.
Make sure to read this post about writing YA by tadmack at Finding Wonderland. You probably know there is a lot of discussion going on in the kidlit blogosphere right now about the stigma YA literature seems to carry in the publishing world. Many bloggers are responding to a recent New York Times article by Margo Rabb, "I'm Y.A., and I'm O.K.," including LJ's Little Willow (slayground) and David Lubar (davidlubar).
Colleen Mondor is rounding up other reactions and opinions at Chasing Ray. She has also designated this week as a time for everyone to post about any issues or concerns they have about children's and young adult publishing, so check back every day for updates.
Interesting discussion about verse novels in the comments of this recent Poetry Friday post by Sara Lewis Holmes (Read*Write*Believe). I especially liked David Elzey's comment, written from the POV of a 13-year-old boy.
Have a great week!
There’s a feature of children’s books that’s often talked about, though a surprisingly high number of people are not willing to admit; you don’t have to be a child to enjoy one. In fact, you don’t even need to have a child to pick up a children’s book and read it.
Those who are in on that belief are passionate about children’s books in a way that’s near impossible to measure. Take, for example, Jen Robinson. In many ways, she’s redefining that passion. Her blog, Jen Robinson’s Book Page, is a showcase piece of the kidlitosphere, a community of bloggers and podcasters that promote children’s literacy, picture and young adult books and the people behind them.
On this edition of Just One More Book!, Mark speaks with Jen Robinson about her love of children’s books, the tools she uses to promote literacy and tackle literacy related issues, and a new children’s literature portal.
Photo: Jen Robinson’s Book Page
Tags:
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By: Teaching Tips Contributing Editor, Renee Kirchner
It is important for elementary aged children to understand the concept of compare and contrast. This concept can be applied to many areas of the curriculum including math, science, and literature. When a child is asked to compare and contrast two different things, they are supposed to tell how they are alike and different. Comparing shows the similarities between two objects and contrasting shows the differences. Children will use words such as both, like, also, and similar when comparing. Words such as unlike, however, and but might be used when contrasting two objects.
Children’s books, both fiction and nonfiction, can be useful tools for teaching the concept of compare and contrast. Select one book with two different characters or choose two books with similarities and differences in character or plot. Nonfiction books will also work well. For example, you could choose a book on reptiles and compare and contrast two different types
of reptiles.
There are two useful tools that teachers use as prewriting activities when teaching compare and contrast: the Venn diagram and the T-chart. The Venn diagram is made up of two or more overlapping circles depending how many objects you are comparing. Each circle contains different information about the objects and the overlapping portion in the middle contains the
similarities.
For example if I was comparing a rabbit with a wolf, the rabbit circle might have herbivore and the wolf circle would have carnivore. The overlapping portion in the middle might contain the word mammal, since both animals are mammals. Of course your student would put more than one descriptive word in each circle. The more detail they use, the better. The T-chart is organized differently than the Venn diagram. If we use the example of the rabbit and the wolf the chart would look like this:
Characteristic Rabbit Wolf
Diet Grass Meat
Animal group Mammal Mammal
Here are some examples of picture books that would work well for studying the concept of compare and contrast:
One Picture Book with Two Characters
Bubba and Beau: Best Friends by Kathi Appelt
Bubba is a Texas baby and Beau is a Texas puppy and they are best friends. They have adventures together and both of them become very upset when their pink blanket gets washed.
Similarities between Bubba and Beau:
Both of them are keen on chewing, neither one is housetrained, and they both disdain soap.
Differences between Bubba and Beau:
Bubba loves the pinky pinky blankie because it smells like Beau and Beau likes the pinky pinky blankie because it smells like Bubba.
Two Picture Books with a Similar Main Character
Cindy Ellen: A Wild Western Cinderella by Susan Lowell
Chickarella by Mary Jane Auch
Similarities between Cindy Ellen and Chickarella:
Both of them have an evil stepmother or step-chicken, a fairy godmother or fairy fowl mother, and both have a prince or a princely rooster.
Differences between Cindy Ellen and Chickarella:
Cindy Ella can wrangle, rope and gallop. Chickarella starts a high fashion business that grows out of making clothes for the ball.
Children can use the examples above to create a Venn diagram or a T-chart and then write a compare-contrast paper about the different characters.
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Note: Although school is out for summer vacation in most places across the country, parents can still read with their children this summer and use activities like this one to have fund with their children as they help them become better readers.
A Wild Western Cinderella Bubba and Beau: Best Friends Chickarella Kathi Appelt Mary Jane Auch Picture Books Renee Kirchner Susan Lowell t chart teaching compare and contrast teaching tips Tip For Teachers tips for parents Venn diagramA Wild Western Cinderella Bubba and Beau: Best Friends Chickarella Kathi Appelt Mary Jane Auch Picture Books Renee Kirchner Susan Lowell t chart teaching compare and contrast teaching tips Tip For Teachers tips for parents Venn diagramA Wild Western Cinderella,
Bubba and Beau: Best Friends,
Chickarella,
Kathi Appelt,
Mary Jane Auch,
Picture Books,
Renee Kirchner,
Susan Lowell,
t chart,
teaching compare and contrast,
teaching tips,
Tip For Teachers,
tips for parents,
Venn diagram
Congrats to my fellow nominees!! All are very, very deserving! Best of luck to everyone!! :)
What a nice surprise to start the day! If I win, I'd like the books to go to the Santa Clara City Library (CA). I'm on the board of the Foundation and Friends there, and I know that it's a highly multicultural community. I'm sure that the children's librarians would be THRILLED to win a set of RIF's multicultural books.
Thanks Jen - I just tried to add the Santa Clara City Library to the list, but the survey form won't let me edit ... the good news is we're getting a lot of votes.