It is with mixed emotions that we open the last day of Share a Story ~ Shape a Future. The enthusiasm and energy is both infectious and exhausting.
Literacy is a skill we develop, and to have that skill is a gift. Someone (probably many people) who treasured that gift invested their passion and time in helping you attain that gift. Now it is up to you to share that gift ... Congratulations, YOU are a literacy curator!
Today's hosts -
Sarah Mulhern and
Elizabeth O. Dulemba - are asking us to think about the gift we have and asking
... how did you fall in love with reading?
... who gave you the gift of literacy?
... have you shared it with anyone? who?
These two literacy dynamos have gone all out to celebrate the gift of literacy, pulling out all the stops. Not only will some amazing authors, illustrators, and curators be joining them, but they're using Web 2.0 tools to do it. There are podcasts, videos, essays ... There could be no better way to end our week. Here are their lineups, and as we have done all week, we will update with the direct links here after we confirm they've gone live.
@ The Reading Zone Sarah Mulhern is interviewing some people about the gift of literacy. Her guests include
- Sarah Darer Littman,
- Kathi Appelt,
- Melissa Walker, and
- Pamela Voelkel (aka JP Voelkel).
@ Dulemba.com Elizabeth Dulemba will be talking about how she fell in love with reading and share quotes from
- Jane Yolen,
- Ellen Wittlinger,
- Deborah Wiles,
- Uma Drishnaswamz,
- Gregory K. Pincus,
- Sarah Lamstein,
- Marcia Jones,
- Phillis Gershator,
- Sally Keehn; and
- Karen Romano Young.
Quite the encore, no?
Thank you so much for all you do to help readers-to-be and engage the next generation of literacy curators. We are thankful for your energy, your enthusiasm, and your support this week and all year long.
Can you believe it's Friday already? This has been such an incredible week and today, well ... it's the icing on the cake!
Although we love chatting about literacy within the blogosphere, our hope is that you are inspired to move beyond our virtual community and go out into the world and share your love of literacy. Today's hosts
Elizabeth Dulemba and
Sarah Mulhern underscore the point that literacy is a gift to be shared.
Today's writing prompts also
- If you could write a letter to a friend, beloved book character, author, parent, teacher, what would you say about how/why they're influenced your reading life?
- If you could pack three "flashlight worthy" books in a suitcase to keep for children born in 2025, what would they be? and why?
- How did you first fall in love with reading?
Here's how Writing @ Reading works ...
1. Select the question(s) that resonates with you.
2. Find an old post or write a new one that answers the question. [Be sure to grab a Share a Story button from the sidebar to include in your new post!]
3. Come back here and link your post either via the inLinkz box or as a comment.
4. (optional) Tweet about your post and include @ShareaStory or the #SAS2011hashtag.
Since this is the last day of the tour - and you might be inspired this weekend - we'll leave this one open until Monday, 14 March 2011.
InLinkz updates for Friday, 11 March 2011
You're first!
[image credit: Share a Story Logo created by author/illustrator
Elizabeth Dulemba.]
Welcome literacy curators! Do you read? do you help a child learn? Then you are a curator!
Are you ready for another wonderful day for
Share a Story ~ Shape a Future 2011? Yesterday was awesome and today might actually take two days to get through!!
Thanks to the efforts of
Book Dads curator, dad, and power-tweep,
Chris Singer, we have 30 (!) dads talking about reading with their kids and the gift of "the moment." The one where you get to watch as your child realizes s/he is reading for themselves. Check out this list ...
Over at the
Literacy Toolbox,
Dawn Little, founder of
Links to Literacy, mom and former elementary school teacher has an allstar lineup, as well.
The third host today is
Terry Doherty of the Reading Tub.
Welcome to Share a Story ~ Shape a Future 2011. This is our third annual blog tour for literacy, and if we must say so ourselves, it is our biggest yet! Holy cow what a lineup of folks this week.
As you may remember from other posts, the theme this year is Unwrapping the Gift of Literacy. We picked this theme because it embodies several ideas ...
- that the ability to read IS a gift ... one that lasts a lifetime; and
- that literacy is a gift we can easily give to and share with someone else ... with minimal cost.
And who doesn't like receiving and giving presents?
Over the course of the week bloggers from around the world will be sharing their personal stories and offering tips that we hope will encourage and/or inspire you to share YOUR gift with someone in your family and/or community.
I know I said it the other day, but it's worth repeating: Although our focus is on young readers-to-be and readers-in-need, there are millions of adults who don't know how to read. If working with adults is something that interests you, we encourage you to visit Zoe's well-annotated list of literacy charities from around the world at
Playing by the Book or our
Reading & Literacy Wiki.
Now, on with our kickoff. Today's theme -
The Power of a Book - is so big that we need co-hosts.
, President and CEO of Reading is Fundamental, mom, grandma, and energizer bunny, will start us off with
The Power of a Book: 380 Times to Date! Join Carol at
Rasco from RIF as she ...
- shares the RIF experience of presenting a choice of books to children who have often never owned a book of their own until their first RIF distribution.
- shares memories of RIF kids who, years later, recall that moment and how it affected them for years to come
- explains a recent meta-analysis about the positive outcomes of book lending programs.
Carol also has a number of guest bloggers
who will share their organization’s experience in presenting books to children. Among them ...Be sure to go to
Rasco from RIF for Carol's full lineup.
Donalyn Miller, aka
the Book Whisperer, is a mom, educator, and rabid reader! She and her guests will be talking about the intangible power of a book.
- Paul W. Hankins,
- Terri Lesesne
As direct links to posts go live, we will come back and update this post.
Image credit
Presents animated gif - bestgraphs.com
If it's March then it must be time to share your love of reading. Read Across America and World Book Day have put us in an oh-so-perfect frame of mind for Share a Story ~ Shape a Future 2011.
Over the last month, our hosts have been crazy-busy identifying, inviting, and coordinating posts with their guests, not to mention thinking about their own posts. This is an unbelievably enthusiastic crew, and each person we've contacted has said "yes" without any hesitation. At last count, there were more than 35 people participating!
All week long our literacy curators are sharing personal stories, photographs, writers journals, and lots of great ideas. Did you notice the change to the term literacy curators did you notice that in this post? Brenda Power of Choice Literacy used that term in a recent Big Fresh and it just seems so appropriate in describing the Share a Story ensemble. )
Okay, here's what you've been waiting for a few more tidbits about next week.
- Author and TV personality Katie Davis (of Katie Davis' Brain Burps) has an exclusive interview with Terry Doherty, founder of The Reading Tub. Look for her podcast early in the week.
- Mrs. P. of MrsP.com has written an original story, will give us a demonstration of how her website is a portal to reading, AND is launching a new program. [Still a secret!]
- Award-winning authors Tanita S. Davis and Mitali Perkins, and Hannah Ehrlich of Lee & Low Books join Terry Doherty in a roundtable discussion about multiculturalism in books for children and teens.
- Elizabeth Dulemba, Sarah Mulhern (The Reading Zone), Donalyn Miller (The Book Whisperer), Franki Sibberson and Mary Lee Hahn (A Year of Reading), and their author and illustrator friends will be talking about how they fell in love with reading, who gave them the gift of reading, becoming a write, and ... well, we can't tell you everything now, can we? Here are some of their friends: Sarah Darer Littman, Kathi Appelt, JP Voelkel, Paul W. Hankins, Terri Lesesne, Mitali Perkins, Megan McCafferty, Jess Leader, Jonathan Auxier, Courtney Sheinmel, Barbara Dee.
It is going to be such an awesome week! Each day we'll post the day's lineup here and then publish the Writing @ Reading prompts. We hope you'll join in by adding posts of your own ... link them with the host or here on the Share a Story blog.
I know I said it the other day, but it is worth repeating: Although our focus is on young readers-to-be and readers-in-need, there are millions of adults who don't know how to read. If working with adults is something that interests you, we encourage you to visit Zoe's well-annotated list of literacy charities from around the world at
Playing by the Book or our
Reading & Literacy Wiki.
Each of the three years that we have celebrated the Share a Story ~ Shape a Future literacy blog tour, we have had authors and publishers donate their books to share with children and families. This year is no exception!
The Thank Yous!
Before we go any further, we would like to thank Barefoot Books, MrsP.com, and Reading is Fundamental for their generous donation of books to Share a Story ~ Shape a Future 2011.
Each of these organizations is powered by the idea of making a difference for kids by broadening their world through creativity, imagination, and literature. We cannot say thank you enough for all that they do every day, not just today.
Because of their generosity, you have a chance to win ...
With the resolutions behind us and more predictions of snow here in the East, our ensemble cast is forging ahead with preparations for the third annual Share a Story ~ Shape a Future blog tour for literacy.
We have framed out our daily topics and here is what we'll be talking about
- The Power of a Book - From the literal power of owning a book and a good story to the intangible power that comes with knowing how to read.
- The Gift of Reading - Whether you're looking for a book to excite a reader, want to help someone learn to read or celebrate the "gift" ... it's covered.
- Unwrapping Literacy 2.0 - With all of the talk of digital literacy, e-readers, etc. What does "literacy" look like in this new century?
- Love of Reading v. Homework - Do they have to be at odds? We'll talk about ways to help readers at home and at school.
- The Gift that Keeps on Giving - To wrap up the week we'll be remembering "that moment" when we realized we were a reader or writer and how to celebrate it with others. Lots(!) of interviews this day.
As we did last year, we will also have daily "Writing about Reading" prompts. If you are an author, illustrator, publisher, or book maven, please contact us if you'd like to add a prize or two for the Prompts contest or to complement a particular theme on a particular day.
Please email Terry at shareastory [at] thereadingtub [dot] com with your ideas ... she'll put you in touch with the right people.
Well, we've turned the calendar to 2010, which means we are starting to gear up for
Share a Story-Shape a Future 2010: It Takes a Village to Raise a Reader. Time to start the Countdown and whittling away at the To-Do lists! When we get to February, we'll start talking about individual contributors and I'll tell you about some of the giveaways. [see image credit below.]
- A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
- Lao-tzu, The Way of Lao-tzu Chinese philosopher (604 BC - 531 BC)
For those of you who have asked ... No, it is not too late to sign on to write a post on one of the topics. Our goal is to help you along the journey of becoming a reader by filling the week with practical, fun ideas for sharing books and encouraging reading. As you may recall from last year, each day has a broad theme, and contributors add posts on topics related to it. Here are the themes.
Monday, 8 March: The Many Faces of ReadingHosts: Brian and Steven at
Book DadsBrian, Steven and their guests will be talking about how we each play a role in helping children learn to read. This is the topic that embodies all of the elements of our theme: It Takes a Village to Raise a Reader. Tuesday, 9 March: Literacy My Way/Literacy Your Way Host: Susan Stephenson at
The Book ChookSusan is putting together a group of contributors to share creative literacy ideas. She will be drawing on all of the elements of literacy in the 21st Century: writing, art, computers, music.Wednesday, 10 March: Just the Facts: The Nonfiction Book Hook Host: Sarah Mulhern at
The Reading ZoneThere is lots of interest in promoting nonfiction as a "hook" for engaging readers. Sarah and her guests will talk about writing nonfiction for kids, as well as how to use it effectively ... and not make it feel like homework!Thursday, 11 March: Reading Through the Ages: Old Favorites & New Classics Host: Donalyn Miller at
The Book WhispererDonalyn and her contributors will look at books for independent readers. Are there "boy books" and "girl books"? She'll also recommend "new" classics for the books we loved as kids.Friday, 12 March: Reading for the Next Generation Host: Jen Robinson at
Jen Robinson's Book PageJen has invited guests to answer some of the things parents wrestle with, like being the opposite reading personality of their child, or feeling pressured to create a reading superstar, among others. As you can see, this isn't a venue for promoting individual books. That said, we'll be talking about writing and books, in hopes that you find creative, fun ways to engage readers of all sorts - from emergent readers to dormant readers to underground readers!
If you would like to sponsor a giveaway, there is still time for that, too. As a group, the goal is to get reading material where it is needed ... largely in libraries and classrooms. That said, several folks will be sponsoring giveaways for families, too.
_____
Image Credit
0 Comments on Blogging for Literacy: Bring Us Your Ideas as of 1/12/2010 12:52:00 PM
I freely admit that I'm not ready for the end of the year and the leap to the clean slate of 2010. From here on out, the schedule is filled with the fun, excitement, and sometimes stress of spending a little extra time catching up with family and friends, or preparing for same.
Even though I can barely think about January, I know March will be here before I know it. So in the midst of my holiday excitement, I'm also starting to get excited about the prospects of Share a Story-Shape a Future 2010. As you can see in the sidebar, our theme for 2010 is
It Takes a Village to Raise a Reader.
These past few months, the team (more below) has been fleshing out some broad themes for each day, and here is how it shapes out.
Monday, 8 March: The Many Faces of ReadingHosts: Brian and Steven at
Book DadsTopics of the day will encompass the community/partnership aspect of helping children learn to read. They might include discussions of the teacher-parent partnership, literacy outreach, and libraries, to name a few.Tuesday, 9 March: Literacy My Way/Literacy Your Way (Updated to Reflect Host's title)
Host: Susan Stephenson at
The Book ChookCreative literacy in all its forms (writing, art, computers) will be the topic of the day.Wednesday, 10 March: Just the Facts: The Nonfiction Book Hook Host: Sarah Mulhern at
The Reading ZoneThis is the day for exploring the different genres of nonfiction (biography and memoir, science, nature, math, etc), as well as the use (or not) of historical fiction.Thursday, 11 March: Reading Through the Ages: Old Favorites & New Classics Host: Donalyn Miller at
The Book WhispererTopics will talk about "boy books" and "girl books," as well as newer titles that fit with some classics we loved as kids.Friday, 12 March: Reading for the Next Generation Host: Jen Robinson at
Jen Robinson's Book PageThis is the day for talking about how to approach reading when your interests and your child's don't match. It may be that you don't like to read but your child does, how to raise the reader you're not, and dealing with the "pressure" of feeling forced to read.What Can I Do?Well, if you have an idea, we'd like to let your voice be heard. Up to this point, I have relied on some of the folks who helped launch the inaugural Share a Story event in 2009. These are the people who know what worked and what didn't: Jen Robinson, Elizabeth Dulemba, Donalyn Miller, Sarah Mulhern, Susan Stephenson, Brian Frank, Steven Bush, and Eva Mitnick. After last year's event, several folks expressed an interest in helping this year, and now Dawn Morris, Two Writing Teachers, and Jen Funk Weber are on the team.
We pooled some of the survey comments, pulled out our old notes, nailed down some ideas, and then framed out the week. The topics we cover are broad, and I needed a small organizational team to set our foundation. There is no one answer when it comes to raising readers, but we needed the framework before "opening the doors." We plan to walk the talk in our theme - it takes a village to raise a reader. We hope to stretch ourselves a little further this year beyond the kidlitosphere. Anyone interested in participating is welcome.
We are also interested in cross-promotion and partnership ideas. Reading is Fundamental and
Sleeping
In today's edition, I've pulled together the full week's agenda in one post. It is still sorted by day, but it includes all of the hyperlinks from the main posts, as well as other bloggers who added to the discussion.
Thanks to the outstanding work and dedication of our bloggers, this is an incredible resource as a place to start thinking about ways to engage kids in writing. To make it even handier, we have created a downloadable version, too.
Event Takeaways
Day 1: Raising Readershost: Terry Doherty @
Scrub-a-Dub-TubDay 2: Selecting Reading Materialhosted by Sarah Mulhern at
The Reading ZoneDay 3: Reading Aloud - It's Fun, It's Easyhosted by Susan Stephenson at the
Book Chook blog
Day 5: Share a Story-Shape a Future: What the Future Holdshosted by Elizabeth O. Dulemba at
Dulemba.comMy thanks (again) to everyone who participated in Share a Story-Shape a Future 2009!
And more!!! I also have quotes from:
Tony DiTerlizzi
James Gurney
Charles Gigna (Father Goose)
Janice Hardy
Kerry Madden
Vicky Alvear Shecter
Loreen Leedy
and Terra Elan McVoy!
Woosie - all great proponents of literacy and reading! :) e
This is so awesome, e. I just updated the post and added links to them all. NOW to go back and read them.