July 2009

Hi

Hope everyone is well and you all enjoyed the recent mid year break. Some interesting things happening in literacy just now and a few more coming soon!

In this issue we look at:

• All you need to TEACH... Comprehension - Now available!
• Literature Circle Role Cards
• Free Lesson Plans K-12
• International Reading Association (IRA) Update

Happy reading
Angela

All you need to TEACH... Comprehension - Now available!

They’re out! Macmillan has released the three book series, All You Need to Teach Comprehension, for ages 5-8, 8-10 and 10+. Each book focuses on teaching for predicting, inferring, connecting, questioning, visualizing, determining main ideas, synthesizing and self-monitoring, and contains:

• background information
• assessment rubrics
• comprehension mini posters
• book club role cards (in book mark form)
• lesson banks and text models
• worksheets and task cards to accompany lesson banks, or to use flexibly in other lessons.

These books are designed for busy teachers and contain reproducible material for whole class, small group and individual use. With design and illustrations by Bob Seal, these books look great!

Literature Circle Role Cards

Our ever popular role cards have now been added to our online resources. These are indispensible when supporting students to work collaboratively using a reciprocal reading model. They are also a great addition to the classroom reading program.

Literature Circles are an effective and fun way to develop strategic behaviours to comprehend texts, reflect during and after reading and empower students with greater responsibility to negotiate their own learning.

There are many models of Literature Circle and there are no hard and fast rules. They are most effective, however, when students know how to:

• take turns
• speak and act respectfully
• build on the responses of others
• action the strategic behaviours required
• validate thinking in the text.

Role Cards support students to action the strategic behaviours in preparation for the group meeting. We hope you find them useful.

Free Lesson Plans K-12

If you haven’t taken a look at www.readwritethink.org it’s definitely worth a visit. The Read–Write–Think site is the result of the partnership between the IRA and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). The site contains lesson plans, student resources and online resources to support literacy teachers K-12.

A variety of offerings are available to support literacy instruction across the reading and writing practices, using both traditional print-based material as well as new technologies.

International Reading Association (IRA) Update

The 23rd World Congress on Reading will be held closer to home for those of you keen to attend. The proposed venue is Auckland, New Zealand, from 12 – 15 July, 2010. The conference theme will be “Leading & Learning in Literacy”. Additional details will be posted online. Please check for updates if interested.

Submission proposals are currently being accepted. The deadline for submissions is midnight 13 August (EDT). Good luck! And don’t forget to pack your warm woollies!

That's all for now.
Angela Ehmer