The material we read is best if it’s fact checked by reliable sources. Children should be encouraged to question what they read for accuracy and truth.
Archive | Unite for Literacy
Wandering, Wondering and Books
Children taught to ask questions enter school ready to learn.
Well-Educated or Well-Read?
In the 1940s, a high school diploma was considered the ultimate in formal education. Over the years, as professions and business development grew, society required more and more education. By the 1960s, a college education became the pinnacle of educational attainment. By the year 2000, without that single piece of paper, there wasn’t much available […]
Informative Books, Family Discussions Comfort Children in Uncertain Times
Factual information helps people feel empowered and safe. A new COVID-19 collection of books written in English and Spanish, and narrated in many languages helps high-risk, underserved children and families navigate this stressful pandemic.
Stop Whining! I’m NOT your Amusement Park!
When kids whine that there’s nothing to do, let them be bored. Boredom is the perfect breeding ground for creativity. And with any luck, kids will grab a book and enjoy a new adventure with the turn of every page.
Abandoned Books = Fraud Readers?
When I was a child in school—a thousand years ago—we were taken weekly to the library and encouraged to find books we could enjoy for that week. The following week, we’d return the previous week’s choices, swapping them for a new set of books. Simple. Early on, when a book report was called for, or […]
Racism and Children: Read, Talk About What You Read
Kids are home from school (still) and the vastness of summertime stretches before us filling our vision of what that once meant, and how, due to the pandemic and to overdue showcased racial inequalities in our lives, those possibilities have forever changed. I recently read, with a strong measure of personal embarrassment and regret, a book […]
Books Provide Powerful Learning, Heartfelt Conversation
I’ve just finished reading one of 10 essays from the 2012 book When I Was a Child I Read Books, by Marilynne Robinson. It was a no brainer for a literacy teacher, teacher educator and a contributor to a children’s library like myself to be drawn to a book with this title. However, I received this […]
Building a Future from Tragedy
These days there are so many ways for us to dismiss a religious, political, racial or economic individual or group as not fitting, in one way or another, and thus not seen as any kind of asset to our lives. All my life, I’ve heard that children can be so cruel and petty to each other. […]
How Swapping Stories Can Ignite Lifelong Learning
I recently read an article in The New York Times about the decline of road trips, including hitchhiking 0r “road bumming.” (And no, all the blame doesn’t go to the COVID-19 pandemic.) I think folks largely have stopped picking up hitchhikers for many reasons, including an increase in: a sense of mistrust; an unwillingness of the haves […]