There are dozens of ways to say “yes” or “no,” but they aren’t just different looking, actually they are all subtly different in meaning.
Tag Archives: education
Kids Must Learn to Read and to Be Readers
Images of Americans lined up to vote are all over the news and Internet. Being a literacy kind of guy, I’ve been searching those images to see if folks are reading during all of those hours of waiting. Few look to be doing so. Every 20th person or so. Most people are masked and just […]
Giving Voice
Authors’ voices are heard and emotions are felt when we read with expression.
Enrich, Diversify Playtime With Books
Toys are the tools children use to learn about their world. Books can diversity playtime by introducing other cultures to a child’s frame of reference.
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 […]
The Perfect Pastime for All Times
Like so many others during this stay-at-home period, I have spent an unusual amount of time watching television, especially news or current events programming. It helps me stay up to date on how my life, which feels completely out of my control, is likely to change or when it might ever return to some semblance […]
Expanding Expressions of Literacy
Sometimes we educators get focused on literacy development in young children exclusively in the form of reading, as if print is the only kind of communication between humans. Granted, print is the most venerated form of literacy in our culture. Mastering this literacy skill leads to becoming avid, self-determined, lifelong print readers, writers and learners, and […]
The Year Summer Slide Started in March
The U.S. tradition of long summer school breaks hails from times when children lived on family farms and needed to be available during the growing season to help tend them. While beneficial for farming, long breaks from structured learning can take its toll on academic progress. The sometimes negative impact of up to 12 weeks away […]