Literacy Now

The National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP) Foundation recently announced the winners of their First Annual National Children's Book of the Year Award Contest (2011) and invited participants to apply for the 2012 Award. Entries need to be postmarked by March 1, 2012.

The two winners of the NAESP Foundation’s First Annual National Children’s Book of the Year Award Contest are Mary Jo Amani of Swannanoa, North Carolina, and Frank McMillan of Corpus Christi, Texas. Both winners will receive a contract to publish their books.

Amani won for her book, Excuse Me I’m Trying to Read, in the picture book category, and McMillan’s book, The Young Healer, was selected from the chapter book category. These books were chosen among more than 1,000 manuscript entries submitted in this year’s contest. Manuscripts were reviewed and selected by a committee of editors and educators who judged submissions based on content, originality, and age-appropriateness.

The winning authors’ books will be published by Charlesbridge Publishing (a nationally known children’s book publisher), endorsed by the NAESP Foundation, and feature the NAESP Foundation Children’s Book Award emblem.

The Foundation, founded 1982, is operated as the tax-exempt, charitable arm of the National Association of Elementary School Principals—a professional association serving more than 25,000 administrators and other educators in the United States and overseas since 1921. Visit the NAESP Foundation website for more information.

January 15, 2012, is the deadline to apply for the Office of Head Start (OHS) 2012-2013 National Head Start Fellowships program. Information about the Fellowships and access to the online application are available on the Head Start Fellowships Program page of the Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center (ECLKC).

The National Head Start Fellowships program brings together experienced and dedicated professionals who support OHS in developing and implementing long-term quality improvement initiatives. Through these fellowships, outstanding professionals in the early childhood community have the opportunity to gain first-hand experiences that offer a national perspective into the operations of OHS and other Federal agencies serving children and families. In addition to work assignments, the Fellows take part in professional education and leadership development programs.

The 12-month Fellowships will commence September 1, 2012 and will end on August 31, 2013. Visit the ECLKC website to learn more.

by Julie Coiro

In 2011, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published Students Online: Digital Technologies and Performance (Volume VI). This paper summarizes the results of the 2009 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which evaluates educational outcomes in school systems in some 70 countries that, together, make up nine-tenths of the world economy. 

The PISA 2009 report details and compares student performance in digital and print reading, especially in relation to family background and socio-economic status; student engagement and attitudes; use of computers at home and at school; navigational patterns; online reading practices; and learning strategies (e.g., the awareness of strategies to understand and summarize information).

For classroom teachers and researchers, some of the most interesting findings include the following:

• With respect to the benefits of using the Internet at school, the report indicates, "Within countries, the digital divide is often linked to students’ socio-economic background. Students from socioeconomically advantaged backgrounds have higher levels of computer and Internet access at home; however, in some countries, the inequalities in the level of computer use at home is narrowed when disadvantaged students are given more opportunities to use a computer at school" (p. 20). This finding highlights the importance of making time available during the school day for students to use the Internet as part of their academic learning experiences.
• However, the report also suggests, "After accounting for students’ academic abilities, the frequency of computer use at home, particularly computer use for leisure, is positively associated with navigation skills and digital reading performance, while the frequency of
  computer use at school is not. These findings suggest that students are developing digital reading literacy mainly by using computers at home to pursue their interests." (p. 21). Consequently, it appears that access to computers and the Internet for academic learning tasks is not enough.  More needs to be done to ensure that students have opportunities to learning experiences driven by their own questions as opposed to only investigating questions posed by teachers or researchers. Self-directed tasks and authentic contexts for conducting personal online inquiries are critical for capturing students’ true capabilities in a digital reading environment. 
• A third finding highlights particular practices that appear to increase student performance on measures of online reading comprehension. For instance, “in each of the 19 countries that took part in the digital reading assessment, the more frequently students search for information on line, the better their performance in digital reading. Being unfamiliar with online social practices, such as e-mailing and chatting, seems to be associated with low digital reading proficiency; but students who frequently e-mail and chat on line also perform less well than students who are only moderately involved in these activities" (p. 21). These findings remind us that familiarity with a range of communication tools is important, but the use of these tools may foster better online reading performance when linked to purposeful opportunities to search for and summarize personally relevant online information that can be shared with others. 

Findings from this report deserve the attention of literacy educators and researchers for at least three reasons. First, more needs to be done to help students develop skills in reading digital texts. Teaching effective strategies such as efficient navigation, critical evaluation, and text integration play a critical role in online reading performance.  Second, the use of online texts may begin to address the underperformance of boys in reading. The PISA report indicates, “when we compare boys and girls who have similar levels of print reading proficiency, boys tend to perform better than girls in digital reading” (p. 207). These findings suggest that one way to promote better reading proficiency among boys lies in encouraging them to read digital texts. 

Third, these findings help us understand that while strategies to promote wider access to the Internet at school can help lessen the gap between socio-economically advantaged and disadvantaged youth, access and increased use, by itself, is not enough. To foster the thinking required in today’s digital world, efforts need to focus on fostering the effective use of ICT in schools through project-based activities, formative student-centered assessments, and specific instructional practices that improve students’ ability to navigate, critically evaluate, and synthesize online information. 

Julie Coiro is assistant professor in the School of Education at the University of Rhode Island. 

This article is part of a series from the Technology in Literacy Education Special Interest Group (TILE-SIG). 

The final set of reviews in this series about animals features books for grades seven through twelve. We'd like to thank members of the Children's Literature and Reading Special Interest Group (CL/R SIG) of the International Reading Association (IRA) for contributing these fantastic reviews!

Grades 4-6 

Bial, Raymond. (2011). Rescuing Rover: Saving America’s dogs. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Clearly, Bial wants readers to be mindful of the responsibility of pet ownership, but he also wants to publicize the ever-increasing numbers of dogs who end up in animal shelters. Countless unwanted litters of puppies are born each year since their owners fail to have their dogs spayed or neutered, and those puppies often have nowhere to go. As part of his research for this nonfiction book, Bial visits several local animal shelters in Illinois to report on the dogs living there and the men and women who care for them. In his usual carefully detailed style, he describes the cost of caring for these unwanted animals and tells some of their stories. The book is filled with photographs that tug at the heart, including one on the cover that practically begs readers to take this dog home. - Barbara A. Ward, Washington State University

MacLachlan, Patricia. (2011). Waiting for the magic. Illus. by Amy June Bates. New York: Athenenum. 

When their college professor father leaves the family in order to write, the three children left behind are as confused about his motivation for leaving as their mother is. But Mama doesn't take his desertion lightly, and she decides to replace her husband with a pet. After a trip to the animal shelter, they have five new pets, four dogs and a cat. The dogs range in size from a terrier to a Great Pyrenees. When their father finishes sewing his wild oats and trying to write in solitude, and returns home, the children have all come to recognize that these animals are able to talk to those who will listen to them. Along with Mama’s own surprise, the four dogs and a cat work to reunite a family that has come adrift. With the magic of love that only animals can weave, all find their way to forgiveness, if not understanding. - Barbara A. Ward, Washington State University

Wagner, Hilary. (2011). The White Assassin. New York: Holiday House. 

Fans of last year’s Nightshade City will be delighted with this follow-up story. Three years have passed since the Catacombs were rescued from the dictatorial control of Killdeer and the viciously cruel Billycan. Since the white rat has disappeared into the swamps, all should be safe; however, Billycan now leads a group of swamp rats who are eager to help him wreak vengeance on Nightshade City. Juniper and his band of democratic rats thwart Billycan’s plans and bring him back to Nightshade City where he is given a truth serum so the rats can learn the identity of the traitor among them. But the truth serum is actually an antidote for the drugs Billycan was given as a lab rat.  Slowly, in a series of flashbacks, Billycan remembers poignant details about his time in the laboratory.  As evidence of treachery mounts, some old alliances threaten to crack while others form. This touching story about rat society also makes astute observations about the nature of humans, animal experiments, and the power of family and forgiveness. As in the previous title, the characters are complex with even Billycan garnering some empathy. The author has crafted a story that somehow romanticizes rats and leaves readers wanting even more. - Barbara A. Ward, Washington State University

A love for the swans that winter on the lakes near their home is something that thirteen-year-old Isla and her father share. But on one of their jaunts to determine where they have landed, her father becomes ill and is hospitalized. While visiting him, Isla meets Harry, who has leukemia and is waiting for a bone marrow transfusion. Harry spends his time looking from his window at a young swan that has been separated from the rest of the flock, and the two bond over their shared interest in this bird that seems unsure how to fly. Isla is convinced that her father will recover if the two of them can help the swan rejoin its flock and if she can make her school art project--a Leonardo Da Vinci-inspired flying machine made with a harness and real wings--work. The book’s lyrical passages, the description of the swan with an almost mystical connection to Isla, and the budding love between Isla and Harry demonstrate that Christopher clearly knows her way around the often complicated familial bonds that keep some members close and others at a distance. The scenes in which Isla runs as fast as she can, flapping her wings and coaxing the swan to follow her example, are stunning. - Barbara A. Ward, Washington State University

Deedy, Carmen Agra, & Wright, Randall. (2011). The Cheshire cheese cat: A Dickens of a tale. Illus. by Barry Moser. Atlanta, GA: Peachtree. 

Skilley is an alley cat looking for a warm place to spend the cold winter months. When he learns that the local innkeeper is looking for a cat that is a good mouser, he makes sure that the man sees him catching a mouse scurrying across the room. But as is often the case, things are not as they seem, and Skilley doesn’t kill the mice he catches. Instead, he becomes friends with one of the mice, Pip, who has a fondness for large vocabulary words when speaking. The inn is visited by several London writers, including Charles Dickens who is suffering from a writer’s block and is unable to come up with the right opening lines for his latest masterpiece. Looking for inspiration for his story, Dickens observes Skilley closely and realizes that he catches the same mouse over and over again. This tale is filled with wry humor and witty observations on the nature of humans and animals. The literary references will make careful readers smile. After all, it was the best of times and the worst of times, right? - Barbara A. Ward, Washington State University

Animals! Book Review Series Number 2

CL/R SIG's Previous Book Review Series

Choices Reading Lists 

IRA Special Interest Groups 

The United States Government, represented by the Agency for International Development (USAID), Bureau for Economic Growth, Agriculture, and Trade (EGAT), Office of Education (ED), the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), World Vision, Inc. (WVUS), and World Vision Australia (WVA) (collectively herein “World Vision”), is seeking innovative applications from eligible institutions as defined in the Request for Applications (RFA) to support the program entitled “All Children Reading Competition” (RFA No. SOL-OAA-12-000010). All awards under this RFA will be issued as grants not to exceed US $300,000.

All questions from interested applicants must be submitted to allchildrenreading@usaid.gov no later than 2:00 p.m. EST on December 9, 2011. Applications are due no later than 2:00 p.m. EST on January 31, 2012.

Through a multiyear initiative called All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development (ACR), the Founding Partners will collaborate to achieve the goal of global action to improve child literacy. While recognizing that there are many factors required to improve student learning outcomes in primary grade reading, the Founding Partners have established the All Children Reading Competition to focus on two needs that are both important and largely unmet in low- and lower-middle-income countries: teaching and learning materials and education data: Innovations in Teaching and Learning Materials to Improve Student Reading and Innovations in Education Data to Improve Student Reading.

Visit the Grants.gov website for more information about All Children Reading. You can also go to www.grants.gov and search by the grant title or number.