Stenhouse Newslinks
April 15, 2005
C O N T E N T S
1) Teaching Reading to Black Adolescent Males
2) PD Corner: New Read, Share, Teach (RST) workshop
3) Mid-South Reading & Writing Institute, June 17-18
4) Words that reinforce read-aloud
5) Discuss Socratic circles on-line
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1) Teaching Reading to Black Adolescent Males
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"My older son was placed at gunpoint for the first time in his
life at the age of three--eleven years earlier in his life than my
first such experience. Two young black men carjacked my wife and
son and demanded money. After she told them she had none, they
forced their way into our home. One of them grabbed my wife by her
arm, and the other picked up my son, as I have on many occasions.
I imagine this embrace felt strangely different to him. The
intruders placed my son on the couch near the door, forced my wife
upstairs, and proceeded to ransack our house."
--from the introduction of the new book, Teaching Reading to Black
Adolescent Males, by Alfred W. Tatum
What issues are critical to young black males and their literacy
development, and how can educators address them? In his new book,
Alfred Tatum explores the "adolescent shift" that many poor black
males experience, and the challenges of learning to read among
turmoil. Rooted in first-hand experiences, this provocative book
addresses the reading achievement gap, provides a comprehensive
framework of literacy instruction for young black males, and
includes guidelines for establishing a professional development
community.
Teaching Reading to Black Adolescent Males will be available in
print next month, but you can review the entire book on-line now:
http://www.stenhouse.com/0393.asp?r=n66
Teaching Reading to Black Adolescent Males: Closing the
Achievement Gap * Alfred W. Tatum
176 pp/paper * $17.50 * Available in early May * Pre-order now
http://www.stenhouse.com/0393.asp?r=n66
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2) PD Corner: New Read, Share, Teach (RST) workshop
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*New Read, Share, Teach (RST) workshop*
A new RST workshop, featuring the book Still Learning to Read and
the video series Bringing Reading to Life, is now available. It is
designed to help workshop facilitators lead grades 3-6 teachers
through discussions, reading, and reflection. You can get your
copy of the 22-page guide here:
http://www.stenhouse.com/assets/pdfs/rst_0359.pdf?r=n66
For more information about the RST workshop series, including a
list of all eight workshops, follow this link:
http://www.stenhouse.com/html/readshareteach.htm
*Find a new perspective through writing*
Wallace Stevens' poem "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird"
has inspired many imitations. Jane Hancock and her colleagues at
the National Writing Project used the poem to create "Thirteen
Ways of Looking at Writing." The exercise is readily adaptable
with students at any grade level and in any subject, when multiple
perspectives are helpful:
http://www.writingproject.org/cs/nwpp/print/nwpr/2144
*Revisit a favorite author*
Most elementary teachers have a dog-eared copy of Charlotte's Web
somewhere in the classroom, and many high school teachers keep a
well-worn copy of Elements of Style handy. If you've always
wondered about the man behind the writing, be sure to read Roger
Angell's charming remembrance of his stepfather, E.B. "Andy"
White, in this piece from The New Yorker:
http://newyorker.com/fact/content/?050214fa_fact
*Florida Online Reading Professional Development (FOR-PD)*
Hosted by the University of Central Florida, this project serves
as "a primary delivery mechanism for improving teaching methods in
preK-12 reading instruction" in Florida. The project's Web site
features a Reading Strategy of the Month (currently "Developing &
Assessing Fluency"), and one-page Reading Reminders that summarize
key literacy teaching practices--perfect for a staff bulletin
board or prompts for PD discussions:
http://www.itrc.ucf.edu/forpd/
The site's Reading Strategy of the Month archives (going back to
January 2004) and Reading Reminders are on these two pages:
http://www.itrc.ucf.edu/forpd/strategies/archive.html
http://www.itrc.ucf.edu/forpd/resources/reminders.html
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3) Mid-South Reading & Writing Institute, June 17-18
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Join Stenhouse authors Max Brand, Kathy Collins, Kelly Gallagher,
Debbie Miller, and Franki Sibberson at the Mid-South Reading &
Writing Institute, June 17-18 at the University of Alabama at
Birmingham. Keynote speakers include Alfie Kohn and Gloria Ladson-
Billings; pre-registration by May 14 is only $85:
http://www.lexami.com/2005%20Midsouth/home.htm
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4) Words that reinforce read-aloud
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In this short article from the Read Aloud International
newsletter, Mary Lee Hahn illuminates several key benefits that
flow from read-aloud time and why teachers need to continue this
practice in the upper elementary grades and beyond:
http://www.readaloudinternational.org/news.html
(Click on the "May 2005" link.)
Mary Lee Hahn is the author of Reconsidering Read-Aloud. You can
get details on the book, including the entire text of Chapter 1
and the Study Guide, here:
http://www.stenhouse.com/0351.asp?r=n66
Read Aloud International (RAI) was formed in 2003 and is dedicated
to providing an international voice for organizations and
individuals that promote reading aloud. Member organizations
include statewide groups in Delaware, Nebraska, and Virginia that
promote reading aloud through school programs, reading volunteers,
parent education, book lists, and conferences. For more
information, visit the RAI home page:
http://www.readaloudinternational.org/
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5) Discuss Socratic circles on-line
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Matt Copeland, author of the new book Socratic Circles, has
created a discussion board for the topic where teachers can share
experiences and ideas about using Socratic circles in the
classroom. "Is developing competitive dialogue skills as important
to student success as developing cooperative dialogue skills are?"
Join in the discussion:
http://socratic.fetchbook.info/
Review the entire text of Socratic Circles here:
http://www.stenhouse.com/0394.asp?r=n66
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