Issue #25Print Friendly Version (PDF)  

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The Director's Corner

Dear Participants, Facilitators, and Newsletter Subscribers:

October is such a wonderful time of year for Florida educators. In October, we come together at our respective professional organization conferences or in our districts for professional development. Many of the presentations I have recently attended focus on beating the odds. What does it take?

At the 2006 Florida DOE K-12 Conference, I had the pleasure of hearing Kati Haycock from The Education Trust, a group dedicated to addressing the achievement gaps that separate students of color and income. Haycock's presentation included sobering statistics on how well American students are performing when compared to students in other countries. More importantly, our national data shows significant gaps in student achievement. Often teachers are quick to point out why these gaps occur: these students come to school without breakfast; they come from families who are poor; their parents don't care; there aren't enough books; as well as myriad of other reasons. Are we really satisfied with these reasons for the achievement gap? If these reasons are correct, then why are low-income students and students of color performing so high in some schools? As part of her presentation, Haycock presented what successful schools are doing to close the achievement gap.

• Higher performing schools have high and clear goals. They make no excuses about student achievement.
• Higher performing schools put all kids in a demanding curriculum.
• Higher performing schools leave very little about teaching and learning to chance.
• Higher performing schools think very hard about how to deploy their resources, both people and time.
• In higher performing schools and districts, leaders know that teachers matter a lot. They work hard to attract and hold good teachers. They work hard to get the strongest teachers to the students who need them the most.

I invite you to take a look at this presentation. It can be found at http://www2.edtrust.org/edtrust/Product+Catalog/recent+presentations.

This month our Literacy Newsletter focuses on Family Literacy. The family is the most powerful influence on a child's ability to succeed and literacy is the foundation on which all learning is based.  Parental beliefs and attitudes about reading and the opportunities parents provide their children in reading greatly influence reading development. Family literacy is an intergenerational approach to improving literacy, language, and life skills of both parents and children. Research indicates that family literacy programs produce significant results in the home, on the literacy development of the child, and on the adults participating in the program. I invite you to check out this month's In Focus section for research, ideas, and resources you can use with families.

Don't forget to also check out this month's Reading Strategy, Semantic Feature Analysis. Semantic Feature Analysis assists students in discerning a term's meaning by comparing its features to those of other terms that fall into the same category or class. The Semantic Feature Analysis teaches vocabulary by building on prior knowledge and classifying new words by their features. Find out how this reading strategy can be used across content areas.

We welcome your feedback on how we can better support you and help you grow professionally. Thank you again, for all of your work. Please feel free to contact me in case you have any questions or comments. You may reach me at cc@orion.itrc.ucf.edu and/or 1-407-207-7294.

Best wishes,

Catherine Glass
Project Director, FOR-PD

 

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FOR-PD Open Enrollment Dates for 2007

Do you know of someone who would benefit from taking the FOR-PD course? We're getting ready to begin our registration for open-enrollment for the spring 2007 sections of FOR-PD, so feel free to share this information with colleagues and administrators at your school.

Spring 2007

	Open Registration Begins - November 13, 2006
	Open Registration Closes - January 8, 2007 @ 5 P.M. EST
	Spring Courses Begin - January 22, 2007
	Spring Courses End - April 30, 2007

 

 

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e-Store Currently Closed

The FOR-PD e-store is currently closed for inventory but will be open for service on November 1, 2006. The FOR-PD store offers a variety of free materials to Florida educators. To get any of these items for your school or classroom, fill out the form located on the E-store page and FOR-PD will mail you the items free of charge, while supplies last.

The FOR-PD stores provides the following merchandise:

• FOR-PD Flyer - The flyer for the Florida Online Reading Professional Development online course
• FOR-PD Brochure - The brochure for the FOR-PD online course
• Instructional Posters - These posters are designed to assist teachers during reading instruction. FOR-PD suggests that teachers laminate these posters and use them during instruction to model various reading strategies. After instruction, teachers can post them in their room as a reference for students.

Check out the e-store page on November 1st for more details: http://www.itrc.ucf.edu/publications/estore.html

 

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Reading Requirements for Students with Disabilities

In an effort to provide further guidance as districts work to increase the proficiency of all students, the Bureau of Exceptional Education and Student Services has revised the question and answer document entitled Reading Requirement for Students with Disabilities.

The revisions are based on the most recent K-12 Comprehensive Reading Plan Guidance, the most recent question and answer document addressing highly qualified requirements for exceptional student education teachers, and House Bill 7087, referred to as the A++ Bill. Each is referenced according to relevance within the attached document.

http://info.fldoe.org/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-3995/k12_06_132memo.pdf

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Content Area Reading Professional Development (CAR-PD)

Dr. Evan B. Lefsky, Executive Director of Just Read, Florida!, recently issued a Florida Department of Education memo further describing the Content Area Reading Professional Development (CAR-PD). CAR-PD has been created to satisfy the legislative requirement stating that the Florida Department of Education would emphasize reading instruction professional development for content area teachers in order to help them meet the diverse reading intervention needs of Florida's students.

CAR-PD is a package of 150 in-service points with reading endorsement indicators drawn primarily from the areas of vocabulary and comprehension. The CAR-PD package consists of Florida Online Reading Professional Development (FOR-PD) which is 60 in-service points, the CAR-PD Academy which is also 60 in-service points, and a 30 hour practicum.

For more information on CAR-PD, visit the links below.

Technical Assistance for Content Area Reading Professional Development
http://info.fldoe.org/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-4014/car_pdqa_memo.pdf

Legislative Requirements for Content Area Reading Professional Development
http://info.fldoe.org/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-3856/car-pd.pdf

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
http://info.fldoe.org/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-4015/car_pdqa_att2.pdf

Schedule - CAR-PD Professional Development
http://info.fldoe.org/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-4016/car_pdqa_att3.pdf

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Coming Soon---Children's Book Week 2006

Do you have memories of your favorite childhood book? What impact did it have your on literacy development and love for reading? Since 1919, teachers, librarians and families have celebrated children's books and a love for reading. This year the Children's Book Week, a celebration of the written word, will be observed November 13-19. The Children's Book Council encourages young people and their families to discover the pleasures of experiencing the world through books. This year's theme, "More Books, Please!", is geared toward motivating all readers to get their fill of quality children's literature.

Check out the links below to learn more on how to celebrate this event through read-ins, poster contests, parties, and more!

Don't delay! November 13 is right around the corner.

• 25 Ideas for Celebrating Children's Book Week
• Promoting Children's Book Week
• Useful Links
• Poster Contest
• In What Book?
• Articles About Celebrating Children's Book Week
  

 

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Where's FOR-PD Going to Be? Come See!

Are you attending a local or state conference this fall? FOR-PD may be there and we'd love for you to come by so we can share more great information with you. Take a look below at the conferences our staff memebers will be presenting at during the month of November. Rememer to look through the specific conference guide to find the precise locaiton and time.

FOR-PD Fall Conference Schedule

Conference	Date	Where
Sloan-C Conference International Conference on Asynchronous Learning Networks Title: "How Difficult is it to Facilitate? Facilitator Experiences and Practices From the Education Field" AND Title: "Professional Development without Boundaries: The Impact of Online Professional Development in Building and Sustaining Teacher Expertise in Reading Instruction"	November 8-10	Rosen Centre, Orlando

 

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First Children's Poet Laureate

The Poetry Foundation, an independent literary organization committed to a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture, has recently awarded Jack Prelutsky as the inaugural winner of the Children's Poet Laureate award. Prelutsky has authored more than 35 books of verse and has edited many poetry anthologies. His wit and wisdom has been charming readers for close to 40 years. Do you recognize any of the following titles from your childhood experiences?

• Something Big Has Been Here
• A Pizza the Size of the Sun
• The New Kid on the Block
• The Frogs Wore Red Suspenders
• Monday's Troll
• It's Raining Pigs & Noodles
• The Dragons Are Singing Tonight

Check out the following links for more information on Jack Prelutsky and his work.

• The Wit and Wisdom of Jack Prelutsky
• A Children's What? Information on Children's Poet Laureate
• Foundation: Announcement on Naming Jack Prelutsky First Children's Poet Laureate
  
  
  

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How Principals and Superintendents See Public Education Today

Public Agenda, an objective explorer of public opinion, recently released their report on the survey they conducted of 254 superintendents and 252 school principals to find out their feelings about public education. Among other questions, the superintendents and principals were asked to rate if their schools were not getting enough money to do a good job, if students are not taught enough math and science, and if classess were too crowded.

Included in the report are the following findings:

• Finding: Most local school leaders believe public schools are doing a good job in the most important areas, with half of superintendents saying schools in their district are "excellent".
• Finding: Large majorities of principals and superintendents list that "all" or "almost all" of their teachers have high academic expectations for all the students they teach, give students extra help when they fall behind.
• Finding: A majority of principals in mainly-minority schools say there are serious problems with too many kids dropping out and acting disrespectfully.
• Finding: School leaders want better data and fewer mandates.

To view further findings, the entire report, and the questionaire used, please visit http://www.publicagenda.org/specials/realitycheck06/realitycheck06_main.htm

 

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The Big Read

The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts, designed to restore reading to the center of American culture. The Big Read is the result of a 2004 report by the National Endowment for the Arts that found that literary reading in America is declining rapidly among all groups, especially among the young. The program aims to address the crisis and provides citizens with the opportunity to read and discuss a single book within their communities. During the pilot and current phase, the focus has been on American classics.

• Farenheight 451 by Ray Bradbury
• My Anotonia by Willa Cather
• Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
• The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

Two centers in the state of Florida that particpate in The Big Read program are the Florida Center for the Book and the Florida Center for the Literary Arts.

 

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Annotated Children's Choices for 2006

Each year 10,000 school children, ranging in age from 5 to 13, vote on the newly published children's and young adults' trade books that they like best. More than 460 books were evaluated and the annotated list is now available in the October 2006 issue of The Reading Teacher (RT).

The books were selected by publishers from the books they published in 2005. Each book was sent to five review teams located in Raleigh, North Carolina, Las Vegas, Nevada, Des Moines, Iowa, Briarcliff Manor, New York, and Tacoma, Washington. A team consisted of a children's literature specialist plus one or more classroom teachers. The teachers worked with other classroom teachers, school librarians, and more than 2,000 children. During the school year the books were read to or by the students and then voted on. In March, the votes were tallied and the top 97 titles for 2006 were announced at the annual International Reading Association Convention.

 

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Holidays, Happenings, & Events

This month's Literacy Newsletter focuses on family literacy and the roles parents play in helping their children become literate adults. The definition of family literacy has changed over the years but is still seen as a hot topic among teachers who want to know more ways to help increase involvement of parents and families. November 1 is National Family Literacy Day and we hope to provide you some useful ideas for helping families make a literacy connection with their children.

Please feel free to contact us with questions or feedback on this section of the Literacy Newsletter. You may reach us at forpd@mail.ucf.edu or 1-866-207-7296.

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What is Family Literacy?

Taylor (1983) first referenced the term "family literacy" over 20 years ago as a way to describe parents working with children on literacy and learning skills. While this is still a component of family literacy, the concept is much broader and has come to encompass a variety of interactions and programs. In fact, as we think about family literacy, many scenes may come to mind. We may visualize a parent reading with a child, a member of a family attending a workshop to learn how to help a child, or an adult working with other adults to enhance their own literacy development that can later be used to help their children.

In order to get a better sense of the term family literacy we may want to consider the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act, Title II of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998. This act provided that family literacy services would include:

• Interactive literacy activities between parents and their children;
• Training for parents on how to be primary teacher for their children;
• Literacy training for parents that will lead to economic self-sufficiency,
• Age-appropriate education to prepare children school and life experiences.

There have been many family literacy programs have offer the services described in the Workforce Investment Act. When considering family literacy programs, Neuman, Caperelli, and Kee (1998) found that there are several characteristics of successful programs. They found that programs that offered literacy instruction to all members of a family, including parents, siblings, and young children, had participants become involved in the curriculum planning, involved experienced and knowledgeable teachers, included an ongoing monitoring system, and were knowledgeable about the community retained a higher-level of success than those that did not. 

It is important, as educators, that we become aware of important family literacy related issues. Being knowledgeable about how literacy learning is developed within families, helping parents create a literacy-rich and stimulating home environment, assisting families in understanding their role in their child's literacy development, and researching how schools can support and accommodate family culture and community practices are each a concern of family literacy (Zygouris-Coe, 2005). Although often seen as primary-intermediate level teaching issues, teachers, principals, parents, and community members must consider ways to help all families learn how to support their children, in every stage of literacy development, including adolescence.

In order to promote family involvement, teachers should view families and parents as partners in the educational process. It should not be an "us" and "them" mentality. Communication is key and helping parents realize ways they can become involved is vital. Teachers and schools may want to consider having a bi-weekly or monthly family literacy meeting at the school location. A Family Reading Night can also be very successful in helping parents understand the excitement that reading brings into their child's life. Middle schools and high schools have jumped on board to offer parents and students literacy nights that mix information with activity. Breakout sessions can be offered to parents on Accelerated Reader, FCAT Reading and Writing, reading strategies, information literacy, and young adult literature trivia.

Along with the suggestions made by Neuman, Caperelli, and Kee, Lesley Mandell Morrow offers the following guidelines that will help family involvement programs suceed.

 

Helping Family Involvement Programs Suceed

Hold meetings at varied times of the day and at on different days of the week to accommodate all schedules. Provide transportation if there is no public transportation available. Provide child care during the meeting. Offer food and refreshments. Work with parents alone and with family members together. Provide support groups to allow families the ability to talk about what they desire for their children to learn. Offer families materials to use at home along with ideas that on how to use them. Allow for parents to come into school during school hours to work with their child or children.

Based on Morrow, L.M. (December 2003/January 2004). IRA President's Message: Family literacy: Home and school working together. Reading Today, 6-7. International Reading Association.

 

Teachers can also promote family involvement by making sure they notify parents and families, on a regular basis, about what is happening at school and what is expected of their child (Morrow, 2003). Keeping the communication open allows parents to become familiar with what is expected and feel they are part of the process. Morrow offers some specific tips for teachers to assist them with helping parents and families become more involved.

 

Tips for Teachers

Toward the beginning of the school year, send home literacy goals and benchmarks. Send home newsletters or letters when working on a content area topic or literacy topic and explain how families can help. Invite parents into the classroom to work with children on literacy skills. Send home activities that will require families to work together. Include activities that will require feedback. Provide lists of literature and handouts explaining how to use read alouds at home. Invite parents and family members to school to share special skills or their cultural heritage.

Based on Morrow, L.M. (December 2003/January 2004). IRA President's Message: Family literacy: Home and school working together. Reading Today, 6-7. International Reading Association.

Teachers can also discuss with families and students about how everyday activities at home have a great connection with literacy activities at school. "Literacy is everywhere and is shaped by the spaces we enter and exit" (Roswell, 2006). Children know a great deal about blogging, gaming, emailing, and the surfing the Internet. While not seen as traditional reading, these new types of literacies still have children using many of the skills and strategies they need practice in. The chart below, created by Roswell, offers some ideas on how to view the literacy connections between home and school.

A Picture of Children's Literacies
School Literacy	Literacy Dealing with Technology	Literacy Dealing With Culture	Literacy Dealing With Family	Adolescent Social/Cultural World
Reading	Internet	Cultural practices at home	Family heirlooms	Music
Writing	Multimedia	Cultural Texts	Children's Artifacts	Movies
Speaking	E-Learning	Religious and sacred texts	Communicational Text	Youth Culture
Listening	Texting	Dual-and-single language texts	Configurations of space	Posters
Based on Rowsell, J. (2006). Family literacy experiences: Creating reading and writing opportunities that support classroom learning. Portland: Stenhouse.

 

Family literacy activities and programs can be successful by increasing family involvement and children's interaction with literacy and learning. Teachers, schools, and community members must strive to not look at family literacy as a way to"fix" the family, but instead should join with families to offer assistance in literacy development, tutoring, and promotion of literacy involvement.

Activities that Support Family Connections to Literacy

Here are some ideas and activities you can suggest to the parents of your students as ways to help increase literacy development in the home.

Ideas for Family Literacy Night Book talks Trivia Activities School-wide reading Club Story telling Breakout sessions for parents on literacy strategies Acting out scenes from favorite books Costume designs for characters in classic books Author signings Reviewing new books on children's and young adult themes Books for sale Coffee house poetry readings Book "adventure places" for younger students Sports-themed books College book lists for various areas of study Bookmark/Book Cover design contests Based on Davis, C., Lent. R., Addison, C., and Johnstong, A. (2005, April). How to engage children in reading. FLaRE's Online Florida Literacy and Reading Connection,5(39). Retrieved from http://flare.ucf.edu/Newsletters/Florida%20Literacy%20 and%20Reading%20Connection%20Vol%205(39)%20-%20Apr%202005.htm

New Texts and Activities to Consider Families and teachers often worry about the state of our society and if our children will have the skills they need to succeed. They may ponder if the materials children and adolescents are reading are truly what they need. Plus, there is so much emphasis on comic books, music, video games, and TV. How can a book even compare? Actually, it doesn't have to. Comic books, graphic novels, magazines, and blogs, are still texts. Plus, the activities like playing video games and going to the movies can still have a positive impact on children's literacy skills. The Internet The Internet provides children the opportunity to consider word choice when searching for topics and the skill of evaluation when deciding if resource is valuable to their search. The Internet is a great tool for parents and teachers to use as a way to help children look critically at information and decide if it is useful or not. Music and Music Video The music of today is definitely different than perhaps what you or your grandparents enjoyed. Music videos can seem quite interesting, to say the least. Yet, it is in this realm that you can often grab the attention of your child or adolescent and use discussion to open the door to literacy. Possible Questions: Why do you like this video/song? What do the lyrics mean to you? Why do you want to hear/see it again? If you were writing this song, would you have wrote something different? Video Games Many video games, whether action or strategy, have a story line and theme, much like a regular storybook. Asking probing questions and asking children to consider the story elements like characters, setting, and plot can aid them in literacy skills. Asking them to compare and contrast games can also provide parents a way to connect with their child on something they interested in. Based on Rowsell, J. (2006). Family literacy experiences: Creating reading and writing opportunities that support classroom learning. Portland: Stenhouse.

Encouraging Teens to Read While there are pre-teens and teens that struggling with reading, there are also teens that choose not to read based on a variety of reasons. They may feel reading is boring, they don't have time, it's too difficult to and slow, it's not important, or it just no fun. Parents and other family members can assist teens in reading by setting an example. Letting children, no matter what their age, see parents and siblings reading for pleasure can encourage them to do the same. Modeling is not something that should only happen in the classroom. Providing teens with a variety of materials is a big part of encouragement. Buying books and magazines you think they may enjoy, along with allowing them to choose their own books, will motivate them to read. Remember comic books, graphic novels, and special interest magazines on sports teams and hobbies count as reading too. Make a movie/TV show connection. There are many movies that were based on a book. Teens can become motivated to learn more about what was left out the movie. Help your children find books or even screenplays that match the movies they go to see. Become familiar with Young Adult literature and read some books that you think will interest your child. But, remember that you teen is growing into an adult. Look for ways to acknowledge this by suggesting some adult reading you think they might enjoy. Based on the Reading Is Fundamental Article, "How Parents Can Encourage Teens to Read" http://www.rif.org/parents/tips/tip.mspx?View=18

Building a Family Library Having books readily accessible is extremely important for creating a literacy-rich environment. Setting aside a spot for a family library is an excellent start and may begin with just a small corner of a room big enough for a bookshelf. The number of books is not something families should get anxious about when creating their family library; bigger doesn't always equal better. Try to offer a variety of texts and reading materials. Remember to include magazines, a dictionary, newspapers, fiction, non-fiction, comic books, and graphic novels. Think quality over quantity and remember to have something for every member of the family. As you look for books to put in your library remember to offer choice to each member of the family and make book-buying/browsing trips a family affair. Remember, yard sales and bookstores often have great deals on books. And don't forget your public library. You can get as many books you can carry and trade them weekly or bi-weekly for a whole new selection to keep on your shelves. Based on the Reading Is Fundamental Article, "Building a Family Library" http://www.rif.org/parents/articles/family_library.mspx

References:

Morrow, L.M. (December 2003/January 2004). IRA President's Message: Family literacy: Home and school working together. Reading Today, 6-7. International Reading Association.

Neuman, S., Caperelli, B. J., & Kee, C. (1998). Literacy learning, a family matter. The Reading Teacher, 52(3), 244-252.

Rowsell, J. (2006). Family literacy experiences: Creating reading and writing opportunities that support classroom learning. Portland: Stenhouse.

Taylor D., (1983). Family literacy: Young children learning to read and write Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

U.S. Congress. Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (Title II of the Workforce Investment Act), Public Law 105-220, 1998.

Zygouris-Coe, V. (2005, April). Family literacy: The link to students' literacy development. FLaRE's Online Florida Literacy and Reading Connection,5(39). Retrieved from http://flare.ucf.edu/Newsletters/Florida%20Literacy%20and%20Reading%20Connection%20Vol%205(39)%20-%20Apr%202005.htm

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Resources

Governor's Family Literacy Initiative
http://www.flafamilyliteracy.org/
Governor Bush has made strengthening families a top priority, beginning with a focus on family literacy. This initiative contains information on adult education, early childhood education, parenting education, and parent and child together time.

How Parents Can Encourage Teens to Read
http://www.rif.org/parents/tips/tip.mspx?View=18
Share this short list of ideas with the parents of your adolescent students to help them work toward literacy at home.

Building a Family Library
http://www.rif.org/parents/articles/family_library.mspx
This resource provides insight on how to build a family library and do family literacy projects for all ages.

Teenagers and Reading
http://www.rif.org/parents/articles/teens.mspx
This article provides parents useful ways to help older students read and find materials they'll want to read.

Parents and Reading Committee
http://www.flreads.org/p_and_r/parents_and_reading_committee.htm
Gail Hannas offers three powerpoint presentations on the topic of how parents can help their younger and older children with learning to read.

October's Reading Strategy of the Month focuses on Semantic Feature Analysis. Semantic Feature Analysis, a procedure that links vocabulary to the main ideas of a content area text, offers students a visual representation depicting how terms are alike and different.

Try this strategy in your classroom and then email us and tell us how it worked (forpd@mail.ucf.edu). Also, don't forget to share the strategy with your colleagues. Each month we feature an effective reading strategy, explain the rationale behind the strategy, give directions on how to use the strategy with students, present ideas for adapting the strategy to different content areas, present ideas for assessing the strategy, and of course provide a printable PDF version of the strategy. Check out our Reading Strategy Archive to see past Reading Strategies of the Month.

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Books for Students

Autumn is the perfect time to curl up with a good book under your favorite fall tree or even on your old, comfy couch. We think these selections will warm up those fall evenings. Try them out and let us know what you think by emailing us at forpd@mail.ucf.edu.

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Professional Book Recommendations

 

One Child at a Time
Making the Most of Your Time with Struggling Readers, K-6
by Pat Johnson

From the Publisher: Teachers do not need more tests to tell them who is struggling; they already know that. Rather they want help making their teaching more effective for struggling readers. This book can start them on that learning journey.

Every elementary teacher deals with students who struggle as readers on a daily basis. Each struggling child is complex and unique, with varied histories as learners. In One Child at a Time, experienced literacy specialist and consultant Pat Johnson provides a framework she has used with hundreds of students in scores of classrooms to help teachers understand and assist individual children. The four-step process outlined in the book enables teachers to focus carefully on specific behaviors and needs, analyze them with theoretical and practical lenses, design targeted instruction, and then assess and refine the teaching in conferences with the child.

The text is packed with examples of actual conferences with students, detailing how and when Pat and her colleagues intervene to instruct and assess. The examples of follow-up assessment and analysis of struggling readers over days and weeks provide an indispensable model for teachers.

Pat shows how to use this framework successfully with a range of learners, including young children, English language learners, and students in the upper elementary grades who are stalled in their literacy progress. She builds upon her decades of work as a classroom teacher, literacy specialist, and consultant in schools with high poverty and diversity, to demonstrate how this framework can be useful in any setting.

Outspoken!
How to Improve Writing and Speaking Skills Through Poetry Performance
By Sara Holbrook and Michael Salinger

From the Publisher: Call it poetic justice, but not only is performance poetry the hottest, hippest way for students to engage in literate behaviors, it's also an effective vehicle for helping students meet language arts standards. In fact, poetry performance meets eight of NCTE and IRA's twelve national standards for English instruction and contributes to the mastery of the other four. Best of all, it works in any setting, and with Outspoken! you'll learn how the spoken word can rev up the energy in your classroom while achieving your curricular goals.

In Outspoken! poet-educators Sara Holbrook and Michael Salinger take you through the process of developing, implementing, and assessing poetry performance--and beyond. Beginning with ideas for encouraging even the most reluctant students to speak clearly and write from the heart, this handbook uses familiar workshop structures to guide young poets toward vibrant completed pieces and an exciting, dynamic delivery. With lessons involving memoir, metaphor, character, point of view, and articulation, you'll find a fully realized unit that’s as enjoyable to teach as it is to learn and that’s full of specific advice on assessing the writing, speaking, performing, and learning of your students.

Holbrook and Salinger also go outside the classroom, providing ideas and guidelines for running a poetry slam in your school, conducting a poetry performance series, and bringing in a visiting poet. In addition, Outspoken! comes with a DVD that contains Outspoken: Playhouse Square Center's Slam-U Program, a documentary that chronicles Salinger and his students as they prepare to compete in a national poetry slam, demonstrating what student performance poetry looks like up close and the positive effect it has on students' lives and learning.

Fun, practical, conversational, and full of innovations sure to enliven any class or school, Outspoken! will become an instant hit with your students-and with your curriculum supervisor.

A Sea of Faces
The Importance of Knowing Your Students
By Donald H. Graves

From the Publisher: For years Don Graves' wisdom has helped create meaningful connections between teachers, students, and curriculum and brought a more humane approach to teaching and learning. In A Sea of Faces Don returns to the theme of knowing your students. With an extraordinary, personal vision, and his warm, hopeful touch, Graves offers reflections on the vital importance of knowing each child as a unique individual and important insights on how to do it.

A Sea of Faces is both an idea book and a meditation on children and learning. Filled with Don's wisdom, wit, and one-of-a-kind storytelling, it describes how to create new opportunities to understand your students better. Don includes exercises that will sharpen your ability to observe children and get to know them as individuals--not just students--as well as seventy delightful poems, written by Don himself, that model the writing of poetry as a new and powerful way to express what you know about the kids in your classroom. There's even a website where you can listen to Don reading his poems and experience them as they are meant to be heard, straight from the author.

If the first day of school feels like an overwhelming blur of youngsters, trust Don Graves and read A Sea of Faces. You'll find out that all those new faces are an opportunity to renew your teaching, and that you can connect with your students in more meaningful ways than ever before.

How To Reach and Teach All Children in the Inclusive Classroom: Practical Strategies, Lessons, and Activities
By Sandra F. Rief and Julie A. Heimburge

From the Publisher: This thoroughly updated edition of the best-selling book gives all classroom teachers, special educators, and administrators an arsenal of adaptable and ready-to-use strategies, lessons, and activities. How to Reach and Teach All Children in the Inclusive Classroom is a comprehensive resource that helps teachers reach students with varied learning styles, ability levels, skills, and behaviors. The authors offer a team approach that includes parents, colleagues, and learning specialists, enabling teachers to guide diverse groups of students in grades 3-8 toward academic, social, and emotional success.

 

Writing for a Change: Boosting Literacy and Learning Through Social Action
By the National Writing Project

From the Publisher: Writing for a Change shows teachers how to engage students in "real world" problem-solving activities that can help them to acquire voice, authority, and passion for both reading and writing practice. Written in collaboration with the Center for Social Action in England, the book describes the innovative Social Action process for encouraging students to collaborate on problems of their own choosing--to analyze options, develop action plans, discover solutions, and finally to reflect on their work. Featuring stories by teachers who have successfully used the method, the book shows that first graders as well as high-school students can enjoy this exciting and educational process. Practical guidance for applying the process to any curricular area is provided along with an extensive list of classroom activities.

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Literacy Coaches Corner

Literacy and/or reading coaches have the responsibility to provide classroom teachers with professional development, assist with modeling and delivering reading instruction, administering and analyzing data from a number of assessments, and being a literacy leader in his or her school. This month FOR-PD would like to introduce the Literacy Coaches Corner, a place coaches may want to focus on for the latest and greatest information that is directly related to coaching in the schools.

For October we would like to focus on an exciting and new website that is being launched, the Literacy Coaching Clearinghouse (LCC).

The mission of the Literacy Coaching Clearinghouse (LCC) is to increase the knowledge base, research, and practice of literacy coaching for coaches around schools the country. Sponsored by the International Reading Association (IRA) and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), this website will provide literacy coaches, districts, and schools with research on how to develop excellent coaching programs.

Nancy Shanklink, the director of LCC, reports that one of the major goals of the clearinghouse is to gather information on what does and does not work and develop more of an understanding about what the qualifications of literacy coaches should be. NCTE and IRA hope to build a professional learning community of those who are deeply interested in literacy coaching.

As you visit the site, be sure to check out the articles, "What is Effective Literacy Coaching?" and "Qualifications for Literacy Coaches: Achieving the Gold Standard" now located on the LCC website.

We hope that you find the information in this and upcoming Literacy Coaches Corner section helpful. We would love to hear how you will use the LCC to enhance your own coaching or teaching. Please feel free to email at at forpd@mail.ucf.edu to share your thoughts, ideas, and insights.

 

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Text Sets

This month we are venturing into the topic of the American Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution is recognized as a period in history with major technological, socioeconomic and cultural changes. The Industrial Revolution, beginning in England, spread to North America during the beginning of the 19th century. Inventions in the areas of mining, transportation, and power led for the ability of factories to increase production. Along with an increase in marketable goods, labor became a key factor in many New England states.

As described in the February FOR-PD Reading Strategy of the Month, text sets can be considered a collection of books related to a common element, topic, theme, or type of text. They provide readers with a medley of text and other materials, including non-fiction, websites, photos, pictures, primary source documents, and fiction, that will support the growing need for students to obtain quality information from a variety of sources.

Below is a sampling of texts to use in the intermediate-high school classroom on the topic of the Industrial Revolution. Remember, before making any book or resource available be sure to check out its appropriateness for your students.

FOR-PD is looking for ideas for future text sets. If you have an idea, please feel free to email us at forpd@mail.ucf.edu.

"Industrial Revolution" Text Sets

Books and Resources for Intermediate - Middle School Students The Industrial Revolution by Mary Collins The Industrial Revolution by Sean Connolly Industrial Revolution (Living History Series) by John D. Clare The Industrial Revolution by Christine Hatt The Working Life - A Sweatshop During the Industrial Revolution by Adam Woog The Industrial Revolution by William Dudley The Industrial Revolution by Steward Ross Smokestacks And Spinning Jennys: Industrial Revolution by Sean Price Industrial America by Kitty Shea Mill by David Macaulay Inventors and Inventions by Lorraine Hopping Egan James Watt & The Steam Engine by Jim Whiting The Industrial Revolution by Nigel Smith The Industrial Revolution and American Society by James R. Arnold and Roberta Wiener Andrew Carnegie: Steel King and Friend to Libraries by Zachary Kent. H.J. Heinz by M.C. Hall. Henry Ford and the Automobile Industry by Lewis K. Parker. John D. Rockefeller and the Oil Industry by Lewis K. Parker. The Early American Industrial Revolution, 1793-1850 by Katie Bagley A Historical Atlas of the Industrial Age and the Growth of America's Cities by Sherri Liberman.

Books and Resources for High School Students The Industrial Revolution: Opposing Viewpoints by William Dudley Industrial Revolution by Diana Knox  Hard Times by Charles Dickens The Industrial Revolution edited by Brenda Stalcup "Life in the Iron Mills" by Rebecca Harding Davis (short story) Bleak House by Charles Dickens "Signs of the Times" by Carlyle (essay) The American Civil War and the wars of the Industrial Revolution edited by Brian Holden Reid City of Light by Lauren Belfer Critical Perspectives on the Industrial Revolution edited by Josh Sakolsky Industrial Revolution: Biographies by James L. Outman, Elisabeth M. Outman Wobblies!: A Graphic History of the Industrial Workers of the World edited by Paul Buhle and Nicole Schulman

Audio/Visual Resources American Industrial Revolution, video produced by Channel One Network The American industrial revolution, video produced by Ohana Learning A Biography of America, video by WGBH Educational Foundation Industrial Revolution, video produced by Teacher's Video Company Industrial Revolution Video Quiz, video produced by Teacher's Video Company Inventors and the American Industrial Revolution, video produced by SVE

Web Sites IRWeb: Information Page http://library.thinkquest.org/4132/info.htm This page tells the facts about the Industrial Revolution. Includes a summary of how it started and some important facts, as well as additional information about specific individuals and their inventions. Of Men and Machines http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/01419/textonly.html This website has over 100 pages of information about the Industrial Revolution. The information is divided into four main sections: Industries, Causes, Effects, and World. Industrial Revolution http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761577952/Industrial_Revolution.html This site provides information on how Great Britain Led the Way toward the Industrial Revolution and the cost and benefits of the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution: A Webquest http://www.washlee.arlington.k12.va.us/staff/socialstudies/clmoir/indusrev/introduction.html An Industrial Revolution WebQuest where students can visit a variety of sites to learn about this period of time. Inventors of the Industrial Revolution http://www.teachersfirst.com/lessons/inventor/ind-rev-open.htm This site provides reasons people wanted to invent new ways of doing things, information on the inventions that people created, and insight on the people who came up with the inventions.

 

Reference

Industrial Revolution. (2006, October 12). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 18:01, October 25, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Industrial_Revolution&oldid=83217228

 

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Tech Tips: Spotlight on Tutorials

FOR-PD wants to remind you that there are several tutorials offered for the course which cover the different tools you will use in the course. The tutorials are located in the course menu; look for the link that says "FOR-PD Tutorials" under the Resources link. You can also view the tutorials by visiting http://www.forpd.ucf.edu/content/fall06/tutorials.html.

Currently there are eight tutorials available:

• Discussions
• Quizzes
• Course Mail
• Chat
• HTML
• Adobe Acrobat Reader
• RealPlayer
• QuickTime

These tutorials have good information on using each tool, installing necessary software, and answer common questions from participants. Each tutorial is provided as a webpage (View in HTML) or as a printable PDF. Some of the tutorials are also provided in a video format, where you can actually see the steps you need to take to complete each task. You will need to have Macromedia Flash Player installed in order to view the videos. If you do not have this already installed, a link to install the Flash Player is provided on the tutorials page.

We advise that you look over each tutorial to gain a better understanding of each tool and find answers to your questions. If you ever run into a problem while taking the course, you can always refer back to these tutorials. Remember, you can easily find the tutorials in the course menu; they are listed as "FOR-PD Tutorials".

 

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Summer and Fall Course Schedules

Feeling frustrated? Can't figure it out? Don't forget the FOR-PD Help Desk is available. Help Desk hours are:

Monday through Friday 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Monday, Tuesday, and Friday 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Saturday 10:00 AM - 3:00 PM

The phone number is 1-866-863-READ (7323) toll free, Florida calls only. For non-Florida calls only 407-249-4702. Technical support is also available through AOL Instant Messenger, screen name "forpdhelp".

If you need technical support beyond that which your facilitator or school technology coordinator can offer, please contact the FOR-PD Technical Support Help Desk. Please fill out the Tech Help Form or call the Help Desk. Describe your problem as completely as possible and leave your name and return phone number, and someone will get back to you.

Chat Live with the Help Desk. First, make sure that we are online. The button below will tell you whether we are online or offline. Next, click on Set Screen Name and type your name. Then, click in the light blue box below to type your message. Press Enter to send it. This requires you have Macromedia Flash installed on your computer. http://www.itrc.ucf.edu/about/technicalsupport.html

Don't forget to check out the Tutorials and Troubleshooting Guide. Both of these resources provide a wealth of information on the tools used in the course and specific technology problems past participants have had along with solutions to these problems.

Pop-up blockers continue to be the number one issue the Help Desk deals with. If you have a pop-up blocker on your web browser, you will not be able to access the quizzes in the course. To disable your pop-up blocker follow these directions:

Disable Pop-Up Blocking programs

• Move your mouse to the lower right-hand corner of your screen near the time
• Scroll your mouse over the icons listed to the left of the time
• If you notice any of the icons refer to Pop-Ups, right-click on them and click "Disable" or "Exit". Please note that Norton Internet Securities and McAfee Firewall need to be disabled as well.

 

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WHEN: October 17, 2006 TIME: 7:30pm - 8:30pm EST WHERE: General Chat for All Courses WHO: participants TOPIC: Technology Help GUEST: FOR-PD Tech Team

WHEN: November 21, 2006 TIME: 7:00pm - 8:00pm EST WHERE: General Chat for All Courses WHO: participants TOPIC: Technology Help GUEST: FOR-PD Tech Team

All chats are logged and posted on our web site (Chat Transcripts). Before joining one of our chats make sure you know the Chat Protocol.

Chat Protocol: Please be aware that FOR-PD uses a moderated discussion format. A moderator will keep the chat on topic and recognize question/statement requests by participants. The person who has the floor can field questions and statements from other participants, but they hold the floor until they are done. When they are done, the moderator will recognize another participant who requests the floor.

In order to make the chat flow smoothly, please use the following chat symbols and guidelines:

  !     The exclamation point is like raising your hand, you want to be recognized to make a statement.

  #    Use the pound sign to let everyone know you are done asking a question or making a statement.

  ....  This lets everyone know you have more to say.

Guidelines

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