How to Help Beginning Readers: Tips from a Reading Specialist
After children have mastered pre-reading skills, the instructional focus shifts to vocabulary, comprehension, and fluency.
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Shipwrecks, Flying Pigs & Talking Fruit: VT PBS Kids’ Writing Contest
What do shipwrecks, flying pigs, and talking fruit have in common? There were all featured in story submissions for the Vermont PBS Kids’ annual Writing Contest, which I had the pleasure of judging last week. Last Friday, I joined nine other writers, librarians, and members of educational non-profits at Vermont’s PBS headquarters in Colchester to … Continued
The Value of Mentors
Have you had a mentor who influenced your life? I’ve had quite a few, some through formal mentorship programs, but most have happened organically with a friend or colleague I respect who shares their experience and advice with me and acts as a sounding board when I need it. I consider my fellow writing group members … Continued
If You’re a Parent and…You Remember “We Are the World”
Is there anything funnier than the third grade recorder concert? My daughter’s third grade recorder concert came the day after the CLiF Community Literacy Conference – a full day for our small staff running a conference for 130 Year of the Book teachers, librarians, and school staff. I am not sure what came over me, … Continued
How to Help Pre-Readers: A Reading Specialist’s Tips
When is the appropriate time to start working on reading skills?
Making Literacy Fun for All at CLiF’s 5th Annual Literacy Conference
What do you get when you add 130 teachers, principals, librarians and superintendents from 37 elementary schools throughout two states together for an intensive, jam-packed literacy conference? One inspiring day and a whole lot of ideas for promoting literacy to take home to your school, library, and community! That’s exactly what happened yesterday at CLiF’s fifth … Continued
Be Like a Duck – What’s Happening This Week at CLiF
“Be like a duck,” actor Michael Caine once said. “Calm on the surface, but paddling like the dickens underneath.” That sounds a lot like CLiF: our small staff and team of volunteers and presenters always keep smiles on their faces while labelling and packing hundreds of books for giveaways each week, telling stories and giving … Continued
If You’re a Parent and…You Make a Bad Decision
As a parent, I am always struggling to keep the “balances” (I make it plural because there are so many!) for myself and for my daughter. For me, this has gotten more complicated in a world where it has again become legitimate to judge people based on their gender, race, or orientation. Finding the elusive balance … Continued
What is Reading?
The most fundamental definition of reading is being able to interpret written symbols and understand printed material.
CLiF Reads Across New Hampshire & Vermont!
Did you know it’s Read Across America Day? It’s also World Book Day, and the beginning of National Reading Month. I know, all these “holidays” can get a little overwhelming and even feel a bit arbitrary. It seems like, just about any day you pick, you can find somebody somewhere declaring it “National Popcorn Day” (January 19) … Continued
What I Learned in Prison
My favorite part of CLiF events is always helping kids choose their own books to take home. But the CLiF event I went to last week was a little different. There were no kids. It wasn’t in a school, daycare center, or library. We were in the New Hampshire State Prison for Men in Concord … Continued
Reading for the Fun of It
The old adage goes “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” The same is true of reading and writing. Give a child a book and they might be entertained for a few hours, especially if that child had the chance … Continued
If You’re a Parent and…You Need a Baby Shower Gift
We recently celebrated the arrival of my niece – the only other child on my side of our family! This lucky baby girl has a fabulous library, given to her by friends of my brother and his wife, a group of writers, publishers, teachers, and book lovers. CLiF often sites research that proves that kids … Continued
What Reading Specialists Want Parents to Know
Reading specialists want parents to prepare their children for school by sharing a love for reading, the attitude that reading is important, and the expectation that all children can become successful readers.
Jason Chin Comes to Williamstown
Williamstown Elementary School students giggled and shouted “Ewwwww!” as author/illustrator Jason Chin told them about salty iguana snot. Behind him a slideshow showed photographs of the salty, snotty creatures sunbathing in the Galapagos Islands, images from his research trip there for his children’s book Island: A Story of the Galapagos. Then, laughter erupted as he told … Continued
Building Literary Communities
This week I returned to the CLiF office after an inspiring, invigorating, and exhausting ten-day residency at the Bennington Writing Seminars. This was the first of five residencies I will participate in during a two-year pursuit of a Master’s degree in Fiction from Bennington College. BWS is a low-residency MFA program that combines intensive on-campus … Continued
If You’re a Parent and…You Miss Letters
I received a letter – a handwritten card with the inside and back filled with news. It is a bit sad that this is such a remarkable event. We received lots of holiday cards, but they were either picture cards or typed and copied updates. I wish we all had more time for this personal and … Continued
Reading to Newborns
You are your child’s first teacher, and your challenge is to help your child become a successful reader.