Reading Rockets News

In Focus

When fathers read, talk, and explore with their kids, a love for learning blooms. This is especially true for boys, who need positive male role models for reading. Learn how to become more involved in your child's literacy development, even if you are not a confident reader yourself. For teachers and family literacy program directors, browse our top tips for engaging dads for a wealth of practical ideas.

If Reading Was a Super Power…

…Would more boys be interested in reading? The statistics are consistent: Young boys lag behind girls in literacy skills. Discover the social, psychological, and developmental reasons why, and ideas for strengthening reading achievement.
Full article >

New! Podcasts for Dads

For the busy dad who wants to learn more about literacy, what good reading instruction looks like in the classroom, and award-winning children's book authors, check out our new DadCast podcast series. Just download to your iPod and watch or listen during your daily commute or treadmill run.
DadCast podcasts >

The New School Day

Chris Gabrieli, co-chair of the National Center on Time & Learning is co-author of a new book, Time to Learn: How a New School Schedule Is Making Smarter Kids, Happier Parents & Safer Neighborhoods. In this Reading Rockets video interview, Gabrieli talks about how a longer school day can support achievement in reading and math while providing a richer, broader curriculum. Hear about extended day success stories in public schools throughout the country, the impact on teachers and families, and benefits for English language learners and children with learning disabilities.
Launch Gabrieli video interview >
Excerpt from Time to Learn >
More about the extended day model >

Summer Learning

Help your child avoid summer slide and be prepared for the coming school year. Before the school year ends, talk with the teacher about your child's needs and ways to provide the right amount of academics balanced with a healthy dose of play.

If tutoring is recommended, find out how to locate the best tutor for your child.

If you are still on the hunt for a great summer program that will keep your child engaged and active, here's a useful checklist from the Center for Summer Learning that can help you evaluate a program's quality.

Tell Us What You Think!

We're interested in finding out what you think about the Reading Rockets website, and hear your ideas on how we can make it more useful for parents and educators. The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete. For taking time to help us improve the site, you can enter a random drawing to win a new, blue 4 GB iPod nano, pre-loaded with Reading Rockets podcasts!
Take the survey >

Warning! Reading Rocket in Orbit

Encourage the reading habit with this colorful new door hanger from Reading Rockets. Just download and print. (In English and Spanish)
Download PDF >

Daily Children's Literature Quiz

The 2001 Caldecott Medal winning book asks what question? Enter today's children's literature quiz for a chance to win a $20 gift certificate to Amazon.com!
Go to quiz >

A Sneak Peek at What's Coming Up

Did you know our website is always updated on the first of each month? Stop by on July 1 and you'll discover new features and research-based articles about background knowledge, nonfiction, vocabulary — and much more.
Go to home page >

Books & Authors

The Tale of Kate DiCamillo

Kate DiCamillo had collected more than 400 rejection letters before her first book, Because of Winn-Dixie, was published. Just as 10-year-old Opal — the spirited protagonist of the story — found her place in the world, so did DiCamillo. That book won a Newbery Honor Award and her life changed. DiCamillo's advice to young writers? Read. Listen. Write.
DiCamillo video interview >

From Our Bookshelf: The Big Summer Read

Summer brings longer days — and more time for reading! Slide into a comfortable chair or a hammock under the trees and enjoy some of the wonderful new stories from this BIG list of books recommended by our children's literature expert, Maria Salvadore. Browse online or download and print the age-appropriate lists, for kids up to 9 years old.
Big Summer Read booklist >

Best Books for Educators

In July, we plan to offer resources to help educators improve their practices. In addition to articles and research, we're developing booklists for teachers, administrators, and other professionals. Have you read a book that really informed your classroom practice? Got you motivated? Helped you work more effectively with colleagues or parents? If so, we want to hear about it.

Contact us with your book recommendations (select Books for Educators in the drop down menu) and include the follow information for each:

1. Title
2. Author
3. Who should read this book (i.e., elementary school teachers, principals, librarians)
4. Please include 2 or 3 sentences explaining why you recommended this book.

Check back with us in July, to see our booklists and resources.

Research & News

Intense Interventions

Approximately 7% of young children struggle to speak and understand language. New research suggests that the particular format of the intervention may be less important than the actual intensity and duration of the intervention. Results published in the Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing demonstrate gains for students participating in "intense interventions."
Full story >

Doing What Works: Preschool Language and Literacy

The Doing What Works website now contains information about two practices for use with very young children: phonological awareness and interactive/dialogic reading. Handouts and video describe strategies and can be useful when working with new teachers and parents.
What Works preschool resources >

Teachers' Interactions with Children Are Critical Ingredient for Pre-K

There are several ways to evaluate Pre-K programs. Researchers at the University of Virginia consider the quality of the emotional and instructional interactions between teachers and children to be one of the most important ways. In their research, the children who develop greater academic and language skills are the ones who had higher-quality interactions within the classroom. Other more commonly considered features, such as level of education and class size, were not directly associated with development.
Full story >

Kids, Family Reading, and the Internet

A new study of 5-17 year olds and their parents, conducted by Scholastic and Yankelovich, reveals that kids still prefer to read books printed on paper rather on on the Internet or handheld devices. The study also showed that teens and tweens who go online to extend the reading experience are more likely to read books for fun everyday. And 89% of kids in the study said "My favorite books are the ones I picked out myself."
Read full report >

Ideas for Parents

Hot Summer Days, Cool Movie Ideas

Lots of families find time during the summer to catch up on movies. Here's a site that provides ideas that promote literacy, learning and service based on favorite movies. Activity guides available for Charlotte's Web, Because of Winn Dixie, Flicka, and others.
F.I.L.M. website >

Traveling this Summer? Try Nerdy Wordy

You may be interested in the Parent's Choice travel picks, based on age. For 8+, they recommend Nerdy Wordy, in which parents and kids try to construct as many 2 to 5 letter words as possible. Portable picks for kids recommendations range from infant to 12 & up.
Parent's Choice travel picks >

Read for the Gold this Summer with RIF

Reading is Fundamental's summer reading program encourages kids to follow the motto of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China by reading more swiftly, with higher comprehension, and with stronger vocabularies. There are directions on their site for ways to host a summer reading Olympics in your own neighborhood.
RIF Summer Reading Olympics >

Ideas for Educators

Student-Created Podcasts

Radiowaves is a site from the UK that gives schools and students a voice using Internet radio, video, and podcasting. This subscription-based service enables even very young students to create and upload their own podcasts. The possibilities are endless! Follow this link to see examples of what some primary aged students have already created on BearWaves Radio.
Radiowaves website >

Periodic Table of Visualization Methods

Our friends at Choice Literacy shared this resource: a table designed like the periodic table of elements, but this one is all about visualization strategies. The table includes examples of data visualization, concept visualization, metaphor visualizations, and more. It's quite a site!
Visualization chart >

Organizing Your Classroom Library this Summer?

If you're considering a new system for organizing your classroom library, you might want to look at this teacher's system. Lots of pictures, downloadable basket labels and links to similar resources make this a terrific place to start your thinking!
Full article >

ASHA Schools 2008

Coming up in July: ASHA's annual conference on speech, language, and hearing services in schools. Rick Lavoie will open the conference and share his perspective on the state of special education and learning disabilities — and lessons learned from some of the thousands of children with learning disabilities, parents, teachers, and specialists he has worked with.
ASHA conference >

Featured Partners

American Library Association (ALA)
Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC)

• Summer reading and learning
• Great websites for kids
• 2008 Annual Conference, featuring the ALSC keynote address by T. Berry Brazeltona

Memorable Quote

Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.
&mdsah; Emilie Buchwald, founder of Milkweed Editions

About Reading Rockets

Reading Rockets is a national educational service of WETA, the flagship public television and radio station in the nation's capital. The Reading Rockets project is comprised of PBS television programs, available on videotape and DVD; online services, including the websites ReadingRockets.org, ColorinColorado.org, LDOnLine.org, and AdLit.org; and professional development opportunities such as teleconferences and webcasts.

Reading Rockets is funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs. The goal of the project is to provide information on how young kids learn to read, why so many struggle, and how caring adults can help. Learn about easy ways you can link to us to let others know about the many free resources available from Reading Rockets.

All the best from Reading Rockets:

• Noel Gunther, Executive Director
• Christian Lindstrom, Director, Learning Media
• Shalini Anand, Technical Web Manager
• Kelly Andrews, Project Coordinator
• Lydia Breiseth, Project Associate
• Katie Chase, Associate Editor
• Tina Chovanec, Manager, Reading Rockets
• Kelly Deckert, Web Producer
• Laurie Fry, Publicist
• Ashley Gilleland, Associate Producer
• Sun Kim, Web Coordinator
• Alan Lundy-Ponce, Director, Learning Media Websites
• Joanne Meier, Ph.D., Research Consultant
• Rachael Walker, Outreach Consultant

Newsletter editors: Joanne Meier and Tina Chovanec