Inbox: Visual Composition at the Center

This week college-level members will gather for the 57th Annual Convention of CCCC. Program Chair Akua Duku Anokye asked attendees to consider the question “How do we work in the middle spaces with integrity and conviction to clearly and loudly address the literacy needs of a diverse society?” as one issue that might shape their proposals for the Convention. One answer to this important question is to foreground the many literacies that students bring to the classroom. The Ideas Section from this week’s Inbox will get you started.

Inbox: Reading Habits in the Internet Age

This week’s Denver Post article “Technology Rewrites Rules for Reading” explores how students’ reading habits have been influenced by the various online reading that they do. More and more often, teachers, curriculum developers, and school literacy programs must search for strategies that will best meet students’ needs. The Ideas section from this week’s Inbox offers one way to solve the problem—ask students to explore and share their reading habits and their understanding of text in a digital world.

Inbox: Raising Students’ Awareness of Copyright

March 6-10 is Copyright Awareness Week, an event designed to urge teachers from across the curriculum to teach students basic concepts of copyright, so the Ideas Section for this week’s Inbox discusses how to explore these issues with students.

Inbox: Celebrate Dr. Seuss and Read Across America Day!

Better known to most readers as Dr. Seuss, Dr. Theodor Geisel was born 102 years ago this week. The Ideas Section for this week’s Inbox is titled Celebrate Dr. Seuss and Read Across America Day!. The column includes lesson plans and ideas that focus on reading Dr. Seuss books in the classroom, including a lesson that uses The Cat in the Hat to discuss id, ego, and superego.

Inbox: Reading Across America (and Across the Grades)

March 2 is Read Across America Day, so it’s time to begin making plans for celebrations in the classroom. This week there was also an article in The Grand Rapid Times about a cross-level reading collaboration: Reading unites Calvin, Lee. As a result, the Ideas section of this week’s Inbox focuses on Reading Across America (and Across the Grades), which includes resources to celebrate reading with students in different grade levels.

Inbox: Improving Instruction for ELL/ESL Students

Inspired by an Arizona Republic article, which outlines the state’s struggle to find programs that will improve instruction for the English language learners in the public school system, the Ideas section of this week’s Inbox focuses on Improving Instruction for ELL/ESL Students.

Inbox: Reading and Writing in All Subject Areas

The Ideas section for today’s Inbox focuses on Reading and Writing in All Subject Areas. As the piece explains, “President Bush’s proposal to focus solely on the quality of math, science, and technological education ignores the important critical thinking and literacy skills that take place in the English language arts and composition classrooms. By focusing on reading and writing in all subject areas, we can ensure that students are better prepared to improve the analytical, technical, and problem-solving skills that the President’s plan targets. These resources offer suggestions for working toward these goals.”

Naturally, students need to do better. They deserve better. But as it’s presented the American Competitiveness Initiative comes up short. To suggest that reading and writing aren’t just as important to a student’s success is shortsighted and foolish. Not only do we want students to be able to read those math, science, and engineering texts in thoughtful and analytical ways, but we want them to be able to compose their own work in relationship to the ideas that they develop in these content areas. The President’s plan comes up short. With a wife who is a librarian, you would think that his educational initiatives would more fully represent the full range of learning that students need for lifelong learning and achievement.

Inbox: Does the Holocaust Matter?

NCTE is providing some resources for Oprah’s
National High School Essay Contest
, so the Ideas section for this week’s Inbox focuses on “Does the Holocaust Matter Today?” I also added resources on the ALA awards that were announced on Monday.

Inbox: Research Strategies for the Internet Age

The Ideas section for this week’s Inbox focused on Research Strategies for the Internet Age: how to examine resources, avoiding plagiarism, and so forth.

Inbox: Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Ideas section for this week’s Inbox focuses on classroom activities to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. The column includes 5 different lesson plans and several articles.