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April 2008

April 28, 2008

BC Book Prizes 2008 winners

More INfo

Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize

Supported by the BC Library Association
Judges: Julie Burtinshaw, Shelley Hrdlitschka and David Ward

Winner! The Corps of the Bare-Boned Plane
by Polly Horvath
Publisher: Groundwood Books

Like her National Book Award-winning The Canning Season, The Corps of the Bare-Boned Plane is filled with plot twists and extraordinarily strange characters. It is also a moving meditation on loss and finding family in the most unlikely places. Following the death of their parents, two cousins are sent to live with their distant, scholarly uncle and his eccentric house staff. Told in four characters’ voices, the novel is a layered account of one bad year from multiple points of view linking humour and pain. Polly Horvath has written many award-winning books for children and young adults, including The Trolls and Everything on a Waffle, which won the Sheila Egoff Prize in 2002. She lives in Victoria. More

Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize

Supported by Kate Walker and Company
Judges: Alison Acheson, Kathryn Shoemaker and John Wilson

Winner! A Sea-Wishing Day
by Robert Heidbreder
Illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton
Publisher: Kids Can Press

On a hot summer day, a wish transforms an urban backyard into a place of breezy high-seas adventure. As our bold Captain and Skipper ride the salty waves, they encounter a beastly sea monster, buried treasure, a scurvy pirate crew, lovely mermaids and more. The creative pair who brought you the acclaimed I Wished for a Unicorn offer up another celebration of the boundless distances a childhood wish can travel. A retired elementary school teacher, Robert Heidbreder has been enchanting children with his joyful poems and rhymes for more than two decades. His 2005 book, Drumheller Dinosaur Dance, won the BC Chocolate Lily Young Readers’ Choice Award. Kady MacDonald Denton is an author and illustrator of books for children and lives in Peterborough, Ontario.More

NOMINEES:

The Day It All Blew Away
by Lisa Cinar
Publisher: Simply Read Books


Huge-headed Mr. Tadaa and the little person are mighty lonely. Surrounded by characters who are always tipping their hats and shunning those who don’t return the favour, poor Mr. Tadaa has a head too big for his hat. Even worse, the little person’s hat is so big it wears him. One blustery day, Mr. Tadaa’s hat and the little person are blown away by the wind ... and right into each other! A surprise twist at the end shows that even in a world of hat-tippers, nonconformists can find happiness and friendship. Vancouver-based writer and illustrator Lisa Cinar graduated from Emily Carr Institute with a BFA in Fine Arts. This is her first book.  More

Elf the Eagle
by Ron Smith
Illustrated by Ruth Campbell
Publisher: Oolichan Books

 

Elf is a baby eagle who worries about many things, including the distance from his nest, high up in a tree, to the ground, way, way down below. He also worries about his sister, Edwina, who is older and more adventurous than he is. Eventually, when his baby down grows into strong, black feathers, his parents stop bringing him food and tempt him with tasty morsels that they keep just out of reach. Elf gets very hungry and one day he accidentally tumbles out of his nest; before he knows it, he is flying. Founder and publisher of Oolichan Books, Ron Smith is the author of three collections of poetry and a book of short stories. He lives in Lantzville on Vancouver Island. This is his first book for children. An Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design graduate, Ruth Campbell is a painter who was born and raised in Montreal. She now lives in Vancouver. More

Jeffrey and Sloth
by Kari-Lynn Winters
Illustrated by Ben Hodson
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers

 

Jeffrey can’t think of a thing to write, so he doodles instead, only to have his doodle begin to order him about. Jeffrey struggles with the situation until he discovers that the most strong-willed doodle is powerless against a well-told tale. Jeffrey and Sloth is bound to have children rushing for their coloured pencils and their pens to see who and what they can create. Kari-Lynn Winters is an author and playwright. A graduate of Canada’s National Theatre School, she also performs with a children’s theatre group, The Tickle Trunk Players. She is currently completing her Ph.D. in the Language and Literacy Department at UBC. Ben Hodson is an award-winning artist based in Ottawa.  More

Pink
by Nan Gregory
Illustrated by Luc Melanson
Publisher: Groundwood Books

 

Vivi is dizzy with wanting pink. Perfect pink. The kind the rich girls have, beyond the budget of her beloved truck-driver dad. One day in the window of a fancy toy store she sees something that embodies everything she longs for—a bride doll in a dress of perfect glistening pink. She saves and saves to buy the doll, walking the next-door dog and running errands. But when she takes her parents to show them the precious doll, she experiences a crushing disappointment. Pink is a touching story about longing for something beyond reach and finding something better close to home. Nan Gregory is a Vancouver-based award-winning author and professional storyteller. She won the CLA Book of the Year Award for Wild Girl and Gran and the Sheila A. Egoff Prize and the Mr. Christie’s Award for How Smudge Came. Luc Melanson is a commercial artist who has illustrated many picture books. He lives in Montreal. More

Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize

Supported by Friesens, Transcontinental and Webcom
Judges: Margaret Gunning, Rob Wiersema and Carol Windley

Winner! Conceit
by Mary Novik
Publisher: Doubleday Canada

 

This lush and lyrical novel is centred on the life of the historical character Pegge Donne, daughter of the great English love poet John Donne. Conceit brings to life a passionate, intelligent girl and woman set against the backdrop of the courtly world of late Elizabethan London and the turmoil of the ensuing decades, including the catastrophic Great Fire of 1666. Like Girl With a Pearl Earring, Conceit is a vivid and intelligent novel with a complex female character at its heart. Mary Novik is a former English and Creative Writing instructor at Langara College and was poetry reviewer for The Vancouver Sun for five years. This is her first published novel.  More

Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize

Supported by Abebooks
Judges: Kirk LaPointe, Rita Moir and Harold Rhenisch

Winner! Everywhere Being is Dancing
by Robert Bringhurst
Publisher: Gaspereau Press

 

In this companion volume to The Tree of Meaning (2006), Robert Bringhurst collects talks and meditations under the principle that “everything is related to everything else.” His studies of poetry, polyphonics, oral literature, storytelling, translation, mythology, homogeny, cultural ecology, literary criticism and typography all build upon this sense of basic connection and his thinking involves the work of poets, musicians and philosophers. Robert Bringhurst, recipient of the 2005 Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence, is a poet, typographer and linguist, well known for his award-winning translations of the Haida storytellers Skaay and Ghandl, and for his translations of the early Greek philosopher-poet Parmenides. He lives on Quadra Island. More

Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize

Supported by the BC Teachers’ Federation
Judges: Elizabeth Bachinsky, Kate Braid and John Pass

Winner! Forage
by Rita Wong
Publisher: Nightwood Editions

 

A vividly described, fierce commentary on our international political landscape and the injustices it breeds, this collection of poems holds sharply modern and timely opinions. It also features marginalia, Chinese characters and photos to give depth to the poetry’s political context. Bridging cultures and contexts, Forage manages to be instructive without being pedantic, thought-provoking while still calling forth humour and beauty. Rita Wong’s first book, monkeypuzzle, was published by Press Gang in 1998 and received the Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop Emerging Writer Award. She lives in Miami and Vancouver and teaches Critical and Cultural Studies at the Emily Carr Institute. More

Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize

Supported by BC 150
Judges: David Lester, Kate Walker and Judith Williams

Winner! The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating
by J.B. MacKinnon, Alisa Smith
Publisher: Random House Canada

 

When this Vancouver couple learned that the average ingredient in a North American meal travels 1,500 miles from farm to plate, they decided to launch a simple experiment to reconnect with the people and places that produced what they ate. For one year, they would consume only food that came from within a 100-mile radius of their apartment. The pair’s discoveries sometimes shook their resolve as they got personal with issues ranging from global economics to biodiversity and immersed themselves in the seasons. The 100-Mile Diet has attracted media and grassroots interest around the world. Alisa Smith is a freelance writer. J.B. MacKinnon is the author of Dead Man in Paradise, which won the 2006 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-fiction and was shortlisted for the Hubert Evans Non-fiction Prize. More

BC Booksellers’ Choice Award in Honour of Bill Duthie

Supported by BC Booksellers’ Association and Duthie Books
Judged by members of the BC Booksellers’ Association

Winner! The Last Wild Wolves: Ghosts of the Great Bear Rainforest
by Ian McAllister
Publisher: Greystone Books

For seventeen years, Ian McAllister has lived on the rugged north coast of BC. This book—which includes an introduction by Paul Paquet and contributions by Chris Darimont—follows McAllister’s experiences during that period following two packs of wolves. Their behaviour—which depends on the vast old-growth forest—is documented in words and pictures as they fish for salmon in the fall, target seals hauled out on rocks in winter, and give birth to their young in the base of thousand-year-old cedar trees in spring. Most interestingly, scientific studies reveal a genetically distinct population of wolves—one that is increasingly threatened by human incursions. McAllister’s first book, The Great Bear Rainforest (1997), co-authored with his wife, Karen McAllister, and Cameron Young, won the Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award. He lives on Denny Island in the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest. More

BLOG THESE BOOKS:


http://www.bcbookprizes.ca/winners


| KSS Home: Library: LiterateOwl
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April 25, 2008

Poet Geddes gets LG Prize

Poet Geddes gets LG Prize-
British Columbia's Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence

Vancouver-born poet and writer Gary Geddes has captured the fifth annual Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence in British Columbia.

Organizers announced the winner of the prize Friday night. The award, worth $5,000, recognizes B.C. writers who have contributed to the development of literary excellence in the province.

The three-member panel said Geddes was chosen "for the integrity of his creative work, for his active and generous promotion of other writers and for the words he has given to help map the literary geography of British Columbia."

The 67-year-old author of more than 30 books is also a critic, editor and long-time educator who taught at Concordia University in Montreal from 1978 to 1998. He is currently an adjunct professor with the creative writing program at the University of British Columbia.

Read More….

Bio

Books:

 

  

April 20, 2008

World and I Online-school news

Headlines in Review
Week ending April 18, 2008      by The World & I Online

Gaza violence up during Carter visit 
Tel Aviv, April 17 -- Renewed battles between Israel and Palestinians yesterday overshadowed the peace mission of former President Jimmy Carter, who extended his hand to one of Israel's most hawkish politicians. The fighting in the Gaza Strip intensified as the Palestinians counted at least 20 d...

Kurdish leaders reach oil-law deal with Baghdad 
Washington, April 17 -- Iraq's central government and the Kurdish region have reached a deal on an oil law, including a method for weighing the validity of the oil deals the Kurds have signed with foreign firms, the top government spokesman said yesterday. Ali al-Dabbagh said an agreement also ha...

Emergency measures to contain soaring food prices and drought in Djibouti 
Nairobi, April 17, -- Djibouti is to implement emergency measures to ensure food security amid soaring prices and persistent drought that have particularly hurt the poor across the Horn of Africa country, the government said. The strategies include continued price controls, diversification of fo...

North Korea facing a famine 
Bangkok, April 18 -- North Korea's desperate need to feed its citizens has prompted a United Nations agency to warn of a ''humanitarian crisis'' looming up in the months ahead. The price of basic food items in Pyongyang, the country's capital, offers a stark picture of the reality average worker...

Cautious Calm Settles Over War-Scarred Ituri Region of Democratic Republic of Congo 
Bogoro, April 17 -- Wading through the chest-high grass outside of this hamlet in north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Mathieu Nyakufa gestures to the bones -- still bleaching in the sun -- of those who have been lost to the country's wars. "I was living just down here in the valley," the...

Activists Call for Urgent Land Reform in Latin America 
Brasilia, April 17 -- An urgent call to speed up the land reform process in Latin America was issued Thursday by rural activists at the 30th FAO Regional Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean, who also sharply criticised agribusiness interests and large estates in the region. "We are ca...

India looks to work with Nepal's once-hated Maoist rebels 
New Delhi, April 18 -- Fears of frosty India-Nepal ties following the electoral victory of Maoists may have been dispelled with the Indian government acknowledging the emergence of the communist-led democratic government in Nepal and pledging to work with the former rebels, experts say. "The app...

Analysts fear Al-Qaida may attack Turkey 
Berlin, April 18, -- Experts are worried that Turkey will soon be hit by an al-Qaida-orchestrated terror attack. In November 2003 Istanbul was hit by a terror attack that targeted two synagogues, a British bank and the British consulate, killing more than 50 people and injuring 700 others. T...

Nutrition gains at risk in Philippines 
Manila, April 18 -- In the Philippines, one out of four children is considered underweight or stunted - telling signs of nutritional problems. But this figure, which translates into four million children under 10 being undernourished, is considered an improvement, according to the country's Food and...

Optimism prevails in Uganda, despite setback in peace talks 
Kampala, April 18 -- Josephine Akello had hoped the peace talks between the Ugandan government and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) would finally end with rebel leader Joseph Kony signing a peace accord on 10 April. Then she heard that the elusive Kony had failed to show up at a much-publicised s...

N. Korea's nuclear past stays sealed 
Washington, April 18 -- The Bush administration made another concession to North Korea yesterday by agreeing to keep secret part of a required declaration of the country's nuclear programs, saving Pyongyang a public embarrassment from its proliferation activities. The decision is likely to figur...


Go to www.worldandischool.com to see all the articles in this month's issue.

Note: If you have received this email in error, please click on Unsubscribe (http://www.worldandi.com/unsubscribe.asp).

Greg’s TOP 10 Picks April 2008

Greg’s TOP 10 Picks April 2008

Exciting Ideas and Opportunities for Social Studies Teachers and Students!

1. Asia Pacific Studies in BC Schools. Check out this in-depth report prepared by leading BC educators on the current state of Asia pacific studies in our schools. http://www.asiapacific.ca/analysis/pubs/listing.cfm?ID_Publication=610

2. Canadian Virtual War Memorial. Veterans Affairs Canada is looking for photographs and personal memorabilia of Canadians at war to help preserve our heritage and history as a legacy for future generations. Check out the other great ideas for teachers and students at this site. http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/sub.cfm?source=collections/virtualmem

3. Canadian Oxford School 50th Anniversary Edition collector’s Atlas. It is available this June and you can have one for FREE as well as a 10% discount on purchases just for filling out a short questionnaire! http://fds.oup.com/www.oup.com/pdf/ca/COSA_Questionnaire_April

4. Discovery Education. Check this out for all kinds of social studies lessons, ideas, clip-art and video links to make social studies education fun and informative. http://school.discoveryeducation.com/lessonplans/?pID=lesson#

5. Fraser Essay Contest. Calling all BC Grade 11 students! In the 200th year of Simon Fraser’s epic journey, this contest seeks to explore what the Fraser River means to them.

www.explorethefraser.bcit.ca

6. Geography, Geography, Geography! This site is designed to assist all Canadian secondary school geography teachers. Links to everything geographic including lesson plans, activities and a whole lot more are provided.

http://info.wlu.ca/~wwwgeog/special/vgt/English/help/geog_links.htm

7. Holocaust Education. The Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre will help local and distant teachers and students gain a greater understanding of a terrible time in world history. www.vhec.org

8. Italy Calling! Special Travel International is planning a 2009 commemoration tour for secondary students to see and hear about Canada’s actions in Italy during WW2. Bring 10 students and the teacher tour is free! www.sticanada.com

9. Middle School Social Studies. Check out this site from Courtenay Middle School for all kinds of history, geography, current events, election and research ideas for your classroom. http://web.sd71.bc.ca/courtenay_middle/?q=node/64

10. Religions, religions, religions. Great site for student or teacher research of the world’s major religions. Students can even take on-line quizzes with immediate feedback on their answers. http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/

Comments and ideas-Contact Greg at 250-485-8295 gtgsmith@gmail.com . Check out all the great ideas for Social Studies teachers at the BC Social Studies Teacher’s Association website. http://www.bctf.ca/bcssta/

April 15, 2008

Gaming Promote reading?

Does Gaming Promote Reading?

The State of Libraries: 'Funding Down, but Gaming Up"

http://theshiftedlibrarian.com/archives/2008/04/15/does-gaming-promote-reading.html

"Are we really doing anything to tie video gaming and literacy together? I haven't seen it; I've simply seen us holding gaming sessions because that's what gets teens - boys in particular - excited enough to come in and participate in a library-sponsored activity, thus racking up the numbers we need for our monthly stats.

Librarians who are fans of gaming programs keep saying that teens are lured in by gaming, and once they're through the door, those teens use the library in more traditional ways. But is there any documentation for this claim? All I keep seeing are anecdotes. Are teens who come in for games actually checking things out? I've rarely seen it myself. I hope someone will do a study one day soon of how well gaming works as a draw to get teens to check things out - especially things with pages and print." [The Monkey Speaks]

Walter's concerns are understandable, but there is indeed evidence that kids who come to the library for gaming also use the book collection more.

And yes, there is also a lot of anecdotal evidence from leaders such as Eli Neiburger, Aaron Schmidt, Kelly Czarnecki, and others. Eli in particular has a great video he showed at the TechSouce Gaming, Learning, and Libraries Symposium last year in which kids talked about how they never knew the library had so much for them until they started coming in for the gaming. There are more and more reports about this in the press every day.

Gamers Can Play It By the Books

"At the Stillwater Free Library, director Sara Kipp brings in her own PlayStation for middle school and high school students to use on a game night. In Stillwater, game night is combined with a book club.

'We already offered a book club, which was lukewarm at best,' Kipp said in an e-mail explaining the program.

'So we decided to introduce gaming in the library in conjunction with the book club. Some libraries separate the two, but we created a program to meld them in an attempt to give the teens what they are looking for all in one shot,' Kipp continued.

The town of Ballston Public Library will connect video gaming to the Olympics this summer by holding a Wii Olympics using a package tied to the games. Rebecca Vanderhayden, the youth services librarian, said a participant gets a turn playing a game for every 50 pages they read." [Times Union]

In addition, most librarians I've talked to who have offered gaming note that it enhances their connection with the kids, which makes it easier for these patrons to ask for help when they need it. Early research from the Public Library of Charlotte Mecklenburg County in North Carolina indicates this holds true for adults, too.

At ALA, we're hoping to measure these kinds of outcomes that surround gaming in libraries. We've received a big grant from the Verizon Foundation to educate librarians about gaming, provide best practices, offer a toolkit to help get started, and track the results nationally. It's a two-year grant, so it will be a while before we have numbers, but there's a blog about Gaming News for the project, as well as an early start on a wiki for Gaming Resources.

I'm lucky enough to be working with Dale Lipschultz, ALA's Literacy Officer, on this project. Dale is a well-known and respected expert in the literacy community, and I've learned a lot from her on this subject already. She made the following points about gaming and literacy in a recent email exchange.

  1. Literacy is more than reading and writing — that is it's more than the acquistion of basic skills. Literacy requires problem solving skills, the ability to formulate and apply hypotheses, strategy development, etc.
  2. Gaming — board, social, and video — is a meaningful literacy activity. Kids (and adults) are invested in gaming. It's fun, it's what they do with their peers, and they like it. Therefore it has meaning in their lives. Gaming usually requires some reading and writing skills. It always involves problem solving and strategy skills. Even reluctant readers will read and problem solve in order to 'level up' and master the game and stay competitive with their peers. That said, along with mastering the game, they are improving their basic skills.
  3. Learning to read and write is a profoundly social process, and literacy development doesn't happen in isolation. Learning is most effective when the novice is supported by an expert (an adult or peer) who scaffolds the activity and provides mediation or instruction as needed. The novice is encouraged to engage in an activity slightly beyond his/her level of mastery and comfort.

As Dale told me last year, Tarzan never would have learned to read without Jane. Librarians are well-positioned to provide the environment, expertise, and scaffolding necessary for literacy, and gaming enhances that environment. It also adds that social piece that makes the expertise more approachable. As Eli is careful to note in his book, you can't just hand kids a bibliography when they're engaged in gaming, but it does provide opportunities to offer books, graphic novels, and magazines in the type of environment Dale describes.

 

 

April 13, 2008

Learning About Literacy

Learning About Literacy , By Fisher, Peter

TEACH A CHILD WHAT EACH LETTER STANDS FOR AND HE CAN READ. - FLESCH (1955, PP. 2-3) It has been more than 50 years since Rudolf Flesch's book Why Johnny Can't Read (1955) was a bestseller. Flesch argued that schools were not teaching children to read, and he railed against the whole-word method, which he saw as being dominant in schools. Given his experience of teaching a child to read, he advocated the use of phonics. Since then, some of the same arguments for using phonics are repeated in the press, and disagreements about teaching reading have been characterized as the phonics wars. This article does not attempt to argue for or against the teaching of phonics, but it does try to present the dispute in relation to many aspects of the teaching of reading that go far beyond children's decoding ability. It attempts to do so through a look at some of the theories and practices advocated in the last 50 years. Before addressing phonics, however, we need to examine the concept of emergent literacy.

EMERGENT LITERACY

Dolores Durkin wanted to find out what it was that enabled some children to come to school already able to read. Her book Children Who Read Early (1966) paved the way for much of the later research in what came to be known as emergent literacy. She found that, among other behaviors, these children engaged in pretend reading and writing and had parents or caretakers who read to them. The basic tenet of this theoretical perspective is that learning to read does not begin at a particular age or developmental stage but that various behaviors lead to an emergent understanding of the process of reading. For example, young children may pretend to read a familiar book, making up a story by attending to the pictures.

Work by Sulzby (1985) and her associates demonstrated that there are several stages that children go through-from pretending to read, to refusing to read, to attending to the graphic information on a page. Read's work (1971) on developmental, or invented, spelling showed that there are stages in children's writing that reveal a growing exploration of the alphabetic principle that underlies the print system, from pretend writing (through using letters to represent sounds in words), to using letters to represent all sounds in a word, to almost-correct spelling and the use of spelling rules. Marie clay's work (1979) showed how students develop book knowledge (where to begin reading, what a word is, etc.). Over the years, various researchers have looked at children's emergent literacy in a variety of settings and with a variety of children. What has become apparent is that children's exposure to print in the environment and at home influences what they learn about reading and writing and that we can expect certain behaviors to be apparent as children learn to read. Reading books to children is clearly one of the most important aspects of helping this emergent literacy, but another important aspect that has received considerable attention is phonemic awareness, which we now understand is a precursor to understanding phonics.

PHONICS AND EARLY READING

Phonemic awareness is the ability to segment a spoken word into its constituent sounds. The National Reading Panel (2000) suggested that students are typically able to do this after about 12 hours of instruction. The panel also pointed out that phonemic awareness is a part of phonological awareness-the latter including knowing and making rhymes, alliterations, and the like. The distinction may be more important in theory than in practice; that is, most teachers would not consider teaching one without the other. It is sufficient to recognize that phonemic awareness is important in the process of learning to read and write because it is hard to assign a sound to a symbol unless one can hear it as a separate sound in a word. If you have seen students who write using invented spelling, you know that phonemic awareness is part of what they do as they stretch out a word and try to put a letter for each sound that they hear. In fact, invented spelling is an exploration of written symbols in language and, as such, can be characterized as phonics instruction.

Perhaps it is most important to clarify what most educators believe about phonics instruction: that the debate is not phonics- or-no-phonics; more so, it is what type of phonics instruction, how much, and when. Flesch (1955) argued for synthetic phonics-that is, teaching the students sound-symbol correspondences and then have them put the sounds together. Children in this system, for example, learn the sounds for c, a, and t and then synthesize them to make the word cot. In contrast, analytic phonics suggests teaching the students the word cot and then breaking the word down into its constituent sounds and demonstrating the correspondence to the letters and symbols. Most teachers, being pragmatists, do some combination of analytic and synthetic phonics.

In the 1960s and 1970s, there was a disagreement in education about the appropriate materials to use when teaching early reading. The old Dick and Jane readers and similar basais of the period used a controlled vocabulary. Students learned words in isolation before seeing them in context, thereby supposedly ensuring a successful reading experience. They could use analytic phonics to decode words that were problematic. Some contrasting materials that lent themselves to synthetic phonics provided practice in the phonic elements that the students were learning. The former materials have been demonized with examples like Wo, Spot. No! The latter have critics who mock constructions such as Can Nan Fan Dan? Although these criticisms have been overblown-either system produces fairly natural-looking text in materials used at the end of first grade- there was an educational movement in the 198Os that argued for the use of real children's books. The whole-language movement believed that by exposing students to real text in real books, children could acquire literacy skills in much the same way as they acquire speaking skills. As with most movements, there were purists who saw anything that approached phonics instruction in this context as an anathema, and there were those who adopted some version of the approach, especially because it blended well with a renewed emphasis on writing using writing process and writing workshop (1 return to this later). Nevertheless, there is some research in early reading that is hard to ignore. .....

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=tfh&AN=10452929&site=ehost-live

Copyright Ken Haycock & Associates Feb 2008

(c) 2008 Teacher Librarian. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

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