|
|
 |
 |
| 
|
Arkansas Reading Association
E-Newsletter
February 2010 - Vol 2, Issue 8 | |
|
2010 CONFERENCE AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT - LORI OCZKUS |
Lori Oczkus is a literacy coach, author, and popular speaker across the United States, and she will be one of this year's featured speakers at the ARA Conference in November.
Tens of thousands of teachers have attended her motivating, fast paced workshops and read her practical, research-based professional books. Lori has extensive experience as a bilingual elementary teacher, intervention specialist working with struggling readers, and staff developer and literacy coach. She works with students every week in classrooms and really knows the challenges that teachers face in teaching students to read!
Lori's two best selling books on comprehension have been featured in the Reading Teacher journal. Reciprocal Teaching at Work: Strategies for Improving Reading Comprehension (IRA, 2003 book of the month, Oct.) and is endorsed by noted reading expert, Tim Rasinski. Her video/DVD (IRA, 2005) won the prestigious Association of Educational Publishers (AEP) Video of the Year award in 2006. |
|
2010 Arkansas Literary Festival,
April 8-11 |
The seventh annual ALF is guaranteed to be a stimulating mix of authors, panels, special events, performances, workshops and more.
It will be held in the Central Arkansas Library System's Main campus and in multiple downtown Little Rock venues
Click here for more information. | |
|
|
NORTHEAST ARKANSAS READING COUNCIL CELEBRATES 40 YEARS
|
The Northeast Arkansas Reading Council, which serves the Mississippi County area, hosted a 40th anniversary celebration at the Mississippi County Public Library last month.
The NEARC has seen many changes and is responsible for the forming of several other councils in the northeast Arkansas area. The council hosted the African American Read-In Chain on Sunday, Feb. 7, 2:30 at the Blytheville Schools Multipurpose Building.
Current NEARC officers are Melisa Rutherford, Caroline Self, Sally Cooke, and Marvel Dickerson. Congratulations to them and all NEARC members! |
| NEWS FROM IRA |
- parent and after-school resources
- hundreds of standards-based lesson plans
Click here to discover the new ReadWriteThink.
(Consider sharing your ideas and lessons with thousands of educators. Arkansas needs to be represented!)
|
|
Newspaper in Education Week is March 1-5 |
 Marina Hendricks, Manager, Newspaper Association of America Foundation (NAAF) has notified us that the new 2010 teacher's guide entitled Critical Thinking Through Core Curriculum: Using Print and Digital Newspapers, an in-paper ad and a Web site banner ad are now available.
You can find the link to this material at http://www.naafoundation.org/Curriculum/NIE/NIE-Week.aspx.
Everything can be downloaded free of charge.
|
|
Click here to link to IRA's site for more information.
Congratulations to Kay Calvert, Arkadelphia Reading Council, and AMY SIMPSON, Crowley's Ridge, who are the 2008 and 2009 recipients of ARA's Local Council Honoree Awards. Each will receive $750 to attend IRA's Annual Convention. | |
|
|
JUDY YOUNG RELEASES NEW BOOK |
Author Judy Young, who has presented at ARA conferences, informs us that her new book, The Hidden Bestiary of Marvelous, Mysterious and (maybe even) Magical Creatures, has just been released.
 The Missouri author makes school visits disguised as curious scientist "Basil B Barnswhitten." For more information, please visit www.judyyoungpoetry.com. |
|
RYAN RECEIVES BELATED HONOR BOOK MEDAL |
 Pam Munoz Ryan was presented with the 2001 Charlie May Simon Honor Book medal for Riding Freedom in Oklahoma City during the Southwest Regional IRA Conference earlier this month.
Riding Freedom was selected as the honor book during the 10 year period when the medals were not presented, nor were winning authors notified. In 2008, ARA took responsibility for contacting and presenting the medals to the winning authors at the ARA annual conference.
Pictured are Ryan (left) and Tanna Clark, IRA Coordinator for ARA, who surprised Ryan with the belated award following following her Book and Author Luncheon speech.
For Charlie May Simon and Diamond Award Book lists, or to recommend a book for next year's reading list, click here. |
|
CONFERENCE EVALUATIONS STUDIED, ADDRESSED |
|
The Arkansas Reading Association used electronic conference evaluations for the first time this year. The conference committee has studied the 400+ responses that were received, and these issues were discussed at the board retreat held in January.
In response to issues and concerns, this year's conference committee is attempting to address:
- offering more professional development hours by holding sessions later in the day
- the possibility of offering half or full-day institutes
- other areas for serving food
- lunch options/times
- more middle/secondary offerings
- more areas for PD authorization
- repeat sessions
Our thanks to all those participants who completed the evaluation - please know your input is valuable to us!
|
LOCAL COUNCIL OFFICER LIST DUE MARCH 10
|
| A preliminary list of names of local council officers is due to Tanna Clark by March 10, according to the Diamond Award Guidelines.
The officers' contact information is not due at this time, only a listing of the officers for 2010-2011 are due. These can be emailed to tanna@arareading.org.
The new officers need to plan to attend ARA's Summer Leadership Workshop (expenses paid by ARA) on July 16-17 at the Embassy Suites in Little Rock. Presentations on parental involvement, technology, curriculum connections, and leadership will be offered. There will also be an author presentation.
Want to be a local officer? Contact your current council president and offer to serve as an officer for the 2010-2011 year. The rewards are many:
- Opportunities for personal growth
- Meet others, forging relationships that can help you throughout life
- You may have chances to meet civic and governmental leaders
- Opportunities to improve leadership, interpersonal and communication skills
- Learn more about literacy and literacy initiatives
- Meet authors at leadership meetings
- Build your resume
- Help your community
- Learn from and encourage others
|
READ ACROSS AMERICA
NEA calls for every child to be reading in the company of a caring adult |
To go to National Education Association's Read Across America site, click here.
|
|
Toni Buzzeo Announces: |
No T. Rex in the Library (S&S, 2010) will be published on February 23, 2010!
In honor of its imminent arrival, I am currently conducting a writing contest for preK to sixth graders. PRIZES include ten hardcover autographed copies of the book. The grand prize is a free ½ hour Skype visit with the author.
Click here to download contest rules. |
|
RAISE A READER PROGRAM
A message from IRA Executive Director, William B. Harvey |
|
I want to call your attention to an exciting new IRA initiative, the Raise a Reader program. Co-sponsored with Parents magazine, this program is a U.S. national competition among schools to increase the amount of time that their students spend reading. The winning school--the one where the students log the most reading minutes--will receive a $5,000 award for the library. Schools can enter this competition until February 28 by going to www.Parents.com/reading . | |
|
|
Coordinator's Corner
Winter weather has had us bound indoors for several days this year. Picking up a good book and cup of tea is a great way to spend this indoor time. I hope you find some time to read professionally and just for fun during these cold winter days.
Warm up with a good book,
 | |
 |
|
