Friday
Sep302005
D.E.A.R. & Literacy
Friday, September 30, 2005 at 01:05PM
It has been a busy week, considering we were cut down to three days with Governor Perdue's 911 energy-saving initiative to close the schools on Monday & Tuesday. But don't get me started--it's over now, until November 2006!
New REBEL REVIEW available today for two wonderful books in a teenage gambling series (?!) by author Laura Pedersen. Check out BOOKS: Teenage Angst. LOVED them!
I also wanted to note an article I came across in Atlanta INTown, our local arts & entertainment monthly: BORED KIDS TURN INTO BOOKWORMS WITH D.E.A.R.
Unfortunately, I don't think Atlanta INTown has the article available online yet, but it talks about a literacy initiative at one Metro Atlanta high school called D.E.A.R. - Drop Everything And Read. I've heard of this practice before, on occasion, at my children's former elementary school, and I thought it was a GREAT idea! So much so, that I tried to start it up at home, but no one ever listens to me in my own home...or perhaps it's a case of the road to you-know-where is paved with good intentions, but I digress...
At Grady High School in Atlanta, they have D.E.A.R. every Wednesday during 5th period for 20 minutes--and everybody in the entire school does it:
"Although D.E.A.R. started as a national initiative meant for individual classrooms, the literacy committee at Grady decided to take it a step further and integrate the 20-minute burst of mandatory reading time throughout the entire Midtown high school," writes Towles Kintz in the article.
Teachers D.E.A.R., administrators D.E.A.R., and the students D.E.A.R., savoring the opportunity to read whatever they want, "and teachers often let the 20 minutes of appointed reading time go longer if students are especially absorbed in their materials."
As a reader, writer, author, mother, and general Book Fanatic, that's something to get excited about! I hope the weekly D.E.A.R. program extends into the elementary and middle schools in our community, and that the program is still in effect by the time my kids get to Grady!
Check in your local schools to see if your children have the opportunity to D.E.A.R. at school. If so, as is the case at Grady High School, your school may welcome donations of appropriate books and other reading materials, especially for boys (adventure stories, mysteries; auto, music, news, entertainment, technology, science, and sports magazines).
This is a great time of year for many magazines to send their subscribers gift subscription opportunities--if you renew or extend your subscription, they will give you one, two, in some cases, even more "gift" subscriptions free of charge. Consider gifting these subscriptions to your school or another community literacy program (as appropriate)--don't let them go to waste!
If you would like to donate books or other reading materials to Grady High School, make sure to earmark them for the school's literacy program and mail them to:
Grady High School
LITERACY COMMITTEE/LITERACY PROGRAM
929 Charles Allen Drive
Atlanta, GA 30309
New REBEL REVIEW available today for two wonderful books in a teenage gambling series (?!) by author Laura Pedersen. Check out BOOKS: Teenage Angst. LOVED them!
I also wanted to note an article I came across in Atlanta INTown, our local arts & entertainment monthly: BORED KIDS TURN INTO BOOKWORMS WITH D.E.A.R.
Unfortunately, I don't think Atlanta INTown has the article available online yet, but it talks about a literacy initiative at one Metro Atlanta high school called D.E.A.R. - Drop Everything And Read. I've heard of this practice before, on occasion, at my children's former elementary school, and I thought it was a GREAT idea! So much so, that I tried to start it up at home, but no one ever listens to me in my own home...or perhaps it's a case of the road to you-know-where is paved with good intentions, but I digress...
At Grady High School in Atlanta, they have D.E.A.R. every Wednesday during 5th period for 20 minutes--and everybody in the entire school does it:
"Although D.E.A.R. started as a national initiative meant for individual classrooms, the literacy committee at Grady decided to take it a step further and integrate the 20-minute burst of mandatory reading time throughout the entire Midtown high school," writes Towles Kintz in the article.
Teachers D.E.A.R., administrators D.E.A.R., and the students D.E.A.R., savoring the opportunity to read whatever they want, "and teachers often let the 20 minutes of appointed reading time go longer if students are especially absorbed in their materials."
As a reader, writer, author, mother, and general Book Fanatic, that's something to get excited about! I hope the weekly D.E.A.R. program extends into the elementary and middle schools in our community, and that the program is still in effect by the time my kids get to Grady!
Check in your local schools to see if your children have the opportunity to D.E.A.R. at school. If so, as is the case at Grady High School, your school may welcome donations of appropriate books and other reading materials, especially for boys (adventure stories, mysteries; auto, music, news, entertainment, technology, science, and sports magazines).
This is a great time of year for many magazines to send their subscribers gift subscription opportunities--if you renew or extend your subscription, they will give you one, two, in some cases, even more "gift" subscriptions free of charge. Consider gifting these subscriptions to your school or another community literacy program (as appropriate)--don't let them go to waste!
If you would like to donate books or other reading materials to Grady High School, make sure to earmark them for the school's literacy program and mail them to:
Grady High School
LITERACY COMMITTEE/LITERACY PROGRAM
929 Charles Allen Drive
Atlanta, GA 30309
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