GKR readers, the U of C needs our help. The University of Connecticut is doing a study on illustrated children’s books. They’d like GKR readers to help by taking a brief (four-minute) online survey. Before passing along their request to you, I called them and spoke to them about their […]
Tag: research
Literacy Lava – excellent (free) resource
Literacy Lava 5 I’ve got an article in the latest edition of Susan Stephenson’s (The Book Chook) great e-newsletter, “Literacy Lava.” “Literacy Lava” is a free .pdf for parents and educators, and is basically a collection of great articles on helping kids to read. This is the 5th edition of […]
A good teacher – the most important thing
Sometimes, the research catches up with what mothers already know. “Everything the world has learned about education shows that the quality of the teacher is the most important factor in a student’s success.” –The Toronto Star, reporting on a speech given by Malcolm Gladwell, author of the bestselling Blink and […]
The Internet helps kids read
The Internet can help to get kids reading, according to a 2008 Scholastic Kids and Family Reading study. In an article in the Bismarck Tribune (North Dakota), journalist Pamela Krueger says the study shows that: *Kids who use the Internet are more likely to read a book for fun.*Two-thirds of […]
More books = more education
Books lead to education. There are three things that you can do to help ensure your child will become a reader:1) Read to him every day.2) Have lots of books in your home.3) Read, yourself. The research is very consistent. Statistically, families that do these three things end up having […]
Read to your child. Every day.
It’s the single most important thing you can do to get your kid reading. Statistics show that if you read to your child, every day, even for 10 minutes – it’s likely that your child will grow up to become a reader. The New York Times recently published a heartwarming […]
For the Love of Reading
I’m covering the Reading for the Love of it conference today. I’ve never been before, and I’m really excited about it. It’s a two-day “language arts” conference in Toronto aimed at educators. I consider myself one of those–after all, if this blog isn’t about educating, what is it about? (“Fun!” […]
Boys don’t like school
Send the message, “I want to hear the story you want to tell.” OK, here are some final highlights from the Leonard Sax seminar: 1) Many more girls than boys graduate from university. This is true for Canada, the UK, and the US. Sax says boys have given up on […]
Boys’ and girls’ brains develop differently
Part II of our coverage of Dr. Leonard Sax’s seminar in Toronto about how boys and girls learn.It’s not that boys’ brains develop more slowly than girls’ brains, according to Leonard Sax. “It’s more nuanced than that.” Researchers have found that:* the areas of the brain involved in language and […]
Getting boys reading – start in the middle
Start from the middle.This was Leonard Sax’s counter-intuitive (and possibly brilliant) suggestion to English teachers who want boys to enjoy great literature. Boys’ and girls’ brains process information differently. Girls process emotional information throughout their cerebral cortex, where language and analysis are also processed. Boys, however, process emotional information in […]
