Literacy Now

Tennessee’s Cheatham County Reading Council (CCRC) honored student authors from across the county on April 24 at the Pegram Elementary School library.

Each spring, the CCRC invites students from schools in Cheatham County to submit books that they have written, illustrated, and “published” (covered and bound to look like published books). Acceptable literature genres include original tales, personal narratives, fables, allegories, parables, legends, biographical sketches, and tall tales. The program is open to children of all ages. “Books may be selected from any classroom in a school system grades K-12,” says former CCRC Celebrate Literacy chairperson Charles Wallace. 

This year students submitted 138 original books to the program judges. Books were judged using a rubric designed by the Tennessee Reading Association (TRA), a state council of the International Reading Association (IRA). 

After local evaluation, CCRC selected the top 14 books to be sent to the TRA for evaluation on the state level. 

Winning Authors 

Rachel Welsh, an eighth-grader at Cheatham Middle School, received a gold medal. She has submitted an entry each year since she was in second grade. 

Silver medal winners were Lauren Moore, Megan Rich, Will Collier, Maranda Huffman, and Echo O’Connor from Pegram Elementary School. The silver medal winners from Ashland City Elementary School were Aviana Gordon, Rachel Sherman, Landon Hunter, Christian DePriest, and Jose Matos. Harpeth Middle School silver medal winners were Jenna Williams, Liam Miles, and Abigail Warren. 

Student authors that did not win a medal were presented with a certificate for their participation.

Pictured are 10 of the 14 winners from the county's elementary and middle schools. 

History of the Event 

In 1983, IRA invited state councils to “Celebrate Literacy” within their states. TRA asked Dr. Elizabeth Brashears of Middle Tennessee State University to develop Tennessee’s plan for celebrating literacy. Brashears envisioned a program for Tennessee’s children in grades K-12 to fully create and publish their own books right down to the sturdy binding.

In the spring of 1984, local TRA councils were invited to submit seven books to the state, and Olympic-style medals (gold, silver, and bronze) were awarded.

However, Brashears disliked using the word “contest” to describe the program because her ultimate goal was to celebrate every student who participated. Therefore, each local council was to hold its own event so that authors would be recognized for their work. 

About the Cheatham County Reading Council

CCRC President Mary Ellen doValle, an Education Specialist at Ashland City Elementary School, says that the council participates in Read Across America and Ages and Stages, an early child development project. Cheatham County Reading Council also recently received TRA Community Service Project Grants. Cheatham County Reading Council prepared and gave a PowerPoint presentation in collaboration with the county’s Family Involvement Coordinator that emphasized the importance of reading from pre-birth to death. The PowerPoint was presented at the “Ages and Stages” program which focuses on birth to 4 years of age. To further promote interest in reading among the young the council had appearances by the Cat in the Hat and Kermit, the Frog. The council provided the costumes for these characters. Contact Mary Ellen doValle to join or for more information. 

About the Tennessee Reading Association 

The TRA has 14 local councils and is a member council of IRA. The Association offers membership scholarships, grants, and award opportunities, including the TRA State Conference Scholarship, the Academic Scholarship, Community Service Project Grants, Reading Improvement Grants, Support Storytelling Grants, Celebrate Literacy, Newspaper in Education, Recognition of outstanding literacy professionals, and Honor Councils. Members receive three online newsletters each year providing them information on local and state issues and professional literacy articles. Members also receive the annual TRA peer-reviewed professional journal, Tennessee Reading Teacher. TRA hosts an annual conference, and members receive discounts on registration fees. The 2012 conference is December 2 to 4 in Murfreesboro. Their new website at www.tnreads.org features information and registration access to the conference, past journal and newsletter issues, committee information and forms, and application forms for scholarships and grants. Contact President Kathy Brashears to join or for more information. 

by Elena Grashchenkova

In 2012, schoolchildren in Russia organized a Children's Choices project for the first time. They named the project "Book of the Year: Children Choose," based on the International Reading Association's Children's Choices model. (The project is cosponsored by IRA and the Children’s Book Council.) The students also created PowerPoint presentations about the winning books. Children who participated in this project felt it was important to tell all the world about their experience. What follows is a letter that the children wrote about their work and images from their presentations.

Letter from Russian Students: 

We are students of grade 3 school "Career" from Moscow. We are from 8 to 10 years old. There are 13 students "Karjera" in our class. We learned about the contest "Book of the Year: Children's Choices" from the Internet. We liked this project, in which the children can find a new book, according to their interests. We liked that the competition involve a lot of states, different countries and many thousands of children. 

In Russia this contest is not conducted. And we wanted to organize in 2011 a project for the first time in Russia. 

To do this we first learned how to organize a competition in the U.S., Europe, and Australia. We read a set of books, first published in Russian in 2011. 

Second, when we had read these books, we evaluated them according to different criteria, chose the best, and voted. 

Third, we conducted a survey among strarsheklassnikov and teachers. We asked which books they prefer for home reading. 

Fourth, we made papers (posters), which told about the winning books in the competition in 2011 among American children, made an exhibition from book covers Children's Choices Reading List, Young Readers (Grades 3-4). 

Fifth, we have created annotations, illustrations, presentations, and toys from clay on the books that we read. 

We want to talk about our experiences and to submit its list of best books of 2011, recognized as the best in the competition the following books. 

Children’s Choices 2011 Reading List from Russia: 

1. René Goscinny, Jean-Jacques Sempé Baby Nicholas (René Goscinny, Jean-Jacques Sempé Le petit Nicolas) 

2. Kate Dikamillo Amazing Journey of Edward Rabbit (Kate DiCamillo, Bagram Ibatoulline The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane) 

3. Oscar Brenifier, Jacques Despres What are Emotions? (Oscar Brenifier; Jacques Despres The God Question) 

4. Galina Avuncular Button Sewing Town 

5. Marco Innocenti Underground Beast (Marco Innocenti Il Mostro Sotterraneo)

6. Unni Lindell, Fredrik Skavlan Stella and Seventh Star

7. Julia Kuznetsova Imaginary Tipster 

8. Arthur Givargizov In Honor of the King

9. Oscar Brenife What is Good and Evil? (Oscar Brenifier; Jacques Despres It's Good, It's Bad)

10. Ulf Stark, Anna Hoglund Little Asmodeus 

 

Sincerely,

Students of grade 3 of school "Career" from Moscow: Polina Aleksandrova, Arina Sukhanov, Ilya Utochkin, Alexander Moshkov, Konstantin Kotljar, Arina Naugolnaja, Konstantin Yerokhin, Irina Mihajlova, Sasha Morozova 

Teachers: Elena Grashchenkova, Oksana Hlopkova, Svetlana Zajtseva

Veteran teacher, literacy coach, and author Regie Routman and esteemed colleagues Judy Wallis, Sandra Figueroa, and Kathryn Schmitt will host an International Reading Association Literacy and Leadership Institute for educators committed to deep and lasting literacy change on September 10 and 11 in Saint Louis, Missouri. This is a professional development opportunity not to be missed. 

The institute includes two days of intimate and intelligent professional learning opportunities guaranteed to positively impact whole school effectiveness, efficiency, and enjoyment. Attendees will learn how to apply exemplary literacy and leadership practices and to align research-based professional development with implementation of the Common Core State Standards. Presenters will teach attendees how to develop shared beliefs, professional trust, and literacy-based Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) and how to incorporate an optimal learning model (“I do it.” “We do it.” “You do it.”) across the curriculum. The presenters will deal with how to reduce the number of students who need intervention, and they will also help attendees tailor their schools’ next steps. 

K-8 principals, school and district leaders, classroom teachers, ELL, Title I, literacy coaches, special education teachers, and literacy and curriculum specialists are all invited to attend. 

The institute will be held from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on September 10 and 11, 2012, at the Hyatt Regency St. Louis at the Arch in Saint Louis, Missouri. Breakfast and lunch are included. Costs are $699 for individuals and $675 per person for groups of three or more. Registration is limited to 150 attendees. Registration will open on June 19. 

Special hotel rates are available if attendees reserve their rooms by August 10. The discounted rates are $129 per night for single occupancy or double occupancy, $179 per night for triple occupancy or quadruple occupancy, and $179 per night for Regency Club. (Rates quoted are not inclusive of taxes, currently 16.74%.) 

Regie Routman has been an IRA member for 35 years. She contributes a regular column to IRA Members-Only and supports the IRA Regie Routman Teacher Recognition Grant. Read more about her on her website at www.regieroutman.com. 

Visit the Literacy and Leadership Institute webpage to register, to download the registration form, to download the program guide, and for more information.

International Reading Association (IRA) members are invited to recommend a colleague or nominate themselves for consideration to serve on the IRA Board of Directors.

No other volunteer position carries greater responsibility than the Board of Directors. IRA members may suggest vice president and director candidates for election. The Nominating Committee will consider only individual members of the Association who have been recommended by a member and who have submitted vita information prior to the committee's meeting.

Members are asked to submit a nomination form by the July 15, 2012, deadline.

The Board of Directors of the International Reading Association has implemented a date and pattern change for the Association’s 58th Annual Convention next year in San Antonio. This change is being implemented to avoid a conflict with the public school testing regime established by the State of Texas. 

This action shifts the usual weekday pattern of the three-day convention to a new Saturday through Monday cycle, with a day of pre-convention Institutes on Friday. The dates for the convention will be April 20-22, 2013, with the Institutes being held on April 19, 2013.

“The IRA Board of Directors voted to change the dates of the convention to ensure that our members, Texas teachers, and literacy professionals worldwide will be able to participate in the extensive professional development opportunities the annual convention offers,” explained IRA President Carrice Cummins. 

“Host-state teacher participation is an indispensable element in our conventions,” Cummins noted. “ One of our goals in changing the dates is to assist our Texas teachers in being able to interact in this exciting professional learning opportunity with literacy colleagues and researchers from across the US and from around the world.” This date and pattern change also presents a second advantage. Given the stressed condition of most school budgets, the ability of teachers across the country to attend the convention over a weekend will reduce the need to hire classroom substitutes.

Celebrating Teachers Making a Difference

The theme of the San Antonio convention is Celebrating Teachers Making a Difference. Around 500 different programs covering all aspects of effective, research-based literacy instruction will be offered during the four days of the event. The presentations range from institutes, seminars, and workshops, to research briefings, panel discussions, and other informative sessions. Certain events, hosted by publishers, will feature authors of leading children’s and young adult books.

Attendees will gain new insights and practical guidance on dealing with today’s crucial literacy education topics including such matters as comprehension, common core, critical skill development, assessments, student engagement, digital literacy, second language learning, and much more.

Over 200 vendors will be presenting their wares in the vast exhibit space at the San Antonio Convention Center during the event. Attendees will be able to interact with staffs from publishers, leading book authors, curriculum developers, technology retailers, makers of classroom materials and teaching aids, professional development providers, software developers, and others.

“This is going to be an invaluable opportunity for literacy professionals to learn, share, network, and enjoy an unparalleled level of enrichment,” Cummins emphasizes. 

So mark the new dates on your calendar right now: April 20 - 22, 2013 for the convention, and April 19, 2013 for the Institutes. We look forward to seeing you there!