The Rochester Institute of Technology is hosting a conference in June entitled "The Future of Reading". As your host is a cash-strapped grad student, there will be no formal attendance. But since your host is also rather comfortable with online life, I'll be watching the conference's site, blog, and so forth and periodically linking items of interest as they come online.
The links to the conference and its related sites are in the link section to your right. The whole thing looks fascinating!
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Open Forum!
Just a quick couple of thoughts that have been on my mind recently:
Has anyone in your life inspired you with the use of literature? Do you have any special memories about books and reading you'd like to share?
What place do you think reading has today? A lot of people are discussing the "death" of the book, or the "death" of reading, as they have been since the printing press, but do you find it valid or is it all hot air?
Has anyone in your life inspired you with the use of literature? Do you have any special memories about books and reading you'd like to share?
What place do you think reading has today? A lot of people are discussing the "death" of the book, or the "death" of reading, as they have been since the printing press, but do you find it valid or is it all hot air?
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
"It Is Well With My Soul"
Sources for this post:
NPR Morning Edition article on Ms. Cheeks-Johnson
Penguin’s Memorial article on their USA blog
PBS’ “Remembering Ella Mae Cheeks Johnson”
When we discussed which title to start with, it was a hard decision. We all wanted to highlight a book that was entertaining, approachable, inspirational, and spoke to the NLC’s ideals of education and community service. This is a fairly tall order, but luckily we found It Is Well With My Soul, the autobiography of Ms. Ella Mae Cheeks Johnson.
“Ms. Ella Mae”, as we have taken to calling her affectionately, lived to be 106 years old, crafting her life into a truly beautiful story. She attended Fisk University in Tennessee in 1921, and later Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, becoming a social worker, traveling the world, forming a loving family, and giving back to her community. (Joseph Shapiro's NPR article)
The value she placed on education is apparent from her life story. Here at the NLC, our motto is “Reading Changes Lives” – and Ms. Cheeks-Johnson is a sterling example of what one can do with the determination and patience that education fosters. The historical lessons of her experience in this century as an African-American woman are similarly inspiring. Most of the memorial articles we found have a small story about how proud she was to see President Barack Obama inaugurated. Her story both illuminates her personal experiences and transcends the boundaries of race and culture to inspire each reader it touches.
Please join us in reading this selection, and tell us what you think. How has Ms. Cheeks-Johnson’s memoir touched your life? Does it raise any questions or observations you’d like to share?
Happy Reading!
--NLC
NPR Morning Edition article on Ms. Cheeks-Johnson
Penguin’s Memorial article on their USA blog
PBS’ “Remembering Ella Mae Cheeks Johnson”
When we discussed which title to start with, it was a hard decision. We all wanted to highlight a book that was entertaining, approachable, inspirational, and spoke to the NLC’s ideals of education and community service. This is a fairly tall order, but luckily we found It Is Well With My Soul, the autobiography of Ms. Ella Mae Cheeks Johnson.
“Ms. Ella Mae”, as we have taken to calling her affectionately, lived to be 106 years old, crafting her life into a truly beautiful story. She attended Fisk University in Tennessee in 1921, and later Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, becoming a social worker, traveling the world, forming a loving family, and giving back to her community. (Joseph Shapiro's NPR article)
The value she placed on education is apparent from her life story. Here at the NLC, our motto is “Reading Changes Lives” – and Ms. Cheeks-Johnson is a sterling example of what one can do with the determination and patience that education fosters. The historical lessons of her experience in this century as an African-American woman are similarly inspiring. Most of the memorial articles we found have a small story about how proud she was to see President Barack Obama inaugurated. Her story both illuminates her personal experiences and transcends the boundaries of race and culture to inspire each reader it touches.
Please join us in reading this selection, and tell us what you think. How has Ms. Cheeks-Johnson’s memoir touched your life? Does it raise any questions or observations you’d like to share?
Happy Reading!
--NLC
Interrupting Myself: A Tutor's Tangent
The starting point: In a word, group helps children find their voice by Barry Carter
On May 16th, the photo accompanying Mr. Carter’s column in the Star Ledger caught my eye as I flipped through the paper, listening to my coffee perk. Above Carter’s dapper byline picture was a photograph of a young lady with thick ponytails and chunky beads, standing in front of a large blank green chalkboard. She’s in mid-word, looking to her left, her eyebrows raised and an air of seriousness about her.
The young woman that intrigued me is Mia McNeill, and she was participating in her school’s New Jersey Orators competition. Carter chose this article to tell us about the New Jersey Orators, dedicated to teaching NJ schoolchildren the art of public speaking. It’s quite an operation: “It begins each year in September with300 to 400 kids in 15 chapters from Newark to Willingboro”, and hosts weekly meetings, various exercises, and competitions, as Carter mentions.
When I was in elementary school, we had something similar, which always struck me as a useless Victorian throwback. We had to memorize and declaim, two or three kids with better short term memories than mine invariably performing to the applause of teachers, while I stumbled and skipped through my routine. Can you tell I hated it?
However, now that I’m slowly gaining my place at the grownup table, I like this idea of training kids in public speaking, making it not just an important “life skill”, but an art. A good part of my mental beat involves me circling the idea of literacy and all it entails, recognizing the often unexpected ways the skills involved in literacy crop up in daily life. But, as open as I thought I was, I had never considered public speaking (recitation, declamation, etc) as a leg of this table.
It makes sense now: If a child or an adult is capable of getting up in front of a crowd and informing, persuading, or entertaining with brevity, personality, and (yes!) panache, then they’re using all the skills we try to promote here at the NLC. This is a wonderful thing for a classroom of any sort. It would be a great idea to add to the adult program, even in small-scale ways, such as having regular “readalouds” with the adult students and their tutors.
Techniques such as those promoted by the New Jersey Orators truly take literacy out of the “reading/writing” box, out of the “classroom” box to get those children involved and passionate. That’s the kicker – passion. Carter included a small anecdote about a young man, Isiah Sams, performing his personally-written speech about his father: “Dear Father, It’s just me. Your son. Your seed…I’m old enough to feel pain, and that’s quite enough….“ Isiah’s pain is palpable, and his expression both tells on and belies his young age.
These are things meant to touch you, to form a bridge between the “places” of student/teacher, adult/child, and so on. The power of public speaking, like any of the literacy skills, is to emphasize not only the rules and techniques of form, or the content, the expression, but the humanity of the orator. What a beautiful thing to cultivate at any age.
On May 16th, the photo accompanying Mr. Carter’s column in the Star Ledger caught my eye as I flipped through the paper, listening to my coffee perk. Above Carter’s dapper byline picture was a photograph of a young lady with thick ponytails and chunky beads, standing in front of a large blank green chalkboard. She’s in mid-word, looking to her left, her eyebrows raised and an air of seriousness about her.
The young woman that intrigued me is Mia McNeill, and she was participating in her school’s New Jersey Orators competition. Carter chose this article to tell us about the New Jersey Orators, dedicated to teaching NJ schoolchildren the art of public speaking. It’s quite an operation: “It begins each year in September with300 to 400 kids in 15 chapters from Newark to Willingboro”, and hosts weekly meetings, various exercises, and competitions, as Carter mentions.
When I was in elementary school, we had something similar, which always struck me as a useless Victorian throwback. We had to memorize and declaim, two or three kids with better short term memories than mine invariably performing to the applause of teachers, while I stumbled and skipped through my routine. Can you tell I hated it?
However, now that I’m slowly gaining my place at the grownup table, I like this idea of training kids in public speaking, making it not just an important “life skill”, but an art. A good part of my mental beat involves me circling the idea of literacy and all it entails, recognizing the often unexpected ways the skills involved in literacy crop up in daily life. But, as open as I thought I was, I had never considered public speaking (recitation, declamation, etc) as a leg of this table.
It makes sense now: If a child or an adult is capable of getting up in front of a crowd and informing, persuading, or entertaining with brevity, personality, and (yes!) panache, then they’re using all the skills we try to promote here at the NLC. This is a wonderful thing for a classroom of any sort. It would be a great idea to add to the adult program, even in small-scale ways, such as having regular “readalouds” with the adult students and their tutors.
Techniques such as those promoted by the New Jersey Orators truly take literacy out of the “reading/writing” box, out of the “classroom” box to get those children involved and passionate. That’s the kicker – passion. Carter included a small anecdote about a young man, Isiah Sams, performing his personally-written speech about his father: “Dear Father, It’s just me. Your son. Your seed…I’m old enough to feel pain, and that’s quite enough….“ Isiah’s pain is palpable, and his expression both tells on and belies his young age.
These are things meant to touch you, to form a bridge between the “places” of student/teacher, adult/child, and so on. The power of public speaking, like any of the literacy skills, is to emphasize not only the rules and techniques of form, or the content, the expression, but the humanity of the orator. What a beautiful thing to cultivate at any age.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Welcome to Good Reads!
Hello, thank you for your interest in the Good Reads project. What we have planned to do with this blog is to maintain an online presence for not only the literary selections of each month, but also for discussion of the works and the issues they raise.
On the right-hand side of the screen, you will notice a small list of the current selections - this will be updated quarterly. We will be starting in June with It Is Well With My Soul by the late Ella Mae Cheeks Johnson.
Below this is a section titled "Places to Visit". That section contains links to information about the books, authors and various websites of interest to anyone participating in the project. It will be frequently updated, so keep a lookout for new and exciting things!
Below that is a space for artwork - right now it is a snapshot by one of our volunteers. This is just a small area to showcase beautiful images that highlight the Newark Public Library, Newark itself, or the current selection.
Finally, there is the "Who We Are" section, which will link you to the Blogger profile of the Newark Literacy Campaign, as well as provide information on how to contact us with questions or suggestions.
This blog will be frequently updated with summaries, reviews, discussion points, and various literacy-related items (tagged "Interrupting Myself"). We encourage you to check back often throughout the coming months, as we will be posting selections and links to information about the books and their authors.
Below each entry is a section titled "Post A Comment" - if you like, please post your thoughts about the books. We'd love to hear from you and get our discussion flowing! Enjoy the summer and please join us on our literary travels!
--NLC
On the right-hand side of the screen, you will notice a small list of the current selections - this will be updated quarterly. We will be starting in June with It Is Well With My Soul by the late Ella Mae Cheeks Johnson.
Below this is a section titled "Places to Visit". That section contains links to information about the books, authors and various websites of interest to anyone participating in the project. It will be frequently updated, so keep a lookout for new and exciting things!
Below that is a space for artwork - right now it is a snapshot by one of our volunteers. This is just a small area to showcase beautiful images that highlight the Newark Public Library, Newark itself, or the current selection.
Finally, there is the "Who We Are" section, which will link you to the Blogger profile of the Newark Literacy Campaign, as well as provide information on how to contact us with questions or suggestions.
This blog will be frequently updated with summaries, reviews, discussion points, and various literacy-related items (tagged "Interrupting Myself"). We encourage you to check back often throughout the coming months, as we will be posting selections and links to information about the books and their authors.
Below each entry is a section titled "Post A Comment" - if you like, please post your thoughts about the books. We'd love to hear from you and get our discussion flowing! Enjoy the summer and please join us on our literary travels!
--NLC
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