Tag: books

Books have broad vocabulary and diverse language structures that are important for developing the ability to understand content. “Long, continuous texts with diverse and colorful vocabulary improve the skill to understand the content of the text,” says associate professor Minna Torppa. With other researchers of education and psychology from the universities of Jyväskylä, Turku, and Eastern Finland, she participated...

Published by Rowman & Littlefield, Teaching ESL and STEM Content through CALL: A Research-Based Interdisciplinary Critical Pedagogical Approach by Abdelilah Salim Sehlaoui addresses the growing need for effective critical pedagogical competence (CPC), critical technological competence (CTC), and critical cross-cultural communicative competence (C5) in teachers who serve ELs. C5, which encompasses CTC and CPC, is defined in the book as...

The American Booksellers Association arranged for booksellers, authors, and publishers attending its Winter Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to donate Spanish-language books for refugees waiting at the U.S.–Mexico border. ABA’s Libros Para el Viaje (“Books for the Journey”) book drive at the Winter Institute collected books of all genres for children and adults to be distributed to families, individuals, parents,...

From futuristic features on flying cars and fun facts about the rainforest to the latest football stats and fashion trends, who said nonfiction reading can’t be fun? Yet despite recent calls for increased nonfiction reading from the National Governors Association (NGA) and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), more often, students are reaching for fiction books. In fact,...

Richard Lederer is inspired by his hometown festival dedicated to cartoon characters from comic strips and comic books   San Diego Comic -Con is the largest gathering of comics and pop culture enthusiasts in the world. Held a couple of weeks ago, the event has sold out the past decade, and more than 130,000 flocked to the fun as our city...

Many resources for learning a second language can be unengaging and repetitive, like learning foods and animals. The award-winning book Planet Zombielandia does the exact opposite of that and is hilarious, fun, and a valuable tool for reinforcing beginning vocabulary and reading comprehension. The story is available in both English and Spanish at beginning levels in print and digital...

A new study, “Goldilocks Effect? Illustrated Story Format Seems ‘Just Right’ and Animation ‘Too Hot’ for Integration of Functional Brain Networks in Preschool-Age Children,” suggests a “Goldilocks effect,” where audio may be “too cold” at this age, requiring more cognitive strain to process the story, animation “too hot,” fast-moving...

Elfrieda H. Hiebert offers literacy advice In all likelihood, you are reading these words silently. Silent reading is the mode in which adults typically read. In the primary grades especially, and sometimes even beyond in school, oral reading dominates. Oral reading is a fairly good predictor of automaticity in recognizing words in silent reading, but the transfer between oral and...

Yet another study has shown that increasing access to books improves student outcomes “Reaching Families Where They Are: Examining an Innovative Book Distribution Program,” published in Urban Education, examines a community-wide effort to promote greater access to books through the mechanisms of physical and psychological proximity. It addresses the seasonal summer slide through an innovative book distribution program in neighborhoods...

Many of us choose to end the day curled up in bed with a good read, and as technology revolutionizes the publishing industry and convenient, sexy e-readers replace bulky, paper-cut-inducing books, more and more of us take a gadget as a bedfellow— but a new study suggests that paper books are better in bed. Light-emitting e-readers have detrimental effects...