Summer Learning

Most people might know ReadWriteThink.org as a collection of resources for teachers and students--and we are, so that is a good thing! But we are also a resource for parents/guardians/after school providers and kids (my distinction here being the not-so-scientific classification that a student is a kid who is in school--like actually in the school building doing school-based stuff).

We have these resources stored in an aptly named Parent & Afterschool section(which we typically call P&AS; I mention this because I will be using that initialism throughout the post). If you are a teacher, you should share these with parents. Especially the summer initiatives. We had one last year, Bright Ideas for Summer, for which Becky coordinated having some P&AS activities written/altered to fit a summer theme. And that is still up, still available, and still completely awesome for helping kids beat the Summer Slide (the "slide" backwards in progress that happens over summer when kids are no longer engaged in learning activities).

This year, little more of the same and little bit of something different. We have some new activities and some re-vamped activities come at you. BUT we spruced up the whole package this year.

Have you heard of We Give Books? They provide free books online for kids to read. Awesome, right? Of course! Free books over summer! That amazing!

And we've partnered up with them. We have ten P&AS activities in the works being that are being specifically written to accompany a book that will be provided for free from We Give Books. Each activity   uses of one ReadWriteThink.org's interactives to engage kids after reading the book, to keep them thinking and learning and having fun.

The books are free. The interactives are free. The learning that can be achieved? Priceless.

I'll be adding a link to the resources when they go live. You can also keep an eye on our Summer Learning board on Pinterest. I've pinned the Bright Ideas info; I'll be pinning the We Give Books stuff as it becomes available. The whole thing launches mid June, so we are closing in.

And that is what we have coming for Summer Learning!

Wes

And away we go!

I know what you're thinking:

ZOMG! There is a ReadWriteThink blog?!?! How could this be? I had no idea! I would have been following this from the beginning!!! How did I MISS this?


Whoah now! Hold up. No need to worry. Your internet skills have not disappeared on you.

This blog is new. Kind of.

I ported it over from where it lived before.There, it was my blog, and I used it to feature both IRA and ReadWriteThink.org stuff. Now, it is our blog--and by our, I mean mine and the other editors of ReadWriteThink.org should they decide to use it--and it will focus much more on ReadWriteThink and less about what's going on in IRA.

But IRA and NCTE will get their mentions. After all, we are a part of both organizations, and we end up hearing about or helping projects in both organizations. That's just the way it rolls.

I, Wes Ford, Associate Editor for ReadWriteThink.org at the International Reading Association, will likely remain your host for most of the time; however, I will try to get some of the other editors to jump on and blog a little bit.

I guess I should properly introduce my coworkers:

On NCTE's side:
Lisa Fink, Project Manager
Christy Simon, Publications Developer

On IRA's side:
Bridget Hilferty, Project Manager
Becky Fetterolf, Senior Editor
Wes Ford, Associate Editor

I'm not my own coworker, I suppose, but it felt odd not to include myself in the list of ReadWriteThink editors.

Anyway, that's all I really have time for today. I need to get back to the RWT Super Secret Project of the Summer!

I'll give you a hint: RWT is going mobile. We're designing a couple apps for tablets that not only can teachers use in the classroom, but that will be fun enough for students to want to use them outside of the classroom.

That's the goal, anyway. Fingers crossed!

Next time, I'll talk a little bit about the dreaded Summer Slide and what RWT is doing for parents to keep kids from academic slip students sometimes experience over summer break. Or maybe I'll have Becky tell you about that--I don't know!

Wes, RWT Editor