Posts by Susannah Harris

Books as Gifts

Dec15
2009 Written by Susannah Harris

AdLit.orgGuest Blogger Susannah Harris is the Senior Manager of AdLit.org, a national multimedia initiative offering resources to the parents and educators of struggling readers and writers in grades 4-12. Susannah has been a tutor herself for more than 16 years working with a range of organizations including The Higher Achievement Program and Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, She is the Volunteer Coordinator for The Community Club, a college access provider serving middle and high schools students in Washington, D.C.

I was watching Modern Family last week and one of the kids started pouting when he got a book for Christmas—because he already had one.

Do most kids think books are bummer gifts? If that’s the case, then I think the problem may lie with the adults making the choices, rather than with the kids. Too often parents buy the books they want their children to read rather than books the kids themselves would like. If we want kids to read for pleasure, we need to be attuned to their interests and give them books that nurture those interests.

To help you make your gift selections, AdLit.org has a great new holiday buying guide from our Literature Advisor Maria Salvadore. The guide is organized by age range and includes descriptions of each title.  We’ve got tall tales, science fiction, family drama, romance, short stories, sports, and biographies, so there’s something there for everyone.

Now that you’re working on getting kids reading during the winter break, why not get them writing, too? READ MORE »

Posted in Books & Reading, Guest Blog Posts, Literacy - Tagged , , , , , ,

Summer: a break from school, not learning

Jul21
2009 Written by Susannah Harris

AdLit.orgGuest Blogger Susannah Harris is the Senior Manager of AdLit.org, a national multimedia initiative offering resources to the parents and educators of struggling readers and writers in grades 4-12. Susannah has been a tutor herself for more than 16 years working with a range of organizations including The Higher Achievement Program and Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, She is the Volunteer Coordinator for The Community Club, a college access provider serving middle and high schools students in Washington, D.C.

Now that I’m in the working world, I get nostalgic for the rhythm of life as a student— school from September to June, then a summer break with a more flexible schedule and less cursive handwriting. I was lucky, I spent my summers at Girl Scout camps, playing tennis, and working on puzzles and my stamp collection.

Of course I didn’t realize it at the time, but summer was just a “break” from school not from learning. And I learned all kinds of things—the word “Helvetica” on a lot of my stamps made me curious and sent me first to a globe to find out where it was, then to the dictionary (remember the pre-wikipedia era?) to find out what it meant. Clue: it’s not just a sans serif typeface. And when I saw a reference to “Magyars” in a college history class, I remembered back to the “Magyar Posta” phrase on my Hungarian stamps.

What I picked up from my stamp collection and other activities was background knowledge, or information I could draw on later to help me understand new concepts and vocabulary. Good summer activities help kids to build their background knowledge and to develop their interests and skills in a more relaxed environment. READ MORE »

Posted in Books & Reading, Guest Blog Posts, Literacy - Tagged , , , ,

What Would You Change with a Second Chance?

Jan21
2009 Written by Susannah Harris

AdLit.orgGuest Blogger Susannah Harris is the manager of AdLit.org, a national multimedia initiative offering resources to the parents and educators of struggling readers and writers in grades 4-12. Susannah has been a tutor herself for more than 16 years working with a range of organizations including The Higher Achievement Program and Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, She is the Volunteer Coordinator for The Community Club, a tutoring program serving middle and high schools students in Washington, D.C.

Yesterday, President Barack Obama reminded us in his inaugural address that “we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world; duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.”

To encourage teens and at-risk youth to make healthy, productive choices for themselves, AdLit.org, the National Education Association (NEA) and award-winning young adult author Walter Dean Myers have launched the Second Chance Initiative, The initiative is centered around Myers’ new book Dope Sick, which stretches the boundaries of realism to bring forth a tale of second chances, redemption, and the promise of hope. READ MORE »

Posted in Books & Reading, Guest Blog Posts, Literacy Links and Articles - Tagged , , , ,

Teen Read Week: Get Bitten

Oct07
2008 Written by Susannah Harris

AdLit.orgGuest Blogger Susannah Harris is the manager of AdLit.org, a national multimedia initiative offering resources to the parents and educators of struggling readers and writers in grades 4-12. Susannah has been a tutor herself for more than 16 years working with a range of organizations including The Higher Achievement Program and Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, She is the Volunteer Coordinator for The Community Club, a tutoring program serving middle and high schools students in Washington, D.C.

October 12-18 is Teen Read Week–an annual event sponsored by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA)–to encourage teens to read for the fun of it and explore all the great resources libraries have to offer. This year’s theme is Books with Bite @ Your Library and YALSA has some great ideas for promoting books and libraries as well as a new booklist of 100+ books that teens can really sink their teeth into.

Though the official celebration just lasts one week, every week is Teen Read Week at AdLit.org, where we’re all about adolescent literacy. We add new themed booklists and interviews with top young adult authors every month. READ MORE »

Posted in Books & Reading, General, Literacy Links and Articles - Tagged , ,

Learning to Love Books without the High-Tech Hook

Aug19
2008 Written by Susannah Harris

AdLit.orgGuest Blogger Susannah Harris is the manager of AdLit.org, a national multimedia initiative offering resources to the parents and educators of struggling readers and writers in grades 4-12. Susannah has been a tutor herself for more than 16 years working with a range of organizations including The Higher Achievement Program and Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, She is the Volunteer Coordinator for The Community Club, a tutoring program serving middle and high schools students in Washington, D.C.

My colleagues at WETA, Lydia and Tina, recently blogged about libraries–Lydia related her conversation with a cab driver, new to America, who couldn’t believe there were places in the U.S. to borrow books for free; and Tina shared her fond memories of spending rainy summer days in a cozy community library in Maine. I’m with Tina when it comes to nostalgia for inviting old libraries with comfy spaces for reading, which is why I was so eager–and a little skeptical–to tour the very modern central branch of the Seattle Public Library. The building is fascinating and a little space-age, but what about comfy places to sit and slightly musty books to read?

First some background: the central branch opened a little over four years ago and was designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas in collaboration with City Library Deborah Jacobs. Even if you haven’t been to Seattle to see the library, you may have seen one of Koolhaas’s designs–the CCTV building in Beijing has been featured several times during coverage of the Olympics. The library is ten stories tall and covered with nearly 10,000 glass panels, it has nearly 400 computer terminals for patrons, a floor of public meeting rooms, an auditorium that can seat 475 people, a gift shop, a coffee bar and cafe–this is Seattle, and, yes, a lot of books. READ MORE »

Posted in Books & Reading - Tagged , , ,

Getting Into Learning When School Is Out

May20
2008 Written by Susannah Harris

Guest Blogger Susannah Harris is the manager of AdLit.org, a national multimedia initiative offering resources to the parents and educators of struggling readers and writers in grades 4-12. Susannah has been a tutor herself for more than 16 years working with a range of organizations including The Higher Achievement Program and Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, She is the Volunteer Coordinator for The Community Club, a tutoring program serving middle and high schools students in Washington, D.C.

Summer’s almost here, and with it come decisions about how kids should spend their out-of school time. The stakes are high–according to the Center for Summer Learning at Johns Hopkins University 2/3 of the achievement gap between lower and higher-income youth can be explained by unequal access to summer learning opportunities. For older students and their parents it’s even harder because the number of options increases–it’s difficult to choose between getting extra tutoring with difficult subjects, earning money for college, completing credits toward graduation, exploring a hobby, and–just as important–squeezing in some fun with friends.

Summer is the obvious time to think about out-of-school time learning and AdLit.org, a new website dedicated to helping young people in grades 4-12 become better readers and writers, has many resources on summer and afterschool learning that can help you find a good program to meet your student’s needs, locate a tutor for intensive help, and obtain low-cost literacy materials.

Sifting through all the options for summer learning can be overwhelming, but whether you’re in the market for an out-of-school enrichment program or a tutoring program to help a student catch up, you should know that quality varies widely. The Center for Summer Learning created a checklist to help parents and guardians identify high-quality programs. Take heed program managers–does your program measure up?

If you know a child who is really struggling with academics, you may want to consider one-on-one tutoring. Here are some ideas for getting the most from a tutor and keeping the costs down. READ MORE »

Posted in Books & Reading, General, Literacy - Tagged , ,

Recent Tweets

Follow Me on Twitter

Powered by Twitter Tools