++++ Madison Area Reading Council 2011-2012 MARC Board Co-Presidents Robin Umber [email protected]Janet Farnan [email protected]Vice-President Lorinda Cain-Bowles [email protected]Past President Nancy Walsh-Boeder Nwalshboeder @frontier.com Membership Secretary & Treasurer Amy Dean [email protected]Newsletter, Website, and Corresponding Secretary Nicole Andresen Marc.reading.council @gmail.com A Message From Our President : April 2012 Madison Area Reading Council is an affiliate of Wisconsin State Reading Association and the International Reading Madison Area Reading Council 2011-2012 MARC Sponsored Events Wednesday, April 25, 2012 RtI Roadshow Fitzgerald’s of Middleton 5:30 Dinner/ 6:15 Meeting Other Literacy Events – Not Sponsored by MARC April 29-May2, 2012 IRA Convention Communicate Chicago, IL For the latest events, news, and happenings in literacy and to get updates on deadlines, events, and to find links to our newsletters.: Find us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/MadisonAreaReadingCouncil Follow us on Twitter @MARCcouncil Check out our Website at https://sites.google.com/site/madisonareareadingcouncil/ Dear MARC Member, This tumultuous year for education reminds us that we all help to bring about posi- tive changes in teaching. Educators have an enviable reputation for supporting each other and sharing their ideas to help as we differentiate education for all stu- dents. We sincerely thank Dr. Karen Blake Ruffner for her helpful presentation, Translat- ing Data into Action, at our January meeting. Our final meeting for the year will again be at Fitzgerald’s on Wednesday, April 25 th with dinner at 5:30, meeting be- ginning at 6:15, followed by the WSRA RtI Roadshow. The presentation will ad- dress the key critical issues regarding the implementation of RtI literacy. Topics will include the role of the reading specialist, literacy research, the federal and state law regarding this topic, and literacy assessment. Attendees will have a bet- ter understanding about what is possible, the mindset shift required for successful implementation and resources to continue their learning on this topic. The Hidden Valley Reading Council will also be joining us for this presentation. Both councils will be giving away door prizes, including a couple of memberships to WSRA! We hope that you will join us in this combined council meeting for a topic that is pertinent to most educators. Although budgets for staff development are being reduced in many districts, MARC continues to be an enthusiastic source for networking, professional infor- mation and resources. We look forward to your continued involvement and en- courage you to invite friends and colleagues to join you this month or next year at MARC meetings. Perhaps Dr. Seuss in this quote from The Lorax, says it best: UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not. See you on April 25 th for the WSRA RtI Roadshow at Fitzgerald’s! Janet Farnan Co-President
Madison Area Reading Council is an affiliate of Wisconsin State Reading Association and the International Reading
Madison Area Reading Council 2011-2012
MARC Sponsored
Events
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
RtI Roadshow Fitzgerald’s of Middleton
5:30 Dinner/ 6:15 Meeting
Other Literacy Events –
Not Sponsored by
MARC April 29-May2, 2012
IRA Convention
Communicate
Chicago, IL
For the latest events, news, and happenings in literacy and
to get updates on deadlines, events, and to find links to our
newsletters.:
Find us on Facebook at
http://www.facebook.com/MadisonAreaReadingCouncil
Follow us on Twitter @MARCcouncil
Check out our Website at https://sites.google.com/site/madisonareareadingcouncil/
Dear MARC Member,
This tumultuous year for education reminds us that we all help to bring about posi-
tive changes in teaching. Educators have an enviable reputation for supporting
each other and sharing their ideas to help as we differentiate education for all stu-
dents.
We sincerely thank Dr. Karen Blake Ruffner for her helpful presentation, Translat-
ing Data into Action, at our January meeting. Our final meeting for the year will
again be at Fitzgerald’s on Wednesday, April 25th with dinner at 5:30, meeting be-
ginning at 6:15, followed by the WSRA RtI Roadshow. The presentation will ad-
dress the key critical issues regarding the implementation of RtI literacy. Topics
will include the role of the reading specialist, literacy research, the federal and
state law regarding this topic, and literacy assessment. Attendees will have a bet-
ter understanding about what is possible, the mindset shift required for successful
implementation and resources to continue their learning on this topic.
The Hidden Valley Reading Council will also be joining us for this presentation.
Both councils will be giving away door prizes, including a couple of memberships
to WSRA! We hope that you will join us in this combined council meeting for a
topic that is pertinent to most educators.
Although budgets for staff development are being reduced in many districts,
MARC continues to be an enthusiastic source for networking, professional infor-
mation and resources. We look forward to your continued involvement and en-
courage you to invite friends and colleagues to join you this month or next year at
MARC meetings.
Perhaps Dr. Seuss in this quote from The Lorax, says it best:
UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going to get better. It’s not.
See you on April 25th for the WSRA RtI Roadshow at Fitzgerald’s!
Janet Farnan
Co-President
9 PBL On-line Resources That Put Students At The Center… Voice, Input, Contribution
In this post I am going to introduce you to some resources that can clearly put students at the center of their own edu-cation. Project Based Learning is built on a strong foundation of student voice, choice, and input. There are various on-line platforms that use multiple devices to allow for student opinion, reflection, and feedback. Please enjoy this sample of sites covering a variety of techniques that will put students at the center. Socrative – This is an amazing online tool that promises to engage the class using any device. Socrative is a smart stu-dent response system that empowers teachers to engage their classrooms through a series of educational exercises and games via smartphones, laptops, and tablets. Spark discussion with open ended questions, look for student under-standing, provide formative assessment, and even integrate a few games and Wordle. This is a tool that is definitely worth a closer look. Remind101 – Now you can manage your class and ongoing PBL projects.Remind101 is a safe/free way for teachers to text message students and stay in touch with parents. First, it is private; teachers never see students’ phone numbers. Students never see theirs. Second, it is easy to use because students and parents sign up by sending a text message or email. They never visit the site! Third, it is easy to use. Teachers can manage up to 10 classes. They can instantly send a message to a class of students or their parents. Students and parents will receive it by text message or email. Fourth, teachers can schedule important PBL benchmarks, assessments, and presentations for later broadcasts. Last, teachers will always have a history of what and to whom they send messages. Survey Monkey – What a great tool to survey the class to gauge interest, understanding, and provide their input. This could be valuable in assessing end of project by getting data from students and all other stakeholders in the project. Poll Everywhere – On the surface, Poll Everywhere is a simple application that works well for live audiences using mo-bile devices like phones, tablets, and of course computers. Students participate by visiting a fast mobile-friendly web page, sending text messages, or using Twitter. Instructions are displayed on-screen. The poll that is embedded within the presentation or web page will update in real time. Wonderful to survey for understanding, incorporate for discus-sion in a PBL lesson, and get feedback to promote student voice and choice. Google Forms – Let’s not forget the power of Google Docs for assisting students in collaboration. Part of the Google Doc feature is Google Forms. Yes, another polling tool that will allow for data collection. It will even export to a spreadsheet file. Soapbox – Investigate this tool that is a controlled digital space, designed to improve student engagement by breaking down the barriers students face when deciding whether or not to participate in class. It clearly gives teachers a con-crete assessment of student comprehension, in real time. You might especially enjoy the barometer, a great way to get a quick temperature reading on a PBL Unit. VoiceThread – With VoiceThread, group conversations are collected and shared in one place from anywhere in the world. A VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to navigate slides and leave comments in 5 ways - using voice (with a mic or telephone), text, audio file, or vid-eo (via a webcam). You can share a VoiceThread with friends, students, and colleagues for them to record comments too. Users can doodle while commenting, use multiple identities, and pick which comments are shown through moderation. VoiceThreads can even be embedded to show and receive comments on other websites and exported to MP3 players or DVDs to play as archival movies. VoiceThread inspires collaboration and expression using 5 innovative ways to comment. Collect the voices of an entire group on a single slide by computer micro-phone, telephone, text, audio file (MP3/WAV), and webcam. Simple voice and video commenting takes place right in your web browser with no software to install. Kidblog - Imagine a blog hosting service that was built for classroom teachers and their students. Contemplate a ser-vice that was designed specifically for teachers who want to provide each student with his or her own unique blog. Think about a blog site that allows teachers to monitor and control all publishing activity within the classroom blog-ging community and does not require student email accounts. The activity of blogging to an authentic audience will empower students while putting them at the center of learning. Check out my complete write up of Kidblog. Classchatter - Another blog site devoted to education with security features that are useful to the classroom. This site is definitely worth a visit with some added features that just might pump up the Project Based Learning in your class-room.
U.S. Celebrates World Book Night on April 23
WSRA Wired Wednesdays
An Evening with Megan
Schliesman and the CCBC
Great New Books K-12
April 11 from 7PM-8PM
Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar
seat now at:
https://
www3.gotomeeting.com/
register/336700590
Great New Books
for K-12:
Cooperative Children's
Book Center librarian
Megan Schliesman will
highlight some of the best
books of the 2011 publish-
ing year featured in CCBC
Choices 2012, the most
recent edition of the
CCBC's annual best-of-the
-year list. The first half
hour will focus on books
for grades K-5, and the
second half hour will focus
on books for grades 6-
12. To print out an entire
listing of the books includ-
ed in CCBC Choices, and
to find out how to obtain a
copy of the booklet, go
to: http://
www.education.wisc.edu/
ccbc/books/choices.asp
by Jen Donovan (IRA Website—reading.org)
Calling all literacy advocates and book lovers! World Book Night is quickly approaching. On April 23 the
U.S. will celebrate its very first World Book Night by sending thousands of copies of paperback books out
communities across the nation. Thirty books have been chosen, featuring modern American classics such
as I Know Why the Caged Bird Singsby Maya Angelou, as well as NY Times best sellers like Alice
Sebold’s The Lovely Bones. Also included in this literature line-up are a number of books for young
adults.The Hunger Games and Because of Winn-Dixie are some examples of the featured award-winning
titles in young adult fiction.
World Book Night will rely on volunteers to distribute 20 copies of their favorite book on the list to mem-
bers of their own community. The goal of the event is to encourage the love of reading and allow volun-
teers and participants to share their passion for a great book. The original World Book Night was first held
in the UK; it was such a success that the idea has spread around the world. In the US, the first World
Book Night is supported by major publishing houses, libraries, authors, and communities.
The 2012 US World Book Night currently has tens of thousands of volunteers signed up to distribute, but
there is also a waiting list for those who wish to be a part of the event. More information is available on
the World Book Night website. http://www.us.worldbooknight.org/
April is National Poetry Month
Inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, National Poetry Month is
now held every April, when publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries,
schools and poets around the country band together to celebrate poetry and its
vital place in American culture. Thousands of businesses and non-profit organiza-
tions participate through readings, festivals, book displays, workshops, and other
