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Order the Reading Rockets Launching Young Readers PBS Series

Reading Rockets offers a wealth of reading strategies, lessons, and activities designed to help young children learn how to read and read better. Our reading resources assist parents, teachers, and other educators in working with struggling readers who require additional help in reading fundamentals and comprehension skills development.
 

2009 Editorial Calendar


January

Features

  • Use of technology in supporting reading
  • Motivation
  • Writing strategies (in support of Our White House letter writing contest)

Books & Authors

  • Interview: Mary Brigid Barrett
  • Interview: Mem Fox

Celebrations and Events

  • Inauguration
  • White House letters writing contest
  • MLK, Jr. Day; National Day of Service

Featured Partners

  • NCTI
  • CITed

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February

Features

  • Comprehension (using fiction and nonfiction to build comprehension skills; building background knowledge; assessment)
  • Small-group instruction and tutoring
  • Volunteering (co-reading; peer tutoring)
  • Standardized testing and "high-stakes tests" (test preparation strategies; accommodations)

Books & Authors

  • Interview: Deborah Hopkinson
  • Interview: Leonard Marcus

Celebrations and Events

  • Black History Month
  • NCTE Black Caucus African-American Read-In
  • 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln
  • National School Counseling Week

Featured Partners

  • NCTE Black Caucus
  • ASCA

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March

Features

  • Writing (strategies; assessment)
  • Learning/reading and the brain
  • Gender issues
  • Differentiating instruction
  • Kindergarten (readiness; children with disabilities)

Books & Authors

  • Interview: Laurie Halse Anderson
  • Interview: Eric Carle

Celebrations and Events

  • Read Across America
  • Brain Awareness Month
  • 40th anniversary of The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Featured Partner

  • NEA

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April

Features

  • Progress monitoring (portfolio assessments)
  • Poetry
  • Making the most of libraries (what parents/teachers should ask public librarians for)
  • Principals/school leaders (what research means to/for them; how to build coalitions; engagement of key personnel; evaluations of specific reading programs (from BEE, WW, FCRR); extended day and/or other school reform models

Books & Authors

  • Interview: Carole Boston Weatherford

Celebrations

  • Dia de los Ninos/Libros
  • D.E.A.R.
  • National Poetry Month
  • National Library Week
  • Earth Day

Featured Partners

  • ALA
  • ALSC

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May

Features

  • Summer reading
  • Speech and language development

Books & Authors

  • Interview: John Muth
  • Asian Pacific American Heritage Month booklist
  • Professional development booklist

Celebrations and Events

  • Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
  • Teacher and paraprofessional appreciation (e-cards)
  • National Children's Book Week
  • Better Speech and Hearing Month
  • Mother's Day

Featured Partners

  • ASHA
  • Johns Hopkins University Center for Summer Learning

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June

Features

  • Tutoring & summer programs
  • Fiction and nonfiction
  • Reading and writing resources for home
  • Father's role in child's literacy development
  • Transferring schools (different types of schools including charter, homeschooling, magnet, and private; advice about getting your child settled; IEP implications)

Books & Authors

  • Interview: Marla Frazee
  • Summer reading booklists

Celebrations and Events

  • Father's Day

Featured Partners

  • Joan Ganz Cooney Center
  • Parents as Teachers

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July

Features

  • Tomorrow's leaders: kids who are problem solvers, critical readers and thinkers, able to understand "other literacies" such as visual, media, math, and financial
  • Tomorrow's leaders: teachers, including pre-service, first-year teachers, teacher mentoring models, and literacy coaches
  • Tomorrow's leaders: school-wide literacy leaders
  • Early Literacy and Preschool

Books & Authors

  • Interview: Sneed Collard

Celebrations and Events

  • Fourth of July

Featured Partners

  • NHSA
  • NAESP

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August

Features

  • Gearing up for the new school year (back-to-school "backpack" for teachers and parents
  • Creating a welcoming classroom
  • Creating a print-rich classroom
  • Everyone has a role in teaching reading, including paraprofessionals, content-area teachers, school librarians, and specialists

Books & Authors

  • Interview: Greg Tang

Featured Partner

  • National PTA

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September

Features

  • Phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and concepts of print (teaching strategies; assessment)
  • Transitions: 3rd to 4th grade and kindergarten to school
  • Home/school connections
  • Individualized education plans (IEPs)
  • Screening for reading abilities/deficits
  • Update of Reading Rocket's "Target the Problem" section
  • Student engagement, including how to engage and draw out reluctant speakers; silent period with ELLs

Books & Authors

  • Interview: Sid Fleischman
  • Booklist: Hispanic Heritage Month

Celebrations and Events

  • Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept 15-Oct 15)
  • U.N. International Literacy Day
  • Banned Books Week
  • Constitution Day
  • Festival of the Book (Washington, D.C.)

Featured Partner

  • Reach Out and Read

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October

Features

  • Phonics
  • Spelling
  • Learning disabilities overview
  • Social skills for children with LD
  • Homework (study skills; book challenges; helping the kid who hates school)
  • Parent/teacher conferences
  • Response to intervention

Books & Authors

  • Interview: Jacqueline Woodson

Celebrations and Events

  • National LD Awareness Month
  • Jumpstart's Read for the Record
  • National Bullying Prevention Awareness Week

Featured Partner

  • NCLD

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November

Features

  • Fluency
  • High-low, just-right, and other ways to match books with readers
  • Family literacy
  • Oral storytelling
  • Engaging parents with schools

Books & Authors

  • Interview: McKissack family
  • Booklist: National American Indian/Alaskan Native Heritage Month

Celebrations and events

  • National American Indian/Alaskan Native Heritage Month
  • Family Literacy Day
  • School Psychology Awareness Week
  • Thanksgiving

Featured Partners

  • NCPIE, NCFL
  • NASP

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December

Features

  • Vocabulary
  • Academic language
  • Background knowledge
  • Community of learners (Joplin plan and other student grouping strategies for classroom)
  • "It Takes a Village" pack (creating situations and environments that are welcoming to all sorts of people)
  • Building a home library

Books & Authors

  • Interview: John Bemelmans Marciano
  • Books as Gifts holiday guide
  • Holiday e-card

Featured Partners

  • Newspapers in Education
  • First Book

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