ReadingRockets

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

Back to Top

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

Back to Top

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

Back to Top

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

Back to Top

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

Back to Top

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

Back to Top

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

Back to Top

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

Back to Top

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

Back to Top

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

Back to Top

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

Back to Top

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

Back to Top