It's Time to Start Thinking Ahead (Updated)
I freely admit that I'm not ready for the end of the year and the leap to the clean slate of 2010. From here on out, the schedule is filled with the fun, excitement, and sometimes stress of spending a little extra time catching up with family and friends, or preparing for same.
Even though I can barely think about January, I know March will be here before I know it. So in the midst of my holiday excitement, I'm also starting to get excited about the prospects of Share a Story-Shape a Future 2010. As you can see in the sidebar, our theme for 2010 is
It Takes a Village to Raise a Reader.
These past few months, the team (more below) has been fleshing out some broad themes for each day, and here is how it shapes out.
Monday, 8 March: The Many Faces of Reading
Hosts: Brian and Steven at Book Dads
Topics of the day will encompass the community/partnership aspect of helping children learn to read. They might include discussions of the teacher-parent partnership, literacy outreach, and libraries, to name a few.
Tuesday, 9 March: Literacy My Way/Literacy Your Way (Updated to Reflect Host's title)
Host: Susan Stephenson at The Book Chook
Creative literacy in all its forms (writing, art, computers) will be the topic of the day.
Wednesday, 10 March: Just the Facts: The Nonfiction Book Hook
Host: Sarah Mulhern at The Reading Zone
This is the day for exploring the different genres of nonfiction (biography and memoir, science, nature, math, etc), as well as the use (or not) of historical fiction.
Thursday, 11 March: Reading Through the Ages: Old Favorites & New Classics
Host: Donalyn Miller at The Book Whisperer
Topics will talk about "boy books" and "girl books," as well as newer titles that fit with some classics we loved as kids.
Friday, 12 March: Reading for the Next Generation
Host: Jen Robinson at Jen Robinson's Book Page
This is the day for talking about how to approach reading when your interests and your child's don't match. It may be that you don't like to read but your child does, how to raise the reader you're not, and dealing with the "pressure" of feeling forced to read.
What Can I Do?
Well, if you have an idea, we'd like to let your voice be heard. Up to this point, I have relied on some of the folks who helped launch the inaugural Share a Story event in 2009. These are the people who know what worked and what didn't: Jen Robinson, Elizabeth Dulemba, Donalyn Miller, Sarah Mulhern, Susan Stephenson, Brian Frank, Steven Bush, and Eva Mitnick. After last year's event, several folks expressed an interest in helping this year, and now Dawn Morris, Two Writing Teachers, and Jen Funk Weber are on the team.
We pooled some of the survey comments, pulled out our old notes, nailed down some ideas, and then framed out the week. The topics we cover are broad, and I needed a small organizational team to set our foundation. There is no one answer when it comes to raising readers, but we needed the framework before "opening the doors." We plan to walk the talk in our theme - it takes a village to raise a reader. We hope to stretch ourselves a little further this year beyond the kidlitosphere. Anyone interested in participating is welcome.
We are also interested in cross-promotion and partnership ideas. Reading is Fundamental and Sleeping Bear Press are already on board, and you can be, too. This year, all of our giveaways will be directed to helping readers in need. All of our winners will be schools (classroom or school libraries), family
services organizations (e.g., those who do home visitation and work with children of families who have no reading material at home), and/or public libraries. These will be random drawings selected from the comments from various giveaway posts.
Share a Story-Shape a Future is a literacy blog tour. It is a venue for sharing ideas, not self-promoting specific products or services, so we ask that you keep that in mind. Everyone who participates is acknowledged and included in our blogroll and individual posts, as appropriate.
More details on all of this will follow as we get closer to the event. If you have questions or would like to help, please contact me at thereadingtub [at] gmail[dot] com. Read more...
