WSRA- Christopher Paul Curtis- Getting people to read

Told stories about his experience and how it relates to his writing and being a visiting author...

WSRA- Sneed B Collard III Writing Children's books

Adoptive author program to mentor individual students in Wisconsin- Wisconsin Arts Board

-sent in articles to childrens mags (Highlights, Cricket, etc)
-wrote books in what is educational background was in (biology)
-Monteverde Costa Rica, went and studies what scientists were doing and wrote a nonfiction book and a picture book about it, tropical cloud forest, clear winged butterflies, canopy walks
-Lizard Island- Great Coral Reef, one night great spawning event

Butterfly Count- fictional picture book
Start a butterfly garden at school- couple of square yards

Prairie Builders- shows that individuals can make a positive contribution to the environment.
Flashpoint- 6-9
Dog Sense 4-6

Picture book authors get about 5% of the selling price of the book

He does his own photography (about 75% of the pictures in the nonfiction books)

Society of Children's Book writers and illustrators www.scbwi.org good place to go for info on publishing

Find companies that publish books clase to what yours is
Companies get 20-30 thousand unsolicited manuscripts a year

Don't get an agent

can send illustrated portfolios to publishing companies as well

WSRA- New Internet Literacies for Teachers and Students

Will Richardson Blogs, Wikis and Podcasts

Read Write Web Technologies. Web 2.0

weblogged.wikispaces.com (wiki presentation) He uses wikis instead of powerpoints to give his presentations.

No one is really teaching kids how to learn in these ways, evaluating sources, hypertexts and building communities online. This is oing to be how they are going to be learning in the future, but no one is teaching them how.

Next years kindergarten class is going to graduate in 2020. We need to develop a 20/20 vision for them.

No one is really changing what they are doing now to prepare for their furtures.

Reading- need new types of reading strategies for nonlinear texts. Many are very distributed. Things are not all in one place or tied up with a bow. So we ned to think of reading in a new way.

We need to look at patterns of thoughts, discussions, conversations. Need to synthesize information.

They become the authors of their own texts to bring the stuff together in s self organized way.

Ask the kids the question- how does my teacher learn? Many kids will not be able to answer that quesiton. How do we do this? It is not very transparent.

Google Reader- Can help to subscribe to RSS feeds. Can be blogs, newspapers and more.

Google news- can RSS google searches in news on that site and have it sent. Global so points of view from around the world can be sent to email.

Set up an RSS feed. Blogsearch.google.com First thing he had his journalism students do. Building connections and networks around the informaiton. Do continuous learning 24/7 and build their own communities. can also subscribe to images the same way. Figure out what you are passionate about and jus tsubscribe to it.

PageFlakes- you can build your own site newspaper using RSS. Can use Flikr photos and Youtube videos as well. When they are tagged for them.

Reading needs to be editing now. Kids need to be able to edit. Assess whether it is appropriate, ethical, valid, etc. They need to package it themselves.

Self organization. Use a social bookmarking site. We need to be the librarian of what we find. Folksonomies. They work on tags and keywords assigned to the information that we find. del.icio.us site to save posts or sites. Fill out the form with url, title and notes.

Google's Moon Shot- The New Yorker. Google wants to digitize every book ever published. This is a really good article. http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/070205fa_fact_toobin

fanfiction.net what other people have written on books.

Convergence Culture is a good book. Get it.

Writing becomes different as well. Write in video, audio and more.

Torex- LA teacher with video. ewverything that my kids do has wings. Goes beyond the classroom.

WSRA- Christopher Paul Curtis keynote

Authors get paid about 10% of the book proceeds. Person who designed the cover initially was paid more. (Picture is worth a thousand words)

• Watsons Go To Birmingham- entered into 2 contests and was rejected for both, but then was published anyway.
• Bud, Not Buddy- 5 year old daughter has copyrighted lyrics in it Bucking the Sarge- took 4 years to write.
• Mr. Chickee's Funny Money- started it at the same time as Watsons book. Mr. Chickee's Messing Mission- continuation of the detective story
• NEW BOOK-- Elijah of Buxton- his favorite book. Terminus of the UG Railroad (BUXTON). Book about slavery. Peripherally because it is about a free community. Claim to fame- 1st child born free there, threw up on Fredrick Douglas. Published in October 2007

Process of writing- gets the character in his head and goes from there.

WSRA- Read Alouds

Afternoon Workshop- Steve Layne

Reasons to read Aloud

• -its fun especially for kids who don't do text well
• -positive experience with text
• -don't need to assess kids with everything they do with text all day long
• -a good book read well will do more for all the disenfranchised kids than all the levelled books that the publishing companies can push out
• -kids can comprehend through hearing than they do by reading
• --bringing them sentence structure, vocabulary and more at a higher level than they can read on their own
• -reading skills are improved and reinforced
• -positive attitudes are fostered towards books
• -it broadens interests and tastes (need to make sure we don't read only genres we love best)
• -imagination is exercised and background experience is built
• -reading maturity develops
• -reading independence is promoted
• -lifelong readers may be developed

Alliterate readers- graduating more of them than ones who can't read

Establishing A Successful Read Aloud Time

• -make a do not disturb sign and use it
• -make seating decisions that are simple and clear
• -Plan a significant amount of time for reading and discussion for the first 2-3 days of a new book,launch the book well.
• -be strategic and make appropriate choices to get them all information. But the trust of the reluctant readers first, dooms novel good for reluctant boy readers
• -plan carefully for the end of the book, longer session with lots of time
• -don't let the sub read the novel out loud when you are gone, give them other text
• -select an amount of time and consistently read aloud at that time. Don't make it contingent upon their behavior
• -don't let read aloud be the first thing you cancel if you get behind
• -rules of consistent behavior
• -guide them in making predictions, conclusions and mental images, students don't see anything in their heads during read alouds
• -don't make them follow along in a classroom sets of books, let them choose to do so if they would like
• -situations like students finishing the books ahead of them, student who asks to draw during reading time
• -let them know that you can't wait to read aloud to them every day

Books!!! Every book is for everybody to know

• Moose Tracks- Karma Wilson, Jack E. Davis. picture book
• Oonawassee Summer by Melissa Forney. chapter book intermediate
• This Side of Paradise by Steven Layne. chapter book intermediate
• My Brother Dan's Delicious by Steven Layne- good for working on persuasive writing
• Deathwatch by Rob White- good for middle school (like most dangerous game)
• P is for princess a Royal Alphabet

Art of Reading Aloud to Kids

• Work on reading expressively
• take risks
• highlight relavent reads

Selecting books for read aloud times

• -try to read from every genre and id it for students
• try to read only what you love to read
• Never NEVER read a book that you have not read in its entirely- its hard to lead someone someplace you've never been

(Neil Shusterman author look into it)
inservice- ways to cultivate lifelong learning, ways to cultivate a love of reading

WSRA Conference- Opening Keynote

I attended the WSRA Conference (Wisconsin State Reading Association) Feb 8-9, 2007 in Milwaukee Wisconsin

Steven Layne- Balconies and the power of teaching.

Great new book called LOVE THAT BABY about sibilng rivalry.

Literacy and Technology Today and in the Future- Don Johnston

WSRA Conference, Milwaukee
Session One

40% of students at the 5th grade level read 2 or more grades below grade level.

70% (READING NEXT REPORT) of all students at junior high and high school need remediation and comprehension help.

CAST- Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age

A lot of the informaiton in this presentation is repeat info.

NIMAS- National Instructional Materials Standards (electronic file) available in a standard text files with all materials.