Literacy - The gift that keeps on giving

Many Americans consider the time between Thanksgiving and the new year to be a season of giving. We find our mailboxes stuffed with reminders of those in need along with "free" address labels and a suggestion to support a cause. Similarly, during most any shopping escapade you are likely to experience the ringing bells of the Salvation Army. As a general rule, I am wary of donating money to causes for which I have no way to assess their accountability.

However, as someone with a language arts background and a love of reading, I have boxes of books from my last move. These are books that I've already read and probably won't read again. So, why am I keeping them? Well, I can't bring myself to through away a book, even a bad one. This year my wife and I have started looking for programs that can reuse these books to help the less fortunate. We got this idea after locating a local drop off program for books that are donated to prison libraries. I've listed and annotated some of the nationwide programs for book donations below. NCTE and its members have a wonderful history of donating books to the needy (most recently through our Tennessee affiliate at our annual convention and in the wake of hurricane Katrina). As you finish a book during the next few months, why not get a head start on a new year's resolution to increase literacy by donating your used books?

Here are some of the sites that I have seen. If you know of other donation ideas for used books, please leave a comment to this post so that we can all learn more about giving opportunities.

Books for Soldiers
http://www.booksforsoldiers.com/
Donate any type of media to any deployed soldier, airman, sailor, Marine, or Coast Guardsman who has an APO or FPO address.

Books Behind Bars
http://www.prisonpenpals.net/booksbehindbars.html
Help prisoners develop a lifetime habit of reading.

BookCrossing.com
http://www.bookcrossing.com/
Just leave a book somewhere in a public spot (an airport, train station, etc.) for someone else to pick up. You can even check the book's history on BookCrossing's website. See where it has been.

Richard Allington to Discuss NCLB at NCTE Annual Convention

Richard Allington will discuss how the influence of NCLB does not encourage engaging children in independent reading activities or in rich and varied composing activities. Instead NCLB's influence is to place children in one-size-fits-all controlled and contrived packaged programs. He will also share research-based but unprofitable scientific strategies for improving reading improvement. A discussion session will follow the presentation.

Jerome C. Harste Featured Speaker at NCTE Annual Convention

Jerome C. Harste, a Past President of NCTE, is a professor of Language Education at Indiana University where he holds the distinction of being the first Martha & Bill Armstrong Chair in Teacher Education. His major interests are the Reading and Writing Process, Early Literacy, Reading Comprehension, and Critical Literacy. Harste has been quoted as saying, “Children, rather than tests, need to become our curricular informants.”

Diane Ravitch Featured Speaker at NCTE Annual Convention

Diane Ravitch will be referring to the research that she did in writing The Language Police about the censorship protocols used by publishers as they compile textbooks, as well as the low quality of much of the textbook content.
Her presentation will juxtapose the quality of the typical textbook with the genuine excitement to be found in reading novels, poems, essays, and other writings, sent in the context of their time, with understanding of their author and his or her era. She will refer, in part, to The American Reader and The English Reader, both of which are sources for authentic writings.

Mona Golabek and Jane Foley Featured Speakers at NCTE Annual Convention

Milken Family Foundation and Grammy-nominated concert pianist Mona Golabek present the inspiring story of her mother, a music prodigy who escaped 1938 Vienna abroad the Kindertransport. The author shares excerpts and selections on a Steinway piano. Classroom applications, free companion inter-disciplinary materials, and access to the book for reduced rates are described.