Inquiry-Based Learning Wordle

Wordle created by Virginia Wallace

Pump up the Volume!

As a librarian-in-training, life-long reader, and mother, I think everyone should read, and read more. At our house, we go to the library two to three times a week and have a minimum of 30 books checked out at any one time. In the evenings, instead of watching TV, we all sit in the family room and read. I am fortunate that my children not only love to read, but are good readers.

But let's face it. Not everyone is a good reader. Some don't enjoy reading, while others have difficulty reading due to visual impairments, attention disorders, reading disorders, dyslexia, or developmental disorders. Does this mean they have to give up on enjoying a good story? Does this mean they will never appreciate fine literature, or keep up with the best sellers? The answer is a loud, resounding NO!

Audio books are more widely available, and in more formats, than every before, and are an affordable, enjoyable, and fun alternative to those who find reading difficult, for whatever reason. Options include Playaways, books on tapes or CDs, and down-loadable books. And here's the good news: listening to audio versions of books

• increases interest in reading
• increases comprehension
• improves reading skills and literacy, especially when students follow along in the book, alternate between the book and tape, or read the book after listening to the recording
  
• increases motivation to read.

Preschoolers and kindergartners can get a jump on reading when you let them listen to books of their choosing while freeing you up to help older kids or make dinner. Older kids who struggle with reading can keep up with their friends' latest reading craze, whether it be Harry Potter, Twilight, or The Children of Djinn.

Playaways are digital recordings that come complete with battery and ear buds. About the size of a credit card (but about 1/4 of an inch thick), Playaways have control buttons (volume, play, pause, etc) on one side, and the book cover on the other. Although they are currently fairly expensive, they have the cool factor, and are available from many vendors including amazon.com, Borders, and all major booksellers, as are the more traditional books-on-tape and CDs. Many libraries are beginning to carry Playaways. Check them out.

Many books are available as wav or Mp3 downloads online. The Internet Archive has free downloads of books, poetry, and alternative news programs. Other sources include Project Gutenberg, Bookshare, and Accessible Books. Both Bookshare and Accessible Books provide free text-to-speech software for those with qualifying disabilities. All of these sources are reviewed in an earlier blog: More Accessibility: Free Audiobooks Available Online.

So, go ahead, pump up the volume, and let your kids do it too!

New Moon Girls-- A Wonderful Resource for Tweens

My daughter, now 13, has been receiving New Moon Girls magazine since she was 9, and absolutely loves it! When the newest issue arrives in the mail, she drops everything and reads it cover to cover, and then reads it again.

New Moon Girls "provides innovative, safe, respectful, and advertising-free spaces online and in the magazine where girls develop their full potential through self-discovery, creativity, and community" (from the magazine's inside cover). Overseen by the Girls Editorial Board, New Moon Girls has articles written about, by, and for girls from around the world. The goal is to empower girls with positive self-esteem, a healthy body image, and a strong voice. You won't find any dating advice, popularity contests, or dieting advice within the pages of New Moon. Instead you'll find poetry, short stories, articles on topics from world politics to the differently-able to sleep disorders, interviews, art, and projects.

The Web space offers everything the magazine does and chat, video, and articles in a moderated, educational environment. My daughter has been participating online for several years and has made some excellent friends. She has posted information and has been published in the magazine. During a developmental period that can be very confusing for girls and fraught with pitfalls and traps, New Moon Girls has helped to sustain her, build her self-confidence, and open her eyes to an exciting world of possibility.

To learn more about New Moon visit their website: http://www.newmoon.com/
Read an interview of New Moon founder, Nancy Gruver at http://www.ypulse.com/ypulse-interview-nancy-gruver-founder-ceo-new-moon
Read/join Gruver's blog for parents about raising strong, healthy girls: Daughters.com

Book Review Sammy Keyes and the Dead Giveaway

Recently, I picked up Sammy Keyes and the Dead Giveaway by Wendelin Van Drannen for my 5th grade son. The cover looked interesting (yes, I sometimes judge a book by its cover), it looked about the right length, and it was at the right reading level. About half-way through the book, my son said he wasn't really interested. Turns out Sammy is a girl, and although she really rocks, my son just wasn't interested in Sammy's date for the middle school dance.

So I read the book, AND I COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN!! In fact, my husband went up to bed saying "Don't stay up too late reading." Several hours later, way past my usual bedtime, much to my regret, I finished the book. It was that good! And the whole time I was reading, I kept thinking "I know this style. Have I read this author before?". Turns out, Van Draanen is the author of the infamous Shredderman series and their spin-off, The Gecko and Sticky, books my son absolutely loved (and so did I)!

There are currently 12 Sammy Keyes books, the most recent entitled Sammy Keyes and the Cold Hard Cash. Sammy is a forthright, outspoken seventh grader, is willing to stand up for herself. She faces life, and its mysteries (she seems to find many) with her own indomitable style. Her character is one of the best developed I've encountered in quite some time. The books are fast-paced, engaging, funny, and real. I recommend these books for middle schoolers, and not just girls: Sammy might just challenge some guys' preconceived notions about girls.

Shredderman, about a elementary school kid who stands up to the school bully by becoming a superhero and creating his own website, is a must for kids grades 3-5.

Be sure to visit Van Draanen's website (http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/vandraanen/).

Learn more about Sammy, solve a mystery, and download a song from Sammy's page
(http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/vandraanen/sammykeyes/).

Visit Shredderman's page at http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/vandraanen/shredderman/

Protecting Your Privacy Online

Over the past several days, the Wall Street Journal has run a series of articles "What They Know" about how Web sites and service providers collect information about users. This information is sold to advertisers so they can target advertising to you, based on the sites you visit. Below I summarize some of the key information from "The Web's new goldmine: Your secrets" byJulia Angwin, and "How to avoid the prying eyes" by Jennifer Valentino-DeVries. Both articles were published in the Weekend Journal July 31, 2010. You can see this information at WSJ.com

According to the study by the Wall Street Journal,

• the top 50 Websites installed, on average, 64 pieces of tracking technology on users' computers
• tracking technologies include cookies, flash cookies, beacons, and third party tracking files
• individual's profiles, constantly updated each time you use the computer, are bought and sold on stock-market like exchanges, mostly for advertising.

The vocabulary:
Cookies: text file put on your computer by websites and marketing firms, usually to remember your preferences and log-in information (passwords); however, they can track you across sites.
Flash Cookies: files placed on your computer by Adobe's Flash software. Flash is the most common way to show videos online (think about how many times you've been to Youtube!). They are also used to remember preferences, but can also track you online, and can reinstall cookies you have previously deleted.
Beacons: software that can track your web surfing and online activities, including mouse clicks and keystrokes.
Third-Party Tracking: A cookie or beacon installed on your computer by an ad network or research firm that can track your activities across websites.

The worst offenders? Dictionary.com, Merriam-Webster.com, Comcast.net, Careerbuilder.com, Photobucket.com, MSN.com, Answers.com, Yellowpages.com, MSNBC.com, and Yahoo.com (how many yahoo groups do you belong to?).

How to protect yourself:

1. Check and delete cookies: all major browsers let users view and delete cookies. On Firefox, go to tools, click on clear recent history, in the drop-down box choose time range, click on details, and check the boxes to delete. Click "clear now". You can view the cookies by going to tools, clicking on options, and clicking on the privacy tab. Click on the "show cookies" buttons. You have the option of deleting the cookies on in the cookies window. On Internet Explorer, go to tools, pull down to "Internet Options", and choose an option under the "general" tab. Caution: you may have to renter passwords or other login information the next time you go to a site.
   
2. Adjust your browser settings: Allows you to surf the web without saving any information on which websites and pages you have visited. Firefox private browsing does not save information like visited pages, form and search bar entries, passwords, and download lists. Cookies and cache (temporary files) are deleted when you turn off private browsing. You can also go to tools, click on options, click on privacy, and set-up your privacy preferences including browsing history, download list, searches and forms, cookies and third-party cookies, and set up clear history. Internet Explorer allows similar options. Look under Tools/Internet Options/Privacy.
   
3. Monitor Flash cookies. Go to the Adobe website: www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager.html. Identify flash cookies on your computer and adjust settings.
4. The Better Privacy plug-in for Firefox (addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6623 allows you to set rules for deleting third party-flash cookies.
5. Ghostery (ghostery.com) helps you control beacons by alerting you when there is a beacon on a page you are viewing. With Firefox and Internet Explorer, you can then block the beacon from capturing information.

For more information, visit the Wall Street Journal Online.

More Online Accessibility

Again, I am indebted to Ira David Socol. His article "The Unhappy Place: What Libraries Can Do to Welcome Kids Who Struggle with Print" in the May 2010 issue of School Library Journal has many ideas for making libraries and computers more accessible to students with learning difficulties. You can read his article online at http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6727276.html

Microsoft Word can be customized for students who need help with spelling and grammar. In the Word program, click on help (or the little question mark in the top right hand side of the screen). Type"spell check" in the search box, and click search. Look for the following heading: "Choose how spelling and grammar checking work". Click on the link and follow the instructions. For help writing math equations, click on the insert tab, and then on equation (right next to symbol).

You can add the WordTalk plug-in to Word for free! WordTalk is software that will speak and highlight text as the student writes in Microsoft Word. It is customizable and has a talking dictionary. You can convert text to speech and then save it as a .wav or .mp3 file so you can replay it on your iPod or mp3 player. The web address is http://www.wordtalk.org.uk.

Users of Windows Vista or Windows 7 can install free voice recognition software. Windows Speech Recognition enables users to dictate documents and emails and to use voice controls. The web address is: http://www.microsoft.com/enable/products/windowsvista/speech.aspx.
Other Windows accessibility plug-ins, including onscreen keyboards and magnifiers, are available on the Windows accessibility page or http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/features/accessibility.

Here are some other free tools identified by Mr. Socol:

A Graphing Calculator, indispensable to anyone taking Algebra II, Trigonometry, or Calculus, available from GraphCalc (http://www.graphcalc.com/index.shtml).

A talking calculator is available from myZIPS (http://www.myzips.com/software/Talking-Calculator.phtml).

NaturalReader (http://www.naturalreaders.com/), free text-to-speech with natural sounding voices. Can read any text and convert it into audiofiles, and you have a choice of voices!

PowerTalk (http://fullmeasure.co.uk/powertalk/) speaks the text on PowerPoint slides.

Click-N-Type Virtual Keyboard (http://www.lakefolks.org/cnt/) is an onscreen keyboard. Type using your mouse!

Here's one my kids like to use: Create A Graph (http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/default.aspx). Enter your data and make a pie, bar, or line graph.

More Accessibility: Free Audiobooks Available Online

To follow-up on my last entry about making the Internet more accessible to people with visual or reading difficulties, I thought I would highlight online sources of free audiobooks. Most of these are included on the libraries page of my website: The School and Home Library: The Online Library for Home Schoolers.

LibriVox Free audiobooks from the public domain (public domain works are creative works that are not protected by copyright and may be freely used by anyone. In the U.S., this includes books published before 1923, works for which the copyright has expired, books for which the author failed to establish a copyright, and works by the U.S. government). You can receive books in thrice-weekly podcasts, download complete books from the catalog, or subscribe through iTunes.

Bookshare Free accessible books and periodicals for individuals with print impairments (loss of sight, visual impairment, physical disability, learning disability, developmental disability and ESL). Free reading software and Braille options. Others may join; however, registration and annual fees apply.

Project Gutenberg Over 32,000 free books to download to your computer, iPad, Kindle, Sony Reader, iPhone, or other portable device. Human-read and computer generated audiobooks. Sheet music. All materials are in the public domain.

Accessible Book Collection High interest, low-reading level digital texts (formatted for individuals with visual disabilities) for qualified people with disabilities. The html text can be used with text-to-speech software. Subscription required.

Internet Archive A free digital library of Internet sites (active and archived), downloadable software, movies, audio, live music, ebooks, and texts including children's books, fiction, historical texts, and academic books. Software is available to convert text-to-speech for users who have blindness, low vision, or learning disabilities.

For text-to-speech software, see the last entry in this blog or consider:

• vozMe Install a speech synthesis bookmarklet into your browser. Then, just click the vozMe button to listen to the text. Free!
• Humanware Hardware and software for individuals with blindness, low vision, and learning disabilities.
• Don Johnston Software for a variety of learning disabilities or impairments including autism.

Members of Bookshare (see above) may obtain Humanware VictorReader Soft Bookshare edition or Don Johnston READ:OutLoud software free with their membership.