Promoting Students' Ability to Argue

See this Ed Week article.

Rationale for Banned Books

NCTE provides a rationale for reading banned books... 100s of them for purchase!

http://www.ncte.org/action/anti-censorship/rationales

60 second videos of the classics

USA Today reports that young freelance book reviewer for CSM, Jenny Sawyer, has posted the first 100 videos (60 seconds each), covering literature classics. Her website: 60secondrecap.com. http://www.60secondrecap.com

A better sparknotes? a better way to interest kids? the new format for book reports? Maybe just a fun diversion.

Paraphrasing: An Effective Comprehension Strategy

That's the title of a "The Reading Teacher" 63(1) article by Shareon B. Kletzien. Main points: research shows benefits of paraphrasing on comprehension. It encourages reader to make connections with prior knowledge to access what is already known about the topic and to use words that are poart of the reader's knowledge. It can be seen as a precursor to summarizing. It's "part of the moinitoring aspect of metacognition". Three short "case studies" are provided.

OECD data out

The new OECD report about investing in education (at the national level). Lots of interesting tidbits, including how much more a college graduate makes compared to high school... $367,000 over a lifetime for a male.