The library will be closed after school on Thursday, October 9th.  The library staff will be busy setting up our fabulous Book Fair.  We will be open before school and at morning recess.

Hope to see you at the Book Fair beginning Friday.

Check hours, volunteer, make a wish list and view some of the thousands of great books that will be arriving at our school with the Book Fair on October 10th.

 Go to the Book Fair Website

If you need additional magazine drive orders and you've ordered everything your family is interested in, consider donating a subscription to the school library. 

There is a wish list posted on the blog and the library bulletin board with a list of magazines the students would enjoy reading.  You may click here for the on-line version of the wish list: Library_Wish_List_for_Magazine_Drive.xls.  Please check the list outside the library to see which magazines have already been purchased.

The address to use on the order form is:

        Fairmont Library

        5310 E. La Palma Ave.

        Anaheim, CA 92807

Thank you for supporting our library!

                Mrs. Harmon and the students

An excellent article from Scouting Magazine http://www.scoutingmagazine.org/

Guys Read Guy Books

By Mary Jacobs
Photographs by Marc and Melanie Chartrand

What's the secret to boys and reading? Give them books about things they like: adventure, biography, science fiction, sports, and yes, even gross humor.

Jon Scieszka, author of The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, can picture his reading audience quite precisely.

"It's those knuckleheaded boys who are sitting in the back of the classroom," he says with a laugh. "I want to engage them and make them sit up."

Scieszka, recently appointed the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature by the Library of Congress, isn't the only one thinking about boy readers. Studies show boys aren't reading as much as girls, and it's affecting their success in school.

Why?

The short answer, says Scieszka: "Boys often have to read books they don't really like. They don't get to choose what they want to read."

Reluctant readers

In 1955, Time magazine published a groundbreaking article titled "Why Johnny Can't Read" that argued the reading curricula in American schools wasn't working.

Now, more than 55 years later, the issue isn't so much "why Johnny can't read" as "why Johnny won't read."

According to a study published in the book Reading Don't Fix No Chevys, researchers Michael W. Smith and Jeffrey D. Wilhem reported that boys read less and are less enthusiastic about reading than girls.

Some researchers point to differences in the way boys' brains are wired, which makes reading a bigger challenge. But a study conducted by the Young Adult Library Services Association highlights another issue-many boys just don't like to read.

The study polled boys with an average age of 14 about why they don't read. Their answers included "boring/no fun" (39 percent); "no time/too busy" (30 percent); "like other activities better" (11
percent); "can't get into the stories" (8 percent); and "I'm not good at it" (4 percent).

The problem seems to begin with a fourth-grade slump. Evidence indicates that's when boys tend to lose interest in reading, says William Brozo, professor of literacy at George Mason University's graduate school of education. "Around the middle-school years, motivation to read and learn and actual reading achievement tend to decline among boys."

Brozo adds that those are the years when masculine identity becomes paramount for boys-and many boys see reading as a "girl thing."

"They see that mom reads to them most of the time, that mom is the only one at home reading a book, that most all of their teachers in the first several years of school are women, telling them that they should be readers," he says. "And publishers know that most buyers of books are women."

Another factor: Reading assignments often change during the middle-school years, when students begin to tackle thicker books with fewer illustrations.

"Middle school is the point at which students are expected to read ‘more serious' stuff,'" Scieszka says. "And that turns boys off."

Fear of failure also may turn off some boys. Boys typically lag behind girls in verbal skills, and their reading performance trails girls' by about 1.5 years.

"Incompetence is a big fear for boys," says Paul Mullen, Ph.D., an author and literacy advocate. "If they're feeling inferior about reading, they'll downplay it."

What a boy likes

The bottom line: Boys need more exposure to the kinds of books that excite them. "We know a great deal about the reading interests of teen and preteen boys," says Brozo.

Surveys and studies show that boys prefer topics and genres such as humor, horror, adventure, informational books, science fiction, crime and detective, ghost stories, sports, war, biography, historical novels, and graphic novels.

These kinds of books "appeal to boys because the fun overtakes the challenge of reading," says Brozo. "Boys can overcome the challenges of what might otherwise be a difficult read, if the material appeals to them."

Boys are more likely to read informational texts and magazine or newspaper articles. They like comic books and graphic novels. Many boys are collectors and will collect series of books.

Boys read less fiction than girls but tend to enjoy escapism and humor. Many boys are passionate about science fiction and fantasy. They like to read stories about their interests such as those related to hobbies or sports. Also, boys tend to resist reading books about female characters, whereas girls aren't so bothered by books about boys.

Much of that material doesn't fit under the label of "literature," but reading experts say that keeping boys engaged is more important than insisting on quality.

Even the literary Brits are starting to expand their definition of what makes good reading to include more boy-friendly topics.

Alan Johnson, England's former education secretary, recently urged every secondary school "to provide a bookshelf packed with spy novels and action stories to help boys catch up with girls." School libraries need "not just Jane Austen, but a necessary dose of Anthony Horowitz as well."

Horowitz has written a series of books, starting with Stormbreaker in 2001, that feature a 14-year-old spy named Alex Rider, who's something of a teenage James Bond. The books have sold four million copies in the United States alone.

Unwillingly recruited to spy for the British secret service, young Alex uses his intelligence and creativity-along with an arsenal of cool gadgets-to fight the enemy.

"It's the world of a boy's dream," Horowitz says. "Boys find it very easy to empathize with the character. Boys ‘are' Alex Rider when they are reading my books."

Even though he doesn't aim for a male-only readership, Horowitz says, "I'm the writer for boys who don't want to read. Over and over again, I meet parents who tell me that, somehow, Alex Rider has got their kids reading."

The cringe factor

Horowitz says that he relies on the judgment of his 17-year-old son, Cassian, to read drafts of his novels and to catch passages that won't work with young readers. "If a text is embarrassing, he'll mark it with the word ‘Cringe.'"

But many teachers and librarians aren't attuned to what makes boys "cringe"or to asking about what turns them on to reading. Often, teachers or librarians are more likely to dismiss, or even forbid, books that interest boys.

"I liked to read funny stuff when I was a kid," Scieszka recalls. "But I had to read
that stuff on the sly.

"If you really like sharks or World War II bombers, and you want to read about them, teachers tend to say, ‘You can't just read those. It's not a book,'" Scieszka says.

Brozo cites Katherine Paterson's Bridge to Terabithia as a good book that's popular but doesn't appeal to most boys.

"It's not simply because the main character is a girl who is more athletic and more clever than the main character in the story, but because the psychological and emotional context of the story makes it less accessible to most preteen boys.

"Is it a flawed novel? Not by any means. Is it a novel chosen by teachers with boys in mind? I doubt it."

To engage reluctant-reader boys, experts urge educators to expand their definition of reading. Graphic novels, comics, and manga (a Japanese comic-book style) appeal to boys-and though they rely heavily on pictures, they still boost reading skills. In fact, Kaplan Test Prep publishes manga novels featuring SAT vocabulary words as a way of helping high school-age readers, especially boys, absorb the words more quickly than conventional methods like flash cards.

These books may make parents cringe, but if they're getting boys to read, they're keeping them in the game and making them likely to tackle more serious material later.

Boy vs. girl themes

Scieszka recalled an instance when he met an 8-year-old boy who was reading Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie with his class and thought the book was "just awful."

Scieszka says he understood the boy's attitude. "Little House on the Prairie might be a wonderful book," he says. "But if you're an 8-year-old boy, it's not the book that's going to light your fire and get you reading."

Scieszka says he knows what most boys don't like: "dreary problem novels, where everyone dies and the men are complete snakes."

Girls tend to veer more toward novels that highlight relationships, and teachers-most of whom are female and many of them English majors-tend to assign those books.

"Boys typically don't like books about relationships, unless they're hero-based," explains Paul Mullen, an author and literacy advocate. "If a book's central theme is based on relationships, boys will easily become disenchanted."

Horowitz also notes that male readers are sensitive about the age of the characters in books. "My hero is 14, and the age of my readership goes up to age 15. Older boys don't want to read about younger boys," he says.

Scieszka cites Gary Paulsen, the author of Hatchet and other boy-friendly books and a frequent contributor of short fiction to Boys' Life magazine, as the epitome of "testosterone-soaked literature."

"He gets that guy mentality," says Scieszka. "He understands that, for a good book, you need weaponry and vehicles. Or you need to be out in the middle of nowhere and just have your hatchet to survive."

Reading starts at home

Helmer Duverge, a family literacy trainer and an assistant Scoutmaster in Louisville, Ky., says encouraging boys to read should start at home. Parents can model reading by incorporating it into daily activities such as making a shopping list or discussing newspaper articles at the dinner table.

And don't limit your definition of "reading" to books, Duverge adds. Kids are reading on the Internet, and "as long as they're reading, as long as you're talking about it and having a dialogue, it's all good," he says.

"It doesn't help to force books down boys' throats or to say that a book is ‘good for them,'" Horowitz says. "It's got to be a shared enthusiasm."

Scieszka targets the "boy gap" in reading as he speaks to educators across the country. "The first thing I recommend to teachers and librarians is to expand their definition of what reading is. Any reading is good reading. Let your boys choose stuff." Scieszka has created a Web site, www.guysread.com, to encourage families and schools to build their own "Guys Read" collections.

Reading opportunities in Scouting

Scieszka, who attended the 1969 jamboree as a Scout, says the BSA can provide a jumping-off point to engage boys. Scouting offers "all that great boy stuff" in ways that are often not encouraged in other school or extracurricular activities.

"You get to learn how to do things like sharpen a knife." But elsewhere, he says, "you can't even say the word knife anymore."

"Scout leaders are in an ideal position to influence boys' reading habits," says Brozo.

And they don't need highbrow taste to do so, Scieszka says. "If you're reading an autobiography of Dale Earnhardt or a tractor manual, that's great. Talk about it with your Scouts."

Duverge also touts Boys' Life as a useful tool for getting boys to read. "It's an incredible magazine," he says. "What I enjoy are the real stories of heroic acts. I read those and talk about them with my sons. I ask questions like, ‘What would you do?' ‘Would you risk your life like that?' It shows the way Scouting can influence and affect others in a vital, nonfiction way."

It's little surprise that reader surveys reveal the comic-style of "A True Story of Scouts in Action" is one of Boys' Life's most popular features.

"What we try to do is to engage our readers," says J.D. Owen, editor-in-chief of Boys' Life. "We try to make the material entertaining enough that they won't know it's educational."

The aim: Don't confine reading to schoolwork; instead, make it a lifelong habit. "Remove the stress of reading as an academic pursuit. Make it enjoyable first," says Duverge.

Writer Mary Jacobs lives in Dallas, Tex.

Put down the remote control, log off YouTube and exercise your brain!  The following article, reprinted from O, The Oprah Magazine outlines the neurological benefits of reading.

Watch This. No. Read It!

By Lauren Duzbow

Photo: Ben Goldstein

When you can see Atonement in two hours and 10 minutes (enacted by the very appealing James McAvoy, no less) or listen to it on audiotape, why bother working through the 371-page novel? For that matter, why trudge through the newspaper when you can turn on CNN? Why puzzle over a manual when you can YouTube the instructions? Everyone knows the book is always better than the movie, but is there any real advantage to getting your information by reading it?   Yes, according to neuroscience-your mind will most definitely thank you.   Just like muscles, the brain benefits from a good workout.

And reading is more neurobiologically demanding than processing images or speech. As you're absorbing, say, this article, "parts of the brain that have evolved for other functions-such as vision, language, and associative learning-connect in a specific neural circuit for reading, which is very challenging," says Ken Pugh, PhD, president and director of research of Haskins Laboratories, which is devoted to the science of language and affiliated with Yale. "A sentence is shorthand for a lot of information that must be inferred by the brain." In general, your intelligence is called to action, as is greater concentration. "We are forced to construct, to produce narrative, to imagine," says Maryanne Wolf, director of the Center for Reading and Language Research at Tufts University and author of Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain. "Typically, when you read, you have more time to think. Reading gives you a unique pause button for comprehension and insight. By and large, with oral language-when you watch a film or listen to a tape-you don't press pause."   The benefits of all this mental activity include keeping your memory sharp, your learning capacity nimble, and your mind basically hardier as you age. No one's advising that you toss the DVD player-or books on tape, which, Pugh says, provide more work for your brain than seeing a movie-but print should take up part of your life too. A literate mind is a more complex one. "There's a richness that reading gives you," Wolf says, "an opportunity to probe more than any other medium I know of. Reading is about not being content with the surface." Even when it is superficial (what's a plane ride without a little celebrity gossip?), indulging in a tabloid beats watching TV-just processing the words boosts the brain. "If you had your druthers," Pugh says, "you'd rather be reading."

From O, The Oprah Magazine

Experts agree that reading aloud to your child is one of the most advantageous social and academic activities you can share with your child.  The following articles outline some of the most important benefits.

The Benefits of Reading to Children

July 25, 2007 by Umm Yusuf (southernmuslimah.wordpress.com)

I fondly remember spending my childhood propped up on my older sisters lap listening to her exaggerated tone as she read to me. I remember my mother never failing to read me a bedtime story. Then, as I turned into a pre-teen I remember reading The Baby Sitters Club, Goosbumps, and other similar books. My love of reading has continued to this day. I can say one thing. I aced literature in school. I was far above most of the class in reading comprehension. I sincerely believe that my success was due to the love of reading instilled into me as a child.

Sadly, today, many children would rather sit in front of the television all day watching their favorite programs or playing video games. While I see nothing wrong with watching television from time to time or playing video games once in awhile, I find it disturbing that some parents allow their children to spend all their free time in this manner. It's best to be well rounded. Some television programs certainly promote learning and reading. However, I believe it makes a greater impact on the child when his/her parent(s) actually sit down and read together.

Here are some benefits of reading with children. Hopefully they will inspire us to try to set aside some time to read with our children. It could make a huge difference in their lives and ours!

Some Benefits of Reading Aloud

By: ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools. (1999)

Reading aloud to children in any language prepares them to learn to read English. Learn about the benefits in this article.

Young children learn a great deal when books are read aloud to them.

They learn about the internal structure of stories - how they begin, different types of conflicts, and possible solutions. They sometimes learn empathy for others and see other sides to a story, such as understanding what the main character is going through (whether person or animal), be it fear, anger, or humility.

Reading aloud provides opportunities for students to view persons not in their immediate environment, for example the elderly, wise persons, or people from different ethnic backgrounds or social status. And through books, children can travel to far away lands and learn about life in the jungle or on a cattle ranch.

In reading books, children learn what is considered proper or appropriate behavior for their culture or that of others. Depending on the story, they could learn about the need to respect the elderly, how to ask for forgiveness, or how to show you're sorry.

Finally, when reading fairy tales or modern fantasy, children learn how to use their imagination, to view situations from various perspectives, and to know that events can be seen from different viewpoints.

 Adapted and excerpted from "Reading Children's Books: There's More to it than Meets the Eye" (1999). ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools.

About Accelerated Reader

• Accelerated Reader is a computerized reading program.
• Students select books to read from the library's collection of AR books.
• The AR system has assigned a point value to each book based on the number of words in the book and its reading level.
• The system considers the number of syllables in words and sentence complexity.
• Once the student reads a chosen book, he or she goes to the computer and takes a test on the book he or she has read.
• At the first grade level, the test consists of five objective questions about important facts in the book.
• The computer scores the test, awards student points based on test performance, and keeps a complete record of results.
• The student must score at least 60% on the test to earn any points.
• Accelerated Reader provides teachers with an easy and effective way to monitor all forms of independent, guided reading practice.
• It allows the teacher to personalize reading instruction, intervene with students who need extra help and allow students to thrive.

Star Reading Test

• Students will soon be taking a computerized assessment, the Star Reading Test.
• During the test, questions continually adjust to the student's responses.
• If the student's response is correct, the difficulty level is increased.
• If the student misses a question, the difficulty level is reduced.
• This allows for an individualized, accurate reading level to be determined.
• Each student has been assigned a unique ZPD (zone of proximal development) based upon this assessment.
• This is the level at which the student will begin selecting books.
• As the year progresses, students will read through different reading levels, working from the lowest number in their range toward the top end of their zone.
• This number does not mean that students are not capable of reading books at higher levels; they should just read at the level that is suited for them in the AR program.
• Research has shown that when a child practices reading within his or her zone, reading growth is optimal.
• Students who are pushed beyond this zone actually show less growth than those who remain in their assigned zones.

Checking out Books and Testing

• Your student will visit the library every Friday during library class.
• Students may also check out books and quiz before school (7:45-8:15), during morning snack, and after school (3:00-3:30).
• Quizzes can be taken in both the classroom and the library.
• Parents may not accompany their child into the library before or after school. The library staff and student aides will initially assist the first grade students. This allows us to minimize traffic in the library and allows the students to develop the independence that is a vital part of the AR program.
• Initially, students may check out 1 book at a time and take only 1 quiz per day.
• At the end of October, after the students become familiar with using the AR program, they may check out 2 books at a time and take a maximum of 2 quizzes per day.
• Your student should read and quiz on 3 books per week, minimum.
• Students must read 20 books in each level before they move on to the next level. (A few levels have less than 20 books, so for those levels they will move on once all the books in that level are complete.)
• At some point, students may be challenged with longer, beginning chapter books. If this happens, the ZPD for the longer books will be dropped back down to a lower level. We want to allow our students to focus on the increased number of words and comprehension of the story without having to worry about new or challenging vocabulary and sentence structure. Reducing their ZPD for the longer books does NOT mean they are going backwards, it means they are making progress and being successful because they are reading longer books!
• If your child is NOT having success in a particular level, the teacher may deem it necessary to keep your child in that level longer, or move the child to a lower level.
• Your child's teacher will advise you if he or she is falling behind in AR reading.

What You Should Do to Help Your Child

• Have your child read their AR book(s) to you every night as part of nightly homework.
• After your child has read the book to you 3 times (this may be over the course of several days), ask them questions about the events that happened in the story.
• Once you feel confident your student has a basic understanding of the story, enter the book title on the First Grade Student Reading Log (stapled inside your child's blue AR folder), sign off on the book and enter Y in the Test? column.
• Your child will not be permitted to take an AR quiz unless you have signed off on the book.
• After the quiz has been completed, your child's teacher will enter the % correct score on the reading log.
• Encourage and support your child with positive words of encouragement. We want reading to be an enjoyable experience. Our goal is not about pushing students to the highest possible reading levels, but helping them develop a life-long love of books and literature.
• Relax. After the first few weeks of AR reading, you'll see how self-sufficient your child has become and you'll be very proud of his or her accomplishments.

Summer Library Hours 

The Anaheim Hills Campus will be open for quizzing and checking out books as follows:

Dates:  Monday, June 23 through Thursday, July 31 (the same dates as Summer School)*

Hours:        8:00 - 8:45 a.m. Monday through Thursday

                   12:05 - 1:00 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday

For those of you who can't make it to the school library this summer, we might have found the next best thing! 

Check out www.bookadventure.com   This is a free site that has over 7,000 quizzes.  Your student(s) will have an account and parents can also have an account that will include access to their child(ren)'s results. 

The quizzes are very similar to AR quizzes in that they test for your student's comprehension.  And this is on the internet so quizzing can be done from anywhere!

This website is offered by Sylvan Learning Centers and, remember, it's free!  Check it out!

Home Connect experienced a problem late Friday, May 30^th.  Renaissance Learning, the host of this website, installed an update to our software that was not anticipated to create a problem with Home Connect.  Unfortunately, that was not the case.  We reported the problem to the Renaissance Tech Support department and the problem was resolved mid-day on Monday, June 2^nd.  We apologize for any inconvenience.