Tag: reading

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America’s kids got more stupid in reading, math and science while Team Obama was in charge

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By Todd Starnes

Published February 09, 2017
FoxNews.com

American school kids became more stupid under the Obama administration, according to rankings released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

They recently released the results of a worldwide exam administered every three years to 15-year-olds in 72 countries. The exam monitors reading, math and science knowledge.

Based on their findings, the United States saw an 11-point drop in math scores and nearly flat levels for reading and science.

The Land of the Free, Home of the Brave, fell below the OECD average – and failed to crack the top ten in all three categories.

In other words, thanks to the Obama administration’s education policies, kids in the Slovac Republic are more proficient in multiplication.

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/02/09/americas-kids-got-more-stupid-in-reading-math-and-science-while-team-obama-was-in-charge.html

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Reader says please don’t cut the book shelf space. Most important part of the Ridgewood library!!

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I saw Green’s presentation. Boy do I ever feel relieved. I am a senior citizen and Nancy said it was too confusing and difficult for people to find the stairs to go to second floor from the first floor and that it is too “dim” to read upstairs , so they need to redesign the first floor to put the staircase to the second floor right in your face when you walk into the library. And they need natural sunlight from a newly designed roof.

I thought I was getting Alzheimer’s disease and going blind. because I always get lost when I am trying to find the stairway and it is too dark for me to read.

The auditorium with tiered seats will seat about 250 she said. Now it seats about 150. Justin Timberlake still won’t come and perform.

Relax Nancy. Buy some new furniture if you have too, update the lighting fixtures if you have to, but they’re fine for me and really, Nanc, that auditorium has featured some top-notch talent, especially in classical music. It has a great stage and grand piano and the viewing from the floor is fine. And great acoustics. So be happy, I am.

From a long-time Ridgewood resident and library user.

Oh! please don’t cut the book shelf space. Most important part of the library!!

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The hidden benefits of reading aloud — even for older kids

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Educator Jim Trelease explains why reading aloud to your child, no matter what her age, is the magic bullet for creating a lifelong reader.

by: Connie Matthiessen | January 14, 2016

Jim Trelease is the author of the respected, Read-Aloud Handbook, which some parents have called the “read aloud Bible.” The book is packed with information — from what really makes kids love reading, to tips for luring kids away from electronics and onto the page, to hundreds of read aloud titles. The Handbook’s seventh edition will be published in the spring of 2013 and, at 71 years old, Trelease says it will be his last. We reached Trelease recently in his home in Connecticut and asked him to explain why reading aloud is essential for kids of all ages.

Can you explain the link between reading aloud and school success?

It’s long established in science and research: the child who comes to school with a large vocabulary does better than the child who comes to school with little familiarity with words and a low vocabulary.

Why is that? If you think about it, in the early years of school, almost all instruction is oral. In kindergarten through second and third grades, kids aren’t reading yet, or are just starting, so it’s all about the teacher talking to the kids. This isn’t just true in reading but in all subjects; the teacher isn’t telling kids to open their textbooks and read chapter three. The teaching is oral and the kids with the largest vocabularies have an advantage because they understand most of what the teacher is saying. The kids with small vocabularies don’t get what is going on from the start, and they’re likely to fall further and further behind as time goes on.

How does a child develop a large vocabulary even before school starts? Children who are spoken to and read to most often are the ones with the largest vocabularies. If you think about it, you can’t get a word out of the child’s mouth unless he has heard it before. For example, the word “complicated.” A child isn’t going to say the word unless he has heard it before — and in fact to remember it, a child probably has to hear it multiple times. (That’s not true with swear words, of course. If a child hears his parent swear he’ll remember it the first time, and happily repeat it whenever he gets the chance.) But kids have to hear most words multiple times, so it’s important that their parents talk to and around them from the time they are very young, because that’s how they learn words.

https://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/read-aloud-to-children/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=topstory

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Reader says the Ridgewood Public Library has no business getting involved in a performing arts center

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The Ridgewood Public Library has no business getting involved in a performing arts center. They are not the village Entertainment Center.

They are trying to build up their numbers by hosting book clubs, cooking clubs and other hobby clubs. What is the purpose of a library? They need to evolve to electronic information – if that even makes sense.

A performing Arts Center should use private funds. Create a nonprofit and give it a go. Government should not be in the entertainment business. And opera and ballet are entertainment.

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The Ridgewood Public Library is Ready for the Fall

Ridgewood Public Library Book Club

August 31,2016

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, Anybody ready for Fall? Before you get your sweaters out of storage, visit the Ridgewood Public Library in person or online and get your reserves in for some of the best new literary Fall releases. Here’s an insider tip: reserve The Nix by Nathan Hill. It’s a horrible title, but a great book about a man trying to either ruin or reconnect with the mother who left him.https://buff.ly/2bMLvdt

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Looking for something new to read? Try a new novel by a debut author.

We all know the best place to go for book recommendations is the Ridgewood Public Library, but when you can’t get to us, check out some of these awesome sites for book lovers.

https://buff.ly/2bzixxb

Do you want to join a book group? Are you in a book group and want some book recommendations? The Ridgewood Public Library can help. Visit our Book Group page online to see what we’re reading this month https://buff.ly/2bABnHM or stop by the Circulation Desk and ask for one of our Reader’s Advisors who can help you find your book group’s next great read.
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A Recommended Reading List – from C.S. Lewis

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August 26,2016

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, this is a  Recommended Reading List from C.S. Lewis ,looks like it time to hit the Ridgewood library.

Clive Staples Lewis (1898–1963) was one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably one of the most influential writers of his day. He was a Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Oxford University until 1954, when he was unanimously elected to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement.

Lewis wrote more than thirty books, allowing him to reach a vast audience, and his works continue to attract thousands of new readers every year. C. S. Lewis’s most distinguished and popular accomplishments include Mere Christianity, Out of the Silent Planet, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, and the universally acknowledged classics in The Chronicles of Narnia. To date, the Narnia books have sold over 100 million copies and been transformed into three major motion pictures.

A Canon List from An Experiment in Criticism

Homer

Iliad (c. 8th BCE)
Odyssey (c. 8th BCE)

Unknown, Book of Jonah (8th-4th BCE)
Pindar

Olympian Odes (early 5th BCE)
Pythian Odes (early 5th BCE)
Fragments (early 5th BCE)

Aeschylus, The Eumenides (5th BCE)
Sophocles, Oedipus Rex (c. 429 BCE)
Aristotle, Poetics (335 BCE)
Virgil

The Georgics (29 BCE)
The Aeneid (29-19 BCE)

Lucian, Vera Historia (2nd)
Apuleius, Metamorphoses/The Golden Ass (late 2nd)
Unknown, Beowulf (8th-11th)
Unknown, The Song of Roland (11th-12th)
Laȝamon, Brut (c. 1190-1215)
Unknown, Huon of Bordeaux (c. 1216-1268)
Snorri Sturluson, The Prose Edda (early 13th)
Dante, Divine Comedy (1308-20)
Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales (late 14th)
Troilus and Criseyde (1380s)

Unknown, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (late 14th)
Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur (1485)
Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (c. 1516)
Arthur Brooke, The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet (1562)
Sir Philip Sidney, Arcadia (late 16th)
Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene (1590s)
William Shakespeare

Romeo & Juliet (1591-5)
Twelfth Night (1601-2)
The Winter’s Tale (1611)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1590-7)
Henry V (c. 1599)

John Donne, “The Apparition” (early 17th)
Michael Drayton, “The Shepherds Sirena” (1627)
Thomas Browne, Urn Burial (1658)
Jean Racine

Andromaque (1667)
Phèdre (c. 1677)

John Milton

Paradise Lost (1667-74)
Samson Agonistes (1671)

Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock (1712-4)
Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels (1726, 1735)
Voltaire

“Micromégas” (1752)
Candide (1759)

Samuel Johnson, The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1759)
William Beckford, Vathek, an Arabian Tale (1782)
James Boswell, Life of Johnson (1791)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798)
William Wordsworth

“Michael” (1800)
The Excursion (1814)

Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice (1813)
Walter Scott, Guy Mannering (1815)
Benjamin Constant, Adolphe (1816)
John Keats, “Ode on a Grecian Urn” (1819)
James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824)
Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Witch of Atlas (1824)
Elias Lönnrot, The Kalevala (1835-49)
Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo (1844)
Charles Dickens

The Pickwick Papers (1836)
Great Expectations (1861)

William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair (1848)
Edward Fitzgerald, Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (1859-89)
Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers (1857)
Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace (1869)
George Eliot, Middlemarch, A Study of Provincial Life (1871-2)
Samuel Butler, Erewhon (1872)
Lewis Carroll, “The Hunting of the Snark” (1874-6)
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov (1880)
Robert Louis Stevenson

Treasure Island (1883)
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886)

Edwin Abbott, Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884)
John Ruskin, Praeterita (1885)
Henry James, The Turn of the Screw (1898)
H.G. Wells

First Men in the Moon (1901)
“The Door in the Wall” (1911)

Beatrix Potter, Tales (1902-1930)
Joseph Conrad, Nostromo (1904)
E.R. Burroughs, Tarzan (1912-1965)
Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows (1908)
Arnold Bennett, The Old Wives’ Tale (1908)
James Stephens, The Crock of Gold (1912)
D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers (1913)
Gertrude Stein, “Sacred Emily” (1913)
James Branch Cabell, Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice (1919)
Kafka, The Castle (1926)
Mervyn Peake, Titus Groan (1946)
J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings (1954-5)

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WHAT Students Read Matters More Than You Think

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Daniel Lattier | February 9, 2016

In today’s standards-based education system, the main focus is on teaching skills rather than content. There’s a prevalent idea that it matters less what students read just so long as they are reading.

But according to E.D. Hirsch, professor emeritus of education and humanities at the University of Virginia, that’s bull.

Some of you may know Hirsch through his famous advocacy of “cultural literacy”—the idea that some amount of “shared, canonical knowledge is inherently necessary to a literate democracy,” and that students in a particular culture should have common exposure to certain texts and concepts.

https://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blog/what-students-read-matters-more-you-think

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Children Should be Encouraged to Read Fantasy Fiction

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Fantasy fiction is often pooh-poohed by academics and intellectuals, but it can whet the appetite for learning.
Jon Miltimore | August 19, 2016

Recently I spoke with a friend who expressed some angst that his 12-year-old son was primarily interested in reading fantasy novels. Efforts to introduce the lad to higher forms of literature were proving more difficult than he’d expected.

Not to worry. Fantasy novels and science fiction yarns, I said, are often gateways to the higher forms of literature. This was not just my opinion, I added, it was my experience.

When I was 12, I was not yet much of a fan of reading. I had enjoyed some young adult fiction writers (S.E. Hinton, R.L. Stein, Christopher Pike, etc.) and enjoyed the histories of NFL football teams, but I didn’t have a passion for books. That changed when my father gave me J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.

https://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blog/children-should-be-encouraged-read-fantasy-fiction

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Reading to you Child Creates a Successful Adult

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August 8,2016

the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Before they even understand what words and books are about, young children still benefit from listening to you read aloud. And by making books a part of your daily routine, you’re setting the stage for future success in school, work and life.

Benefits include:

Boosting School Readiness – Reading is one of the easiest ways to increase school readiness. When you read to your child, you’re building their vocabulary, language and literacy skills, while improving concentration, curiosity and memory. Watch the video below to learn more about how reading builds comprehension and critical thinking skills.

Success in School – Studies show that children who grow up with lots of books in the home tend to go farther in school.
A Love of Books – Reading together builds strong family relationships. By cuddling up together with a good book, you teach your child that reading is fun—even for adults.
Teaching Coping Skills – Books are a great way to teach children how to handle new experiences and stressful situations. Stories can help children understand, talk about and deal with everything from starting a new school to the loss of a pet.

Did you know?

If a child reads for 20 minutes every day, they are exposed to about 1.8 million words of text every year. That is 137 new words per minute!
If families read together for 20 minutes a day, 7 days a week, they get more than 121 hours of bonding time every year!
Many states use third-grade reading scores to predict the number of jail cells they might need in the future (about three out of five prisoners in America are illiterate).
For every year you read with your child, average lifetime earnings increase by $50,000. You make a $250,000 gift to your child from birth to age 5 by reading aloud, just 20 minutes a day!
Children who have not developed some basic literacy skills by the time they enter school are 3–4 times more likely to drop out in later years.

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Just 37% of U.S. High School Seniors Prepared for College Math and Reading, Test Shows

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Results from Nation’s Report Card show slight dip from two years earlier

By
LESLIE BRODY
April 27, 2016 12:01 a.m. ET
239 COMMENTS

Only 37% of American 12th-graders were academically prepared for college math and reading in 2015, a slight dip from two years earlier, according to test scores released Wednesday.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the “Nation’s Report Card,” said that share was down from an estimated 39% in math and 38% in reading in 2013.

Educators and policy makers have long lamented that many seniors get diplomas even though they aren’t ready for college, careers or the military. Those who go to college often burn through financial aid or build debt while taking remedial classes that don’t earn credits toward a degree.

Bill Bushaw, executive director of the National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees the test, said the board was pleased that high school graduation rates were rising, but disappointed in the lack of progress in boosting students’ skills and knowledge.

“These numbers aren’t going the way we want,” he said. “We just have to redouble our efforts to prepare our students to close opportunity gaps.”

 

 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/just-37-of-u-s-high-school-seniors-prepared-for-college-math-and-reading-test-shows-1461729661

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Ridgewood Schools Still Shine but Nationally Math, Reading Scores Slip for Nations’s School Kids

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2015 Ridgewood District-wide Science Testing Report
Click here to read the District-wide State Testing Report for Science 2014-2015, presented to the Board of Education on October 19, 2015 by the Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment, Cheryl Best.

BY JENNIFER C. KERR
ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) — Results from national math and reading tests show slipping or stagnant scores for the nation’s schoolkids.

Math scores were down for fourth and eighth graders over the last two years. And reading grades were not much better: flat for fourth graders and lower for eighth graders, according to 2015 results released Wednesday for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) exam.

The falling mathematics scores for fourth and eighth graders mark the first declines in math since 1990.

The results suggest students have a ways to go to demonstrate a solid grasp or mastery in reading and math.

Only about a third of the nation’s eighth-graders were at proficient or above in math and reading. Among fourth graders, the results were slightly better in reading and in math, about two in five scored proficient or above.

The report also found a continuing achievement gap between white and black students.

There were a few bright spots: the District of Columbia and Mississippi both saw substantial reading and math gains.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan urged parents, teachers, and others not to panic about the scores as states embrace higher academic standards, such as Common Core.

“We should expect scores in this period to bounce around some, and I think that ‘implementation dip’ is part of what we’re seeing here,” Duncan said in a phone call with reporters. “I would caution everyone to be careful about drawing conclusions.”

Chris Minnich, executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers, echoed Duncan.

“One year does not make a trend,” Minnich said at a panel discussion Wednesday. “We set this new goal for the country of college and career readiness for all kids. Clearly, these results today show we’re not quite there yet and we have some work to do.”

The Common Core standards were developed by the states with the support of the administration. They spell out what students should know in English and math at each grade level, with a focus on critical thinking and less of an emphasis on memorization. But they have become a rallying point for critics who want a smaller federal role in education and some parents confounded by some of the new concepts being taught.

The NAEP tests, also known as the “nation’s report card,” don’t align completely with Common Core, but NAEP officials said there was “quite a bit” of overlap between the tests and the college-ready standards.

https://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_NATIONS_REPORT_CARD?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-10-28-04-16-08

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Ridgewood resident named Project Literacy’s top volunteer

Library-Books

SEPTEMBER 11, 2015    LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2015, 12:31 AM
BY MATTHEW SCHNEIDER
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS

Ridgewood resident John Katzianer will receive the Volunteer of the Year award from Project Literacy of Greater Bergen County at a presentation scheduled for Sept. 17.

“It feels great,” Katzianer said about being chosen for the award, adding that working for the organization is “absolutely rewarding.”

Project Literacy, which teaches adults valuable learning skills, is run by volunteer tutors. Each year, awards are given to those who go above and beyond, and this is Katzianer’s year.

“The awards ceremony recognizes outstanding accomplishments in the field of adult literacy and honors individuals, companies and organizations for their dedication in providing the gift of literacy to adults who confront life in Bergen County without the skills to effectively communicate,” the organization said.

“This is the 27th year the award has been given to a volunteer tutor who has excelled in bringing the light of literacy into the darkness of illiteracy for an adult by working one-to-one with students who have basic educational needs,” said Christopher Stout, executive director of Project Literacy.

Katzianer, a 26-year veteran of Verizon, “is a seasoned math teacher and has been volunteering his skills to provide one-to-one tutoring at Project Literacy since 2012,” the organization said.

https://www.northjersey.com/community-news/clubs-and-service-organizations/resident-selected-as-top-volunteer-1.1407802

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Grand Opening of Flo’s Nook at the Ridgewood Public Library

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August 29,2015
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, Welcome Flo’s Nook (Barbara) to the Ridgewood Library! Open this Thursday and Friday till 3. Grand Opening next week,
Their regular hours will begin Monday 8/31 and will be:
Mon-Thurs 9am-7pm
Friday 9am-6pm
Sat 9:30-4:30
Sun 1-5

Ridgewood Public Library
125 N Maple Ave, Ridgewood, NJ 07450
(201) 670-5600

Hours:

Monday9:00 am – 9:00 pm
Tuesday9:00 am – 9:00 pm
Wednesday9:00 am – 9:00 pm
Thursday9:00 am – 9:00 pm
Friday9:00 am – 6:00 pm
Saturday9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Sunday1:00 – 5:00 pm

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Ridgewood Library offers summer reading club for adults

Pile-of-Books

AUGUST 21, 2015    LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, AUGUST 21, 2015, 12:31 AM
BY MATTHEW SCHNEIDER
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS

The Ridgewood Public Library has hosted a number of interesting events aimed at all age groups over the summer.

A brand-new program that proved to be very popular was the Summer Reading Club for Adults.

“We had 100 adults register within the first week,” said librarian Kerri Wallace.

In addition to being a good place for adults to meet and discuss literature, the club also served as an opportunity for its participants to earn rewards for reading.

“Participants received a raffle ticket for every book/magazine/ audiobook/ebook that they read or listened to,” Wallace said. “We had weekly drawings for prizes like a new bestselling novel and computer class passes.”

While the club didn’t follow an exact theme, it did offer a few events focused on famed author Harper Lee.

“We ran a week-long series to celebrate the release of ‘Go Set a Watchman,’” Wallace said.

The club also hosted a book discussion on “To Kill a Mockingbird” and showed the film.

For children, the library has been following a theme for many of its events called “Every Hero Has a Story.”

 

https://www.northjersey.com/community-news/reading-club-joins-adult-league-1.1396017

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Humphrey the hamster unites Ridgewood school’s community

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Humphrey the hamster unites Ridgewood school’s community

OCTOBER 17, 2014    LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2014, 3:35 PM
BY JODI WEINBERGER
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS

A hamster named Humphrey has taken over at Somerville School.

All the students in kindergarten through fifth grade, along with their parents and teachers, the administrators and custodial staff are reading a 144-page book about the furry rodent called “The World According to Humphrey” by Betty G. Birney.

Parents received a letter earlier this month explaining the project, called “One School, One Book,” which will run until Thanksgiving and has the children and their families reading two chapters a week of the book.

“One of the biggest parts of our jobs as elementary school people is to really promote kids loving reading,” said Somerville Principal Lorna Oates-Santos. “We want to create lifelong readers.”

Birney writes the story from the perspective of Humphrey, a hamster purchased from a store by a teacher to be a class pet. Through the book, Humphrey learns to read and write and has many adventures both in and out of the classroom.

There is no homework assigned with the book, but there will be weekly trivia contests at the school during the project and other activities, like a Humphrey healthy snack day where kids are encouraged to bring in snacks that a hamster might eat like carrots and cucumbers

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/education/humphrey-unites-somerville-community-1.1112094#sthash.YnnpCltY.dpuf