News You Can Use

What famous author has written more than 300 books, wrote the Goosebumps series and was born Oct. 8?

If you guessed R.L. Stine you would be right! At age nine, Stine found a typewriter in his attic and began to type stories and joke books. In high school, he joined the school newspaper. When he went to college, he was the editor of a humor magazine. After college, he moved to New York City to start his career as a writer.

Did you know Sept 13 is Roald Dahl’s birthday? The famous author wrote books like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The BFG, and the Fantastic Mr. Fox. Roald Dahl was a famous British novelist, short story writer, poet, screenwriter, an ace fighter pilot, and a chocolate historian.

Did you know that whether or not a child reads during the summer is a predictor of summer learning loss or summer gain? Summer reading is important, but not always fun, for a child who struggles with reading. Summer loss can equal about a month of academic learning. As a teacher, you want your students to practice their skills over the summer and learn about new topics. It’s important to make summer reading entertaining so that they want to read. The more they like to read, the more they will read. Here are a few ideas of ways to increase reading this summer.

Now is the perfect time start thinking about Summer Reading for your students to nurture reading for enjoyment, battle the summer slide, and establishing lifelong good habits. Yet, reading for enjoyment is often not first on the list of fun activities for our students who struggle with literacy. How do we, as educators, make sure our students have the opportunity to select reading as a choice?

You might already know the D.E.A.R. means Drop Everything and Read. But did you know that Beverly Cleary’s birthday is April 12 and a great way to celebrate her birthday is to D.E.A.R. on this day? Families are encouraged to spend 30 minutes reading on her birthday.

Do you know how Theodore Geisel got the name Dr. Seuss? While he was in college, he became the Editor-in-Chief of the school magazine. Due to some misbehavior, he was forced to resign. However, he kept writing for the magazine under the pen name “Seuss” and that’s how he got the name Dr. Seuss.

With winter and snow days upon us, celebrate International Book Giving Day by providing the book Granite to your early elementary school readers. Librarians can buy a copy of the book for the school library. Parents can get the book for their child. After obtaining the book, teacher can order an accessible version of the book from AIM-VA.

Anyone who's "read" a picture book can tell you that you don't need words to tell a story. Prereading toddlers and preschoolers can follow a story told in pictures, a parent or child can narrate the action, and the cozy, empowering experience can help kids develop positive associations with books.

We at AIM-VA know that many of the learning materials you use in your classroom are self-created. That is why we included the option to submit Curriculum-Based Materials to our Production site to have them made accessible. However, for those of you who would like to make your own materials accessible, the following video may prove helpful!

When I started teaching myself how to use VoiceOver, I often got very frustrated at how much of a challenge it seemed to be. There were moments where I fantasized about throwing my iPad out the window because I couldn’t figure it out, and I consider myself to be very tech-savvy. It wasn’t until I sat down and talked to some of my blind friends that I finally learned how to use it, and now I feel confident with using VoiceOver whenever I am having a bad vision day or find certain material hard to read. Today, I will be sharing how to use VoiceOver for Beginners, with limited technology skills required.