PJ Families in Dallas: KICK-OFF Event with award winning author, Diane Frankenstein. Sunday, November 6 @3-5pm.

“I came away with a wealth of new ideas and techniques that I can use in the classroom but most importantly was the powerful message that literacy is nurtured through conversation. Reading comprehension begins with conversation!  Read a book, sing a song, play and keep talking – you will be developing a child who loves to read!” 

~ Comment from teacher at Akiba Academy

Turn your children into lifelong readers and help them get the most from the books they read.

Adults only program. Free child care will be provided, please RSVP for the program and or child care to pjlibrary@jfgd.org

Breakfast & Books. Thursday, November 3, 8:45-10:45am Old Mill School, Mill Valley, CA.

Tips and strategies on how to help your child find their “home run” books and get the most from their reading. And more>>

Diane comments in NYT 10.18.2011

Children need  social face-to-face social interaction to learn language. Babies learn language from people, not from gadgets.>>read more 

Diane will be a presenter at the Nueva Innovative Learning Conference: October 20, 2011

You are invited to attend the 2011 Innovative Learning Conference, October 20 & 21, a two-day education conference held at the Nueva School in Hillsborough, CA. More than 50 formal presentations, informative panels, and lively discussion groups  will address a broad range of topics related to the most compelling issues and effective strategies in innovative education today. http://www.innovativelearningconference.org/2011-speakers/thursday-speakers-bios?view=employee&id=75

High performing students need high quality teaching.

Bill Keller’s “The University of Wherever” (NYT 10.3.201) highlights the fact that technology-centric schooling does not improve basic learning. The question becomes what kind of classroom best teaches kids to think, calculate, and invent?
Classrooms in countries with the highest-performing students contain very little tech wizardry and emphasis is on pedagogical practices rather than digital gadgets.
School does not have to be grueling to be good but high performing students need more time in school with well-trained teachers. A 2010 McKinsey and Co. report stated that school systems in Singapore, Finland, and Korea recruit 100% of their teachers from the top one-third of the academic cohort versus America where about 23 percent of new teachers—and only 14 percent in high-poverty schools—come from the top one-third.
Parents have the responsibility of making sure their kids are ready to enter school with the literacy skills they need to be successful learners. The early literacy skills children need come from reading and talking with them about a story. This is how children obtain the vocabulary they need to get ready to learn to read. Teachers have the responsibility to be passionate about kids and learning, presenting material while staying connected to every student in the room.
The data seems to  indicate that high performing students need high quality teaching.

Diane does podcast about early childhood literacy for FIRST 5 Santa Clara County, CA

Early language and literacy development begins in the first three years of life and is closely linked to a child’s earliest experiences with books and stories. http://www.first5kids.org/podcast/familyfocus/earlylanguage