Pam Allyn's LitBlog

Pam,
I would love to meet you or someone from your team. While I am a fifth-year teacher, my school is only in its second year. The administration was given alot of latitude in hiring (unusual in LAUSD). As a result, over 60% of our faculty is from the UCLA teacher program. They are outstanding individuals. Highly motivated. And the administration is very open and progressive. One of the only downsides to this whole venture is that people like me have defaulted to the status of "veteran!"

I am a big fan of Accelerated Reader, though I am constantly tweaking its implementation and struggle with extrinsic rewards. My students are in 6th grade but our mean reading level is about 3.9. The students love AR and they love self-selecting material and getting instant feedback on quizzes via the computer. Access to the computers is inconsistent though, and students are somewhat "obsessed" with only reading books they know they can take a quiz on (an unfortunate byproduct which I am actively addressing this year with countermeasures).

But I digress. I was referring to my default veteran status. I'm also the biggest proponent of free reading and the building of class libraries at school. As I'm sure you know, California is at the bottom when it comes to school libraries and books per pupil. I want to be part of anything that
1) puts more books in our school and
2) promotes early reading to children before entering school.
As I alluded to in my previous communication with you, I'm frustrated by my knowledge about the critical importance of early development and how many of my students enter school on day one with disadvantaged that reach much more deeply than the mere facts of their economic circumstances.

So, what would your team do? What would support look like at our site? I'm open to acting as a conduit for anything, from a visit to speak to our staff to actively working with us on a project or goal.

I will do more reading of your website to make a more informed request. In the meantime, let me know if there are any west coast contacts or programs that you think my fit my school's profile. Ah, that profile: we are not Title I in a formal sense yet, but we fit the bill. We are 95% free lunch. The neighborhood has a lot of gang activity. Very large ESL population. Many parents moved from rural areas in Mexico where literacy rates in Spanish were low to begin with, before coming to the U.S. It is challenging for many of them to balance their work obligations and to overcome their language limitations when it comes to collaborating with the teachers in an effort to promote reading with their children (<-- please excuse that convoluted sentence).

I look forward to your response.

P.S. I'm interested in working internationally as well. If you are looking for individuals to help in that regard. Summers only! I love my job.

Pam,
Thank you for the work you are doing. As an inner city middle school teacher I am often frustrated and wish I could have "gotten to them sooner" with respect to introducing the students to reading. I have been deeply influenced by Jim Trelease, Krashen, and Geoffrey Canada and hope to do more community building and outreach at my school in LA. Does LitLife reach Southern California as yet?
Robert

Dear Pam, thanks for ur kind reply, I am working at Al-Quds Open University since 1994, earned my higer education from Manila - Philippines teaching Management Subjects, I am living in Jenin its in the border of Israel, I could say the situation is not too bad now adays, hope we can have a permanent peace.
Best wishes

Hello, its great to have you, I am a teaching management subjects here in Palestine

Hi Pam,

I lead the Tutor/Mentor Connection, base in Chicago. Our work aims at helping volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs grow in high poverty areas, connecting inner city kids with tutors/mentors. I encourage you to add your links to the T/MC web site, and browse the articles on my blog to see how we're trying to connect private sector donors with programs all over the Chicago region.

Hi Pam,
Thanks for adding me as a friend. I'll check out your site over the weekend.
Talk to you soon,
Tony

Hi Pam,

In your quest for world literacies, I recommend you take a look at Wiziq's web based virtual classroom. Its basic service is free and it is full of great features.

Another web 2.0 tool that might prove useful is authorstream. It is a web based power point presentation platform.

Hello Pam,
Welcome to Classroom 2.0 and greetings from California!
Hope you're having a Happy Thanksgiving.
Tony