Fifty-five ways to celebrate National Poetry Month

Hi everyone,

I’m delighted to say that the new issue of MISSOURI READER is out. Thanks to co-editors Glenda Nugent and Sam Bommarito, the feature article is mine, and just in time for National Poetry Month in April. Seventeen poets and teachers are featured in my article, each with suggestions on how to introduce poet into the classroom and beyond in ways that are sure to engage students.

This issue also features an interview by Evan Robb talking to Laura Robb and me about out book, GUIDED PRACTICE FOR READING GROWTH.

To see the issue, here’s the link. I hope you’ll take a look.

https://joom.ag/zGzI

Check out the new issue of Missouri Reader

Hi everyone,

The new issue of MISSOURI READER is out and you can view it online for free at https://mla31.wildapricot.org/Current-Journal. This is one of the best state reading journals in the country, thanks in great measure to its two talented, knowledgeable, and passionate editors, Sam Bommarito and Glenda Nugent.

A large part of the journal’s readership comes through what Dr. Sam calls “word of cyberspace,” so he’s asking people to give it a look and share the link with friends, interested educators, and schools/university faculty/districts/district coordinators. This valuable online journal draws thousands of viewers from the United States and twenty other countries. This issue has a large number of nuts and bolts ideas about implementing a distance learning program in literacy. It also has an interesting article by our old friend, Judy Young, on her journey to become a writer.

I’ve been privileged to publish a number of times in MISSOURI READER. The 2019 winter issue, Volume 42, Issue 2, was dedicated to poetry and at the time attracted more readers than any other issue in the history of the journal. A blogger in Australia wrote some friends and said, “You won’t believe it, it’s a whole issue about poetry!” Here’s a link to that issue. https://newsstand.joomag.com/en/the-missouri-reader-vol-42-issue-2/0872773001549634845

My congratulations to
Dr. Sam Bommarito
Chairperson of The Missouri Literacy Association
Co-Editor of The Missouri Reader
and
Glenda Nuget
Co-Editor of The Missouri Reader

for another outstanding contribution to the ever-changing challenge of teaching literacy, whether virtually or in the classroom.

Accepted for The California Reader

Hi everyone,

Mary Jo Fresch and I have been notified that our peer reviewed article, “Three Steps to Researching: Modeling the Work of Authors,” has been accepted for publication in the Fall Issue of The California Reader, due out next month. The article outlines a classroom tested plan for teaching research skills. Used in a number of classrooms across the United States, the plan consists of three steps, modeled after some of my work. We have presented this plan at several conferences (International Literacy Association, National Council of Teachers of English, Ohio Council of Teachers of English). Between the results of the classroom testing and the reaction of conference participants, we know this is a very doable approach to helping students learn to be researchers.

Editor, Nancy Rogers-Zegarra, a past president of California Reading Association, says she is “very excited to be able to include your insightful article . . . The reviewers loved (it) and I am attaching their comments below.”

1) Nicely organized and written
2) Informative and practical for educators
3) Possibly could have been written as 2 articles, one of which focusing on part 3 Research. The focus could be on 1) Practice use of resources, 2) note taking and 3) summarizing. There’s more to unpack!

My first publication in The California Reader was probably twenty years ago and I’m glad to be in it again. Although the article is informed in part by our book for Scholastic, 7 KEYS TO RESEARCH FOR WRITING SUCCESS, this is nearly all Mary Jo’s handiwork. I’m riding on those proverbial coat tails and loving it.

Update on Missouri Reader issue on poetry

Hi everyone,

Today I want to give you an update on the current issue of Missouri Reader (https://joom.ag/o1ta), which features a number of articles about children’s poetry and using poetry in the classroom. On Tuesday I asked co-editor Sam Bommarito how the issue is being received. You may remember that it attracted more readers in the first day than the previous issue did in the first month. It’s still going strong. Here’s Sam’s response.

“How does 2,352 sound? They are from 18 different countries. The newest addition is a group from Australia Turns out there was a blogger down under who wrote some her friends and said “You won’t believe it, it’s a whole issue about poetry” I think she was excited!! So were her friends. She seems to have a lot of friends. So we are a hit down under- how about that!?!”

When I asked Sam about feedback, he’s working on a way to do that.

“To talk about us on twitter,” Sam says, “use #MoRdr. I’m editing the front cover to make sure that is said prominently on the next distribution. To everyone who has read it already, please do tweet using #MoRdr and include the link in your tweet https://joom.ag/o1ta. I will be monitoring #MoRdr on tweetdeck and will fill you in by the end of the week end.”

My thanks to Dr. Sam and Glenda Nugent for creating this wonderful opportunity to get more school people interested in the many uses of poetry in the classroom. It’s a rare chance and I’m most grateful.

If you haven’t shared the link through your own social media circles — or even if you have — I hope you will give the link a boost. And if you can figure out how to use the tweet platform that Sam mentions, please give that a try too! Here’s how he describes it.

“The #MoRdr is exactly a twitter thing. If you are not using Tweet deck (free and supplied by twitter) your feed is probably almost incomprehensible. With tweet deck you set a column (say #MoRdr) Any tweet containing that shows up, nothing else. Let’s you easily talk about one topic AND see who’s saying what about it. Otherwise you get to search for it within the hundreds (thousands) of tweets in your feed. As I said, incomprehensible! Besides the # if they always include the link at least some of their friends will click on it and voila more readers. I call it a “cyber word of mouth” way of distributing.”

Thanks everyone!
David

Missouri Reader hitting a poetic homerun

Hi everyone,

I’m waiting for the announcement from Sam Bommarito any time with new numbers but I need to prepare for my second presentation here at SCIRA and I can’t wait to tell you what I know so far since the new issue of the electronic journal was released yesterday morning. When Sam publishes his report, I’ll share the updated information with you here too.

During its first day of publication, the poetry issue of Missouri Reader logged more readers than it did during the entire first month of the previous issue, quite a lot more. I think many of you played a role in that rather astounding statistic by viewing it yourselves and sharing it with those in your social media circles. It must be making quite a difference as we work to spread the word about the effectiveness of using poetry in the classroom.

I can’t thank you enough but of course I’ll keep urging you to continue to help share the journal and ask friends to do the same. Here again is the link. https://joom.ag/o1ta