COLLECTION: Read Across America + Dr. Seuss Resources from NCTE

[Ryan Goble]

From NCTE's monthly "InBox" e-mail...

Get Reading -- March 2 Is Read Across America Day! NCTE partners with the National Education Association to help readers young and old celebrate the joy of reading. Myra Blackmon describes one way to make the best of the day in "Blackmon: Reading with Children Opens their Minds" (OnlineAthens.com, February 17, 2010). Take time to Read Together with a child. Editor's Note: NCTE staff members host an activity at our local Read Across America event in Urbana, Illinois, each year. Hundreds of young visitors spend time making and decorating "a book about me . . . and what I like to read, where I like to read, and who I like to read with!"

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It Takes a Community. . .  In this week's INBOX blog, Millie Davis talks about the difference a professional learning community made in her life and in the lives of other teachers and their students.

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Free access to journal articles mentioned in this INBOX is provided for 21 days. After this free access period expires, articles are available to journal subscribers only. Articles are intended for personal use only and may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without permission in writing from NCTE. Initials in annotations indicate academic level of the resource (E=Elementary, M=Middle, S=Secondary, C=College, TE=Teacher Education, G=General).

Get Ready to Celebrate Read Across America Day!  Take part in the largest reading event in the United States on Tuesday, March 2! Gather books and readers for NEA's Read Across America Day, celebrated on or around the birthday of Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss. For background on the event and additional information, visit the ReadWriteThink.org calendar entry, and use the following activities to explore reading and celebrate Dr. Seuss with students: Reading Everywhere with Dr. Seuss (E) As they create a book modeled on the rhythm and rhyme of Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss, students discover all the special places they can read, in this ReadWriteThink.org lesson plan. To suggest families try a similar activity at home, tap the Reading Hunt instructions, one of the ReadWriteThink.org Parent & Afterschool resources. "What Picture Books Do You Recommend for Use in the English Language..." (M) This English Journal article includes an activity based on Dr. Seuss's The Sneetches that asks students to analyze the story and connect it to history, current events, and their own lives. The article includes additional ideas using books by other authors as well. Id, Ego, and Superego in Dr. Seuss's Cat in the Hat (S-C) Read Dr. Seuss's The Cat in the Hat to your secondary or college students to introduce psychoanalytical criticism. The simple examples in the book can then be applied to more sophisticated works that students read. From Dr. Seuss to Jonathan Swift: Exploring the History behind the ... (S-C) Explore the historical allusions behind Dr. Seuss's The Butter Battle Book as prelude to a discussion of the history behind a passage from Gulliver’s Travels. "Relationships with Literature" (TE) This article from English Education describes how preservice teachers reflect on their personal connections to the texts they have read; one student connects to Dr. Seuss's Great Day for Up. Invite preservice teachers to explore similar issues by reflecting on their own relationships to literature and the importance of encouraging students to build personal connections through events such as Read Across America.