Thanksgiving has come and gone ...now is the time to plunge ahead into that hard time to keep the student's attention because of the impending coming of Christmas! Because of that excitement of Christmas the following words have been used as vocabulary words:1. November
2. December
3. Christmas
4. Present
5. Ornament
6. Snow
7. Carol
8. Give
9. Christmas Eve
10. Shepherds
11. Manger
12. Candles
13. Candy Cane
14. Reindeer
15. Sleigh
Please help your child to learn these words. You can have them to be copied. You discuss the meaning of the words. You can also teach your child how to sound them out focusing on the sounds of the letters as well as the division into syllables.
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Report: U.S. youth reading less than previous generation
ASCD SmartBrief 11/26/2007
Young Americans spend an average of 10 minutes or less of their daily leisure time on reading, according to a new National Endowment for the Arts report, raising concerns about their academic performance, career prospects and civic engagement. Focusing on testable reading skills in classrooms does little to instill a love of books, according to Dana Gioia, the organization's chairman. Education Week (premium article access compliments of Edweek.org) (11/19) New York Times, The (11/19)
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Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Readers make better workers
Cutbacks To The Arts May Be Depriving Us Of The Best, Brightest, Most Committed And Hardest-Working
Diane Stafford, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. Published: Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Getty Images File PhotoAsk interviewees if they read for pleasure. The question avoids discrimination rules, but reveals much.
Do you read for pleasure? There: A free job interview question for employers who say they can't find good help.
Or for managers who say too many questions they want to ask applicants are prohibited by anti-discrimination rules.
Ask job hunters if they have a library card. Ask what book they're reading now.
Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, inspired that idea when he spoke to Kansas City-area business and philanthropy leaders last week in Kansas City, Mo.
People who read, Mr. Gioia said, are more likely to be patrons of the arts and other community efforts. They are more likely to volunteer. They are more likely to know things beyond their specialized career field.
And they are more likely to have the knowledge and the communication skills needed in most workplaces.
At an event organized by the Arts Council of Metropolitan Kansas City and Commerce Bank, Mr. Gioia told a stark truth:
"Thirty-two percent of kids drop out of high school in the United States. As business leaders, you inherit that. People come to you for jobs who don't have a basic level of skills."
The United States, he said, as is true with other Western nations, is suffering from decades of budget cuts by local school districts, which decimated arts education in the high schools. In some communities, only the children of wealthy parents who can afford private lessons are being exposed to music and other fine arts, he said.
That could mean fewer artists, fewer musicians, fewer authors will discover their creative muses. But equally important is that "we are not producing the next generation of audiences and arts patrons."
Nor the next generation of good workers. Nor the next generation of good citizens in a democracy.
So ask those job applicants if they read.
"The key is reading for pleasure," Mr. Gioia said. "A person who reads is more likely to engage in every form of civic behaviour we can measure."
Reading exposes people to larger worlds than their own. It sparks imagination.
"It allows people to feel what it's like to live someone else's life," Mr. Gioia said. "It creates compassion and understanding that we're all in this together."
That's reason enough to aim for a workplace full of readers. There's more.
"Reading requires focused, linear attention -- the ability not to be distracted," he said. "Reading teaches information, syntax, vocabulary. ... It nourishes curiosity and rewards intellect."
Employer surveys often rank lack of communication skills, written and oral, as the biggest workforce problem. They say their employees can't follow directions, can't write a memo, can't express themselves well.
U.S. businesses spend from US$2-billion to US$5-billion a year on remedial training in the three Rs to bring workers up to skill levels they need, Mr. Gioia said.
As head of the government agency, Mr. Gioia is pushing to fund arts education "town by town across the country."
"Without arts and patrons, we won't have thriving education centres or communities. We won't have urban centres people want to move to," he warned.
Copyright © 2007 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.
