Many articles appeared this week about “raising kids who read.” Why? Because Daniel T. Willingham’s most recently published book, with that very title, is getting great coverage. Stay current. 2 3 When schools consider new education tech initiatives, parents can help their schools focus. How? With questions. Be ready with these. 1 A recently published book, Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis, by Robert Putnam, discusses why we should care about other people’s children. There's more to it than altruism. 4 Catch up on the latest research about the effectiveness of charter schools. 5 Get an update on the perpetually log-jammed No Child Left Behind reauthorization. 6 Check out the “color thesaurus” and use it to name the colors in the gorgeous photos of the northern lights. Notice all the turquoise. Or, is that sea-green? 7 8
Parenting
Why Children Need Chores - Jennifer Breheny Wallace, Wall Street Journal
The Case for Free-Range Parenting - Clemens Wergin, New York Times
Frank Bruni is Wrong About Ivy League Schools - Jonathan Wai, Quartz
‘The Opposite of Spoiled,’ by Ron Lieber - Claire Dederer, New York Times
How to Manage Media in Families - Bruce Feiler, New York Times
1 Parent's Guide to All That 'Ed Tech' In Your Kid's Classroom - Anya Kamenetz & Adriene Hill, WNYC
Learning
2 What Not to Worry About in Teaching Young Children to Read - Jessica Lahey, New York Times
Power Naps Produce a Significant Improvement in Memory Performance - ScienceDaily
10 Smart Study Tactics That Support How The Brain Actually Works - Saga Briggs, informEd
The Age You Reach Peak Intelligence, According to Science - Fiona Macdonald, Science Alert
Education
3 For the Love of Reading: Engaging Students in a Lifelong Pursuit - Daniel Willingham, AFT
What Motivates A Student’s Interest in Reading and Writing - Larry Ferlazzo, Mind/Shift
Shifting From Learning to Read to Reading to Learn - Robert Pondiscio, US News
4 Why You Should Care About Other People’s Kids - Paul Solman & Robert Putnam, PBS NewsHour
The Problem With History Classes - Michael Conway, The Atlantic
5 Charters Score in Cities - Sara Mead, US News
6 No Child Left Behind Law Faces Its Own Reckoning - Motoko Rich & Tamar Lewin, NYT
Pearson Under Fire for Monitoring Students’ Twitter Posts - Natasha Singer, New York Times
What is a Foreign Language Worth? - The Economist
Resources
7 "Color Thesaurus" Helps You Correctly Name Any Color - Julija K. BoredPanda
8 Gorgeous Photos of the Northern Lights - Vivian Selbo, Slate
All of America's Folk Heroes, in One Map - Phil Edwards, Vox
Families: 7 Books to Read Before They're Movies in 2015 - Sandie A. Chen, CommonSenseMedia
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