Literacy Links: Teacher and Parent Resources in Reading

American Indians in Children’s Books
This weblog is more than the typical blog. Coordinator Debbie Reese links to a wealth of resources on the topic and leads a critical discussion about children’s books that contain images and content about American Indians.

Between the Lions
This website is designed for parents and kids to surf together. Stories from the popular PBS show are posted online with links to associated games.

Book Adventure
Book Adventure is a free reading motivation program for children in grades K-8. Children create their own booklists from recommended titles, take multiple choice quizzes on the books they've read offline, and earn points and prizes for their literary successes.

Bookhooks
Bookhooks is a free online book reporting toolkit for students in grades K-12. Students can supplement their reports with illustrative material, and teachers can register to create reading groups for student accounts. Classroom resources are also available.

Book Report Network
The Book Report Network is a series of websites for teachers, librarians, and readers of every stripe. Member sites provide original content about books, including author interviews, reviews and commentary; interactive elements such as polls, questions, and message boards; and reading group guides and other reader resources. Two member sites—Teenreads.com and Kidsreads.com—are especially rich in features for teachers and parents seeking great reads for young people.

Bookwink
Bookwink is a video booktalk website for kids. Through podcasting and web video, Bookwink connects kids in grades 3 through 8 with books that will make them excited about reading. Each video booktalk is about a different topic, and additional read-alikes can be found on the website. The booklists are constantly updated and can be arranged by subject, grade level, author, or title.

Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Site
This site is a collection of reviews of great books for kids, ideas of ways to use books in the classroom, and collections of books and activities about particular subjects, curriculum areas, themes, and professional topics.

The Children's Book Council (CBC)
A cosponsor with IRA of the Children's Choices project, CBC promotes the use and enjoyment of children’s trade books and is the official sponsor of Young People’s Poetry Week and National Children’s Book Week.

Children's Literacy Initiative (CLI)
CLI works to enhance the opportunity for children from low-income families to enter school ready to learn and, once in school, to be successful in learning to read. CLI provides professional development for teachers of grades pre-K–2.

A Compact for Reading
A Compact for Reading is a written agreement among families, teachers, principals, and students to work together to help improve the reading skills of children in grades K-3. Online publications are designed to help Compact partners set reading goals and provide lessons and activities that allow children to accomplish these goals.

Critical English Online
Goals of this site include supporting teachers who aspire to be critically reflective practitioners and encouraging classroom-based research by English/literacy teachers. It provides free access to English Teaching: Practice and Critique, an online, peer-reviewed journal which promotes theorising about English/literacy that is grounded in a range of contexts.

English Teaching: Practice and Critique, an online, peer-reviewed journal which promotes theorising about English/literacy that is grounded in a range of contexts.

Database of Award-Winning Children's Literature
Searchable, comprehensive listing maintained by a librarian.

Enlighten Me
Created by Verizon Reads and FableVision, this website for children ages 7-12, as well as parents, teachers, and caregivers, features articles, activities, and booklists designed to promote creative thinking and encourage a lifelong love of reading.

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading, English, and Communication
This clearinghouse of the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) provides educational materials, resources, coursework, and links for parents, teachers, and students on all aspects of literacy and reading.

The Family Involvement Storybook Corner
A project of the Harvard Family Research Project, this website is a source for information on using children’s storybooks with family involvement themes to engage families in their children’s education, encourage family–school–community partnerships, and support literacy.

The Fire Escape
Young adult author-teacher Mitali Perkins has put together a website centered on literature for and about young immigrants. Her goal is to give teens a safe place on the Web to reflect on life in the melting pot. Site features stories, contests for young writers, teaching ideas, and a fine group of links.

International Children's Digital Library (ICDL)
Imagine a world where a comprehensive library of international children's literature is available to all children across the globe. With participants from around the world, this 5-year research project is building an international collection of children's books that reflects both the diversity and quality of children's literature. Currently, the collection includes materials donated from 27 cultures in 15 languages.

Josie’s Poetry
Josie Whitehead is a children’s poet who has published online more than 200 poems for children of all ages. In addition to the poems, the website includes lesson plans and tips on using rhythmic and rhyming poetry in literacy instruction.

The League of Canadian Poets
This site features information about Canadian poetry, hosts a bookstore for the same, and offers resources of interest. The League also hosts a website, www.youngpoets.ca, which helps students and teachers share the joy of poetry.

LEO: Literacy Education Online
Handouts, advice, and practical information for a variety of issues related to writing papers for high school and college: help with online resources, citations, grammar, organization, thesis statements, etc.

Library in the Sky
Containing over 15,000 links to educational resources on the Internet, this site guides teachers, students, parents, librarians, and members of the community on their journeys through cyberspace.

Literacy Collaborative
Literacy Collaborative is a comprehensive school reform project designed to improve the reading, writing, and language skills of elementary children. The cornerstone of this project is dynamic, long-term professional development. The website provides information on Literacy Collaborative and how schools can access training.

Literacy Connections
Literacy Connections provides information on reading, teaching and tutoring techniques, ESL literacy, and adult literacy. Topics include the language experience approach, phonics, word study, and the best in children’s literature.

Literature for Children
An extensive online collection of children's literature published from before 1850 to beyond 1950.

Literature Resources
About-Arts.com -- A directory of literature-related websites and discussion groups.

Merriam-Webster Online: The Language Center
You can access the full text of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition and Collegiate Thesaurus. Site links take you to word games, the featured "Word of the Day", and scripts of National Public Radio's popular daily program "Word for the Wise."

The Miss Rumphius Award
The Miss Rumphius Award is presented by members of the RTEACHER mailing list (listserv) to educators who develop and share exceptional Internet resources for literacy and learning. An annotated list of links to award-winning websites is provided.

National Education Association (NEA)
NEA advances the cause of public education. Their website has a section for parents about how to get involved in and improve their child's education.

National Literacy Trust
This site provides help to those concerned with promoting literacy in the UK to work collaboratively.

www.parentbytes.com
An independent Australian website dedicated to promoting literacy in children. Offers feature articles, book reviews on Australian and international titles, community forum, and a growing bank of information. 

Online Poetry Classroom
Sponsored by the Academy of American Poets, this section of the Poets.org website serves both as an interactive professional development program and a virtual community, enabling teachers across the country to access free poetry resources online. These include classroom-tested poetry curricula and discussion forums for teachers.  

Penpal Club Sites
There are several penpal organizations designed for kids to safely communicate with kids their own age from around the world. Look at
ePALS,
KidsCom,
World Pen Pals, and
A Girl's World for a start.

The Poetry Archive
The online Poetry Archive is a rich source of material about poets and poetry in English. The site’s main attraction is an extensive archive of poets reading their own material. A special children’s section allows children to interact with poets about poetry and the writing process.

Read Across America
NEA's Read Across America program calls for every child in America to be reading in the company of a caring adult on March 2, Dr. Seuss's birthday.

Reading Is Fundamental (RIF)
RIF develops and delivers children's and family literacy programs that help prepare young children for reading and motivate school-age children to read. Through a national network of teachers, parents, and volunteers, RIF programs provide books and other essential literacy resources to children, at no cost to them or their families.

Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), UK
RIF, UK, is a nonprofit organization that promotes literacy by providing opportunities for children to choose and keep new books at no cost to them or their families. RIF's website has activities for children of all ages about books and reading and advice for parents on helping their children with reading.

Reading Recovery
Reading Recovery is a short-term intervention of one-on-one tutoring for low-achieving first graders. The intervention is designed to be used as a supplement to good classroom teaching.

Reading Rockets
A project of WETA, the public broadcasting station in Washington, DC, this site provides detailed information about learning to read and strategies for supporting struggling readers at home, at school, and in the community. It offers news, practical information, expert advice, and resources for parents, teachers, tutors, child care providers, and policymakers.

RIF Reading Planet
RIF Reading Planet is a place where kids and families come together to explore the world of books. Grown-ups can browse through a universe of activities and ideas for motivating kids to read. Kids can post reviews of favorite books and participate in interactive games and activities.

Silly Books.net
Here’s an educational site that kids can really enjoy. Silly Books is a collection of animated children’s books, musical stories, cartoons, and songs that encourage reading.

Spaghetti Book Club
Book reviews written by kids for kids from grades K-6. The Spaghetti Book Club encourages kids' love for reading by giving them an opportunity to connect on a personal level with the books they are reading and then share their reactions, thoughts, and opinions with family members, friends, and kids around the world. Reviews can be located through title, author, or reviewer.

Storyline Online
A program of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Foundation, Storyline Online is an online streaming video program featuring SAG members reading childrens books aloud. Each book includes accompanying activities and lesson ideas.

Talking Over Books
Part of the UTOPIA project of the University of Texas at Austin, this site provides ideas and resources for sharing books with young children: reading them, discussing them, enjoying them together, and celebrating the child’s developing literacy skills.

TeachingBooks.net
Provides access to Internet-based children’s literature resources. A database of links is searchable by author, title, subject, and grade. Curricular resources are available, as are video interviews of authors and illustrators. Sign-up is required and initially free. Eventual costs may be associated with the site’s services.

Verizon Literacy Campus
Verizon Literacy Campus (VLC) is a Web-based initiative that works to recruit and train volunteers to support literacy programs. The site currently offers 26 free online courses on a variety of topics that address the needs of potential and existing literacy volunteers, as well as literacy program directors and staff.

Wisconsin LEARNS
A complete literacy resource to support teachers and families in teaching the process of reading. This site provides practical information, a list of resources, and links to other websites supporting educators and parents as they work with readers of all ages.

Word Central
Merriam-Webster's site just for kids features the "Daily Buzz Word", spelling bee quizzes, student dictionaries, and "Build Your Own Dictionary."

Young Authors' Workshop
Links to websites on all aspects of the writing process for kids, including places to publish their writing.

YourKidsLibrary.com
With the goal of reviewing every Newbery medalist and honor book back to 1922, David Ross of the Press-Telegram offers over 400 synopses (so far). The reviews include curricular ties and reading levels as well as anecdotal comments.