ince writing
his million-copy bestseller, The Read-Aloud Handbook,
in 1982, Jim Trelease has traveled to all 50 states and
abroad, advocating the benefits of reading aloud to children.
IN doing
so, he's won the applause of both teachers and parents
for his pleas in behalf of literacy efforts that contain
less
"pain" and more focus on
turning books into friends, not enemies.
WHILE more
than 60 U.S. colleges use his Handbook as
a text for education students, Chinese, Japanese, Korean,
and Spanish editions now reach parents and teachers
worldwide, and inspired the successful "All of Poland
Reads to Kids" campaign in Europe.
Jim
Trelease's Retirement Letter
Having done more than 2,500 presentations in the last 30
years, Jim retired from public speaking on Jan 31, 2008.
In this letter, he looks back at the highs and lows of those
decades, the people
who taught him the most, and what he plans to do now.
Take
the gamble out of your
read-aloud choices!
Jim Trelease's
Treasury of Read-Alouds offers hundreds of great choices
for all ages.
The
Read-Aloud Handbook — 6th ed. More than 40
chapter excerpts from
the all-time bestselling guide to children's books and reading
for parents and teachers.
MEANINGFUL
DIFFERENCES The huge (and 'secret') differences
in vocabularybetween rich,
working class, and poverty children, and how it impacts school
scores.
Censorship
and children's literature Are they watch dogs or mad
dogs? Sometimes it's hard to tell, so be prepared. Eight
pages of issues
and answers.
Rain
Gutters for Book Shelves? You
can make your shelves look like Barnes & Noble's via your local hardware store
— and it's inexpensive. RAIN
GUTTERS!
Frustrated
by the Web's broken links —Error 404? Relax. Your "missing"
page is waiting for you at the WayBackMachine —
the free Internet Archives (no ads!).
FILM
AND AUDIO PROGRAMS Jim
Trelease's programs are now available in CD and DVD formats, complete
with an additional 25 minutes as a CD-bonus and an 8-minute DVD
bonus. Author Wilson
Rawls'
heart-warming life story, told in his own words, also is available
as a CD. Details can be found at Products.
TV,
DVD, computers, & school scores Sobering research connects "screen
time" in childhood and school achievement, including
new research on infants and ADD.
PRINCIPALS: Tired of empty audiences
for parent programs? Read how one
principal draws a full
house in her Hispanic working-class
community.
WHEN
a
school superintendent had enough of the absurdities
in state testing, he wrote and widely distributed a parody
that will leave you thinking (and smiling) : No
Dentist Left Behind.
The
damage of NCLB & Reading First Follow
the trail as
it self-destructs, including the corruption and chicanery in
Texas and "cooking the books" with
Enron-style barbeque sauce.
A
father's reading rule
When
Vernon Jordan father learned his son had the lowest reading
scores of his incoming college class, he laid down a "reading
rule" to
the future civil rights activist and Washington power broker.
Listen as Jordan explains the rule in a 2-minute
excerpt.
The entire interview can be heard at Rehm-Jordan.
Using
NPR as a giant author search engine
The
NPR archives are a treasure-trove of free author interviews
with J.
K. Rowling, Kate DiCamillo, Avi, and Philip
Pullman's reunion
with the grade-school teacher who inspired his writing career,
and Alfie Kohn's argument
for eliminating homework as we know it.
More at SEARCH
AND LISTEN .
Schramm's
Fraction of Selection Check out the simple math
equation explaining why some
literate people read a lot and others read very little, and
then apply it to children.
PARENTS: Before
there were books-on-tape there were old-time radio dramas.
As exercise for the imagination, they beat DVDs in the
car, and now thousands are available as MP3 files for as
little as 10¢ a show. Click Old
Time Radio.
In
2003, Jim Trelease's Web site was one of 22 selected for
inclusion in the American Library Association's "Great
Web Sites" for kids. The entire list can be
found online at: www.ala.org/greatsites.
The
best public speech Jim Trelease has ever heard was
delivered by Pultizer-winner Thomas
Friedman, explaining
how he came to write his bestseller, The World
Is Flat. You can hear the speech in its entirety
at Friedman
speech.
WEEKLY
FEATURES: EACH WEEK
the site features a
Read-Aloud Choice of
the Week (from either new titles or favorites
listed in the Treasury of The Read-Aloud
Handbook) and a Weekly
Essay on education matters by Jim Trelease or others.
Jay
Matthews is the Washington
Post's award-winning education
writer and author of its online ed-column, "Class
Struggles." Both online and socially, he's frequently
confronted with the query: "How do I pick
a good school for my kid?" Or a variant: "How do
you tell a good school from a mediocre one?" Here is
his excellent column,"Ten
Tips for Picking a Good School."
To
search this site, use the Google search
engine to the left. You can also consult the Site
Contents page. Occasionally Google reports
older, out-of-date pages ("404
Error") which can usually be found using
the Internet
Archives (pasting the missing URL
into
the "WayBackMachine" space).
COPYRIGHT NOTICE Trelease on Reading is copyright 2006,
2007, 2008 by Jim Trelease and Reading Tree
Productions.
All rights reserved. Any problems
or queries about this site should be directed
to:
Reading Tree Webmaster
The
best public speech Jim Trelease has ever heard was
delivered by Pultizer-winner Thomas
Friedman, explaining
how he came to write his bestseller, The World
Is Flat. You can hear the speech in its entirety
at Friedman
speech.
Jay
Matthews is the Washington
Post's award-winning education
writer and author of its online ed-column, "Class
Struggles." Both online and socially, he's frequently
confronted with the query: "How do I pick
a good school for my kid?" Or a variant: "How do
you tell a good school from a mediocre one?" Here is
his excellent column, 