HaikusHaikus are a form of poetry that origi-

nated in Japan. They are short poems, using “just a few words to capture a moment and create a picture,” William Victor explains on his website Creative Writing Now. The poem to the left is a haiku.

Traditionally, haikus focus on the natural world and have three lines that follow this pattern:Line 1: 5 syllablesLine 2: 7 syllablesLine 3: 5 syllables

Welcome to the first edition of City Readers & Writers. This newsletter is

dedicated to celebrating and supporting the kids, teens, adults, families, and teachers of this amaz-ing city and all the kinds of reading and writing we are involved in. Each month in these pages we provide resources and games and recommend activities that can support you, your friends, and your families in your reading and writing.

In each edition, we emphasize one impor-tant dimension of reading and writing. This month our spotlight is on connecting reading and writing to interests and passions. On page 3, we explain why this connection is so important and offer suggestions for how families can help their children and teens increase that connection.

This connection is also at the heart of the games we’ve created for this edition. There’s a word search on page 6, some of our program’s favorite celebrities for you to find on page 2, and on page 5, readers connect-the-letters to cre-ate a picture. Some of these games are designed for young children, some for older children and teens. All of them are fun ways to practice spell-ing and using the alphabet.

We also focus on creative ways to use reading and writing with the two activities we recommend: writing haikus (below) and cook-ing (page 8) and we suggest books and websites you can use to extend some of our recommen-dations. And, on page 5, we introduce our “Ask A Literacy Teacher” column where we provide answers to questions families have asked about helping their children at school.

If you have a question you would like to ask or suggestions for future newsletters, please let us know! ✍

OctoberThe days are shorterAnd the air tastes colder, butSummer still whispers

More about haikus on the back page

Newsletter October, 2012

City Readers & Writers

Beezus and

Ramona

S _ _ _ _ _ G _ _ _ _

Hidden in a BookAt City Readers & Writers we have several paparazzi who help us keep track of our favorite celebrities. This month they found some celebrities reading about some things they care about. They tried to hide but we think you’ll be able to figure out who they are from the clues in the pictures.

Don’t Panic!

It’s Organic!

M _ _ _ _ _ _ _ O _ _ _ _

Motor City Muscle

Cars

J _ _ _ C _ _ _

Literacy Program, 212-650-6889 2

City Readers & Writers

How I Got to Sesame

Street

E _ _ _

What do Selena Gomez, monster trucks, World Wide Wrestling, cooking, dragons, birdhouses, sculpture, sharks, and video games have in common? Each one is a topic that students in our program cared about and spent time reading and writing about. And as they did that, they were also building their skills and enjoyment in reading and writing.

In the current environment and the focus on testing, it can be easy to forget how valuable it is to read about things that interest you and to use writing to communicate your knowl-

Continued on next page....

edge and passions. But the connection between interests and literacy is strong and valuable.

Reading and writing about things you care about is not only fun but can help you become a stronger reader. Through reading, you build your knowledge about subjects, issues, and ideas that are important to you. And, because you know so much about those topics, you are able to read even difficult books, magazines, or websites. It also makes it more likely you’ll try to read something challenging because it’s a chance to learn about something care about. The result is a valuable cycle: you read more be-cause it’s interesting which builds your reading “muscles,” confidence, and skills and that makes it more likely you will read other things as well. All of this makes you a stronger reader.

A similar thing happens with writing. Even people who avoid writing will often do it if they can write about something they care about or get to write to someone they care about. Writ-ing lets you share your passions and knowledge with others. And, just as with reading, the more you write, the more confident and skilled a writer you become.

This powerful connection between our interests and reading/writing is why in our pro-gram we focus our teaching on what your child cares about. This is something you can also do at home. On the next page we offer some sug-gestions for how you can do this.

Literacy Program, 212-650-6889 3

City Readers & Writers

What Do You Care About?

• Spend some time observing and talking to your child about what she or he cares about. What does she spend time doing? What does he know a lot about?

• Make a list of what you noticed and share it with your child. Ask what else should go on this list. Talk together about what she or he likes about the topics and share your opinions as well.

• Together, choose 3 or 4 items on the list that you are both comfortable focusing on. Then talk together about what he wants to learn. For example, if video games are on the list, does she want to learn how to cre-ate a game, become a better player, review video games?Once you have a focus, the local library is

a great place to begin. Librarians are experts at finding resources on any topic. And New York libraries offer support with computers as well as books, magazines, music and video. This is a great place to find things your child can read about his topics (and libraries have great events and classes for kids and adults).

As your child builds her knowledge, encourage her to talk to you about what she’s learning. Ask him to teach you about this thing he cares about and help you see why it is so important to him. You can do this in conversa-tion as well as writing. Writing directions and letters to friends and family, or making a slide-show are some ways you can help your child link interests to writing a well as reading. ✍

Literacy Program, 212-650-6889 4

City Readers & Writers

Tips for Haiku WritingFirst, spend some time observing the

natural world. Haikus are connected to na-ture so this observation will help inspire your writing. Observe anything you are interested in: the sky, birds, wind, weeds, smells, and sounds. It helps to take notes on what you notice.

Next, spend some time writing and think-ing about what you noticed and what you’d like to help others see.

Now try the haiku form. Five syllables for the first line, 7 for the second, 5 for the last. Remember, you’re trying to create a picture for your reader.

Keep revising your haiku until it does what you want it to do (or as close as you can get).

For more ideas, try: http://www.creative-writing-now.com/how-to-write-a-haiku.html

And Guyku: A Year of Haiku for Boys by Bob Raczka and Peter Reynolds (Houghton Mifflin) is a great picture book for anyone (boys and girls) interested in reading, writ-ing, or learning about haikus. Each page is a haiku describing an experience with nature from a child’s perspective. Here’s an ex-ample:

Hey, who turned off allthe crickets? I’m not readyfor summer to end.

What Do You Care About? (cont. from p.3)

The New York Public Library www.nypl.org

The New York Public Library offers fabu-lous and free resources for learning,

reading, and writing

We Care About......In this program, kids and teenagers read and write about topics they care about. Hidden in the word search below are some of the many topics we’ve focused on in the past few years. (They’re also in the list below.) See how many of our topics you can find. And let us know what you want to read and write about!

Literacy Program, 212-650-6889 5

City Readers & Writers

L G N I K O O C A S T L E S B E V R V Z H Y S S N L E E E J U A M S Q Y M S O C C E R M U L Y P O W E R M F Q T M V U O P F W T E S N L W S C P S M K E L N A I B R G B E C Z W K K S E L P P A P I H U L N R Y R O F Q I H Y Y T C A E R T A Q R I B B U Y X N P T U L R R D X S T B G T N Y T S D O B R O A D C A S T I N G I X T P I C A E V Z U G I E I H T L A E H F V C S C I Z F T Q S E M A G R N S D S U E N P I N T S U B W A Y S O O L K L B A O E M P L O Y M E N T I I G N T A C D E A L P H A B E T U H L W B O L R S J W R U D R A G O N S I N M E L V U H O S B R J I N D I A T H A M R Y O M S K N I G H T S S F Y K Q P L P S I A B L B V O M G H Q C

ALPHABETAPPLESBASEBALLBIRDHOUSESBROADCASTINGCANCERCASTLESCELEBRITIESCOOKINGDENTISTRYDRAGONSEMPLOYMENTEYEGLASSESFASHIONGAMESHEALTHINDIAIPODS

KNIGHTSMEHNDIMURALSOCCULTPAPARAZZIPOWERPROMSRAINBOWSSCULPTURESEASELENASOCCERSUBWAYSSUPERHE-ROESTSUNAMISTURTLESVOLCANOES

Playing Word and Letters Games Helps With Spelling!Making and playing word and letter games are great ways to practice spelling and increase alphabet knowledge and vocabulary. Games like Connect-the Letters (see p. 5) and Al-phabet Bingo are great for the alphabet. Word searches, Hangman, Scrabble, Words with Friends, Boggle, and Bananagrams are a fun way to work on spelling and crossword puz-zles help with spelling and vocabulary. You can make as well as play some of these games at Discovery Education’s website: www.discoveryeducation.com/puzzlemaker

level and to talk to him about why his per-ception is so different from what you see.

Teachers in New York City are under a lot of pressure to assess their students’ reading abilities in the first few weeks of school. Often, teachers will ask a child to read aloud to them, then ask her to summarize what she’s read, and answer comprehension questions. This means the child first has to read a story to the teacher and then tell the teacher about the story that she just read to him. For most readers, includ-ing adults, this is very different from what they do when they read on their own and for enjoy-ment. To the child it may seem pointless and artificial and so she may not put a lot of effort into it. The result can look like she didn’t un-derstand what she read. So in the meeting, ask about how this teacher decided that your niece is having trouble with reading. Some questions you might use are:• Did he ask her to read to him? Was it

a book he picked? Was it one she was interested in?

• Did he focus only on fluency or did he also assess her understanding?

Because understanding what you read is the most important part of reading, it’s impor-tant to know how the teacher assessed your

Dear Literacy Teacher,My niece is six and started first grade

this year. She likes to read and can read on her own. This summer she read every day. We also read to her regularly. I’m writing because we just learned that her teacher has put her in the class’s lowest reading group. He says she needs to improve her reading. How can this be when she reads all the time at home? We are meeting with the teacher next week. What advice do you have for us?

Sincerely,Concerned Aunt

Dear Concerned Aunt,Your letter raises an issue that many

education researchers have also questioned: why do children who are strong, confident, and skillful readers (and writers) at home and outside of school seem less successful at school?

Your letter shows you are already doing several valuable things for your niece espe-cially reading to her and making sure she has books she enjoys. Talking to the teacher, as you plan to do, is also important. My sug-gestion is to use the meeting to find out how the teacher has decided your niece’s reading

We’ve heard from several families concerned about how their children’s reading skills are being assessed by the schools. Here are some of our suggestions:

Ask a^ Teacher

Literacy Program, 212-650-6889 6

City Readers & Writers

If you have a question you’d like us to answer, send it to: lisimon@ccny.cuny.edu

Literacy Program, 212-650-6889 7

City Readers & Writers

I ●

J ●

● A

B ●

D ●

E ●

C ●

F ●

G● ● H

K ●●

L

Send your questions for our teachers to answer to: cityreaderswriters@gmail..com

Connect the LettersFollow the alphabet and draw lines between the

letters to draw something that connects New York and New Yorkers!

niece’s comprehension. (If he did not assess her comprehension, this is a problem and please contact us directly at cityreaders@gmail.com.) Some questions to ask him are:

• How did he assess her understanding?• If he asked her to read a book to him and

then tell him about it, what did he notice? • What else did he do to learn about her

comprehension? For example, did he observe her reading a book she chose or

talking to peers about what she read?

Be sure to also let this teacher know how much your niece reads at home. Ask him what suggestions he has for bringing that part of her life into the classroom. And see what ideas he has for how you can continue supporting her reading at home.

Good luck!

Ask a^ Teacher

Literacy Program, 212-650-6889 8

City Readers & Writers

About Our Literacy Enrichment ProgramFor more than 10 years, City College’s

Literacy Acquisition & Development Pro-gram has provided an after-school literacy enrichment program for children and teens in and around the college community. This program is designed to help students and teachers to increase their reading and writ-ing enjoyment as well as their literacy skills.

Each semester, students in the program work in pairs or small groups with an ex-perienced teacher. All of the teachers are earning their graduate degree specializing in literacy. With their teachers, students iden-tify what they want to learn more about. The teachers help them connect the project to reading and writing. This focus helps students increase their reading, writing and learning skills while exploring and finding answers to questions they care about.

Participation in the program is open to students between the ages of 4 and 17. To participate, students need to attend each week the program is in session. The pro-gram is free but space is limited and regis-tration is required.

To register go to http://sites.google.com/a/ccny.cuny.edu/tlp-afterschool-

program/ or call 212-650-6889 or come to NAC 6/204.

Reading and Writing RecipesCooking is a great way to support pur-

poseful reading and writing in your family. Cooking from a recipe lets your children practice reading to learn, following direc-tions, and sequencing - all skills that schools emphasize. And if you’re a cook who doesn’t use recipes, encourage your children to watch you cook and have them write reci-pes of their favorite meals based on what you do.

Here is a recipe you and your family might want to try. Our taste testers loved it!

Amazing ApplesauceMakes 3-4 servings

Ingredients: 3 New York grown apples 1/4 cup water 1/4 cup granulated sugar or agave syrup1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (or more if you really like cinnamon)

Directions: 1. Core, peel and apples into small pieces. 2. Place apples, water, sugar, and cin-

namon in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer, uncov-ered, stirring occasionally, until apples are tender.

3. Remove from heat and mash apples with a a fork until desired consistency.

4. Allow to cool and serve.

This issue of City Readers & Writers was writ-ten, designed, and edited by Lisa Simon, Ph.D. Will Federico provided invaluable help with the graphic design.