Chatting About Books: A LUE PSA

As with most fields, reading educators have professional organizations. With my plan to focus on postsecondary reading, I have joined the National Association for Developmental Education (NADE) and the College Reading and Learning Association (CRLA). I've also joined the International Reading Association (IRA). The IRA publishes several reading journals, hosts conferences each year and publishes Reading Today six times a year with news for reading professionals.

In my most recent copy of Reading Today, there was a piece about Chatting About Books, a free podcast which reviews the best children's literature and includes discussion with parents and children, as well as reading experts. I went to ReadWriteThink.org** to check out these podcasts hosted by Emily Manning. Although the entire website is geared toward teachers and other educators, I think parents will find them a great resource for finding new books and hearing ideas about how best to engage your children in reading. The podcasts focus on grades K through 5 and are thematic. Each is approximately 15 minutes long. You can subscribe to them using an RSS feed or iTunes (Just go to the iTunes store on your computer and type in "Chatting about Books" and you can hit subscribe). There are also notes for each episode on the website.

I listened to the poetry episode and loved it. In this particular episode, the guest was Sylvia Vardell, a professor at Texas Woman's University. She has authored POETRY ALOUD HERE, POETRY PEOPLE, and CHILDREN'S LITERATURE IN ACTION. She also has her own blog, Poetry for Children.

The Chatting About Books podcasts are located in the Beyond the Classroom section of ReadWriteThink.org under podcasts. Also located on the Beyond the Classroom section of the website is Text Messages, podcasts geared toward reading recommendations for teens.

**ReadWriteThink.org is maintained by the IRA and NCTE (the National Council of Teachers of English). It is a non-profit site designed to provide access to the best research-based practices and resources in language arts.