The Westie Connection
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West Haven High School Library Media/Technology Center The Westie Connection June 2015 Volume 4, Issue 3 THIS I BELIEVE. ONE BOOK. ONE COMMUNITY. "A welcome change from the sloganeering, political mudslinging and products of spin doctors."--The Philadelphia Inquirer The book, This I Believe, is based on the NPR series of the same name. All different Americans--from the famous to the unknown--write short passages connecting to the original thought as the title of the book suggests. This book will make teachers and students reflect on their own beliefs. Featuring many renowned contributors-- including Jackie Robinson, Colin Powell, Gloria Steinem, Albert Einstein, Penn Jil- lette, Bill Gates, and John Updike-- The American Spirit at its best. One book. One community. For further information and to sign up to receive the I Believe Newsletter via email: WEBSITE: http://thisibelieve.org This I Believe, Inc. [[email protected]] Celebrating Four Years Of 'This I Believe' April 27, 2009 • During its four-year run on NPR, This I Believe engaged listeners in a discussion of the core beliefs that guide their daily lives. We heard from people of all walks of life — the very young and the very old, the famous and the previously unknown. This I Believe was a five-minute CBS Radio Network program hosted by journalist Edward R. Murrow from 1951 to 1955. A half-hour European version of This I Believe ran from 1956 to 1958 over Radio Luxembourg. Newsletter composed by: The show encouraged both famous and everyday people to write short essays about their own personal Marilyn Lynch, motivation in life and then read them on the air. This I Believe became a cultural phenomenon that Library Media Teacher stressed individual belief rather than religious dogma. Its popularity both developed and waned within the Jill Woychowski, era of U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy and the Cold War. Library Media Teacher The show was revived by Dan Gediman and Jay Allison on NPR from 2005-2009, and subsequently by Preston Manning on Canada's CBC Radio One in 2007. Essays that appear on the show are available free of charge at its website. In 2009 and 2010, some of the original 1951 This I Believe programs were re- broadcast on PRI's Bob Edwards Weekend. Since late 2010, all new This I Believe segments have been broadcast on Bob Edwards Weekend. WHHS Summer Reading 2015. All students who complete the green sheet log and hand it in to your English teacher, will receive a Homework Pass and will be entered into a raffle for great gift cards to local restaurants, Amazon, iTunes and 3 Kindles! Remember to tweet your recommendations to #whhssummerread All 9th, 10th and 11th graders received Summer Reading Booklets from their English teachers Summer Reading. WHHS Summer Reading list: whschools.org>WHHS>Top Tool Bar-SCHOOL INFORMATION>Library Me- dia. Look for the star on the website. This is our Summer Reading link. Summer Reading Booklet Organizer This is the direct link: http://whhs.whschools.org/UserFiles/Servers/Server_2296256/File/LYNCHMarilyn/SUMMER/totalsummer.pdf Keeping Kids Off the Summer Slide Something is waiting for many children each summer and their parents don’t even know it’s out there. It's called the "summer slide," and it describes what happens when young minds sit idle for two months. As parents approach the summer break, many are thinking about the family vacation, trips to the pool, how to keep chil- dren engaged in activities at home, the abrupt changes to eve- ryone's schedule—and how to juggle it all. What they might not be focusing on is how much educational ground their chil- dren could lose during the two-month break from school, par- ticularly when it comes to reading. Experts agree that children who read during the summer gain reading skills, while those who do not often slide backward. According to the authors of a report from the National Sum- mer Learning Association: "A conservative estimate of lost instructional time is approximately two months or roughly 22 percent of the school year.... It's common for teachers to spend at least a month re-teaching material that students have forgot- ten over the summer. That month of re-teaching eliminates a month that could have been spent on teaching new information and skills." The report's authors further note that family income plays a significant role in determining the magnitude of this summer slide. Students from low-income families "...experience an average summer learning loss in reading achievement of over two months." Not only do these students suffer greater sliding during the summer, they also experience cumulative effects of greater learning loss each summer. Sociologists Karl Alexander and Doris Entwisle have shown that the cumulative effect of summer learning differences is a primary cause of widening achievement gaps between students of lower and higher socioeconomic levels. Research demon- strates that while student achievement for both middle- and lower-income students improves at similar rates during the school year, low-income students experience cumulative sum- mer learning losses throughout their elementary school years. .