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For our elementary-school-aged daughter, reading logs have usurped the pleasure of reading. Period. Explaining to teachers that reading logs convert reading-for-pleasure into a timed event for our child is certainly awkward, as they expect 100% compliance. In September, reading promptly becomes reading-for-words-until-I-read-long-enough. In the short summer that follows, I help her habituate to reading for pleasure. Then the pleasure's out the window again in September for another 10 months. It is wonderful that other children view reading logs as goals, or as diaries on which to reflect. Still, other children likely wouldn't read almost daily if it weren't for reading logs, and certainly this exercise forces improvement in such reading components as fluency. Cultivating a life-long reading habit for our child, however, is worth facing her teachers about the reading logs. When she's not "reading for the reading log," she reads all kinds of stuff interesting to her. We notice improvement along several dimensions. We do realize that school administrators must demonstrate their compliance with these current trends in reading, particularly when such trends are related to No Child Left Behind. Our bottom line: Remain child-centered, and resist applying research-based evidence as if the conclusions apply to every singular child in the bell curve.
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Dr. Joanne Meier
Along with her background as a professor, researcher, writer, and teacher, Joanne Meier is a mom. Join Joanne every week as she shares her experiences raising her own young readers, and guides parents and teachers on the best practices in reading.
Reading logs, reading blahs
Many of us are back to school by now. And for most of us, that means daily reading logs, where a parent signs a log each night confirming that her child has read at home that day. For us, we're on day five, and we're already a little bored.
In the spirit of starting the year off on the right foot, here are a few ideas (hopes? hints?) for teachers and parents that may make reading logs more useful, interesting, and exciting.
I'd love to hear from teachers and parents about reading logs — what has worked for you, and what hasn't?
[*]Make sure kids have access to good books. School, classroom, and public libraries are all good resources. When possible, kids should be able to check out and return books more frequently than once a week.
[*]Evaluate your reading log. Does the structure of it place unnecessary value on pages read? Minutes read? Ask yourself what you value about reading and whether it's reflected on your form.
[*]Use reading logs as a way extend exposure to an author or illustrator being studied at school. Consider providing a list of books by the same author or illustrator.
[*]Make sure parents know and use some variation of the five finger or the Goldilocks rule for difficulty. The reading done at home should be at a child's independent level (95-100% accuracy).
[*]Is there an interesting science or social studies unit going on in the classroom? Help kids find good books on related themes (example here) to keep the school conversation happening at home too.
[*]Honor the work the kids are doing by reading at home. Engage them in a conversation about what they've been reading, what they've liked and what they didn't.[/list]
I am a first grade teacher who has a weekly reading log that I hand out. At this early age it is important that the children get into a routine of reading every night. There are some parents who did not know that they were supposed to be doing this and need the log to serve as a reminder. I don't feel like a piece if a paper that asks for the stories read at home and who was reading them takes the fun out of reading. It serves as a way to discuss reading and helps the children to see that school and home are making sure that they are learning and caring that they be the best reader they can be!
After reading the responses and other factors of your site I still have the same question. What "real" value does the reading log have? Now I am not asking for the response "because it is used to determine a child's ability to comprehend what they read". I am asking what is the value? The child reads at home, the parent has to sign a tracking form, "reading logs", and then the student turns in the paper so the school can justify their policy of the reading log. Now if the child does not turn in the reading log, they "fail" that portion of the class regardless if the student if getting A's throughout the course they still fail the class because a reading log id a tracking form for the school in not turned in. Now comes the penalty--the child fails, not because he/she is stupid or unable, the grades on tests and class work show that they are capable, they fail because of a meaningless piece of paper that is used to justify a specific program for the school. The background research on reading logs is, to say the least, varied in the interpretation of it true value which would lead a parent to question why it is being processed as a grade rather than a supporting document to suggest why the student is not doing well in a class.
I have had a similar frusration with reading logs that someone previous posted. The reading logs have turned reading into such a chore. She loves to read and write and reads a high level. I believe they are not right for all children. Some kids seem to take to it so well, and others really struggle with it. If they are reading every night, then is it really necessary? She is even willing to write a paragraph on what she has read as long as she doesn't have to record day, time and number of pages.
I have a 13 year old son that reads on average 1 hour per day. He has been doing this since second grade. He loves books and gets so excited about books. Reading logs have been the bane of his existence. In fact, last year, he received a "C" on one because the teacher didn't see where I had initialed his summaries. His accelerated 7th grade language art teacher has just brought back the "reading log". Tonight he said, I want to read but then I'll have to log. To make it worse, since he is known to be a voracious reader, he feels pressure to live up to his reputation. I feel like petitioning my congressman to outlaw reading logs.
Reading logs are required at our middle school. Our department chair insists on using them even though all other teachers know that they are counter-productive and alienating most of our studetns. One person with veto power overrules the combined common sense of all the other teachers and teaches our students to hate reading.
I just love reading everyone's comments - thank you for sharing your experiences, and keep 'em coming! We've done our own silent revolt against reading logs at our house--we just don't do it. The form is in Molly's folder every day, and every day we ignore it. Then, Molly grabs her favorite book and reads for far longer than her log would suggest she should. Report cards come home next week; I'm interested to see whether there is any comment about her lack of homework. I doubt I'll be able to keep this up as she moves through school, but at least for now, it's working for us.
I'm a 6th grader and every school night since first grade I've been forced to read some book I don't even like. Kids need to read what try want with out a log, I'm not saying teachers should not know what kids are reading but they should on occasion chek up on the student and see what's going on. Some o my friends are very forgetful and get a bad grade. Even though they read more then me and I've seen their logs filled out and signed. Teachers, just get rid of the logs, for your sake and mine.
I was looking online for advice/opinions about reading logs and was not surprised by the responses here.As a teacher, I can respect the views of most responses, however, Joanne, I am bothered by the fact that it seems like you have not communicated this with the teacher. To just have Molly not do the assignment is teaching her to defy her teacher's expectations. The situation would be better handled, in my opinion, if you were to print out the above response (as well as try to find any researched based support) and bring it to Molly's teacher.Thank you all for your insightful responses.
I am a PhD student currently doing an independent study course in YAL and came across this blog while researching reading logs, a tool many of my fellow teacher-students employ in their courses and of which they speak highly. From the comments here, I ascertain my peers are on a different page about this tool. To be fair, I believe that what my cohorts term "reading log" is actually a reading reflection journal, thus a significantly different assessment tool. However, I am somewhat puzzled as to the resistance to the title/date/pages read log. Are the titles to be read assigned? If not, I am unsure why recording what the student read for pleasure, as several posts referenced, is a stumbling block. Why is simply recording what one has accomplished an impediment to that accomplishment? It seems to me little different from punching out of work at the end of the day. Annoying, yes, but ultimately beneficial. I must also agree with Jen P regarding non-compliance with the assignment. I am certainly a Thoreau fan and beleive in "civil disobedience" when it serves a purpose--I often nudge my own college level students to challenge unjust imposititions-- but non-compliance with a reading log doesn't seem to fit the bill here. I also have serious concerns about the model of teaching a child to simply "opt out" of something he/she just doesn't want to do. As a college teacher, I see the negative impact of such thinking on post secondary education. At that level, not doing an assignment just because a student does not like it results in no score and often course failure. There, parents can't simply argue with the professor until the assignemt is dropped or changed--FERPA and other laws make the student responsible for himself/herself. Further, most of us must accomplish tasks regularly we don't like, whether its washing the dishes, taking out the trash, or filling out a ten page report at the office. Imagine the results of choosing not to do such tasks. Habits learned early often stick for life, and I encourage parents to give thought beyond a simple reading log to the broader implications of perhaps undue resistance. By the way, I am a parent who has seen two sons through a public school system, reading logs and all, and at 17 and 20, they do not appear to have been negatively impacted by the experience.
As a teacher and a parent, I see the overall relevance of reading logs. Not all parents are fortunate enough to have children who enjoy reading for pleasure...at least initially. Not all students have parents who insist that their children read...log or not. I do see that for a parent who's child enjoys reading anyway, a log is pointless. However, for parents of children who wouldn't read unless it was assigned for homework (or it was a daily fight)...it does serve a purpose. I personally assign reading logs not only to require students to read but also to hold parents accountable for engaging in their child's education. (And then I still have parents who don't pay attention to what is on the log...they just sign them....unfortunate. But that isn't the majority.)
I would like to respond to Mark H. Although I understand and to some extent agree with your assessment regarding the "opt out" approach, I too have had to find a way to deal with this issue with my daughter. I did talk to the teacher at length and my daughter has tried many different approaches to this reading log. I don't think we do want to teach our children to just not do it, but at the same time if it is really causing an issue with such a fundamental thing as reading, I too would "opt out". I trust that Joanne handled it in a way that was appropriate. I think we can teach our child that just because someone is in charge it does not mean they are right. When you feel very strongly about something like this, it does seem like the correct solution. If it is an isolated incident (meaning one allows their child do avoid anything they dislike) then it could be a beneifcial approach. I have simply said to my daughter that Miss J is your teacher and she is a good teacher, but on this particular issue we don't agree and we want to work something out so that learning is still fun. In fourth grade I really feel this is important. I was not the only parent (there were at least 6) that had this issue. The teacher would not budge or compromise. What I have observed with my child is that she finds the transition from a right brain like activity to a very left brain activity difficult. She also feels judged and that it won't be enough. This has alot to do with how the teacher handles it in the classroom, of course. Having to take write down time and pages was very tedious. I think writing a response to the reading once week is very useful, but recording that information is crazy! Once this summer came my daugter got 3 books from the libray, made a bood mark that said I love reading, reading is great and got to it! Something she did not do during the school year and kept saying she hated reading.. so that is enough evidence for me!
I teach grade one students. We don't have reading logs for home. I send home an easy read each night with my students. I also have the students reflect on his or her reading from the night before. Sometimes it is a book that they have had read to them or one they have tried on their own or the easy read that I sent home with them. I feel this developes choose, credibility and high interest without a meaningless paper trail. This paper trail is often forgoten or lost. The reading experience is often not.
My 7 yr old son just came home from his 3rd week of school and had a complete meltdown due to the wonderful "reading log" that was in his folder, and the note on his daily schedule that showed he MUST read for at least 30 minutes per day! I consider myself and my husband to be among the best of parents in this particular classroom, as most of the children come from broken homes and have parents that are unstable half the time. I volunteered in my son's class last year for a full day each week, helping (not my son, but)the children that were behind on an individual basis. I, too, feel like the reading log takes all the fun out of it, and has turned my really easy going, fun loving, happy go lucky kid into a basket case! I don't want to teach him to rebel and not do it, so I have made copies of the log, and will insist that his teacher NOT put it in his folder from now on. Instead, I will fill out the logs on a weekly basis, but it will be with the books that we have actually read, and the amount of time we spend will vary, depending on the other things going on in our lives at the moment! (We own a medical practice, and are in the office until 7 or 8 pm 3 nights per week, so if we don't get to it, I won't sweat it... we will just make it up on the weekend, on OUR time, and on OUR terms!) This way, our son will not feel so overwhelmed, and will still think he's just doing it for fun!
I agree with you, parents should not ignore or rebel agenst the teacher, but they should set up a small conference about the matter. When I have to do reading logs, I don't like it, but I do it anyway. But I never ignor it. I mean, homework is homework.
As a teacher I appreciate this discussion. I am not a parent and homework has always been a question on my mind. I don't know what it's like to have to do homework with a child. I do not send home reading logs this year, but I have in the past. I have started to rethink them after reading all the posts. However, I am really upset by the parents who have commented on this site who are going against the teacher's homework decisions. I find that you are teaching your children to disobey authority figures and make up their own rules. I work very hard to make sure my students learn and it makes things a lot harder when I have to work against parents instead of with them. I urge you to discuss your concerns with your child's teacher instead of making decisions for the teacher and their classroom.
This discussion is very interesting to me because my daughter does NOT have a reading log assigned from school. One of her homework assignments is to read for 15 min/night (not much, I know... but it's 1st grade). I found this page when searching for reading log printouts that she can use to track her reading at home. I just talked to her about it, and we are going to start a binder for reading. I printed a log that has space for date, title, and author. I'm going to write that, then when she finishes a book she's going to write a summary of it and whether or not she liked it (and why). I don't see it as a huge problem, and she's actually excited to do it. I think it'll be good to be able to look back at what she's read, and will serve as a helpful tool in selecting more books for her. I also told her that we can have a section of the binder where we put ideas of books she might like to read... then we'll have it as a resource at the bookstore, library, etc.Is it simply the idea of it being an assignment that makes some kids so resistant to it? My daughter loves to read. I discussed the log as a way to keep track of what she's read and when, and she didn't have any problem understanding that it is a positive thing.
I am a teacher, too, and have had many conversations with parents. Frankly, I can see where some parents are coming from, but on the other hand, how can I get students to extend their learning? We talk about many reading concepts in class, from predicting and visual images, to author's craft. The kids I see liking the logs the least are the kids who simply record their reading, and not summerizing, but retelling the story in too much detail. For kids doing individual reading, I conferenced with students about their reading. We had students give an informal book talk about their reading. Students who tried to reach beyond retelling, made judgements and developed opinions were more interesting and created more excitement. For reading groups, I teach 4th and 5th grades, and want my students to think critically when they come to book group. Is there another way to record thinking other than logs?
I am currently teaching second grade, but have also taught third. I do use a reading log for a few reasons. The main reason, that has been stated in some other comments, is that some parents do not make it a priority for their children to read. This reading log does serve as a reminder to the kids as well as the parents that this is an important part of improving reading; both fluency and comprehension. A second purpose for having my students keep a reading log is that we are required to keep them in their assessment folders to show that they are reading. Reading logs can also be motivating for some students. My students get excited when they fill one up and they can get a new one. Others who read longer books are excited when they finish a book and can check that they finished it on their log. I do understand where the frustration comes in though. I have some students who were not reading for fun anymore - they focused on how many minutes they had read. I modified their reading logs to make it a fun way of keeping track of the books they've read. Reading should be fun. I do not think there is an ultimate solution. Some kids need to log in every night to keep track. Other kids should be able to keep a record of books they have finished - journal or log form. This should be a decision that the child's teacher makes with collaboritve input from the parents.
As a parent and teacher I really don't see what all the complaining about reading logs is all about. If a child doesn't normally read, a log can help to ensure that some reding practice occurs. If your child already reads at home, wonderful! There is no reason why filling out a log is going to "to take all the fun out of it". Taking a couple of minutes to write done time or pages isn't a big deal. However, I have learned as a parent and teacher, YOUR attitude is nearly always reflected in your child's attitude. Change your attitude to a positive one rather than a do I have to do this and watch your child's character grow. You whine, so will your child.
If the biggest problem you and your child have is filling out a reading log, consider yourself blessed. If the teacher was not looking at the reading logs or discussing them, it was probably because she was tired of listening to people whine about such a simple task. I do not think allowing children to get what they want by falling apart is doing them any favors. Helping these kids rise up to challenges and take some responsibility would be far more helpful in my opinion.
I happened upon this site as I searched the internet today, looking for ways to help your children be successful students and readers. I rarely respond to comments that I come across; however, reading your angry, frustrated respones reminded me of MY own frustration with students and families who disregard the expectations of schools and teachers. I work very hard both in the classroom, as well as the countless hours of my own time, planning for and monitoring the progress of my students. I do not ask students to complete work that is pointless or unimportant. Research-based evidence demonstrates the importance of lots of time to read. Students need to read more than the time we have in a school day. Period. Yes, some children read more than they are expected to, however the reality is that the majority of students in a classroom do not read at all, unless required to.A "log" serves different purposes: 1. It is a place to keep track of what you have read. It's so great to look back and see how much you've accomplished. 2. It also serves as a way of monitoring our reading and to help us set our personal reading goals. 3. It is a way to progress monitor students who are struggling readers. If a student is reading a lot, as evidenced by the log( among other things)and not making adequate progress, then we have documentation we need to continue with interventions. 4. It is a starting point for book discussions, and practicing reading strategies we have done in class. I am concerned with the message YOU are sending to your children... That it doesn't matter what you are asked to do, if you don't like it you can do what you want to. I'm sure that is great work ethics you are teaching. I am trying to teach your children to be responsible and accountable for things that we are expecting them to do. Thanks for listening. Happy Reading!
I have taughtpreschool through sixth grade for over 40 years and have used a myriad of reading logs/journals/reflections for both home and in-school reading. If teachers are requiring home reading as part of homework, and having it replace other homework, they may need to account for that to their superiors. So try to work with the teacher to find a way to make it less onerous for the good readers. I like to give a bookmark at the start of each new book, on which I record the start and end dates. Bookmarks are turned in for a variety of things: bonus points; substitutes for a missing assignment; extra in-class reading time; etc. I also meet with each student individually to orally reflect on their reading.For in-class independent reading time, I am accountable for it being used effectively. Some students may just stare at a book, or read a book at an inappropriate level.I use a Relection Log with open-ended sentences that require students to reflect upon their own reading strategies. I currently teach classes of struggling readers who do not choose reading as an activity, nor do they read at home for a variety of reasons. They need guidance to reflect upon their reading - to do the kinds of mental things that good readers do automatically. I have to justify the value of substituting independent reading time for reading instruction time. So meet with your child's teacher if you have a problem and ask her to explain her reasons for requiring a log. See if you can negotiate a compromise. But please teach your child that while some requirements in life are tedious (forms for time and effort, taxes, medical records, applications, reimbursements, etc.), they will be part of her life forever.
A funny thing happened at school last year. Our principal assigned a book to all the staff to read and discuss during staff meetings. I LOVE to read. I go through three or four novels a week. Well, guess what. I could never crack that book open! I would bluff and blunder my way through meetings. What have I learned? Anything becomes not fun as soon as you HAVE to do it. I finally forced myself to read the book at the end of the year. Are we teaching our kids that they don't have to do what they don't want to?
Diane: Thanks for sharing your story! I'm dying to know, what book did your principal assign? Did you end up liking it?
I am the mother of 7 and teach middle school reading. For the life of me, I do not understand the problem with a reading log. The students that have them, are the students that need the practice to improove in reading. We put ours on the frig and make a BIG deal about it. If I find a student that hates reading, I make it a challenge to find something this child enjoys, and find a book about that subject. The reading log isn't the problem, it is the attitude of parents that don't want to bother with helping educate their children. We have to be a team, parent and teacher. Both must be on the same page for students to respect the requirements. Help us, help your child!
Hey Teachers any ideas of a FUN way to do reading logs?
I teach 6th and 7th grade reading. I raised three kids, and I too Hated reading logs. I teach in a school where I have 80 sixth graders and today for our first marking period only 9 of them made their reading goal. Homework every night is 20 minutes of reading. Obviously it's not being done. I don't want to whip out the reading log, and god knows I break my behind and give 150% everyday, i'm at work 2 hours late every night to ensure that I have great lessons for my students, that are engaging. I spend $500. per year making sure my classroom library has great books, is it too much to ask for parents to have their child read to them for 20 minutes, or ensure that their child is reading. Not all parents do that, what would the dissenters suggest for the kids who don't have parental support, that they not read, and continue to languish in the bottom percentile of readers?
As a kindergarten teacher we are encouraging our students to read on a daily basis. We receive students that are already reading and others that are just now learning the basics of reading. We recently introduced a school wide reading program that encourages daily reading. The students take home a book each day and read it and list it on a reading log. The log is used to monitor the students reading. The parents at our school just love this program and the reading levels of our students are improving due to the additional exposure. The log facilitates this program and demonstrates to both parent and child the impact of daily reading. The log encourages participation and the students are eager to show me how many books they are reading.
I teach 4th grade reading and am currently using reading logs. I do not assign any written homework, so I expect my students to read at home. For the past five years I have used Accelerated Reader's computerized word count to keep up with the amount each student was reading.Thirty percent of their grade was based on how much they were reading at home. This system worked well for five years; my students were reading more than ever, they were improving skills, and enjoying it. However, this year a handful of parents complained about the use of AR as part of the grade,and I have been forced to use a reading log instead. It is not nearly as effective or as objective. I think most parents initial it without really knowing if their kids have read. Has anyone else tried using AR as a portion of their reading grade? If so, how did it work? Thank you for input!
I have read all the comments with great interest because I have just completed a study on the effect of reading logs on intrinsic motivation to read. I'm currently a high school junior in New York, and have had the blessing to live in a district with one of the strongest behavioral/social science research programs in the country. I've been a voracious reader since elementary school, a self-described bookworm, if you will. However, many of my friends don't share my sentiments - they regard reading as a boring, obnoxious chore. And none of them looked back on reading logs fondly; in fact, I would say around 9 out of 10 of my peers outright lied on their reading logs. I myself lied - even though I read for hours at a time, I didn't care to actually log it right after (I read in bed, and most times I fell asleep reading at night), so when the log was due at the end of the week, I would make up numbers (I rarely remembered how long I had read that week - time flies when you read!). However, things started to come together when I took AP Psychology. We learned about motivation and the overjustification effect, which states that external motivators decrease intrinsic motivation. With that, my research advisor and I began to flesh out the beginnings of a real project on motivation and reading. As I quickly learned from reading background literature, motivation lies at the heart of reading. Specifically, it is intrinsic motivation, or the pursuit of an activity for internal satisfaction of the activity in itself, that strongly predicts time spent reading, reading ability, enjoyment, interest, and attitudes. In addition, another theory of motivation, called the Self-Determination theory, states that individuals require a sense of autonomy (defined as the ability to choose one's own actions) in order to be intrinsically motivated. However, because reading logs are external motivators, and because they strip away children's sense of autonomy (they are unable to choose how long they read for, and when they want to read), I hypothesized that reading logs would decrease interest and attitudes towards reading. I used 2nd and 3rd grade students from two local elementary schools, and teachers were randomly assigned to give either mandatory reading logs or voluntary reading logs. Mandatory reading logs required that children read for at least 20 minutes each night, while voluntary reading logs were given to children and were entirely optional. I gave students a survey measuring motivation in October, and then surveyed them again in two months to measure any changes. My results were surprisingly concurrent with my hypotheses. I found that interest in reading decreased in the mandatory log condition, and interest increased in the voluntary log condition. The differences in interest between the mandatory and voluntary reading logs were statistically significant, p < 0.05. Attitudes towards recreational reading decreased in the mandatory condition, and increased in the voluntary condition. These differences were also statically significant. The increases in interest and attitudes were probably a result of increased reading proficiency over the two month period during which the study was conducted. Another explanation may be that teachers in the voluntary reading log condition may have made more of an effort to frame reading as a fun activity, although that would simply suggest that there are better ways to promote reading than through reading logs. The decline in interest and attitudes, on the other hand, was probably a result of a decrease in intrinsic motivation. These results strongly suggest that reading logs erode children's intrinsic motivation to read. This has real consequences for children's reading future, especially at a time when reading faces competition from computers, TV, and cellphones. I am entering this project in the Long Island Science and Engineering fair, and hope to spread the word about these results to change the opinions of elementary school educators.
Sarah, What a fantastic idea for a study--I would love to see more such studies to replicate your findings. Where can I find all the particulars of your study--methodology, questionaire, findings, etc?
I myself am an 8th grade student. My teacher also enforces reading logs! Me and my whole team of peers agree that reading logs are a waste of time. The reason we see it from our perspective is that, if we are truly MOTIVATED, we will read for pleasure, otherwise we get all we need in school. "More school helps our children earn a better education," doesnt do us any good. It keeps us from better things like speech and communication skills with our friends, sports and health wellness with outdoor sports that we will soon have almost no access to. Most kids would do reading logs if we didn't feel like we were being pressed for them, it sounds like a job we are assigned and can never get out of. (I personally ONLY do my reading logs because ill fail my magnet program if i don't, therefore i read one page and write two sentences on that.) If you as parents and teachers had the minds that you do now and were forced to perform an unnecessary job would you do it? of course not, unless you enjoyed doing it! My father always told me "if your going to work, work on something you ENJOY doing." Reading logs and Homework make us feel like we are under reign of the teacher and its NOT FUN, its NOT ENJOYABLE, its NOT WORTHY OF OUR TIME! Parents are not benefiting from the logs either. They wont get involved. They will get involved if it really has an impact on their child. Signing a paper to let them know that their child read for an extra 30 minutes of what they do all day at school is not worth taking the time to stress over. Why not try a creative debate or discussion in class that ACTUALLY relates to us and our now and future lives... Books are ideas of other written for others to explore. Forcing someone to explore will end in a half-hearted adventure. we may possibly enjoy it or we will see it as the most dreadful trip of our lives.
I am in the same school, team and grade as Coral. The teacher is incredibly strict about the reading logs. She promotes one hundred pages a week, and up to two hundred for extra-credit, (one point every twenty pages). In seventh grade, around the middle of the year, the teacher started enforcing reading logs. I have always loved reading, but I am a reader who reads hundreds of pages at a time, and having to stop every twenty or thirty pages subtracts from the quality of the book. I love reading, but I truly think reading logs kill the fun in the activity.
I found this discussion when looking for reader response journal questions. I'm of the belief that reading logs decrease intrinsic motivation and don't like them. This year, however, I taught 2 reading classes that were night and day from one another. One class was full of kids who love to read and ask me for book recommendations based on their favorite authors and genres. The other class is full of kids with various learning disabilities and poor fluency and comprehension. Many of these students were unable to successfully self-select books based on interest or reading ability. They weren't reading at home. My "solution" was to give the class reading logs in the hopes that parents would help make sure they read SOMETHING. I found the log to be more divisive for most of these students. Some of them were motivated when I threw in external incentives, and it was helpful for some of the parents to notice trends about their children's reading habits. For the most part though, it was a joke. I ended up looking the other way when I knew some of them were forging their parents initials, especially when I knew they WERE reading. Whatever motivation most of these students drew from came from intrinsic desires to better themselves. Students wanted to be able to increase their AR book levels and attempt to read entire "chapter books." Their success came from wanting to improve their reading, NOT from logging in their time.Bottom line- if a child already enjoys reading, it's counterintuitive to ask them to prove it and dole out consequences when they forget the paperwork. It's certainly not any better if the child already dislikes reading to attach a written assignment that requires them to remember, every night, to ask an already uninterested parent to sign off that they did their time. You should always consider your actual goal in an assignment. Is it to help a child obtain and enjoy the skill of reading, or is to teach them life lessons about following rules and filling out the very paperwork that we gripe and complain about as adults? Sure, it's a part of life, but if it doesn't NEED to be, why force it?
I teach remedial reading at the 6th grade level. I can give my students the skills to become readers but I don't have the time to practice with them in the classroom. Reading logs help students with the practice part. You don't expect your child to drive without practice, so how can the gain in reading without practice? Reading Logs? That is not important to me! Simply discuss the book with your child or start a book club with books your child is interested in and you will create life long readers.
I am a third grade teacher who found this site as I was searching for information on reading "blogs" instead of logs. In the past, I have passed out a weekly reading log on Friday and it was due the following Friday. Students were asked to read at least a little bit each day and their goal was to try reading a variety of genres. Real-life reading, such as the menu at a restaurant, could be included as part of the log.I understand why many parents do not like reading logs, but the unfortunate reality is that some students won't read at all if it weren't for the log.Has anyone tried using a blog format instead? I'm considering asking the students to sign onto a class blog and write about personal reading 2 times a week. I would give ideas for the entries, but any response to reading would be acceptable. Any thoughts or suggestions on this? Thanks in advance!
Ideas for Reading Log Alternatives:1. Log of title, author, plot and what they learned – Nothing else. If students are having trouble understanding what Plot means, use this as a discussion point in class for all students.a. Electronic submissions to class group on line. Kids love computers. Build on that. They'll enjoy seeing their own names published on the computer and will enjoy seeing their peer's names as well. b. Journal format in their own diary type book NOT a form to fill out. Hand written may help some students focus better than others. 2. Remove parent signature requirement – this teaches learned helplessness, nothing more. It teaches the kids that they are responsible not just for someone else's behavior, but for their parents' behavior. Not a good idea. The students with uninvolved parents can learn that no matter what they do, they cannot succeed and therefor will give up on the system.3. No punishment for not completing. Reward in private those who do a good job. Make it a one-on-one personal comment of "good job." Kids will feel good about hearing that what they are submitting online is being read and thought about by someone else, giving them a sense of accomplishment and pride. Do NOT grade. Remember, rewarding in public those who do it and leaving out the ones who don't IS a form of punishment.4. Provide a list of suggested reading and make it, and the books on it, available to take home. A special section in the library or classroom at the right level, as a possibility.5. Discuss books read each week (or month), for just short of how long the class wants to discuss. Always leave them anticipating the next classroom discussion instead of dreading the silence at the end. Ask who in the class enjoyed the books they read and why. Ask the same in reverse. Do NOT mandate inclusion. Make it a class activity where kids can get excited about what they liked and the the other children will follow group mentality and want to read the enjoyed books more. Teacher attitude toward responses is key. The teacher must be happy for those who loved their books and sad for those who didn't. Make suggestions for future reading to all who participate with reasons they would like the possible books.6. In lower grades, it should be one book per week due to length of the books. Further one, it should be one per month as novels take longer. One per week/month will let the kids concentrate more on the single assignment than on trying to get through it faster. In later grades, reading assignments like this should be limited to ONE teacher in the child's system.7. Regarding partental involvement: Just because that log isn't signed, doesn't mean parents don't care. Use an online discussion group that is for parents and students, possibly in conjunction with the online reading log, where we can read what you are teaching the kids and see what other children are doing and writing. This will save huge money on print outs being sent home and allow better communication between parents and teachers. For example, FaceBook has group set up where the initiator has full ability to monitor group members and posts. The information on the group and it's members can be kept private as well. It can be accessed for free from any internet connection. You can post information and electronic copies of forms and handouts that the parents can print out instead of printing them out at the school, adding to cost of printing and adding to landfills as parents toss most of the handouts. Ask for a parent volunteer to set up and/or maintain the premade website if the teacher is unable to do so.
A very interesting discussion. I read comments that gave me cause to think a bit more about the reading log I am about to send home with my Grade 5 students. From what I can gather the issue seems to be the 'reason' for keeping a log in the first place. As a teacher and a parent of 2 school-aged children I believe that reading everyday is vital to overall learning. I will change my approach now and try to make it as family-friendly as possible, while at the same time achieving the outcome I wish to achieve - which is to have students not only reading but thinking about what they read in an effective and purposeful way. Proficient readers are not people who simply finish a book or who are able to read for a sustained period of time. Good readers are people who activley read -that is think about, reflect upon and articulate their thoughts and feelings about a certain text, character, scene etc. Reading should be a pleasant experience and I will try to make it so with my home reading reflections!(I won't even call it a log anymore, how's that?)
Tricia: I'm so glad the post made you think. I'd love to hear how your "home reflections" develop over the course of the year!
I teach in a low income district. Students get little or no help at home from parents regarding homework and especially in the area of reading. I have students fill out a reading log, but many don't seem to care that it is not completed. If I tie an incentive to the task, they cheat or lie about what they have accoplished. The reading log can be a tool, but it can also be a waste of time. Some students and parents are honest, but many are not. It is sad and evident that reading is not taking place at home, especially during times of evaluation. Reading is so important and vital to the success of ones academics, but we must ask ourselves if the reading log is really a tool or a burden.
My son likes to read, but we both HATE reading logs. I DO understand the desire to get the kids to read on their own, but reading logs is NOT the answer for most kids. It is tedious and a real pain in the neck for both student and parent. We have to time their reading. (Oops! forget to check the start time! Oops, got interrupted and didn't keep track of how long the interruption was. Oops! My son read in bed last night, but I don't know what time he fell asleep!) Can you appreciate how this turns reading into a chore??? Sometimes we resort to timing how long it takes to read a page of a given book in order to estimate. Why can't the teacher give out specific reading assignments (or have a collection they can choose from) and spend 5-15 minutes each Friday (or whatever designated day) answers a couple of simple, short questions about what they read? Wouldn't that be a LOT more useful? And it would let the kids enjoy what they are reading and focus on comprehension, not watching the clock. I have 7 children, all with different personalities. All of them at least like to read; 2 are voracious readers. ALL do or would hate reading logs!
If you are not a parent who's had to actually do this, please consider the comments of those who've actually had to do it. My son likes to read, but we both HATE reading logs. I DO understand the desire to get the kids to read on their own, but reading logs is NOT the answer for most kids. It is tedious and a real pain in the neck for both student and parent. We have to time their reading. (Oops! forget to check the start time! Oops, got interrupted and didn't keep track of how long the interruption was. Oops! My son read in bed last night, but I don't know what time he fell asleep!) Can you appreciate how this turns reading into a chore??? Sometimes we resort to timing how long it takes to read a page of a given book in order to estimate. Why can't the teacher give out specific reading assignments (or have a collection they can choose from) and spend 5-15 minutes each Friday (or whatever designated day) answers a couple of simple, short questions about what they read? Wouldn't that be a LOT more useful? And it would let the kids enjoy what they are reading and focus on comprehension, not watching the clock. I have 7 children, all with different personalities. All of them like (or love) to read; 4 are voracious readers. ALL do or would hate reading logs!
Sorry I double posted above. Not sure how that happened. Anyway, one final comment. Can teachers/administrators not see what is happening here? The entire conversation about reading turns into "have we met the minute quota?" instead of "what did you read?", "what did you learn?" and "did you enjoy it?"
Sarah --- you have produced what is probably a publishable piece of work! Nice for a high school junior! And it supports the literature on motivation beautifully. I am a parent of a third grader, and a psych professor whose research interests include motivation. Deci and Ryan's work on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is considered classic in the field -- and has been studied and applied beautifully in elementary school settings. Their research, as well as lots of others, has long confirmed what we all know -- that people will stay with a task for longer periods, and do a better job, if their motivation is intrinsic -- if it comes from within, done through self choice, in an organic sort of way. The FASTEST way to shorten task persistence is to impose requirements externally, as with reading logs. My daughter loves to read, thankfully, and began with the logs in kindergarten. I wasn't too concerned then, not much in first grade, but by second grade I was getting fed up with it. Surely in k and grade one, they could be justified by helping children to establish good reading habits, etc. Now here we are in third grade, and I'm done. I've seen NO evidence that the logs are used for anything other makework. There's no feedback, or even collection of total # of pages read for the semester/year, etc., for the class to collectively pride themselves on. I've searched the ed literature for some evidence that this task improves reading ability, speed, comprehension, or enjoyment, and have found none. In fact, I found this blog when doing my latest review! I'm so glad for it, because the comments of other parents like me let me know that I'm not alone in my dislike of this task. I'm meeting with my daughter's teachers later this week for a p/t conference. I'm going to tell her that, in the absence of some hard evidence that this task significantly improves her literacy skills, we're opting out. I support teachers and the hard work that is done every day and in every way that I can. I also, however, support my daughter's efforts to grow and learn. I therefore cannot continue to sign off on a practice that has no documented evidence behind it, which is also turning my child away from something that she loves.
I was looking for some research that is totally unrelated to this topic and somehow found myself here. This looks to be something that has been discussed over the course of a few years. Since I have read them all, I would like to contribute to this dialogue. I am a parent of a now middle school-aged daughter. She showed no interest in reading as a young student, but I read to her or we we made up our own stories. She showed no signs of anything that might cause concern, so I didn't worry about it. She attended a high achieving elementary school that put a lot of emphasis on high stakes testing. She began completing reading logs and doing AR in kindergarten. By third grade, AR comprehension and points earned were each weighted twice for grading purposes. The teacher also mandated a set number of non-fiction books that had to be read. This continued through 6th grade. A similar type of program is still being required in her first year in middle school. I do not like the use of AR and strongly disagree with grading it on any level. I also disagree that students should even have to read AR books because it limits which books they are able to read. In spite of it all, my daughter loves to read. She is above grade level with a vocabulary of an eleventh grader. She and I often read the same books, so we have some great discussions. More than once, she has recommended books to me that I have not even heard about. Happily, we have also discovered that she is demonstrating a real talent for writing which she credits to some of her favorite authors. My daughter is a highly competent reader not because of what the school offered or required. She learned that reading contributes to her participation in life and also brings enjoyment as a pastime. She grew into becoming a reader because of what she learned at home. I had enough confidence as a parent in that what we were teaching her would be of far greater value in the long term than whatever trivial boxed program was being used at school. Even though I disagreed with some of the practices, no battle was was worth the fight because it really didn't amount to much in the scheme of the world. At this point in my life, I am mature enough to recognize that every single one of us has to "jump through hoops" throughout life for one reason or another. I have taught my daughter that there will always be things in life that are unfair, unnecessary or just flat-out stupid. The secret is in learning to ignore the insignificant ones and be ready to stand up and try to make a change for the better when it is an issue that truly impacts the lives of others, especially children. I am also a passionate and dedicated teacher. I know about the kinds of moms who help out with school parties or volunteer in their child's classrooms so that they can observe and then criticize the practices/actions of the teacher to other parents. After all, they know far more about the broad scope and requirements of teaching than any teacher their child will ever have. Those huddled conversations at the little league games could outmatch most corporate board meetings. Heaven help us all if their child is asked to take a few minutes to record a little information about their reading outside of school. This self centered attitude will serve them well in their parenting efforts. No doubt that they will be proud of their child who, with confidence, will be able to look an instructor in the eye and tell/him her that they do not need to complete an assignment just to prove that they did the assigned out of class readings. They are, after all, intrinsically motivated to read and do not need to account for how much effort they put into the course outside of class. I also want to comment that I admire the work of the young lady who reported her research and findings in an earlier post. She is obviously a bright and gifted student. I have no doubt that she will go on to do incredible things. But, I think I will reserve my understanding of good pedagogical practice to some researchers with more experience. All that being said, I think the efforts and dialogue I have read here prove that there is a lot of energy that could potentially be channeled into something a little more substantial. Participating in efforts to help children who are negatively impacted by an underfunded educational budget and unrealistic expectations of measuring student academic progress couldn't come at a better time. When you get the reading log dilemma solved, please feel free to jump in and help us out as we struggle to provide the best of what we have to give children a compassionate, safe and rigorous learning environment where they have the opportunity to realize their full potential. Who knows, there might be a Louis Pasteur or Thomas Edison sitting in one of our classrooms. And even if there isn't, all children have something important to contriubte to this world. For me, these issues and children truly affect the scheme of the world. Like I said, I don't know how I got here, but hopefully now I can find what what I was looking for in the first place, erase this ridiculous blog, and get back to the buisness at hand.
Well put, Dianne!
What happened to the days when kids learned to read in school...not at home? And they were pretty smart, and quite pleasnat too. Not too much kids shooting down teachers and classmates, huh? Personally what books I have in my house is my privacy. I do not like having my kids name on a paper with a list of what he reads at home for a volanteer parent in the PTA to flip through. Are these lists used for surveys for school book vendors, I wonder.


text:
THINK 13 on Tuesday: Slide Show
Thinking outside the box, or creating a whole new one, was on the minds of speakers at the THINK 13 conference, presented Tuesday to Thursday at the Swissotel in Chicago.
The theme for CO-OP Financial Services conference this year was zeroing in on how to "Disrupt Business as Usual" – to creatively disrupt an organization from within, before it gets disrupted from without.
Also from THINK 13:
- Virtual Teller Idea Wins THINK Prize 13
- The Great Change Debate
- THINK 13 on Wednesday: Slide Show
- Starring on Google+
- Mayor Booker Keynotes on Change
- Innovation That Maintains Identity
- Innovation Needs Controls
- Self-Assessment First Step in Innovation
- Leaders Should Talk Last
- CO-OP Rebrands ATM, Branching Networks
- Chicago Confab Kicks Off
Here are some photos of Tuesday's action at the conference.
Below is John Costello, chief global marketing officer at Dunkin' Donuts and an architect of the iconic brand's "America Runs on Dunkin'" campaign.
Bill Cheney, president/CEO, CUNA, speaking on "Seizing Our Opportunity" during the Tuesday morning session of THINK 13. He emphasized credit union system collaboration during his remarks.
Valerie Coleman Morris, financial journalist and author and Master of Ceremonies at THINK 13.
Many taking notes, here is the THINK 13 audience shot during a Tuesday general session.
Start-up guru Scott Belsky told his audience that leaders should be the one talking last if they want creativity to flourish.
This THINK It Out roundtable discussion was held Tuesday morning with, from left, Bill Cheney, John Costello, Stan Hollen, Scott Belsky and Valerie Coleman Morris.
Nicole Clemens is the series development executive at the FX network and a veteran Hollywood talent agent. She spoke on the risks involved in taking a television show from concept to production, and about managing risk and change.
The Wharton School's David Robertson, author of "Brick by Brick", discussed the corporate turnaround of the iconic maker of Lego toys.
Tuesday afternoon's THINK It Out roundtable discussion featured, from left, Shazia Manus, CEO, The Members Group; David Robertson, Nicole Clemens, Rita Ramirez, vice president, Emerging Payments, MasterCard; and Valerie Coleman Morris.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
of Southern California researchers have come one step closer to
building a synthetic brain through the invention of a carbon nanotube synapse
Alice Parker and Professor Chongwu Zhou, leaders of the study from the
University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engineering Ming Hsieh
Department of Electrical Engineering, have developed a carbon nanotube synapse
circuit that acts like a neuron, and could potentially be used to create a
synthetic brain in an effort to better understand brain function.
and Zhou wanted to use carbon nanotubes specifically because they
are exceptionally tiny carbon structures that can be used as semiconductors or
metallic conductors in electronic circuits.
is a necessary first step in the process," said Parker. "We wanted to
answer the question: Can you build a circuit that would act like a neuron? The
next step is even more complex. How can we build structures out of these
circuits that mimic the function of the brain, which has 100 billion
neurons and 10,000 synapses per neuron?"
this research is in the beginning stages, the team plans to create a network of
analog circuits that act similarly to the human brain's complex connections between neurons. The next
step is to increase the plasticity in the circuits in order to make them more
life-like and functional like the human brain.
and Zhou believe the development of a network of analog circuits in a synthetic
human brain could lead to prosthetic nanotechnology that would aid in the
treatment of brain injuries. It could also lead to new auto technology that
would protect drivers in a whole new way.
complete synthetic brain or a functional brain area will not be completed for
decades, according to Parker. The brain's complex processes such as producing
neurons and making connections will be difficult to reproduce, but this
research is a crucial first step in that direction.


text:
Arrest of FBI most wanted and INTERPOL target praised by world police body
LYON, France – The arrest of alleged mob boss James 'Whitey' Bulger, one of the FBI's most wanted and a target of a global INTERPOL fugitive operation, has been welcomed by the world police body.
The 81-year-old American, who is accused of the murder of 19 people in the 1970s and 1980s, and his 60-year-old girlfriend Catherine Greig, who was also the subject of INTERPOL's Operation Infra-Red (International Fugitive Round-Up and Arrest – Red Notices), were detained near Los Angeles on 22 June after 16 years on the run.
In addition to murder, as the alleged former boss of the Winter Hill gang in Boston, Bulger was also wanted for extortion, membership of a racketeer-influenced corrupt organization and money laundering. Greig was wanted for concealing a person from arrest and both were subject of INTERPOL Red Notices, or internationally wanted persons alerts, issued at the request of the US authorities.
"The arrest of James Bulger and his girlfriend after so many years on the run is testimony to the dedication and tenacity of the FBI officers involved who ensured that these fugitives and their crimes were never forgotten," said Stefano Carvelli, Assistant Director of INTERPOL's Fugitive Investigative Support unit.
"That he was highlighted as a key target in Operation Infra-Red, INTERPOL's first major global appeal to the public for information on fugitives, was one of many important steps taken by the US authorities to maintain the pressure on this man and use every resource available to them in his eventual location and arrest.
"It is once again a clear signal for all fugitives everywhere, that no matter how much time has passed, once they are wanted they will remain wanted until brought to justice," added Mr Carvelli.
INTERPOL's Operation Infra-Red in July 2010, targeted nearly 450 international fugitives convicted suspected of committing serious offences including murder, rape, child abuse, kidnapping and drug trafficking and has already led to the arrest or location of more than 170 individuals.
Bulger's arrest on Wednesday came just two days after another Infra-Red target, American national Kenneth Andrew Craig who is accused of sexually abusing two young boys in Florida in 1998, was taken into custody by Brazilian police in Rio de Janeiro.


text:
Ok, so I promised this thread regarding Sakura's development in the series, ie supassing Tsunade.
I know the majority of you will start bashing towards her calling her all that names. I've heard it before, not impressed.
So note this: every single bashing towards her will be reported! I am not here for your whining personalities, not for hearing your hate.
There is a lot hate in this world, real one, so I don't need some childish hate towards a character. Are we clear?
I am looking for a nice discussion/debate upon these theories I am having.
Before saying that no, Sakura will not get it because Naruto is ending, let's not forget that Kishi said multiple times that he wanted to end the series yet he found himself continuing it.
So until it's not finished, I have the right to think up for some certain possibilities as long as I want.
Hopefully, we are clear.
Sorry if I sounded *****y, my excuses, I've just had it with people with whom you can't have a nice discussion. I am just repaying in the same manner, if you want to take it like that.
Now, let's get down to business.
Given the last events, as we've seen, Tsunade is on her verge of dying. There's a 50/50 chance of survival. We don't know for sure if she dies or lives.
But putting this aside, I have had these ideas before this whole Tsunade events of certain developments Sakura might get.
1. Yin Seal.
Well, as we know, Kishi has drawn Sakura to make a big deal out of her forehead.
From the series's start this was a part of her personality, more exact, one of her biggest problems regarding her insecurities over her looks.
But what made me think it's not just about her forehead as a personality issue was after Tsunade was introduced in the manga, and afterwards, Sakura became her student and we saw the pattern Kishi followed with the 3 characters.
Naruto - Jiraiya: Learned Rasengan from him at the beginning as a prime development, afterwards he learned Sage Mode.
Sasuke - Orochimaru: Curse Seal as a prime development, afterwards learned Kirin with the help of Orochimaru, which, surprisingly or not, enough, looks like a Dragon (according to the manga, snakes evolve into dragons, see Kabuto getting Dragon Sage Mode)
Sakura - Tsunade: Medical ninjutsu and improved taijutsu as a prime development, second yet to see.
When we are first presented to Tsunade we got to see the Yin Seal drawn... where do you think? Exactly, on her forehead!
Later on, Kishi emphasizes once again the "forehead" thing with Tsunade.
As we clearly know, Kishi isn't the man to place signs here and there for nothing.
Putting the jokes aside, this reminds me of a funny picture I've found few days ago.
That was for the laughs.
Now, going on with my theories/possibilities, however you want to call it.
2. Genjutsu (Bringer of the Darkness)
As we know, in the beginning, ironically, Sakura falls under Kakashi's genjutsu in the 2 bell training.
But later on, we learn that she has gotten better at genjutsu, as proven in the Chuunin exams and Kakashi's words.
Of course, now you'll say that she was only shown to disperse it, but in the major fight Sakura had with Sasori, genjutsu would've been totally out of the question.
Now, you might ask yourself why I straightly went to Bringer of the Darkness and not other genjutsu.
Well, as I was re-reading the manga, one thing caught my attention.
In the Team 7 which consisted in Yamato and Sai, Sakura was always associated with Yamato.
And what really really caught my attention was this:
Out of them, Sakura was the only one to recognize the Jutsu and the Mokuton ninjutsu out of her colleagues.
Actually as we've seen, besides Naruto, none of them were associated in some sort of way with Hashirama Senju.
The only one who was, indirectly, is Sakura as we've seen in these scans because we all know who Yamato is.
And also, the most powerful genjutsu technique Hashirama showed was, as we all know, Bringer of the Darkness.
So if we put all these pieces together into a puzzle, it would lead to the fact that Sakura would get to learn it, taking into consideration that she is associated to Hashirama not only via Yamato, also via Tsunade who is his granddaughter and was known to know everything about her grandfather.
So this would come fairly logic into Sakura's development.
Another interesting thing I've noticed is this.
In the War, now, when we are introduced to Nidaime Mizukage there's a hint.
As we see, he says that his element is Yin (I wonder who possesses the same seal ) element and that this means he is a genjutsu user.
So once again, if we put these into a puzzle, we can see it quite clear. The only missing puzzle here is Kishimoto.
You might say that no, this is not possible but let us not forget about the fact that her master is the Hokage so, actually, Sakura has access to all these documents that contain jutsus and stuff like that.
We caught a glimpse with Sakura having access to those things in the war, where she was reading a report made by Yamato. We all know that these reports are for the Hokage.
And as we clearly see here, Sakura has access to it.
Now, I know there will be some of you that will say this won't happen, it's not possible but Kishi hinted so many times that old generation is surpassed by the new one, also he has made this clear that might happen with Sakura via Kakashi and Chiyo and these two are strong voices in the Narutoverse.
Kakashi, well, we all know who he is.
And Chiyo, we also know who she is as well and Chiyo is a veteran in her own right that fought Tsunade many times, has wars behind as experience and yet she said Sakura is liable to surpass Tsunade.
So this might come and it wouldn't be something strange to see, I would say that even expected.
The Slug Sage Mode thing, I am not taking it into consideration because I do believe that belongs to Tsunade more than Sakura, but who knows, maybe Kishi throws a surprise. o.O
Anyway, this is kinda it.
Hope you enjoyed the reading!
LATER EDIT: What I discovered more about another genjutsu specialist in the Senju clan was Tōka Senju.
Now, what exactly Tōka means? Well, as you guessed it, it has connection with flowers.
It means "Peach flower".
Guess the color of peach flowers?
Yeap, very similar to a certain's character hair and name. :p


text:
The fallout of Facebook's Beacon adware campaign has left a
troubling haze around the typically exciting social networking
company. Social networking has always had its critics, but
Facebook is used to wild success and is a traditional analyst
favorite. Its status as a hot item was solidified when it
received a significant recent investment
and commitment from Microsoft.
Facebook rolled out the
Beacon adware program which monitors users' shopping activities on
advertising partners, early this month. Criticism mounted
swiftly as the software not only tracked users activities when logged
out of Facebook, but also posted obnoxiously intrusive advertisements
about what they had purchased in user's public news feeds.
These feeds would be displayed on user's friends pages.
finally agreed to make changes about
its implementation of the adware, but refused to fully back down
from it. Facebook changed the feed connection so that users
feed will only publicly announce purchase if users give it permission
to. Facebook still is supportive of the system, because it
promises big money for the company, which can start to use it to sell
targeted ads, a higher priced commodity than standard ads.
to top off the minor changes, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is hoping
a personal apology will help to soothe users hurt feelings. Mr.
Zuckerberg said in his Facebook blog, "We've made a lot of
mistakes building this feature, but we've made even more with how
we've handled them. We simply did a bad job with this release, and I
apologize for it."
He reiterated that users can now
disable the announcements of their purchases. However, he did
indicate that Facebook will continue to track users' off site
shopping activity, though it promises to do so discretely and
made just over $150 million USD last year in advertising, but is
hoping to draw around $200 million USD in only a few short months by
selling higher-priced targeted advertisements. With this kind
of financial incentive it is understandable why Facebook is loathe to
entirely do away with the system, even if it comes at a bit of an
expense to user privacy.
One of the most vocal critics of
Facebook's user monitoring and privacy violations, Moveon.org, seemed
happy with Facebook's response and Mr. Zuckerberg's commentary.
Spokesman Adam Green said, "Facebook's policy change is a big
step in the right direction, and we hope it begins an industry-wide
trend that puts the basic rights of Internet users ahead of the wish
lists of corporate advertisers."
How exactly Facebook's
struggles in pushing the adware on its users effect its bottom line
are yet to be seen, but one of its advertising partners,
Overstock.com, has already ditched the service. Facebook's Mark
Zuckerberg hopes his apology can help prevent more advertisers from
jumping ship.


text:
Belgium Television
Arctic Monkeys will be performing live on Cafe Corsari + Studio Brussel at 10pm(CET) on Tuesday 10th September on Een. It will also be broadcast live on Studio Brussel Radio.
10.09.13 6:35 pm
I've never been so sad for not having tickets and missing a show... How much i wish i could have been there... But i didn't win :(
10.09.13 9:10 am
Please, let me please win a ticket! I want to be there soooo badly... But still didn't win anything :(. Does anyone know when and how they let you know if you won tickets via cafe corsari or the Studio Brussel online competition??
10.09.13 3:51 am
what channel is that on
09.09.13 4:14 pm
Just got hold of a ticket for 9th November in Brussels. Will do anything to get inside this private gig. Have been around since the first demo's. travelled around a lot to see live gigs and now in the backyard again... excited
09.09.13 8:36 am
Already had tickets for november 9 in Brussels. Now trying real hard to get into this showcase...
And today the new album is being released too :-).
Thumbs up (y)
06.09.13 4:18 pm
all over this, a bit of Belgian TV! #AM
05.09.13 12:10 pm
Yes, and Yes!! Also, yes, I'd love to be there! If not, I'll certainly be watching the whole thing on TV! Yes!


text:
This study is provided by ICPSR. ICPSR provides leadership and training in data access, curation, and methods of analysis for a diverse and expanding social science research community.
American National Election Studies: 2006 ANES Pilot Study (ICPSR 21440)
Principal Investigator(s): Krosnick, Jon A., Stanford University; Lupia, Arthur, University of Michigan; National Election Studies
In the fall of 2006 the American National Election Studies (ANES) carried out a pilot study after the 2006 mid-term elections in the United States. The 2006 ANES Pilot Study was conducted for the purpose of testing new questions and conducting methodological research to inform the design of future ANES studies. As such, it is not considered part of the ANES time series that has been conducted since 1948, and the pilot study only includes time series questions necessary to evaluate the new content. The election studies are designed to present data on Americans' social backgrounds, enduring political predispositions, social and political values, perceptions and evaluations of groups and candidates, opinions on questions of public policy, and participation in political life. This full release dataset contains all 675 interviews, with the survey portion of the interview lasting just over 37 minutes on average. The study had a re-interview rate of 56.25 percent. Respondents were asked questions over a variety of topics. They were queried on need for closure in various situations including unpredictable ones, how fast important decisions were made, and how often they could see that both people can be right when in disagreement. Respondents were asked many questions pertaining to their values. Some questions dealt with optimism and pessimism. Respondents were asked if they felt that were generally optimistic, pessimistic, or neither in regard to the future. They were asked specifically how they felt about the future of the United States. Respondents were also asked about their social networks, about who they talked to in the last six months, and how close they felt to them. Respondents were further queried about how many days in the last six months they talked to these people, their political views, interest in politics, and the amount of time it would take to drive to their homes. Other questions sought respondents' political attitudes including attentiveness to following politics, ambivalence, efficacy, and trust in government. Respondents were asked questions related to the media such as how much time and how many days during a typical week they watched or read news on the Internet, newspaper, radio, or television. Questions that dealt with abortion consisted of giving respondents various scenarios and asking if they favored or opposed it being legal for the women to have an abortion in that circumstance. The issue of justice was also included by asking respondents what percent of people of different backgrounds who are suspected of committing a crime in America are treated fairly. Respondents were also asked to give their opinion on gender in politics, specifically, whether gender played a role in how the respondent would vote for various political offices. Respondents were also queried on whether they would vote for Bill Clinton or George W. Bush and whether they had voted in the elections in November. Respondents were also asked if they approved of the way George W. Bush was handling his job as president, the way he was handling relations with foreign countries, and the way he was dealing with terrorism. Respondents were also asked how upsetting the thought of their own death was, and how likely it was that a majority of all people on Earth would die at once during the next 100 years because of a single event. Demographic variables include age, party affiliation, sex, religious preference, and political party affiliation.
Access Notes
Data in this collection are available only to users at ICPSR member institutions. Please log in so we can determine if you are with a member institution and have access to these data files.
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Study Description
Krosnick, Jon A., Arthur Lupia, and National Election Studies. American National Election Studies: 2006 ANES Pilot Study. ICPSR21440-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2008-11-17. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR21440.v1
Persistent URL: https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR21440.v1
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This study was funded by:
- National Science Foundation (SES-0535332 and SES-0535334)
- Stanford University
- University of Michigan
Scope of Study
Subject Terms: abortion, ambivalence, Bush Administration (George W., 2001-), Christianity, death, economic conditions, emotional states, foreign policy, government performance, justice, national elections, news media, political affiliation, political attitudes, political efficacy, political partisanship, public approval, public opinion, religion, social networks, social values, taxes, tolerance, trust (psychology), trust in government, voting, voting behavior
Geographic Coverage: United States
- 2006
- 2006-11-13--2007-01-05
Universe: United States citizens of voting age on or before Election Day (November 6, 2000), residing in housing units other than military reservations in the 48 coterminous states.
Further information about this and other National Election Studies is available on the American National Election Studies Web site.
This data was produced by the University of Michigan, Center for Political Studies.
Sample: Individuals who completed a valid interview in the 2004 ANES time series study.
Mode of Data Collection: telephone interview
Extent of Processing: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:
- Performed consistency checks.
- Standardized missing values.
- Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
Original ICPSR Release: 2008-11-12
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text:
James Marshall Leads The Cooperative Trust
The Cooperative Trust and Filene Research Institute announced last week that James Marshall has joined the trust as its leader. Marshall succeeds Brent Dixon, who founded the trust in 2010 as Filene's young adult adviser and led it over the past three years.
"We know that the young adults demographic is crucial to the future of credit unions," said Mark Meyer, Filene's CEO. "The trust, brought to life with Brent's vision and CUNA Mutual Group's support, has been instrumental in connecting young adults to the credit union industry and the credit union industry to them."
Marshall will work with Filene to sharpen the trust's role in helping credit unions engage with young adults and grow membership among this demographic through outputs such as product ideas, crash events and publications that capture key findings of the group, Filene said in a statement. Marshall will also strengthen the Trust's foundation of developing young talent in credit unions and cooperatives through leadership opportunities, mentorships and peer idea sharing.
"Building on the clear vision and momentum achieved by the trust under Brent's direction, we want to evolve the trust into a self-sustaining organization with long-term value and viability," said Marshall. "We plan to do this by focusing on four key priorities: strengthening our online community; creating mentorship opportunities between young adults and veteran professionals; enabling product and service development around young adults; and, hosting a limited number of crash events."


text:
with the internet buzzing about Gasol's diminishing performance, there were numerous propositions to trade Jose Calderon and Andrea Bargnani for Gasol. Here are the reasons, in my opinion, why that would not be a good idea for Toronto Raptors:
1. Purpose and Production: analysts on 'Yahoo Sports' contend that shift to power forward playing position has deteriorated gasol's game. He has no required athleticism, perimeter shot' or required explosiveness. While paired with Bynum, he was able to change in between the center and PF positions, and compensate for his deficiencies. When paired with a true center, traditional, stationery, and single dimensional, such as Howard, Gasol obviously shows that he can not match his previous year's productivity numbers.
2. Sense of Entitlement: Early in his career, with Memphis, Gasol complained in public and demanded a trade. He sulked, pouted, and disrespected his club. What do you think will be his attitude in Toronto? I also predict he would turn into an exclusive jump shooter, and we already have plenty of those (latest 3 point perimeter shooting addition to the roster: Amir Johnson). Furthermore, playing on Lakers comes with perks: getting full body-guard like protection from NBA refs is important one. That can not be said for Toronto - we have been deprived of the fair officiating for years now. Documented.
3. Personality: abbrasive, dismissive, and difficult to coach. I would never give up on Jose for Pau. Would consider a trade for Marc Gasol, though.
4. More pressing Need: give Valanciunas chance. We have Amir and Ed, and sometimes Bargnani there. What we need is a star wing player, so if we are keen to trade Bargain, package him for Josh Smith, Rudy Gay, or Gerald Wallace type of a player.


text:
Diego State University researchers have found that
pollutants released from cigarette smoke may linger longer within a
home than previously thought, holding a presence long after the
smoker has moved out.
E. Matt, study leader and a professor of psychology at San Diego
State University, along with a team of researchers, has discovered
that cigarette smoke pollutants can attach to home surfaces and slip
into crevices for long periods of time after the smoker has already
moved out. Then, when non-smokers move in, they could potentially
absorb these toxic chemicals.
oily, sticky droplets hang around for months after a smoker has
left," said Matt. "While there was considerably less in
homes once an active smoker moved out, there was still 10 to 20
percent of what was found while the smoker still lived there."
pollutants have been dubbed "thirdhand smoke," and despite
the fact that the home has been vacant for months and even cleaned
after a smoker has left, the thirdhand smoke remains and can affect a
new non-smoking occupant.
came to this conclusion after studying the homes of 100 smokers and
50 non-smokers who were planning to move out. Nicotine levels were
used as a "marker" for any other chemical residues that
come from tobacco
smoke. Chemicals on the walls, ceilings, floors and other
surfaces were measured as well as the air. They even searched for
nicotine on the residents' fingertips in all 150 homes as well as a
nicotine breakdown product, cotinine, within urine samples of
non-smokers then moved into homes that were previously owned by
smokers, and researchers again checked nicotine/chemical residues
throughout the homes, on fingertips and in urine. After careful
measurements, researchers concluded that nicotine
levels in the air throughout the homes, which were
vacant for two months after the smokers moved out, were 35 to 98
times as high "as they were in non-smoker homes." As far as
surfaces go, nicotine levels were 30 to 150 times as high in the
former smokers' homes compared to the homes of non-smokers.
testing for nicotine on fingertips, non-smokers who moved into the
homes of smokers had nicotine levels seven to eight times higher than
those who stayed in non-smoking homes. Children's urine contained
nicotine levels three to five times higher than those in non-smoking
a certain threshold level, you can smell it," said Matt. "And
if you can smell it, that means you're inhaling these compounds and
they're going into
your lungs. So smelling is a good indicator though it's not a
super sensitive one."
advise those who live in a previous smokers' home to keep surfaces as
clean as possible, and to keep children's hands clean.
study was published in the journal Tobacco


text:
Manufacturers are preparing for
upcoming CAFE changes which will require corporate fleets to average
34.1 mpg by 2016. As a result, a number of auto manufactures are
turning to direct injection, turbocharging, hybrid
technology, and full
electrics to boost their fleet fuel economy.
General Motors is taking a big step,
according to GM
Inside News, to improve the fuel economy of its bread and
butter midsize sedans. The next generation Chevrolet Malibu (due out
as a 2012 model) will reportedly only be available with four-cylinder
The current generation Malibu is
available with a four-cylinder base engine and an optional
six-cylinder engine like most other midsize sedans on the market.
It's likely, however, that the next Malibu will use two new
four-cylinder engines featuring direct injection technology -- the base
engine will be normally aspirated while the uprated motor will be
GM already uses this approach with the
new 2011 Buick Regal. The base Regal is available with a 2.4-liter
four-cylinder engine producing 182 hp and 172 lb-ft of torque. An
optional 2.0-liter turbo four-cylinder engine producing 220 hp and
258 lb-ft of torque will be made available later in the model year.
An even more potent Regal GS will come later next year with an
uprated turbo four producing 250+ hp.
Another manufacturer that is going
four-cylinder-only is Hyundai (along with its accompanying Kia
brand). The 2010 Sonata is currently only available with a 2.4-liter
four-cylinder engine (24/35 mpg). The 2011 Sonata will be available
with a 2.0-liter turbo four cylinder which outpowers and outgrunts
the optional V6s in other midsize sedans while delivering 22 mpg in the
city and 34 mpg on the highway. Both powertrains will also make their
way into the upcoming 2011 Kia Optima.
Toyota's Camry and Honda's Accord are
both due for complete redesigns within the next two years, so it
would be interesting to see if they too go for a top to bottom
four-cylinder engine lineup.


text:
Credit Unions Succeed Where Banks Fail
Some credit unions are betting they can succeed where banks have failed.
Research firm SNL Financial reported banks and thrifts shut 2,267 branches in 2012. AlixPartners Consultants said it figures those closings pared the nation's bank branch list to some 93,000 locations. What's more, the firm said it expects the count to continue falling to 90,000 over the next decade, which would put it back to 2000 levels.
But people in small towns like Alburgh, Vt., are much more focused on the local picture. When People's United Bank closed its branch in the small community of about 2,000 people in April 2012, it left the border town with no brick and mortar bank presence.
Then North Country Credit Union, a $230 million institution headquartered in South Burlington, moved in.
"We had a branching strategy that did not include going to Alburgh," said Robert Cowie, vice president of operations. "But we were part of the solicitation by the community group. What resonated mostly with us was that there was not a financial institution branch within about 15 miles. Any community looking to remain economically viable or to improve the general financial status needed an institution in town."
"Once we realized nobody else was willing to step up, we did," Cowie continued. "We approached People's United to buy their building. They originally said they wouldn't sell it to another financial institution, but pressure from the community caused them to change their mind. We bought the building but we did not buy deposits, we did not buy loans."
North Country put a fresh coat of paint on the office and hired almost the entire staff that had worked for the bank.
Cowie chuckled as he explained the resulting employee culture shock.
"They moved from an environment that was attempting to maximize earnings to one that focused on giving back and was a bit more generous than they were used to," he said.
Additionaly, the bank had only extended credit to A and B borrowers, while the credit union took more credit risks.
Cowie said the community has very much embraced the credit union, and the move created good will throughout Vermont.
But does the branch make sense from a hardnosed business sense? Can the credit union branch survive where the bank failed?
"I don't know what the bank's minimum profitability thresholds were," Cowie said. "We had a profitability analysis, and our goal was to break even within the first two years. We have far exceeded that."
The challenge, he added, is to book enough viable member business loans. Many applications come from entrepreneurs lacking sufficient reserves or capital to meet North Country standards. Mortgages and other consumer lending activity have fallen into place.
Next Page: In Rhode Island
Another example of a credit union succeeding where banks bailed out occurred in Pascoag, R.I. Last year a Bank of America branch closed there, leaving Rhode Island Credit Union as the town's only financial institution. RICU, with $246 million in assets, is headquartered in Providence.
Gina DePalo, vice president of branch administration and marketing at RICU, noted the credit union has maintained a profitable full-service branch in Pascoag for more than 33 years.
"It's always been a successful location for us," DePalo said. "Our products and loan offerings are more than competitive. There's always limited competition in that area. Some other credit unions have come into the vicinity now, but not in the same town. For decades it was us and Bank of America. You couldn't have two more opposite choices. We wondered how Bank of America was surviving, and we weren't surprised when they closed. We gained, and they lost."
DePalo added the credit union branch has seen membership grow since Bank of America closed. Most of the Pascoag staff lives in the community and almost all have worked in that location for more than 25 years. In fact, DePalo said when she visits the branch, members will whisper to each other, "Who's that?"
"The benefits of operating in a small town certainly outweigh any challenges," she said. "We have generations of members from great grandparents to their great grandchildren."
Rhode Island Credit Union's Pascoag Branch Manager JoAnna Zackarian assists a member. Gina DePalo, vice president of branch administration and marketing, said the location has always been a successful one for the credit union.
Jamie Chase, founding partner of CU Strategic Planning in Tacoma, Wash., believes credit unions can indeed succeed in locations abandoned by banks.
She said she sees two factors at work. First there's the credit union philosophy which virtually anyone involved can recite—not for profit, not for charity, but for service. Second, credit unions can operate on a margin banks would not accept. It's the difference between maximizing profit and operating sustainably to provide service.
"It's a very different proposition than operating a profit maximizing bank," Chase said.
The challenge is the resource investment required, she continued. That investment can be in staff or technology. The credit union must decide what its goal is in that market. The areas unserved by banks are often rural areas with a lower income and population base.
That could be an obstacle for a credit union, Chase said. One option she suggested was to send either a part-time or full-time employee to the community at least one day a week. That would cut the need for capital investment and align staff costs with community needs, she added.
It's often said it's tough for small credit unions to put money into sophisticated technology. But Chase said many credit unions under $50 million in assets are making extensive use of technology such as on-line loan and membership applications.
"We have credit unions under $100 million in assets that have six times the ROA," Chase said.
Chase recalls working with a credit union in a small community in Hawaii where the nearest bank or credit union was an hour and a half away. A walk-up teller window met the need.
Not all areas seeking banking services are small towns.
Jim Wells, president of Wellspring Consulting in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., said in 2003 he received a call from a community group in southwest Baltimore. First Union Bank had closed its last branch seven years earlier, leaving the neighborhood with no financial institution.
Wells worked with community leaders to reach out to various banks and credit unions, discussing programs such as mobile branches. Nobody was interested. Then an alliance was formed between the community group, Social Security Administration, Baltimore Credit Union and a check-cashing firm.
"It was an alliance that had something for everyone," Wells said.