A Reading-Maker Book Festival

Here I am, for the seventh time, at the annual Chappaqua Children's Book Festival.  I'm holding a poster for my two newest books in a series called STEM Play.  They are literately "hot-off-the-press" and this was my first view of the finished books.  What a thrill!  Chappaqua, in Westchester County, NY, is a town that values education and reading and attracts the same kind of crowd at their Festival.  Last year we had 7,000 visitors, but there were more this year and it was a joy to meet so many families with the interest and money to invest in their children's education.  

The public schools here are excellent and the students take the standardized tests.  Even so it creates anxiety for good readers.  At the end of the Festival, Alexandra Siy and I presented a program on "Slaying the Standardized Testing Dragon."  We made a bookmark with the help of our pal Jan Adkins.  And we prepared a handout with a strategy for creating life-long learners who love to read books.  I'm hoping that you find this useful.     iNK Think Tank’s Strategy or “Secret Sauce”*Go to www.nonfictionminute.org*Scroll down the “Categories” on the right to find a topic that               interests you.*Choose a Nonfiction Minute to read.  If you are not a strong reader, click on the arrow on the player when it is blue and listen to the author read his/her Minute aloud.*Plan to keep reading Nonfiction Minutes on a regular basis. *Click on the T2T icon to see what the Minutes can teach you.*Make a list of the subjects you have to learn at school. *Go to iNK Database and register.  Use the database to search for lists of books on the subjects you have to learn about in school.      http://inkthinktank.org/search/register.cfm*Go to the library and take out books on those subjects.  Read the first paragraph. If the book doesn’t grab you, don’t read it. Pick another.  *Only read books you like to read even if they seem hard at first.​TO BECOME A READER, YOU MUST READ WIDELY (NONFICTION MINUTES) AND DEEPLY (BOOKS ON SUBJECTS THAT INTEREST YOU).
Reading is the most intimate way to connect your mind to another person’s mind.  In time, reading will become a life-long habit that you cannot live without.  The standardized test will become easy. No sweat at all!!!