Skip to main content

AdLit News Headlines

AdLit gathers interesting news headlines about literacy, middle grade and YA books, best practices in instruction, and other key topics related to middle school and high school teaching and learning.

Get the headlines sent to you weekly!

To receive the week’s stories, sign up for the AdLit Weekly Headlines —it’s free!

Note that links may expire after a week or so, and some websites require you to register first before seeing an article. AdLit does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in outside publications or their websites.

LA Arts Education Group Fights Falling Literacy Rates Through Poetry (opens in a new window)

EdSource

April 15, 2024

Amid a deepening literacy crisis, Get Lit spreads a love of literature through spoken word poetry and performance. Founded by actor/writer Diane Luby Lane in 2006, Get Lit, which recently received $1 million from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, teaches classical poetry as well as empowers children and teens to write their own poems in over 150 Los Angeles schools, instilling a love of language in a generation often struggling with literacy.

As NYC’s Literacy Mandate Expands Citywide, Some School Communities Are Pushing Back (opens in a new window)

Chalkbeat

April 12, 2024

Educators at elementary schools across the city have been required to adopt one of three reading programs, part of a mandate under schools Chancellor David Banks to boost literacy rates by flushing out popular but increasingly discredited programs. There has been little organized opposition to the reading curriculum overhaul, as many literacy experts, the city’s teachers union, and several major education advocacy groups have supported it. But resistance may grow louder as the city has required all local districts to adopt the new reading programs by September.

Can SEL Help Students Curb Their Own Cellphone Use? (opens in a new window)

EdWeek

April 02, 2024

The problem, say experts, is that adolescents are uniquely vulnerable to the siren song of cellphones. This is where social-emotional learning might help: Educators can teach students the social-emotional skills they need to help break their addictive, unhealthy phone habits.

“It was better than a boring textbook”: Using Middle Grade Novels in an Adolescent Development Course (opens in a new window)

School Library Journal

February 27, 2024

University students are sometimes reluctant to read the formal, often-lengthy textbooks required of them. Rather than traditional textbook reading, a professor decided to allow undergraduate university students enrolled in an Adolescent Development course to explore content by reading and discussing notable literature selections.