Braille Reading Pals Club E-Newsletter February 2013

Braille Reading Pals Club E-Newsletter February 2013

The Braille Pals BuzzVolume 4, Issue 2What’s Buzzing with the NFB Braille Pals Team?The NFBJI is excited to announce that our NFB Braille Enrichment for Literacy and Learning (BELL) Program will once again be expanding this year. This summer, in addition to veteran states Colorado, Utah, Maryland, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Virginia, North Carolina, Texas, Idaho, and Georgia, NFB BELL programs will also be hosted in California, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Indiana, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Ohio, and Illinois. BELL is a two-week program for blind or low vision students who could benefit from additional Braille instruction over the summer. In addition to Braille instruction, students in the program have the opportunity to learn other alternative skills of blindness, such as cane travel and age appropriate cooking skills. For more information about this tremendous program, contact Meleah Jensen by calling (410) 659-9314, extension 2418, or send an e-mail to [email protected]. You may also visit the BELL Web site for more information. Please note that in early March we will have more specific information such as date, cost, and location posted for each state’s program(s).If you have any questions about Braille Reading Pals Club, please don’t hesitate to contact Tim Jones at [email protected] or (410) 659-9314, extension 2312.Read Across AmericaDr. Seuss’s birthday, which occurs in early March, has long been a day to celebrate literacy and sit down to enjoy a book with a budding reader. In the words of Dr. Seuss, "You're never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read with a child."This year Read Across America will be celebrated on March 1st in classrooms around the country. As in years past, the NFB will be joining other literacy enthusiasts and promoting literacy—particularly Braille literacy—on March 1st. Join in the fun and spread the good news about Braille by doing the following:READ Dr. Seuss! This is what this day is all about. You can find Dr. Seuss books in Braille online to download at Bookshare or from NLS, and you can find hardcopy Braille books at National Braille Press.Tell us about what you are reading! Whether you are reading Dr. Seuss or not, we still want to hear about it. Post about it on Facebook and Twitter using the hashtags #Braille and #NEAReads (the official Read Across America hashtag). You can talk about what you are reading, suggest books, ask for suggestions, post about why you love Braille and why it is important, or about anything else. We want to hear from you!Send in pictures of you or your child reading a Braille book near landmarks or other identifiable places. We want to show the world that blind people read Braille across America by showcasing pictures of Braille readers in the desert, on a beach, at Disney World, at the Grand Canyon, and the like. Chosen pictures will be posted on nfb.org, on the NFB’s Facebook page, and tweeted by @NFB_Voice.Send us a video of your child reading Braille or showcasing how you will celebrate Dr. Seuss’s birthday. A selection of the submitted videos will be posted on Facebook, the NFB’s YouTube channel, and tweeted by @NFB_Voice. Have fun, get creative, and show the world why Braille rocks!We are looking forward to celebrating Read Across America and promoting Braille with you this year on March 1st! Learn more about how the NFB is celebrating Braille, Read Across America, and Dr. Seuss’s birthday at www.nfb.org/read-across-america. Don’t forget to submit your pictures and videos as well!Literacy Hints from the HiveThis month’s hint comes from Edutopia, also known as the George Lucas Educational Foundation. The vision of Edutopia is to “empower parents, students, educators, and policy makers to change education for the better.” Parent Involvement in Early Literacy is a blog post from Edutopia, which highlights the important role that parents play as reading role models for their children. This post builds on last month’s Hints from the Hive by citing recent research to support the effectiveness of the activities it suggests parents engage in with their young readers.Have you read an article or blog post about early literacy or Braille that you’ve found particularly useful? Share it with us so we can share it with others who read this newsletter.Sweet Sweet BrailleThere are many places you can go for Braille books. While we post links to where you can find our reviewed books, and you can always find information on this topic in the Books for Busy Bees section of this newsletter, we thought it might be useful to compile a list of direct links to a few of our favorite places to go for Braille books.The American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults operates the Free Braille Books Program. Through this program children will receive a new Braille title each month. The books are theirs to keep for as long as they would like.The National Library Service offers both Braille and audio books. You may order hardcopy Braille books or, if your child has a refreshable Braille Display, you can download brf files directly from the BARD site. Not signed up? No worries; there’s a link to the application on the web site.Bookshare is another online service where you can download brf files. In addition to the brf files, you may also request hard-copies of books from the collection. There is a yearly subscription fee, however, if your child is school-age, he or she can get access to the site at no cost. If your child is not yet in school, cost for a subscription is fifty dollars a year, plus a one-time sign-up fee of twenty-five dollars. This might sound expensive, but if your child is an avid reader, the membership will more than pay for itself.Lastly, there are a variety of places where hard-copy Braille books may be purchased, including: National Braille Press, Seedlings, and the Braille Bookstore. While perusing the shelves of these online bookstores, you will notice many similarities. All of the aforementioned retailers carry a variety of titles for children of all ages, from board and beginning reader books for young children to chapter books for more advanced readers. If you’re looking for Twin Vision books (books with print and Braille that contain pictures), check out Seedlings or National Braille Press as they have a wide variety of Twin Vision titles. In addition to Braille books, all three places carry a variety of other fun Braille products such as calendars and Braille greeting cards, including valentines for children to share with friends.Do you have a favorite place to get Braille that wasn’t included on our list? If you answered yes to this question, please pass along the information by sending an e-mail to [email protected]. We at the hive believe you can never have enough books and are always looking for new resources for Braille books!Braille Book ReviewDear DeerBy Gene BarrettaAvailable from National Braille PressDear Deer is a fun and simple way to introduce your child to homophones and homonyms. In this story we follow Aunt Ant who has recently moved to the zoo. She shares her observations about the strange behaviors of some of the other animals at the zoo with her friend Dear Deer by speaking in homophones. After reading the story, have your child write a story of their own using some of the homophones from Dear Deer, or if they are able, have them include additional homophones not mentioned in the story.Buzzes and TweetsText2Give:The NFB has launched the Text2Give program, a fundraising effort focused on improving education and technology for blind Americans. The effort also supports other NFB initiatives. The Text2Give program enables anyone with a cellular telephone to immediately give a $10 contribution by text message. The contributions will go to the NFB Imagination Fund, which supports the education, technology, and research projects of the NFB Jernigan Institute, as well as programs conducted by the fifty-two affiliates and over seven hundred local chapters of the Federation. The Imagination Fund supports a number of innovative programs. For example, some programs encourage blind youth to participate in scientific careers while others help seniors adjust to vision loss. By encouraging friends, family, and others to text the word NFB to 85944, you can help raise critical funds for NFB programs at the local, state, and national level.Follow NFB_Voice on Twitter to get news and information from the National Federation of the Blind.Follow BrailleLiteracy on Twitter to get timely Braille news, information, and tips.Become a friend of NFB Whozit on Facebook to stay current with all the new things happening at the NFB Jernigan Institute.Books for Busy BeesSighted children have access to print books all around them. It is important to offer our blind children the same exposure. Here are several sources for obtaining Braille books:The Braille Storybook Resources page has a comprehensive list of sources for Braille books.NFB ShareBraille is a free service that facilitates the exchange of Braille books through a community-run library. Go online to trade your Braille books or to request books from other NFB ShareBraille users.The American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults (AAF)offers selected popular children’s reading series (currently Jigsaw Jones Mystery® chapter books for grades 2-4; Matt Christopher sports books for grades 5 and up; and a sampler set of chapter books from five different series including SpongeBob SquarePants®, Franny K. Stein, Mad Scientist, My Weird School, and Ready Freddy). These books are available free to blind children, teachers, libraries, etc. Books are mailed out every month so that blind children can have them at the same time that sighted children can buy the books in the bookstore. For more information please contact:American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults (AAF)Free Braille Books Program1800 Johnson StreetBaltimore, MD 21230Phone: (410) 659-9314, extension 2287Fax (410) 659-5129E-mail: [email protected] National Federation of the Blind Independence Market offers blindness-related literature, resources, and products as a service to individuals who are blind or experiencing vision loss, to their friends and families, and to the general public. For more information please contact:NFB Independence Market200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place,Baltimore, MD 21230Phone: (410) 659-9314, extension 2216Fax: (410) 685-2340E-mail: [email protected] the Market online at: http://www.nfb.org/independence-marketThe Braille Reading Pals Club is sponsored in part by the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children (NOPBC) and the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults (AAF). For more information please contact:NFB Braille Reading Pals ClubJernigan Institute, National Federation of the Blind200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place,Baltimore, MD 21230Phone: (410) 659-9314; Fax: (410) 659-5129E-mail: [email protected] us at www.nfb.orgPlease send an email to [email protected] to update any and all contact information for the 2013 program.