Since its debut a few months ago, Iserotope Extras — where I share good articles that I’m reading and tell you what I think about them — has approached 2,000 visitors.
If you haven’t visited Extras, you should! It’s a pretty good collection of articles about teaching, reading, and technology (plus some bonus stuff). Don’t be shy! There are four ways to get there:
- Go to the top of the blog, right below the banner, and click Iserotope Extras.
- Go to the top of the right sidebar and click Iserotope Extras.
- Go to the bottom of the right sidebar and check out recent articles.
- Go directly to Extras by clicking here.
Powered by Snip.it, a service that lets you collect the best of the web (and has donated a Kindle to The Kindle Classroom Project!), Iserotope Extras also offers an easy way for you to share your opinions, too. Not too many people have shared comments yet, but I welcome your thoughts.
Here are a few of the articles I’ve recently snipped:
- “The Myth of American Meritocracy,” by Ron Unz
This is a long and controversial article. Californians, do you remember Ron Unz? He’s the guy who supported Proposition 227, which limited bilingual education. Now he’s arguing that elite universities like Harvard are discriminating against Asians in their admissions. Unlike in the past, too many Jews are being admitted, he says.
- “For Poor, Leap to College Often Leads to a Hard Fall,” by Jason DeParle
This is a heartbreaking article about three young, lower-income Latinas who graduated from high school in 2008 but have not yet graduated from college. Mr. DeParle reports that a variety of factors — economic and social — make it much harder for poor students to become the first in their families to earn a college degree.
- “Young Latino Students Don’t See Themselves in Books,” by Motoko Rich
I believe in independent reading, where students get to choose the books they read. It’s much better than making students always read teacher-assigned stuff. But a huge problem of children and young adult literature is that it’s heavily for White students. A recent study, in fact, concluded that just 3 percent of children’s books were by Latina/o authors or about Latina/o protagonists.
You see all the great reading you could be doing? And you don’t even have to scour the Internet to find it! All you have to do is visit or subscribe to Iserotope Extras!