I know that I am hardly the first person to have read this book, and now that it has won the National Book Award, I am pretty certain I won't be the last.
I really enjoyed this book. However, I felt that the illustrations took something away from it. On the otherhand I was able to get some of my reluctant reader middle school students to pick up this book and read it *because* of the illustrations.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Monday, November 17, 2008
evaluation of a website
As a media specialist one of the goals I have is to educate my students so that they are *intelligent* users of he internet. As we all know the internet is full of bogus websites and stuff that is just plain incorrect.
So I have used Kathy Shrocks' and Discovery Education lesson plans on the subjects and modified them to fit my students needs.
You can find the originals here.
I spend a fair amount of time looking for bogus webpages that will not only entertain my students but also show them how hard it can be to establish if a website is a valid source for internet research.
So I have used Kathy Shrocks' and Discovery Education lesson plans on the subjects and modified them to fit my students needs.
You can find the originals here.
I spend a fair amount of time looking for bogus webpages that will not only entertain my students but also show them how hard it can be to establish if a website is a valid source for internet research.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
book talks
I like to do book talks, but I struggle with how to do them effectively. Ultimately I want to interest the student in the book and yet at the same time not tell the complete story. I also want to be able to more than 3-4 book talks in a period. I find my most effective book talks are when I take the time to put together a powerpoint presentation. It is a lot of work, and I spend a fair amount of time finding copies of the covers and getting the main idea of the book into a simple format. I do believe it is worth it, and it is one of my goals this year to do more booktalks this way.
I am getting better because I have read so many of the books in my library, but to increase the number of books I can talk about I use some of the following websites as shortcuts.
http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/tradebooks/booktalks.htm
http://booktalker.blogspot.com/
I am getting better because I have read so many of the books in my library, but to increase the number of books I can talk about I use some of the following websites as shortcuts.
http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/tradebooks/booktalks.htm
http://booktalker.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Start of the school year.
The school year started today, and I am excited.
We have had many changes in my library over the summer. We have increased the number of shelving, and now need to purchase more books to fill up all that empty space.
We are also re-organizing. I want to make it easier for my students to find books of a certain genre in the library. So I am now going to shelve them by genre more or less. (This would be very difficult to do with a large library, and it makes it easy to understand why my local public library only separates for genre the paperback books. ) My library is a pretty good size for this activity, but even so I think it will take all year.
As for lesson plans - We are very big on Science Fair at my school, every student needs to do one in 6, 7, and 8th grade. So beyond the introductions we are going to have students look at books that have suggested Science Fair projects in it. I am going to put 5 books per table, and have students every student have 2-3 minutes per book, and then pass them around the room. When every student at that table has looked at all the books we will then change tables.
We have had many changes in my library over the summer. We have increased the number of shelving, and now need to purchase more books to fill up all that empty space.
We are also re-organizing. I want to make it easier for my students to find books of a certain genre in the library. So I am now going to shelve them by genre more or less. (This would be very difficult to do with a large library, and it makes it easy to understand why my local public library only separates for genre the paperback books. ) My library is a pretty good size for this activity, but even so I think it will take all year.
As for lesson plans - We are very big on Science Fair at my school, every student needs to do one in 6, 7, and 8th grade. So beyond the introductions we are going to have students look at books that have suggested Science Fair projects in it. I am going to put 5 books per table, and have students every student have 2-3 minutes per book, and then pass them around the room. When every student at that table has looked at all the books we will then change tables.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
The purpose of a library...
I've been debating posting this. I had decided to post, and then not to post. Ultimately I've decided to post, after all this is *my* blog.
My internal debate started with the question of why I had to house the items in my collection within the four walls that defined my library. My thinking was that it is better for my students to get the materials out of the library and into their hands. A librarian in another district pointed out that I was actually doing my students a disservice, since I was only engaging them in the most basic of thinking skills, whereas forcing a student to think through the problem entirely, and come to the conclusion that they needed look the information up in a book *and* that to get that book they needed to travel to the library. Now since I don't think well on my feet I agreed with her that the process of a student looking up the information in a book is not a higher order thinking skill, however I was not convinced that I needed to house my entire collection within the library proper.
My reasoning is this; in the 21st century we, as teacher librarians, are educating a generation of individuals who are digital natives. A quick poll of my classroom reveals that more than 90% of my students have had computers in their home (and were using them) since they were toddlers. Add to that the fact that in the next 6 years the availability of hand-held wireless devices, and free wireless networks across the nation will skyrocket, and you end up with the first generation that will carry the internet with them everywhere. These students will be able to carry an entire library reference section in their pocket. Consequently *I* believe that it is more important to teach my students of the alternatives to the internet, the ethical issues internet usage has, and the ability to determine valid and unvalid internet sources. To do this I first need to teach them to even think of books as a viable source of information. (again an informal poll of my students - suggests that the first source they even think of is the internet.) That means getting books into their hands on a regular basis, not just available in the library when they need it, but there in the classroom, right next to the internet connected computer.
My internal debate started with the question of why I had to house the items in my collection within the four walls that defined my library. My thinking was that it is better for my students to get the materials out of the library and into their hands. A librarian in another district pointed out that I was actually doing my students a disservice, since I was only engaging them in the most basic of thinking skills, whereas forcing a student to think through the problem entirely, and come to the conclusion that they needed look the information up in a book *and* that to get that book they needed to travel to the library. Now since I don't think well on my feet I agreed with her that the process of a student looking up the information in a book is not a higher order thinking skill, however I was not convinced that I needed to house my entire collection within the library proper.
My reasoning is this; in the 21st century we, as teacher librarians, are educating a generation of individuals who are digital natives. A quick poll of my classroom reveals that more than 90% of my students have had computers in their home (and were using them) since they were toddlers. Add to that the fact that in the next 6 years the availability of hand-held wireless devices, and free wireless networks across the nation will skyrocket, and you end up with the first generation that will carry the internet with them everywhere. These students will be able to carry an entire library reference section in their pocket. Consequently *I* believe that it is more important to teach my students of the alternatives to the internet, the ethical issues internet usage has, and the ability to determine valid and unvalid internet sources. To do this I first need to teach them to even think of books as a viable source of information. (again an informal poll of my students - suggests that the first source they even think of is the internet.) That means getting books into their hands on a regular basis, not just available in the library when they need it, but there in the classroom, right next to the internet connected computer.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Research Lesson - game day
I acutally turned this lesson into two parts
day one - the creation of the questions
day two - the answering of the questions
On day one I sit five students at a table and give them a pile of reference books (atlas, dictionary, guiness book world records, encyclopedias, and a number of random non-fiction books)
I ask each student to write 5 different questions using the books in front of them (on a 3x5 card - with the answers on the back.) I have organized the books on the tables, labeled them and generally prepped the lesson so that on day two I can be sure that the students know what set of seven books the question originated from.
On day two I will read the questions to the students and have them decide A - what book they should look the answer up in, and B - how to look up the answer (what would the "keyword" be, and would it be better to look in the table of contents, the glossary, the index.. etc. They then would find and answer the question.
Assessment: For the purpose of this project the assessment is purely teacher observation & verbal questioning. The verbal questioning allows me to hit some of the aasl standards about self-aware assessment.
(aasl standards: 1.1.4, 1.1.5, 1.1.7, 1.4.1, 1.4.2, 1.4.4, 3.1.3, 3.2.3, 3.3.1, 4.4.4)
day one - the creation of the questions
day two - the answering of the questions
On day one I sit five students at a table and give them a pile of reference books (atlas, dictionary, guiness book world records, encyclopedias, and a number of random non-fiction books)
I ask each student to write 5 different questions using the books in front of them (on a 3x5 card - with the answers on the back.) I have organized the books on the tables, labeled them and generally prepped the lesson so that on day two I can be sure that the students know what set of seven books the question originated from.
On day two I will read the questions to the students and have them decide A - what book they should look the answer up in, and B - how to look up the answer (what would the "keyword" be, and would it be better to look in the table of contents, the glossary, the index.. etc. They then would find and answer the question.
Assessment: For the purpose of this project the assessment is purely teacher observation & verbal questioning. The verbal questioning allows me to hit some of the aasl standards about self-aware assessment.
(aasl standards: 1.1.4, 1.1.5, 1.1.7, 1.4.1, 1.4.2, 1.4.4, 3.1.3, 3.2.3, 3.3.1, 4.4.4)
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Boolean Logic
Simple one day lesson on searching.
I can relate it to the BIG 6 by relating it to step one and step two (Task Definition and Information Seeking Strategies.)
It meets the new library standards 1.1.2, 1.1.3, 1.1.4, 1.1.5, 1.1.5, 2.1.4, 2.4.1, 4.1.4.
(this lesson strongly leans on the www.libraryinstruction.com/boolean.html lesson.)
Start by asking the question: What type of people learn Karate (with my 7th and 8th graders I used Tattoos.
I have students list 10 ideas, and then share them with others at their table.
Each table then ends up with 2 answers that we put on the board.
I then use this opportunity to talk about how this question is not a very focused question, and how if I type it into a typical search engine the results number in the millions. (This is an opportunity to talk about the big six - and how focusing your research question makes searching and hitting your target easier.)
I then introduce basic boolean logic (AND, NOT, OR and "")
This is the hard part, and we then end up spending the rest of the class showing how a search can be changed into a boolean statement.
The next day would be review, and a worksheet for them to fill out.
I have done this the last two days and it works well. Not all of my students are getting the idea in one class period, so I will have to review during a second day. This review will probably be most helpful in front of a computer.
I can relate it to the BIG 6 by relating it to step one and step two (Task Definition and Information Seeking Strategies.)
It meets the new library standards 1.1.2, 1.1.3, 1.1.4, 1.1.5, 1.1.5, 2.1.4, 2.4.1, 4.1.4.
(this lesson strongly leans on the www.libraryinstruction.com/boolean.html lesson.)
Start by asking the question: What type of people learn Karate (with my 7th and 8th graders I used Tattoos.
I have students list 10 ideas, and then share them with others at their table.
Each table then ends up with 2 answers that we put on the board.
I then use this opportunity to talk about how this question is not a very focused question, and how if I type it into a typical search engine the results number in the millions. (This is an opportunity to talk about the big six - and how focusing your research question makes searching and hitting your target easier.)
I then introduce basic boolean logic (AND, NOT, OR and "")
This is the hard part, and we then end up spending the rest of the class showing how a search can be changed into a boolean statement.
The next day would be review, and a worksheet for them to fill out.
I have done this the last two days and it works well. Not all of my students are getting the idea in one class period, so I will have to review during a second day. This review will probably be most helpful in front of a computer.
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