This week in the library

We are continuing our Google Search activities in 4th grade classes, using the laptop cart computers so students each have their own for searching themselves.  I used part of the Google Search Education lesson on Beginning Search, working on identifying keywords in questions, so students aren't typing entire questions into the search box.  My favorite example comes from the Google A Day website (where anyone can test their online searching skills), modified a bit for our use:

How long was Galloping Gertie in miles, and where was it located?

Students had a lot of fun finding out that Galloping Gertie was in the place where the current Tacoma Narrows Bridge is located.  They also learned that Google can do math for them, conversions and other calculations.  We also watch a few minutes of a YouTube video showing Galloping Gertie collapsing , so a little local history was included in the lesson.

The big news of the week is that kindergarten students get to check out this week!  They have been looking forward to this for a few weeks.  We have been learning about book care, what not to do (let your little sister color on a book or leave a book out in the rain), and how to turn pages carefully.  We will read "Walter's Magic Wand" on Thursday and Friday and students will color and take home their own magic wand.  Magic happens in the library, you just need your imagination!

In 3rd grade I read "The Library Dragon" by Carmen Agra Deedy and wore my own dragon tail to reveal at the end of storytime.  I just can't read enough books about libraries and librarians.

We are all still learning how to find books that are a good fit for us.  I talked with the older students about Lexile (word frequency and sentence length, what it is and what it isn't, and why it is not the only measurement they need to use to choose a good book.  I showed three examples of books that on the surface didn't match their Lexile levels, a picture book by Chris Van Allsburg that is 820L, and some fiction with over 200 pages that came in around 420L.  Don't judge a book by its cover was the message for the week.  Using all the things available to choose a good book is necessary: read the summaries, look at reviews, ask a friend, check the Lexile, and pick a book that interests or challenges you.  This is a lifelong skill, when I am at the library I am not looking for a book at my Lexile level, I'm looking for a book I want to read that will interest or challenge me.

Book talks

This week is a short week, with half days on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday for parent conferences.  My goal this week is to get good books into kids' hands so they can read during their non-school hours.  I know they won't all do this, but the more good reading material they have around, the better chance they will pick it up on Thursday afternoon at 12:30 when they are done eating lunch.

In sixth grade classes I am booktalking books I read recently or have reviews from my Book a Day blog from the past two summers.  Notice I didn't reach my goal of reading a book a day, summer activities and family tend to get in the way of that, but I did read some good books that I can share with students.

For the 5th grade HiCap class, I booktalked Animal Fiction (defined as either being from the point of view of the animal, e.g. The One and Only Ivan, which they just finished reading as a read aloud in class; or defined as having animals as central to the story, e.g. Julie and the Wolves or My Side of the Mountain).  This was a genre I struggled with the past few weeks when students asked for recommendations.  I knew we had them, I knew I had read them, but I was having trouble finding them on the spur of the moment.  I really wanted them to move beyond the Erin Hunter series Warriors, which most of them have already read.

Once I started really doing some research and scouring the shelves, I found lots of books to share with them.  Some old favorites, some classics, some newer books, and a good variety that they all clamored to check out when I was doing booktalking them.  Some students ended up doing Rock, Paper, Scissors to decide who got to check out Lion Boy and a few other popular titles.

My list for now (so I have a reference point next time this genre comes up!):

• Lion Boy by Corder
• Snow Dog by Kjelgaard
• Canyon Winter by Morey
• Owls in the Family by Mowat
• Julie of the Wolves by George
• The Incident at Hawk's Hill
• The Tale of Despereaux by DiCamillo
• The Guardians of Ga'Hoole series by Lasky
• Wolves of Beyond by Lasky
• Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
• Whittington by Armstrong
• My Side of the Mountain by George
• Summer of the Monkeys by Rawls
• Where the Red Fern Grows by Rawls
• Old Yeller by Gipson
• Poppy series by Avi
• Call of the Wild by London
• White Fang by London
• Black Beauty by Sewell
• Misty of Chincoteague by Henry
• The Black Stallion by Farley

Organizing the library by Dewey Decimals

An article was just posted in School Library Journal, "Are Dewey's Days Numbered?" one of many recently stating that they were doing away with the Dewey Decimal system to mirror a bookstore organization by subject, saying "we felt as if our library was focused on finding materials rather than actually using them."  Whenever I see these articles I think again about our library's organization and if it is meeting the needs of staff and students.  The interesting point to ponder, I think, is not necessarily whether this reorganization helps circulation and reduces student frustration, but does it help our students to think about how they search for information?

We want to teach inquiry and critical thinking skills and foster an appreciation of literature, as well as a love of books and libraries in general.  I feel that teaching students how to locate books using a system teaches the skill of finding information.  "Locate and access" is the third step in our Big6 approach to information literacy teaching.  If we make it easy to find books in the library, will students understand that sometimes they have to work hard to search Google or a database for the right website or article that answers their question?  An OPAC search is another opportunity to teach how to identify and answer their information needs.

It's not as if the books in our library are hidden away so no one can find them.  First of all, there are only 10,000 of them, which sounds like a lot, but 7,000 are Everybody and Fiction books, so that leaves 3.000 nonfiction books on about 60 shelves.  Students who want books about cars search for "cars" in the OPAC and find them on the shelf in the 629s.  I remind them that they know how to count to 999, which gives them the ability to find the book numerically.  Students who are too young to search the OPAC or count to 999 ask me where to find the books and then help each other when someone else has the same information need. I usually add a little information as we are looking (as short as ten seconds) showing them that similar subjects are grouped together with the book they are seeking, or pointing out the spine label.  Over seven years of mini lessons I hope I impart little bits of wisdom that add to the lessons we do about library organization and the OPAC.

I don't teach the Dewey Decimal System as separate lessons, in fact I barely mention Melvil Dewey, the creator of this admittedly imperfect system, at all.  Trying to fit everything perfectly into a system based on tens is impossible, but libraries need a common system so people can transfer skills and find information in any library.  People use numerical systems around the world, including money, weights and measures, etc., to provide a common language and understanding of relationships.

My students learn that Dewey is a numerical system for grouping like books together.  For example, all the big cat books can be found on the same shelf, so you can find books on lions, tigers and cheetahs all nearby.  This system can be searched online, but the numbers are for putting similar books together, and gives us an address for the book to easily find it and similar books on the shelf.

The article mentions that it would be difficult for a student to find a paper craft book and a sewing book together, because in Dewey they would be in different hundreds sections.  The limitation of Dewey and every system for organizing books is that you can't put every book that relates to another book together.  It is not three-dimensional.  The computer allows us to bring similar books together electronically that can't be physically together.  If you search "crafts" as a subject heading, you will find all those craft-related books, even if they aren't on the same shelf.  If we can't put all the books together on one shelf so we can browse easily, the computerized virtual version of the books can do this for us if we can search keywords and understand the results.  That is the focus of my teaching, to teach the searching skills and how to evaluate those results.

As long as my library mirrors other libraries, public and academic, in having a similar numerical order, my students will be able to use any library easily.  And they understand that if they have an information need, they know how to search for the answer to that need and how to locate information to answer their questions.  The "locate and access" step is one that eventually doesn't take much thought if students have practiced it in a variety of situations, and using the OPAC and Dewey Decimal System in my library give them that opportunity at least once a week for seven years.

Normal library classes!

I told a class today that we were finally having normal library classes after a week of expectations and teaching about the Ridgecrest Way (PBIS), then a week of SRI testing, but there really are no normal library classes.  I think I meant that we could do what I wanted us to do, whether it was reading stories and discussing them, learning how to use programs, or just having time to talk about the books we have been reading.

This week I am teaching some classes how to access the Scholastic Reading Counts quiz program.  Some teachers use it to help monitor independent reading, but over the past six or seven years we have slowly decreased our dependence on computerized testing when evaluating independent reading.  I'm proud that our teachers take the time to get to know their kids and help them set reasonable goals (not always point-based, but based on other factors, such as how many books they might be able to read in a trimester, individualized).  But I'm most proud that our teachers have found alternate ways to monitor their students' reading, allowing them multiple ways to show that they read and understood a selection of books, not every book they read, but a selection, as a formative assessment.

We have talked a lot about formative assessments in our pre-school building meetings, and I think we are all speaking the same language now when it comes to this type of assessment.  Being able to see AR/SRC quizzes as one type of formative assessment reduces the impulse to use it exclusively as an independent reading measure, and decreases the chance that teachers will want students to take quizzes on every single book they read.

I read many articles and books about student motivation this summer, hoping to find a way to reach every student and help them to be better readers, and one idea stuck with me all summer:  Think about how we read and discuss books as adults.  We don't take a quiz after we finish reading a book, we find other people who have read it or who are interested in that book or author or subject, and we discuss what we have read.  We recommend books to each other, we talk about what made us sad or happy or scared, and what other connections we made with the characters, settings, plot points, etc.  This is how we expect our students will interact with books and people as adults, so let's encourage them to interact this way as students.  Knowing whether or not they comprehend their reading is a key part of knowing if they are effective independent readers, but how we measure that is flexible and formative, not never-ending and summative.

I look forward to seeing how teachers use Reading Counts this year, and how we can help each other find even more ways to know how our students are choosing and reading books.

SRI-ing

For all classes in grades 2 through 6, this week is the first round of the SRI (Scholastic Reading Inventory), which is taken during library class time.  This online reading assessment gives students and teachers a Lexile score at the end, which is used to help find books that are a good fit for comprehension activities, particularly in the classroom.  Some teachers use the Lexile to help place students into small group novel studies with students at similar Lexile levels, particularly if the novel is in a subject area such as social studies, where comprehension of key points is essential to learning.

Students are taught that their Lexile gives them a range, it is not a specific number at which they must read.  The library is not labeled with Lexile numbers for books, though it may be eventually.  Student choice is still the main focus of library checkout, understanding that having choices is highly motivating to students.

Kindergarten and 1st grade classes will be hearing back to school stories, some set in the library, some not.  "Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten?" is a hilarious story of a buffalo who goes to school with his owner, but has some difficulties fitting in.  He can't use the scissors, his hooves are too big.  He wants to eat grass for lunch, and he's not very good at playing hide and seek.  However, it turns out that he can fit in, even if he is a little bit different.

We also will read "Walter's Magic Wand," where Walter uses his imagination and his wand to make the books at the library come true.   Afterwards he thinks he made up the pirates, and the ocean and the librarian saving everyone by building an ark out of bookshelves, but then the librarian gives him a wink and he's not quite so sure what's real any more.

A mix of getting important testing done, reading stories, and making sure everyone gets to check out the books they want to read, a great week is ahead!

Welcome back!

The library has been so quiet in the days leading up to the first day of school.  It is a great chance to catch up on projects, connect with teachers, and think strategically about the school year coming up.  Then the bell rings on the first day and with the students rushing through the front doors comes the energy that's been dormant for two months.

I love having regeneration time during the summer, when I can think about my teaching, how to improve it, and how to connect with students.  It's valuable to me as a constantly learning and growing teacher.  But when the students walk through the door, it's a reminder that they are why we are striving to be better teachers all the time.  I am grateful for the encouragement they give me to be better, just by walking into the library and asking me, "What was the best book you read this summer?"  I need to have an answer for them and then I need to be able to help 520+ students try to find the best book for them this first week of school.

I also take time during the summer to read more books about what I do and to play with new technology and tools I want to try with students this year.

I read a book called "The Book Whisperer" by Donalyn Miller, who writes a blog by the same name, trying to unlock that age-old mystery of how to get every student motivated to read.  The answer for me, this year, is choice.  Giving students more choice about what they read, not forcing them to take a test every time they finish a book, but offering many ways for them to connect with other students and teachers over these books.  As Walter Dean Myers says, reading is not optional.  We know that students who like to read read more, and those who don't, read less and less, creating a gap between students that widens each year.  And reading is essential to who they will become.  So my focus is to try to connect with every student and find out what motivates them.  Not an easy task with over 500 students, but that is my goal.

One technology tool I played around with this summer is Animoto, where you import photos and then choose a theme and music and it creates a video for you.  Often flashy, always well designed and professional looking, I think there are a lot of uses in schools for this tool.  I want to work with 5th and 6th graders to create book trailers later in the year.

So, forgive the repetitive loud music, but I felt it was a way to start up the year in an upbeat way.  Here is my introduction to the Ridgecrest library Animoto video, highlighting some important ideas.  I thought they would enjoy hearing and seeing it in a way that didn't involve me standing up in front of them and talking.

I can't wait to learn even more from our students and staff this year, and use what I have been thinking about and learning about all summer to make this school year the best one yet for all of us.

Book Exchange - June 7th and 8th

The PTA and Ridgecrest Library are partnering to sponsor the first annual Book Exchange, taking place during the Taste of Ridgecrest on Friday, June 8th, from 5:30-8:30pm.  The Exchange is great way to clear some space on your bookshelves and also get some new books into students' hands for summer reading.

Students can bring gently used books that they think other students would like and exchange them for Book Bucks, then use the Book Bucks to go shopping among all the donated books.  Students can exchange up to ten books for up to ten Book Bucks, but if families want to donate more than ten books, we will gladly accept them as a donation.  We hope to give each kindergartener a free Book Buck to get a free book for the summer, so extra books are always welcome.

Thank you for your generosity and support of this new program at Ridgecrest.  We look forward to continuing this next year!

All library books due June 13th

All library books are due back in the library by Wednesday, June 13th, even if Wednesday is not library day for a class.  Your help in getting books back even sooner is much appreciated.  We have a lot of work to do in the library and need to start getting organized for summer work.  Thank you!

Poetry Month Centers

Around the library I set up 11 centers to celebrate poetry.  They involve reading, writing, playing and sharing poetry.

Refrigerator magnet poetry

Partner poetry reading

Partner poetry reading

Interactive whiteboard poetry activity: Poetry Splatter

Origami based on poetry: Fold Me a Poem

Origami poetry

Acrostic poems with illustrations

Partner poetry reading: You Read to Me, I'll Read to You

Poetry on the computer: Robopoem

Poetry in song: Take Me Out to the Bathtub

iPad Poetry Activities: Shel Silverstein app

Poetry Month - A Poem in Your Pocket

April is National Poetry Month, and though we read and celebrate poetry all year long, this month gives us a chance to highlight it for an extended period of time.

My favorite activity is the Poem in Your Pocket, which is ongoing throughout the month.  I have a pair of pants hanging up with a pocket for each grade level.  Poems specific to each grade level (some are about subjects they study in science or social studies, i.e. insects for 2nd grade, rocks for 3rd grade) are put into each pocket.  Students are encouraged to pick out a poem and carry it in their pocket for a day, sharing it with anyone they can read it to or with.  It can be a family member, a friend, someone they are waiting in line with, their dog, as long as they can either read it or have it read to them.

Students then return to me and tell me they have shared their poem, and then they get a National Poetry Month bookmark (with a short poem on it, of course!).  They can then take another poem from the pocket on the pants and share it over the next day and come back for another bookmark.  They can take one poem and get one bookmark per day.

Many kids look forward to this activity and ask me when the pants will be hung back up so they can collect more poems and more bookmarks.  So I'm excited to start this up again for National Poetry Month, 2012!