SRI & Thanksgiving: Week of November 14-18

The theme this week was Thanksgiving for the primary grades, SRI testing for the intermediate grades.  The increased testing that classroom teachers are asked to do also impacts teaching in the library.  I give several assessments throughout the year, including the Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI), STAR (which gives students their AR zone, not used by every class), and TRAILS (Tools for Real-time Assessment of Information Literacy Skills, given by me to inform my own instruction).  Assessment does give us information to drive instruction and focus on areas of need, but sometimes it seems that with so much testing, we struggle to find enough time to teach the skills needed to be successful on tests.

Kindergarten:  Thanksgiving books are so much fun to read, they are warm and fuzzy and almost always make me hungry.  Kindergarten students heard Over the River: A Turkey's Tale by Derek Anderson, based on the song with another story told through the illustrations.  Kindergarten students are the perfect audience for books like this because many are not reading yet, so they rely on pictures to tell them the story.  They notice when the illustrations share a story not included in the text, more so than older readers who read the text and pay less attention to illustration.  Kindergarteners love to show you something you might have missed in an illustration.  Jan Brett is another author and illustrator who includes subtexts in her illustrations, and students can spend long periods of time poring over her books.  Jan Brett's books include The Mitten, The Hat, The Three Snow Bears, Hedgie's Surprise, Trouble with Trolls, and Gingerbread Baby, among many others.

1st grade:  In 1st grade classes this week, we read Thanksgiving books, includig I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie, which is a funny take on I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly.  It's familiar to them, and just as outrageous.

2nd grade:  Some 2nd grade students took their first turn at the SRI this week.  We start 2nd graders taking this now because it can take up to three times to get used to taking the test online (logging in with a username and password is difficult and takes practice).  After the third time, we feel we have an accurate score.  The SRI tests for reading comprehension, giving students a passage from a book and then asking them a multiple-choice comprehension question.

One 2nd grade class will test after Thanksgiving, so we read The Sniffles for Bear by Bonny Becker and Kady MacDonald Denton, part of the series that started with the Washington Children's Choice Picture Book nominee A Visitor for Bear.  I love the language used in the books, it is not limited to words known by primary students.  It is realistic and difficult, and prompts them to use context clues to figure out meanings.  If they aren't sure what a word means, they always ask.  Examples of fabulous new vocabulary words we discovered include:  decency, "gravity of the situation", mournful and "last flicker before the dark."  Bear is convinced he will not survive his illness, but as usual, his over-exaggeration of everything and Mouse's never-ending patience with him is hilarious to the listener and reader.

I found a nice blog post interview with the illustrator of the Bear books, Kady MacDonald Denton, including rough sketches of some Bear illustrations and other books she has illustrated.

3rd grade:  Students took the SRI.

4th grade:  Students took the SRI.

5th grade:  Students took the SRI.

6th grade:  Students took the SRI.

Placing holds on books

As of this week there is a new feature in the Ridgecrest Library OPAC (Online Public Access Catalog) allowing users to place holds on books online.  Students have been filling out green slips for years, but this involves just one click and filling out a name.

How to place a hold online:

1. Go to the Ridgecrest Library catalog website.
2. Search for a book you want to check out and read.
3. To the right of the book, look to see if the book is available.  If there are 0 copies Available, you can place a hold.  If there are copies available, please look for them on the library shelves.  Holdings means how many copies the library owns, not how many are already on hold.
4. To place a hold click on the Request Hold link.
5. Enter your name (required).  No other information is necessary.
6. Your hold request will be sent by email to Ms. Freeman.  The book will be given to your teacher or brought to you in your classroom as soon as it is available.

Book Fair preview: Week of November 7-11

The theme this week was the preview of the Scholastic Book Fair, which will take place next Friday, November 18th, from 3PM through the end of The Wizard of Oz, which is the movie showing during Movie Night starting at 6:30PM.

All classes viewed the Book Fair preview video, which includes interviews with authors and illustrators, including Nick Bruel, the writer and illustrator of the Bad Kitty books, Megan McDonald, the writer of the Judy Moody books, and Daniel Angelberger, the author and illustrator of the popular Origami Yoda books.  I enjoy discussing the interviews with students and showing them the real people behind the books they love.

Pumpkins, good books, information literacy: Week of October 31-November 4

The themes this week included pumpkins, finding good books, and finding out what students know about information literacy skills.

Kindergarten:  I read the Kindergarten students Mousekin's Golden House to support their field trip to the pumpkin farm.  It concerns a mouse who finds a discarded jack o'lantern in the woods and decides to make it his winter home.  The language is engaging for the listeners and it connects with the idea we discussed last week in Pumpkin Circle about the life cycle of a pumpkin.

1st grade:  Read Superdog by Mark and Caralyn Buehner, focusing on the ideas of bullying and how to respect and forgive others.  This theme connects with our Ridgecrest Way themes of respect, responsibility, kindness and safety.

2nd grade:  We read Pumpkin Cat in honor of the season.

3rd grade:  We continued our individual practice in the lab about library shelf order, and I noted down how many games students completed at 100% as an assessment.  All but two students completed at least two games, which was my goal.

4th grade:  I gave the 4th grade classes the TRAILS (Tool for Real-Time Assessment of Information Literacy Skills) assessment to help me focus on specific areas of need over the course of the 35 library classes they have over the school year.  There are five main topic areas tested, including developing topics, identifying sources, developing and using search strategies, evaluating sources, and using information responsibly and ethically.  I will devise my class lesson plans and collaboration with teachers based on the results of this assessment.

5th grade:  We had a long checkout period today to allow me to connect with more students individually. Both 5th grade classes come to the library at the same time, so managing to connect with 60 students in 30 minutes is difficult, if not impossible.

6th grade:  I booktalked titles from the classics genre this week to the 6th grade classes.  The 6th grade HiCap class has it as one of their choices for their monthly projects, and all the 6th grade students gravitate towards the latest books, rather than classics.  I discussed the definition of a classic with the students and showed them some titles, including books by Twain, Kipling, Stevenson, Alcott, Travers, etc.