Instructional Conondrums

There has been a lot of talk in school librarian circles about what types of "orientation" instruction to deliver and how it should be done. I am not a fan of teaching isolated skills, but I do believe we level the playing field for our students when we teach skills on an as-needs basis. After listening to Annie Murphy Paul talk about interest at the SLJ Summit in 2013, I began to focus even more intensely on making sure kids got the right book at the right moment. This seems obvious, but in practice 37 kids all clamoring for books simultaneously makes it difficult to meet each student's individual needs. By teaching use of our online catalog explicitly, I can help students meet their own needs.

In order to orient my new sixth graders to the library, I teach several lessons. On the first day they visit, we complete a basic set of two-column notes (Cornell Notes). These notes help the kids with the basics of our library. Most of the students that come to Maple have never attended a school that has a librarian, so helping them understand basic policies, procedures, and locations (fiction vs nonfiction) helps them get an idea of how the resources are organized. While this only takes about ten minutes, it helps answer many questions and define expectations. On this visit, the kids spend time browsing and getting a feel for the space and they have ample time for checking out books.

On the second visit, the primary focus is learning to use the online catalog to look up books. We are a Thinking Maps school, so I use a Flow Map to help the students understand the basic steps to accessing Follett Destiny from our district website. The teacher works with me to demonstrate finding a book on the shelf in both the fiction and nonfiction sections from a computer record. This may seem basic, but it is a new skill for most of my students and teaching how to find resources empowers the students to make choices that follow their interests rather than just taking a shot in the dark on each visit.

Flow Map

Explicit instruction not only helps my students better understand how to use our library, it also allows me to teach using the same strategies that are being used in our classrooms. When I implement the methods that our staff has agreed to use through our School Improvement Plan, I am seen as a teacher and an equal partner in the education of our students. All teacher librarians need to have the time and space necessary to teach skills that will make students more successful. With a focus on literacy, my students' ability to find reading materials that suit their personal interest and curricular needs is extremely important.

AASL's Best Apps and Websites 2015

The American Association of School Librarians publishes a list of the 25 best apps for teaching and learning each year. The 2015 list was unveiled at the American Librarian Association conference in San Francisco in June. The list includes apps in five categories: books, STEM, organization and management, content creation, and social sciences. This was my last year on the committee and I curated the book apps along with John Schumacher. We will be presenting these apps at the AASL National Conference in November as well.

The 2015 Best Websites list was also revealed in San Francisco. Although I served on that committee many years ago, I continue to follow their work as they continue to honor innovative websites and provide excellent models of how technology can be used to improve learning.

Do you have an idea for an app or website that should be honored on the 2016 lists? Please use the nomination links below to let the committees know:

App nomination

Website nomination

Welcome Back!

We're off to a great start for the 2015-2016 school year. There are several key literacy initiatives happening throughout Kalamazoo Public Schools and the libraries are working to make sure all students have access to high-quality books that fulfill their personal interests and curricular needs. In order to connect our students to books and authors, teachers and families are encouraged to have kids meet two visiting authors who will be in Kalamazoo in the coming months.

G. Neri will be in Kalamazoo on October 1, 2015. He will speak with patrons at the Powell Branch Library 5:00-6:00PM--this is a free event and all are welcome. Students from Maple Street's READ 180 classes will have a special chance to meet G. Neri during school on October 1 as well. All of Mr. Unangst's classes will be reading Ghetto Cowboy in order to prepare for the visit.




In addition, Jacqueline Woodson and Jason Reynolds will be in Kalamazoo as part of the 2015 Youth Literature Seminar "Mirrors and Windows." Jacqueline will be presenting to students from Mrs. Hampton and Mrs. McKee's English Language Arts classes who are reading Brown Girl Dreaming and will also speak at the KPL Central Library at 6:00PM on November 5, 2015. Teachers and librarians are encourage to attend the seminar which will include a presentation from each author, as well as some great book suggestions for middle and high school students.

                                     
Maple Street was the recipient of 65 new books from a grant received by Kalamazoo Public Library from the Friends of the Library in order to support this visit. We are grateful for our partnership with KPL and the wonderful service they provide to the children in our community.

Each of the middle school libraries will be receiving new books throughout the year which will include both fiction and non-fiction related to student interests and curricular needs. Please take the opportunity to visit your library and see what's new for 2015-2016.

Booktalks in the Middle

One of the English teachers in my school has her students complete booktalks each marking period. Students have been completing this assignment while in the library for book checkout, so I have been able to listen to them talk about the books they are reading and give them ratings. It's always interesting to hear what kids think about the books from the library, as well as see what books they bring from home and the public library.

A couple of the books students have shared recently include:

Animal Grossapedia by Melissa Stewart

This one cracked us all up. Students have to read a passage from the book that they want to share with others. The student who shared this book read a passage about goats "dating." The entire class was clamoring to check this book out after hearing about it through a booktalk.

Half Upon a Time by James Riley

I'm so glad that a student brought this book to talk about. It was a new book to me and the booktalk was intriguing. Twisted and fractured fairy tales are often popular, so I added the series to our library.








What I'm enjoying most about the booktalks is having the opportunity to hear uncensored opinions and ratings of books. Students often check out books and then I don't hear as much back as I would like unless it is something they are raving about and a bunch of other students want to put the book on hold. I like to hear the "eh" opinions and the "no way" opinions as well because it helps me think differently about selection.

I think getting kids thinking critically about and talking about what they have read is such an important component of what librarians and educators do in support of literacy. How do you get kids talking about the books they have read?

A Visit from Dr. Marc Aronson

Author visits always seem like a good idea--and I never back down from the opportunity. Over the summer, the MAME listserv received a post about Dr. Marc Aronson being available to visit schools during his time in Michigan for the MAME fall conference. I jumped at the chance--despite not actually knowing how I would get students prepared. It turns out I worried for nothing. Two wonderful teachers stepped up and did a great job of getting students ready for the visit and Dr. Aronson made two presentations: one to about 45 eighth graders and one to about 35 sixth graders.

I was most impressed with Dr. Aronson's ease with my students. Although many authors say they like large groups and lots of questions, that is not always the reality. It seemed to me that Dr. Aronson is most comfortable when he is interacting based on student questioning. He talked a lot about asking questions and curiosity as the way good research ends up happening and told our students that, "Behind every answer lurks a new question."

I love the idea that research is about curiosity. This makes me think that we need to spend even more time in schools encouraging kids to ask questions. It's not enough for them to learn content and have answers. Being able to think critically and ask questions that make them want to learn and know more are the skills we want to be fostering in order to prepare students for college and beyond.

What strategies are you using to get students asking good questions regarding topics they care about?

Being Interested

I attended the School Library Journal Leadership Summit last weekend and one of the main things that stuck with me is the idea that students learn more and stick to assignments longer if they are interested. The keynote speaker, Annie Murphy Paul, writes the blog Brilliant: The Science of Smart. She talked about libraries being perfectly positioned to evoke the interests of students. Libraries are, in fact, one of the few spaces in schools where children are able to self-select materials that align with their personal interests. After listening to the talk, I formed some questions that might guide our libraries as centers of interest for our students:

• How often are students using the library? Is use flexible and equitable? 
• Are students allowed to choose whatever they want to read without any parameters imposed? 
• What would help students have more and better access to resources related to personal interests? 
• How can we take personal interests and connect them to necessary learning?

I'm sure we could generate many more questions that might help us better understand the role of interest in learning and how we can help students connect these together. What questions do you have about student interest? 

Best APPs for Teaching and Learning

As a part of the American Association for School Librarians, I have had the opportunity to participate on several committees. My most recent service has been to the Best APPs for Teaching and Learning committee. We spent a year reviewing hundreds of APPs in order to create a list of 25 that are exemplars for use in education. At the American Library Association annual conference this summer, we revealed the inaugural list to our colleagues. As Maple Street and Milwood now have access to iPads for classroom use, you will notice the free versions of many of these APPs have been downloaded for your use. Please feel free to play around with them and get familiar with their function. I would love to co-teach some lessons using these APPs to help support your content. I am also interested in what APPs you would like to use-- and what you might recommend for our next list (coming June 2014!). The 2013 list is available here for your use.