I recently checked out the new Library of Congress Common Core Resource Center, following the suggestion of the December 12 AASL Advocacy Tip of the Day.  It had been some time since I visited the Library of Congress’ website, so I was curious to see what was new and how the CCSS were connected to the resources on teaching with primary sources.  Plus, in the state where I teach, school library licensure candidates are required to address some aspect of “American Civic Culture” in their lesson planning, so I’m always looking for resources to support this standard.

The resources seem mostly suited to browsing, though there are some basic search features from which to begin.  Choose from drop-drop menus for grade level and a variety of standards:

• AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner (listed as “AASL” and paired with the NETS standards – National Educational Technology Standards)
• Common Core State Standards for ELA
• Common Core State Standards for ELA in History/Social Studies
• National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Language Arts
• National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies (NCSS) and National Standards for Civics and Government (NSCG)

You can also search by state curriculum.  In attempting a few searches, I found results for grades K-12, but the resources really seem more appropriate for intermediate grades and up.  As an example, the “Kwout” screen capture below shows the broad list of materials for these sixth grade CCSS ELA standards:

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6 Reading Standards for Literature
• Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 6-8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

The lesson plans include topics of the Japanese American internment experience, the Dust Bowl, the Great Depression in relation to the novel Jacob Have I Loved, and the immigrant experience as presented through themes of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.  The other resources include historical context, primary sources, and ideas for teaching such topics as folklife in different states and women pioneers.  Some of the presentations offer guidance in searching for more resources, including key words to use.  For instance, a section from Women Pioneers in American Memory suggests, “Search on frontier life, pioneer life, and overland journeys to find more writings by these pioneer women.”

So in thinking about this site to support the integration of primary sources into teaching the CCSS, I’d say that the resources are as rich as the opportunities for librarians.  Put simply, there’s a lot of stuff here, and I think librarians are well-positioned to facilitate the connections between these perhaps overwhelming offerings, and teachers and curriculum needs.

But another really useful feature of this site that I didn’t know about is the professional development section, featuring Supporting Inquiry with Primary Sources, an online module for independent study, and the Professional Development Builder, which librarians can use to teach Barbara’s Stripling’s inquiry model, as incorporated into the site’s teacher resources.  If you have the chance to lead or suggest inquiry-related professional development sessions for spring, give these a try!

–Rebecca Morris

For many of you, Memorial Day marks the winding down of the school year. So you’re either breathing a sigh of relief (another year completed!) or ramping up for end-of-year hijinks.

As you wind down your year and take some time to reflect, I hope you’ll consider taking some of your expertise — and your students’ learning — public by submitting a lesson plan (SLM calls them “learning plans”) to School Library Monthly. You may be ramping down, but the magazine is ramping up to get the back-to-school issues ready!

You can learn more about submissions here.

Thanks!

Image: “Purple and Pink Together Again,” by downing.amanda on Flickr. Used with a Creative Commons CC-BY-2.0 license.

All the colors of the rainbow | Flickr – Photo Sharing! via kwout

Every now and again, there is a convergence, a similar theme that runs through the conversations I have with colleagues at work, colleagues in the field, and folks in my personal life.

The issue? The amount of time students spend doing coloring. For example, the child who circled the correct picture on a primary worksheet on beginning sounds instead of coloring it in … and got it marked wrong.

In this case, the student learned an important (albeit goofy!) reading comprehension lesson: even if the teacher said you could circle the answer instead of color so you could save time, circling is so detrimental that it overshadows the fact that you understood the beginning sound. Thank goodness for assessments. The poor kid got a 60% because apparently, the goal of the task wasn’t to identify beginning sounds (he picked the right choice, so he understood the content). The goal was to color something in. He didn’t, and as a result, his grade book entry demonstrates below-average comprehension skills.

And don’t even get me started on the fact that the kid is already reading, thus making a worksheet on beginning sounds a mismatch for the skills he’s ready for …

It brings to mind Mike Schmoker’s 2001 essay for Education Week, “The Crayola Curriculum.” Here are a few snippets of what he says, though you will definitely want to read the whole thing. In over 300 school visits, supposedly when the school was “at its best,” he observed lots of activities during reading block that had nothing to do with, uh, reading. He found …

Students were not reading, they weren’t writing about what they had read, they weren’t learning the alphabet or its corresponding sounds; they weren’t learning words or sentences or how to read short texts.

They were coloring. Coloring on a scale unimaginable to us before these classroom tours. The crayons were ever-present. Sometimes, students were cutting or building things out of paper (which they had colored) or just talking quietly while sitting at “activity centers” that were presumably for the purpose of promoting reading and writing skills. These centers, too, were ubiquitous, and a great source of pride to many teachers and administrators. They were great for classroom management—and patently, tragically counterproductive.

One of the questions I would occasionally ask teachers during these rounds, especially if it was late in the school year, was whether or not students knew the alphabet and its sounds. The teachers would regularly say no, but add that, after all, these were either poor or second-language students. The question in my mind, never uttered, was this: “Why wouldn’t they be learning the alphabet? Why are they coloring instead of being taught to read?”

…In one high-poverty district where I made several visits, the principals were not only ecstatic, but ecstatic at the opportunity these observations created. In two years, their scores on the Stanford Achievement Test-9th Edition for grades 2-4 went up by 25 percentile points; in math, they went up by 40 points.

That’s just a snippet of Schmoker’s essay, but even a decade later, his words ring true. Don’t get me wrong — I’ve been there. So often, we reach for the craft supplies for a “response activity” in our elementary library classes that’s really a kind of behavior management caulk to fill the space between storytime, checkout, and dismissal. It keeps little exploring hands busy. (They don’t call it busywork for nothing!)

Seriously, I have seen a case where the title page of a book has been copied and the children have been guided to color in the characters.

Coloring is not an art form, right? We don’t have art curriculum objectives that are solved with coloring sheets, so I’m excluding from concern those activities that directly correlate to the learning objective and have explicit art-based instruction around them (e.g., learning to work with pastels to better understand Caldecott art forms).

And I do believe there is some value in sketches and drawings to help young students work through or demonstrate understanding of informational texts. Just like rulers and tape measures to help us convert numbers into concepts.

But just coloring? That’s not what is meant by the NETS*S pillar of “creativity and innovation.” NETS*S mean creative THINKING, not having a tool in one’s hand.

For most of us, Common Core is starting to nip at our heels. If you’re looking for a fast activity, try something with WRITING with your youngest library learners. For example, the word “because” can do a huge amount to help young learners recognize that arguments need to be supported by details. So here are a few potential “because” prompts you could try:

Mudge is a good companion for Henry BECAUSE …
The [animal]would be a terrible pet BECAUSE …
This book does/does not deserve to win a Caldecott BECAUSE…
[Classmate] would enjoy reading [book you've read] BECAUSE …
Anansi is a trickster. We know this BECAUSE …

You know my old saw: that as a single person approaching (gulp) middle age, there’s a high chance that I will have nursing home attendants caring for me in the sunset of my life. And I sure as heck don’t want them coloring instead of articulating what should happen. :)

What non-coloring sponge activities have worked for you and your students’ development?

PS – For the record, I have nothing against Crayola products — I own lots! — or crayons. It’s not the tool, it’s how it’s used.