Recently here on the SLM Blog and on Twitter (@rebeccajm87) I posed the question, “#WhatWorked this year,” curious to know – in 140 characters – what strategies, ideas, or assignments were effective this year in your classrooms and school libraries.  I tend to be reflective to a fault myself, so the challenge to hone in, describe, and concisely celebrate something good is a thing in itself.  (When I think of reflecting on teaching, I’m always reminded of the time I went into my school principal’s office for my first year-end evaluation as a school librarian, arms full of binders and newsletters, and he asked- what’s all that stuff?)

But thankfully, there are librarians and teachers who can be reflective AND succinct, and the responses and retweets are starting to trickle in!  Here’s a great one:

@Labellamedia the 9th grade Book Blast with red carpet, balloons & cookies is #whatworked this year. Almost 100% initial checkout w/ freshmen

I love this idea!  We often hear about ninth grade library orientation.  I don’t know about you, but in my memories of these, it seems like introducing policies, talking about databases, and explaining how many students may sit at a table or visit from study hall tend to be the more pressing topics.  Why not welcome the kids, show that they’re special and that they belong in the library, and check out some great books?

#WhatWorked for you?  Keep the tweets coming!

–Rebecca Morris

Image: Balloons at Friendlys, by ewan traveler on Flickr. Used with a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License.

I’ll let you know what happens!  Tell me here or tweet me @rebeccajm87 if you know about other social media exchanges on this topic.

Whether this catches on today or in another form, I like the idea of reflecting in 140 characters- quick, concise, meaningful.  That’s not to say there isn’t value in lengthier reflections or goal writing, but a tweet about  what worked feels to me like an elevator speech: ready to be shared, easy to talk about, and prime for generating deeper conversation and questions, because the heart of the matter has been distilled to an understandable but intriguing few lines.

So, SLM Blog readers, either in the comments or in the Twitterverse, #WhatWorked for you this school year?

–Rebecca Morris

www.schoollibrarymonthly.com/pdf/edcalendar.pdf via kwout

What topics do you want to learn about, talk about, and dig into as you look toward a new year in your school library?  School Library Monthly author Kristin Fontichiaro is looking for your questions about inquiry, research practices, and the Common Core State Standards for the new volume (Volume 30) of School Library Monthly.  The Nudging toward Inquiry column will feature your questions, so please ask away!

Share your questions using this link: http://bit.ly/nudging2013, where you can also find more information and suggestions on topics to ask.

–Rebecca Morris

I wrote here in the blog recently about theme of stakeholders in the May/June School Library Monthly, and the article that first drew my eye was Alyssa Johnson’s piece about first-year teachers.  Johnson writes from the perspective of a current graduate student and prospective new teacher for the Fall of 2013.

In thinking about the potential to build relationships between the school librarian and new teachers and even student teachers, I tend to get really excited.  I envision assembling this cadre of collaborators and eventual advocates for the school library.  I see new opportunities for student learning in the library.  I see people who bring new ideas and enthusiasm, people who just need someone (as in, the librarian) to help them flesh it all out with technology tools, books, and strategies for instruction.

Johnson’s words gave me one of those moments when you remember something that you used to know.  She writes,

“School librarians, however, should be careful not to inundate first-year teachers with too many resources or too many tools. Instead, they should pick a couple of favorite examples and introduce more as teachers settle in.”

I forgot that I used to know what it was like to be a first-year teacher.  Amidst the relief of getting a job, the thrill of finally having my own classroom, and the anticipation of that first paycheck was the general feeling of being overwhelmed.  All the time.  I envied the veteran teachers who could say things like, “well, last year when we did this,” or knew the parents of kids in my class.  They had lessons to tweak and switch up; I had lessons to create.  In the weeks before the school year started, I was so busy making labels for everything, buying pencil boxes, and trying to make the room look presentable that I wasn’t organized enough or ready to accept help or think about teaching a lesson that was a month away.  Getting my first graders through the morning and through the cafeteria line in one piece were my foremost thoughts.  Alyssa Johnson took me back to that mindset.

She concurs that it’s important for school librarians to reach out to new teachers, and offers suggestions for helping out with those things that are priorities for new teachers “right-this-second” – like getting to know the kids’ interests through favorite library materials.  This is the new teacher side of the equation; I can fill in the librarian’s side and translate this to, “it’s ok to wait to show her all the reference databases and new e-books and explain how I reorganized the fiction over the summer.”

My lesson from this article is that the cadre will come together in time.  New teachers will probably want to ask questions, seek resources, and chat about collaboration opportunities.  It’s just a good idea to let the new teachers get those kids to the cafeteria first.

–Rebecca Morris

Reference: Johnson, Alyssa.  “Meeting Needs: First-Year Teachers.” School Library Monthly 29, no. 8 (May/June 2013): 37.

Image: New York teachers at City Park, New Orleans 02.23.11 069, by lsgcp on Flickr. Used with a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License.

 

Schools demanding news literacy lessons to teach students how to find fact amid fiction – The Washington Post via kwout

A Facebook friend recently shared the Washington Post article (linked above) about the importance of teaching kids news literacy, along with the comment, “umm, yes?”

I laughed when I read this more polite version of “duh, of course this is something kids need right now”, and enjoyed our shared appreciation for the importance of teaching students to evaluate news sources for authority, bias, and credibility.   In the article, writer Lynh Bui cites the Common Core’s emphasis on informational texts as a contributing factor to growing attention to news and media literacy, noting that, “demand to teach that sort of healthy skepticism and critical thinking is on the rise.”

I had saved this article to write about here, and I was reminded of it when I got to the ending paragraphs of a different news item, an op-ed piece by Thomas Friedman in the April 27 New York Times, Judgment Not Included. The Boston Marathon topic is what initially drew me to the column, and though much of that conversation is probably suited for forums other than this blog, Friedman’s conclusion about “the role of the Internet in shaping the minds of the alleged bombers” is especially pertinent to teachers, librarians, and parents.

Friedman comments on the alleged bombers’ use of the Internet in building their plans as,

“yet another reminder that the Internet is a digital river that carries incredible sources of wisdom and hate along the same current. It’s all there together. And our kids and citizens usually interact with this flow nakedly, with no supervision.”

But Friedman doesn’t stop at media literacy as the ultimate tool in navigating this digital river.  He explains that “internal filters” must be cultivated: traditional sensibilities, compassion, and caring, and that teachers and caring adults have a critical role to play in supporting this development:

“And that’s why the faster, more accessible and ultramodern the Internet becomes, the more all the old-fashioned stuff matters: good judgment, respect for others who are different and basic values of right and wrong. Those you can’t download. They have to be uploaded, the old-fashioned way, by parents around the dinner table, by caring but demanding teachers at school and by responsible spiritual leaders in a church, synagogue, temple or mosque.”

Umm, yes?

–Rebecca Morris

I had the chance to listen, learn, and share some ideas about the Common Core State Standards, public libraries, and nonfiction at the Massachusetts Library Association Annual Conference last week in Cambridge, MA.

I was honored to meet and join these great people at the panel discussion, The Common Core and Nonfiction:  How Does It All Fit Together? –

- Author Deborah Kops (among her books: The Great Molasses Flood)

- Author Kristine Carlson Asselin (among her books: The Real Story on the Weapons and Battlegrounds of North America)

- Lou Pingatore (of independent booksellers Pingi Bookstore).

Each of us brought our perspectives on what the Common Core may hold for kids and nonfiction.  Kops shared some insights on her writing and research process (and the requisite and valuable trips to her local library), and reflected on the potential for a heightened interest in literary nonfiction.  Asselin explained some things I never knew about work-for-hire nonfiction writing with school library market publishers (read more here), and compared the research behind writing a book about Jennifer Lopez (many transcribed TV/online interviews) and one about Martin Luther King, Jr. (many archival newspapers).  Pingatore described some new nonfiction coming from publishers, including one I’m curious to read about using and contributing to Creative Commons.  I talked about how school librarians are embracing the CCSS as an opportunity to collaborate and lead in the teaching of 21st century skills, inquiry, and reading of complex texts.

The questions and comments from the audience were challenging and well-considered, including concerns about the cost of nonfiction books, the potential to build partnerships across small public library systems to offer more titles for kids, and the need to collaborate with school librarians or classroom teachers, especially in school systems without elementary school libraries (which many librarians in attendance reported were common in their communities).

It was a pleasure to meet the dynamic leaders of the MLA Youth Services Section (YSS) Noelle Boc, Sharon Colvin, and Erin Daly (who lived tweeted the day’s events @mla_yss).

What connections can school librarians foster with public librarians?  Here are a few ideas and resources in this developing Listly.  Please share your ideas in the comments!

Image: Children’s Room public PCs, by Newburyport Public Library on Flickr. Used with a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License.

–Rebecca Morris

” . . . students said teachers had warned them that the test would be the most challenging they had taken. ‘When they ask, ‘What’s the main idea?’ and you have to put it in your own words, it’s a lot harder, said Ron Yogev, a sixth grader.”

“Students said they struggled with questions that asked them to discuss how a writer constructed a story rather than about the content of the passage itself. One question, for instance, asked students to analyze how an author built suspense in describing a girl whose rope snapped while in a cave.”

What teachers need and reformers ignore: time to collaborate via kwout

This Washington Post piece by Linda Darling-Hammond examines some of the issues highlighted in the Remodeling Literacy Learning report by the National Center for Literacy Education (NCLE), which I wrote about in this space recently. Darling-Hammond writes of the skills that students must master to meet the expectations for writing, reading, critical thinking, self-assessment, and building research with evidence:

“Teachers will need to be able to model and demonstrate these skills, identify what their students already know and link it to what they need to learn, build on students’ diverse experiences and language backgrounds, and structure rich learning opportunities that combine explicit instruction with inquiry, feedback, reflection, and revision.”

She also describes the change in teaching practice that must accompany this shift, including time for more purposeful planning and collaboration to foster deeper learning.

I noticed a cycle here.

Without adequate time to integrate curricula across subject areas or construct differentiated projects, teachers do their best to “cover” material, as described in the article.   As school librarians sometimes see, teachers may become reluctant to build risky new assignments into such a pressed, time-crunched situation.

On the student side, teachers and school librarians sometimes lament students’ (apparent) minimal effort in reading for understanding, “satisficing” when searching, and “reporting” – or maybe regurgitating – information, rather than synthesizing and digging deep.

Both educators and students are stuck, running, really, in a cycle of not enough time and little chance to reap the benefits of jumping off the hamster wheel, to borrow Darling-Hammond’s reference.   She doesn’t mention school librarians specifically in the analogy, but I can envision them on the wheel too, probably chasing the teachers with collaboration ideas, while they both chase the kids to think and read and grow.  So how do we all get off this wheel?

–Rebecca Morris

We’re reflecting in Boston today on the sad events at Monday’s Boston Marathon, and continuing to keep the victims, families, and loved ones in our minds and hearts.  Classes at Simmons College (where I teach, in the Fenway area of Boston) are on today, but in situations like this, it’s never really business as usual.  Last night in my online children’s literature class, we shared conversation about  talking to your children and students about tragedy, avoiding too much news but sharing fears and questions, and being a careful, attentive listener.

In a December entry in here at the SLM Blog, I shared some articles from Jami Jones about kids and resilience.  You can revisit those resources here.

Throughout the children’s literature class this past term, we have been exploring more resources and considering the ways that libraries can support children and families in different kinds of hard times.  These are some of the online sources we consulted.  If you have more to suggest, please share in the comments, and I’ll update our list.

• “Fred Rogers Talks about Tragic Events in the News.” 2012.
• Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZbXM3Kzd7o

(This Mister Rogers guide as a print document seems to have been taken down from the Fred Rogers website.  If you know where to find it, please let me know in the comments.)

• National Association of School Psychologists. A National Tragedy: Helping Children Cope.2002. http://www.nasponline.org/resources/crisis_safety/terror_general.aspx

• National Association of School Psychologists. Crisis and School Safety: Talking to Children about Violence: Information for Parents and Educators. 2007. http://www.nasponline.org/resources/handouts/revisedPDFs/talkingviolence.pdf

• Schreiber, M., R. Gurwitch and M. Wong. “Listen, Protect, and Connect — Model & Teach: Psychological First Aid for Children.” 2006. http://www.ready.gov/sites/default/files/documents/files/PFA_SchoolCrisis.pdf

• “Why Did It Happen? Books to Help Kids Cope With Tragedy.” School Library Journal.  January 14, 2013. http://www.slj.com/2012/12/books-media/reviews/why-did-it-happen-books-to-help-kids-cope-with-tragedy/

–Rebecca Morris

Image: Make Way for Ducklings Statue, by kimberlykv on Flickr. Used with a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License.