The OLD Top Shelf

There has been some debate on the state librarians’ listserv recently about whether or not Kindergarten students can do research. In my district, they most certainly do – at least twice during the year. In fact, one of our elementary librarians made the following video of her Kindergarten students doing research with 4th grade buddies. The 4th graders help the students get to the selected online resource then read the onscreen information to the younger students. The kindergarten students wrote down answers to the research questions and told the teacher about what had been read to them. While not a full-blown “research paper” activity, these kids are not only learning things about mammals, but also that they can use resources other than themselves (or their parents and teachers) to find answers to their questions.

Click on the link to watch the video and then answer the question for yourself. Can Kindergartners do research?

Region One ESC and the Region One Library Advisory Committee would like to invite you and your students to participate in the Tejas Star Book Award Program. The Tejas Star list includes bilingual English/Spanish books and books written in Spanish. The purpose of the award is to promote reading in general and for readers to discover the cognitive and economic benefits of bilingualism and multilingualism. Participation is free to all Texas schools this year.

The list of Tejas Star books is available at http://www.esc1.net/tejasstarbookaward . You will also find detailed information on how to participate and how to vote at the Tejas Star web site. Voting will take place during the month of March and the winner will be announced in April, 2008.

AASL eAcademy – Online Learning for School Librarians

AASL has entered into a cooperative arrangement with the University of North Texas (UNT) project LE@D to offer online professional development to school library media specialists. These professional development opportunities are offered as either self-paced or facilitated programs.

Registration for Winter courses is now open! Register today! This would be a great way to obtain the hours you need for certificate renewal.

For course listings and registration, please see:

http://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aasleducation/onlinecontinuing/courses/courses.cfm

AASL Offers Its First Digital Institute

AASL has launched its first ever Digital Institute.

Available as part of the AASL e-Academy online offerings, the “Minding Your Students’ Future” institute offers a rich continuing education experience through multiple media, including podcasts, vodcasts, and video.

Focusing on the future of learning in school library media programs, the institute pulls together a variety of sessions captured during the AASL 13th National Conference & Exhibition in Reno, Nevada, October 25-28. It includes a session on the “Standards for the 21st-Century Learner,”

AASL’s newly released learning standards. Other topics explored in the digital sessions include teaching information literacy, research, podcasting, book challenges, and more.

Check out the clips of the Opening General Session with Dan Pink and register for the Digital Institute at:

http://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aasleducation/onlinecontinuing/institute/institute.cfm

AASL National Conference Video

In this snapshot from the American Association of School Librarians 13th National Conference in Reno, Nevada, keynote speaker Dan Pink talks about his subversive high school librarian, keynote speaker Omar Wasow discusses how school libraries can compete in the age of Google, AASL President Sara Kelly Johns talks about the new AASL standards, and we are introduced to a project called “Sheet Happens.”

Teens Pick Books with Bite @ Your Library

More than 1,000 teens across the United States chose Books with Bite @ your library as the 2008 Teen Read Week theme, announced the Young Adult Library Services Association.

The theme was chosen in an online vote at www.ala.org/teenread during Teen Read Week 2007.

For the news release, please see:

http://www.ala.org/ala/pressreleases2007/november2007/bite07.htm

Last week, someone on TLC (the Texas librarians’ listserv) requested some ideas for book displays. Stella Gonzalez of San Antonio replied with a great and lengthy list of themes for book displays. Rita Wynn of Highland Park ISD posted some additional ideas geared specifically toward secondary libraries. I know that some of you have your student library workers create book displays each month. You might help them out and share these ideas with them. Do you have other displays that your readers enjoy? Post them in the comments!

Display Ideas:
Award winning books

Books build brains

Never judge a book by its movie — Books that have been made into movies

Bored? Read.

Caution: readers at work. – career books

Cookbooks with placemats, utensils, plates, pots, etc.

Craft & hobby books with items.

Don’t bug me, I’m reading — insects

Don’t drop the ball on books – sports books and balls

(also “A great book is always a slam dunk”)

Explore new frontiers—read! — explorers and explorations

Fee-fi-fo-fum – fairy tales

Get a clue – mystery books

Get wild and read – animal books

Get wrapped in reading – mummies

Go for the gold: Read! (during Olympics)

Joust read – medieval, Arthurian

Just read.

Library books and bytes – computer books & items

Libraries: linking tradition and technology

Read if you know what’s good for you – health books

Teacher’s photos of pets…pet books

Teacher’s photos of summer travel…country books & maps

Teacher silhouettes (use overhead)…holding favorite book

Teddy bears with books of bears (non-fiction and bear fiction)

“Transform yourselves” books & caterpillar/butterfly

Who’s Who – year beginning – pictures of admin & teachers.

Banned Books:

Books banned in Texas (from ACLU by year)

Books banned worldwide

Spring:

Books in Bloom: A Garden of Genres

Garden of reading, help your imagination grow

The Library: a garden for the mind

The Library: fertile ground for great ideas

Libraries grow good readers

Libraries: where ideas/readers bloom/blossom

He who has a garden and a library wants for nothing – Cicero

Spring into books

Summer:

Beat the heat—read!

Fall:

Fall into a good book

Fall under the spell of a good book

Good books are a harvest of good ideas

Welcome back (books plus school articles)

Give thanks for great books!

Winter:

Books are Cool – penguins, snowmen

Chill out and read

A reading wonderland

Christmas around the world

Halloween:

Treat yourself to a good book

Favorite literary characters made with pumpkins (real or paper)

Reading is a “monstrous” adventure

Scare up a good book

Valentine’s Day:

Books we love. Hearts with person’s pic and book title.

Love comes in many languages — hearts and language dictionaries

Patriotic:

Free to read

Biographies/Special Interest:

Make your mark in the world (varied bios)

Women’s History & Biographies of women

Native Americans

Hispanic Heritage Month

Black American Month

National Poetry Month (April)

Camouflaged non-fiction (Girl, Interrupted; Seabiscuit; Not Without my Daughter; In Cold Blood; James Herriott books, etc.)

Chick Lit

Adventure stories

Dragons

Oldies but Goodies

Congrats to MK at Terry Middle School for registering her campus at the Teen Read Week site!

If you haven’t done this yet, there’s less than a week left before registration closes. Why should you register? YALSA is a non profit organization that depends on its members for support. By registering, you are letting them know that teen literacy is a concern and you are willing to do something about it! By registering, you are telling YALSA that this program is worthwhile, and they will continue to sponsor the week.

Once you have registered, these 13 steps will help you get the word out about your celebration.

Teen Read Week PR Checklist

1. There is a TRW display in my library.
2. TRW is featured on my library’s web site, blog and/or MySpace page
3. Information about TRW is in my library’s fall newsletter
4. I’ve posted announcements, fliers, and brochures all over my library: along shelves, at each checkout station, and bulletin boards. (Tip: Want a great, ready-made poster that you can easily print on any printer? Check out the Print PSAs on the Teen Read Week Web site’s Get Publicity page)
5. At my school, I asked to include TRW activities and information in the daily announcements.
6. All library staff are knowledgeable about my library’s TRW activities.
7. Relevant local organizations have been informed about TRW and your library’s TRW activities, such as the community center, 4-H club, area schools, parent organizations, etc.
8. Local VIPs such as town council members and/or state legislators, have been invited to attend any special TRW events.
9. Local media outlets such as newspapers, radio stations and TV stations have been informed about TRW and your library’s TRW activities via a press release (see the TRW Web site for samples). You can also ask your local newspaper to print one of YALSA’s PSAs (follow the directions at the Get Publicity page!)
10. My Teen Advisory Group (TAG) is involved in promoting TRW by writing letters to the editor, making a commercial for the public access channel, designing and posting flyers, creating and uploading a short informational video for YouTube, etc.
11. I or my TAG have asked my town council and/or state’s governor to declare Oct. 14-20th, 2007 Teen Read Week in my town or state (see a sample proclamation on the TRW Web site).
12. I have designated a member of my TAG or someone to be the photographer at my TRW events, and I will distribute the photos by posting them on the library’s web site or Flickr account, sending them to the local newspaper and sending them to American Libraries at americanlibraries@ala.org.
13. I went to the Teen Read Week wiki and shared my library’s plans so others can be inspired by my ideas and my celebration can be shared by ALA publications or the Public Information Office for promotional use.

If you’ve done all these things, I’d say you are more than ready! Share your plans in the comments.

From the YALSA blog…

Time is running out! Join thousands of other members and teen literacy supporters by registering for Teen Read Week—registration ends September 17.

All YALSA members who register will receive a free paperback courtesy Scholastic, a Teen Read Week Promotional Partner. Teen Read Week 2007 is October 14-20, with the theme of “LOL @ your library,” encouraging teens to read something light or humorous, just for the fun of it.

The YALSA blog reminds us that it is time to start making plans for Teen Tech Week, which will be celebrated March 2-8, 2008. Check out their post for more information and celebration ideas.

technology

Presenter: Nancy Kubasek, Richardson High School, Richardson ISD

Nancy does several staff development sessions and she offered us a taste of two of them.

Booktalking

All of us need a pleasurable experience with reading every day. Kids will give us 3 opportunities to recommend a book to them. After three failures, their trust is broken.

Paper bag project – Librarian booktalks several books; students read them, then put items in a paper bag that represent their books and give their own presentation; Librarian comes to the classroom to listen to their booktalks

Don’t talk about books you don’t like personally. Talk about books that suck you in and won’t let you go.
Examples:

The Red Thread by Roderick Townley

Runner by Carl Deuker

Desert Crossing by Elise Broach

The Silent Room by Walter Sorrels

Classic/Contemporary Connections

Nancy’s English teachers were sick of reading research papers, so they came up with a way to spice up the typical literary research paper by pairing classic and contemporary literature for a comparison. Contemporary fiction answers the question “who am I?” Pairing it with a classic piece helps students to make that connection between themselves and the classic work. Students don’t look for differences, but similarities instead.
Process:
Students come to the library to get the books they are to read. After doing the reading, they return to the library for literary research on the classic they have read. The next library visit is for literary research on their contemporary book.

What would classic would you pair with these titles?
The Raging Quiet by Sherry Jordan

The Crucible?

Truesight
by David Stahler

Farenheit 451? Brave New World?

These are just two example of pairs. The key to the success of this project is booktalking the contemporary fiction.

If either of these is of interest to you as a librarian, please post a comment.

I’m back for Day 2 at TASLA!

This morning’s program was a fantastic example of the incredible things that can happen when a principal and librarian work together. The presenters were Deana Harrell, principal, and Debra Marshall, librarian, at Wilson Elementary School, Coppell ISD.

As a new principal with a passion for reading, Deana did away with the computerized reading program that had previously been in place on her campus. She replaced the paraprofessionals running that program with a strong librarian who shared her vision for creating a community of readers, who read for pleasure instead of for prizes. Deana placed the librarian (Debra) on the campus leadership team, giving her the status of a team leader, and the two of them met weekly to map out a plan for bringing Deana’s vision to life. With the help of the assistant principal and the literacy coach, they implemented many new programs in order to bring reading to life on the campus:

Faculty book study facilitated by principal and librarian: Strategies That Work (Stephanie Harvey) for 3-5 grade teachers

Meet & Model Mondays – grade level meetings with literacy coach to discuss guided reading, differentiation, etc.

All faculty meetings had an instructional focus and included staff development provided by the librarian on World Book Online, Teachingbooks.net and NetTrekker d.i., etc.

Book Character Parade

BookWORMS book clubs – 1-3 book clubs at each grade level facilitated by principal, librarian, literacy coach, assistant principal, and parents. Clubs met at lunch to discuss books and funding was provided by a grant from Coppell’s Education Foundation.

Charlotte’s Web Literacy Night – Coincided with the opening of the movie. The librarian created literacy stations that were manned by teachers.

Three (!) author visits – Rick Riordan, Rochelle Strauss, and Kate McMullen

Dr. Seuss week had daily activities based on Dr. Seuss books, including Wacky Wednesday, when the librarian turned things upside down all over campus.

Texas Bluebonnet Award program – 35% of eligible students voted

8th grade reading buddies for 2nd grade students worked on conventions of non-fiction

As a result of their efforts, TAKS scores improved in the area of critical thinking. Library circulation increased by 25% and kindergarten teachers allowed their students to take books home! The book clubs proved so popular that some are continuing to meet over the summer at the local Barnes & Noble. Several veteran teachers formed their own book clubs in their classrooms.

Plans for next year include a library facility upgrade, a student library advisory council, collaboration on lesson plans between librarian and three grade levels, author visit by Claude & Monte Montgomery(Hubert Invents the Wheel), and the formation of a Friends of Coppell ISD libraries.

A great example of what a librarian can do with a collaborative and supportive principal!

Greetings from the Texas Association of School Library Administrators annual summer conference in Austin! My posts this week will give you a little insight into what we are spending the week talking about.

Book Clubs! – presented by Cris Espinoza, librarian at LBJ Middle School in Pharr-San Juan ISD. Cris has a phenomenal book club program that she described for us this morning. It is based on Oprah’s idea of discussing a book over a meal. All students are welcome to read the book of the month and participate in the Book Club meeting on campus. Students who want to go beyond that may write a review or summary of the book. These reviews are scored on a rubric based on TAKS writing criteria. The top six students are taken to lunch at a local restaurant for a more intimate discussion. In addition to the meal, what is different about Cris’ book club is that she invites district personnel, parents, teachers and community members to participate. The superintendent of the district has participated in every book club meeting since the club started. The program is funded by sponsorship from local businesses. The sponsors help to provide a copy of the book for each book club member, refreshments for the meetings and the lunches out. In 06-07, the book club had over 200 members and book club members had a 92% TAKS passing rate. These are students with a low SES and very little reading material at home, so it was quite an accomplishment! The LBJ Book Club was so successful that it has now expanded district-wide.