School Library Monthly

Reading/Language Arts: Literary Blog

At the completion of the assignment, the students, teacher, and library media specialist may bring in Middle Eastern food (hummus, pita bread, couscous, yogurt, tabbouleh, figs, cheese) to share while watching me webcast of Khaled Hosseini at the National Book Festival in Washington, DC, and discussing the project.

Reading/Language Arts: Focus On Fire Fighters

Once each group has rotated through the research portion, the classroom teacher can instruct the class on the writing process for their final reports. Once the writing is under way, the classroom teacher can identify students who may need extra support to work with library media specialist to successfully complete tiieir project.

Social Studies/Language Arts: Westward, Ho!, or Westward? No!

When students think they are finished, the library media specialist or social studies teacher checks over notes and make suggestions for improvement. At the meeting, the library media specialist plays the role of "mayor" of the town, explaining that information will be presented and the citizens will be asked to vote to determine whether or not they will hit the trail or stay where they are.

Designing Learning for Evidence-Based Practice

Understandably, classroom teachers are focused on effectively covering their content area standards and are often reluctant to add information literacy skills to their lessons because they see no direct connection to the state achievement tests. Backwards design is a concept developed by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe (2005), and it includes the following elements: * What do we want students to learn? (standards and objectives) * How will we know if learning has occurred? (assessment tools or...

Flexible Scheduling: Making the Transition

Graziano notes, "Although it will probably take time to convince the staff that the library program needs to be changed, presenting this information in a positive way will open the door for additional discussions about the library media specialist's vision and expected role in the school" (2002). By enlisting the support of the principal, creating a shared vision, meeting a specified curricular need, developing a planning team, studying models fhat have worked well, and developing collaborat...

Information Skill Of The Month

W.A.L.K. (We Are Literate Kids) Club: A Walking and Listening Program for the Library Media Center

Here's a program that will, without a doubt, add excitement to your library media program, generate interest in your library media center, enhance students' auditory literacy, and provide you and your students with a little fresh air and exercise during a busy school day. When students return to the library media center, they record several pieces of data in a log book (name, book, number of steps, etc.).

Into The Curriculum

Cross-Curricular: Explore the World by Researching Great Buildings

The library media specialist evaluates the students by observing and recording their success or frustration in using multiple resource tools (e.g., technology sites and library informational texts) during the activities.

Reach For Reference

Experiencing History Through the New York Times: 1851-Present

Book reviews, scientific breakthroughs, statistics for interpretation and charting social change, environmental change, weather patterns, international politics, sports, art, music, and controversy are all here just waiting for teachers and students to discover. There is also a combination Historical Newspaper database with the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Atlanta Constitution, Boston Globe, and Hartford ...

The Advocate

Language-Communication or Jargon?

Despite the availability of resources and guidelines for the development of school library media programs such as the Information Literacy Standards for Student Learning (1998), the majority of principals and teachers do not appear to be aware of these resources, nor do they know the purpose of school library programs (O'Neal 2004).

Key Words In Instruction

Millennial Learners Build Knowledge Communities

Let us as library media specialists then concentrate on the "learner's choice" and appreciate that the learning laboratories we develop in our library media centers serve these needs with relevance and authenticity. Instructional Strategies for Information Literacy Each of the broad categories of the national information literacy standards-information literacy, independent learning, and social responsibility-suits this discussion of millennial learners in distinct ways. Information Literacy...

Connect The Book

Snow Sounds: An Onomatopoeic Story

Students can use the "English" sounds to help them write poetry. * Twenty-nine fun ideas related to winter can be found in Crafts to Make in Winter by Vicky Enright (Millbrook Press, 1999). * Other activity books on the subject of winter include The Kid's Winter Handbook by Jane Drake and Ann Love (Kids Can Press, 2001) witii hundreds of fun things to do and Winter by Phyllis S. Busch Illus. by Megan Halsey. Cavendish, 2000 which has activities for both indoor and outdoor science projects. *...

Author! Author!

About Marjorie Priceman

Notably, Priceman has also illustrated news anchor Katie Couric s two children's books, The Brand New Kid (2000) and The Blue Ribbon Day (2004). There are also ideas connected to music, writing, discussion, and drama. * A variety of activities related to The Brand New Kid can be found at the Cobb County (Georgia) School District website (http://www.cobb.kl2.ga.us/~austell/bom/sept/ index.htm). * Three of the books illustrated by Marjorie Priceman are poetry books by Jack Prelutsky.

Thematic Journeys

The Dormouse's Tale

Creating Scenarios and Stories As an activity to extend this novel, readers might want to create a story about one of the minor characters, fleshing out that character, and giving him/her a history and context. It might involve the Dormouse actually meeting the Queen of Hearts or helping the White Rabbit deliver an important piece of mail. Stories could even be developed about such peripheral characters as Alice's grown-up sister, the flamingo she uses in her croquet match with the Queen, o...

Keeping Current

Mindsets: How Praise Is Harming Youth and What Can Be Done About It

In fact, research by Dweck and her colleagues has shown that students in a fixed mindset will even sacrifice learning that is crucial to their future success if they have to admit ignorance or risk showing deficiencies (Hong et al. 1999). Brainology As a part of the author's research, workshops have been developed to teach students about the growth mindset.

Publisher

2008: Where Can We Go and What Will We Find?

The Advisory Board will play an important role in setting goals for SLMAM with the intent of providing timely information, resources, and strategies for library media specialists.

Management Matters

Membership Matters!

Even though the role of the library media specialist requires us to reach out to students, faculty, and staff to affect student learning, like the young library media specialist mentioned above, we often hear our peers complain of feeling isolated. The American Association of School Librarians (AASL), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), established standards that influenced schools across the nation and beyond our borders with the book Information Power. Many library media...

Wild About Books

Based On a True Story

All of the extraordinary historical and biographical fiction and nonfiction titles listed in this months column are about or based on the lives of real people (and one bird) and the events that molded them. Camping with his Boy Scout troop on a remote beach on the Big Island of Hawaii on November 29, 1975, Graham Salisbury's cousin, then 13, survived a massive earthquake followed by a tsunami. With their two adult leaders, the boys set out on a searing twelve-mile hike from a cliff on Mauna...

Web Monthly

Where Can We Go and What Will We Find? Geography Websites

Check out the left column for broad categories of links such as Maps; Statistics, Lists, & Trivia; Country Information; Cultural Geography; Physical Geography; and Climate Change Issues. Geography Facts offers over thirty questions such as "What is the largest island on earth?" and "What is the most populated city?" (Greenland is the largest island and Tokyo has 26,546,000 people for tiiose who do not know the answer.) Geography4Kids http://www.geography4kids.com/ This is a good place to...

Notes From The Field

Is Librarything Actually Useful in a Library Media Center?

Tags can also be used to sort books according to action steps ("to read," "donate to library sale," "buy for gifts"), location ("Box 4 in attic," "loaned to Grace," "cottage"), teacher name, curriculum focus ("alternative energy unit") or notes ("recommended by Mom"). Consider a parent-child book club, a professional learning community book club wifhin the school, or a professional reading club for local library media specialists.

If Matters

The Library Bill of Rights and Intellectual Freedom