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Sunday, November 18, 2012

Thanksgiving Children's Book Quote - In November.


An inspiring quote from the picture book, In November, written by one of my favorite authors of books for young people, Cynthia Rylant:

In November, the smell of food is different. It is an orange smell. A squash and pumpkin smell. It tastes like cinnamon and can fill up a house in the morning, can pull everyone from bed in a fog. Food is better in November than any other time of year.

In November, people are good to each other. They carry pies to each other's homes and talk by crackling woodstoves, sipping mellow cider.

They travel far on a special November day just to share a meal with one another and to give thanks for their many blessings - for food on their tables and the babies in their arms.

And then they travel back home.

Teaching Hurricane Sandy

    I teach at a middle school in Northern Virginia. Our schools were closed for two days because of Hurricane Sandy, but our county's damage was minimal (some roads were flooded, some power outages) compared to NYC/NJ/ Long Island and other coastal areas. We were lucky and returned to school with a delayed opening the day after the storm passed - Wednesday, October 31st.

    Shortly after Hurricane Sandy hit, the NY Times came out with this blog post about Teaching Hurricane Sandy: Ideas and Resources. Feeling inspired, I quickly edited my lesson plans for that week. On the Thursday and Friday after the storm, I was scheduled to teach an "Intro to Podcasting" lesson to five 8th grade Language Arts classes as part of my media literacy teaching. Typically in the lesson, I explain to students what podcasts are, how they can be shared, and we listen to a few examples of podcasts. After the lesson, they break up into groups and write a script for their own podcast based on themes related to a book they had read in class. Then they come back as a class, and record their podcasts on the library computers using microphones and Audacity. With this particular class the book they read was Flowers for Algernon. I decided for this lesson we would listen to NPR podcasts about Hurricane Sandy. I found several with a quick search on NPR. The students were really interested, and it was an opportunity to hear different perspectives and reports about the damage, and open up some dialogue about this type of media and the hurricane.

    I was also scheduled to do a bunch of Book Talks/Trailers with 7th Graders.  The SOL testing (we use Standards of Learning, not Core) has a large percentage of nonfiction to test for reading comprehension, so teachers want to see students reading more nonfiction, in addition to fiction/novels, etc. Bingo. I showed part of this video I found on YouTube from the Wall Street Journal, which triggered discussions and questions about Hurricane Sandy. I was able to teach students about the materials and resources we have in the library to answer their questions (i.e. nonfiction books about hurricanes, natural disasters, weather, etc.).



    As part of a school-wide program, I have a group of 12 students who I advise once a week for 20 minutes. As a side project, the students want to create a Graphic Novel using Comic Master, which is a free site I learned about at a VAASL Conference session on AASL's Best Websites for Teaching and Learning, presented by Heather Moorefield-Lang. The students plan to create the Graphic Novel and then print it, distribute it, and collect donations for Hurricane Sandy relief in return. We are just beginning this project and it will probably take a while since I don't see the students often or for a long time, but they are excited. I am letting them take the lead on this, so we will see where it goes. This is not a graded project.


How are other school librarians teaching students about Hurricane Sandy?


Monday, November 12, 2012

Inanimate Alice with 6th Graders



   At the VAASL 2012 Conference this past week I learned about this cool Australian Digital Novel Project, Inanimate Alice. Virginia Tech Librarian and presenter Heather Moorefield-Lang, introduced this website to a group of us in a session about AASL's 25 Best Websites for Teaching and Learning. As soon as I saw a little clip I knew my students would be interested and I couldn't wait to share the project with them. It's a free site. 

    Inanimate Alice is a digital novel about a girl named Alice who travels around the world with her parents. She uses a hand-held device to communicate with a stick figure she created named Brad.  The digital novel uses sound, animation and text to tell the story. It also requires the reader to interact with the story using the mouse. According to the website (InanimateAlice.com):


 "Inanimate Alice is Transmedia - designed as a story that unfolds over time and on multiple platforms, the episodes are available on devices capable of running Flash Player. Alice connects technologies, languages, cultures, generations and curricula within a sweeping narrative accessible by all. As Alice's journey progresses, new storylines appear elsewhere providing more details and insights, enriching the tale through surprising developments."
    Today I taught this as a lesson in the library to five 6th grade Language Arts classes. The class levels ranged from honors to special ed.  There are currently 4 episodes of Inanimate Alice and in the first episode about China, (which takes only about 10 minutes total to read with students) Alice and her mom leave their base camp in Northern China to search for Alice's father who has been missing for two days after working in the oil fields. 

   The students really enjoyed this episode. In the first class, I just played the video on the overhead and clicked through it myself, making the students read the text. They were an honors class and seemed to enjoy the book. I had multiple students ask if we can watch the next episode. In the other classes, I read the text in a read-aloud style, which was helpful for the ELL and Special Ed students. Throughout the story and after the story I asked students questions, some of which I found in the Teacher Resource Guides on the website. At the end there was applause in some classes, and every group was asking really good questions (Do they have cell phones in China? What time period is this set in? Is this free? Is Brad a GPS system or like SIRI? Can we watch the next episode?). Students described it as awesome, exciting, and more interesting than a regular library book. The teachers thought it was pretty cool, too. 
     
   I would recommend sharing this with your students and teachers. 



Saturday, November 10, 2012

VAASL 2012 Conference

I just got back from the VAASL 2012 Conference in Hampton, Virginia and I am feeling inspired! My district sent me, since I serve on the Loudoun County Public Schools Library Advisory Committee. Wonderful experience. I learned so much and I can't wait to start some of these ideas with my own library.

Some presentations that resonated with me:

  1. Heather Moorefield-Lang's session on AASL's 25 Best Websites for Teaching and Learning  
  2. Michelle Luhtala's session and keynote speech on Virtual Library Services for the 21st Century. 
  3. Kathryn Jones' session on Student News Broadcast
  4. 100 New Titles for Young Adults by Maureen Wierbach and Jenny Ashby

I am trying to digest everything. Michelle Luhtala really inspired me to get back into a groove with social media. I need to make some some changes in our school library and set up a twitter account for the library media program and bring our school into the 21st Century. I set up this professional blog to share some of my efforts in this area.

I was very excited about Heather Moorefield-Lang's session because she showed us awesome free websites that were awarded by AASL for their awesomeness, and we can start using them NOW. 

I have a bunch of new titles to bring back and also some ideas to make our school's news broadcast even better. 

Thank you VAASL. I better get started.