Information Literacy for young digital citizens
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Read 8 hours ago and current, but nothing has been published for 16 months.
Yikes! I just realized there are only two cycles left with my Grade 6-10/MYP students! That gives me two sessions: one for reflection on our reading this year and one to kick off our Summer Reading Program. First Activity for "Our Reading Year" Students complete my annual questionnaire about their own reading habits, preferences, and recommendations for how I can improve our library's offerings.…
It's time for my annual move into a "Pop-Up" Library for six weeks - a smaller cozier space so grade 11 + 12 exams can happen in our large library. I'm going with a "popcorn" theme, so for this cycle's library time I'm doing Books-into-Movies booktalks. The opening nugget is about how reading AND watching can deepen our understanding of a story (including narrative nonfiction). It does not matter…
Library time is fun, but.... I still expect READING to happen which, for some students, is decidedly "un-fun." After nearly 15 years of book talks and library lessons, I'm finally happy with my Rules for Reading . I always aim to strike the right balance between positive and firm expectations and this set of rules has helped me set that tone. Note : These are my rules for our library reading time…
It's a common teacher-librarian problem: We prepare booktalks about a set of titles and generate so much excitement with students that all the books get checked out! Ack! It's super frustrating to see a kiddo get excited about a story and not be able to have it. Sure, they can hold it, but it's just not the same. Enter Save-a-Buck booktalks: I only talk about books that are IN the library . If…
So many books, so little time! This week, I'm doing "Beat the Clock" booktalks. The challenge is to talk about each book within 25 seconds before the slide moves ahead! Students will hold up a "yes" or "no" card to show if they're interested in the book and then I'm on to the next book - no discussion - gotta keep moving! We have a "Top 100 Middle Grade Books" on a visual and resource list, but I…
Here's a quick and fun way to ensure students are actually reviewing the titles we put out for them to sample: Combine a book tasting with a bingo board. Grade 9 is coming to see our collection of books about WWII - and we have a ton! Fiction, nonfiction, memoirs, true survival stories, true rescue stories, DK books with engaging timelines and maps - it's fabulous but.... it can be overwhelming.…
Here's a quick way to add context when talking about a book: add pictures! As I was preparing booktalks for this cycle's library time with grade 6-9 students, I found myself wanting to show some maps and "local color" like foods, vegetation, and settings to help students gain background about the story. So after my usual bullets to highlight key characters and events, I added a collage of images…
The idea of the "Book Tasting Cafe" was sparked in 2008 when Jennie Scott-McKenzie posted about her activity, " Chez Dewey " on LM_Net. She had designed an activity to engage students in learning about the Dewey Decimal System by "ordering" books using a menu, but spin-offs quickly emerged. Today, the most common iteration is to set up the library like restaurant with books to "taste" as a way to…
What’s the “Jarul” Award? The Jarul Award aims to promote picture books by Indian authors and/or publishers each year. They put out a longlist of titles, and students ages up to 11 vote to create a shortlist of three winners. The final winner is voted on at the end of the year and announced at a ceremony at The American School of Bombay in January. As a newbie to India, each of these was an…
I initially balked at the idea. Model the entire research process in one lesson? With students producing a paragraph with sources, cited in-text (!) by the end of the block? Absolute craziness. But, when a teacher approached me with the idea, I said YES. I figured I would come up with something . Was it do-able? Kind of. https://imgflip.com/tag/soup+nuts Here's how it went down: The preparation…
