We are working on making very clear links between our ideas and practice, especial;ly for the lower grades. When it comes to searching for information we all use KEY words. For our grades 1 and 2 we made colourful keys and laminated them. The students can use whiteboard markers to write their key words on the keys. They write the main search word on the large line and then alternative words on the lines along side the main word. Then if their main word is not found in our catalogue, Destiny, or search engine or index then they have alternative words to search.
Here a student is searching for "hummingbirds" and he alternative word is "birds". There were no books on "hummingbirds" in our library but many books about birds. Once she had found a book about birds she used her KEY once more to search the index for "hummingbirds. Using the KEY brought success in her search and helped to teach her the importance of using synonyms when using key words.
A simple idea which seems to be working well for our students.
This book is all about libraries and librarians. We are agents of change in our communities and we need to be aware and leverage the three agents of change to create tipping points: the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor and the Power of Context.
Librarians must embody the three persona Gladwell speaks of in the Law of the Few we have to be Connectors, Mavens and Persuaders. Today at my work I was a Maven, bringing information to colleagues and students alike. I connected people with ideas, tools, resources and one another. I persuaded a student to read a novel version of a graphic novel he had read and enjoyed.
This is a great read for all and especially affirming for librarians....
Last week we created our version of "Blind date with a book". We saw other libraries around the world doing this for their patrons - images are on pinterest and in blog posts like this one from Rockville Library
Sharing the surprises
We were amazed at the response from our students. We chose YA fiction with International settings and issues to encourage not only the risk taking element but also international mindedness. We limited the books to students in grades 5 - 12 because they are Young Adult books. We set up the display on Thursday morning and by Friday morning the entire display was decimated.
The sign of a successful display - many gaps to fill.
Unwrapping the surprise
Word got out and students came in specially to choose one of the mystery books. The challenge we gave to the students was to choose a book based on the message and then commit to read it. What impressed me was the willingness on the part of the student to participate. Boys were opening books that had covers that were a little 'feminine' but they were not put off, in fact they were more willing to take a risk to read something very different to what they would usually choose. Girls were unwrapping books about war and instead of saying they weren't interested they were checking more details by reading the blurb and then starting the book.
Most of the books came from my "Round the World in 80 books" adventure last year - reading 80 YA fiction books meant I knew what to choose. It was so much fun to watch the students unwrap their books and then excitedly share them with their friends.
We have now had a delegation from the lower grades to make blind dates for them too. Next week...
Grade 5 are enjoying listening to Pavarna's Journey by Deborah Ellis - their teacher is reading it to them. I am delighted, not only because they are enjoying the book but also because their teacher has downloaded this eBook to her i-pad and that is the version she is reading. More on eBooks in a later post. She has however, had to ban the students from accessing the other books in this series until they have finished Parvana's Journey.
Fortunately I had just finished reading Lost boy, lost girlby John Bul Dau and Martha Arual Akechand was able to enlist one of the avid readers in this class to help me make an important decision. At the moment we have the book in the MYP/DP nonfiction section but I am wondering if it could be a good fit in the PYP nonfiction area. I asked her to read this book, on a similar topic to Parvana's Journey but nonfiction and help me make the decision.
The account is written in first person by both John and Martha and alternates chapter by chapter between the two of them. They were both fairly young when the war broke out and for a short time their lives were untouched by it. I like the way they described 'normal' life before the war. Their lives were simple and while John's was a village life and very different from the experiences of our students, Martha's life was in the city and much the same as many of our students.
When the war over took them the suddenness and violence was shocking. It is well written. Simply told from the perspectives of the children that they were at the time. Both John aged around 12 - 13 and Martha aged around 8 - 9 took responsibility for others younger than themselves. The adults that were in their lives had either been killed or had run away in a different direction and so were separated from them. They walked miles, they foraged for food, they hid, they ran for their lives - they survived.
The book is divided into sections - Peace - War - Refugees and so on. The daunting thing is how often the section war appears. There are photos of John and Martha and their lives. John Bul Dau is the man in the documentary "The lost Boys". Martha's story brings to light that there were lost girls as well. The whole account is a powerful and memorable account of the terrible realities faced by so many children in the Sudan.
Below is a Book Trailer for the book. A great review from Helen's Book Blog.
Not that every day isn't a good day BUT today was really good because today our Library Team for Community and Service (the student librarians) chose the books and sent them to the Shree Mangal Dvip School for Himalayan Children. This school has an Amazon wishlist and we chose the books from their list together. The students chose books they had enjoyed themselves or ones they thought the students in Nepal would enjoy.
That was really good and then the r-e-a-l-l-y good thing happened - as we asked our students to write messages to attach to the children receiving the books our students started to ask so many questions. How old are these children? Why are they at boarding school? How often do they see their parents? Why do you (Ms Zaza) go there every summer to teach art? Question after question about this country Nepal and these children, who like them are learning in English language but that is not their first language.
So today our students sent 10 brand new books to a school in Nepal which has a small library run by students.
Today our students spent 30 minutes asking about and thinking about children on the other side of the world who have a very different set of life circumstances to them.
Today was a really good day in our Inquiry library. Thanks Ms Zaza. Thanks student librarians.
I find that nothing hones my skills or makes me more nervous than presenting to my colleagues so when Ayse and I decided to submit a presentation for consideration at the CEESA conference in Prague this March we really were stepping out and being risk takers. CEESA is the Central and Eastern European Schools Association and is describes itself in its mission statement: CEESA is a collaborative community of international schools which enhances school effectiveness and inspires student learning and development.
So in the spirit of collaboration Ayse and I offered a workshop on how we teach her class to make Digital Book Trailers. Our goal was to inspire, offer some ideas that work and show some tools that are available to teachers and students who want to try this way to recommend a great a book.
On the day we found our our workshop proposal had been accepted we both were elated and then terrified. Together we taught this unit and together we presented the workshop about it.
We showed ways to enable the students to understand that images relayed ideas and emotion. Our presentation included film trailers, advertisements, activities involving images and of course the final student products. I have uploaded it to slide share just for glimpse of what we did. It doesn't inlcude the images workshop we did with the students or with the workshop participants but it does give you an idea of what we did. Enjoy.
When creating a book display showing "Mystery" books we created a tagxedo word cloud using synonyms for mystery. I like how so many of the words also apply to wondering.
This week I was paid a huge compliment by a colleague when he was discussing some course readings on a forum. The reading was an article by Barbara Fister entitled "Playing for Keeps: Rethinking How Research Is Taught to Today's College Students" My colleague shared about how we use the Wonder of the Week and invite our school community to answer the question we post on the library door. This week's question "How do hibernating animals know when to wake up?"
Anyway here are some responses to my colleague's post: The example of the post it note allowed students to engage without the pressures of the right answer or proper procedure which brings learning back to one of its essential properties, inquisitiveness. Setting a challenge but not prescribing the path to success enables students to find their own way, in their own time, allowing for ownership of the process."
"I also really appreciate the examples you gave of incorporating play into the library. The post-it example facilitates intrinsic motivation by piquing students’ curiosity through an interesting question. It also creates a version of the collaborative research environment Kuhlthau describes by allowing students to see other approaches and responses to the question."
Simmons, Michelle. "LIBR:287: Information Literacy."Lesson #5 Discussion.San Jose State University, 2013. Web. 3 March 2013.
I was so delighted by these responses. I had never thought of the wonder door as achieving these things but it really does. Inquiry at play. My kind of inquiry learning. Barbara's article is worth the read as well.
So we continue to encourage wondering, mystery and play in our library. It is a learning process for us and the students at the same time.
