This past April, the high school librarian and I presented at PSLA on Building a Culture of Reading in a school and/or district.
The presentation was a huge success. Several people e-mailed our principals and superintendent singing our praises about what a great job we do promoting reading! Another result of the presentation was that someone from School Library Monthly, asked us to write an article for them!
So, later that month we sat down together and sketched out an outline, created a Google Doc, and then collaborated on the article together.
After many, many editing sessions we were ready to submit. Getting down to our word-count limit was the most difficult task ... we just had so much to say :). I know we are both proud of the completed article!
So, here are the nuts and bolts of how I rearranged my library to be genre based. The entire process took just over a year and I'm loving the change.
Step 1
I determined the genres I would use and where each genre would be housed. I decided to go with the following genres (I've also added the colors I decided to go with): Historical Fiction Chick Lit Realistic Fiction Humorous Mystery Sports Fiction Horror Action/Adventure Fantasy/Sci-Fi Easy Reader Classics (no color)
Step 2
I purchased transparent colored labels and decided what color each genre was going to be.
Step 3
I weeded heavily and shifted my books around to create an area of space to begin
Step 4
I chose a genre and methodically went through my fiction section from AAA to ZZZ and picked out all the books that fit in that genre
I began with historical fiction because the open shelves from my weeding were right where I planned on housing my historical fiction section. So, I'll use my historical fiction as my example for the rest of the post.
Step 5
My aide changed a few things in Destiny for each book.
*each title received a genre code in front of the current call number - ex) HISTORICAL F XXX
*the sub-location of each book was changed to the appropriate genre
My aide then placed a transparent colored label over the existing spine label for each book and then shelved the books.
Step 6
I created a wordle for the genre by looking at titles and authors of the books that were housed in that section. I had the wordle created into a poster. I placed a few of the labels on the poster, to create a square of the color that was assigned to that genre. Finally, I hung the posters above the beginning point of each genre section. This is crucial for making it easy for your users to find the appropriate genre section.
After pulling out all the books of one genre from the fiction section, I re-shifted the remaining fiction collection which opened up some more shelving. So, I just repeated the process over and over until I had about 2 library carts full of those books that just don't seem to fall into one genre. I slowly worked my way through that cart - asking students for their feedback, reading online summaries, and looking at the recommended subject headings for that book. Going through those two library carts was tedious, and sometimes I wished I could have created a separate category just for those difficult books ... but I found it better to just make an executive decision and house the book in a specific genre.
I created a google form and polled my students to get some feedback from them. While of course, there were those who didn't like the change, the overwhelming majority loved it.
"I like that I can find the mystery ones (I like them the best) right away in their own section."
"I like fiction organized by genre because I know where to look for the specific kind of book I want."
"Because I know where all the fiction book are which I prefer"
I had been rolling an idea around in my head for several years ... reorganizing my fiction collection by genre. Finally, last year, I decided to actually go for it. It genuinely took an entire school year + a few months into the second school year. Now that it is 99% finished, I have no regrets. I am so glad the library has been reorganized.
BISG motivates and moderates debate about current book industry practices and about the future of digital publications on the international book trade
BISG develops, maintain and promotes standards and best practices that enable the book industry to conduct business more efficiently and cost-effectively. Our standards cover a wide range of business processes, including product identification and description, business communications, product and carton labeling and digital discovery and delivery.
BISG conducts and publishes primary research related to the size of the U.S. book industry and in areas of topical interest such as the environmental impact of the book industry and consumer attitudes toward digital publishing.
2. Help Me Find a Book!
I wonder if libraries ever performed any market research on using Dewey for classifying their entire collection? Now, I cannot claim that I performed any sort of market research before I made the decision to change. However, I was constantly asked by students to help them find a book - they didn't have a specific one in mind ... they wanted recommendations. So, the first words that would come out of my mouth were, "Well, what are you in the mood for? Mystery, fantasy, sports, romance ...?" Once I knew the genre they were looking to read at the moment, I say, "Ok, let's walk the shelves and I'll pull out a few options for you." Being the librarian, I was uniquely aware of my collection - what books/authors I had available and where they were on the shelves. So, the student and I would walk through the shelves and I would begin pulling off a book here and there that I thought would interest them. After providing them with a few options and telling them a little about each one, they would make their decision or ask me to show them more.
I realized my collection was only friendly to students looking up a specific book or author. For the students that knew they wanted to read a scary story, but didn't know an exact title or author that they wanted, the collection's organization was not meeting their needs. They needed me and my knowledge of where the scary stories were in my fiction collection in order to find a few options to sort through. Sure, they could look up scary stories in the library catalog, but the number of results in a bit overwhelming and then looking through the entire fiction collection to pull a few out for themselves to decide was not something that middle school students felt like doing. I wanted the library to be user-friendly and to promote reading ... I felt like my fiction collection, as it had been organized, was far from doing that.
Book Shelves photo used under Creative Commons license from http://www.flickr.com/photos/33377700@N00/443545349/.
I'm happy with how the presentation went. There are a few things that I wish I would have done differently in hindsight. I wish I would have taken 5 minutes at the beginning of the presentation to make sure everyone in the audience was able to get to the online portion of my presentation. A few people were having trouble finding the link on the conference wiki. I also wish I would have scheduled about 5 minutes between each application I was talking about to answer a few questions. Oh well, next time I'll try to remember to do those things. Live and learn:)
At the end of the presentation, I linked out to a poll by Poll Everywhere. I wanted to get an idea of where everyone in the group was at in terms of using applications like glogster, wordle, audacity, etc.
Then I launched into the content of my presentation using a LiveBinder I created. I absolutely LOVE LiveBinders for presentations because your presentation then becomes a resource binder for those in the audience. My session focused on creating multi-media book projects. I talked to teacher librarians about how to make book projects 2.0-style and allow students to learn important 21st century skills - creative commons, visual literacy, communication, etc.
It is amazing how a presentation that can take hours upon hours to create and organize, is over in 1 hour and 15 minutes. I wanted more time, but the time I did have was great and the participants were wonderful!
Number 1 photo used under Creative Commons license from http://www.flickr.com/photos/49968232@N00/2115400318/.
I just finished working with an eighth grade Language Arts teacher and her students on creating book review podcasts. (I've blogged previously on podcasting - here and here.)
Podcasts are a great way to build students skills not only in technology, but in academic content as well. I was inspired by the poster Langwitches created in her "It's not about the tools . . . it's about the skills". It is such a powerful visual reminder that having students record a podcast is not all about the podcast skills. It is about the writing, speaking, communication, etc. skills taught and reinforced in the process. It is about allowing students to build these skills in a real-world, hands-on experience.
One thing that really struck me throughout the recording process was the growing self-awareness that the students developed about how they sounded while speaking. Common remarks during the first day of recording included: "Do I actually sound like that?" "I need to record that again because I was mumbling" "I can barely hear myself. I need to speak louder next time." The ability to hear what they just said and receive immediate feed back allowed the students to analyze their recording for quality speaking skills. Without much coaching, the students listened to and reflected on the quality of their recordings (speaking skills) and then took measures to correct or improve upon their recording.
Timeline 1 Period - Write book review podcast script 1 Period - Introduce Audacity and let the students play/practice 2 Periods - Record vocal portions of podcast 1 Period - Import music and a sound effect
Final Product To place all the podcasts in a place for all students to have access to them, I uploaded the podcasts to a glog - quick and easy! Each class has their own glog page with their podcasts like the picture to the left.
I wish I could share the direct link for you to listen to a few, but unfortunately I cannot.
Podcasting Skills and Literacies photo used under Creative Commons license from Langwitches.
I have been having a fun time this year coming up with alternative ways to assess student reading for the Language Arts teachers in my school - read here and here. While some projects may take several class periods, I was asked to provide some ideas for a quick, one-period projects. So, I tried to come up with some quick 30-minute projects/assessments for teachers who cannot always spare much classroom time.
IDEA 1 - Bookr How To: Bookr allows you to create a photobook/photostory. What helps to make this project so quick is that all the tools necessary are in one place. As long as the students come prepared with a short summary, character sketch, description of favorite part, theme analysis, etc., this can easily be completed in 30 minutes. Creating Accounts Students do not need accounts to use Bookr. Steps 1. Students type one sentence or phrase per page. 2. Student find a picture (using the built-in flickr photo search) to support that text. 3. When the students finish their photo books, they should e-mail them to the teacher for assessment. Example:
IDEA 2 - BLABBERIZE How To: As long as the students come prepared with a short summary, character sketch, description of favorite part, theme analysis, etc., this can easily be completed in 30 minutes. The finished product is fun and quirky. As I were testing Blabberize out in school, some eighth grade students in the library at the time all wanted to give it a try. So, this one is basically kid-tested and approved. Creating Accounts I created one account and was able to have more than one computer creating their blabberize at the same time. I recommend having only one account per class that all students log into because this will make grading the final products much easier since they will all be available on the same account. Steps 1. Students find a picture of an animal/person/statue (basically anything with a mouth) I would recommend having a folder on the network available with a variety of pictures from which the students can choose. This helps in two ways: It will save time and it will ensure that the students only choose a picture that has a good mouth area to work with the blabberize concept. 2. Students place the mouth movement area on their picture 3. Students record their written piece and publish/save Example:
IDEA 3 - GOOGLE FORM How To: Here is the quickest assessment of the three. While the students are not creating a product, the Google Form will provide the teacher with an easy, compact way to assess students' independent reading. Creating Accounts Students do not need to create accounts. Teacher will have to have (or create) a free account with Google. Steps 1. Teachers should embed form on website or wiki or blog or provide students with link to form. 2. Students simply fill out the form and hit submit. Example:
I have been working with one of my eighth grade language arts teachers to create book projects 2.0 style. Since I've been on a Wordle kick lately, I thought I would come up with a book project using Wordle.
I had recently given my mom, a French teacher, the idea of using Wordle to have her students work with adjectives. Her students created word clouds of French adjectives describing themselves using Wordle. So, I thought, why not transfer that idea to characters in a book.
The students chose one character from their book on which to focus. They then filled out the worksheet embedded below to determine the character traits they would include.
Using Wordle Advanced (see previous post), students created their Character Trait word clouds.
Finally, the students will present their Character Trait word clouds to their classmates. They used the worksheet with the reasons/examples demonstrating why the character presents a trait to develop their oral presentation.
To continue our goal to build a culture of reading at the middle school, I decided to enlist the help of Wordle. I wanted to come up with a way for students to share with their classmates what books they have been reading. Wordle popped into my mind as a way to allow students to create fun "lists" of what they have read - aka "book clouds". Students have been hanging their newly created "book clouds" throughout the library.
TIPS
Creating Lists
Have students create a list in a Word document. This will prevent and solve any problems that arise from students running out of time or having technical difficulties with Wordle.
Create a numerical scale for them to stay within when creating their lists. I had students assign their names as 100. The maximum number they could assign a book title was 60 and the minimum number was 20. This prevented any titles from being too large and competing with their name or from being so small they could not be seen. I recommended that the students use the numbers as a rating system for how they liked the book - the more they liked it, the higher the number.
Encourage them to create a fairly lengthy list. I printed out their circulation logs to help them remember some titles they read. I recommend at least 25 titles.
Example List: MISS MAKATCHE READS:100 Hunger Games:55 Fablehaven:50 Someone Named Eva:44 Soldier X:23 Sisters of the Sword:38 Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life:26
I was approached by one of my eighth-grade language arts teachers at the beginning of the year about book reports. She requires her students to read 2 books per quarter and wanted to try some innovative ways to "track" their reading. So, I created a list of ideas for her (which I hope to blog about later), which she will pull from throughout the year.
For her first book project, she decided to go with Glogster book reviews. Glogster is a very teacher/student-friendly site with a separate education portal. So, we set her up with an account and created her student accounts as well . . . very simple!
In order to help her students write a quality book review to incorporate into their glog, I volunteered to do a 20-25 minute mini-lesson on writing book reviews. I did not feel like an expert on writing book reviews, but I found Steve Peha's ideas very helpful.
Here are the 3 resources I created to help the students learn: (all embedded below) 1. Google presentation - unfortunately the speaker notes do not embed along with the google presentation, so some slides at the end may not make complete sense
I am really excited about the direction we are headed. Each quarter the students will have critically evaluated their books utilizing a variety of media. Gone are the days of the standard written book report/review!
Sometimes trying to cultivate readers in middle school has felt like trying to grow a garden on a sidewalk. The only places where reading was encouraged and promoted was by their language arts teachers and me, the librarian. We provided the cracks in the otherwise barren surface, hoping readers would spring up even under the "harsh" conditions.
So, in an attempt to harvest a greater crop of readers, I formed a reading committee at the end of the school year. I invited teachers of all subject areas to participate. To my pleasant surprise, I received a lot of interested from math teachers to social studies teachers to language arts teachers. We met 2 times over the summer and came up with some fun ideas to create a rich environment for cultivating a love of reading.
Our goal is to create an environment where teachers from all subject areas are promoting the importance and the love of reading. All our initiatives are voluntary (except the SSR) because we want students to choose reading instead of only doing it because it is required.
One Book-One School - We will be encouraging all teachers and students to read Three Cups of Tea
Reader of the Week - Each week a teacher or student will advertise a book over the morning announcements and (hopefully) a blog I would like to set up for this
"I'm reading" Signs - each teacher will have a sign outside their door where they can post the book/magazine/newspaper that they are currently reading
Book Discussion Groups - 3 times a year teachers will choose a book on which to host a discussion group and then students will sign up to participate in the various book discussions
Silent Sustained Reading (SSR) - 15 minutes every Monday morning (it may not be a lot, but it is a start!)
5th Grade Orientation - presentation to parents on the importance of reading and how to encourage their child to read
I would love to hear what do you do to promote reading with students!
I always love finding new ways to promote reading with my students. So, I have slowly been adding to my web2.0 repetoire of book and reading websites. 22books is one of my new favorites. 22books allows you to create book embeddable book lists. The site is very easy to use and plans on offering more features in the near future (ability to share lists, blog lists, etc.)
List Ideas 1. summer reading lists 2. author book lists 3. genre book lists 4. new books in the library 5. books I would like to read 6. books similar to ______________ . 7. books that make use of
Classroom Ideas 1. If students project is to create a wikipage for a school project, have them embed a list on a wiki with books that go along with the topic of the page 2. Have students create lists of books that display a specific literature element 3. Let students create list of books that caught their attention after book talking 4. Let students just have fun with it!
Examples: In the future they plan on providing users with the opportunity to blog their lists. So, for now, here a direct link to the list I created for students who have read all the books from the Twilight series and are looking for similar reads. If you would like to see an embedded version of the list, you can see it here on my wikispace.
Earlier this month our school celebrated Read Across America Day. We invited guest readers to come into the Language Arts classes to read aloud to the students and interact with them about books. I was invited to read to 5 classes. For the 7th and 8th grade classes I read to, I ended with some book talks. However, I decided that I would try something new.
I created a presentation on one of my favorite sites, Sliderocket. I was able to add a mixture of book covers and book trailers. The students loved the book trailers . . . picture students staring in rapt attention with mouths slightly open as a book is being promoted:)
Harper Teen has a wonderful YouTube channel that features book trailers and interviews with authors. So, I converted a few of the video to insert into the presentation. The result is a great advertisement for books that I can use from year to year with different classes.
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