Gathering Grid- For research

If you go to this site- which is actually excellent. We received information on this at our Library Council meeting. Go down to the section that says Research and then follow by clicking on graphic organizers you will see the gathering grid. I tried to copy and paste but for some reason that didn't work.

Great Sourceiwrite

Student Research- class lesson

My fourth grade classes are doing research projects so I want to do some classes on the steps to research . I have used The Big 6 in the past and also the KWL chart. I just found another type of chart that looks good . It is called a Gathering Grid. Down one side is the subject and three questions and along the top are three columns with Source 1 , Source 2, and Source 3. Students write the questions in the question area and then find the answers .

Does anyone every use one like this?

When I find the link to the Gathering Grid I will post it here. This grid just looks like a little less work while encouraging students to use multiple resources. I think it would go along with the Big 6 model also.

Don't Forget to post or follow for the February Giveaway!

Blogging Ideas

Students in our 4-6 grades will be blogging soon!. One of our reading teachers started a lunch time book club for students- asked by Administration as part of her position. Each group selects a book and then reads and discusses it. These are kids who volunteered to be in this group. The teacher asked to help her set up a blog for the students to respond to the books and some questions she might have . We set up her blog the same as my school blog. She introduced it to the students- I was present during just one meeting. Any way the students are getting into it, and hopefully they will also go over on the library blog and write some comments in their.

February Giveaway!!

The book I have chosen for the February Giveaway is Collaborative Library Lessons for the Primary Grades. This book has many excellent lessons that can be adapted for students in grades K-3 depending on the lesson and the skill. Many of these lessons I have also used with 4th and 5th graders with just a few tweaks. Everything is there for you to use- standards, objectives, prep of materials and steps to the lesson and skill sheets.I would highly recommend this book to any librarian who teaches these grades( and grades 4-6) To be in the running for this book, simply do one or the other.: Follow The Oragnized Librarian, or leave a comment on any day in February! Hope to Chat with you!

Blogging Tips

I am introducing some of my staff to my school blog. I will also show it to some of my students soon also. I would like to get more conversation going between us about books and learning . Blogging could be used for so many things- writing, collaboration, book reviews, sharing of information, book discussion, maybe podcasts??
What do you do with blogs? I would love to hear.
Coming soon another Book Give Away for February!!

The Organized Librarian- lesson planning

I am in the final stages The Organized Librarian and am going through the editing process. It is amazing to see how much work a librarian is supposed to accomplish, but we do it . We need to focus our work on student reading and learning. This year in my district we are also focusing on student writing so I am trying to incorporate more writing and thinking into my lessons.
This month I am developing a unit on biography for 4th grade and going to try a game so I am thinking about how I can engage students into being more active. I think I will be handing out a series of lists of biography books and then have students develop call numbers for these ( as a table group or groups of two) and then have them work as a table group to put them into Alphabetical order. That's for next week- this week is Atlases- I did one lesson yesterday and then decided to change it just a bit for the next 3 fourth grades. That's what I do- develop and then refine the lessons until I feel they are great for a learning experience with the students.

Library Book Pass

I got a really nice comment from Stacy over at The LibraryGals. She did the fiction book pass and her students really liked it. Mine do too! I haven't done it in a while- maybe I should think about doing with my fourth grade classes this week- since it will be crazy and the kids will be off the wall.
This article was in the October issue of Library Sparks. I love this magazine- it always has great ideas using excellent books as jumping off points for many activities and lessons.

Picture Book Month- November

November is Picture Book Month. I found this wonderful site that has interviews of authors and others on why they love picture books. I love picture books too because they offer everyone a quick read and so much can be done with them. Besides reading them to the younger students, they can be used in so many ways with older students. I will try to give you some of my ideas during the month.
Check out this link: PictureBookMonth

What do you do with picture books??

Vera B Williams

Vera's visit was great ! She talked to the 1-3 grade about writing and did a little skit of how a picture book gets published. Then we went upstairs to our library and she held a special audience with the third grade and talked in more detail about her writing. Students asked questions and took notes. Vera read parts of Amber Was Brave, Essie was Smart.

Author Visit Today!

We are having Vera Williams( Three Days on a River in a Red Canoe, Music,Music for Everyone, and more) today at school! I will post some photos here! The students have been hearing her stories and the third grade is getting a special audience with her. It should be great! Tell you more later!

Mysteries for October

I am hoping to launch a genre study with my fourth graders on mysteries. I have been collecting ideas and book lists . I would like to do a Mystery Wall and have students write Mysteries they have read in an attempt to get more and more students involved in reading Mystery's. I will keep you posted as to how it goes.
What do others do for a Mystery Study? Leave A comment!

Fiction book Pass article

My copy of Library Sparks came the other day and yes- my article :"Please Pass the books"was in there!! Naturally I showed everyone and gave a copy to my administrators! I actually had an email from a librarian who wanted to do the book pass with her students. I will post her comment in the comments below.
Did any of you see the article? Leave me a comment about what you think!

Ficiton Book Pass Article

This week when you get your Library Sparks , Check out my article about Please pass the Books an article about fiction book passes for elementary students. Can
't wait to see it. There is also an online attachment for the book pass which should also work well. Let me know what you think about this article! Comments are very much appreciated!!