Read.Gov

  Read.Gov is a website which is a Division of the Library of Congress's  The site encourages everyone (kids, Teens, & adults) to discover the world of books and reading.  You will see a variety of free reading resources to explore.  There are programs to be done on line, and classic books to read online. Author webcasts( where authors speak about their  books and their work as a writer .)

  Also helpful to both librarians and teachers are the book lists that are related to research and school topics. There are  online book exhibits( Books that Shaped America- which shows covers of the first edition and gives a synopsis of why the work is important) There is also  a list of some best American literature. This is a good resource for librarians, elementary teachers , ELA ,and English teachers.

Letters About Literature- writing contest for students

  Letters About Literature is writing contest for students in grades 4-12. In its 25th year , it is sponsored by the Library of Congress and Dollar General.

 This is a reflective  letter writing competition whereby students write to an author about their feelings about a book and how they feel the book has changed their view of themselves or their world.  The students will share specific details about the book and their reaction to it.

  More information about the contest can be found at read.gov/letters. There is a webinar for educators and details about the contest.  Check your state for deadline specifics.

 Link:
http://www.read.gov/letters/

Teachers lesson plan for writing letters:

http://www.read.gov/documents/LAL-Teaching-Guide-REVISED.pdf

Smithsonian Learning Lab

Smithsonian Learning Lab is a free resources of digital resources. There are more than a million images, recordings, and texts for use by students and teachers, or anyone who wants to investigate digital sources.   The SLL is designed for discovery, creativity and  sharing. There are more than one million images, recordings, and texts. Search results display pictures that you can click on.  you can add notes, tag questions , save and share.

The learning lab helps build critical skills by having students  select , organizing and create new resources.  Enter a subject that interest you  in the search bar. Keywords can be from broad to specific/ Search results in an image grid but can also be changed to a list view.
There are resources and learning lab collections tabs at the top.  resources can be individual or a group. A curated group of resources will be a collection or resources.

  There are icons to help you distinguish between images, video, audio, and text, There are also learning resources( lessons , games, interactive online exhibition websites.
  users can collect resources, save them to favorites and also share resources with co- workers and colleagues.

https://learninglab.si.edu/

More Active Learning Strategies

 Picture Prompts- show students an image with out a caption or explanation.(For History use a primary resource from  your libraries webpage) . Ask students to identify , explain, and give evidence for their answers.  Ask students to use terms from a previous lecture or to name the processes or  show concepts ( think Science) This can be a whole group  activity, or small groups or pairs. Students can then share their ideas.

Think -Break-  Ask a  rhetorical question. Allow 20 to 30 seconds for students to think about the problem. Students can then write something down about the solution  or the problem. You can then go on to explain or expand the topic being covered.

Update Notes- Take a break for 2 to 3 minutes to allow students to compare  class notes ( with the other students)  and to allow students to fill in the gaps and develop questions.

Active Learning Strategies

 Here are some examples of active learning strategies:

 1)Round Robin is a small group activity. Have students in groups of 3 or 4 . Students pass around a paper and each will write a fact, opinion or piece of information on the topic. Time is called at a predetermined time ( say 10 to 15 minutes) This allows students to share knowledge of a topic and discuss what they know about a topic.

2 ) Discussion  . When you have a general discussion as a whole group, have students jot down what they have heard. Do they agree or disagree, or did it give them a new idea or piece of information.

3) Flash cards- Have students make flash cards for use of study for tests or quizzes. Flash cards can also have drawings or words.

4) When students work in pairs, give them a time limit. Students will be more focused when given a limited amount of time.

Curation:A new term for Educators

 One of our goals in education is higher order thinking skills. So we are trying to get away from students simply recalling information.  One new concept I've been reading about s curation.

Curation is the collecting and organizing of facts/ writings of high quality and then sharing those collections with the world. A student could collect: articles, images, videos, audio clips or a mixture of items that all relate to a topic . It’s like “The top 10” or “The Best of” something.  

Curation projects require students to  : Understand the information, analyze  and  organize it to make sense, and evaluate  / judge the quality  of the items. 

TeachersToolkit.com

Teacher’s Tool kit

    This site is a great source of teachers, On the main page you will the tab for tools. It gives teachers a variety of tools that will help them plan activities and engaging lessons for students.

  There are so many good ideas here!  On the very left hand side the tools are group into categories: opening activities, partner practice, group practice, reading strategies, and games just to name a few. I found so many interesting activities here! Share with your teachers, you will be a rock star!

Middle School Blogs! Middle School Book Club!

   I am  hoping to promote  that student in our 7&8  grades  will be blogging next year.  I am hoping to work with the ElA teachers  or maybe start a lunch time book club for students.  Each group - a 7th and an 8th would have a blog attached to our library website.  Then they will read the book and then discuss . The students will be volunteers!  
    I will write an intro to the book( or maybe have the students do a book review.)Then students can present their ideas about the book in the blog during the month- So I am thinking that  maybe a monthly meeting would work.   I will think about it over the summer. 
    But if you have any ideas , please comment below!  I am looking for some input

Netsmartz.org _Parent site for NSTeens

       Netsmartz.org    is the 'parent ' site from the one that I talked about last week. This has lots of  links , ideas, videos, etc for parents and educators   to help  children and students learn more about the safe use of the internet.
  NetSmartz is an interactive and educational program of the National Center for Missing and Exploited children.  It consists of age appropriate resources  for students 5 to 17 to be used by parents, and educators.  There are  many resources here  which include videos, games, lesson plans, activity cards, and presentations.
     The programs are  both educational and entertaining. My students love the NS teens and go back  to replay the games and look at the comics.  If you poke around you will find something you can use with your own children or students.

   Did anyone  find anything similar?  I am constantly on the look out for more sites like this that have excellent content for use with the students.

Recent lessons- April

    During Information Literacy we have been stepping back and doing some literacy type of activities.  Students  listened to the book , The Witches ( Dahl) and  demonstrated their comprehension by  drawing/ writing  about the different components of the story( plot, characters, story arc,)  Students enjoyed this activity and it gave them  a little bit of break from the other activities we had been doing previously.

   Some of the classes  were listening. reading 12 Angry Men (Rose  ) and were  rewriting different scenes  into a play.   We also  wrote some poems for poetry month which most of the students enjoyed.

  This was a little break from the research and information skills that we had been doing .

Free Library Lesson!- Dog Loves Books!

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 Library Lessons  with Louise  Yates

    Two of Louise Yates’ books , Dog Loves Books – Alfred A Knopf, 2010) and Dog Loves Drawing ( Alfred A Knopf , 2012)  are a great way to introduce students to the love of books and also introduce or review  several library concepts in the early grades.

Main concepts that are learned: What does the Author do?

Discussion Questions   which can be used during or after reading,  Dog Love’s Books.

1. Dog loved books so much he ________________________________________.

2. How did Dog get ready for the opening of his book store?

3. What did Dog do to keep busy while he was waiting for customers?

4.What did Dog do when he got tired of waiting for customers?

5. What happened while Dog was reading?

6. How did Dog know which books to recommend?

7.Dog loves books, but what was even better that just loving books?

Library Vocabulary: Students should know these terms  for this lesson.

Author : person who writes the words in a story.

Illustrator: person who draws the pictures in a story.

Library Lesson  :Beginning-Middle-End

Have a discussion with students about the parts of a story.  This can be an initial lesson or a review type lesson.  Have a talk  about what  students think happened in the beginning, in the middle, and at the end .

In each box below, draw or write what happened in each part of the book  This can also be made into a bigger layout in the landscape format which may make it easier.

Dog Loves Books. ( Louise Yates)

Beginning

  

Middle:

End

     

Writing / Creative Activity  Dog Loves Books

1. Have student work on a small poster and  have them write and draw what they love.  Show them an example  of  what the poster of what they love will look like:

Cody Loves:

2. Book Recommendations: Poster or Paper Size.  

What book would you recommend to a friend or customer  ? Draw a poster or advertisement for a book that  you would recommend if you owned Dogs Book store.

Show students an example with the author, illustration, title , descriptions and picture of their favorite parts of the story.

    

      

  

     

    

:

FREE Library Lesson!

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      Library Lessons With The Midnight Librarian

     The Midnight Librarian by Kazuno Kohara (Roaring Book Press, 2014) is a great read aloud for introducing students in Kindergarten and First Grade to the library.   Use it  at the beginning of the year or any time  to review.  

 Read the story  aloud to the students.   Discussion questions can be asked  at the end 0f the story or at occasions where students can use text and illustration cues to answer the questions.

1. What do the animals do in the library? ( p3-4)
2. What was the correct behavior in the reading room? (P5-6)
3. Was there a hole in the roof?
4. Was it raining in the library?
5. Why was the wolf crying?
6. What jobs did the librarian do in the library?
7. What jobs did the owl assistants do in the library?
8. How did the little librarian help the tortoise?
9. How is the library in the book different from our library?
10. What do you think are some good library manners ?

Answer key:

1. read books

2. Correct behavior- being quiet
3. NO there was not a hole in the roof.
4. NO it was not raining
5. The wolf was crying because the book was sad.
6. help animals pick a perfect book, put away books
7. she made him a card so he could borrow books.
8. answers will vary
9. Answers will vary: be quiet, put books away,

Word Puzzle - The Midnight Librarian

Word Bank:  Librarian, Instruments, Yawn, Rain, Assistant, Read, borrow

1. Person who helps find the perfect book   L _ _ r_ _  _ _ _

2.what the squirrels played                            I _ _ t _ _ m_ _ _ _

3.Tortoise was allow to  take book                b _  _ _ o _

4.What  the animals did  in the library           r _ _ d

5.One who helped the librarian                     a _ _ i _ _ _ _

6.when the wolf cried                                      r _ _ _

7, owls did after story & fell asleep               y _ _ n

Answer Key

1. Librarian
2. Instruments
3. Borrow
4. Read
5. Assistant
6. Rain
7. Yawn

Matching ( terms and definitions) The Midnight Librarian

Copy  this page  ( Make several copies)  and  cut apart. Glue onto cards Have two  or three students work together to match terms.  This can be also done during  time when there are students who are finished with book check out or are not checking out books. Make a easy check by  placing on the back  books!  on the cards that go together.

Place where all  the  books are	reads you good books
Library assistants	lets you borrow books
Library behavior	being quiet and respectful

Librarian	Library
Library cards	take a book home and then bring it back.
borrow	Helps put books away

Answer key on back of

place where all the books are - Library               B

library assistant- helps put books away               o  (1)

library behavior- being quiet and respectful      o ( 2)

Librarian- reads  you good books                            k

library cards- lets you borrow books                       s

borrow -take a book home & bring it back            !

The Midnight Librarian

Sequence  Game  : Students can work in pairs to put the following cards or strips of paper in the right order after listening to the story.  After everyone is done,  you can review as a class or have another pair at the table check work.

Animals  come at night to the library to read

                                                           

                                                                                         

The Tortoise can finish his book.

The Little Librarian reads to the owls as they fall asleep.

Little Librarian & her three owl  assistants help find the perfect book.

The Little librarian asks “Please be quiet in the reading room”

The Little Librarian takes the squirrels to the activity room.

The Little Librarian makes the tortoise a  library card.

It starts to rain inside the library.

The little librarians and her assistants read to the wolf.

Bands of squirrels play music looking for a good song.

Other Books Written and Illustrated  by Kazuno Kohara

Here Comes Jack Frost /Roaring Book Press, 2009

Ghosts in the House/ Roaring Book Press,2012

Little Wizard/Pan Macmillan,, 2011

The Haunted House/ Macmillan Children's Books, 2008

Susan Pierce Couture is a career librarian ,  with experience in both public and school libraries.  Currently , she is a branch manager in a public library system.  You can  connect with her at her blog  : TheOrganizedLibrarian. blogspot.com

Technology Tools- Wired Wednesday

    The site of the week is   http://wonderopolis.org/


         Wonderopolis, a program provided  by the National Center for Family Literacy,. This  engages  students to  become more educated in a natural way. The power of discovery is strong . Young people love to discover  and this site will  give them engaging questions.

     Each day there is a wonder of the day. They answer the question and then go into further details. There are videos, photos, vocabulary and even activities to go with each wonder. Students and teachers and readers of the site can nominate a wonder also, Which will really get the students thinking.  . All in all a very interesting site!! Check it out!


        Wonderopolis  has thousands of free educational resources for parents , teachers and students to use in  and out of the classroom. Teachers can also  sign up for free  online  or face to face training to learn how to make the most of Wodneropolis and Thinkfinity.   Financial support for Wonderopolis is provided by the Verizon Foundation;  and Wonderopolis is a member of Verizon Thinkfinity.


For Presidents Week/Month:

classroomhelp..com/lessons/Presidents/index.html

bensguide.gpo.gov/3-5/government/natinal/executive.html.

Technology Tools- Wired Wednesday

    Snow Day today!!!  We have about  4 inches - not to bad! 
    Today I want to talk about Thinkfinity!  I was looking at my blog notes and way surprised that I had not yet written about it.   ThinkFinity   is   supported by the Verizon Foundation ( and some partners- AAAS, NCTM, Smithsonian, National Geographic) and is a lesson plan data base. There are may free lesson plan data bases  but this one is heads and shoulders above the rest. 
    Educators who join ( which is free) can collaborate through groups, blogs, and discussions.  They can share resources and  explore best practices  in teaching and learning.  The star of this site however is  the lessons which are digital resources  for students in K-12. They are interesting, engaging, and aligned to state standards and the common core.
    Check this out and show your staff. I think  you will find it very helpful and interesting.!

Technology Tools- Wired Wednesday

        ReadWorks is another great site for librarians and teachers.  Your teachers will love love this site.   Read works  provides FREE lesson  plans  for educators in grades K-6.  Their goal is to help improve reading comprehension.  The site also gives state by state standards and aligns them with the Common Core- so they are keeping right up to date.
      Some inside items:
     Over 1,000 non-fiction reading passages with associated text-dependent question sets, leveled using the Lexile framework and  easy to use lesson plans that help you explicitly teach comprehension to K-6 students.
       There are Student Handouts, Graphic Organizers and Teacher Materials that can be easily downloaded and printed for your use. There is a Save  to my Binder where you can save lessons, and also a training center that  gives hints and tips on teaching lessons.