Reading & Writing Partnership- Librarians and teachers

     School Librarians  make good partners with ELA and reading teachers. Librarians provide oral and silent reading  depending on the grade  level. We  as Librarians provide quality books to help improve reading scores.

   In the context of reading , students often are asked to describe , synthesize, analyze, and critique their  understanding of what they have read. So when librarians provide books, model and share our love of reading, we can motivate and encourage  more student reading.

   Discussions, book clubs, reviews, casual conversation,   and book challenges are all part of the job. We need to read and know the quality books in our collection in order to motivate our students. So big surprise we need to read!

Bulletin Boards for October

  These are just a few ideas for October:

 Fall in love with reading!  leaves falling down to the ground from a bare tree- could put titles of books on the leaves

Scare up some good books- ghosts with titles on it

Pick of the patch- lots of pumpkins!

Reading is a Scream - put up covers of
scary or horror  books all around the letters!

One Goal for the school year

One of the goals of the school library media specialist  is to promote  reading and also work with staff  to help improve reading scores.  This is one of my goals this year. When students become better readers they do better in school.

  So here is a few ideas that I will use to work on this goal.  Student made reading posters, books displays, author posters,   book discussion groups,  library recess groups, use of the AR program, and reading motivation programs.  I am also hoping to work more closely with reading and ELA teachers,

  A few more ideas  to get students more involved in good books are: shelf talkers, student book reviews on our website and reading workshops.

Library or Classroom Project- Did you Know?

      An interesting and little different author/ reading project is an Author Poster, which could be do as a small group or individual  project  .  Students choose a favorite author to research . They will find interesting biographical information  about the author. "Did you know?" can be the heading and the information can be listed in bullets or around  appropriate images or clip art or the authors photo. This poster will also have a list of titles  written by the author. 
       This will provide students with good suggestions for excellent  reads. The posters can be displayed in the library, in the hallways and in classrooms. After having several done, the posters can be swapped out for different ones  to provide variety, interest and surprise.

Library Databases & Passwords

   Last week got away from me and I did not post- guess it was the first week of school thing.  Anyway I am planning a type of book mark or "cheat sheet"  for use by my staff and students.  This will provide  the log in and passwords  to our school databases. ( could also be adapted for the public library  if they have passwords)

   Students will be shown the  log in and passwords when I instruct them on the databases. I will have the 'bookmarks' available  for anyone who wants them during a research project for their use and to keep. We will also have copies at the circ desk in the library, by the computer bank in the library, and also in the computer lab.   Another larger copy can be taped to the laptop carts that are used by the students in their classrooms.
  I am also planning to give the teachers laminated  one for their personal use. This will help keep students and staff   to have easy access ( and a reminder) to the effectiveness of the databases.

Series list for students!

   The students in my middle school love to read series books. We always are stopping to check what order the titles  should be read. So I am hoping this year to a make " Series" books which will be kept at the  circulation desk.

  In it  will  be Authors name, series name, title of books and the order in which they should be read.
In the future as we purchase new titles and series , we will put numbers on the spine and also try to shelves them in number order.

 Then student can check the  lists and the shelves easily to get the book in the series they want.

New School Year Coming Up!

   I'm very excited about this new school year- I will actually be able to be a real librarian at the Middle school.  I will be collaborating with teachers to instruct  and assist students in their  need for informational resources. I want also to encourage  reading for pleasure and recreation.

    I am working on a newsletter to promote the library media centers services to both small and large groups. Also in the newsletter there will be a resource  link column  that will highlight an few interesting  and useful websites  for teachers to use for  subject resources and to use with students to  provide more engaging lessons.

  In the newsletter I will have a listing of some of the newest   titles added to the library's collection. The newsletters will hopefully be  issued monthly to advertises the library and my willingness to collaborate!