IASL and Voicethread

Liz Probert posted this message on the school library listserv - it is a good chance to see something about the IASL conference and also to see an example of Voicethread which I did a post about earlier...
To see something about the IASL conference, have a look at http://voicethread.com/#q.b623055 - Elizabeth Greef from Australia has produced a really good example of the use of this technology, and her presentation gives a very good overview of the conference.

Astrid Lindgren

"Good literature gives the child a place in the world and the world a place in the child." Astrid Lindgren.

http://www.alma.se/en/ This is the link to the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, administered by the Swedish Arts Council, awarded annually it is the world's largest prize for children's and young adult literature (worth about US $480,000) - authors, illustrators, oral storytellers and those active in reading promotion may be rewarded. NZ's nominees are Margaret Mahy and Joy Cowley.

Vocabulary and picture books

Here is a post on the school library list serve from Gerri Judkins, librarian at Southwell School in Hamilton. Gerri recently attended the International Association of School Librarianship in Padua, Italy...

Hi All
At the IASL pre-conference Literature Day in Italy Aidan Chambers talked about the most recent brain research as it relates to leaning to read. He said children cannot learn to read a word unless they have heard it read aloud.

We've had sooo much fun this week in the library with "Piggity-Wiggity Jiggity Jig goes to Dad's Café".
I printed off (Times New Roman 72) words such as ravenous, resplendent, repercussions, belligerent, various, disarray, aplomb and auspicious and held them up one at a time asking students from Yr 3 - Yr 8 to read them aloud and give the meaning. They couldn't define most of them. Then, we read the book and talked about the meanings as we encountered the words. It really is quite sophisticated with politicians, business men and café food.
It was a hit with all ages and reinforced the reading aloud message to teachers, who come with the kids. I also encouraged the students to use the words at home and read aloud to their younger siblings.
Have a great weekend...
;-) Gerri


For another great account of the rich vocabulary in picture books, have a look at this short article from School Library Journal...
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6348381.html?industryid=47190

Adolescent literacy "Time to act" report

Here is a link to a very interesting report - Time to Act: An Agenda for Advancing Adolescent Literacy for College and Career Success - from the Carnegie Corporation of New York's Council on Advancing Adolescent Literacy. There are also five corresponding reports on particular aspects - I found the most interesting one was about reading across disciplines - the others are more relevant to the USA.

http://www.carnegie.org/literacy/tta/

The Time to Act report would be of interest to secondary school management, teachers, librarians. It provides rationale, research, case studies, action plans...

There are parallels to the Effective Literacy Strategies emphasis on all teachers being teachers of literacy...

For all students in all subject areas, literacy and language are central to thinking, learning and achievement. Students need to learn how to use effective literacy and thinking strategies in order to be successful in our secondary school system and to become lifelong learners. Therefore it is essential that all our teachers are effective teachers of literacy.

Effective Literacy Strategies, Ministry of Education, 2005

Roald Dahl and "the old stories"

In this interesting essay, James Parker explores Roald Dahl's book Charlie and the chocolate factory, and it's relation to the film with Johnny Depp, the impact of the illustrations by Quentin Blake, and connections with "the old stories" - fairy tales...
"In our age of interpretation, fairy tales — as befits their magical nature — have suffered many fates. But they have survived them all, because they are obstinate, irreducible productions of psychic life."
http://hilobrow.com/2009/09/13/winds-of-magic-1-dark-chocolate/
This essay was originally published by the Boston Globe, July 2005.

Joy Cowley writing workshop opportunity

Storylines Children’s Literature Charitable Trust of New Zealand is organising a 2 day interactive writing workshop with JOY COWLEY "WRITING FROM THE HEART"
in Auckland on Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 February 2010

Joy is generously donating her time to help Storylines in its national advocacy work for New Zealand children’s reading and books. She has run many such workshops in America and other countries, but infrequently in New Zealand. This is a rare chance to attend an intensive two-day course with this master storyteller, covering all aspects of writing for children and young adults (getting started, plot, character, voice, humour, writing disciplines, picture books, chapter books, YA novels, presenting a manuscript, getting support.)

• Maximum 30 participants, $500 – price includes critique of story (max 1000 words).
• Participants who wish to submit manuscripts to Joy for prior critique should send to Storylines for forwarding by 22 January, 2010
• Venue – Kohia School, Kohia Terrace, Epsom, Auckland, sessions from 9am to 4pm
• Applications will be accepted on first come, first served basis. To register, please send payment of $500 (includes GST) with your full name, address, email and phone number. A receipt will be sent. Make cheques payable to ‘Storylines Children’s Literature Trust’ and send to: Storylines Children’s Literature Charitable Trust of New Zealand, PO Box 96 094, Auckland 1342. For internet banking use Storylines’ bank account: 123067 0187408 03
• Please watch Storylines’ website, www.storylines.org.nz for further information.

Serving teens through readers' advisory

I'd like to recommend an interesting book which I borrowed from National Library Wellington called Serving Teens through Readers' Advisory by Heather Booth (American Library Association, Chicago 2007). If you google the title, a big proportion of the book is available for preview online through Google Books http://tiny.cc/ServingteensHeatherBooth

It can be a challenge keeping teens reading - and we all know how important it is to keep teens reading for pleasure - the impact on academic success, lifelong learning, an engaged life...
This book outlines strategies for building book relationships with teens, suggests approaches for "interviewing" teens about their reading needs and preferences, provides some "sure bets", and ways of dealing with various issues... It would be of interest to secondary school library staff and English teachers.

Here is a starred review from Booklist
As the teen specialist at Downers Grove Public Library, Booth brings together her experience working with an active readers'-advisory department as well as her knowledge of teen library patrons to cover all aspects of readers' advisory for teens. The first few chapters discuss teen reading habits and why readers' advisory for this group is different and also provide "Tips for the Generalist" who may not be an expert in teen fiction. Other chapters cover elements of the readers'-advisory interaction ("Opening the Readers' Advisory Interview," "Detecting Interest," "Articulating Appeal") and survey the various resources and tools that are available for identifying appropriate books. Two unique chapters offer well- thought-out and practical advice on making reading-related homework assignments less painful for staff and students as well as suggestions for providing readers'-advisory services to teens through their parents or other adults. Appendixes list popular authors, "sure bets," and teen-selected book awards. Filled with excellent tips and great ideas, Serving Teens through Readers' Advisory makes an important contribution to readers'-advisory services and is essential reading for all readers' advisors and any library staff who work with teens. Highly recommended for all school and public libraries. Moyer, Jessica

Magazines for teens

A recent School Library Journal which just came across my desk has an article "The Original Handhelds... 11 magazines that teens can't resist" . The list features celebrity gossip, humour, beauty tips, sports and manga...
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6654566.html

Maps

I noticed in Take Note Kerikeri a two pack of large laminated maps - one of New Zealand, one of the world, for $20. It reminded me of a great activity that Robyn at Oruaiti School did, where she taped a map of NZ to the large table in the non-fiction area and then put a relevant book on display or made a "quiz" - find Lake Taupo, which island is Christchurch on, find 5 towns beginning with W, etc. It was as popular as Where's Wally ! You could make it a competition where the week's entries go in a box for a draw, or it could be a different question each day... Robyn changed the maps each term.

I read an interesting article* about how three schools used NEMP assessment tasks to help them with their own in-school assessment. One school in Otago was concerned that their pupils' NZ map knowledge was limited due to comparatively few opportunities for travel and they used a NEMP Social Studies task "The Map" to assess pupils' knowledge of the location of 11 prominent places in NZ... Surprisingly, some students struggled to place their own home town on a map, though a relatively high proportion identified the location of Waitangi following on from a teaching unit on the Treaty... The school developed strategies for their teaching as a result of this information. If you google this title "using NEMP assessment tasks in the classroom" it will be the first result that comes up as a PDF.

*Eley, L. & Hague, R. (2002). Using NEMP assessment tasks in the classroom: Three schools’ experiences. New Zealand Principal, 17(4), 23–29.

Bookclubs

I subscribe to the the Booklist online monthly newsletter which has reviews, news, lists etc, though the focus is on US titles of course... Click here to sign up for the free newsletter http://www.booklistonline.com/default.aspx?page=general_info&id=64

For those of you who belong to bookclubs, you might be interested in Book Club Buzz - a Booklist blog http://bookgroupbuzz.booklistonline.com/ .
A recent post talks about finding out background information about authors etc to add to book club discussions and insights into books, and is the first in a four part series : how to track down and use reviews and other critical material; how to get the most from publisher and bookseller content related to the book; and ideas for researching subjects incidental to the book.

Netsafety

Have you been to the Netsafe website recently ? It is one to bookmark in your favourites... http://www.netsafe.org.nz/index.php
The whole look has been updated and it is such a relevant, essential, user-friendly resource for all sectors of the school community - children, teachers, parents, school management...

They have developed a new teacher resource called The Grid.

From Beginner level (ECE to Yr 2) through Apprentice (Yr 3 - 6), Practitioner (Yr 7 - 10) to Master (Yr 11 - 13) it works through three aspects : Connected, Safe, Responsible with resources and suggested lesson plans for a range of aspects in each "category".

It is a great resource for "cybercitizenship education". It can be accessed through Netsafe but also has it's own website http://www.thegrid.org.nz/

Please check it out and share it in your school.

Google guide

Felice from Kerikeri High School Library has just shared this great "Google Cheat Sheet" link
http://www.googleguide.com/advanced_operators_reference_print.html
or this link as a PDF http://www.makeuseof.com/downloads/google-cheat-sheet.pdf
Thanks, Felice !

School library blogs

Have a look at the great King's High School blog run by Bridget Schaumann - it is full of interesting information, book promotion, library happenings etc and uses various web 2.0 applications such as Twitter and Shelfari... http://thekingslibraryblog.blogspot.com/
King's High is a boys' high school in Dunedin with 700 students.

Here are a few other NZ school library blogs I've come across :

• Botany Downs Secondary College Library http://bdsclibrary.blogspot.com/
• Fendalton Open Air School Library http://foslibrary.blogspot.com/
• Golden Bay High School Library http://gblibrary.blogspot.com/
• Mount Aspiring College Library http://maclic.wordpress.com/
• Hillcrest High School Library http://hillcresthighlibrary.blogspot.com/

Literature as "an art" - Creative NZ report

Creative NZ has done a report New Zealanders and the arts : attitudes, attendance and participation in 2005 - go here for the link http://tiny.cc/CreativeNZartsreport and to download a pdf of the report.

One aspect I found interesting was that when the survey participants were asked "What do you think the arts are ?" only 10% thought of literature / poetry / books / authors / writings / readings etc as "the arts"... (page 28).

Funding sources

Here are details for accessing funding e-resources :

FundView http://www.fis.org.nz/databases/FundView.php

BreakOut http://www.fis.org.nz/databases/BreakOut.php

Book : Weaving Flowers from NZ Flax

Here is a link to the blog and website of Ali Brown in Christchurch promoting her book, Weaving flowers from New Zealand flax
http://www.alibrown.co.nz/blog/weaving-flowers-from-new-zealand-flax

"It contains detailed instructions for weaving fifteen different flower and foliage designs plus different variations of several of the designs. Many of the flower designs can be woven from a single flax leaf, and are very quick to weave once you’ve had a bit of practice."

How to purchase : http://www.alibrown.co.nz/book-on-weaving-flax-flowers.html#buy A good resource for the library maybe, even though it is spiral bound...

Tommy Donbavand "Too Ghoul for School"

Each month, the National Literacy Trust (in the UK) interviews a well-known figure in the world of reading and literacy. Here, international bestselling author Tommy Donbavand talks about how to get kids excited about books, the necessary trend for authors to embrace new media and the importance of setting up a positive school reading environment.

http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/About/interview_tommydonbavand.html

When asked "If you could change one thing about schools what would it be?" his answer started, "Tough question! When I arrive at a school for a visit, I immediately get a sense of whether it is a 'book school' or not. From shelves of books in prominent, easy to reach places to wall displays and more - book schools appreciate the importance of reading and writing and help bring stories to life. Some other schools, however, simply don't do it that way...

And on the subject of technology he has this to say... "I appreciate that some people fear the use of new media will lead to the death of books (it won't, of course) but, simply put, a story is a story whether it's read from the pages of a novel, between the covers of a comic or by browsing a website. Teachers, librarians and authors should capitalise on this explosion of technology rather than try to fight it." and "I see the proliferation of blogs and social networking sites as vital to the future of books. Children embrace new media as a completely natural method of communication and, as that's where our potential readers are, that's where authors should be as well."

ASB Trust

On Saturday I attended the ASB Trust's public meeting at Kerikeri.
In spite of a difficult past year financially things are looking up now, and schools can apply for funding this year.
The deadline is 1st November, maximum $10,000, no more than every 4 years (from the date of the letter telling you about your last grant, so even if 1st November is still "within" the 4 years, by the time you get your grant ie about April, as long as that date is no shorter than 4 years that is ok... Phone me if you don't understand that bit!)
Here is the link to what they fund http://www.asbcommunitytrust.org.nz/funding-education.html
and here is the link for the application forms http://www.asbcommunitytrust.org.nz/funding-how-to-apply.html

As with most areas now, the ASB Trust is moving towards "evidence-informed grant making" to know the impact their funds are having, so consider how you might show that in your application...

It amazes me that some schools don't write to thank the ASB Trust for the donations they receive - apparently only about 50% do ! Apart from it simply being manners, it will probably stand the school in better stead if they express appreciation for / show the positive impact of any donation they have received.

Skerricks & Book Whisperer blogs, and class novel sets...

Bridget Schaumann mentioned the Skerricks blog on the list serv this morning and though I've visited it before, now I can highlight and share it on my blog !

It is produced by Ruth Buchanan, a Teacher Librarian in Australia, and she says that "a blog is a great way to share the stuff my flypaper mind finds amid the internet jungle". It has won awards including the SLAV (School Library Association of Victoria) Bright Ideas award as the most nominated Australian school library blog 2009 - and the Zombie Chickens award - visit her blog to find out what that is about...

It is a great place to explore and browse, you are bound to find something interesting and inspiring - and if you want to really roam, check out the links to blogs that she follows... Here is the link http://skerricks.blogspot.com and I've added it to the list of blogs on the right.

The post that Bridget was highlighting was about a New York Times article about a teacher who lets students choose their own reading :
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/books/30reading.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
"The approach Ms. McNeill uses, in which students choose their own books, discuss them individually with their teacher and one another, and keep detailed journals about their reading, is part of a movement to revolutionize the way literature is taught in America’s schools. While there is no clear consensus among English teachers, variations on the approach, known as reading workshop, are catching on. "

Donalyn Miller, a Texan teacher known as "the Book Whisperer", has done a great post on her blog too (also linked on the right) about the perils, the torture, of class novels - here is the link - http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/book_whisperer/2008/01/

"One Size Does Not Fit All
My seventeen year-old-daughter is what we call here in Texas, “a long, tall drink of water." I, on the other hand, have a full-figured glass that has overflowed. When shopping, we laugh when we see clothes sporting tags that claim “one size fits all” remarking, “Not us!” Stretch this t-shirt over the ubiquitous practice in reading classrooms of teaching whole-class novels, and you can see that it doesn't fit most readers..."

and her latest post picks up on the NY Times article mentioned above - here is what she has to say on it "... the New York Times [has] announced that The Future of Reading is "reading workshop". Describing one teacher’s journey to implement reading workshop with her middle school students, the article explores the messy challenges and smalls triumphs of a classroom environment where children choose the books they read. It bewilders me that reading workshop, first introduced to practicing teachers in works like In the Middle by Nancie Atwell (written in 1987), is still seen as groundbreaking or newsworthy. I continually wonder how activities like reading one book as a class, dissecting classics, and presenting book reports become entrenched in reading classrooms for generations while ideas like allowing student choices, reading contemporary literature, and writing authentic reading responses fail to gain a foothold in many English classes..."

I've bought a copy of Donalyn Miller's book published this year - The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child (9780470372272). In it she describes how she is so successful at getting her students reading - simply put, it is by being a powerful reading role model herself, knowing the literature, providing easy, plentiful access to a range of books, expecting every child to be a reader, and responding in a lively way to the students' reading responses...

Carol Otis Hurst website & newsletter

A good website to visit is http://www.carolhurst.com which introduces itself as "a collection of reviews of great books for kids, ideas of ways to use them in the classroom and collections of books and activities about particular subjects, curriculum areas, themes and professional topics."

You can subscribe to a (free) online quarterly newsletter from the site, which, though it has a US focus in reviews and topics, could be useful for ideas - the latest newsletter has a booklist of "time fantasies" including old favourites like Tuck Everlasting, and Tom's Midnight Garden.

Carol Hurst was a great advocate for children's books and how they could be used in the classroom - she was an author, storyteller, lecturer, consultant, teacher and librarian. She died in 2007, and her daughter Rebecca Otis Hurst is continuing her work on the website / newsletter.

Book Reviews

I have found a vast selection of book reviews on the New Zealand Book Council website, http://www.bookcouncil.org.nz/Education/Whats%20New/School%20Library .

These reviews have been useful when considering books to buy, and I also use a few lines, which I include in the library catalogue, so that students can view the notes to help them make informed decisions when choosing their library books.

Cheers, Jenny