Bloom's Digital Taxonomy

Find the original here.  I discovered it via Twitter.  Another image to share with my senior students when discussing study skills.  Maybe a task that gets them to work out the hierarchy?......  And of course one to share with my teaching colleagues.

Cheers

Ruth

Libraries and librarians as sponsors of literacy

An excellent slideshow presentation from Buffy J. Hamilton.

Libraries and Librarians As Sponsors of Literacy

View more presentations from Buffy Hamilton.

Plenty of food for thought, for teachers as well as teacher librarians.  Found via Twitter.

Cheers

Ruth

Young people hate books and dead tree publishing is finished. Yes?

Found this YouTube video via Lucacept.



And Lucacept's discussion about the issues facing libraries lending files (e-books, audiobooks) is most relevant and not, at present, finding answers from publishers.

Watch the video on YouTube here if you the one above doesn't work for you.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Weq_sHxghcg&feature=player_embedded
It's a brilliant video.  Brilliant.  Bravo DK/Penguin USA.

Cheers

Ruth

PS. And the format of this strikes me as having possibilities for writing, too.

Trees on special! Holiday Borrowing! Easter!

If you remember these trees and thought, hmmm, maybe.... a white tree could be just the jim-dandy thing I'm looking for to spruce up that corner of my library...

They're on special now, as Easter grows closer.  30% off at Bed Bath 'n' Table.

So are these eggy necklaces (well, restring 'em on hat elastic and you have a necklace!).  I'll be wearing mine for the rest of the term.

And next week we'll go into Holiday Borrowing mode (which is why I wear the necklace), with just two weeks left of this term.  Must find those Easter decorations I bought last year after Easter at 50% off...

Cheers

Ruth

Holiday borrowing: results

Welcome back!



After the earlier entry regarding our holiday borrowing initiative for the end of term, it only seems fair to tell you how it went. Our goal was to increase borrowing during the weeks leading up to the winter holiday, as the holiday period extends the loan time and what the heck, isn't a holiday a good time to read? So, how did it go?



Well. Satisfyingly so.



There were various strands:

• promotion of wide reading in focus group (roll call) time every day was in place through the literacy team's existing program


• many English teachers brought classes to the library to borrow


• every loan included a special bookmark


• For the last week and half or so, a short daily quiz in the student daysheet asked students to guess which teacher/staff member was reading what over the hols (using staff as reading models - ie. we don't just tell 'em to do it, we do it too) - this kept 'holiday borrowing' in their minds


• Staff holiday borrowing picks list was on display for kids to see


• The bookcase display in the library entrance, categorising books for easier selection (fantasy was the shelf we had to refill the most, but all needed regular refilling)

and so on.

On raw loan figures (and the report doesn't distinguish fiction/nonfiction, but then again, nonfiction is some people's choice of holiday borrowing) for the last three weeks of this term, more than double the number of loans were transacted compared to last year, or the year before that.



Right now, I'm not going to think about the overdues (!). We're just happy that more books are in the hands of more kids. Not sure what we'll do for next term, but it's an initiative we'll continue. It was really satisfying each day to watch the borrowing figures climb, and translate that to kids reading. It's worth trying a program like this at your school library.



My own holiday borrowing? It was going to include the Maximum Ride series, only they all got borrowed... also Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series, A Great and Terrible Beauty (Libba Bray) and a few other odds and sods from school (these last ones are all from the processing pile, otherwise they'd likely be out on loan too!), as well as non-school-library books.



Today at school is a staff development day and the staff have all been given time to do major cleanups/renovations to our classrooms and staffrooms. It's a great opportunity - you see colleagues in very daggy clothes, doing grotty and creative jobs (eg. painting) and the sprucing is certainly noticed and appreciated by the students as well as us.



We've got plans for the library foyer/entrance - the bookcase was part of a larger plan...pictures to come. One clue....

Holiday borrowing

Since part of the art of teacher librarianship is burgling the wheel, or at least flatteringly imitating it (rather than reinventing it), this is an idea inspired by a colleague. She mentioned her program of 'holiday borrowing' - on the OASIS library software system, loans taken out in the last two weeks of term fall due on the first day of school after the holidays. Thus, the normal two week loan period can be up to four weeks. Oh, and if you're not in NSW, this is the second last week of term two.

This is the bookshelf unit from Target that I mentioned a little while ago, all assembled and in the foyer/entry of the library. The twelve shelves provide lovely dark boxes to make individual books stand out, but to promote holiday borrowing, I've put a bunch of books, new and older, in four categories that students enjoy - adventure, fantasy, fun and the real world. (So it's more 'packed' than it would usually be, but for a purpose).

The plan is that over the next two weeks, the shelves will be replenished (as the books are borrowed) and we hope students will take the opportunity to borrow more than they might otherwise have done. Our literacy focus in roll call is currently sustained silent reading, so it ties in with that too.

I've also set up a couple of other things to support our holiday borrowing push/program - of which, more later.

Fridge poetry online

I was talking with a colleague about creative writing with junior high school students, and we were discussing the possibilities of 100 word stories (I've blogged a site about these before).

Here's another option: Fridge Poetry, brought to you courtesy of the BBC. I harvested this image with Print Screen, but you can also email your poem (viewable online for a month).

How to help our young enjoy reading

An excellent article from Agnes Nieuwenhuizen which was in The Age in January this year.

She begins:

THERE is increasing evidence internationally that a high level of literacy is critical for young people and adults to have a productive personal and working life. It is also a key to finding our place in society, to using laptops effectively, to accessing and interpreting information, and to understanding and enjoying the riches to be found in the world of books and ideas.

Australia is sadly lagging in what is widely known internationally as reader development. Many countries have instituted national organisations to create and deliver innovative programs to foster reading and literacy. This goes well beyond teaching initial literacy and implies an active engagement in reading and reading-related activities from babyhood to old age. Our new government could be inspired and informed by some of these initiatives. If the Government takes a lead, creates an expectation of action and invests some real (not huge) funds, then business and philanthropic funds will follow.

She then gives some practical suggestions.

Worth reading by teacher librarians, teachers, principals, parents, the community and particularly, politicians.

100 Word Stories

If your English teachers are looking for ideas to prompt/inspire student creative writing, the 100 Word Stories blog has a new inspiration/word/phrase every week day.


The challenge is to write a story in just 100 words, no more, no less (a form of writing which came out of the world of sci-fi fanfic, according to some accounts I've read). This is known as a Drabble.


Long enough to need thought, small enough to be not only workable, but less intimidating too. Definite potential for the classroom.


And maybe good ones to be 'published' in a book or intranet/online form too, for other students to read?