School Libraries in the 21st Century: A Necessity, not an Option

After the “Save the Pacific Tree Octopus” lesson with some of the 8th graders last week, in which many of them failed to realize how internet sites are not always true and reliable, it is easy to see how today’s students are still in need of Information Literacy skills, which are taught by school librarians. Sadly, many states and school districts are using budget deficits to let go of their school librarians, because they don’t really understand what school librarians actually do in their building and in their district

Doing so will cause their own students a great disservice, as students will not learn how to be information literate on their own, just by surfing the web, guessing at whether or not the information they find is good enough to use in their reports and then going on to plagiarize it because they haven’t been taught how to correctly use information by a school librarian. All students need access to certified school librarians who, among many other skills, show them how to find the best information on the web, how to evaluate and use what they find, and how to best organize the information they will wind up using.

Digital Literacy is more than just randomly seeking answers on Google, which is what is happening in more and more schools across the country as trained and certified school librarians are being let go in favor of parent volunteers or school aides, who have no idea how to teach these types of 21st century skills, which has been adopted by the state of Massachusetts as being important and necessary for students to master. A library is not just a collection of books. Today’s Librarian is not yesterday’s librarian. Today’s Librarian is technologically literate, understanding the importance and the need for training up a generation of learners who are able to handle what the 21st century has to offer them.

Today’s Librarian trains up a generation of students to become life-long learners. Today’s Librarian collaborates with teachers to teach information and communication skills through a wide range of print and electronic sources. Today’s Librarian works to help students become independent readers and helps to reduce the achievement gap. Today’s Librarian knows that studies across the United States have shown that student achievement increases 10-20% when a certified school librarian is active and working hard in their school.

Joyce Valenza, a great example of Today’s Librarian and one of the top school librarians in the nation, recently created and released a 5 minute video which shows the important benefits of having a school librarian. Besides helping students to develop an enjoyment of reading, school librarians work to teach the 21st century skills previously mentioned.

Across the state of Massachusetts, as well as the rest of the United States, there is an inequity in education with many districts not funding school librarians. As a result, thousands of students are not learning the skills needed to become independent 21st century learners. This means thousands of students go on to high school without the information literacy base taught by school librarians in elementary and middle school. As a result, they are woefully unprepared for the immense research work required in high school and college. Realizing this deficit, colleges have begun teaching information literacy to incoming freshmen. However, this may be too late for many students.

Today, Needham is one of the few districts in Massachusetts which is on its way to training up a generation of 21st century learners. With the skills being taught by Needham’s school librarians in elementary, middle and high school, the students of Needham will be able to not only succeed in today’s world, but will learn what they need to succeed in tomorrow’s world.

With a vision for the future which includes school librarians and all they do to help students succeed, and realizing their importance every day and in the time of budget cuts, Needham can raise up a generation of students who will be true 21st century learners, and who will go on to make an impact in the world.

I am proud to be one of Today’s Librarians, and will continue to work hard to help Needham’s students achieve all they can in the fields of information and digital literacy.

Bogus Web Sites

Today’s mini research lesson for Ms. Scribner’s 8-3 Social Studies students was about Bogus websites and how to use Google for Advanced Searching techniques.

I started out by discussing ways for them to think about how they should evaluate websites, including:

1. Authority: Is there an author? Are there credentials for the author?
2. Accuracy: How accurate is the site? Are there mistakes?
3. Objectivity: Does the site show bias? Does it “lean” in one direction?
4. Currency: Is the site up to date? When was it last updated?

We talked about domain names (.com, .edu, .org, .gov) and how they could be helpful in determining whether or not the site is useful for their research. In addition, I showed them the “~” symbol to look for in determining site ownership, with the “~” symbol indicating a personal web page.

Next, I showed them the “Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus” website, and asked them to look through it for Authority, Accuracy, etc., reminding them they couldn’t trust everything on the internet. We scrolled through the site which showed “facts” such as the Endangered Tree Octopus being able to take dollar bills from one’s hand, reach into bird’s nests for eggs, change colors with its moods, and have a natural enemy in the Sasquatch. Sadly, despite all of these facts, almost 3/4 of the classes believed the website was true and that the Tree Octopus did exist.

These results matched that of a 2007 survey of 7th graders taken with this site, in which 24 out of 25 believed the site to be true. Today’s sessions showed a very similar percentage among 8th graders. To me, this is a very important fact as it shows there is much work to be done to convince today’s generation of students that what is online is NOT always true and they have to take the time to READ what is out there and EVALUATE it. Too many students are not taking the time to think about what they read online, and today’s results prove this 2007 survey of high performing 7th graders is continued with 8th graders. These results prove how important it is for all students to have access to school librarians who will teach them these 21st century skills, which include understanding content of online information.

There were a few students who were not fooled, and who tried convincing the others saying “an octopus doesn’t live in a tree, how could an octopus take money out of your hand?,” and “isn’t a Sasquatch not real?” A heated debate took place in one Block, with a student insisting that perhaps the tree octopus hadn’t been discovered yet, or maybe if we read every single page on the site (we’d only gone through 2 of the 4 pages) that we’d find it really existed. I challenged him to go home and read the rest of the website and to let me know tomorrow what he found out about its accuracy.

I hope today’s lesson gave “food for thought” to the students and, as a result, they will think more about what’s online. A Tree Octopus gave them a good dose of internet reality today.

 

Tree Octopus

Photo from “Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus” website: http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/

Busy week

This has proven to be a rather busy week in the Media Center, as Ms. Scribner’s 8-3 Social Studies classes continue their research work. I spent time working one on one with students, helping them organize their thoughts into deciding their topic, or helping them find more information about their topic. Others needed help remembering how to cite their sources or create online notecards using NoodleBib, while still others needed help in locating more print resources for their subject. Ms. Scribner also circulated as she helped students focus on their topic, wrote down topic ideas, and helped them narrow down their choices.

As I circulated between the Media Center and the Inner Space classroom, listening to various ideas formulate and percolate, helping students on both laptops and desktops as well as with books, I could feel that Ms. Scribner would be getting some very interesting topics to read about in her student’s final papers.

Here are some insights into the day: a student would say he/she didn’t have an idea for a topic. When I asked what interested them, and not to worry about whether or not they could write about it, they managed to come up with several ideas – not realizing those ideas could be a topic. When the discussion led them to realize this, the “aha moment” began for them.

Another student told me he didn’t know how to get started on the topic he’d chosen. I asked him what did he know about the topic that drew him to it, and he said he didn’t know anything about it. I told him that was okay, but what did he know about it from the media and he came up with a paragraph of information. I suggested he write down what he’d just told me and use the ideas as “keywords” to find more information about the topic categories he’d mentioned. Each of those categories could easily be turned into points related to his topic that he could prove or disprove based on his thesis.

Another student thought he couldn’t remember how to find a great article he’d used yesterday. Luckily, he’d already cited it on NoodleBib, so all he had to do was go back to his citation. Meanwhile, another student hadn’t created a citation and had an online notecard without a citation. We had to do a bit of hunting with her keywords to come up with the correct article, and she learned the importance of citing an article before making a notecard – a point I’d made in the lesson on Monday that she’d forgotten.

It is very satisfying to set a student on the right road in the Research Process, to make sure they’re headed in the right direction, and to make sure they get a firm foundation as they travel towards the “light” at the end of the paper.

Keep up the good work 8-3!

The Research Process

Ahhh. February Break is now a fond memory, and today marks my return to the Teaching of Important Learning Skills.

One of those Important Learning Skills involves Research. All 8th grade students are required to complete a Research Paper with their Social Studies teachers. Last month, I spent a week teaching and working with Cluster 8-2 (Mr. Mock’s students). Today, I began my sessions with Ms. Scribner’s 8-3 classes.

This year, Ms. Scribner and I decided to utilize a “team teaching” approach to the Research Process. We met for several days before the vacation to discuss how to best help the students, and decided we would take turns teaching mini lessons related to the Process.

Today I taught in my Inner Space classroom, introducing the students to three major databases that would help them with their required work. These included Student Resource Center, which has several great features including the ability to allow them to listen to their article while reading it. I also showed them the ABC-CLIO: Issues database, which is set up in wiki format and links to articles that are not only about their topic but are also related to their topic. Finally, we discussed World Book Online, which includes encyclopedia articles as well as website articles related to their topics. In addition, I gave them a quick overview on the “My List” feature of the online catalog as well as a description of the Historical and Issues-Related books displayed for their use in the main portion of the Media Center.

During the week, students will receive lessons from both of us on NoodleTools Citations and Notecards, learn how to create an Outline, how to conduct an advanced search using Google, and how to know if a website is biased. Good luck 8-3. See you tomorrow!

PowerPoint on NoodleTools: NoodleTools for students

Storytelling in Spanish Classes

In honor of Foreign Language Week, I visited all of Sra. McKenna’s and Sra. Hill’s 7th graders, and Sra. McNamara’s 8th graders between Wednesday and today. In the classrooms, I used a projected map of Cuba and spoke about the island nation. We discussed its proximity to Miami, Florida, which explains why they have a large population of Cubans. I also shared a bit of its history under Fidel Castro, and the difficulties faced by those trying to leave the country, either illegally by sea or legally by waiting for a visa under the lottery system. Next, I showed them some of the materials from the library I had brought along, which would allow them to learn more on their own about Cuba. Included were the following books:

“The Surrender Tree” by Margarita Engle: Poems about Cuba’s struggle for Independence.

“Leaving Glorytown: One Boy’s Struggle Under Castro” by Eduardo Calcines: The true story of one family’s struggle to live under the Castro regime as they waited 10 years for a visa to leave the country, as told by their son Eduardo.

“Tropical Secrets: Holocaust Refugees in Cuba” by Margarita Engle: Based on true events which took place during World War II of Jewish refugees fleeing Hitler and the Holocaust, striving for freedom in Cuba, then being forced to leave and wander the ocean seeking a country which would let them stay.

“Cuba” by Richard A. Crooker: A historical and geographical resource for Cuba country reports.

“Cooking the Cuban Way: Culturally Authentic Foods” by Alison Behnke: An introduction to Cuban cooking.

The students had interesting questions, including “why didn’t they try to escape to Jamaica?, why didn’t the U.S. let them land?, why can’t they stay in the U.S.?” and others. They were engaged, and interested as they learned about the problems faced by the people of this island nation.

I ended by reading and acting out “Martina: The Beautiful Cockroach,” a Cuban folktale by Carmen Agra Deedy. Each “performance” of this lively and humorous story contained laughter at the word play and character’s actions, (especially Don Cerdo, the Pig) and ended with applause.

Gracias a Sra. McKenna, Sra. Hill y a Sra. McNamara. Era un placer visitar a sus clases. Espero que todos aprendieron mucho sobre Cuba y Martina.

Discussing Cuba

Coffee and Martina

Reading about Martina

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” – 8th Grade Style

Mr. Blake (8-3) invited me to watch one of his English classes rehearse Act 5 Scene 1 of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” for their upcoming video debut. All of the 8th grade ELA classes read this Shakespearean play, and perform Act 5 Scene 1 at the end of their readings for a video taping. When all the tapings have been completed, the entire grade gathers to watch the videos and vote on the best performance.

All of the students participated, some with “acting on the stage” roles, while others had “smaller on the sidelines” roles. There was even a prompter to read forgotten lines, as all lines were memorized. Mr. Blake told me that the students had a week to learn their lines, and I found their memorization skills to be very impressive after just a week of practice.

The SmartBoard was set up with a projected image of a red stage background and curtains for the costumed and lively actors and actresses. A few interesting characters of note were Lion, who painted his face yellow, sported a red nose, whiskers, a yellow vest and long, black, fake nails for claws, and Bottom (Pyramus), who performed a great death scene with his dagger.

The Scene abounded with crowns, fairy wings, a wand, a moonlit lantern and lively props. It was very well done. Thank you Mr. Blake for your invitation to view a scene from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Good luck in the video competition 8-3!

Buddhist Dharma Project

Beginning today, Ms. Kuhn’s (7-1) Social Studies classes will be in the Media Center for the next few days showcasing their Buddhist Dharma Projects. The tops of ten book shelves are being used to display some very creative student projects on this topic.

Students were assigned a 3-D project (a model, sculpture, diorama, board game, book or skit [created via iMovie or another technological media]). According to Ms. Kuhn’s Project sheet, the students were expected to use visuals and words to show they were able to define and explain Buddhist teachings. The objects selected for their project must show they have made a connection between the teachings and the object.

They also needed to demonstrate the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, the Five Precepts, Two further aspects of Buddha’s teachings, and at least Five aspects of Buddhist symbolism, art, history and/or culture. To help motivate them, Ms. Kuhn showed examples of past projects and gave students opportunities to discuss their project ideas with her. Students were able to work alone or with a partner from their own block or another block – as long as they stayed within their cluster.

Today was the culmination of several weeks’ worth of work, and the projects that came into the Media Center were simply amazing. I created a slideshow of the very creative and innovative ways students demonstrated their understanding of Buddhism. Projects ranged from Rock Walls to Hockey Rinks to a Dance Studio to Shopping Malls to a simple Shopping Bag. All of these projects created the required elements of Buddhism.

I had the opportunity to listen to Ms. Kuhn’s D and A Blocks present, and enjoyed how well the students knew their projects and were able to explain the concepts accordingly. After their presentations, there was a time of questions and answers from their classmates. The following students presented their projects during the time frame that I was present:

Emily and Kyle: Band

Erin: Shopping bag

Charles and Justin: TD Dharma Garden

Ryan and Dylan: Airport

Jackie and Emilie (Emilie was not present as she was from another block): Mall

Danny and Brett (Brett was not present as he was from another block): Karma Park

Meghan: Rock Wall

Estefania and Annie: Store

Included in these presentations was Buddhist knowledge incorporated into Shopping, Snowboarding, Basketball playing, Rock Climbing, Traveling and Playing in an Orchestra. I was very, very impressed.

Congratulations to cluster 7-1, and to Ms. Kuhn, for all of your hard work. Thank you for the invitation.

Ferris Wheel

Dance Studio

Hockey Game

Foreign Language Week (Feb. 8-12)

In honor of Foreign Language Week, which began today, the Foreign Language Department decorated the halls of Pollard with lovely murals. Beautiful murals depicting the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh (artist) and ornate buildings created by Antoni Gaudi (architect) are prominently displayed in the main hallway outside of the Media Center. I also created several book case hall displays filled with Foreign Language books and quotes about learning other languages.

In addition, Foreign Language Week will involve “Spirit Days.” Several teachers will roam the hallways on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday looking for students who are wearing specific “Country Colors.” If a student is “spotted,” they will receive a ticket. At the end of the week, all tickets can be turned in to a Foreign Language teacher and exchanged for prizes. Even if students do not have a Foreign Language, they are still encouraged to participate, as they can redeem their tickets to either a Spanish or French teacher of their choice. I am a Spotter for Thursday, so I’ll be watching for you.

Below is the Foreign Language Spirit Days color combination for each day:

Tuesday – Bolivia: Red, Yellow, Green

Wednesday – Gabon: Green, Yellow, Blue

Thursday – Haiti: Blue, Red

Happy Foreign Language Week!

Gaudi Building

 

Antoni Gaudi

Gaudi

Vincent VanGogh

VanGogh

VanGogh

FL Book & Quote Display

Display

Tiger Okoshi @ Needham Jazz Night Concert

Tomorrow night at 7 pm, Needham High School will host the Needham Jazz Night Concert in the NHS Auditorium. Well known jazz trumpeter and Berklee College of Music instructor Tiger Okoshi will be the guest soloist. Tiger will also be performing with the NHS Jazz Ensemble and the Pollard Middle School Jazz Ensemble.

Jazz Night @ NHS

Tickets will be $10 for adults and $5 for students and seniors, available at the door. Proceeds will benefit the Fine and Performing Arts Department.

Social Justice Issues Essays

Ms. Gomes’ (7-4) English classes spent the day in the library gathering facts for their upcoming Social Justice Essay Writing Project. Today was a “dip your toe in the water” day. That meant they would explore various sources and see what they could find out about it in a short period of time. Ms. Gomes had a handout for students to write the type of source they were looking at (book or database), the name of at least three different Social Justice issues of interest, one interesting fact for each one, and a quote.

To help them get started, I talked about some primary sources, showing them newspapers dating back to 1865, as well as current Boston Globes that they could use to see some past information about their issue. I also showed them the cart of books with Social Justice Issues I had assembled that they could explore as another way of locating information on their issue. Finally, I showed them how to explore the ABC-CLIO: Issues database to find issues of interest.

The students were information gathering for Essay Writing, and spent their time looking for issues of concern and interest. Divided into two groups, some worked with the books while others worked online. After a certain amount of time, the groups switched. When both groups had enough time to work, Ms. Gomes pulled them together and students took turns telling others about one interesting fact they had found either online or through a book.

On Monday, we will meet again for part 2 of this interesting part research-part Essay project.