Article in “Knowledge Quest” magazine

I’ve been out sick for a few days, but Mrs. Mac is now back!

I recently received my May issue of the American Association of School Librarian’s (AASL) Knowledge Quest magazine. Knowledge Quest is issued on a bimonthly basis, covering news and topics of interest to school librarians. The May issue is dedicated to the 15th Annual National Conference, being held this coming October in Minneapolis. I was asked to write an article related to El Día de Los Niños/El Día de los Libros: Children’s Day/Book Day (also known as El Día de Los Jovenes/Day of Youth when celebrated with teens/tweens), as author and Día founder Pat Mora will be speaking at the conference.

My article, titled “Día and You: Celebrating Children and Literacy,”describes the importance of Día and explains why all school librarians should make its yearly celebration a natural part of their curriculum (click photos below to enlarge). For the past two years, I have been celebrating Día at Pollard with the 8th grade Spanish classes, and hope that by reading about my experiences at Pollard many other school librarians will be inspired to start their own Día celebrations.

I look forward to attending the conference and hearing Pat speak.

AASL Dia article p. 1

AASL Dia article p. 2

El Día de los Jovenes/El Día de los Libros is still “In the House!”

El Día de los Niños/El Día de los Libros (Children’s Day/Book Day) is called El Día de los Jovenes/El Día de los Libros (Day of Youth/Book Day) when celebrated in middle and high schools. Día is officially celebrated on or around April 30th, but I began the Pollard celebration early, before the vacation, with our 8th grade Spanish classes. You can read more about the week long celebration by clicking “Día de los Jovenes” in the blog’s word cloud.

For this last week of April, I’ve placed a large display of cultural books from our middle school picture book collection in the library for students/teachers/staff to browse and borrow. Since Día is a time to celebrate Books, Literacy, and Culture, I thought the titles on display would promote “Bookjoy” along with learning about different cultures and folktales from the United States as well as our world.

Stop by the library to borrow one of our display books, learn about a new culture, and celebrate Día! (click photo to enlarge)

Dia is here!

Some of the many titles on display include:

“Kami and the Yaks” by Andrea Stenn Stryer – Himalayan Sherpa Society

Celebrate Bookjoy

“Crossing Bok Chitto: A Choctaw tale of Friendship” by Tim Tingle – Choctaw Nation

“One Grain of Rice: A Mathematical Folktale” by Demi - India

“A place where sunflowers grow” by Amy Lee-Tai – Japanese American

“Ananse and the Lizard” by Pat Cummings – West Africa

Bookjoy fun

“Long-Long’s New Year: A Story about the Chinese Spring Festival” by Catherine Gower – China

“The Wall” by Peter Sis – Czechoslovakia

“Brothers in Hope: The story of the Lost Boys of Sudan” by Mary Williams – Sudan

“Show Way” by Jacqueline Woodson – African American

“Juan Bobo goes to work” by Marisa Montes – Puerto Rico

Come in and pick one!

Which will you read?

Day #4 El Dia de los Jovenes/El Dia de los Libros = Youth Day/Book Day

Today is the last day of school before Spring Break begins, and Sra. McKenna’s 8th grade Spanish classes were the last of almost 200 students to come celebrate Dia and Bookjoy with each other during our week long celebration. All 8th graders who take Spanish had the opportunity to learn about author Pat Mora’s founding of  El Dia de los Niños/El Dia de los Libros (Children’s Day/Book Day), also called El Dia de los Jovenes/Dia de los Libros when celebrated in middle and high schools. They also learned about Dia being a celebration of Literacy, Culture, and Bookjoy.

Thank you Sra. McKenna, Sra. Streisfeld, Sra. Hill, Sra. McNamara and Sra. Wescott for bringing your classes and giving them a chance to grow in the language, experience Bookjoy, while exposing themselves to the great array of Latino literature available to them. Thank you to all 8th grade Spanish class students for your great comments, for your lovely poetry, and for sharing Bookjoy with each other. Remember – these books on the Latino culture are available to you any time, and can be accessed by searching the online catalog.

Below are some photos from today’s event (click photo to enlarge), along with a slideshow of our celebrants from Sra. McKenna’s classes.

Great job everyone, and enjoy Spring Break!

Sharing Bookjoy

Concentrating

Bilingual books

More Bilingual books

Biographies and Fiction

Culture

Entirely in Spanish

The last of El Dia de los Jovenes poems

Here are the last of the poems created by Sra. Hill’s, Sra. Wescott’s and Sra. McNamara’s 8th grade Spanish classes. Thank you for celebrating Día in such a uniquely creative way.

Zach

Yuval

Victoria

Timmy

Sarah

Ryan

Ross

Regina

Peter

Day #3 El Dia de los Jovenes/El Dia de los Libros = Youth Day/Book Day

Today was Day #3 of our 8th grade Spanish classes week long celebration of El Día de los Jovenes/El Día de los Libros. Sra. Streisfeld’s students came to the Library to participate in group or individual readings of books from our Spanish Language collection. I created a slideshow of students reading together, and/or by themselves, while experiencing Bookjoy.

Dia

Sra. Streisfeld

Relaxing

Enjoying

Even more poems from El Dia de los Jovenes

Below (click photo to enlarge) are some more poems from the 8th grade Spanish classes of Sra. Hill, Sra. Wescott, and Sra. McNamara’s celebration of El Dia de los Jovenes.

Olivia

Mike

Mike

Mike

Mikayia

Lindsey

Liam

Leo

More Poems from Dia de los Jovenes

Below are even more poems from the 8th grade Spanish classes who participated in the Poetry Reading portion of our Semana de los Jovenes/Semana de los Libros (Youth Week/Book Week) celebration (click photos to enlarge).

Evan

Haley

Jack

Jake

Jake

Jessica

Josh

Kaan

Day #2: Dia de los Jovenes/Dia de los Libros = Youth Day/Book Day

Today, I worked with Sra. Hill’s, Sra. Wescott’s and Sra. McNamara’s 8th grade Spanish classes, who came to the library for their second day of celebrating El Día de los Jovenes/El Día de los Libros (Youth Day/Book Day.)

For today’s celebration, students read in small groups of two or chose to read alone, choosing from a selection of bilingual books, books written entirely in Spanish, and books written in English about the culture of Latin America which I had set up throughout the room.

Below are some candid shots of students enjoying “Bookjoy,” the term Día founder Pat Mora coined for the enjoyment of reading (click photos to enlarge.) I am also including more poems from Monday’s Día celebration, as well as a slideshow of today’s celebration. Enjoy!

Challenging himself

Enjoying herself

Learning together

Enjoying themselves

Daniel

Daryl

Emily

Erin

 

More Poems from Dia de los Jovenes

I received over 50 poems from yesterday’s celebration of Día de los Jovenes from Sra. Hill’s, Sra. Wescott’s and Sra. McNamara’s 8th grade Spanish classes. To try and fit all of them in, I will insert a few on the blog everyday. I scanned some of their poems so readers can see how students illustrated their poems to fit in with the themes of what they had written.

Jackson: Invierno - El invierno; frio y blanco. Voy a; Costa Rica.

Julia: Diamente Poema – Piña; pequeña bonita; Caer dormir colgar; La piña pequeña cayendo al suelo. Semilla

Brendan: Saxofón – de dorado y brillante; hablar, gritar, sussar; tocando en el viento; instrumento

Aidan

Alex

Annie

Az

Ben

Brett

Charles

Charlie

Chris

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conor

Cynthia

Dan

Day #1: Dia de los Jovenes/Dia de los Libros = Youth Day/Book Day

Sra. Hill’s, Sra. Wescott’s and Sra. McNamara’s 8th grade Spanish classes all came to the library today to participate in Día 2011. Día is officially known as El Día de los Niños/El Día de los Libros (Children’s/Book Day.) However, when Día is celebrated in middle and high schools, it becomes El Día de los Jovenes/El Día de los Libros (Youth Day/Book Day). With 2011 being the 15th Anniversary (Quinceañera) of Día, I wanted to make sure Pollard celebrated with a “bang.”

Día was founded by author Pat Mora 15 years ago to be a celebration of Literacy, Cultures and Books. Over the past 15 years, it has grown tremendously, and is being celebrated in public and school libraries throughout the country. A Quinceañera celebration is being planned for June 2011, to take place at the American Library’s Association’s (ALA) Annual Meeting in New Orleans.

In late Fall, all the Spanish teachers and I sat together to plan our Semana de los Jovenes (Week of Youth.) Since there are large numbers of students in their classes (12 classes with at least 25 in each class), we decided to celebrate for an entire week. Sra. Hill, Sra. Wescott and Sra. McNamara decided they’d like their students to start the week by having them write original poems in Spanish and present them to an audience of their peers. We planned to have two Spanish classes at a time in the library, and today was the day for them to present their original work.

I was the MC for the event, and welcomed the group of at least 45 students per session to the library (we held three sessions today.) I gave them a little synopsis of the history of Día, showing them author Pat Mora’s photo, her book “Book Fiesta: Celebrating Children’s Day/Book Day” and explaining why celebrating Día is important. I also showed them the brand new book about Día by author Jeanette Larson called “El Día de los Niños/El Día de los Libros: Building a Culture of Literacy in your Community through Día” which has a section talking about my work with Día at Pollard from last year’s celebration.

The students had a chance to volunteer to read their poems to the audience. After all volunteers were chosen, names were randomly picked, with many interesting and original poems being shared. The students also illustrated their poems, and showed great creativity with both the writings and decorations. The last class of the day also had an opportunity to break up into groups of four to read their poems to each other.

Afterwards, students were presented with a choice of either Día stickers or a bookmark with a Spanish poem about reading by author Richard Peck titled “Oda a la Lectura.” The stickers were happily placed onto their shirts as well as onto their binders, showing that no one is too old for stickers.

I created a slideshow of the celebration, and also include some photos below (click photos to enlarge) as well as some poems from our very talented 8th graders. In the days to come, I will include a few more poems.

Stay tuned for further celebrations from these classes as well as from the other Spanish classes. Great job everyone!

Grant: Yo soy muy guapo. Soy como un modelo. Soy un modelo.

Peter: La Primavera – La primavera es un leon. La primavera es un cordero. La primavera es entusiasta. La primavera es un mosquito. La primavera es feroz. La primavera es tranquila. La primavera es una vida nueve.

Celebrating Cultures

Celebrating Laughter

Celebrating Creativity

Celebrating Smiles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Austin: El Verano – No hay clases más; No hay profesoras más; No tarea más

Rachel: Oda – Verano; Muy bonita; Y caliente. Yo voy a; La playa. Yo probar; Mi traje de baño. Yo nadar en la playa. Mi cumpleaños es en El verano. Yo celebro mi cumpleaños; En el verano con mi amigos y familia.

Rebecca: Playa – Bailando – Nadar – Volíebol; Relajante – Soleado; La playa es bonita; Agua

Hanna: Primavera – verde y feliz; caminar saltar y florecer; La primavera es una nueva vida; Florida

Group Listening

Group Sharing

 

Elizabeth: Oda – Los arboles; como un arco, Los aves; Habla adios, Los hojas; Son multicolor, Los animales; Van a dormir, Es la hora; Cosechar, Otoño; Esta aquí.

Jeffrey: El Videojuegos – Divertido, Rapido – Jugar, Competir, Ganar – Yo jugar todo el tiempo – El Interventor

Jamie: La Playa - gracias por estar allí; hasta en los días calientes; la arena; caliente como el sol; El Agua; fresco como un cubito; gracias; tú qué yo anticipo todos los veranos

Nathan: Flores en Primavera: En primavera; Flores caen al suelo; Y flores brotan

Kailey: Verano – Verano es bonita y el sol es brilliante; La playa es muy divertida; Yo nado en el agua cristal claro; Verano es un cuadro; La playa es infinita; Yo amo el verano; Yo amo la playa; Verano es bonito.

Group Fun

Dia Sticker at work