Library Links

"Content that might be of interest to Teacher-Librarians..."


1.10.11

Reading in the Real World - preview book online

Reading in the Real World
Strategies for Finding Meaning in Stories, Songs, Poetry, Ads, Movies, Comics, and More
Graham Foster
Grades 4-12 • 32 pp flipchart •
Offers a wide range of strategies in a practical format that help your students read all text forms with confidence. Includes reproducible organizers and numerous real-world text examples.
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Literacy Smarts -preview book online

 Literacy Smarts
Simple Classroom Strategies for Using Interactive Whiteboards to Engage Students
Jennifer Harper and Brenda Stein Dzaldov
Grades K-6 • 128 pp •
Shares the nuts and bolts of using interactive whiteboards to enrich the teaching of reading and writing through easy access to and interaction with timely and relevant media, tools, and texts. Lessons help you make the most of the technology to collaborate, communicate, and create with your students.

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Writing Power - preview online

Teaching Writing Strategies that Engage Thinking (by Adrienne Gear)

"Writing Power is a practical and thoughtful resource that shows teachers how to encourage students to consider the reader's thinking as they write. Using the same five thinking strategies from Adrienne Gear's groundbreaking Reading Power books—Connect, Question, Visualize, Infer, and Transform—young writers will learn how to engage and invite their readers' thinking through their writing. Writing Power guides teachers through a series of lessons focusing on each of the strategies and includes scripted, sequential lessons, recommended anchor books, reproducibles, and assessment rubrics."
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Books - how they're made

Making Books [Encyclopaedia Britannica Films 1947]
Black and white film. Follows the making of a book using the technology of the 1940s.

Modern Book-binding methods
You can see the similarities with the 1947 movie

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29.9.11

Helping Students Engage with Challenging Texts - Secondary

"Doing Literary Criticism" (by Tim Gillespie)
"One of the greatest challenges for English language arts teachers today is the call to engage students in more complex texts. Tim Gillespie, who has taught in public schools for almost four decades, has found the lenses of literary criticism a powerful tool for helping students tackle challenging literary texts."

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Videos for Creative Writing

Beautiful Landscapes and Music

Philip Bloom has taken wonderful videos - 5 minutes or so in length - that explore lighting and focus and perspective and anything else you can name! The combination of images, movement and music are a perfect opportunity for creative writing and reflection. Best watched on full-screen with a darkened room.
(Note: Always preview the clips as some deal with controversial topics: anorexia, crime, politics)
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The Latest Facebook changes - if you're a user

Want to know how Facebook is changing?

  • The Timeline — a scrapbook of your life.
  • More than just "Like" — now you can [verb] any [noun].
  • Facebook apps need only ask permission once to share stories on your behalf.
  • All "lightweight" information is going to the Ticker.
  • Watch TV and movies, listen to music, read news with your friends — all within Facebook.
For general FB info, try these links:

7 Skills students need for their future

The global achievement gap
30 minute presentation by author Dr. Wagner
"Dr. Tony Wagner, co-director of Harvard's Change Leadership Group has identified what he calls a "global achievement gap," which is the leap between what even our best schools are teaching, and the must-have skills of the future: * Critical thinking and problem-solving * Collaboration across networks and leading by influence * Agility and adaptability * Initiative and entrepreneurialism * Effective oral and written communication * Accessing and analyzing information * Curiosity and imagination"

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eTexts in High School

Electronic Resource and Etextbooks in the high school curriculum.       
Authors:        McMichael, Craig J.1 craig.j.mcmichael@gmail.com   
Source: Internet@Schools; Sep/Oct2011, Vol. 18 Issue 4, p8-12, 5p       
(School ID and Password needed - see your TL)

How eResources can meet the needs of a variety of learners.

"The 21st-century classroom is characterized by the diversity of its students, evident not only in their various ethnicities but also in their unique learning styles. [...] At Detroit Catholic Central High School, we have undertaken a project leveraging Cengage Learning's electronic library resources to do just this. In this article, I'll highlight these resources and demonstrate how they can be used in the classroom to make for an inclusive learning environment that is committed to enhancing student learning."
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Hi-Lo Novels for Libraries and ESL learners - Saddleback

View this catalog of Hi-Lo readers

A number of great resources for ESL learners and reluctant readers. (The Quickreads series is intended for older readers.)

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French Titles from Weigl - Saunders - virtual catalog

View the 2012 Weigl French catalog via this link:

Many new titles. Translated into Canadian French.

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Gareth Malone - Video series online

Watch "Gareth Malone Goes to Glyndebourne" on TVO.org
"Gareth has been asked to be the chorus master of a brand new opera Knight Crew, written by composer Julian Philips, based on a novel by author Nicky Singer. It is the urban retelling of the King Arthur legend and Gareth's mission is to go deep into the local community, to find teenagers to sing in his chorus who may have never heard an opera. He wants to find teenagers with the right edge and life experience. Over two months Gareth auditions 450 teens, whittling them down to a final 100 who must sing solo in front of a Glyndebourne panel."
You can also view episodes of "The Choir" on this site.

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EBSCO help tutorials

Learn more about EBSCO Host products
Do you sometimes wish you could just have an EBSCO rep come and show you how to use some of the features of of the various databases? Or do you wish you had a video clip you could show your staff or students? Check out this link for a number of Youtube movies, Flash Clips and PPT files you can access.

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Shmoop - student guides to just about everything

About Shmoop - "We Speak Student"
"Shmoop will make you a better lover (of literature, history, life). See many sides to the argument. Find your writing groove. Understand how lit and history are relevant today. We want to show your brain a good time."
Great study guides for students, and primers for teachers! Check out some of the example links below.

A Wrinkle in Time

Hunger Games

Sonnet 10 - by John Donne

Science - Cells

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Tools for Learning - eBook update

Tools for Learning,  An Ebook Update - Internet@Schools; Sep/Oct2011
The Latest Sources, Resources, and Options by Victor Rivero (thanks Janet)
The author provides a list of the newest players in ebooks, etextbooks and other digital content for academic use.

"In 2010, Internet@Schools published a widely read article, "E Is for Explosion: E-Readers, Etext-books, Econtent, Elearning, E-Everything" which highlighted more than a dozen solution providers in the area of ebooks, etextbooks, and other digital content for academic use. I will revisit some of those in this article. I've also added to the list, but the bottom line is that this year, the explosion continues!"

[LINK to article] (school ID and password needed to access outside of school - check with your teacher-librarian)
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28.9.11

Google docs - where to begin

Google Docs Help Center -

Are you thinking of using Google Docs in your classroom? You maybe surprised to discover that it is part of an entire suite of web-based applications.

Getting started

Some Videos and additional tutorials

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QR codes in the library and classroom

QR Invasion - "Q"ing into codes for the classroom

Naomi Bates did a short staff pro-d session on QR Codes and how they can be incorporated into lessons. She includes a number of links to readers and creators:

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Where to find video for class use?

Places to find video to "hook" students for your lesson
Don't forget to preview clips before showing them to your class. The last 15 seconds might be a surprise for everybody!

National Film Board films (French too)

CBC Archives

How Stuff Works – Check the playlists (ie How It's Made)

Snag Films
Click on topics or channels and see all the videos available - legally - to watch.  Some have a US flag on the comments which means the video is only available in the US, but there are plenty available for Canada.

WatchKnowLearn
Hundreds of thousands of great short videos, and other media, explaining every topic taught to school kids., rated and sorted into a giant directory, making them simple to find. (This is the goal!)
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online read-aloud/read-along

Online audio books with visuals (for elementary students)


B&N: A selection of best-selling picture books - read out loud with simple animation

Speakaboo: Videos of stories being read (some pay content) Lots of Arthur stories.

MP3 audio stories (download or listen online)

Flippable Books - animal characters (full-screen option)

Songs, animated with Flash

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Game Based learning - Engaging students

Game-Based Learning Units for the Everyday

"Game-based learning (GBL) is getting a lot press. It is an innovative practice that is working to engage kids in learning important 21st century skills and content."

Read Andrew Miller's post for more on this interesting area of study.
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Flash Videos in EBSCO

Medical Images and Videos
How the Heart Works.
Database: Medical Video & Animation Collection

You can search EBSCO for more than articles. There is a wealth of medical images and videos that might be useful for your class. Here's a sample: (click on the "Animation" link on the left-hand side once you get to the summary page.)
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Setting an email alert on a Journal in EBSCO

How to set up a Journal Alert in EBSCO

This video clip walks you through an easy, step-by-step process for getting EBSCO to email you when the magazines or journals you want to read become available. EBSCO sends you a link, and will even send you a list of all the articles in the issue if you so desire!
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Children’s Games and Songs

THE BRITISH LIBRARY - The worlds knowledge
"The Playtimes website is part of a wider Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded project entitled 'Children's Games and Songs in the New Media Age'. The project is part of the AHRC's 'Beyond Text' programme which seeks to highlight the importance of communication, sensory perception, orality and material culture within current scholarship and today's digital culture. The 'Children's Games and Songs' project aims to preserve children's games and songs as an important aspect of our national culture; but also seeks to explore how they continue to be a part of the lives of children living in the age of computer games and the internet. What does this oral tradition borrow from the media; and how might it connect with the entertainment and information technologies of the age of new media?"
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World Book Night 2012

The 100 most popular books

"For World Book Night 2012 we want to find out about the nation's favourite books. We're compiling the top 10s of thousands of readers to see what books people love to read, share and give. Below is an ever changing top 100 which will ultimately inform the 25 books chosen for World Book Night 2012. Why not see if your favourites are here and, if you haven't already, tell us your top 10 and share your favourite books with thousands of others. Click on a book's cover to see reasons people have given for choosing it and to choose it yourself without needing to go through the search page."

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interactive resource - "How to do Research"

Kentucky Virtual Library - Roadmap for Researching

Here is a great interactive resource to help students learn more about the research process. The chart an interesting visual, and all the images are clickable links that lead to more details about the process. (Thanks Rosamar) Available as a Flash animated version as well.
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27.9.11

K-12 Reader - Reading instruction resources

Reading Instruction Resources

"K12reader.com started back in 2008 with the goal of providing free reading instruction resources for parents and teachers. We work with experienced reading teachers and curriculum specialists, who write helpful articles and develop curriculum that can be used in the classroom or at home to supplement what's happening in class."
Topics include: Balanced Literacy, Content Area Reading, Grammar Reference, Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Reading Comprehension, Reading Fluency, Sentence Types, Teaching Sight Words.
And many other topics...
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Teachers Try Science - Lesson Plans and Teaching Strategies

Lessons and Resources for Educators

"This site provides free and engaging lessons, along with teaching strategies and resources, which are designed to spark students' interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).  What's more, the site features collaboration tools to enable teachers to discuss and share effective instructional practices."
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Molecular Workbench - Virtual Science Lab

Hundreds of Free Simulations.
(Use Firefox to access - it may take a moment to load.)

"What's MW?: Molecular Workbench (MW) provides visual, interactive computational experiments for teaching and learning science. Explore physics, chemistry, biology, biotechnology, and nanotechnology with interactive simulations."


On-Line Textbooks - CK12

Flexbooks for Instruction - Secondary

The CK-12 project has added some new titles. Although most of the material is for High School, there are some Gr6 and 7 Math texts.
"CK-12 Foundation is a non-profit organization with a mission to reduce the cost of textbook materials for the K-12 market both in the U.S. and worldwide. Using an open-content, web-based collaborative model termed the "FlexBook™," CK-12 intends to pioneer the generation and distribution of high quality educational content that will serve both as core text as well as provide an adaptive environment for learning."
Use Quickstart to build your own:

PBS LearningMedia™

Classroom-ready, digital resources

"PBS LearningMedia™ ... easy, instant access to thousands of classroom-ready, digital resources including videos and interactives perfect for the Interactive Whiteboard, plus audio and photos, and even in-depth lesson plans. You can search, save, and share with ease. Best of all, PBS LearningMedia™ is free for educators. Register today!"
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Secondary Science Site

Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Free Resources for Senior Science Teachers and Students
Videos, Animations, Lecture Series, Interactive animations, Virtual Labs, Podcasts.
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26.9.11

60 Second Book Hooks [Activity]

Short, persuasive metaphorical book reviews
"A few weeks back, the language arts teacher on my sixth grade team and I whipped up an enrichment activity for our top performing students. Called 60 Second Book Hooks, we've asked our students to generate short, persuasive metaphorical reviews of the books that they are reading. The rules are pretty simple:  Students have to compare the books that they are reading to unlike concepts, ideas or items.  Both supportive and critical reviews are encouraged."
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Read your own "personal" paper.

Check out paper.li. You can read daily newspapers created with your interests in mind. Here's a sample:


Welcome to the Inquiry Questions Wiki!

Explore Inquiry-Based Learning more deeply
Purpose:To collaboratively generate inquiry-based research questions that are related to the learning outcomes of BC curricula, K-12. (Teacher-librarians in the Langley School District)
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Inquiry Based Learning in action

Inquiry-based Learning (online workshop)

"Through this workshop's discussions, project ideas, and sharing, participants discover the value of Inquiry-based Learning activities, which teach respect for one's own interests and the interests of others. The workshop concludes by challenging participants to create engaging Inquiry-based Learning projects in their own classrooms."
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