Article of the week activity: DVD clip

Article of the Week (DVD)  by Kelly Gallagher

Preview clip:

http://www.stenhouse.com/shop/pc/viewprd.asp?idProduct=9172&r=sb100909b&REFERER=

"Each week, students read a short article that informs them about the world. Students highlight passages and words they don't understand, consider the author's purpose and intended audience, and work through any confusion. The class then discusses how the structure and craft of the article informs reader comprehension and how they can implement these elements into their own writing."

See Kelly's website for sample articles he has used:

http://www.kellygallagher.org/resources/articles.html

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Use Letterwriter to help create article handouts:

http://www.lessonwriter.com/default.aspx

Using the Newspaper in Class

http://gordonslibrarylinks.blogspot.com/2010/05/using-newspaper-in-class.html

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New online journal

The Journal of Research on Libraries and Young Adults is a new online, open-access, peer-reviewed journal (http://www.yalsa.ala.org/jrlya) launching November 2010.  

"The purpose of Journal of Research on Libraries and Young Adults is to enhance the development of theory, research, and practices to support young adult library services. ...The journal also includes literary and cultural analysis of classic and contemporary writing for young adults."

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Amazing Stories From Canada's Past - contest

Last year, Kayak magazine asked students from across Canada to send in stories and illustrations that explored aspects of Canada's past. Out of the 350 entries, Kayak has compiled an "e-mag", of the top 25 entries.

See the virtual publication at the link below.

http://www.canadashistory.ca/Awards/Kayak-Kids-Illustrated-History-Challenge/Best-of-2009.aspx

This year, Kayak is running the contest again. Deadline is Oct 8th, 2010.

First prize is $1000 in RESP and a trip to Ottawa.

For more info:

http://www.canadashistory.ca/Awards/Kayak-Kids-Illustrated-History-Challenge.aspx

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Climate Kids - NASA site

http://climate.nasa.gov/kids/

"Targeting students in grades 4–6, this kid-friendly site from NASA demystifies global climate change. The Green Careers section profiles real people working to slow climate change."

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Fun way to introduce the library: Scaredy Squirrel

This is a fun project that could be done using iMovie and some pictures taken in the library.

See Mary's explanantion and Youtube link below:

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"This year I wanted to try a fresh approach to the rules and procedures portion of library orientation.

Some students and I made a 5 minute multimedia presentation using Photo Story 3, a free download from Microsoft.

Scaredy Squirrel is too scared to come into the library.  Maybe we can convince him that there are procedures that will keep the library safe and inviting!"

View it at:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGBS3ogOwZw

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Mary D'Eliso

Librarian / Teacher- University Elementary School

Bloomington, Indiana- mdeliso@mccsc.edu

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Facebook/Farcebook Character assignment

One way to make a character profile assignment more fun is to "piggyback" on the interest in Social Networking sites. Some teachers have used Facebook or MySpace to develop real, live pages, but this may seem a little daunting.  

Read-Write-Think has a great little template that will allow students to create a virtual Facebook page for a book character. There is no way to save the final project apart from printing, or "print as pdf", but with a little pre-thinking and planning, the final product can be done at a single sitting.

Check it out at:

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/profile-publisher-30067.html

Simply click on the "Get Started" button.

A designer's take on school libraries

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1662144/how-designers-banded-together-to-remake-new-yorks-libraries

"In 2001, the Association of Librarians signed on to a new project to help define the needs and solutions for the libraries of the future. They thought that the word "library" was too old-fashioned and wanted something more snappy to compete with the “media lab” down the hall. They said that librarians of the future weren't going to “shush” their students, which inspired the designer of their new logo--Pentagram's Michael Bierut--to place an exclamation mark inside the word: The L!brary Initative was born."

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