Join the CAC ES Library Council

It has long been a dream of mine to have a tween advisory board for my elementary school library. There's a great article in American Libraries that served as inspiration. In my dream, I see industrious and responsible book- and library-loving students working hard to make their library an even better place to be. I see students come up with great ideas to make the library more efficient and more attractive to their peers. I see them helping out with literacy and/or fun stations for the younger students, and turning the maker space from guided crafts to real inquiry-based projects. The tween advisory board of my dreams is recognized by their peers and the community as a valuable human resource of, and for, the library. It's a beautiful dream.

Until now, it has only been a dream. This year, I have made it a professional goal to force myself to step up to the plate and get it going once and for all. Our first meeting will be on the first day back from our December break.

I've had invaluable help from Ronna Zigmand, super duper librarian at the Delhi Embassy School. She generously shared her application forms and meeting minutes with me and I unabashedly copy-and-pasted to create my own application form. (Click here for my finished version.)

I invited the grade 4 and 5 students to apply this week when they came for their scheduled weekly check out sessions. I explained that this tween advisory board, which I'm calling the CAC ES Library Council for now, will be helping me with library projects, that we'd be meeting weekly and that we needed responsible lovers of books and libraries to apply. I handed out application form and worried about getting enough applications by today's deadline. I want to cap the library council to 12 students to ensure we have enough students to carry out the work but not so many that it is not efficient.

There are 2 questions on the application:
1. Why would you be a good library council member?
2. What idea/s do you have for the library council?

I have received nine 13 applications so far. The best part are the ideas that these students have offered. They cover circulation, collection development, signage and customer service. I love all of them, even the ones I don't agree with, like leveling books because "now one can get confused." Here's an opportunity for patron education! Our students are too focused on the F&P level and don't seem to understand that that is a teaching tool and not the only selection criteria. I'd love to get the library council to spread that word, or to demonstrate choosing great books based on author, recommendations, interests, etc. We could make posters and movies and who knows what other cool things they'll come up with!

Gifted graphic designer and library assistant Lena Rezk came up with these 2 buttons. One will be worn by each council member and the other one is "Library Council Recommends..." to put on books.

 

Having the library council will be a great way to start 2017. Can't wait to see what they'll do!

Grade 3 sound and light links on the Visual Tab

The grade 3 is currently studying a science unit on light and sound. As with other units, the library catalog has a page with links to support students in their inquiries.

How to access this Visual Tab page (for a step by step tutorial with images)

• Visit the library catalog and choose the elementary school library
• Look for the tab marked Visual. (It's above and to the right of the search field.)
• Click on the button with Talon. It's called "CAC Units of Study."
• Click on the grade level and then the unit. 

Each of the buttons on the page will take students to sources selected by the classroom teachers or the elementary librarian. I look for sources that are authoritative, accurate and reliable, and as current as possible. I welcome suggestions from the classroom teachers and from students. I give priority to informational sites over educational games sites. If you know of a good source for information on light and sound - or any other science topics - please let me know in the comments.

Note that Britannica Encyclopedia and BrainPop are subscription databases and require username and password. Students in grades 3 to 5 have been taught to access our passworded list of login credentials. The lower grade levels have printed out cards with the logins for the most used databases.

If you are a parent at CAC and missed our parent information session where we demonstrated how to access the library catalog's resources, please stop by the library for help from Mrs. Fitzgerald.

Grade 4 Social Studies on the Visual Tab

Grade 4 is currently studying a social studies unit called, Connections to History. The essential question for this unit is,

How do geography and people connect to build a nation?

Our fourth graders will focus this question by looking at Native Americans and specifically their settlements, use of resources like food, shelter and clothing, and cultural traditions. One of the projects that will track their learning throughout the unit is going to be a multi-layered map that will show Native American nations geographical regions and movement. We started that map today. 

Students came to the library to start on the map project and also to review the steps of the Big 6 research model. The Big 6 is an useful model to use when embarking on an academic task. More information on it can be found here.

The map that we created today is a physical map. It shows the landform regions of the US. Students accessed the Visual Tab to see the map they would be duplicating on paper. 

(To access the Visual Tab, visit the library catalog, then click on the tab marked "Visual." From there, click on CAC Units of Study, and then follow the picture clues to the grade level and unit you need. There are resources for most social studies and science units in grades 2 to 5, as well as links to poetry websites, mathematics websites including Mathletics, online newspapers for children, and much more. Go ahead and explore. If you would like a guided tour, please contact me at the library.)

The Visual Tab page for the grade 4 Connections to History unit looks like this. The map we reproduced today can be found by clicking the button "Map USA-Landforms."

The resources linked here include books from our library catalog, links to database articles from Britannica Online and TrueFlix, and websites. To access Britannica and TrueFlix, students will need to log in. Their teachers should have given them the log in credentials, but those can also be found by logging in to the ES library catalog. All g3 to g5 students have been taught how to do that. If they cannot remember, please contact the ES librarian, Mrs. Fitzgerald. 

Speed Dating with Books

Grade 5 is focusing on author studies for their reading workshop unit. Each has to choose one author and read at least 2 books by that author. Ms. Kasal, the grade 5 team leader, asked me for a book talk to help students choose a great author to concentrate on.

Last year, I presented a traditional book talk, where I showed a dozen books and gave rapid-fire highlights for each author. At the end of the 20 minutes, students were to choose a book to start their author study. I was disappointed when many of the students found excuses for not choosing any of the authors or titles I had presented. I was determined to do a better job of hooking them.

With the goal of 100% engagement in mind, I decided this year to structure the book talk in a speed dating format. This way, instead of listening to me speak for 20 minutes, each student previewed books by different authors. At the end of 30 minutes, each had checked out at least one book from an author and had previewed 5 books from 5 different authors.

Authors were set up as stations with a poster (created on Canva) and a selection of chapter books. The authors I presented were: Avi, Sharon Creech, Andrew Clements, Sid Fleischman, Patricia Reilly Giff, Patricia Maclachlan, Gary Paulsen, Linda Sue Park, Louis Sachar and Jerry Spinelli.

A sample of the author posters I created for this speed book dating. I used Canva.com.

These authors were chosen because they have a large and varied collection of books - and we have many of them in our library - and because they are great writers who will challenge students to think deeply about their reading. 

Students had 30 seconds to choose an author and then 2 minutes to preview a book by that author.  They each had a sheet for notes on the book. They wrote down notes to themselves about the book they were previewing and rated the books on the sheet on their desire to read them. Find the sheet here.  (At the bottom of the sheet is a link to a programmable online timer.)

Each student checked out at least one book at the end of the session. The sheet also gave students the chance to indicate they wanted a hold on a particular title. 

All in all, it went very well. Our fifth grade students were very vocal by the mention of dating, but thrilled to be considered grown up enough. Even the reluctant readers were engaged and all left with a book to try. They also have a short list of 4 other books to try if the title they checked out at the end of the speed dating didn't suit. 

The next time I try speed book dating, I'll include time at the end for students to compare notes. That could increase their exposure to authors and titles they might not have had time to look at. I would also like to include more diverse authors and perhaps picture books, as many of the authors above also write picture books. Last but not least, I'll create a resource list so that I can track the circulation of the books included in the book talk. 

Recommended Book Lists on the Visual Tab

The Visual Tab of our library catalog is where we gather all sorts of resources for the CAC community. One of these resources is our selection of book lists.

CAC was fortunate to have a visit last week from literacy consultant, Christy Curran. Her presentation to parents on how to encourage children to read was well attended and filled with excellent advice.

One of the tip that most resonated with me was about "reading to your children, with your children and reading along with your children." My children are teenagers now, but we spent a lot of time reading together when they were little. I wish we hadn't stopped! Our reading time was special.

One happy benefit of our early reading life is that my 17-year-old son has started recommending great books to me. So far I've read The Martian, Wool and Ready Player One thanks to him. I've loved them all, but what I've loved even more are the discussions we've had about the books.

Receiving recommendations from others is a great way to discover new authors and genres. The library catalog has collected several lists recommending books on its Visual Tab. Click here to go directly to the Visual Tab Book Lists page.  Continue reading below for instructions in how to get there.

To access the library catalog's Visual Tab,

1. navigate to the library catalog. (We recommend bookmarking it on your browser.) http://cacegypt.org
2. Select the elementary library catalog. 
3. Click on the tab marked Visual on the main search page.
4. Click on the "Book Lists" button. 

You will see links from the American Library Association as well as lists of US and UK award winners. All of these include quality literature for children. We have most of the titles featured on those lists. 

Also on the Book List page are two websites: Common Sense Media and the Scholastic Parents' page. These offer recommendations by age. The Common Sense Media website includes reviews on books, movies, apps and other media. One thing that I like about the Common Sense Media site is that for each of the books (or movies, apps, etc.) it includes a section called "Families Can Talk About..." which lists discussion points for the book. 

The Scholastic Parents' site includes recommended lists by age here, and lots of resources to help with homework. 

Please note that including these two sites in this blog post does not constitute CAC endorsement for either. They are offered only as an additional resource. 

Previewing books: Judge a book by its cover and its spine!

Last year, whenever a student would tell me that he or she couldn't find a book they liked, my stock answer was, "We have 25000 books. Surely we can find something you like!" I'd then go off and pull books off the shelves for students to try.

I realized that perhaps for some of those reluctant readers, knowing that there's 25000 books might be overwhelming. How does one choose when there are so many choices?

I also noticed last year that most of our students will look only as far as the books on a front facing display and will ignore lots and lots of great titles that are displayed spine out. We can't display all of our books with their covers facing out. There isn't enough space - remember I said we have 25000 books? So, this year, I'm doing the next best thing: training students to locate those great titles when they can only see the spine. This also supports the work they are doing in their literacy classes on growing as readers.

There's lots of information on the spine of a book. Some of it comes from the publisher: the title of the book, the author. Sometimes, if the book is part of a series, the publisher may add the number of the book in the sequence. At our library, fiction is arranged alphabetically by author's last name, which means that all the books by an author are together. This last has been a novel idea for many of our fourth graders who hadn't realized that looking for books by a favorite author is a good book selection skill in the library. 

Some of the information on the spine of the book is placed there by the library. The call number sticker, for example, lets you know where the book can be found and who wrote it. This year, all new books have a neon green sticker at the top. For books in a particular genre, we have color and picture coded stickers. All that information, and you haven't even pulled the book out! 

Pick a fiction shelf and let your fingers do the walking, as you read book spines one after the other. Once you find a title that grabs you, pull that book out. 

Look at the cover. Read the title and the author. There may be a one-line recommendation like "By the best selling author of That Book That I Really Liked." Look at the cover art and start making predictions about what the book is like. 

Turn the book over. Many times the back cover has a summary of the book or recommendations from famous authors or popular newspapers. Read the back. Notice how the art work on the back matches the front. Adapt your prediction if you need to.

Open the book to the front jacket flap. This is usually where the book has a longer summary. Read the summary. 

Open the book to the back jacket flap. Here you usually find a very short author biography. Sometimes they can be really funny. Read to learn a little bit about the author - and possibly laugh a little too. 

You're almost finished with your preview! Turn to the first page and read it. Use the five finger rule to decide if it is a good fit for you and to see if you are interested in seeing what happens.

Your preview is finished. You can now decide if you're going to keep reading or if you're going to return the book. If not, please return to its place on the shelf. Use the call number to put it back where it belongs so that others can also find it. 

Grade 4 has been practicing this with fiction books, but you would also preview non-fiction books in the same way.

Go ahead, exercise your previewing muscles. Soon you'll be getting a just right reading workout!

Cool and Sweet as Summer Reading

CAC ES students were full of stories about all the books they read this summer. We were so happy to hear all about them!

Here's a little prize for those who read during the summer. Popsicles are cool and sweet like summer reading, so students who fill out a paper popsicle template will be treated by the ES library to a cool and sweet real popsicle on Thursday at dismissal.

Lots of new books for the new school year!

I spent a great hour today browsing through our many new books. Here are a few covers. Can't wait to read some more tomorrow and display them for our students to see on Wednesday!

Clicking on each cover should take you to the book's page on Goodreads.com. If you don't have a Goodreads account yet, you should! It's like Facebook but for readers. It has covers, summaries and reviews for every book published in English, and lots published in other languages as well. You invite your friends and they get to see what you are reading, as well as recommend books for you. One of my favorite features is the Goodreads challenge. Every year for the last 3 I have challenged myself to read 365 books. As I count picture books and children's literature in addition to the adult books I read, it's not that hard to reach that number, but right now I'm 28 books behind!! Good thing we have so many great new books.

2016 Reading Challenge

Mrs. Fitzgerald has read 198 books toward her goal of 365 books.

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198 of 365 (54%)

view books

Note: As I read more and more books, this widget may change. Right now there are 18 wonderful picture books but since CAC has a great book collection, it could change to include different. Moral of the story: Read the blog posts when they arrive!! :-)

Josianne Fitzgerald's favorite books »

Welcome to the 2016-2017 School Year

We are very excited to be starting school again and seeing all the smiling faces of our ES students! I hope you all had a great summer holiday and are ready for a super new year of learning and reading.

Here are some reminders for our students:

We share the library with everyone at CAC

This is our golden rule, and every behavior expectation follows from it:

• We use quiet voices in the library because other people are working, reading or playing here
• We return our library books promptly because other people want to read them too
• We walk in the library so we don't disturb other people
• We clean up after ourselves so that the library is neat and clean for others

You get the idea. We share the library with everyone, so we have to act like we would like others to act. 

Share what you read!

We hope you did a lot of reading this summer. Stop by the library and fill out a summer reading form. You'll be entered into a lucky drawing and could win a prize to reward your efforts. Of course, the best reward of reading was the enjoyment you got out of it so don't worry if you don't get a prize. 

Library bags

Remember to bring your library bag to library every week. Your library bag helps you:

• by helping you carry your books from the library and back
• by protecting your books from dust and damage
• by giving you a place to keep your books when you are not reading them at home

Library bags can be purchased from the school store. The school store bags are the perfect size for our library books. 

If a student has forgotten his/her library bag, we have a small number of bags that can be checked out. Once those run out, students without bags may only take one library book home. 

Summer checkouts

All library materials checked out for the summer need to be returned by Wednesday, August 17, or on the first day students return to CAC. Students with overdue summer checkout books will not be allowed to take books home. 

Tips for parents

Parents, visit this link for tips on how to help your students grow as super readers. 

Ways a Parent Can Help a Child with Reading

Top 10 in Non-Fiction for 2105-2016

Yesterday we saw the top 10 fiction books for this school year. Here are the top 10 in non-fiction. These are the non-fiction books that were checked out the most.

#10, #9, #8, #7 - Garfield books. With about a dozen new Garfield comics this year, the fat cat of comics continues to be popular among students.

#6 - We added quite a few Minecraft manuals this year, and they have been continuously checked out. Will be adding more copies next year to keep up with demand!

#5 - Also new this year were many crafts books to refresh our crafts collection and to compliment the crafts we offered at recess times. 

#4 - So glad to see that the crafts books we purchased this year were in such demand. More crafts books for next year?

#3 - We had lots of interest in these "girls only" books this year. Girls rule!

#2 - The Guinness World Records books are always popular. We keep one copy of the newest book as a reference and circulate another copy. 

#1 - Girl power! Our fourth graders, boys and girls, were fascinated with this title. Will have to get at least one more title as it disappears from the circulation cart as soon as it is checked in!

Which non fiction books were your favorites this year? Let us know in the comments. 

Top 10 Books for the Year

As check outs for summer reading pick up, here's a list of the 10 ten titles checked out this year. 

#10 - The Diary of  Wimpy Kid books are always in demand. This one is number 4. 

#9 - Another Diary of a Wimpy Kid, this one is number 2 in the series.

#8 - This is the ninth title in the Captain Underpants series, and features a trip back in time to deal with a bully. 

#7 - All the titles of Pinkalicious big favorite with girls young and old!

#6 - In this title, Pinkalicious learns about the power that comes from staying true to herself. 

#5 - We have a large selection of Star Wars beginning readers and they're most often always checked out. This one is written like a non-fiction book. Interesting that it is about the bad guys. 

#4 - Another Captain Underpants title, this is the fourth in the series. 

#3 - In this title, Pinkalicious deals with the Tooth Fairy. 

#2 - The next to last book in the series. We received book 10 in December, so it did not make it on the list, but it's sure to feature in next year's list. 

#1 - Pinkalicious, by Victoria Kann, is the most checked out book of the year!