Reflections on a conference

I spent only one day at the NYLA/SLMS Spring Conference, yet came away with so much. The keynote speaker was Dr. Ross Todd, an inspiration to the school librarian's changing world. He reminds us that the largest effect on the education of our children is quality teaching. Alongside excellent resources, excellent teachers foster learning. Todd asks us to step back from the image of the library as the "hub" of the school, the resource-centric view. Instead, our school libraries should be centers of teaching with a vision based upon inquiry and imagination. The emphasis is to inspire students toward deep knowledge creation, rather than emphasizing resource location skills. He advises us not to teach process in a vacuum. Knowledge outcome is far more critical. This is so much what our national Learning Standards are all about. "We need to teach kids to work with ideas." He points us to a Canadian study, "What Did You Do in School Today?: Transforming classrooms through social, academic and intellectual engagement. Much food for thought...I look forward to reviewing his slides when he posts them on the conference wiki.

A session on the NYSED SLMPE Rubric was illuminating. Our State Education Dept is asking us to become familiar with this document and share it with our administrators (rather than the other way round...!) A high school librarian and an administrator from her district shared their experience, and this was extremely valuable.

But wait...there's more! I was honored to receive at the luncheon a scholarship to the wonderful Summer Leadership Retreat in Ithaca this August. I have attended the past two years and highly recommend it to school librarians in NY State. James Preller addressed our group at lunch with an engaging account of his journey as an author.

And...let's face it, sitting near Laurie Halse Anderson, our school library hero, in a session on Boys and Books was a thrill! All in all, a highly rewarding day...

Wordles for Character Analysis

Here is a wonderful use for wordle, mentioned in an earlier post. (Don't miss this info on how to make wordle safe for classroom use.) Second graders studied author Tomie dePaola, and created a character analysis for Big Anthony.

Group work

I am reading Comprehension & Collaboration: Inquiry circles in action, by Stephanie Harvey & Harvey Daniels. In reflecting on this book as part of a ning group discussion, and from threads of inquiry from last summer, I have been attempting to implement more student collaborative work into instruction. I am working with two second grade teachers on an author study. Students are evaluating character traits for a character of their selection from one of many books they have read by the author, Tomie DePaola. (Don't miss his video interviews on Reading Rockets.) We are able to climb Bloom's Taxonomy a bit as students evaluate the relative importance of the different traits they uncovered for their character. We'll develop wordles based on their evaluations.

It's fascinating to facilitate group work among students, especially 7 year-olds. My reading of the Harvey & Daniels book has made me acutely aware of the importance of this work, yet as a nation of educators, we do not do enough to prepare students for the essential skill and experience of productively working together.

As part of a reflection piece mid-project, we read Lousy, Rotten, Stinkin' Grapes by Margie Palatini. It's a fabulous, fun read aloud, and a perfect springboard for discussing group behavior. The kids had so much to say about both positive and negative group experiences. They came up with amazing options for dealing with challenging behavior on the part of team members. It's my hope that this type of discussion recurs frequently in their elementary education.


Thanks to my friend Sarah for nudging me to wake up my blog from a long snooze. Here's a shout out to Christine, one of Sarah's students: Thanks for tagging me!