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This past summer I attended my first International Society for Technology in Education conference (ISTE), and was awestruck to be among 20,000 plus educators who share the exhilarating goal of advancing “excellence in learning and teaching through innovative and effective uses of technology.” Four of the promises of technology that permeated conference conversations—along with exemplar multimedia resources from TeachingBooks.net—are highlighted in this month’s column.
What can we expect if Mitt Romney’s elected the next president? More school choice, absolutely no federal money devoted to helping implement the Common Core Standards, and an A to F grading system for all K-12 schools.
Marc Aronson discusses a set of books that looks at the same moment in history from three different angles. Taken together, the three titles offer a more comprehensive picture of a time of invention and discovery than we’d typically get from an individual book: one title focuses on a remarkable genius; another on a breakthrough invention; and the third title, which explores a transforming theory, is really best seen as a moment in which circumstance, individuals, and technology converge to make change possible.
Librarians are masters of information. Finding it, storing it, organizing it, retrieving it—you name it. We excel at a wide range of skills. And in today’s world, that’s the name of the game. Case in point: my team and I were recently asked to choose passages of text for a regional K–8 English language-arts exam. [...]
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It may seem obvious to you, dear reader, but not everyone knows that the library is the heart of the school community, the place where student and faculty life converge—where children race to reserve the latest installment in that must-read series, to find that just-right book, to explore online resources, to work and collaborate on research projects, to reread a favorite fiction title before the movie is released, and to talk about the books they love with people who care. It’s the place where teachers discover new resources to incorporate into lesson plans, gather to discuss and map curriculum, and to attend professional development workshops after school hours.
During the last ten years, researchers have learned that elementary students are more likely to read and hear fiction in their classrooms more than informational text. However, if you ever visited an elementary school library, you’d see that far more nonfiction is circulated on average than fiction. Kids love to see the photographs and learn more about their world. Consequently, those books have the commonly known disease of the banana-peel spine. They’ve been read so much their spines are literally peeling off the book. With an increase in emphasis on informational text due to adoption of Common Core State Standards, nonfiction circulation is bound to increase. These new nonfiction releases will satisfy the standards while feeding your starved-for-information students and patrons.
Thursday, October 18, 2012, 3:00 – 4:00 PM ET How do the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) impact you, your library, and your teachers? Marc Aronson and Sue Bartle will discuss how perspective, multi-modality, and transliteracy will help you build a foundation as you implement CCSS. Take home a few concrete examples to successfully adjust to the instructional shifts in CCSS. Archive now available!
The issues and questions raised by Common Core are not only apparent stateside. Marc Aronson discusses how his trip to Barcelona revealed that there might be an opportunity to collaborate with the Spanish city, and other international locales, to inspire students to be innovators.
The Common Core (CCSS) has arrived. We’ve had time to study the standards, peruse the list of recommended materials, and explore the suggested curriculum maps and assessments. Now, how do we begin to put this nationwide initiative into operation? What meaningful steps forward can we take? In this column, we’ll focus on the ideas that shape our approach to the standards. All start with the letter “C”—we call them “The 10 C’s.” We begin with the concept that holds all the others together: collaboration.
As the mom of a now-first-grader, my parenting world is colliding with my professional world. Last year, I eagerly brought my daughter to kindergarten geared not to be one of “those” meddling parents, micromanaging the teachers and hovering over projects. However, I soon realized it was going to be very difficult to keep my professional experiences and opinions to myself when it came to the Common Core. Then again, should I?
This summer, I taught a professional development class for our staff. The goal? To each read two novels and one nonfiction book that we could enthusiastically recommend to our students this year. What we ended up with was a lot more than we’d expected, and it’s worth thinking about offering a similar class at your own school.
Underneath the spaceships, extraterrestrials, and techno bling, these new young adult science fiction novels feature complex characters exploring the question of what it means to be human. Set them on the launch pad of social studies, technology, and literature classes, and blast off into discussions touching on politics, culture, science, the environment—the possibilities are limitless!
Rosen Digital has just announced the launch of two new digital resources for middle school and high school students: Financial Literacy, an online database for economics and personal finance; and Teen CyberSmarts, an interactive ebook program that teaches kids about digital citizenship and cyber safety. Both programs have been specifically designed to support Common Core learning standards. And SLJTeen readers have a chance to evaluate both of these for free through October 5, 2012.
The 50th birthday celebration of Norman Bridwell’s iconic Clifford the Big Red Dog will kick off on September 24th at 10 am with a party at Scholastic’s New York City headquarters. And everybody can join in on the “Biggest Birthday Party Ever!” The live event will be streamed to classes across the country. Teachers can register now so their students can watch the festivities and Bridwell’s 30-minute webcast. There’s also a free kit that includes lesson plans, art project ideas, and coloring pages. In addition, Norman Bridwell’s Clifford Collection, six stories originally published between 1963 and 1977, will be released on the same day.
We always warn kids not to “pile on”—adding an extra shove when another kid is already down. But in this case, I have to add my voice to Melissa Jacobs-Israel’s. Melissa has expressed her frustration with the Common Core’s infamous Appendix B: Text Exemplars and Performance Tasks, and I couldn’t agree more.Sadly, Appendix B isn’t down.
As summer wanes, we librarians are organizing our calendars for the coming school year. Consider hosting one or more of the following events to get kids, parents and staff charged up and keeping them close to the library!
The following materials on Afghanistan focus on a variety of topics: the effect of U.S. military presence, the treatment of women, refugee camps, and daily life for Afghan citizens. The resources are ideal for teachers looking to educate students about Afghanistan while also embracing the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).
Last spring the children’s book community lost several beloved authors and illustrators, including the hugely talented Leo Dillon, Jean Craighead George, Ellen Levine, and Maurice Sendak. In honor of their memory and their many accomplishments, TeachingBooks.net is offering video and audio recordings of these creative artists whose work enriched the lives of so many people.
A lonely child, a manipulative villain, and resourceful orphans take center stage in Newbery-Award winner Laura Amy Schlitz’s spellbinding new novel, Splendors and Glooms (Candlewick Press, August, 2012). Schlitz talks about her novel and considers the sources of the chillingly claustrophobic, Dickensian world she created.
As champions of nonfiction literature, Mary Ann Cappiello, Myra Zarnowski, and Mark Aronson have spent the past year speaking to teachers, librarians, and children’s book publishers, advocating for a new role for children’s, middle grade, and young adult nonfiction in all forms (print, digital, audio) in the classroom and in the individual reading lives of children. They are delighted to have the opportunity to join Curriculum Connections for the 2012-2013 school year and share their message with you.
