A lesson plan for Sophie Blackall's award-winning picture book.
Winner of a 2019 Coretta Scott King Author Honor, The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson is part historical fiction novel, part mystery, full of masterful plot twists and clever riddles. The latest lesson plan from "The Classroom Bookshelf."
Educating kids on how lighting, camera movement, sound, body language, and other film strategies convey meaning.
At Solomon Schechter Day School of Bergen County, NJ, the Popkin Innovation Lab has brought a new curriculum and problem-solving approach, along with a different culture, to school this year.
Visual literacy demands increasingly sophisticated tools to expand kids' critical skills.
Lessons for the classroom and library based on 2019 Geisel Honor book Fox+Chick and Other Stories by Sergio Ruzzier, from a critical literacy exercise on unlikely friendships and reader's theater to Fox+Chick as mentor text.
This Potter-themed kit combines the beloved fictional world with coding in a magical way for students, who can use the wand as more than just a glorified remote.
Alma Sofia Esperanza José Pura Candela thinks her name is too long - when she tries to write it, she needs to add an extension piece of paper in order to fit it on a single page. With the support of her father’s family stories, she comes to see how her name is actually the perfect fit for her.
Students can study the science of baseball—and the sport can help teach the kids key STEM concepts—thanks to this new multi-year content collaboration.
This past year has seen a number of 20th-century histories published for secondary students on topics ranging from women's suffrage and World War l to the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. Here's a select list, with reviews.
Filled with whimsy, wonder, and icy escapades, these recently published picture books can be shared with students to celebrate the season, launch winter-themed studies, or inspire creative projects.
In Washington, DC, preschool and primary educators have teamed up with the Children Are Citizens project. The results are intriguing; the methods worth replicating.
With anti-Semitism on the rise, teaching the lessons of history to inform students and counter bigotry has never been more important. Here are resources with recommended books for young readers about the Jewish experience and a new curriculum to help students understand the Holocaust and its legacy, with the life of Oskar Schindler as an entry point.
As we celebrate multiple space exploration anniversaries in the next few years, these are just some of the recent crop of titles that will spark kids’ interest.
Fans of Eric Carle will rejoice in this well-presented, comprehensive app.
When it comes to teachable moments, nothing beats commemorative dates.
Moms for Social Justice has started its 2019 initiative, putting a diverse collection of books into Chattanooga classrooms where school library collections are woefully inadequate.
The universality of stories tells us something important about our brains. Here are the facts.
The Rabbit Listened is a must-have for any teacher and classroom community seeking to build a more empathetic world.
The government's education report focuses on partnerships and literacy, but no cost was included.
Take inspiration from these creative librarians and other crafters this holiday season. Video: How to make a folded magazine Christmas tree.
Here’s how to get young people to explore creative writing and the arts with a zine-making workshop at your library.
Wondering what happened in Texas, where they wanted to bump Hillary Clinton and Helen Keller from the curriculum? Still waiting for the AR Harry Potter game we wrote about months ago? We've got you covered with news about past articles.
It’s a magical moment for a librarian when a classroom teacher says, "Let's collaborate on a reading project." Whether the teacher's focus is the Common Core, Social Studies, or their state standards, there are ample opportunities for a librarian to make a huge impact.
There's help for educators who want to bring lessons into the classroom after taking students to see The Hate U Give movie.
Using technology to forge literary and artistic connections with today's preteens.
These programs ignite preteens' curiosity, compassion, and quest for the next big thing.
Don't stop teaching Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. Use it—flaws and all—as a piece of the much bigger story.
MERGE is on a mission to make virtual reality "easy, safe, and fun for everyone” and offers an array of experiences to kids 10 and up.
The kid likes one thing, the parent wants another. How should librarians proceed?
Liz Kolb, presenter at the upcoming SLJ/ISTE webcast Digital Citizenship for Tweens and Teens, created a curriculum for Michigan middle schoolers to adopt safe, responsible, and respectful online behavior.
Using epistolary poems as the format for the text, the authors establish a window into the intimate ways a student (the narrator) is impacted by the substitute teacher’s presence.
The new ISTE Standards for Educational Leaders broaden the scope of digital citizenship education for students. Here are up-to-date resources to help librarians promote these skills.
This latest work from the Fan brothers is sure to inspire storytellers and story seekers in every classroom.
Using social media platforms in classroom settings to engage students while enhancing digital writing and communication skills.
Food and cooking are easy and accessible entry points to learning.
If you’re seeking 2018 fictional works about Latinx experiences, look no further.
Neuroscience provides excellent reasons for supporting making and makerspaces, and can help guide educators offering these exciting opportunities for our students.
Here are some ideas to bring your Teen Read Week programs up a notch.
A classroom teacher and a librarian engaged early elementary student in discussions about identity and stereotypes—and asked them to evaluate a book collection.
I’m Your Neighbor Project has a mission to “Welcoming immigrants, refugees, and migrants as neighbors through the sharing of children’s literature and other stories.”
A frequently challenged book club pick; insisting on the Pledge of Allegiance
Meet OASIS—Openly Available Sources Integrated Search—with a goal to facilitate the discovery of open educational resources.
The Texas State Board of Education passed a preliminary vote to remove Clinton, as well as Helen Keller and others, from the social studies and history curriculum. It could become official in November.
These new applications transport students through primary sources to some of the most dramatic turning points in U.S. history and immerse them in the related debates.
For these authors, visits to school libraries are all about the interaction with students.
The search tool allows you to locate datasets stored across thousands of repositories in the context of their hosted sites in a single interface.
Teaching titles about mathmeticians Katherine Johnson and Sophie Germain.
While classroom and school libraries share the larger goal of advancing literacy, they often serve different purposes—and compete for the same resources.
If you need a way to show your school administrators just how impactful school librarians can be, look no further than Ali Schilpp, Michelle Carton, and Cassy Lee—SLJ’s 2018 School Librarian of the Year, Champion of Civic Engagement, and Champion of Student Voice.
Boyd discusses the connection between street lit and challenged books, while Winner describes the frequently challenged LGBTQ-themed picture books that he shares with his elementary students.
Teaching ideas for a book that invites readers to notice the beauty and mystery of the natural world around us.
Whenever someone complains about how dark YA is, it is almost always an adult, writes Karen Jensen, who brings the discussion back to YA's primary audience: teens.
Brigid Alverson talks to Kurt Hassler, Yen Press managing director and publisher, about light novels, which are prose novels that have a lot in common with manga and anime.
Teen-tested projects from the Public Library of Mount Vernon and Knox County.
These SLJ School Librarians of the Year have big things in store for their students.
An elementary school librarian’s suggestions for projects related to animal habitats, natural disasters, bridge building, recycled fashion, and more.
Check out these picture books that feature the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
SLJ reviews 3Doodler's new line of 3-D printing pen products designed for classroom use.
Tone policing happens during conversations or debates when one person, typically of greater privilege, thwarts a speaker's thoughts or opinions by reacting to their emotional tone.
Try these projects and games with your students on Banned Websites Awareness Day (September 26), which seeks to raise awareness of overly restrictive filtering of educational websites and to explore the impact on intellectual freedom.
Maryland's Ali Schilpp is this year's winner, with two library "Champions" honored as well.
New uses for a familiar tool transformed the way she teaches.
When it comes to questions about climate change, it’s imperative that we urge children and teens to seek answers that enlighten, inspire, and stimulate them to get involved as responsible inhabitants of this planet.
Elementary classroom teachers and librarians will want to add these titles to their collections.
Traditional tales remain popular with young readers and provide a plethora of possibilities for classroom explorations.
Overhauling library systems, forging alliances, finding communities, weathering suspicion, and weeding—sometimes thousands of titles. It’s all in the first year’s work for many librarians starting at a new school.
Open Library is an Internet Archive project developed to present one web page for every book ever published. Recent enhancements allow for even more openness.
Librarians are helping to foster a productive exchange of ideas among students.
Parents and young children will discover engaging curricular content, a library of interactive books to teach early academic skills, as well as a focus on social-emotional development and healthy habits.
We asked K–12 and public librarians to share their strategies—from genrefying to broadcasting booktalks.
I was excited to attend the release party for the beta version of ALA’s Ready to Code Collection at Annual a few weeks back.