Every Student Reads: Collaboration and Reading and Learning

After reading Gail Bush's book, Every Student Reads: Collaboration and Reading and Learning, last week, I was left wondering about boys and reading. I found an article by Michael Sullivan called "Why Johnny Won't Read" http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA439816.html and found that it shed new light on how to address the issue of boys and their lack of motivation for reading. Sullivan argues that "It's not that boys can't read, they just don't. Study after study reveals that boys read less than girls. And according to the U.S. Department of Education, school-age boys tend to read a grade and a half lower than girls" (Sullivan, 2004).

So how do we apply all the reading strategies and higher thinking activities that Bush encourages? According to Sullivan, librarians must throw out the old traditional model of "here's a book you're going to love" approach and really observe and learn what boys are drawn to (Sullivan, 2004). Most boys, according to Sullivan, are attracted to "comic books, baseball cards, and cereal boxes. They are less likely to read books; and when they do, they often don't read the ones we want them to" (Sullivan, 2004).

One of the main reasons, Sullivan argues, is that boys identify with males but do not have male role models to model good reading behavior. Girls, on the other hand, often times have female role models who read. Sullivan quotes a study that found that "mothers are 10 times more likely to read books than fathers. On the other hand, dads are 10 times more likely to read newspapers than moms" (Sullivan, 2004). So what is the difference? Informational texts such as newspapers and how-to manuals, according to Sullivan, do not "provide boys with the sustained, language-rich reading experiences they need to become mature readers" (Sullivan, 2004).

So what do boys like to read? Boys like reading about sports, adventure, fantasies, horror, science fiction, humor non-fiction and real life accounts. They like books that help them discover their place in the world and characters that take risks, rebels who push against the boundaries that society has imposed upon them. However, often times educators do not honor or value the reading interest of boys and push them toward more "reflective" fiction books the type that girls are also more likely to be drawn to.

Sullivan argues that the major reason why "librarians and teachers often have so little respect for what boys like is that most of them are women—and guys' tastes don't appeal to them. Yes, many libraries my have popular "boy" series like the Time Warp series or Captain Underpants but Sullivan states that "respecting boys' tastes goes beyond simply possessing these books: it comes down to what you do with them" (Sullivan, 2004). Librarians need to be more active in promoting titles that may be of interest to boys and definitely include them in the book selection process.

Sullivan's message really struck home with me because I, too, am guilty of mostly reading "girl books" and gender neutral books like Harry Potter. I am not particulary drawn to sports or horror. The fantasy fiction that I do read mostly have female leading characters. So how do female librarians begin to develop a taste for the reading interests of boys? Also, does this mean that male librarians have the opposite issue - not honoring/valuing the interest of girls?

Well, to begin honoring the reading interests of boys I did do a little more research and found a blog site called Guys Lit Wire http://guyslitwire.blogspot.com/. This site will keep you up to date with what boys/guys/males are reading. The site has a black background and lots of book reviews and recommendations on "boy books".  It sort of gives you the feeling that you are trespassing on a "boys only site" but it does provided an extensive archive lists, just in case you want to catch up.

Sources

Bush, G. (2005). Every student reads: Collaboration and reading to learn. Chicago, IL: American Association of School Librarians.

Sullivan, M. (2004). "Why Johnny won't read." http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA439816.html. Retrieved July 27, 2009.

Teaching 2.0 Challenging the Interactive Generation by Christopher Moersch

For my virtual session, I choose to view the ISTE Vision programs from the NECC Conference in Washington D.C. a few weeks ago. I viewed the session by Christopher Moersch, Teaching 2.0 Challenging the Interactive Generation. You can read up on the session on Moersch's blog http://lotiguyspeaks.blogspot.com/.

I found Moersch's discussion on the LoTi Connection (Levels of Technology Implementation) much like that of Bloom's Taxonomy. The LoTi model was first introduced by Moersch in 1994 as a resource that would help assess what he calls "authentic classroom technology use" (http://loticonnection.com/lotilevels.html). LoTi is often used to measure how teachers implement elements of  "digital-age literacy" referred to in the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS-T)  (http://loticonnection.com/lotilevels.html). The model focuses on helping teaches balance classroom instruction, alternative assessments, and "the effective use of digital tools and resources" all believed to help promote and enhance higher order thinking skills.  Moersch belives that his model could help motivate and engage students in the learning process  (http://loticonnection.com/lotilevels.html).

Moersch's session is about an hour long but well worth the time. He provides short video clips to demonstrate how real teachers implement the LoTi model and provides examples on how teachers could use the H.E.A.T. model in their classrooms. Moersch defines H.E.A.T. as

• H = higher-order thinking
• E = engaged learning
• A = authentic assessment
• T = technology

He argues that educators need Teach 2.0 because of the four mega trends in our society:

1. Globalization = the world has become flatter; students need to compete in a technological world
2. Digital Natives Entering Schools = students are comfortable with technology; demand information quickly
3. Internet became interactive = social networking i.e., wikis, blogs, MySpace, Facebook
4. High stakes testing took control = education reform more focus on standardize testing - NCLB and RTI (http://loticonnection.com/lotilevels.html).

Overall, I found this session very thought provoking and useful for SLMS in collaborating with teachers to integrate technology and inquiry-based learning activities into the curriculum.

Moersch's lecture materials can be found at:
http://www.lqhome.com/necc_09/C_Moersch_NECC_2009.pdf
http://www.lqhome.com/necc_09/NECC_2009_Teach_20.pdf

Source:

Moersch, Christopher. LoTi: Heating Up 21st Century Learning. Loti Connection, Inc., 2009. Date Accessed July 20, 2009 (http://loticonnection.com/lotilevels.html).

Collection & Curriculum Mapping

I really enjoyed reading Chapters 5 & 6 on Curriculum and Collection Mapping in Barbara K. Stripling and Sandra Hughes-Hassell's book Curriculum Connections: Through the Library. The chapters gave me a better understanding of how to go about supporting my school's curriculum and how to help teachers work within the local, state, and national testing standards. I believe that we can move from teaching to the test to teaching with the standards in mind. This might sound like the same thing but I believe that we can help students meet the goals set by the teaching standards and be more creative and efficient in what we teach. These chapters made me see that incorporating the standards into our curriculum and meeting the standards set by local, state, and national standardized tests does not mean that we need to drill and test our students blind, but that we CAN find ways to collaboratively work together and make learning fun and engaging AND still meet the testing objectives.

The information on Collection Mapping also gave me a better understanding of how to approach the management of my collection and how to set goals that will allow me to keep my collection current and more effective for students and teachers. I like the idea of the WEB room with the WEB boxes that teachers could check out to help them with their units. However, I do have some questions about this idea and hope someone out there can answer them for me:

• What exactly goes into the boxes?
• If I pull books and materials to place inside the boxes, won't that reduce the number of materials that I have for circulation?
• Do the contents of the Web boxes have to be catalogue differently?
• Will I have to budget for extra materials and resources for the boxes?

I want to learn more about how to manage my collection through collection mapping or perhaps other ways, especially if I end up in a school that does not offer or require curriculum maps to guide me. Can anyone recommend any resources for me?

Source:

Stripling, B. K. & Hughes-Hassell, S. (2003). Curriculum connections through the library. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.

Reflection: On Creating My Blog (LIS 724)

This is actually my first blog but I have created a wiki for my LIS 704 Reference class.  When I first created the wiki http://jlop.wordpress.com/  I was very nervous and struggled with the alignment, fonts, tabs, pages, and images. However, in the end, it all worked out and I was happy with the final result. I liked the ease of using wordpress and the layouts/templates it provides. It is very user friendly and has many interesting features.

When I began this blog http://jvlopez.blogspot.com/, I was much more at ease and it only took me about 10 minutes to create. I truly like the essence of having a blog and the ability of sharing my thoughts with others. However, the only flaw would be that blogger does not allow me to create tabs on my blog - at least the template that I choose does not. I find this inconvenient and am thinking about possibly revising the template sometime soon. In addition, I would also like to set up another blog to publish book reviews and hold book talks and discussions with others.

BLOG INVESTIGATION:

Today, I investigated a blog called Free Technology for Teachers http://www.freetech4teachers.com/. I absolutely love this blog! The blog offers a large variety of FREE tech resources for teachers - actually, everyone can benefit. It also offers a newsletter/guide to technology integration, resources for educators, great alternatives to YouTube, videos, and lots, lots, more. I like the layout and how easy the blog is to navigate. The author is Richard Byrne and his purpose is to provide educators with free resources that they can use in their classrooms to help improve their instruction. In 2008, the site won the Edublogger Award for "Best Resource Sharing Blog." The site states that it has over 8000 subscribers and Richard Byrne is available for professional development workshops. The resources on this site are exceptional and I strongly recommend for everyone to subscribe to this blog.

Source:

Byrne, Richard. Free Technology for Teachers.  Access Date July 14, 2009  http://www.freetech4teachers.com/.

Literacy Learning in the Elementary School

Chapter 3, Literacy Learning in the Elementary School: Implications for School Library Media Specialists, in Barbara K. Stripling and Sandra Hughes-Hassell's book Curriculum Connections: Through the Library, was a very useful and important chapter. The chapter laid out a list of questions and goals for librarians to focus on when they begin to collaborate with teachers such as, "What kind of readers do we want children to be when they leave our elementary schools?" (2003). As educators we want children not only to be fluent readers that can decode and understand a variety of texts but also:

• children who read for meaning,
• children who approach books and reading with enthusiasm,
• children who are able to choose their own books,
• children who have an appreciation for different formats and genres,
• children who share and discuss what they read with classmates, teachers, and parents, and
• children who learn about themselves and the world through reading (Stripling and Hughes-Hassell, 2003).

I strongly believe that these skills will make our students proficient life-long readers and learners. However, in order to accomplish these goals, we have to provide students with enough reading time, a variety of reading materials in all formats, reading support and guidance, "authentic literacy experiences", a welcoming and comfortable reading environment, and the knowledge to help students select the right books at the right time. This all sounds like a huge task, and it is, but watching students engaged in reading and loving it, makes it all worth while.

I love hearing kids talk to me about why they love a book or update me on what has happened next in their book or what they are planning to read next ---their excitement becomes my excitement. I look forward to collaborating with teachers to develop creative lessons and activities that allow students to engage books to generate meaning enthusiastically and develop the love of reading and learning that will serve them throughout their life time.

Source:
Stripling, B. K. & Hughes-Hassell, S. (2003). Curriculum connections through the library. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.

Chapter One - Inquiry-based Learnring

I found chapter one, “Inquiry-based Learning”, of Barbara K. Stripling and Sandra Hughes-Hassell’s book, Curriculum Connections Through the Library, very helpful in recapping what I have learned as an educator over the years. The authors’ discussion on inquiry-based learning truly aligns itself with the constructivist student-centered theories that dominate the education arena but that are often not incorporated into the curriculum due to the need to “teach to the tests.” Teachers today are so bombarded with jam-packed curriculum requirements that learning has become something that is just done in order to check a lesson off of a curriculum content list. This is truly unfortunate for our students today because they are losing the love of learning which means that their chances of becoming critical thinkers and life-long learners are dwindling. What does this mean for our future? How can librarians help?

I, also, found that many of the reading strategies that I teach support the inquiry-based learning model quite well which means that teachers CAN incorporate inquiry-based learning into their curriculum because reading is a prominent area of instruction today. As educators, librarians must take the lead in helping teachers integrate inquiry-based learning back into the curriculum as a way to support student learning. The skills that students gain through inquiry-based learning are the very skills that can help them master state testing and become our critical thinkers of tomorrow.

So how can librarians help teachers incorporate inquiry-based learning into their lessons? For starters, librarians can offer to collaborate with teachers in designing lessons, provide professional development about inquiry-based learning for both teachers and administrators, and model inquiry-based learning in their own instruction. I believe that our society is at a critical period in education reform and that librarians are in an excellent position to lead the way in improving student learning outcomes and creating life-long learners and leaders that will pave the way of the future.

Source:

Stripling, B. K. & Hughes-Hassell, S. (2003). Curriculum connections through the library. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.

Hello and welcome, my name is Judith. This Blog will be used to generate continuous discussion about my LIS 725 class. I look forward to reading and learning from your comments and our discussions.