Two steps forward... one step back.
The wild woolies were with me this week. Funny how whole groups will behave entirely differently from week to week.
Did book checkout this week and continued talking about CYRM winners. Not too much in the way of lessons since it takes so much herding to get kids to check out their books although I did get through Stanley's Party with the younger kids. They like the book.
Next week - background research on Nepal for the 4th and 5th graders in preparation for reading I, Doko. Good opportunity for working on using research and reference materials with a solid connection to literature.
Third graders will review settings, characters, plot sequence and some inference for Stanley's Party. We'll read Lucky Dog next and do a diagram for similarities between the two. Good opportunity to talk about reading strategies.
Worked on California Young Reader Medal info this week. Worksheet was good for 5th, ok for 4th and completly unrealistic for 3rd. Worked ok to just walk the 3rd graders through the info, though. Although the info is pretty dry, combining it with teaching about a search engine (Google and Yahoo), FAQs, and Home Page in searcing for CYRM info helped to keep their attention. Should probably figure out a little more creative way to present the information, though.
I realized now that I should have been interspersing the CRYM stories in with other library lessons during the 1st trimester to break things up a bit and also give me a little more time to more fully explore the CYRM themes beyond just reading the books. Although the goal is to encourage recreational reading, the picture books for older readers have some pretty in-depth subjects (the Warsaw Ghetto, abandonment of infirm relatives in China, etc.). Hmm. Now that I think of it, these sure don't SOUND very recreational! Stanley's Party for the little kids is a heck of a lot more fun!
Anway - I want to let them work with me using an online generator to come up with vocab words from the CYRM books to create a word search. I think it will be fun for them to see how the computer can "magically" create word games. I'm excited to see the looks on their faces when they see how easily you can create them.
Fun!
Gosh! The light got a lot darker at the end of the tunnel as the college semester came to an end. Too much work to do two classes at once but at least I'm nearly to the end of the credential.
Reflecting on the first trimester...
The curriculum plan is, as I suspected, overly optimistic but it did at least give me a direction to go in. The first trimester was primarily given over to rules, procedures, bibliographies and the Dewey Decimal system. The third and fourth graders had dictionary days tossed in as well. On the whole, things are going much more smoothly and I'm confident that the kids ability to use the library has increased. It's so interesting to see how difficult it is for them to make connections with knowledge, though. A great example of brain development. Many of them are able to understand that the library is organized and that it uses a particular system to do it. They know it's called Dewey Decimal and they even know something about the history of it and what books are located in particular sections (sports in 796, for instance). But when they find a sports book in the online catalog that says it's in 796, they don't get that it's the same thing. Fascinating.
I haven't done as much on the literature side as I had hoped to. Somehow, in the times that I introduce a book, there just doesn't seem to be time to do much other than read it to them and have a VERY brief discussion about how they connect to it. Forty minutes once a week just isn't much time to build knowledge, have them absorb it and then use it in some way. I think I need to accept that the things I'm able to accomplish with them will need to be either introduction to ideas or reinforcement of what they learn in the classroom. On the other hand, most of the second trimester will be focused on literature so it will just be in a little different order.
Getting time to collaborate with teachers to tie lessons together is tough.... particularly since I'm not on campus Thursday. I am giving them feedback sheets with the lesson of the day recapped and many have thanked me for them... both for the information about the lesson and also for behavior feedback that they're able to use along with their own systems.
I think it might be a good idea to put together a "test" to see how much they've actually learned. This would give me an opportunity to emphasize the things I think they really need to know and also lend importance to their time in the library. It's difficult to hold them accountable since what we do isn't graded or otherwise accounted for. Something to think about.
Another thing I feel pretty good about is the way I've been able to incorporate some technology into the lessons. Besides the "whiz bang" part of it for attention grabbing, I think it also accustoms them to thinking in terms of technology. I'd like to continue working this way and figure out a way to get them into the computer lab to have them do some hands on work.
The next trimester will be focused on the CYRM books and some testing subjects. I'll be working on continuing to use technology in lessons and keeping students actively engaged. 4th and 5th will focus on picture books for older readers while 3rd and lower will do picture books. Teresa will handle the younger kids. This needs to be mapped out to make sure we can complete the study in time to do a vote and get the school vote in by April 1. This makes it coincide nicely with Track B.
I still need to put together a more structured set of lesson plans to go with the curriculum plan but at this stage, I'm still doing trial and error to understand what works and what doesn't with various classes. I was surprised, for instance, when I told the classes this week that we would be using a new procedure. They didn't know what the word meant. I did a quick vocab lesson on it, comparing a checkout to procedure to the procedure they use when they get up in the morning, but if I'd realized they didn't know the word, I would have put together a brief lesson to better explain the concept.
Live and learn.
