Resources4Learning

Just Read It! is a TDSB wide initiative to get students (and staff) to read and to share what they are reading.  Submissions are based on a favourite book and can include a paragraph explaining why this book is a favourite. Every month submissions are selected for the Reader’s Choice page and many more receive prizes of books and gift certificates. We have already received a selection of books through student submissions since September. And last year, Wilkinson won an author visit from TDSB Writer in Residence, Eric Walters!

I will be introducing the Just Read It! site to classes early in the school year. Teachers are staff and encouraged to submit their own entries based on the books they are reading. It would be great to win another author visit. This year’s Writers in Residence are Ruth Ohi, Althea Prince, Allan Stratton, Jeremy Tankard, Eric Walters and Lawrence Hill.

Visit regularly, submit often and keep reading!

Using video as an educational tool is becoming more and more common. Finding relevant videos of good quality is one of the biggest challenges. Sites like YouTube are great but there is so much to sift through, much of it inappropriate for our elementary school audience. A number of sites seek to address this issue.  WatchKnow Learn, created by the co-founder of Wikipedia, is a user-created video and media directory. You can search by category/subject and can filter your results by age range. This video explains a bit more.

A similar video directory is NEO K12. It is not a user added site, but has an extensive collection of educational videos for classroom use. Another good site for educational, user-created content is SchoolTube. If you know of any other video directory sites, post a comment and add your ideas.

As differentiation of instruction and assessment practices become more embedded in our daily teaching, an increasing number of resources are becoming available to us. To support the work that our schools and school boards are doing, the Ministry of Education has created a portal for Differentiated Instruction as part of their EDU Gains website. The site contains all of the Ministry’s published DI material in electronic form as well as the program materials from Summer Institutes on DI. The Wilkinson Library also has a couple of excellent DI related professional titles as follows:

• How to Differentiate in Mixed Ability Classrooms by Carol Tomlinson
• Integrating DI and UbD (Understanding by Design) by Tomlinson and McTighe. Carol Tomlinson is leading the forefront of DI work and in this book partners with the guru of backward design models, Jay McTighe.
• Small Group Reading Instruction: A Differentiated Teaching Model for Beginning and Struggling Readers by Beverly Tyner
• Teaching Reading through Differentiated Instruction with Leveled Graphic Organizers by Nancy Witherell and Mary C. McMackin

Let me know if you would like to borrow either of these titles or if I can help you find something of interest to you. If you can not find what you are looking for at Wilkinson, I can help you find it through Tippett, the TDSB’s professional library.

MediaNet is the TDSB’s media library housed at Tippett.  It offers a huge selection of DVDs and videos for classroom use. The collection includes feature films, documentaries and educational videos and it can be searched by title, grade or subject. One of the more useful features of the site is Mediagraphies. These are lists of relevant videos and DVDs related to a specific grade and curricular area. Almost every school subject has a Mediagraphy and they have also been created for topics such as character development, eco-schools, Aboriginal studies and differentiated learning, to name a few. Mediagraphies are available in support of the French and English curriculum.

To borrow a video or DVD from Medianet, simply click on the link, search for and select the one(s) you want to borrow and follow the online instructions. DVDs take about a week to be delivered and come by courier. You typically have a week to view and return, but there is an ‘extend show time’ option once you have reserved you DVD. If you need help using this service, please let me know.

Graphic Novels. Comics. Sequential Art. No matter what you call it, there is no denying its popularity. Graphic Novels have become an increasingly respected genre. School and public libraries have been quick to respond to this interest and demand. Wilkinson library’s graphic novels enjoy high circulation rates and I expect these rates will increase. The genre includes classic comic books (Marvel, DC Comics), contemporary comic books (Bone, Baby Mouse, Owly Amulet), historical fiction and non-fiction in graphic form (Nelson Mandela, Louis Riel) and the ever popular manga (Gon, Yotsuba).

To tap into this increasing popularity, I plan to continue the use of software called Comic Life. It allows students to create their own comics based on work they are doing in the classroom. If you want to get a jump on this and play around with Comic Life, visit the library and log in to a computer. For home use, you can borrow the disc from the library or visit plasq.com where you can download a free 30 day trial of the software for home use. It is licensed for home use for teachers so, if you want to keep it, I have the product key needed to own it.  Let me know if you would like to partner in the library to integrate this software into an assignment you are planning.

A growing number of school libraries, including Wilkinson’s, have a digital presence. These online spaces are created for a number of reasons:

1. Good things happen in school libraries. They offer venues to showcase some of the work being done by students and their teachers.
2. There is much to share. School library collections are huge and it is impossible for a Teacher-Librarian to share everything. A professional resource blog (like this one!) is one way of addressing that need.
3. It is another way to connect . In our increasingly digital world, schools, teachers, parents and students are using a variety of means to communicate and connect with each other. An online presence helps to make this communication a little easier.

To support the research needs of your students, the School Library Website has a new updated look that is easier to use and much more visually appealing. As always, it is home to a wealth of online database resources available free of charge to all staff and students in our school. Of particular interest to staff and students at Wilkinson …

- Kids Info Bits – this easy to use database  includes short, relevant content (reference, images, newspaper articles, charts, graphs and maps) with text and topics geared to primary aged students. It also has a great teacher toolbox including research tips and how to cite a source.

- BookFLIX –  A Scholastic book database with a large collection of online access to books.  Students can read online, watch a story in animated format and learn with interactive reading components.

- NovelList K-8 – an easy to navigate database of book reviews, summaries and related titles which includes picture books, fiction and graphic novels.

- Junior Edition – part of the Gale InfoTrac databases, this easy to navigate database is geared to junior grade students. It searches and provides results from encyclopedias, magazines, newspapers, reference books and maps.

- Kids Search- Like Kids Info Bits, above, Kids Search is very easy for students to use. Keyword searches or topic based searches help students to find magazine and journal articles quickly. The content is geared for grades 2 through 8.

- Searchasaurus – This easy to navigate database provides a list of popular search topics to click through as well as a great visual search feature – very useful for beginning readers. Its articles are geared to primary students and younger junior grades.

- ELL - English Language Learner – Designed for English language learners from junior grades through secondary, this database offers a wide range of curriculum linked content. A handy ‘listening tool’ allows students to have any highlighted text read to them.

These, and other, online resources are centrally purchased by Library and Learning Resources or are provided by the government of Ontario through Knowledge Ontario. No special log-in access is needed from a school computer. For home use, however, you need to enter user ID’s and passwords.  See the Library Website ‘learnmark’ or ask me if you need these access keys.

News articles are great way to get students reading, writing, sharing, discussing and reflecting. There are a number of reasons why it is beneficial to teach with the news. News articles are:

• current – carefully chosen, newspaper articles raise and awareness and improve student understanding of what is happening beyond their own lives
• short in length – analysis and evaluation of articles can be done more easily within a short time period
• relevant – much of the reading students will do in the future will be information based (non-fiction) and this is simply one of the more popular forms
• engaging – current event articles are great discussion starters and are fodder for debates

One of the best sites for teaching news to students is Teaching Kids the News. It is a Canadian site which targets junior grade students. The articles are short and straightforward and offer curriculum connections for teachers including writing and reading prompts and grammar features. One class is responding and reflecting to articles from the site in the form of blogs!

With the switch from French Immersion to Extended French now complete, the library’s French offerings have undergone a transition. All of the sections – Fiction, Non-Ficiton and Picture Books – have new homes in the library. The collection is smaller than before, but more appropriate for the reading and comprehension level of the Extended French students. Many of these books are also suitable for Core French students. A collection of audiobooks is available to support listening comprehension.

For Inquiry and Research support, there is a copy of Chercher, analyser, évaluer in the library’s professional collection. It has a variety of graphic organizers to scaffold student learning and ties in nicely with the inquiry and questioning focus started last year at Wilkinson. I also have an electronic copy of the Question Matrix (Q-chart) in French created by the staff at Earl Grey two years ago.

Online resources are plentiful with many government websites offering French and English sites. Some notable online resources include:

• Ibou, a new search engine for French language educational resources from the online learning division of TFO,
• a directory of French sites through the Library Website,
• L’@telier site (eWorkshop Ontario) with Literacy, Numeracy and Healthy Schools modules,
• and Universalis Junior - a beginning level, online encyclopedia – please see me for the passwords if accessing from home.

Wilkinson has had a long history of social justice education and the library’s collection attests to this fact. The library has a substantial collection of books with ties to social justice themes. Recently, school-wide initiatives – bullying intervention policy, eco-school involvement, teacher equity committee – have increased the profile of social justice issues and resources.

One of best library resources is ETFO’s ‘We’re Erasing Prejudice for Good’ anti-bias curriculum kit. The kit is housed in the professional section at the back of the library and is separated by grade level into seven bins. Each bin contains grade appropriate fiction and non-fiction picture books with integrated lesson plans and teaching resources. Books from the bins can be signed individually along with the accompanying teaching resource.

Another great resource is the TDSB’s Equity website. It houses a number of excellent pages including a Days of Significance calendar, curricular resources related to equity and digital versions of all of the Equity department’s publications. This and other great equity related sites can be found in Wilkinson’s AW Links under ‘Equity’.

If you are looking for a particular social justice title, author or theme, let me know and I can help you find something in the school’s collection to meet your needs.