Resources4Learning

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.

Julia Atkins, SW4′s Math Coach, has been in visiting many classrooms in recent weeks. She has been sharing her understanding of the 3-part lesson and giving teachers and students support in using it. Popularized by John Van de Walle in his books, Teaching Student Centred Mathematics, the 3-part lesson is now being used in throughout the curriculum in other subjects beyond Math.

The library ‘s professional collection has an excellent math resources including Van de Walle’s book (the K-3 and 3-5 books) and a fantastic primary math picture book selection.

We also have the entire collection of the Ministry of Education’s series, A Guide to Effective Instruction in Math. These include:

A Guide to Effective Instruction in Math, Kindergarten to Grade 6

• Volume One, Foundations of Mathematics Instruction
• Volume Two, Problem Solving and Communication
• Volume Three, Classroom Resources and Management
• Volume Four, Assessment and Home Connection
• Volume Five, Teaching Basic Facts and Multidigit Computations

After last school year’s Bronze level eco-school certification, we are aiming for Silver this year. One of the most effective ways for Wilkinson to achieve a Silver level is to embed eco-literacy in the our teaching and student learning. This might come in the form of kindergarten students reflecting in drawings the meaning of Dr. Suess’ The Lorax, or it might be grade 4 students demonstrating their understanding of waste reduction through the creation of eco-school PSAs.

The Library has a great collection of books with an Eco-Literacy theme. Here are just a few:

• Not Your Typical Book about the Environment by Elin Kelsey
• Earth Smart – How to take care of the Environment by Leslie Garrett
• Sandy’s Incredible Shrinking Footprint by Femida Handy and Carole Carpenter
• There’s a Barnyard in my Bedroom by David Suzuki
• Your Local Environment by Sally Hewitt
• Try This at Home – Planet Friendly Projects for Kids by OWL magazine
• What’s the Point of Being Green? by Jacqui Bailey
• Tracking Trash – Flotsam, Jetsam and the Science of Ocean Motion by Loree Griffin Burns

Also, junior students should check out GREENR in the Online Databases section of the School Library Website. It is a database of news and articles about environmental issues.

As usual, let me know if there are any titles, authors or themes you are looking for to support your teaching.

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!

One of my favourite sections of Wilkinson’s library is the poetry collection. The library’s poetry collection is quite extensive taking up 3 shelves. A wide variety of poetry is available for you or students to check-out including classics (Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson) classic children’s authors (Shel Silverstein, Jack Perlutsky, Dennis Lee) genre poetry books (haiku, concrete) and how-to poetry books. You can find them all in the Non-Fiction stacks between 811 and 821. The library also houses a class set of Rhyming Dictionaries. These are great, not only for poetry units, but for lessons on songwriting, raps, spoken work/dub poetry or, of course, for music classes.

There are also a number of good professional books for teaching poetry. Let me know if there is anything I can help you find.

For the past 11 years, the TDSB has produced a collection of student poetry and art known as Urban Voices. Copies of these can be found in the library and serve as good examples for students in your classes. Many Wilkinson students, past and present, have had their work published in this yearly collection. However, the collection is no longer being produced; 2010 was the final year it was published.

While there are many great books in the library (15000 in fact!), the library offers teachers more than just books. There are a number of digital devices and electronic gadgets that can be used in the library and some that can be borrowed.

• Multimedia projector screen with:
  •   smart board
  •   projector
  •   laptop
  •   document camera
  •   USB hub
  •   Mobi (tablet)

Of course, if there is a project you are thinking about that involves integrating some of this media, I would love to be a part of it. Let me know what you have in mind and we can set up a time to plan.

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.

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.

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. 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!

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.