The world is so full of a number of things

Today I spent a certain amount of time being a sidewalk superintendent. A crane was being assembled for the construction of Columbia's new sports facility on West 218 Street. What a treat to watch this behemoth being assembled like an out-sized Tinker Toy, or Knect construction. The crew assembling it were a real team - focused and synchronized.

I went out to visit the crane three or four times during the day. In the early evening I went out and watched the final assembly and stayed until the crane was up. Wow! There were some other adults hanging out and taking pictures including a professional from an engineering magazine. When the crane was on the way up many of the construction crew also took out their cell phones and took pictures.

I wasn't surprised to see some adults stopping to gawk. After all - so was I! What surprised me was how few children and teenagers bothered to look. In the evening there were two families with pre-school aged children and parents acting as explainers. But this is a neighborhood that is crowded with families! Where were all the kids? Is almost everyone too busy to look at something as extraordinary as this? Or perhaps we have grown so blase since we can watch on the computer or TV as things much bigger and more elaborate than these are built or blown up? Or is anything that isn't announced as an "event" just invisible?

I am puzzled. A lack of background knowledge, the information about and vocabulary describing the world, can be a major obstacle for our students. Where will they get this information if they aren't encouraged to go out and look?

Teaching Digital Citizenship - It's Complicated

I just Read Joyce Valenza's blog entry "On Growing Knowledge Citizens." Joyce, as usual, sets the bar high for the teachers and librarians who follow her thinking.

Every time someone tags a photo, likes a Face Book page or posts internet links to a social link account like Delicious they are contributing to the organization of the internet. All these little actions add up. Of course the more thoughtfully, sensitively, and knowledgeably these contributions are the smarter the internet - our shared public knowledge-base will be.

Information literacy, the strand of learning that school librarians are teaching and publicizing in their schools, has long out-grown library skills and internet search strategies. Digital citizenship is now a big part of what students need to understand.

Philosophically I am on board. Practically, however, I struggle to understand what this means for me. Facebook, including my library Facebook page, is blocked in school. Google Docs can't be used on the library computers because of the old operating system. It is hard to talk about digital citizenship in the abstract. I also understand that social media can be distracting in the classroom...
Safety is paramount, but I also worry that by blocking social media sites from the view of responsible adults (such as teachers) a dark alley has been created for our students to explore on their own.

Update

Its been a few weeks since I have posted here. I always feel a little harried at the start of a new school year, so I gave myself permission to slack off on a few activities. So here is how things are going now I am firmly "back to school."

All classes in grades 1-6 have had their orientation sessions. This is the lesson where I say all the things that must be said before students start coming to the library independently. Rules, procedures, schedules, and what to do if the fire alarm rings when you are in the library.

I added an emphasis on respecting personal space (not crowding, not touching) to this orientation. The library was very crowded during open access last year, and I am trying to figure out how to keep it comfortable for students even when overfilled. I have also added an acknowledgment that I can't always help with big questions during open access periods. I am asking students with bigger questions to put a note with their name and class in the book drop. The note can be as simple as "I have a question." Perhaps I should also put an "I have a question" form on the library home page. It is frustrating when the big issues - the real library work - gets pushed out of the way by the mechanics of checking books out to students.

Next week I have my first "real" library class sessions - the traditional Google Earth introduction for third grade. My principal is a little annoyed that the classroom teachers get basically a free ride. I do the heavy lifting of planning and teaching the lesson after a conference with the classroom teachers. They participate, guide the content they want the students to remember, but are also learning too. She feels that the teachers should learn how to use and teach this tool. I agree, and have told the third grade team that they are expected to teach their own Google Earth lessons throughout the rest of the year. I will be in the room (either with a small group or on my lunch or prep) to act as a seat belt. This year I am also asking the teachers to give a written assessment checking on the students understanding of the work we do. I feel that I need this both as a check for me, and to add accountability for the students and teachers.

Books for Girls and Boys

I spent the last three days back at school unpacking and beginning to set up for the new year. (Teachers are officially due back next Tuesday.) While unpacking and moving books around to cope with the perpetual problem of much too little shelf-space I was also thinking about what my students did (and didn't) read last year. To buy space on the shelves I moved several more series and popular authors into plastic tubs labeled by author or series. These tubs provide an easy way for students to find a particular type of book, essentially promoting those particular types of books.

This morning while reading the news, list-serve, e-mail etc. while putting off making labels and otherwise working productively, I read a series of articles about the genderization of reading - AKA boys books and girls books.
Charles London for the Huffington Post
Oposing Viewpoints at the School Library Journal
Saundra Mitchell's The Problem is not the books
And this is why the problem is not the books (with book list)

So back to my book tubs: If tubbing up a series or author essentially promotes them, am I "empowering" more boys or girls? What does it say if I put the Time Warp Trio next to the Magic Tree House and Abby Hayes next to Junie B Jones?

Here is a list of some of my tubs - an incomplete list because it is only ones that need new labels or that I clearly remember.
Paula Danziger
R.L. Stine
Lois Lowry
J.K. Rowling
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Magic Tree House / Mary Pope Osborne (2)
Arthur Chapter Books / Stephen Krensky
Horrible Harry / Suzy Kline
My Weird School / Dan Gutman
Rotten School / R.L. Stine
Dragon Slayers Accademy
Junie B. Jones
Dav Pilkey
Abby Hayes / Anne Mazer
Bone / Jeff Smith

Some series are definitely geared more to one gender than the other. I especially notice concern about gender appropriateness towards the older edge of the series age group (end of grade 3 - 5) rather than at the beginning (end of grade 1 - mid 3rd). Sometimes I feel that I see more struggling readers thinking about gender issues. Though perhaps the more proficient readers are more self sufficient...

I do feel that fewer "boy" books are exclusive to boys than to girls. I do recommend the story collection Guys Read Funny Business to anyone who likes funny stories. I would not probably recommend Fairy School Drop-Out or the Allie Finkle series by Meg Cabot to any boy. However, contrary to popular belief, guys do read and enjoy Junie B.

Paying for Ad Free internet services

This morning I read a short but pithy article by Clive Thompson in Wired magazine, The Problem with Advertising. Mr. Thompson writes about how there is an advantage to actually paying for some web services. This resonates with me. I have found myself buying "upgrades" to various web based services that I use to provide information through my library. My Portaportal site, Library Links, for instance is ad free. I also have paid for a subscription to Jing, which makes my screencasts ad free. The disadvantage is that these are recurring fees and I don't get anything concrete for my money. The advantage is that I am not selling the "eyeballs" of students, teachers, and parents when I recommend (or with students require) that they use these tools.

As I have mentioned before, I do have an organizational Facebook page which of course does have ads. The difference is that although I use Facebook to reach out to constituents, I by no means require or even strongly recommend that anyone use it.

The Challenge of Nonfiction

Last week I responded to Marc Aronson's post about the challenges of nonfiction. He defines the two challenges as "context and engagement." I have been thinking through what this means for teachers and students. Context (in teacher-speak) is "prior knowledge" - all the stuff you know about a topic that makes it possible to understand what you are reading. Building a store of prior knowledge is a huge reason for reading both nonfiction and a greater variety of fiction. Readers who only read about what they know from their personal experience are not building collecting a store of knowledge that will help them understand the world. Engagement is a bigger problem. Readers who are engaged in their reading not only understand, they care. Perhaps it is easier to be pulled into what you read when the author's voice sounds more like yours - when it is more colloquial or speech-like. It is easier to read and understand simpler text with shorter sentences, but that isn't enough to make them engaging. The most popular fiction books tend to be those where the language of the book - the voice of the narrator and the characters - seems real to the reader. "Relateable" as some students say. (Yes - I realize that relateable is a questionable word, but it is very much in the air.)

It is worth seeking out nonfiction that grabs the reader and pulls them in. Authors such as Marc Aronson that strive to balance connecting to the reader with solid, really interesting research aim to engage readers without watering down the content. After all, finding really interesting and surprising information is one reason why we read nonfiction! It's not all about engaging with the author, it's about the story - and best of all the story is real!

Applying these ideas to the real world of books: This summer I have enjoyed two wonderful adult nonfiction best sellers. (Yes I do sometimes read "grownup" books!) Stacy Schiff's wonderfully entertaining and occasionally racy Cleopatra, and the more staid but equally wonderful 1776 of David McCullough. The Cleopatra biography often strikes a conversational tone. I described it to a friend as Chatty and "snarky." I kept wanting to read snippets out loud just for fun. Although well-researched and densely foot-noted, the author's tone often didn't seem far from the office water-cooler. 1776 on the other hand is written in a more academic style. The sentences are longer and definitely not conversational in tone. The story however is gripping, and I ended feeling I knew the characters in a deeper and more personal way than I had from my prior knowledge history. Both books are wonderful in their own way, but one is easier to engage with on the surface partly because the author chose to use a more colloquial tone with less complex language and a more familiar tone.

Text complexity and the Common Core Learning Standards

The Common Core standards, national standards and benchmarks for language arts and math were officially rolled out last June, almost a year ago. Then they were officially adopted (and renamed the Common Core Learning Standards) by New York State. Now they have been officially adopted by the NYCDOE, which with the Common Core Library has begun to put processes into place for applying them in schools. This year these standards will finally begin to have an impact on classroom practice, although many aspects including new tests won't be completely in place until next year. It will be interesting to see how the spirit of these standards evolves as they are fitted into the real world of teaching and school.

I first read the standards last summer, and have been thinking about them and reflecting on possible implications for my school and its library. It is tempting to say that there is "nothing new under the sun," and "what goes around comes around." However I don't think that this will be just another variation on a theme, or another raising of the bar. Certain aspects of the standards demand major changes from our schools and teachers. It will take time for the full impact of the changes to be felt in the classroom, but as the Common Core becomes part of educational practice changes will be felt by all involved, including students, teachers, and parents.

What has changed in the ELA (English Language Arts) standards can be explained as four "shifts" (This language was used at a conference I attended last week, it is also used in the Engage NY Common Core Video Series and in presentations from the Indiana Department of Education) 1) Emphasizing informational text 2) Literacy standards across the content areas 3)Emphasis on text complexity 4)The special place of argument.

Of these shifts, the emphases on informational text and on text complexity are the two changes that most effect reading and book choice. ("Argument" is mostly a writing focus, and "content areas" flows out of the emphasis on informational reading.) I expect these cause some immediate changes, some consternation, and unfortunately some over zealous application and misunderstanding. I am expecting teachers to want to know more about "text complexity," and I am worried that students may be dissuaded from reading what they want for pleasure.

Informational text is more challenging for the teacher as well as the students both because it usually demands some prior content knowledge of the reader and because the reader must attend more closely. More complex text is less "natural" and often harder to explain because longer and more complex sentences demand that the reader make connections and understand connecting words to fully understand the meaning. Some teachers, students, and families may feel uncomfortable with more assigned reading being in an academic rather than a colloquial style. Much written English, especially fiction, has gradually become more and more like spoken words. However the academic English that college freshmen need to understand has become if anything more complex and opaque. Academic language is almost foreign to most of our students and even many of our teachers.

So where do I go from here? I have been re-visiting the perennial issue of readability levels and text leveling. I find myself thinking about readability even as I have been reading for pleasure this summer. I will also continue reading as much current non-fiction as I can at the elementary level. As teachers wade into "complex" texts and figure out how to use more non-fiction in their classrooms I will try to be there with books to both fill needs and stir imaginations. I will also be there for my students, urging them to read more, read broadly, and yet read what they want. I want to "feed the need to read." I also want their teachers to find what they need to broaden their students' horizons.