News to Use
Bradford Primary Library
Lots of people indicated an interest in book ideas, technology tips, project ideas, and professional development opportunities, so here is a sampling of information that I hope you find helpful.
Book Ideas
This beautiful new book includes collage illustrations of animals, tons of information, and cool infographics. Sections on animals, families, animal senses, predators, defenses, animal extremes and the story of life present engaging pages that model many text features and could connect to all content areas. There is also a great section at the end on how the author makes books.
This is the most clever alphabet book! An example page: "Without the C, the chair has hair." Each letter features a pairing of words and an impressive illustration linking the words together (and frequently amusing the reader). On the Colorado Book Award list this year, this book is just begging students to make their own clever pairings!
For our older students, this book challenges the reader to see if they can outsmart the characters. The "players" in Mr. Lemoncello's game are trying to piece together clues from books, displays, and challenges in order to be the first kid to find the hidden exit out of the library. One of my favorite parts of this book was how the author embedded puns based on book titles--hidden delights for well-read audiences. It also has such a strong message of the power of information, reading, and libraries.
Want to start something?
Here are some project suggestions to spark an idea. I am willing to work together with you on any project that stretches our students in literacy, technology integration, information gathering and use, content acquisition, etc.
- Author study
- Writing book reviews
- Researching class questions
- Comparing fiction and nonfiction on a topic
- Class video to present learning
- Ipad center to capture student processing on given topic
- Writing motivated by literature
Links for easy access:
Colorado Children's Book Award new list
Ipad white list (check to see if an app is approved for adding to a student ipad)Form to request an app by added
Technology Tips and Tricks
Best Websites
Need some new ideas? AASL creates a list every year of the "Best Websites for Teaching and Learning." Categories include: media sharing, digital storytelling, manage and organize, social networking and communication, content resources, and curriculum collaboration. See one that's interesting, but don't have the time to "figure it out"? Let me know and I'll investigate further.
Free Ebooks
Looking for more titles for students? Epic offers free ebooks through the web and/or app (which IS on the whitelist). Sign up for a free account and start exploring books your students can read and/or you could use for class lessons. We could also use this service to form a book club, giving students (with ipads) access to the same book.
Google Drive help
Do you feel like you are missing knowledge about Google Drive? This is a good overview of the basics in video format. One small change in versions: what is referred to in the video as "incoming" is now labelled "shared with me." For the next newsletter, I'll find more on organization. This one focuses more on the basics.
Professional Resources
GT Differentiation
Here's a review of this new acquisition: “At last, a comprehensive, up-to-date book that explicitly describes how to differentiate for gifted and talented learners. The heart of the book comes from Heacox and Cash’s step-by-step description of how to differentiate the content, process, or product of a lesson in order to meet the needs of the gifted and talented learners. The authors include a variety of instructional strategies that educators can use immediately with their identified students. If educators are looking for practical information on the topic of differentiation for gifted and talented students, look no further.”—Patti Drapeau
Writing lessons and mentor texts
Looking for some great writing examples? This book in our professional collection is organized around 6 Trait Writing. Annotations are given for picture books to help you model ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions. Writing activities are also given to work on each skill.
Math meetings
I know at least one team was brainstorming ideas for math, so this book in our professional collection might be timely. Chapters include: Creating Space for Math Workshop, Math Exchanges (From Students to Mathematicians), Planning with Purpose, Understanding Problem Types and Children's Strategies, Problem-Solving Math Exchanges, Kindergarten Mathematicians, Building Number Sense, and Reflection and Self-Monitoring. The appendix includes several helpful forms.