Library Services Newsletter
March 2016 Para Librarian Edition
Announcements
District-wide Ebooks Coming Soon!
Take the DPS Database survey and win $ for books
Teacher Librarian Honored
Making Culture gains momentum!
Making and Makerspaces keep getting hotter. Library Services will share out soon the Maker Kits we have been developing for you to check out and use. In the mean time check out the Makeboulder STEAM fest (April 30th and May 1st) and Denver Maker Faire (June 11th & 12th)
President Obama is endorsing the SIgn the Maker promise: http://www.digitalpromise.org/pages/maker-promise
Apply for U.S. Department of Ed Makerspace Challenge Grants: A new Department of Education-sponsored challenge is letting high school students design the makerspace of their dreams — with $200,000 going to as many as 10 winning schools to help turn their plans into reality.http://www.eschoolnews.com/?p=178653?ps=sudi_stodola@dpsk12.net-001a000001Q5IRt-003a000001uNeOH
Resources
ALA Graphic Novel Lists updated
Wondering what to purchase for your school’s graphic novel collection? Need to make recommendations to students or teachers? Check out the newly updated ALAL lists http://www.ala.org/alsc/graphicnovels2016?utm_content=bufferc4fb9&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
March Review Crew Newsletter
Read up on the latest and greatest book reviews from your colleagues https://drive.google.com/a/dpsk12.net/file/d/0BxwdBwoRqIi7VTZVT0tyNGJWN28/view?usp=sharing
Nettrekker Webinar
Princess Books
Teacher Librarian Denise Cushing shared out a very fun blog on the newest princess books and a list of fun reading related options.
CLEL BELL awards announced
Nell Duke Early Literacy Best Practices
Storyblocks for Early Literacy
Our district’s focus on early literacy is a reflection of all the research that speaks to the critical nature of giving children certain experiences early in their life during developmental “windows”. Singing is a powerful way to impact children’s early literacy because it builds vocabulary, phonological and phonemic awareness, background and cultural knowledge, familiarity with narrative structures, fluency and a joy of learning! A great resource to share with your ECE and kindergarten teachers, and especially young families is the Storyblocks website from the Colorado State Library. Songs are in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, French and Arabic.
Read Aloud Tips from DPL
Denver Public Library’s Early Learning department shared some of their reading tips for reading aloud to students with special needs.
Although there is certainly no “one size fits all” model when it comes to best practices with students with special needs, or typically developing students for that matter, here are a few strategies that may help a reader more successfully include everyone while reading. These best practices are also effective with all students, not just students with special needs.
Make a Visual Service Plan: These have visual images that show the schedule that a reader will follow. By allowing students to see what is coming next, they are able to feel safe, which leads to a higher level of learning. Everyone experiences a certain amount of anxiety when they don’t know what is coming next. For students with special needs; however, this anxiety can become amplified. Most people created a felt board where they can introduce each piece of the schedule as they completed. Some also create a vertical Visual Service Plan where they put each item to be completed on the right side of the board, and, as they complete it, they move it to the left.
Use Realia: Providing something that the students can touch or hold, especially for a concept that might be particularly difficult to understand can be helpful. When the actual item isn’t available a printed picture can be helpful. For example, in the book A Birthday for Cow by Jan Thomas, the Duck suggests a “turnip” as an ingredient for the cake. Of course, all of the other characters think that is a terrible idea. In order for the students to understand the humor of this part, they must have a concept of what a turnip is, so bringing in an actual turnip and explaining what it is ahead of time, or revealing it at the time the Duck suggests it, can be very powerful to enhance the students’ reading comprehension.
Get the wiggles out: Making sure that students have a chance to move around is essential to process and enjoy the Read Aloud. When students have physical disabilities, assistants and the teacher can help those students experience the song or dance according to their needs. Also, if you have a song that works particularly well for your classroom, feel free to let your reader know. You are the best gauge of when your students need to get up and move, so feel free to ask the reader if he or she would mind if you did a song together after a couple of books. Looking for more ideas for songs and rhymes? Visit the Read Aloud youtube channel.
Allow wait time after asking a question: Extensive brain research shows that children need somewhere between 5-7 full seconds to respond to a question they are asked. Doubling this wait time to 10-14 seconds can be important for students with special needs, especially if they have a processing delay.
Trends in Libraries – Circulating Science Kit Collections
Did you know that students can now explore science at home by checking out science kits from their local public libraries? Many public libraries nationwide are applying for and receiving grants to provide circulating science kit collections for their communities. What’s great about these kits is that they are designed for hands-on learning and they come with all the parts and pieces to make learning fun! The kits support STEM and personalized learning. Denver Public Library does not currently offer kits but they are hoping to have them available by December 2016.
Jefferson County Public Library has a few kits that teach an introduction to electronics – these two are the most popular:
· MaKey MaKey Deluxe is an invention kit that tricks your computer into thinking that anything is a keyboard. This video shows you how the MaKey MaKey kit works - it’s very entertaining! Here is the link to the Jeffco online catalog for MaKey MaKey.
· Sparkfun Inventor’s Kit includes everything to build basic circuits that do not involve soldering so it’s completely safe. In the kit there are example circuits that teach kids how to make blinking LED’s, control a toy motor, mix LED colors, etc. Sparkfun is a Colorado company; here is a link to the Sparkfun website and here is a link to the Jeffco online catalog for the Sparkfun Inventor’s Kit.
Some science kits are extremely expensive and are not available for check out so public libraries use these kits in their community programs giving kids an opportunity for STEM learning that they might not otherwise receive. One of these “in-house” kits is Cubelets by Modular Robotics - another Colorado company! Cubelets teaches an introduction to robotics and you can see how fun and engaging the Cubelets kit is by watching the video on this website. Jeffco Libraries and Anythink Libraries use Cubelets in their community programs.
If you are interested in watching elementary students in action using Cubelets as part of their assignment, you might find this video interesting. The teacher in the video made some observations about the self-directed learning that the students were experiencing: students were developing critical and creative thinking; they were challenging themselves to think outside the box instead using a textbook which would tell them exactly what to do; students were self-directed and because of that, they were doing a lot of problem solving; students were experiencing self-created learning and when it’s your own learning that is when you have your best understanding. Sounds a lot like personalized learning!