Making Connections
The Rockwood Library Newsletter - November/December 2019
A Day in the Green Pines Library
Have you ever wondered what an entire day in the Library is like? Green Pines librarian Theresa Swoboda recently tried to capture a typical day in her Library. Here's her account of life in the Green Pines Library on December 11, 2019:
Libraries are the hub of schools. Rockwood libraries are no exception. On a daily basis, they thrive with activity, resourcefulness, joy, and accomplishment. Take a look at a typical day in the Green Pines Library. Teachers are some of the best patrons. Often the day begins with teachers stopping by for book suggestions. On this day, a second grade teacher was in search of books to support opinion writing. She was thrilled with the suggestions I made -- new titles to energize her instruction.
Throughout the day, I taught six scheduled library classes: third, fourth, and fifth grade students enjoyed coding; kindergarten students loved listening to Cookiesaurus Rex and then creating cookies after hearing the story; and first grade students excitedly compared and contrasted Gingerbread stories to kick off the following week’s related STEM-related activities. An all-school assembly celebrated our fifth grade’s disability awareness learning through the CHEER program. The Library played an important role in this learning. During the previous two weeks, I worked with students as they utilized databases and print books to research and teach about specific areas of disability.
Throughout the day, nearly one hundred students visited the library on passes to check out books for personal reading pleasure. The joy of discovering new favorites, of finding that a special book is available, and of sharing ideas with friends was apparent with every checkout. While visiting the library on passes, many students also worked on a puzzle or spent time in the maker space creating bookmarks or making ornaments. The day ended with a staff gathering of friendship and fun. Staff members met in the Library to enjoy treats and to play seasonally-themed games and puzzles.
Life in the Library is always busy, which is what makes it energizing and fun. The curious children, the teachers stopping by to share ideas, the excitement of learning, and the variety of simultaneous activities make for an enjoyable day.
Breakout Challenges: Engaging Activities for Students of All Ages
Kindergarten students at Westridge recently participated in their first Breakout Box activity as part of library time with librarian Anne Reed. The activity was aligned to kindergarten math curriculum (shapes), based on the book Have You Seen My Monster? by Steve Light, and required students to collaborate and problem solve. The students followed clues, some of which were in invisible ink, to find keys, a blue light flashlight, and more shape clues. Eventually, they found the monster, who gave them an extra book for their next checkout.
"The students were engaged and had a great time," Reed said.
RSMS librarian Rachel Rankins facilitated a similar challenge for a 8th grade Language Arts students right before Thanksgiving Break. Students worked in groups of eight or nine to plan Thanksgiving festivities, with clues that guided them through the process of planning the holiday festivities -- everything from shopping for the food to creating the seating arrangements for a large gathering. Rankins said, "I found the activity on the BreakOUT Edu website. I knew the students would enjoy the competitive aspect of it, and I liked that it required them to use math skills, critical thinking skills, and problem-solving skills."
RSHS Students Analyze Newspaper Articles From the Past
At Rockwood Summit High School, librarians Margaret Sullivan and Elaine McKenna recently collaborated with 9th grade U.S. history teachers Jason Miller and Becky McLaughlin to create a two-day lesson that combined history and information literacy. Working in pairs, students searched Chronicling America, a collection of digitized, historical newspapers from The Library of Congress, to find three articles about the East St. Louis Race Riots of 1917 or the Tulsa Race Riots of 1921. Not only did the articles have to be from the time period of the event, but they also had to be from different regions of the country (north, south, and west). Students compared the different perspectives they found in their articles before discussing whether or not the word "riot" is an accurate description of the events that took place a century ago.
The librarians and teachers were pleased with the students' analysis of the events and the sources. Miller said, "We want to give our students every opportunity to read primary sources. We call it 'doing history,' and encouraging research and analysis. There is also a component of determining validity of sources. Our students can think through validity and perspective when considering headlines and reports from the past."
A Literature-inspired STEM Challenge
In MASL’s Show-Me Award Nominee Prudence, the Part-Time Cow by Jody Jensen Schaeffer, Prudence becomes a full-time member of the herd after impressing the other cows with her part-time STEM skills. After reading the book with librarian Laura Clar, second grade students at Woerther showed off their STEM skills. Just like Prudence, the students were scientists, architects, and engineers as they experimented with different materials to build a barn for a stuffed animal. Students first hypothesized which of the three materials would work best. Then, every small group of students had three minutes with each type of material to build a structure that would fit their given farm animal. Finally, students evaluated which materials were most effective for the task and why. Students demonstrated collaboration, cooperation, design thinking, and critical thinking throughout the task. “Most importantly,” noted librarian Laura Clar, “students learned that failure is a necessary part of learning.”
LHS Students Visit Library to Prepare for Second -Semester ALARP Projects
During the first week of December, ALARP I students at LHS presented the culmination of their first semester’s research. In front of a panel of jurors, students gave a 12-15 minute speech incorporating a variety of media to defend their thesis. The following week, they started considering potential topics for their second-semester projects, which must be related to American society and connected to time periods being studied in history. Students discussed what merits a quality topic and how to demonstrate the depth of research expected, while determining the significance and impact of the subject. To help students consider the range of possibilities, LHS librarian Nichole Ballard-Long curated a list of titles by subject area which allowed students to browse through several books related to an area of interest. Conferencing with students as they perused, Ballard-Long helped them think about how the topic could meet the requirements of the assignment. Upon leaving the library, one student carried 5 different books; she said there were so many great choices that she would have to do some reading before she made her topic commitment!
Babler Students Participate in Hour of Code
The Best Books of 2019
Margaret Sullivan, Rockwood Lead Librarian
Website: https://curriculum.rsdmo.org/departments/library/Pages/default.aspx
Phone: 636.891-6842
Twitter: @mm_sullivan