Children and Nonfiction

Gualano, Gabriela

Korbey, H. (2013, July 12). How to get kids hooked on nonfiction books this summer. [Web long comment.] Retrieved from http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/07/how-to-get-kids-hooked-on-nonfiction-books-this-summer/

Blogger Holly Korbey proposes that nonfiction reading is as important, perhaps more important, than reading fiction. One recent study by Publishers Weekly shows that children read four times as much fiction as nonfiction.  Children’s science writer Vicki Cobb wants to change the imbalance. She strongly believes that children need to be exposed to more high quality nonfiction books with Common Core connections and has created a website, iNK THINK TANK, http://inkthinktank.com/, with recommendations for grades K – 12.

While narrative fiction causes the reader to look inward to self-discovery, nonfiction causes the reader to look outward at the world at large. High quality writing, whether fiction or nonfiction, uses dynamic literary devices that captivate the reader. The website has many recommended books listed by grade level and cover science, biography, poetry art, and other genres.

I agree that a well-written nonfiction books is as fascinating as a fiction book. Nonfiction exposes readers to ideas and investigates these experiences. Although, I am not interested in science I am interested in other nonfiction ares such as biographies, which the website does cover. The CCSS emphasizes nonfiction and by 10th grade more reading for the curriculum will be nonfiction. This type of reading may be more complex and the more exposure children have will ease their introduction to a new area.

Overview and History of the Learning Commons

Shared by Julianne McCall-Bramley
Permalink to the article:
http://libaccess.sjlibrary.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=llf&AN=502987882&site=ehost-live

 

Accardi, M.T., Cordova, M. & Leeder, K. (2010).  Reviewing the Library Learning Commons: History, Models, and Perspectives.  College & Undergraduate Libraries, 17(2/3), 310-329.

 I hit the jackpot with this article,  just wish that I had found it earlier in the semester.  This article contains an enormous wealth of information.  Here are just a few things it has to offer:

·         Depicts the Learning Commons as consistently evolving

·         Shows how the LC works to blend the traditional library with technology support and instruction.

·         Here’s the best part: Contains an annotated bibliography of articles that show the growth of the LC going all the way back to the 1980’s.

·         As the article become more recent (last 7-8 years), there is an abundance of ways to create LC space, how to evaluate the space & what happens within it, case studies, etc.

·         How an LC meets students’ needs

·         Of course, how the librarian must evolve along with the library!

This is a great starting point to understanding the Learning Commons and its growth throughout the years.  Excellent & comprehensive gathering of materials.

Yesterday's libraries, tomorrow's libraries - 12 differences

1.  Posted by Gonzales, Charlotte

2.  APA Citation: Johnson, D. (2010, March 02). Yesterday's libraries, tomorrow's libraries - 12 differences [weblog post]. Retrieved from http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/2010/3/2/yesterdays-libraries-tomorrows-libraries-12-differences.html.

Link:  Yesterday's libraries, tomorrow's libraries

3.  Summary:  Contrasting libraries of the past to libraries of the future.  

4.  I thought this blog post was a short and sweet way to show where libraries will be going in the future and what roles librarians will have to ensure libraries meet these goals.

Reflections on the AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner

Crompton, Marc

American Library Association. (2010). Position Statement on the Common Core College- and Career-Readiness Standards [Brochure]. Author. Retrieved October 10, 2012, from http://www.ala.org/aasl/aaslissues/positionstatements/collegecareerstandards

I feel kind of awkward posting on a required reading like this, but it strikes me that this document is worth discussing.  It is, by far, the most dense of our course readings and I think that there is a lot to consider here.  I couldn't help but thinking, as I re-read it, that this is like a masterwork of art in that every time I come back to it, I get something different.  I may bring different experiences and ideas to reflect in it, but I come out with something unique each time.

The first thing that hits me about the AASL standards are the four key elements: Skills, Dispositions in Action, Responsibilities, and Self-Assessment Strategies.  This is not a document about teaching; this is a document about learning.  It puts the responsibility squarely on the shoulders of the learners.  It doesn't talk about curriculum in terms of what we need to teach; it talks about the kind of person that the learners strive to become.  I would venture to say - and this is not stated in the document - that this applies to ALL learners in the school community, regardless of age or position.

This emphasis on the learner allows those in coaching positions (traditionally, the teachers) to see the students for who they are in order to help them grow to where they should be.  This is an individualistic approach.  It does not say that students need to be collaborative.  It says that one of a learner's responsibilities is to "Solicit and respect diverse perspectives while searching for information, collaborating with others, and participating as a member of the community" and that they "Assess [their] own ability to work with others in a group setting by evaluating varied roles, leadership, and demonstrations of respect for other viewpoints."  While the end point is the same, we recognize that learners arrive at different times and take different paths. 

Finally, it puts the library/media centre/learning commons square in the middle of learning.  Not by forcing it there as some documents seem to, but by simply recognizing that there is no better place in the school to learn than at this physical and virtual hub.  I think that it is easy in this day and age of digitization for us to fear for our personal futures and cling to the past.  We get defensive about our roles and talk a little too desperately about how things "should" be.  If we simply recognize how things are and that the learning commons is the natural centre of any learning community, there is no advocacy, there is only statement of fact.  I read each point in this document thinking about how else learners develop these skills, dispositions, responsibilities and strategies.  It is true that many are supported in a variety of places in a learning community, but there is no place in the school that addresses them all and I would venture to say that there are many (most?) that are addressed best in the learning commons.

This is a logical document to be developed by the AASL but it is one that should be adopted by schools, not just libraries.  Libraries then are the ideal place in the learning community to foster these ideals and drive their development.

Today marks the second anniversary of the release of this document.  I hope that it has been well circulated and adopted throughout the educational community.

OK, there's my two cents worth.  What do YOU think?

Stanford library changes and UX

entry by Allyson Bogie

Dempsey, L. (2012). Two things prompted by a new website: Space as a service and full library discovery. Lorcan Dempsey's Weblog. Accessed from http://orweblog.oclc.org/archives/002202.html.

Lorcan Dempsey writes here about the new Stanford University library website. He compliments two new features. First, the new homepage has a set of links along the top, including one that offers the actual space of the library as one of the library services. There is also a page with the library hours that will actually tell you what is open in that moment, not just a static list of branches/locations and times open. I would find this soooo helpful for my local public library systems!

Secondly, the new catalog produces results from the entire library, not just books or articles. You can enter any type of search term--author, keyword, subject, title, etc, OR something like worldcat or renew books. It's almost like Google for the library page, but the search results come up in a great "bento box" style format.

I just read about a class that will be offered in the spring by Aaron Schmidt, about User experience (UX). I am very interested in UX both in libraries and elsewhere, and I think that this article dovetails nicely with the upcoming class. Here's the link if you're interested: https://slisweb.sjsu.edu/current-students/courses/syllabi/spring2013/schmidt/287-info

What do you think about these new website features? And is anyone else excited about the field of UX? I am really fascinated by it!!

Discussion - Librarian/Library/Learning Commons Role in the 21st Century School

Marc Crompton

I hope that I'm not stepping on toes to be the first to chime in here, but one of our course readings has prompted a string of questions in my head that I would love to get some feedback on.  The reading that I'm talking about is:

American Association of School Librarians. (2009). Empowering learners : Guidelines for school library media programs. Chicago, Ill.: American Association of School Librarians. 

I've written two blog posts on Empowering Learners so I won't go into too much detail.  Please feel free to visit my blog to follow through more fully.  I will say that I found the book to be a great relief in that it lends much greater clarity to my current role heading up a 8-12 library in a private school in Vancouver.  The job description that I inherited was very vague.  Given the history of the particular job in the school, the circumstances of my hire and the rapidly changing role of school librarians in general, this is not overly surprising.  The detail that Empowering Learners goes into helped me to clarify what I am doing right and where my weaknesses might be.  This I truly appreciate.

The big questions that came up in my mind are addressed in my blog but I would love to address here as well.  The first question(s) revolve around the degree with which school librarians and schools in general adhere to the AASL guidelines.  I am probably safe in saying that I may be the only person in my school that has read the document.  I certainly am not held accountable to it in any way.  Are there schools, districts or states that have elevated the guidelines to policy?  I know that we don't have a parallel document in Canada (nor a parallel organization any more) so I am unaware of it being used as policy anywhere.

My second, and more interesting question is more about the role of the Library/Learning Commons in general.  Empowering Learners often speaks of the Librarian being on a school administrative level.  This makes me wonder where the line between the role of librarian and school administrator lies.  This relates the building itself.  I have been involved in a school building master plan committee that is working with an amazing education building design firm.  Many of their example buildings tend to focus around commons areas.  My question to them was where the library function fits when the entire school is based around commons spaces.  One of the concepts that we discussed was that the library becomes ubiquitous in the same that information is ubiquitous.  The concise version of the question becomes where are, or are there, walls in a Learning Commons/21st Century School Library?  While walls restrict, they also help to define.  The more a school librarian's role is everywhere in the school, the harder it becomes to define the role.  I'm very curious to hear other thoughts.