Exploratorium

Thursday, October 27
1:30 – 3:30 p.m.

Explore dozens of learning stations that exemplify excellence in school librarianship. Experience this two-hour conference opener by browsing tabletop exhibits that showcase research, ideas, and best practices brought to you by your peers.

A Version of the Past – Multicultural Historical Fiction

Presenter: Kay Hones

History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 – 1821)

Explore the four types of historical fiction. Examine criteria for selecting high quality historical fiction and reflect on changing criteria over time. Examples of High Quality Multicultural Historical Fiction. This presentation will include display of historical fiction, sample lessons and PBwiki with links to multicultural historical fiction resources.

Strand: Multicultural

After-School Program Helps Struggling Readers and Writers: Publishing on Curiosity Creek

Presenter: Marilyn Arnone

This learning station will demonstrate how struggling readers and writers in an after-school computer club found satisfaction and motivation to research environmental topics and prepare stories and poetry puzzles for their younger counterparts. Many participants have been published on Curiosity Creek, a children’s website.

Strand: Storytelling

Aligning Evidence-based Library Programming with School Goals

Presenter: Mary Virginia Meeks, Maria Cahill

How does a new librarian enter an unfamiliar school setting and successfully jump start a weak or new library program? Give the library a “make-over” by aligning new library goals with campus goals and design exciting, evidence-based actions that create top-down enthusiasm in the library program. Learn how to make library goals based directly on campus goals and develop evidence-based events and initiatives that demonstrate the library’s contribution to overall student success. Pick up some creative advocacy ideas for marketing your library’s evidence-based success throughout the year that will generate stakeholder pride and support for your new and/or improved library program.

Strand: Accountability

Animal Themes to Teach Information Literacy

Presenter: Michelle Kowalsky

Animal themes have often been used to teach character education, and now we can use them to teach information literacy concepts.  Join us for a discussion of lessons, assignments and projects which focus on animals to help teach source types, formats, primary/secondary sources, copyright and plagiarism, along with divergent and critical thinking.

Strand: Information Literacy

Assessment using Google Applications and iPads

Presenter: Donna Ohlgren, Jennifer Perusse

Presenters will share information about their participation in a pilot program for creating assessments using iPads and Google Applications for Educators. The library media specialists collaborated with classroom teachers to create assessments using Google forms. The presenters will share information regarding the process, glitches encountered, collaboration and assessment ideas/samples.

Strand: Assessment

Big Ideas-Little Money?!?

Presenter: Kay Hones

Big Ideas, Little Money?!? provides clear and concrete strategies for grant writing for funds and materials that support projects and programs to benefit all students. Many grant resources for literacy, authors, technology, professional development, environmental issues.

Strand: Budget

College Readiness at the Grassroots Level

Presenter: Ken Stewart

On October 15, 2010, 96 librarians gathered to discuss College Readiness: How prepared are our high school seniors for college research? What strengths do they take with them during this transition? What can we do to help them achieve success?  Virtually every school district in the metropolitan Kansas City area was represented: public, private, and alternative schools from Kansas and Missouri were included; academic librarians from 12 colleges and universities were in attendance.  And, it was free to attend!  Drop by the table and see how the event was developed, the on-going Wiki that was setup to keep the momentum, and the workshops on both district and building level that developed after.  Join the Wiki and create a College Readiness Dialogue in your area!

Strand: Collaboration

Common Core Standards and 21st Century Literacy

Presenter: Darla Moore

Changes are coming in curriculum as deemed by the Common Core Standards. Are you ready? Come & explore resources for successfully implementing the new standards while retaining your sanity.  This exhibit is targeted towards librarians and ELA teachers.

Strand: 21st Century Standards

Creating Library Lessons for Latino ELs through English-Spanish Cognates in the Elementary School

Presenter: Jose Montelongo

This program is to provide school librarians with information they can use to create lessons and activities for Latino English Learners (ELs) using English-Spanish cognates, words that are orthographically, syntactically, and semantically similar to their Spanish equivalents. There are over 20,000 cognates in English. Many academic vocabulary words are cognates: “labor/ labor,” “revolution/ revolución,” and “monarchy/ monarquía.”  School librarians can use cognates throughout the elementary school curriculum. They can teach cognate vocabulary words through the English-Spanish cognates in picture books, as well as many morphological correspondences between English and Spanish. They can use English-Spanish cognates to teach reading strategies such as using context clues to guess the meaning of unknown words and to teach the comprehension of idioms and figurative language. Print and online resources will be discussed as will methods for introducing cognate instructional activities in tandem with educational web 2.0 tools such as Edmodo, and WordSift.

Strand: Curriculum and Instruction

Differentiation through the Use of Primary Sources from the Library of Congress

Presenter: Gail Petri

Join Library of Congress staff as they model differentiation strategies using of a wide variety of primary source formats – photographs, maps, manuscripts and more.  Participants will learn how primary sources can engage students, spark critical thinking, and allow students to construct knowledge.  Replicable, hands-on analysis activities will be provided for a variety of grade levels.

Strand: Curriculum and Instruction

Doctor:  Is it a Jokester Thrillseeking Party Animal or a Wild Thing?

Presenter: Barb Langridge

There is a book for every reader. Learn the eight reading personalities, how to diagnose a student’s reading personality and find books that match those personalities. Help students understand their own reading personality so they can choose books they will want to read.

Strand: Reading Promotion

Doing Shots!! Using screen Shots and Presentation Applications When Unreliable Connections are the Norm.

Presenter: Sharon Hamer

For many teachers, teaching using the internet can be a boon or a bust, depending on whether the internet connection is reliable. By using screen shots in presentations, you can mimic the live internet without being at the mercy of your unreliable or slow connection. Fully fleshed out lessons can be presented in their entirety without worrying about whether or not the internet will go down.

Strand: Collaboration

Dynamic Open Access – OERs + Digital Textbooks = School Libraries as “Repository Central”

Presenter: Tom Adamich

Learn more about Online Educational Resources (OERs), and how to  access rich interactive digital textbook (IDT) content via OER repositories.  The IDTs produced by the Worldwide Center of Mathematics will be featured along with general OER information and tips on how you and your school library can become your school’s OER/IDT repository.

Strand: Collection Development

Empowering Students’ Voices Through Book Reviews

Presenter: Kelly Arbuckle, Stacy Lickteig

The days of the boring book reports have long past.  There is little meaning for school librarians, teachers, or students in a book report that ends up being graded then stuffed in a drawer or trash can.  “Empowering Students’ Voices Through Book Reviews” offers timely easy to incorporate digital tools that can be used with students in all grades to enhance their writing skills, promote their love of reading, and teach them how to voice their opinions.  The benefits for school librarians include collaboration with classroom teachers, discovering what their students really enjoy reading, and the opportunity to teach students how to be positive contributing members of the digital community.  “Empowering Students’ Voices Through Book Reviews” flexible tools and lessons allow you to differentiate the lessons to meet the needs of your students while demonstrating the importance of school libraries to students educational achievement.

Strand: Reading Promotion

Exploring Everyday Life Information Seeking Practices of Upper Income Students at a Highly Technological School

Presenter: Lori Franklin

I plan to describe the results of my dissertation study regarding the everyday life information seeking practices of students working in a highly technological high school. This work builds on the Agosto and Hughes-Hassell (2005, 2006) study of urban teens and on Savolainen’s (1995, 2008) everyday life information seeking theory. The setting for this study is unique, as the school library was built to house a greater percentage of virtual materials than print items, and provides the latest in technological hardware and software for students. The population I study is also unique and comprises a very different group than the teens studied by Agosto and Hughes-Hassell. Students at my site come from upper income families and reside in a geographical area where more than 95 percent of residents have completed high school degrees and more than half of all residents live in homes valued at $200,000 and above.

Strand: Research

From Hawthorne to Harry: The Effects of Leveled Reading Programs in the School Library

Presenter: Elyse Cregar

With handouts and dressed in Puritan costume, school librarian Elyse Cregar will show how reading labels on library book spines can profoundly affect student browsing and reading behaviors.

Strand: Reading Promotion

Gaming for the 21st-Century Learner: An AASL Standards Alignment

Presenter: Christopher Harris, Brian Mayer

The School Library System of the Genesee Valley Educational Partnership has built the country’s largest collection of modern board games aligned with the AASL Standards for the 21st-Century Learner.  These games are used by member libraries to enhance and extend instruction in classrooms and throughout the school. The secret to success is the careful selection of games following a defined game collection development document that reviews curriculum alignment, adaptation to a classroom environment, return on investment, as well as the all important fun factor. Co-authors of Libraries Got Game (ALA Editions, 2010), Christopher Harris and Brian Mayer will exhibit on lessons learned over the past four years. Attendees will have a chance to examine some of our top games and walk away with an AASL Standards alignment document and our collection development guidelines.

Strand: 21st Century Standards

Get Reading @ Your Library — Encourage reading without Competition, Prizes, or Tests

Presenter: Linda Herward

The Falk School community celebrates School Library Month as part of its Spring Reading Initiative.  During the months of April and May, reading and listening to books  are promoted by activities which foster a spirit of community rather than competition.  Teachers, staff, students and their families are encouraged to join in these activities.  The Reading Chain grows as Book Badges are added for each book read or read aloud.  The value of honesty is stressed.  Students watch the Reading Chain grow as it snakes its way along the library ceiling.  The Page Tally is updated daily and prominently displayed.  The culminating activity is The Read-In, a school wide SSR (Sustained Silent Reading).  The Totals are announced and the school community joins together to celebrate reading.

Strand: Reading Promotion

Graphic Language (Arts) in the Library!

Presenter: Susan Grigsby

An 8th grade teacher and her media specialist collaborated on this lesson that involved writing, photography, graphic novels, and Web 2.0. The teacher designed a lesson in which students wrote a personal hero story but in graphic novel format. The LMS used Technology Literacy and AASL Standards to drive the lesson. Students were exposed to a variety of graphic novels with attention to style and design. Students were taught how to use digital cameras including shot composition and downloading/saving digital photographs. Students uploaded their photos to BeFunky.com, altered them according to the style selected for their story then downloaded their altered photos. The photos were put in order, printed and bound for a completed, personal hero graphic novel. The assessment rubric included design, spelling, word/picture relationship, and proper grammar.

Strand: Collaboration

Harmonizing: Music + Multicultural Literature = Reading with a Beat

Presenter: Jill Rooker, Pat Couts, Clynell Reinschmiedt

Pairing music and multicultural literature can provide non-threatening learning experiences for young adults, especially English Language Learners; music truly is a universal language. The melody of “Love Me Tender” sounds the same in Spanish, English, or Chinese. Recognizing the rhythm and melody makes turning the page easier by removing some of the barriers often faced by ELL students.  This presentation includes handouts – including an annotated bibliography, graphic organizers by format and genre, and example pairings of songs and books. All can be used as part of a collaborative unit between reading/music teachers and the school librarian, for classroom instruction, or to reach students on an individual basis. The information will be useful with not only ELL students, but also but with all students whose strongest learning style is musical/rhythmic intelligence.

Strand: Multicultural

HS2C – High School to College

Presenter: Ann Marie Wik, Bethanne Stancl

High school and college librarians are working together to help students transition to college level research and information literacy skills. Mission: The HS2C Committee strives to identify ways in which developmentally appropriate information literacy goals can be effectively addressed throughout students  educational experiences. The ultimate goal is to develop and implement a framework in which instructors and students can continuously build upon information literacy skills regardless of their educational setting.

Strand: Information Literacy

If I Do It Again I Would Do That: Students Respond as Listener-Viewers of Class Digital Storytelling Projects

Presenter: Rebecca Morris

Storytelling in its traditional form is a valuable model for contemporary library and classroom experiences, with active participation by both teller and listeners.  Digital storytelling expands opportunities for storytelling in libraries, and reflects a continuity of innovative library services for children and students.  Because much of the literature and practice of digital storytelling emphasizes the creator, or teller, this research examines the response of the “listener-viewers” to explore and support in a digital setting the participation and involvement afforded to audiences of traditional, live storytelling.  Drawing from ethnographic research methods in the K-12 setting, the research design is a participant-observer study of digital storytelling in the middle school library.  This Exploratorium presents the potential of digital storytelling as a 21st century iteration of the historical mission of library programs for children – supporting literacy, capturing the imagination, and establishing dispositions of lifelong learning.

Strand: Storytelling

It’s a Small World: Connecting, Collaborating and Creating in the 21st Century

Presenter: Diane Cordell

None of them reside in the same state, but these Teacher/Librarians have found a way to make virtual collaboration work for them and their students.

Strand: Collaboration

iTouch = iLearn

Presenter: Christine Voigtlander

This session will present how this innovative piece of technology can be used to engage you in your teaching, but more importantly, your students in their learning. The iPod provides students with a great deal of vibrant content right at their fingertips. This mobile technology can be used in a variety of ways in the classroom with the built-in applications as well as numerous applications from the iTunes Store.

Strand: Curriculum and Instruction

It’s In The Bag! Give Me a Reason to go the Library

Presenter: Julia Andreacchi

It’s in the Bag! is a “novel” way to successfully engage students in research and learning.  A variety of dollar store and thrifty finds are used to develop activities around a novel packaged in a themed bag for student access.  Mindful imagination + reinvention guides the development of the activities to create a “novel” way for students to construct knowledge and understanding. This Exploratorium will give participants an opportunity to examine the bags. Leave with renewed enthusiasm and armed with specific ideas and strategies that can be readily adapted to suit literacy and program requirements.

Strand: Curriculum and Instruction

Leaders and Links: Vital Connections for Dynamic Professional Associations

Presenter: Janet Amann

What influences school librarians  levels of participation in professional associations? Results of a recent study of school librarians reveals gradual, meaningful association activities can enhance professional growth and confidence, which may eventually inspire association leadership roles with more responsibility and foster leadership competency in the school setting. This research-based discussion brings attention to the relevance and influence of vibrant library associations on teaching, learning, and leadership for school librarians. The discussion highlights the value of association mentors in recruitment; considers face-to-face and web-based roles as support mechanisms for new and semi-active members; and, addresses the critical need in today’s educational environment for strong library associations.

Strand: Recruitment

Letting Our Voices Be Heard: Development of the EDUCATEAlabama for Librarians Formative Evaluation System

Presenter: Carolyn Starkey

“Annual performance assessment” can be a nasty phrase for librarians as most teacher assessment/evaluation systems do not acknowledge the differing role librarians fill within the learning community of schools. When the new formative assessment system EDUCATEAlabama was introduced in 2009, school librarians expressed their concern to the State Department of Education that the descriptions of practice on the Continuum of Practice for Teacher Development did not align to the responsibilities and practices of librarians. Since this tool is used statewide to guide educator reflection, self-assessment, and goal setting for professional learning and growth, librarians wanted a document that reflects the specialized practices of their profession. In August and September of 2010, twenty librarians were invited to revise the Continuum, and the draft document was distributed statewide for comment. This session will examine the EDUCATEAlabama Continuum of Practice for Librarians that is scheduled to be implemented in the fall of 2011.

Strand: Personal Development

Massachusetts School Library Association’s Annual Bookmark Design Contest

Presenter: Katherine Lowe, Ann Perham

Each year, the Massachusetts School Library Association holds a student bookmark design contest with a school library advocacy theme. In 2011, students’ designs depicted AASL’s L4L theme: Think, Create, Share, Grow. Local authors and illustrators, along with other prominent members of the Massachusetts library community, judge the entries. Student winners and those receiving honorable mentions, along with their school librarians, are recognized at the State House at the annual Library Legislative Day, where they receive a certificate signed by the judges, a gift certificate from a local bookstore, citations from their legislators, enlarged laminated reproductions of their bookmarks to display at their schools and color copies of their bookmarks to distribute in their libraries. Reproductions of the winning bookmarks are also published on the MSLA website.

Strand: Advocacy

Miracle Workers-Partnering to Help Children “Turn the Page”

Presenter: Julie Burwinkel

Numerous studies exist that suggest the more young children are read to, the greater potential they will have for success in school. Learn how high school students took their study of Helen Keller’s stuggles to overcome multiple disabilities in the play “The Miracle Worker” and expanded it into a literacy promotion for an inner-city school.

Strand: Reading Promotion

Prepare Students to Turn the Page From High School to College–Using TRAILS-12 and Transitioning to College on the Web

Presenter: Barbara Schloman, Julie Gedeon

If you are a high school librarian seeking resources to help prepare your students for college, you must see this presentation. Two web-based, freely available tools addressing high school student preparedness for college will be highlighted. The newly developed TRAILS (Tool for Real-time Assessment of Information Literacy Skills) assessment for 12th grade can profile the strength of student information literacy skills. This is complemented by Transitioning to College (T2C).  T2C videos introduce the college experience and highlight typical differences between high school and academic libraries. Resources for use in the classroom are also provided. This presentation will highlight the features available in these two resources and how they are being used by librarians from around the country to prepare students for college. Information will be provided on upcoming enhancements as well.

Strand: Student Achievement