February Happenings

Wow! So much is happening in the library this month. A few reminders:

• Don't forget the Reading Rainbow writing contest deadline is the end of this month. If you haven't done so already, print out and send home the permission slips for those students whose work you will be submitting. Remember that Mrs. Woodlief has volunteered to help students with their illustrations if needed.
• I have received the deadlines for submitting names to the district for the 25 (and up) book certificates and prizes. All names must be in to me by Friday, April 25 so that I can turn them in to the district. Thanks!

You may notice some "worldly" work going up in the halls. 5th grade students have been having a blast researching and mapping natural disasters and then posting their finds on the giant world map put up in the hall by the 4th and 5th grade wing. By the end of the week the world should be covered with with a plethora of avalanches, landslides, earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis. Students worked in groups in centers using tables of contents and indexes from non-fiction resources to find information on their assigned disaster; they used encyclopedias, atlases and almanacs in the reference center, and the ED-MAT disaster database from the library website in the computer center. They charted their findings, then used globes and atlases to map their disasters. They then wrote their research on letters for each disaster to be placed on the giant world map in the hall. In mapping their disasters, they came up with questions like, "How come tsunamis don't happen in Florida?" and "Why does Japan seem to have all the action?" Through their questions, they learned all about plate tectonics and the volatile nature of the earth from it's iron core out.

2nd graders are about to have some fun creating podcasts from knowledge learned researching habitats. Classes were assigned a particular habitat and worked together as a class to make a giant graphic organizer of the animals, plants, food, shelter and description of each habitat from information extracted in a non-fiction book. They then created drawings of their habitats in art class with Mrs. Woodlief. We read one of my all-time favorite books, Weslandia, about a boy who is a bit of an outcast and creates his own habitat with everything he needs to survive. Students will then work as a class to write a narrative story on their habitat based on Weslandia. They will take turns recording the story, and we will add their artwork in to create a podcast. 

4th graders are getting in on some electronic action as well as we make "public service announcements" using i-movie. 4th graders are learning all about the human body. They will work in teams to research in centers each of the body systems, then write and enact a commercial as creatively as they wish on what we need to/should do to keep our body systems healthy and working together. We'll see if we can't air some of these masterpieces on the morning news show!

Third graders have gone back in time to research ancient civilizations for report writing in Writers Workshop. They are getting excited to use their research and reports as a springboard for creating interactive museums. You may need to schedule a special field trip for your class in March to go to the 2nd and 3rd grade hall to explore Ancient Egypt, Ancient Rome, and Ancient Greece!

Lastly but definitely not least, kg, 1st, and TMH classes are continuing on in our quest to find our favorite book from this year's Florida Children's Book Award list. We have read half of the books so far, and I think we will have a very difficult decision when it comes time to vote. Maybe we need to assign some super delegates???

Have a great week!

Learning Concepts through Key Questions

So I've blogged on teaching in an information-rich, technology rich environment and getting away from the lecture/text book method of instruction, and I've blogged on teaching using essential questions rather than objectives to formulate curriculum. Now I'd like to take that a bit further and talk about using key questions when teaching concepts. In my training for International Baccalaureate, one of the many best practices that I was impressed with was their written curriculum (what do we want to learn) divided into five main elements: concepts, knowledge, skills, attitude, and action. Concepts are basically what we want our students to understand: form, function, causation, change, connection, perspective, responsibility and reflection. These are demonstrated through key questions for each concept:

• form: what is it like?
• function: how does it work?
• causation: why is it like this?
• change: how is it changing?
• connection: how is it connected to other things?
• perspective: what are the points of view?
• responsibility: what is our responsibility?
• reflection: how do we know?

In my former library, I painted these questions in giant quote bubbles over the library shelves, and every classroom posted these questions prominently for students to see and use. These key questions are wonderful for initiating inquiry from students and for helping with transdisciplinary skills. If you get in the habit of referring to these questions when teaching your units, and more importantly, getting the students to use these questions when learning, then you will be amazed at the connections students make, the wonder they develop, and the interest and engagement they generate. Try posting these questions in your room and integrate one into your instruction each week. You already are familiar with having students ask what are the connections through Readers and Writers Workshops (text-to-text, text-to-self, text-to-world), so try adding another this week and watch your students question, think, and reflect! Let me know how it goes!