Creating a Glossary with First Grades

First grade classes create a glossary in CCGPS ELA:
ELACC1RI5: Know and use various text features (e.g., headings, table of content, glossaries, electronic menus, icons) to locate key facts or information in a text.

I chose a non-fiction title that did not have a glossary, but had a lot of interesting words.  The title from the National Geographic series, What Did One Elephant Say to Another?: A Book About Communication, by Becky Baines worked well as would A Den is a Bed for a Bear: A Book About Hibernation .

I read the book and gave each student a strip of paper with a word from the book printed on it. I had a strip with a different word for each student, so part of the challenge of this activity is finding a book with enough words that 1st grade students will know and be able to write about!   Each student wrote a definition on the strip of paper.  I took one class's words and arranged them in alphabetical order on a bulletin board in the hallway with an explanation of the activity.  I took the other classes' words and glued them onto a large sheet of paper (in alphabetical order of course) and delivered them to the class.  If I would have had more time, we could have put them in alphabetical order in the library media center.  I think I will do that next year.

Collaborating with 2nd Grade on Cat Research

     This school year I have focused on collaborating with teachers as they implement the new CCGPS ELA. Students are required to do a lot of writing and there is a focus on informational texts and research...a perfect opportunity to use our (library media specialists) skills in those areas.  The 2nd grade students had to conduct research on a cat in order to do a writing so I offered to create a graphic organizer.

      I also collected books on different species of cats and located articles in World Book Kids (we have a subscription to it online).  I scheduled time to go to each 2nd grade class with the resources and assist the students with the research.  I modeled note-taking and reading to answer the questions (on the graphic organizer) by using a book about bears.  The students were grouped by species of cat and I stayed to help them.  It went very well and the students then used their notes on the graphic organizer to write their paper.

CC2W7: Participate in shared research and writing projects (e.g., read a number of books on a single subject to produce a report, record science observations). 

Spread the Word

Evidence of library media skill activities that take place!

     After hearing a presentation this June at the GLMA Summer Institute I realized how important it was to document what I do and then spread the word.  I went to another presentation at RESA this fall and Janelle McClure emphasized that point again.  That is one reason I write this blog.  I was trying to figure out a way to let teachers know what I do during the library media time (besides check out books).  The teachers know (mostly) what I do with their students, but are not aware of what I do on other grade levels.  I needed to change the bulletin boards outside the library media center so I decided to put evidence of student work in the hallway.  Students like to see their work as well, so it was a win-win.  Imagine my surprise when our head of school (principal) stopped in the hall, looked at the bulletin board and said she was making note of it for part of my evaluation.  That wasn't the whole reason I did it, but hey... if you won't blow your horn, who will?

Plagiarism-Wordle Activity

For the second year I introduced the idea of plagiarism to 4th and 5th grade students by reading the book, When Marion Copied: A Book About Plagiarism by Brook Berg. After reading the book I explained that I wanted them to practice a strategy mentioned in the book.  I asked them to summarize the book using only 5 words.  They write them on an index card (or scratch paper) along with their name.  I later type in each word they write into Wordle (www.wordle.net).  I also type in the title, When Marion Copied several times so that it also appears. If you have never used Wordle, check it out.  It is an interesting way to look at text and play with words.  The more often a word appears in a text the larger it appears in Wordle or word cloud (that's why I type in the title, so that it appears (large) in the Wordle).

Here is one wordle I created using the 5 summary words written by students.

You can see the above Wordle by using this link: http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/6087046/When_Marion_Copied

"We Give Books" Website

I came across the website, "We Give Books", www.wegivebooks.org the other day and it is a wonderful thing!  It almost seems to good to be true.  You can join (it's free) and you can read digital books.  Once you complete reading the book they donate a book (a real, paper one) to a child.  Incredible!  It's the philanthropic arm of Pearson Publishing, and according to their website: We are dedicated to delivering award-winning books empowering you to read and share beautiful stories with children in your life...The We Give Books team works upfront with each non-profit literacy partner to identify the kinds of children's books that best fit their program needs. Some of the same great books you can read online will be donated to our charity partners through your reading efforts. We also donate others they request specifically for the young people they serve. 

Check it out!

Website Evaluation Instruction

     Every year I teach students to evaluate websites so that they will become better internet users.  I watched a news story in September on ABC News about a man who set up 2 fake websites to cash in on the political conventions and collected thousands of dollars.  And I thought, hurray!  This would be a perfect, real-life example of how you need to evaluate information on websites.
   
     Part one of the lesson we cover the parts of a website (header, body, footer), where to look for the name of the organization, authority, currency, contact information, etc.  I use several local organizations' websites for this part (Chehaw, Flint Riverquarium, Albany Museum of Art, City of Albany, Dougherty County Public Library) and students locate the aforementioned information.  Then we discuss what we found.

     This year I started part two of the lesson by going to this website,  http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/09/21/ABC-News-Fake-RNC-And-DNC-Websites-Highlight-Internet-Campaign-Donation-Fraud   which covered the ABC news story and had links to the 2 fake websites (one for the Republican National Convention and the fake Democratic one).  We looked at both of the fake websites and looked in vain for a physical address, phone number or any names.  Then we went to the GOP website and located immediately the full contact information.

     The meat of this second part of the lesson is to compare two websites about endangered species.  I tell the students that I googled the key words "endangered species" and chose two of the listed results.  We then  compare them (I've had students work in pairs and done it as a group with the pairs sharing laptops and I think I prefer the group model).  One was created by 5th grade students http://www2.lhric.org/pocantico/5thgrade99/animals.htm and the other is Sea World's InfoBook Index website http://www.seaworld.org/animal-info/info-books/endangered/index.htm .

     One of the fifth grade teachers mentioned the commercial he had seen lately about not believing everything you see on the internet.   I remembered the commercial and wished I had gotten a link to the commercial.  Another teacher said it probably was on You Tube and it was and here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmx4twCK3_I .  I definitely will use it to introduce the idea next time I teach the lesson!

      Here's a cartoon from Fitz & Pirillo (I tried to find their website and couldn't, so I copied the image from another website (www.blaugh.com).  It would be a good one to show to students (it covers 2 concepts...plagiarism and internet reliability).

Opinion Writing Lesson

     One of our fourth grade teachers asked me to help the students with writing an opinion essay.  The CCGPS states - ELACC4W1: Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and the students are to refer back to the text.  She said they were having difficulty with this task.  I found a website that had a good handout/structure, "Write An Opinion Essay" http://teacher.scholastic.com/scholasticnews/magazines/scope/pdfs/SCOPE-011011-REPRO-19.pdf
I liked the format, which I used loosely!

    The problem was coming up with something we could read fairly quickly that would provide us with something to have an opinion on!  I came up with several subjects (texting and driving, political candidates, European exploration in the new world, Japanese internment camps in WWII, etc).  Finally...a eureka moment!  Pick out a short book to read and one just jumped into my mind (having used it before), Why War Is Never a Good Idea by Alice Walker.

I read the book to the class and created a t-chart (on a large dry erase board) and told them that they would agree or disagree with the statement. Then they gave me specific reasons if they agreed with the idea (that war is never a good idea) that referred back to the text.  Some of the students disagreed and gave me good reasons which I also recorded.