Category Archives: Uncategorized

LIBE 465 – Final Assignment Reflection

Leave a reply

Final Assignment-LIBE 465
Emily Rodgers (Klimchuk)

My website can be found here: http://emilyirodgers.wix.com/pretendlibrary

My planning sheet:

 

Background
I designed an elementary school library’s website.  This website is intended to be used by students and teachers at school and at home.

Website Creation
After attempting two other website platforms without great success, I stumbled upon Wix.  (Our librarian later told me she used Wix to create our district’s Book of the Year website.)  Wix is by far the most novice friendly website design program I have used.  I quickly figured out how to create, adjust, import and link in the Wix platform.

Information Architecture/Classification System
When designing my website, I wanted it to be organized, clutter-free and easy to navigate.  I stuck to the three-level rule and made sure I had a consistent navigation bar with broad labels in a consistent font, colour and style (Module 7).  I attempted to create a hierarchical organization structure but ran into a small problem with Wix.  I was not able to create a category on the navigation bar for a drop down menu without creating a page for the category.  For instance, I couldn’t create the About category that allowed a user to click on or hover over the About text for a drop down menu without creating an About page.  This led to me having to create an About page with hyperlinks to the pages accessed by the drop down menu – a bit redundant.

Module 7 discussed blind spots on websites.  I decided to make my library homepage a blog.  In this blog, I could post about book reviews, library promotions, book trailers and other exciting things in an attempt to draw the user in.  Users would be able to quickly see what was new, what the website was about and where to go for more information.  The side menu on the homepage has links to tags for related blog posts and links for Pinterest and Twitter.  One limitation in Wix is that it currently has no built in feature for blog comments. I think this feature would allow the website to function as more of a virtual learning commons where discussions could take place between teachers, students and staff.

I have added a few features to my website in an attempt to make my website more of a virtual learning commons.  I have provided links to the library’s twitter account as well as an app that displays the library’s twitter feed.  I have also added class blog pages in hopes that students could use the library website as a way to connect to classmates.  Unfortunately, I ran into another problem when creating the class blogs.  My intention was to have the blogs supported on a Wix page, however, Wix only allows one blog per website which I used for my homepage.  If I were to use this platform for an actual school website, I would either have to hyperlink to an outside blog site or change to a Weebly or WordPress site.

In my initial planning, I planned to put the catalog in the navigation bar as a hyperlink to the external site; however, Wix does not allow hyperlinks in the navigation bar.  I have had to include the catalog as a dropdown page in both Student Links and Teacher Links instead.

A few other things I think would make the site easier to navigate would be a side navigation bar on the How-To page as well as on the Staff Meeting Video page so that teacher’s could easily navigate to their desired video.  However, you can’t create this in Wix.

Resources
The resources I have chosen for students are appropriate for an elementary school setting.  Many of the resources are resources that our district subscribes to.  While it is not ideal to have password protected websites linked to the library website because it is one extra step users must take, I would make sure students were aware of the password sheets available in the library.  The teacher resources are ones that I have personally used and know to provide valuable information.  I added a Staff Meeting Video page because last year our principal would show us a video every staff meeting but there was no central place to keep the videos for later reference.

Conclusion
Despite some limitations with the Wix platform, I think I have managed to design a clean, hierarchal, user-friendly website.

Libe 477 – Final Post

Leave a reply

This is my final blog post in my TL diploma (but not my last post ever)! When I think back to where I started a year ago to where I am now, I have not only become more knowledgeable about library organization, cataloguing, Web 2.0 tools and resources but I have gained a new understanding of the education system and the learners I will be teaching, in the library or in the classroom, in the 21st century.

I am excited to be a beginning teacher at time when the education system and the BC Curriculum is being transformed. I have a new appreciation for inquiry based learning and how classroom teachers and librarians can support each and every student in being producers of knowledge who will contribute to the plethora of information available on the web (McArthur, 2009). I’m excited to “thin the walls [of the classroom] and open up all sorts of possibilities for exploration and collaboration” for both teachers and students (Richardson, 2012, p. 111).

There are many themes that ran throughout the TL diploma but one in particular resonated with me. The idea that creativity is not only valued but crucial to success in the 21st century excites me. Will Richardson said that education in the 21st century is not about delivery. “In one word, it’s about discovery” (Richardson, 2012, p. 60). Several Ted Talks that I have been exposed to through this diploma have also discussed creativity. I’m looking forward to helping foster creativity in students; in helping them explore their passions and connect with others around the world; in helping to maintain and expand on the curiosity students enter the school system with. It really is an exciting to be an educator and a student!

The final project in LIBE 477 has given me a first hand taste of an inquiry project. I started this project with fear and uncertainty. I had a vision for the future but it was in bits and pieces. I decided to focus on one specific area – using technology to document learning in math. I wanted my project to be something I could use in the classroom immediately and something that I could potentially share with my colleagues. The way I have designed my presentation will allow me to insert new videos of student made products once I have implemented the tools in my classroom. My initial feelings of uncertainty and fear have been replaced with a sense of accomplishment and a desire to use my learnings in my class.

Next year, it is my goal to start a class blog. I have not been able to overcome one challenge but I am working on adapting to it. As I mentioned in my previous post, I’m not sure how I will export the videos and images students create on the iPads to the class blog if the iPads do not have an email or dropbox set up but at the moment, I plan on sharing my students’ products within our class with the projector. Small steps.

In trying out different apps to document learning I have thought of other ways to integrate these apps as tools to achieve learning outcomes. I will hopefully be able to have one iPad at our plant and butterfly observation station to document student learning. I will also be touching base with our buddy class to see if we can incorporate Book Creator into our sessions.

I leave you with my final project – a vision for how we can use iPads to document learning in Kindergarten math. I have uploaded my presentation to Slideshare. There are embedded videos in my powerpoint and to view them you must download the presentation.

Works Cited:

Finish Line. (2011). [image online] Available at: http://akshatrathi.wordpress.com/2011/07/21/the-art-of-finishing/ [Accessed: 28 Mar 2014].

Laplante, L. (2013). Hackschooling Makes Me Happy. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h11u3vtcpaY [Accessed: 28 Mar 2014].

McArthur Foundation. (2009). Re-thinking learning: the 21st Century Learner. Retrieved February 22, 2014 from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0xa98cy-Rw UBC library course reserve.

Richardson, W. (2012). Why school. New York, NY: TED Conferences.

Robinson, S. K. (2007). Do Schools Kill Creativity?. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY [Accessed: 28 Mar 2014].

LIBE 477 – Final Vision Contents

2 Replies

After reading my previous two blog posts, you will know that I am attempting to design a presentation that can be shared with my colleagues that will highlight the benefits of using the iPad to share student’s learning in math.

I decided to create a powerpoint presentation that can be uploaded and shared with Slideshare.  I chose this format for several reasons.  One, I wanted something that could be easily edited in the future when I had better examples of student work to share and two I am fairly comfortable with powerpoint and wanted to spend more time learning the apps than figuring out a new presentation tool.  Prior to deciding to use Slideshare, I considered doing a Prezi as Prezi seems like a web 2.0 tool a lot of people are using.   When I really thought about the purpose of my presentation and what I wanted to include I decided that a powerpoint would suffice. I have used Prezi to do a presentation in the past and was not overly impressed with the style of presentation it creates.

My powerpoint presentation allows me to embed videos that I have found on the web and videos I created of sample products.  However, I discovered when I tried to upload a sample powerpoint to Slideshare the embedded videos won’t play.  A user needs to download my presentation before they can watch the videos.

I selected several apps I wanted to test out for my powerpoint presentation (I wanted to include three samples).  I do not have my own iPad and the school is closed for spring break so I borrowed a family member’s.  I wanted to try out Draw and Tell and Explain Everything because I knew we had them on our school’s iPads but I soon discovered that they cost money.  Since I don’t own this iPad I know I would never use these apps again so I changed my plans and decided to try out several free apps.  Because I was using a family member’s personal iPad an email was set up and I could easily email the videos I created to myself which I could then embed in my presentation.  However, I can see how I could run into a problem if I had used my school’s iPads.  An email address is not set up on the iPads and we have not downloaded dropbox.  If I was to get dropbox approved for the iPads, would I then need to make sure I signed out the same iPads every time so that I would need to set up our class dropbox on every iPad?  I’m not sure how I would get the videos off the school iPads onto a class blog.  Any ideas?  Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have one iPad for the class or even a class computer!  Think of the possibilities.

While some of the apps I tried were not what I expected by trial and error I discovered several ways I could use these tools throughout my instruction.  I’m planning on using Skitch for our plant and butterfly unit as well as in the block centre.  Book creator was a little complicated for simply documenting a math activity but I could see this being used with our buddies.

Overall, I haven’t run into any major problems but I do wonder how I can share work from school iPads and export the products to a class blog without dropbox or an email being set up.  How do other schools do this?  Do they have one email account or several?  Do they have one dropbox or several class ones?

LIBE 477 – Final Vision Project Scope

4 Replies
Kobe drawing

Image from Flickr

In LIBE 477, we have been asked to create our vision for the future of 21st century education.  Our project can be tailored to any audience we choose and can focus on a topic within the broader topic that is relevant to us.

Currently I am kindergarten teacher and will most likely be one for the next few years.  I have decided that I want to complete a project that I can use in my classroom immediately.  I started my new position in December and have just introduced the iPads to the students in the beginning of February.  I started small and incorporated them into our Math Centres.  I taught the students how to search for apps and choose between a list of pre-selected apps that practice math concepts they have already explored with manipulatives.  To say the students are engaged when using the iPads would be an understatement.  They are mesmerized and are for more capable than I initially gave them credit for.  However, I know that the iPads could be used to transform their learning in addition to allowing them to practice math concepts.  I wonder how I could incorporate iPads into students’ mathematical learning in a more meaningful way?  When I was thinking of this question, I thought of the groups of students who instead of using the iPads are scattered around the classroom using manipulatives to explore math concepts.  Often the students who are building, creating, collaborating and producing products with hands-on manipulatives are doing exactly what we want users of technology to be doing – building, creating, collaborating and producing!  While the iPad group is content playing their practice games, the manipulative group is busy trying to find someone to share their new found knowledge with.  Sharing is such a huge part of the 21st century.  We want our students to be producers of knowledge; to share their knowledge with the world.  I have often reflected that I don’t gather the students around enough to examine and discuss students’ creations.  My inquiry project will be an exploration of how I can incorporate iPads into our math centres in a meaningful way that will allow students to share their learning with the class and potentially the world beyond our four walls.

 

As a side note on the journey of this inquiry project:

I never really understood how those students felt who weren’t able to get started on a project. I’m not going to lie.  I often felt that they were just stubborn and didn’t want to work but as I am attempting to start this project Carol Kuhlthau’s stages of inquiry came to my mind (which I had learned about in a course last semester).  Perhaps these students were stuck!  They had no idea where to start and the thought of an open topic paralyzed them!  At the thought of doing an inquiry project for my vision for the future I felt apprehension, uncertainty, anxiety and doubt (hence the reason it took me so long to get this post up).  All of these feelings are common in the first three stages of Kuhlthau’s model. While I have felt these emotions when embarking on other projects I have never felt them to the extent I felt for this project.  I’m sure by the end of this project I will feel a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment as Kuhlthau’s model suggests.  This project really feels like a capstone project for this whole diploma by bringing everything I have learned about inquiry, 21st century and digital literacy together.  I’m glad this is one of my last courses I chose to take.

Works Cited:

Kwan, M. (2010). Kobe drawing. [image online] Available at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aperturismo/4488285832/ [Accessed: 16 Mar 2014].

Library.humboldt.edu. (2014). Humboldt state university library: at your fingertips — information competence in the professions. [online] Retrieved from: http://library.humboldt.edu/ic/general_competency/kuhlthau.html [Accessed: 16 Mar 2014].

 

LIBE 465 – Journal Reflection #3 Website Taxonomy

3 Replies

I chose to analyze RW & Co’s website because I like to shop from this website.  (I first attempted to make a heirarchal organization for Pinterest but gave up after a few levels because I couldn’t draw an image that showcased how cyclical the clicking of an image is.)

In my opinion, a user of RW & Co’s website can quickly understand the story being told (which changes depending on the season).  The homepage is simple and allows the reader to quickly scan several eye-catching categories that link back to the general navigation page on level 2.  Faulkner descibres how “categorization helps [users] navigate [a] website much faster” (2011).  RW & Co’s website is a flat hierarchal structure that only involves 3 vertical levels in all but one category.  The sales category has four levels but despite adding another level this category is still easy to navigate. Without the additional level in the sales category, the items would be more difficult to find.  RW & Co’s labels are “specific” and “[easy] to understand” (Whitenton, 2013).   The navigation bar on the top and bottom of homepage remains consitent on any page the user navigates too and the second level with the clothing navigation remains consistent when the user is looking at clothing images.  By doing this, the user does not have to continually hit the back button or start over again to navigate to a new category of clothing.

Faulkner and Hayton have an interesting debate about the left justification of a navigation bar (2011).  RW & Co’s website uses an “inverted-L navigation” which is consistent with most other shopping websites (Faulkner & Hayton, 2011).  This consistency may allow the user to “recognize and categorise conventional elements before they examine the content” which may “make it easier for users to navigate the website” (Faulkner & Hayton, 2011).  Faulkner and Hayton point out that research has not consistently shown that left-navigation assists users  and that “users readily adapt” (2011).  While, I believe a left justification helps me navigate shopping websites because I am familiar with this set-up for this genre of websites, I also read several blogs.  The blogs I read are set up with a right-navigation bar.  I think consistency among different website genres helps users navigate websites.  With that said, I think I could easily adapt to a new set-up because I am quite comfortable with the Internet.

Overall, I think RW & Co’s website is well-designed and cannot find any major changes that would need to be made to make the website more efficient.  The only suggestion I might make is a further break down of clothing categories.  For instance, in the sweater category it might be helpful to be able to locate cardigans, pull overs or other types of sweaters or be able to search by colour.  Those are two features I like using on other shopping websites.

Works Cited:

Faulkner, X. & Hayton, C. (2011). When left might not be right. Journal Of Usability Studies, 6 (4), pp. 245–256.

RW&CO.. (2014). Welcome to rw&co. – fashion apparel for him and her. [online] Retrieved from: http://www.rw-co.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-Rwco_CA-Site/default/Home-Page [Accessed: 1 Mar 2014].

Whitenton, K. (2014). Flat vs. deep website hierarchies. [online] Retrieved from: http://www.nngroup.com/articles/flat-vs-deep-hierarchy/ [Accessed: 1 Mar 2014].

LIBE 477 – Looking Back

3 Replies

Over the last 3 weeks or so our class has done a series of blog posts on the culture of reading in schools, developing a PLN, supporting teachers’ professional development and world libraries.  I believe the postings that resonated most with me were the ones about supporting teachers’ professional development.

Solving jigsaw puzzle

Flickr Creative Commons

All of the topics have helped me learn, grow and reflect as a professional educator, however, I think that I have been hesitant to support teachers’ professional development because I am still a new teacher and was uncertain what I had to offer my colleagues.  After doing my own post and reading my group members’ posts I can see that as a teacher-librarian there are many ways I can support my colleagues.
My key take-aways from my fellow bloggers are:

Ms. K Birkland:  Ms. Birkland provided an infographic, titled “Working Together Is Working Smarter” from AASL that outlines various ways teacher-librarians collaborate.  I think this graphic provides an interesting visual that showcases the many areas teacher-librarians “play a critical role” (AASL).

Mme. Leslie:  Mme. Leslie reminded me that every educator comes to the table with a different perspective and a different ability level.  She also reminded me that teacher-librarians “need to be good listeners” “in order to best respond to the needs of the staff” (Leslie, 2014).

Kacy Morgan: Kacy mentioned that teachers need time to explore the resources.  Perhaps, that means the teacher-librarian teaches a class something and instead of the teacher assisting, the teacher could learn with the students.  In a teacher’s already busy day, having 30 minutes to sit down and explore a resource with students might make a difference in their confidence and their ability to use this tool in their classroom.  Kacy also mentioned that students “can be your greatest assistant in learning technology” (Morgan, 2014).  My thought is that a teacher-librarian could set up a technology group who could be called upon to assist teachers in their classrooms.

Leisbet Beaudry:  Leisbet spoke about a workshop she attended that sparked a collaborative project with a grade 2 teacher.  This project continued the next year and the teacher had plans to show other teachers how this collaboration benefited the students and herself.  This example helped me understand that teachers are one of a teacher-librarians best marketing tools.  Start a small project with a teacher and that teacher will spread the word to other colleagues.  I don’t need to jump right in by running a professional development session.  I can start small by supporting one teacher and this may in turn bring me other teachers to support.

 

Works Cited:

American Association of School Librarians. (2014). Working together is working smarter. [image online] Available at: http://www.ala.org/aasl/research/ncle-infographic [Accessed: 1 Mar 2014].

Beaudry, L. ( 2014,February 16, 2014). Supporting teachers learning ict.Beaudry Library Journey, [web log] Retrieved from: http://beaudrylibrary.blogspot.ca/2014/02/supporting-teachers-learning-ict.html [Accessed: 1 Mar 2014].

Ben-Avraham, Y. (2011). Solving jigsaw puzzle. [image online] Available at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/epublicist/8718123610/in/photostream/ [Accessed: 1 Mar 2014].

Birkland ( 2014,February 28, 2014). Supporting teachers’ ict curriculum. Ms. K Birkland’s UBC Blog, [web log] Retrieved from: http://mskbirkland.blogspot.ca/2014/02/supporting-teachers-ict-curriculum.html [Accessed: 1 Mar 2014].

Leslie, J. ( 2014,February 21, 2014). Supporting others. Mme Leslie, [web log] Retrieved from: http://mmeleslie.blogspot.ca/2014/02/supporting-others.html [Accessed: 1 Mar 2014].

Morgan, K. ( 2014,February 19, 2014). We could all use a little help from our friends. Kacy Morgan LIBE, [web log] Retrieved from: http://kacymorganlibe.wordpress.com/2014/02/19/we-could-all-use-a-little-help-from-our-friends-inquiry-blog-post-3/ [Accessed: 1 Mar 2014].

LIBE 477 – Developing World Libraries

5 Replies

Mumbai Guy on phone November 2011 -2-5 Closeup

Image from Wiki Commons

When I began exploring library projects in developing nations the majority of my results were organizations raising funds for book purchases or for organizations collecting weeded/discarded books. I understand that many of the books we weed are actually quality books that we have duplicates of. For instance, last year our school library had four copies of “Because of Mr. Terupt” because it had been a previous contender in our Book of the Year contest. Now that the votes were in and a winner selected, circulation had decreased, we really only needed one copy. As these books were up to date and were in great condition, they could potentially have been donated. The encyclopedias I weeded that were from 1992 are another story. If they aren’t good enough for our students, why are they good enough for someone else’s students?

When I dug a little further, I came across Library For All. This organization’s mission is to provide developing nations with the “tools to learn, dream and aspire to lift themselves out of poverty”. (Side note: Can developing nations really lift themselves out of poverty?) The concept that Library For All presents is an interesting one. They are “building a digital library and educational platform, designed for low bandwidth environments”. This library “will be stocked with millions of ebooks, course material and resources from publishers and Open Educational Resources”. The organization also wants the platform to be available on a variety of low cost devices. They say they have overcome many of the disadvantages of traditional book donations. By using their platform, information will be culturally and linguistically relevant and up to date.

Ian Quiellen, in an article he wrote about Library For All, says that this model differs from “just handing out sets of low-cost tablets and laptops” (2013). He says that often with those programs, users struggle to locate free content on the Internet (Quillen, 2013). Library For All will provide the content. I believe Library for All’s model is a great one that has room to grow. Library For All’s content is currently education texts and visuals and is focused on providing this information to teachers and students in a classroom setting. If this model is to be used for developing nation’s libraries, the content must be expanded. There needs to be other contributors to the program (besides Scholastic and Penguin) to ensure a variety of materials.

I think Library For All has a great idea that over time can be adapted to provide developing nations with a library platform that can be used on low bandwidth devices.

Library For All Intro Video from Library For All on Vimeo.

Works Cited

Library For All Intro Video on Vimeo [Video file]. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://vimeo.com/74216200

Quillen, I. (2013, June 18). Library for All: Free Digital Content for Developing Countries | MindShift. Retrieved February 21, 2014, from http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/06/library-for-all-free-digital-content-for-developing-countries

 

LIBE 477 – Supporting Teachers

4 Replies

As a teacher-librarian I not only support students’ learning but I also support teachers’ learning.  Every staff member is at a different place in their learning journey with ICT so it is important to provide a variety of opportunities that will allow each teacher to grow.

Last year, I continually had informal discussions with teachers about tools and resources I was using in hopes I could form a relationship with them that would allow them to see me as a valuable resource.  Often, teachers would come to me for assistance or recommendations for tools to use with their class.  One way I could have furthered this learning would be to host “Lunch and Learn” workshops.

Another way I could help support the professional development of the staff at our school would be to post links to interesting articles, web 2.0 tools or teaching resources on our school’s HUB.

In addition to my two above ideas, I think a wonderful way to support teachers’ ICT development is through collaboration.  Collaboration, working together to teach students, can have a positive effect on both students and teachers.  In true collaboration, I believe the teacher and teacher-librarian learn from each other.  The teacher-librarian can share his/her knowledge of current pedagogy with relation to ICT, knowledge of 21st century skills and knowledge of web 2.0 tools.

I found a video on this website that touches on what a teacher-libriarian offers.  The website also provides links to other ways teacher-librarians can support staff.

Works Cited

Library Resources (2011, February 6). How your teacher librarian can help you #2 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fc-2q8dK3r8

Teachers Connecting with Teacher Librarians – Information Literacy. (n.d.). Retrieved February 15, 2014, from http://www.connect2tls.info

LIBE 477 – PLN

5 Replies

Personal Learning Network

Network learner

Image from Wiki Commons

For those of you who don’t know PLN stands for personal learning network.  According to Wikipdia, a PLN is “an informal learning network that consists of people a learner interacts with and derives knowledge from” (PLN, 2014).  As an educator, having a professional PLN is essential to developing and growing my teaching pedagogy and practice.

The video below is interesting because it says that a PLN is “not a thing or a plan” but a “mindset that starts with a question: How do my relationships make me a better teacher?” (Youtube).  Thinking about it in this way makes me expand my idea that a PLN is based on web 2.0 tools to an understanding that my PLN is all around me whether I am online or not.  There are several ways I have already developed a PLN and, after doing some research for this course, several ways I would like to increase my PLN in the future.

Currently, I belong to a Discovery Education Network group on Edmodo.  This group consists of educators from the Surrey School District who attended a 3 session workshop called Den Stars as well as educators from around North America.  In this Edmodo page, we discuss how we are incorporating Discovery Education into our classroom as well as other web 2.0 tools.  In addition to being a Den Star, I often check my Flipboard magazine set up to import tweets from #sd36learn, #sd36LC and #tlchat.  In the future, I would like to not only gain information from these posts but also contribute information to the feeds.

I have had a personal twitter account for sometime but recently set up a professional one. Now I have to start sorting through the people I follow to move them to my professional twitter account.  I see Twitter as a great way to keep informed and connected to those who are taking the same diploma program as me.  We are all working towards a similar goal and can definitely learn from one another.  I am like a hidden twitter user though.  I do not tweet!  One of my goals is to contribute to discussions on Twitter.  Can you have a PLN without really contributing?

In researching PLN, I came across an interesting blog post.  Kate Kingslensmith writes about PLNs and provides an in-depth list of ways to create a PLN.  Take a look at it here.  She also has a link to the stages one experiences when developing a PLN.  I have set up many of the web 2.0 tools Kate has suggested, like Twitter, Delicious and Digg Reader, but feel that I have not used them to their full networking potential.  I know that I have not necessarily been a contributor in the exchange of information.  I have been more like an information taker than giver!  While I don’t see this stage in Kate’s steps of PLN development, maybe as I become more comfortable with the tools, I will understand how I can be a contributor to someone else’s PLN.

As the Youtube video mentioned, not all of my PLN is online. I have created my own network of other kindergarten teachers who I can bounce ideas off of and who I gain new knowledge from.  We do this, sometimes through email, but also in the lunch room or at workshops.

Going forward, I would like to really focus in on using one or two tools to develop my PLN. I think if I narrowed my focus, I would gain a better connection to other educators and have more confidence in asking questions and sharing my experiences and knowledge.

 

Works Cited

Personal learning network. (2014, January 19). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 19:57, February 10, 2014, fromhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Personal_learning_network&oldid=591462441

Klingensmith, K. (2009, May 5).  PLN: Your Personal Learning Network Made Easy | Once a Teacher… Retrieved February 10, 2014 from http://onceateacher.wordpress.com/2009/05/05/pln-your-personal-learning-network-made-easy/

LIBE 477 – Fostering a Reading Culture in School

5 Replies

Giving Choice

I had an interesting conversation about reading in elementary school with my husband, who doesn’t see himself as a reader but will read articles on the web for hours. He will read biographies of musicians and health books on vacation.  Daily, he reads discussion boards for topics relevant to him and he listens to podcasts to and from work.  I was asking him how school and his teachers could have helped develop his love of reading.  His answer was “They couldn’t do anything.”  “I just didn’t want to read.  I liked reading during silent reading because I could read Goosebumps but after school there was so much else to do. Why would I want to read?”  If you ask my husband now if he likes to read, he will say not really.

This conversation made me think about how educators help to develop students’ concept of being a reader.  Many teachers send home slips of paper saying “Read x number of books and get a checkmark on the poster. Read x amount and get a prize.”  While, I don’t agree with giving prizes for reading this idea of reading books is making our students who read other things think they aren’t readers.  I’ve been in libraries that enforce the “one fiction minimum policy” for students and have been in classrooms where students must read a book during silent reading.  Isn’t reading a magazine, a newspaper, an atlas or a non-fiction book still reading?

Kid Reading The Onion
Image is from Creative Commons.

I think that one of the best ways to foster a reading culture is to open up our concept of reading.  We need to give students choice.  Students thrive when given choice (it can be a closed choice!).   Clark says that in order for students to become lifelong readers they must develop an “unconscious delight” for reading (2011, 7).  She says that if readers “are left alone to discover that reading is pleasure, not a chore, they move on to other authors and other genres without our intervention” (2011, 7).   “By narrowly defining what is considered “allowable reading, “ educators and parents basically have stymied the essential stage in literary appreciation – Unconscious Enjoyment – in a child’s journey toward becoming a lifelong, avid reader” (2011, 8).  Clark’s opinions resonate with me.  Give children choice and they will develop their interests and passions.  They will find what they enjoy reading and this will help to develop a culture of reading in school.

In my class this looks like children reading just-right books, non-fiction books (usually skipping around the book), pictures in books, books we have read together, books they have created, books from home and big books.  They are reading words around the room (poems, names, colours etc.), books on the computer, magazines, menus and cards.  They are trying to read anything and everything.

Here is a video I watched in LIBE 441. Faye Brownlie speaks to the importance of choice in reading. The discussion about choice starts at 17 minutes.

Works Cited

Clark, Ruth C. (2011). Readicide-killing the love of reading in our schools. Knowledge Quest, 39(4), 6.

Spiegel, Eric. “Kid Reading The Onion”. Photograph. Flikr, 10 Nov. 2010. Web. 1 Feb. 2014. <http://flic.kr/p/8SorP7>.

“Changing Results for Young Readers: Faye Brownlie, Reading Instruction: Evidence-Based Practice.” YouTube. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Feb. 2014.