In July, 2011, the AASL Board approved the Position Statement on Labeling Books with Reading Levels. The AASL position statement defines standard directional spine labels and compares them to reading level labels (associated with computerized reading programs) as they are often applied in school libraries. The statement also offers suggestions for concerned librarians to be aware not only of the possible negative effects of these labels on children as they browse, but also offers suggestions for voicing those concerns.
There are proponents and opponents to how computerized reading programs are implemented in schools and their effects on school library collections and students' free access to books of their choice. A school librarian (name withheld) shares this story of how labels affect students' choices in her school.
"Recently I helped a student who came to me while his class was in the library browsing. As the librarian of a middle school library, I often see situations such as this one. The boy had been most recently reading about George Washington and Ben Franklin. His class assignment that day was to checkout two computerized reading program books within his tested reading level and thus was "allowed" only one free choice book. "But I'd rather not have to check out labeled books and there are some books I'd like today that don't have the dots or reading level labels on the backs of the books. Does that mean Ican't check them out?" he asks me.
The boy went on to say that he'd rather be allowed to check out three books on his favorite non-fiction topics, regardless of reading level. As he expresses his frustration, he lowers his voice and moves toward a corner of the library where there are no other students. "I'm a pretty good reader," he said quietly, "and I really like reading about the American Revolution. But I have to stay within a certain range. I can't find many books in my reading level that are really interest
"
Beyond Google -
AddThis
Posted by Mr. Byrne at 2:12 PM
Labels: Google, Internet search, teaching technology, Teaching With Technology, Technology Integration, web search, web search strategies
5 comments:
SIS Media Specialist said...
Geesh Richard, another great resource; like your posts are not enough. Many, many thanks. I have followed your blog for about a year and have learned SO MUCH. I understand you are from CT. Any chance we can get you to the joint annual CASL/CECA (Connecticut Association of School Librarians and Connecticut Educators Computer Association) conference next year?
October 24, 2009 10:35 PM
Mr. Byrne said...
Yes, I am originally from Connecticut. In fact, I went to CCSU for freshman year. I'd like to come to CASL/CECA. Can you send me an email? richardbyrne (at) freetech4teachers
Thanks.
October 25, 2009 6:47 AM
Linux and Friends said...
Thanks for the amazing document.
I am aware of a few of the resources listed in the document. However, many of the others are new to me. I will definitely check them out.
November 2, 2009 9:45 PM
dunnes said...
I visited and bookmarked four sites from this post! Thank you for the great resource. Students want to use Google rather than stick to the school library catalog, but they need more instruction on how to do this. I have seen too many children search with ineffective terms, and then waste time clicking on their random results.
November 8, 2009 12:38 PM
Lois said...
Beyond Google is a great resource. I wish I had your skills for taking what you learn and putting it together as you do. I love reading your daily blog.
November 15, 2009 10:04 AM
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Links to this post
Beyond Google: Improve Your Search Results
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2009/10/beyond-google-improve-your-search.html While working with some of my colleagues in a workshop earlier this week, I was reminded that a lot of people aren't familiar with tools
in fMRI studies of people reading fiction, neuroscientists detect activity in the pre-frontal cortex — a part of the brain involved with setting goals — when the participants read about characters setting a new goal. It turns out that when Henry James, more than a century ago, defended the value of fiction by saying that "a novel is a direct impression of life," he was more right than he knew.
they discovered "a significant relation between the amount of fiction people read and their empathic and theory-of-mind abilities" allowing them to conclude that it was reading fiction that improved the subjects' social skills, not that those with already high interpersonal skills tended to read more.
It's when we read fiction that we have the time and opportunity to think deeply about the feelings of others, really imagining the shape and flavor of alternate worlds of experience.
Great flowchart/Infographic
Flowchart: Which Books to Read this Summer?
Teaching students at the University of California School of Education developed this great infographic to help younger students pick books to read over the summer, an important time when young people have the freedom to read what they want to read rather than required coursework. This chart appeared on the "Teach: Make a Difference" blog on June 5, 2012. A chart like this would be a fun and challenging project for a team of teams or a book club.
Not reading won’t kill you, but it will also make you a less interesting, engaged, and intellectual person
reading literature also helps to develop an individual’s emotional literacy
Reading about an event or the inner working of someone else’s mind or emotions stimulates the human brain to experience those same feelings or to essentially have the same experience in terms of memory that they would have if they actually did the activity or experienced the emotions themselves
The main activity of a college education is critical thinking and intellectual engagement: most of the background work for this endeavor is done through reading
Ubiquitous video, or some other information technology, may one day overtake the written word as the foundation of our literacy, but for the moment, reading and writing are the keys to full and fruitful participation in human society
Detailed article sharing how one teacher uses and organizes readers' notebooks. Includes downloads of forms she uses: Reading Log, Genre Overview, What Genres Am I Reading?, Genre Graphs, Books I Plan to Read, Mini Lesson Handouts Table of Contents, IDR Task Sheets, Sticky Note Tracker Sheet, and Reading Response Topics.
reading bubble will be larger in schools with a large percentage of students who are not testing at grade leve
library media programs have intrinsic reading motivation and free volunteer reading as their core contributions to a school's reading program
providing and promoting high interest materials at a variety of reading levels that meet a variety of developmental needs, we will create kids who not only can read by want to read.
in schools where there is no separate "technology integration specialist" available to students and teachers. This is also more prevelant at the secondary level.
An increasing number of schools seem to be emphasising technology as a focus
teach the educational application of technology tools, not just the applications themselves
our programs acknowledge our roles as reading and tech teachers, but we empahsis the application of these skills in an IL model that helps solve real problems and answer genuine questions.
the larger the information literacy bubble, the more opportunity library media specialists and teacher will have to address these areas both formally and informally
The best library program is the one that best supports the needs and goals of its school. It doesn't get much simpler than that.
Our library is now the most-used space on campus, with collaborative learning areas, classrooms with smart boards, study sections, screens for data feeds from research sites, a cyber cafe, and increased reference and circulation stations for our librarians. It has become a hub where students and faculty gather, learn and explore together.
Relevance is what saves and builds programs and protects budgets.
Cushing Academy today is awash in books of all formats. Many classes continue to use printed books, while others use laptops or e-readers. It is immaterial to us whether students use print or electronic forms to read Chaucer and Shakespeare. In fact, Cushing students are checking out more books than before, making extensive use of e-readers in our library collection. Cushing’s success could inspire other schools to think about new approaches to education in this century.
Strong sensory and nostalgic connections to books and the idea of reading.
Who wrote that? Where are the competing voices? How is it organized? By what (and whose) terms is it indexed? Does it have pictures? Can I write in it myself?
Why is knowledge proximate? Global awareness is a goal for every student. What about POV?
The digital natives in our schools need to have the experience of getting lost in a physical book, not only for the pure pleasure but also as a way to develop their attention spans, ability to concentrate, and the skill of engaging with a complex issue or idea for an uninterrupted period of time.
It is possible to get lost in text, no matter the format. We see it every day. Students engrossed reading off their iTouch, desktops, laptops, Kindles and Nooks.
The printed word long ago lost its position of eminence in the American library.
Studies indicate people are reading more than ever - but not from paper.
The tangibility of a traditional book allows the hands and fingers to take over much of the navigational burden: you feel where you are, and this frees up the mind to think.
So many references to the tangible experience of paper. Nobody comments on how heavy a book is, how you can't take that many on your suitcase for vacation because of the weight, or holding it in bed at night. If we are going sensory, I'd rather pack/hold a Kindle.
If one of your New Year's Resolutions was the classic "read more books" and you haven't so much as opened a magazine, we're here to provide some inspiration. TED-Ed asked a few of our favorite educators to weigh in on the best books in their subject - for students, teachers and lifelong learners alike - to crack into during 2015. Here, find a list of their top 5 picks in literature, science, math and history.
Let me be right up front about this: I am primarily sharing the good ideas of other far smarter people that I could ever pretend to be. Some primary sources for this list include:
■Beaman, Anita and Amy Obert. Reading 2.0 website
■Ludwig, Sarah "Going Beyond the BookTalk: Breathing New Life Into Book Programming with Technology"
■Valenza, Joyce. Reading 2.0 slide show
I only steal from the best. So here we go. Johnson's Top Ten...
"Recently, I've also been fascinated by the way the human mind interprets visual symbols. From doodling to reading and writing text, the brain is wired with a proclivity for visual sensory ability. In order to help students harness this power, we have been trying our hand at visual notes and sketchnoting in class. Then I decided to try some lessons with infographics."
Feed readers
are probably the most important digital tool for today's learner because they
make sifting through the amazing amount of content added to the Internet
easy. Also known as aggregators, feed readers are free tools that can
automatically check nearly any website for new content dozens of times a
day---saving ridiculous amounts of time and customizing learning experiences for
anyone.
Imagine
never having to go hunting for new information from your favorite sources
again. Learning goes from a frustrating search through thousands of
marginal links written by questionable characters to quickly browsing the
thoughts of writers that you trust, respect and enjoy.
Feed readers can
quickly and easily support blogging in the classroom, allowing teachers to
provide students with ready access to age-appropriate sites of interest that are
connected to the curriculum. By collecting sites in advance and organizing
them with a feed reader, teachers can make accessing information manageable for
their students.
Here are several
examples of feed readers in action:
Used specifically as
a part of one classroom project, this feed list contains information related to
global warming that students can use as a starting point for individual
research.
While there are literally dozens of different feed reader
programs to choose from (Bloglines andGoogle Reader are two
biggies), Pageflakes is a favorite of
many educators because it has a visual layout that is easy to read and
interesting to look at. It is also free and web-based. That
means that users can check accounts from any computer with an Internet
connection. Finally, Pageflakes makes it quick and easy to add new
websites to a growing feed list—and to get rid of any websites that users are no
longer interested in.
What's even
better: Pageflakes has been developinga teacher version of their tooljust for us that includes an online grade tracker,
a task list and a built in writing tutor. As Pageflakes works to perfect
its teacher product, this might become one of the first kid-friendly feed
readers on the market. Teacher Pageflakes users can actually blog and create a
discussion forum directly in their feed reader---making an all-in-one digital
home for students.
For more
information about the teacher version of Pageflakes, check out this
review:
"Walk into any bookstore or library, and you'll find shelves and shelves of hugely popular novels and book series for kids. But research shows that as young readers get older, they are not moving to more complex books. High-schoolers are reading books written for younger kids, and teachers aren't assigning difficult classics as much as they once did."
To raise awareness of the educational challenges that many children face, a non-profit organization called LitWorld has designated the first Wednesday of every March "World Read Aloud Day."
the habit of reading does as much, if not more, than Direct Instruction and the rigorous demands of the Common Core. All without boring kids to death or persuading them that they're dumb.
Blogs covering topics relevant to school libraries and K-12 education, including reviews of children's and YA literature. Other issues discussed include, but are not limited to, educational technologies, digital learning, early literacy, librarian-teachers, e-reading devices in the classroom, learning strategies, teens and reading, etc. Blogs listed with a include 2010 and 2011 finalists and winners.
Jenny Odau on 28 Nov 11In July, 2011, the AASL Board approved the Position Statement on Labeling Books with Reading Levels. The AASL position statement defines standard directional spine labels and compares them to reading level labels (associated with computerized reading programs) as they are often applied in school libraries. The statement also offers suggestions for concerned librarians to be aware not only of the possible negative effects of these labels on children as they browse, but also offers suggestions for voicing those concerns. There are proponents and opponents to how computerized reading programs are implemented in schools and their effects on school library collections and students' free access to books of their choice. A school librarian (name withheld) shares this story of how labels affect students' choices in her school. "Recently I helped a student who came to me while his class was in the library browsing. As the librarian of a middle school library, I often see situations such as this one. The boy had been most recently reading about George Washington and Ben Franklin. His class assignment that day was to checkout two computerized reading program books within his tested reading level and thus was "allowed" only one free choice book. "But I'd rather not have to check out labeled books and there are some books I'd like today that don't have the dots or reading level labels on the backs of the books. Does that mean Ican't check them out?" he asks me. The boy went on to say that he'd rather be allowed to check out three books on his favorite non-fiction topics, regardless of reading level. As he expresses his frustration, he lowers his voice and moves toward a corner of the library where there are no other students. "I'm a pretty good reader," he said quietly, "and I really like reading about the American Revolution. But I have to stay within a certain range. I can't find many books in my reading level that are really interest
