Speak Up Sonny!

As we move closer to fully integrating the Common Core across the content areas, please seek out the help of your media specialist.

We have been waiting for this for a while.  Patiently.  I would even suggest that we are the "hidden" experts within schools that are vital team members of common core alignment and planning.


Looking at just a fraction of the CCSS language:

• Determine main ideas and supporting details...
• Interpret information...
• Present information, findings and supporting details...
• Cite contextual evidence...
• Analyze author's purpose...

To me, this is like breathing...a natural part of my professional existence.  This is my professional puzzle.

As I read the CCSS more, these skills continue to pop up.  They encompass every subject at every grade level.  Coupled with the requirement to "present" or "demonstrate", these are powerful factors in students developing a "voice"...which to me is the golden statue at the end of my day.

A couple of ideas that I have done with classes (or have dreamed up) that are core-friendly:

• "I'm an expert" presentations or Make your own TED talks

Require your students to become the expert or show their expertise in something.  Whether it is a research topic, a science experiment (can anyone say exploding volcano?) or a personal skill, this how-to presentation style works for everyone.

• And The Award Goes To... 

Run a short awards season in which students nominate and lobby for their own award winner.  Librarians traditionally do this for books (e.g. Golden Archer), but the options are really unlimited.   This is high-end persuasive speaking.

• Talk show, old time radio show, end of the year interviews.  

This is a great way to capture highlights of an event or year, highlight something extraordinary within the school, show public support for a fellow student or teacher, or collect survey data.  It is relatively easy to create a podcast or video interview and post online (school's Facebook page or website), play over the intercom, incorporate into your library automation system and have available for later reference.

• Digital time capsules.  

Create interview scripts highlighting the school year and collect clips (video/audio) and photos.  Digitize and store for later use or post online on your school's website.

• Larry Gets Lost.  

Create your very own "Larry Gets Lost" stories.  I absolutely love these stories and cannot wait to work with a class to create our own.

Summarizing Strategies

This girl understands summarizing.

Seriously never need to watch Star Wars (again).  She's got it.

I bring this up because I have been working with my own kids lately on reading strategies to improve how they read as well as what they comprehend.  I love reading and I want them to be as freakishly avid readers as I am.

But to do this, I had to revisit the "How" in reading.  Like all "experts", we forget the fundamentals when we get really good at something.  [Tangent...can't wait to see what happens when my kids learn to drive.]

Summarizing is a great strategy to encourage kids to remember what they read, watch, listen to, or see online.  It also gives them a great VOICE...a chance to talk, inform, be the teacher, and be the center of attention.  Take a couple of minutes to have them summarize the story, talk over their favorite parts, tell you what was important or just comment on what they read.

In my 24/7/365 all-sports household, patience pays dividends.

My favorite: "Text message" summary...140 characters or less.  Kik Messenger is a great tool.

From the mouths of babes...

I love TedTalks.  Absolutely thought-provoking and riveting presentations by leading thinkers in their fields.

Like this one.

I have to admit somewhere along the way, I lost the "childish."  I lost the ability to be fully immersed in what I was doing, to stop worrying about expectations and assessments, and to lose myself in learning (or teaching for that matter) and play.

Our moves towards the acronym-society (RTI, PBIS, CCSS, NWEA...) is a noble pursuit with solid goals behind it, but are we losing our "AHA" moments, our lightbulbs switching on, our sense of wonder, our joy at learning in communities?

As Adora Svitak says "it is imperative to create opportunities for children so that we can grow up to blow you away."

Here's to being a little "childish" today.

It's Summer!

Well...at least it feels like it today.


I came across this "essential books" list for kids from Common Sense Media in my daily reading and thought I would share it.  I normally don't like summer reading lists because they are heavy on the "classics" of literature.  I like the classics but they don't inspire me to read when the weather is beautiful.  It's hard to read Dickens at the beach...let along any time.

This list is entirely different and I am quite impressed.

Great books, contemporary and a diverse collection for boys and girls.

I would also recommend giving the Common Sense Media site a perusal.  Over the last three years, the site has really blossomed into a "too-good-to-miss" website.

• Movie reviews
• Great lists for everything (Books, apps, movies...)
• Well done videos for use in class (like this one on Following a Digital Trail)
• Media-oriented lesson plans with handouts, videos, activities and standards alignment
• WAY too many resources for me to list here!

I guess this would be MY summer "reading" list.

This is seriously FREE!

Please thank your friendly librarians and media specialists.

Go ahead.  Maybe right now.

Regardless of our bookish nature, we love compliments and flattery as much as the next professional.  Maybe more since we spend our days sequestered with books and digital devices.

Here's why I say this...Badgerlink.

Badgerlink is a sizable collection of resources purchased and organized by the DPI's Division for Libraries, Technology and Community Learning.

Why am I so amped up about Badgerlink?  (Was that like 80s, or what?)

• EBSCO search...search thousands of newspaper and journal articles by topic or tag.  Need to find an article for research data (or want your students to find one)?  Use Badgerlink for a quick and easy search for FULL articles.

• History Reference Center...Search or browse topics by category or by popular resource to find articles from reliable sources, chapters of books AND firsthand accounts/documents on a variety of historical topics.  WOW.

• NoveList K-8...Great review site for childrens' to YA books.  The site includes the professional reviews as well as other interesting tidbits about the books, breaks the books down by genre and is searchable by age, lexile, reading and interest levels.  Great way to find new and interesting books!

• Wisconsin Media Lab/ECB...A detailed list of videos available either online (directly from the site) or part of current PBS programming (including show times) on a wide variety of subjects.  The online streaming videos play at high quality and look great on SmartBoards.

• Soundzabound...THE royalty free music and sounds library for education!  

• Encyclopedia Britannica...the elementary and middle school versions.

• If you haven't been to Teachingbooks, I highly recommend it.  Meet the Author videos, book guides and lesson plans, book readings by the author, reader's theater videos and so much more.  The resources are all linked by common core standards.

• Recollection Wisconsin...Beautiful images of Wisconsin's history.  Search by category or by map to uncover timeless photos.  The photos are provided by local historical societies and public libraries all over the state.

• So much more!  Professional crafted research guide, Science Reference Center, kids search tools,  LitFinder, bilingual resources and databases,...

Good hunting!