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!

Limitless

As part of my job, I get to do some pretty interesting things.

I have always been interested in how the brain copes and adapts particularly as it relates to technology.  I know that our children's brains are wired differently and able to handle tasks at different and multiple levels.  Research is really just beginning to see how differently.

Here's a great sample sent to me by the creator of a multitasking test to see how well your brain can handle multiple objectives at one time.

Created by http://Open-Site.org

I would encourage you to try it...takes about 5 minutes...and curious to hear how you did and your opinions.

As a precursor, I have difficulty switching between tasks (way above the average) but I rock at handling multiple tasks simultaneously with accuracy and speed.  That's my confession for the day.  Still looking for my "Limitless" potential.


Special thanks go out to Allison for sharing!  Looking forward to seeing the research and results...