DogZilla and the Common Core

Back in the 90's when I was an elementary librarian, the remake of King Kong was released, and so I thought we'd have a little fun with Dave Pilkey's Kat Kong and DogZilla.  I had to order multiple copies and couldn't keep them on the shelf!

Here we are almost 20 years later and the remake of Godzilla brings me Deja vu.   Blow the dust off your Dogzilla and order a few more copies.  The kids will go crazy for Kat Kong and Dogzilla, the "colossal canine" again!   Let's see how this literary wonder stacks up to the Common Core measuring stick:   

Rigor... 
 'Not a very tough read. Sorry.  It doesn't take focus or sustained attention to get to the end of this lame literary gem. The Lexile, readability measure, comes in at a 720.  That is just perfect for your third and fourth graders. However, with only a few sentences on a page, we really can't call it "rigorous."  The vocabulary is what saves this book, if you are needing justification. Just look at the richly woven vocabulary from merely a handful of pages of this literary wonder: irresistible, annual, canine, crater, depths, mysterious, residents, colossal, residents, terrifying, creature, ancient,  and more!  Vocabulary is so rich that is trumps the lack of rigor.  Let the kids read!  I would never use this book in a read aloud without an activity (task as in "reader and the task") which requires the kids to think.  Define the vocabulary words ahead of time and play a vocab game after the read.  Create a bookmark with your "Cool words to make you sound smart" on it and send it home inside their checkout book.  Let the parents see the words you tried to teach them that day.  Or, look at some of the suggestions below.  

Relevance ... 

It would be a far reaching claim to believe that we could use this text to solve a real-world problem, as the CCSS encourages us to have students do. Even though the reader is asked at the end of the book... how to save the town, this is not the type of problem that the CCSS expects our students to spend a great deal of time contemplating.   Genies, dragons, gargoyles, Neptune, megalodon, and other mythical beasts are just a few other terrifying creatures that have captured literary attention many times over, but don't qualify for "real world problems" that need to be solved.  However, we could use this book as a hook to have these third graders brainstorm what we are, or should be afraid of-- or need to solve.  

Reader and the task...
I would recommend this follow-up activity to justify the use of this book:

• Gather newspapers and place them on a table(s). (Newspapers are typically above a third grade reading level, so they would qualify for a "stretch" read.)   Working collaboratively in groups,  have the children read newspapers for "real" problems or issues and contribute those to a graffiti wall.  During this endeavor, you will likely be asked meanings of words they read and you could practice decoding and finding meaning by surrounding words.  You could practice "vocabulary flooding" (synonyms) when they ask you.   You could have another graffiti wall of "new words in the neighborhood" which they could fill up as they read. The reading endeavor will likely by a close reading activity as you have given them a "reason to read."    
• Have the third graders choose a topic from their real-world problem wall to investigate.  Tell them they will be investigators and will need to dig deeply to find out about an issue and make a "claim."  Their claim will be what to do about the issue.  High School students will have no problem with this.  However,  elementary students may need some guidance or some pre-chosen texts to examine.  In fact, you could even choose primary source texts from the 1800's (or another period they are studying)  and ask them to examine what the real problems were of the time.   
• This research endeavor could lead to non-fiction reading (CCSS objectives) and text-based answers (CCSS objectives).   

So whether you are doing this with a classroom, or during your "scheduled" library time,  you can teach withstyle!   You don't have to be a classroom teacher.  If you really try this wacky-world problems unit, you are embracing some of the shifts of the Common Core.   Your students are likely to know 20 more academic vocabulary words than they did prior to reading this book.  You can build a rubric which requires them to use those words in their "claim."   This can be part of their writing or language presentation.  You could have a discussion and debate over real world issues.  What problems deserve the governmental attention the most? Kids could rank the "issues" based upon the evidence that teams present.  Which problem should be solved first?   

The creative possibilities are endless--even within the Common Core instruction.  So don't think all is lost within our new standards.  Just get to know the building blocks and embrace them.  If you were observed during a lesson like this, the principal would likely see your students concentrating on: vocabulary, building an evidence-based-claim, researching to build and present knowledge, and closely reading.  That is what separates you from a granny reading a nice book.  Plan your pedagogy.  Engage those students in reading, research, and academic vocabulary building. 

And they thought you were just checking out books...  Silly them.   

Are Your Students Sleuthing?

Detectives, investigators, criminal prosecutors and auditors all have one thing in common:  They presume guilt.   They assume there is something wrong and look for the evidence on their side. That same mode of operation should be used while "investigating" on the web. Are your students sleuthing?  

http://www.flickr.com/photos/myhobosoul/
301624376/in/photostream/

This generation enjoys criminal series, wants to study forensics, and genuinely has their interest heightened by criminal investigations.  Librarians can tap into this innate curiosity by using similar language and embracing a detective MO when searching for information.  Why not use this as a ploy to remind your students to "consider the source!"  

Another CCSS sleuthing idea we can capitalize on is to use detective riddles to compel students to read closely, re-read closely again, and re-read and discuss a detective riddle looking carefully for details.  If you examine the old Donald Sobol, Two Minute Mysteries, you will likely find a number of fine literary specimens which:

• have rich vocabulary words (SAT words)
• present intriguing detective scenarios
• provide an opportunity for reading, discussion, higher level thought, and more goals aligned with the CCSS. 

Before you know it, you have tricked your 4th, 5th, or 6th  graders into closely reading a short passage, multiple times, sleuthing for evidence in the text.  If you choose your passage carefully, they will read, discuss with their peers, and add vocabulary to their "receptive" or "productive" vocabulary. How's that idea for a 30 minute Common Core aligned library lesson.   

So when you are not "collaborating" with classroom teachers on research endeavors with Internet sleuthing, embrace the tenants of the Common Core and remember you are a teacher yourself. Package a 30 minute Common Core aligned library lesson yourself.

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Read Web of Deception to understand why students should be "sleuthing": click here for Google Books link (Yes, this book is older and perhaps "dated" but the premise still holds.  The mere thought of "content farms" should scare teachers into using databases.) 

Are You Off Your Rocker? ...and other no-cost ways to improve your image

      While visiting a local library last week,  the librarian proudly told me, "By the way--I got rid of my rocker like you suggested last year..." 
      It is a known fact that non-librarians equate the rocking chair with their grandmother and not with instructional personnel.     Whether you agree with this or not, perception is hard to fight.  So we say ...Don't give them any material to support their misconception!  
      This comment was actually an encouragement to me, personally. Often administrators work feverishly to strengthen research and information roles for librarians and strive for recognition as instructional partners.  We craft messages for state education departments and cheer-lead the rich resources and teaching skills our librarians offer.  We deliver PD on technology used for higher level thought; embedding information and synthesis into curriculum; and we boast of our databases available for the hyper-connect to use--rather than Google.    But, when we walk in a library and see a librarian in a rocking chair...it undoes every image makeover that we work so hard to deliver.    

      Yes, we are aware that the CCSS encourages "read-alouds" but it stresses "they are a metacognitive tool to prepare kids for future informational reading of complex text."   See this quote from page 33 of the ELA standards:    It says to use read alouds to teach: 

• Main idea 

• Paraphrasing

• Summarizing important details

• Compare and Contrast

• K-2 says to: confirm understanding, ask and answer questions, and describe ideas and details 

Here's all the Common Core says about read-alouds: 

So, if you choose to continue with read-alouds (and they are an opportunity to model fluency), I would suggest using an evidence-based discussion,  graphic organizer, or other tool to have a collaborative learning experience from a "read-aloud."  You could have students use post-it notes on posters using "evidence from the text"  to answer essential questions hanging on papers.   You could have table collaboratively "take a position" based upon evidence from the read-aloud.  This could be as simple as asking an essential question such as, "Why do you think the mouse was so smart?"  after Mr. Maxwell's Mouse.   "What in the book text, made you think the mouse was smart?"   Or, "What made this meal disastrous?"  Or, "How did the mouse save his own life through questions?" .... You probably do this currently, but don't bother to formally collect evidence for this.   You could use graphic organizers, graffiti walls, graffiti place-mats or more to archive evidence.   

Here are  other no-cost ways to improve your image and show you are an instructional partner: 

• Create a "Spotlight on Non-Fiction" display front and center - Spotlight Non-fiction titles that have great difficult vocabulary:  Gross but Great; Diseases you don't want to catch!;  Places you should see when you make your million: etc.
• Ask, inquire of, teachers: Which ELA learning components would benefit their students?  Partner with the teachers to tackle, decoding vocabulary, evidence-based writing, writing from sources, or researching to build and present knowledge.  If you initiate the dialog, then the teacher will see you as an instructional partner. 
• Don't wait for them to come to you and ask to collaborate.  Go to them--the CCSS says,   "Research to build and present knowledge."  How can I help you do that? 

Google Diet Alternative for the Digital Omnivores

So by now you have probably heard Google is mining data and delivers biased search results.   Many are asking, so then what do we have to offer our students in return?  That's like saying vanilla ice cream is bad and what else can we dish up?   Here's the scoop on other Google alternatives which dig a bit deeper into the information banquet for all those digital omnivores:

• www.Yippy.com   Clusty.com  recently changed their name and they don't data mine.  Results are valid, unbiased, unmined, and a good alternative to Google. 
• www.Sweetsearch.com   is a great new tool to scoop information on an educational topic. (See widget below sample from SweetSearch.)
• www.Sweetsearch4me.com  is a great new tool for elementary learners - Try this too along with their other products such as SweetSearch Biographies.
• http://www.blekko.com/  or  Blekko "Slash the Web..." alternatives actually encourage teachers to model narrowing the search via major and minor words within the search engine structure.  Kids might think this is "cool"
• www.incywincy.com  - Offers a search for forms and other deeper digging into the invisible web. 
• www.Scienceresearch.com  & www.SciTopia.org   are two search engines you might want to try with secondary science students.

How will students know they prefer vanilla, if they never venture to try another flavor? 

Innovative Assessment

Innovative Assessment?  How does that differ from what I've done before?  Well... hopefully it doesn't.  Then, you could consider yourself a master teacher and can help those around you.  However, with the Common Core Standards (CCSS) arriving on July 1st, we should all be ready to archive "Assessment Artifacts."   That is, artifacts that measure students' growth and your efficacy of  instruction.    

At a data conference last week, I presented a session on Innovative Assessment.  This was not rocket science.  This was not anything relatively new.  However, it surprises me that people react to what is presented as though this is novel and noteworthy.  All it really was, is a new way to use old tricks.   I had 10 new uses for older tools.  These 10 tools are high-tech, low-tech, and no-tech ways to pre-assess and post assess your instruction to prove you are impacting student achievement. 
Let's face it: Information Literacy is not a "tested" area.  Therefore, is we want to show our impact, we have to create the data and share or spotlight our impact.  
In a perfect world, we will have our curriculum mapped and will have all our EQ's ready to roll.  Therefore, we could in September, give our students a pre-test with every EQ on a sheet, computer, questioneer, performance based example, etc.   In theory they will flop.   Then in June, we should be able to give the same EQ's on a list-- basically the same test--and they should Ace this test, if we've delivered instruction in such a way for achievement.  
If that seems out of reach, then I would suggest creating "Assessment Artifacts" that can be filed and brought out upon review with any Administrator.   Plan your lessons with an innovative pre & post assessment, and your building administrators will think you have your act together.   The biggest word for next year will be assessment.  Start planning your assessment portfolio now.  Listed below are teo ideas for innovative pre and post assessment.  Stay tuned this week for additional INNOVATIVE ASSESSMENT IDEAS. 

* WORDLE as pre & post assessment  - If I were teaching research skills to a class, I might have my smartboard open to the Wordle.net site.  I could ask the class:  "What do you need for research?"   Assuming they know a little, their responses might look like this:



After instruction, you could ask the same question.  Their responses should visually show growth as above.  This wordle assessment was suggested by Laurie Alden in SGF after she used this with her 3rd graders on their Rainforest project.    If your students did this individually, they could archive their wordle at the beginning and the end of their research projects.  -'Even on their blog, if you are working in a digital research platform.    This is homework they will do! 

*  Polleverywhere.com   - I like to call this "covert assessment."  In schools where children are considered petty criminals if they whip out their cell phone, I would speculate that you would have 1000% participation if you created a  pre-assessment poll in which you allowed them to answer questions via texting.     Polleverwhere will even give you the disclaimer language to read before you open the poll "text messaging fees will apply...blah blah."  However, we all know that most all teens have unlimited texting. 

The simple poll results can be archived  as your pre-assessment.  After the lesson, ask the same question and archive your post lesson results.       Here is what the pre-assessment might look like:

A librarian might choose to ask a question such as, "If you wanted to ascertain whether a website was credible, where should you look?"   or "Which of the following is not important when evaluating whether to use a website?" 

All your archived assessment artifacts will be ready to share with administrators looking for your efficacy of instruction.  

Two more tomorrow....

National Woe...Where will the librarians go?

A college friend of mine just sent me a link to the Michigan equivalent of the New York Teacher magazine. Why? She was sharing an article entitled, Vanishing Act: what's happening to school librarians. (It's a large .pdf file, but worth reading. See hyperlink above)

Despite the national research which shows a direct correlation between healthy library programs and student achievement, districts are cutting costs by excessing their information professionals. This is akin to not going to the doctor because you can't afford the co-pay. Or, deciding you can't pay for gas for your car, but we'll keep the car in the driveway for others to use who may or may not know how to drive. Not being mandatory at the elementary level in NY, librarians are easy targets for schools who are short-sighted and more concerned with making ends meet or balancing their bottom line.

We are living in the information age, and we all know that this Millennial generation can access anything, but can't analyze or synthesize it. Information professionals are the ones who teach this Generation Me how toevaluate the info they've found to determine whether it's: Credible, Accurate, Reliable and Supported (CARS). Cybrarians act as a learning concierge to foster higher level thought and give students the opportunity to investigate their own questions, evaluate the answers found, and construct meaning of the data. Where else do they do that? Not sitting in all those classrooms preparing for state and national assessments--that's for sure.

Teachers are encouraged by librarians to create authentic learning research projects where students are stretched to find meaning and reach learning objectives at the same time. That's called Inquiry. That's called PBL, "Challenged Based Learning", or Activity Based Learning.

Visit your librarian today and ask him/her to help you create a unit of discovery, infused with information, and in support of your learning standards. Chances are you'll find someone who will point you to quality information resources, help create a unit with compelling essential questions, suggest some quality literature, and be excited to guide your students down a road of discovery. If they don't help you--then they may sincerely be cut and replaced by someone who can.

Cisco publicizes "new" mode for 21st Century Learning

Well thanks to CISCO, there's another term for Inquiry -- Education 3.0

MIT calls it Challenged Based Learning
Harvard calls it Activity Based Learning
AASL calls it Inquiry Based Learning and
Partnership for 21st Century Learning calls it PBL.

Although we seem to be fracturing the concept into many names, the concepts are all related to fostering higher level thought, deepen the learning experience, and create question-askers and life-long learners. We're all in the same game, marching toward the same goal. In the end, let's hope the students win the game.

One line particularly interesting was "technology isn't just layered on top of traditional processes. Instead, technology is woven seamlessly through all aspects of education...interconnecting all facets of school life, and truly revolutionizing the edication experience. If you're not part of the revolution, you might need to take up arms. " CISCO's mantra could sound like it was lifted right off the pages of ISTE, AASL, P-21.org or somewhere else: "Education 3.0 ...creates a transformational, hands-on learning environment that help motivate students to develop the skills and knowledge they'll need in the modern world: problem solving, critical thinking, innovation, business literacy, and collaboration."


Go CISCO. Go Cybrarian -- strut your stuff and create a lifelong learning environment! Here are some one-liners for fostering collaboration:

• Hey, I found a great new resource and I'd love to try it on a [science ] project.
• Wow, I'd love to build a wiki for your students. They could each have a page to post great quotes they found in their reading books.
• Can I experiment with your [class] [mythology] project using a blog?
• How can I help you create a 21st-Century project for this topic?
• Wow, you probably didn't notice, but these questions can all be answered by a simple question on Google. Can we brainstorm together to create some higher-level thought compelling Inquiry questions?
• It looks like you have already designed this unit. Would you mind if I add an optional web 2.o piece for student engagement? To see if all this web 2.0 hype is true?

http://www.cisco.com/go/education

Vacation's over & it's time to teach

The tyranny of the holiday urgent is now gone and we're back in education mode. So why not start the year out with an educational resolution? Here's one:

Concentrate on creating Information Literate students.

Why? Administrators like this.
Kids need this.
Colleges are asking for this.
It might save your job.
It is measurable and visible.

Research shows that this generation is tech savvy, but information illiterate--and so are many educators. Information literacy is not a skill that begins the secondary education world, but needs to begin when kids begin online. Challenge: embed an information literacy lesson somewhere in every lesson. Encourage your students to share this with their parents or teacher.

Even if your lesson is in print form, give the students the electronic equivalent. If you are still teaching "indexes" you may need to replace that paradigm with "keyword searching." The "index" as we know it has a terminal illness. It's dying a slow torturous death of obsolete-ism. Unfortunately, we know that it showed us information can be organized. The Millennials live in a world of random access, and organization is a novel idea they may not understand. Use that Smartboard and show them keyword searching right next to the index, if you can't let go of the old ....

When teaching a research unit, or resources, make sure you mention the pitfalls of poor sites. They'll probably go home and use Wikipedia (so says the PewInternet.org site which reports 55% of teens use it), but at least we can caution against its bias. Check out the Wikipedia entries on the American Revolution. Do you think that all those English entries thought George Washington was heroic?

Our information world is evolving so fast there are now new circles called "smart mobs". This is the power that instantly is unleashed using social networking connections. Check out this book which portrays the information circle as a force yet to be discovered by many, if you think social networks are a passing fad: http://www.smartmobs.com/book/book_summ.html . If you are just one step ahead of the kids -- that's o.k. You have perspective. They only have skill.

So let's speak so others will notice:tell them something new, fresh and bold. Shock them with a statistic, grab their attention, and teach them. Afterall, 86% of teens believe writing is extrememly important, but 50% have admitted that they have used improper IM language in school. Go figure....http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2008/Writing-Technology-and-Teens.aspx?r=1