My Teaching Place
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My Teaching Place
SCASL '13 Keynotes
Dr. Keith Curry Lance presented a large amount of intriguing research that left me dazed and confused. I tried to take notes during the address, but it was all I could do to keep up with the fast pace of the analysis of numbers and statistics. I need to go through his slides later and really take time to look at the numbers again. I think I will need someone handy to help me make the best use of the information he presented. Like, maybe one of my SLIS professors. I left feeling that school librarians are proven to be important to student success, but that this particular librarian is no statistical wizard.
Full house at SCASL
From my notes:- staffing and certification are directly related to increases in student achievement
- schools with certified librarians have a higher percentage of advanced students
- librarians positively impact writing scores
- providing librarians with support staff positively impacts student achievement.
This infographic, found on Joyce Valenza's NeverEnding Search Blog, contains some of the general information Dr. Curry Lance presented. http://blogs.slj.com/neverendingsearch/2013/03/06/school-library-infographics-research-and-advocacy/
Dr. Linda Karges-Bone's address just floored me. I felt important as a teacher librarian AND smarter after her address.
Her address was titled "The Seven Signatures of Highly Successful Schools- Can you read the handwriting on the wall?"
A career of educational consulting has led Dr. Karges-Bone to notice specific similarities and differences of highly performing / achieving school and struggling schools. As a PhD and researcher she is invited to two types of schools- successful schools or schools that are "going extinct", that are about to be taken over by the state department of education, failing schools etc. Basically, the schools she has worked with have been either highly successful or the extreme opposite. Over time, she has noted that successful schools shared some common practices.
From my notes:
From my notes:
Successful schools
Dr. Karges-Bone
- honor and respect the learning differences of students
- don't try to do everything in the same way for each child or teacher
- respect differences of educators as well as students
- look at potential, (potential of students and teachers) in multiple ways not just one, and not just in the form of standardized tests.
The Seven Signatures
1. Patience and proof guide instruction and assessment. Successful schools allow programs to settle in and do their work and give teachers time to find their rhythm.
2. Successful schools display positive messages that increase performance.
These schools have a good feeling or tone which is not to be confused with loose trite "self esteem " efforts. Growth praise is important - give specific tactical praise. This specific type of praise is proven to impact the brain.
Research proves that just telling someone good job shuts down the brain. The comment is ignored, dismissed. Specific praise, however, impacts the brain positively. There is more information on how to praise people effectively.
3. A powerful push to literacy exists in successful schools.
4. Highly successful schools have a pleasing, sensory rich environment for students to enjoy and learn in with displays of people's work throughout the campus.
5. Excellent schools are pushed by long range planning leading to change. Planning three years out not three months out. Data is considered from a long term aspect.
6. Successful schools are poised for the dynamic and are even defiant. They say no to practices and programs that do not support their mission and beliefs.
7. Highly Successful schools are piloted by teachers who are nurtured and free to pursue their passions. The children are not first, the adults are! Teachers cannot do their work or even good work if they do not feel comfortable, nurtured, and then they can put children first. Teachers are treated very well in highly successful schools, not overworked, not continually given more, more, more to do, their time is respected and they are paid for extra work. Mundane tasks are done for them so they can focus on the students. These schools invest in people not programs.
Struggling schools are forgetting steps in the learning cycle. They are skipping motivation, apprehending and focus and going straight to acquisition, retention recall, generalization.
Children who can't read on grade level by age nine probably never will be able to read on grade level. Those children have a higher incarceration rate. Some states use reading scores to predict the number of prison beds they need.
All said and done, these two keynotes were fantastic as far as leaving me with much more than I came with, more tools to advocate with.
My next post will feature the notable sessions I attended at SCASL '13.
Notes from the AASL Fall Forum
Henry Jenkins, Kristin Fontichiaro and Barbara Jansen helped school librarians develop a better understanding of transliteracy and reading in a participatory culture in a warm collegial atmosphere at the AASL Fall Forum this past Friday and Saturday. David Lankes had an emergency that forced him to cancel. He was missed.
Here is a list of general big ideas, quotes and resources that I came away with and you might find useful too.
*Henry Jenkins’ definition of Participatory Culture – “1. Relatively low barriers for engagement. 2. Strong support for sharing creations with others. 3. Informal mentorship. 4. Members believe their contributions matter. 5. Care about others’ opinions of self and work. Not every member must contribute, but all must believe that they are free to contribute when ready and that what they contribute will be appropriately valued.”
*Transliteracy Definition - I latched on to one of the definitions that Kristin Fontichiaro had in one of her slides: “Transliteracy describes a set of skills to “read”, create, negotiate, interact with, and understand content in many genres or formats and the ability to move between them.” Visit her blog to view her slides. Don’t feel bad if you don’t know what transliteracy is!
*The Chicago Public Library’s You Media does an excellent job of facilitating learning experiences and mixing books and technology. School librarians can get plenty of ideas and inspiration from the YouMedia programs and physical space.
*School librarians are in the perfect position to “bridge the gap of participation” in reading and online communities. Participating is creating.
*Check out the You Tube Video of the Professor and Participatory culture and the Project New Media Literacies website –Lots to get here! http://playnml.wikispaces.com/PLAY%21
*Jenkins’ Four C’s of Participatory Culture = Collaborate, Circulate, Connect, Create
*Fontichiaro re-mixed the Four C’s above into six, adding cogitate and comprehend
*Check out the Harry Potter Alliance at http://thehpalliance.org/
*We can learn a great deal from remaking, mashing up and rewriting. An excellent example of this is Ricardo Pitts-Wiley’s work with incarcerated and at risk youth re-writing Moby Dick. Read Henry Jenkins’ blog post to learn more about this and check out MC Lars’s Moby Dick Rap, “Ahab.”
*An idea for active novel reading: give each student a photocopy of a page of a book and let them annotate and illustrate it.
* Teach students that Wikipedia is a process not a product.
*If a student’s only audience is his/her teacher, authenticity and learning potential becomes limited.
* Charles Friedman’s definition of Informantics is person plus computer is greater than person.In this same spirit, student plus computer plus school should be greater than student plus computer. Are we using technology in a way that makes this true? Is technology use in education enhancing our students’ content knowledge? Fontichiaro asked: “How far have we come in using computers to promote cognitive growth in the past 35ish years?”
*My understanding of the culminating point that Fontichiaro made in her presentation is that Vigorous learning with technology should: focus on content and curriculum, move students toward synthesis, be authentic and meaningful to the student, require a strong understanding of the genre or format being used to demonstrate learning, be as student-centered as possible, be greater than or enhance what a student could do without the technology.
*We looked at an entertaining YouTube video of a student’sHamlet report and discussed whether there was evidence of any of the elements above. Can you spot the learning?
*What does a good technology project look like? Attendees worked collaboratively in three different states to explore this question. See the documents here : http://bitly.com/bundles/activelearning/4
Barbara Jansen and Henry Jenkins wrapped up the forum together. I appreciated their uplifting and thoughtful messages. My head was spinning with all the learning! I know my students and faculty are going to benefit from everything I learned from this experience.
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