LOL Librarian

Starting a new year and getting back into the swing of school means I was cruising through my drive in an effort to clean up the tomb. The benefits of doing this, is stumbling across documents you've forgotten and that were shared with you. This is a chance to breath new life into them.  My former colleague, Nadine Bailey  was the first one to introduce me to Hyperdocs as a tool to deepen comprehension and analyze text. Hyperdocs were developed by Lisa Highfill , Kelly Hilton  and Sarah Landis  and they discuss them through the lens of being a change agent, teachers can use this versatile tool for almost any subject and more importantly have their students make connections using different media, through videos, pictures, etc. I strongly encourage you to check out their site  https://hyperdocs.co . For guided reading, hyperdocs are a fantastic tool to deepen comprehension and analysis skills since students are working with the  text  in a meaningf...

Being a specialist teacher provides us with the big picture of our students. Literally, we observe the spectrum of learning on a daily basis, we observe a range of learning styles and therefore we have tendency to make generalizations. An interesting trend happens around Grade 2 and Grade 3, students struggle to ask questions. I have given them beautiful action packed nonfiction books and they just ask if they should research and take notes. When I prompted them by asking what they are wondering about, I'm met with blank stares. Questioning is on the mind's of many  educators , not just mine. Asking questions, gives the learner power over their learning. So for the past two years I have made it my mission to encourage questioning from multiage to Grade 5, especially when beginning research.  I've got a variety of tools including little question rings. I use a lot of 'think/pair/share' since talking about their interests or wonderings seems to help promote deeper thi...

The library has many new titles available, especially in our nonfiction section. Nonfiction books have much to offer children, and they are much more than books on planets, history or animals. Children love creating. In the library we have many different kinds of 'How To' books: cooking, crafts, origami, drawing, music, magic and sports. Featured below are some new titles in the library: click the link to find out more about them. There is a wealth of research out there that encourages children to read nonfiction books for pleasure since the reality is as the move up in grades more and more of their reading will be nonfiction. If they develop good nonfiction reading habits now, it will improve their comprehension later.

What a week in the library! It flew by in a flurry of books and smiling new faces. We had good discussions about 'Sharing is Caring' when it comes to books and reminders to check under beds and in wardrobes for summer titles that haven't come back to the library. Eager hands reached for summer popular favourites such as the latest installment of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, but students were open-minded and willing to try something new. I'm a big believer in the power and the joy of reading nonfiction . And I'm going to encourage students to inquire into a variety of genres over the next month. When I was reading the paper on Saturday I stumbled across an inspirational article in the BBC news about ' Reading the World in 196 books '. The author Amy Morgan decided to read something from every country in 365 days. And it go me thinking, can this a happen in our school? Reading for pleasure is very important and exposure to a variety of texts helps develop comprehensi...