The Human Library!!!!

We recently held a Human Library event here at R.H. Lagerquist. Inspiration for the event was taken from Human Library.org.

The Human Library is an innovative method designed to promote dialogue, reduce prejudices and encourage understanding.The main characteristics of the project are to be found in its simplicity and positive approach.

In its initial form the Human Library is a mobile library set up as a space for dialogue and interaction. Visitors to a Human Library are given the opportunity to speak informally with “people on loan”; this latter group being extremely varied in age, sex and cultural background.

The Human Library enables groups to break stereotypes by challenging the most common prejudices in a positive and humorous manner. It is a concrete, easily transferable and affordable way of promoting tolerance and understanding.

It is a “keep it simple”, “no-nonsense” contribution to social cohesion in multicultural societies. Read more about the history .

The aim of the day was to expose students to the varied and vast experiences of their teachers. We wanted to show the human side of people working in the building. The goal was to open students eyes to the fact that as teachers we do more than mark tests. The event stayed small with only 12 books and we had students loan out these books in groups of about 20. We had a whole variety of different books available. Some teachers discussed their travels to other countries, or childhood experiences, others discussed trying out for Canadian Idol. We had a very good mix of books available to students.
Ideally I would have liked to search for community members that could also participate in the Human Library but for our first attempt I kept the library small. It was successful students said they really enjoyed the event. I will definitely plan another library for next year. I had included some small sound clips in this entry to give you an idea of what the Human Library was like for the kids.

Used Book Sale in Support of Southern Ontario Animal Rescue

It's been a while since anything was last posted here. We've been extremely busy and the time has flown by. So much has happened and every time I planned to sit down and write a post I found myself interrupted. So now sitting in the quiet of my living room I have found the time to report on our goings on.

Today we held a used book sale in the library. The sale was arranged by a group of grade 6 students who wished to raise money for SOAR, which is an animal rescue association. The students, with the help of their teacher, Mrs. Camarda made announcements about the upcoming sale and also collected used books. Mrs. Camarda and I picked a date for the sale and we helped the students make signs and set up the books for sale. I helped to supervise the students while Mrs. Camarda made a schedule for classes to visit the library. The money and sales were handled solely by the students. Mrs. Camarda and I were simply there to assist. The kids did a fantastic job with the sale. They were very responsible they set up the books and also cleaned up after the sale was complete. They were an excellent set of workers.

In all the students raised 83$ for SOAR. They were very proud of themselves and we were extremely excited to see them work so independently on something that has such a positive effect. Well done kids!!

The Twits by Roald Dahl and using Imovie to Summarize!

Having recently purchased Imovie for our iPads, Mrs. Camarda and myself decided to utilize the pre-made trailers within Imovie as a tool for teaching students to summarize a novel. Mrs. Camarda utilized an audio book version of "The Twits" by Roald Dahl to read the story to students, in class. They then completed several comprehension activities with in the classroom.
Mrs. Camarda and I then sat down to plan how we would introduce the idea of creating a movie trailer to the students. We decided to have the students create a storyboard that showed, in detail each scene they would film. We asked them to think about the important events in the book and how those events would look were you to view them in movie format.  Each trailer comes pre-made with background music and captions which students could edit. The students were told to choose a particular style of trailer and then to plan out their scenes using the storyboard we provided to them. Students were given two periods to create their storyboards and to plan out their props, etc.
The filming was completed in the library. The different groups were able to spread out and utilize different areas of the library for their scenes. Many of the students created some pretty impressive props which included wings for the bird and a real pie. Students were then given three class periods to film their scenes, and edit their work. Students were very excited about the project and worked well with each other. They began to get creative with their work. In one instance students made balloons out of construction paper then laid them on the floor and a student pretended to hold on to them to create the appearance that he was flying. Other students utilized the screen shot feature in the iPads to take images from the web, edit them using our photo editing app, then insert these images into their trailers. One group asked to utilize an app that puts beards on people to insert an image of Mr. Twit into their work. There were very few conflicts, etc.
The end result has been extremely positive. The trailers are well done and students have shown a general enjoyment of the project.

We asked several students what they feel they have learned from this project. The following are direct quotations from the students.

"I learned that in a group you can't use all of your own ideas you have to compromise."
"Things have to get cut out sometimes or changed if you want to finish the project."
"There's a lot we can do with an iPad."
"Summarizing is hard you really have to focus on the important parts because not everything can fit in the trailer."

Mrs. Camarda and I talked about these comments after the students had left and we were impressed with their perceptions of the learning. They weren't interested in reciting facts to us rather the students mentioned learning life skills like creativity, flexibility and the ability to cooperate. We feel the project has been very successful and hopefully we will post several of the trailers here for people to view.

Finished Aboriginal Projects

I would like to display some of our finished projects from the grade 6 aboriginal peoples unit. Please see the blog entry entitled The Actual Assignment Pages to refresh your memory as to what the assignment entailed. Students were very enthusiastic about the assignment. They worked hard to complete the assignment and worked well together. Mrs. Camarda and myself worked hard to have to students conference with each other in order to ensure that each part of the assignment was completed. I have included samples of the students work below.

1. The Cree - this is a power point presentation which has been uploaded to a Google drive file. 
2. The following images display the models of traditional aboriginal wigwams, teepees, longhouses, etc.

Wigwam

A Salish house

A Longhouse

A teepee

Salish Longhouse

A Wigwam

The whole collection

The following images show some of the display boards that students created for their presentations.

A Story board for an Iroquois Creation Story

A presentation board on the Blackfoot

All about the Iroquois

A drawing of a teepee that explains different parts of the structure

All about the Salish

Mrs. Camarda and I consider the project to have been quite successful. The students have learned a great deal. They were able to be creative and  appeared to enjoy the work. They were enthusiastic and confident when they presented to their classmates. This is the first time that we have run this particular project with the students and Mrs. Camarda and I will discuss some things that we plan on changing in the future. This however is what teaching is all about. We learn just as much as the kids do each time we prepare and present a unit. Sometimes the manner in which a project is introduced is changed or the order in which the background information is changed. Each time a unit is taught there are always little changes or tweaks for the better. Teachers analyze and assess the effectiveness of a given unit and then work towards building it into something better each time it is taught. 

Shattered, by Eric Walters - The Culminating task!!!

I have recently begun collaborating with one of our grade 8 teachers on the unit design and culminating task for her novel study unit on the novel Shattered, by Eric Walters. Mrs. Naidu approached me a short while ago to discuss the design of her novel study. We discussed what she hoped to achieve with students as well as her main goals in using this particular novel. We worked on designing different comprehension activities for students to discuss and complete in class.

Here's the book trailer.

Mrs. Naidu wanted students to learn about social issues, to analyze a novel and discuss the themes presented within the novel. We found some graphic organizers that would assist the students in analyzing the novel and then we planned the culminating task.

A culminating task is an activity that wraps up the particular unit and requires students to utilize the skills they were taught as they read the novel. A culminating task should require students to think critically about themes and information and then display what they have learned for the teacher and their peers. Essentially, it is the grand finale of learning.

For the culminating task, we wanted to design a task where students had to think about social issues, charity organizations and then discuss these charities. We asked students to find and research a particular charity. They were asked to learn about the mission statement, volunteer opportunities and how the charity delivered its services to the public. Students were then asked to discuss and explain the charity utilizing the iPad  Students could choose from a variety of apps including educreations and explain a website. They were to record their opinions and thoughts about their selected charity.

Students were able to complete their research of the charity in one class and are currently working on writing out their thoughts on the charity and developing a script before they begin recording, filming, etc. their final presentation on the iPad.

I'll be back with more info later. :))))))

Researching How Everyday Objects are Made

The grade 7 classes have just begun a new research project here in the library. Students are utilizing their knowledge of mixtures to help them research and understand how everyday items like toothpaste, soft drinks and steel are made. Students are required to research these items using both digital and print resources for information.

The students were taught about mixtures during class time. They were required to read about mixtures from the textbooks, teacher notes and videos. Students then completed questions on mixtures and ensured they understood the content through class discussions. The students then chose a topic and read through the assignment page.The science teachers and I then booked the classes into the library for an introduction to research and then time for researching. Students were given three periods to complete research and to start building the digital presentation of their work.

The important part of this project was to create a framework from which students could organize their thoughts and ideas about the project. When the students came to the library to begin their research we discussed the importance of being focused on what they needed to find. I first talked with the kids about the important piece of understanding we wanted them to gain from this project. The kids were quite perceptive and they were able to conclude that we wanted them to understand how classroom notes and information could be used in the real world. We wanted students to see a practical application for the use of mixtures.

We then set up a framework for understanding the content and got the kids thinking about what they needed to learn. We had students create a KWL chart which stands for "I know", "I want to know" and "I Learned". We established prior knowledge with the kids. We had them assess their understanding of the item they were researching to find out if they knew a lot about the subject or very little. This is the "I know" part of the learning. We then had them think about their items and come up with things they wanted to know about their topic. In other words where were their gaps in knowledge and which parts of the research did they really need to focus on?

Our next step was have students peruse and scan the print resources available in the library. They discovered that there was an awful lot of information in the books and a lot of it was easier to find that information from the internet. Kids started putting information down in the "I Learned" section of their chart. As they did this they discovered that they had more questions they needed to ask. The students showed that they were thinking about what they were reading by adding in new questions and crossing out ones for which they had found the information.  

We also directed students to our Library eResources. The Peel Board has paid for and provides students with access to a wide range of digital resources including encyclopaedias, dictionaries and catalogues. The students were introduced to Britannica Online and began their online research from this site. 

During the second period of their research students we began with a quick discussion about goals and plans for that particular period. We asked students to look at the assignment page assess what was most important to complete that period and to have a quick discussion with us about their plans. Hopefully, this continued to provide students with a framework from which to work and got them thinking about staying focused on the topic at hand. Students were enthusiastic about the project and I had several of them in today working during the lunch on the completion of their research. They are just beginning to build their digital presentations.

Students were told they could use either Prezi, Frames 4 or Powerepoint to help build their presentations. We asked them to utilize the program they were most comfortable using. I plan on posting some of their work once it is completed. 

School Library Staffing is on the Decline

In an earlier entry I discussed staffing and formulas used to decide just how much staffing a school library receives  The reality is that funding for school libraries is in heavy decline. Funding for libraries has been decreasing. Statistics and many different studies say this is a bad thing. A recent article by CBC News discussed a report by People for Education. The report discusses the decline of school libraries and the important role libraries play in student success.

The report by the group People for Education found 56 per cent of Ontario elementary schools in 2010 have at least one full- or part-time teacher-librarian, an accredited teacher who has library training. That's down from 80 per cent in the 1997/1998 school year, according to the report, which was released Monday morning.

Meanwhile, 66 per cent of secondary schools across the province have at least one teacher-librarian, down from 78 per cent in 2000/2001, when the group first started tracking data for high schools. CBC News

Libraries play an important role within the school. It offers a place for work to be completed, literacy to be encouraged and perhaps its most important role is as a support resource role for teachers. Quite often I meet with teachers to discuss teaching strategies and ideas for promoting literacy and content understanding, in their students.

Annie Kidder from People for Education also sites the importance of Libraries in helping to improve student achievement.

Teacher-librarians play an important role in helping children find information, evaluate and thinking critically about it and then applying it, said Annie Kidder, the executive director of the group in an interview.

"These kinds of skills that sort of help kids in what we are calling these days the knowledge economy are incredibly important," she said.   

When I first arrived at Lagerquist,  9 years ago, as a classroom teacher we had a full time Librarian who supported teachers through many different initiatives including the Forest of Reading and a research skills program. She was reduced to 80% the following year and then as years passed the job was again reduced to 50%. It was only this past year that the allocation was increased due to the arrival of grade 6 students at our school.

The state of our library is pretty good all things considered. We have new computer and work tables as well as well as Wi-Fi and a full computer lab available right in the library. We have a supportive principal who believes in the importance of a library and she has given me a lot of freedom to encourage use of the library. Students are free to visit during the day to complete work and to utilize technology. We are extremely short on books though. We're about 1000 titles short for a school our size but fundraising efforts are helping this. Visit our adopt a school site. I enjoy having the library open as much as possible in order to help students and teachers. I notice an excitement in the kids when we discuss books and kids are flocking to the technology we are offering students in the library.

There are many schools that can't say they have this much, I know that but this doesn't mean we can't keep building towards something even better. This is my goal to build up the library to make it the hub of the school.

An Update on the Aboriginal Peoples project

Students are working well on the project and seem to be enjoying the activity. They are productive and are starting to produce some amazing work. I've included some images here of their work in progress.

So far students have utilized the web and a variety of books to search for information, make notes and begin work on their final product. We have taught students to look for info in the books by utilizing the table of contents and the index. They have been quite successful at finding infomation in the text sources we've given them.

The hardest part of the whole project for students seems to have been skimming through internet information to find what they need. Students look for websites that will discuss exactly the information they need. They struggle with the idea that a website might be a site that contains information about Iroquois but that it will be broken down into subsections.

One young lady was rather frustrated that there were no sites that specifically discussed the types of tools used to build longhouses. It took a while to explain to her that she needed to scroll through the site on the Iroquois and find a section about the longhouse and that if she read that section she would find out how they built longhouses. Students seem to have a need for the information to pop up instantly. The hardest part of all of this is teaching them to research not expect the answers to be there at their beck and call.
         

How do you battle that? How do you get a student to start researching properly?

The answer is simple. You really have to reinforce the concept of skim and scan. You also have to be extremely patient. I have found that time and time again I will say to the same students.

"Slow down read the site carefully. The information is there hiding and you have to search for it. Research is like a scavenger hunt. The answers aren't obvious. If they were there would be no challenge to the whole task." 

Learning to research is like learning to walk. First you crawl, then you stumble and fall, but if you keep trying you start to walk and then  run. Research is the same way. It takes for ever to find the info you're looking for. Then you have to read through a site and discover it might not be what you were looking for but then when you find what you need the whole project moves at great speed. The kids will get it we just have to be patient and guide them.

Dare Arts and Aboriginal Schools

Dare Arts And the Dare to Draw Program

This year R.H. Lagerquist students participated in the Dare to Draw program. The program is aimed at teaching students social awareness and giving them an opportunity to help others out through art. 

Dare Arts has paired with Aboriginal schools in northern Ontario in the hopes of raising awareness about the condition of these schools. Here's a description of the program borrowed from their website.

In the ‘DARE to Draw Attention’ program, children are dared to create original darearts cards in their schools to draw attention to serious issues affecting children. The kids choose their medium - from paint, pencil crayons, pastels to a variety of other mediums. They then sell their cards at a suggested donation of $5 each. Schools are given the option to sell the cards themselves, holding onto $2 per card to help support their own activities, or to return the cards to darearts to be sold to individuals and corporations.

We have displayed and sold our cards during open house night and also during parent/teacher interview night. I've taken some photos of our cards and the display boards students made. Students are very excited about the project and have been very enthusiastic about getting their parents to purchase their artwork and make then into real artists who sell their work. Thanks to everyone who bought cards I will let you know when the large display happens with all the other schools here in Ontario.

Canadian Geographic recently covered the school and housing crisis facing nothern reserves.

The Actual Assignment pages.

Yesterday I posted a description of a collaborative project that I completed with some grade 6  students and their teacher Mrs. Camarda.

Today I've pasted in the assignment pages for our First Nations Assignment so that you can see the roles that we supplied to the kids. Hopefully, this gives you an idea of the structure we have created for this assignment. Please see the Two Heads are Better than One post for more info on the assignment.

Aboriginal Unit:  Culminating Task

You will be placed into groups.  Each group will have the task of researching one of the following Aboriginal Groups:     

Cree (Subarctic Region)

·         Haida (Northwest Coast Region)

·         Interior Salish (Plateau Region)

·         Inuit (Arctic Region)

·         Iroqouis (Eastern Woodlands)

·         Blackfoot  (Plains)

As a group you will need to complete the following tasks that will be presented at our Potlatch at the end of this unit.

Task 1

Find a myth/story from the group that you are studying.  Create a four square sketch of the stories important scenes. 

Write a paragraph on why this story would be important to your tribes culture and what message or lesson your group thinks it is trying to teach.

Task 2

Research the art and culture of your tribe.  Look at the fact sheet provided and decide on an individual and art form that you would like to research and describe in your report.

Task 3

Describe the lifestyle that was lived by these tribes before contact with the Europeans.  Look at the fact sheet provided for key words that you could use to begin your research.  Look at what their homes looked like, what tools they used to gather food and survive the harsh climate, how they travelled or transported goods.

Task 4

As a group, once you have researched your tribe, you will come together and design a flag that represents the people of your tribe.  Also, you will need to share a dish during the potlatch that you think best represents these people that you can share with the rest of the class.

That was page 1. Here's page 2.

The Story Teller  Checklist

1.       Your task is to find 2 myths from the particular tribe you are researching. 

2.      Create a four square sketch for each story. 

These should be drawn neatly and coloured in.        

3.       Write one paragraph on the importance of one of these stories. 

What is the main idea of the story?

What is the theme? 

In your opinion, how do you think this story was used by the tribe in

order to help them survive?                                      

Cultural Attaché

1.       Research an art or musical style from the particular tribe you are researching.

2.       Find 2 examples of your art or musical form.  This can be a photo, a music video

or an audio file.

3.       Create a paragraph about the artist who created these pieces of art work.

Who is the artist?

When did they begin drawing/singing/sculpting, etc?

Where did they learn this art form?

What type of message are they trying to send with their art?

What is your opinion of this art form.  Do you like it?  Why/Why not? 

Life and Style Reporter A

1.       Research what it was like to live like the tribe you are researching.

Start with researching the types of homes they lived in.  Ask for a

“Constructing a Model of an Early First Nation Home”  Sheet  from Mrs. Camarda.

2.      Create a good copy drawing or a 3-D model.

3.       Write a paragraph describing the home.

What tools and materials were used for construction?

What items could be found inside the home?

Who was in charge of the home and what were their jobs? (ex. Mom’s were in

Charge of cooking meals, dad’s hunting and gathering food.)

Life and Style Reporter B

1.       Research the clothing that the tribe you are looking at wore. 

2.       In a paragraph, describe what they wore on an everyday basis and if

there were any pieces of clothing used for special occasions or ceremonies.

3.       Provide at least two examples of everyday wear and two examples of

ceremonial dress.

The Food Critic

1.       It is your task to find any interesting facts about how the tribe you are

researching found their food source. 

2.       Write a paragraph about how they were able to feed their tribe.  Think about the following questions.

How did they find food?  Were they farmers, fishers, hunters, etc?

How did they prepare their food to eat?

What tools did they use to prepare their food or kill it?

3.       Provide at least three pictures of how they found and prepared their food.

Hope this gives a good idea about what the project was all about. 

Two Heads are Better than One: The Advantage of Collaboration!

Today I would like to discuss the beginnings of a great collaborative relationship with one of my colleagues, Mrs. Clara Camarda.

We have worked together to create and structure a research project for her grade 6 classes. Collaboration is important and so is structuring the research for students.  It's not good enough to say to students, "Here's your topic! Here's your due date! On your marks get set go." In almost every case releasing the hounds, so to speak will not result in effective research.

Lets begin with collaboration.... The old saying two heads are better than one is absolutely correct.

Research projects can be complicated, time consuming and overwhelming for both a teacher and the students, having a second set of hands to assist with the whole event is very important.

Today at school Mrs. Camarda and I engaged in collaborative teaching with her grade 6 classes. The students are beginning a research project on Canada's aboriginal people's. Students are being asked to learn about their history, culture and the lives of modern First Nations people, here in Canada. Students will present their learning at a potlatch type event later on this month in class. The kids are looking forward to the event.

Over the past few weeks Mrs. Camarada and I have discussed the project thoroughly, planned out a schedule for research in the library and created a structure and set of guidelines for the students. We then discussed what I would cover with the students and how I would guide them at the beginning of the research. Mrs. Camarda created the task checklists and daily work summaries for each group to fill out, along with a list of resources to use. Mrs. Camarda searched and found some resources. I also assisted by finding some of the resources and websites we would supply the students in order to help give them direction. I also pulled a large number of print resources from our shelves that have been reserved solely for here classes use in the library.

On the day when we introduced the project to the students Mrs. Camarda and I took turns explaining different elements of the project and we also worked together to meet with each group and help them to consolidate each person's role within their groups. Kids seemed to be focused and confident.

Students decided on their roles and negotiated with group members to resolve conflicts over who was going to complete which tasks. Rock, paper, scissors was used occasionally to rectify disagreements. :)))

At that point we began our preview of available resources. Students perused the print resources and made quick notes of page numbers and book titles and myself and Mrs. Camarda circulated throughout the room assisting students in using the index and table of contents to help them find  information on their topics.

Then students were introduced to the online resources in the same way and we discussed using Boolean terms to help narrow down their searches. They were given about 20 minutes at the end of the period to begin their research. Here's a link to the digital library we introduced to students today. It's one designed solely for Peel students. Library eResources


During all this activity Mrs. Camarda and I worked to help students we would make comments about each other's suggestions and the discussion with the kids was very much a give and take between the two of us neither of us led the lesson while the other was silent. We had a conversation with the kids. When one of us forgot to mention something the other would jump in.  It worked very well.

I hope that we have provided the students with an example of good collaboration that they will use with their groups and that we have enriched their learning by having two of us available to assist them with their learning.

So I will end here by saying I will definitely post samples of student work when they finish up their projects and I look forward to working with Mrs. Camarda again this year. It was a blast and we're not even finished the project yet.

I've included the assignment pages here.

As a side note here's a link to another project I'm currently collaborating on with 4 other teachers.
The motivation tap