Librarians are gatekeepers for student experience, and sometimes we have the opportunity, and I think maybe the responsibility, to intervene on behalf of students. Student assignments that concern me are genealogy-based research projects in which students research their family histories. I haven't heard of any students objecting to these, and I know that some instructors assign such work for a variety of good reasons, but I would intervene if I found a student uncomfortable with this type of assignment.
Despite the good reasons for doing the research, for some students there are reasons why they might find them uncomfortable and intrusive exercises. In pursuing a cultural family unit, a variety of research subjects should be presented without a child even having to first indicate that they are uncomfortable about talking about their family. For children who are adopted, in foster homes, had a parent die from violence or who are part of what some people refer to as "non-traditional families," these classroom assignments can cause more trauma than enlightenment. Some children are from families with low literacy skills, and might not be able to research the family history that easily. The documents necessary might be located overseas and the information might not be obtained cheaply and easily. A number of issues regarding birth parents, paternity, and relationships might come up that children were not aware of prior to beginning the project. No amount of learning value comes from some child having to deal with some of this information due to a school report.
Alternative study units might include a general culture report and might cover something like naming traditions, special ways in which new births are celebrated, and how mothers and fathers are recognized. A general report about the role of grandparents in a given culture without obligating a student to present specific personal examples would be another possible example. A general cultural and historical report on a country of family origin would also be something that I think an instructor should find acceptable.
The skills we want to teach do not need to come specifically from genealogical research, and if an instructor insists on genealogical research, that instructor should allow researching a historical person whose family background can serve as a substitute.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
State of the Union Address on the School Library
Ten year old books are exciting just by virtue of having copyright dates that fall within the Twenty-first Century. I can't believe the happiness I get from adding these items to my collection, which in the 973 Dewey Decimal range has a 26 year old average copyright age, and an average copyright age of 21 years for the collection as a whole.
Granted, that collection age is skewed a bit by some reference items that I didn't want to discard probably because of some African American content that might be of interest to teachers. However, I suspect that the number of library books dating from the 1990s and some from the 1980s are the greater culprits.
The newly added books have been sitting in my office probably for several years. Last year was my first year at this school, and I spent a lot of time attempting to clean up the textbook room and weeding the library collection. Yes, the average copyright date of 21 years is after extensive weeding. If I did the weeding thoroughly, the shelves would be close to bare.
Sadly, these 10 year old books should have been circulating, but for lack of labels, barcodes, and interest to make it happen, they just sat here in an office to a library that wasn't functioning as a library. I am putting these books into circulation thanks to a mini-grant from the Parent Teacher Association for a couple hundred dollars of library supplies that I would not have otherwise.
I wonder how my library compares to the average for libraries in California on the average copyright date. I fear that this library is probably the norm, and possibly better off than some. At least we are automated and can get at the statistics.
Granted, that collection age is skewed a bit by some reference items that I didn't want to discard probably because of some African American content that might be of interest to teachers. However, I suspect that the number of library books dating from the 1990s and some from the 1980s are the greater culprits.
The newly added books have been sitting in my office probably for several years. Last year was my first year at this school, and I spent a lot of time attempting to clean up the textbook room and weeding the library collection. Yes, the average copyright date of 21 years is after extensive weeding. If I did the weeding thoroughly, the shelves would be close to bare.
Sadly, these 10 year old books should have been circulating, but for lack of labels, barcodes, and interest to make it happen, they just sat here in an office to a library that wasn't functioning as a library. I am putting these books into circulation thanks to a mini-grant from the Parent Teacher Association for a couple hundred dollars of library supplies that I would not have otherwise.
I wonder how my library compares to the average for libraries in California on the average copyright date. I fear that this library is probably the norm, and possibly better off than some. At least we are automated and can get at the statistics.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Cleaning Day
Monday has me doing little odds and ends. I cleaned off the tables, the computer work stations, and set up RIF books which won't really happen until February 6th through February 15. I'm ahead of myself, and I will probably regret putting those books out on the table. The kids at lunch did a good job of ignoring them, and entertained themselves with the usual activities.
I have tried to access the new google-based website I started creating during Professional Development, and, of course, the system is timing out on me. I want to start a new version and delete what I started on Friday because I think I wasn't quite clear on what I was doing. I hope this doesn't turn into a soley weekend project because I can't access it from work.
I'm running some more spine labels and processing more books in my office, hoping to clear things out a bit. Some of these books have been sitting for probably several years, and before I gather any more materials, I want these made available.
One of the teachers had cleared out a whole bunch of stuff and had it in the hall. She tried to bring it into the textbook room for temporary storage, and I nixed that. ( I had a great uncle who worked for the U.S. Treasury Department in Washington, D.C. who said that the most permanent thing in D.C. was a temporary building. Temporary storage scares me likewise. ) I also nixed her students making posters in the library. I think the posters were more likely signs concerning pick-up directions for all these materials, and the students have no problem using a floor if need be.
I put a note into teachers' boxes explaining that RIF involves providing at least 30 titles from which students may choose, and that I have about 60 titles minimum out. I am only using about 4 tables in the library to display RIF because we have after school groups using the library this year in addition to other staff and student programs that pop up. I let them know that I have put out all the copies of the hot titles and all the hardcover title copies, and once they are gone, they are gone. I included a suggestion that the classes who snatched up most of the hot Westerfeld series should think about letting other classes get a chance. The RIF storage room is off-limits, and I am not going through boxes looking for additional copies of hot items, because there will not be any more hot items.
The kids are never as much of a problem as the well-meaning adults who are afraid that something is being held back, and who think every copy of all the books should get hauled out. The kids don't try to turn the library into a storage room. I wish the teachers would think of bringing the students for library visits instead of coming here looking for a depot.
I read a great book over the weekend. I couldn't put it down. "90 Miles from Havana," by Enrique Flores-Galbis, about a young boy who comes to Florida in the Pedro Pan (Peter Pan) airlift in 1961 when 14,000 children were sent out of Cuba by their parents who were not yet prepared to flee from the Communist takeover following the Revolution. The author, who was a 9 year-old Pedro Pan flight refugee, writes of the experiences of these children in a wonderful fictional account without getting heavily into the politics of the Cuban-American community. Lexile 790L, in case some of you care.
I have tried to access the new google-based website I started creating during Professional Development, and, of course, the system is timing out on me. I want to start a new version and delete what I started on Friday because I think I wasn't quite clear on what I was doing. I hope this doesn't turn into a soley weekend project because I can't access it from work.
I'm running some more spine labels and processing more books in my office, hoping to clear things out a bit. Some of these books have been sitting for probably several years, and before I gather any more materials, I want these made available.
One of the teachers had cleared out a whole bunch of stuff and had it in the hall. She tried to bring it into the textbook room for temporary storage, and I nixed that. ( I had a great uncle who worked for the U.S. Treasury Department in Washington, D.C. who said that the most permanent thing in D.C. was a temporary building. Temporary storage scares me likewise. ) I also nixed her students making posters in the library. I think the posters were more likely signs concerning pick-up directions for all these materials, and the students have no problem using a floor if need be.
I put a note into teachers' boxes explaining that RIF involves providing at least 30 titles from which students may choose, and that I have about 60 titles minimum out. I am only using about 4 tables in the library to display RIF because we have after school groups using the library this year in addition to other staff and student programs that pop up. I let them know that I have put out all the copies of the hot titles and all the hardcover title copies, and once they are gone, they are gone. I included a suggestion that the classes who snatched up most of the hot Westerfeld series should think about letting other classes get a chance. The RIF storage room is off-limits, and I am not going through boxes looking for additional copies of hot items, because there will not be any more hot items.
The kids are never as much of a problem as the well-meaning adults who are afraid that something is being held back, and who think every copy of all the books should get hauled out. The kids don't try to turn the library into a storage room. I wish the teachers would think of bringing the students for library visits instead of coming here looking for a depot.
I read a great book over the weekend. I couldn't put it down. "90 Miles from Havana," by Enrique Flores-Galbis, about a young boy who comes to Florida in the Pedro Pan (Peter Pan) airlift in 1961 when 14,000 children were sent out of Cuba by their parents who were not yet prepared to flee from the Communist takeover following the Revolution. The author, who was a 9 year-old Pedro Pan flight refugee, writes of the experiences of these children in a wonderful fictional account without getting heavily into the politics of the Cuban-American community. Lexile 790L, in case some of you care.
Books, Bread, and Food for Thought
I walked the dog earlier than usual this morning, and he was in the mood to go down Lakeshore Avenue which I usually don't do with him because of the number of people on the sidewalks. We were out so early that hardly anyone else was there, and I let him go for it. I could walk and think without having to keep someone from stepping on him or having to keep him from marking something where someone was enjoying a sidewalk cafe experience.
City living offers so much, but I miss having 80 acres on which to walk and being able to think without worrying about traffic. Early morning walking is about as close to a quiet creative thinking experience as it will get here in the Bay Area.
KQED radio had a feature on Panera Bread Restaurants over the weekend, and I have noticed one of these in Hayward near the Southland Shopping Mall, but didn't know much about it. I am attracted to good quality breads, and had already made a mental note to check them out.
What I learned from KQED over the weekend fascinates me. This chain was started by Ronald Shaich a few years ago, and now operate some 1,500 cafes in a partly non-profit mode where people pay what they can. Some customers, the majority pay about 60% of the suggested retail value, while another segment pays about 20% more than the going rate, and then another segment averages about 20%. Some people pay nothing.
The restaurants are located where demographics suggest that that a lot of people can support retail pricing or more, and might be willing to donate more. Occasionally, someone pays $500 for their sandwich. I'm not sure what charities the restaurant supports, but the owner has a long history of food pantry support before starting the chain.
The chain offers catering, and I believe they have meetings rooms.
http://catering1.panerabread.com/Home.aspx
Panera Bread in Alameda is located at 2249 South Shore Center Drive. Phone: 510 749-9810 Fax: 510 749-9811
This morning's walk got me to thinking about how nice it would be to offer sabbaticals to a broader portion of society, and to us library staffers in particular, who are not eligible for many of teacher study grant programs. I believe school districts benefit from our interests and knowledge in a lot of disciplines and arts, but that our knowledge goes unrecognized and largely unsupported. How wonderful it would be to have little mini-grants that gave a little financial support to intellectual pursuits, not necessarily library skills but something that goes to our recognition as capable and valuable assets to the district.
Could we offer some services and trainings through Friends of the Oakland School Public School Libraries with a suggested donation and let people pay what they can or want?
We might offer a variety of workshops or opportunities to various audiences of teachers, students, parents, and the general public that might feature preparing children to be good readers (Mem Fox), teaching technology to a variety of audiences, day camps for kids during the summer, book events, and covering of book jackets for a suggested donation price.
A mini-sabbatical program might include some sort of brief template proposal application process, with awardees checking in to demonstrate that something is being done, and a requirement for sharing what they gained with other library staff, educators, or the non-profit.
I think such opportunities would encourage potentially good staff who are interested in reading, writing, the arts, and other study areas to see that Oakland Unified School District is a good place to work and find reward for mental pursuits.
I do have to go try Panera Bread now.
City living offers so much, but I miss having 80 acres on which to walk and being able to think without worrying about traffic. Early morning walking is about as close to a quiet creative thinking experience as it will get here in the Bay Area.
KQED radio had a feature on Panera Bread Restaurants over the weekend, and I have noticed one of these in Hayward near the Southland Shopping Mall, but didn't know much about it. I am attracted to good quality breads, and had already made a mental note to check them out.
What I learned from KQED over the weekend fascinates me. This chain was started by Ronald Shaich a few years ago, and now operate some 1,500 cafes in a partly non-profit mode where people pay what they can. Some customers, the majority pay about 60% of the suggested retail value, while another segment pays about 20% more than the going rate, and then another segment averages about 20%. Some people pay nothing.
The restaurants are located where demographics suggest that that a lot of people can support retail pricing or more, and might be willing to donate more. Occasionally, someone pays $500 for their sandwich. I'm not sure what charities the restaurant supports, but the owner has a long history of food pantry support before starting the chain.
The chain offers catering, and I believe they have meetings rooms.
http://catering1.panerabread.com/Home.aspx
Panera Bread in Alameda is located at 2249 South Shore Center Drive. Phone: 510 749-9810 Fax: 510 749-9811
This morning's walk got me to thinking about how nice it would be to offer sabbaticals to a broader portion of society, and to us library staffers in particular, who are not eligible for many of teacher study grant programs. I believe school districts benefit from our interests and knowledge in a lot of disciplines and arts, but that our knowledge goes unrecognized and largely unsupported. How wonderful it would be to have little mini-grants that gave a little financial support to intellectual pursuits, not necessarily library skills but something that goes to our recognition as capable and valuable assets to the district.
Could we offer some services and trainings through Friends of the Oakland School Public School Libraries with a suggested donation and let people pay what they can or want?
We might offer a variety of workshops or opportunities to various audiences of teachers, students, parents, and the general public that might feature preparing children to be good readers (Mem Fox), teaching technology to a variety of audiences, day camps for kids during the summer, book events, and covering of book jackets for a suggested donation price.
A mini-sabbatical program might include some sort of brief template proposal application process, with awardees checking in to demonstrate that something is being done, and a requirement for sharing what they gained with other library staff, educators, or the non-profit.
I think such opportunities would encourage potentially good staff who are interested in reading, writing, the arts, and other study areas to see that Oakland Unified School District is a good place to work and find reward for mental pursuits.
I do have to go try Panera Bread now.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Lexile Leveling of Libraries
Someone might actually want some viewpoint on actual library practices. Any humor associated with this selection is purely coincidental and of the reader's perception. After doing this every Friday for the major part of this school year, I am not sure I have any humor available on the subject of Lexile scores and school libraries.
If an administrator tells you to lexile level the library, you should run like hell. If there is any chance that someone will listen to you, read the following considerations and try to redirect the administrator before investing time and money on the project. I am posting this information because I remember being a new hire, and having teachers come into the school library with all kinds of expectations that I did not know how to prioritize or accomplish. I remember very clearly going home in tears a few times. Fortunately, I had a great administrator with a very clear and appropriate idea of what was possible for someone to accomplish in the last few months of school for which I had come on board. Not all administrators understand library work.
If I were a new hire with little or no library experience, and someone asked me to lexile level a school library, I would not know how to start this process, and no pool of experienced volunteers would be rushing over to take on the job.
First of all, I do this in response to a request rather than a goal of my own and not because I consider it appropriate for school libraries.
Process: Some, but not many, books have lexile levels mentioned in their MARC records. If the lexile level is not in the MARC record, you can go to lexile.com, and look it up.
Observations on lexile.com: You need to do various searches to know for sure that the book is not in their database. You can search by using author, title, or series within quotation marks. Searching by one of these and not finding the item does not guarantee you that it is in there. You can search by isbn but if the title has been published without alteration under another isbn you won't find it.
How did lexile come up with those scores? Either the whole book or only portions of the book from the beginning, middle, and end were scanned, and if you want to do that yourself, there is a whole section on how to do it which involves the scanning the book or portions of it, and the scanning being in the right format, and conversions made. I think most of us are not going to be that ambitious.
Basically, the database was put together probably by many hands, and occasionally you find typos of author names and titles, and probably how the information was entered determines how easily a successful search proceeds. Sometimes you just find scores that don't make much sense when you compare a book to some other book with a similar score. Certain books are unlikely to show up because of their format: little or no punctuation, poetry, or graphic novels. Some of these have designations NP, BR, GR . You must take into consideration if the book you are trying to level is an abridged title or the author's original work. A title which includes a lengthy introduction to a classic work for older grades may have a lexile score that measures the introduction as well as the literary work. Older titles that are less popular now are less likely to be in the database. In general, multi-syllabic words frequency results in higher Lexile scores for titles.
Authors and publishers may have made a decision to put the book through the analysis and include it in the database. I do not know if they pay for this service. It might help them to market the books, if lots of schools look at lexile scores in the classroom or the library.
Preparation for Lexile-Leveling of the Library: If, after contemplating everything stated here, you still want to lexile a library, the very first thing you should do is weed, weed, weed. If you have a lot of old materials that are not in great shape, you should get rid of them for all the usual reasons plus the fact that you will probably not find them on lexile.com. I am not saying that you should weed everything for which a lexile level is unavailable. You will need to estimate time and costs. See the later comments.
What you will find as you proceed: You are going to have books with lexile scores and books without lexile scores. Some books without lexile scores will have reading grade level information in the MARC records. There many be more than one system of reading grade level and a range can be stated. ( Reading grade level and reading grade interest are not the same. Zoos may be of reading interest to kindergartners, but if the reading grade level is 9th grade, there is a mis-match.)
You might find yourself with a library with proportions such as 1/3 with lexile scores, 1/3 with grade level scores, and 1/3 without any reading grade level. The proportions could be completely different.
You will be sorting these out, and relabeling every book in the library if you want to find and reshelve these items as easily as possible, which will be a much more difficult process than with a traditional library system. Forget about elementary school children shelving, and adults will need a lot of familiarity with all the different sections in existence to be effective.. I am keeping the picture books and emergent readers together in one area, split out into the three groups of reading score possibilities ( lexile, non-lexile reading level, and no level at all), and books will be on shelves within their hundred periodicity (all the books with lexiles in the 500 range are together, not to be confused with a Dewey Decimal range of 500).
I don't want all the non-lexile scored books to be thrown away, so I use the reading grade levels to give some information. Some of the titles which will not have a lexile score or will be labeled NP will be a lot of the Dr. Seuss titles.
The whole set up has to be carried out in the non-fiction and fiction chapter books as well.
New spine labels must be made for everything with some sort of reading grade level, the shelves relabeled, and the books sorted out and shelved. Making new spine labels will mean scanning each barcode, entering the record, typing the lexile or reading level into each barcode before they can be printed. Printing the spine labels will mean scanning the barcodes to print the sheets of spine labels. Once you have the labels, it is easiest with the non-fiction to scan the barcodes again to assure you apply the correct label to the book. This is not a process to hand over to volunteer parents. Locating books that are shelved in so many sections according to type of reading score and by Dewey Decimal number within score ranges of non-fiction is going to be difficult even with the labels being applied to the correct books.
This means you will want to know how much money you need to spend to print all these spine labels (at this point, I am estimating a minimum of $500 for my 7,000 plus books), cover them with label protectors, and redo your shelf labels. You'll need to estimate the amount of time to do this, and I would say for about 7,000 books is a small library that has already been weeded, that you need to allow a minimum of 3 months full-time. This is an estimate, as I am still in the process, and progressing but not yet done. If you work in an environment where the internet connection goes down or the library is being using physically for something else that precludes you working, it will be longer.
What a child will see in the lexiled library: While school staff may be excited at the prospect of quickly guiding a child to sections of books at their current reading level, what the child might see is a relatively small number of books on a few shelves from which they are allowed to choose. Reading within a range is definitely limiting if strict adherence is the policy. Personally, I think the library is no longer a child-centered library under this regiment.
I do think lexile-leveling the fiction chapter books has some utility, especially if you have a good sized collection at a middle school, but I would not lexile level the non-fiction in a middle school. Most of the non-fiction has a score of a 1000 or higher. A future increased focus on reading skills in non-fictional format cannot bypass the fiction collection because the fiction books usually have a wider range of reading levels with which students can improve on their lexile level competency.
Shopping for New Books: Now you can select books with lexile scores, but you will be excluding many fine books just because they aren't in the lexile database. The books with lexile scores do not necessarily meet state standards nor are they guaranteed to be quality titles.
The public library is not going to have their books lexile-leveled, and they will not have the staff to be looking up the scores on many books, in case your staff or parents ask.
Cheer up. If you cannot talk them out of this library trend, things never last very long in education, and three years from now you, or someone else, will be putting it back the way it used to be.
This was written on Tuesday to post before Friday, when I will be learning about constructing webpages for the library homepage at Professional Development. I promise to not mention lexiling again. I know for many of you I am preaching to the choir and you are bored to tears, but someone needs to do disclosure about what this request involves.
If an administrator tells you to lexile level the library, you should run like hell. If there is any chance that someone will listen to you, read the following considerations and try to redirect the administrator before investing time and money on the project. I am posting this information because I remember being a new hire, and having teachers come into the school library with all kinds of expectations that I did not know how to prioritize or accomplish. I remember very clearly going home in tears a few times. Fortunately, I had a great administrator with a very clear and appropriate idea of what was possible for someone to accomplish in the last few months of school for which I had come on board. Not all administrators understand library work.
If I were a new hire with little or no library experience, and someone asked me to lexile level a school library, I would not know how to start this process, and no pool of experienced volunteers would be rushing over to take on the job.
First of all, I do this in response to a request rather than a goal of my own and not because I consider it appropriate for school libraries.
Process: Some, but not many, books have lexile levels mentioned in their MARC records. If the lexile level is not in the MARC record, you can go to lexile.com, and look it up.
Observations on lexile.com: You need to do various searches to know for sure that the book is not in their database. You can search by using author, title, or series within quotation marks. Searching by one of these and not finding the item does not guarantee you that it is in there. You can search by isbn but if the title has been published without alteration under another isbn you won't find it.
How did lexile come up with those scores? Either the whole book or only portions of the book from the beginning, middle, and end were scanned, and if you want to do that yourself, there is a whole section on how to do it which involves the scanning the book or portions of it, and the scanning being in the right format, and conversions made. I think most of us are not going to be that ambitious.
Basically, the database was put together probably by many hands, and occasionally you find typos of author names and titles, and probably how the information was entered determines how easily a successful search proceeds. Sometimes you just find scores that don't make much sense when you compare a book to some other book with a similar score. Certain books are unlikely to show up because of their format: little or no punctuation, poetry, or graphic novels. Some of these have designations NP, BR, GR . You must take into consideration if the book you are trying to level is an abridged title or the author's original work. A title which includes a lengthy introduction to a classic work for older grades may have a lexile score that measures the introduction as well as the literary work. Older titles that are less popular now are less likely to be in the database. In general, multi-syllabic words frequency results in higher Lexile scores for titles.
Authors and publishers may have made a decision to put the book through the analysis and include it in the database. I do not know if they pay for this service. It might help them to market the books, if lots of schools look at lexile scores in the classroom or the library.
Preparation for Lexile-Leveling of the Library: If, after contemplating everything stated here, you still want to lexile a library, the very first thing you should do is weed, weed, weed. If you have a lot of old materials that are not in great shape, you should get rid of them for all the usual reasons plus the fact that you will probably not find them on lexile.com. I am not saying that you should weed everything for which a lexile level is unavailable. You will need to estimate time and costs. See the later comments.
What you will find as you proceed: You are going to have books with lexile scores and books without lexile scores. Some books without lexile scores will have reading grade level information in the MARC records. There many be more than one system of reading grade level and a range can be stated. ( Reading grade level and reading grade interest are not the same. Zoos may be of reading interest to kindergartners, but if the reading grade level is 9th grade, there is a mis-match.)
You might find yourself with a library with proportions such as 1/3 with lexile scores, 1/3 with grade level scores, and 1/3 without any reading grade level. The proportions could be completely different.
You will be sorting these out, and relabeling every book in the library if you want to find and reshelve these items as easily as possible, which will be a much more difficult process than with a traditional library system. Forget about elementary school children shelving, and adults will need a lot of familiarity with all the different sections in existence to be effective.. I am keeping the picture books and emergent readers together in one area, split out into the three groups of reading score possibilities ( lexile, non-lexile reading level, and no level at all), and books will be on shelves within their hundred periodicity (all the books with lexiles in the 500 range are together, not to be confused with a Dewey Decimal range of 500).
I don't want all the non-lexile scored books to be thrown away, so I use the reading grade levels to give some information. Some of the titles which will not have a lexile score or will be labeled NP will be a lot of the Dr. Seuss titles.
The whole set up has to be carried out in the non-fiction and fiction chapter books as well.
New spine labels must be made for everything with some sort of reading grade level, the shelves relabeled, and the books sorted out and shelved. Making new spine labels will mean scanning each barcode, entering the record, typing the lexile or reading level into each barcode before they can be printed. Printing the spine labels will mean scanning the barcodes to print the sheets of spine labels. Once you have the labels, it is easiest with the non-fiction to scan the barcodes again to assure you apply the correct label to the book. This is not a process to hand over to volunteer parents. Locating books that are shelved in so many sections according to type of reading score and by Dewey Decimal number within score ranges of non-fiction is going to be difficult even with the labels being applied to the correct books.
This means you will want to know how much money you need to spend to print all these spine labels (at this point, I am estimating a minimum of $500 for my 7,000 plus books), cover them with label protectors, and redo your shelf labels. You'll need to estimate the amount of time to do this, and I would say for about 7,000 books is a small library that has already been weeded, that you need to allow a minimum of 3 months full-time. This is an estimate, as I am still in the process, and progressing but not yet done. If you work in an environment where the internet connection goes down or the library is being using physically for something else that precludes you working, it will be longer.
What a child will see in the lexiled library: While school staff may be excited at the prospect of quickly guiding a child to sections of books at their current reading level, what the child might see is a relatively small number of books on a few shelves from which they are allowed to choose. Reading within a range is definitely limiting if strict adherence is the policy. Personally, I think the library is no longer a child-centered library under this regiment.
I do think lexile-leveling the fiction chapter books has some utility, especially if you have a good sized collection at a middle school, but I would not lexile level the non-fiction in a middle school. Most of the non-fiction has a score of a 1000 or higher. A future increased focus on reading skills in non-fictional format cannot bypass the fiction collection because the fiction books usually have a wider range of reading levels with which students can improve on their lexile level competency.
Shopping for New Books: Now you can select books with lexile scores, but you will be excluding many fine books just because they aren't in the lexile database. The books with lexile scores do not necessarily meet state standards nor are they guaranteed to be quality titles.
The public library is not going to have their books lexile-leveled, and they will not have the staff to be looking up the scores on many books, in case your staff or parents ask.
Cheer up. If you cannot talk them out of this library trend, things never last very long in education, and three years from now you, or someone else, will be putting it back the way it used to be.
This was written on Tuesday to post before Friday, when I will be learning about constructing webpages for the library homepage at Professional Development. I promise to not mention lexiling again. I know for many of you I am preaching to the choir and you are bored to tears, but someone needs to do disclosure about what this request involves.
How I Came to Work in Libraries
The calm before the storm really means I couldn't fully process what was happening and didn't quite know what to think about it. It took me 24 hours to realize that what was happening during the calm between the storms recaps my life and reveals how I came to work here in the first place; in some sort of mysterious route as opposed to a serious career search.
The usual groups of Yu-gi-oh players, graphic novel enthusiasts, and clandestine cellphone video viewers are present. Another regular from the previous year checks in with me to catch me up on her tumultuous family life that combines a very religious family and a parent with some serious issues. She alludes to the parent with difficulties without spelling it out in front of the two other kids sitting at the table because she has told me all about it previously. Religion is mentioned in the conversation, and Beaver Cleaver, who is the self-identified technical geek brings us up to speed on how he also identifies as an atheist.
Meanwhile, another student pulls out some textbooks from her backpack to return them because she is leaving for "k-8" (obviously she hasn't focused too much on the details of the parental decision). I get up to go check in the textbooks, and by the time I get back, the girl who mentioned religion had left.
Probably just as well, because Beaver Cleaver is verifying information with me about STDs, condoms, and spermicides, which I am answering while also letting him know that the Teen Health and Wellness database can provide him with all this information if he ever wants to check it out in the privacy of his home. Earlier in the week, Beaver assured me that he was as innocent as he looked when it came to showing discretion about what video clips he watches on YouTube through his cellphone. Now I'm beginning to wonder, and suspect he is giving me a pop quiz to see if I know as much as his grandmother.
I'm worried about the girl who disappeared about the same time she learned a real live atheist was in the library. My antennae are sensitive to these student feelings in general, and having an atheist mother myself, I am fully aware of their extreme devotion to their own lack of faith and their strong need to share that with everyone.
By the next morning, I realize how I have spent my lifetime dog-paddling among the sharks of agnostics, atheists, Bahai, Baptists, Catholics, Christian Scientists, Lutherans, Mormons, and Russian Orthodox in the family arena of religion. I have managed to navigate between households in the extended family, endure comments made in reaction to my mother and her strong opinions and faux pas on this subject and a bunch of others.
I have kept my mouth shut and sought to be a peacemaker not only among the contentious religions of the world, but have kept my stamina among the Democrats and the Republics, the New Dealers and the Jeffersonian republicans, the rural and the urban, the physicians and the Mary Baker Eddy crowd, the war protesters and the military members, and the Giants and the Dodger fans. I am sure I am overlooking some other oppositional faction of family politics.
At my youngest, I enjoyed watching the rivalry and feuding over the World Series and all the other possible Coliseum entertainments. I even made table place cards for family holiday meals and relished putting the Idaho State police official next to the ex-car thief, waiting to see if something would happen. Great was my disappointment when everyone would just rearrange themselves. As time went by, I began to feel uncomfortable with all the bickering, and came to realize that religious holidays did not exist to get these people back together and talking in the same room. The only things they saw eye-to-eye on were Christmas trees and Easter eggs.
I could work it both ways, however. What better way to rebel against your atheist mother than sneaking off to Mass with your grandmother, who is a kleptomaniac and the mother of two nuns. (I always regretted that confession was a private rite. I really wanted to hear her tell her version to the priest.)
There is always a book to go with any episode of life, and I am not thinking of the Bible, but "Night Flight," by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. This is probably the most influential book in my life, and I remember reading it for the first time as a young adult trying to figure out what my life was all about.
Saint-Exupery tells a story of early commercial mail flights in South America with a theme is finding happiness through fulfilling your duty. I saw it, however, as trying to balance the needs of individual with the importance of community. The book is beautifully written but emotionally difficult, and I am uncomfortable with the much of the thinking and decisions. I do think it did help me decide that reaching adulthood meant being able to figure out who I was and being comfortable with that among all the swimming sharks without feeling like I had to bite them back.
At this juncture, I am still trying to create a community, in the library, and am still taking care of individuals and their feelings who just happen to come together. I don't know all their quirks and beliefs before they show up the way I do with my own family, but I can sense when the sharks might be circling.
The usual groups of Yu-gi-oh players, graphic novel enthusiasts, and clandestine cellphone video viewers are present. Another regular from the previous year checks in with me to catch me up on her tumultuous family life that combines a very religious family and a parent with some serious issues. She alludes to the parent with difficulties without spelling it out in front of the two other kids sitting at the table because she has told me all about it previously. Religion is mentioned in the conversation, and Beaver Cleaver, who is the self-identified technical geek brings us up to speed on how he also identifies as an atheist.
Meanwhile, another student pulls out some textbooks from her backpack to return them because she is leaving for "k-8" (obviously she hasn't focused too much on the details of the parental decision). I get up to go check in the textbooks, and by the time I get back, the girl who mentioned religion had left.
Probably just as well, because Beaver Cleaver is verifying information with me about STDs, condoms, and spermicides, which I am answering while also letting him know that the Teen Health and Wellness database can provide him with all this information if he ever wants to check it out in the privacy of his home. Earlier in the week, Beaver assured me that he was as innocent as he looked when it came to showing discretion about what video clips he watches on YouTube through his cellphone. Now I'm beginning to wonder, and suspect he is giving me a pop quiz to see if I know as much as his grandmother.
I'm worried about the girl who disappeared about the same time she learned a real live atheist was in the library. My antennae are sensitive to these student feelings in general, and having an atheist mother myself, I am fully aware of their extreme devotion to their own lack of faith and their strong need to share that with everyone.
By the next morning, I realize how I have spent my lifetime dog-paddling among the sharks of agnostics, atheists, Bahai, Baptists, Catholics, Christian Scientists, Lutherans, Mormons, and Russian Orthodox in the family arena of religion. I have managed to navigate between households in the extended family, endure comments made in reaction to my mother and her strong opinions and faux pas on this subject and a bunch of others.
I have kept my mouth shut and sought to be a peacemaker not only among the contentious religions of the world, but have kept my stamina among the Democrats and the Republics, the New Dealers and the Jeffersonian republicans, the rural and the urban, the physicians and the Mary Baker Eddy crowd, the war protesters and the military members, and the Giants and the Dodger fans. I am sure I am overlooking some other oppositional faction of family politics.
At my youngest, I enjoyed watching the rivalry and feuding over the World Series and all the other possible Coliseum entertainments. I even made table place cards for family holiday meals and relished putting the Idaho State police official next to the ex-car thief, waiting to see if something would happen. Great was my disappointment when everyone would just rearrange themselves. As time went by, I began to feel uncomfortable with all the bickering, and came to realize that religious holidays did not exist to get these people back together and talking in the same room. The only things they saw eye-to-eye on were Christmas trees and Easter eggs.
I could work it both ways, however. What better way to rebel against your atheist mother than sneaking off to Mass with your grandmother, who is a kleptomaniac and the mother of two nuns. (I always regretted that confession was a private rite. I really wanted to hear her tell her version to the priest.)
There is always a book to go with any episode of life, and I am not thinking of the Bible, but "Night Flight," by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. This is probably the most influential book in my life, and I remember reading it for the first time as a young adult trying to figure out what my life was all about.
Saint-Exupery tells a story of early commercial mail flights in South America with a theme is finding happiness through fulfilling your duty. I saw it, however, as trying to balance the needs of individual with the importance of community. The book is beautifully written but emotionally difficult, and I am uncomfortable with the much of the thinking and decisions. I do think it did help me decide that reaching adulthood meant being able to figure out who I was and being comfortable with that among all the swimming sharks without feeling like I had to bite them back.
At this juncture, I am still trying to create a community, in the library, and am still taking care of individuals and their feelings who just happen to come together. I don't know all their quirks and beliefs before they show up the way I do with my own family, but I can sense when the sharks might be circling.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
The Calm Between the Storms
There has not been much action in the library today other than the usual group of students who like to hang out in here watching videos on their cellphones and playing Yu-gi-oh cards. It makes up for yesterday afternoon when the after school students were making a lot of noise out in the halls, wandering in and out of here because they had left their backpacks. A couple girls came in 3 times supposedly looking for a textbook, Each time, I told them I didn't have a copy. Lots of drama, and I eventually closed the library door because I was working and was afraid students might be visiting backpacks of other students. A fair amount of thievery goes on in the library.
Today I prepared for tomorrow's Professional Development, looking for some websites to make into a webpage about Shakespeare and his world. I signed up for a free account on TeachersFirst, which has some interesting lesson plans and a section on Web 2.0 for the classroom. Now I'm continuing to catalog books in preparation for making spine labels for them. I want to clear this office out this year, and house a Professional Development section of books for teachers in here.
I went window shopping for Shakespeare materials, and saw some good graphic novels put out by Barrons and Classic Comics. I'd love to have some money for those.
Today I prepared for tomorrow's Professional Development, looking for some websites to make into a webpage about Shakespeare and his world. I signed up for a free account on TeachersFirst, which has some interesting lesson plans and a section on Web 2.0 for the classroom. Now I'm continuing to catalog books in preparation for making spine labels for them. I want to clear this office out this year, and house a Professional Development section of books for teachers in here.
I went window shopping for Shakespeare materials, and saw some good graphic novels put out by Barrons and Classic Comics. I'd love to have some money for those.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
College Career Track and the Three Little Pigs
Eighth graders are in the library all day today hearing a presentation helping them prepare for college and eventual gainful employment. It is first period, and I am sure from the giggling faces I see through my office window that not everyone is exactly interested in this hot topic. The same school who has sixth graders searching YouTube for SpongeBob Squarepants and Bugs Bunny is trying to excite these kids about college and some job in the future.
This takes me back a bit to the days when my step-son was much older than them, but a young adult we were hoping to engage in an employment experience outside the family. He spent a lot of time outside the house looking for a job, and I am sure I alluded to the quickly passed over message of Mrs. Sow in "The Three Little Pigs": "It's time you seek your fortune." If you read this book enough times to a young person, they will subliminally absorb the message to identify with the brick and mortar pig as a means of avoiding the proverbial wolf at the door. I also thought that with a young person that if they stumbled along in the dark long enough, they would eventually land a job. As some time was going by, and no job was appearing on the horizon, I began to investigate. While I had prepared myself for all sorts of self-identifications that might arise in relation to the Puberty Book, I was unprepared for issues arising from "The Three Little Pigs."
"Mom, I've been trying to find a way to tell you and Dad that I am a Wolf; I am not a pig. Better odds of eating as the wolf. Two out of three pigs end up as wolf chow. Not to worry about the pot of boiling water. I've worked that out, too. Just grab Dad's bankroll and snag my carnitas from the local taquerias."
" You're a WHAT?!" Okay, you're a wolf, and if you're not going to hunt, you need to find a way to generate some money of your own." (Parental Conference in the works.)
It's not my fault I read him "The Three Little Pigs."
This takes me back a bit to the days when my step-son was much older than them, but a young adult we were hoping to engage in an employment experience outside the family. He spent a lot of time outside the house looking for a job, and I am sure I alluded to the quickly passed over message of Mrs. Sow in "The Three Little Pigs": "It's time you seek your fortune." If you read this book enough times to a young person, they will subliminally absorb the message to identify with the brick and mortar pig as a means of avoiding the proverbial wolf at the door. I also thought that with a young person that if they stumbled along in the dark long enough, they would eventually land a job. As some time was going by, and no job was appearing on the horizon, I began to investigate. While I had prepared myself for all sorts of self-identifications that might arise in relation to the Puberty Book, I was unprepared for issues arising from "The Three Little Pigs."
"Mom, I've been trying to find a way to tell you and Dad that I am a Wolf; I am not a pig. Better odds of eating as the wolf. Two out of three pigs end up as wolf chow. Not to worry about the pot of boiling water. I've worked that out, too. Just grab Dad's bankroll and snag my carnitas from the local taquerias."
" You're a WHAT?!" Okay, you're a wolf, and if you're not going to hunt, you need to find a way to generate some money of your own." (Parental Conference in the works.)
Parental Conference
Old Business: Report on Son's job search
New Business: Findings on Son's Job Search
Petition to change name to Wolf
Cost/Benefit Analysis of bankrolling his burritos
Prospect of his employment
It's not my fault I read him "The Three Little Pigs."
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Tales from the Trenches: Library Life in the Big World of Books
We are missing YouTube videos of SpongeBob Squarepants getting blown up and Bugs Bunny becoming Bunny Stew after over 60 years of successfully evading Elmer Fudd all because the district is busy protecting you from questionable content over the internet. Don't worry! Just find your nearest middle schooler with a cellphone, and your learning curve can take off, too. While we're on the subject, eblogging is now a less subversive activity as the district filters are letting you read this.
Let's see, On this inauguration of "Tales from the Trenches," so far today, the door frame has swollen from recent rain thus preventing the back door from closing properly. When you have a problem, hand it off as quickly as possible to someone else, which I have done so successfully. (Those guys looked like they're happy to do it, too.) That should be in the Library Manual.
I'm putting together book wish lists for which I have no money, but I truly believe in the magic of making lists and thinking, and voila, in comes a solution. Example: Librarian Magic:I woke up thinking about how I needed to drop a note to one of the artistic-types around the school to unload the old card catalog, and do you know what happened? Before I even wrote the note, she came down with a student looking for information about Bahrain, asked about the card catalog, and I told her that the card catalog is the computer, and that the old card catalog is sitting around in pieces. "Can I have it? I'm an artist, and I love those things!" Sold! See how the universe works, and why we need more magical books in the library!
Productivity:I get so much done around here, even if no one knows about it, and never mind the methodology. Things do get done, in a lifetime of living magically.
Special Request of the Day: (something like Soup de Jour): Can I barcode Yu-gi-oh cards? Can I barcode Yu-gi-oh cards! You bet, and I bet we can get a Noodletools citation as well, but I think that is for someone with a more advanced knowledge of Noodletools.
Special Challenge to Librarians: Let's see you do a Noodletools citation for a Yu-gi-oh card.
Let's see, On this inauguration of "Tales from the Trenches," so far today, the door frame has swollen from recent rain thus preventing the back door from closing properly. When you have a problem, hand it off as quickly as possible to someone else, which I have done so successfully. (Those guys looked like they're happy to do it, too.) That should be in the Library Manual.
I'm putting together book wish lists for which I have no money, but I truly believe in the magic of making lists and thinking, and voila, in comes a solution. Example: Librarian Magic:I woke up thinking about how I needed to drop a note to one of the artistic-types around the school to unload the old card catalog, and do you know what happened? Before I even wrote the note, she came down with a student looking for information about Bahrain, asked about the card catalog, and I told her that the card catalog is the computer, and that the old card catalog is sitting around in pieces. "Can I have it? I'm an artist, and I love those things!" Sold! See how the universe works, and why we need more magical books in the library!
Productivity:I get so much done around here, even if no one knows about it, and never mind the methodology. Things do get done, in a lifetime of living magically.
Special Request of the Day: (something like Soup de Jour): Can I barcode Yu-gi-oh cards? Can I barcode Yu-gi-oh cards! You bet, and I bet we can get a Noodletools citation as well, but I think that is for someone with a more advanced knowledge of Noodletools.
Special Challenge to Librarians: Let's see you do a Noodletools citation for a Yu-gi-oh card.
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