SPR
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LIBRARY REPORT
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ON IMPROVING STUDENT RESEARCH AND WRITING Many years ago, perhaps way back in 2000, our High School embarked on a journey that involved exploring how we might improve student work. The Research or Writing Initiative engaged our faculty in looking closely at student work and discussing strategies for improving its quality. As a team, we developed a series of professional development activities, scaffolds, and tools for instruction relating to student research and writing. Many members of our current faculty were not here for that initiative and are not aware of the steps we took or the progress we made. Here’s a little recap. We moved major written assignments away from the report. The accessibility of information and the low level skills required for simple retelling, make the reporting of information a relatively unchallenging task. In addition, asking learners to merely report often leads to plagiarism.
Feb. 2011
Volume 11 Issue 2
We decided instead to ask learners to: • to develop thoughtful questions around topics of their own choice; • take a stand--to move from question to thesis; • identify and evaluate quality, relevant sources; • support their thesis with solid evidence; • gather, use, share, and document information ethically; • carefully synthesize their new knowledge; • communicate the results of their knowledge-building in creative ways; • share their creative work with audience; • and, if possible, to make a difference. I am gathering some of the tools we created back in the early days of our initiative, combining them with a collection of new resources and applications, and sharing them in a new Research Tools Guide. I’ll be introducing these tools with classes during their visits. Please help me by exploring and sharing these tools with your own classes. Please also share materials you discover and develop yourself with me so that I can add them to our shared toolkit.
Visit our new Research Tools Guide @ http://sdst.libguides.com/ researchtools
Springfield Township HS Library, 1801 East Paper Mill Road | 215-233-6030 X. 2502 | http://springfieldlibrary.wikispaces.com
LIBRARY REPORT!
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New Pathfinders Using tools like LibGuides and Only2Clicks, I am currently updating and migrating our collection of pathfinders. and database guides. Look for more organized and more visually attractive pages. Here are a few samples: New Database Guide Databases rock! Please encourage learners to explore the highquality content in our databases. Please also value their use in students’ works cited lists. Students will be expected to use resources contained in these databases at the university and in their future professions! Other new guides of interest to teachers include: • eTexts and Curricula • Teaching Portals • Teacher Tools • Rubrics • Documentary Film Remember, I am happy to build and customize guides and pathfinders for you classes or lessons!
STUDENT TEACHERS This semester I will have two practicum students. Jenni Stern, from Arcadia, is with us now. Lisa Morein, who is studying in U. Pitt’s online program, will join us mid-February. Please welcome them as collaborators.
OneBookOneSpringfield Our Spring OneBookOneSpringfield event is scheduled for Wednesday, April 13th @7PM in the Library. This time around, you can help select the title from among our short list by visiting http://onebookonespringfield.ning.com
SHMOOP ARRIVES! We recently added the premium version of Shmoop, for teachers and students. Students now have access to a wide variety of curricular materials, study guides, and test prep resources. Teachers have access to the full version of Shmoop’s very creative Teacher Guides. Just this past week Shmoop added an ACT study guide. See or email me for passwords for the premium version or check the attached and updated password list.
Springfield Township HS Library, 1801 East Paper Mill Road | 215-233-6030 X. 2502 | http://springfieldlibrary.wikispaces.com
LIBRARY REPORT!
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KINDLES! THANKS TO A GENEROUS PTA MINI-GRANT, we now have three Kindles available for student loan. We’ve loaded these devices with many of the titles from the summer lists, our assigned curricular reading, lit circle books, Book Club books, as well as student requests. Interested students may borrow a Kindle for one-week loans after completing a parent permission slip. If this pilot is a success, we’ll add some more e-readers (and more ebook titles) to the collection.
ISTE IS COMING! A heads-up: we are currently gearing up for big visit from the ISTE Board on the morning of February 25th. The group will visit only two schools in our region. This is quite an honor for our District! Students are currently working on presentations based on our use of technology to promote creativity. Please help greet our guests and feel free to share with them.
DIGITAL STORYTELLING FESTIVAL Make sure you archive the best of your students’ media creations. We’ll be hosting a Districtwide digital storytelling Festival on May 24th. If you have no online space to store student work, send me links and I will archive the content on the library space.
DIGITAL STORYTELLING APPS AND TOOLS Here’s are two recently published ebooks with lots of tips for using new tools. The first, written by Michael Zimmer is a little reference book of Tools for the 21st Century Teacher. Another wonderful free download, filled with step-by-step instructions, is SilviaTolisano’s Digital Storytelling Tools for Educators I’ll be hosting a workshop in digital storytelling after school on Tuesday, April 12th. Please let me know if you are interested in attending.
GOOGLE AND OTHER SEARCH TOOLS: DIGGING DEEPER Google is way more than its opening search box. Visit our Google Search Poster for a few new searching strategies like the Google News Timeline for contemporary history, Google Fast Flip for quick access to newspaper and magazine covers, and Google Squared for comparisons.
Springfield Township HS Library, 1801 East Paper Mill Road | 215-233-6030 X. 2502 | http://springfieldlibrary.wikispaces.com
LIBRARY REPORT!
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Some of our library heroes
And check out the many new and emerging tools for search--from scholarly to realtime to people--on our Search Poster as well as our Search Pathfinder.
Headphone “collateral” basket
YA Book Display &
Library scene
Remember, your laptops can travel. I’d love to work more closely with laptop classrooms. We welcome your learners and your laptops into the Library to use our services, our wireless, our books, and our lovely learning spaces!
Hope to see you and your classes soon! joyce
Springfield Township HS Library, 1801 East Paper Mill Road | 215-233-6030 X. 2502 | http://springfieldlibrary.wikispaces.com