Helping Books Dance Delightfully Off the Shelves - Shelftalkers

Shelftalkers = signs that make your books dance off the shelves into the arms of grateful readers. You know those great PR promotional shelf signs everyone sees in all types of retail and book stores. 

One comment that keeps coming back to me from a presentation I did in April for the Library Association of Rockland County (New York State).

A librarian was concerned about purchasing new nonfiction for K-12 that would not circulate. I agreed because most of the time the NF taken out has been for research.  We need to shift this thought process, work to find the right types of  NF that will dance off the shelves.  This discussion lead to shelftalkers. It is critical that we don't seat back to wait and see if a book will dance off the shelf.  Promote your product every day and every way to help create partners on the dance floor - book to reader and reader to book.

Step One:  Purchase NF that has the right type of appeal for your customers and not just for research.

I read a review recently in SLJ for a book about experiments with candy.  The reviewer felt it might not be considered a first purchase but supplemental.  I say - order that book - grab it when it arrives and promote it.  I love candy and I know a large segment of the population does as well.
Add a shelftalker to the book that says "Get a special surprise when you check out this book"  When the student checks out this book on candy experiments reach under your circulation desk and give them some candy for one of the experiments.   Hopefully, the candy makes it home for the experiment:)  Think about logical ways to promote and reward. 
Learning to read instructions is a great way to introduce NF to students.
Candy Experiments By Loralee Leavitt c. 2013

Step Two:  Promote and reward your students for their interest in NF. 

Speak to your students as they search for books.  Engage your students.  Rewards come in many shapes and sizes.  A reward can as simple as being the first to line up to go back to your classroom or the next student who gets to check out their classmates books during the next library class.  Let your students know why they are rewarded - Dialogue with your students, for example - "Thanks for being the first person to check this out"  or "I can't wait to hear what you think of this book next week"

Step Three:  Shelftalkers to the rescue.  Don't let NF linger on the sidelines.

I started to think tonight about other parts of our society that promotes products. Every grocery store and all the large retailers put out an advertisement flyer each week of what is on sale. The shelftalker can be compared to the "on sale" flyer - here is the special of the week.

We need to do more promoting or pushing the product to the customer every single day.

It needs to be continual so that the product provided (books, books, and more good books!) is consumed in the manner we want.It should never be a one time promotion.

I want to see EVERY single library put a note in the corner of every display case that says "If you want to check out any of the books on display - just ASK - we are happy to see them go home with you to enjoy!"

People won't ask so you must promote the idea of PLEASE help us dismantle this display - this sign is another version of a shelf talker.

One of my summer projects will be to create a standard set of shelftalkers for the busy librarian.  I will be working with Jackie Graves who is a retired librarian from Central New York.  She is a very creative person and will assist me in assembling a ready made kit to help promote library collections specifically your NF.  Stay tuned to see how our summer project takes shape.  If you have any questions about shelftakers or clever ideas that you use, feel free to share and comment.

A few web sites to help you build your book dancing muscles:

http://publiclibraryshelftalkers.blogspot.com/

http://librarycenters.blogspot.com/p/shelf-talkers_26.html#.UX7lEoJAsrE

http://www.dsmarketingsolutions.com/ShelfTalkerLibrary.html
Not about library shelf takers but use this one for inspiration

http://pinterest.com/libraryaware/shelf-talkers/
A great visual shelftalking experience.

http://www.shelfwiz.com
A commercial web site for shelf signs that offers a FREE sample.
I ordered one last week and received it within a week.  A very nice sample!

School Libraries and the Reading-Writing Connection

Recently, a request to sign this White House petition came into my email inbox.  I signed it, although I am not sure it will go any further than the request last year for mandating school libraries at the federal level. The 2012 petition received enough support to gain a response from the White House, but the response focused on literacy in general, and did not address specific issues regarding the connection between literacy achievement and school libraries.

This fall, a very exciting research study on the impact of school libraries in the state of Pennsylvania was released. The research, conducted by the Education Law Center, the Health Sciences Library Consortium, and the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association, looked at the 2010-2011 Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) tests in Reading and Writing grades 3-11. Specifically:

"The report examined the 2010-­‐11 Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) tests in Reading and Writing for students in grades three through 11, and tracked outcomes for students based on five factors: staffing, collections, digital resources and technology infrastructure, library access, and funding.

Overall, the greatest impact on student test scores was seen from having a full-­‐time, certified librarian.

• Students who have access to a full-­‐time, certified librarian scored higher on the PSSA Reading Test than those students who do not have such access. This finding is true for all students, regardless of their socio-­‐economic, racial/ethnic, and/or disability status.
  
• For several student groups that tend to experience achievement gaps—economically disadvantaged, Hispanic, Black, and those with IEPS (Individualized Education Programs)— Reading and Writing results are markedly better when those student attend a school with a librarian and library support staff, according to the research. In fact, they benefit more proportionally than the general student population."
  

As a nation, we have focused on isolated reading instruction far too much over the past decade, and ignored what we know about the reading-writing connection and the valuable suggestions offered in the National Commission on Writing's 2003 report "The Neglected R: The Need for a Writing Revolution" The report advocates for many changes in how we approach writing instruction in Prek-12 schools, most of which have been ignored. In the upper grades, the report suggests "half the students" and "twice the time" in class for effective and meaningful writing instruction. Certainly, educators and literacy experts have long been aware of the reading-writing connection and the ways in which reading impacts writing and in turn writing impacts reading. Preschoolers often "encode" with drawings and attempts at forming letters and words before they start to "decode" words on the page. But writing takes time, and thoughtful and effective writing instruction takes place in the context of using trade books and other print and digital texts as mentor texts for student writing. This is yet another reason why the quantitative evidence provided by the Pennsylvania report, linking school libraries with success in reading and writing, is so valuable. Perhaps it can influence policy.

Yesterday, Deval Patrick announced a new vision for public funding of education in the state of Massachusetts, where I work as a teacher educator. There are many good ideas in this proposal  although I have not yet seen the details. I do very much hope that school libraries become a part of the discussion.

Sometimes You Read Something That Says Everything You Wish You'd Said

 

I got an email the other day from an excellent New York public high school librarian asking me if I'd read Sam Wineburg's essay on Howard Zinn. I hadn't, but boy was I glad she directed me to it. (Here is an article about the article, with a link that will take you directly to it: http://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/december/wineburg-historiography-zinn-122012.html). Wineburg is a paragon of fairness -- granting Zinn not only his popularity, but the moral fervor behind his work and the importance of some of his historical claims. But then, in the most careful use of primary sources and secondary scholarship he shows the flaws in Zinn -- the sense in which, under the cover of writing a new form of history, he is writing his own ideological textbook which omits what it does not want to consider, chooses not to shade what it prefers to make black and white, and rest strong claims on thin sources. Zinn, one clearly sees, offers to those on the left the same assurance that the kinds of "patriotic" textbooks they detest give to those on the right -- in both cases a familiar and appealing stance allows the author to ride roughshod over the complexity of real history. Hurray for our side (whichever side that may be), says the book, and that comforts those who feel it important to tell that particular appealing story to children.

    Because Zinn is juxtaposed against older more conservative textbooks, he feels -- to some -- like a relief, a healthy corrective. And that is precisely how I would suggest using him -- pair Zinn and an anti-Zinn book, let students see the differing points of view, and compare them. But the key is comparison.We should no more treat Zinn as finally true than we should a 1950s All white America First textbook. This is the key to nonfiction as it should be, especially in the age of the Common Core. We are teaching students to be critical readers of all nonfiction -- whether we agree with it or not. That is why we must tell them where we get not only our quotations but our ideas -- what secondary sources do we use, and how reliable are they? Having Zinn to juxtapose against older textbooks is good. But encouraging students to compare both and question their sources is even better. Now that I think about it, teachers who use Zinn shouldn't stop, they should just hand out Wineburg's article to their students. Welcome to the world of real history, that would say, where we all take our shots at getting it right. Wineburg's article is called "Undue Certainty" and that perfect -- we know the past in fractions, and need to be honest with students about the gaps.

 

Marc Aronson

SLJ Author Panel Webinar

If you are a teacher or librarian looking to learn more about nonfiction picture books and chapter books, and how these books can be used to achieve the goals of the Common Core State Standards, sign up for the free webinar I'll be moderating for School Library Journal on January 17th.

This webinar is the third of a three-part series that Marc and Sue kicked off back in October. November's webinar featured Olga Nessi, of the New York City DOE Department of Library Services. 

You can register for the archived versions of these webinars and sign up for the upcoming January 17th webinar at: http://www.slj.com/2013/01/webcasts/part-3-on-common-core-making-the-text-connection/.

Participating award-winning authors include: Deborah Hopkinson, Barbara Kerley, Sally Walker, and Steve Sheinkin.

Changed Lexile Levels

Common Core has expanded the Lexile levels in the standards, giving teachers who are required by administrators to use Lexiles more flexibility in their choice of books.  The change was slipped into the fairly new publication, "Supplemental Information for Appendix A of the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy: New Research on Text Complexity" found at
http://www.corestandards.org/assets/E0813_Appendix_A_New_Research_on_Text_Complexity.pdf 

At the very least, Common Core should be featuring this change on their home page so the word gets out about it.  I only saw the changed levels because I came across a reference to the Supplement and went to take a look.

You'll find the expanded Lexiles on page 4 along with other reading formula levels by grade band.  The footnote explains that, "This change was provided in response to feedback received since publication of the original scale (published in terms of the Lexile® metric) in Appendix A."

No school should be using Lexile levels as the sole factor in choosing books.  It is particularly disturbing to hear about middle school and high school ELA programs that have dropped novels that worked well, discarded solely because they didn't fit the reading formula grade ranges published in Appendix A.  Yes, if you read the fine print, it said to use reading formulas as just one of three factors but anyone familiar with the education world could have predicted that some administrators would seize on the quantitative measure and require it, as indeed some have. 

A Nonfiction News Round-Up

At the risk of getting a little too meta, Sue Bartle pointed out this resource from The New York Times Learning Network, which Myra recently wrote about. The lesson plan suggests having students analyze the online debate about the balance of fiction and nonfiction in the media, which I wrote about last week. You can find it : http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/category/lesson-plans/language-arts/nonfiction/.

Over at The School Library Journal website, Travis Jonker has made a request to authors and editors of nonfiction books for children and young adults in "A Humble Demand: More Nonfiction Book Trailers."   

A couple of weeks ago, SLJ released its Best Books 2012, which has a separate section for nonfiction. The New York Times announced its Notable Children's Books of 2012, which, in my opinion, does not include enough nonfiction. Back in November, the Times released its Best Illustrated Children's Books of 2012 , which included two nonfiction titles. The Horn Book Magazine also released its Horn Book Fanfare 2012, which, happily, has a subsection for nonfiction. Kirkus Reviews also released its Best Children's Books of 2012, with a section on nonfiction. 

 

Finally, Marfe Ferguson Delano's post on the INK blog today is a wonderful teaching tool. Teachers and students researching and creating their own nonfiction texts, in print or digital format, can use Delano's interview with National Geographic book designer Jim Hiscott as a "mentor text" for discussions of student work.

Common Core Inaccuracies in the Washington Post

I woke up this morning to Rosalyn Schanzer's post on the I.N.K. blog about a December 2nd story in The Washington Post that demonstrates exactly what people don't know or understand about both the Common Core Standards and nonfiction literature for children and young adults. It also represents the tremendous gaps in Appendix B. 

I wish that there was at least one reporter at a national newspaper who more closely examined this thing called "nonfiction" or "informational texts" that children are supposed to be reading. Yes, young adult nonfiction is entirely absent from Appendix B starting in middle school. So you can't look at the Core Standards to see examples of appropriate nonfiction for students to read at the secondary level. It was this gap that galvanized Marc, Myra, and I to establish the Uncommon Corps in the first place. We knew the authors of the standards must not have known enough about middle grade and nonfiction literature. It was up to us to start spreading the word.

However, Appendix B has age-appropriate nonfiction titles for the elementary grades! Some are dated, yes, but these are titles that are more than appropriate for students learning to read, and reading to learn in language arts, science, and social studies. Many boys (and girls) love and prefer nonfiction. What is so hedonistic about requiring that it be read when we're talking about the picture books of Steve Jenkins or April Pulley Sayre and so many other fine writers and illustrators? One look at Kadir Nelson's I Have a Dream picture book demonstrates the ways in which speeches can be examined by children and young adults in novel ways. Why are so few reporters actually taking a look at those books and talking to the authors and editors who create these books and the body of teachers and librarians who use them? Why are the same people always quoted in the newspaper as the voice of dissent? 

Finally, MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH TEACHERS CAN TEACH A BALANCE OF LITERATURE AND NONFICTION/INFORMATIONAL TEXT. No one officially connected to the Core Standards is suggesting in print or otherwise that novels are dead, that literature shouldn't be taught. But literary nonfiction is also literature, and it has a place in the secondary English Language Arts classroom. 

It is up to the other subject areas to step-up and start providing real-world reading experiences for young adults, context-rich opportunities to explore nonfiction trade books, digital texts, newspaper articles, government reports, research papers, the works, rather than using a single text book that students don't read in the first place. It is up to principals and superintendents to read the Core Standards and give their teachers the correct information. It is up to every teacher in the building to share the opportunity of teaching young people using a wide variety of texts of all genres and modalities. 

I think I got that out of my system. For now.