SLJ Webinar Follow-up for Part I On Common Core – Getting Real: Marc Aronson and Sue Bartle Part One of my wrap-up – watch for Part Two on Monday

 

In this post I am putting together a few resources such as web sites and books that Marc and I discussed in our webinar today for SLJ.

If you missed the webinar – you can find the archive link at:

http://www.slj.com/category/webcasts/

just scroll down the page, you will see the description of the webinar and will find an archive link shortly.   

Most popular resource of interest to all during the webinar –

Stephen Krashen’s web site

http://www.sdkrashen.com/

You will find a link to the following -  “Is The Library Important? Multivariate Studies at the National and International Level” (Stephen Krashen, Syying Lee, and Jeff McQuillan)

Great PDF about scientific based studies on poverty, reading scores, and access to books.

One of my favorite comments from the article  -

“The effect of poverty on fourth grade reading is enormous, but access to books can contribute to fourth grade reading, regardless of poverty. The analysis also indicates that those who read better in grade four also read better in grade eight, but access to books can help here as well. This agrees with data showing that “late intervention” in the form of recreational reading is not only possible but can be effective (Krashen and McQuillan, 2007)”  

Great news for school and public libraries!

Under our myth section of the webinar:

Where to find Appendix B - http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards

Scroll down and you will find a PDF titled – “English Language Arts – Appendix B” – The real title of this document is – “English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects:  Appendix B:  Text Exemplars and Sample Performance Tasks”

Don’t forget the creation of the Appendix B was started in 2009 and published in 2010.  Each day the list gets older and older.  A major flaw is that it doesn’t tell us why these specific titles were selected.  It gives an extremely brief description on page 2 of the 183 page PDF of how they were selected.  Remember the word Exemplar means Example. 

Right here on our Uncommon Corp website we invite you to help use make a better Appendix B list - the tab labeled:  Appendix B – “Better B” list is where we invite you to help us create a list.  Make your comments and share your resources but you must tell us the rationale as to why this is an outstanding resource to use in Common Core.  Each month beginning in November we will post the comments in a PDF list format for everyone.

A little motivation – those who contribute and leave your name and email will have an opportunity to win an autographed book each month via a random drawing.  Make sure you give a reasonable rationale – you can’t just say it had a good review and won awards.  You need to tell us how this book speaks, does it have a point of view.  Does it use text structure well?  Does it provide an index?  Does it engage the reader? 

Important – David Coleman’s Quote – Where to find it and what is it?

“There is no greater threat to literary study in this country than false imitations of literature which do not deserve to be read. States in this first year of [CCSS] implementation, we beg you, to turn back mediocre or low-rate materials, rather than buy them stamped “Common Core.” If we must wait, it is better than to misrepresent the Standards with second-rate stuff. Please support states and districts in being brave and holding the line on excellence and giving time for a better generation of materials to take hold.”   ---- David Coleman https://commoncore.org/

Cluster One – Treasure Hunt

Thanks to Ayodele Ojumu, Librarian at PS 204 Lafayette High School in Buffalo, NY for sharing this creative idea.  (I really tried hard to properly pronounce your name – Michael Cambria helped me.)

Create a scorecard and have students find nonfiction books that have a variety of text features to discuss and learn about the book before they even read it!  Deconstruct the books together to learn how books are put together and who is responsible for that book – Yes the author but the author tells you about all the resources they used to write that book.  Children need to know this and read about this.  Does it have an index, a table of contents, a bibliography, page numbers, source notes, photos and illustrations with captions? Etc...

My Cluster Example – Topic Display – What text features make this book standout?  Use shelftalkers to draw attention to each book.

Since Winter is upon us – Display Blizzard by Jim Murphy – note with a shelftalker that this book has a great dedication.  Add Snowflake Bentley by Jaqueline Briggs Martin – note the illustrations and actual pictures of snowflakes with a shelftalker.  Then shift gears and display a book about another kind of blizzard – Blizzard of Glass by Sally Walker – and you could round it out with the Children’s Blizzard of 1888 by David Laskin and note the specific detail to information about weather.  Use the Internet and display a copy of the article from the Washington Post dated 1/14/11 titled – “Freak, deadly storm:  Children’s Blizzard of 1888” by Steve Tracton. 

Have students prepare the shelftalkers about each resource – what was special about this book – what stands out when you read it? 

Watch for Part Two on Monday – where you will learn to find cool shelftalkers and more resources discussed in our SLJ webinar.