Readers’ Cup blog

The School Library Association of Victoria has developed a blog to support the running of the Readers’ Cup in Victorian schools.

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Featuring details of entry, rules and procedures, the blog also has links to a number of questions and answers for books for students in years 5 & 5, 7 & 8 and 9 & 10.

Sponsored by FUSE, the Readers Cup is an excellent way to enthuse students about reading, as this year’s State Final involves students making films about the selected books.

Mooroopna Secondary College Library

Teacher librarian Rachel Fidock, has been involved in an exciting library program at Mooroopna Secondary College. There has been a lot of work put into development of social media and Rachel explains more:

By Rachel Fidock
I am proud to be a member of Mooroopna Secondary Collegeís Library staff consisting of three Teacher-Librarians (myself (Rachel Fidock), Leonie Dyason, and Ruth OíBree) and one Library Technician (Julie Jenkins). In a supportive, professional environment I am able to embrace one of the most important roles of a teacher-librarian ñ providing knowledge of ICT tools that will enhance teaching and learning and provide our students with the ICT skills of multi-literacy, adaptability, discovery, and social networking required in the 21st Century. By incorporating popular Web 2.0 tools in the delivery of library resources, we also increase the level of student interest in the library, their learning, and the building of their knowledge. Programs such as the Personal Learning Network for Victorian Schools (which three of our staff are undertaking), and other professional development opportunities by SLAV, are perfect for this. Not only can I learn about Web 2.0, I am also able to collaborate with like-minded educators.
I began working for MSC in 2007. I have been involved in many exciting library developments. Below are some of these:
Library website:

The library website confirms the importance of the library in the school community by giving it a virtual identity. The website provides many resources for staff and students, including search engine tips, subject weblinks, the library catalogue, and research help.
Subject weblinks: These are created to assist students in their research. The page informs students where to find resources in the library shelves and online, and how to cite an internet page. Most internet sites come from  HYPERLINK “https://fuse.education.vic.gov.au/secondary/pages/Default.aspx” FUSE, and those that do not are suggested to FUSE. The weblinks pages are created in collaboration with teachers. I inform the teacher of the benefits of the weblinks page (i.e. a weblinks page aids in research, provides age appropriate and reliable sites, and is useful for struggling students), and wait for their approval of a draft before it is published on the library website. We inform students of their existence and remind teachers that this resource is available for future assignment topics.
HYPERLINK “https://fuse.education.vic.gov.au/secondary/pages/Default.aspx”FUSE packages:

With the growth of FUSE our subject weblinks are also improving. We have created some resource packages using FUSE which include the subject weblinks page, a note-taking help sheet, a bibliography help sheet, and the assignment cover sheet. Creating resource packages in FUSE allows student access to these resources from home (for those who have the internet), whereas the library website is only accessible via the school intranet. To view one of our packages, have a look at HYPERLINK “http://celebratechange.global2.vic.edu.au/2010/03/21/leonie-dyasons-fuse-presentation/comment-page-1/” \l “comment-20″Leonie Dyasonís FUSE presentation. Again, these packages are created in collaboration with the classroom teacher. The students are given the code to the resource package so they can use it for quick information retrieval.
HYPERLINK “http://libmsc.global2.vic.edu.au/”MSC Library Reviews blog:

This review blog was created to encourage the school community to discuss and share literature experiences and to make a connection between the library and the wider school community. As well as reviews and tips to writing good reviews, there are book trailers created by our library staff, links to the Victorian Premierís Reading Challenge, favourite review sites, author links, and a place for visitors to recommend improvements to the blog and library.
I have advertised the existence of the blog via the daily student bulletin, with requests for any reviews, put notices and reviews in the school newsletter, informally discussed the blog with students, and have signs in the library encouraging contributions to the blog. I am also in the process of putting the subject weblinks on the blog, as another access point for students, with the added bonus that the students have to look at the blog to get to the weblinks. Currently, we are encouraging students to write blog reviews for us and will regularly review our processes and the success of the blog in reaching students.
Book trailers: When I first saw a book trailer I thought that it was such a fantastic way to entice students to read. A book trailer provides the visual stimulation to encourage the further exploration of the storyline. For poor or reluctant readers, it can create the images needed to bring the story to life. We started creating book trailers to show in the library. We can show them on our IWB but think a more central, looping screen might be better. We also decided the review blog is the perfect location to show these trailers. We use only creative commons-licensed pictures on HYPERLINK “http://www.flickr.com/”Flickr, and although we were putting them together using Windows Movie Maker, Julie Jenkins has started using  HYPERLINK “http://animoto.com/” Animoto to really bring the novel to life. You can view the book trailer Julie created for Swerve on our HYPERLINK “http://libmsc.global2.vic.edu.au/”  review blog now.
Google Earth and HYPERLINK “http://www.googlelittrips.com/GoogleLit/Home.html”Google Lit Trips:

Google Earth provides a tool for students to present oral presentations on their novels (where appropriate (i.e. aspects of the book can be highlighted by Google Earth)). We have low VELS levels in Speaking and Listening, possibly because students are not at ease giving oral presentations (often the way they are assessed for Speaking and Listening). Google Earth†helps students to†divert the attention from themselves. For example, they can show the class a trip they create that follows the journey taken by the main†character in the novel (e.g. Swerve by Phillip Gwynne). There are options to add images (creative commons-licensed images from Flickr), or show pictures that are already on Google Earth. There are so many options in Google Earth that students can make it as in-depth as they wish. The best part is they can record their voice over their journey so they have another option of meeting the requirements of Speaking and Listening. I have put together a guide to using Google Earth for the English staff that highlights how a Google Lit Trip can be used as an alternate assessment item for students to meet the requirements of VELS levels in Speaking and Listening, and created a Google Lit Trip on the novel Swerve as an example of its use.
We are now in the Ultranet training stage and are looking for ways the Library services, particularly our website, can become part of the studentís virtual space.
I am proud to be a member of Mooroopna Secondary College’s Library staff consisting of three Teacher-Librarians (myself, Leonie Dyason, and Ruth O’Bree) and one Library Technician (Julie Jenkins). In a supportive, professional environment I am able to embrace one of the most important roles of a teacher-librarian – providing knowledge of ICT tools that will enhance teaching and learning and provide our students with the ICT skills of multi-literacy, adaptability, discovery, and social networking required in the 21st Century. By incorporating popular Web 2.0 tools in the delivery of library resources, we also increase the level of student interest in the library, their learning, and the building of their knowledge. Programs such as the Personal Learning Network for Victorian Schools (which three of our staff are undertaking), and other professional development opportunities by SLAV, are perfect for this. Not only can I learn about Web 2.0, I am also able to collaborate with like-minded educators.
I began working for MSC in 2007. I have been involved in many exciting library developments. Below are some of these:
Library website

Library website

The library website confirms the importance of the library in the school community by giving it a virtual identity. The website provides many resources for staff and students, including search engine tips, subject weblinks, the library catalogue, and research help.
Subject weblinks: These are created to assist students in their research. The page informs students where to find resources in the library shelves and online, and how to cite an internet page. Most internet sites come from FUSE, and those that do not are suggested to FUSE. The weblinks pages are created in collaboration with teachers. I inform the teacher of the benefits of the weblinks page (i.e. a weblinks page aids in research, provides age appropriate and reliable sites, and is useful for struggling students), and wait for their approval of a draft before it is published on the library website. We inform students of their existence and remind teachers that this resource is available for future assignment topics.
FUSE packages:
Mooroopna 2
With the growth of FUSE our subject weblinks are also improving. We have created some resource packages using FUSE which include the subject weblinks page, a note-taking help sheet, a bibliography help sheet, and the assignment cover sheet. Creating resource packages in FUSE allows student access to these resources from home (for those who have the internet), whereas the library website is only accessible via the school intranet. To view all of our packages, have a look at Leonie Dyason’s FUSE presentation. Again, these packages are created in collaboration with the classroom teacher. The students are given the code to the resource package so they can use it for quick information retrieval.
MSC Library Reviews blog:
Mooroopna 3
This review blog was created to encourage the school community to discuss and share literature experiences and to make a connection between the library and the wider school community. As well as reviews and tips to writing good reviews, there are book trailers created by our library staff, links to the Victorian Premier’s Reading Challenge, favourite review sites, author links, and a place for visitors to recommend improvements to the blog and library.
I have advertised the existence of the blog via the daily student bulletin, with requests for any reviews, put notices and reviews in the school newsletter, informally discussed the blog with students, and have signs in the library encouraging contributions to the blog. I am also in the process of putting the subject weblinks on the blog, as another access point for students, with the added bonus that the students have to look at the blog to get to the weblinks. Currently, we are encouraging students to write blog reviews for us and will regularly review our processes and the success of the blog in reaching students.
Book trailers: When I first saw a book trailer I thought that it was such a fantastic way to entice students to read. A book trailer provides the visual stimulation to encourage the further exploration of the storyline. For poor or reluctant readers, it can create the images needed to bring the story to life. We started creating book trailers to show in the library. We can show them on our IWB but think a more central, looping screen might be better. We also decided the review blog is the perfect location to show these trailers. We use only creative commons-licensed pictures on Flickr, and although we were putting them together using Windows Movie Maker, Julie Jenkins has started using Animoto to really bring the novel to life. You can view the book trailer Julie created for Swerve on our review blog now.
Thanks to Rachel for sharing all of the amazing things she and the other members of the MSC library team have developed. There is just so much to inspire and many ideas for readers.

Aussie authors on Twitter

If anyone who is on Twitter would like to follow Aussie authors who also tweet, here is a list of primarily children’s and YA authors.  This list makes it easy to follow the authors that you like.

Authors such as

  • Nick Earls
  • Lili Wilkinson
  • Kirsty Murray
  • Gabrielle Wang
  • Cassandra Golds
  • Sally Odgers
  • and Felice Arena

tweet and often will reply to your messages. If your library has a Twitter account (or is thinking about opening one) this could be useful for Book Week activities.

This list is far from definitive, so any additions are gratefully received.

Thanks to Katrina Germein and Book Chook for providing the basis for this list.

A Book and a Hug

A Book and a Hug was created by US Children’s Services Librarian Barb Langridge.

Screen shot 2010-06-30 at 7.20.08 AM

Barb explains why she developed the book recommendation site:

I created abookandahug.com to help you find a book for your child. It’s important to match children up with books they want to read. It can make all the difference in the world if you can figure out his or her “reading personality.” So, just who is your child and what does your child look for in a book? A Books For Boys page is coming soon to help you define your boy in book terms. A Books For Girls page will follow on its heels.

A new section for books set in or from Asia/Australia/Oceania has just been added to the site. Barb explains:

Welcome to the wonders of Australia, Asia and the islands of Micronesia. Everyone of us is a citizen of the entire planet so we are actually looking at the countries of our Earth neighbors when we spin the globe. This section of abookandahug.com has been designed to make it easy for young readers to explore this neck of the woods through books whether picture book or young adult titles. Our hope is that by reading stories from these countries, all children will see the connections between us and the many similarities between us. Through this knowledge hopefully will come acceptance and friendship.

Click on a the map to find the books from a country. We wish you wonderful journeys!

Screen shot 2010-06-30 at 7.25.11 AM

Reading literature from specific locations is a great way for students around the globe to learn more about those countries and Barb would love to add recommendations from people in Australia, so please feel free to contact her to help develop this wonderful site.

Thanks to Barbara Braxton for passing on the  link to A Book and a Hug.

Reading rewards

A frequent flyer scheme for young readers, Reading Rewards is a site where students, teachers and parents can keep track of books read and offer incentives for reading and reviewing books.

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The site explains more:

How does it work? It’s simple. Kids accumulate ‘RR’ Miles on the site, which they can exchange for fun and sometimes silly things on the site: joke of the day, video of the day (always safe, kid-friendly videos our editors find), mini-games, and more. We even have an RR Store where kids can spend their miles and buy real stuff! Parents or other sponsors can contribute to the store and add their very own rewards for their kids.

How do they accumulate RR Miles? By reading, and telling us what and how much they read! They’ll get bonuses for reviewing their books, and making recommendations to friends.
A fun dashboard gives them a quick view of their friends, their status updates, what they’re reading and how much. This actually makes reading really cool!

As an added bonus, parents and/or other sponsors can set up and track their own reading reward programs. For example, 1 outing to the movies for every 600 minutes reading. It’s up to you!
Teachers can set up a group for their class, and track reading progress individually or as a group. Setting a group target is a fun class motivator, and our interactive chart let’s everyone see how they’re doing! If you like to use reading logs, you’ll love Reading Rewards. Using our online system with built-in parental validations, you can say good-bye to all those sheets of paper…

Reading Rewards declares that it is:

  • A completely safe social network
  • The only people kids can interact with on the site are their friends
  • Parents have to approve all friend connections
  • Parents can see and even edit content published to their kids pages

Screen shot 2010-06-30 at 6.53.18 AM

We know that peer recommendations are all important, so here is a tool that helps students to share which books they liked (and didn’t like).

Screen shot 2010-06-30 at 6.55.22 AM

Certainly worth investigating! Thanks to Richard Byrne from Free Technology for Teachers for passing on this link.

PGSC Reading wiki

A wiki suggesting alternative ways to respond to texts has been developed by Preston Girls’ Secondary College.

PGSC reading wiki 1

The idea behind the wiki is to show both students and teachers creative ways to respond to texts. The wiki includes examples of how students have responded via tools such as:

PGSC  reading wiki glogs

A big thank you to @thenerdyteacher Nick Provenzano for sharing his students’ Prezis on The Great Gatsby. You can view more student responses (including YouTube clips) on his excellent blog.

PGSC reading wiki prezis

Hopefully students will be excited to show teachers and parents their understanding of texts through creating and publishing presentations. Schools could use the presentations on their websites and/or parent information night.

New and improved site from State Library of Victoria

The State Library of Victoria has just relaunched its website. With an amazing wealth of information, activities and events, checking out the new SLV website is a must.
Homepage

Homepage

Hamish Curry, Education & Onsite Learning Manager in the Learning Services area of the State Library of Victoria explains:
This revamped site opens up a great deal of new opportunities to bring our collections and services to the surface; be sure to check out the ‘Learn’, ‘Explore’ and ‘What’s On’ sections.
Professional learning
Online learning resources
Online learning resources such as:
are included.
Professional learning
Professional learning
The professional learning page (above) caters for:
slv 4

Student and teacher resources

The Student and teacher resources page (above) provides resources related to:

  • Specific websites for schools (such as ergo, Insideadog)
  • SLV blogs
  • Audio and video resources
  • Education kits

So many fantastic resources available in the one place, the newly revamped SLV website is an absolute treasure.

MLC Lit Club Blog

Kew’s Methodist Ladies’ College have kindly shared information on their Literature Club.

MLC 1

No link as the blog is on the school intranet

Robin Anderson, Literature Club Coordinator and Jane Viner, Director of MLC Libraries explain:

MLC Lit Club is a group of Year 7 – 12 students who meet weekly to share a love and appreciation of literature. As a teacher librarian part of my role is to coordinate these weekly sessions, organise activities and encourage student participation and membership. Before establishing a blog for the MLC Literature Club in 2009, I worked with a learning technology liaison teacher for two sessions. I needed to understand the concept of blogging and how to set up and maintain a blog as part of the mymlc website. Previously the Lit Club members had access to a discussion forum which is part of Educate, an online curriculum delivery software program.

No link as the blog is on the school intranet

No link as the blog is on the school intranet

Lit Club students from Years 7 to 12 have posting rights on the blog and student posts have not so far needed to be edited. Bloggers review/discuss particular authors (Agatha Christie), titles (“Twilight”), favourite picture books (“The Very Hungry Caterpillar), conduct polls… We also record, with appropriate photos, special events for example author visits, book selection activities, excursions and joint meetings with other schools. Students are encouraged to continue discussions online about a topic of interest arising at the weekly meeting. Teacher librarians also form part of the Lit Club blog audience and there is a link from the Library homepage to our blog.

No link as the blog is on the school intranet

No link as the blog is on the school intranet

It certainly sounds like the students are enjoying their involvement with the Lit Club blog. Being able to share and discuss thoughts and views and write to an audience is a real attraction for students, while honing writing and communication skills. An excellent resource!

Bookleads wiki

Joyce Valenza blogged about this terrific wiki a few days ago.

Bookleads wiki

Although her message was primarily about the book trailer resources, there’s a lot of other great stuff to be found!

Resources on the wiki include:

Joyce welcomes contributions from any interested educators. This can be done by applying to join the wiki here. Thank you yet again Joyce for developing and sharing excellent resources.

Feature wiki – OLMC reading wiki

Our Lady of Mercy College, Heidelberg teacher librarian Michael Jongen and Head of Library Tricia Sweeney recently developed a reading wiki for their students.

olmc reading wiki

Michael explains:

As well as our information wiki (Wikidlinks), we also set up a reading wiki . We intend to use these pages to communicate and engage with students and teachers. We have created a new front page for the library on the School Intranet. It goes something like this….

Welcome to Wikidreading You can share your comments and ideas about reading and see what others have to say. In 2009, reading at olmc reached greater heights – more borrowing, more reviews and more discussion. Make sure you are part of this in 2010.

olmc reading wiki mr j

Our core service is information and reading and we think we have it covered in this simple format. With the new school year just starting we will promote these pages through our Years 7 and 8 reading programmes.

olmc reading wiki new

As you can see students have been contributing reviews already and the ‘New books’ page is a great idea. Michael’s page of reviews is detailed and students can see for themselves that he enjoys reading and is a terrific reading role model. Another job well done Michael!