I don't expect my students to memorize any Dewey Decimal numbers - that's what the online catalog is for! I do, however, want them to get practice with categorization and classification - skills that are needed in the workplace. For example, in my prior life as a "mutual fund operations communications analyst," I developed filing systems and web site architectures. Being able to see how pieces fit together is important.
Grade 4 students worked together to examine the most popular Dewey categories: 500s, 700s, and 900s. They pulled books from each section, wrote down the topics, and then tried to figure out how the topics went together. Can you tell what the 500s are about??
2013 marks the 75th anniversary of the Caldecott Medal. This annual award from American Library Association, goes to "the artist of the most
distinguished American picture book for children." Mrs. Haggerty, the art teacher, will be covering the artistic aspect of past award-winners with second-grade students. She asked if I would like to complement her lessons with the books themselves, which I thought was a great idea. Mrs. Steward, another Cranston school librarian, gave me some ideas on how to proceed.
After reviewing the list of past winners and honorees, I decided to start with the 2004 batch ... the year some of the second-graders were born. Here are the four books we read ... I covered up the medals on the covers so the kids wouldn't know which won what.
There was a CLEAR winner among Stadium and Garden City students. Here is the data, presented three ways. Which way do you think is the easiest to read?
Bar Chart
Data Table
Pie Chart
The actual winner of the ALA medal was my favorite: The Man Who Walked Between The Towers by Mordecai Gerstein, which is based on a true story. Here is the trailer for the recent documentary about the events, called "Man on Wire":
I've been a bit behind with the blogging, so I'm a little late telling you that November was Picture Book Month.
However, I did manage to put together a display window at school, including a way for students to participate: they could fill out a slip of paper with their name and their favorite picture book and return it to me. Then I added their info - and a copy of the book - to the window.
Favorite titles included:
The Z Was Zapped by Chris Van Allsburg
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff
What is your favorite picture book? Add it to the comments below.
Third graders now get to take out books from anywhere in the library ... but they're not sure how to find what they want. So we'll be learning how to use the online catalog and convert call number listings into shelf locations.
We started simple, with the fiction section.
Every fiction call number has "FIC" as the first line, and then the first three letters of the author's last name as the second line.
For example, if I wrote a book, the call number would be
FIC
MOO
What would YOUR call number be?
Students figured out the call numbers for a list of books and and then
created their very own for a fiction book they "wrote."
