While the children sat
and quietly read for pleasure gaining more material for their blogs, Mrs.
Soghomonian sat down with me to discuss this project. The goal is to have students participate in actively
sharing information and ideas about their readings while also thoughtfully
commenting on other students’ posts. She
sees this posting and commenting process as a way for students to work together
to generate further discussion and learning while incorporating technology and
creativity. Once the students post one
more round of book reviews, each student will be allowed to create their own
blog. However, guidelines need to be met
before they receive approval to become somewhat independent bloggers. She requires them to have a solid topic (one
they have an opinion about), detailed blog plan, and think up at least a
concept for the first 3 to 4 posts so it will be continued through the
remainder of the term. This EDU is in
its second year and she has learned that it is so important to teach the
mechanics for blogging just as you would for proper writing. You can visit this student blog at Village Book Hooks For
students that do not want to create a blog, she is offering them the ability to
create a Voki to use for their book reports.
She
has a unique schedule. She has both
fixed schedules for 4th and 5th grade yet there is a
flexible schedule for 6th grade.
She feels that this allows the 6th grade students on their
off weeks to come down to the computer lab with their teacher and work with her
on projects. In terms of teacher
collaboration she praised certain teachers and teams and discussed challenges
that she faces with other teachers. While
encouraging collaboration with teachers she also is mindful of the personal
connection that she misses with that grade level. As a result she has her library open from
7:30 to 3pm so that children can come before school and after school to seek out
a new book or receive help.
One
teacher collaboration, which she spoke about, will take place at the end of
March. She was very excited to tell me
about the 5th grade project with Glogsters. The students will tie this in with a
non-fiction book and then with the use of a Glog, provide a book review, in
addition to linking the actual book location to area websites. It will also provide information and links to
the actual characters, subject that the protagonist is involved with, and the protagonist’s
nationality and links. She was excited
to take this book review to a much higher level.
Mrs.
Soghomonian went on to share other
collaboration opportunities that she has developed with each grade. She was very happy about the adoption of her research
source sheet by classroom teachers after they saw it used for a project in the
library with their children. This initial
modeling and guidance that she provides and continued reinforcement of the
skill by the classroom teachers, helps the children to see the necessity and
importance of citing your sources. Transference
of skills and their incorporation across the curriculum is a personal goal of
hers.
Clearly
technology and its meaningful integration is one of Mrs. Soghomonian’s
strengths. My time in the library today
went by quickly and with all the discussion we had and the notes I took, I
found myself with so many more questions that I look forward to asking her.
Village School Library Homepage
You have described the operation of Allison's library program in terms of the various collaborative initiatives occurring not only with teachers but also students collaborating with each other. "The school library program promotes collaboration among members of the learning community, and encourages learners to be independent lifelong users and producers of ideas and information."
ReplyDeleteYou also observed that students will indeed be producing material --blogs and vokis. It is all happening here, isn't it? And Allison is definitely using technology in creative ways.
You spent 1.7 hours at her school, and I am assuming that this is the first of several visits. You have described her program (fixed and flex) and given a sense of the activity in the library.
In the weeks ahead, you will be visiting and blogging more and, as you said, you have lots of questions. I can see where you can dig deeper into her program: pay attention to the fix/flex approach and ask why the fixed part is occurring and would she prefer it all to be flexed. What about access to computers at Village? The Spanish class trumps library!
This is a solid initial posting. I look forward to your observations in the weeks ahead. How collaborative is her environment in terms of real learning? What is she doing to assess students and do teachers expect her assessments?
You are on the right path here for blogging! I would say as the weeks progress that you may find some of your comments will bring in what you have read in class to help inform your insights.
I compared your posting to the rubric and you get full marks in all categories with perhaps some further work needing to be done on first category -- but as I said above, I am confident that after this initial blog posting I will see that in the weeks ahead.