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Dear LM_Netters: Thank you to all of you who were generous enough to share your instructional ideas. There are some great creative minds lurking behind LM_NET!! I am aware that some of you might have missed my initial post, so if you want to see a longer HIT, please e-mail your best instructional ideas for the elementary school level to : antonyc@mail.firn.edu I will be glad to post another hit. ---------------------------------------- My students enjoy a game I call trashketball. We divide into 2 teams. I ask questions about skills or literature. A correct answer earns a point for one's team and a chance to shoot a Nerf baseball into the trash can. If the ball goes in, another point is scored. Everyone gets a small treat of some sort at the end. They enjoy this form of review. Julia Steger *** A Lap is a Terrible Thing to Waste *** Librarian *** Adopt a Pet from your Local Animal Shelter *** Clifton Forge Elementary Schools Clifton Forge, VA 24422 jsteger@pen.k12.va.us --------------------------------------------- I have nada to tell you about best instructional ideas, etc., but I laughed at your observation that some off-the-cuff lessons went better than the carefully planned ones. I taught all grades from 6th to 12th in my nearly thirty years in the classroom and library, and I have a theory about that very familiar phenomenon. I think that the more time you invest in a lesson, the more uptight you tend to be about presenting it precisely just so, and the kids prefer spontaneity. Just a thought. Mary Gale, Salinas HS, alma mater of John Steinbeck -------------------------------------------- I think one of the best units turned out to be very elementary--a unit for my first grade teachers who were teaching dinosaurs. We could not have completed this unit if we had not been on flexible scheduling as it lasted about 2 weeks and students came in 3-4 times. All 5 first grade classes participated. Objective: students will be able to point out author, title, illustrator of a book and make their own dinosaur book cover. In advance, I prepared print-outs of a dinosaur scene from one of the print shop graphics--a full screen page. Also, copied the class list of students' names for each student in class. Showed the class the book cover "Gila Monsters meet you at the airport." Through discussion, talked about the basic parts of a book: front & back covers, spine, front cover with title of book, author, etc. Asked class"What is a gila monster?" Had video camera set up and recorded responses. Quite a few were funny! Watched the video from Reading Rainbow "Gila Monsters meet you at the airport." Would stop video in many diff. spots and discuss what students were viewing. After video, we discussed the relationship of a gila monster to a dinosaur (can't remember now as I'm away from school but I think dinosaur/gila monsters were cousins)> Using overhead, discussed what were facts from the book and which items were not true fromWent back to the book cover and pointed out items on the book cover-author, title, illustrator. Held up 2 more dinosaur books for examples and discussed items on the front of a book: author, title, illustrator. With blank transparency, I quickly drew a dinosaur picture for my book cover and for an author and illustrator, I used students' names from the classroom. Then, we did another example with input from students for a book title, author, illustrator. Explained to students they were to use the dinosaur sheets given to them and they were to make up a book title, an author and illustrator for their book. Students enjoyed the assignment and learned the author, title, illustrator placement for books. Good luck with your hit! Bookheart Noblesville, IN -------------------------------------------------- I know what you mean about last minute success lessons. Here's one I did on teaching the kids about fiction call letters. When they came in I had a bunch of goofy book titles with their teacher, me, the principal, etc. as the authors (ex: _The Mystery of Room 228_ by R. Bailey) I got the kids to construct the call letters. Top letter tells the section. We are in the fiction section, so what letter is that?? F, that's right. Now who knows what the three letters here are? (Someone usually knows its the author's last name.) So together we construct three or four goofy ones, then some real ones with catchy titles (these books are *really* over there in the fiction section!!). Then I hand out slips of paper and pencils and tell them, "You are going to write a book, but actually all you have to write is the title of your book. You can make it up or you can write a real title. Then decide who the author is. Then draw the spine label and put the call letters for your book in it." Some kids got into writing goofy titles and authors. They all enjoyed it. I'd pick someone who seemed to understand it well and who finished first and read the title and author (dramatically) to the rest of the class and ask, "What are the call letters for this book??" The kid who answered correctly got his/her example read (if they had done all the parts correctly.) Unfortunately I did it near the end of the year so I wasn't able to gage retention very well. I intend to do it early next year. Please post the hit! Johanna Halbeisen Rebecca M. Johnson School(K-8) Springfield, Mass jhalbei@k12.oit.umass.edu ------------------------------------------ This is a little thing I've been doing for a couple of years that has made life easy for me in that when a child asks where a book is, I can give him the call number (for E or F) and he can find the book. I made sets of shapes of construction paper (footballs, pumpkins, turkey drumsticks, baseballs, hearts, raindrops, etc. to fit the season we're in) put one call number on each: E PAR I use the same set of call numbers for each shape, about 35, and make them common enough so there will be a book with that call number. Each child gets a shape and has to find a book with that call number. They love seeing what the new shape will be. They show me the book and then put it back, or check it out if it looks good. We talk a lot about what the call numbers mean, and they each tell me what their call number would be if they wrote a book. I do this with 2nd and 3rd grade. By 4th, I give them old catalog cards from the fiction section and they have to find the exact book. It really has helped, as I said, to enable them to find books on their own. Another idea that wasn't my own that I used to help with the idea of Dewey Call numbers was: I took half sheets of construction paper and wrote a subject on each one. I used the same color for each 100 set. 300s,400s, etc. The children picked a subject and illustrated the card and then we went to the shelf, found the call number for that subject and I wrote it on the card. I laminated them and another day, handed them out and had the children find a book with that call number. They loved it. I did this with 2nd grade, but would also do it with 3rd another time. Book Party: a fifth grade class (can do at any level) sat in a big circle and I put 30-40 books that 5th graders like in the center. They each found one they had enjoyed and told us a little bit about it. It really stimulated interest in checking out books. You can go around the circle or this can be done as a "Quaker Reading" where the children, when they want to share, stand up and speak, as in a Quaker Meeting. They take turns naturally without speaking, just using body language and eye contact to see who will go next. If you talk about this first, they do really well. I used this quaker reading to introduce a new unit a couple of other times with great success. I put out a lot of books on tables (native American for 3rd grade, colonial for 5th, biographies for 6th) and the kids chose a book and found one interesting thing in it. Then we sat in a circle on the floor and shared that fact or passage in the Quaker Reading format. It got them into the books and the subject. When I did this, each child said a specific thing to begin and end his turn so we'd know when he was done. Like for biographies, he'd say the name of the person, then the interesting fact, then the name of the person again. I'm rambling, I'll quit. I am anxious so see your hit. I have gotten such wonderful ideas from this group. Laurie Carter- Library/Information Teacher 3195 Woodside Rd. Woodside Elementary School Woodside, CA 94062 lcarter@woodside.K12.ca.us "Minds are like parachutes. They only function when open." ----------------------------------------------------- My favorite unit this year involved our fifth and first grades. Both grades study oceanography. We paired each fifth grader with a first grader. Each first grader selected an ocean animal (from a prepared list) and each pair researched in the library together. We prepared a large chart for them to use and the fifth grader would read from the book/encyclopedia. Together they would decide what facts to put and where. (The fifth grader thus modeling note-taking, which they have been doing all year.) Then they used the facts on the chart to create a book together. The first grader would dictate, the fifth grader would write, and the first grader would illustrate the completed page. The last page of the book was a poem they wrote together. Wonderful things happen when older students work with younger students. It just brings out the best in the older ones. These pairs of students also did other activities together throughout the year - reading aloud together, working on the computer, dictating. We've expanded the pair activity since last year, our first time with this project. I'd love to get a copy of your other responses. Best wishes, Anne Shimojima braeside@nslsilus.org Braeside School IMC 150 Pierce Road Highland Park IL 60035 708.433.0155 ---------------------------------------------------------- I don't know just what kind of lessons you focus on, but I would say it is the nature of what you ask students to do not the length of planning time that gets positive or negative reactions. For example during a food unit with first graders I have them come and we discuss what part of the plant they are eating when they eat different vegetables. On the top of their paper we collect data (tally marks in sections labeled leaf, seed, stem, flower, seed pod, and root). At the bottom we construct a bar graph with the same information. We conclude with a discussion of which format makes it easier to grasp relationships and make generalizations. Kids identify the graph as being easier to interpret. Older students are given excerpts from Columbus's diary to sequence using inference and context clues. They work in groups -- 2 gps. doing the beginning, 2 the middle and 2 the end. We then share with the total class and build the total document. We use a lot of primary source materials and ask them to analyze point of view, arguments pro and con of an issue, fact and opinion etc.. What ever we are doing the content relates to class work and the activity builds information handling skills. The assignments ask students to identify relationships, use graphic organizers, support or justify from a source etc. We don't teach skills for their own sake or do drill and practice activities. Cooperative problem solving carries over from classroom instruction. I could suggest some materials which support this approach to a media center instructional program if you are interested. Ellen Jay mejay@umd5.umd.edu ---------------------------------------------------- This is a great idea for all levels. Thanks for thinking of it. One class that is always successful is teaching the elements of a plot using _The True Story of the Three Little Pigs_. I first review the plot elements students learned from their language arts teachers. I ask students to watch for these while I am reading the story and tell them they will be helping me later by acting out these elements. Out students ma all be hams, but this usually guarantees good attention. Then I read the story, they take notes or not, and afterwards I read the story again. Students are to raise their hand when they hear a plot element. I usually pick the student I call on as one of the actors. We have a pig and a wolf. They act out what I am reading, then hold up colorful signs with their plot element on it. We go on, picking new pigs and wolves as needed, until the whole story is reread. By then most of the class is at the front, part of the cast. They are all holding their signs, hopefully in correct order, and we once again go through the elements of a plot, using their names and the story points to illustrate. I summarize by telling them that whenever they want to remember plot elements, they are to think of _The True Story of the Three Little Pigs_! Other things I try involve games--relay races using the card catalog and locating books on shelves, Dewey relays, arranging 10 books in Dewey order as a team, cooperative learning for theme, etc, but I will look forward to your HIT and rethink all these when I read all the great ideas I'm sure you'll get. Eddie van Rossum Daum Miller Creek Middle School San Rafael, CA edaum@marin.k12.ca.us ------------------------------------------------ My most successful days are when the students are up and moving around. i.e. locating a particular hardback fiction, biography, nonfiction, or paperback book. I have strips of tag board labeled with the "address" or call no. of a particular book and the title of the book. Students are then given a shelf marker (usually a paint stirrer) and a book strip. They are then sent out to retrieve the book. They return to me to show me the book and the strip. I keep the strip and they return the book to the shelf and retrieve the shelf marker. To ensure that the book will be on the shelf, I will insert "reserved" cards into the pocket so that they do not get checked out during the week of lessons with all the classes. Another method to ensure successful retrieval is to have the students retrieve a book (any title) from a particular author in the fiction section or a book about a particular person in the biography section. This is done just after the location lesson on fiction. Then when biography location skills are completed, both fiction and biography are practiced, and so on until all areas of the library are covered. This is done with 4th and 5th graders. Even the LD students are successful. In fact, I would say that there is a 99% success rate and the lessons "take". Students come to the library and locate their own books and are very proud of their new location skills. I will be interested in seeing some of the other responses you receive. Doris Renfro So. Range Middle School SRAN_DR@access.ohio