[LM_NET] HIT destiny reviews

[Dawn Westover <Dawn_Westover@MSVL.K12.WA.US>]

I originally ask for any information people had about having students post book 
reviews on the
Destiny program.  I received many emailed hints and requests for a hit.  I included 
the information
here with names removed to protect the inocent (or guilty)  Thanks so much for all 
the help.

We do this.  The students write up the reviews for the class.  Then, they can log 
into the library
system, go to the title they are reviewing and copy paste their review into the 
box.  SAVE!  Then I
review the review and if it just needs minor editing, I will go through it.  If it 
needs major
editing, I will refuse it.

I always print the page first, because after I approve the review it disappears 
from my list.  I
then give the approved reviews to the teacher so they can give the students credit.

Our problem, the review length for the classroom is too long for Destiny.  The kids 
have to really
abridge.
One tip we had from a librarian is that if she edits a review (corrects 
punctuation, for example),
then Destiny adds “edited by Mary Smith” at the end. Mary doesn’t want her first 
name showing up,
so she needs to go to her own patron record and replace her first name “Mary” with 
“Mrs.”
We just got Destiny in our Elementary School this year.~ We love the review aspect 
but we didn't
want the hassle of creating usernames for all of our students, plus there's the 
potential for
abuse.~ We created simple forms for the students to fill out- "How many stars, What 
is this book
about, and what was your favorite part?"~ 
The students return the forms to me and I enter them into the computer with the 
student's
initials.~ So far the kids love it- they love seeing their friends opinions and 
showing off their
own.~ The biggest problem that we have is that, since I'm only one user, I can only 
enter one
review per book. 
We've had destiny for about a year.~ This school year we started letting the kids 
do reviews.
Our criteria:

1. 3-4 sentences
2. use descriptive language ( no words like...nice good...adverbs!)
3.~ sign their review this way for privacy~ (first name-comma- school name)
We will have to approve each one as they do them.~ I deny/delete the ones with 
spelling errors and
low level language.
Several of our librarians use this feature.  First, be aware that there is a limit 
to the number of
words accepted.  One librarian found this the hard way after a class wrote two 
paragraph reviews,
but could only get in a sentence or two.

Know that the reviews will be visible to ALL patrons and Destiny viewers in your 
district, not just
at the school where the review was posted.

Consider if you want names of students to be visible.
Know that at the end of the year, each librarian can go in and clean out many of 
the posted reviews
lest it get unwieldy.
I have just started using this feature (last week!). My library science
students are required to read an award winning book and write a book review,
so I had them add a star rating and post the review on Destiny. I teach 1
hour of English LIt and they have to complete an Independent Reading
Project each marking period. Again, for 3rd marking period I had them write
a book review and then they posted the review on Google books and Destiny.One thing 
that I
learned-Destiny limits the amount of characters. It would
be a great editing exercise to have students complete the review according
to an English rubric, but paraphrase for Destiny.

As to managing, there is an option in set-up for reviews. I have mine set so
that the reviews are not attached to the book until I go in and approve
them. Simple click of a button. You can set-up the teacher permissions toallow 
teachers to approve
book reviews.  Hope this helps!

One of the issues we ran into with reviews is that the reviews posted by middle 
schoolers were not
appropriate for our high school students (and vice versa). The person who manages 
our Destiny
accounts set it up so that reviews could only be viewed by same-school students. 
Just another thing
to remember with union catalogs. ;-)
We allow reviews here at our middle school, and it is wonderful! ~I have the 
preferences set so
that I must approve all reviews before they are posted to the catalog. ~I also have 
power of
edit--I keep the spirit of the post intact, but I clean up the spelling & grammar. 
~If a review is
incomplete or beyond repair, I simply delete it. ~For students who leave reviews on 
their own, I
give them a small campus prize.

We have had teachers add the review as a mandatory part of a novel/book study. ~In 
cases like this,
I don't edit. ~Once the deadline has passed, I print the whole group of reviews 
either from the
Processing Needed page, or by creating a report. ~This way, the teachers can see 
the student's work
in its entirety. ~Only the best reviews, that need the least amount of editing make 
it to the
catalog, and the rest are deleted.
It has really been a good thing. ~Some of my kids have really embraced it and leave 
reviews for all
of their checkouts! ~I love it!
I just started having my students post reviews and although they can do it on their 
own, it was
introduced to our sixth grade as part of a book report.~ We had the students write 
the report in
school and save it to their networked computer account.~ We structured the 
assignment so that the
last paragraph contained a recommendation.~ After the report was graded, I showed 
the kids how to
copy and paste just the last paragraph into Destiny.~ Of course, I have to approve 
all reviews
before they are posted and was able to edit minor mistakes.

The kids are quite enthusiastic about having the reviews available to them, and I 
think it’s been
successful.~ Good luck.
We had the feature this year, and two reading/language teachers have worked with me 
to develop a
program we will try next year.~ I will teach students to write reviews, much like 
the reviews
I~write for LMC.~ Students will submit reviews to their teachers for a grade, and 
each month the
teachers and I will choose 5-10 of the best reviews to place in Destiny.~ We have 
decided that I am
the only person who will insert the reviews, just because the~user must have logon 
access.~ It
seems easiest to do it in paper for now, and then I'll insert the review for 
digital access.~
That's what we are planning to do next year.
When I introduced it to my kids, I told them to include genre, setting
and characters.  However, the most important part of their review would
be stating what their favorite part of the book was without giving away
the most important part of the book, particularly for mysteries.  Check
with Follett to see if you can set the system up so the teachers review
their own students' reviews or you will be overwhelmed with work.  I  dolove that 
my students have
a real audience for their writing. :)
The teachers have book review sheets that the kids fill out and return to
the teacher.  Then the teacher brings them to me and I input them into
Destiny.  That gives me a chance to edit (spelling, grammar - not content)and 
control what goes in
there.
I had e-mailed you earlier about the Destiny reviews. This trimester I
assigned a non-fiction book for our 5th to 8th grade students to read at the
beginning of each class. They need to write a review for the book. 

My Language Arts teachers heard about this and decided they wanted their
students to write a fiction review for their independent reading
assignments.

If you would like to take a look to see how I structured this, please go to
my library wiki (which is still a work in progress) where I have posted
directions for the students for my review assignment. I think the Language
Arts teachers may have their own format that they want the students to use.

To get to the wiki, go to our Destiny site: http://216.1.59.7/
From the wiki home page select the link to the Meyers Library wiki. On the
wiki, on the left side of the menu, are directions for writing a review and
logging on to Destiny. Please feel free to use them or adapt them if you
think they would be useful for you.

You can take a look at a review written by a 5th grade. Do a title searchfor _Lewis 
and Clark's
Continental Journey_ and a review by a 7th grader
(Galileo: astronomer and physicist). I wrote a short one for _The Other Side
of the Island_ and a 7th grade teacher wrote one for _The Hunger Games_. 

I also let the students know they if they wanted to post a review to any
book other than the assigned one, they were most welcome to do so and that
the review did not need to follow the format for the assigned reading. Some
students have already posted one or two sentence reviews for books they have
read this year....as I said, I only introduced this activity this week, so
it nice to see them take advantage of this feature.

If you have problems using the link above, you can get to the Destinycatalog from 
my school's home
page: http://www.ancillae.org

Dawn Westover
Teacher Librarian
Totem Middle School
Dawn_Westover@msvl.k12.wa.us


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