Collecting data . . .

The culture at DRMS promotes collaborative partnerships among teachers, sharing resources that foster student achievement, and posting visual representations of data throughout the building. Using some of our beginning-of-year student orientation survey data and library media program goals, we created a DRMS Library Media Program Data Wall. This visual display showcases important areas of the program that impact student achievement and student use of the library media center.

Some of this baseline data includes a snapshot of where we are at the beginning of a project. For example, we did a collection map of our Sports collection (including fiction, biography, and nonfiction sports-related resources). This process provided a starting point for how many titles are in this portion of the collection, the average age of the materials, and, along with student-interest survey data, the popularity of these items. Upon selecting and purchasing new materials to update this collection this school year, we will add updated data to show improvement in this area.

Ms. BC and I are also collecting research class data. What types of projects are we working on with teachers? Are they cooperative, where we work with classes for just a small segment of the project? Or, are they fully collaborative experiences, which provide a collaborative partnership between the library media specialist and classroom teacher from the beginning to the end of the project? Using our media center reservation book, we are analyzing all research class sign-ups and designating them using the following criteria:

1. no contact (teachers sign up to use the media center, but don't communicate with the media staff about what their students will be working on.)

2. consultant (teachers who just let us know what they'll be doing in the MC ~ no formal library media specialist involvement.)

3. simple collaboration ("library lesson" at some point during the project)

4. total collaboration (library media specialist partners with classroom teacher from beginning to end of project).

Our goal is to increase the number of simple and total collaborative projects over the course of this school year.

Because our focus this year is "Back to Basics: focus on reading", we are tracking student fiction and nonfiction circulation data to show growth in student book check outs. This will be encouraged through booktalking, Dolphin Reader advocacy, and increased communication between the library media staff and Language Arts teachers to make the media center most accessible for student book check-out.

We're excited to use this data to analyze and improve programs and services offered through the library media center, which ultimately affect student achievement.

-Ms. Z

Investigating Literature

We welcomed track 3 students this week when we met with our Dolphin Readers group. After a quick introduction to their role as media program and reading advocates, these 7th and 8th graders joined our track 1 students who have already been working hard at reading, writing book reviews, and sharing with each other. All students selected a “Book Starter” slip to select their next book to read and review. Slips contained a specific statement, which guided students as they searched through the media collection to find a matching book. Starter Slip statements included ~

• Find a book that has a main character with siblings.


• Find a book that was written when you were 5 years old.


• Find a book that has the name of a food in the title.


• Find a book set in a place you'd like to visit.
  

After selecting a book, students began a NoveList investigation. This K-8 Literature database contains some wonderful search features, book lists, and curriculum-related lessons. Dolphin Readers began preparing a short presentation which they will share with their classmates in a few weeks. My favorite features of this site are the "describe a plot" search and "find similar books" option. These two search strategies allow students to truly customize their searching to find books they'll be most interested in. I'm looking forward to seeing what neat NoveList features our Dolphin Readers uncover in their investigations over the coming weeks.

-Ms. Z

Books we're talking about . . .

Today, we booktalked to all 7th grade track 2 Language Arts classes. The range of titles reflected the diversity of this group of readers. Short-story collections were chosen to spark interest in reluctant readers and a variety of genres in fiction chapter books appealed to specific reading tastes. Our booktalking styles varied ~ sometimes reading a segment from the book, or summarizing a story, but always leaving students with a "hook" to spark their interest and create a contagious environment for reading. Since we booktalked to 3 class periods and have a limited number of each title in the media center collection, students wrote their name on a slip of paper and enterred it into a drawing for the book they're most interested in checking out. Names of students will be drawn at the end of the day to determine who gets to check out each title.

The most popular titles today were: A Nightmare's Dozen: stories from the dark edited by Michael Stearns; Silent to the Bone by E.L. Konigsburg; and Firebirds Rising: an anthology of original science fiction and fantasy edited by Sharyn November. Students were able to circulate and check out library books after the booktalks and were excited to find books similar to topics found in the featured books. Some books will "sell themselves" through their intriguing cover art, but the library media center holds many treasures that excite readers because of a personal introduction to the plot, setting, and characters. We look forward to our next collection of literary introductions . . . .

-Ms. Z

A new chapter . . .

Today is Mrs. V's last day as the library media assistant at DRMS. We are thrilled for her as she is "promoted" to her new position as a high school library media specialist (we like to think of it as "graduating" from middle school and moving on to high-school). A steady stream of staff have come through wishing her well and telling her how much they're going to miss her. Each person in this building makes a difference in the lives of our students and staff. Goodbyes are bittersweet, but they allow us to reflect on the impact one individual has had on so many others. Mrs. V has definitely had a positive impact in the lives of DRMS students and staff. Her kindness with others, knowledge of "all things library," and unfailing work ethic are qualities that made her such a valuable addition to our staff.

We wish Mrs. V well as she begins this new chapter in her career (no pun intended!). Our loss is her new school's gain as she forms professional relationships with staff and positively impacts student learning through her management of the library media program. Cheers, Mrs. V!

-Ms. Z

Research using the Web

How often do students use the web to find information? All the time. However, they don't always know if the information they are collecting is the most reliable and valid that can be obtained. With that knowledge, Mrs. Dempsey requested that I discuss with her students how to evaluate web pages before they start their research project.

Using information from " The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: or, Why It's a Good Idea to Evaluate Web Sources" and "Five criteria for evaluating Web pages" from Olin & Uris Libraries, I put together a powerpoint using Presentation Zen principles. The five criteria used to evaluate web pages are authority, accuracy, objectivity, currency, and coverage. Each criteria was discussed and reinforced using valid/currenct examples. Students then proceeded to use the evaluation tool to begin their research and will continue to use in the future.

Ms. BC