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The world comes home

Economics can seem far removed from everyday life. However, when it can be incorporated into a business, the subject takes on an immediacy that brings it home. One example is to look at the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and see its local effects.

A well-organized start

Review the requirements with the teacher (see the outline that follows) to discuss what additions and deletions seem appropriate. Then schedule classes into the media center. Since high school students, believing they know everything about online searching, will tune out what you say until they get stuck, plan a very brief introductory lesson offering a list of recommended databases.

To reduce the number of articles they have to sift through, suggest to students that they consider specialized sources such as SIRS Govennment Reporter before they search periodical databases. Online encyclopedias, although too general for what is needed, provide an overview that is sometimes more comprehensive than the textbooks. Add pre-selected websites to help target their research.

Branching out

Be sure to show students the federal government's Web page, www.firstgov.gov. With easy-to-navigate structure, the site is a definite first stop for any research regarding the government. While they prefer everything online, also direct them to print reference sources including Statistical Abstracts of the United States which has numbers that can be cited to illustrate key points.

Have students check local home pages to become better acquainted with their community. They need to look at what they already knew as well as any further information they can find, viewing everything from its economic perspective.

Assessment

The challenge for students is to take what they learn about NAFTA and infer its effects on the town. While many places have seen negative impacts, they are to look for ways to use the agreement to help the local area. The higher-order thinking skills involved are not only for this lesson but also give them the background for making personal assessments as they hear or read the news. They need to learn how to "think globally" while understanding that large events can and do have a local impact.

The culminating project provides students a chance to go beyond traditional written papers and employ other intelligences in addition to verbal. They also become producers of information as well as consumers while also entertaining each other in the process.

Requirements outline

Each group (3 to 4 students) is to prepare a 30-second commercial on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The commercial is to show how the local community can benefit from NAFTA. (If necessary, negative impacts that have been felt should be addressed with some solutions offered.)

General requirements

1. All members of the group must appear in the commercial.
2. Groups must include at least 3 facts concerning NAFTA.
3. Groups should incorporate visual aids pertaining to NAFTA.

Grading elements

1. All members are seen and heard in the commercial.
2. A written script is to be submitted.
3. The commercial must be within 3 seconds of the 30-second requirement.
4. It must be recorded on a VHS videotape.
5. It must include relevant facts about NAFTA and its effects on the local community.

All commercials will be viewed in class on the date the project is due.


This article first appeared in the June 2001 issue.

Previous issues
Spring 2008: The cost of saving money

Money is tight throughout the country, and education costs are being squeezed along with everything else. With fixed expenses such as salaries consuming the largest chunk of the school budget and health care costs constantly rising, districts look at where they can cut based on what administrators think will cause the least damage to their students' education. Sometimes they make grave errors.

Over the past few years, you have been alerted to the importance of advocacy, making sure that you gain support from many sources -- teachers, parents, business people and other community members -- by showing the value of the district's media centers and library media specialists as students progress through the grades. If this support is missing, your budget will be one of the first to be cut.

Save small today, pay big tomorrow

Often, the consequences of saving money are not carefully thought out ahead of time, and the problems that occur will cost much more to fix.

What happens, for example, when funding for elementary library programs is either cut or kept at a minimal level with the assumption that serious research doesn't begin until high school? Administrators think this is an easy way to grapple with budget problems, but they are unaware of the larger penalties that will follow.

First of all, the time to "hook" students into being comfortable with, using, and enjoying the media center is when they start school. Kindergartners love to come in regularly (daily if possible) to exchange books, find out where things are kept, look up what type of leaf or stone they picked up on the way to school, research how to train their new pets, and begin the habit of being lifelong readers and learners. When this is difficult or impossible during the early years, it cannot be suddenly learned when they enter high school.

A high price

By the time students get to the upper grades, the early excitement and wonder has worn off, and being introduced to the media center is no longer a wonderful experience. Furthermore, high school media specialists complain that all these students who have missed out on learning how to use information don't really know anything and have to be taught from scratch. Librarians at the university level also grumble when faced with students from districts where elementary, middle, and junior high media center funding has been restricted, finding that the gap in knowledge follows students all the way to college.

Think about the similarities between reducing money for media centers and library media specialists and cutting city and town infrastructures. At the beginning, maintenance can be sliced without doing much harm. Once removed from the budget, it is easy to omit the item in future years as other expenses keep rising. However, eventually roads and bridges collapse, and the cost of their replacement far exceeds any yearly maintenance figures. If you look at elementary school media centers as infrastructures of high schools, you can see the necessity of guarding yours.

If budget cuts are on the horizon and you think you may be a victim, consider discussing these ideas with your administrator. It’s always easier to take action before the money is removed; once gone, it becomes much more difficult to replace.

This article first appeared in the April 2003 issue

Winter 2008: A sense of wonder

Every child is born with a desire to learn. The brain requires it as a survival mechanism. Failing is seen as a step in the process. When toddlers fall down as they master walking, they don't feel that they will never be successful at the task, confining themselves to a chair for the rest of their lives. They try again -- often to the applause and encouragement of their parents. Unfortunately, school teaches them that if they don't get something right as quickly as they are supposed to, they are failures.

If you want to develop lifelong learners, you must help your students believe that they can succeed and that the journey is worthwhile. You don't need to make it easy. They know it is the challenge that makes the accomplishment feel special. What is important is that the process be compelling and relevant to the individual.

What if . . . ?

Introduce 2nd through 4th graders to the research process by having them create a project on a topic they want to know more about. Instead of having them ask others "why," let them find the answers themselves. Be there as a guide and coach, cheering them along the way.

Read some picture books to help students consider the possibilities. For example, Chris Van Dusen's If I Built a Car (Dutton, 2005, unp. ill. 0-525-47400-5) follows a young boy as he plans a car superior to the one his father drives. In the rhymed story, he consults books on planes and rockets, considers safety elements, and then expands his concept so that it can travel underwater and in the air. Marion Dane Bauer wonders what would happen If Frogs Made Weather (Ill. by Dorothy Donohue. Holiday, 2005, unp. 0-8234-1622-4). Her poem looks at other animals as well, with the weather always reflecting their particular needs.

Discuss what both these books (or whatever you select) have in common. As students realize that these impossibilities start with knowing or finding out facts relating to the topic, ask them what "ifs" they would like to explore. Record their ideas on an easel pad as the brainstorming continues.

Reflect before research

Depending on student interest, you can have them work individually or in pairs on the subject they selected. Give everyone a booklet with one page for each item listed under "Project Notes." Make these by punching two holes in lined paper and using a brass fastener to keep pages together.

Before they begin, let students take ten minutes to list all they know about their topic research and what they think they need to learn. Have them talk about what they are going to look for and where they expect to find it. Make brief suggestions as needed, but work with them individually to think through the process if they encounter difficulties.

Open to ideas

As they discover more about their topic and consider possibilities, students are likely to find they need information that hadn't occurred to them earlier. Page 5 – "What else do I need to know" has them taking stock of where they are. By having this separate page to record their new areas of research, you are helping them to realize what they are learning.

The final page encourages students to use their imagination and stretch past the limits of what is probable. In an age of multiple choice tests and scripted teaching, this gives them an opportunity to use their minds to invent the future. It may be fanciful today, but they are the ones who need to build tomorrow. As they present their creations -- and all of them will be as uniquely wonderful as the students themselves -- they will have discovered the satisfaction of lifelong learning.

A sense of wonder

Project notes

1. I wonder ________________________
2. What I already know.
3. What I need to find out.
4. Where I can find it. (Keep track of the sources.)
5. What else I need to know.
6. THINK! What do I want to do to make this more interesting or exciting?

This article first appeared in the Winter 2006 issue

Previous issues

Categorizing Caldecotts

While no picture book with a poor plot is awarded the Caldecott, the medal and honors go to illustrators. Primary graders may be part of this "visual" generation, but they need to learn how to look. This unit on winners focuses on the pictures. In this case, the story takes second place. Check the copyright page, end matter, and blurb for clues to the art media used by the illustrator.

Learning to look

Start by reading a few recipients and have students talk about the work of which illustrators they like best and why. Show them other books that use similar techniques. Talk about how they are the same and different. For example, in the 2000 medal winner Joseph Had a Little Overcoat, Simms Taback used watercolor, gouache, pencil, ink and collage. Pair it with his 1998 honor book There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly, which offers mixed media and collage on kraft paper in color, as well as with Christopher Myers' illustrations for Harlem. The latter, also a 1998 honor book, uses ink, gouache and cut-paper collage.

Close inspection

Set up a display with several medal and honor books. Include non-winners by the same illustrator but don't put them next to each other. Ask students to help you do that--by looking at the pictures. The scratchboard illustrations of Brian Pinkney as in his 1999 Honor book, Duke Ellington, and the cut paper of David Wisniewski in works such as his 1997 Medal winner, The Golem are particularly easy to identify.

Have students work in small groups at tables looking at Caldecott winners you have pre-selected. Tell them to look closely at the pictures and compare the books. Have them decide which illustrations seem most alike, arranging the titles any way they like in order to discuss what illustrations they found to be the most similar. Give them time to select books to check out. Review your lesson with the art teacher so students can follow up with hands-on experience as they learn to apply some of these techniques to their own drawings.

Bibliography

• Myers, Walter Dean. Harlem: A Poem. Ill. by Christopher Myers. Scholastic, 1997, 32 p. 0-590-54340-7
• Pinkney, Andrea Davis. Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra. Ill. by Brian Pinkney. Hyperion, 1998, 32 p. 0-786-80178-6
• Taback, Simms. Joseph Had a Little Overcoat. Viking, 1999, 40 p., ill. 0-670-87855-3
• Taback, Simms. There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. Viking, 1997, ill. 32 p. 0-670-86939-2
• Wisniewski, David. The Golem. Clarion, 1996, 31 p. 0-395-72618-2

This article first appeared in the January 2001 issue

Previous issues

Fall 2007 Library loot: A Halloween treat

As Halloween approaches, plan a mini-unit for intermediate grades using it as a theme. For schools where the day is not celebrated, fall-connected terms can be substituted. Although they are searching for items related to the holiday, the exercise is a simple information-gathering activity giving students room for personal choice and expression.

Before the class arrives, make copies of the Search List and bring in plain brown lunch bags. Students may work alone or in pairs. Since you don't want all of them racing for magic books at the same time, assign each a number from one to five. Only those with number one will start with magic. Twos will begin with cookbooks and so on. When they have completed the first item, individuals or pairs can go to the next. After reaching costumes and masks, they return to the top and continue until they have found everything on the list.

Hand out the lunch bags, which will become Halloween Loot Bags. Have students put their names on the bags. After reviewing the directions, ask them how they plan to find the information. Make suggestions as needed and let them begin. Since the activity takes at least two sessions, you or the teacher should collect their work, putting it back into the lunch bags so students will have it when they return.

Keep track of those working on "Ghosts/Witches." Since students are to select and retell a tale, be sure they find something short. Give them 4"x 6" cards to record the highlights of the story in sequence. They may want to copy the first and last lines. While introducing them to the art of storytelling is part of their literary background, this activity also helps them develop note-taking skills.

Set up tables with art materials for those working on "Treats" and "Costumes/Masks." Be sure their names go on the drawings in case items get separated. As students complete their searches, have them crate designs on their "Information Loot Bags."

Sharing the haul

One of the best parts of Halloween is examining, sharing and trading the night's haul. Students should be given an opportunity not only to retell a ghostly tale and/or perform a magic trick but also to display and explain their findings.

Share the results of the mini-unit beyond the class by having students create a bulletin board. Have them staple the individual bags to the display and arrange the contents around theappropriate ones Add the Search Lists so others can find the original sources themselves. Acknowledge their success by handing out treats -— to be eaten outside the media center.

This article first appeared in the October 1999 issue.

Connecting teachers and books

What do you do when you receive a new batch of books? Obviously, you go through your standard process for checking them in. While doing so or when you have a few spare moments, you probably go through them to read or at least skim each to become familiar with the titles you ordered. Perhaps you have a special place to display your new books--some shelves or a section where your students and teachers are used to looking and browsing to find the latest materials in the collection.

The personal touch

Working regularly with teachers, you know what they like and therefore, as you go through each book, you can tell if it should be set aside to show to a special colleague. Some elementary teachers enjoy reading aloud to their classes, and you are aware of whether they like short, humorous titles or longer ones with more meat.

If a teacher is always looking for books about pioneers traveling out west, you can set those aside. For another who is "math oriented," there are a variety coming in featuring those concepts in both fiction and nonfiction. Keep an eye out for experiment books to satisfy your science buffs. Someone who regularly does units on fairy tales would be happy to be alerted to the new versions as they appear. A person with a special hobby will always look forward to seeing what is new in that field.

Sorting through the titles with specific people in mind achieves several goals. By immediately handing them to teachers, you will ensure that books don?t just get put on the shelves and forgotten. The recipients of your largesse will be gratified to know you are thinking of them and will be more likely to want to work with you in the future. When teachers like a story, they will share it with their students who will then come in to reserve it or ask for another copy if you have one. Best of all, you will be connecting teachers and literature--the most important goal of all.

The subject connection

Fiction isn't the only way to connect teachers with books. Creating subject bibliographies and displaying them at a "show and tell" meeting opens the door to future planning.

At the high school level, a number of departments don't easily see how or why they should plan collaboratively with you. Receiving a list of math titles acquired within the past 3 or 4 years can be eye-opening for teachers. With national and state standards and testing requiring real-life relevance and authentic learning, they need to find different approaches to bringing their subjects to students.

While teachers are looking at the new books, you can also show them any computer-based programs that might also connect with their curriculum. Note the people who seem most interested and invite them to see you when you have a duty-free period. You may discover that some teachers are very willing; they just never knew what was possible.


This activity appeared in the September 1998 issue.