#5 - Reading Reflections 2

Reading Reflection 2

As this semester comes to an end, I  completed the chapters in The Art of Storytelling and the articles assigned to us for this week. The quote, “A successful storytelling program requires careful planning, flexibility, and creativity” (Greene & Negro, 2010), reminds me of how I have to plan lessons for my fourth grade classroom. When I plan a lesson for my class I try and think about what activity can go with the standard I am teaching for that lesson. I also have to think of the age of my students during planning. For example, I don’t want to plan a lesson for fourth graders and try to teach it to a class of first graders.

After completing the MLIS program and become a future librarian, planning will include more than just lesson planning for the different grades. I would like to have a makerspace, a place students can work on multimedia projects, maybe have a book club meeting, checking books in/out, a possible whole group lesson and other ideas I have found on other blogs too. All of these different spaces/centers will need me to plan for each one. The planning for these will be different across each space/center. 

Flexibility is also a big component of planning a lesson/story time. If something suddenly comes up or there is a sudden change needed, as a teacher I know I have to be able to have a backup of what I can teach at that time. When I become a school librarian I know that this method will apply there too. 

Below I found two videos that I found helpful,a video on How to Plan a Storytime in a library and How to Tell Better Stories: Tips from a Professional Storyteller, A Librarian. I found both of these videos insightful for me as a future librarian.

                 

        

One of the articles for this week that I really enjoyed was Books, Children, Dogs, Artists: Library Programs for the Entire Family. The “Paws to Read” program is for children to read to dogs. The  program “‘Paws to Read’ is to create a comfortable, relaxed setting in which a child reads aloud to a non-judgmental canine companion.” (Haver, M.K., 2014). This is a great program, children can become more comfortable reading to others, even if it is a furry friend. If a child is uncomfortable an adult can sit and read with them, the adult will read and encourage the child to help and/or make sound effects. I love the idea of having a reading buddy that is a dog, that sounds like it would be so much fun!

I would also like to mention is how Susan K. S. Gringsby, the author of The Story Is More Important Than the Words mentions, “One point I made that really hit home was my belief that labeling or color coding lulls one into the false security that students can rely on a number like Lexile or AR levels for appropriateness.” I really like that she said this. I used to have my classroom library labeled by lexile levels. I did this because when I first came up to fourth grade from first grade I was told it would be easy for students to chose a book. However, a few years ago I found that my students would want to read a book below/above the level they were on. I realized that as long as my students wanted to read a book, they should be able to read it. 

I decided to leave the books labeled in lexile levels and let them choose whichever book they wanted to read and not restrict them as readers. However, last year I decided to change my classroom library labels. I made genre labels and put the over the lexile letters stickers. My students this past year loved being able to choose whichever book they wanted and not worry about what their level was. If they wanted to read Harry Potter, they could, if they wanted to read Diary of a Wimpy Kid, they could, and many of them would read all different  types of books.   

  

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This week we had to read nonfiction picture books. Nonfiction books are books filled with facts. My students have really liked reading some nonfiction books about sports and animals this past year. I also read fantasy or science fiction books already for our final week of class. I have to say, fantasy and science fiction are some of my favorite genres to read. 

 

Nonfiction:

-Desert Dwellers by Janine Scott

-Trucks! by Will Mara

-Swing Sloth! by Susan B. Neuman

-George Washington by Caroline Crosson Gilpin

-Wolves by Laura Marsh

-Planets by Elizabeth Carney

-Volcanoes by Anne Schreiber 

Fantasy:

-Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

-The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

-Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett

-The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka

Science Fiction:

-Baloney (Henry P) by Jon Scieszka

-Aliens Love Underpants by Claire Freedman

-Zathura by Chris Van Allsburg

 

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Resources:

Greene, E., & Negro, J. D. (2010). Storytelling: Art and Technique (Fourth). Libraries Unlimited. 

Grigsby, S.K.S. (2014). The Story Is More Important Than the Words: A Portrait of a Reader-Focused Library Program. Retrieved from BlackBoard.

harriscountypl. (2019, October 14). How to Tell Better Stories: Tips from a Professional Storyteller. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBRajXra_w0.

Haver, M.K. (2014) Books, Children, Dogs, Artists: Library Programs for the Entire Family. Medical Reference Services Quarterly, 33:2, 211-217. Retrieved from: Intermountain Therapy Animals. Reading Education Assistance Dogs1: A Program of Intermountain Therapy Animals [Brochure]. August 12, 2009. http:// www.therapyanimals.org/Read_Team_Steps_files/R.E.A.D.%20Brochure.pdf. 

Storytime Book Bytes. (2018, March 28). How to Plan a Storytime. Retrieved from YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOo98EyYbFM.

#4 - Blogshare

  

BlogShare Post

Hello readers and storytellers! Today I will be posting about a blog share. I don’t know about you, but I did not even know what that term meant before. A blog share is when you share about another person’s blog that you find interesting! Today I am going to share about the Library Learners blog, hosted by Cari White. Here is the link to her blog home page https://librarylearners.com/.

I absolutely fell in love with this blog from the very first phrase under her logo, “making school libraries amazing, one library at a time!” As a future school librarian myself I find this to be just the kind of motivation and support I would need. This blog is also different from other blogs I have read because she has tons of guest writers. Guest writers will write a blog entry on a topic and Cari will post it on Library Learners. 

Now, the goal for this post was to find a blog was to share at least one entry topic from her blog. Well….I found so so many more than one entry, but I will keep it limited for my post here today.

The first entry I liked from Cari’s blog is titled Principals Book of the Month. Right from the title I was like, oh my goodness yes please! I would love to try something like this in my school library. Cari posts about how her  friend, Sara Romine, collaborates with her elementary school principal to make this book of the month happen. Cari even got Sara to write a guest post about it! Sara tells us about how to get the process started, the budget for the principal’s book of the month, delivery, making connections, and more. 

Sara and her new principal started this in 2020 during COVID. Sara says that the idea was to have “everyone to interact with the same text in a variety of ways to create a literacy community but also reinforce mindsets and habits we want to encourage.” They gave out a copy of the book to all of their classrooms and the principal would hop onto Zoom to showcase the book to those classrooms that were virtual at the time. Sara would send out a recording of the principal reading the book with extension activities included in the email. One of the coolest parts is that the teachers would take pictures of the activities and Sara could make a bulletin board of all the pictures. It is just so cool how the new principal got to interact with his/her students and it was all about reading and books! The link to this post is here, https://librarylearners.com/principals-book-of-the-month/. 

The second entry I liked is titled Library Video Game Tournaments. I know, I know, video games, WHAT?! But this is a very cool idea too. This time Cari had her friend Karina Quilantan guest post. Karina talks about esports and what a craze it is, and also about how she hosted a Super Smash Bros tournament in her library. I thought this would be a lot of fun to do in my future school library too. I wasn’t sure how it would go though. I  had many questions as I read the beginning, such as, do you get the word out like a notification at the end of each class, is it an after school club, what ages is the tournament for exactly. As I kept reading I saw Karina set up a game plan to help hold a tournament in your own school library too.

    Karina tells about which type of gaming system she used (and would be suggested to use), in this case a Nintendo Switch. She tells about how to get the word out to students and parents, how to set up the tournament (also using brackets like March Madness), and more helpful tips. I think this would be an encouraging and fun activity to try within a school library. It can get kids into the library, maybe not to specifically read the books, but they will need something to do while they wait for their turn to play. The link to this post is here, https://librarylearners.com/library-video-game-tournaments/.

 

Cari has a variety of different posts, including themed centers for different months, picture books for different months or holidays, helpful ideas, even a Follett book fair experience post. She even has makerspace posts! As you know I recently posed about makerspaces, so I find this very awesome! 

I have read through many of her posts and continue to enjoy each one. Cari also has a Facebook page called Library Learners. There are posts about things other librarians are doing or posting in/at their library, there are fun little questions that are asked for people to answer too. Here is the link to her Facebook page if you would like to check it out, https://www.facebook.com/LibraryLearners. 

Cari also has a “store” or page on teacherspayteachers.com. I promise this is not an ad, I just like to look at what some people have on teacherpayteachers and see if it would be something I personally am interested in and wanted to provide the information. Some of the things on her blog posts can be found on her store page, along with other categorized items she has for sale. 

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Readings for this week:

This week we had to read ghost stories and poems. I have to say that I had a really hard time finding ghost stories that were not a fantasy book about a ghost, then I remembered the Scary Stories books from when I was a kid. I read six different scary stories from the Scary Stories collections by Alvin Schwartz. The stories themselves were not super scary, but the pictures were super super creepy!  

Ghost Stories:

-The Bus Stop

-The Wolf Girl

-Rings on Her Fingers

-A Ghost in the Mirror

-The Viper

-The Wendigo

I had an easier time finding poems to read this week. I love Shel Silverstein, so I read some from his collection of poems, along with some other poems that I found. The Spider and The Fly retold by Tony DiTerlizzi is one of my recently discovered favorite poems. 

Poems:

-From Falling Up by Shel Silverstein:

* Falling Up

* The Deadly Eye

* People Zoo

* Haunted

* Crazy Dream

-From A Whiff of Pine, a Hunk of Skunk: A Forest of Poems by Deborah Ruddell

* Chipmunks Inc.

* A Tree Frog’s Lazy Afternoon

* Woodpecker Feud

* Biography of a Beaver

-The Spider and The Fly: Retold by Tony DiTerlizzi 

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Resources:

White, C. (2022). Library Leraners blog. Retrieved from https://librarylearners.com/.

#3 - Free Choice

Makerspaces

    As libraries continue to change and grow makerspaces are a great addition to help libraries continue to do that. As a future school librarian I think that makerspaces are a great addition to school libraries too. People may ask, What is a makerspace? A makers-ace is “a collaborative work space inside a school, library or separate public/private facility for making, learning, exploring and sharing that uses high tech to no tech tools.” (makerspaces.com), it’s a place for students to create, explore, and tinker. For this post I will be focusing on makerspaces within a school system, as I hope to one day have one in my future school library.

  Why should we have makerspaces in libraries? Makerspaces provided spaces provide children with places to create, investigate, design, learn, and more. Makerspaces “foster play and exploration, support opportunities for learning, nurture peer to peer learning, work with community members as true partners, and develop a culture of creating.” (Hamilton, B.J., slide 7). In a makerspace children can create and design on their own from something they have imagined, the teacher can have idea cards/pages/instructions for the children to use, or an assigned topic or project for the children to complete. 

I first got interested in makerspaces by an Instagramer Jessica Golz (@teachergolz). Jessica Golz is an elementary school librarian who does so many things with her makerspace. She has taught lessons and used things like coding robots, using devices (chromebooks/ipads) for stop-motion videos, and even a sewing machine! She used the sewing  machine after reading the book Loot with a group of boys in her book club (Instagram, @teachergolz). 

Now, a makerspace does not have to have all these ‘high-tech’ options if your school cannot afford them. You can use things like legos, paper towel/toilet paper rolls, play doh, popsicle sticks, and more ‘basic’ items, these can be even donated to your makerspace. These items can be placed somewhere in a corner of a classroom or a library if space provided, or even on a cart (see picture to the right). 

Materials can be found in many different places depending on what materials you want. “Garage sales, thrift stores, Dollar stores, craft stores, and hardware stores have many inexpensive supplies.” (Brown, B.) You may also be able to get donations from parents, other teachers, and especially retiring teachers. Other more expensive items may be able to be purchased from your school, if your school is not able, you can make a grant proposal such as DonorsChoose. 

Here are some links to other blogs that have lists of materials you could use in your makerspace:

- Welcome to My Makerspace by Brooke Brown, originally from Teach Outside the Box

- Makerspace Resources from Renovated Learning

- Makerspace Starter Kit from The Daring Librarian

- There are also many many resources from teacherspayteachers.com 

The Institute for Arts Integration and STEAM also has a wonderful post, Makerspace Manual for K-12 Schools. This post has great information on how to create and set-up a makerspace in a classroom or library. The post also includes a GIANT list of supplies, and more resources. 

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Readings for this week:

The readings for this week were myths, parables, and tall tales. Myths, especially Greek myths, are some of my favorite types of stories to read and learn about. “Myths are stories that are based on tradition. Some may have factual origins, while others are completely fictional.” (PBS.com) Myths are also tales that can explain the world around us. A parable is “a short allegorical story designed to illustrate or teach some truth, religious principle, or moral lesson” (dictionary.com). Tall tales are “narrative that depicts the wild adventures of extravagantly exaggerated folk heroes” (britannica.com). I have taught about tall tales like Paul Bunyan when I taught first grade. 

My readings for this week are below:

Myths: 

-Egyptian myth: Isis & Osiris

-Egyptian myth: The Story of Ra: Creation Myth

-Persian myth: Susku & Mushu

-Irish myth: The Banshee

-Irish myth: The Children of Air

-Greek myth: The Three Sisters of Fate

-Greek myth: Daedalus & Icarus

Parables: 

-Greek parable: Hercules at the Crossroads

-Persian parable: Akhfash’s Goat

-Bible parable: The King and the Scribes

-Bible parable: The Good Samaritan

-Jewish parable: The Rooster Prince

-Quran parable: The Spider’s House

-Quran parable: The Hamlet in Ruins

Tall Tales: 

-Pecos Bill by M.J. York

-Miss Sally Ann & The Panther retold by Bobbi Miller

-Paul Bunyan retold by Steven Kellogg

-Anansi and the Spice

-Davy Crockett

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Resources:

britannica.com (2022). Tall tale. Retrieved from britannica.com. https://www.britannica.com/art/tall-tale 

Brown, B. (n/d). Welcome to My Makerspace. Retrieved from https://blog.teacherspayteachers.com/welcome-to-my-makerspace/ 

dictionary.com (2022). Parable. Retrieved from dictionary.com. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/parable 

Golz, J. [@teachergolz]. (2020, February 11). Highlight of my week. Celebrating the end of our book club by teaching these rad dudes to sew. Instagram. Retrieved from Instagram app.

Hamilton, B.J. (2014, June 21). Growing Learning Communities Through School Libraries and Makerspaces-Creating, Constructing, Collaborating, Contributing. The Unquiet Librarian. https://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com/2014/06/21/growing-learning-communities-through-school-libraries-and-makerspaces-creating-constructing-collaborating-contributing/ 

makerspaces.com (2022). What is a Makerspace? Retrieved from makerspaces.com. https://www.makerspaces.com/what-is-a-makerspace/ 

PBS. (2005). Myths and Heroes. What is a Myth? Retrieved from pbs.org. https://www.pbs.org/mythsandheroes/myths_what.html 

#2 - Storytelling Experience 1

  

Storytelling Reflection 1

Hello readers and storytellers! Today I will be posting about my first storytelling experience, the planning, execution, and I will tell you a bit about how I think it went. Hopefully this may help others when planning out their storytelling or storytime.

This week the goal for our storytelling experience is to read a  storybook aloud. I read both picture books and novels to my class of fourth graders quite often, so I felt confident that I could read a storybooks as well. The first thing I did was to figure out what book I wanted to read for this week. This was harder than anticipated because there are just so many good picture books out there! I wanted to read a book I would feel comfortable reading in front of students too, so I thought of picture books I have read before. I was deciding between A Bad Case of Stripes, The Bad Seed, The Day the Crayons Quit, Where the Wild Things Are, and many more. 

I eventually landed on reading The Bad Seed. The next step was getting the book. I had to borrow it from a friend because I could not find my copy. The last two things for me were deciding where to read the book (at work, at home, or somewhere else) and practicing reading the book for a brain refresher.

My Experience and Reflection

Looking back on my retelling, I would have to say I was not as confident as I thought I was going to be. Sure I read books aloud to my students all the time, but to record yourself is something completely different! I had to do so many takes until I got something I liked because I thought I was holding the book weird, or I wasn’t looking at the camera enough, and other random reasons.

For me, there were two parts of the planning and execution stages that I was most concerned with. First, deciding where to record the video was one of the harder parts of this assignment for me. If I did it at work, I didn’t want to disturb other classrooms around me if I got to loud (which is known to happen), and if I recorded at home, where would I sit to record and what if my dog makes noise. I decided on recording at home and hoping for the best. Some of my retakes were because my dog was crying because of the rain, or where in my home I was sitting to get the best video. In the end I figured I was psyching myself out for no reason.

The second part I was worried about was the actual reading. Sometimes while reading stories out loud to my students I stumble over words and have to fix the mistake, which I point out to the kids as something that is okay as I went back and tried again. A few of my retakes were because I would stumble over words, even though I had read the book to myself a few times before had. Stumbling over the words would make me a bit anxious and embarrassed with myself.

Finally, I just had to hype myself up and just go with the flow of reading the book, and to be okay if a small mistake was made or if you could hear my dog in the background. I had to remind myself that that’s just life. After doing that I felt a lot more comfortable recording myself reading The Bad Seed.

I have attached a link to my retelling of The Bad Seed below.

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Readings for this week:

This week we had to read about different legends and folktales. Legends are something I have liked to read and learn about for a long time. Legends are “more than just a story, it has a bit of history to it. Typically, these stories started as oral stories that took on a life of their own.” (J. Betts). After reading some different folktales, I came to realize that they are great stories to tell, read, and learn about as well. “A folktale is an old story that's been told again and again, often for generations.” (vocabulary.com). Folktales are stories that are known to be told orally as well.

Legends:

1. Lady Godiva

2. Atlantis, the Lost City

3. The amazons

4. The Kraken

5. Robin Hood

6. King Arthur

Folktales:

1. Ali Baba & the 40 Thieves - Retold by Kate Daynes

2. The Princess & The Pea - Retold by John Cerh

3. How Rabbit Lost His Tail - Retold by Cynthia Swain

4. The Gingerbread Man - Retold by Jim Aylesworth

5. Chicken Little - Retold by Steven Kellogg

6. The Rough-Faced Girl - By Race Martin

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Resources:

Betts, J. (n.d.). What is a Legend? Story Examples & Common Characteristics. Retrieved from yourdictionary.com. https://examples.yourdictionary.com/what-is-legend-story-examples-common-characteristics 

John, J. (2017, August 29). The Bad Seed. Harper Collins. 

vocabulary.com. (2022). folktale. Retrieved from vocabulary.com. https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/folktale