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.
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.
————————————————————————————————————————————————
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
——————————————————————————————————————————————————
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.
Hi Megan!
ReplyDeleteI am a planner and I cannot think about doing anything unless I have created a plan. In the library, I know that I will have to be creative, especially in the elementary age group. In middle school, I feel that it is harder to create activities/makerspaces for students to enjoy or even be remotely interested in as they enter the library. In my future as an elementary school librarian, I see myself becoming stressed at first, but as I continue to practice storytelling along with other components of a program, all will be great! I thought the videos you provided in your blog gave wonderful tips for planning as well as how to do storytelling better. As always, I have enjoyed reading your blog posts this semester and it was wonderful to work with you as well. Good luck to you!
Daley
Hi Megan!
ReplyDeleteThe quote "a successful storytelling program requires careful planning, flexibility, and creativity" is spot on (Greene & Negro, 2010). As a teacher, I know you plan lessons everyday. Flexibility is an important quality to have as a storyteller because you have to read your audience. If they're not in the mood for something, the presenter needs to recognize that and find something new. Creativity can be achieved in designing a new story or bringing one to life.One must be flexible with student's needs, creative with the chosen stories, and plan for the worst case scenario. Because as we know, things don't always go as planned. I love that you're going to have different centers in your future library. Your students will enjoy having many options to create something new in your library. You're completely right that students rely on their own Reading Level way too much and can become afraid to read anything that is above or below their level. It's so great that you were able to support your students and let them read the books they want to read!
Hello Megan, thank you for sharing your posts; I loved the article "paws to read" I think its a really good idea for libraries to emphasize this especially for children with disabilities. To be honest, I didn't even know this kind of thing existed; I knew about therapy dogs going to nursing homes and visiting hospitals but about them being in the library. Animals and children have a very special connection, and it's also a bond that you cannot easily break. To share a personal story, when I was young, a had a dog that we kept in our apartment, and we used to race across the room to see who would get to the other side of the room first. I know it sounds weird, but she was a very intelligent dog and she even gently tried to stop me from winning the "race" by bitting my shirt. The interesting part was that she never left a mark or a scratch on me, that should tell you how smart she was. When she got too big and had to give her away, it crushed me deeply because her and I formed a bond. I felt like I wanted to share this, because I know that a connection is formed between the dog or cat that the child is reading too and that might make them become better readers, and thats why I think all libraries should have this program. Thank you for sharing you posts this week!
ReplyDelete-Alex