A good way to educate about the importance of the school library and fully licensed school librarians is to write news articles in your local paper about your own professional development. I have written a news release about the June 17 & 18 Kansas Summer Institute that you may use or adapt for your own needs.News Release (By Mirah Dow, June 19, 2009) – If you think that school librarians are non-essential to student learning and achievement in K-12 schools, then think again. This year’s Kansas Summer Institute featured library and literary experts and authors focused on school librarians’ roles in partnering to teach reading with classroom teachers and reading specialists. The complexity of today’s digital, global literacy and learning requires collaborative education to ensure that all students develop tools for success.
Kansas and Colorado educators attended the 13th Annual Kansas Summer Institute for School Librarians on June 17 and 18 at Emporia State University. Eighty educators, including reading specialists, classroom teachers and school librarians, spend two days covering strategies to benefit students through more individual attention, better-designed lessons, access to information at the point of need, access to multiple resources, deeper investigation into concepts and topics, integrated learning, expanded opportunities for creativity, and acquiring reading skills for lifelong learning.
In the national drive to improve student test scores and to build a nation of readers, the proven teamwork tools presented by Dr. Judi Moreillon will help educators accomplish these outcomes. Dr. Moreillon, a school librarian, childrens’ book author and Assistant Professor at the School of Library and Information Studies, Texas Woman’s University, Denton, Texas, and is the author of Collaborative Strategies for Teaching Reading Comprehension: Maximizing Your Impact (American Library Association, 2007).
The International Digital Children’s Library, a collection of 3,932 books from around the world in 54 languages, was demonstrated by Sharon Coatney, retired Kansas school librarian, past president of the American Library Association, and current Acquisitions Editor, Libraries Unlimited. Dr. Mirah Dow, Associate Professor and ESU’s Coordinator of the School Library Media Licensure Program said, “Even before the presentation ended, many participants loaded links on computers and mobile phones, which will expand school resource collections and make multicultural books available to Kansas school children and youth. Today’s’ school librarians understand that reading is a specific intellectual skill, not a universal capacity. They partner with class teachers to provide literacy instruction. They have expertise in paper and electronic resources to support content areas. In this way, reading truly opens ‘windows’ to the world.”
Nancy Werlin, National Book Award Finalist and Edgar Award Winner and author of young adult literature including Impossible, Rules of Survival, and Double Helix shared ways to get young people engaged in reading and writing.
Institute participants visited Emporia’s historical home of William Allen White where Beverley Olson Buller, school librarian, Chisholm Middle School, Newton, KS and author of From Emporia: The Story of William Allen White, told about the man behind The William Allen White Children’s Book Award.
This annual event is sponsored by the School of Library and Information Management, ESU; Kansas Department of Education; State Library of Kansas; and the Kansas Association of School Librarians.
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Kansas and Colorado educators attended the 13th Annual Kansas Summer Institute for School Librarians on June 17 and 18 at Emporia State University. Eighty educators, including reading specialists, classroom teachers and school librarians, spend two days covering strategies to benefit students through more individual attention, better-designed lessons, access to information at the point of need, access to multiple resources, deeper investigation into concepts and topics, integrated learning, expanded opportunities for creativity, and acquiring reading skills for lifelong learning.
In the national drive to improve student test scores and to build a nation of readers, the proven teamwork tools presented by Dr. Judi Moreillon will help educators accomplish these outcomes. Dr. Moreillon, a school librarian, childrens’ book author and Assistant Professor at the School of Library and Information Studies, Texas Woman’s University, Denton, Texas, and is the author of Collaborative Strategies for Teaching Reading Comprehension: Maximizing Your Impact (American Library Association, 2007).
The International Digital Children’s Library, a collection of 3,932 books from around the world in 54 languages, was demonstrated by Sharon Coatney, retired Kansas school librarian, past president of the American Library Association, and current Acquisitions Editor, Libraries Unlimited. Dr. Mirah Dow, Associate Professor and ESU’s Coordinator of the School Library Media Licensure Program said, “Even before the presentation ended, many participants loaded links on computers and mobile phones, which will expand school resource collections and make multicultural books available to Kansas school children and youth. Today’s’ school librarians understand that reading is a specific intellectual skill, not a universal capacity. They partner with class teachers to provide literacy instruction. They have expertise in paper and electronic resources to support content areas. In this way, reading truly opens ‘windows’ to the world.”
Nancy Werlin, National Book Award Finalist and Edgar Award Winner and author of young adult literature including Impossible, Rules of Survival, and Double Helix shared ways to get young people engaged in reading and writing.
Institute participants visited Emporia’s historical home of William Allen White where Beverley Olson Buller, school librarian, Chisholm Middle School, Newton, KS and author of From Emporia: The Story of William Allen White, told about the man behind The William Allen White Children’s Book Award.
This annual event is sponsored by the School of Library and Information Management, ESU; Kansas Department of Education; State Library of Kansas; and the Kansas Association of School Librarians.
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2 comments:
Dear Kansas School Librarians,
I thoroughly enjoyed participating in your Summer Institute. It was a pleasure to share the program with Beverley, Sharon, and Nancy. Thank you to Dr. Dow and the Committee for inviting me.
I want to follow up with a couple of links that may help you incorporate teaching reading comprehension strategies into your teaching repertoires.
Here’s a link to the standards/strategies alignment matrix: http://storytrail.com/Impact/matrix.htm
This is where you’ll find additional support for teaching the lessons found in my current book: http://storytrail.com/Impact/how_to.htm
And here’s the link to the downloadable bookmarks, graphic organizers, rubrics, teacher resources, and more, housed on the ALA Editions Web site: http://tinyurl.com/impact-g-o
Note: The link in the book itself is incorrect because ALA recently reorganized their Web site.
If you are interested in online literature circles using wiki technology, here’s the link to the year-long classroom-library collaboration I cofacilitated with Jennifer Hunt’s 8th-grade Pre-AP language arts students at Emily Gray Junior High in 2008-2009: http://wandawiki.wikispaces.com/ The students created their most evolved Web 2.0 work in the Jacqueline Woodson Author Study lit circles.
If there’s any additional way I can support your work, or if you have further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me at: info@storytrail.com
Thank you again for a great learning experience and your fine Kansan hospitality.
All the best,
Judi
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