Friday, November 30, 2012

VRC Lessons Learned

Apologies to my VaASL colleagues who sat through my presentations extolling the virtues of this year's books! I had to try to put a good spin on them.

As I was preparing to teach this year's VRC nominees, I had some weird feelings.  Some of the books would be too babyish (Blue Chameleon, Dinosaur vs. Bedtime); some of them would be too old (Underground, Goal); some would be too scary (I Need My Monster).  We are in a bad way this year in terms of teaching these books during library.

What I've discovered over the past several weeks is that some of these books might be fun readalouds, but they're definitely not great "teaching" books. 

Here's what I think so far, and this is not a criticism of the VRC program.  The program is not designed as a teaching vehicle for librarians.  I get that.  But this year's crop of books is just so overall lacking in teachable content that I will just not be spending a lot of time on the books.  I'll read a few to each grade level--enough for them to be able to vote--and that's it. Here's the information from the VRC website about the program's purpose:
  • To encourage young readers to become better acquainted with contemporary books with outstanding literary appeal, to broaden students’ awareness of literature as a life-long pleasure, to encourage reading aloud in classrooms as a means of introducing reading for pleasure, and to honor favorite books and their authors.

I Want My Hat Back--fine for K-2.  Not a lot of content to teach.  We did a readers' theatre with 2nd grade and a "who stole my hat" game with K-1.

Dinosaur vs. Bedtime--fine for K-1.  We read it and brainstormed ideas of what else Dinosaur could "verse." (The kids' word, not mine!) Then I had the kids draw their idea on a "Dinosaur vs. ____" activity sheet.  For the kindergartners, I also showed them the YouTube video of Bob Shea reading the book to his son.  It's a shortened version, which is a bummer, but at least they can see and hear the author.

The Fox in the Dark--so far, I've done it with 2nd graders.  We read it and then did a little play acting with paperbag puppets (the noise drove me crazy).  I wrote a couple of the lines each animal says on the back of the paperbag puppet and then prompted the kids to say the lines when it was time.  I also had a student hold the "a fox in the dark" sign and a "Rat-a-tat-tat" sign for audience participation.  It was just okay.  Nothing great, and I don't know what I'll do with K-1 who able to read yet.

City Dog, Country Frog--fine for K-2.  In kindergarten, we have a lot of discussion first about what it means to live in the city versus the country.  And I have to explain that THE country is different from A country.  Why do things have to be so complicated?! I did find a use, finally, for the big floor easel maps that I bought from Nystrom a million years ago.  There's a nice page comparing the farm to the town.  Since the kids can't read the words farm or town yet, I haven't even bothered to cover them with city and country.  No need.  But it works to illustrate the differences. In first and second grades, they've liked to talk more about the seasons and what exactly has happened to the frog.  Not one of the groups has gotten the "but you'll do" line at the end that ties to the same line at the beginning.  I have to point it out every time.  I couple of the kids have noticed the changes in the frog's appearance through the seasons.  I do have a readers' theatre for this book that I wrote up, and I'll be doing that with 2nd graders next week.

Blue Chameleon--so babyish.  Even too babyish for kindergarten.  I mean, it's fine, but what is there to teach?  I have read it to the kids, then we all read it together, and then we read some non-fiction books about chameleons, because they all have half-knowledge about chameleons.  I still, after reading this book 20 times, have no idea of any way to teach content with it.

I Need My Monster--I have stopped reading this.  I read it to two second grade classes, and the reaction was the same from both of them.  The kids just didn't love it.  A few kids in each class were truly afraid of the illustrations.  There are a lot of activities to go with this book, but they're mostly writing (lots of great adjectives) and I just don't think the K-2 crowd is ready for that yet.  I did do a short writing activity with the two classes I read the book to, and it was ok.  Just ok.  It was a "My monster has.... My monster can...." graphic organizer, and then the kids drew their monster.  I have a couple of thoughts about this book: I think that the kids just aren't used to this kind of book being read in a library setting.  Perhaps they'd be more comfortable if their parent was reading it to them.  Maybe I'm putting too much into it with the animal voices--too realistic? too scary?

Books I haven't read yet and why:
Goal--this book just seems kind of a downer.  We'll see how it goes with the boys--maybe they'll be really into it. 
Underground--I just think this book is for older students.  It's just too complicated to explain Underground Railroad to the kindergartners. 
Say Hello to Zorro--Cute.  I am looking forward to reading this one, but the timeline activity I have to do with it won't last that long, and it's a little young for the 2nd graders.
Immi's Gift--I'm trying to save this book to read during the winter months, but it seems like I'll have to do it early.  Maybe before Christmas won't be a bad thing.  The activities that I have for it are craft-based (!) for the K-1 crowd, so I'll need to gather a few more supplies before reading it.

I'm interested to hear the experiences of other librarians teaching these books!

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

The Awesome Bob Shea

I am just so excited to barely know Bob Shea.  What a fun author and wonderful person he is.  Of course, I've known about the Dinosaur vs. ________ books for a while now.  As an aside, I think I need to let the Merriam-Webster people know that "verse" as in "What else can the dinosaur verse?" should be added to their dictionary.  I cannot tell you how many students say that.  I've found myself saying it, too.  There's just no other good word for the present-tense-single of "versus." 
So this whole interesting story started when Dinosaur vs. Bedtime was picked as a 2012-2013 Virginia Readers' Choice (VRC) nominee this past spring.  I started studying up on it in order to present ideas for using it in the library at our state librarians' conference (which was a few weeks ago).  Then I discovered Dinosaur vs. the Library, which, as a librarian, is at the top of MY list.  I brought my copy to the National Book Festival in September and Bob Shea signed it. Score!
While I was getting my book signed, I mentioned one of my students, L, who came to the library looking specifically for Dinosaur vs. Bedtime.  I felt so bad, because she was so wanting to read that book.  It was at my house (where I was preparing for the VRC presentation). I also mentioned that L is battling leukemia, and misses a lot of school because of her treatments.  Truth is, I have seen her only a handful of times because she misses quite a bit of school. Anyway, Bob says to me, "Email me her name and your address, and I'll send her a signed copy."  Just like that. 
So it took me a few weeks to email him, and then Superstorm Sandy got in everybody's way, but last week, a package of books--not just one book, mind you--arrived for L at my school.  We were so excited.  Her teacher cried.  I cried.  I'm pretty sure my assistant cried.  Presenting L with the books was just such a joyous moment--thank you, Bob!


So this past rotation, we've been reading Dinosaur vs. Bedtime.  The kindergarten and first graders are loving it! My voice is taking a beating with all the roaring, but we are having so much fun.  After we read the book, the kids each come up with their own idea for Dinosaur vs. ___________.  They write and draw a picture.  So many cute ideas! Here are a couple of pictures of my favorites:
Dinosaur vs. Zombie Kids. (Zombie Kids win!!)
This one cracked me up.  Dinosaur vs. the Principal.  Check out
the phonetic spelling of principal.  And look at his crossed arms!
 
My total favorite--can you tell what it says?
Dinosaur vs. Barack Obama, of course!
You can probably tell by the President's face who won that battle...
Roar!  Thanks, Bob Shea, for a great week in the library!

Saturday, November 10, 2012

VAASL!

What a great time I had at the VaASL conference!! A whole lotta work, fun time with old friends, and a little drama.  What more could we ask for?!?!

Lotta work: This year, as in years past, I presented two workshops on extension ideas to use with the VRC books.  Our state awards readers' choice award nominees list comes out each spring, and librarians like to use these books with our K-2 kids, so I put together some ideas for using the books in the library.  I was thinking back to when this all started, and I remember being appalled that my reading specialist just went from room to room reading all the books in a row and had the kids vote.  I wanted to make the reading more meaningful, so I gently insisted that I'd have to take over the VRC program.  That was in 2001, I think.  I don't think she was too disappointed not to be reading the books like that.

Then, one year, I was mentoring a lovely new librarian and we came up with ways to use the VRC books in our libraries.  I shared those ideas with the librarians in my county, and then everything started to snowball.  The reading specialist at my school created a summer class for teachers and librarians who were interested in using the VRC books, and we came up with lots of ideas there.  Another librarian friend and I decided to present at the state conference and share the ideas we'd found and created for the books.  And now it is just expected. 

It takes hours and hours to troll the Internet for each book on the list, looking for ideas and finding out what's out there.  Then I create lessons based on my own ideas (and improve the things I found online). 

Drama: I somehow got sick immediately after eating breakfast about 1 1/2 hours before my presentation.  What the heck?!?!? Who vomits?!?!?!  Not nerves.  Not a bug.  Who knows.


Fun times: The Thursday night entertainment was the best ever for VaASL!! Scooter Hayes, AKA Melvil Dewey entertained us with bunches of his songs from his CDs.  I've been watching his Dewey Rap video with the kids for years now, and he is a rock star to us. 



My new favorite word is Plagiarizzle.  If you plagiarizzle, you get in troub-izzle.  A great song by Scooter.  I totally think that kids will respond differently to any lesson on plagiarism if we just call it plagiarizzle!