[CALIBK12] New library

Thu Mar 27 09:17:33 PDT 2008

Hi all,

May I ask a dumb question? Who is deciding on which books go with which Gardner's intelligences and how on earth will you put that information on the spine? I definitely think you should add something like this to the OPAC record, even make groups or categories or some such in your OPAC, but you would still have to decide which "intelligence" the book falls into. Sounds like a whole new vendor trick, selling us books based on Gardner.

I spent 4 years in an elementary school library and totally agree with Randy's cautions about the things to resist doing. It is hard enough dealing with all of the permutations of AR and now to add the Gardner's seems overwhelming. How would student ever find a book with all of the qualifications attached to what he/she is "allowed" to read?

On another note, you can now collect California history for your library, as it's still 4th grade curriculum. It's the only time students study it now and with so many students moving to our state at all grade levels, it's important to have these resources. I have some for high school and include local history as well. Even with all the problems we have with schools and budgets, this is still a great state with an interesting history and students need to learn about it.

Janet HasBrouck, Librarian
Arcadia High School

>>> Rusty Tooley <rusty at tooleymail.com> 3/23/2008 8:07 PM >>>

April,

It sounds like a perfectly awful set-up...all those labels on the books, I mean. How I wish well-meaning school administrators would say "We want the students to be able to find these books, so let's make sure you have the time and resources you need to maintain accurate and thorough MARC records" while the classroom teachers chime in, "Let's collaborate early and often on classroom assignments that will allow the students to learn to use the online catalog to find anything in the library."

But I digress. You asked for help, not soapbox speeches. Many wise people on this list will supply those, and they all will have valid points to make.

I formerly worked for seven years in a K-8 district. We purchased and implemented Accelerated Reader during my second year there. Every elementary school library did something a little different, and I worked in three or four schools over the years, so I experienced a lot of book labeling, quiz buying, etc. scenarios. I have not worked in that district nor with Accelerated Reader for the last two and a half years, so I'm not entirely sure if the some of the things I'm recommending are still available or done in the same way.

Avoid, at all costs, the Accelerated Reader labels from the various library supply catalogs. It can be hard to tell the difference among them when the books are side by side on the shelves, and besides, you need to apparently put another label on them for the Multiple Intelligences. Instead, I recommend using the colored spine label protectors. I like the ones from Demco, in the light colors. In your case, I'd use one color for any title with an AR reading level below 4.0, and then different colors for 4.0 - 4.9, 5.0 - 5.9, etc. and a final color for anything 9.0 and higher. You just put the spine label cover over the existing spine label, and then have a chart (or three or four) in the library that explains the color coding system.

When you order your books, order Accelerated Reader processing if it's available. Many companies will print an info label with the book title, AR quiz number, reading level, and quiz points value. Have the label placed INSIDE the book. It's not that much trouble for the student to pull the book off the shelf, open the cover, and read the label, and that label will endure for a long time without a label protector.

If your online catalog supports it, order your MARC records with AR data in the...I forget, the 586 tag maybe? Teach your students how to search the online catalog to find books at their AR reading level.

At the beginning of all things Accelerated Reader in my former district, I used to have hard copies of AR quiz lists in the library, one sorted by title, and one sorted by AR reading level. It's useful at the beginning, but once the quizzes start multiplying, it's hard to keep up to date, and can take a good bit of paper to print. Besides that, it was always difficult to explain to students that owning the AR quiz did not mean we had that book in the library (the teachers would often buy quizzes for books in the classroom libraries), and conversely, that we didn't have an AR quiz for every book in the library. I'm sure the newest versions of AR have some kind of quiz/library book matching ability.

Over the years, I was given many suggestions from teachers, administrators, parents, and students about having AR books in the library. Resist them all:
-- to pull the AR books into a separate section and arrange them by reading level.
-- to only buy books for the library that have an Accelerated Reader quiz available.
-- to not buy any books unless I also buy the quiz.

My favorite was "My students can only check out AR books -- nothing else." To which I replied, "I will make sure your students all check out an AR book, but they may also check out additional, non-AR books, if they want."

I hope that all helps!

Rusty

--
Rusty Tooley
Teacher Librarian
Barron Park Elementary School
Palo Alto Unified School District
www.pausd.org

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Sat, 22 Mar 2008 22:00:29 -0700
From: "Devers, April" <April.Devers at sbcusd.k12.ca.us>

We are also going to be using Gardner's Multiple Intelligences as key part of our curriculum.  I need to not only have books referenced to these intelligences but have the books labeled for them as well.  We will also be running A/R as a reading program along with Read 180 support classes for our lower grades.  Each of these has to be labeled on our library books.....  Any suggestions that would help me keep the spines of the books from being too cluttered?

_______________________________________________
CALIBK12 site list
CALIBK12 at lists.sjsu.edu
http://lists.sjsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/calibk12

For information about the Calibk12 listserve, please
visit  http://www.calibk12.net.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.sjsu.edu/pipermail/calibk12/attachments/20080327/a441417a/attachment.html 