[CALIBK12] LAUSD Lit Circles titles

Thu Jan 8 09:02:34 PST 2009

I agree with Dr. Krashen 100%. Districts compartmentalize by department
way too much, in my opinion, and most of the time groups are working in
isolation with no thought of collaborating. The bigger the district, the
worse this can be. The Curriculum and Instruction Department, for
example, might spend months holding meetings and creating a literacy
program that the Media Services Department could do in a week. And no
one will know about the program until it appears at the sites. Some of
this might just be inefficiency and ignorance of what each group can do,
but politics certainly plays a role.  If a department can't take credit
for "producing", then they lose visibility and potential viability in
the organization.  Cynical?  Maybe. But it's the kids and the taxpayers
who can suffer in the long run. And where librarians are
under-represented at the district level, it's imperative that site staff
stay visible by creating their own initiatives and publicizing them.
Just quietly doing a good job, putting books in the hands of kids, and
contributing to higher reading test scores without tooting our own horns
won't improve the situation, unfortunately.

Maggie Barnes
District Librarian
Santa Ana Unified School District
1601 E. Chestnut Ave.
Santa Ana, CA 92701
714-480-4784, x74784
margaret.barnes at sausd.us

-----Original Message-----
From: calibk12-bounces at lists.sjsu.edu
[mailto:calibk12-bounces at lists.sjsu.edu] On Behalf Of Stephen Krashen
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2009 2:06 PM
To: calibk12 at lists.sjsu.edu
Subject: Re: [CALIBK12] LAUSD Lit Circles titles

Reading lists are just "feel-good" administrative moves. If they were
serious, they would work harder at funding libraries and librarians in
LAUSD. To my knowledge, LAUSD still does not fund librarians at the
elementary school level, and California's funding of school and public
libraries is a disgrace. I will look for a way to say this more
publicly.

--- On Wed, 1/7/09, Murphy, Nora <nmurp1 at lausd.net> wrote:

> From: Murphy, Nora <nmurp1 at lausd.net>
> Subject: [CALIBK12] LAUSD Lit Circles titles
> To: calibk12 at lists.sjsu.edu
> Date: Wednesday, January 7, 2009, 1:55 PM
> Lausd had recently adopted a new mandate (surprise,
> surprise) for all 8th grade ELA teachers.  7th and 6th grade
> ELA teachers are soon to follow.  All ELA teachers in the
> 8th grade will begin holding literacy circles in their
> classrooms.  This, in itself, is a good thing in my opinion
> (although these down-from-the-top mandates are always a bit
> abrasive).
>  
> The titles on the attached list were chosen by someone at
> the district level for the 8th grade classes.  According to
> the Literacy Coaches at my school, these are the required
> titles for all middle schools.  I've done a small amount
> of digging, and I am pretty sure that Library Services was
> not consulted about what went on this list.
>  
> Take a look.  I think I could have made a better list in
> about 10 minutes.
> For one thing, Love That Dog and Diary of A Wimpy Kid would
> have been more appropriate on the 6th grade list.  John
> Connelly's The Book of Lost Things is a cool book, but
> it's not for young kids.  Yes, the boy in the story is
> 12.  Yes, it's fantasy.  I  argue that it is still a
> book for adults, or maybe older teens, but I think the
> average 13-year old kid wouldn't make it to page 43
> where the plot really thickens.  I love House of the
> Scorpion and Uglies, but I wonder if the length of these two
> titles would make using them for Lit Circles difficult. What
> if one group of kids is reading Scorpion and another is
> reading Love That Dog?  It seems chaotic.
>  
> I believe that a better list (better for the teachers,
> better for the students) could have been compiled if Teacher
> Librarians had been involved.  This list is passable (I
> guess), but shouldn't it be great?
>  
> I also believe that Literacy Coaches at each school site
> should be consulting Teacher Librarians when making major
> book purchases (my school spent $23,000 on this without my
> knowledge).
>  
> Has anyone else encountered an issue like this?  As a
> Teacher Librarian, I feel that my expertise in the field of
> YA Literature needs to be more fully recognized at a
> district level.  The coaches don't read YA lit.
> They've made that clear to me.  Yet their superiors at
> the district, rather than mine, are creating lists of
> reading material for our students and teachers.  It
> doesn't make sense to me.  
>  
> If you are in a middle school in LAUSD, look into this at
> your school.  Is it happening?
> If you teach elsewhere, I urge you to make sure your
> district respects the expertise that TL's hold in the
> area of YA Literature and as instructional leaders.
>  
> Nora G. Murphy 
> Teacher Librarian 
> LA Academy Middle School 
> 323-238-1834
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