Picture This - Visual Literacy, Mock Caldecott, and Finding Our Voices

Beginnings

It all started on a sweaty August afternoon in the Eubank gymnasium.  Our staff participates in monthly fine arts professional development as part of Eubank's redesign into a Fine Arts magnet school.  The training on that day involved staff walking the perimeter of the gym's walls and looking at large color prints of different paintings, sculptures and artistic endeavors.  As we each walked the walls and cocked our heads in consideration, nodded with appreciation, or turned in distaste we placed small laminated paper tokens into baskets beneath each image.  We were participating in an activity known in Fine Arts circles as Token Response. A good summary of this activity can be found here at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.  The tokens were simple shapes such as a heart for your favorite piece and a black diamond for the art you liked least.  As I dropped the last of my tokens into a basket I wondered how this activity might look in a library.

Considering Caldecott

Fast forward to November.  My favorite librarian friend, and I were working to select books for a Mock Caldecott activity.  After lots of review, consulting of professional library journals and blogs, waffling on selections (on my part), and finally a pinky swear to stick to our final choices; I began looking for ways to invite my students to think about our potential Caldecott contenders..... cue scrunched brow, look of concentration, and ZING!  I remembered August, the gym, and Token Response!

For each Mock Caldecott lesson two book contenders are presented together to students.  Students are given time to hear the story, consider the artwork and share their opinions.   For this activity our two selected non-fiction picture books were paired:  Firefly July written by Paul B. Janeczko, and Eye to Eye: How Animals See the World written by Steve Jenkins:

Firefly July by Paul B. Janeczko

Eye to Eye: How Animals See the World by Steve Jenkins

 Finding Our Voices

 Love!  Can I just say how much I love, love, love this activity?  To help the students explore the illustrations from these two books - I worked with the district Fine Arts department to create large poster size images from each book.  Six color illustrations were selected from each title and placed around the library.  After listening to a book talk about each title, learning more about the art method used for the illustrations (mixed media for Firefly July and collage for Eye to Eye), and hearing selections from both books, students were given time to walk the library "museum style" and look more closely at the illustrations.

Students explore the illustrations and select a favorite

Differences in opinion led to some amazing conversations

A first grader shares his favorite and explains his opinion

Students had a set of tokens to place by the illustration that they liked the most and least.  Once tokens were placed they had time to talk to their peers about why they liked or didn't like an illustration.  What a great series of conversations when the best of friends realized that they agreed or disagreed about a certain illustration!  We were able to look at classroom trends in taste, talk about art techniques, practice sharing our opinions, and find our voice even when others may not agree.  Whew! 

I always love looking at and exploring new books with my classes - this activity provided an amazing doorway to some incredible student insights.  My final response?  This is a good one for sure.

New Year's Resoultion

If individuals can create a New Year's Resolution, a declaration of hopes and goals, why not then a library? 

2015 will be the year of the reader

• A year for book introductions, book trailers, and book talks

• A year of book discoveries and embraces

• A year of bated breath until the next in the series appears.

2015 will be the year of good beginnings

• A year of repeated rounds of rock paper scissors to see whose hand touched the last copy of the most desired book first

• A year of wide eyed reading and nods of recognition as we hold hands with the story through each trial and every success.

2015 will be the year of diverse reading

• A year for a Kodachrome of characters to take hold of our shelves, our libraries and our hearts.  
• A year for diligence in providing books that represent all of the readers who grace our hallways and for those who are yet to come

2015 will be a year of creation

• A year for open spaces and opportunities to make your own meaning
• A year for suggestions of "Try it!  Let's see what happens."

2015 will be a year of connections

• A year for fostering conversations across the tables and collaboration beyond a single classroom. 
• A year for seeking out fellow learners in our schools, outside our cities and around the world.

So here is to 2015! May it be a wondrous page turner for each and every one of us!

Eye to Eye with Caldecott

"What do you see?  Soak it all in."

I watched as the first graders sitting cross legged on the floor of the library leaned in closer to look at an image from McCloskey's 1949 Caldecott book, Blueberries For Sal, displayed on the Promethean board. One student cupped his hands around his eyes in a binocular fashion - to zoom mentally in on what he was seeing.

Blueberries For Sal, Robert McCloskey

"The woman is surprised!" offered one little girl.

"What do you see that makes you say that?"  I prompted.

"Her mouth is open and her eyes are like this."  The student's jaw dropped and she turned to look at her classmates with eyes open wide.  The expression jumped from face to face as others fell in suit to try the surprised look on for size.

I'm embarking on a new adventure this winter with my 1st and 2nd grades.  This year we're attempting to take a closer look at Caldecott books and will try our hand at our first ever Mock Caldecott.

A Close Consideration 

 

To help foster a close consideration of a book's illustrations I've been using Visual Thinking Strategies to guide students into thinking beyond a quick glance.  My school is currently undergoing the process of redesign.  As a part of this process we are evolving into a Fine Arts magnet school.  Just this fall teachers were introduced to Visual Thinking Strategies as a way to increase student comprehension. Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) uses three questions to guide discussion about a particular image:

"What's going on here?"
"What do you see that makes you say that?"
"What more can we find?"

This seemed to me a perfect way to introduce Caldecott and all that it means when a book receives this honor.  I wasn't disappointed!  Since our first foray into VTS we have taken time to consider illustrations from Caldecott books such as:

Flotsam, David Wiesner, 2007 Caldecott

The Man Who Walked Between the Towers, Mordicai Gerstein, 2004 Caldecott

It's been amazing to listen to students as they consider the illustrations and offer their insights - it's been even more amazing to then read the story together and see their nods, hear the exclamations of "I knew it!" and watch as the story settles comfortably over the group.

We'll be taking the things we've learned here and applying them to a small selection of books that just might receive a nod from the Caldecott committee this year.  The beginning's been pretty great - I can't wait to see the end results.

It's a Forever Book

The Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving Break were parent conference days at my school.  Normally the library would be pretty quiet during conferences - a time to catch up on the always overflowing shelving or spine label repair.  Not this time though.

"Are you the librarian?"

"We brought our ticket."

"They said you had a book for us?"


December marks the beginning of our 5th One School, One Book celebration.  If you're not familiar with One School One Book - it is a family literacy program where every family and staff member receive a copy of same book during the same time period.  It's like nightly reading, only better.

For the next three weeks we will be reading and sharing Beverly Cleary's The Mouse and the Motorcycle with our school community.  I love this program.  It's a pretty amazing feeling to hand a student or a family a book, and explain, " It's a gift, a forever book.  You don't have to return it."

Five boxes just like this - ready to go!

Books sorted by class

We do lots of things to encourage students to read from the book each night with their families.  We introduced the coming book to families during a literacy night with a staff skit.  There's nothing quite like wearing paper mouse ears  and singing "Three blind mice" in front of your school community to make you feel like a celebrity during lunch duty the next day!

I'm lucky to work with some amazingly supportive colleagues!

During parent conferences families received a ticket that could be brought to the library in exchange for a copy of the book.  What an incredible experience.  I've never had the chance to talk with so many families about reading to their kids before.  Over two days I was able to personally encourage nightly reading with almost 150 families. AMAZING!  During these conversations I also shared a reading calendar that marks out how the book will be read and explained that daily trivia questions that go along with the reading would be announced every morning over the intercom.  It was great to see how many parents had fond memories of reading this same book when they were younger and watch them exclaim to their child that "They'll love this book!"  It was even better to watch them walk out with the book in hand and smiles on faces.

To help pique interest I always create a display outside the library that goes along with the book.  This year I'll be posting pictures of trivia winners on the display as well.  When we finish reading, we'll celebrate the end of the book by hosting a Family Movie Night and we'll show The Mouse and the Motorcycle movie (Yep  - 1986, Fred Savage, stop-motion - the very one and the same!)

Best of all though, will be the conversations over the next three weeks.  The discussions that will happen as we read the book.  The chance to laugh together about a character's antics or shake our heads collectively in disbelief at the turn of events. It's about building a community of readers and the forever habit of reading.  This is what it's all about.

A Shelf Full of Ikigai

"I love what I do.  I am a librarian."

I find myself voicing this refrain pretty regularly.  It comes up in conversations with friends, family members who call to see how it's going, and coworkers who comment on my upbeat nature.  Until just recently I didn't really have a good way to explain it - I'd gush about the books, literacy, working with kids - everything.   A simple question of "How are you doing?"  would end 20 minutes later with me still bubbling over with joyous explanations and the asker smiling and slowly..backing.. away....

But now I have a new response.

"Ikigai"

I learned about this word just yesterday. My son and I were working in the garage and listening to a holiday radio show.  In between choruses of "Jingle Bells" and "Frosty the Snowman" the radio DJ would come on and share different facts and interesting articles.  During one of these pauses the DJ talked about research that looked at how some people live to be 100.  There were of course the tips about eating less meat and moving more naturally.  But there was also ikigai.  Pronounced ee-key-guy, this is the Japanese concept for "Why I wake up in the morning", or more simply "Reason for being".  I was struck by the simplicity of the word and and enormity of all that it means, and then it hit me -  a library is full of ikigai.

You'll see it in quotes all over the internet about libraries and how they have been the link to happiness:

"I always felt, if I can get to a library, I'll be OK."

- Maya Angelou

"Without libraries what do we have?  We have no past and no future."

-Ray Bradbury

"When I got my library card, that's when my life began."

-Rita Mae Brown

What an amazing thing to be a part of.  Every day when the readers come there is this possibility.  There is this chance that inside this space, inside a book, there is a reason for being for each of us. 

This. 

This is why I love my job.  I have found my ikigai.  And part of what I do helps others find their ikigai too.

We Are the Curators of Curiosity - the Guardians of Imagination

It's a week past Halloween.  The sugary dance of children who have raided and consumed sweets from their goodie bags on the way to school has tempered, their pockets now emptied of secretly stashed bite size chocolates.  As an adult it's easy to be sidelined by the sugar rush associated with this holiday - to focus solely on the loot and not the story behind the outstretched hands at your door.

My school manages Halloween each year by inviting students to celebrate through a storybook parade.  Students are encouraged to come dressed as their favorite character.  Now, as librarians we know that there are little, if any, desired characters or costumes that can't be linked back to a literacy source of some kind.  This is where our mad skills as librarians, the curators of curiosity and guardians of imagination come into play.

Students typically fall into two categories in October:

• those who love the story and know exactly which character they will be
• those who love an idea/character and haven't yet met the story

It is this second category of student I'm particularly interested in. I relish this conversation starter,

"Mrs. G, do you have any books about......"   

(Here is my opportunity to connect a reader! My librarian heart is all a-twitter.......)

"So, you want to be a zombie hunter for Halloween?  Hmmmm, have you seen this poetry book called Zombies: Evacuate the School! ?"

Zombies! Evacuate the School! by Sara Holbrook

"Mrs. G, I want to be Red Riding Hood for Halloween."

(Internal Squeal! I know the perfect book.....)

"Really?  Well, have you seen this new book?  It's based on Little Red...."

Little Red Writing by Joan Holub

 When Halloween finally sidles up and knocks on our door I'm thrilled to see the story book characters that parade around our school. Fairy tales and adventures, sci-fi and fantasy, each has it's own representative.  My work here has just begun though.  As the storybook parade winds down and the Draculas return to 2nd grade spelling, a student approached me

 "Mrs. G, I couldn't get a costume for today."

I looked at this student and replied, 

"You know what? Imagination is the best costume. Who are you today?"

The student paused for a minute and then proceeded to tell me in detail about his super hero character.  As he explained each detail, the cape and protective armor, the designs on his shoes, I nodded in understanding.

"I can see it!  Every bit!  And you know what?  I have the perfect book for you...."

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

 

It's book fair week in the Eubank library - definitely one of the most exciting times of the year.  I love the faces of students and adults alike as they come into the library and see the displays, racks and tables full of future "forever" books.  The "oooohs"  and "aaahhhhs," the students clutching hands and smiling, the sheer giddiness and joy over seeing books,  yes, BOOKS makes my reading heart explode with happy tingly feelings. 

Book Fair is a great time to sample and try out so many different books.  I remember years ago hearing the idea that when a teacher or librarian gives students a taste of a book by sharing it in some way - reading a sample, viewing a book trailer, or giving a book talk, that it is something akin to "blessing" the book.   We will be "blessing" lots of different books this week and paying close attention to the titles that grab students' attention.

This week we will be exploring these titles:

Pete the Cat and the New Guy by Kimberly and James Dean

Nightsong by Ari Berk

Sisters by Raina Talgemeier

Chupacabra by Roland Smith

This is just the beginning - it's going to be a GOOD week!