Ideas+and+Library+Lessons

=**Great Ideas! **=

1. This idea is from Tuskawilla Middle School where I did my internship in 2009:

Here's a collaboration from Mrs. Rhodus' 6th grade language arts classes, and Mrs. Evelyn, the media specialist: "Voices from Africa." It is a DVD full of digital stories. The DVD case features a beautiful scene at sunset of an African landscape. On the we read: "Imagine a new ambassador has been assigned to your country. In preparation for the ambassador's first visit, you have been asked to create a short digital story of your country's major economic, environmental or political issues. Your new ambassador will watch the digital video you produce while traveling to your country." Countries featured: Algeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.

"These are the new ambassadors' messages, which were created by students in Mrs. Fields' sixth grade Geography class at Tuskawilla Middle School." Kathy Rhodus, digital story project facilitator and coach, is mentioned on the back of the DVD case.

2. The following are from an LM_NET posting:


 * Reach out to teachers to hold classes in the library even if the librarian isn't teaching them.
 * Sponsor an author visit
 * Show book trailers
 * book talks
 * book review blog that students contribute to


 * form an afterschool book club
 * form a reading bowl team
 * create contests that encourage students to come to the media center (if they are subject specific, teachers will appreciate it)
 * host a event for faculty that shows off the new items in the collection (provide food)
 * host a monthly Techno Tuesday that shows off a new Web 2.0 site or another piece of technology


 * Invite the kids in after school for homework help.
 * Start a student advisory board
 * Blog about books you or the students have read.
 * Make videos
 * Review books The library shouldn't be used all the time for academics...times are changing. Just get the kids in there somehow (book clubs, hot chocolate) and they will pick up a book or two...they might even check one out.


 * Play music
 * Make games accessible
 * April has "Turn off Your Screens" Week
 * "I love to read month" or any other theme/idea/challenge she is attracted to or fits with her students and school.
 * Find one visible spot and post an enticing passage from one book, change weekly, add, "Can you guess the author?" and win a prize ( a book )


 * Promote new books in the library
 * Pomote fiction or non-fiction that fit with units of study? Could she bring a collection of them to a classroom?
 * 5-minute book talk?
 * Creating book trailers with photostory is not only a favorite activity, but also a real hook for the kids.
 * ownload a few good book trailers ones from youtube, and show them to classes. read as much as she can.


 * When I love a book, tell the students about it and create book displays about books I love.
 * Send memos about new books. Photocopy the table of contents of the periodicals and give them to the teachers and ask them if they would like one photocopy of an article they might be interested in reading or using in upcoming lessons.
 * Surf LM NET and let the teachers know via e-mail what best sites to use.
 * Faculty and administration should see and e-mail from the library at least once a day.
 * I take student requests so I buy the books that they want to read.


 * Make brochures and handouts with information. I started blogging and reviewing books last year and have seen it grow by leaps and bounds.
 * Teach some of the Web 2.0 tools, such as Animoto, Glogster, Prezi, Google Docs (though that isn't as "fun"). These first 3 are all Powerpoint.
 * Start a monthly library contest(elementary). I've tried bookmark contests, raffles, a Build a Potato contest (see Analine Johnson,a fellow Texas librarian of yours, for this one...she's posted it on LM_Net), a guesstimation contest where I see who can come closest to the number of books in the library, etc.
 * Find the newest newbie on campus and collaborate with her/him. Find out something to help the teacher with and have the librarian make the lesson and teach it to the newbie's class. Post the results-- on the walls-- announcements, wherever- and just be positive.

A Library Scavenger Hunt from Library Sparks:

Write down things from different sections of your library on **different-colored craft sticks**. For instance, books might be on a green one, CD's on yellow, magazines on pink, etc. Then take a group of children on a tour of your library. At the end of the tour, give each child one of the craft sticks. Have them find and bring their item to you at the circulation desk and reward each child with a bookmark or other small item. Things to hunt for might include a picture book with fish on the cover, a book about pets, an item with a specific call number, a biography of a famous woman, a amagzine about sports, a soundtrack from a movie or show CD, or a children's DVD.

Ideas from LM_NET:

Use ** You Read to Me, I'll Read to You by Maryann Hoberman **and others like it to do choral reading with my first graders. They make for very easy Reader's Theater. Go to our site: yesgracerocks.org and choose cookbook project. The beginning of this book has suggestions for how to use this book as a teacher and librarian.

My K-2 students always look for the ** Shelf Elf **each time they come to the library. I put him somewhere different each week. Now that 3rd grade is going to be studying the mystery genre, they will solve a real crime...The Shelf Elf has gone missing! The 3rd grade students will pick a clue (haven't thought of the exact ones yet) as they come in to the library one day. They will need to collaborate with other classmates to see what clue they have and begin to solve the crime. I first will discuss the elements and vocabulary of a mystery...clues, detective, alibi, suspect, witness ,etc. Perhaps make a word wall with these terms. They will keep their own crime notebook to jot down ideas or theories. I plan to allow this to go only only 3 class periods...the first to set up the scene to motivate them, the second week to really dig into the clues, and the 3rd week to solve it.

Library Lessons:

[|Library Lesson Plans--Elementary] (includes 7th and 8th)

[|Additional Library Lessons:]

[|More Library Lessons:]

[|Even More Library Lessons]

A brief article on using a library mascot: //Library Sparks//, March 2011, p. 6-7. [|Puppets:]