Workshop Descriptions Session 6

Livia Sabourin

I will speak about the thought processes and non-traditional resources I utilize in my daily library practice to curate a strong and daring YA/Adult collection at my school, which has the highest circulation among all of the High Schools in my county. How I broke with convention and nothing bad happened, and you can too.

Participant Takeaways

They will learn to be more thoughtful and conscientious in their assessments of their collections and of the cultures of their districts to start thinking differently about what their collections can become. They will also learn about non-traditional "review" sources to learn about new (or old) titles that they can purchase for their collections. They will begin to make bolder choices, with purpose and professionalism, to evolve/transform their collections to better support and challenge their students.

J'aime Pfeiffer

There are over 20 Common Core State Standards for every grade level for ELA, History/Social Studies, and Science & Technical Subjects. By "chunking" the standards, it doesn't seem as daunting, and through collaboration and sharing the teaching and reinforcing of those standards, students benefit. The specific set of standards for this workshop will focus on Informational "Seed" Texts. We will look at selection based on quality and rigor through Lexile levels, qualitative rubrics, and reader & task goals and outcomes.

Participant Takeaways

Participants will better understand the standards and the IFC, and how they relate to all teachers. They will get a model text selection with rubrics and be able to talk to teachers about the importance of using all of them. Participants will also have information to take back to teachers and administrators about the importance of "sharing" the workload. (The new Social Studies Framework, based on the ELA Common Core Standards and Inquiry, will also give them a "new" audience).

Nina Levine

Thesis development, a skill essential for college and career readiness, is coincidentally akin to developing a search strategy. Thesis can be your 'foot in the door' to collaborating with content teachers and coaching students from the start of the research process. Together we will consider best practices in teaching thesis and using thesis as the lever to teach/guide the information literacy process from soup to nuts.

Participant Takeaways

Participants will have a unifying approach to teaching information literacy and a lever to use in seeking collaborative opportunities.

Sheri McNair, Christine Susskind and Bridget Smith

Learn about “Reading Buddies”, James I. O’Neill High School’s literacy volunteer program.

From the very beginning, our goal was to find a program that would appeal to most high school students – and more specifically our Title I and ELL populations - focusing on literacy. Because this is an area in which such students are often low-performing, one goal was to encourage them to think of reading not only as crucial for themselves, but also as something they can share with someone else. We created a “Reading Buddies” club, which partners our high school volunteers (from all socioeconomic backgrounds) with first and second graders for a bi-weekly, one-on-one read-aloud. Big and Little Buddies read, write, and play together at our local elementary school. The response has been tremendous, both from a point of view of the students involved (big and small) and from the community at large. Our presentation will focus on the context, components, and benefits of implementing such a program.

Participant Takeaways

Participants will be provided with: a brochure, handouts and links of all necessary information and budget amounts to start a Reading Buddy program in their District.

Sudha Narsipur

The presentation will focus on how to integrate the emerging e-book technologies and digital content with the Common Core Curriculum Standards. Participants will explore inquiry based learning, informational and literary texts, and mobile learning.

Participant Takeaways

As a culminating activity, the participants will come up with one example of how they would use e-books in their teaching and learning.