Despite the Odds: Getting Books into the Hands of Children

Finally I attended a keynote panel that featured people who have made it their lifetime goal to bring books to children around the world. It was an interesting session that brought me back to the school library that I work in. We are so fortunate to have so many resources, books, a budget... Thank goodness for people like this who work so hard for those who have so little.

Yohannes spoke about Ethiopia Reads and gave some background on himself and his organization. Since I had lunch with him and we had talked about project ideas, I was especially interested in his background and ways to help. I shared this information with my students to get them more excited about our project. Read my lunch entry on this blog to find out more about our project.

The ideas of these speakers all connected towards the difficulty and expense of bringing books to children around the world. They also agreed that it is an important mission and all children deserve the opportunity to read and look at books. Bringing books and libraries to developing countries is quite a challenge especially as the world economy is suffering at this point in time.

As I finished my day at this conference, I began to think about what I can do. Encouraging children to look at international books is a start. Organizing projects with a global perspective has been my theme these last 2 years. Starting our project with the 5th graders and bringing stories to other parts of the world is another way for the students at my school to see that we can help. Many projects and ideas came from this conference and have already affected many children. This iBBy conference was an amazing experience. There's so much to learn and do!!!!

The Joys and Challenges of Publishing Books from Abroad

This breakout conversation was led by Arthur Levine, a leading American publisher. Levine is a very funny speaker but tells the story from the publishing world. There aren't many companies that take on the challenges of providing translated books to their readers. I was amazed at his recall of books and his description of the process.

He has a group of readers that he uses when reading books in other languages. Levine has a close connection with these people. They need to know what his criteria is and understand what he likes and dislikes in books. Levine discussed how hard that is to let someone else judge a book, but it has to be done. He also stressed the importance of accuracy verses literal translations which makes for a good book.

Levine said that some of the countries he has the most trouble with is Finland, Russia, and China. He is having a hard time finding people who speak Finnish and are qualified to judge and write good literature. The language itself is very challenging. Russia and China just aren't producing many books at this point.

He attends the Bologna, travels all over the world, and has many connections with agents. The American market is asking for translated books but he emphasized that it is the librarians and book sellers that need to ask for them. The large store book sellers are pushing out the independent book stores, and this changes what is being published. Also, the American market censors its books more frequently, wanting less nudity and violence than other countries in the world.

There are many struggles publishing translated books, but I could see that Levine is committed to this work. When asked to name some of his favorites, he struggled but then came up with these two: The Book of Everything and The Fabulous Feud of Gilbert & Sullivan.

Hans Christian Andersen Award-winning Authors Speak Out

After lunch I attended a keynote panel with Ana Maria Machado and Katherine Paterson. Machado showed her work on the screen and discussed her book, What a Party! It has not yet been translated into English, but she roughly translated it to give us an understanding of the story. It was a delightful book that nicely described many cultures. I found it interesting when she showed how the book had been translated into different languages and how the illustrations changed for each country. I never expected that when the book gets translated, that the illustrations would change and the general look of the book would be so different.

Katherine Paterson spoke next. I was unaware that she was born in China and all the experiences she had as a child. She was very enjoyable to listen to and quite funny. Paterson explained that her childhood experiences helped shape her into the author she is today. Paterson said that she has a good emotional memory. I found that statement interesting. Her books are very descriptive, serious, and full of emotion. I look forward to her next book, The Day of the Pelican.

Lunch and Making Connections

The connection I made at lunch has affected my entire school! I sat at a table with Yohannes Gebregeorgis, the founder of Ethiopia Reads. I didn't know who he was, so through our conversation, I learned how he began Ethiopia Reads and his involvement in creating schools in his home country. I explained my district's initiative this year which is to make connections around the world and provide opportunities for our students to think globally. It was a perfect match.

We discussed connecting our 2 schools and partnering up the children for pen pals. We exchanged cards and the process has already begun. We will be partnering up my 5th graders with his 5, 6, and 7th graders for pen pals. He said the older children in his school have had enough English to be able to write letters to the students in my school. I talked to all the 5th grade classes when I got back from the conference and they loudly gasped when I told them the news!!

After discussing Ethiopia Reads with Johannes, we developed another project to send to his students. My students have selected a picture book that they would like to read to a student in Ethiopia. We are going to film every 5th grader reading their picture book and create a DVD of 67 stories being read. This will be our contribution to their country - bringing American literature to them without the cost of buying and sending the books. My students are so excited about the project and can hardly wait to begin taping next week.

My principal feels so strongly about this project that she would like to see every child in our school get the chance to read a book and then we can distribute the video to many organizations all over the world. This all came from my lunch with Yohannes!

Found in Tranlation: Batchelder Books

Off I went to my next session. I attended the Batchelder Book Award conversation to find out more about the process and the difficulties of getting books translated. This conversation was led by Annette Goldsmith who did her thesis on this subject.

Initially, she gave a quick overview of the award and its history. She discussed the barriers that editors encounter when making decisions. It is difficult for them to rely on others to read books in different languages. These editors need to have a close relationship with their readers and an understanding of their tastes and criteria.

The editors attend Bologna Book Fair, make connections with agents, and keep track of award winners in other countries. They expressed that there is very little training opportunities out there today, so very few people take on the challenge of publishing translated books or know how to go about it.

The conclusions that can be drawn are the following: 1) Editors can learn more about publishing translations, 2) The industry should address the lack of training, 3) Editors should consider learning another language, 4) Chain bookstores should carry more translations, 5) Children's book professionals should promote these books more often to young readers.

So, I began to think about my role as an LMC Director and what I can do. It takes an effort to learn about translated books and order them for your library. Also, it takes enthusiasm for that book to get children to want to read it. An example that is happening at my school this year is the introduction of Chinese with the 4th graders. My school has begun teaching Chinese in 4th grade and will then move it to 5th grade next year. The librarians in my district are talking about ordering more books about China, but it was my suggestion to order translated books and search for books published in China to give our students the chance to see authentic literature from another country. This is where it begins. If I say to my representative of Follett that I want more books like this, she can pass that along and begin the pressure. Publishers will never go in this direction if the public doesn't ask for them. As I develop my book collection, it is my duty to provide rich, authentic books that don't always appear in the large chain bookstores.

Exploring the Visual Narrative

My first session was one of my favorites of the entire day. I attended the Keynote session called "Exploring the Visual Narrative" with Shauen Tan, David Wiesner, being led by Arthur Levine. Large screens were used to display pictures of the authors' work and process when developing their wordless books.

Wiesner showed his thumbnail sketches and described them as minimal. This is where he organizes his thoughts and develops the story. They were pencil/charcoal sketches that reminded me of storyboarding when creating a movie.

Tan had a similar process. He admitted to being a perfectionist and that became evident as he spoke. He uses sketch books to record ideas and he showed the audience the development of his ideas into what became the final product in his books. He does a lot of research and uses old photographs to help him with his drawings. Tan described old photographs as visual fossils, a description I take pleasure in. His newest book, The Arrival has many pictures of families. He used old photographs to aid with the development of his drawings.

I was most amazed that both of them used models and staging when developing their drawings. Wiesner showed clay models of his animals and mentioned that his next book will be about lizards. They both mentioned the importance of these small models to help them understand lighting and shadows. For example, Weisner said he needed to know what the shadow of a pig would look like on the side of a barn. He basically built a miniature set.

Tan uses quite a bit of staging when getting ready for his drawings. He asked neighbors to come over and sit at a dinner table within his set. He used a video camera to record their conversations with each other and then took segments of the video to use as his model. He painstakingly researches the era, buys pieces of furniture and objects to place in the picture, gets the proper clothing and then takes pictures of himself or others within the set. I never imagined that this much work went into their drawings and the time and preparation that it took.

Tan expressed philosophical ideas when he had the floor. He felt that historical fiction and science fiction are close to the same thing. They are both displaced time periods. Quite an interesting idea. He discussed the format of a wordless book and his thoughts on adding text. Having no text slows the reader down and encourages the reader to look more closely at the details in the illustration. He felt that words make the reader go too fast through the book. A picture book to Tan is a map of experiences.

My favorite thought was expressed by Tan when he said that if he feels strongly about something, others will too. That idea grabbed me immediately and made me think about my job as an LMC Director. I have already seen in my second year that if I'm enthused about something, I can get students and teachers to be enthused as well. Spreading excitement over something like books, authors, something on the internet, a research project, etc. is a huge part of my job - not to mention fun!! So, if I feel strongly about something, I'm hoping my students will to.

8th IBBY Regional Conference Sponsored by USBBY

Last weekend I attended the iBBY conference in St. Charles, IL. The theme of the conference was "Children's Books: Where Worlds Meet." It was an amazing day, leaving me with ideas to take back to my school that would involve my general attitude when selecting books and project ideas for the grades I collaborate with. I attended Saturday, October 3rd.

Reflection on the process of creating the final product

I am overwhelmed with the amount of work it took to create the final webquest. As I was reviewing webquests earlier in this course, I saw that not all of the steps were being taken. Some of the webquests were not inquiry based and were basically cutting and pasting of information. I have also seen within my district during sharing meetings that it is common to call an activity a webquest, but it is just an online worksheet with links and questions to answer.

The initial planning of the project seemed to take the longest. I now see that it was important to have a good foundation and plan when developing the task for the students and the goals desired. So often, we plan an activity or lesson for students not fully thinking about the goals and standards. This project forced us to think about what we wanted out of the project before developing a final product.

Webquests take a lot of work on the front end, but if developed well, will become a wonderful activity for students. Our district is moving quickly towards more inquiry based education and discouraging cutting and pasting of information during their research. My final project was a webquest for 5th grade that I will use when they come to see me in the LMC. In the future, I would like to see well planned webquests for each grade level so that all students at my school can experience this type of learning opportunity.

Overall, I was glad to have created something this extensive knowing I will use it in the next school year. The 5th grade teachers at my school are already thrilled! My biggest challenge will now be to create more in subject areas that I'm not as familiar. As I collaborate with the classroom teachers this fall, I will be taking notes on what they would like to see in a webquest and goals for their students.

Criteria for the selection of web-based materials

As I'm creating my webquest and hotlist, I see that consideration needs to be made about whether the sites are reliable and a good place for children to use when researching their topic. This is also a topic I should be teaching my students during their time in the computer lab. Last year was my first year of being the LMC Director and I felt it was a year of 'getting my feet wet.' I didn't cover everything I wanted to and this is one of those areas. I need to create some lessons or better embed this topic into their research projects.

I found a good place on Kathy Schrock's web site called The Five W's of Web Site Evaluation that helped me organize my thoughts when looking at an online resource.
Who - Who wrote the pages?
What - What does the author say the purpose of the site is? What information is included?
When - When was it created and/or last updated?
Where - Where does the information come from?
Why - Why is this information useful and why should I use this information?

I thought this simple approach would be useful when selecting online resources and an easy way to instruct my students when looking for information on the Internet. Along with my search, I found some decent student-friendly rubrics for students to use when evaluating web sites. I will definitely be incorporating this into their next projects in the LMC.

Second Life

I had previously heard of Second Life, but never realized how expansive it is and advanced. It took me awhile, prior to our class experience, to get used to moving my avitar around, looking in different directions, and viewing a 3D world. I also noticed how large the program must be because every time I had it on, the fan on my laptop would run the entire time.

Our class experience helped me more. I appreciated learning about the buttons on the bottom and how to navigate to new areas. We had so many people in such a small space that I got somewhat frustrated with trying to see everyone and reading the IMs. It was fun to partner up and go to various places together. It urged us to help each other. At times, I found myself worrying more about where my 2 other group members were, than viewing what was around me. I never got the full impact of why these were educational places and what can be done there. I'm going to need to do some more exploring on my own.

I certainly like innovative ideas for education and will be reading the chapter Craig has co-written. One thing I have noticed while taking classes at National-Louis: Many of the schools we all work in are on different pages in terms of technology, Internet usage, and Web 2.0. Some of us have fire walls that won't let anyone do anything, and others are much more liberal. I would be very frustrated with my school district if I was learning all the new tools possible on the internet and my district was highly restricting me. Luckily, I'm in a district that promotes this kind of use as long as it is well thought out and safe for the students. (I do have to admit that I'm getting tired of all the parent permission slips that are being sent out to get an OK for Internet usage and work posted. Ugh!)

Our class experience was very unique, fun, and interesting in Second Life. I would have never gone there on my own. I certainly need to spend more time to explore and understand the educational potential it might have.

Description of one or more resource depositories or lists with materials relevant to the candidate's interests

When I create blogs, a facebook account, etc. the first things they ask you are your interests. If you look at mine, they are reading, knitting, and traveling. Kristen and I are so similar (check out her blog entry!) Having the internet makes hobbies and personal interests that much more interesting with the availability of information at your fingertips.

Reading has always been my strongest interest. I started a book club that has been going on for about 8-10 years. We have a very diverse group of women in the group and read things I wouldn't always pick up. I also have begun to read a wide range of children's books to be able to recommend books to students at school and develop book talks for next year. I'm now trying to balance reading adult books with children's books. I'm an amazon.com nut. I have been with that site since it began and use it to browse for books, recommendations, book information, and BUYING! I also got a Kindle this year and read all my adult books that way and many of the intermediate level books before purchasing them for my library. Some of the Caudills are as cheap as $3-$5 dollars on the kindle. Many classics are now popping up for free!

I'm also using Follett Library Resources (http://titlewave.com/) for children's books. They have great book reviews on this site, good information about the book, and my resource for purchasing books for my LMC. This has been a good site for me to bookmark and use as I hear about the latest in children's books.

Knitting is another huge hobby of mine. My mother taught me to knit when I was a little girl, but I didn't fully take on the hobby until I was in my early 20's. I have started a number of knitting groups and taught adults and children. I used to only knit for myself, but now I mostly knit for gifts. I use Google to search for pattern ideas and receive a weekly newsletter that gives the latest in the knitting world:
"Knitting Daily"
I also do google searches when I come across directions in a pattern that I'm unfamiliar with. This gives me quick directions rather than going into the knit shop and asking someone who knows. I just heard today that there are more than 53 million knitters and crocheters in our country right now, so there is a lot on the internet to search for.

Finally, my last major interest is traveling. My husband and I have recently been going on interesting trips during my spring breaks. Our most recent years have taken us to Mexico City, France, Italy, Japan, Monaco, and China. We use the internet quite a bit to plan the trips. We don't go on tours or with any groups, so the internet has been a valuable tool. We do google searches which lead us down a path towards learning about the area, finding places to stay, and common sights. There are times we will just be driving by and decide to stay in that place over night. When we return from the trip we go on their internet site and see how the place was represented online and the ratings it had. It's fun to see if it looks better or worse online! Remember- anything can look good online!

It's hard to imagine how we did all this before the internet. We can now get more information, get it faster, and further develop our interests and hobbies.

Description and Evaluation of a WebQuest

Having a Blast With Volcanoes is a WebQuest intended for students in grades 3-5. The stated purpose of the activity is for students to learn about the physical, environmental, and social aspects of volcanoes. The information given in the task is that a hacker has stolen all worldwide information on volcanoes. The students are a chosen select group of scientists that need to replace this information. I felt the task set up the students to be spitting out information on the various types of volcanoes and left out the critical thinking aspect of a good WebQuest.

The process explained the project in further detail. Four students will be given a topic with a series of questions to be answered. They would each work on a different set of tasks based on their given volcano type.

The cognitive levels needed for each task is quite different. Task #1 (The Formation of a Volcano) requires basic spitting out of information. Task #2 (Location of Volcanoes) also works with fact-finding questions. Task #3 (Emergency Preparedness and Safety Measures) is where the WebQuest begins to improve. The questions in this section involve a higher level of thinking, transformation of information, and synthesis. An example question is: What would happen to your city if you lived near an erupting volcano? Finally, Task #4 (Global Effects of Volcanoes) also uses high level cognitive skills to complete the task. An example is: How can you, your family and your city plan for an emergency should you live near an active volcano?

The designer of this WebQuest may have differentiated the tasks, making some of them factual and others open-ended for the various types of learners in his/her class. I disagree with this position. Lower cognitive learners should still be given the opportunity to answer open-ended questions rather than just cutting and pasting information from the Internet. Designing an investigation with interesting questions and tasks is imperative to a successful WebQuest and all types of learners have the right to experience this.

All students, upon completion of their research, are asked to write a research paper and create a group presentation. This presentation is very open-ended with listed examples like slideshows, posters, drawing, models, etc. I like the opportunity the students will have to make choices, but the rubric written for this project is written in adult language and not student-friendly. I could see students becoming confused on the expectations of the final presentation. Allowing students to make choices is a good idea, but guiding them along the way is critical.

Overall, I saw positive and negative aspects with this WebQuest, therefore it received an average rating. There were high level thinking components, but they were not available in all tasks. The final product and ways to communicate what was learned was open-ended, but possibly confusing due to the rubric and basic expectations posted in the WebQuest. I am learning that writing a good, solid WebQuest is a difficult task but a valuable activity for students.

Here is the link to the WebQuest: Having a Blast With Volcanoes

The value of Internet resources for education

I can’t think of anything in our everyday world that is growing faster than the Internet. It is pumping out information at lightening speed and is allowing us to communicate in new ways. My 10 year career in teaching has drastically changed due to technology and the use of the Internet. I started out with a few computers in my classroom and now have portable laptops available to me at any time of the day. My lessons have become more engaging, thoughtful, and informative. Because of this growth, it is important for schools to get on board but also have goals and a direction to be taken with the students. I am now the LMC Director, which involves being the librarian and computer teacher. Internet usage has become an integral part of my job.

An area that is growing fast is website evaluation and being able to access reliable information. Today’s students starting in kindergarten are able to use the Internet. This fact makes it so important that children learn to be critical users of the technology, know what to look for, and evaluate fact verses fiction.

Internet communication is a topic that I see students needing guidance. Internet safety, cyber bullying … are key goals for my school. Younger and younger children are on the Internet both at home and at school. Parents need to guide their children, but if we are going to use it as a learning tool in the schools, it is our responsibility to teach them how to properly use it.

The Internet has basically displaced reference books in the library. It gives us quick, current information and can be one of the better tools used for research. I even had a representative from Follett Library Resources tell me not to order any reference books because they are costly and are out of date so quickly.

Working in the LMC with students from kindergarten to 5th grade allows me the opportunity to develop research projects that are interesting, exciting, and creative to present. The Internet is an essential tool in our classes when used in a responsible way. Schools need to attempt to stay as current as possible and instruct students how to gain this incredible amount of knowledge with the push of a few buttons.