Sixth Graders Learning about the Civil Rights Movement
by Joan Hamilton
Collaboration is a core value of the Brookline Public Schools. Scott Moore, head of the Educational Technology and Libraries Department, used a recent two hour meeting to give librarians and ET specialists time to work together to plan a research unit. The result for Sandra Sicard and me was a sixth grade research unit on the Civil Rights era. Following that two hour meeting, we worked several more hours with the sixth grade teachers and specialists to work out the logistics of implemention.
The result is Pierce's sixth graders have been hard at work since their first day of school in 2009 researching, reading, and writing about the Civil Rights Movement in this country. The essential question they are answering is: What happened during the Civil Rights era (1950 - 1968) that brought change to our country? One objective is to gain the background information that will allow them to understand better the novel, The Watson's Go to Birmingham by Christopher Paul Curtis, a 6th grade benchmark book. The book is paritially set in Alabama in 1963 during the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. Each student individually is researching a person, event, or organization. Each student's final product will be one page containing two paragraphs -- one telling the "who, what, where" about their topic, and the second explaining the impact on the progress of civil rights in this country. They must also include a picture and a quotation. Each class will produce a civil rights era "primer", a compilation of individual student work, that will be available on line as well as in print in each classroom.
Students' research tools have been books both from Pierce School Library and the Brookline Public Library as well as online databases and web sites. They have seemed both excited and amazed by what they are finding. "It's hard to believe it was so violent." "These people were amazingly courageous," are two comments I have overheard. Searching for primary sources, one student exclaimed with excitement, "Oh, look! here is an intereview." Another chimed in, "I found a letter." Besides giving students background information for Watson's , we hope this research will increase their appreciation of the historic inauguration that will take place next week.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Friday, December 5, 2008
Using Google Wisely
After my last blog posting about Google, I have continued to work with my seventh grade students to evaluate web sites. We first examined the Dog Island web site to determine if it was valid, and it passed many of the characteristics of a valid web site. (Dog Island purports to be a place where one can send a dog to live “free from the stress and hardship associated with daily life among humans.”)
Not until we researched which other web sites link to the Dog Island site did students become more skeptical. (You can do this by typing link:http://thedogisland.com into Google or Altavista search engines.) As we scrolled the list of results, we noticed references to hoax and bogus web sites. We returned to the Dog Island site, dug a little deeper, and finally came upon its disclaimer.
I then asked students to use Google to find sites to support building background knowledge for their social studies unit. They had to cite 4 ways they knew each source was trustworthy. We discussed their findings and sometimes had to refer back to the Dog Island site for “trustworthy” characteristics. We collaboratively generated the following list of mostly infallible ways to judge the veracity of web sites:
I remain a little puzzled that students weren't quicker to doubt the validity of the Dog Island web site. Anyone have any thoughts about that? Other hoax sites you could share with kids include Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus, Velcro Crop, and DHMO.
Not until we researched which other web sites link to the Dog Island site did students become more skeptical. (You can do this by typing link:http://thedogisland.com into Google or Altavista search engines.) As we scrolled the list of results, we noticed references to hoax and bogus web sites. We returned to the Dog Island site, dug a little deeper, and finally came upon its disclaimer.
I then asked students to use Google to find sites to support building background knowledge for their social studies unit. They had to cite 4 ways they knew each source was trustworthy. We discussed their findings and sometimes had to refer back to the Dog Island site for “trustworthy” characteristics. We collaboratively generated the following list of mostly infallible ways to judge the veracity of web sites:
- The site was created by a reputable organization, such as a museum, the government, or an institution of learning (pbs).
- The author is an expert on the topic.
- Bibliographic resources are provided and accurate.
- The information is validated by other resources.
I remain a little puzzled that students weren't quicker to doubt the validity of the Dog Island web site. Anyone have any thoughts about that? Other hoax sites you could share with kids include Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus, Velcro Crop, and DHMO.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Pierce Reads -- View Night of the Radishes Slide Show and Pictures of Julian Huston
By Joan Hamilton, Pierce School Librarian
One hundred and one Pierce students, parents and staff members came together as a community of readers to the Pierce School Library on Tuesday, November 18, 2008 to participate in PIERCE READS, an evening book discussion program for 5th – 8th graders.
The theme of this year’s Pierce Reads and Teachers as Readers is “Between Two Worlds.”
Fifth and sixth graders read and discussed Becoming Naomi Leon by Pamela Munoz Ryan, the story of a bi-racial family living in Southern California. Toward the end, there is a dramatic car ride to Oaxaca, Mexico where Naomi finds her father and participates in the Night of the Radishes, a festival held annually in Oaxaca on December 23rd. As you will see from this slide show, the radish carvings are magnificently intricate and beyond anything we might have imagined.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/planeta/sets/1401300/show
Seventh and eighth graders read and discussed New Boy by Julian Houston, the story of a young man from Virginia who is the first African American to attend a prestigious boys' boarding school in Connecticut during the late 1950’s. The book presents not only the complexities of the civil rights movement but also the courage of those who were the first of their generation to break racial barriers and those who organized and carried out sit-ins at lunch counters all over the South. Pierce Reads particpants were aided in their understanding and appreciation of this important era by the presence of the author of New Boy, Julian Houston, a retired justice of the Superior Court of Massachusetts and a former community organizer in Harlem during the civil rights movement. He answered our questions and told the stories that inspired his writing. This was Mr. Houston’s second visit to Pierce School in less than a week. On Wednesday, November 12th, he participated in Pierce’s Teachers as Readers, also discussing New Boy. As Mr. Houston said in a recent New York Times interview, “Most young people today, even those in the South, have only a superficial knowledge of the civil rights movement and segregation.” He further explained that one of the reasons he wrote New Boy was to give young people a detailed picture of what it was like to live in a segregated community in the late 1950’s and an appreciation for what the civil rights movement accomplished.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/books/12houston-interview.html
Several attendees commented that in light of last week’s historic presidential election, Mr. Houston’s remarks were especially poignant.
By Joan Hamilton, Pierce School Librarian
One hundred and one Pierce students, parents and staff members came together as a community of readers to the Pierce School Library on Tuesday, November 18, 2008 to participate in PIERCE READS, an evening book discussion program for 5th – 8th graders.
The theme of this year’s Pierce Reads and Teachers as Readers is “Between Two Worlds.”
Fifth and sixth graders read and discussed Becoming Naomi Leon by Pamela Munoz Ryan, the story of a bi-racial family living in Southern California. Toward the end, there is a dramatic car ride to Oaxaca, Mexico where Naomi finds her father and participates in the Night of the Radishes, a festival held annually in Oaxaca on December 23rd. As you will see from this slide show, the radish carvings are magnificently intricate and beyond anything we might have imagined.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/planeta/sets/1401300/show
Seventh and eighth graders read and discussed New Boy by Julian Houston, the story of a young man from Virginia who is the first African American to attend a prestigious boys' boarding school in Connecticut during the late 1950’s. The book presents not only the complexities of the civil rights movement but also the courage of those who were the first of their generation to break racial barriers and those who organized and carried out sit-ins at lunch counters all over the South. Pierce Reads particpants were aided in their understanding and appreciation of this important era by the presence of the author of New Boy, Julian Houston, a retired justice of the Superior Court of Massachusetts and a former community organizer in Harlem during the civil rights movement. He answered our questions and told the stories that inspired his writing. This was Mr. Houston’s second visit to Pierce School in less than a week. On Wednesday, November 12th, he participated in Pierce’s Teachers as Readers, also discussing New Boy. As Mr. Houston said in a recent New York Times interview, “Most young people today, even those in the South, have only a superficial knowledge of the civil rights movement and segregation.” He further explained that one of the reasons he wrote New Boy was to give young people a detailed picture of what it was like to live in a segregated community in the late 1950’s and an appreciation for what the civil rights movement accomplished.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/books/12houston-interview.html
Several attendees commented that in light of last week’s historic presidential election, Mr. Houston’s remarks were especially poignant.
Friday, November 7, 2008
Language Arts Test Scores and Online Literacy
by Joan Hamilton, Pierce School Librarian
Two recent articles provide food for thought about current literacy practices. The first is an article released by the Massachusetts Department of Education stating that for the 2008 MCAS,
English language arts results in the elementary grades declined and the middle schools were flat.
http://www.doe.mass.edu/news/news.asp?printscreen=yes&id=4287
The second article is from the September 19, 2008 Chronicle of Higher Education and is entitled "Online Literacy is a Lesser Kind" by Mark Bauerlein, a professor of English at Emory University and author of a book, The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Tarcher/Penguin, 2008).
http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i04/04b01001.htm
Bauerlein describes the style of literacy used for screen reading (web sites, Facebook, YouTube, etc.) as "racing across the surface, dicing language and ideas into bullets and graphics, seeking what they already want and shunning the rest." He argues that when reading a long narrative, a long political tract, a dense argument, a modern poem, a complicated narrtive or academic texts, this style of reading breaks down. He concludes by advocating "slow reading" and a plea that educators keep at least some of our students' educations "unplugged and logged off."
At Pierce School, "slow reading" is built into the culture of learning -- from read alouds in the early grades designed to grip children in the thrill of narrative, to literature circles, book discussions, summer reading, book fairs, and required independent reading projects in all grades. It blossoms as parents choose to regularly read aloud at home to their children. It is a habit of mind that will grow and bear fruit as our students go forward into a speeded-up digital world.
by Joan Hamilton, Pierce School Librarian
Two recent articles provide food for thought about current literacy practices. The first is an article released by the Massachusetts Department of Education stating that for the 2008 MCAS,
English language arts results in the elementary grades declined and the middle schools were flat.
http://www.doe.mass.edu/news/news.asp?printscreen=yes&id=4287
The second article is from the September 19, 2008 Chronicle of Higher Education and is entitled "Online Literacy is a Lesser Kind" by Mark Bauerlein, a professor of English at Emory University and author of a book, The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Tarcher/Penguin, 2008).
http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i04/04b01001.htm
Bauerlein describes the style of literacy used for screen reading (web sites, Facebook, YouTube, etc.) as "racing across the surface, dicing language and ideas into bullets and graphics, seeking what they already want and shunning the rest." He argues that when reading a long narrative, a long political tract, a dense argument, a modern poem, a complicated narrtive or academic texts, this style of reading breaks down. He concludes by advocating "slow reading" and a plea that educators keep at least some of our students' educations "unplugged and logged off."
At Pierce School, "slow reading" is built into the culture of learning -- from read alouds in the early grades designed to grip children in the thrill of narrative, to literature circles, book discussions, summer reading, book fairs, and required independent reading projects in all grades. It blossoms as parents choose to regularly read aloud at home to their children. It is a habit of mind that will grow and bear fruit as our students go forward into a speeded-up digital world.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Google: First try or last resort?
I have two full disclosures (confessions?) for this blog. First, this article was inspired by Nicholas Carr’s article, “Is Google making us stupid? What the Internet is doing to our brains,” in the July/August edition of the Atlantic Monthly. Secondly, to find a copy of the article, I Googled the title. I was unable to access the article that way, so I then turned to our Minuteman Library Network and obtained a copy from the Academic One database.
This week in my seventh grade technology class, I projected the title of Carr’s article and asked students what they thought he meant. Their responses were many and included:
*We don’t go into a book or a library to look things up. We just go to Google.
*It’s spending too much time not thinking – everything is right in front of you.
*Google makes it too easy to forget things. When I didn’t remember how to do my math homework, I used Google.
*Some of the sources you find on Google won’t be true.
*(It’s) Giving us the wrong idea about what you want to know – it could be written by anybody.
I was intrigued to hear their perceptions about Googling. While all their thoughts about the title probably are true, Carr’s argument in the article is that our overuse of the Internet for reading is causing changes in the way our brains function.
So we are going to spend some time in our classes skimming, reading, and comparing research results from Google and from our library databases. My first goal for students is that they are able to judge for their own research purposes when to use Google as a first try or last resort. Secondly, and just as importantly, I want students to learn when to skim and when to read deeply.
Which method do you use when Googling? First try or last resort?
S. Sicard
This week in my seventh grade technology class, I projected the title of Carr’s article and asked students what they thought he meant. Their responses were many and included:
*We don’t go into a book or a library to look things up. We just go to Google.
*It’s spending too much time not thinking – everything is right in front of you.
*Google makes it too easy to forget things. When I didn’t remember how to do my math homework, I used Google.
*Some of the sources you find on Google won’t be true.
*(It’s) Giving us the wrong idea about what you want to know – it could be written by anybody.
I was intrigued to hear their perceptions about Googling. While all their thoughts about the title probably are true, Carr’s argument in the article is that our overuse of the Internet for reading is causing changes in the way our brains function.
And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles. Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski (Carr, 2008).Although I am a heavy user of the Internet for news and information (see disclosure above), I am a firm believer in moderation. I believe that one can adjust his/her reading style depending on the purpose of the reading. I also believe that research and reading non-fiction does involve more skimming than immersing oneself in a novel. That being said, students growing up online should be taught explicitly how and when to use different styles of reading.
So we are going to spend some time in our classes skimming, reading, and comparing research results from Google and from our library databases. My first goal for students is that they are able to judge for their own research purposes when to use Google as a first try or last resort. Secondly, and just as importantly, I want students to learn when to skim and when to read deeply.
Which method do you use when Googling? First try or last resort?
S. Sicard
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
These Are a Few of my Favorite Tools (Excel)
by Sandra Sicard
For the second installment in my series about tools, I've decided to showcase Microsoft Excel. Excel is a spreadsheet program that, at first glance, is unexciting. It is used widely in the business world to organize and analyze data. I'm trying to encourage teachers to use it not only administratively but also instructionally. Here are some examples of how we've used it this year at Pierce; maybe one will inspire you to try it out.
(I have first-hand knowledge about the following lessons because students were in the lab for some of their learning. There are other examples of students using Excel in various parts of the curriculum; I just don’t know about all of them.)
Students in 4S are learning about minerals in science; as part of the unit, they conduct tests on a variety of samples (about 12) and compare their results to identify a mystery rock. We used Excel to create a chart of their test results; our goal was to organize their data in an easy-to-read way. This is a great first step in learning to navigate the cells, columns, and rows in Excel.
Last fall, 5k researched wolves. As part of their unit, they conducted opinion polls about wolf characteristics and lifestyles. Students then input their data into Excel and created graphs to illustrate the survey results. Printing the graphs in color gave them a polished and professional appearance. Later in the year, students returned to Excel and used it in a science lesson to analyze respiration rates of peers and adults.
Eighth grade students have used Excel in a variety of math and science units this year. Their first lesson reviewed the basics of Excel by using a spreadsheet to calculate grades and some class statistics. Students then used Excel to determine if a correlation existed between stride length and height and then shoe size and height. They graphed the data and found the line of best fit as well as the r squared (the square of the correlation coefficient).
From those lessons, it's easy to see how Excel is a flexible tool that allows you to do a little or a lot with data.
Have some data of your own to collect, organize, and/or analyze? Let’s talk about what tool makes the most sense to do what you need. I'll be sharing some lessons from The Graph Club in my next blog - a very simple data tool for primary students.
For the second installment in my series about tools, I've decided to showcase Microsoft Excel. Excel is a spreadsheet program that, at first glance, is unexciting. It is used widely in the business world to organize and analyze data. I'm trying to encourage teachers to use it not only administratively but also instructionally. Here are some examples of how we've used it this year at Pierce; maybe one will inspire you to try it out.
(I have first-hand knowledge about the following lessons because students were in the lab for some of their learning. There are other examples of students using Excel in various parts of the curriculum; I just don’t know about all of them.)
Students in 4S are learning about minerals in science; as part of the unit, they conduct tests on a variety of samples (about 12) and compare their results to identify a mystery rock. We used Excel to create a chart of their test results; our goal was to organize their data in an easy-to-read way. This is a great first step in learning to navigate the cells, columns, and rows in Excel.
Last fall, 5k researched wolves. As part of their unit, they conducted opinion polls about wolf characteristics and lifestyles. Students then input their data into Excel and created graphs to illustrate the survey results. Printing the graphs in color gave them a polished and professional appearance. Later in the year, students returned to Excel and used it in a science lesson to analyze respiration rates of peers and adults.
Eighth grade students have used Excel in a variety of math and science units this year. Their first lesson reviewed the basics of Excel by using a spreadsheet to calculate grades and some class statistics. Students then used Excel to determine if a correlation existed between stride length and height and then shoe size and height. They graphed the data and found the line of best fit as well as the r squared (the square of the correlation coefficient).
From those lessons, it's easy to see how Excel is a flexible tool that allows you to do a little or a lot with data.
Have some data of your own to collect, organize, and/or analyze? Let’s talk about what tool makes the most sense to do what you need. I'll be sharing some lessons from The Graph Club in my next blog - a very simple data tool for primary students.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Research Supports Summer Reading
Research Supports Summer Reading
by Joan Hamilton
The Book Fair is coming! The Book Fair is coming! This wonderful event sponsored annually by the hardworking, energetic members of our amazing PTO will have hundreds of books for sale, many of which are on Pierce's summer reading lists. As in the past, for Pierce students entering grades 2 - 8, there will be a required title -- one book to be read by every person in the class, plus a list of books from which students must choose four other titles.
There is a great deal of research that states that children who don't read over the summer actually lose ground in reading proficiency. Recent research from John Hopkins University's Center for Summer Learning concludes, "The effect of reading four to five books during the summer is large enough to prevent a decline in reading scores from spring to fall." Another study entitled Summer Learning and the Effects of Schooling by Barbara Heyns states. "Children (she was working with 6th and 7th graders) in every income group who read six or more books over the summer gained more in reading achievement that children who did not."
Stephen Krashen, in his report, The Power of Reading, says that children read more when they see other people reading. This suggests a practice my family indulged in successfully during the summers when my three children were still in school -- family reading time. The time was announced and it was expected that every family member would produce a book and we would all sit and read silently for half an hour. This could be followed by discussion or read aloud. It worked as well for family journaling--especially effective while on vacation. Krashen states, "If children read one million words a year, at least one thousand words will be added to their vocabulary." He concludes that reading as a leisure activity increases comprehension, fluency, and vocabulary as well as making the reader a better speller and a better writer.
So, see you at the Book Fair on May 27th, 28th, and 29th, and Happy Reading!
by Joan Hamilton
The Book Fair is coming! The Book Fair is coming! This wonderful event sponsored annually by the hardworking, energetic members of our amazing PTO will have hundreds of books for sale, many of which are on Pierce's summer reading lists. As in the past, for Pierce students entering grades 2 - 8, there will be a required title -- one book to be read by every person in the class, plus a list of books from which students must choose four other titles.
There is a great deal of research that states that children who don't read over the summer actually lose ground in reading proficiency. Recent research from John Hopkins University's Center for Summer Learning concludes, "The effect of reading four to five books during the summer is large enough to prevent a decline in reading scores from spring to fall." Another study entitled Summer Learning and the Effects of Schooling by Barbara Heyns states. "Children (she was working with 6th and 7th graders) in every income group who read six or more books over the summer gained more in reading achievement that children who did not."
Stephen Krashen, in his report, The Power of Reading, says that children read more when they see other people reading. This suggests a practice my family indulged in successfully during the summers when my three children were still in school -- family reading time. The time was announced and it was expected that every family member would produce a book and we would all sit and read silently for half an hour. This could be followed by discussion or read aloud. It worked as well for family journaling--especially effective while on vacation. Krashen states, "If children read one million words a year, at least one thousand words will be added to their vocabulary." He concludes that reading as a leisure activity increases comprehension, fluency, and vocabulary as well as making the reader a better speller and a better writer.
So, see you at the Book Fair on May 27th, 28th, and 29th, and Happy Reading!
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