Citation Centre - thanks to Berkeley High

Week 3. We went to visit Berkeley High library and there I found the citation centre. It is a clever way to encourage students to write up accurate bibliographies. My version of it is here. On the left are cards. One for books, one for periodicals, one for the Internet and one for encyclopedias. Students fill in a card for each item they use in their research. They may well end up with 8 - 15 cards, depending on how many resources they consult. Then they use the bibliography guide on the right to put the cards into the correct order. Once that is done they can write up a very accurate bibliography for their research. Senior students are using this already.

Libraries can end all literacy crises forever

Week 2 I shared with our EHSAS group about ICDL and about Stephen Krashen's key note address - How libraries can end all literacies crises forever.

Stephen Krashen has been researching how children learn to read and improve their reading comprehension. He advocates "Free Voluntary Reading". Stephen's website is a treasure trove of research papers, great ideas and he believes in making as much of his work available to people through the Internet.

Stephen says that the best thing we can do to assist learners improve their reading comprehension is to encourage them to read - anything they want - no strings attached. No book reports, end of book tests, no activities - just read, things you like to read, and read some more.

Also he encouraged us to drink more coffee, learn a foreign language and READ - to keep our minds alive. His best way to do this - go to coffee shop and read a great book in another language. Quite a challenge.

International Children's Digital Library

Week One was to make time to share with one of the ESOL teachers about the ICDL.

Ann Weeks gave a key Note address about this amazing resource. She was told it could never happen but she made it happen anyway - an International Children's book digital library which has books from a wide range of countries and languages. What a great educator she is - don't you just love people who go ahead and do the impossible?

I cannot take a lot of time to describe it - best you go and have a look. Sign in - join up and use it. It is brilliant. It is free - it is FULL of possibilities.

Do one IASL thing each week

- that does scare me, apologies to Eleanor Roosevelt who apparently said "Do one thing everyday that scares you."

I was privileged to attend the IASL conference in Berkeley, this month. Upon my return home to NZ I have decided to try to do one thing each week that relates to the things I learned, discussed and thought about while at conference. There is so much it can feel overwhelming to try to implement it all in one go. One thing a week is the goal and so far so good - I have had three weeks back at school and I have managed to do three things that relate to conference - one a week.