Here's a quick recap of some of the fun we have had at the MES library at the end of the 2014-2015 school year!
Reading 5th grade ecosystem ebooks
opinion writing in 1st/2nd grade
For 2nd grade, we used Google Forms to submit book reviews about one of their favorite books. This was a test drive for me to use this as a tool next year as a replacement "accountability" tool. We are no longer an Accelerated Reader school (which is awesome, and I could go on about forever), which means a lot of students are not fully reading their books, and frequent the library as a way to get out of class. While I certainly support them coming to the library when they need to (and want to!), sometimes it's getting abused. This tool will be a way for teachers and myself to get instant feedback about what the students thought of their books, and help gauge their understanding. I wanted to show teachers that while it doesn't ask book-specific questions, it's fairly easy to determine whether they understood what they read based on what they write (even if the teacher hasn't read it). For example, if the book is "Magic Kitten" and they said the main character is "Kitten" and their favorite part was "the magic", it's pretty obvious! Not only was it good to expose these students to the form, the 2nd grade teachers also saw its benefits so I'm hoping to use it with grades 2-5, as needed. Below are photos of the students working (some on desktops, some using QR codes to direct them to the form on iPads), as well as the form.
what kinders "See" in their Summer
Writing a "real" ebook
More fun times!
I also had fun watching students just read books for fun, and even caught one group "playing librarian" - isn't that one of the best compliments of all??