Wow! We had the most students ever participate in our 3rd annual picture book smackdown. Even sickness and technical difficulties didn’t stop our students in 5 states sharing favorite books along with author, Laurie Thompson.
Here are a few behind the scenes notes:
There were multiple emails and tweets sent between the participating schools in this smackdown. We established etiquette for the hangout such as keeping things moving, muting microphones when we weren’t speaking, and only having about 5 students at a time share
We all prepared our students in advance of the smackdown but we each did it in our own way. My own students had a basic script that they filled out.
The amazing Cathy Potter helped organize Laurie Thompson to join us. Unfortunately, Picture Book Month founder, Dianne de Las Casas wasn’t feeling well and couldn’t join us. She was with us in spirit, though!
I had a group of 50 students! Luckily 2 volunteers and a teacher helped me keep them organized in chairs and a parent frantically wrote down as many titles of shared picture books as she could.
We all came into the Google Hangout early to test our cameras and microphones. We communicated with one another through the chat in Hangouts as well as through text messaging if needed.
All of our Picture Book Smackdown content can be found on our Smore.
I would like to thank all of the schools who participated, Laurie Thompson, our volunteers, and all of the people who viewed and sent out tweets. Thanks for celebrating Picture Book Month with us!
For 3 years, I have organized an online picture book smackdown in honor of Picture Book Month. Over those 3 years, our Google Hangout event has grown stronger thanks to the collaboration of librarians, students, and authors around the country. We are busily planning this year’s event, but you can go ahead and put it on your calendar now! It will be November 19th from 1:30-2:30PM EST.
We made a Smore to host all of the content of the event:
During the smackdown, you can expect to hear:
An introduction and welcome from Picture Book Month founder, Dianne de Las Casas
Students from at least 5 states share favorite picture books and why picture books matter in a fast-paced format
Authors such as Laurie Ann Thompson share her favorite picture books along with our students
We would love for you to watch the event with your students or share with classrooms. You can even participate by tweet about the event or tweeting your own picture book recommendations during the event using the hashtag #pbsmkdwn
Even if you can’t join us, we hope you are inspired by our event and consider having your own Picture Book Smackdown online or in your own space. Feel free to use our hashtag to connect our events together. Happy Picture Book Month!
P.S. If you can’t wait for this year’s event, here’s a little taste of what we did last year:
Just as I did for the early grades, I pondered what message I wanted our upper grades to take away from library orientation. I wanted to of course give them some reminders about routines and procedures, but I wanted them to leave with a sense that the library was a place for all readers to connect with books. I wanted them to know that if they had never found a book that they connected with that I wanted to help them find that book. If we didn’t have the book or topic in our library, then I wanted us to make sure that we did.
Over the summer, I saw John Schu post on his blog about a new site from Scholastic with the motto “Open a World of Possible”. On the site, there are several videos and resources about how reading opens possibilities for us all. One of the best videos is the one asking kids of all ages to talk about why they read.
I asked students to first think about what their answer to the question “Why do you read?” would be. I didn’t take any answers from them since I felt like it was a personal question at that moment in time and that some students may have never thought of the answer. Then, we watched the video to see if we connected to anything the students said or if their ideas sparked some of our own. At that point, instead of asking students to share aloud, I gave them an opportunity. I created a Flipgrid with that same question and told them it would be available for the next two weeks. I hoped they would think about their answer and share their voice with others in our school. I loved that some of them did this before they even left the library.
I shared with students that one of the reasons that I read is to walk in other people’s shoes, especially people who are different from me. I also love to experience things in a book that I know I would never do in real life. Books are my safe place to go into the spooky unknown, the thrill of the Hunger Games, or the magic of a schools for wizards.
Next, I shared a bit of a book that I connected with this summer called Circus Mirandus by Cassie Beasley. These grades will all have an author visit with Cassie in September, so this lesson was also a way for us to start diving into her text. I chose to read aloud starting on p. 65, which is the part where Ephraim first visits the circus as a young boy. He is a believer, so he is able to find the circus. However, he still needs a ticket to get in. It is on these pages that Ephraim discovers that every person’s ticket into Circus Mirandus is different. You can’t pay to get in but instead must offer something to the ticket taker that has a connection with who you are or simply what you have to offer. For one boy, it’s a spool of thread and for Ephraim it’s a fish.
I loved seeing so many students connect to this part of the story and want to read on. I knew they wouldn’t all connect because it’s so hard for us all to connect with the exact same book. However, this part of the story helped us talk about how we are each different. We each have interests that we bring into the library when we search for a book, and those interests are our tickets into the books on the shelves.
Beyond “why I read” and connecting through interests, students have an opportunity to explore the library and refresh their memory on checking out books, using Destiny, and finding the various sections. As in the past, I made some videos connected to QR codes. Students used iPads to watch these videos and then start checking out books when they were ready. I was able to talk to students about their interests rather than focusing on how to check out books.
I hope that students continue to think about why they read and that I can think of more ways to find out their interests and showcase their voices in the library.
Second grade signed up for a rotation through the library as part of their Thanksgiving feast celebration on the day before our holiday break. Their request was to read the book Balloons Over Broadway by Melissa Sweet. If you’ve never read this book, it is amazing! The illustrations are filled with details that you can search through for hours and it is packed full of information while being very readable as a read aloud. While I love biographies, sometimes it is hard to read a biography aloud because of the length. Balloons Over Broadway is just right.
Before we read the book, we looked at information about the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Watching this parade has always been a part of my Thanksgiving tradition. I was very surprised to see how many students had never watched the parade or even heard of it. I was reminded of the importance of the picture book and how it brings out conversations that might never have happened without the sharing of a story. Some of our conversations included perseverance, immigration, failure, and growth mindset along with some other Thanksgiving traditions.
@StacyFord77 that would be awesome to listen to. Such a great book.
Students came up to the webcam on the projection board and I helped them click through the Flipgrid menus to take a picture and record. Then, students came up to type their name. I normally use the iPad app for Flipgrid, but this was a fast way of doing a lesson closing as students finished their coloring on their own time.
The book also made me think ahead. Last year in 2nd grade, we did a great project with the force and motion standards in science where students investigated Rube Goldberg and made their own inventions. Balloons Over Broadway was a perfect introduction to the idea of tinkering and using everyday objects and simple machines to take mundane tasks and make them interesting. I want to revisit the opening pages of the book where Tony Sarg invents a way t feed the chickens when we do the simple machine project later this year.
I also thought about the Hour of Code and how that event brought about so many conversations about failure and perseverance. This book would be a great example to share ahead of Hour of Code to think about a growth mindset and prep students for the failure that comes with coding and how you handle that failure as a learning experience.
Who knew that so many thoughts would come about from a simple request to read a story.
We had another incredible day of connecting with classrooms and authors. At the end of the week, I will share our Google Earth tour that summarizes our entire week. For now, here are some pictures and videos from our connections today.
Erika Victor 3rd grade Berlin, Germany
Jennifer Reed Kindergarten Massachussetts
Heather Temske 4th Roswell, GA
Laura D’Elia 3rd Massachussetts
Christy Brennan 5th Pennsylvania
Shanon Miller Iowa
Shannon Miller 4th/5th grade Iowa & Author Deborah Freedman!
A few weeks ago, Okle Miller, a librarian near Tampa FL, shared a great iPad app with me that she had discovered on Richard Byrne’s site iPad Apps for School. Chatterpix allows you to take a photograph with your iPad, draw a mouth on that photo, and record up to 30 seconds of dialogue for the photo. The mouth moves in sync with your voice. This app could have many implications for short classroom projects from historical figures to summarizing strategies to book talks and more.
I recently sent out an email to teachers with some ideas for technology projects that we might do together. Each of the ideas was based in the subjects and standards that classrooms are working on with some suggestions of technology tools that might support those standards. Many of the classrooms are currently working on opinion writing about books along with persuasive techniques. I suggested Chatterpix as an option for students to quickly tell about a book, give an opinion, and try to persuade a reader in less that 30 seconds.
Second grade had already worked with me on writing book reviews for their blogs, so Caitlin Ramseyer, 2nd grade teacher, decided to incorporate Chatterpix into this mix. Her students each chose a book, read the book, and used an index card to write a script that they could finish reading in less than 30 seconds.
Today, they came to the library so that Caitlin and I could work with them on using the iPads. Students brought their index cards and books with them. First, we watched this video.
Next, students dispersed throughout the library to use the iPads. Caitlin and I walked around and helped as needed, but the students were very capable of figuring things out and helping one another.
One student didn’t have her book, so she pulled up the book in Destiny on the computer and took a picture of the screen. Other students had very tiny people on their covers, so they put the iPad close to the cover in order to take a closeup picture of the character. There was a lot of problem solving going on as students tried to figure out how to create the best video. Many of them quickly figured out the different filters that they could use on their picture, but most chose not to explore the stickers (this time!).
Once they were finished, they saved the video to the camera roll on the iPad and brought it to me. At first, I was trying to login to each iPad and upload to Youtube, but it was taking too long. Instead, I plugged a cord into my laptop and imported the video straight into Youtube. Caitlin helped them make sure their video was exported to the camera roll and I uploaded to Youtube.
Finally, we gathered on the carpet to view our videos. During this time, we paused a lot and students gave tips for future use of Chatterpix. They suggested things like:
Since Chatterpix reverses words, try to take a picture of a character on the cover and avoid the text
Have your script written down
If you finish before 30 seconds, don’t forget to press stop
Rustling your paper makes the character’s mouth move, so be still
If you have trouble drawing the mouth with your finger, use a stylus
Hold the iPad in portrait view rather than landscape
We reminded them that they had developed some expertise with this app and that we might call on them sometime to help others. Even this list of tips is a way for them to pass on their expertise. Now that we worked out some logistics with how this type of lesson can flow, I think Chatterpix will be an app we will revisit many times.
Today Mrs. Rogers and her 4th grade ELT group came to the library to explore book trailers. They are currently reading a novel together and had the idea to create book trailers for each chapter of the book. I guess we should really call these chapter trailers. For our lesson, we looked at three trailers:
Our purpose in watching these three trailers was to think about how different each trailer could be. Students talked about what they noticed about each trailer after watching it.
For Carnivores, students noticed that:
1 actor was used 🙂
music was used throughout
text was used at the beginning to set the scene
there were lots of clips put together
the funny tone of the book came through in the trailer
the trailer didn’t give away all the details of the book
For Boy + Bot, students noticed that:
questions were posed for the reader to consider
images from the book were used in between the questions
music was used throughout
the trailer was very short
For Wonder, students noticed that:
there were multiple actors
there were multiple shots that needed a lot of direction
there was text, live action, and music
the character’s face was never shown
Students even spent time thinking about the difficulty level of these 3 trailers and what they were each willing to commit to for their own project. They also thought about why each type of trailer might have been picked for each book. We talked a lot about purpose.
After this great discussion, students spent time exploring iMovie on the iPads. This is the tool they will most likely use for their trailers. Most had no experience with iMovie, so I invited them to spend about 20-25 minutes messing around and figuring out some of the features. I encouraged them to share what they learned with each other, and it didn’t take long for collaboration to begin. As soon as students figured something out, they were eager to show and help others.
Ludwig, a 4th grader, really jumped into the trailer part of imovie. He began planning out a quick trailer and sprang into action filming it. He didn’t make it all the way through, but you can see what he figured out here:
We closed our time together by showing these videos and setting the stage for students to begin planning their own trailers. Once again, I was amazed by what kids could figure out and share when given the space to explore. I reminded them to continue to share their expertise with one another as they progress through the project. They will continue work in their classroom, but I will also collaborate with them at various stages of the project.
Before the hangout started, over 200 people had viewed our Smore page.
Today was our Picture Book Smackdown Google Hangout On Air. We had an amazing lineup of schools and authors to share their favorite picture books and talk about why picture books matter in our world. This event grew from a seed of an idea on a Google Doc into a collaborative event. Each participant and school brought their own talents, expertise, and connections to the table to make this event successful. This was my first leap into Google Hangouts to do an event such as this. I always tell students, teachers, and families that we have to be willing to take risks. If we don’t put ourselves in a place of risk, then we’ll never learn. We don’t do our best learning in places of comfort. I certainly learned a lot today by taking that risk. I want to thank each of these schools for preparing their students and taking time out of their day to connect and share with the world a love of reading and picture books.
Jenny Lussier, school librarian in Durham, Connecticut
Cathy Potter, school librarian in Falmouth, Maine
Kathy Kaldenberg, school librarian in Solon, Iowa
Shawna Ford, school librarian in Weatherford, Texas
I also want to thank authors Laurel Snyder and Ame Dyckman for joining us and sharing their own favorite picture books and why picture books matter. They both have busy schedules and it meant so much to have them take the time to join us. My adrenaline is finally coming down from the morning and I’m pausing to reflect on the experience.
What I loved:
Student voices from 5 different states were united.
Students were passionate about the picture books they were talking about.
Students had an opportunity to take a stance on talking about something that mattered to them.
Students were able to create an archived video that can be referenced for many purposes like inspiring readers of picture books or even showing a district’s technology department the power of Google Hangouts.
Authors and students had the chance to speak together on a level playing field discussing a common interest.
Students from multiple grade levels, backgrounds, and experiences made a connection to one another.
Students were engaged. Each student had a role and purpose and were so eager to share even when technical difficulties happened. My students stayed for a whole hour and were happy to wait and watch.
Even though only 10 people can participate in the hangout, we knew that many others were tuning in live or watching later, which connected us all with a very large authentic audience.
What I learned as the host:
Using a Smore page to advertise the event was a great choice. We could all advertise the Smore, and then the actual hangout could be embedded right before we went live. The page also gave analytics after a certain amount of views which allowed us to see where people were viewing the Smore and how they were sharing it.
In advance, communicate with all participants about what is expected during the hangout: order of speaking, microphone rules, etc. Make sure that all participants are added to your circles in Google Plus.
Prepare students in advance and practice. As the host, there was no time to check-in with students today to see how they were. They had to be ready to walk in the door and go live.
Have someone available to either facilitate students sharing or running the keyboard. It was hard to do both. Someone needs to click on each person in the hangout when it is their turn to speak if you are the host.
If you are broadcasting your hangout over speakers, then you should mute your microphone when you aren’t speaking. If people are unmuted, there is feedback.
I’m considering having my control center be in a separate space so that I can click on who is next in the hangout and have students speak in a less noisy environment. Then, I can have viewing of the hangout in another space.
If you have multiple modes of communication with your participants: twitter, email, hangout chat, etc., it is difficult to manage and host. Perhaps over time I might be able to juggle all of those roles, but I just ignored email and twitter during the hangout today.
What stressed me out!:
Feeling like everything had to be perfect and forgetting my own mantra that we have to be willing to fail in order to learn.
Having moments of panic when the connection was slow, the microphone wouldn’t mute, the main video wouldn’t switch to the right person, or when the audio had a lot of feedback.
Trying to host the event on air by verbally calling on each school. Sometimes my microphone wouldn’t mute/unmute in time. It was great when we got in a rhythm of our order and self-facilitated our speakers.
Take a look at how our event turned out, and please share your own learning about using Google Hangouts On Air in the comments below.
I am so excited about a Picture Book Month event that I have planned on Thursday. From 10-11:00AM EST, 6 schools in 5 different states and 2 authors in 2 different states will come together in a Google Hangout on Air to share favorite picture books as well as why picture books are for everyone. The hangout will broadcast live on Youtube, but it will also be recorded.
How did this come about?
November is National Picture Book Month. It’s a month where I ask students, teachers, and families to read as many picture books as possible and to think about the importance of picture books in our world. It’s also a month where a lot of educators make connections with one another to celebrate and explore together. At the beginning of the month, Laura D’Elia, school librarian in Massachusetts, organized a Google Doc for librarians across the country to make connections with one another by having access to one another’s schedules. The Doc also became a space for brainstorming other ways to celebrate.
I suggested that we hold a picture book Google Hangout and share favorite picture books among schools. This immediately started some focused brainstorming on Thursday’s event. Several schools were on board and we pledged to meet together in Hartford, CT face to face at the American Association of School Librarians Conference. Even before we arrived there, we had started our plan of how to advertise the event, how to structure it, how to involve students, and how to bring in authors. Our Smore page began to populate with our ideas as they came together. Each one of us had additional connections with other schools and authors, so we each invited others to join our hangout. Cathy Potter invited Ame Dyckman, author, to join us. I invited Laurel Snyder, author, to join us. We are so excited that they will both be able to attend.
In advance, students at each of our schools are preparing in different ways for the event. My students filled out a short script to help them remember what to say. They basically had to remember things like the title, what the book was about, why they liked it, and why picture books are for everyone. They also practiced sitting in front of the camera and reading their script. Their books are waiting in a stack for our hangout.
We’ve read. We’ve recruited. We’ve prepared. We’ve organized. Now, we are ready to connect and have a full hour of sharing as many picture books as we can. It’s a smackdown! We hope that you will join us by visiting the Smore page at 10:00AM EST on Thursday November 21st. Just click on the video feed that will appear on the page at that time and enjoy. You can also tweet about our smackdown using #pbsmkdwn as the hashtag. If you can’t watch live, consider visiting the page and watching the archive of our hangout. You’ll also find a post on my blog later this week detailing how much fun we had during our connection.
This was so much fun to organize, and it really wasn’t extremely difficult. I can’t wait to see how it turns out!
Recently I saw my fellow colleague, Buffy Hamilton, talk about “book tastings” in the Unquiet Library. Just the words “book tasting” sparked a plan to share books with our students that they might normally miss on the media center shelves. I often see students picking the same kinds of books: comics, football, sharks, princesses, etc. While I think that is completely ok for them to read, I do think it is important to explore other genres and push yourself as a reader. I offered teachers the opportunity to bring their classes to the media center for a book tasting to allow students to see several books in a short amount of time in order to find something new.
Today, Ms O’Prey brought the first group of 5th graders. We set the media center tables with flowers, turned on some jazz and classical music, and placed “menus” and books and pencils at each seat. I did a quick intro and explained to them that they would have between 2-3 minutes with a book. Their job was to read some of the book: the back cover, the first pages, etc. Then, on their menu, which was a list of all the books, they had to make notes about the books that they experienced. This could range from a frowny face for a book that was just terrible to a longer description of why the book was a good match for them.
Students chose their first place at the tables. From there, students spent 2-3 minutes with a book before hearing a train whistle blow. At that time, they passed the book to the next person at the table and started the process again. We immediately noticed how engaged students were in the process. It was fast-paced and fun, and they were eager to see what they got. We did run into some students who had already read the book they received, so we placed replacement stacks in the middle of each table. Students could swap a book out if they had already read it. I circulated and had a few conversations with students or redirected them if they were off track. Periodically, I checked in with the whole group and got a feel for how the time was working for them, whether or not they had found a book they were interested in, and if they had found a book they couldn’t wait to get rid of.
As our time came to an end, I asked them to revisit their menu and choose their top 3 books. We spread the books out on the tables. Each student walked to their top pick. If they were the only person there, they checked out that book. If there were several people, they negotiated and some moved on to other books. In the end, every student left with one new book and several left with more than one.
I was pleased to see books leave the media center that are new and have not circulated as much as I would like them to. I told the students that I would check back in with them to see how the books were going. Before they left, a few students recorded why they chose the books that they chose. I have 2 more 5th grade classes coming to do this, and all of the 4th grade will be coming to do “author tastings” for author studies they will do at the end of the year.
Wow! We had the most students ever participate in our 3rd annual picture book smackdown. Even sickness and technical difficulties didn’t stop our students in 5 states sharing favorite books along with author, Laurie Thompson.
Expect the Miraculous 