Tag Archives: book talk

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2016 Picture Book Smackdown

alora

Picture Book Month came to a close and we once again hosted a Picture Book Smackdown with schools around the country.  All month long, students have been celebrating Picture Book Month by reading picture books from every genre section of our library. As they read a book from a section, they earned a stamp on a challenge sheet. Once students collected all 12 stamps, they turned their sheet in for a bookmark, certificate, and to be entered into a drawing to win a new picture book.

Another piece of Picture Book Month was preparing for the Picture Book Smackdown.  Since 2013, I’ve been hosting and organizing a Google Hangout to bring together students from multiple states along with authors & illustrators to celebrate the power of the picture book.  For one hour, students and authors take turns stepping up to the microphone, book talking a favorite picture book, and saying why picture books matter in the world.

We advertised our event using Smore.

This year, we were joined by author Dianne de Las Casas, the founder of Picture Book Month.  We had students from 4 states: Maine, Vermont, Texas, and Georgia.

 

We broadcasted through Youtube Live and had a full hour of sharing favorite picture books.  Dianne de Las Casas opened and closed our event.

 

I loved that at the end she reflected on what had been shared.  There was such a mix of classic picture books with current picture books.  There were books about Star Wars and books about difficult topics like hurricanes.  There were new twists on fairy tales like Little Red and books in made up languages like Du Iz Tak?

picture-book-smackdown-9

As students shared, I had a wonderful parent volunteer who kept a list of the books that were shared during the hangout. We need to go back now and clean up the doc, but you can view its progress here.  I also had a volunteer who helped get students up to the microphone while I made sure our technology was all running smoothly.

We had multiple viewers from around the country during the event and it was fun to see tweets from different perspectives.

 

It was also fun to look at the Smore analytics to see where people were from who at least visited our page about the event.

I think one of the things I enjoy most is seeing students and authors share with the world with one voice.  They come together around a love of picture books and each take time to speak about why picture books matter to them.  Each student had a different take on the importance of picture books and they all brought something for us to consider.

You can view our entire Picture Book Smackdown here:

As you view, I hope you’ll consider tweeting about your own favorite picture books using the hashtag #pbsmkdwn

Another incredible thing that happened this year is that I heard from a group of librarians in Alabama led by Bonnie Howard who wanted to host their own picture book smackdown gaining inspiration from the smackdown we started in 2013.  I of course encouraged them to go for it.  Their smackdown gained a lot of community attention and because of that, we get a chance to see the smackdown in action as well as hear some students talk about what they loved about the event.  One of the things I love about the video is how a principal and librarians got excited about the future of connections beyond their state and even country.  When you start connecting with other schools, you see the miraculous things that happen as students and adults collaborate with one another. I can’t wait to see how the work of Bonnie Howard, Kris Gray, Lisa D, and Dixie Paschal continues to grow.

If you are interested in starting your own picture book smackdown, I encourage you to go for it too.  Whether it’s within your own school, with other schools in your district, or reaching beyond state boundaries, you and your students will be rewarded by sharing your work with one another.

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Digital Book Talks and Exploring How We Belong for #WRAD16

Belonging Week (8)Ms. Tesler’s 4th grade class has been exploring how they can be leaders within our school community.  Back in the fall, they started writing shelf talkers and displaying them on shelves at the front of our library. After all of their suggested books were quickly checked out, they are looking for ways to expand their leadership.  They have decided to take the “7 Strengths of Reading” challenge leading up to World Read Aloud Day and explore each week’s question.  They have also decided to take their shelf talkers and make them digital.

Belonging Week (7)

Across 2 days, the class came to the library to work on their next steps of this project.  We began by talking about our memories of being read aloud to.  I shared about my 2nd grade teacher, Ms. Deloache, and how she read Brer Rabbit stories to us with so many voices that I can still hear in my head today.  Ms. Tesler shared an experience of being read aloud to in college and how that stuck with her even as an adult.  Many other students began to share their own memories of being read aloud to.

We used this to launch into a new purpose of exploring the read aloud.  We are thinking about books that others might enjoy reading aloud.  We are also thinking about books we might read aloud to our buddies in other classrooms. Along with this, we started discussing how reading aloud builds community and how certain books help us feel connected with a community. To close, I shared my own example of a book talk and a reflection on the #belongingweek #wrad16 question on Flipgrid.

Belonging Week (15)

The first task was for students to select a book or books to read.  We wanted them to choose a picture book for this first book talk and question.  I pre-selected some books that had a theme of belonging, but students were welcome to choose any picture book.  Once students chose a book, they sat down to read it.  If they finished, they could start writing their shelf talker or their reflection on this week’s #WRAD16 question: “When has reading helped you feel like you belong to a community?”

Belonging Week (13)

In class, students continued to work on their reflections and they returned to the library with their completed writing.  I’ve been sharing the belonging week Flipgrid a lot on social media in the hopes that other schools would contribute.  When the students arrived to record their own, I was happy to share with them that Donna MacDonald in Vermont and Kathy Schmidt in Georgia had students who contributed to the Flipgrid.  We started by taking time to listen to them.

We used these contributions to consider pieces that were included as well as what we needed to do when we recorded our own.  Students pointed out things like speaking clearly and loud enough to hear.  They pointed out how there wasn’t a lot of movement behind the students who were recording, and that they introduced themselves.

Students spread out all over our library and recorded two Flipgrids.  One Flipgrid was a digital book talk sharing a new book.  This set of answers will be displayed on a monitor in the library and put in slideshow mode.  This will cause the videos to constantly scroll through and advertise books in our library.  We also hope that other schools will contribute their own book talks.  Renee Cunningham in North Carolina is already planning to do this with her students.

http://flipgrid.com/#b9bd04f0 

Finally, our students reflected on the belonging week question for World Read Aloud Day.  I loved hearing students make connections to their own lives and the sense of belonging.  I also loved hearing students pick out parts of a book and how a character felt like he belonged to a community.  It was a natural way to collect some analysis of text from students.

I hope you will take a moment to listen to some of their thoughts.

http://flipgrid.com/#8e21e4e6

We are just getting started, but I hope to see many more schools contribute to both our book talk Flipgrid as well as our weekly 7 Strengths of Reading grids.  If you are interested, feel free to add your students’ voices!

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Picture Book Smackdown 2015 is a Wrap!

smackdown (8)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.

smackdown (9) smackdown (15)

  • 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!

https://twitter.com/JuleeMurphy/status/667335363262742528

We’ll see you next year for our 4th annual smackdown!

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Chatterpix Book Talks with 2nd Grade

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.

Then, we looked at my Chatterpix example.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-3mJG67Vlg

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.

chatterpix (3)

 

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!).

chatterpix (6)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.

chatterpix (1)

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.

Here are their book talks:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmBI1kNROQw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjb4bEFJrR0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldj3LtOKStg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5HiyxlF-6M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50XLHAHRl6o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3F7R6SyAmE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDNGwdpL9qI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSkvp1mRHD8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3of26fu9sE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuA_8bznAXo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzNEBb6sN8I

 

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A Picture Book Smackdown is Coming!

Picture Book Smackdown! - SmoreI 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?

prep (7)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.

prep (6)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.  prep (1)

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.

prep (5)This was so much fun to organize, and it really wasn’t extremely difficult.  I can’t wait to see how it turns out!

Visit Our Smore Page for More Information!

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Wonder is Truly Wonderful!

I started hearing about the book Wonder by R.J. Palacio a few months ago thanks to Mr. Schu at Watch. Connect. Read.  The more I heard him (and others) begin to talk about the power of this book, the more I wanted to read it.  I was very excited when Mr. Schu gave away some Advanced Reader Copies of the book on his blog.  I’m not usually a lucky person, but apparently I was meant to get a copy of this book because I won the drawing.  Also, as luck would have it, I got sick on my birthday and got to stay home from school.  During my day of silence, I finished the whole book.

I don’t even know how to begin describing this book.  It’s so much more than a book; it’s an experience of immersing yourself in the shoes of someone so unlike yourself.  It’s an adventure, a journey.  The main character August Pullman (Auggie) is born with a facial deformity, and as he says, “Whatever you’re thinking, it’s probably worse.”  Up until now, Auggie has been homeschooled, but he’s taking the leap of moving into a new school and all of the challenges that come with making friends, attending a formal school, and more, but he faces all with this with a major difference that he was born with.

R.J. Palacio tells this story from multiple perspectives.  I’ve come to realize that these kinds of books are among my favorites.  I love how the same situations are viewed completely different when seen through the eyes of several people and how individual stories weave together to tell a whole story.  The story starts from Auggie’s perspective, and I couldn’t help but want to reach out and give Auggie a hug.  All of my problems in life seemed so small and insignificant after viewing the world through Auggie.  He’s brave, smart, and funny.  I found myself wanting to spend more time with him, so I was a little sad when the book switched perspectives, but it didn’t take long for me to be glad that it did.  I liked getting inside the other characters’ heads and understanding why they made the choices that they made.  I easily made connections with them when I’ve been in similar situations where someone had a facial deformity.  I was reminded of when my wife and I were seated with a man who had a facial deformity on our 7 day cruise.  Every night, we sat with him and his wife and enjoyed some great conversation, and we didn’t once talk about the deformity.  It was a challenge, but I couldn’t help but think how he probably had to explain his face to every person he came in contact with and how nice it might be to just sit and have some normal conversation.  I was glad that Auggie met some of these kinds of characters in the book.

I know great things are ahead for this book.  It’s early in the year, but this is a standout book that is a must-read.  I’ve already ordered our copy for the media center and can’t wait to share it with students.  In the spirit of Mr. Schu and others who are paying this book forward, I’m giving away my copy to a teacher in our school.  I can’t wait to hear what the class has to say about the book!