A Pure Treat this Time of Year -The Graveyard Book

Neil Gaiman's most recent book, The Graveyard Book, is -ehem- a real treat this time of year. Gaiman tells the tale of a young boy whose family is murdered by a mysterious man named Jack. The boy, who comes to be known as Nobody Owens, stumbles into an old graveyard in England where the ghosts that inhabit it  adopt and raise him. The mystery of his family's end is played out in the book's conclusion, leaving room for another Nobody Owens tale, which suits me just fine.

Gaiman's writing has never been better. There is a wonderful playfulness with his words and wording that one cannot miss, and this amidst all the gruesome details of death. This may not seem like a children's read, but it's a matter of perspective. The Brother's Grimm tales don't sound too dandy upon explanation either, but the stories still delight. One of my favorite pieces to this story was Gaiman's explanation for why the ghosts love Nobody so much. He can change still. He has potential to be somebody else, somebody improved. The ghosts are...well dead...and therefore are forever locked into the people they once were. It doesn't hurt that there's a whale of a tale to read here either.

So, forget your age, forget that this is labeled Young Adult literature. Just locate a copy of this book and enjoy the fanciful imaginings of a master storyteller.

"I'm your Density! ummm...I'm your Destiny!"

Sorry, but I simply could not refrain from pulling out that old line from the movie Back to the Future. What I have to write about however has nothing to do with density and everything to do with our new library website, Destiny Quest.

If you've not heard the word about this nifty website from your child, then make a point to investigate it for yourself. Destiny Quest (see links below or head to the Glastonbury Portal) allows anyone to check on the availability of books in the Glastonbury Public school libraries. The search feature works as you'd expect. One can search by title, author name, key words, and so forth. Once a book is located it can be reserved for pick-up. This is about as convenient as it's going to get...well until copies can be downloaded to a portable device -ala Kindle- with some form of student privileges.

There's more than convenience at work with the new online system. Students can see what the Top 10 most popular books are among students. Each book can be easily reference for genre, page total, reading level (very helpful), and year of publication. It serves as a stripped down Amazon also, in that it will make similar book-type/genre recommendations based on the books being reviewed and/or reserved. There's a nice drag-and-drop feature too. Again, making the process of picking, reserving, and getting to a good read so simple. The newest arrivals are listed and special resource lists of books, tailored to the school's curriculum, can be established. I was also recently informed that books on tape (which can be worn like iPods basically) are searchable if you type the key word: playaway.

So what does this all mean? For starters, finding subject and age appropriate books has become much easier. The site is self-contained. If you worry that your child might begin on one site and then CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK end up somewhere less-than-desired, you can reserves those worries. Also, there should be far fewer excuses regarding having trouble locating books to read.

I reserved and picked-up my first book, Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie, last week. My second selection, An American Plague, was not in, but I'm next in line to nab it. Never had to leave my seat, bother the friendly staff, or do what most men tend to do -skip looking up the book number and instead begin wandering up and down the aisles with the firm belief the book will magically appear for me. Half an hour latter I'm usually giving an aw-shucks look to one of the librarians while meekly asking for help. Sometimes, I switch the routine up and pretend to have been inspecting all the books like I'm some form of quality control guy. They don't buy that one often.

If you have the opportunity, thank those librarians, and super-supporting paraprofessionals, in each of the Glastonbury schools who have worked incredibly hard to scan all the books in their collective libraries to make the site as accurate and viable as possible.

These are two links to copy, cut, and paste. The former goes directly to the multiple search page within Destiny Quest, and the latter points you to the Destiny Quest front page, which is nice to look at and user-friendly.

http://gpslibrary.glastonburyus.org/cataloging/servlet/presentadvancedsearchredirectorform.do?l2m=Library%20Search&tm=Catalog&l2m=Library+Search

http://gpslibrary.glastonburyus.org/vopac/servlet/presentsearchform.do?site=102

What's the Difference? by Natalie Graves

Hello, my name is Natalie Graves. I am an Intern in the Supportive Reading class with Mr. Lagana and I have taken over his blog for the day.

Today marks the third week of my return to the public school system. Even though it has only been a few years since I have been in the student’s desk of a public classroom, I can note several changes that have taken place in my absence. I am glad to report that most of the differences are ones that have left me thinking, “Gee, I wish my teachers did that for me when I was in school.” I have thought this, specifically, in reference to the increasing emphasis on differentiated instruction in the classroom.

If you’re like me then the phrase “differentiated instruction” might have just thrown you through a loop. That is okay; you are not alone. Really though, the concept behind the jargon is simple. It just means that teachers should be making changes in their instruction based on the varying needs of students in their classroom. No two students are the same, and teachers are finding ways to switch up how they teach in order to bring all students to the same end.

Over the last few weeks I have observed several methods teachers have implemented to make differences in their lessons. Sometimes it is as simple as giving a student a ruler to help with a map activity in Social Studies; or folding a bubble sheet on a test so that one section shows at a time to help relieve a student’s anxiety. Sometimes the differences are more obvious, such as creating completely different activities in a math class to help students become familiar with the different ways that numbers are presented.

It has been a good experience to see the ways in which teachers are recognizing their students as individual learners. The tools teachers are giving students today will help students to become more effective learners in the future. Ultimately, the differences teachers make in their instruction might just be what makes the difference in how well your student learns.

Thesaurus Rex!: The Thesaurus, still King and far from Extinct.

     Remeber the old days, when finding just the right word to describe a feeling required finding a dusty tome with the word THESAURUS emblazoned across it? A bit of a nuisance wasn't it? At least, that's how I recall it being for me quite often.

     Leaps in technology no longer make the time component an issue. One need only type thesaurus.com into a laptop or phone and the entire catalogue of English verbiage is at one's fingertips. It's truly amazing. And yet, somehow, it remains a challenge for teachers to have students access and use these wonderful tools. I, therefore, made it a point to directly instruct my reading students in the use of the thesaurus, both online and via a word processing program.

     I started by asking the students to list three words to describe themselves in a span of one minute. The word choices were fairly typical: nice, fun, happy, funny, kind, helpful, smart, etc. These are standard word choices at almost any age and I do not fault them in the least for falling back on them given the minute they had to create a list. We are creatures of habit and fall back on what we hear and use the most in daily communications. Again, completely expected and normal. So...

The students got a quick lesson on using Thesaurus.com and the thesaurus readily available in Word to make improvements to their orginal choices: kind became compassionate, happy became cheerful, funny became hilarious, and smart became clever. All improvements over the original choices and all completed in mere seconds.

     There were some other useful benefits to pursuing this activity too. The students had an opportunity to discuss multiple word meanings. Smart can refer to the intelligence of a person and also his manner of dress. We took time to talk about the parts of speech and how words used to describe ourselves are adjectives. This helped narrow down selections when online.

I do believe the students were quite pleased with their new word choices at the end of the acitvity, and they felt a little more empowered. It didn't hurt either that when using the thesaurus within Word it required a few simple clicks of the mouse to change a word. I gave the following sample sentences as an example: It was a bad day because of the rain. The weather put me in a bad mood. So, I did badly on my tests. Of course the students laughed recognizing both a lame set of sentences and my weak reliance on the word bad. But, in less than fifteen seconds I turned three lame sentences into three servicable sentences. It was a terrible day because of the rain. The weather put me in an awful mood. So, I did poorly on my tests.

     Shakespeare would hardly be envious of the changes, but that doesn't mean we didn't improve our word choices. The sentences convey much more now. Apparently the weather affects some of us quite dramatically. Long live Thesaurus Rex!

Shelfari

Not sure I can claim to have stumbled upon Shefari as it is a wholly owned company of Amazon.com. Still, it felt like I found it by accident. Either way, I like the site quite a bit.

Put simply, Shelfari let's its members show the covers of the books they've read, are reading, and plan to read. Of course, as will all dot.com companies there's more to it than that.

Here's what Shelfari lists as its member uses:

• Build virtual bookshelves to express themselves to their friends and to the world
• Discover books that are popular in their trusted circles of friends
• Influence peers by rating and discussing books online
• Discover and learn from people with similar reading tastes
• Participate in online book groups to further explore literature and share ideas
• Interact with and learn from authors

This is good stuff and it's a very nice way to build a sense of pride and accomplishment in reader's of any age. It does also lend itself well to finding new books to read. I've found most reviews to be fairly delivered. And, because it is a subsidiary of Amazon, there's also the option to purchase a discovered book online.

Shelfari will keep your identity private from others, unless you note otherwise. You can limit who sees your actual name to friends you invite.