Kindles Can Do

     After a period of considering and testing several other portable reading platforms, I ended up exactly where I had originally planned when applying for a grant to fund eReaders for my young readers. After buying and trying the Nook, the result is we've become a Kindle-toting classroom.
     After the perfunctory introduction to all the little buttons and tasks a Kindle can perform, the students have settled into reading from them as they would any other print -albeit with a few positive wrinkles.

* We all have a voice: Kindles offer a voice-assisted reading program, which when activated  translates displayed text into audio. Several students make regular use of this feature and appear to enjoy it. Personally, I find the computer-assisted reading feature off-putting, but that's me.
* Swiss-knife eReading: Many students have been interacting well with their Kindles by making use of the ever-present dictionary. When they discover a word that confuses them during read, they can move a cursor to a spot just before the word and then glance to the bottom of the viewing window. There they will find a suggested word meaning in a slim pop-up window. This is one of the least intrusive ways I've seen for learning about challenging word and I like it a lot. The Kindle is like a Swiss-knife reading unit in this way because it has all you need, and more, packed into a portable package.

* Chocolate Sampler: The students have explored almost 25 books in only a few classes using their Kindles. The ability to download a sample for almost any new book has been awesome, because while my room is filled with books, which students can easily examine, I couldn't possibly fund bringing in all the latest books for review. The Kindle can and, unlike a laptop, presents all of this in one easy-to-survey glance. Students have poked their minds into many books samples to date such as Woods Runner by Gary Paulsen, Models Don't Eat Chocolate Cookies by Erin Dionne, and Sharks by Peter Benchley -none of which I have in my room in hard copy. Of these three titles, I've ordered the latter two because interest in them has been significant. Sadly, and maybe only for the moment, Paulsen's Woods Runner is not in demand. His book, apparently, is the butter creme of the bunch for this discerning group of readers.
* Making the Most Cents: Another powerful aspect of having Kindles has been the number of copies I have been able to bring into it with a simple click of a button. When I noticed the book Boost was a hit with students in other classrooms, I made that my first Kindle purchase. It cost 9.99, which seems fair, at first, and then quickly became a steal of a deal when I transferred 5 more copies of the book at no additional cost to four other Kindles. (Most ebooks allow for 5-10 copies to be used at a time from one an account.) So, the real math worked out to less that two bucks a book, which makes the most (sorry) cents to anyone running a classroom and promoting reading. I now have about half my students reading Boost and being in a position to share their reading experience. Thus, for 10 bucks I have 5 happy readers. Excellent stuff!

     It's not all been perfect in this early going. Because I have ebooks spread unequally across several Kindles and far more students than Kindles, I've had to track which person is reading from which Kindle. Then everyone has had to learn the art of recording a location number to find their place for when they return to their book a few days later. Also, while the American and Oxford dictionaries are excellent sources for finding definitions, many continue to be too difficult for the younger audience. I wish there was an intermediate version available for installation. I'd happily pay for those to be on each Kindle. Still, these are minor nuisances when compared to how well they're enjoyed in the classroom.

     Maybe your child has come home asking about one already? I will say that -if you can swing it financially- it worth buying one. And, there's a chance Kindles will drop to 99 dollars by the summer as that seems to be a good price point to sell even more. 

"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

Summer in the Amazon

Summer approaches and that means vacations, camps, relaxation, and required summer reading. We don't like to think of it as "required" reading, but, nevertheless, it is expected of all of our students.

The summer list, as noted on the Portal, is not exclusive. It is a healthy sample of books from which students are welcome to choose two books they'd be interested in reading prior to the commencement of seventh grade. The question many of our students face is: which two books?

There are other questions too, such as: Which two books are the most interesting? Can I pick from any genre? Which are the shortest? Which books are the easiest to understand? The answers to these are often a matter of preference and ability, depending on the student asking.

So, how do we pair students with the best two books -or hopefully, three, four, or more books- during those fast-moving summer weeks? I like to use Amazon.com.

Amazon offers superb methods for reviewing books from the comfort of home, or, better yet, by the poolside using a wireless computer. One can examine the summer list for potential reading matches. Then, while visiting the site, search for the book and select it for review. Amazon has a "Search Inside" label, which when accessed, allows a visitor to see and read the front and back covers, see the table of contents, and read the first five or so pages. It's a superb way to taste a book and see if it's palatable without running to the stores or library to hunt and peck.

Amazon, also, surprise, makes it fantastically easy to purchase books. Buyers get a complete list of sellers ready to part with their copies of books -both new and used. In many cases, the new copies are cheaper than Amazon's listing. I've bought books from Amazon, Amazon-approved sellers, and even private sellers without issue over the years.

Using Amazon's tools, my students and I took part of a class to examine books from the summer list, and we discovered much. Page count was a big concern, but more than half realized page count didn't matter when print was large or the reading was easy. Seeing and sampling the writing was a powerful experience in this way. We also spent some time looking at reviews by professional editors and those John Q. Public types that decided to give their two-cents. Again, this helped students make better-informed decisions. Many students, I felt, left eager to continue searching the summer list using Amazon.

So, if you're not an experienced Amazon user, you may want to give it a go. You can turn to your son or daughter if your get stuck on anything. ;)