Manifestos

While browsing the web I happened upon "Manifesto for 21st Century Teacher Librarians." by Joyce Kasman Valenza. It's a long one but well-thought out. I particularly like how the author mentions promoting student created materials and working to bridge the digital divide. So tell me what you think. What did she leave out? This quote might just be my favorite: "You unpack the good stuff you carried from your 20th century trunk. Rigor, and inquiry, and high expectations, and information and media fluency matter no matter what the medium. So do excitement, engagement, and enthusiasm." Those three e's can certainly lead to rigor, inquiry and high expectations. Tell me, what would your manifesto look like?

Getting by with a little help from my friends, The Justice League

The other day I noticed one of my first graders reading a Justice League graphic novel. I had purchased it for the 3rd grade so I was interested to see what she thought of it. She read me a page and there were quite a few tricky words. After chatting about the book, I gave her a sticky note and asked her to record any words she wondered about so we could talk about them next time. Today her list was full of words but unfortunately my plan took away context. We talked about the words and made a new plan to use tiny arrow notes to point to words so we could use context clues. I was impressed by her grit to keep going and she was able to still understand. The Justice League has motivated her to read a tough book and I'm quite proud.