Getting students to fill out survey's

We gather data for a variety of reasons, but the biggest one is to be able to make informed decisions within a school environment. Without data we are stabbing in the dark and hoping for a good result.

Ross Todd (2015) talks a lot about Evidence Based Practice (EBP) and guiding decision making and programs using evidence.

When school library staff are developing or running programs, often we are doing it with a class that isn't our own. So getting information or data out of the class is often a monumental task!

Emailing students a survey to do in their own time, your response rate might be 30-40% of the intended recipients.

So how can we get a more complete dataset from our students?

If left to our own devices, many people will put off doing a survey unless there is an extrinsic motivator; a reward or a due date.

In a school if you are collecting data from an entire year level, then you would want that dataset to be complete.  For our Year 7 'Drop Everything and Read' Campaign, the dataset is n=138.

Our first initial response to the weekly reading tally was a 40% response rate. Prompts sent out to classroom teachers to remind students to complete the survey, raised it up over 62%. Direct instruction from teachers resulted in a jump to 82% and the Year 7 English teachers will followup with students who have not completed the survey so that we can aim to have a 90% complete dataset.

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Why is a complete data set important?

With this project we are hoping to show that Teacher Librarian intervention and a well planned campaign will increase reading habits throughout a year level cohort. If we get positive results back, we can then then use this data as part of our planning for 2020. Without this data, there is no evidence that our interventions are working to improve recreational reading.

Do it by hand?

Of course, if we got the students to complete the survey by hand, we might get a more complete data set to start with. However, we would have to manually enter in the data by hand. With limited time and resources, this option is not preferable!

References:

Todd, R. (2015). Evidence-Based Practice and School Libraries: Interconnections of Evidence, Advocacy, and Actions. Knowledge Quest. Accessed at: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1048950

Reading: Brain altering stuff

I've been doing a lot of reading lately about how the brain is altered by regular recreational reading. Not checking your iPhone but reading a novel; a continuing story with plot and characters.

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During our wider reading sessions I often get asked whether the students can read the newspaper.  The answer is "no". Newspaper reading is fragmented, disjointed and doesn't offer the cognitive benefits that reading a novel has.

There are distinct advantages to reading an ongoing novel or short story. A research report done on the effect of ongoing reading on the brain (Bergland 2014) showed:

• "becoming engrossed in a novel enhances connectivity in the brain and improves brain function" 
• "enhanced connectivity included the students' left temporal cortex, an area of the brain associated with language comprehension"

The challenge we have is allowing our students to read. Giving them permission to read and to steal those moments of 10 or 15 minutes to read their novel. Before dinner, while waiting at the bus stop, at the end of a class.

We know that at the start of puberty, there is a tremendous growth in brain development. We also know that during the teenage years you either "lose it or you lose it"

Further Reading:

Bergland, C. (2014). Reading Fiction Improves Brain Connectivity and Function. [online] Psychology Today. Available at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/the-athletes-way/201401/reading-fiction-improves-brain-connectivity-and-function [Accessed 29 Jul. 2019].

Coghlan, A. (2016). Revealed: the teenage brain upgrades that occur before adulthood. [online] New Scientist. Available at: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2098557-revealed-the-teenage-brain-upgrades-that-occur-before-adulthood/ [Accessed 30 Jul. 2019].

Siegel, D. (2014). Pruning, Myelination, and the Remodeling Adolescent Brain. [online] Psychology Today. Available at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/inspire-rewire/201402/pruning-myelination-and-the-remodeling-adolescent-brain [Accessed 30 Jul. 2019].

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Encouraging a regular reading habit

The data from our reading observations has shown that there is a large chunk of our Year 7 students that are not reading regularly.

Reflecting on the Wider Reading data, we can see that there is a group of girls who are just not reading outside the wider reading sessions every fortnight. Their reading is disjointed and often they pick up a different book each week. The only book that they have finished all semester is their class set text. We know that reading competency, vocabulary range and imagination will develop if students read novels regularly.

They have sports practice, they have homework, they have production rehearsals. The excuses are endless and sometimes quite creative. Students don't understand the benefits of reading regularly and they are not willing to make the changes or sacrifices to steal 10 minutes here or 10 minutes there for their reading.

So what are we doing about it?

We have put together a 'Drop everything and read' campaign. I purposefully called it a campaign because it has a start and an end date. We are doing this in Term 3 because we now know a fair bit about our Year 7 readers, we have 6 months of reading observations about them. Now it is time to change some habits.

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So we have started off with bookmarks to launch the campaign and classroom posters encouraging them to find the 10 minutes a day to read. To steal it from the time before dinner or when waiting for a bus.

Students will use the bookmarks (hopefully) to record how many minutes they read per week and enter the data online so that we can tally up which class has read the most. Yes there is competition between the English classes, however, we are not targeting individual students even though we will have that data so that we can verify and encourage their efforts when we talk to them during the wider reading sessions in the Learning Commons.

The plan is to see how they go and encourage them along with some lolly packs and perhaps button badges if I have the time to make some.

After I presented to two of the classes this afternoon, there was a buzz and lots of questions:

1. Do I have to read?
2. Will there be chocolate?
3. What if I forget to read?
4. Can we each get chocolate?
5. Can I listen to an audio book?
6. Is there chocolate?

When exiting the classroom after presenting the ideas, a student who is a big fan of Tui Sutherland leant into me and said "I am going to knock it out of the park".

I am going to try and blog as much as I can about this project.

Three simple ways to use the Makerspace 3D Printers in your Art Curriculum

Three ways in which you can use your School Library Makerspace 3D Printer to enhance the Art curriculum.

1. Flourishes for Textiles 

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As part of our textiles curriculum, students are shown how to create and print custom buttons on our 3D Printers. If they don't like buttons, they can custom print a tag to be sewn onto their garment or in this case (image) iPad pouch.

This is a quick and easy task that is designed to get them thinking about the application of 3D Printing in the textile realm.

2. Create jewellery

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As part of a Year 10 graphic design unit, students designed their own jewellery and then we scanned in the diagrams, converted them to 3D shapes using Selva3D and printed them off. In reality, it is probably more a laser cutting exercise than 3D Printer, but we didn't have a laser cutter.

3. Create Makers Mark stamps for ceramics

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This is such an incredibly simple concept. Students who do ceramics normally sketch their name on the base of the object that they have made. A Makers Mark stamp is another extension of that and an opportunity to talk about branding.

If you want to take this concept pone step further, creating a metal "makers mark" can be done via shapeways and here is an example of one. You could create it as a keyring and get it printed in metal.

What do we do during wider reading observations?

Every two weeks we sit down with every Year 7 class in my school and we do "reading observations" with them.  I meet with them briefly for 30 - 90 seconds or more and record:

• What they are reading during that session
• What they have been reading at home 
• Whether they have found it hard to find time to read and why
• Whether there is a book they can recommend to me (if they have read more than one book since I last saw them)

The data gathering is fast and furious. We have codes that we use in our notes to record the data and then I transcribe the data before we forget the interaction.

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We stealthily move throughout the reading couches with our clipboard, taking down the student ID number, and the reading observation notes for the sessions. We can get through 28 students in a 40 minute time period, if there are no interruptions to the session. The teacher's role is to get the students sitting and reading and then if they wish, model reading themselves while maintaining a bit of classroom control.

I have tried to do this task on a tablet and/or laptop, but the distraction that the technology causes often outweighs the benefits. The clipboard has a printout of a record of what they have read, so questions can be asked about whether they continued to read a particular book or if another student is reading their book.

We are slowly learning names as well, so for some students I don't even have write down an observation because I see them at the circulation desk borrowing piles of books and we have conversations when they return their books.

Transcribing the notes takes about 20 - 30 minutes per class. Sometimes I check to see if students are borrowing anything as well to confirm whether they are or are not engaging with our collection.

In terms of time release, it takes us the equivalent of 0.2 (or a class) to manage, transcribe and work with a wider reading class.

#freebookmarks for your #schoollibrary Wintery Quotes

It has been a while in between posts on this blog.

My STEAM role in the school that I work in is eating up too much of my Teacher Librarian time, even though there is a cross over.

But here are some wintery bookmarks!

I've printed mine on 280 gsm through our Fuji Xerox colour copiers.

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And here is the high resolution file for you to print out (click to get full size).

Enjoy!

[writeclub] Blackout Poetry

I came across a great video by Austen Kleon about some techniques that he uses to keep the creativity juices flowing and in amongst his ideas was "blackout poetry".

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Students need to go through the text and outline any words that jump out at them. The after working through the story or poem in their mind they need to blacken out the rest of the text. If you have some paint markers, they are good for blackening out text. But don't be limited to black, use different colours to evoke feelings in the poetry.

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So I photocopied some pages from some famous books off the shelf and had a go at creating some blackout poetry. This gets around the idea of ruining a book and the bond paper seems to be better at taking black markers.

Further links

• 5 Tips for creating blackout poetry
  https://www.powerpoetry.org/actions/5-tips-creating-blackout-poetry
• Blackout poetry ideas with coloured markers
  http://www.startsateight.com/blackout-poetry/

[writeclub] Using your Five senses

I use a lot of props in Write Club to get kids writing. Story Cubes, story cards, images, lyrics, quotes; the list goes on!

Today we did an exercise about the "five senses". Inspired by watching "A Quiet Place" on Saturday night, I thought it might be a good exercise to get students focusing on how they might leverage their senses when writing. Using descriptions involving their senses to set a scene or evoke a feeling.

Examples:

Someone is climbing up a castle wall, use each of the bubbles to identify the different reactions of your senses when you are climbing.


Further Reading:

Tips to Use Your Five Senses When Writing
https://www.fuseliterary.com/2017/03/17/tips-to-use-your-five-senses-when-writing/

How to Unlock All Five Senses in Your Writing
https://thewritepractice.com/five-senses-in-writing/

5 useful resources for World Building for your Write Club

Every Monday lunchtime we have a "write club" that meets to talk about how to improve our writing. Lately, we have been looking at "World Building".

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1. An Introduction to World Building

This article is a worthwhile read and also links to a podcast of the article. The website also has some excellent resources to build depth into your characters and develop effective plot arcs. Check out the site, there is a lot of material and resources to keep you entertained!

2. The Worldbuilders Anvil

Another fabulous podcasting site with many topics ranging from  from How to build a fantasy car to Worldbuilding cartography. I love podcasts for the ease in which I can listen to them driving to and from work, or if you are a student walking the dog or catching the bus

3. Story setting ideas: 6 effective setting examples and tips 

Now Novel have a great blog post on Story setting ideas. They take examples from well known writers such as Rowling, Dicken's and Tolkien. The author uses the example to show techniques in writing and how you can use this technique in your own writing.

4.  World Building Basic Worksheet

North by Northwest have put together a World Building Basic Worksheet that you can use as a skeleton to craft your own world. Cut and paste this into a google docs and add ideas to it when you want to work on your world.

5. Katytastic

This youtube channel has some great video’s on how to write your world and build your characters.  Most of her video's are about 10 minutes long and an ideal watch if you want something quick to inspire you to continue to write. Most of the video's also have useful links to follow-up on.

A practical guide to setting up a coding club in your School Library

I was excited when I was asked to present at Edutech 2018 on Coding in Libraries as part of the Future Libraries Congress.

The experience was rich and broadened my professional horizons. I spent hours preparing for the event, so when the editor of WASLA contacted me and asked me to write an article for their journal, I jumped at the challenge.

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So here is the link to my article, I'd love some feedback. My writing evolves with every article and I enjoy the process and the rigour that is involved.

I hope you enjoy the read.

Lawson, M. (2018). A practical guide to setting up a Coding Club in your School Library. IC3. Professional Journal Of The WA School Library Association, 8(No.2 July), 13-15. (link)