Kristin Fontichiaro – författare

Contrary to the trend to do away with arts education as an unnecessary expense in schools trying to boost student test scores, this book promotes and explains the value of integrated arts instruction in furthering the accomplishment of curricular objectives and fostering student achievement. Accomplished library media specialist and arts instructor Kristin Fontichiaro discusses how drama, shadow puppetry, and podcasting can be used as tools to meet curriculum objectives in the K-8 media center. By concentrating on the process of creating a piece of drama or puppetry or a podcast, as opposed to the goal of performance, and by infusing the arts with curriculum objectives in story or research, these techniques can intensify a child's learning and provide context for classroom curriculum objectives. A discussion of the affective and academic benefits of this process-based work as well as sample lessons are included. Photographs and examples of student work illustrate the oechniques. Grades K-8.

Web 2.0, the read/write web creates new opportunities for students to share their learning with a larger, real world community via the Internet. One Web 2.0 tool that is gaining in popularity among educators is podcasting, the process of creating audio files using computer software and distributing them electronically, giving students authentic audiences and the motivation to do outstanding work. Contrary to popular understanding, podcasting software does not require an iPod. In fact, projects made with podcasting software also can be converted to CDs, sent via email, stored and heard on classroom computers, posted to a Web site or blog, or channeled into iTunes to await subscribers. This book takes an in-depth look at several podcasting tools, many of which are free, that can be used by educators to create podcasts. After building a solid technical foundation, the book introduces readers to a wide variety of lesson plans that motivate students and stretch their higher-order thinking. Discussion of student privacy issues is interwoven throughout. Grades K-12.

Story Starters and Science Notebooking: Developing Student Thinking Through Literacy and Inquiry is designed to provide a meaningful, comfortable framework in which teachers and parents can encourage elementary children to explore scientific ideas in an inquiry-oriented format.The basis for each scientific concept presented in Story Starters and Science Notebooking is embedded in a story appropriate for elementary-aged children. The activity that follows each narrative encourages learners to observe, compare, gather data, organize or classify, and draw conclusions about the problem posed from the story. Because current scientific knowledge and understanding guide scientific investigations, background information in each chapter provides teachers with a synopsis of the scientific concept involved in the activity for that story. The story starters present a framework for inquiry, which eliminates the free-wheeling, uncontrolled, and unstructured view some teachers have of inquiry. These are either original stories or familiar children’s stories that ask learners to investigate a possible scientific explanation for a problem or scenario. Learners then communicate their findings in an oral, written, pictorial, or technological form back to a lead character from the story. Extension activities provide an opportunity for learners to compare their answers with what scientists already know about the world and also motivate them to frame new questions.Grades 3-6IntroductionNotebooking activitiesProblems to solveBackground information for teachers60 illustrations and halftones24 figures Appendix

A collection of articles from School Library Monthly highlighting practical ways library media specialists can help their schools implement the AASL's Standards for 21st-Century Learners.Ever since the initial release of the AASL's Standards for the 21st-Century Learner, School Library Monthly magazine has consistently focused on providing librarians with the information and strategies they need to help students achieve those standards. Now from the pages of that magazine comes a collection that no school library or librarian should be without.21st-Century Learning in School Libraries: Putting the AASL Standards To Work brings together the ideas and methods of leading school librarians and educators across the nation, all focused on meeting the new standards. The book begins with a survey of 21st-century learning documents and an examination of how learning has changed for today's student. It offers a wide range of articles—over 90 in all—in a series of chapters on key themes, a vision for successful school libraries, inquiry, collaboration, assessment, reading, and pedagogical strategies. Each chapter has an introduction, discussion questions, and promotional and advocacy strategies.

Creating Data Literate Students provides high school librarians and educatorswith foundational domain knowledge to teach a new subset of informationliteracy skills — data and statistical literacy, including: statistics and data comprehension; data as argument; and data visualization.Data — both raw and displayed in visualizations — can clarify or confuse,confirm or deny, persuade or deter. Students often learn that numbers areobjective, though data in the real world is rarely so. In fact, visualized data —even from authoritative sources — can sometimes be anything but objective.Librarians and classroom educators need to be as fluent with quantitativedata as they are with text in order to support high schoolers as they engagewith data in formal and informal settings. We asked contributors to thisvolume — experts in high school curriculum, information literacy and/ordata literacy — to explore the intersections between data and curriculumand identify high-impact strategies for demystifying data for educators andstudents alike.

Knowing how to recognize the role data plays in our lives is critical to navigating today’s complex world. In this volume, you’ll find two kinds of professional development tools to support that growth. Part I contains pre-made professional development via links to webinars from the 2016 and 2017 4T Virtual Conference on Data Literacy, along with discussion questions and activities that can animate conversations around data in your school. Part II explores data “in the wild” with case studies pulled from the headlines, along with provocative discussion questions, professionals and students alike can explore multiple perspectives at play with Big Data, data privacy, personal data management, ethical data use, and citizen science.

Whether you are just beginning your library’s maker efforts or are recalibrating a few years into your work, Making in School and Public Libraries is designed to help you grow your makerspace in a way that is engaging, affordable, and sustainable. Building on eight years of makerspace activities in the Michigan Makers and Making in Michigan Libraries project, the authors share their experiences creating or co-creating makerspace spaces and activities with for a wide band of interests, materials, tools, age groups, communities, budgets, and needs.Readers will gain practical insights about how toDefine goals and target audiencesCustomize programs to meet community needsEquip a makerspaceDocument activitiesAssess achievements and areas for growthEngage makers in a variety of technology and hands-on activities, including robots, 3D printing, sewing, cardboard challenges, knitting and crochet, design thinking, and zinesThe authors’ experiences include co-creating one of the nation’s first school library makerspaces; establishing after-school maker programs with elementary and middle school learners; co-designing one-off and ongoing maker events for community-building in diverse public libraries; engaging with senior citizens in a low-income Senior Summer Camp pilot; and state, national, and international workshops for teachers, librarians, and youth mentors.

Presenting examples of school librarians leading professional learning in numerous contexts and for diverse learning goals with remarkable success, this book will inspire other practitioners to initiate and refine professional learning in their schools and districts.School administrators are recognizing that school librarians are ideal to lead professional development because they service the entire school network, from the students and faculty to families and the community. As a national downturn in educational funding is diminishing districts' ability to optimally staff libraries, investing energy in professional development is a sound strategy to bring information literacy skills to every student—especially in buildings with part-time librarians, or districts with only a single librarian of record.Growing Schools: Librarians as Professional Developers stands apart from other works as the first book that directly addresses the potential role of the school librarian as a staff developer. Within the chapters, the authors relate their professional development journeys, collectively representing experience within K–12 public and private institutions, district and regional units, and universities across the United States and Canada. The work provides various approaches to professional development with a range of processes and techniques that have been proven effective in different contexts and in achieving diverse learning goals. Practitioners at the building and district levels as well as school principals, state and district personnel, and library educators will find this book insightful and instructive.