That's a middle school book in the high school library!!!

I've read some discourse over the last month on the library listserve regarding below grade level books in "upper" school libraries.  In my case as a high school librarian,  I often wonder if I should have Tim Green, Mike Lupica, Rick Riordan, Christopher Paul Curtis, Rita Williams-Garcia or Melody Carlson on the shelf to name a few.  These authors are poplular and kids have often read them by the time they have gotten to the high school, but I find that the titles are frequently requested and other students are constatntly recommending them to their friends who haven't read them yet.

In the back of my mind I have this phrase "college and career ready" that makes me think, "Jeez, these kids have already read these books or these books are written at a really low level for high school." so should I offer them to the students?  Is my library "Common Core?" Are Riordan or Williams-Garcia's books getting the students "career ready?"  I mean, they are just "kids books," right?

While that is all true (I guess), is there harm in reading something for fun that is "below level?"  Reading is reading, especially when the books are written by award winning authors and they are well written.  This is a problem I have when looking at schools that have tight Accellerated Reader reading rules for children.  I have heard numerous horror stories and have heard some from my daughter's school that students are not allowed to read anything at school that isn't in their exact reading level.  That is a shame.  I get it that students can read at home and that parents should be there to help choose books, but we all know happens in fewer households that we want to know.  I understand the basis of the AR rules but what a way to discourage a student from reading something that is exciting to them whether it is above or below level.  I do not  understand why a student can't choose something in his or her level to measure progress for the school and choose something that is of interest to them outside (above or below) their level.  If the book is out of the realm for a student, a teacher or certified librarian making suggestions if the book is way below or above with a comment like, "I see you want to read "blank" I think it will be to "hard/easy," why don't you try "blank? It is a lot like the book you chose." would be really effective.  However, if the student insists, the conversation ends with, "Okay, let me know what you think of it and keep this book in mind when you are finished."  I just don't see the benefit of taking a book a student is excited about reading out of his or her hands.

With that idea in mind, I proudly purchase a mix of reading levels (I do not label the books with reading levels by the way!) and encourage even the best and highest readers some of the "easier" books just because they are great stories.  And, who is to say an "excellent" reader might not enjoy the break of reading some "brain candy?"  Another benefit is having a collection of books kid have already read that empowers them to take ownership of the library by recommending good books to friends.  It gives them confidence in their ability to read and choose good books and strengthens their friendship bonds.  And, gasp, what if they were to actually talk about the book with their friend!  A travesty, I know.

If you have had the debate in your head of whether you should or should not put easier reads in your library, do it!  Go for it!  Your students will love you for it and be sure to shamelessly give a "simple" book to your best readers.  Also, challenge your readers with higher level reads as well.  College and career ready?  You bet!  Reading is reading, and if the kids are reading books they want to read in their free time, that is preparing them for life long learning.

Do you have any thoughts on this topic?  What are your thoughts on using AR in schools?  What do you think about offering "easy" reads to students who are capable for high-level reading?  Comment below, I look forward to a conversation.

First eReader in the Library

So it is official.  I have cataloged the first Kindle eReader for my library.  It has been a year-long effort that included researching different eReaders and book formats, talking to dozens of people about what they are doing, or not doing in most cases, and reading reviews.  More consideration has gone into it than may have been required, but it is done and I have a list of students who are interested in devouring books loaded on the devices in their two week checkout period.
Are eReaders the future?  I have no idea, but right now they are a great way to load dozens of books that are hot and up and coming.  They are cost effective compared to purchasing tablets or other computer devices.  I don't really have any concern of a student checking them out, walking away and damaging or losing them.  If they do, it won't break the bank and should be reasonable to replace.
The eReader of choice for my library is the Amazon Kindle.  I did not find any eReader that really fit what I wanted, which is a reader that I can load books on and tailor for a student then switch the books out and create a new set of books for another student.  That ability does not exist, at least not with the eReaders on my list.  I do like the Amazon Whispercast and the way I can group devices, but this won't be helpful unless there are books that I want on multiple Kindles.  Yes, I have to purchase multiple copies of a book if I want a title on multiple Kindles.  Speaking of purchasing books, I created an eBook order for the Kindles and my order total was $14,324.36.  Sticker shock!!  That was a "little" over my budget.  I discovered that Whispercast takes the order and puts all the books on to all the devices in whatever user group is choosen.   I chose the user group that had all my Kindles. I canceled that order, of course. The solution was to create a User group for each device and do a separate order for each Kindle.  Not a big deal, I guess, except the district office has to divvy out 20+ purchase orders each time I want to put books onto the Kindles.  They have been terrific about working with me, but I imagine it may get old for all of us real quick.  Time will tell on that.
A couple irritants that have gone along with this process is that every Kindle has to have its own email address, so my tech office had to create those.  I am still trying to figure out how to get the Kindles to remember the wifi security key to our schools' network.  Kind of a pain to reconnect constantly but it's not the end of the world.
Some reading this may think this wasn't a good decision.  My wife is in that camp, but she gets to hear all the frustrations.  There are several positives. First, Amazon makes contacting them almost a joy.  I have yet to wait more than 60 seconds to talk to someone and the phone operators know their stuff.  The representatives often didn't tell me what I wanted, but they gave me a straight answer so I could move on to find solutions.  They are even apologetic when a Kindle policy doesn't really work for me.  In these days of bad customer service, waiting on hold, and inadequate knowledge, this was a breath of fresh air.  Another positive, the Kindles are really easy to lock down so the students only have access to books and documents we put on there.  All in all, there isn't anything out there that does exactly what I want, but Amazon and the Kindle make it easy to make adjustments to put these into the hands of kids who want to read.  They even grab the attention of kids who aren't all that interested in reading but like the "gadgety" tool.
I can't wait for the first checkout of these to hear how someone took one of these and read until they couldn't read anymore.  Have you had experience putting a Kindle or other eReader into your library?  I would be interested in reading your stories.

Paperback books!!

We have unofficially announced January to be Paperback Book Month!!  It just seems to be a good time of the year to promote those poor flimsy books that have an inferiority complex next to their shiny, hard-backed brothers and sisters.  Paperback books have their place in a library and in our lives.  
I discovered the usefulness of paperback books several years ago.  I was working for Tony's Pizza Service delivering frozen pizzas to grocery stores, and I found myself waiting around all the time.  It was a hurry up and wait kind of job.  I found myself wanting to fill that time with something somewhat productive, but crossword puzzles and things like that weren't my thing.  It was the days before smartphones, so any kind of social networking was out.  So, I started carrying paperback books with me.  I loved those books because most (those under 200 pages or so) could fit in my back pocket easily.  When I found myself waiting for someone to open the back door of a store or to check in my product, which could take up to 10-20 minutes at times, I would pull out my book and read.  I became known as the "book guy" by other delivery drivers and store employees.  It was fun.  I got to read and promote literacy because they all wanted to know what I was reading and if it was any good.  It was great!!    Paperback books had a place with me.  
I don't encourage sticking a paperback book from a library in your back pocket, but paperback books are generally lighter, many times easier to read laying back, and many times lay open better than a hard cover book.  
For the next two weeks in the high school library, if you check out a paperback book, fill out an entry form and you just might win a "sweet" prize.

History's history

I found myself reading a CNN article online called Subject Matters: Why students fall behind on history. History as a subject is one of my favorites because of the way it impacts everything we do. With a good understanding of history, we have a much better understanding and appreciation of how our world, country, state, etc. work.

The article states how history is being shortchanged because it is not a mandated No Child Left Behind subject and even though it is a growing subject, because history is new yesterday and will be new again tomorrow, the history classroom gets no additional time to cover the subjects. One individual commented below the article that history classes cover basically colonialism to World War II. I would consider that a sizable amount of information in a two semester course.

What I found to be, in my opinion, very sad was what one teacher was quoted as saying. He said, "I think they (students) learn information by itself, in isolation, but putting the big picture together is not happening." I would argue that when students learn history in isolation it keeps them from learning the big picture. My experience has shown that teaching history in the context of other disciplines like English, music, and art help students to understand the cultural values of the people they are studying, which in turn helps them to place the events of the day in time. Integrating history also helps students to understand why people reacted and passed policies, started wars, migrated. The photographs and discussion of the photographers of the 1930's help students to understand the people and conditions. A study of the music and poetry helps students to understand the Great Migration of the 1920's. And an understanding of the rise of cities and industrialism, in turn, helps us to understand why the poetry and music changed.

When I taught an American Studies, combined US history and American Literature class, my co-teacher and I enjoyed challenging the students to think and discuss, what affects what. Does history impact literature or did the literature affect the history. Sometimes it was clear and sometimes it was not.

The article mentions that teachers use history as a "throw in" (in quotes because that is how I interpreted it) to help improve reading skills. A noble attempt; but if we want to confuse students as one teacher was quoted as saying that students could identify an event like the Declaration of Independence but they could not identify the century it happened, we should continue just "throwing in" history to "improve" reading. Agreed that most of the state testing reading selections are non-fiction and some are historical, others are scientific, and others are literary. The answer to improving student test scores is to teach reading in all subjects, not just English class.

I have traditionally been opposed to a national curriculum, but articles like this make me realize that maybe we (the teaching community) cannot prioritize. We struggle, not because we lack professionalism, not because we lack passion, not because we lack know-how, but because we lack leadership. Perhaps it is time for the education community to take decision making out of non-teacher hands. It has been a mystery to me what qualifies a elected officials to make decisions about what should be taught and tested. Elected officials should oversee schools, the money, and hold schools accountable, but educators should be in charge of the what and how.

I have ideas, but I don't have the answers. I sure would like to see some real discussion on a national level. History class is not the problem. It is one of the many problems. What do you think?