Nancy McGriff is another school library media specialist with a proven "track record." She has headed up library media programs at all grade levels. At two different schools and in three different school years (1992, 1999 and 2005), Nancy's media programs have garnered outstanding awards. She is a strong mentor and a leader in the profession. Nancy has published articles and frequently presents at state and national conferences.
To learn more, be sure to visit http://eduscapes.com/sms/overview/mcgriff.html
More recently Nancy received the "American Star of Teaching" Award for Indiana (Link to article at LaPorte County Herald-Argus) from the U.S. Dept. of Education and its No Child Left Behind program.
Nancy,
ReplyDeleteWhat was the biggest challenge for you when shifting from teacher to School Librarian?
Ms. McGriff,
ReplyDeleteI noticed on your bio that you work with students k-12, and I knew I needed to talk to you! I am a daytime teacher and evening librarian at the Indiana School for the Blind. We are a k-12 school, and I am wondering how you balance programming with the different grade levels. Programming for me is only from 3:30-6:30.
Thanks,
Dayna Masih
Ms. McGriff,
ReplyDeleteWhat are some of your ways to get children excited about reading. Sometimes I feel if I just get them reading the right book it will jump start them into the love of reading. How much time do you spend in collaboration with the teachers?
Oh and what are you reading now? I am always adding to a list of "must reads".
Thanks, Sue
Jessica,
ReplyDeleteI was never a classroom teacher. I went directly to library school after my undergraduate career, got my credentials and then went into a school library. It took me a long time to understand about procedures and I struggled with managing behavior because of it. I think that the Standards for Teachers of Library Media that talk about having a successful teaching career before the transition are right on.
You have to have a firm idea in mind for how you want your room to function. Once I got that part figured out, my job got lots easier.
Nancy
Daynam,
ReplyDeleteBalancing the demands of K-12 takes some skill. My mission is use of ideas and information, reading, technology use as a tool and collaboration. To accomplish that I have to decide where to put my energy. Collaboration and reading are my areas. Checkout, shelving, repairing, etc. are supervised by my assistant.
Basically the way the LMC functions is:
checkouts whether full group or individual happen at any time convenient to the teacher. We like to know if a class is coming but..
I don't supervise checkouts, teachers stay with their classes, if individual students come, my aide oversees the passes, etc. we have kids coming to checkout, read, use computers, use equipment, etc.
I spend my time working collaboratively with teachers. If they want me to booktalk, work on reader's advisory, design webquests, develop big units, etc. that is where I spend my energy. First come...
I usually have multiple projects going on at 1 time. For example next week - 8th grade career research project begins, 12th grade English research project is concluding their paper, 2nd grade research unit on bats is starting (UDL classroom), 3rd grade biography unit is in the notetaking stage, freshmen health begins a webquest. These are all collaborative projects that were developed with teachers and around standards and for which I grade parts of the project.
The other big part of my time goes into developing and promoting reading programs such as our school-wide GEAR project for elementary, STARS for junior high, special days and weeks such as Read Across America, Teen Read Week, RivaL Reading Challenge, etc.
Nancy
Sue,
ReplyDeleteI think getting kids excited about reading is a collaborative job. Every year we see kids come in asking for Dahl books after a teacher has read "The BFG." So it is working with teachers, having motivational programs, having books you know they want to read, and taking about books with kids.
I believe that you have to offer a wide variety of reading options - we have GEAR, we do Book It, Read to Succeed, South Bend Silver Hawks, newspaper and TV station programs, and any other "sponsored" reading event so that they see that reading is important to people outside of school. We try to get kids hooked up with big buddies who like to read.
It does come down to getting the right book to the right kid in many respects.
I spend at least half my time working on collaborative projects. I usually have a waiting list of people wanting to get their classes in. Over the summer we added 15 computers to the LMC lab, an additional laptop cart, and a portable SmartBoard and 2 LCD ceiling projectors in the elementar so I have more places to have classes.
Right now I am re-reading "The Watsons Go to Birmingham" and readng "The Ride of Our Lives" because these titles are part of a northwest Indiana Books to Bridge the Region event in October.
I read Graceling recently and loved it. I also liked the new Sarah Dessen book.
Nancy-
ReplyDeleteI am sorry, I thought I read in one of the articles that you had been a teacher before. I would imagine that structuring a setting similar to a classroom may be a challenge:) This is my 5th year teaching and I still find it tough some years!
I think I remember reading in your newspaper article in the LaPorte Herald that you started book clubs for the middle and high schoolers, as well as, the staff. When you started the book club (particularly the staff one) did it boost their interest in reading and promoting it? We have a workroom with a plethora of books that staff members bring in to share. I think the next step could possibly be a book club, but am unsure about how to start it. Any ideas you could share?
Thank you,
Jessica
Ms. McGriff,
ReplyDeleteHow do you get the parents on board to help encourage their children to read? I have been hearing lately that schools are using the AR program less. Do you still use the program? Are you able to meet with other Media Specialists in the area to brain storm from time to time?
Sue Reber - Mishawaka
Jessica,
ReplyDeleteI think the trick in starting any type of book club is just doing it. Get 1 other teacher to work with you. Set a goal - if 3 people show up it will be a success. Start small. A previous elementary principal who was a reader, another teacher and I talked about how cool it would be to have a staff book club so we sent out invitations to everyone and had an initial meeting. That was fall of 2001. We have had a staff book club since. We meet monthly at a local restaurant, we even meet at someone's house during the summer. We call ourselves "It's Not About the Book Club". Membership varies - we have had 5 or 6 and sometimes 20. People are free to drop in and out of the club. Some folks read the books but don't come to the meetings. We even have a couple retired teachers, the woman who runs our food service and a few parents who just want to read.
If you read Leslie Preddy's book "SSR with Intervention" she shows you how to get staff involved with reading and how to get staff to talk to students about what they read. It is a great book.
We also have an audiobook bring one take one for staff and students. I buy lots of them from Half Price Books and we started passing those around so now anyone can contribute or borrow. We don't check them out but lots of our staff drive long distances and really appreciate it.
Playaways are BIG with kids. We do check those out.
Wow! Sounds like you manage a lot with the K-12 school! Since I work on the after-school library program, I will be running more like a public library than a school in the sense that I will try and tie to standards but make the time entertaining as well, and the classroom teachers have all gone home! How do you promote reading events in your school?
ReplyDeleteDayna
Sue,
ReplyDeleteWe have Scholastic Reading Counts that we use as part of our motivatonal reading program - kids can read and test and then get a "Book Buck" for every 5 points. They use the play money to buy paperback books provided by our PTO and book fairs. I don't believe in RC or AR as anything other than a tool that may motivate some students to read. I personally think it is wrong to limit what a student can read - if you use RC or AR they can only read what you have tests for.
We have about 80% participation in our GEAR program. Students read for 300 minutes outside of school per month and document the reading on logs. I think we have high participation because it is part of our school culture - GEAR is over 10 years old. I also think kids want to be part of what we do - they like the recognition assemblies and this year all students who read in Sept. are getting a free admission to the Oct. 16 football game and will go out on the field a half time to be recognized. Parents like that type of thing.
I sometimes go the the NIESC Media Council meetings, I try to attend the regional media contact meetings as well to keep up with other LMS. My greatest source of inspiration is the great friendships through AIME and AIME committee work.
Nancy
Daynam,
ReplyDeleteI have lots of support at school. Both principals send home reading items in the weekly newsletters, we post things on the school web site, we have assemblies with our students monthly for GEAR and STARS. We have weekly leadership meetings for both faculties which I attend so I can bring up things for teacher input.
My Jr.Sr. High staff is great about doing things that promote reading - one year for Read Across America Day they read a chapter of a book to their class each hour so that by the end of the day students had hear 3/4 of a novel prior to an author visit. Last year they talked to kids about their reading as part of the Rival Reading Challenge. They give up 20 minutes per hour 1 day a week for SSR - rotates through the departments and they are giving up 20 minutes on Oct. 2 for the NW Indiana Take Time Out for Reading.
Of course, I take them through the reading research periodically to remind them why these reading event are important. Be sure to read Stephen Krashen's work.
Nancy
Ms. McGriff~
ReplyDeleteI recently became the media specialist in an elementary school in northwest Indiana. The media center is open during all of the times I do not have classes. I have a regular flow of students returning and checking out new books. I have a feeling some of them (possibly a good majority of them) just find it fun to check out and return books. I feel like I would like to develop a program to hold them accountable for the books they check out. I know my circulation may go down, but reading scores will go up if they actually start reading the books. Currently we have a selection of Accelerated Reader Quizzes. Since the school has already invested money in the program, I feel like I should probably use that program. I was curious if you had ever developed any reading incentive programs. What is your opinion of the AR program? Thanks!
Thank you for the information about book clubs. I was especially interested in finding out about the staff book club. My principal has mentioned his interest in beginning one at our school.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever done any type of book competition like "Battle of the Books"? My high school is hosting one within our school this winter. We have a list of 10 books and will be inviting students to form teams of 10 to compete with each other. I am hoping to get other high schools in the county interested in having a county meet. (and eventually begin the same type of program at the middle school level).
Elissa,
ReplyDeleteA few years ago we started an elementary book club called SC Reads - a one book, one school thing. The elementary counselor and I selected a book - our first was Belle Teal - I booktalked the book to all 3rd - 6th graders. They then had about 6 weeks to read the books (multiple copies of course) then they took a 5 questions written quiz. If they passed the quiz and most did, they got an invitation to an after school book discussion. I think we had 35 kids the first night so we asked teachers to help. We broke the students into smaller groups and had discussion questions and activities such as creating a mural to show major events in the book, characters, etc. We had pizza delivered for refreshments.
You might try something where you ask kids to write or tell (tape record) or use Kidspirations to give you some information about the books they are reading. They also like to make bookmarks or recommendations for other students. You can certainly use AR tests as well.
The reading research is clear - kids need access to books, they need reading role models and they need to talk about what they are reading, share their ideas and perceptions.
Nancy
Sherry,
ReplyDeleteOur county library system has a Name That Book competition that is for 6th grade only. Kids work in teams of up to 5 members to read 15 books in 2 months. We just went to the initial meeting last night. The public library buys the books, we check them out and have a practice session in October and then a contest in November. The clues are read out loud and the teams have to give the correct title to score points.
I was just asked by several high school students why we don't do something like that for older students. I was just thinking about how I could do a battle. I don't know where you are located, but it would be interesting to try to do a remote battle of the books. What are your titles and your timeline? Maybe we could work something out with a live chat or something.
Nancy
Thank you for your ideas about reading programs. I am getting ready to book talk the young hoosiers...having the students do something like you SC Reads for the Young Hoosiers would be a fantastic idea. I think I may also doing something with AR as another incentive.
ReplyDeleteThe school that I am currently at has a staff that has not been doing collaborative projects with the media center. I wondered if you might have any ideas for the teachers to get their feet wet with a little collaboration. I want the teachers and students using the media center to its full capacity, but it seems as if they need a little enticing.
Ms. McGriff
ReplyDeleteI am also frustrated with the AR, I do not like forcing children to read the limited list of books. I know that you collaborate with the teachers, what about the local public libraries? There are a couple of school libraries in my area that stayed open in the summer so the kids could get books, and partnered with the public library for summer reading. The programs you have available are wonderful! I am inspired by your passion for getting children to read.
Sue Reber - Mishawaka
Elissa,
ReplyDeleteI know Bonnie said this in her postings but the main idea is to start small. Find 1 teacher who you have connection with and start with a small project. All my successful collaborations started with an idea and 1 willing teacher.
Carl Harvey said he goes to his teachers and asks what they dislike teaching the most. Then he and the teacher talk about how they could work together to make it a better experience.
When I first came to South Central there was no collaboration. My first project was 11th grade research - the teacher brought the class daily to the library and I watched them copy for a few days and suggested some ideas for getting better notes. The next year I was teaching parts of the process and grading parts. Once teachers found out that I would teach and grade...wow!
In the elementary I did non-collaborative projects with 2nd and 3rd grade when they were dropped off. The teachers were curious because the kids talked about how much fun they were having doing these projects. Once the standards became part of the picture, it was easy to find standards that relate and ask - would you like me to help you with this standard.
Nancy
Sue,
ReplyDeleteThe public library is a great resource and they are willing to work with us. They have hosted our student and faculty book clubs, of course they host Name That Book, they lend me copies of titles when I need them. 3 years ago they changed the bookmobile route to stop at the school during the summer so our kids who are here for swim lessons, class, etc. can check out. Even our office staff liked it!
We promote the summer reading program for all the libraries in our area. If elementary students participate, they are invited to our Night at the Library an after school event for primary and overnight for intermediate students. Jr. High students who do summer reading get credit for one month of STARS reading. They can then qualify for our trip to Indiana Beach early.
The public library generally brings in an author every year. I usually can get my hands on a few hundred dollars so I can get them to bring the author to SC for little money. Last year our advanced writing class got to spend 3 hours with an author because of our connection.
The best thing about working with the public library is they have money for materials and generally they can get staff into the school. They young adult librarian comes in to do book talks periodically as well.
Nancy
The students in my transition classroom have been through Kindergarten and I am getting them ready for 1st grade next year. Each week we get about 45 minutes in our Computer Lab. I noticed a lot of our "games" are outdated or too hard for my students. I have found a couple to tide us over, but are there any programs you currently use with those younger students to get the technology ball rolling? I just signed up to be on our school's technology committee and I hope to come up with some great suggestions to enhance our students' learning in the lab. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteJessica,
ReplyDeleteI like Kidspirations 3, it can be set so the information on the screen is read to students. I use Kidspirations with Kdg. through 3rd grade for projects. If you want a new template, they are easy to create.
I like Scholastic Keys, works with Microsoft Office to provide easy functionality for word processing, spreadsheet and PowerPoint.
We subscribe to TumbleBooks and Grolier Online Amazing Animals of the World and New Book of Knowledge for math, reading, science and social studies. We also have BrainPop and BrainPopJr. streaming video which are outstanding and have short quizes to follow as a comprehension check.
We spend time on learning to use the OPAC and to navigate our school web site, bookmark file, and opening, saving and printing files. Those are the skills I want our Kdg., 1st and 2nd grade to have. Then in 3rd grade we start web site evaluation and search engine searching.
Nancy
Hi Ms. McGriff,
ReplyDeleteI've been enjoying the postings about reading and starting reading programs. I'd like to add lexile scores and the Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI) test into the mix. (I do not recall seeing them mentioned yet.) Is the Scholastic Reading Counts program you mentioned similar to the SRI Test that assigns kids a lexile score? Do lexile scores have a growing presence in your media center? Do students more actively seek out books according to their most recent SRI score?
Thanks, Kelly Hladek
I am hoping that I will gain the teacher's trust and collaboration will become a part of my everyday plans. My next goal is to try to get myself invited to the grade level meetings to let them know that I am available and find out what they are teaching. If I could find one teacher willing to try something small, ideally it would be a domino effect and others would follow suit.
ReplyDeleteIn one of your posts to Jessica, you mentioned playaways. I have borrowed those from the public library and love them. They plug right into the jack in my car. I was curious I might incorporate those into my collection (k-4). My thinking is that those would be more for students whom struggle with reading. My thought is to talk with the special education teachers to see if this would be something they would use and if so what titles.
I was actually very surprised that there were no "talking books" in my collection. I feel like there is a chance that the audio books would be abused in the sense that some students may want to use those books instead of reading themselves. It is nothing that a little monitoring wouldn't cure.
Thanks!
Elissa
Thank you for all of your technology suggestions! I will be checking with our Technology director to compare and see if we have the funds to maybe explore some of your ideas. : ) Thanks again!
ReplyDeleteKelly,
ReplyDeleteWe do not use Lexiles or SRI. Those are used to assign a reading level to a student and while I feel they have an instructional role, I don't want to use them as the only thing a student uses when selecting library books. I like to see teachers encourage a student to choose a "just right" book - something they can read, but I think students should also be encouraged to find things they WANT to read, even if it is too easy or too hard. Motivation is everything.
What I see in my school is prinary students wanting good nonfiction. They LOVE to find books about topics that are of interest to them. Our Title program uses Fontas and Pinelle to level books and those numbers do not appear on library books. What we teach students is to find a book that is of interest and they can read to themselves or that someone at home can help them read. We do use the 5 finger test - if there are more than 5 words on the page you can't read, it is too hard.
In late 2nd grade we see a big shift to chapter books. Our 2nd grade teachers do read alouds of poular authors and kids want to read other books by those authors. Nonfiction is still popular as well. We have a huge following for cookbooks, craft books, of course animals and dinosaurs, and sports books.
What happens in junior high is selection shifts to fiction and biography. Of course lots of kids read graphic novels and humor but our secondary collection is leans heavily to fiction. I buy what they ask for so I usually make a trip to Barnes and Noble every month to pick up new fiction. Kids know I will buy what they ask for, so I get lots of requests.
I know that it is currently popular to put Lexile, RC, AR numbers on books. I personally think if I would ever reshelve the library I would reshelve by genre and topic - i.e. make it more like a book store. I find nothing motivational about telling a kid the only thing they can read must have a number between X and Y. But I am old so who knows...
Nancy
Elissa,
ReplyDeleteFunny but yesterday a teacher asked me if students could count audiobooks on their GEAR logs. Since I am addicted to audiobooks, I can't imagine not counting what I listen to as reading. My reply is that if you would count teacher or parent read alouds, then audiobooks have to count. Again, I think it is a matter of motivation.
My husband is my prime example. He never read anything but newspapers. Is that reading? Of course, but he quit reading fiction because in college he had to read and then decide what the author meant. Anyway, we started listening to books in the car. He got hooked on Patterson, Martini, Cussler, Silva, and DeMille. Now he reads all the time. I think we can do the same thing with kids. If it takes graphic novels or audiobooks or whatever to get them involved with reading and literature then fine. We hook them and convert them.
Back to playaways, my 5th and 6th graders thought they were so cool because they look like an IPod. They checked out everything I bought last year. Now they are being used by all grade levels. They are starting to make picture book playaways like Click Clack Moo and other Cronin titles and a Clifford collection.
I think a stronger instructional strategy would be to pair the playaway with a book and have the reader look at the text while listening to the audio. But for right now, I am just letting them go solo. I have had no abuse. We talk about the responsibility of proper use. I know that some day soon I will have to face the fact that a dog ate one, it got wet... That is part of the job of motivating students to want to read.
Nancy
Jessica,
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your technology. Remember that Capital Project Funds can be used to purchase databases, etc. I get about $17,000 of CPF money for our subscriptions which is huge because if I had to purchase out of general funds library money, I wouldn't be able to provide those things for our students.
Nancy
Thanks for sharing your perspective on lexiles and SRI. I, too, have seen kids get too fixated on that lexile score, yet, as a teacher, I've also seen the joy on their faces when they discover that their lexile scores have jumped up. I suppose, like anything else, we have to be careful about how we use the resources we have.
ReplyDeleteIf I could ask two other questions: 1)What is your library orientation program like every fall? With a K-12 school, I imagine you have to be very creative. 2) Since you are a K-12 school, do you have opportunities to pair up secondary students with elementary students either for any of your reading programs or for any other activities? You mention "reading buddies" in another blog entry. Could you elaborate?
My classmates and I appreciate your time and insight. Thanks for blogging.
-Kelly Hladek
Nancy,
ReplyDeleteI'm located in Rossville, Indiana. We got the idea from Delphi and Carroll high schools who compete against each other every February. They are allowing us to use their book list and their questions this year. Next year, we'll help choose books and write questions. We're kicking it off on October 22 and introducing the book list to our high schoolers. We'll then have our school competition in February (the 23rd I think). We're going to do teams of 10 students. A remote battle of the books does sound interesting... E-mail me at sgick@rcsd.k12.in.us and we can talk more. I can also share our 10 books on the list!
Thanks so much for giving your time these few days and blogging with us. Great discussions!
Kelly,
ReplyDeleteI meet with every elementary class at the start of school. I ask the teachers to review procedures with students and then I go over location of materials, review OPAC, talk about anything new. I do several weeks of orientation with Kdg. and 1st.
For the Jr.Sr. High, I meet with 7th graders and go over the differences between elementary and high school - longer check out, etc. but the OPAC is the same and basically many of them have been browsing in the jr. sr. high collection while in 6th grade.
We get many new students in 9th grade so I do a 1 period orientation with them covering the OPAC, location of materials and procedures. The freshman English teacher brings them in several times. We used to do a OPAC, shelf location activity but stopped a few years ago.
We use high school Honor Society students as big buddies for elementary students who need strong role models. Reading is one of the activities they do together. We also have a high school English elective that focuses on reading and those kids buddy up with higher achieving elementary students so that the good readers also have reading role models and opportunities to excel. We have cadet teachers as well. I am going to train the cadet teachers to do book clubs with small groups of students as part of our differentiated curriculum (I am also our High Ability Coordinator).
It gets harder to take the time to do buddy projects. We want to pair up seniors and 3rd graders to work on a mythology project. Some years we have been able to do Native American projects with juniors and 5th grade. We got a grant several years ago to do holiday projects with 3rd, 4th, 5th graders and high school math and English students. We have also had 3rd year Spanish students work with 2nd graders to study folk tales and holidays from Spanish speaking countries.
Nancy
Nancy
Sherry,
ReplyDeleteI'll get in touch. We did a remote Rival Reading Challenge with Westville last February. The kids were excited when they got to hit the principal in the face with a pie after reading the most pages. I am always looking for new ideas.
Nancy