Competency 7, Internet

Image source:  AdLit.org

My internet search led me to a great website named AdLit.org.  This website offers resources for parents and educators of kids in grades 4 - 12.  It is a perfect website for librarians who need to access current information on serving reluctant readers at the elementary level.  The articles and information are easy to understand, and is presented by highly qualified people who make it their goal to improve childhood literacy.  AdLit.org also has other sister sites that can be accessed from their website.  One worth checking out is Reading Rockets.org.  This website caters to librarians of younger readers.  Both of these websites offer a newsletter and a good collection of featured video clips.  They both provide wonderful topics on current events related to literacy. 

AdLit.org - All About Adolescent Literacy - http://adlit.org/

Reading Rockets.org - How young children learn to read, why so many struggle, and how caring adults can help.  http://readingrockets.org/ 

I found AdLit.org by entering, "websites for school librarians focusing on reluctant readers" through google.com.

            

Competency 6, Multimedia

Image source:  Google Book Search

The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame

For my multimedia lesson, I chose to focus on a book that has continually popped up on book lists throughout my research on reluctant readers at the elementary level.  The book is titled, The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame.  The story is about the friendship between a little boy and a dragon who both recite poetry.  This book was written in 1898 and was eventually made into an animated movie by Walt Disney in 1941.  I found a copy of the actual movie on YouTube.  It is a short movie that runs about 10 minutes in length.  This story is also offered as an audio book which is great for reluctant readers.  The movie would be a perfect supplement to an elementary librarian who has read and discussed the book with students.  

I found information about The Reluctant Dragon on www.google.com by entering "reluctant readers."  Google.com gave a listing under Wikipedia and a link to YouTube.  This movie will be appealing to younger students.

  

YouTube - The Reluctant Dragon, Part 1

      

Competency 5E, Browsing Search Strategy in LexisNexis

Search Topic:  Motivate Reluctant Readers

Search:  Power Search

Search Terms:  Natural Language

Sources:  US Newspapers and Wires

Dates:  Previous 5 years (Jul. 12, 2003 to Jul. 12, 2008)

The prompts above generated 83 results.

I chose hit #5 because it was the most relevant to my topic:  reluctant readers at the elementary level.  The title is, "AudibleKids Encourages Using MP3 Players as Valuable Learning Tools; One-of-a-kind community of parents, educators, and children launches a website with nearly 4,000 titles and exclusive and never-before-released content."  

AudibleKids.com is a site that offers almost 4,000 high quality digital children's audiobooks available for purchase.  These stories can be played on iPods, audio players, and mobile devices.  This company is even working with Reading is Fundamental, Inc. (RIF) by providing a featured section on the RIF website where audible books can be downloaded by children, parents, and educators.  The combination of reading and technology is something that will attract reluctant readers of all ages.

AudibleKids Encourages Using MPS3 Players as Valuable Learning Tools; One-of-a-kind community of parents, educators, and children launches a website with nearly 4,000 titles and exclusive and never-before-released content.  Business Wire, March 31, 2008 Monday 10:00 AM CMT, 1111 words.  Dateline:  Newark, NJ

Competency 5D, Citation Pearl Growing in Books in Print

For my citation pearl growing search, I used the Books in Print Database.  Since my topic is on reluctant readers at the elementary level, I chose "reluctant readers" as my search term.  This brought me 203 results.  I found a book titled, Reviving Reading:  School Library Programming, Author Visits, and Books That Rock! by Alison Folos.  I selected the search term "school libraries."  From this result list I found three books that I liked.  I noticed different search terms listed under each title.  The most common search terms listed from my book selections were "school libraries" and "children's libraries."  Through this searching method, I can see how you can keep going and going.  I liked this searching strategy the best out of all the others.  I'm anxious to try it out on other databases.

 

The author, Alison Follos is an experienced school librarian who uses "creative library literacy programming" to instill an interest in reading for pleasure in students.  Her book focuses on getting the school faculty involved in reading children's literature to model the love of reading.  She gives ideas on how to build a strong literature-oriented program and collection.

Reviving Reading:  School Library Programming, Author Visits and Books That Rock!  By Alison Follos, ISBN 1-59158-356-x  

Follos, Alison, M.G. et. al.  Reviving Reading:  School Library Programming, Author Visits and Books That Rock!  Westport:  Libraries Unlimited, Inc., 2006.  

  

Competency 5C, Successive Fractions in Academic Search Complete

For this search I accessed ERIC Ebsco Research Database and selected academic search complete.  My first term was "library" and this brought 488,613 results.  I added "reluctant" and received 213 results.  I added "encourage" as my third term and received five results.  I found two articles out of five that I really liked.  See my results on the following screen shots.

The first article was found at hit #2.  It is titled, "Kid's Stuff:  Fun and Games with Children's Authors" by Dr. D. Jackson Maxwell.  He developed a matching game that involves searching authors and titles on your school computer catalog or the Library of Congress Online Catalog.

Kid's Stuff:  Fun and Games with Children's Authors.  By:  Maxwell, D. Jackson.  Library Media Connection, Oct2005, Vol. 24 Issue 2, p48-50, 3p; (AN 18438206)

The second article was found at hit #4.  It is titled, "A Novel Approach:  Using Graphic Novels to Attract Reluctant Readers and Promote Literacy" by Philip Crawford.  This article discusses the benefits of graphic novels for reluctant readers.  Crawford put together a recommended book list of graphic novels that are divided by:  science fiction and fantasy, super heroes, horror and super natural fiction, and social issues.  The titles chosen for this list are grade level appropriate and are free of excessive violence, profanity, and adult situations.

A Novel Approach:  Using Graphic Novels to Attract Reluctant Readers and Promote Literacy.  By:  Crawford, Philip.  Library Media Connection, Feb2004, Vol. 22 Issue 5, p26-28, 3p. 1 color; (AN 12028381)  

Competency 5B: Specific Facet First, ERIC

I searched the ERIC Ebsco database for my topic on reluctant readers at the elementary level.  I used the word (reluctant) as my most specific facet.  This brought 1374 results.  Next, I limited my results by selecting:  full text, dates (2005-2008), and elementary education as the education level.  This gave me only one result.  This was too limited for me so I removed the dates from my second search.  This time I got 34 results.  I found a great article on graphic novels on hit #2. 

 

The article is titled, "Graphic Novels for (Really) Young Readers:  Owly, Buzzboy, Pinky and Stinky.  Who Are These Guys?  And Why Aren't They Ever on The Shelf?"  The author Allyson Lyga, is an elementary school librarian who supplies her shelves with a large of collection of graphic novels.  Her article is a success story about the positive results that graphic novels have on reluctant readers, or in her words, "avoidance readers."  Kids love these books because they are visually appealing and they can understand the plot of the story easily.  She has even noticed that some student book reports come in a graphic novel format, rather than the traditional book report form.  Graphic novels supply the student with every aspect of reading comprehension. 

Graphic Novels for (Really) Young Readers:  Owly, Buzzboy, Pinky and Stinky.  Who Are These Guys?  And Why Aren't They Ever on The Shelf?  By Lyga, Allyson A. W.  School Library Journal, v52 n3 p56 March 2006.   

Competency 5A: Building Block, LibraryLit

Search Topic:  Reluctant Readers at the Elementary Level

Database:  LibraryLit (Library Literature)

Dates:  2003 to 2008

Limited to:  Full-text articles

Search Strategy:

S1 - reluctant or remedial or reader = 1063 records

S2 - motivate or interest or popular = 1291 records

S3 - elementary or primary or grammar = 583 records

S1 AND S2 AND S3 = 3 records

I brainstormed a list of synonyms and narrowed it down to words I have seen most frequently on my topic.  After some experimenting, I found the above results.  Of the three results found on the final search, I located an article about the positive results in the Accelerated Reader program.  We use the AR program in my school district, so I am anxious to share this information with my administrators.  The most interesting part of this article is about the use of prizes as rewards for student points.  The author, JaKay Greer, says that by not giving prizes helps students reach their goal of becoming lifelong readers.  The use of prizes as rewards has been an issue at my school.  We are trying to decide what is best for our students.  This article was the first hit.

Greer, J.  A Positive Experience with Accelerated Reader.  Teacher Librarian v. 30 no. 4 (April 2003) p. 32

This screen shot shows the final three hits.

This screen shot shows detailed information of the text.