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Showing posts with label classes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label classes. Show all posts

June 20, 2017

Systems for organizing information

During grade 2 unit of inquiry "Systems" the class explored the system ISE Library uses for organizing books. Students learned grouping books by type (fiction and nonfiction), numbers and letters. Through inquiring into and discussing information they saw on the books (call numbers) and on the shelf labels they discovered the ten groups of the Dewey Decimal System, and that books on the similar subject are together on the shelf. Touring around the library students noticed that not all books have numbers which led us talking about the alphabetical order and types of book that are organized this way.
What Dewey section are your favourite books in?
We then looked into the library online catalog and noticed the call numbers there as well. Combining the learning students worked as detectives following clues (call numbers) to solve a problem (finding a book of interest from the shelf). Next time we revolved the activity and students worked as library assistants putting books back to their correct places on shelves. This activity turned out to be more a challenging one. All students though, some with a little help from a friend, managed to find books of interest. One student in particular displayed the calling for a librarian profession by quickly understanding how the library system works, and efficiently carrying out the duties of retrieving and returning books to the shelves. He insisted keeping re-shelving books during free reading time. What joy!

Our next exploration into systems of organizing information, building on learning from this unit, is looking into how can we use alphabet to find things? We will be exploring enrollment lists, dictionaries offline and online and look into online directories. The objective of this unit is to learn how to search online by using the alphabet and how children's directory sites are organized.

Exploring lists and dictionaries
As a summative activity we explored the www.a-zanimals.com Endangered animals site that organizes its information alphabetically. Grade 2 created their own A-Z book of endangered animals using information from that site. This activity was completed in collaboration with the "Endangered animals" unit of inquiry. Students were able to transfer their knowledge and terminology learned (extinct, endangered, threatened) across subjects. Look at some examples from the book. Do you know who is an axolot, or where can you meet quoll. How is uguisu's poop used, and how x-rat tetra looks like?







April 11, 2017

Exploring the rings of responsibility

Instead of an online approach through eTextbook (see December 18, 2014 post "Grade 3 eUnit "Rings of Responsibility"), this year, I decided to engage with the offline learning to explore this important topic, and use smart surface library tabletops instead of iPads to record students' thinking and ideas.


Students

  • reflected upon their offline responsibilities
  • examined their online responsibilities
  • learned that good digital citizens are responsible and respectful in the digital world (and beyond).



We discussed offline and online activities to self, friends and family and larger community and realized that it is important to be kind and respectful in both face-to-face and online world. This approach worked very well and students were excited to us an alternative media to record their thinking.

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November 6, 2016

MYP Personal projects 2016-2017

Image source: http://alannamunro.com/blog/the-power-of-personal-projects
For the third year year 5 (grade 10) students are busy developing their personal projects. For the third year I am busy coordinating the process:) This school year we have a substantial group of fourteen adolescent learners with a range of interests that lead their explorations and projects. I am very happy to have a team of supervisors supporting the students during their journeys, all of whom are not MYP teachers but ISE staff members.
Students have submitted their project plans, completed initial research and product criteria and are working on creating their products. I am very excited to see their products and reflective reports as we move on with the projects process.

Below are brief introductions of year 5 projects

Topic: Ragga style in dancing
Goal: Research about roots and origin of ragga dance style, ragga music, dance elements. Create a ragga dance routine with its elements, make a video, film and edit it, and use it to inform and inspire audience about that dance style.

Topic: Electrical Motors
Goal: Research about electrical motors (how they work and how to build your own), creation of demonstrator of a precise motor control, use this motor control to create something to show how to use it.

Topic: Fashion in the last century
Goal: To find out what fashion was like in the last century and what influenced it, and from that knowledge infer, what will future fashion be like.

Drawn by Elisabeth Roden

Topic: Film-making
Goal: Create an animated music video.

Topic: Screenwriting
Goal: Write a quality, 20-40 pages long script.

Topic: Programming
Goal: Learn how to programming a micro controller using c++ programming language.

Topic: Art, Psychology, Religion and Philosophy
Goal: To understand trough research, why people are afraid of the concept of death, how the humanized Death would look like, based on psychological, religious and philosophical beliefs. To create a painting, communicating the learning.

Topic: Medieval Armour and Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) Tournaments
Goal: To show how three aspects of medieval armor can affect the outcome of a (melee) medieval tournament.

Topic: Clothing and Fashion Design
Goal: To design and create few pieces of clothing that are connected together by a specific theme and manufacture few of them into actual pieces of clothing.

Topic: Ideas,technologies and innovations of humankind.
Goal: Learning information about my topic through research and creating website or YouTube channel to communicate my learning.

Topic:Website with Cooking Videos
Goal: I will research about healthy, eco-friendly, and vegan diets/foods, video making, and creating blogs/websites in order to produce a website with nutritious and vegan cooking videos for people that would like to follow a healthy diet and reduce their carbon footprint through dietary choices.
Practice video by Anjali Venkatsubramanian

Topic: Portrait Photography
Goal: To research and learn the technical aspects of my cannon rebel camera in order to take high quality portraits that reflect the personality of the subject. To take photos of my classmates, my family members, myself to demonstrate my knowledge.

Photo by Gwyneth Dodson
Topic: Making a vlogg about how teenagers act in different societies, and their reactions to different types of questions.
Goal: I will research movie making, in order to create a vlogg that shows differences between teenagers in different societies and cultures, to show to people in order to broaden their views and beliefs about other cultures.

Topic: Acquire the skill of crocheting
Goal: To acquire the skill of crocheting, to become more experienced in hand made work, which will help me to extend and enjoy my creativity.

October 15, 2016

Genre study - messing with students' minds

When we started a genre study with grade 4 students the first question: "What kind of books do you know?" caused no problems to the students. Answers fiction and nonfiction came easily and fast as I had anticipated. Describing these two kinds of books was not hard as well. Real, realistic (keep that in mind), true and not real, made-up and fake:) were some of the adjectives used. That was when I started stretching their minds.
What does it mean that nonfiction books are true? Showing a nonfiction books about aliens sparked a discussion on are aliens true and real. Many of the students decided that the nonfiction book we looking at must actually be a fiction book, because aliens are not real. That was just a start.

Image source: amazon.com
The aim of the lesson was to introducing realistic (see above) fiction. I decided to read excerpts from "No talking" by Andrew Clements, When reading the summary of the book and getting to the part that the 5th grade boys at Laketon Elementary did not get along that well with the girls, and that the class was generally just very loud had some of the students make connections with their own class. True enough, as I had just had to ask the class to calm down as they had come to the library chatting loudly and singing. Not a bad thing to do in general but not necessarily when other library patrons are trying to study in the library.
After reading the first chapter describing school life and antics of the main characters Dave and Lynsey I asked if these were real events the book describes, could these things really happen? The fictional Laketon Elementary is situated in New Jersey. And believe it or not I had a student from New Jersey sitting in the class, in Tallinn Estonia. So the 4th graders decided that "No Talking" must be a nonfiction book. See what I mean by messing with their minds. I had turned their prior knowledge of types of books upside down. 
Wishing to do no more "harm" I introduced and explained realistic fiction to the class. I did not give the definition nor wrote down any descriptive words. I want the students to come up with their own explanation for the genre, and then look up the term in the dictionary. 
It was really fun lesson and interesting to observe and witness the active thinking happening in class. I'll let you know how grade 4 ends up describes realistic fiction. 

Next we will explore fantasy and biography. I am looking forward to inspiring conversations and insights from my grade 4 class.

March 2, 2016

What makes an IB library?

I couldn't agree more with the author, Stuart Crouch's, view on inquiry based learning and collaboration in between IB Librarians and teachers. I am glad to notice that I am on the way as I teach in collaboration at PYP and MYP level. As Stuart writes "The increased role of approaches to learning skills, such as information literacy and media literacy in our curricula, have meant that librarians are in demand like never before." 

I have had great collaborative classes with our MYP Science, Humanities, English and Music teachers. Connecting learning skills to the actual classroom experiences makes the benefits of acquiring and applying these clear for the students. And librarians can help out with developing other skills as well. Talk about organization in the library context. It's all about it. Our year 5, grade 10, students are about to complete their Personal projects, an engagement I as the Coordinator have guided, pushed and pulled them through.

Bits and pieces have happened with DP students as well. Mostly introducing the quality scholarly resources in and outside our library for their Extended Essay and TOK papers. Also, library being a place to crash at for studying and/or relaxing:) 


Some latest collaborative activities include PYP grade 3 innovation unit and exploring e-books, PYP literature circles, MYP information literacy classes on search techniques, plagiarism and citations workshops, and DP visit to the Tallinn University Academic library.

ISE IB Collaborative activities
Thanks for the great insight! I still have a leg of a journey ahead but I know where I want to get to. 

Read the full article How do you build your library to support inquiry-led learning? by Stuart Crouch.

December 14, 2015

Wrapping up first semester 2015-2016

The busy first semester is coming to an end soon.
Below are some high lights, accomplishments and exciting events that took place in the library.

Smart surfaces



Lego nook



Library days





MYP Projects



PYP classes







New homeroom for grade 8


Visiting students




December 9, 2015

PYP Information literacy projects - grade 3

In collaboration with grade 3 unit of inquiry on innovation and how innovations change the way people do things and approach problems students have been looking at and talking about how innovation has impacted the way people get books and read during Information studies class. We learnt that books come in various formats and may be read in different ways. Different people prefer different formats.
Grade 3 students in Information studies
Students brainstormed, recorded and compared similarities and differences of printed and e-books using Venn diagram.

Brainstorming with the help of the smart surface tables in the library.



Differences

Similarities
We keep practicing accessing two e-readers available at ISE: MackinVia and Follett Shelf. Please contact library@ise.edu.ee for log-in information. Later on students will reflect on their experiences with electronic books with printed texts with a focus on ease of access, reading experience.

Stay tuned! What do you think - is technology helpful in promoting reading?

PYP Information literacy projects - Grade 5

ISE believes in supplying accuracy, objectivity, and reliability in research materials for both children and adults. Our carefully selected subscription databases, EBSCOhost and The World Book Online are among the industry leaders of award-winning encyclopedias, reference sources, and digital products for the home and schools. 

In preparation for their final Exhibition grade 5 students have been exploring World Book Online database with and inquiry into a central idea "A database gives access to a large amount of verified information stored in a computer system." Students learnt what a database is and what sort of information does it have, how to access the database and when and why (the benefits) to use one. 
Students conducted a mini research on a topic of interest using information from the World Book Online database following the research cycle of accessing, finding, evaluating, paraphrasing, presenting and citing their information. Students used the Thinglink interactive images app for presentations.




Follow these links to student Projects:

Basketball by Daniels 

Deforestation by Mihkel

Reading by Dominika

Chemistry by Anna

Snowboarding by Vilja

We continue fine tuning students' citations and bibliography following MLA format and learning to use Easybib citation tools. 
Stay tuned!

September 1, 2015

Welcome to the new school year PYP!

The school year has started and we are at the full swing at ISE and in the Library by now.

Below is some info about how library time is allocated at PYP, primary school, level. This year I will also be looking for further collaboration with core classroom teachers to teach and learn about information literacy skills in an authentic setting while exploring UOI topics.

Lower school students come to the library for weekly library and information studies class. During that time we learn about library behaviour, book care, and an orientation to library matters and subjects according to their grade level. Research skills are essential for studying and learning; therefore these skills are reinforced in information studies lessons at the upper elementary level.

We read stories with younger students every lesson, discuss and explain what is happening in the story. Students have an opportunity to show their communication – viewing, listening and speaking; thinking and social skills, and share their experiences. Stories are often connected to the UOI topics learnt in homeroom.

Upper elementary students focus on learning research skills; how to locate, organize and use information. We search ISE Online catalogue, and learn to use reference tools available at ISE library. We talk about plagiarism and what is “good” information.

At the end of the class students have a chance to find a book for home reading. Students start taking books home beginning Reception class. The choice is up to your child, as to what she or he wants to read. Each child has a blue library bag. All new students will get a bag from the librarian, and it has to be returned at the end of the school year. Children can keep their books up to 4 weeks, but new books can’t be checked out until the previous one is returned. Therefore, younger students might need a reminder to take their books back to school at the right time.

I am looking for happy exploring and exciting discoveries at the library and occasionally some cookies:)

February 18, 2015

My Search Story: Grade 8 project

We have been learning about Google Search with grade 8 students using the below links for information and ideas. 
Google: Year in Search 2014 http://www.google.com/trends/2014/
Inspired by the first link students created their search stories. They created their stories with 30hands app that combines images, photos, drawings, text (typing and/or writing) and audio into a short movie. Take a look at the three examples to learn what Google features grade 8 students use the most.

Erica´s Search Story

Anjali´s Search Story


Freddie´s Search Story

We continue with discussing pros and cons of Google Search. Students search the Internet, Google:), to find articles on that topic. They will possibly find information about other search engines as well. Then they are required to use different search engines to see if your results are the same. We will analyse and reflect on the finding of this activity in writing sharing the ideas and conclusions with the whole class.
Check back to see what did grade 8 students learn.

December 18, 2014

Grade 3 eUnit "Rings of Responsibility"

For the very first time grade 3 learned and used Digital Literacy & Citizenship eTextbook from Common Sense Media to learn what kinds of responsibilities a good digital citizen has.



Students

·         reflected upon their offline responsibilities.
·         examined their online responsibilities.

·         learned that good digital citizens are responsible and respectful in the digital world (and beyond).

We completed offline and online activities to learn about responsibilities to self, friends and family and larger community.




Students were excited and somewhat distracted using eTextbook. It was a good alternative worth exploring further.







October 4, 2013

MSP Info studies - Research cycle

We started the Information studies course with learning about the Research cycle. In order to complete research papers successfully it is important to understand what are the stages we go through while doing research, and what happens at each stageUnderstanding and following effective research strategies results in deeper knowledge and successful work outcomes. The course is built around the research process discussing topic that arise from doing research. As the final assessment students created and designed their own research models. They had to include at least 4 stages; give each stage a name and write a brief description/explanation for it. They were allowed to use any graphing tool.

I am glad to share the top 3 models.

Research model by Elliina Gorobets

Research model by Patrick Williams

Research model by Mary Neuburger





April 16, 2013

What's happening at the MSP Info studies

Last week we wrote Info studies reflections with middle school students. See below what they say about their studies.

I did a really good job on the Google a Day activity. The Google a Day is a thing were it gives you questions and you have to find the answer to the question using different search techniques. Josh Gr 6

Some benefits [of Info studies course] are that I can improve and learn new skills. Kento Gr 7

I have learned how to search, to get better information quicker without having to read a lot. Calle Gr 7



Some benefits are that I know how to cite a source and how to search on the web for information I need. Alexandra Gr 8

The benefits are that I learned more about Wikipedia and I know now that I shouldn't use it as a primary source as everyone can edit it. I am struggling with getting too much information at once then I won't remember everything, and when we need to write I struggle with deciding what to write. Marius Gr 8

I think the benefits that I will actually use [from this course] are citing and also knowing about Wikipedia. It will be good for my studies and help me get better information for research. Teele gr 8


The class had taught me how to cite and use Wikipedia better without getting wrong answers by people who change the information. I'm still struggling with finding out which information is right and wrong. Minh Gr 8



The benefit for me in this class is that it helps me with researching techniques. Jamie Gr 9

This course has been a big help to me especially when researching the different search engines and how to properly cite the sources used.  I have also learned a lot about how to even more narrow down the information needed on search engines such as Google.  Caroline Gr 9

I learned a lot of things, which I never knew before. Valentin Gr 9


 

April 15, 2013

What's happening at the library

Read about what we have learned in Lower School and what students wrote for their portfolio reflections.

Preschool Juniors
Preschool Juniors had a collaborative Library and UOI unit “Once Upon a Time” in preparation for the Book Week “Telling Stories through different Media”.
Fairy tales are, in a sense, the first examples of classic literature that students encounter. Every country has stories that are so old; people cannot remember where they came from. Long time ago when people did not have books, radios, TVs, or computers stories were told for fun and entertainment, but also to teach a lesson or warn children of danger. Stories were told to one another over and over again. Nowadays popular fairy tales are written down in books and turned in films for children and grown-ups to enjoy.
In the library we shared popular fairy-tales through different media. We explored the tales of “The Little Red Riding Hood”, “The Three Little Pigs” and “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” through flannel-board media, listened to audio- and watched video stories. We also read traditional printed books.
We talked about what these stories teach us, how they make us feel.
Students showed enthusiasm and curiosity during class time. They showed confidence joining in at the repetitive parts. Students eagerly waited for their next Library class to see what the next tale was about.

Preschool Seniors
Preschool Seniors have learned about book care - why is it important to take good care of books and what are some ways to care for books?
In preparation for the book week we focused on listening to audio stories of “Jack and the Beanstalk” and preschool’s favourite “Tacky and the Three Bears” among other activities.
Students displayed cooperation while quietly listening to the audio stories. They showed creativity and commitment while completing their activity sheets, and sharing their ideas with the classmates.

Reception
In Library class Reception students have learned about library behavior, fiction and non-fiction books and read lots and lots of stories.

“I like looking at the books the best even though I don’t know how to read.” Gabe 

“I like to draw. I like books, too. I mostly like scary books and pretty books. There is a scary book about Ghosts in the library.” Hadley 
Grade 1
In conjunction with Gr 1 UOI “Just Imagine” and preparations to the Book Week we talked about what authors do, why writers write, and looked at different media to share stories e.g. audio books, video stories, e-books on iPads. Of course during the year, in almost every class we have read traditional, printed books as well.

“I enjoyed watching the video story “Where the Wild Things Are”. I liked the way the video story was made using pictures from the book not making a cartoon. “ Amelie 

“I learned that writers write because they like to do it. They think it’s nice to share their ideas. And we can learn.” Dora 

“I learned that we put books on the shelf in an alphabetical order. If the author’s second name starts with B the book goes in B section.” Marco

“I have enjoyed reading e-books on my iPad. I like these because you can do extra activities, touch something to make things happen for instance the car changes color. I liked “Dino-Store” e-book the part when the dinosaurs worked in the store. I have learned to use e-books in the library.” Philip



Grade 2
Grade 2 students learned about different parts of a book, and how each part can be helpful. Working as authors and illustrators we made Grade 2 Best Books book including parts learned about and shared it during Book Week. Grade 2 favourites are Captain Underparts by Dav Pilkey, The BFG by Roald Dahl, The Dragon in the Library by Kate Klimo, Dork Diaries: Tales of Not So Talented Pop Star by Rachel Russell, Bailey by Harry Bliss and Moosetache by Margie Palatini.

Grade 34
In Library we learned that book recommendations are a way to express and share your ideas and thoughts about a book. You can use a book report, review, talk or trailer format to share your reading and learn about books. Grade 34 students wrote a book report to inform about their reading. Their reports along with books are on a display in the library.

“When I was writing “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” report I liked that I used exciting words. Next time I will write a bit more. I think that Charlie and the chocolate factory is an outstanding book!”  Mike Gr3

“To recommend a book you can make a book trailer, a book report, a book review and a book talk. A book report includes the author, the title and your personal thoughts.  I think you don’t always have to include the thoughts that are bad because if you do, people might not want to read the book but the job you are trying to do, is to get more people to read it. I also think you should always be honest when you write a book review because sometimes you have to write it about a book you do not like, and you can’t make it sound more interesting or worse than it actually is. I am a curious student who likes asking questions and reading books.” Amelie Gr4

“A report is when you write about a book you like and want to recommend it. I always read what I have to read. I show the attitude of appreciation because I am happy to learn.” Glenn Gr4

“A book recommendations are helpful if you friend doesn't know what to read so you recommend your friend a book. The elements that are always included in a book report are the title, author and the summary of the book plus your thoughts.” Rasmus Gr4


Grade 5
Grade 5 completed a unit on plagiarism and citing. We learned what plagiarism is and how to avoid it. We know now that when you do a research project you must give credit to the sources from which you found the material you used in your project.