Tuesday, November 27, 2007

SLIA's Blog Reading Level: Genius

Ahaha! I just want to humor myself today. Imagine that, a genius is required to read this blog!

cash advance

Cash Advance Loans



But seriously now, I would want this blog to be more, er, egalitarian.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Weavers of Magic (The Repeat!)

Pictures from the Weavers of Magic seminar-workshop at the Benitez Hall, UP Diliman last Saturday, November 24, 2007.

Ace Elgar was not able to join us for the fun, the laughs and the celebration of Teacher Portia Padilla's birthday. Dr. Luis Gatmaitan and Tote de Jesus had a three hour long book signing - the longest I've witnessed, so far! We had more activities and storytelling demos. Just exactly how Storytelling workshops should be. Until next!

Friday, November 23, 2007

Online Resources for Teachers

Found some very good online resources for the busy teacher. These website contain free printable worksheets in Math, Reading and the Language Arts. Surfs Up!

RHL School is a free learning reosurce website for ready to use worksheets in Math, Reading and Reserach Skills. A link for answer sheets is provided in the index page as well as a blog feature. The skills covered are the basic comprehension skills, word meaning, inferencing, getting the main idea, etc.

HomeSchool Math is a place for parents and guardians with homeschooling kids. It does help the busy teacher as well through its comprehensive line of online lessons and worksheets. It has other features like a monthly newsletter, a blog (don't they all have it!), reviews and Ebooks.

teAchnology is treasure trove of worksheets, educational games, lesson plans, rubric makers and webquests. While there are freebies in the site, it has also a membership feature that can lead teachers to better and high quality reosurces online.

Till the next batch of online resources!

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Books for Every One @ Your Library

For my grade 3 library class this quarter, I've embeded this video as Prelection to a lesson on fiction, non-fiction books and the Dewey Decimal System.

Awarding a Community Library

A few months back, Ani Almario, PBBY Secretariat, asked the PBBY Board for concpet papers in relation to the 25th year celebration of National Children'sBook Day (NCBD) in July 2008. As board member representing the library sector, I whipped up something for brainstorming in one PBBY meeting. Below is the rationale for a proposed award in recognition of a community library with a strong and working library services and literacy programs for children and young adults.

Community libraries offer a variety of services and programs to different age groups in the community. By looking into the needs of children and teens in the community, its library can plan and implement services and programs geared towards the development of life long learning skills as well as, an appreciation of literature, culture and the arts. Indeed, the community library of today is no longer a place to store and keep books. It is a laboratory for interactive learning and a venue for the enjoyment of the finer things in life.

In reality, many community libraries in the country lack the support needed to function as an effective agent of literacy. There are, however, resourceful librarians and groups of people who further the cause of library development for children and young adults. These unnamed individuals battle the odds and face challenges that come their way. They continue to provide library services for children despite the limitations in funding and the political support. They seek ways and means to make literacy programs in their community library possible.

Such effort deserves recognition and appreciation. More than that, it is worthy to see, examine and highlight the library services and literacy programs that have an impact for the children and teens that they serve. By doing so, more librarians, NGOs, LGUs, foundations and civic organizations can be motivated to develop community libraries.


I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Here's hoping that libraries can be recognized as agents of literacy development.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

IPP & The Teaching of Information Literacy Skills

Below is a recommended Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm (IPP) lesson plan for the teaching of Information Literacy Skills. The topics are reference resources and the Big 6 Model in Research. The skills covered are research and work-study skills. Take note that the content and skills are integrated in the Reading Program. The context for this IPP lesson plan are grade 6 students.

o Prelection – Quote by Henry Miller ☺

• Since the words encyclopedia and dictionary were given by the students already, teacher-librarian can move to discussion.

o Learning Experience – Present the words: REFERENCE and DICTIONARY
• Questions to ask:
 What kinds of books are these?
 Where can we find these books in the GS LRC?
 How do we call these books?
 What makes these books different from non-fiction books?
 How are information arranged in an encyclopedia/dictionary?
 Are these two reference books the same?
 What info does the reference/dictionary provide you?
 When do you use an encyclopedia/dictionary?
 Can you think of other references?
 How can reference sources help you in your studies/academic work?

• Research – Big 6 Model
 Present the Big 6 Model – a graphic organizer can help. Use www.big6.com/kids/
 In the website, there are three ways to introduce and teach the Big 6. Use the second one, for gr. 3-6.
 After presenting the six steps, provide the students an oral drill that shows how the Big 6 can be used.
 For example – Your Reading Teacher asked you to research on the parts of a newspaper.
• Step 1 – What should you do?
• Step 2 – What resources can you use to find info on parts of the newspaper?
• Step 3 – Where can you find these resources?
• Step 4 – What information can you use from the resources you identified?
• Step 5 – What can you make to finish the job?
• Step 6 – How will I know that I did my job

 The oral drill will help scaffold the skills and concepts on research following the Big 6 Model. It will likewise, provide the boys a working schema on how to do research on their own. In essence, they are actually planning and envisioning what they need to do to finish a simple homework or assignment. This is a strategy in study skills and metacognition. Study skills and metacognition are two important skills taught in the Reading subject. Such skills also aid them in understanding and studying other content areas. Therefore, the Big 6 can be used in other subjects like Science, Social Studies, CLE, even Math.
 Since it is a Reading class, a written drill must be given to students.
 Written Exercise – Big 6 Worksheet. This can be done through group work.
 Group students and distribute the worksheet. Example of Worksheet-

Task – Your Reading Teacher assigned your group to report on the notable accomplishments of Albert Einstein. How do you plan to complete this following the Big 6 Model?

Step 1 – Task Definition
Step 2 – Info Seeking Strategies
Step 3 – Location & Access
Step 4 – Use of Information
Step 5 - Synthesis
Step 6 - Evaluation

After filling up worksheet, do the steps and get ready for a report next meeting. Do not forget to give the references that you used.

Day 2 – Review of the Big 6 Model – Use website again for this exercise
o Ask which group is ready for reporting. Limit the reporting to 3-5 mins.

o Reflection – The Bright Bird Story - http://home.iprimus.com.au/brianga/bribird.htm

Questions:
• How did the Bright Bird used the Big 6 Model?
• Why is it important to follow steps in research and solving a problem?
• What is the advantage of following steps in research and solving problems?
• What difficulty can you encounter when following steps in research?
• How can you find ways to make the difficulty easier to bear?

The answers can be written down in their Reading notebooks

o Action – Application of Big 6 in Reading subject and other content areas. At this point, it is important to articulate the whole plan/methodology to the Reading teacher so that, the instruction of the ILSP becomes a collaborative endeavor indeed.

o Evaluation – Quizzes, included in the QT or Long Test

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

101 Filipino Icons

Got this via email from Adarna House. The book is an interesting reference guide for today's Filipino kid. Just when our children are bombarded with too much of the western world's influences, along comes a homegrown set of icons that may stir the sense of nationalism and pride.

Then again, how are Filipinos affected by the changes brought about by globalization? What makes a Filipino icon? How does one become an icon?

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Mobile Library and Library People

Nina Lim Yuson, Director of Museo Pambata and PBBY Board Member provided the PBBY with this information on their Mobile Library via email -

Curtis Lim is our Mobile Library coordinator and has been going to Mindanao for Synergeia doing storytelling workshops for teachers. At this time he and an Alitaptap member are in Camp Abubakar, then on to Upi and another town. You should hear his stories and how the kids love the sessions. One of them was seen copying a storybook word for word! Would any of you like to go with Curt to observe these sessions and write about it? I can ask Nene Guevarra. We need to tell the public what its like there.

We are looking for storytellers/ volunteers to join the mobile library on week ends..areas are around Manila.


I am posting it here in my blog to point out that while book donations are indeed good projects, and providing access to books among children is a great initiative, people who are behind it are just as important. Imagine what the Museo Pambata Mobile LIbrary would be like without Curtis Lim, Alitatap Storytellers and voulunteers?

Take note that Mr. Lim is the library coordinator of the Mobile Library. Whether or not he has a library science degree is beside the point. It would be ideal if he has though. But what matters is the presence of a person to develop and run the programs and the services of the Mobile Library.

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Books, Women and Lunch @ Abbondanza


My lucnheon with a group of Opus Dei mothers, single women and professionals, and students went well yesterday. I gave a brief talk on what Reading is from the perspective of a teacher-librarian. It also included a great deal of book talking, children's literature and starting off with a book club. I even mentioned Read Or Die as an example of a very active, if not aggressive organization of book lovers.

They will be starting off with Mitch Albom's "For One More Day" on December 1, 2007, where in I am invited to join and moderate. Hopefully, the group can move on to more book discussions in the future. Such endeavor contributes to a growing reading cuture. With the young adults in the group who will be future mothers and aunts of children, the seeds of the reading habit is being sowed.

Thursday, November 1, 2007

“A Day with Weavers of Magic” (The Repeat!)

“A Day with Weavers of Magic”(The Repeat!)
(Writing, Illustrating, and Telling Stories for Children)
November 24, 2007(Saturday)
Benitez Theater
College of Education
UP Diliman

Goal: To develop love for reading among the young
Objective: To appreciate children’s literature by being familiar with the
• process behind the creation of children’s storybooks
• different ways of storytelling that may be used in the classroom

Weavers of Magic:
“Tito Dok” Luis Gatmaitan
Palanca Hall-of-Fame Awardee for Short Story for Children
Member, Kwentista ng mga Tsikiting (KUTING)

Ruben “Totet” De Jesus
Award-winning illustrator of children’s books
President, Philippine Board on Books for Young People (PBBY)
Founding Member, Ilustrador ng Kabataan (INK)
Faculty, College of Fine Arts (UP Diliman)

Ace Elgar
Vice President, Kwentista ng mga Tsikiting (KUTING)
Member, ALITAPTAP Storytellers
Teacher, Ateneo Grade School

Zarah Gagatiga
President, Kwentista ng mga Tsikiting (KUTING)
Member, ALITAPTAP Storytellers
Head Librarian, Xavier Grade School

The registration fee for this activity is P500, which includes morning and afternoon snacks, lunch, a seminar kit, and a certificate of attendance/participation. Only a limited number of participants can be accommodated, through a first come, first served basis. A non-refundable, deductible pre-registration fee of P100 is required to reserve a slot.

For more information, text or call 0917-8581124 / 981-8500 loc 2815, email reading.diliman@gmail.com or visit the Reading Education department in Room 200, UP College of Education (Benitez Hall), Diliman, Quezon City.
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...