Summary+2010

This year our focus was "new literacies".

"A **New Literacies Perspective** considers the Internet as another important technology for literacy, just like a book, a pencil, or paper. As a result, learning to effectively use the Internet becomes a literacy issue, not a technology issue." Don Leu, PhD, Co-Director New Literacies Research Team, NEAG School of Education, UConn

It's all about learning. While the traditional literacies (3R's) remain important, we no longer have a choice when it comes to providing our students with effective strategies to: identify important questions, acquire information from both print and digital formats; evaluate information for usefulness and accuracy; and produce and communicate content using the Internet and ICT's (Information and Communication Technologies). It's both the 3R's AND the 3S's: sifting, synthesizing, and sharing.

For our students to survive and thrive academically, emotionally, and socially, they must be guided by caring, committed educators to learn both offline AND online. ** [|Alan November] ** wonderfully summarizes what I believe MUST be integrated into instruction when working with students to increase their information literacy and gain proficiency using the Internet and ICT's to: We strive to empower students for success. Our goals are to ensure that students are competent, critical, and ethical users AND producers of information.We recognize the crucial need to ignite a passion and intrinsic love of reading (offline AND online) in students, while integrating the goals and standards of the **[|Connecticut Information and Technology Literacy]** curriculum into our instruction.
 * develop global empathy by connecting and sharing with others from diverse, distant places
 * behave socially and ethically when using the web
 * understand the permanence of information posted online
 * critically think about information found online

__**2009 - 2010 at SIS**__

Updated laptop carts and fully equipped cluster computer labs supported student research and creativity. Students produced online multimedia posters using Glogster, told digital stories using VoiceThread, created online note cards and bibliographies using NoodleBib, and collaboratively brainstormed research topics online using Wallwisher. Students also relied on media for collaborative and independent learning across the curriculum using the Internet, subscription databases, and software such as Geometers Sketchpad, Inspiration, PowerPoint, Excel, and Word.

Students in their classrooms using laptops and in the cluster labs continue to use virtual library services through our collaboratively-developed cluster wiki pathfinders, through our databases, and the other resources our SIS LMC wiki provides, as well as through my increasing visits to classrooms. We also deliver carts of materials to classrooms that request them.

Our library media center is very fortunate to be staffed with Geri Garrity, our wonderfully able library media paraprofessional. She is particularly effective at making our students feel welcome in our library. Because of her efforts, I am able to spend far more time working directly with teachers and learners.
 * Integration of Web 2.0 tools into curriculum**
 * We explored student uses of Web 2.0 tools for assessment and creating projects that involved researching, writing, reflection, sharing, and collaboration. Some of our work included Glogster for vector borne disease prevention posters and cultural study family vacation planners; Google Doc/Forms for science surveys; Weebly for poetry webpages; VoiceThread for digital book reviews and Internet safety guides; and NoodleBib for source citation and note taking.
 * Our cluster wikis supported student learning by providing students with 24/7 access to project resources, both at school and at home, as evidenced by the ** over 57,000 ** wiki page views!
 * Collaboration with content area teachers and media specialist**
 * We successfully integrated authentic information and technology literacy opportunities for our grade 7 and 8 students across all disciplines, which include: math, science, social studies, language arts, whole languages, and technology education. The range of topics covered were:
 * Internet Safety
 * American Revolution Patriots
 * Immigration
 * Literary Reviews
 * Writing Personal Narratives
 * Persuasive Writing
 * Statistics
 * Bridges
 * Vector Borne Diseases
 * Great Scientists
 * Earth Day
 * Renewable Energy
 * Scientific Inquiry using River City, a virtual world technology product
 * Cultural Study of Spanish, Italian, or French speaking country
 * Viet Nam
 * Short Story Analysis of Literary Elements
 * Year 3 of analyzing the SIS book collection and executing a systematic improvement plan to improve the average copyright age to 10 years or less. This will be a multi-year initiative.**
 * We continued collection management efforts across all areas to remove age-sensitive books with misleading information, as well as books that had not circulated for more than five years and that had copyright dates over 15 years. New book purchases and online database subscriptions have been prioritized to meet curriculum needs and student interests.
 * A partial collection inventory (equipment, reference, professional, video, and fiction) was completed to facilitate further analysis, improve functionality of automated library system, and inform revisions to our collection improvement plan.
 * Ensured all books are consistently labeled and cataloged and tagged shelving to support independent student location and access of resources.**
 * Students and staff borrowed **over 13,000** books and videos from our collection.

Respectfully, Mrs. Terry McCabe SIS Media Specialist

Home Curriculum Map General Program Stats and Admin