World Read Aloud Day 2014: Zoe's Book Talk

I am re-posting this today, World Read Aloud Day, to celebrate not only the power of words in reading them aloud but also for the empowered child when he/she reads aloud.

When my daughter was 10 years old, she had difficulty reading. Her love for learning pushed her to go beyond her difficulties. Here is a recorded video which she took using my iPod back in 2010. She book talked an I Spy book and walked the listener through the end. English is her second language, thus the numerous grammar mistakes in her telling. Proof that she is learning a language foreign to her.

Collection Development for School Libraries in the 21st Century

Reading Advocacy

I just ended a whole day seminar-workshop on Reading Advocacy Through Effective School Library Services. The event was sponsored by Scholastic Philippines for school librarians who are subscribers to their Assessment in Education Program (AEP). It's a sustained reading inventory cum reading skills development program and librarians are part and parcel of its implementation. There were fourteen participants from school libraries in Manila and Batangas. In the first part of workshop, we looked at the changing roles of school librarians. For this, I turned to the ever reliable IFLA-UNESCO School Library Manifesto, Koechley (1997), Danielson (2007) and Kuhlthau (1997).

IFLA - UNESCO School Library Manifesto Staff The school librarian is the professionally qualified staff member responsible for planning and managing the school library, supported by as adequate staffing as possible, working together with all members of the school community, and liaising with the public library and others. The role of school librarians will vary according to the budget and the curriculum and teaching methodology of the schools, within the national legal and financial framework. Within specific contexts, there are general areas of knowledge that are vital if school librarians are to develop and operate effective school library services: resource, library, and information management and teaching. In an increasingly networked environment, school librarians must be competent in planning and teaching different information-handling skills to both teachers and students. Therefore they must continue their professional training and development Source: http://archive.ifla.org/VII/s11/pubs/manifest.htm

Roles of librarians (Danielson, 2007):
* Create an inviting physical and emotional environment;
* Promote a culture for the quest of knowledge;
* Coordinate with teachers of the school and serve as resource persons;
* Maintain and extend the library's collection;

THE SCHOOL LIBRARIAN'S ROLE IS COMPLEX AND WIDE RANGING - Danielson, 2007

School librarians are (Koechley, 1997):
* Instructional Consultants - collaborators who assist teachers in instructional design
* Life Long Readers - models of the reading culture and acquisition of knowledge
* Information Gatekeepers - managers, creators and communicators of information and technology Kuhlthau identified the roles a librarian play when conducting information literacy sessions and providing readers services.
* Organizer - arranges and manages resources; creates a user-friendly, self-service environment that leads to independent study.
* Lecturer - provides tours and orientation sessions focusing on the location and access of resources.
* Instructor - provides one or a series of cooperatively planned lessons on information sources and references arising from classroom activities tailored to students' needs.
* Tutor - provides one-on-one session with a student or a group of student on specialized information needs.
* Counselor - confers with the students in the provision of cognitive and behavioral support (Reading Guidance / Bibliotherapy / Research Mentor ) focusing on the process and seeing the product as part of the construction of knowledge and positive well-being.

In the afternoon, we discussed reading, technology and reading advocacy activities. There will be another session next week and, learning form today's session, I will sure make some changes since there will be more participants next week. So, if your school subscribes to Scholastic Philippines' AEP, do attend. See you there!

Zoe's Booktalk: I Spy

My ten year old daughter, Zoe, recorded a video of one of her favorite book and talks (and walks) you through it! She did say one time that she wants to be a librarian in the future.



She's an ESL (English as a Second Language) learner. Her errors are music to my ears.

Picture! Picture!

My Story Our World

We are surrounded with news. Some are good. Some are bad. 

Our world is full of stories. Some are good. Some are bad.

Rachelle Escaravage and James Connolly choose to tell the good stories of this world and drum up positive news to people from Timbuktu, to Nepal, to practically all over the globe. Armed with big back packs and even bigger courage, they flew in to Manila last week to film Sambat Trust's charity-advocacy project in Tanauan, Batangas. According to the duo, this project has been the most fun and easy given the warmth and hospitality they got from their Filipino host.

They visited two libraries that Sambat Trust spear headed to establish and interviewed the people behind the project. They met Ms. Ergoe Tinio, Marketing Associate of Adarna House and talked about the status of literacy and publishing in the Philippines today. The duo learned about the book-matching grant that Scholastic Book Fairs Philippines have been organizing when they met Ms. Enoy Feriol of Scholastic Book Fairs Philippines. At the end of their four day stay, Rachelle and James had six hours of footage and taped interviews to edit and compress into a quick five minute video that would showcase Sambat Trust's journey of helping underprivileged kids have a library of that they can call their own in their school and community.  

It's been an honor to witness how these two professional journalists work! Listening to Rachelle interview the teachers, students, principals and people from the children's book publishing industry was an edifying experience. From the many travels they have made in the past years, they have been touched by so many inspiring stories. Their role is to pass it on. 

Visit their site, My Story Our World for samples of the web videos they've done so far.

On the Wings of Literacy

Been riding on the wings of literacy the past few weeks and here are some pics to share with you!

At Hope Christian High School's preschool department during the opening of Literacy Week. There were storytelling sessions by Jay Menes courtesy of Adarna House.

Visiting storyteller, Gcina Mhelope-Becker, of South Africa gave a workshop on telling folk tales, personal and family stories, and contemporary stories at Museo Pambata. She was riveting! Her experiences of growing up in a Zulu tribe in South Africa provided exotic setting to her stories. Her version of the folk tale, The Tortoise that Fell From the Sky is insightful and moving because it speaks of the success of a fallen leader. 

From a cautionary tale, Gcina fashioned the folk tale to a modern story of leadership and facing up to one's mistakes but, with the wisdom on what to make of the failure into a learning experience. 

The Scholastic Warehouse in Pasig City opened its doors to the public via a sale that offered big, big discounts. I was fortunate to see their new showroom/library. I had the opportunity to meet their new team of Book Fairs specialist and exchanged ideas with them on the importance of reading and libraries.

A teacher from Valenzuela shares her Reading beliefs in a seminar I conducted on libraries being an agency of literacy development.

And just yesterday, I had a long, but substantial lecture on Literacy Campaigns at the National Library of the Philippines with teachers, teacher-librarians and school librarians from the National Capitol Region. Most of them came from the public school system and are no stranger to literacy activities and strategies. So, I presented collaborative and integrative literacy campaigns done by Sambat Trust, Sa Aklat Sisikat, Room to Read, the PBBY, MyLibrary Project of Filipinas Heritage Library, Early Readers Online, etc. The forum was sponsored by the Children's Literature Association of the Philippines. 

The UN declared 2003-2012 as the Literacy Decade. What have you been doing to encourage reading and the understanding of literature to kids and young adults?

Scholastic Opens Library & Showroom

Scholastic Christmas Book Sale

I'm dropping by the Scholastic Christmas Book Sale for delightfully discounted books. Books make great gifts this Christmas and this sale is perfect!

I hope to meet Enoy Ferriol at Scholastic Warehouse as well for the Sambat Trust - Scholastic matching book grant initiative we've started at Wawa Elementary School. We're targeting two thousand five hundred books and we've stocked up a thousand and five. A thousand more to go!


The Scholastic Book Sale started last December 1, 2010 and will end on December 10, 2010.

I won! I won! I won!

Not in the grand lotto.

But in the Harry Potter Giveaway contest at Sumthinblue's. 

Harry Potter Moments

I just joined a Harry Potter contest over at Bookmarked. Blooey Singson, the blog's owner, is  a huge Harry Potter fan so she's celebrating and giving away prizes in time for the movie. Though she says she won't watch it. But, if you're a Potterite like me, head on to her blog and see that many of us are up to no good! Kidding.

Here are my Harry Potter Memories.

HP Moment #1 - It was 2001 when I was at the height of my Potter obsession. I was pregnant with our youngest when I finished reading HP 4. In between 2001-2002, I bought Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages to while away the time waiting for Book 5. That school year, I was moderator of the Book Club. I had fifteen grade 5-6 boys combined. Not all of them were readers. They could read, but they're very selective at what to read. Thick chapter books with very few illustrations are a no-no.

Nonetheless, I urged them to read any of the HP series in preparation for Battle of the Books. They did and some even went as far as researching online. I had prepared my own set of activities to monitor their reading speed and space. On Battle of the Books day, we had FUN! As a wrap up activity, I had a write-the-author activity.

Yep. We dared write to JK Rowling!

I placed all of their letters in one big envelope and included mine as cover letter. I mailed it by snail to Scholastic New York. This was around Nov. or early Dec. of 2001.

On February 2002, Scholastic sent us sixteen letters and photos with JK Rowling's autograph!

I know it came from the publicist, or some marketing-PR person in Scholastic New York, but the important thing is, they answered back! My boys and I were on cloud nine. A good number of them became HP fans to this day.

HP Moment #2 - On the day HP 7 was released, I bought my copy at the Scholastic warehouse in Pasig City. I bought two copies actually - one for me and one for my friend, Mona Dy. It was my payback to her for something I owed. She claimed to have no memory at all on the debt.

HP Moment #3 - In the summer of 2008, my son has turned twelve and by the time school started in June, he has finished reading HP 3 - my favorite book in the series.

Looking back at the years when I was crazy over Harry made me realize that my HP moments extend beyond acquiring the books. It made me share reading magic to my students, my friend and my son. It made JK Rowling real to me as her publisher sent a letter recognizing our love for her writing and the books she created. There is love and wonder during those years that spanned age differences and geographic location. Books can do that. And if it is not magic, tell me what is?