Cited @ Filipina Soul

Being cited in another blog or website is like a pat on the back, well, if the citation is followed by kind and generous words. SLIA is mentioned in Filipina Soul and it validates the very reason for this blog's being.

I should put back Jonas Diego's YAN ANG PINAY logo.

The Filipino Child and Filipino Children's Literature

SCBWI Philasis presents --
Lara Saguisag on "The Filipino Child and Filipino Children's Literature"
When : 6 to 8 pm Monday 2008 January 7
Where : Fully Booked, Bonifacio HIgh Street, The Fort At The Forum on the 4th level, right on top of Starbucks
Host : Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators

Lara Saguisag will explore notions of childhood and "Filipino-ness" in Philippine literature for children, and will focus on locally published books. She will talk about different elements of the book, such as style, subject choice, book covers, and even cost of books, and see how texts and illustrations reveal our conception of children as subjects and readers.

Bio : Lara Saguisag's most recent book is Children of Two Seasons: Poems for Young People (Anvil). She
also co-edited Nine Supernatural Stories (UP Press) with April Yap. Her poems for children received the 2006 New School Writing Program Chapbook Series Award. She is a Presidential Fellow at Rutgers University, where she is completing her PhD in Childhood Studies. She is a founding member of KUTING (Kwentista ng Mga Tsikiting), a group of writers for children.

This event is open to SCBWI members and non-members, published or unpublished writers or illustrators for children or young adults, and those who have a keen interest in children's literature.

Fee : P100, for SCBWI members P80. Limited seats, first come first served. Come early, browse through the store and immerse yourself in books beforehand!

For details, contact :
Beaulah Taguiwalo or
Dominique Torres (Nikki) < nikkigtorres@ yahoo.com>

KUTING Workshop: The Art of the Magic Weavers.

KUTING Workshop: The Art of the Magic Weavers

Resource persons are: Dr. Luis Gatmaitan, Prof. Heidi Abad and Ms. Lara Saguisag. This shall be held on January 12, 2008, at Room 204, College of Education, Benitez Hall at U.P. Diliman.

Workshop Fee: Php1,000. For details, pls. contact AGAY (09178116961) or ZARAH (09209602884) or email them at the ff. addresses: zarah.gagatiga@gmail.com/ allanera@yahoo.com.

My December Daze

December is a month that would leave me confused and crazy. All work and deadlines seem to snowball at the last month of the year and on top of it all is the perfunctory celebration of Christmas. Every year, I find myself dutifully going through the motions of preparing for parties, parties and more parties. At last, on Christams day, I take a sigh of relief to finally have accomplished something far more important. That is, to celebrate Christmas simply and more meaningfully.

I did go Christmas shopping but my budget was so tight, it could rival Scrooge's. No, I did not go around work and home scolding people "Bah! Hambug!". Instead, I greeted them with smiles and cheers inspite of and despite of. So here are pictures from a very busy December. I thank God, why despite of my miseries and problems, I still could manage to be grateful. To read the captions, just lead your cursor to the picture.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Writers as Bloggers

Award winning fictionist and essayist, Ian Casoscot wrote a paper on Literary Blogging. It's a neat feat for Ian who was only given ten minutes to present it during the Philippine Center of International PEN's 50th Anniversary at the National Museum last Saturday, December 8, 2007.

The question now is, what is blogging to Filipino Librarians who blog?

Cited!

Writer Lara Saguisag and I are cited at Web Watching with Zoe. And Von's Filipino Librarian was mentioned too.

The Boy Who Touched Heaven

Book Review of The Boy Who Touched Heaven story by Iris Gem Li, illustrations by Serg Bumatay III. Published by CANVAS & Adarna House, Copyright 2007

When Heaven Is Close Enough To Touch
By Zarah Gagatiga

So the saying goes that a picture paints a thousand words.

Last year, CANVAS, a non-stock, non-profit organization dedicated to promoting awareness in appreciation of Philippine art, culture and the environment, and Ang INK (Ilustrador ng Kabataan ), the first and only organization of Filipino illustrators for children in the country, selected artist and illustrator Sergio Bumatay III to render a painting that would serve as the inspiration for an original children’s story that would celebrate Philippine environment and culture.

Bumatay’s piece was then used to call on writers from all over the Philippines to enter CANVAS’ first Elias Dakila Chidren’s Storywriting Competion on Environment and Culture.

With a little help from the eighth Wonder of the World – the Banaue Rice Terraces Iris Gem Li, a young Business Adminstration student from the University of the Philippines, was adjudged the winner as she shaped a story about an Ifugao boy who dreams of touching heaven. Smitten by the heavenly bodies that adorn the sky during the day and at night, the Ifugao boy thought of ways to make his dream a reality. Li’s telling of the young Ifugao’s adventures and mishap is both funny and ridiculous. Child readers would find this appealing since their natural response to humor is still unblemished by life’s ironies and realities. The young Ifugao is the epitome of every child, curious, daring, irrepressible, unafraid, makulit.

Aptly titled as The Boy Who Touched Heaven, the story goes beyond the fulfillment of a young boy’s whim and fancy. It resonates to older readers as well, particularly to adults because; it carries a theme that bespeak one of life’s many tenets – that what we perceive as an unreachable heaven is right in our very own home. Indeed, finding one’s happiness and rediscovering the simple but lasting joys that family and home can offer is as close to touching heaven.

Apart from the theme, the humor and the plot that is easy to follow, and the storybook is truly a delightful read because of the cultural elements presented in the colorful and playful illustrations of Bumatay. Readers, young and old, need to know and see more of the country’s ethnic tribes, their children and their culture, for they are part of what makes this nation great. Bumatay‘s colors are as vivid as the brave Ifugaos’ woven cloths; as alive as the region’s dangerous, but beautiful landscape. The artwork’s authentic detail further enriches the cultural experience as he included little items that are unique to the Ifugao such as the necklace of beads, the nose flute and the ornament worn on the head by male Ifugaos.
Here’s looking forward to more culturally inspiring stories in the future.

CANVAS, now in its third year of advocating Philippine culture and the arts through books with stories written and illustrated by some of the country’s best young artists and writers, co-published The Boy Who Touched Heaven with Adarna House, the leading publisher of storybooks for children today, and Ang INK. The story may be read online at the CANVAS website (www.canvas.ph), and is available in bookstores nationwide.

Zarah Gagatiga is a school librarian. She is currently the coordinator of the Grade School Learning Resource Center of Xavier School. She is a board member of the Philippine Board on Books for Young People (PBBY) representing the sector for librarians. Visit her blog at http://lovealibrarian.blogspot.com.

Tribute to Rene Villanueva

The children's literature industry in the Philippines gave a loving and memorable tribute to Mr. Rene O. Villanueva last night at Sanctuarium. Read Augie Rivera's eulogy here and get a sneak peak of highlights of the tribute here.

Goodbye, Rene! It is now up to us, those you've left behind, to continue your legacy.

The Passing of a Magic Weaver

Rene O. Villanueva, writer and playwright passed away last December 5, 2007. His remains lie in state at the Sanctuarium on Araneta Avenue corner Quezon Avenue. Villanueva has won international awrads and critcal acclaim as Filipino writer of children's literature.

He has 20 Palanca Awards to his name; honorary member of KUTING; and a TOYM and TOYP awardee. He was 53 years old.

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 Loans

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

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!

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!

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.

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

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?

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.

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.

“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.

Wild & Crazy Librarians

Among the many things that struck me from the 3rd Rizal Library Conference, From Classroom to Career: Roadmaps to a Library's Success, it was Anne Riedling's 5 Little Rules With Big Impact that I consider as the most inspiring. She gave these simple rules to live by-

1.Lighten up! ☺
2. Say Thank you ☺
3. Take Care of yourself ☺
4. Do something wild and crazy ☺
5. Make an active choice ☺

Librarians have so much work to finish; so many issues to settle; so many concerns to contend with that often, stereotypes arise from such seriousness. But really, librarians are a lot of fun! Unless a more positive attitude is adapted, people who are outside the circle will always perceive librarians as lifeless, useless and boring. To quote another speaker from the same conference, librarians who do not break the mould run the risk of being categorized as a "non performing asset". Not a good perception of librarians at all.

Days before attending the Rizal Library conference, I've "bullied" my librarians to a chamber theatre style of storytelling for our preschool students in the Early Education Department (EED). At that time, the teachers in the EED were planing Book Week and Pet Week celebrations. They wanted to treat the preschoolers to a week long literacy activities and an awareness for the care of animals. How did the librarians take the "bulying"? There were apprehensions and anxieties, of course, since not all are comfortable telling stories. It does take a lot of guts to tell, besides. But chamber theatre is one technique where everyone has a part to play. Big or small, the task contributes to the overall result. It is a team effort. And yes, it can be fun too!

So, after adapting the script (thanks to Dianne delas Casas)of a well loved and familiar fable, The Ant and The Grasshopper, all four of us sat down and discussed. A new and a more detailed script included the background, music and a video clip. We had no time to practice since I was out for two days. I was assured that even in my absence, the rest of the team delivered. And they did, true enough. They may have had worries and felt the nervousness all over, but I know I can always depend on them. On the day of the performance, everything fell into place. There were little slips in the first session, but in a live perfromance, it is expected. I'm proud at how we all contributed to the work. The boys had fun and I suppose, the teachers had their share of laughs and amusement too.

What wild and crazy things can we do next?