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?

Oh yes, Old Dumby is gay!

I promised that I will look around for more information on the Internet regarding Dumblodore's gay-ness. And Google led me to clues and news. So what now?

I can sleep happy. I was shocked at first, but thinking about it, he's one of the best gay characters I've read so far in the area of Young Adult Literature. Maybe now, young readers can look at a gay person beyond stereotypes. Being gay does not make one a lesser person. Rowling is really something.

Sights @ the 3rd Rizal Library International Conference

Here are photos from the 3rd Rizal Library International Conference, from Classroom to Career: Roadmaps to A Library's Success. Enjoy the pictures. The inisghts I gathered from the two day conference will be posted soon.

Ateneo High School Educational Media Center

I just came from a two day conference, From Classrooms to Careers : Roadmaps to a Library's Success, at the Rizal Library, Ateneo De Manila Univeristy. The conference featured professional papers and projects of librarians, researchers and scholars from the academe here and abroad. The highlight of today's conference was seeing the the Ateneno High School Educational Media Center for the first time. See the photos I took using my MacBook.

I was impressed at the reader friendly atmosphere of the Ateneo HS EMC. Most of their staff are male and that is very telling of their thrust in educating and forming "men for others". Truly, the growing male teenager has to be surrounded by positive male role models to be. At the counter, boys were assited by a male staff. The librarian who entertained us was Ronald Jess Cabunagan, a UP alum (2001) who happens to be a reader of this blog. Their AV Librarian is male too. I failed to ask Mrs. Beth Peralejo if she has female librarians and staff. From the looks of it, she's the only one and she happens to be the "big boss" too.

They have graphic novels there! Yahoo! They also have computers for their OPAC terminals and CDROM/Internet access. They are celebrating Teen Read Week since October 17, 2007 and as a way to amplify the event, they featured books and reading materials on humor and leisurely reading. To further atract the attention of their students to reading and using the library, they put up a blog and trivia contest.

Attending the conference was like getting a refresher course. It is good to be reminded of these important things in this time and age of integration and IT, but what I really need is to fortify my management skills. I have to muster enough stamina - physical, emotional, mental, psychological and spiritual to last.

Another Literary Saturday

So, Dumbledore is gay...

I just got the news via text from a friend who works for Scholastic that JK Rowling announced it so. I will still do a thorough search. HP fans, hold on to your emotions!

INFOLIB Orientation & Demo

It has been a busy day. This morning, I facilitated a workshop on storytelling for parent volunteers. In the afternoon, Chit Olivares and I presented the GS LRC's library information system software, INFOLIB, to the GS MLAs (middle level administrators).

There are five modules in the software, but only two are running so far. Mr. Gerry Laroza of the Rizal Library, Ateneo De Manila, software developer, is our consultant. Our GS principal, Mrs. Jane Natividad gave her support by issuing a memo to all MLAs that they must attend the presentation. Academic and Formation middle level coordinators came in full force.

The presentation of INFOLIB is one way to communicate the efforst of the library in its pursuance to automate its services. It is also a user education technique that will lead librarians in assessing and evaluating the project so far. Feedback from the end users will help in the improvement of the project. Next month, the GS LRC will schedule meetings with the different departments to inform tearchers of this project.

Storytelling for Parent Volunteers

Several weeks before Book Week celebration, the Early Education Department invites the GS LRC to give a Storytelling workshop-orientation for parent volunteers. Today, I facilitated the workshop to more or less 30 parents. These parents will tell stories to their son's class for thirty minutes in a given day during Book Week. Most of the parents are eager beavers who are gungho at it. There are also parents who are anxious at the mere thought of facing a room full of five year old boys.

The workshop is very simple, really, since most parent volunteers will be doing this for the first time. I give them the basic, sort of a Storytelling 101. The read aloud technique is very popular and the most easy so I provide them with other ways of telling stories. See the picture of a beagle at the right side? It's the product of a story kniffing technique. One can tell stories while drawing lines, shapes and squiggles. It's fun! Even the parents are at awe. In years past parents would turn out in their best form. I'm excited at how these batch of parents will stand and deliver.

KULAY at SALAYSAY

Intellectual Property Philippines and Ang INK will launch KULAY at SALAYSAY, an art exhibit, tomorrow, October 19, 2007, 6 PM at the Alab Art Space IPO bldg. Gil Puyat Ave., Makati. There will be a storytelling session for kids age 9-12 on Saturday, October 20, 2007. Call Trina Samaniego for details at 7525450, loc. 610.

From Classrooms to Carreers

I am attending the 3rd Rizal Library International Conference on October 22 and 23, 2007. Detiails of the conference can be viewed in the Rizal Library website.