Civic Education with Kidizenship

Posted on March 29, 2021 by Judi Moreillon

I believe that civic education has never been more important than it is today. In January just before President Biden was inaugurated, the Arizona Daily Star (Tucson’s daily newspaper) asked readers to submit what they expect for the next four years. My letter to the editor was published in the Star on January 20, 2021:

Civic Education Expectations for the Next Four Years

“A democracy must be reborn anew every generation, and education is its midwife.” – John Dewey

Many educators across the U.S. are reconsidering how to teach civic education in our K-12 schools, colleges, and universities. It is clear that youth and adults alike need:

to hear an unambiguous message about the critical importance of voting in a participatory democracy and a clear understanding of the electoral process;
to know the provisions of the First Amendment and be able to make a distinction between free speech and hate speech;
to know how to engage in civil dialogue and learn to have respectful conversations about controversial topics; and
to learn multiple ways to positively and nonviolently enact change in classrooms, schools, and communities.

It is my fervent hope that civic education for youth and adults alike will lead to a national electoral process that honors the votes of all citizens and is characterized by confidence and trust in our democratic process.

Kidizenship
You might imagine that I was thrilled to learn shortly thereafter about a new (to me) civic education organization called Kidizenship. Kidizenship was founded by Vanderbilt University professor and Bloomberg columnist, Amanda Little.

From a grades 5-12 perspective, I especially appreciate their motto: “You may be too young to vote, but your voice is powerful. We want to hear it. Enter a contest, Show us YOUR America.”

Designed for tweens and teens, Kidizenship is a non-partisan, non-profit media platform for youth to share their voices beyond the classroom. The combination of civics education with creative self-expression and community action is especially powerful.

Speech Contests
Kidizenship is using social media to promote and share their contests. Their latest nationwide creative civics contest invites 8- to 18-year-olds to compose and perform a 2-to 3-minute presidential speech. For the “Make Your Speech” contest, young people are asked to step into the Oval Office and take on the responsibility of serving as President of the United States. They are to tell their constituents about their vision and values for our country and what they will accomplish in the next 4 years.

The contest is co-hosted by YMCA Youth and Government programs nationwide and will be judged by actor Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Obama White House speechwriter Jon Favreau, Representative Will Hurd of Texas, and civic leader Baratunde Thurston. The deadline for submitting speeches is April 16^th.

This contest will be judged in two age categories 8-12 and 13-18. There are cash prizes for first-, second-, and third-place winners.

Classroom-Library Collaboration Opportunity
Classroom teachers (civics, ELA, history, social studies, and more) and school librarians can collaborate to plan and implement a mini-research (or inquiry if you have more time) and writing series of lesson plans to support students in developing, recording, and submitting their speeches. The connections between classroom curriculum standards and a host of digital and information literacy standards is limitless. Plus the open-ended nature of the project supports student voice and choice.

Research could include listening to and analyzing presidential speeches in terms of the vision and values they represent. Here are two of many possibilities.

The American Rhetoric Speech Bank has a searchable database that includes many U.S. presidents’ speeches—both recordings and transcripts.
The Library of Congress has recordings of historical presidential speeches with an accompanying lesson plan.

Writing, Presenting, and Recording

Students could collectively brainstorm and discuss their visions for the country as well as the values on which their visions are founded.
As they are composing their speeches, students’ peers and both educators can offer writing conferences to help speechwriters hone their ideas and fine-tune their speeches.
In small groups, students can present their speeches orally to classmates and seek feedback before polishing, video capturing, and submitting their speeches.

And if you are ambitious, you could organize your own local contest to complement the one sponsored by Kidizenship.

I look forward to hearing the speeches of the winners and following Kidizenship’s future opportunities to expand civic education beyond the classroom, the library, and out into the community.

SCBWI-Arizona Showcase and Please Don’t Give Me a Hug! Preview

Posted on March 22, 2021 by Judi Moreillon

I have been a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) since my first children’s book was published in 1997. File folders full of rejection letters aside, I have been lucky to have found publishing homes for three additional books during the intervening years. You can read about those on the Children’s Books and Sites Page on my Storytrail website.

This coming Saturday, March 27, I will be joining author Dawn Young, author-illustrator Nate Evans, and illustrator Jim Paillot to participate in a virtual SCBWI-AZ Author Showcase and Q&A.

Thank you to Laura Ellen and Dianne White, SCBWI-Arizona PAL coordinators. The Spotlight Zoom will involve us in introducing ourselves and our books and provide members of the children’s books writing community the opportunity to get answers to their general publishing questions.

Please Don’t Give Me a Hug! and a Spanish edition ¡Por favor, ¡no me abraces! were first published as a donation on the Make Way for Books (MWFB) app. MWFB Arizona is an early literacy nonprofit that provides proven programs, services, and resources to 30,000 young children, parents, and educators throughout southern Arizona each year. Their mission is to give all children the chance to read and succeed.

Check it out: If you are writing for infants, toddlers, preschool children and their families, you should know that MWFB currently has a call for submissions, open until March 31^st.

Thanks to Star Bright Books, my Please Don’t Give Me a Hug! story will be published as a board book, available for distribution at the end of April. MWFB gave me back the rights to the story. In exchange, I am donating a portion of the proceeds from the e-book to MWFB. Win-win-win.

Meeting Star Bright Books publisher Deborah Shine was an amazing coincidence and gift of encouragement for my passion for writing for children. Way back in 2002, I ran into my neighbor and children’s book author and illustrator Ron Himler in the produce section of our grocery store. Ron told me the story behind his newly released picture book Six Is So Much Less than Seven.

I asked him to send me a copy and promised I would review it. Ron loved my review and shared it with his publisher, Deborah Shine, who invited me to review books for Star Bright. After I shared a copy of my first published book with Deborah, she asked if I had others. I recited Read to Me, a poem I has written for then Tucson Public Library’s Project L.I.F.T., Literacy Involves Families Together. The poem, written for the teen parents who participated in that project, fit perfectly with Star Bright’s mission.

The poem became the board book Read to Me, which has since been published in English, Spanish, bilingual Spanish/English, Vietnamese/English, and Haitian Creole/English. The book has sold some 150,000 copies mostly to early childhood and family literacy programs. The first organization to purchase and distribute the book widely was… you guessed it… Make Way for Books.

Note: Star Bright Books publishes books for young children in 25 different languages. All of Star Bright’s bilingual books display the heritage language first on the page followed by English. For the last twenty years, Deborah Shine and Star Bright’s commitment to diversity in language and culture in both text and illustrations is admirable and all too rare among publishers of books for young people.

Working with Deborah Shine and the team at Star Bright Books has been a wonder. I am thrilled to be working with them again to promote Please Don’t Give Me a Hug!

Estelle Corke painted the child-friendly illustrations for the book. As an author who cannot draw, I am especially grateful when the illustrations for the stories I write include diverse characters in terms of race, ethnicity, sex, age, and ability. Thank you, Estelle, and Star Bright!

Although I receive a tremendous sense of accomplishment and satisfaction from publishing professional books for school librarians and classroom teachers, there is a slightly different quality to my feelings about the books for children and families that are published with my name on the cover.

Knowing that a child, parent, older sibling, grandparent, childcare provider, teacher, librarian, and others may at any given moment be reading one of my books to a young person… well, for me, it just doesn’t get much better than that!

I hope you will join us on Saturday, March 27, 2021, and share our love of publishing books for children. The Showcase is free and open to all. If you are able and interested in joining us, go to the online registration form.

School Librarians and the COVID Slide

Posted on March 15, 2021 by Judi Moreillon

We know that youth who do not achieve proficient literacy skills face serious academic and lifelong challenges. The 2019 National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) “average reading scores for students at both grades 4 and 8 were lower in 2019 compared to 2017” (https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/highlights/reading/2019/). Students who do not meet grade-level reading benchmarks can be retained; some may be placed in special education classes. They will likely struggle in the content areas especially after third grade when reading informational texts becomes more prominent in their schooling. Some non-readers will drop out of high school and not reach their potential for a successful life.

Reading proficiency matters!

COVID Slide
A Stanford University study report released last week indicates that based on an oral fluency test, first- through fourth-graders nationwide largely stopped progressing in this measure of reading proficiency in spring 2020 after COVID-19 school closures. The researchers also note that second- and third-grade students reading fluency is now approximately 30 percent behind what would be expected in an academic typical year (https://ed.stanford.edu/news/new-stanford-study-sheds-light-how-much-learning-young-students-have-lost-during-stages).

Although we do not yet know the full impact of school closures on K-12 students’ overall reading proficiency, we can be fairly certain that what we have traditionally called the “summer slide,” reading loss over the summer break, was exacerbated by school and school library closures, remote and hybrid learning, or students’ absence from formal schooling. Once all students are back in the classroom this spring and next fall, the “COVID slide” may be the next great challenge for educators.

School Librarian’s Role in Reading: Book Promotion
It is not surprising the correlational research for several decades has linked the presence and work of a state-certified school librarian with students’ higher reading achievement scores on standardized tests (Lance and Kachel 2018). Of course, there will be an essential role for school librarians in working with administrators, classroom teacher colleagues, reading specialists, and families to revive a culture of reading in their schools when students return to face-to-face schooling. Through progressive collection development that includes curating diverse books and resources and promotion, school librarians will provide displays, booktalks, book trailers, and other strategies to market books and promote reading.

We have traditionally excelled at leading our students, faculty, and families in schoolwide literacy events and initiatives such as read-a-thons, read-ins, poetry slams, battle of the books, book clubs, and more. Initiatives like Project Lit, student-let book clubs may be strengthened by in-person connections among readers and face-to-face as well as online discussions of diverse books. (See the 2020-2021 Project Lit book selections.)

All of these activities are important work,
and school librarian leaders can do more.

Don’t Sell Your Skill Set Short
The American Association of School Librarians Position Statement on The School Librarian’s Role in Reading (2020) aligns the six shared foundations of the National Library Standards for Learners, School Librarians, and School Libraries (AASL 2018) with the many ways school librarians guide students as they develop reading proficiency.

I published an article in the January/February issue of Teacher Librarian, “Literacy Learning Leaders Don’t Sell Their Skill Set Short.” In the article, I reinforce how school librarians can work solo, in coordination, or in collaboration with classroom teachers and specialists to shore up students’ reading comprehension strategies.

“Learning and practicing reading comprehension strategies is the readers’ pathway to being critical users of ideas and information” (Moreillon 2021, 23). Students who know how to select and apply comprehension strategies have a skill set that helps them make sense of difficult and unfamiliar texts. This figure appears on page 23 in the Teacher Librarian article.

Figure 1. Questions to Support Teaching Reading Comprehension Strategies

Reading Comprehension Strategies	Sample Questions
Activating or Building Background Knowledge	What are your connections to the images or information on the book cover? What do you already know about this topic, author, or illustrator, or what do you need to find out before you read?
Using Sensory Images	What pictures are you making in your mind as you read/listen to this book? What other senses are you using, such as hearing, taste, or touch, to make meaning from this text?
Questioning	What questions would you ask the author or illustrator if they were here? What questions do you have about this topic or information?
Making Predictions/Drawing Inferences	Based on what you have read in this book so far, what do you think will happen next and why do you think that? What can you infer the author means based on your background knowledge combined with the evidence in this text?
Determining Main Ideas	What is the main idea the author wants readers to take away from this book? What do you think is the main idea in this paragraph, chapter, or section of this text?
Using Fix-up Options	Since you have lost the comprehension thread for this book, will re-reading a paragraph, chapter, or section help you regain it? How does reconnecting with your purpose for reading help you make sense of this text?
Synthesizing	What connections are you making to other books by this author or illustrator or on this topic? What other texts can you consult to help you verify the information in this text?

Coteaching Reading Comprehension in Elementary and Secondary School Libraries
I have published two books to support school librarians in learning or reviewing these seven reading comprehension strategies that can be taught and practiced through the library program during storytimes, literature circles, and inquiry learning.

Each book contains background information on the strategies and twenty-one sample lessons plans applied at three levels of reading proficiency. School librarians and their collaborators can adapt the lessons for the students in their care and the resources available to them.

Coteaching Reading Comprehension Strategies in Elementary School Libraries: Maximizing Your Impact (2013) happens to be currently on sale.

Coteaching Reading Comprehension Strategies in Secondary School Libraries: Maximizing Your Impact (2012) is currently available at the regular price.

“No subject of study is more important than reading…
All other intellectual powers depend on it.”
Jacques Barzun

While there is no doubt technology and other opportunity gaps will continue to plague our students, we must succeed in our mission to help every student become an effective, efficient and joyful reader.

Let’s work with our colleagues to stop and reverse the COVID slide!

Works Cited

American Association of School Librarians. 2020. Position Statement on the School Librarian’s Role in Reading. Available at http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/advocacy/statements/docs/AASL_Position_Statement_RoleinReading_2020-01-25.pdf

Lance, Keith Curry, and Debra Kachel. 2018. “Why School Librarians Matter: What Years of Research Tell Us.” Phi Delta Kappan Online. Available at http://www.kappanonline.org/lance-kachel-school-librarians-matter-years-research/

Moreillon, Judi. 2021. “Literacy Learning Leaders Don’t Sell Their Skill Set Short.” Teacher Librarian 48 (3): 22-27.

Nation’s Report Card. 2020. NAEP Report Card: 2019 Reading Assessment. Available at https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/highlights/reading/2019/

Stanford Graduate School of Education. 2021. “New Stanford study sheds light on how much learning young students have lost during stages of the pandemic.” (March 9). Stanford.edu. Available at https://ed.stanford.edu/news/new-stanford-study-sheds-light-how-much-learning-young-students-have-lost-during-stages

Slide created with image:
Prettysleepy. “Books Library Education.” Pixabay.com, https://pixabay.com/illustrations/books-library-education-knowledge-5430104/

Literacy Partners Become Advocates

Posted on March 8, 2021 by Judi Moreillon

For as long as I’ve been in the profession (30+ years), advocacy has been a hot topic in school librarianship. Unfortunately, far too often we start our advocacy efforts when school librarian positions are threatened, library budgets are slashed, or scheduling changes inhibit students’ access to the resources of the school library or the expertise of the school librarian.

To ward off these threats to a complete and equitable education for our students, school librarians must be in a continuous cycle of marketing, public relations, and advocacy.

Data Sources
Marketing involves listening to and learning from our library stakeholders. We must understand their needs as well as their perceptions of how the librarian and the library program can help them meet their needs. School librarians often engage stakeholders in surveys to collect these data. Once collected, we analyze the results and make the appropriate changes to our programs.

There are, however, other sources of data that can also guide our school library program decisions. The International Reading Association (ILA) conducts a biennial “What’s Hot in Literacy Survey.” Comparing this larger data set and national trends and initiatives in education to our own local data collection can further guide our program decisions.

The 2019 ILA survey results appeared in a 2020 report that points to three actions school librarians can take to demonstrate how their work helps elevate the literacy learning of students and positions them as literacy partners with classroom teacher colleagues, administrators, and families.

I wrote about these school librarian contributions in my hot-off-the-presses Literacy Today article “School Librarians as Literacy Partners: Taking Action on the What’s Hot in Literacy Report” (2021).

Early Literacy Skills Instruction
Elementary school librarians are in a position to influence outcomes for preschool children in their learning community. In many cities across the country, various governmental and non-governmental bodies are taking up the charge for high-quality early childhood education. Research has shown that children’s positive preschool learning experience put them on a path for academic and life success (U.S. Department of Education).

Here are three examples of supporting preschool children from my own practice as an elementary school librarian (two schools) and literacy coach (one school).

At Corbett Elementary (1994-1997), I offered preschool storytimes for the Head Start program that met on our campus. We also earned a grant to create literacy backpacks. Each backpack included at least one book, a journal, a toy or other prop, and literacy learning information for Head Start families.
At Gale Elementary (1997-2001), I was a half-time librarian with a full-time assistant. At first, she and I collaborated to plan a weekly storytime and book checkout for the developmental preschool program held on our campus. In a short time, our assistant offered this service on a day when I was not on campus.
At Van Buskirk Elementary (2001-2002), I served as the literacy coach. The Spanish-speaking community liaison and I offered a before-school family literacy program for parents. After they escorted their school-age children to their classrooms, we held a storytime and book-making, or other literacy learning experience for parents and preschool-age children.

Equity and Opportunity for All Learners
Equity continues to be a top five critical issue in the ILA survey, and it is a core value of school librarianship. Erika Long and Suzanne Sherman frame the equity chapter in Core Values in School Librarianship: Responding with Commitment and Courage: “Equitable access is a matter of social justice” (Long and Sherman 2021, 3).

Making a commitment and taking courageous action to serve as equity partners to ensure equitable access to rich and relevant literacy learning experiences in our schools is a leadership role for school librarians. While school librarians have been keenly aware of the opportunity gaps that were exposed during school closures, all educators and education decision- and policy-makers have now gotten a wake-up call.

“School closures during the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the critical need to address equity in terms of access to digital resources and technology devices, which may or may not have been available in classrooms” and students’ homes (Moreillon 2021, 11). These learning tools should have been available through school library programs.

Providing Access to High-quality Diverse Books and Content
School librarians are charged with making access to high-quality diverse books and content universally accessible throughout the school. Librarians must curate a collection of resources that reflect the diversity of the students, educators, and families we serve. We must also expand the collection to include broader national and global perspectives on the human experience.

In our role as instructional partners, we can go the next and critical steps. “We then take our knowledge and commitment—our purpose—and use it to transform the collections throughout the school, including classroom collections and the books chosen as classroom texts. For our students, seeing themselves in the library is not enough—they need to see their rich and whole selves in the curriculum and school community, too” (Stivers, Powell, and Lambert 2021, 34).

Literacy Partners Become Advocates
When school librarians take action to meet the needs of our library stakeholders, we engender advocates for the library program and our role as literacy learning leaders. The relationships we build with our literacy partners combined with the evidence of impact we collect create the foundation for continuous advocacy efforts. Then, when and if there is a threat to educational equity that affects the school library program, our advocates and the data to support our cause will be at the ready.

Works Cited

Long, Erika, and Suzanne Sherman. 2021. “Equity: Equitable Access Is a Matter of Social Justice.” In Core Values in School Librarianship: Responding with Commitment and Courage, ed. Judi Moreillon, 3-18. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited.

Moreillon, Judi. 2021. “School Librarians as Literacy Partners: Take Action on the What’s Hot in Literacy Report.” Literacy Today (March/April): 10-11. Available at http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/b46eaa78#/b46eaa78/12

Stivers, Julie, Stephanie Powell, and Nancy Jo Lambert. 2021. “Diversity: Diversity in Resources and Programming Is Not Optional.” In Core Values in School Librarianship: Responding with Commitment and Courage, ed. Judi Moreillon, 19-35. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited.

U.S. Department of Education. “Key Research Studies on Early Learning Effectiveness.” https://www.ed.gov/early-learning/research

March Is Reading Month

Posted on March 1, 2021 by Judi Moreillon

Although every day, every week, and every month of our school librarian work lives revolves around reading, March is “reading month,” and an excellent time to reconnect with a literacy habit and skill that is the foundation for all learning. Students at every grade level and when studying every discipline must have access to reading materials and the ability to apply their reading toolkits to enjoy and use texts.

If you were unable to attend on February 24^th, ABC-CLIO/School Library Connection offered an OverDrive Education sponsored must-view webinar for any and all school librarians looking to inject collaboration, innovation, and power into their reading promotion activities.

“How to Keep Reading Social during Hybrid Learning” will be available to all viewers until March 10, 2021. Please make time to learn from these outstanding school librarians.

These are my takeaways from their presentations, but for the full impact of this professional development opportunity, do not rely on my connections and reflections. I also encourage you to follow these school librarians on Twitter and continue to learn and share with them.

Bridget Crossman, Elementary School Librarian @bcrossm85
Bridget is the elementary school librarian in the Lake George School District, New York, and founder and director of the not-for-profit children’s literacy organization B.O.O.K.S. (Books Offer Opportunities, Kids Succeed). She shared three “joyful, engaging” literacy learning opportunities for the students and/or families at her school. Each one involved one or more partnerships with members of the school or local community. (Bridget is the author of Community Partnerships with School Libraries: Creating Innovative Learning Experiences, Libraries Unlimited, 2018).

Partners included a coffee shop in her community, the PTO, and the “specialists” in her building. The latter helped her offer a drive-thru book fair on the bus loop.

Books were part of these activities. In addition, Bridget gave a shout-out to Teaching Books for a choral reading and all of their resources.

Melissa Thom, Middle School Librarian @MsThomBookitis
Melissa is a middle school librarian at Bristow Middle School in West Hartford, Connecticut. Melissa shared ideas about how to maximize the impact of virtual author visits. She used Google Meet to invite students from across her district to take advantage of the visits. Melissa also offers a KidsLit Club every Monday where some authors drop in for twenty minutes to increase their outreach to and connections with readers.

With a keen eye and ability to find and buy multiples copies of books at reduced cost, Melissa also offers “Free Book Fridays.” Each week about half the books on her give-away cart are snatched up by readers. For more on Melissa work, see her School Librarians United Podcast “Virtual Culture of Reading.”

Kristin Fraga Sierra, High School Librarian @lincolnabesread
Kristin is the high school librarian at Lincoln High School in Tacoma, Washington. She is also the founder of Lincoln High’s Project Lit Book Club Chapter: Building a Community of Readers and Leaders at #AbeNation. Kristin began her part of the presentation by noting that before the pandemic resulted in school closures Lincoln High had a strong reading culture that focused on reading, leadership, and providing service in their community.

The racial unrest in the late spring and summer of 2020 motivated the club to focus their reading and service on books that dealt with racial injustice. They collaborated with an independent bookstore, developed a K-12 wish list, gained media attention, and successfully raised the funds to stock little free libraries in their community. In another project, they filled backpacks for a Boys & Girls Club.

Kristin noted that student leadership is an essential ingredient in this work. She noted that students are looking for connection to other students and opportunities to work as a team while having fun with their friends. Watch the video to learn more about the high-impact service projects and engaging events of the LincolnAbesRead Club.

Sidenote: Kristin is a co-author with TuesD Chambers of the advocacy chapter in the forthcoming book Core Values in School Librarianship: Responding with Commitment and Courage (Libraries Unlimited 2021).

Stacey Rattner, K-5 Librarian @staceybethr
Stacey is the librarian at Castleton Elementary School in Albany, New York. She collaborated with author Steve Sheinkin (@SteveSheinkin) to co-develop an exciting new YouTube project called Author Fan Face-Off (AFF). Wow!

I watched Author Fan Face-off Episode #5: Cece Bell/EL DEAFO. 6^th-grade student Noa and Cece Bell tied at six points each after competing through the bonus round. Noa’s excitement (as well as her memory for details) was a wonder.

I have been thinking about how to answer Stacey’s question: How can educators use AFF in their work? If you have an idea, please message her on Twitter.

Be Inspired
Thank you to the presenters and also to Ali Schilpp (@AliSchilpp) school librarian at Northern Middle School, Garrett County, Maryland, for moderating this exciting panel.

If you’re looking for a March Is Reading Month PD opportunity focused on reading promotion, look no further! This is it!

And remember, tomorrow, Tuesday, March 2, 2021, is Read Across America Day. For more information, see the National Education Association’s website.

School Librarian Leadership

Building Connections for Learning and Advocacy

Monthly Archives: March 2021

SCBWI-Arizona Showcase and Please Don’t Give Me a Hug! Preview

School Librarians and the COVID Slide

March Is Reading Month

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