Menasha Joint School District Library News
January 2013
January 2013
If you have suggestions please for future newsletters feel free to email me!
Welcome back! Here are some great resources for the new year.
Primary Sources from the Library of Congress and CCC! Media
Primary Sources, if you haven't heard about them yet you're going to hear a lot about them as we delve further into the common core. Primary sources are original documents and objects that were created at a time of study. It could be a recording of Martin Luther King's 'I Have a Dream" speech, Abraham Lincoln's letter to Stephen Douglas, photographs or videos from the Vietnam war, etc. The Library of Congress website houses a lot of primary sources, and they also have guides for using primary resources in the classroom. Primary sources can bring history to life. This summer at a conference I attended one of the students used primary sources to learn about what life was like for teenage girls during World War II. She then created a series of letters between friends based on real events in history. It was very impressive. Here are some links to get you start with primary sources.
Supporting inquiry with primary sources (professional development)
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You can also access primary sources through our video management program CCC! Media. Under subject select Primary Source and then the keyword of what you are searching for. Students can also login to CCC! Media and can even embed the videos into their presentations.
http://cccvideo.mjsd.k12.wi.us |
Photobiographies 
One of the common core text exemplars is the book Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman, which is available from almost every library in our district. A photobiography is simply a biography portrayed through photographs. It can contain only photographs or photographs and text. It is also considered to be a photo essay. Every school in the district also has some of the books in the Photobiography series by National Geographic. Simply search photobiography in our district catalog to find these books.
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Clustering and the Common Core
The common core requires students to read various texts within the same genre, topic, or theme. An easy way to do this is to create clusters or text sets. You don't have to start from scratch, you can take a book you already love to use and pair it with other similar books. It's a great way to show students that not all informational books are alike, and sometimes they may even have contrasting information or biases. School Library Journal uses this example, Amelia Lost by Candace Fleming the author dismisses that Amelia Earhart saw her first airplane at the 1904 Iowa state fair, since the authors says there were no airplanes in Iowa at the time. However in both Amelia Earhart by Shelley Tanaka and Sky Pioneer (part of the National Geographic photobiography series) the authors state as a fact that Amelia saw her first airplane there and their information came from Amelia's own writings. See the article about Clustering in School Library Journal here.
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Digital Science Online is a database of science visuals offered to all Wisconsin schools through the ECB.
It has 183 full length videos, 1700 video clips, 2900 images, and 750 animations. The subjects include physical, Earth, life, integrated, and health sciences. You will need to go through the ECB's Wisconsin Media Lab site (www.wimedialab.org) in order to access the free version of this database. Once on the Wisconsin Media Lab site look for the Digital Science Online link towards the bottom of the page. |
Meet the Staff Carol Noskowiak
Position: Library Paraprofessional
Building: Maplewood
Hometown: Tomahawk, WI
Education: Graduated High School is 1975, Manager's License in Cosmetology, and various college classes
Favorite Book: Bible
Hobbies: Hanging with my family, knitting, shooting hoops, bowling, hiking, and gardening.
Family: I am 4th out of 6 children in my family. I have 4 children, Angie, Chris, Emily, and Tanner. Range in ages from 34 to 16. Six awesome grandchildren (5 boys & 1 girl), range in ages from 11 to 4.
Fun Fact: Believe it or Not! I held a track record in my high school for 27 years.
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