Enjoyment of reading, achievement, and school libraries

April is the 50th anniversary of School Library Media Month. This celebration of the importance of school libraries is sponsored annually since 1958 by the American Association of School Librarians (AASL). This group celebrates their own event, National Library Week, on April 13-19 with the theme, "Join the circle of knowledge @ your library."

Libraries are a great place for students to find the best of classic and current literature to enjoy, no matter what the subject and the time period. Love of reading is directly correlated to success in life, creativity, and the ability to master many academic subject areas.

ProQuest has created several model BookCarts that focus on the importance of reading throughout life for information and enjoyment.

• Reading and Literacy Development (Professional Development)
  
  
• Graphic Novels, Comic Books, and Reading Skills (Professional Development)
  
  
• Improving Reading Literacy in America (Student Activity)
  
  
• Reading the Classics (Student Activity)

Note that the first two BookCarts focus on librarian and teacher education, while the last two provide students with research activities about the importance of reading for all students.

• Open your eLibrary CE Teacher Edition
  
  
• Click the BookCart Admin link
  
  
• Select the ProQuest Carts tab
  
  
• Type "reading" in the Search box
  
  
• Click the View icon (eye) to the right of a title of interest
  
  
• Browse your results and then click the Close Window link at top--repeat if necessary
  
  
• Click the Copy icon next to the title of your choice
  
  
• Click Return to My Local Carts
  
  
• Repeat if necessary

Any of these BookCarts can easily be saved and customized for use in your classroom:

• In the BookCart Editor, find and click the Title that will have "Copy of" as its prefix
  
  
• Delete "Copy of" in the Title
  
  
• Type your name in the Author boxes
  
  
• Scroll down and click Save > Return to My Local Carts

Assign a report of 150-200 words that cites at least three resources. Or choose a PowerPoint report of about two to three minutes. Remember that each of these student BookCarts includes essential questions for critical thinking--you can add or substitute others if appropriate.

Students can create a written report (model) or PowerPoint presentation (model 1 or 2.)

Learn more about your favorite author, their works, and what the experts say about this author and works (criticism). Assign students to research their favorite author and at least two of his/her works. Students should address the essential questions for critical thinking listed here (you can add or substitute others) in a report of at least 150 words that cites at least three resources.

• What is a recurring universal theme in the author's works?
  
  
• How did the experiences and the era of this author life influence his/her works?
  
  
• How did the works of this author affect the lives and culture of the era in which he/she lived?
  
  
• What is the attitude of the critics toward your favorite work of this author?
  
  
• What is your favorite work of this author and why?

Click the Authors link > click the alpha letter link to get to the list of more than 3000 authors.

Students can create a written report (model).

April birthdays of famous people you should know something about!

You can bet that there will be someone in your class or in their family who was born in April. Here is a list of people who have April birthdays. Most are not well-known to your students but have made significant contributions to the world during their lifetime. Some are still alive and continue to contribute to the world today.

April Birthdays

• William Harvey (April 1)
  
• Abraham Maslow (April 1)
  
• Hans Christian Anderson (April 2)
  
• Jane Goodall (April 3)
  
• Maya Angelou (April 4)
  
• Booker T. Washington (April 5)
  
• Colin Powell (April 5)
  
• Kofi Annan (April 8)
  
• Paul Robeson (April 9)
  
• Joseph Pulitzer (April 10)
  
• Commodore Matthew Perry (April 10)
  
• Leonardo da Vinci (April 15)
  
• Wilbur Wright (April 16)
  
• Charlie Chaplin (April 16)
  
• Clarence Darrow (April 18)
  
• John Paul Stevens (April 20)
  
• Elizabeth II (April 21)
  
• Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (April 22)
  
• Sergei Prokofiev (April 23)
  
• James Buchanan (April 23)
  
• Meadowlark Lemon (April 25)
  
• Edward R. Murrow (April 25)
  
• John James Audubon (April 26)
  
• Coretta Scott King (April 27)
  
• Ulysses S. Grant (April 27)
  
• Samuel B. Morse (April 27)
  
• Oscar Schindler (April 28)
  
• Zubin Mehta (April 29)

Most K-8 curricula include popular research activities that focus on biographies of famous people. Your students will benefit from both learning about these famous people and telling their classmates about them.

Teachers should assign a different person from the list to each student. Students should create an oral or PowerPoint report of about two minutes that uses at least two resources. It should include a picture of the person, as well as a second picture of something representative of their accomplishments. The report should include answers to at least three of the following essential questions for critical thinking:

• Where, when, and in what kind of family was this person born?
  
  
• What obstacles did this person have to overcome to achieve his/her goals?
  
  
• What do you think was this person's greatest accomplishment and why?
  
  
• Are there any events or deeds that this person might regret and why?
  
  
• How do this person's accomplishments benefit us today?
  
  
• Is there anything about this person's life that inspires you?

Students should use the name of the person assigned to them to do a key word search.

Students can create a written report (model) or PowerPoint presentation (model 1 or 2.)

eLibrary Support for Professional Development

eLibrary supports educator professional development in two distinct ways:

1. Access to a free professional library: Browse more than 100 education magazines and journals, as well as a variety of magazines that provide the latest news and developments in the worlds of science, literature, history, geography, mathematics, etc. Print articles to update and supplement your textbook in the classroom.
   
   
2. More than 30 ProQuest model BookCarts: Librarians can copy these BookCarts for teachers to use and learn from (yes, BookCarts can benefit teachers too!) BookCarts address many of the hot topics in schools today: Differentiating Instruction, Classroom Discipline, and 21st Century Literacy and Skills as examples. (See the Special Collections tab.)

Download the following resources to get listings of the free professional library and tips on publication browsing:

Professional Library Publications to Browse

Professional Development BookCarts (See Special Collections worksheet)

Each of these librarians had a BookCart vision for increasing librarian-teacher collaboration. Their stories (read here) will provide motivation and strategies for other librarians who subscribe to any of the eLibrary family of learning resources and want to get started on building their own collections of 21st Century resources for learning through inquiry-based activities:

Ana Banos
Sweetwater Union High School District, San Diego, CA

Ann Martha
Philadelphia School District, PA

Diane Gallagher Hayashi
Stelly School, Saanich SD, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Elizabeth Golden + Johanna Lawler
Greater Essex County SB, Ontario, Canada

Carolyn Hoye
Coyle & Cassidy HS, Taunton, MA

All Stories: Read here!