Searching Expectations

Have you ever considered how you search for information? I know I try to narrow my Google searches with precise terms and think about exactly what I want the results to display. If what I expected does not materialize in the list, I re-evaluate those search terms and try to reword them to get closer to my desired results. Then I might read something I consider reputable, hoping to find additional resources that support my inquiry process.

In the latest issue of Continuum from the University of Minnesota Libraries, editor Marlo Welshons outlined almost that exact process as being typical of many searchers. "The search process," she said, "is where the learning happens; the journey ias as important as the destination." She also addressed the increasing need for librarians as guides in the information search process. In one study she reviewed, she noted that "users 'expect discovery and delivery to coincide.'" Librarians provide the guidance for users to get to those expected results.

My research question of the day: Is there really such thing as a milk-fed pumpkin like the one Almanzo grew in Farmer Boy?

Getting Their Attention

Part of my day this school year is spent teaching information literacy classes for 2nd and 3rd graders. Though some library colleagues might believe the class time should be spent learning technology skills, my teaching partner and I strongly believe in splitting the session between read-aloud time and time spent learning applications, finding information, and working through the inquiry process.

Choosing what those read-aloud selections should be for the start of the school year is always an important (sometimes agonizing!) decision. For 2nd grade I selected Dick King-Smith's Lady Lollipop, a story about a spoiled princess named Penelope who wants (and gets) a pig for her birthday. No ordinary pig, Lollipop comes with a pig keeper, Johnny Skinner, who helps Princess Penelope learn proper behavior as he works with the girl and the pig. The children gasp with incredulity when Princess Penelope talks back to her parents and throws tantrums, but they smile when she smiles tenderly at Johnny Skinner and starts to behave civilly.

For 3rd graders, I chose one of my favorite school books: The SOS File by Betsy Byars, Betsy Duffey, and Laurie Myers. The book begins with a file folder announcing an extra credit assignment in which students can write about a time when they desperately needed help. Some of the stories are hilarious. Some are poignant. Some are quite sad. We began with the story of a girl's failed attempt to race her go-kart down a hill with her friend, and the students' eyes widen as they anticipate what might happen to them. Their faces show surprise and elation during the second story when a boy's unbelievable hit during a baseball game cancels out his need for an SOS.

I know after two chapters that I have their attention for the entirety of both books!

What's Your Name?

At the start of each school year, I panic a bit when I think of the hundreds of names I must learn and relearn. I am notorious for calling a younger sibling by an older sibling's name. I have a difficult time telling the school's numerous sets of twins apart. Getting someone's name correct brings acknowledgment and acceptance for that person. It validates the name and shows that another person is interested in him or her. When I greet a child in the hall (or better yet, outside the school setting) by name, the smile on the child's face gets brighter. It means a lot to others to be addressed by name.

My creative and caring friend David brought this bookmark to me yesterday, expressing the letters of my name with images of things about me: wearing an Alphabet Forest crown at the State Fair, holding one of my famous Condo Cakes, a book dedicated to me, a turtle to express my school's mascot, and a quilt that demonstrates my love of quilting. I'm going to try this with other friends' names!

Set in the United States

Years ago I started yet another list of books, this one focused on books set in each of the 50 states. It was easy to do think of books from my own state (and the neighboring state of my birth), but some were tough. The list stayed in my "Literature Work" file until last week. My friend asked for just that kind of book list. She said her searches have come up empty, and she hoped I could direct her to a list that would support the learning her fourth graders do about the 50 states. Since there is no such list, mine became a working document again. As I move about my activities and duties, I think of books that might be set in various places - and then go to check my own accuracy.

Today, though, I am still without book ideas for Arkansas, Georgia, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and West Virginia. I hope there are some obvious titles I just have not remembered.

Clever Rhyme Needed

I have been trying all day to compose a clever rhyme that goes along with the rhythm and rhyme scheme in Tom Slaughter's new book Do You Know Which Ones Will Grow? Each double-page spread involves a question, half of which can be answered with a YES and half of which would definitely be answered with a NO.

Here is the first one:

"If a duckling grows and becomes a duck, can a car grow and become...a truck"

The car half page ingeniously opens into a full page, and the cutout of the car wheel is also the back wheel of an apple truck.

Readers will love predicting how each phrase ends and thinking of things they can use in a similar pattern of words.

So, I wanted to use this close-up of an alpaca that was patiently allowing so many State Fair visitors to pet it, but I can find nothing to end my rhyme. The rhyming dictionary only has words that end in the -ack sound, not the -acka or -aca sound! I did learn the term for a baby alpaca though.

If a cria grows and becomes an alpaca, can a _____ grow and become...a ___________.

Big Wigs

There is a running joke in our house about just how my husband lost his hair. He devises new reasons for his baldness almost daily. He was naughty as a little boy, for instance. He ate a watermelon seed. He played the drums. He listened to certain music. The boys used to look to me for confirmation of his reasons...until they realized he was kidding. Now they just love to hear the outrageous stories he composes.

We all think they are hilarious and preposterous...until I read aloud bits from Kathleen Krull's newest book Big Wig: A Little History of Hair. Aristotle thought rubbing goat pee on his head would cure baldness. Hippocrates used a self-made concoction of opium, wine, green olive oile, horseradish, and pigeon poop. (At this point, my husband said, "That's it. The pigeon poop is what a missed in the recipe.") Julius Caesar used a paste of leeches, boiled walnut shells, tar, and animal urine - until Cleopatra convinced him to use a concoction of horse teeth, deer marrow, and toasted mice.

These and other fascinating facts, as well as intriguing illustrations, fill her book. Perhaps the book title was inspired by the hairdos worn by my mom and me in the late 1980s!

BookPage

Living almost 200 miles from my mom, it is sometimes a challenge to see each other once a month. Today I got a bonus visit. My mom and my aunts volunteered for six hours in the Alphabet Forest (along with my oldest son, the student intern for the project). They took photos, acted as hawkers on the sidewalk, made mini-banners, awarded blue ribbons and words, and drank lots of water on this humid and hot day.

Whether it is here or there, I am always glad for a chance to be together - and to get the latest edition of BookPage. My hometown library provides it for patrons, and my mom and I scramble to read the numerous reviews. Then we compare notes about which we reserved from our respective libraries. I love it when one or the other of us talks about a book we are reading. Inevitably, the phrase "I found it in BookPage" comes into the conversation. Though we can read some of the review at the website (http://bookpage.com/), there is something better about flipping through the pages, marking our choices, and rereading the reviews after we have read the books.