This year’s World Water day on March 22, coincides with Canada’s designated Waterweek March 18-24.  There is no shortage of concern within the scientific community about the need to conserve fresh water supplies within Canada to prevent a global fresh water crisis. Our young people need to understand the impact of their daily lifestyles on future water supply, as well as the importance of ensuring government and private enterprise make wise and informed decisions regarding water regulation around the world.

Luckily, there is no shortage of materials available at the TRC to support the work of teachers spreading the word about why and how we can reduce daily water use, as well as the more complex issues surrounding water. Our collection material covers such topics as the commodification of drinking water and the concerns over fresh water loss and contamination through hydraulic fracturing.

Along with the resources available for elementary and secondary classes here, teachers of any grade may be interested in accessing these quality websites for information and high quality teacher resources:

Canada Waterweek

Canada Water Network

CBC News Indepth – Water

TVO – The Water Brothers

The Water Project

Some people want to fill the world with silly love songs …what’s wrong with that ? – Paul McCartney

There’s plenty of research out there demonstrating that relationships can help keep us both emotionally and physically healthy, but not all relationships are healthy ones.  The pressure to be “coupled up” is so strong, young adolescents may be starting unhealthy relationship patterns that could last a lifetime.

A 2006 article, If it hurts you, then it’s not a joke in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence studied students in Grades 9 – 11 at Canadian high schools. The authors found that while physical abuse in dating relationships appears to be declining, psychological abuse is prevalent.  Further, there are stark gender differences in perception of what is and what is not abusive behavior.   A willingness by young people to accept partner behaviors considered emotionally or physically hurtful for the sake of remaining in a relationship requires attention.

Why not use  Valentine’s Day observances as an opportunity to widen the narrative on love?

Instead of focusing solely on romantic love, choose stories and films that demonstrate the many types of love a person can give and receive.  Love is a verb as well as a noun,  and actively  choosing a life committed to kindness, compassion, community engagement and caring towards others can open up a world of friends, of all ages,  that may offer support during tough times outside of a spousal relationship.

Seeing examples of love in action, leads to developing more positive ideals of what constitutes loving and being loved. Provide your students with textual examples of love in its most powerful form, as a VERB !

The Teacher Resource Centre has lovingly acquired resources at both the elementary and secondary level to help you demonstrate healthy relationships, encourage kindness, compassion, acceptance, and other meaningful ways to love one another.

And for the record teachers ?  We love you !

Contemporary educators know that reading is not as simple as comprehending the words on a page. We know that reading is a complex mix of cognitive and metacognitive processes. To further complicate this process, the subtleties, nuances and constructs present in today’s sophisticated, high speed, multi-format media texts – like interactive websites – can make it difficult to tell where the messaging begins or ends !

Branding and lifestyle based advertising have been exposed for the powerful tools they are.  In a study in the March 2012 issue of the journal Psychology & Marketing, children as young as three demonstrated a preference for playing with children wearing or holding the products of specific corporate brands.

Parents and educators alike have long been concerned with what children are learning – and imitating –  from the media they consume. Sexism, racism, ageism, abilism, classism and other destroyers of social cohesion are all areas of concern.  Ontario Curriculum consistently states that giving students critical literacy skills is a priority learning outcome across subject areas.

But how exactly do you do this?

There are things we CAN do to combat problematic messaging.  Teach students to identify a social construct, what makes it problematic, and to then CHOOSE to buy into or discard this construct. When viewing a text of any format – picture book, magazine ad, music video, novel, film – students can be prompted by teachers to ask these critical questions: Who is being portrayed? How ? Is this a respectful or demeaning portrayal? In what ways ? Who benefits from this portrayal ? Who loses ? What are the consequences of these types of portrayals to larger society ?  Are you ok with this person being portrayed this way ? Why or why not ?

Only when able to ask themselves these types of questions can students further learn to ask themselves even more important ones as they enter adulthood: If I don’t accept this messaging, what am I prepared to do about it ?

The Ontario Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat has created an excellent series of  documents called the Capacity Building Series. These are available to the public and can be easily obtained  at http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/inspire/research/capacityBuilding.html

Within this series, one document specific to Critical Literacy has been created. It  provides a wealth of pedagogical background, explanations, and teaching resource links to support teachers who want to ensure that their classroom is one that supports this important aspect of contemporary literacy.

With what we know about how media imaging influences the values and world views of children, it is reassuring to know there is something else we can offer them to combat the concerning and damaging messaging that floods the media they consume.  We can present them with alternatives to those images; those that portray people and situations that are diverse, flawed, and complex to add to their definitions of acceptable. We can help to give them a sense of power over accepting negative portrayals as the ones to believe and emulate in their lives.

The Teacher Resource Centre has many resources at both the elementary and secondary level that can support teachers tackling this complex and challenging branch of literacy.  Check out our  LINKS  under Media/Critical Literacy to authoritative and useful sites like Media Smarts and Read, write, THINK !

A popular reading format has now become a popular teaching tool. Although shunned in years past for “dumbing down” reading levels and for sexist and/or racist character portrayals, graphic format fiction and non-fiction books are now growing in acceptance as a valuable tool helping to engage non-readers and support second language learners.  Once their popularity was realized, publishing companies vastly expanded the selection available beyond the comic book super hero genre, and have worked to ensure more respectful and inclusive representations.  Many of today’s young readers are highly visual and graphic novels have successfully hooked many a disinclined reader into picking up a book … FOR FUN !

Education research has taken efforts to explore and measure the impact this reading format can have on learning and engagement.

Focusing specifically in the secondary classroom, Paula E. Griffith’s article, “Graphic Novels in the Secondary Classroom and School Libraries” provides a summary of what current research reveals about graphic novels. She points to published studies providing evidence that, “…comics can aid in vocabulary development for elementary students with language and learning disabilities” ( Stall, 2000 in Griffiths, 2010). She also points to new literacy terms that have emerged with closer scrutiny of graphic novels: image literacy goes beyond media literacy to mean, “…a complex understanding of image within a context”, semiotic modes which connects, “…graphic novels with the study of signs and symbols”, and multimodal reading, referring to a unique comprehension process of reading and thinking.

To prove just how impactful the emergence of graphic novels has been, respected institution MIT is currently supporting Project New Media Literacies; found at newmedialiteracies.org. Amongst other projects, this initiative is researching how the non-linear reading format of graphic novels aid comfort levels with navigating information sources on the web. Their mission is for students to , “…become full participants in an emergent media landscape and raise public understanding of what it means to be literate in a globally interconnected, multicultural world” ( Griffith, 185).

Who knew that the comic book reading that children of the 1960s and 70s would get in trouble for doing behind their “real” books would turn out to be valuable training tools for 21^st century digital citizenship !

At the elementary level, educational publishers like Scholastic have begun to create graphic novels with content specifically targeting science, math, and social studies curriculum. This format is, of course, not intended to replace other forms of information dissemination, but to provide another valuable tool in the elementary teacher’s toolbox when student engagement is the goal. Consideration of book content for educational merit is always important, or as Cooper et al would say, to determine whether it is “…school worthy”.

As the lines continue to blur between informational texts and recreational reading materials, Teachers and Teacher Librarians can work together to differentiate those graphic novels appropriate as an individual recreational reading option, from those that purposefully augment content area curriculum.

The Teacher Resource Centre’s graphic novel collection – both fiction and non-fiction – continues to grow.
If you find a graphic novel publication that you think would make a quality contribution let me know and the TRC can purchase it for all to use and share.

Check out these titles for either elementary or secondary classes to see if they would be a suitable addition to your program !

“Cooking is like love; it should be entered into with abandon or not at all.”
– Julia Child

The universal need for food is one that unites humanity. There is no correlation between this need and your country of citizenship, your date of birth, your taste in music, or your access to wireless connectivity. We all need food, period.

Yet, amongst its place as a basic human need are many complexities. Food is plentiful for some, not so plentiful for others. The great diversity that exists in the production, preparation and consumption of food is embedded in culture, in personal politics, and can serve to separate or unite people. Food serves as a source of entertainment, joy, familial bond, or employment for some. For others, it can be a source of struggle and emotional pain.

Food has always had a place in Ontario curriculum. Our school calendar was originally constructed to accommodate the harvest season in an agrarian society. Does anyone else remember making their first mini pizza on an English muffin in Grade 7 Family Studies class? What celebration would be complete without the class pot luck?  How do you get folks to come to a meeting?  You got it:  REFRESHMENTS WILL BE SERVED!

In today’s school environment, food is threaded throughout and across curriculum in more ways than ever. Family Studies now includes the Food and Nutrition courses, but food preparation is only one part of the learning.
The Gr. 11 and 12 curriculum document states,  “This course examines various nutritional, psychological, social, cultural, and global factors that influence people’s food choices and customs. Students will learn about current Canadian and worldwide issues related to food, frameworks for making appropriate dietary choices, and food-preparation techniques. This course also refines students’ skills used in researching and investigating issues related to food and nutrition.”

Wow!  Those course expectations are significantly more complex than successfully making a mini pizza without burning the cheese!

In elementary Social Studies as well as in secondary Canadian and World Studies, agricultural land use, food equity, fair trade, cultural diversity, the impact of European settlement on First Nations’ abilities to self-sustain, and the ethics surrounding human use of animals are all topics of discussion and consideration.

In Health and Physical Education, healthy eating has always been an integral part of curriculum. However, the increasing concern around student nutrition has resulted in heightened awareness and debate about what to make available in cafeterias and vending machines in our schools, and if having school teams and events sponsored by companies like Pepsi is sending mixed messages. Calorie restriction and negative body image are major issues in young people’s health; both girls and boys are under immense pressure to learn to love themselves and others in the face of highly limiting media presentations of body norms.

As we enter the North American harvest season, Canadians will observe Thanksgiving weekend to acknowledge its bounty and reward. Many observe this holiday with a traditional turkey and vegetable feast, while many others do not. Some of those who do not observe may do so by choice, some through circumstance.  A growing awareness of the disconnect children hold between food production and access to this food by local people has given rise to the local food movement.

In her article from 2006, Getting Fresh with Farm – to – School Programs, food equity activist Marion Kalb explains how farm to school programs are tackling a wide range of food related issues in the areas of children’s health, economic development, and social justice. ( NB: pdf posted with author’s permission )

Locally, the organization  Loving Spoonful welcomes volunteer participation in their many projects like Grow a Row, Community gardens, and with offering food delivery help for folks with mobility or transportation challenges. Check out their website  http://lovingspoonful.org/ to see how your class or school could make a big difference right here at home.

Let’s get this party started !

Ready or not, the new school year is here and regardless if you are a seasoned vet or a fresh faced rookie, the Teacher Resource Centre is here to help you get organized.

Whether it’s designing a new entry and departure routine for your elementary students, trying to integrate assessment into each week’s class content in a systematic way, or vowing to yourself that THIS year will be the year that your classroom doesn’t look like a minefield every Friday afternoon, the TRC has the resources to help.

Teachers know that classroom design and structure play a huge role in creating a strong learning environment. Education research consistently supports this notion. In their article, “Managing Your Classroom For Success” Wong et al., National Science Teachers Of America, Summer 2010 state, “ Research shows that when we provide a place for our students that is safe, predictable, consistent, and nurturing, we will see increased student achievement. A well-managed classroom is safe, predictable, nourishing, and focused on learning.” This article contains some tried and true techniques, with a contemporary twist, to help teachers use the first two weeks of the school year to set up this learning focused environment.

Secondary teachers may have a differently structured day than their elementary colleagues, but class flow and climate in the first two weeks of the school year are just as important.

In their article, “Frontloading Classroom Management“, Roscoe and Orr believe that it is possible for the Canadian secondary science teacher to establish an inclusive learning environment that is both flexible and remains true to science methodology. They state, “Nowadays, science teachers face increasing challenges in the classroom—changing communities and values, burgeoning communication technologies, diverse learner needs and characteristics, and complex inquiry-based science
programs. Teachers need classroom management strategies that not only address these issues, but also promote scientific literacy and productive learning environments.”

This article walks a teacher through a first day of the year lesson plan in a grade 9 science classroom; providing a blueprint for this “frontload” classroom management approach.

The Teacher Resource Centre welcomes teachers of any grade, and of all levels of experience, to consult the academic publications and the teacher resources we have available to support you in the creation of a classroom that doesn’t just manage, but THRIVES. Happy First Day of School 2012-2013!

TRC Resources Supporting Classroom Management

Browsing, planning, consulting….OH MY !

As the school year comes to a close, the TRC staff is busily sorting through the many items that are finding their way from schools back to our shelves. Our goal is to have all items accounted for & ready for borrowing as teachers begin planning for next year. We very much appreciate all of you who are sending things in the courier and dropping things off before you leave your classroom for the summer break.

Remember, last courier run is THIS WEEK !

We would also like to remind all of our users that we are open all summer, and you are more than welcome to pop in and take a look at items you may have seen but haven’t had the time to explore.

You are also welcome to book an appointment with Peggy (peggy.lunn@queensu.ca) if you would like some specific support with planning for next year. She can help you find a wide range of resources – print, non-print & digital – available to you already, OR you can bring YOUR ideas of resources for the TRC to purchase for all to share.

Beyond the “stuff” available to borrow, Peggy is a teacher-librarian, and loves having opportunities to support teachers & their partnering teacher-librarians who are interested in incorporating more aspects of information, digital, media & critical literacy into their curriculum delivery style.

The TRC staff looks forward to seeing you this summer – hopefully moving much slower than the usual breakneck teacher pace – for browsing, planning & consulting with the resources & expertise that YOUR TRC is proud to offer.

Hang in there ! It’s June….

In Ontario’s 10 month public school year model, June can be a very tough month for students, teachers, and administrators. The pressure is on; trying to get the remaining elements of curriculum content covered, keeping the students engaged in their studies with summer weather beckoning their attention elsewhere, trying to keep attitudes positive in hot, humid classrooms, forcing yourself to focus on report cards when a beautiful Saturday morning is calling your name…
Sounds like a myriad of reasons to blow off some steam. Luckily, education research is clearly on the side of FUN ! In their article, Developing the Sixth Sense: Play, Baines and Slutsky review current thinking about play in learning and remind educators that studies have proven time and again that fun is NOT counterproductive to learning.

They state, “ Of course play, an essential component of healthy human development, has been shown to affect creativity, cooperation, openness, and intelligence positively…The teacher’s job, as guardian of intellectual as well as social development, is gradually demonstrating to students how to play appropriately…Amalgamating play to learning can direct the focus and energy generated by play toward academic goals.” Baines, L. A., & Slutsky, R. (2009). Developing the Sixth Sense: Play. Educational Horizons, 87(2), 97-101.

The Teacher Resource Centre recognizes the importance of play and fun to student engagement. Check out these resource suggestions, at both the elementary and secondary levels, to help bring some levity and laughter into your classroom, the gym, or on the playground.

Why Not ….

Read a Big Book to your Secondary students, invite students to do a puppet theatre version of Romeo and Juliet or any other Shakespeare work, show your Grade 1 kids how hopscotch is really just math in disguise, break out your best Alex Trebek impersonation playing trivia games. We even have buzzers to add some game show authenticity!

Getting together with other classes is great fun. Match up your Junior or Intermediate class with the Grade 2s or 3s. It can be as simple as doing a Buddy Read outside in the shade. It’s great to watch the younger children try to impress the big kids, and to see the nurturing side of the older children emerge as they encourage the little ones.

Or, follow the free online samples (French too !) found at Songs for Teaching or at Rythym, Rhyme, Results and tap into children’s creativity. Raps and chants can be used to create Minute Raps explaining any number of concepts in a minute or less, in rhyme, to a hip hop background beat. Some of the song examples include the scientific method, the circulatory system, how to solve for X, Grammar rap, and the Provinces of Canada.

Play the Circumference Memory Game or many other math games found at Algebra 4 Children.

You and your students have worked hard – and hopefully had some fun along the way – all year.
The TRC has the resources to help you take some time during this challenging month to incorporate the educational benefits of play into your remaining lessons, for student learning, social development, AND teacher sanity.

Ah May ! A beautiful month bringing with it flowers, birds, lush lawns, and baseball !

May is also a month of acknowledgements and celebrations:  May Day, the international celebration of both Spring and of Workers,  Canada’s Aboriginal Awareness Week May 22 – 25,  World No-Tobacco Day on the 31st, and of course, Mother’s Day. Can’t wait for this year’s craft brought home from school, thanks Teachers for taking time to remember Moms!

Another theme acknowledged in May is DIGNITY.  While dignity is a theme important to many human service organizations, it has been comprehensively championed by the Salavation Army’s Dignity Project, a non-denominational program suggesting simple ways to help others help themselves in your community. This program dovetails well with the exploration of Social Justice present in Ontario’s curriculum from Kindergarten all the way through to Secondary.

ETFO has created many resources to support the integration of Dignity and other values of Social Justice for elementary as well as secondary Ontario classrooms.

In particular, the SOCIAL JUSTICE BEGINS WITH ME Kit for Primary, Junior and Intermediate grades and the K-8 CONNECTIONS are Ontario curriculum  based resources that include lesson plans and classroom resources to help bring inclusion, equity, empathy, respect, and dignity to your school.

There is a section in Connections specifically for French language classroom needs as well.

The TRC is pleased to have acquired these resources and they will soon be available for borrowing.

Please contact the TRC Librarian, Peggy Lunn, for more details about what these excellent resources have to offer, and check the TRC catalogue to book them for yourself.

Like Harry Potter did for junior readers, The Hunger Games is being credited with awakening a whole new generation of YA recreational readers.  And, again similarly to Harry and crew, but  dissimilar to the Twilight series, The Hunger Games series appeals to a wide range of both male and female readers.

If you are one of the many teachers who are hailing The Hunger Games trilogy as the saviour of recreational reading for the 11- 15 set, perhaps you are feeling brave enough to harness that momentum and introduce the concept of DYSTOPIA as a genre of not only reading, but of THOUGHT. Yep, I said it, I DARE you to introduce the concept of Dystopia, and discuss examples of these constructs in writing and film to intermediate age students.

The danger here, of course, is snapping the trap down on the mouse as soon as it goes for the cheese. In other words, RESIST any urge you may have to delve deeply into the social criticisms, the historical references, the biblical allegories that all exist within The Hunger Games’ plot lines. You do not want to take away the sheer joy of an engaging read for those who have finally shown a willingness to give reading for its own sake a try.

However, by using The Hunger Games as a vehicle, you can gently take the opportunity to introduce to the kids that this story -that is great just on a story line level – does have more to it, and that it is just one of a whole genre of thought and social criticism available for them to explore as they continue participating in recreational reading.
By the time they get to Grade 11, with a few Dystopia titles under their belts, the political allegory  of Animal Farm might be less daunting. Heck, they might even enjoy it !
Mini-lessons or activities you can do with The Hunger Games that won’t suck the joy out of the book :

• OVERVIEW OF DYSTOPIA AND ITS ELEMENTS
Provide a definition of Dystopia, (and this could also be a great opportunity to instance a time when Wikipedia IS an appropriate resource choice as the topic is well established in public knowledge, and the provided sources are recognizable, and easy to trace and verify.) Once the general description of what the concept of Dystopia is begins to emerge, students will likely realize they have been exposed to this genre of fiction before in either book or film format without knowing what it was.
Providing some academic boundaries to surround their prior knowledge will allow students to go into their personal backfiles for recall and categorization of information.

The most important concept for them to “get” about Dystopia is that “The Authority”, be it Big Brother from 1984, The Government in The Chrysalids, The Capital in The Hunger Games, the not so nurturing qualities of The Nurturing Centre in The Giver, The National Administration Centre in the film adaptation of Kurt Voneggett’s Harrison Bergeron, tries to convince the citizens they oppress that the oppression they experience is justified or even good for them. This is what separates Dystopia from Science Fiction.

Adolescents are, of course, VERY receptive to identifying and calling out the hypocrisy of authority figures; they are biologically wired to do this !   Once they buy in, you can challenge them to go further; to take their critical observations and form them into a supportable argument.  Discussions of reasonable vs. oppressive societal restrictions are just around the corner!  Sounds like great preparation for Grade 10 Civics , Gr 12 Challenge and Change in Society, or the Philosophy courses available in Gr 11 or 12.  Best of all, they likely won’t even know you are clandestinely preparing them for it.

Introduce the fact that many authors, artists and film makers have explored the concepts associated with Dystopian society. Make a timeline of famous works: Lord of the Flies, The Running Man, Brave New World, 1984, A Handmaid’s Tale, Fahrenheit 451, Clockwork Orange, ones they are likely to have heard or seen referenced in some context; be it film or fiction.

Be sure to throw in some YA titles, well known ones like The Giver trilogy, City of Ember, Canadian ones like The SALT Trilogy, The Dirt Eaters -all of which we have at the TRC – to legitimize books used in your classrooms as being part of a bigger picture.

• VISIT A LOCAL OR REGIONAL PUBLIC LIBRARY’S  TEEN PAGE ON ITS WEBSITE
  

Our own KFPL, the Ottawa Public Library, or Brockville Public Library all have comprehensive sections dedicated to YA and Teen readers. There are lots of  lists of recommended Dystopia fiction for teens.  And thanks to Katniss, these read-alike lists are everywhere right now.

Like this  If you Love the Hunger Games list from Ottawa, or this list of Top 12 Dystopian Novels, or this Blog link to Reading Rants, for your kids with a little more * edge* who might take recommendations from other teens before they take them from you

• HUNGER GAMES AS A GATEWAY TO SOCIAL JUSTICE
  

As we already know, empathy is the root of compassionate acts.  Making a connection with Katniss, and all the other suffering characters from the Districts, might just allow room for a connection to be made that there are people right here, right now, in your town, and in your school, or in their class, who feel such desperation and deserve support.

A great website that can serve as one of these gateway conversations is that of the Hunger is NOT a Game project, an offshoot of the Harry Potter Alliance found at:

http://thehpalliance.org/imagine-better/hunger-is-not-a-game/

This organization has brilliantly used The Hunger Games to spearhead discussions about power imbalances around the world and more specifically, about food security. Take a look at this amazing site and be prepared to be inspired !

• And ….. THAT’S IT !

That’s plenty for the YA age group ( 11 – 15 or grades 6, 7, 8, 9)  Inclined readers are already reading, what we really want here is for those mice ( aka reluctant readers) to not have their noses snapped if they finally find a story they can grab onto. And of course,  you never know, if we provide these prompts, and leave them alone to explore all the amazing Dystopian cheese that is out there,  they just might read another one.

Here’s to the authors who engage the readers – and citizens – of the future !
Please visit the TRC catalogue and search by the keyword  Dystopia for available titles

And YES! we have The Hunger Games !