3-2-1 Responses

In a professional development session last spring, a colleague shared an activity she called "3-2-1 Responses" as a way to get students talking with one another about both new and learned content. Literacy Studies students have been using this activity verbally, but this time we tried it as a written response.

Throughout the year, students access our All Things Reading Symbaloo for a variety of reasons, including author study work and finding author and title read-alikes.

You can access the Symbaloo HERE.

As a way to gather student responses and guide their exploration at different author and book series websites, students completed a 3-2-1 chart on a handout shared with them in our Google Classroom.

How great to read such a variety of responses from so many of the students! While many visited the same sites--April Henry, Raina Telgemeier, and Alan Gratz were their top 3 choices--the 3-2-1 format gave such a range of answers and helped guide their reading and work at each site. 

Stay tuned--more 3-2-1 activities to follow--it's a great way to get students sharing and talking about their work!

The ABCs of DCGMS Library: Brought to You by the Letter A

Now that we're firmly into our summertime break, it's time to roll out the summer theme for the blog: the ABCs of DCGMS Library.

Photo by Diomari Madulara on Unsplash

Every few days-and of course in alphabetical order!--we'll feature something related to the DCG Middle School library and the work and the activities there. So without further ado, let's start with the letter A and the All Things Reading Symbaloo.

Access the Symbaloo HERE

Also accessible from our library main page, the All Things Reading Symbaloo is a place for students to visit when they're interested in finding read-alikes for their next reads, browse collections of online books and audio books, and visit official websites for several authors.

Maybe you're looking for something to read and aren't sure where to start? Try the upper left-hand corner of the Symbaloo or click on a popular author--you may just find what you're looking for! 

Happy reading!

New Year, New Book Club!

Now that the first quarter is under our belts, it's time to start with Book Club again! Last year's group met to listen to and talk about Wonder, by R.J. Palacio.

The response to our first meeting was great! More than 50 6th graders attended during their lunch, and shortly afterwards, nearly 25 7th graders came to Book Club. This year, we're shifting to a more "book club" approach and reading through the seven books in the Harry Potter series. Book Club will meet again in November before Thanksgiving, and we'll be talking about Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

Harry Potter Stack of Books, thefantastique.com, date unknown

During today's meeting, we talked about how students can use Google Forms from the Library Main Page to make a book recommendation for purchase, and we also looked at the ebooks available through MackinVIA on the All Things Reading Symbaloo.

You can CLICK HERE to access this Symbaloo.

Just before they left, students made book recommendations--maybe you've read some of these? 

Didn't join us today? That's alright! Read HP #1 and come to our November meeting. We'd love to see you then!

Using Symbaloo from the Library Main Page

With Symbaloo becoming more and more popular, it's time we in the MS Library got on board! If you've visited the library main page recently, you may have noticed that some of the headings have a cleaner, more streamlined look.

No more long lists of links to take you to our research databases or to a variety of online reading resources. With one click, you'll be at our Symbaloos. Take a look below and click on the caption to see where you can go!

CLICK HERE to access the Research Resources Symbaloo.

CLICK HERE to access the All Things Reading Symbaloo.

Stay tuned for revisions and additions to these Symbaloos, and be on the lookout for more of them appearing on the library main page to make your library experience more user-friendly!