Cover Reveal for Book 3 in The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater

Students have heard me talk about Twitter and everything I love about it, but here's another reason why: cover reveals and talk about new books in a series.

One of the latest cover reveals in the Twitterverse is for Book 3 in The Raven Cycle: Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater. Take a look:

Scholastic tweeted the cover reveal earlier today, as well as posted it onto their Google+ page. Interested to know more about the author or the series? You can visit Maggie Stiefvater's official website or her Raven Boys page.

7th Grade Literature Circles Book Preview

Recently 7th grade language arts teachers approached me about helping introduce a literature circle unit--could I recommend some titles for their project, and would I like to also book talk any of these titles? Of course! Let the collaborating and planning begin!

We put together a list of titles, and then made arrangements to book talk them in the library. The Google presentation for the book talks is below:



Students in Mrs. Reels' and Mrs. Larsen's classes combined their meeting times to sit in on book talks earlier today.

Students will make their book selections soon, and their work in the next weeks will focus on these books. A great activity for student choice to support reading what you love!

AN UPDATE (Saturday, April 19, 2014): After tweeting out a picture with a quick word about our lit circle book talk activity on Friday, a Southern California public radio station picked up on it! 

In a post featuring #TeacherTweets, KPCC included this image:

Looks like others noticed! What a neat and unexpected connection!

Iowa State Award Winners Announced

Today the Iowa Association of School Librarians held their annual spring conference and announced the winners from the state award books.

Middle School students recently participated in the voting for the Iowa Teen Award. Our building winner was Wonder by P.J. Palacio.

The winner for this year's Iowa Teen Award, as voted on by more than 21,000 Iowa middle school students, was Legend by Marie Lu.

Below is a list of previous Iowa Teen Award winners:

The Iowa Teen Award books for next year have recently been announced--be on the lookout in the library for a display and poster. Any of them would be a great book to pick up to read over the summer!

7th Grade Children's Book Project

The 7th grade language arts teachers have been working on a children's book project related to their work with theme and moral. They began by reading several children's books--like those shown below--to examine the story construction, character development, and illustrations.

Language arts students then began drafting their own children's stories and planning their illustrations. As they created their books, we teachers worked behind the scenes to arrange for them to share their original books with Dallas Center Elementary students. In addition to reading and talking about their books, 7th graders would also have the opportunity to listen to the elementary students share their own writing or favorite children's book.

Our visit today was a big success! The four morning classes shared their books in a 5th grade class, a 3rd grade class, two 4th grade classes, and a 1st grade class. 

Students worked in partner groups or groups of 3 with 7th graders rotating once during their time together so they could share their work with an even broader audience. 

TAG Breakfast

As is our tradition, TAG students showed off their work this morning at a breakfast that featured their projects related to the National History Day competition and to science-related topics they wished to explore.

Parents, siblings, and others attended the event and listened to the students describe their work and explain their projects. Lots of great learning this morning!

Some displays are still set up in the library--stop by to learn more!

We're on Instagram!

Are you on Instagram? We are, too! You can follow us at @DCGLibraries, where you can see captioned pictures from our K - 7 libraries. Recent additions include 3rd grade mythology/nonfiction work, kindergarten fiction/nonfiction work, and the Middle School Iowa Teen Award book winner. 

Can't remember our account? Stop by the library to grab a bookmark with all the information you need! See you online!

Check Out Our New Look!

For at least the past 10 years, the DCG Middle School library has retained the same look with very little variation: fiction on one side of the room, nonfiction on the other; desktop computers running the center of the room essentially splitting the room in half.

It was time to "walk the walk" with our school theme and Dream Big in the library! In the past month, we've been talking with the principal and IT director--as well as the custodians--about reconfiguring the furniture and desktops. One of our goals was to allow more students to easily view the projection screen. (Can you see it hanging from the ceiling in the picture above that shows the "nonfiction side" of the room?) Another goal was to improve traffic flow, both of people and of mobile laptop carts that come in and out of the library nearly daily. 

Our initial hope was to create 4 pods of 2 tables each. Below are pictures showing our progress toward that effort:

Remember that expression about "best laid plans?" Well, that was us when we discovered that the length of power cords and the placement of floor outlets weren't going to allow for the arrangement we'd hoped for. And that's when the principal strolled in and offered what became Plan B--rather than pods, why not form the tables into a "V" shape? This allowed us to make the most of our outlet placement and cords, as well as equalize the size of the two sides of the space. Here's the work in progress:

So after 4+ hours plotting, dragging, pushing, pulling, crawling, and scooting, we have a new arrangement for our many tables and desktop computers. We couldn't be happier with the setup, and every student and staff member who came to see what we'd done had only positive things to say! 

Many, many thanks to our wonderful library associate Mrs. Howard who helped move everything and plan our furniture arrangement! Also, a big thank you to Mr. Hlas who suggested our now-in-place Plan B, and to our custodians who helped with vacuuming and who provided a quick zip-tie lesson!

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