English/Literacy Teachers: Share Books and Student Reading

Book discussion groups for teachers on both campuses have started recently, with the aim of exploring young adult and children's literature.

On Dover a group meets Wednesday lunchtimes in the Middle School building to look at different kinds of YA (young adult) literature.  Next week (May 8th) the focus will be on Mysteries/Thrillers.  In the previous session, we discussed "decent tear-jerkers."  Contact Angie Erickson (ane@uwcsea.edu.sg) for more information. 

On East a group meets every Wednesday before school in the Think Tank for booktalks over coffee and croissants, alternately focusing on upper primary and middle school students. Next week (May 8th) we will each share some of our favorite books or recent reads suitable for Grades 6-8.  Check out this list of books for Grades 3-5 people booktalked on April 24.  Contact Katie Day (kda@uwcsea.edu.sg) for more information.

See our joint GoodReads Group:  UWCSEA English/Literacy Teachers & Texts -- where meeting dates/times and booklists can be found.

Feel free to join either group in person or online via our GoodReads page.

Update on professional journals - online

Philip Allan "Review" Journals

We now have access to the archives of:

20th Century History Review
Biological Sciences Review
Chemistry Review
Economic Review
Physics Review
Psychology Review
The English Review

(The same information is available at research.uwcsea.edu.sg/philipallan )

American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT)

• The Physics Teacher
• American Journal of Physics

Click on the image below and "sign in" using the login/password found in bit.ly/accessuwc

(The same information is available at research.uwcsea.edu.sg/aapt )

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Remember, all logins/passwords can be found in a Google Doc (accessible only to people logged into an @gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg account) -- just click bit.ly/accessuwc .

Books/Discussion groups for Professional Learning

How People Learn

Back in Term 1, Nick did a session on professional learning and in Term 2 we asked who might be interested in getting a discussion group together to explore one of the books he recommended -- which is available free online.  (See the previous blog post on Discuss When? How People Learn.)  

Several of you did respond -- see this spreadsheet -- but I failed to follow up in helping groups to form. (Sorry!)  Anyone interested in picking up the project?

Wednesday Morning Book Share

I'm starting a weekly professional learning group next Wednesday, 7:15 am in the Think Tank of the secondary library.  The focus will be on books good for upper primary school and middle school students -- in alternating weeks.  

Bring 5 books to share and quickly book-talk.  

The first week we'll look at books for an upper primary school audience (Grades 3-5).  The following week will be for middle school (Grades 6-8).  And so on.  Everyone is welcome to attend any week.

The goal is to learn about books to recommend to students, for pleasure and/or curriculum connections.

Coffee (Starbucks, if all goes to plan) and croissants will be provided.

Questions?  Contact kda@uwcsea.edu.sg 

Book icon: Nathan Thomson, from The Noun Project

Beyond Mindset:  The Cultural Foundations of Learning:  East and West

A book Nick has recommended to everyone (and which we have multiple copies of) is Mindset by Carol Dweck. 

Click here for the website of the book.

In 2002 Malcolm Gladwell wrote an article for The New Yorker on "The Talent Myth", which features Dweck's work.  

We also have a book in the library called Talent is Over-Rated by Geoff Colvin.



 If you liked Mindset and want to think further, try this more academic text:  Cultural Foundations of Learning: East and West (2012) by Jin Li, a professor of education at Brown University in the States.  

Several of us have read it and think it raises important issues for a Western-oriented school located in an Eastern culture.

From a review in PsycCRITIQUES (Jan 2013):

Jin Li has a refreshing outlook on the cultural foundations of learning, comparing Eastern with Western learners. She is an “insider” with a Chinese perspective who was educated in the West at the graduate level. In her book Cultural Foundations of Learning: East and West, Li examines East Asian foundations of learning after her Western education impressed upon her to reject and question their very validity. Her emic perspective enables her to understand the nuances within an Asian perspective often missed by those coming from an etic or outsider perspective. In returning to her roots, she finds new complexity and value in East Asian foundations of learning and presents an important conceptual distinction between the Western mind model and the East Asian virtue model. At the core of the East Asian learner is the aim of “transforming oneself,” consistent with Confucian principles, whereas at the core of the Western learner is the aim of “learning to master the universe,” consistent with Socratic principles

A good chunk of the book is available for preview via Google Books -- click here.

And, yes, we have multiple copies in the library.


Remember, you can always check what books we have by searching the school catalog.  Start here:   catalog.uwcsea.edu.sg

Discuss when? How People Learn

Several of you expressed an interest in discussing the book Nick mentioned in his Professional Learning talk last term:  How People Learn -- which is available free online in PDF form and as an MP3 podcast.  Yes, the National Academies Press makes all their publications freely available as long as you register for an account.  What an amazingly generous institution!

The time has come to decide when and how we are going to organize these discussions.  Please fill out the form below.

Read ahead: Dylan Wiliam on assessment

As you know, Dylan Wiliam is coming to the East campus next week.

We have some of his books in the libraries (click here for a list), but as there aren't enough copies for everyone to read at once, why not read some of his key articles?

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Black, Paul et al. “Working Inside the Black Box: Assessment for Learning in the Classroom.” Phi Delta Kappan 86 (2004): 8. Print.

Black, Paul, and Dylan Wiliam. “A pleasant surprise.” Phi Delta Kappan 92 (2010): 47+. Print.

---. “Inside the black box: raising standards through classroom assessment.” Phi Delta Kappan 80 (1998): 139+. Print.

---. “Inside the black box: raising standards through classroom assessment: formative assessment is an essential component of classroom work and can raise student achievement.” Phi Delta Kappan 92.1 (2010): 81+. Print.

Clymer, Jacqueline B., and Dylan Wiliam. “Improving the way we grade science.” Educational Leadership 64 (2006): 36+. Print.

Wiliam, Dylan. “Changing classroom practice.” Educational Leadership 65 (2007): 36+. Print.

---. “Feedback: part of a system.” Educational Leadership 70 (2012): 30–34. Print.

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You can read all the Phi Delta Kappan articles online or have them emailed to yourself using our new InfoTrac subscription.  It's an online database of 250 magazines which we are trialling on both campuses.  If it doesn't contain a magazine you're interested in, let me know.  We'll definitely be adjusting the titles available.

Click here to go to our new InfoTrac Magazines Online & access these articles by Dylan Wiliam 

If you are on campus, the link should put you directly into InfoTrac.

If it doesn't, you'll have to enter a password. Click here to open a Google Doc -- http://bit.ly/accessuwc -- that gives them all to you (or, rather, to anyone with a @gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg account).

Click here for a PDF that shows you step-by-step screenshots for articles in Phi Delta Kappan (as that is full-text complete in Infotrac).  It's a Google Doc accessible by anyone with a @gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg account - as I show you the password to Infotrac.

In the case of you finding an article for which Infotrac doesn't have the full-text, then we have other avenues.  E.g., for ASCD's Educational Leadership, you need to go to the website and know our institutional login.  Click here for the Google Doc where we are collecting such logins/passwords.  It is shared only with @gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg in the "allteachingstaff" list for Dover & East.

If you want to search ASCD's Educational Leadership for Dylan Wiliam articles, click here and login.

Professional Learning Resources: here, online, and to come

I hate it when one of you gets up and recommends a book -- and I can't say I already have it in the library.  I really do feel responsible for having the best of everything at our fingertips.  Save me the shame by letting me know ahead of time, so I can at least get it on my order list.  (Better late than never....)

That's the case with Nick Alchin's professional learning talk from last Friday.

I don't have the Daniel Willingham book -- Why Don't Students Like School? -- yet, but it will be in the library within a couple of weeks.  Meanwhile, you can check out Daniel Willingham's website -- with links to his articles, videos, and blog.   I first heard of Willingham when he posted his video, "Teaching Content is Teaching Reading" -- and the connections to the library are obvious.

NB:  This past Monday Willingham had an article in The Atlantic called "What Does Science Tell Us About Teaching Kids to Think?" 


Re the other book -- How People Learn -- I don't have it yet, but -- almost as good -- it's available free online in PDF form and as an MP3 podcast.  Yes, the National Academies Press makes all their publications freely available as long as you register for an account.  What an amazingly generous institution!

Nick is going to organize some reading/discussion groups.  Watch for an email from him.  Meanwhile, get reading or listening.

A reminder as the holiday approaches:  Both our libraries have growing professional learning collections.  Come in and browse.  Here's a link to a list of just some of the Professional Learning books in the Secondary Library.

Register NOW for Hands on Literacy

Register now for Hands on Literacy,  Saturday, November 17th -- a one-day conference run every two years by the international school librarian network here in Singapore.

This November Hands on Literacy will be hosted by the Australian school and two fabulous guest speakers have been lined up:  Dr. Joyce Valenza (USA), winner of an Edublogs Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011, and Judy O'Connell (Australia), a course director at Charles Sturt University and educational technology specialist.

Sessions range from Infants to IB Diploma level -- in a number of strands:  Digital Literacy  /  Engaging with Print  /  Visual Literacy & The Arts  /  Research & Inquiry  /   Librarianship

Click here to go to the conference website.

Click here to view all the workshop offerings in a PDF.  (Our own Keri-Lee Beasley & Louise Phinney are offering a session on "Learning Stories".)

Click here to directly access the Registration program.  NB: the Registration Program expects you to create an account (email + password) before you can go back in and actually choose sessions to attend.  Don't hesitate to ask me for help -- the program isn't the most intuitive.

UWCSEA usually pays for everyone who wants to attend Hands on Literacy (and Teach IT).  So when you register, choose the option that says, "Bill my school" or whatever.  Then go to the East Professional Learning site and fill out the application form.

I know you should apply for permission first, but I'm more concerned about you not getting into the workshop of your choice if you wait.  There were some glitches in the registration program so I have waited to push you to sign up -- meanwhile other schools have been pushing their teachers.  Now I worry that some sessions might be filling up.  So hurry!

Last Call! for Hands on Literacy papers - one-day conference at AISS, Sat, Nov 17

You have until August 31st to submit your presentation proposal for Hands on Literacy,  a one-day Saturday conference run every two years by the international school librarian network here in Singapore.   The model is the same as the IT Directors' biennial conference, TeachIT (with which we alternate years) -- where teachers offer workshops for other teachers -- peer-sharing professional development.

This November Hands on Literacy will be hosted by the Australian school and two fabulous guest speakers have been lined up:  Dr. Joyce Valenza (USA), winner of an Edublogs Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011, and Judy O'Connell (Australia), a course director at Charles Sturt University and educational technology specialist.

Sessions range from Infants to IB Diploma level -- in a number of strands:  Digital Literacy  /  Engaging with Print  /  Visual Literacy & The Arts  /  Research & Inquiry  /   Librarianship

The definition of "literacy" is in the broadest sense.... from traditional, Readers/Writers Workshop, to digital storytelling....

Click here to access the Google Form where you can submit your workshop proposal -- or go to the Hands on Literacy website.

To see what the workshop offerings were two years ago, go to the archived 2010 website.

Registration to attend opens September 15th.

The tradition (for both Hands on Lit and Teach IT is that the cost for all teachers and teaching assistants who want to attend is willingly paid for by UWCSEA.  (Nick/Mike/Mary, I'll be in touch....)

Children's Literature Conference - here in Singapore - Saturday, Feb 18

Come meet four top award-winning authors/illustrators for children and young adults on Saturday, Feb. 18th, at the inaugural SAS Children's Literature Conference.

This is your chance to see:

Harry Bliss

(author homepage; books in our catalog)

Candace Fleming

(author homepage; books in our catalog)

Eric Rohmann 

(author homepage; books in our catalog)

Pam Muñoz Ryan 

(author homepage; books in our catalog)

You can also choose to do an optional workshop with one of the authors/illustrators on Sunday.


NB: We are sending a cohort of UWC East teachers to this conference -- yes, the college is paying.


If you are interested in being included, please contact Katie Day (kda@uwcsea.edu.sg) in the secondary library or Debbie Diaz (ddi@uwcsea.edu.sg) in the primary library.

The sooner the better.  Registration theoretically closes tomorrow and places are going fast.


If you are unfamiliar with their books, pop into the Primary Library.  Debbie has pulled some of their titles and put them in baskets behind her desk.  They will be there up until the time of the conference.


For complete information on the conference, visit http://sasclc.sas.edu.sg

Free e-book on School Libraries

School Libraries: What's Now, What's Next, What's Yet to Come  

Ebook By Kristin Fontichiaro
Published: Oct. 15, 2011 
Category: Non-Fiction » Education and Study Guides » Teaching
Category: Essay » Technology
Words: 45706 (approximate)
Language: English

Download it here -- FREE: 
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/96705

A crowdsourced collection of over 100 essays from around the world about trends in school libraries written by librarians, teachers, publishers, and library vendors. 

Edited by Kristin Fontichiaro and Buffy Hamilton. Foreword by R. David Lankes. Photographs by Diane Cordell.

CONTRIBUTORS: Kelly Ahlfeld, Diane Erica Aretz-Kernahan, Emilia Askari, Kathleen Atkin, Robert Baigent, Susan D. Ballard, Angela Washington-Blair, Dan Bowen, Holli Buchter, Jennifer Branch, Len Bryan, Jennifer Colby, Diane Cordell, William Cross, Meg Donhauser, Joanne de Groot, Stacy Dillon, Andrea Dolloff, Laura Fleming, Lorna Flynn, Elizabeth Friese, Rachel Goldberg, Beth Gourley, Dorcas Hand, Alida Hanson, Violet H. Harada, Heather Hersey, Valerie Hill, Kimberly Hirsh, Shannon Hyman, Pamela Jackson, Melissa P. Johnston, Jesse Karp, Sara Kelley-Mudie, Tricia Kuon, Neil Krasnoff, Jennifer LaGarde, Teri S. Lesesne, Margaret Lincoln, Kate MacMillan, Adrienne Matteson, Kathleen McBroom, Walter McKenzie, David Meyer,...

Online conference: Library 2.011 - Nov 2 & 3

Library 2.011 is a global online librarian conference being held November 2 & 3, 2011

Read below for more information:

The inaugural (and free) Library 2.011 Worldwide Virtual Conference begins on Wednesday, November 2nd. More than 4,000 information professionals from 149 countries have signed up to join the global conversation on the current and future state of libraries. The groundbreaking event will be a whirlwind of information, with 160 presentations scheduled over two days! The schedule of all sessions, in customized schedule pages for each of the world's 36 time zones, is now available at the Sessions and Schedule page. Presentations will cover a variety of pertinent subject strands that affect the LIS industry and the changing roles of libraries and librarians in our digital world.  All sessions will also be recorded for later viewing. Keynote addresses will be scheduled over the course of the two-day conference, and the speakers include: Dr. Sandra Hirsh (USA) Dr. Lennart Bjoerneborn (Denmark) Dr. Michael Stephens (USA) Dr. Christine Bruce (Australia) Ms. Ellen Tise (South Africa) Mr. Stephen Abram (Canada) To register for the conference, join the conference website at http://www.Library2011.com. The conference welcome will start at 6:30 a.m. US-PDT on Wednesday, November 2nd, followed by the opening keynote by Library 2.011 Co-Chair Dr. Sandra Hirsh, professor and director of the School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) at San José State University. The conference will conclude with a final conference gathering at 9:00 p.m. US-PDT on Thursday, November 3 (November 4, in some parts of the world). All conference sessions are being held in Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate), and can be accessed live from any personal computer following instructions on the Sessions and Schedule page. Participants, presenters, and volunteers are encouraged to share your excitement for this global event. The conference Twitter hashtag is "#lib2011" and to download a variety of badges, please visit: http://www.library20.com/page/press-promotional. Those interested in volunteering will find information on the Volunteer Page, and potential sponsors still have time to sign up by contacting me directly. As a reminder, the conference will be held entirely online, is FREE to attend, and will be recorded. For more information, please visit: http://www.library20.com. See you online! Steve Hargadon Library 2.011 Co-Chair http://www.stevehargadon.com

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Our staff are being asked to participate in one or more sessions.  Unfortunately, many of the sessions are in the middle of the night for us.  Below is a printout of the schedule based on Singapore times -- and I've highlighted some of the sessions during waking hours that appeal to me.  It doesn't mean everyone needs to be interested in those...  But I hope you will find something you want to attend. Library 2.0 Schedule KDa Calendar_2011-10!28!2011!11!04