Heads Up: especially MS/HS English Teachers

First of all, happy World Read-Aloud Day!

This is the week of Red Dot Book Awards voting.  This is an annual event of Singapore international schools -- and the multiple copies bought for this reading initiative become valuable extended reading & literature circle resources.

Please encourage your class to participate - or invite me to speak to your class for a 5-minute get-out-the-vote pitch.  The books have been up in the library for the past several months and I know a lot of your students have read at least two - which is all that is required to choose ONE per category.

Last votes must be in by a week from Friday.  Winners to be announced on Saturday, March 16th.

See this post on Red Dot Voting on the general Kishore Mahbubani Library blog - which has short 1-minute videos of the book covers flipping like pages - a quick reminder to students of the books up for the awards this year.

There's a QR code for mobile devices to read - making it easy to vote.  I will have my 12 library iPads up on the front desk ready for anyone to use.

NB: Our school code for voting is simply UWCEAST (the voting form asks for a code - so we can tell which school students are voting from).

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Trial Databases from Gale Cengage

As you know from the Friday, Feb. 8th Research Skills Professional Learning Day, we are working hard to get our digital resources easy to find and easy to use.  The place to always start (excuse the split infinitive) for all our UWCSEA links & logins -- as well as the National Library Board (NLB) of Singapore eResources is:

research.uwcsea.edu.sg

For you English teachers, there are two trial subscriptions we have access to until March 15th -- and Susanne Clower, the Dover librarian, and I are anxious to know what you think of them.

You can access them via our Gale Cengage homepage -- on the right hand side.

Literature Criticism Online (read about it here) is a resource we buy once and own forever.  Like very expensive reference books.  Right now, I'm not sure we have the budget for it.

Literature Resource Center (read about it here) is an annual subscription.  It is also not cheap.  So if we buy it, we need to make sure it gets used.  Frankly, I think this is probably the better bet right now.  But if you don't think so, then I don't want to waste our money.

Please have a look at both of them.  Or feel free to tell me what kinds of research your students are likely to do and I will do some test searches myself.

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.

Handwriting research, NLB, & Zotero

Have you ever wondered about the effects of increased usage of computers on students' handwriting ability?  

How might this affect them in exams (such as the IB Diploma) which are all hand-written?  Muscle cramp?  Lack of fine-motor stamina?  Illegibility?

What cognitive processes are involved in handwriting compared to typing on a keyboard?  

How important is handwriting these days?

Nick Alchin asked me to start exploring these questions -- and Frazer Cairns from Dover sent us a couple of articles to get the ball rolling.

What a good, small topic to demonstrate a few of our research tools.

First of all, the National Library Board (NLB) of Singapore has three major database collections aimed at educators - which are free for us to use. 

• Education Full Text - WilsonWeb - EBSCOHost  The WilsonWeb journals database crafted to meet the unique information needs of education students, professionals, and policy makers — now delivers full text contents from Springer, plus full text information from the classic library trade magazine, Wilson Library Bulletin. The recent additions expand on the database's coverage of an international range of English-language periodicals, monographs, and yearbooks.
• Educator's e-Collection - Gale Cengage  Available on the Gale PowerSearch platform, this collection provides resources in the field of education covering virtually every educational specialty, latest technologies, developments, instruction and coaching breakthroughs as well as information relating to administration, funding, policy, child health and development. The database covers multiple levels of education from preschool to college.
• ERIC - the Education Resources Information Center - EBSCOHost  ERIC - the Education Resources Information Center - is an online digital library of education research and information. The database available here via the EBSCOhost Web service provides access to indexed bibliographic records and full-text documents.

For information about how to search the NLB databases (as well as ones we subscribe to), see our Library Research Guides, e.g., on Professional Learning for Teachers: Magazines/Journals or Databases Overview.

Searching those NLB databases for "handwriting" and "technology" and "teaching" produced a number of results, which I collected using Zotero, the free online referencing and bibliographic tool, which all our IB Diploma students are using for their Extended Essays.  (If you're interested in trying it, see our library guide on Information Research & Fluency: Zotero for links to get you started.)

Click here to see the results of my "Handwriting" search in our UWCSEA East group in Zotero. (And feel free to join the group and add more to the "Handwriting" Folder.  That's what groups are for - joint collection and sharing of resources.)  

You can read the articles by clicking on the URL of items in the library.  I uploaded the PDFs in Google Docs and made the sharing available to anyone logged into a @gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg account.

The beauty of Zotero is you can produce reports and bibliographies in any desired referencing format.  Here is the "Handwriting" Folder exported in MLA format:

Anonymous. “As Cursive Wanes, Educators Wonder What Is Being Lost.” Education Week 29.5 (2009): 10. Print.

Berninger, Virginia Wise. “Strengthening the Mind’s Eye.” Principal 91.5 (2012): 28–31. Print.

Berninger, Virginia Wise Wise. Past, Present, and Future Contributions ofCognitive Writing Research to Cognitive Psychology. Psychology Press, 2012. Print.

Bloom, Adi. “Not so mighty any more.” The Times Educational Supplement 4963 (2011): 28. Print.

Enstrom, E. A. Handwriting: The Neglect of a Needed Skill. The Clearing House, 1966. eric. Web.

Furner, Beatrice A. Handwriting Instruction for a High-Tech Society: Will Handwriting Be Necessary? 1985. eric. Web.

“Increased use of Technology leads to handwriting difficulties amongst Chinese youth.” Digital Learning Apr. 2010. Web. 2 Dec. 2012.

Judkins, Jason, Holli Dague, and Steven Cope. “Handwriting in the Schools: Challenges and Solutions.” Early Intervention & School Special Interest Section Quarterly / American Occupational Therapy Association 16.1 (2009): 1–4. Print.

Lee, Hye-Jung. “Evolutionary Change of Communication in e-Learning: in the era of synchronous e-text communuication.” Global Science and Technology Forum, 2011. 1–6. SOURCE: ProQuest Central - NLB. Web.

Medwell, Jane, and David Wray. “Handwriting--A Forgotten Language Skill?” Language and Education 22.1 (2008): 34–47. Print.

---. “Handwriting: What Do We Know and What Do We Need to Know?” Literacy 41.1 (2007): 10–15. Print.

Mogey, N. et al. “Students’ Choices Between Typing and Handwriting in Examinations.” Active Learning in Higher Education 13.2 (2012): 117–128. Print.

Sülzenbrück, S. et al. “The Death of Handwriting: Secondary Effects of Frequent Computer Use on Basic Motor Skills.” Journal of motor behavior 43.3 (2011): 247–251. Print.

Supon, Vi. “Cursive Writing: Are Its Last Days Approaching?” Journal of Instructional Psychology 36.4 (2009): 357–359. Print.

Tucha, Oliver, Lara Tucha, and Klaus W. Lange. “Graphonomics, Automaticity and Handwriting Assessment.” Literacy 42.3 (2008): 145–155. Print.

Zubrzycki, Jaclyn. “Experts Fear Handwriting Will Become a Lost Art.” Education Week 31.18 (2012): 1,. Print.

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For an amusing blast from the past, read the article below from 1966 bemoaning the poor quality of high school students' handwriting - and putting the blame partly on teachers not modeling good chalkboard script - while also acknowledging the "day-long writing needs" of students, something which has definitely changed.

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.

Films, movies, DVDs, iTunes on iPads, etc.

The library is slowly building up its collection of films and documentaries to support the curriculum -- and the boarding house "home collection".

Click here for a list of all films, DVDs, and iTunes downloads on the library iPads in the Secondary Library.

Note that when you look at a particular title, you need to check its "Location".  Some are physical DVDs in the library or in particular departments, while others are via iTunes - so you need to use one of the library iPads to view it.

Click here for a list of all the iTunes films we have on the iPads.  Right now we are allowing teachers to check iPads out of the library for their own viewing/use, but students are expected to use them only in the library under your supervision.

To book the 12 iPads, create a Google Calendar event and invite libraryeast@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg -- and specify iPads in the event description.  Once you do that, we will accept your invitation -- and it will show up on our Events page of eastlib.uwcsea.edu.sg, e.g.,

IMPORTANT NOTE:  Not all the films will fit one iPad, so you should tell us in the event booking which films you want loaded.  This may take a bit of time - so please book at least one day in advance.

And don't hesitate to request a particular film....

Bonus point:  Our iPads are individually named, to make it easy to tell them apart.  Do you know why we chose these famous people for our devices?

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!