CMIS Evaluation Primary Focus

April 2nd is the commemoration of Hans Christian Andersen’s birthday.   The International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), chose this day as International Children’s Book Day. All over the world people will be celebrating with books.

International Children’s Book Day (ICBD) is a celebration designed to inspire a love of reading and to call attention to children’s books.

A wide selection of titles suitable for use in the classroom can be found in the CMIS Resource Bank

A book that is sure to have you itching to get into the classroom to try it out and to innovate on it, is How big is big? This is a gem of a book that will have the classroom abuzz with thinking, making, measuring, discussing – with all the children enthusiastically focussed on mathematical concepts and vocabulary.  The crux of this enthusiasm is that the children will be involved in doing Maths in the real world, encompassing all learning areas.

Judging from the students’ artwork and text in the book, the Year 1/2W classroom of Curl Curl North Public School must have been vibrant with colour, creativity and activity as their teacher inspired them to investigate “How big is big?” by planning and experiencing an imaginary excursion to see the Big Banana.  Hats off to Gretel Watson for her teaching, to her students for their work, and to the parent (Robyn Latimer) who saw its potential for sharing with the wider world.

A record of the work of these Year 1/2 students, this book’s use extends beyond the Junior Primary classroom and can be replicated or adapted in all Primary classes.  So get hold of it, use it, experiment in all the directions it’s bound to send your students.  Share the fun learning this book triggers in your classroom. Let us know what you think of the book by placing a comment on this blog.

Find out in this interview with him from The Guardian.

The path from Carle’s upbringing in Nazi Germany to the most beloved of children’s authors and illustrators is one that, when he cares to indulge in self-analysis, he admits makes a certain sense. The link between the deprivations of his early years and the slant of his artwork, so bursting with light and joy and exuberant colour, is such that, he says, if he had grown up in greater comfort he would probably be “pumping gas” these days.

Good Mathematics resources are few and far between but one that has recently come to our attention is the Heinemann series, Real World Data.  It takes popular Science, Health and Society & Environment topics and demonstrates how central data collection and presentation are in providing information on these topics.  It shows how textual information can be conveniently shown in graph, chart and table form and thus provide information “at a glance”.

The twelve books in the series provide all sorts of possibilities for use in the classroom, for integrating Maths in other learning areas and for acting as a springboard for local investigations and collection of data for later presentation in graphs, charts and tables.

Recently available in Australia is the new edition of Quentin Blake’s delightful book, Ten Frogs: Dix Grenouilles, whose simple text is written in both English and French.  This will see another generation of Junior Primary children delighting in Blake’s distinctive illustrations and experimenting with the French language in simple counting and naming animals. To do the text justice, it is recommended that non-French speaking teachers go the extra yard and find out how to pronounce the French words correctly.  Attempting the French “r” is fun and will have the little ones sparkling and feeling so “clever”!

Everyone enjoys listening to a good story, especially children. Storytelling engages our imagination and gives food for thought; and it’s a powerful tool in promoting all aspects of literacy – reading, writing and oral communication. Storytelling is an experience that children will be excited and stimulated by as they listen and respond to the richness of words, and the emotions the words evoke in a well-told story. Oral storytelling passes on values and information, encourages speaking and listening skills, and can improve self-esteem.

Less able learners, hampered by their difficulties with reading and writing, can surprise both teachers and classmates when involved in an oral activity. Gaining a love of language this way is an important step to reading and writing.

Storytelling is also a great for promoting cross-curricular activities. Every country has its own tales which highlight its history, geography and culture.

To help promote storytelling why not celebrate World Storytelling Day on March 20th. It is a global celebration of the art of oral storytelling which started in Sweden in 2003. World Storytelling Day’s goal is to get everyone, everywhere to tell and listen to stories and to share their experiences.

This now truly global celebration has over 25 participating countries from 5 different continents and the theme for this year’s World Storytelling Day is “NEIGHBOURS”.

To celebrate World Storytelling Day in your school, you can

• have a discussion on the value of storytelling. Why do we enjoy stories? What place do they have in our lives?
• have class teachers going from room to room to tell a story before moving on to the next class.
• invite seniors and grandparents to share own personal stories at the school
• have a school-wide storytelling competition

Here are some tips and activities to help you make the most of celebrating this ageless pastime on World Storytelling Day and in the classroom as well.

A well-developed and presented story can hold the interest of an entire audience so knowing and applying the few simple basics of storytelling will help strengthen your stories.

You can also explore storytelling and reading aloud with these dip-in activities. And as a a follow-up to World Storytelling Day, invite the children to express their thoughts through a piece of writing like a poem. Or students can write an original story and tell or perform it to their classmates.

© Image used with permission

Your school can now register for the National Simultaneous Storytime on May 27th to coincide with ALIA’S Library and Information Week.  A great activity for the whole school or section of a school.

More information can be found at the CMIS Evaluation blog

Improving Student Achievement: a Practical Guide to Assessment for Learning is a new publication from Curriculum Corporation.  It is ideal for use as the basis of a series of staff professional development workshops.  Teachers could be asked to individually read through a chapter a fortnight, reflect on the Professional learning focus at the chapter’s end and perhaps try out some of the strategies suggested in the chapter.  Then, as a staff or within groups, they could come together and share their thoughts and practice with one another.  It would provide a great opportunity for engaging collaboration and it is hard to imagine any outcome other than ones that would be beneficial to teaching practice and student learning.

Whether or not this book is used for staff professional development, it is recommended as a highly useful teacher resource.

They may not all have reached Australia, but it’s always nice to look. The New York Times has declared its selection of the best illustrated children’s books for 2008 with a slideshow. Here.

For those who are always on the lookout for locally written and produced books by West Australian writers. Here are two recent publications. One is a book of poems - Please say me, I’m a poem and the other is Alphabet surf : the surfing A to Z.

Alphabet surf : the surfing A to Z has a website where children can enjoy the Flip – book version on-line.

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