With the 45th President of the United States using Twitter more than any of his predecessors, it's now more important than ever that students understand how to cite social media correctly. In a January 23 EasyBib blog post, Michele Kirschenbaum (2017) provided an easy-to-follow guide on how to correctly attribute Trump's tweets.
In an accompanying piece, Wendy Ikemoto (2017, January 13) offered insight on correctly citing speeches--presidential or otherwise--in both transcript and recorded video formats.
As always, please let me know if I can help you or your students with any part of the research and/or citation process!
Denzel Washington was recently quoted as saying, "If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you do read the newspaper, you’re misinformed" (Richter, 2016). Albeit not a new phenom, fake news permeates today's news gathering like never before. Regardless where you get your news--TV, newspapers, Twitter, Facebook--no one's safe from its reach. As educators, we are tasked with prepping students with information they need to be thriving, contributing members of society (hopefully) during school and beyond. Beyond reading, writing, and arithmetic, few skills are perhaps as crucial to our students today as learning how to critically evaluate the information coming at them and deciphering fact from fiction. The CRAAP method offers students a quick five-step check for doing just that. Here it is in a nutshell:
I have created a Word document checklist for teachers and students to utilize during research. (This can also be found in Canvas Commons.) Teachers who partner with me on database research know I always recommend databases as students' first go-to for reliable, accurate, and timely information, but I also understand that databases aren't a one-size-fits-all tool. For the occasion that calls for simple search engine research, I recommend asking students to submit a completed checklist for each source they use.
As always, if you have questions or would like me to teach your students CRAAP [get it??? 😆😆], please let me know.
To celebrate National Library Card Sign-up Month, The Cube hosted a drawing giveaway for students who returned a parent-signed application for a River Oaks Public Library card. Eleven students AND their families returned library card applications for the opportunity to choose a gift basket from The Cube's giveaway stash. The winners of the gift basket drawings were:
Arnoldo C. (9th) Guadalupe T. (11th), not pictured Taryn J. (10th)
Arnoldo chose the Perilous prize package, which included a copy of Will Wilder: The Relic of Perilous Falls, a selfie stick, and a pair of earbuds. Taryn elected for the Read the Book: See the Movie gift basket, including a copy of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and a variety of movie snacks. I caught Arnoldo and his friends making good use of his new selfie stick after school in The Cube!
One of my highlights of the library card sign-up promotion was having the pleasure of working together with Veronica Clark at the River Oaks Public Library. Not only did Ms. Clark provide the applications for CHS students and families, but she also donated a book and a $20 gift card to Half Price Books for the prize baskets. I am thankful to have a public librarian, who is so eager to partner with the schools in Castleberry ISD and who really has a heart for providing the River Oaks community quality resources and great spaces to enjoy at the ROPL.
Kelly Shelton, teacher-librarian at Castleberry Elementary caught one of my favorite readers, Elizabeth J., CHS 11th grader, while she was volunteering at the River Oaks Public Library after school. Elizabeth also volunteers for Mrs. Shelton at the CE after-school science club. Check out why Elizabeth loves the ROPL below!
Mrs. Heather Lamb, the Teacher-Librarian at AV Cato, and I are looking to partner CHS and AV Cato classes as Book Buddies. The logistics have yet to be worked out as we're waiting to get teachers' input; however, we envision alternating read-aloud sessions via Google Hangout between classes or students on a weekly or bi-weekly rotation. This can be any grade level or subject area as reading and relationship are life-long skills that affect us all. If you're interested in your classes participating, please let me know!
Across the country this week, librarians, book sellers, and authors are celebrating Banned Books Week, a week carved out this time of year to spread awareness about the freedom we have as Americans to read whatever we deem appropriate for us to read. As basic as this seems to us, BBW reminds us that not all people around the world enjoy this freedom. Additionally, drawing attention to frequently challenged books in our schools and libraries across the country reminds us that censorship from one means restriction for all.
This month, we will be featuring books such as To Kill a Mockingbird, The Fault in Our Stars, and many books from today's most popular authors that have appeared on the ALA's Most Frequently Challenged list. We are asking CHS students and faculty to "take a chance on BANNED" by selecting a wrapped book from our display and reading it to determine why the book was challenged and if they agree with the decision. Students are tweeting their ideas to #CHSCubed. The Cube Prize Patrol is lurking the hashtag for particularly well-structured responses.
For information regarding Castleberry ISD's book collection policy, please click here.
