Library Services offered at GVHS Library 

Research

• Curate research pathways for projects
  • Send me your assignment descriptions and I will create a research pathway for your classes. Research pathways usually include tips and directions for students on the best avenues to take to find the resources (website, database, or books) needed to complete the project. Examples include links to the best databases to use for this particular project, links to appropriate (and reliable) free web resources, book lists, search tips, and other miscellaneous goodies to help students with their research project. A research pathway acts as a helpful "one stop shop" for your classes, and as a home page for their research projects.
• Instruction on database, website, & print resource location, selection, & citations.
  • I am happy to provide direct instruction (whole class, small group, or 1:1 remediation) on the best resources and tools for students to use while researching and citing sources for their projects.
• Collaborate to design & work meaningful research assignments into your curriculum.
  • Are you or your dept. reworking, or looking to enhance, or change, your current research assignments? Let's schedule a meeting to discuss how to design and implement more meaningful research assignments into your curriculum. 

Fake News & Media Literacy Lessons

• Fake News  Lessons (or, as it's more properly known: Critical News & Media Literacy skills)
  
  • New this year! I am pleased to note that we are now offering mini-lessons on Fake News Literacy, or as it's sometimes called, Media Literacy. Sign your classes up for mini-lessons on topics such as:
    • Evaluating the reputation and reliability of news sources
    • Fact Checking news stories
    • Looking for Bias in yourself and your news providers
    • Catfishing Headlines
    • Looking for corroboration
    • Background checking the author or owner of the news provider.
    • Confirmation Bias
    • Questionable Photos or "Statistics"
    • Memes are not facts!
• Information Literacy Lessons
  • I'm also happy to offer mini-lessons on specific research skills, usually known as "Information Literacy," such as:
    • keyword searching: how what you find depends entirely on the words you choose in a search
    • Boolean search language (how to focus, expand, or narrow your search phrases)
    • website evaluation - checking authority, accuracy, currency, relevance, and purpose/bias)
    • fact checking and corroboration
    • copyright & online image use
    • responsible social media use
    • Wikipedia: Why it cannot be used for academic research (and how to safely use it for academic research anyway :)
    • Google: Why it isn't meant to be used for academic research (and how to safely use it for academic research anyway :)
    • Citations and Works Cited pages - what they are and why we need them

Literature & Reading Appreciation

• Curate recommended book lists around particular theme, unit, or topic
  • Looking for book recommendations? Need readalikes to go along with your assigned Classics? Wanting to shake up your required reading lists? Let me know what your needs are and I will curate recommended book lists to meet those needs.
• Organize & host video author chats
  
  • Want to invite an author to chat with your class? I can assist with arranging the chats, as well as hosting and facilitating them in the library.
• Assist w. Lit Circle Discussions
  • Are you hosting Lit Circles or Book Clubs in your classes this year? Need some help leading or assessing the discussion groups? I'm happy to join you on discussion days to assist with this. I'm also happy to curate book lists and provide book talks to assist students will choosing their books.
• Roaming Library
  
  • Schedule a visit from the Roaming Library! This is where I bring a cart full of books, usually grouped by some kind of connecting theme or topic to your classroom, give a couple very brief book talks (verbal only, not multimedia), and then students are given 6-8 minutes to browse and checkout books. You can schedule a visit for the first 15, or the last 15, minutes of a class period.
• Book Talks
  • I will create and deliver a presentation of "book talks" for the purpose of introducing students to a small selection of books (around a particular theme, unit, or topics if you wish) so as to make their choice of one of the books easier. Book talks usually include between 6-10 books. Each book is presented via a combination of book trailer videos, quotes from the story, short synopsis or summary, teasers, images, etc. The goal is to make the book sound as interesting as possible so as to entice students into choosing it for reading.
• Book Buffet
  • Bring your students to the library for a Book Buffet. Books will be grouped around particular themes or topics (chosen by the teacher or by me) and students will have time to circulate the groups, browsing for books to catch their interest. This can be as formal or informal as you like. For informal Book Buffets students can simply be given time to circulate freely and to check out a book if they find something of interest, or not to if they prefer. Or, for a more formal Book Buffet, we could designate a certain amount of time at each station, with an exit ticket needing to be filled out by students where they indicate a specified number of titles that caught their interest, and why. Let's work together to make this program fit into your class goals and needs!

Technology Integration

• Instruct/demo digital presentation tools   (ex: sick of powerpoint? Let me show your students other presentation tools!)
• PD for Teachers on digital tools. (ex: schedule PD for yourself or your dept. on noodletools, powerlibrary, databases, digital presenation tools, etc)