M.s. M! ( Sarah Masters)
Book of the Week
May 28, 2012 — M.s. M! ( Sarah Masters)
Booked! – Free Magazine
May 25, 2012 — M.s. M! ( Sarah Masters)Last week we distributed the ‘Booked’ magazine to all our Year 7, 8 and 9 students.
This free magazine included an interview with JLS (so that kept a lot of their fans happy) alongside book reviews, author, series and book profiles.
All good things to help promote reading for pleasure.
These were circulated via your tutors – but if you missed out – just pop into the MRC as we have a few spare copies.
Year 7 Information Literacy Programme: Evaluating Resources
May 24, 2012 — M.s. M! ( Sarah Masters)Evaluating Resources
In this session I ask my year 7 students to think about how and why they pick one resource over another.
We ‘brainstorm’ the 5 W’s before using them to evaluate a book.
The 5 W’s are, of course,
Who
What
When
Where
and
Why
How we can use these to evaluate resources….
Who?
Who is the author? Why would we look for a particular author?
Perhaps we have a favourite author, or we know they are an expert in that subject. Or perhaps they are a Dr or a professor – this may mean we are more able to trust what they write.
What?
What is a really easy one to work out. What is the book/resource about?
If we need to research Insects then knowing what the book about is probably the easiest way to evaluate a resource. If the book/resource is about fishing or aliens, or the Third Reich then we can quickly eliminate them. We probably do this without thinking about it.
When?
When refers to when the book/resource was published.
Is the book old? Does it matter? How up-to-date is it?
The date a book was published is usually found on the back of the Title Page near the copyright symbol.
Just because a book is ‘old’ doesn’t mean it isn’t useful. However if you want to know about the new species of butterfly; or a newly discovered egyptian tomb, then an old book won’t cover that.
Where?
Where can we find the answers in the book? Does the book have a contents page or an index? Most good books do – but have a look at a series like the Horrible Histories Series, these contain lots of interesting information; presented in a fun way, but if you are looking for a particular keyword you have to scan the whole book as they don’t have an index.
Another useful thing to look for is a Bibliography; or ‘Further Reading’; or ‘More resources’ etc. These can be found at the back of the book – near the index and can provide us with more useful resources – or where to go next.
Why?
Why should we use a particular book over another?
Does it have pictures? Are these drawings (and subject to an artistic impression) or photographs (more realistic)? On the other hand drawings and diagrams may be more clearly labelled. It’s all about the reason why we are looking for them in the first place.
Another ‘why’ would be what I call the ‘Goldilocks’ question. This relates to the size of the text – is it too big? Too small? Or just right?
It is the Goldilocks question because we each need to find the best fit for ourselves. Perhaps the writing is too big, with not enough information or detail perhaps too ‘babyish’ or easy? Perhaps the writing is so small that we cannot read it – if so – there is no point struggling – we need to find something better and more suited to our needs.
So evaluating resources is about thinking about why we are looking for; why we need that information and finding the best resource to help us.
Who, What, When, Where and Why are easy questions that can help us find the best resource.
Book of the Week
May 21, 2012 — M.s. M! ( Sarah Masters)
Comenius Fairy Tale Project – continued
May 18, 2012 — M.s. M! ( Sarah Masters)
In this weeks workshop the students started to map out our modern version of Jack and the Beanstalk.
They had great fun pretending to be armchairs, plasma 3D TV’s and even an apple tree!
By the end of the session we had managed to run through the whole performance.
Next week we firm up parts and tighten up the performance.
Looking good!
Jack and the Beanstalk: Modern version from ideas from Y7 Comenius group.
Jack and his mother live in a small ground floor flat which they rent from their landlord who lives in the penthouse at the top of the building. They are struggling to find money to pay the rent and so Jack’s mother tells him to sell his comics, his computer and his old Nokia. He goes to Peterborough market and is given an old MP3 in exchange. His mother is furious with Jack and throws the MP3 out of the window into the vegetable patch.
The next morning Jack wakes and hears a stream of music outside. He decides to see where it is coming from and goes into the lift. This is a talking lift and it announces his arrival on the top floor where the landlord, the market trader, lives with his wife. She meets him and takes him to the kitchen where he sees a huge turkey being prepared for the evening meal. He walks around the penthouse and in one room he notices some of his comics, his Slimline PS and his computer games. He realises he has been swindled by the market trader, who has just come home and yells at his wife. Jack helps himself to a Rolex watch, an IPad and the large turkey in the kitchen so he and his mother can something else besides baked beans on toast.
The talking lift shouts to the market trader that Jack is leaving with stolen goods. Jack smashes the lift controls when he is on the ground floor to silence the lift and hears a terrible scream and bang! The market trader, in his haste to pursue Jack, had fallen down the lift shaft and died.
The residents call the police who arrest Jack. He is taken to court and gets an ASBO for burglary. The market trader’s wife said the man tripped and fell down the lift shaft so Jack was never blamed for his death.
Jack took over the market stall and is now a very rich man.
The latest Comenius Project -funded by the Education and Culture DG Lifelong Learning Programme is based upon Fairy Tales – and as soon as I heard that I knew that the MRC should be involved.
It is a two year project working with some of our students (11-18) from Thomas Deacon Academy and other schools across Europe,- Lincolnshire UK; Germany; and Slovakia.
Carnegie Long List – continuing the challenge to read them all….
May 17, 2012 — M.s. M! ( Sarah Masters)I’m setting myself the challenge to read all of the books on the long list before the winner is announced. 52 titles in 6 months. That’s 2 a week….. I’d better get reading!
Since my last post I have read….
“The Midnight Zoo” by Sonya Hartnett
A well written book that despite being an ‘easy read’, leaves a sense of “What just happened?” I’m not convinced I’ve worked out what the ending meant for the characters – I have several theories and am a bit disappointed that resolution is so absent. I am looking forward to discussing my theories with my reading groups!
my last one to read is Sky Hawk by Gill Lewis – just as soon as a student returns it to the MRC!
Books I’ve read so far….
Drop in on DEAR 5.3
May 16, 2012 — M.s. M! ( Sarah Masters)The current focus of the Authors Page on the DEAR Homepage is…
Geraldine McCaughrean and her book: The Death Defying Pepper Roux
Available to borrow from the MRC – Click HERE to check
Comenius Fairy Tale Project – continued
May 11, 2012 — M.s. M! ( Sarah Masters)In last weeks workshop the students investigated the meaning and importance of fairy tales, and looked more closely at a few fairy tales including Jack and the Beanstalk.
This weeks workshop allowed the students to think of how they could create a modern day version of Jack. With new symbols to replace the beans, the stalk, the giant, the chicken and the harp etc.
They then split into groups of four to create a short play of their new version of Jack.
Each group performed their version to the rest of the group. They all had some great ideas – Jackie instead of Jack, a talking lift, an music stream, a wandering narrator and lots of Ipods and Xboxes! (and violent death scenes from the boys!).
Each performance drew laughs from the ‘crowd’ and the best ideas were merged into a new version of the Jack and the Beanstalk story.
Here is a sneak preview of our version combining all the best bits.
At the next workshop the students will start to create a script and assign roles.
Jack and the Beanstalk: Modern version from ideas from Y7 Comenius group.
Jack and his mother live in a small ground floor flat which they rent from their landlord who lives in the penthouse at the top of the building. They are struggling to find money to pay the rent and so Jack’s mother tells him to sell his comics, his computer and his old Nokia. He goes to Peterborough market and is given an old MP3 in exchange. His mother is furious with Jack and throws the MP3 out of the window into the vegetable patch.
The next morning Jack wakes and hears a stream of music outside. He decides to see where it is coming from and goes into the lift. This is a talking lift and it announces his arrival on the top floor where the landlord, the market trader, lives with his wife. She meets him and takes him to the kitchen where he sees a huge turkey being prepared for the evening meal. He walks around the penthouse and in one room he notices some of his comics, his Slimline PS and his computer games. He realises he has been swindled by the market trader, who has just come home and yells at his wife. Jack helps himself to a Rolex watch, an IPad and the large turkey in the kitchen so he and his mother can something else besides baked beans on toast.
The talking lift shouts to the market trader that Jack is leaving with stolen goods. Jack smashes the lift controls when he is on the ground floor to silence the lift and hears a terrible scream and bang! The market trader, in his haste to pursue Jack, had fallen down the lift shaft and died.
The residents call the police who arrest Jack. He is taken to court and gets an ASBO for burglary. The market trader’s wife said the man tripped and fell down the lift shaft so Jack was never blamed for his death.
Jack took over the market stall and is now a very rich man.
The latest Comenius Project -funded by the Education and Culture DG Lifelong Learning Programme is based upon Fairy Tales – and as soon as I heard that I knew that the MRC should be involved.
It is a two year project working with some of our students (11-18) from Thomas Deacon Academy and other schools across Europe,- Lincolnshire UK;Germany; and Slovakia.
Carnegie Long List – continuing the challenge to read them all….
May 10, 2012 — M.s. M! ( Sarah Masters)I’m setting myself the challenge to read all of the books on the long list before the winner is announced. 52 titles in 6 months. That’s 2 a week….. I’d better get reading!
Since my last post I have read….
There is No Dog by Meg Rosoff
Okay so Meg Rosoff had a good idea – “What would happen if God was a teenage boy?” – the answer is this book. I liked the concept – but the execution was lacking, and the ending rushed and unsatisfying. I usually like Meg’s writings but this fell short for me, perhaps my expectations were too high?
Racism, immigration and asylum issues are all covered in this jam-packed book. Alix is walking her dog on the beach when she sees a man being thrown from a boat and being washed up on the shore. An immigrant and a loner from school, Samir, is there too and he persuades her to help hid the stranger. The story goes at a pace addressing and tackling the big issues. A kind of gritty Enid Blyton ‘let’s get the adults out of the way so we can have an’ adventure book – so unbelievable in places – but a good read nevertheless.
Language of Cat by Rachel Rooney
I loved this book. As the only poetry book on the long list it made a refreshing change. I enjoyed reading them to myself, and reading some aloud to my children. Some of the reminded me of my own poetry, especially those about words and poems and language. Very accessible and a lovely quick read.
Books I’ve read so far….
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