Hey everybody, we're back and I've got another new friend. I'm very excited. We've got Bernadette here with us today and this lesson that she's gonna share, this activity she does, just, I saw it and it blew my mind. So I'm really excited to hear about this. So I'm jumping ahead as I always do. So Bernadette, why don't you take a second, tell us a little bit about who you are, where you're at. Sure. My name is Bernadette and I am a K-6 librarian in a public school in the Kansas City metro area.
I'm actually on the Kansas side if you're familiar with Kansas City. So that's usually one of the questions, Missouri or Kansas. My wife grew up in Kansas, so I am vaguely familiar with it from her. yeah, so that's, I mean, that's gotta be a lot of fun. The K6, man, I do not envy you. That is a spread. Like that's a lot of student to deal with.
It is, but you know what, I consider it kind of a really great blessing because I'm one of the lucky few in the school that can actually call every one of my 400 students by name. Because I get to know every single student and I love, especially as they get older, you know, I joked with one of my fifth graders not too long ago. said, I remember when you were in second grade and I really questioned whether you were gonna make it, you know, just as a joke.
But just like really watching them mature and watching that whole transition from kindergarten all the way up through sixth grade, those that stay with us, it's just, it's a really neat opportunity to have every single student in the school. That is really something I have to admit. I used to teach high school before I went into the middle school.
And over the years, I have once in a while taught a high school class and I've had some students from my middle school classes in those high school classes. And getting to see that development is definitely interesting. But man, the K's, the ones, the twos, I don't think I could do it. I, more power to you. definitely give you that. My heart is with the upper elementary when I started teaching.
I started in fourth grade for a year and then moved to sixth grade and fifth grade and taught there for 10 years. So my heart is definitely with the older students. When I made the switch to include the whole school and teach students as young, actually at that point in time I was working with kids as young as three. It was a huge, huge difference, yeah. In my career, of the jobs I had, one of the positions was the director of technology for a private school.
And we serve students, like I said, as young as three, all the way up to eighth grade. yeah, so I was teaching at that time, teaching three-year-olds how to use a computer, which, you know, we hadn't really moved to iPads yet. So even just teaching kids, how do you use a mouse and how do we get the finger control of, you know, just the typing and yeah, it was really an amazing time. I'm one of those, again, I consider myself blessed.
I'm in that generation that remembers life before technology and grew up right alongside my students learning how to use technology and how to put it to effective use. That is, that's really interesting. I've never, I don't think I've ever heard of any classes that went that young with students in any subject and particularly with technology. That's really fascinating. Hmm, boy. yeah. It really fed my passion for combining technology with really any kind of content.
I bring a huge passion for technology to the library these days and just looking for ways to connect online and offline. I think it's important for students to get an opportunity to explore the world without the technology. We've kind of swung, in my opinion, kind of almost complete opposite. went from no technology to now everything seems to be technology.
And I try to find a little balance between the two of like, okay, some of this will be technology, this unit might be technology, but this one is going to be offline. We're going to not use a whole lot of technology with this one. Well, we're playing right into that today because you're going to tell us about this amazing activity that you do with your kids that is not online. It is so physical. I love it. It's really in the real world.
Before we dive into the specifics of it, where did this come from? Like, how did you end up sort of finding yourself in need of this? Or, you know, how did you develop the idea for this particular activity? So being in Kansas City, the Super Bowl has been a big topic of interest in the last few years. And I was looking for some way to engage students in nonfiction. I promise there's a reason I'm going to why I started with the Super Bowl.
So we actually spent some time with my students working on reference materials. And I tied it into some Super Bowl activities that we did. And then again, being in Kansas and KU, the NCAA tournament is usually a big deal. So we do some March Madness and some brackets. And I had a little bit of a buffer between Super Bowl and March Madness and realized I hadn't spent a lot of time talking about biographies. So I knew I wanted to do something with biographies.
I wanted to get my kids interested in that section of the library. I just didn't see it getting utilized very much. really wanted to get the kids kind of focused on that. And it just so happened that my PE teacher was teaching bowling as part of his unit about the same time that I was kind of looking for something to do with biographies. So kind of blending the two, the kids were practicing bowling in PE, so why not do some bowling in the library, which kind of led to biography bowling.
I love that. That is such a unique connection that you're making there for these kids. But you posted a video on Blue Sky, which is what led me to you in the first place. it's so like watching the kids engage with this is just it's entertaining to watch, but they are clearly into what they're doing here. And it's really a wonderful way to kind of add that hands on experience to this learning moment of how do we sort of deal with biography? Right.
So there were certain objectives that I wanted the kids to be able to accomplish. We only spent about three lessons on biographies, but I wanted them to be able to identify what made it a biography, how biographies are organized differently, and I wanted them to be able to find biographies on the shelf. So we spent a little bit of time practicing some of those skills, getting some of that knowledge. And when it came time to actual bowl day, so bowling day, students scored so.
I'm doing this because I'm rethinking how I want to do this. Absolutely. Okay, so when it came time for actual bowling day, we did 10 frames of bowling. The students were responsible for seven frames. And in order to score for those seven frames, they had to show that they understood some of the biography skills. So they had to, for example, I gave them a list of books that we have in our collection where the name of the person is part of the title. So for example, She Loved Baseball, the F.M.
Manley story. So one of the things the students had to do was identify, F.M. Manley is the name of the person the book is about. So if I were to do a spine label, it would be in our library, 92, and then M.A.N. for Manley. So even just practicing writing some spine labels that scored points toward their seven frames. That's a great idea.
I, literally just would never have occurred to me to just take a minute and just say, hey gang, you're going to write some spine labels so that they're sort of internalizing here's why it is the way it is and really making that a concrete moment for them. boy. I know, I don't think of some of these things sometimes as eye-opening or as insightful or helpful for others. just kind of, my brain just thinks, this is a good idea.
So I'm really glad that you are offering this opportunity for others to come up with some of those ideas or take some of those ideas and implement them in their library too. Cause I don't always think the same way. I think we all, know, a lot of us do that. We do these things in our own spaces and we just think, yeah, well, that's just the way I do it. But for somebody out there, that's gonna be like, my gosh, I've never thought of that before.
So I love that you are sharing this with us and sorry I jumped in, but it's just, I had to say like, man, even just step one of this is so clever to just have the kids take that minute to say what's the title and who's it about. So now they're getting sort of that embedded knowledge of. okay, that's why the biography is under the person instead of under the author. Exactly, exactly.
Yeah, and it's a tough concept because, you know, students get for so long they've been taught and I repeatedly teach them, you know, if we're talking about nonfiction, it's by numbers. If we're talking about fiction, it's by the author and it doesn't matter. But biographies are a little unique because it's a little bit of both.
funny geez you know again something that i just it didn't occur to me i'm so used to it just being you go to the nine twos and that's where they are but you're right like it is really a blend of sort of the the two worlds in a way except not really boy yeah exactly, exactly. It's its own unique little section of the library. So, yeah. So once we practiced writing some spine labels, then it was time to explore our biography section.
So when I decided I wanted to do bowling, I spent some time looking for kind of a cheap, easy way to get some plastic bowling pins and a bowling set. So it did take a little bit of time and a little bit of an investment to find the materials. If I couldn't find them, my alternate plan was to use two liter bottles as my bowling pins. Yeah, so, but I did find some bowling pins.
And so what I did is I printed off some spine labels just on little stickers that I could place on the bottom of a bowling pin. And so when students finished writing their spine labels, they came to me so I could check their work and I gave them a bowling pin. And their task was to find the book that matched the spine label on the bottom of the bowling pin. clever.
Yes, so those bowling pins, once they were correctly matched with the book, those bowling pins then became the actual pins that were used for the bowling portion of it. Gotcha. In my mind, I'm already like extrapolating ways that you could, you know, add additional things to this. And I'm picturing kids like juggling bowling pins now. And like, that might be going a little too far.
Remember that might be not quite aligning with our goals, but I love the idea though of again, like adding that concrete element to something that's usually just a purely mental exercise of match up this information with the book that it goes with and adding that physical component. Cause some of our students are really hands-on. and just having even that one thing to hang onto while they do this task could make the difference for some kids between remembering or not remembering.
And for me too, it was a huge impact on just even practicing finding books in our library. There's so many times that the kids will say, well, where is so and so, or where can I find this book? And when there's just one of us in the library, sometimes it gets a little overwhelming.
So if I'm investing time year over year to help kids figure out, we're practicing not just matching a book with a spine label, but we're also working on our alphabetizing skills because you have to find on the shelf if here are the A's and B's and your spine label starts with a C, then you have to start using those alphabet skills just to find the matching book. That's something that I unfortunately am continually shocked by how unable my middle school students are at.
Boy, I really just mangled that one, but I think you get where I'm going. Like the middle school kids have so much trouble figuring out, that author is T, I don't want to start on the top shelf. Like, why is this so hard? But again, it's something that we don't always have the time or take the time to introduce them to. So I love that they're getting this additional element of Yeah, this is something that we need to know when we're looking for stuff in the library. Exactly, exactly.
yeah, so the next step then, I got my teachers on board. So when the classroom teachers arrived to pick up their students at the end of class, the classroom teachers, they were responsible for the last three frames of our 10 frames of bowling. So I actually have about 30 bowling pins. So I have enough for the whole class, because I usually have a class size of around 20, 25. So we made sure we found enough books for all 30 bowling pins to get set up.
And I set up a bowling lane right at the door to our library. And if you think about, when you go to the bowling alley and maybe you're not the best bowler in the world, you need to put those bumpers up. And I don't have gutters, you know, in my library. So what I encourage the students to do is to become their own bumpers for their teacher. So the teacher was given three opportunities to knock down as many of the 30 bowling pins as they could.
I've seen students, typically what they end up doing is they stand up and they line the bowling alley. So they're on either side of the lane, know, clapping and cheering for their teacher and, you know, giving them positive feedback. And this year, I had one group of fourth graders when I said, well, you guys are gonna be the bumpers.
They literally took it literally and they lined themselves up laying down along the bowling alley to ensure there was not a single empty space where the bowling ball could accidentally squeak through and not hit the bowling pins and knock them down. So I think, go ahead. I saw that just I was on the floor. I was dying. Just seeing the kids laying there in rows as the teacher is bowling this ball down the alley and the kids are, some of them are like really trying to be like, I am a bumper.
I am not a person and they are being very rigid. And then other ones are like mashing the ball down the alley to make sure they're hitting as many pins as possible. So funny and so great like that the kids were so into it. Exactly, exactly. And that's the part that I loved about it is, first of all, the teachers, I work with such a fabulous staff and they are always so willing to join in on whatever kind of crazy idea I come up with.
And so this one was kind of putting them on the spot because some of my teachers said, you know, I'm not a very good bowler. And I said, well, that's okay. We're going to help you out with this one. And so, yes, just like you saw in the video, Some of the students were very cognizant of not breaking the rules or not helping out.
And as the ball kind of strayed a little to one side or the other, other students made sure that the ball kept its momentum going and managed to knock down as many pins as possible. So we end up scoring all seven frames of the students work and then the three frames of the teachers work. And I actually have kind of a large poster size score sheet for bowling and I just keep track by each class. So we do this in third through sixth grade so everybody can kind of see what each grade level is done.
And typically, typically it falls on the teacher if there's any points that are missing that they might have missed a few pins and the students usually walk away filling all seven frames of their responsibility with a perfect score. And then it's just a few pins here or there that don't get quite knocked down. try to I try to conveniently set it up more like dominoes than bowling pins so that everybody feels successful.
That's excellent. And I mean, I've got to imagine that there's some really great inter-class or inter-grade rivalry about, my gosh, we've got two more pins than you. Whenever you can get that kind of reaction going where the kids are really engaged and involved and are sort of like in the friendly challenging way, so awesome. I love that, man. And I'm sure the students were loving it too.
yeah, I have to keep the bowling scores up like an extra week just so everybody, you whoever got to go first can come back and see what the scores were, you know, for the subsequent classes. So yes. Yeah. There's a lot of friendly rivalry that we have going on. That's so awesome, man. This is just such a fun way to do a lesson that maybe sometimes, I hate to say it, can be kind of boring. Like, you know, we're talking about numbers and names and orders.
I can see kids tuning out during that, but you have taken it to this completely different level where they are physically engaged with learning this information. Boy, is this the first time you've done that this year? It's the first time this year. I did it for the first time last year. And I look at, again, one of those gifts of being able to see students multiple years in a row is I always think about our library curriculum in a spiral format.
And usually classroom teachers think about a horizontal spiral. So going from point A to point B, November to December to January. And I think of our curriculum spiraling in a vertical way. So I think of introducing a topic in fourth grade, and then we practice in fifth, and then hopefully master by sixth. So as my students are introduced to something the first time last year, as they did it again this year, I was really looking to see, did students remember?
Did they do a better job with maybe retaining some of that information year over year, which is a big stretch. But the minute the bowling came out, the kids were like, I remember this from last year. Yes, we're excited for it. And I really felt like they got the gist of what I was hoping they were going to get. That they would know, again, my objectives. What makes it a biography? Why do we organize biographies differently? And how do you find them on the shelf?
to have that instant recall when they see those props come out and they're like, that's right. Like just what a great mnemonic to help them cement that in place. And it's awesome that you feel like you're seeing that retention. Like it's not just you thinking maybe this will work. It's the kids themselves saying, right. I remember this. Yeah, exactly.
And that's what was unique about this year, being it's the second time I've done it now, is looking to see how did my fifth graders recall, did they do better this year? Because it would have been the second year they would have had it. And the same thing with my sixth graders. So I'm really hoping as we continue spiraling upward, by the time my fifth graders now have it in sixth grade, they should be, hopefully, the goal is that they really have that information mastered.
Yeah, boy, that's great. Man, it's just my brain is overflowing with thinking about how amazing it is that you get that opportunity to work with these students over and over again across those multiple years and really reinforce those skills. Because in my school, we've only got seven, eight. That's it. That's our whole grade band. So I get a shot in seventh and a shot in eighth, and then they're on their way. And it's like, hopefully they're taking those skills with them. But who knows?
So having those extra couple of years can really make a big difference, bet. Yeah, it really does and I know, you know, I'm on a set schedule. So I see my students on a regular basis and I know there's a lot to be said about a flexible schedule and a set schedule and kind of finding a hybrid. It's just how my district operates that it's going to be a set schedule. I don't see it changing. So it's kind of like how do I make the most of it?
How do I ensure that the priority standards are really getting taught? Well, you're definitely making your lessons really sticky because these are, mean, again, you got to watch the video folks. It is amazing. Well, if it's okay, we'll include the link in the show notes so that people can find it because it just was cracking. I must've watched it 10 times in a row because it was just so fun to watch every different kid have these different reactions. So great.
So one of the things that I find interesting about this lesson is the way you're sort of putting it together seems like it would be really adaptable for all different kinds of grade levels, ability levels, know, whatever kids are bringing to the library, you can kind of tailor the activity to them in a way that's going to still help them get some of the information and the resource knowledge so that they can use it in the future.
Have you found you've had to like modify things in any particular ways for students? think maybe the modification has come from ways that I scaffold and support different leveled students. Sometimes as teachers we scaffold by how we partner kids up or how we pair groups together. So that's been some of my scaffolding. So looking to make sure that I have somebody I knew would probably get the information that be willing to help somebody who didn't have that info. Mm-hmm.
A lot of the scaffolding, know, as the kids were working independently, I say independently, but kind of, you know, on their own, figuring out the spine labels, it was an opportunity for me to really reteach and see, you know, oh, this student, you know, when we did this whole group lesson on why that person's name is important, this student missed that. Maybe they were absent, maybe they just didn't get it at that time.
It doesn't really matter, but it was an opportunity for me to really work with those small groups and figure out, okay, guys, let's reteach this. Let's look at why this is important, why we're practicing it. So, you know, even though they're working and, you know, kind of this competition type mode, they're trying to score points, I was still making sure that it was a teachable opportunity and looking for those groups that just needed some extra support, some extra help with it. Yeah, yeah.
So clearly the students are getting this, it's sticking with them, they're enjoying this. Have you gotten any kind of feedback from the teachers about, I know that this lesson doesn't necessarily directly impact their instruction like some other collaborations might, but I'm just kind of curious, have they had anything to say about being brought into the bowling alley?
You know, I think what I see is the feedback I get from teachers are just so excited that the library is an engaging place to be, that it's a place that students want to come to. It's kind of opened up opportunities, additional opportunities to collaborate. You sometimes in an elementary school, grade level classrooms are a little siloed from the electives or the specials classroom and it's hard to overlap sometimes.
So even just having a teacher spend an extra two or three minutes in the bowling alley so to speak, also in a fairly fun laid back approach, it's also a great opportunity to say, the kids, we didn't get to finish this biography book that the kids really seem to enjoy. Maybe if you have some time in your day that you could do this or Even having teachers will say, this made me think, you they have that extra few minutes just to be in the library and it sparks some of that.
I forgot, I wanted to do something after spring break with X, Y and Z. Can you help me out with that? Or I need some help finding, you know, a couple picture books that we just want to share for fun. So kind of almost forcing those teachers inside those library doors for just a few extra fun minutes. Mm-hmm. also build some of those relationships with our teachers and to help with future collaboration.
That's, mean, and now I'm thinking how amazing that would be as sort of almost an advocacy element of helping your teachers see that the library can be a fun place. And it's not just necessarily a place you want to dump your students off, or it's not just a place you're going to come just to do research. Like there's so many things we can do here. So don't you want to come in more?
Like I imagine that they get, some of them must get pretty excited about the idea of, yeah, we're going to go and we're going to have some fun today in the library. Yeah, library is definitely a fun place to be, at least in our school. At least I hope it is. That's awesome. Well, I mean, from what I can see, it absolutely is. So kudos to you, because this is just awesome. So I think, are there any other, I know, I completely, I don't know where my brain is.
When people are thinking about trying this out, because I know people are gonna wanna try this out, do you have any suggestions for things they should sort of keep in mind as they're sort of preparing or as they're going through this for the first time? Well, as I was thinking, especially when you were asking about how do I support and model in Scaffold, honestly, this kind of approach and activity could be used with pretty much any kind of content area that you want to do.
I chose biographies, but as I'm thinking through, it could easily be done in any kind of format. If you are doing some sort of... know, library orientation, where to find materials, or maybe you're looking for, you know, again, scoring some points, just another way to bring it about, to do any kind of content, I think is really where I was headed with it. can see this being almost a decathlon of like, we do bowling for biographies and discus for, I don't know, Dewey.
Right, yeah, I know I started thinking about it. I was like my third quarter lessons are very sports oriented. I don't know how that all happened necessarily, but yeah, like I said, there's football and then there's bowling and then we finished with some basketball too. you know, for me, I really looked at, I wanted my collection to shine. So when, that's why it's so hard. Like there's no real. digital resource to it because it's based on the books that are in my collection.
I always looked for ways that I could make things a little easier. I tend to tell my students we're gonna work smarter, not harder. So making sure as I came up with different activities, like making sure I wrote myself some notes, because you don't pull this out every, it's not like it comes out every month, it's like 12 months later, you pull it back out and it's like, what was I doing with this? And how did I? I know I did this, but how did I do it?
I think my biggest kind of like aha moment was just, it sounds silly, but getting those little tiny address labels to write, to use the printer and print my spine labels on them so I could just stick them on those pins and I didn't have to worry about if it fell off, I could stick it back on. Just being able to make it as easy as possible. Love it, love it. On a practical side, I'm kind of curious.
When you put the labels on the pins, since they're biography labels, do you then set up the pins in alphabetical order? No, actually I don't. I actually, made sure, you know, some of my classes are back to back. Like I'm literally cleaning up one session of bowling as the next class is coming in. So I made sure that when kids were pulling the book off the shelf to match the bowling pin, I kind of had a few extra, you know, so like for example, 92 LIN, which happened to be for Abraham Lincoln.
And I know I've got, you know, a handful of books on Lincoln. I knew that that was a bowling pin that I could easily use again, and I didn't have to hurry up and shelve the book so that the next group could find it. So really kind of being strategic. There might've been a few L.I.N.'s, a few Washington's, a few Roosevelt's, know, looking again at my collection, what spine label tended to at least have a few of the books to match.
Again, because, you know, if the goal is to help the students find the book on the shelf, the book has to be on the shelf. So how do I make sure to kind of have that quick transition with back-to-back classes? Hmm, that's a great point. Boy. man, so many logistical things to consider in this, but so worth it. I mean, your students clearly are having a great time and learning important stuff. So love it. Thank you for sharing this lesson.
I think we're at the point where we're gonna take our 90 degree turn into our book break. In the book break, you can share whatever you want. I'm sorry, go ahead. That's okay, I was literally trying to remember which book I said I was gonna do because I'm not even sure I recall what I sent you. That's okay. You can do any book you want. It doesn't have to be something that you sent ahead. Let me see if I can find what you sent ahead in case you want to do that. We're. We are definitely human.
Okay, I was trying to remember what I had had, because there were two that were in my head. So, yes, so the book I thought was, that I wanted to share is the one called We Are Definitely Human. And I'm gonna put my long pause in here in just a second, because you're gonna have to edit this out. I have two dogs that came and joined me during the thunderstorm and now that the storm's over, they are done. Sure. No problem. Hey, dog. Okay, sorry about that. a dog. no worries. No problem at all.
Yeah, so yeah, so the book I chose is called We Are Definitely Human. And it's a new book that came across my radar as a result of participating in the mock Ezra Jack Keats Award. So it's kind of modeled off of the mock Caldecott unit, but the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation, It sponsored this particular one and it was an opportunity to kind of get some other new books into, in this case I did it with my kindergartners and first graders, so getting some new books into their hands.
And one of the suggested titles was this one called We Are Definitely Human. And I probably read it to my students all the way back in early, early January, maybe one of the first two books that I read to them. and they recalled the book an easy eight weeks later and they identified just the book. They remembered the book. It's such a unique way. I don't wanna give too much away from the story, but the main characters are very obviously not from Earth.
And, they put this spin on it that they keep saying that we're definitely human. Look, we wear hats, we work, we are from Europe, we're definitely human. Although it's very obvious that they're not. And what my kids remembered is the message of kindness and the message of even though the actual humans in the story could really tell that these characters were definitely not human, really faze the humans. The humans still help them repair their spaceship. They taught them how to eat correctly.
They taught them how to talk. They taught them how to use their tools. And this whole community came together to ensure that these definite humans were able to return back to wherever it is that they came from. I just, eight weeks after reading a book and hearing know, six year olds say, this was my favorite book and it was so great because it was about kindness. And that was the message that they just, it really stuck with them.
That, you know, it didn't matter what these characters look like or where they were from. It just was a matter of being kind to each other and helping each other and being successful. And it was just, you know, the very last page of the book. you know, one of the main characters is just waving goodbye to these definite humans as they're taking off in their spaceship. And it kind of brings the title full circle because the main character just says, yes, they are definitely not human.
But again, the kids just really embraced the message of the book, which was the kindness piece of it. So, yeah, so they... They love the book and then when we did our mock award, it became the winner that we selected in our school. And then it was great to see that the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation actually selected that book as one of their top books for the year too. yeah, yes. is not a book that I have heard of, but this sounds awesome.
Like I said, any book to me, if a student is able to remember that book months later, that's just an impactful book in my opinion. yeah. Even just the title, as soon as I saw it, I started kind of chuckling inside because you know sort of where it's going to go, but I'm sure I don't know exactly where it's going to go. So I'm really curious to pick it up and see. yes, yes.
And you know, again, like any good picture book, you really have to delve into the illustrations because the illustrations is where some of the humor comes out and some of the uniqueness piece comes out. And so the kids were, again, as we were reading this out loud, they were pointing out, look at what's happening there. Look what's happening there. Look at how, again, not to give too much away, but look at how all of these pieces are coming together. Hmm, love that.
Well, that's going on my shortlist. Love it. Huh. Well, thank you so much for sharing a great title. Thank you for sharing this lesson. I really appreciate you coming on to just let people know like, hey, here's a cool thing that I'm doing. Cause like I said, I saw the video and I had to just find out like where this came from. Cause it's just looks like everybody's having such a great time. And to my mind, that's what school should be all the time.
Not that we, you know, that we're trying to program from fun all the time, but there's opportunities to learn in engaging ways. And I love that you're doing that with your students. So thank you so much for sharing that with us. thank you for giving me the opportunity to share. hope it helps others.