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Book Club Starter Activities

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As librarians, we all have things at which we excel, and things that make others say, “Well, bless their heart, they tried!” For me, my kryptonite is book clubs. Over the decades I’ve been a school librarian, I’ve run many book clubs in many formats, with only intermittent success. What I’ve finally settled on, though, is a monthly, no-commitment lunchtime session, in which students who love reading can talk about books while they eat their lunches. We also eat cookies, trade recommendations, and I pass around a box of sixty-plus questions for when the discussion lags.

We always start our meetings with a brief, brain-warm-up activity that I’ve either devised or borrowed. Most of the time, students have to solve a puzzle of some kind to “earn” the cookies I bring to club, but sometimes we play a game or do a craft instead. Below is a list of as many of my activities as I can remember—please feel free to try them out!

Crafts

Crafts that don’t require a lot of prep or a lot of time to complete are best for book club openers. I advise against anything that needs glue!

  • Author’s Crafts—If you are reading a specific book, sometimes you can find activities on the author’s website, such as Keeper of the Lost cities “stickers” we turned into buttons.
  • Coloring Pages—Find coloring pages related to the book you are reading, such as dragons for a Wings of Fire book.
  • Button Quotes—Print out reading and writing quotes in fancy fonts for button-making, or have students write the quotes out themselves with art supplies (or both!).
  • Gift Boxes—Turn old greeting cards or book covers printed on cardstock into small gift boxes.

Codes/Clues

If you have some basic locks and boxes, you can create an endless number of clues to lead students to the solution, whether it’s a series of clues or a single one. Here are a few that I have tried.

  • Haikus—I created a series of haiku puzzles to solve related to The Trials of Apollo, including music notes to translate to letters that create words, Bananagrams tiles to rearrange, and a song to play from a flash drive.
  • Rebus Puzzles—Endlessly useful! Sometimes I’ll do a rebus that leads to a key, sometimes I’ll do a chapter title or book title rebus to solve, etc.
  • Invisible Ink—Always a favorite. Often this forms part of a two step puzzle; the first puzzle leads them to a locked box with a blacklight, and they use the blacklight to read the final clue—usually, where to find the cookies.
  • Foreign Languages—Clues that include foreign languages. For instance, when we read The Lightning Thief, I created a clue with key words written in Greek letters.
  • Book-Specific Clues—Clues akin to puzzles or incidents in the book you’re reading. For instance, when we read The City of Ember, I wrote the clue on paper that I crumpled and ripped up; the students had to put it back together to read it.
  • Directional Clues—For instance, I found book titles that had a direction in them (north, south, up, down, etc.), and wrote out clues to help students find those titles in our catalog. The direction in each title told the students how to solve a directional lock. You could also use a map from a book with a narrative describing a journey in various directions.
  • Book-Title Clues—I borrowed this idea from a friend: I gave students a grid of twelve books, with one book numbered to show them how to count. The code to the letters in the clue sentence were three digits in sequence, joined by dash marks. The first letter indicates which book, the second letter indicates which word in the title, and the third indicates which letter in that word.
  • Word-Puzzle Clues—For example, I wrote sentences in which some letters at the end of the first word combined with letters at the start of the second word spelled a number to help open a number lock. A sample sentence might start: “Teachers ix-nayed…” and the rest of the sentence is a red herring. Note: This one was really hard—too hard without lots of hints!

Matching Games

These are fairly quick and easy to put together.

  • First Line/Last Line—Match first or last lines of books to the appropriate title.
  • International Covers—Match international covers for same book with the nationality of their publication.
  • Globe-Trotting Covers—Match ten books set in different countries with the country in which they take place.
  • Teacher Childhood Favorites—Match faculty childhood photos with their favorite childhood book; this obviously requires some faculty participation!
  • Book Summaries—Match covers of new books to their summaries.

Writing Activities

The story-writing activities run a bit longer than I would usually allow for a starting activity; I mostly used these first two with club iterations that only shared a glancing relationship with books (writing, book games, literary smackdowns, etc.).

  • Write-a-Line Stories—Write the first two lines of a story or choose two lines from a book, then fold the page down so only the second line shows. (You could also create small booklets and write a sentence per sheet and fold it back, as folding a letter-sized page over and over gets hard!) The next person sees the second line or book sentence, and either writes the next two lines based on that, or finds two lines from a different book that could continue the story. Repeat until you run out of paper, and read the story aloud!
  • Round Robin Stories—Start a story, and pass it along to the next person to continue.
  • Review Haiku—Write reviews of books in haiku form.
  • Post-it Reviews—Create a post-it sized form with room for some stars, author and title, and a small space to write why someone should read this book. Display those books in the library, along with the recommendation. Borrowed idea from (I think) Travis Jonker.

Book Games—General

Some of these games take longer than others; play them just as long as they hold students’ interest!

  • Book Title Balderdash—Pick titles of several new books that won’t be familiar to the students. They will all write fake summaries, hoping to fool the other players when all of the summaries are read aloud, including the real one. This can be played with a Balderdash game board, or just for fun without counting points.
  • Book Title Pictionary—Pretty self-explanatory. Can be played in teams or as a group.
  • Book Title Telestrations—Based on the Telestrations game. A student takes a book title or character, and tries to draw it well enough for the second student to guess. That student writes down their guess and passes it on, without the drawing. The next student has to draw something based on that guess, and so it goes.
  • Name that book—Inspired by Name That Tune. Students “bet” on how many words from the first sentence(s) it will take for them to name a book, omitting identifying words like names. The kids found this one pretty hard, so adding a genre or using the summary instead of the first line(s) might help.
  • Trivia/Jeopardy—This takes a lot of time to put together, so would be for a special event, probably when you are all reading the same book. Alternately, if, like me, you have several hundred Battle of the Books questions hanging around, you could grab a few from the most popular books and just have at it.
  • Names in a Hat—In this game, everyone writes down a book title or character and throws it in an ersatz “hat.” On the first round, the person who is “it” draws one slip after the other, and can say anything (except what’s on the slip) to get the other players to guess what it is. They have one minute to get through as many as they can. At the end of round one, all the slips go back in the hat. For round two, the active player draws the slips again, but can say only one word to try to get the other players to guess the answer. For round three, they can only charade it.

Book Title Games

In these games, students must figure out book titles or words in book titles from the clues given.

  • Food Titles—Find clip art of food found in titles, and students use the catalog to find title(s) including that food. This could also work with other things, like animals, plants, etc.
  • Changed Titles—Give a description of books that would result if one word were removed from the real title/series title, and a hint. Students must identify the real title. Example: __ __ __ __     __ __ __ __ __ __  Ben Ripley attends an academy that focuses on being agile and flexible. (Series title, one letter added)
  • Emoji Titles—You can devise these yourself, or you can find some online. Line up some emojis that represent a popular book title. It can be straightforward, or use homonyms (like a peace sign representing the word “piece”). Here are the ones I used:

I love games and codes and crafts, so it’s always fun to come up with or hear about new, short activities I can use to combat my book-club kryptonite! I hope some of these prove useful to you.

Series: Infrastructure as Instruction: Reclassifying from Dewey to Library of Congress by Stephanie Gamble

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Part 1: A Map for the Future

I have a confession. When I first started as a school librarian I had a lot of frustrations with the 300’s. Arriving in my 9-12 library after a history PhD and years as a librarian at research universities, I was intimately familiar with Library of Congress call numbers, and very rusty on Dewey. Initially, I chalked up my frustrations with Dewey–especially the way the 300’s pulled critical aspects of history out of “History” (in a 900’s sense) when it involved minority groups like women, African Americans, Native Americans, and immigrants–to a need to break my old LCC habits.
But, why do we use Dewey? Our mission is to prep our students for college level research, but we aren’t teaching them college library organization. So, I fantasized about a college prep high school library that was organized by LCC instead. What would that look like? What would we gain? What might we lose? How much work would it take? This post is the first in a series as I answer those questions.
Right now I am neck-deep in transitioning my collection from DDS to LCC, and the number one reason I committed to this work boils down to consistency of purpose. Our school prepares our students for college–and in my domain, particularly college level research and information skills. Colleges use Library of Congress call numbers. Instead of teaching my students how to navigate our library and information landscape in Dewey, then sending them off to much larger libraries that use a more expansive and totally foreign looking system and pretending I prepared them, I decided that the work is worth the potential.
Further contemplating the potential gains and losses, I realized another thing. Currently, I have to help many of my students find books in the stacks because they can’t follow a call number to the right spot on the shelves. Despite having had library instruction in lower and middle school, I consistently have students tell me they can’t find a book that, when I go to look with them, is exactly where it should be. So, it shouldn’t be extra work to teach them how to find things when they get to the upper school and encounter a new system. I am already teaching them how to find things, why not use the opportunity to teach them the system they will use as they continue their education and give them a chance to learn and practice it while they have me to provide lots of support. I also teach our 9th graders about controlled vocabularies and subject headings (see my Lego Lesson for how I do this), so switching to LCC means that I am aligning the physical shelf layout with the search language which should reduce cognitive friction: no more searching in one language (LCSH) and finding in another (DDS).
(I should note, briefly, that we genrefied our fiction collection several years ago, and it remains separate in this reclassification process. Fiction will still be labeled/shelved by genre and author last name. Reclassifying has raised some of my longstanding questions about where to put certain works of literature, ie. should Austen, Twain, etc. be in our popular reading or in 800s (now P Class) P Class? We moved our graphic novels from the 740s to our genrefied collection as their own genre. This move highlighted that short-handing our collection into “Fiction” and “Non-fiction” doesn’t really account for the 800’s/P’s or narrative non-fiction intended for popular reading, and perhaps that is why those areas of our stacks are so dusty.)
There are a few other conceptual wins that I hope will subtly help our students in their research. One is that the date of publication will be much more visible, being the 4th line of the LCC call number. Currently (pun intended), despite both me and their teachers talking about recent scholarship, many students compose preliminary bibliographies with deeply out of date resources despite more current ones being available on the shelf. Our students often treat the publication date as a ‘post-production’ detail—something for the bibliography. By making the year the fourth line of the call number, we move currency to the ‘pre-production’ phase. It turns the shelf into a physical timeline. A student looking for Vietnam War research can now visually distinguish between a primary source published in 1967 and a historiography published in 2024 without even opening the cover. I hope that the increased visibility will enable my students to start paying more attention.
Circling back to my problem with the 300s, reclassification is shifting where things sit on the shelves in ways that largely brings books together by topic. Reclassifying is healing the fractures that previously existed, particularly for topics that used to sit in the 300s rather than 900s. For example, a student looking at the American Civil Rights Movement in our shelves would have to move from books in 301 (Social Structure), then move over 12 shelves to 305.48 (Women), then another 3 shelves to find 305.8 (Ethnic and National Groups), before moving 15 shelves down in another aisle to find books at 320 (Political Science, Politics and Government), then 4 more shelves down to 323 (Civil and Political Rights), before finally needing to go half way across the library (5 aisles of stacks over) to get to 973.8 (History, US, 1901-). As we reclassify to LCC, our students can find all of those same books at E185 (United States–Afro-Americans–Status and development since emancipation). Other works, like certain literary non-fiction (The Journey Home, by Edward Abbey, for example) are moving out of history and to language/literature. In the case of Abbey, reuniting this work with his others in PS3551 (American Literature by authors, 1900-1960). In a future post, once all the data is complete, I’ll share more about what shifts and where in this transition, but so far numerous topics–like civil rights–are feeling more coherent.
(I am also in the midst of a large and long overdue weeding project that will make dated options less available. But, even so, I  notice that many of the books our students request through our borrowing partnership with a local university are also frequently very old, despite other options being available.)
Given these advantages, it’s important to acknowledge why I struggled to find examples of schools that use LCC. The two most powerful–and entwined–reasons are tradition and inertia. School and public libraries use Dewey. And, because our school libraries are already using Dewey (tradition), the real, time consuming, and challenging work of reclassifying an entire library is a major obstacle (inertia). If we set those aside–I’ll come back to the latter in subsequent posts in this series–we may find that we encounter the ideas of tradition and inertia among our faculty and administrators as well. To anticipate and respond to faculty push-back, I hope that the reasons above will speak for themselves. But, for other resistance, your individual context may hold the keys. At our school, our faculty have a fierce independent streak. This worked to my advantage in some ways as it means I have a large degree of independence in my space, too–I didn’t need to present this change as a proposal to our faculty or make much of a case at all. Within the context of teacher and department autonomy, the library is seen as my domain so I am trusted to do what I think is best.
Also particular to my context, I am moving our whole collection to a new library in a new upper school building this summer. Potential faculty discomfort at not knowing their way around the space as well (“the books about Europe have always been right there!”) is moot–everything is moving anyway. To mitigate the “lost” feeling, I am also investing heavily in clear, disciplinary signage—using the faculty’s own language (e.g., flagging subclasses in DS (Asia) for Middle East, South Asia, and East Asia, the regional history classes we teach, instead of just ‘DS’) to bridge the gap. Even without moving buildings, clear signage or maps can mitigate the fear of being disoriented.
Ultimately, I identify reclassifying as a pedagogical act of backwards design. My goal is to teach students to do research of a high caliber so they are prepared to do research at the college level when they graduate. Reclassifying my collection isn’t, then, a clerical library task; it’s an act of information architecture–turning our stacks into the infrastructure of instruction. By aligning our shelves with the systems of the academy, I am giving our students a map that doesn’t expire at graduation–quite literally changing the shape of their research journey.

FunJungle Escape Room

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I’ve been running escape rooms twice a year for a while, and always try to create or borrow one that has some connection to middle school literature. This time, I decided to go with Stuart Gibbs’ FunJungle series of humorous mysteries involving a zoo/wildlife park in Texas. Gibbs, author of the Spy School series, is one of the most popular authors in my library, so I figured his series was a good choice.

When I’m designing escape rooms, I generally go with a single-path design, in that students can’t open boxes out of order because the clues in one box lead to another. I look at the locks I have and figure out which ones will work best, and design puzzles around them. Since FunJungle has an extensive map available online, I chose to start with a directional lock—actually a Breakout.edu multilock that can be set to work with letters, colors, or symbols.

(Note of caution: With a multilock, if you are using symbols/colors, it’s not enough to write down the combination you chose. You also need to note how to hold the lock while opening, and if the combination reads left to right or right to left. If not, you, like me, might have the embarrassing experience of a lock not working because you forgot the proper lock orientation!)

Below is my escape room in the order of unlocking, and I’m happy to share any details or documents if you’d like to run it yourself. I usually include two clues in each box, with one clue leading to the next box, and the second clue being for a box further down the line.

  1. Map Clue Box—Directional lock

I printed and laminated a large map of FunJungle with starting text saying where Teddy went to search for Cappuccino, an escaped capuchin monkey. The order of Teddy’s search gives the directions for the directional lock.

  • Tasks: Print and laminate map
    • Create and print starting clue
    • Program multilock and detailed instructions for unlocking
    • Print and laminate URL for inclusion

In this box: Cutout cardstock for second box, laminated URL for third box: https://www.google.com/search?q=animal+sounds

  • Cutout Clue Box—Four digit number lock.

I found a page from a FunJungle book that included letters I could use to spell out numbers, in the proper order for this four digit lock. I also copied several other FunJungle pages as red herrings, but kept the actual page slightly bigger—it was only one that fit the cutout.

To create the cutout, I first mapped where my desired letters were on tracing paper. Then I laid the tracing paper on my cardstock and used an X-Acto knife to cut out the squares, so that laying the cardstock over the page revealed the letters. This took some fine-tuning to make sure the correct letters were visible.

  • Tasks: Find a page containing the appropriate words/lettersTo spell out the requisite numbers
    • Create cutout cardstock
    • Print out multiple pages of FunJungle books
      • One for the clue and others as red herrings
    • Program number lock
      • (Or just keep whatever it’s programmed to—the kids never remember!)

Components found in previous boxes: 1: Cutout cardstock

In this box: Flash drive, red film

  • Animal sound clue Box—Five-letter word lock

I went to Google and searched “animal sounds,” then used my phone’s voice recorder to record five of them whose names corresponded to the word I chose for this word lock (HIPPO). I used the free Audacity program to combine the sounds into one track in the proper order, and saved the track on a flash drive as “Super secret clue.”

https://www.google.com/search?q=animal+sounds

I used Flint AI to create a template of zoo-type animal labels, then added photos of ten animals, five of which are correct and five of which are red herrings. I printed and laminated them.

  • Tasks: Create a template for zoo animal information sheets
    • Find photos of ten animals and add them to the template
    • Print and laminate
    • Create a recording of animal sounds in order
      • The first letters of their species name create the word to open the word lock
    • Store recording on flash drive
    • Have a laptop available to play the file
    • Program word lock

Components found in previous boxes: 2: Laminated URL, Flash drive

In this box: Red-film-clue-obscured equation, blacklight

  • Red Film Clue Box—Four digit number lock.

With Flint AI’s help, I created a complicated but simple-to-solve mathematical equation that led to four digit answer. I turned this into a red-film clue by writing it in pencil, then used a red ball-point pen to scribble over it until it was illegible. Holding red film over the clue makes the underlying pencil legible again.

((50 + 10) x (200 ÷ 2)) + ((4 + 4) x (100 ÷ 2)) + ((20 – 4) x (10 ÷2)) + ((15 – 6) – (4 – 2))

  • Tasks: Create a suitably complicated equation
    • Turn it into a red-film clue
    • Source some red film, perhaps from theater or art department
    • Program number lock, if necessary

Components found in previous boxes: 2: Red film; disguised equation

In this box: Puzzle, laminated cryptowheel clue XBCECPOANIIW

  • Puzzle Clue Box—Key lock.

I created a collage of FunJungle book covers, and wrote a limerick on the back to identify where the key was hidden, using an invisible ink pen. Then I laminated and cut up the collage (Note: 5-6 pieces at most!!).

FunJungle has all kinds of these,

Found in donkeys and monkeys who seize

The one thing I need

To trap them indeed;

Find it where you get help for skinned knees.

(I hid my key in the first aid kit)

  • Tasks: Source an invisible ink pen and blacklight, plus batteries
    • Create a collage of FunJungle book covers
    • Create a limerick or other clue to identify where the key is hidden
    • Write it on the back of the collage BEFORE laminating
    • Laminate collage
    • Cut collage into 5-6 pieces
    • Hide key

Components found in previous boxes: 2: Puzzle, Blacklight

In this box: Cryptowheel

  • Cryptowheel Clue Box—Five letter word lock

I happen to have a wooden cryptowheel, so decided to make use of it. The way it works is that you turn the dials until you have legible words in one line (“Use word lucky”), then look at a different line and write down those letters as your clue. When students align the clue letters, they then turn the wheel until they spot the actual words.

I had my clue, XBCECPOANIIW, written on a document lying around, and in a box. The document I used was a school field-trip scavenger hunt form, created with the help of Flint AI, and filled out by my quietly hilarious colleague. I used the clue in one of the “name” fields, as if some smart-aleck thought it was funny.

  • Tasks: Source and program a cryptowheel
    • Program word lock
    • Create a field-trip scavenger hunt form
    • Fill out, with the code letters written on it somewhere
    • Create some other scavenger hunt forms as decoys
    • Cut out and laminate the clue
    • Print and laminate a photo of the “escaped” animal

Components found in boxes: 1: Cryptowheel clue (laminated)

In this box: Cookies & laminated capuchin monkey photo

Décor and red herrings:

You can do almost anything with décor and red herrings, going as detailed or minimal as you want. I’d do fewer red herrings for younger students, though—they do get off track! Here’s what I used in my room:

  • Scavenger Hunt, printed and filled out humorously and including Cryptowheel clue
  • FunJungle books
  • Animal stuffies borrowed from colleagues
  • Safari hat & binoculars borrowed from the theater department
  • “Missing animal” posters with template created by Flint AI, filled out by me

Conclusion

Escape rooms do take time to create and set up, but the kids love them and it’s a fun way to connect them with books and exercise their brains. Let me know if you would like to see any of the escape rooms I have created or borrowed!

Stories That Connect Us: Multilingual Storytelling at ISB

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By Maria Falgoust & Jon French

At International School of Brooklyn (ISB), we believe stories have the power to unite, inspire, and spark curiosity across ages and cultures.

April Armstrong at the Lower School Assembly


This belief is reflected by our multilingual library collection, the heart of our school’s Learning Commons. It is expressed daily in our students’ ability to express themselves in French, English, and Spanish. ISB students understand the power of a story; we hear them tell their own, retell those of their friends and families, and question which ones are worth reading. Yet, we have also recognized that the gift of oral storytelling is a bit of a lost art. There is something galvanizing about a person as a story. Within a singular person is all that one needs for a story: sound, movement, language, narrative, and connection.


We wanted to share that enchantment with our students and larger community in the form of live oral storytelling events. We were able to do just that with the help of the Vision to Reality Grant.
This dream—or vision!—first materialized with a visit from award-winning storyteller, singer, and actress April Armstrong. Using funds from the Vision to Reality Grant, the ISB Library invited April for a day of musical folktales and workshops. In our Lower School morning assembly, April shared “The Sandpiper and the Whale,” a clever Marshall Islands story of a boastful whale and a resourceful sandpiper whose playful rivalry nearly drained the ocean until ingenuity and teamwork saved the day. Students also laughed along with “Crocodile and Hen,” a warm tale of kinship and connection, accompanied by the legendary musician Mario E. Sprouse, whose guitar and percussion brought each character to life.

April Armstrong with 2nd graders during their Storytelling Workshop


Later in the day, April led second graders in storytelling workshops that combined improvisation games, performance tips, and audience engagement techniques. Then, she challenged second grade students to take a classic nursery rhyme (“Wee Willie Winkie”) and bring it to life with a breath of fiery storytelling. Some students were impassioned to recite their poem with tears and tissues while others were inspired by April’s advice to use their bodies and tell a story with both words and movement. Our second grade students left April’s workshop with a stronger set of acting chops and the understanding that a story is only as powerful as the voice—or voices!—with which they tell it. 

Gorgeous poster designed by artist and educator, Lara Vallance


With ISB lower school students freshly enchanted by the magic of storytelling, our library team decided that it was time to spread that narrative charm with the greater school and Brooklyn community.

Embroidered Happiness banner made by 2nd graders during their art class and used in the show!

Enter: Brooklyn Beanstalk.

Brooklyn Beanstalk performance still.


Brooklyn Beanstalk is an NYC-based, arts-driven educational organization that offers Spanish and French immersion and creative enrichment programs for children from 16 months through elementary school. Using the gift of Vision to Reality, along with funding from our PA, the library team commissioned Brooklyn Beanstalk to put on an all-ages show that would once again remind our community that stories can be more than words on a page. Stephanie Larriere, founder of Brooklyn Beanstalk, wasn’t short of ideas when approached about the project.

Brooklyn Beanstalk performance


The performance, Stephanie told us, would be a cantastoria. This word was a new one to us librarians, but we were quickly brought up to speed. A cantastoria, it turns out, is an ageless traveling oral art form—street theater storytelling, sung and acted by live performers, and accompanied by a visual support of painted banners, scrolls, or placards to illustrate the story.
What story, though? And how? The answer started with even more questions.
What is Happiness? Felicidad? Le Bonheur? When do I find it? How do you reach it? Where is it? Can we measure it?

Shadow puppetry with live music during Brooklyn Beanstalk’s performance


These were the questions at the root of what Stephanie and Brooklyn Beanstalk wanted to ask the ISB community through the performance. So, we surveyed students, faculty, and staff with questions about happiness and shared those responses to help Stephanie and her team prepare a script. Concurrently, our youngest students worked with their teachers to paint their responses on fabric banners, while second graders created drawings of their ideas and then embroidered them onto fabric with help from parents, faculty, and staff volunteers.

Zack Pope singing during the Show!


It was a true labor of love, as Stephanie and Brooklyn Beanstalk wove these contributions directly into their performance. The result was a story that highlighted how it is the little things in life, the creature comforts, and the people with whom we share them that make us smile, laugh, and even jump for joy. The truth behind this simple message of love and appreciation was underscored by the success of this low-fi, supremely collaborative, all-hands-on-deck, yet wholly thrilling spectacle!

With such a special performance in store for our community, we felt it only appropriate to open with an even more special guest. Turning our sights toward our school community, we invited an ISB alum Zack Pope (Class of 2023) to provide a prologue of sorts for “Stories We Share” with a moving and funny monologue from the musical You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown and a brilliant and profound rendition of the song “Unruly Heart” from the musical Prom. Zack’s performance reminded us once again that a story’s true power comes not only from its words, but from the heart and soul of the person who tells it.

Brooklyn Beanstalk


As librarians, we recognized that stories don’t end with the final page, a last breath, or a curtain call. Naturally, after the performance, our colleague and fellow story advocate Paul Romano helped us digest the performance through a Q&A with Stephanie, Zack, and the Brooklyn Beanstalk players.  It was apparent that this audience of all ages had plenty to talk about: 


“What does the big blue puppet represent?” one kindergartener asked.

“Why are you wearing red and yellow?” wondered another student.

A fourth grader raised a question about the inclusion of a Venezuelan flag in the visuals.


Students laughed and cheered (and snacked) throughout the performance, but they also demonstrated thoughtful engagement, moving naturally from enjoyment of the story to focused, reflective inquiry.


Parents, too, seemed excited and sometimes bewildered by this truly unique experience. Rebekah Wallin, an ISB Parent and Library Committee Co-Chair, had this to say to her fellow library committee members:

Brooklyn Beanstalk


“I don’t know about you, but I’m still thinking about the Pursuit of Happiness two days later… and not just because my five-year-old keeps reminding me that happiness is Legos. My favorite part was probably hearing the laughter and chatter from all of the surprised and delighted kids sitting upfront during the show. Both of my kids were thrilled to be a part of this one-of-a-kind experience. Something about the imaginative, tactile, musical, zany, DIY nature of the cantastoria has stuck with them, and I think they will carry it with them for a long time. I’m excited to see how this inspires our kids’ future creative endeavors.”


From April Armstrong’s playful folktales to Brooklyn Beanstalk’s cantastoria, our library continues to be a space where stories inspire curiosity, empathy, and joy—reminding us that no matter our age or the languages we speak, we are all connected through the stories we share.


Bios:

Maria Falgoust is the Head Librarian at International School of Brooklyn (ISB), an IB school with immersion programs in French and Spanish, where she works with students from pre-K through eighth grade. With over two decades of experience in independent schools, she is passionate about building community through books, fostering curiosity, and creating inclusive, joyful library spaces. Maria is especially interested in bringing unique programs, meaningful conversations, and a sense of humor into the library.

Jon French is a librarian at International School of Brooklyn (ISB), where he supports a student-centered, inquiry-driven library program grounded in the IB framework. He partners closely with teachers to integrate information literacy, research skills, and educational technology into classroom learning, while curating a diverse, academically and personally relevant collection that supports a strong culture of reading and curiosity.

Not Broken: An Aromantic/Asexual Spectrum Booklist

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The other day, I was (re)watching the Netflix show Heartstopper, based on the Webtoon/ graphic novel series by Alice Oseman. I was glad the plot put some focus on the character Isaac, who comes to understand he’s aroace (aromantic/asexual). Aromantic means he feels no romantic attraction to anyone, and asexual means he feels no sexual attraction to anyone.

Often the A in LGBTQIA+ feels as much of an outlier as students struggling to understand what’s different about them; trying to define a personality trait by an absence rather than a presence of something. Though everyone on the ace spectrum experiences it differently, it can be common for kids to feel that they are “broken” or lacking in some way. Also common is worrying, quite realistically, about their future: being alone, not being anyone’s priority, not being “enough” as just themselves, and dealing with the aphobia of people trying to “fix” them or make them “normal.” Many may also mourn the loss of a future they assumed they would have, in our geared-for-pairs adult society.

For these students, knowing they are not alone in feeling the way they do can be a huge relief, as can reading about how other aro/ace people have handled their own challenges. Knowing that relationships and futures don’t need to follow set courses to provide satisfying lives is the first step on the path to building those futures. And fortunately, there are more resources and representation available to students on the ace spectrum than there have been in the past. Below is a lengthy list of books with middle school, high school, and college level protagonists on the aro/ace spectrum. Check them out!

For more information about the ace spectrum, check out AVEN, The Asexual Visibility and Education Network.

Middle School

Some of these have high-school-age protagonists, but are appropriate for 7th-8th grade.

Just Lizzie by Karen Wilfrid.

Eighth grader Lizzie’s study of asexuality in science class leads her to understand her own asexual identity as she embarks on a journey toward self-discovery and self-advocacy.

Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger.

Elatsoe lives in a slightly stranger America. She can raise the ghosts of dead animals, a skill passed down through generations of her Lipan Apache family. Her beloved cousin has just been murdered, in a town that wants no prying eyes. But she is going to do more than pry.

Rick by Alex Gino.

At 11, Rick is growing uncomfortable with his best friend’s explicit talk about sex and his father’s jokes about girls, then he discovers the Rainbow Spectrum club at school, where he can explore his identity and learn that maybe he is asexual.

Clariel: the lost Abhorsen by Garth  Nix.

In the Old Kingdom, Clariel has blood relations to the Abhorsen and the King. She dreams of a simple life but discovers this is hard to achieve when a dangerous Free Magic creature is loose in the city, her parents want to marry her off to a killer, and there is a plot brewing against the old and withdrawn King Orrikan.

A-okay by Jarad Greene.

“When Jay starts eighth grade with a few pimples he doesn’t think much of it. But when his acne goes from bad to worse, Jay’s prescribed a powerful medication that comes with some serious side effects. Meanwhile, school isn’t going exactly as planned. All of Jay’s friends are in different classes; he has no one to sit with at lunch; his best friend, Brace, is avoiding him.” –Publisher.

Hazel’s theory of evolution by Lisa Bigelow.

Hazel loves reading encyclopedias, but has no answers for the questions of eighth grade. How can she make friends when no one understands her? What’s going to happen to one of her moms who’s pregnant again? Why does everything have to change?

Every bird a prince by Jenn Reese.

After she saves the life of a bird prince and becomes their champion, seventh grader Eren Evers must defend a forest kingdom, save her mom, and keep the friendships she holds dear–if she is brave enough to embrace her inner truths.

High School

The lady’s guide to petticoats and piracy by Mackenzi Lee.

“Felicity Montague must use all her womanly wits and wiles to achieve her dreams of becoming a doctor–even if she has to scheme her way across Europe to do it.” –Amazon.com.

Arden Grey by Ray Stoeve.

“Sixteen-year-old Arden Grey finds escape in her love of film photography as she navigates toxic relationships and how they influence her identity.” –OCLC.

All out: the no-longer-secret stories of queer teens throughout the ages edited by Saundra Mitchell.

“And they don’t kiss at the end” by Nilah Magruder. Maryland, 1976. Dee loves roller-skating but has been avoiding the rink ever since she broke up with Vince. No one can understand why she did it, and she does not know how to explain it. It’s just that she does not understand why people like kissing and dating, and she has no words to express that.

“Walking after midnight” by Kody Keplinger. Upstate New York, 1952. At 18, Betsy is a washed-up movie actress stranded in a small NY town, at midnight, having missed a train. While looking for a hotel, she encounters a diner waitress named Laura. Even though Betsy has never felt any urge to do anything even remotely intimate with anyone, maybe Laura will be different. 

Vanilla by Billy Merrell.

Told in a series of blank verse poems, two boys Van (called Vanilla) and Hunter tell of their relationship which began before they were teenagers, but foundered in high school, mostly because Hunter thinks they should be having sex and Vanilla is not so sure.

Radio silence by Alice Oseman.

When Frances and Aled spend the summer collaborating on her favorite podcast, they realize they understand each other in a way no one else does.

Is love the answer? By Uta Isaki.

Manga. “A poignant coming-of-age story about a young woman coming into her own as she discovers her identity as aromantic asexual.”

Here goes nothing by Emma K. Ohland 

When eighteen-year-old Beatrice comes in frequent contact with neighbor Bennie, she starts to question her asexual identity, her place in her friend group, and her plans for the future. Adaptation of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.

Planning perfect by Haley Neil 

Summer vacation quickly becomes complicated for Felicity Becker as she tries to plan a perfect wedding for her mom, figure out her feelings for her friend Nancy, and wonder what dating will look like for her as an asexual person.

Aces wild : a heistby Amanda DeWitt

After recruiting his closest friends—the asexual support group he met through fandom forums—all Jack has to do is infiltrate a high-stakes gambling club and dodge dark family secrets, while hopelessly navigating what it means to be in love while asexual. Easy, right?

Love Letters for Joy by Melissa See

Joy starts to wonder if she has missed out on a quintessential high school experience. She is asexual, but that’s no reason she can’t experience first love, right? She writes to Caldwell Cupid to help her, and finds herself falling for the mysterious voice behind the letters. 

Paper planes by Jenni Wood

Graphic novel. After a life altering incident, Dylan and Leighton are sent to a summer camp for troubled youth. They both need a good evaluation at the camp. Otherwise, they’ll be sent away, unable to attend high school with their friends. 

Love points to you by Alice Lin

“When Angela Wu offers Lynda Fan the chance to design characters for her Otome game, Lynda discovers things she never knew about herself or her heart.” — Publisher.

Immoral code by Lillian Clark

Told from five viewpoints, high school friends Bellamy, Nari, Reese [aroace], Keagan, and Santiago team up to hack into Bellamy’s absentee billionaire father’s business accounts to skim enough money for her MIT tuition

The rhythm of my soul by Elin Dyer

Taryn Foster has her eyes set on becoming the first aro-ace ballerina in Roseheart Ballet Academy’s company of professional dancers, and all she needs to do is graduate. But she’s haunted by the ghost of her dead sister-and now she’s living for the two of them. 

Tash hearts Tolstoy by Kathryn Ormsbee

Fame and success come at a cost for Natasha “Tash” Zelenka when she creates the web series “Unhappy Families,” a modern adaptation of Anna Karenina—written by Tash’s eternal love Leo Tolstoy.

Beyond the black door by AdriAnne Strickland

Soulwalkers—like Kamai—can journey into other people’s souls while they sleep. But no matter where Kamai visits, she sees the black door. It follows her into every soul, and her mother has told her to never, ever open it…

College

Loveless by Alice Oseman.

Georgia has never kissed someone or particularly even wanted to; at the prom afterparty she is surrounded by couples making out, and she really does not know what is wrong—but in college she comes to understand herself as asexual/aromantic, and to capture the part of her identity that has always eluded her.

Hullmetal Girls by Emily Skrutskie.

Aisha Un-Haad, seventeen, and Key Tanaka, eighteen, have risked everything for new lives as mechanically enhanced soldiers, and when an insurrection forces dark secrets to surface, the fate of humanity is in their hands.


Being ace : an anthology of queer, trans, femme, and disabled stories of asexual love and connection edited by Madeline Dyer.

Discover the infinite realms of asexual love across sci-fi, fantasy, and contemporary stories. Whether adventuring through space, outsmarting a vengeful water spirit, or surviving haunted cemeteries, no two aces are the same in these 14 unique works that highlight asexual romance, aromantic love, and identities across the asexual spectrum.

Dear Wendy by Ann Zhao.

Aromantic and asexual students Sophie and Jo, engaged in an online feud as the creators of popular relationship advice accounts “Dear Wendy” and “Sincerely Wanda,” unwittingly become real-life friends and navigate their shared aroace identities as they face the challenges of college life.

Tell me how it ends by Quinton Li.

Iris can predict the future and uncover secrets with her tarot cards. Marin comes to her for help to rescue a falsely imprisoned witch. Marin is aromantic, asexual, nonbinary, and has ADHD.

Until the last petal falls: a queerplatonic retelling of Beauty and the beast by Viano Oniomoh.

When Eru was eleven years old, he met an unforgettable boy, and then forgot him. Ten years later, after his parents’ sudden deaths, Eru uncovers some truths and finds that the fate of the village, and that of the boy he’d been made to forget, could lie in his hands.

Let’s talk about love by Claire Kann

Alice, who is asexual, is done with dating. But then she meets Takumi and she can’t stop thinking about him or the rom com-grade romance feels she did not ask for. Is she willing to risk their friendship for a love that might not be reciprocated—or understood?

Ace of hearts by Lucy Mason

When a sports injury loses Felix his scholarship, bestie Hesper proposes a year-long marriage of convenience for free tuition at the college where she works. When Hesper reveals her asexuality, Felix must reassess everything he thinks about love and sacrifice.

Process, Not Product: 7th Grade Research Projects

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By Rebecca Moore and Connor Middleton

I have been fortunate to work with many, many social studies teachers who put together thoughtful research projects for their students. I love helping teachers find resources to give the students a good, reliable start to their research, and I love that teachers then let me work with the students on citations for the project. Assessing citations through NoodleTools lets me help the students asynchronously one on one, and I can also spot unreliable sources and help the students understand why they need to find better sources—and help them find those sources if necessary.

              One grade I work with throughout the year is 7th grade social studies, as those students complete several yearly research activities. Past undertakings include studying endangered languages and researching Middle-Eastern locations and professions to create a Moth-inspired story “from” a fictional resident. The 7th grade’s current teacher, Connor Middleton, is no exception in creating interesting, thoughtful, and thought-provoking projects; projects that not only improve students’ research skills, but improve their understanding of how the world works and why they should care about it. Because I so admire his research activities, I thought I would interview Connor about them. With the help of Flint AI, I turned my interests into focused questions for him. Connor’s reflective answers are below, with minor edits from me.

Topic: Coming Up With Projects

Question: What’s your process for designing a new research project? Where do you start?

Connor:I usually start with a concept or question that I want students to delve into. For African Geography I ask students: “How do we justify buying products that we know come from exploitation?” The related concepts include globalization, economic interdependence, and geographical based exploitation. This leads me to building an assignment in which students learn about the history of the rubber trade in the Congo under King Leopold, and compare it to modern companies’ involvement in the country as they seek the cobalt needed for smart phones and electric cars. We engage in research, discussions, and projects from there. The starting point is always asking: “What is the bigger meaning? Why does this matter?” I always aim to make my projects feel meaningful in that way. I want them to be the kind of lessons you remember as mind-blowing moments during your growing up that helped you see the world in a new light. 

LibGuide for Connor’s Africa project.

Question: How do you know when a topic will work well as a research project versus other types of assignments?

Connor: Research projects usually lend themselves to topics with multiple viewpoints. Finding quotes, reviewing claims, evaluating sources for credibility, and seeing multiple perspectives to an issue are often key in researching these topics. While sometimes a topic does not produce as great a project as I’d hoped, when it does, it usually contains one or more essential questions that lend themselves to finding the answer, rather than being told the answer through lecture. 

Topic: Research Topic Selection

Question: What criteria do you use when choosing research topics for 7th graders?

Connor: Personally, I see most global issues as suitable for 7th grade. This is a time of life when students test boundaries, explore new freedoms, and want to share their opinions on the world and be heard. So my usual criteria involve finding topics that are somewhat high level and hold high expectations for students to meet. My criteria is often: “Is this something I would have been interested to learn about in 7th grade?” 

Question: How do you incorporate current events or relevant issues into your research projects?

Connor: As we complete regional studies, we often study the current issues of each place covered. In some shorter research assignments students evaluate a current event, with our most recent being the bombing of boats outside Venezuela, as part of our South America unit. We always take some time in each regional unit to explore events happening in the area today, and do research to better understand particular issues. On the other side, I usually identify some key concepts for each region that serve as the spine of each unit. For example, European key concepts include expansion and supranational organizations with the EU, and Latin American key concepts highlight globalization and economic interdependence. 

Topic: Essential Research Skills

Question: What are the most important research skills you want 7th graders to walk away with?

Connor: Identifying AI, identifying bias, evaluating multiple perspectives, and finding reliable sources they can use for their own continued learning of the world.

Question: What do you see as the biggest challenges students face when learning to research, and how do you address them?

Connor: AI and mis/disinformation. This is a monumental challenge, one that I as their single social studies teacher in one lone school year cannot entirely fix. The world is only worsening with the flood of ever-increasing content and misleading “news,” to the point at which I worry how students will grow into their adult lives with a sense of common truth or reality. While this is all a little doom and gloom, the true effects of what is currently happening are hard to accurately gauge in terms of potential negative impacts. I try to address this by showing students the inaccuracies of AI, the business models of news corporations, and the bias of algorithms. 

Topic: Balancing Process and Content

Question: How do you balance teaching research methodology with ensuring students learn the historical/social studies content? Do you find that one reinforces the other, or do you sometimes have to make trade-offs?

Connor: I often feel they serve one another. Students tend to dislike “stand and deliver” instruction. Giving them the task of taking on their own learning often provides a good step in increasing their knowledge of historical or social studies content, within the guidelines, expectations, and skills we give them regarding research. I also would rank research skills, or skills in general, in a higher category of importance than content knowledge. Especially with middle school, students can forget much of the content we teach, but repeated skills and habits stick much more strongly. It is there I want to invest more of my time. 

Topic: Reflection and Impact

Question: What’s been your most successful research project, and what made it work so well?

Connor: The Human Rights Portfolio. I partner with my English 7 colleague and we have students pick a particular human rights issue and compile multiple projects in a portfolio to end the year. We combine skills in each class and work together to help our students actively choose a topic and become an expert (of sorts) on it. It works so well because we collaborate on the different skills we want students to exhibit, and the extra class time and student choice allows for more buy-in and less stress. 

Question: How have your research projects evolved over the years?

Connor: They have mostly evolved in the ways I try to limit unnecessary work for students, such as work that overvalues product over process. Students have different amounts of time, help, resources, etc. available to them, and I want to help make it a more equitable process; a process in which students focus more on learning and less on producing a product to achieve a high grade. This can be somewhat difficult. Creating awesome projects is part of the fun, but I also try to balance that with my rubrics, to focus more deeply on the real skills at hand and less the on the “flashy project.”

Question: How do you see these research skills serving students beyond 7th grade?

Connor: I hope students take their research skills and feel confident moving into the world with their own claims and opinions. I want students to be open minded, to learn from others and not jump to judgement, but also to hold the line on what they value. I want them to use their skills to question what they hear, and get to know the world around them through their own work and process, instead of simply accepting what others tell them.

Conclusion

Many thanks to Connor for taking the time to write such detailed, well-thought-out responses!

“Please ensure your seatbelt is securely fastened”: preparing to leave your library

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Regardless of the reason for leaving one’s library – whether a new opportunity, retirement, or something else – there is obviously business to attend to before departure. Everyone’s circumstances are unique, and you may not have the luxury of time to attend to things as you wish. If you do, here are some things to consider before heading off into your next chapter, with thanks to Liz Gray, Sandy Gray, and Dave Wee for their insights!

Get your collection in order.

An inventory and/or weed may be overdue, so this is the time to get work done that you’ve been putting off. Perhaps this means dealing with a non-fiction print collection that is underused, with the goal of creating valuable extra space. Don’t forget about attending to your digital collection as well!

Have policies, procedures and lessons updated, documented and organized in one place. 

Use a shared drive (Google or school network, depending on school policy) to house all library documents, ensuring that nothing is left living solely on your own computer’s hard drive. 

Be specific, for example: ” When a box of new books arrives, here is a bulleted list of the 14 things that need to be done before the book gets placed on the new book display for students to check out” (Wee, 2024). 

Sandy remembers an AISL conference where recently retired Sara Kelley-Mudie presented on this topic, discussing “high-level considerations right down to explicitly labelling all keys”. She suggested not only leaving contact information for all vendors but also reaching out to them to introduce your successor (if known).

Leave a detailed budget with supportive documentation to support line items

Provide your successor with as much data as possible to support budgetary decisions & priorities. 

Address any personnel issues within your staff

Similar to getting your collection in order, do this to make your successor’s transition much easier.

During transition, focus on function and avoid the drama

Approach the transition with an objective mindset. In Liz’s words, “one woman’s nemesis might end up being another woman’s best friend, and the person who never collaborated with me might end up making beautiful music with my successor.” This is relevant for both internal & external hires.

Make sure your job description is up to date

This is particularly important if the people hiring are less familiar with your day-to-day work, especially regarding changes that have occurred since your hiring. You want the description to reflect what you currently do, with an eye to the future as well.  

And if your successor is a current colleague, include them in decision-making processes (such as database renewals, lesson planning, and acquisitions) wherever possible. Have them invited to meetings alongside you, and ensure they are included on relevant email distribution lists.

Library & Tinkering Collaboration by Liz Lee

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Exploring Book Genres through Makey Makey & Scratch
Fifth graders combined literacy and technology in a unique project.
Step 1: Read & Analyze
Each student pair read a Caldecott Award–winning book and explored its genre, discussing story elements, themes, and illustrations.

Step 2: Write & Script
After identifying the genre, students wrote short scripts that captured key aspects of their book—like a mini book trailer or dramatic reading.

Step 3: Code & Create
Using Scratch, they programmed their recordings and animations to tell their story.

Step 4: Tinker & Play
Finally, they connected their projects to a Makey Makey, turning physical objects (like book covers) into interactive controls to play their recordings!
Visitors can press a touch a sensor to hear students’ book summaries and learn about the genre and book—an engaging blend of reading, writing, coding, and hands-on tinkering!

Gingerbread Competition! Evelyn Pratt

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Hello again! I am back with the promised Gingerbread Competition!
I took what I learned hosting the pumpkin carving and made some changes and we ended up with a 60 (!!!) gingerbread houses decorated this past week. Riding a sugar high over here.



This time, I advertised the program starting the Monday before. We shared a flyer in the student e-news, displayed it in the library, and ran it on the TVs around campus. I skipped advance sign-ups and instead made it clear that supplies were first come, first served, with a limit of ten houses per day. This took some logistical pressure off me.
I gathered all the supplies the week prior and built the first round of houses on Friday before the weekend. Gingerbread is a bit of a misnomer here, as the houses were built with graham crackers. I pre-built everything for two reasons: children are messy creatures, and graham cracker houses need time to set before decorating. I wanted students to spend their time creating, not waiting for walls to stop sliding apart!

Full disclosure, I have been building these houses for groups for years. I am pretty good at them. A middle schooler timed me this week, and I can assemble a house in 42 seconds! If you want a tutorial, I am always happy to share. My two biggest tips are to use Walmart brand graham crackers and the cheapest store-bought icing you can find. That icing dries like concrete.
We set the houses out on plates around a large table covered in plastic dollar store tablecloths. I offered icing in disposable piping bags in both white and green. Do not dye green icing yourself! You can buy tubs of it at the dollar store and save yourself the trouble.


For decorations, we had lots of options, but the most popular were Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal, mini candy canes, mini M&Ms, pull-and-peel Twizzlers, pretzels, and of course the icing. All candy was kept in bowls on a table where I stationed myself, and students came up to select what they wanted rather than having free access at the decorating tables. This encouraged more intentional choices and allowed us to gently remind them not to eat the candy, given how many hands had been in those bowls.

They still ate the candy. I did what I could!
Monday was slow, and I once again had to remind myself that the beginning of a program is not a measure of its success. Students do not read emails, and word of mouth takes time. I recruited a few of my frequent library visitors to decorate that first day, and later that evening an entire basketball team came in for study hall and enthusiastically built houses they were genuinely proud of. After that, the floodgates opened. Students streamed in all week asking about the gingerbread houses!
This time, we posted the ribbon categories ahead of time, and several students decorated very intentionally with winning in mind. I recruited our Head of School to award a ribbon as well this time, and the kids thought that was particularly exciting. They checked back regularly to see when prizes would be awarded, and the students who earned ribbons were incredibly proud. As they should have been!



Watching this program unfold was such a joy, and I cannot thank the Vision to Reality Grant team enough for funding this kind of library fun. I will be back in February with another program and, if all goes according to plan, another full library!


Digital Citizenship Jeopardy

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I’m showing my age here, but I sometimes feel as though the “I have many skills” tagline of Xena, Warrior Princess, needs to apply to every school librarian. However, I think we all have skills at which we excel more than we do at others. My kryptonite? Goal setting. I have no objection to having goals, but for some reason, trying to articulate them turns off the creativity switch in my brain. So, since I needed to familiarize myself with our subscription classroom AI, Flint, I asked it to help me. After some manipulation, it actually came up with a long list of goals I really liked—but the list was much too long! With the help of a colleague I narrowed it down to a couple of solid goals, including improving students’ digital citizenship knowledge. I then asked Flint to divide the goal into fortnightly goals, which it did.

And…that’s where things kind of went off the rails.

For the first fortnightly goal, Flint suggested creating one fifteen-minute lesson for teachers that they could run during homerooms. Great! But when I started thinking about it, I thought, one lesson? To cover all aspects of digital citizenship for grades 5-8 in fifteen minutes? And I had to complete it in two weeks? Umm… Something had to give. As to what that was, I’ll just say that I set up the goals in October, and am still working on the first fortnightly goal!

First, I decided not to reinvent the wheel. CommonSense Media recently came out with an updated series of lesson plans covering six aspects of “Digital Literacy & Wellbeing”:

  • Digital Footprint & Identity
  • Cyberbullying & Online Harms
  • Privacy & Safety
  • Relationships & Communication
  • Information & Media Literacy
  • Healthy Habits

They divided the lesson plans into eighteen individual lessons for each grade, three per aspect. I thought that gave me a good framework for what to cover in the overview lesson I hoped to create. Fortunately, CSM does allow adapting and modifying their lessons under the Creative Commons license: CC BY-NC-SA (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International). Adapters must credit CSM for the original lessons, and must share any adapted/modified lessons under the same license.

Since I like gamifying lessons, I decided to create a Jeopardy for each grade that would give a brief overview of the first five aspects of digital literacy noted above (I decided “Healthy Habits” didn’t fit the remit). Most of the CSM lessons include scenarios for discussion and I adapted these to fit into a Jeopardy board. Using three scenarios for each aspect, I created a board of fifteen squares for each grade. Each scenario question has four possible answers, and most include multiple correct answers. After viewing correct answers, students see an additional slide summing up the topic, mostly copied from the CSM lesson’s sum-up slide.

Currently, I have finished grades 5-7, and am working on grade 8. I created the Jeopardies in PowerPoint, and to use them, teachers will download the file from the library website. Fair warning, THESE HAVE NOT BEEN PLAYTESTED. I haven’t had much luck in getting teachers to try this out during their homeroom slots, despite a bribe of homeroom cookies! I will get to test it with 6th grade later this week, though, and will report back as to success or changes needed. I hope that homerooms or classes will divide into teams to play, earning “Green and Gold” points for their school “team,” which might increase interest. They may play as many or as few of the squares as they want.

Obviously, at best this is only an overview, but it’s a start I hope will increase interest in delving more deeply into these important topics. One of the personal counselors and I have also spent a lot of time creating a series of fifteen minute lessons for seventh grade on this and related issues, and my favorite is the video several teachers (including our video teacher) helped us create, about privacy levels in social media. We’re still working on getting the curriculum completed and integrated, though.

If you would like to test out these Jeopardies, please do, and report back to me on what works and what doesn’t!

Playtest Update: I was able to run the 6th grade Jeopardy with all sections of 6th grade, and it went quite well once I’d ironed out a few technical difficulties (aka “user error”). I divided the class in two, and we went through a few scenarios pretty casually, without keeping track of points. I was not able to complete the jeopardy in fifteen minutes; it would probably take two sessions to cover everything. The “summary” slides were a bit long to read aloud, so I summarized the summary. That’s not ideal, but I do think the information is important to cover. Overall, I was pleased, and the kids seemed to enjoy it! They had good instincts for the correct answers, which is heartening as well.