SLJ Covers Teaching with Text Sets in NYC

School Library Journal has a story on the New York City Exploratorium conference and Teaching with Text Sets. You can find more here: http://www.slj.com/2013/05/events/nyc-librarians-glean-tips-from-tech-to-collection-development-at-does-exploratorium/.

Teaching with Text Sets Hits the Big Apple

Yesterday, New York City's Department of Education's School Library System sponsored Exploratorium 2013, a professional development workshop for teaching librarians from throughout the system.

We were honored to have two sessions devoted to Teaching with Text Sets! It was thrilling to talk with librarians about the many ways that teachers and librarians can collaborate with one another in shared curriculum development.

It was also exciting to learn about the new ways in which the New York Public Library is partnering with the public school system. Teachers who want to create original text sets will soon have access to the public library collection. Text sets will be delivered directly to their schools! The public library will also digitize pieces of its unique and expansive collection of manuscripts, art, and realia at the request of teachers and librarians developing new curriculum. In the Big Apple, there is great support for the creation of multimodal, multigenre text set, and we are thrilled.

Happy National Teacher Appreciation Day 2013!

We had the opportunity to celebrate early this year, with a group of special education teachers at Fitchburg State University in Fitchburg, Massachusetts.

Nonfiction Mentor Texts: Help Your Students Write with Style

Mary Ann's co-authored School Library Journal column for this month focuses on the ways in which teachers can use nonfiction trade books as mentor texts for student's writing style. In this short article, we discuss different aspects of nonfiction writing style in various picture books and chapter books, to help you and your students identify writer's craft. You can find the article at: http://www.slj.com/2013/05/curriculum-connections/nonfiction-as-mentor-text-style-on-common-core/.