Social Sciences

• Using webquests in the social studies classroom : a culturally responsive approach by Margaret M. Thomas, Maureen M. Gillis and Alan S. Canestrari (Corwin Press, 2009, 137 p., $_____, ISBN: 9781412959506)

  Are webquests still alive in your social studies department of the high school? We have not seen this approach in a professional book for the past couple of years. Bernie Dodge invented the webquest and teacher librarians often celebrated because inquiry was at the center of this activity. The authors of this volume not only discuss the idea of webquests but provide a number of actual webquests designed to develop cultural understanding around the world. The authors presume that a teacher will be alone in conducting a webquest but will have access to computers either in the classroom or the computer lab. Web sites are the sole information source for the recommended activities in this book. In consultation with one of the authors, we posed the question about specialists in the school that might partner with teachers to make webquests even better. The opportunities to have teacher librarians, teacher technologists or any other interested specialists such as reading coaches, while recognized as a potential value, was not mentioned according to the author because the book was written directly to the classroom teacher. This is yet another in a long line of professional books that heap the entire teaching load on the isolated classroom and a single teacher struggling with an entire class in large information spaces as if there was no help anywhere around. If you have teachers going  it alone, it would seem logical to  get into the conversation. Webquests that use only web sites neglect a plethora of other information and multimedia that could help the various learners in a class explore many avenues in their assigned roles. We liked the sample webquests in this volume and recommend them for their global perspective. As usual, teacher librarians will have to try to fill a void and gap the authors neglected.

   

• Picture That! From Mendel to Normandy: Picture Books and Ideas, Curriculum and Connections - for 'Tweens and Teens (Picture That! Grades 4 - 12) by Sharon L. McElmeel (Libraries Unlimited, 2009, 241 p., $____ISBN: 1591585880)

  The use of picture books with teens and tweens has become quite popular in recent year and successful if you have good excuses for this to engage. Many picture books have both sophisticated illustrations and text that is beyond kids in the earlier years. McElmeel selects an excellent collection here with a good bibliography after each book. Her selection spans both fiction and many popular information book topics. And it rather current. While we were unimpressed by the suggested extension or activities of the books, we believe that the use of web 2.0 tools with the possibilities of students collaborating to write their own publishable versions of picture books complete with their own drawings, photographs they take themselves, copyright free illustrations, video clips with accompanying text, and a hundred other engaging and real activities make picture books, graphic novels, popup books, and any other non-traditional media a way to stimulate ideas, critical thinking, and creative thinking. Recommended as a good bibliography.

• Constructing History 11-19, edited by Hillary Cooper and Arthur Chapman (Sage, 2009, 160 p., $_____, ISBN: 9781847871887)

  How do the Brits make history come alive? Should we care? The editors present an analysis of a number of inquiry-based, constructivist, and real history cases at the middle and high school age level and reading them is like a page directly out of 21st century learning skills examples in the U.S. and Canada. The emphasis is on both the topic of history but also the development of historical thinking, and as the cases rise in grade level so does the sophistication level. One gets the sense that students are prepared by the end of their  experience in secondary school to study history and use their sophisticated research skills to attack topics that will be presented in college history classes. Let us assume that the teacher librarian has been invited to the history teacher’s professional learning community where the discussion is centering on how to engage students in real history.  It would be fascinating to give the groups one of the cases from this book and compare and contrast the Brit approach with the local approach. What are the differences? How does real history, inquiry, learning skills all combine to engage, motivate, and produce very high level learning? The ensuing local discussion is sure to be enriched as both history teachers and teacher librarians honestly pursue excellence.  Bottom line: This one is definitely worth a look if your faculty are really serious about moving away from just covering material.

   

• Juvenile Court: A Guide for Young Adults and Their Parents, by Leora Krygier (Scarecrow, 2009, 181 p., $ 29.95, ISBN: 0810861275)

  I would not normally review a reference book in this column, but this title reminds me the major role teacher librarians have in being sensitive and ready to help and advise the teenagers who grace their environment. Working closely with counselors, we often find ourselves deep into the personal problems of our teens with our only weapons being quality information combined with caring yet professional distance. And, one never knows when a critical moment will happen, yet we must be ready. Look at your shelves. Are they stocked with not just books, but digital resources where you can lay your hands on them in an instant. Disasters, fights, discovered pregnancy, gangs, the law, career advice, family dysfunction – the list is so very long and we have no time to “look it up.” This title is a sensible guide to scan yourself and put in your repertoire for instant access. You could save a life. Be ready.

   

• Folktales of the Amazon by Juan Carlos Galeano (Libraries Unlimited, 2009, 125 p. $_____, ISBN: 9781591586746)

  If any of the countries of the grea Amazon basin are in the curriculum of your school, then this is a fascinating collection of folktales that can be used to build authenticity into the study of the region. Galeano collected these tales personally and combined similar versions into a retelling  and then in translation to English.  After each tale, the author gives a bit of background of variants. These tales are very different than the Eurocentral ones kids and teens have heard, so it is a fresh new experience to hear them and then retell them on wikis, blogs, podcasts or any other creative writing, reading, or theatrical presentation we wish to create. These are as close to authentic as it gets.

   

• Whose tale is true? : readers theatre to introduce and research 49 amazing American women by Nancy Polette (Teacher Ideas Press, 2009, 167 p. $_____, ISBN: 159158762X) Here is a unique idea to use in substitution for booktalks. If the teacher’s assignment is to select a person to do research about, Polette has written 49  very short readers theatre scripts that utilize four readers. Only one of the readers is telling the truth about the person and by listening, the class should be able to tell which one it is who is the real person. Polette then offers worksheets that I would not recommend using with the class because they are the usual fact gathering and time wasting exercises, but the idea here is unique enough that it would likely pique the interest of listeners who might select the person who is being discovered. For example, students who are going to do the scripts could go into the library and choose a few books for each person to be introduced. They would then have these available for checkout by the listeners or even themselves. Such an activity would also be good to encourage reading about women of a certain era being studied.  Once students caught on to the idea, they could write scripts of their own for almost any kind of unit, combining writing with assessment. Interesting.
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