Re: [MOSAIC] How to create a database or spreadsheet of books?
I would go with Excel since you can teach the kids how to search for items, sort by a variety of categories (genre, author, stars in a review, etc). Post it to google docs so kids can access it from home and add more information. All the kids would need a gmail account, but I think it could work depending on the age of your kids. Good luck! --- On Sun, 8/22/10, Amy Lesemann amy.lesem...@gmail.com wrote: From: Amy Lesemann amy.lesem...@gmail.com Subject: [MOSAIC] How to create a database or spreadsheet of books? To: mosaic@literacyworkshop.org, Jeff Gaynor gay...@aaps.k12.mi.us, Tony Moskus tmos...@stthomasannarbor.org Date: Sunday, August 22, 2010, 1:44 PM Hello - I need some advice. My students have been writing short book reviews/summaries of the books they read and we're keeping them in a big notebook. But that's unwieldy and not very useful. So I want to go electronic, and have them write them (or the older kids will type them up) in a database or spreadsheet that we can then reference. That way, kids can easily see what their buddies recommend, other books by the same authors that kids have liked and so forth. What should we use - a database or a spreadsheet? Excel? Something else? We have excel for free, but I can't really find a free database. It has to be something most kids can use easily, so I don't end up doing all the typing! I figure first they'll type up something, then I'll have them type it in. We can link it to my webpage, too, so they can use it from home or the public library. Your thoughts? Thanks! -- Amy Lesemann, Reading Specialist and Director, Independent Learning Center St. Thomas the Apostle Elementary School ___ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. ___ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
Re: [MOSAIC] How to create a database or spreadsheet of books?
Why not simply use a web page (html or xhtml)? It would be easy to create and maintain. And it would be easy to access: The students could access it from anywhere that had a web connection -- your classroom, the library, their homes, etc. You could have a main page that simply listed the books (a link to each book's page) -- perhaps arranged alphabetically by author. Each book could have its own web page, listing links to additional web pages, each of which would have a review or other relevant contributions from a student. That's my first thought. I hope it's helpful. - Dave Dave Middlebrook The Textmapping Project A resource for teachers improving reading comprehension skills instruction. www.textmapping.org | Please share this site with your colleagues! USA: (609) 771-1781 dmiddlebr...@textmapping.org - Original Message - From: Amy Lesemann amy.lesem...@gmail.com To: mosaic@literacyworkshop.org; Jeff Gaynor gay...@aaps.k12.mi.us; Tony Moskus tmos...@stthomasannarbor.org Sent: Sunday, August 22, 2010 2:44 PM Subject: [MOSAIC] How to create a database or spreadsheet of books? Hello - I need some advice. My students have been writing short book reviews/summaries of the books they read and we're keeping them in a big notebook. But that's unwieldy and not very useful. So I want to go electronic, and have them write them (or the older kids will type them up) in a database or spreadsheet that we can then reference. That way, kids can easily see what their buddies recommend, other books by the same authors that kids have liked and so forth. What should we use - a database or a spreadsheet? Excel? Something else? We have excel for free, but I can't really find a free database. It has to be something most kids can use easily, so I don't end up doing all the typing! I figure first they'll type up something, then I'll have them type it in. We can link it to my webpage, too, so they can use it from home or the public library. Your thoughts? Thanks! -- Amy Lesemann, Reading Specialist and Director, Independent Learning Center St. Thomas the Apostle Elementary School ___ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. ___ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
Re: [MOSAIC] How to create a database or spreadsheet of books?
How about creating a Shelfari site http://www.shelfari.com/ for your class? This would allow it to be constantly changing and accessible from anywhere that has internet. On Sun, Aug 22, 2010 at 1:44 PM, Amy Lesemann amy.lesem...@gmail.comwrote: Hello - I need some advice. My students have been writing short book reviews/summaries of the books they read and we're keeping them in a big notebook. But that's unwieldy and not very useful. So I want to go electronic, and have them write them (or the older kids will type them up) in a database or spreadsheet that we can then reference. That way, kids can easily see what their buddies recommend, other books by the same authors that kids have liked and so forth. What should we use - a database or a spreadsheet? Excel? Something else? We have excel for free, but I can't really find a free database. It has to be something most kids can use easily, so I don't end up doing all the typing! I figure first they'll type up something, then I'll have them type it in. We can link it to my webpage, too, so they can use it from home or the public library. Your thoughts? Thanks! -- Amy Lesemann, Reading Specialist and Director, Independent Learning Center St. Thomas the Apostle Elementary School ___ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. -- Yours in Christ, Mrs. Lori Weber Skills Teacher Sacred Heart School ___ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
Re: [MOSAIC] How to create a database or spreadsheet of books?
Can someone explain Google docs? -Original Message- From: mosaic-bounces+sventola=peoriaud.k12.az...@literacyworkshop.org [mailto:mosaic-bounces+sventola=peoriaud.k12.az...@literacyworkshop.org] On Behalf Of Tricia Guest Sent: Sunday, August 22, 2010 5:17 PM To: Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] How to create a database or spreadsheet of books? I would go with Excel since you can teach the kids how to search for items, sort by a variety of categories (genre, author, stars in a review, etc). Post it to google docs so kids can access it from home and add more information. All the kids would need a gmail account, but I think it could work depending on the age of your kids. Good luck! --- On Sun, 8/22/10, Amy Lesemann amy.lesem...@gmail.com wrote: From: Amy Lesemann amy.lesem...@gmail.com Subject: [MOSAIC] How to create a database or spreadsheet of books? To: mosaic@literacyworkshop.org, Jeff Gaynor gay...@aaps.k12.mi.us, Tony Moskus tmos...@stthomasannarbor.org Date: Sunday, August 22, 2010, 1:44 PM Hello - I need some advice. My students have been writing short book reviews/summaries of the books they read and we're keeping them in a big notebook. But that's unwieldy and not very useful. So I want to go electronic, and have them write them (or the older kids will type them up) in a database or spreadsheet that we can then reference. That way, kids can easily see what their buddies recommend, other books by the same authors that kids have liked and so forth. What should we use - a database or a spreadsheet? Excel? Something else? We have excel for free, but I can't really find a free database. It has to be something most kids can use easily, so I don't end up doing all the typing! I figure first they'll type up something, then I'll have them type it in. We can link it to my webpage, too, so they can use it from home or the public library. Your thoughts? Thanks! -- Amy Lesemann, Reading Specialist and Director, Independent Learning Center St. Thomas the Apostle Elementary School ___ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. ___ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. ___ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
Re: [MOSAIC] How to create a database or spreadsheet of books?
Another site for classroom libraries is referenced in this nice Creating a Classroom article on Reading Rockets: http://www.readingrockets.org/article/29298 The article references the online service at: http://www.librarything.com/ I have not used this resource, but recalled some conversations with people that did and really like it. My caution to educators is to make sure you test any of these referenced sites and also let your administrator(s) and tech people know what you want to achieve by using these services. One more idea that I thought of is to use a classroom blog. I won't go into links or providers. You could create a blog with you (teacher) as owner and then create a secondary user (contributor). Students would use the secondary user/contributor to create book info. Teacher/owner would have to approve all the entries. In blog I would see a teacher setting up various categories for books. In a blog like this, you could also allow for comments which would include your students or other that want to add their voice to the book into. Of course, the teacher/owner can set comments so that they must have approval before being posted on the site. The key idea would be that the teachers must approve anything before it is posted on the blog. We run Word Press MU (multiple user) for blogs at the http://www.literacyworkshop.org website . This is free software that could easily be integrated by schools. If you have questions or want help on this you can email me off-list. Thanks, Keith Mack Web Administrator http://www.literacyworkshop.org ___ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
