Sources for reviews of French language resources

 

This is my second year working as a teacher-librarian in a single track French Immersion school.  I have located some good resources for reviews of French language books.  However it is important to recognize that most of these resources are for French language speakers.  In a French immersion school you need books that provide “High-Low” reading, so I scale down the recommendations by a couple of years.  Also I find that books from Québécois(e) writers tend to use vocabulary that is similar to what is being taught in French immersion classrooms; while children’s books from France often use a broader vocabulary.  The broader vocabulary can make the books harder for immersion students to read.  A final piece of advice is to choose primary books that have limited text, since most families with students in French immersion cannot read the primary texts that are “read alouds”. Focus on just buying the most highly recommended read alouds for your teachers.  

My first “go-to” source is Catalogue Nelligan http://nelligan.ville.montreal.qc.ca/search*frc.  The children’s librarian for the La Ville de Québec shared this site with me.  There is usually a book summary (en français), a book review and a book rating. 

	Book rating			Age range (remember to scale!)
5	excellent		M	Preschool and kindergarten
4	very good		E	8 to 9 years
3	good		E+	Primary, 6 to 9 years
2	not recommended		E++	Intermediate, 9 to 12 years
D	to be determined		J+	12 to 15 years
			J	12 to 17 years
			J++	15 to 17 years

 

My second “go-to” site is the Québec Ministry of Education website Livres ouvert http://www.livresouverts.qc.ca/.  This is a site that reviews books by grade level and subject area.  They have a scale for French immersion students too.  Just like any catalogue you can search by topic, title, author, but also by grade level by both first and second language speakers!

Some of my other sources include:

·         Another useful site is Ricochet, http://www.ricochet-jeunes.org/sommaire, an independent Swiss website that reviews French language children’s’ literature.  The focus of this non-profit site is to promote reading and media for children.  Often if I cannot find a review on Catalogue Nelligan, I use this site to get an opinion on a book.  The original reviewers had a professional background.  This site is also designed for French as a first language.  Remember Switzerland has 4 official languages; French is just one of them. 

 

·         Lurelu, a Québécoise magazine all about childrens’ literature http://www.lurelu.net/coupsdecoeur.html. This link takes you directly to their “coups de cœur" or favorites.  This is the list I like the best, however I find they select many read aloud books so be careful with this list for an immersion school library.  Some are amazing suggestions for example: automne 2007 Simard, D. La petite rapporteuse de mots which is a lovely story to teach empathy, word choice and grandparents, for grade 3-5 immersion.

 

·         BnF, the National Center of Children’s Literature, of the National Library of France, promotes quality children’s literature. On the site there is a list of 3000 books sorted by category that they recommend for a children’s library http://lajoieparleslivres.bnf.fr/clientBookline/toolkit/p_requests/formulaire.asp?GRILLE=BITOUSAVANCEE%5F0&INSTANCE=JOIE&SYNCHROID=BIB_IDEALE&PORTAL_ID=JPL_BI_Tous.xml; but they do not give an age range for their books.  There are links to organization that give literature prizes for children’s literature http://lajoieparleslivres.bnf.fr./masc/portal.asp?INSTANCE=JOIE&PORTAL_ID=HTML.xml&URL=Integration/JOIE/statique/pages/15_bib_num/151_ressources_docs/ressources_docs_som.htm  and magazines that review children’s literature. (Quentin Blake)

     Critiques Libres is like the website Goodreads where the members provide book reviews.  Here is the link to reviews of children’s books http://www.critiqueslibres.com/i.php/vcat/502.  If you have a favorite French book, see who gives it a good rating on this site and then use these contributors as like-minded book reviewers, whose opinion you can respect.

 

Other sources of recommended children’s books are Awards and Prizes:

     Communication-Jeunesse, a site all about Québécoise and French-Canadian literature for children http://www.communication-jeunesse.qc.ca/selection/nouveautes/index.php. This site has children’s choice awards “Palmarès” by year which is their best list.  They recommend books as well, however they select about half the books submitted to them so use this list with a large “grain of salt”.

The Canadian Children’s Book Centre which provides the TD prize for children’s literature in French.  This is a Canadian non-profit organization the promotes reading. http://www.bookcentre.ca/awards/le_prix_td_de_litterature_canadienne_pour_lenfance_et_la_jeunesse

There is also the GG’s (Governor General Awards in Children’s Literature) http://ggbooks.canadacouncil.ca/ http://ggbooks.canadacouncil.ca/ which selects a French children’s book and a French picture book from submitted books.  The criteria are for a “Canadian Voice”, so you may not necessarily want these in your library.

 

Prezi research synopsis

Literature search process

·      many articles are relevant in the broader sense of “mindtools” and their contribution to learning styles, student skills and critical thinking.

·        Focused search on educational rationale for using multimedia projects with elementary students and examples of using Prezi with students.

·         worked best to use Boolean search terms to keep topic smaller (Berkeley Library)

·         limited articles just about Prezi because it is a recent development (Bender and Bull 2012).  Subsequent searches after 2^nd blog identified more articles.

·         A number of books found for teaching with multimedia projects, not reviewed due to access issues.

·        articles had different approaches to the topic including: cognitive learning (Bell 2013, Lightle 2011) , design challenges (Green and Brown 2002), increasing engagement (Bender and Bull 2012) (Stevens 2012) (Liu and Hsiao 2000), web 2.0 tools (Bender and Bull 2012) (Stevens 2012) (Liu and Hsiao 2000) .

Key Learnings 

·         Using Prezi definitely proven to engage students in a topic (Bender and Bull 2012) (Stevens 2012) (Liu and Hsiao 2000)

·         Using Web 2.0 tools results in learning with students not just teaching them.  This is because when integrating technology, students are encouraged to be self-directed. They facilitate student centered learning and create more relevant and interactive lessons (Lightle 2011)

·         Prezi is considered a non-traditional presentation tool because both linear and non-linear presentation components can be integrated (Bender and Bull 2012) so better than linear PowerPoint presentations, Prezi provides zooming and spatial relations. (Manning et al 2011)

·         Prezi supports Bloom’s revised taxonomy at the higher order thinking of analyzing: making connections, comparing, organizing and presenting information. (Lightle 2011) (Bell 2013).  Provides students with a constructivist educational approach described by Jonassens  (Bell 2013)

·         Prezi is good for developing virtual graphic organizers that are interactive and expressive.  Prezi can be used to create an item for final assessment.  It can include students multiple intelligences by linking images, videos and websites.  Builds students deeper thinking by having them explore and describe explicitly connections between ideas and their thinking.  Allows students to incorporate a wide variety of information, but requires critical thinking to do this well. (Manning et al. 2011) 

·         Proven to increase students understanding of a topic (Peters and Hopkins 2013)

·         Prezi can’t be mastered in one project; students need to consider their audience when designing (Green and Brown 2002)

·         Students generally find Prezi interesting to use, not too difficult to learn and good for presenting material (Stevens 2012)

·         Assessment by students needs to be consciously included (Green and Brown 2002).

 

References  

Bell, M.A. 2013. Computers as Mindtools, a homage to David H. Jonassen. Internet@schools Nov/Dec 2013 p 24-25.

Bender, C. and P. Bull. 2012.  Using Prezi in a Middle School Science Class. Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (SITE) 2012. Austin, Texas, USA March 5, 2012. Retrieved Jan 19, 2014 from UBC library Ed/IT lib digital library.

Berkeley Library. undated.  Basic Search Tips and Advanced Boolean Explained. Retrieved Jan 24, 2014 from http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Boolean.pdf

 

Green, T., A. Brown.  Student- generated multimedia projects in the classroom. 2002.  California State University Fullerton.  MultiMedia Schools, v9 n4 p20-24 Sep 2002.  Retrieved Jan 15, 2014 from UBC library Ed/IT lib digital library.

 

Lightle, K.2011.  More than just the technology.  Science Scope Summer 2011,  p6-9. Retrieved Jan 24, 2011 from http://cmapspublic2.ihmc.us/rid=1KLP3DK45-28LFPZJ-19T4/More%20than%20Just%20the%20Technology.%20pdf.pdf

 Liu, M. and Y. Hsiao. 2000.  Middle school students as multimedia designers: a project-based learning approach.  Jl. of Interactive Learning Research (2002) 13 (4) 11-337.  Retrieved Jan 19, 2014 from UBC library Ed/IT lib digital library.

Manning, C., W. Brooks, V. Crotteau, A. Diedrich, J. Moser and A. Zwiefelhofer.  2011. Tech tools for teachers, by teachers: Bridging teachers and students.  Wisconsin English Journal 53 (1) p. 24-28. Retrieved Jan 24, 2014 from http://journals.library.wisc.edu/index.php/wej/article/viewFile/379/444

 

Peters, T. and Hopkins, K. 2013. Students using web 2.0 technologies to develop 21^st century skills.  E-learn  p 1297-1300.  Retrieved Jan 24, 2014 from http://www.editlib.org/p/115059 .

 

Stevens, Vance.  2012.  Web 2.0 toolkit for teaching and learning EFL presentation skill.  TESL-EJ 16 (2).  Retrieved Jan 24, 2014 from http://www.tesl-ej.org/wordpress/issues/volume16/ej62/ej62int/

Reading Review - a few articles...

Here are some articles I have found to help with my topic:

Bell, M.A. 2013. Computers as Mindtools, an homage to David H. Jonassen. Internet@schools Nov/Dec 2013 p 24-25. Retrieved Jan 18, 2014 from UBC library Ed/IT lib digital library.

This article provides a short summary of David Jonassens’ concept of “mindtools”.  Mindtools is a concept about using anything to make kids think.  Mindtools are relevant to my project since Jonassen includes hypermedia or presentation tools such as Prezi which require students visualize.  The intent of presentation mindtools is to foster knowledge representation, communication, and collaboration.  . The article provided an interesting overview on educational technology philosophy since the 1990’s.

Bender, C. and P. Bull. 2012.  Using Prezi in a Middle School Science Class. Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (SITE) 2012. Austin, Texas, USA March 5, 2012. Retrieved Jan 19, 2014 from UBC library Ed/IT lib digital library.

This article researched the impact of Prezi on middle school students’ attitudes on engagement and learning in science.  The author has an introduction that explains the advantages of educational technology, in particular Prezi which uses a canvas to help audiences see the big picture and make meaning full connections.  There is a summary of an exhaustive literature review on multimedia in middle school science.  Using a student surveys to evaluate a 6 week Prezi project to create a summary of a sub-unit of Science 7 did not find a significant impact on general attitudes toward science.  However the student comments and teacher observations indicated that there was better knowledge retention and learning by the students.

Green, T., A. Brown.  Student- generated multimedia projects in the classroom. 2002.  California State University Fullerton.  MultiMedia Schools, v9 n4 p20-24 Sep 2002.  Retrieved Jan 15, 2014 from UBC library Ed/IT lib digital library.

This resource outlines lesson planning for an elementary school research project that will be presented with multimedia.  It has broken the task into 3 stages: design, production and distribution.  The text provides pointers like the goals of the multimedia project influence how it is designed; and storyboarding the final presentation prior to moving to the multi-media. 
 

Liu, M. and Y. Hsiao. 2000.  Middle school students as multimedia designers: a project-based learning approach.  Jl. of Interactive Learning Research (2002) 13 (4) 11-337.

 

 

 

This research project looked at students to see how their design knowledge, cognitive strategy use and motivation toward learning changed with project based learning.  The literature review summarizes project based learning and learners as multimedia designers.  The study was done with students in a multimedia class working in groups to learn the programs and then create improved school information for a teacher job fair.  The questionnaires showed the project improved student’s intrinsic motivation and organization skills, and increased peer collaboration.  

Frey, C. 2010.  Map and present your ideas with Prezi, a new visual thinking application.  Retrieved Jan 19, 2014 from http://mindmappingsoftwareblog.com/prezi/

This blog takes the intellectual idea of “non-linear thinking” and explains how Prezi can be used for mind mapping.  This blog lists some other options of Prezi including presenting, stories, sharing information and note taking. It explains how Prezi's tool can zoom in and out to show your information in chunks and parts to help depict relationships.

Opportunity Identification..

So after our class chat on Google+ I realize that my topic can be much smaller.  So I plan to explore how to effectively use Prezi with the inquiry research class that I am currently teaching.  My grade 6/7 students are exploring three grade 6 Science PLO’s on extreme environments.  I am using the BCTLA’s Points of Inquiry model to organize the student’s research process.  For their presentation the students will be creating a Prezi (2014) to share their learning of a personal research question.  I will be learning along with my students on how to use Prezi.

I have a connection with a SD57 Professional Learning Network (PLN) that is researching ways to meet the legal restrictions of students posting online; while letting student’s take advantage online programs.  At this point, I have an approved waiver to send home with the students.  In the fall, we worked on a number of Common Sense Media (2014) lessons on copyright, internet safety and cyberbullying; or “Information Ethics” (LIBE477B course content module 1).  These lessons have prepared the students to use their school email address to create an account to access Prezi.  However to minimize off-task work, my plan is to let students use Prezi once they have completed their RAN chart (Stead 2005), and articulated and researched an individual thick question on an extreme environment of their choice.  I plan to show them some Prezi presentations so they can start thinking about how they may present the answer to their question.  Unfortunately, I haven’t done this yet since the school computers need the flash driver updated before I can show a Prezi.

I will be encouraging students to start with library books, however much of their research will be online since they are comfortable using computer.  During their research I plan to teach a lesson on search skills of key words and Boolean logic.  When they start exploring their individual question I plan to do a lesson on selection of authoritative websites and author’s bias.  An additional challenge for these students is their presentation will be in French, so students will either be translating English resources or searching for hard to find French language resources at their reading level.

I think the outcome of this project will be to create my own Prezi of the inquiry research process to present at my staff meeting.  I can see that I will be learning alongside my students as they explore the potential of this presentation software.  I think the staff may find an inquire research presentation informative since the changing Socials and Science curriculum (2013) which has a strong focus on inquiry learning.

 

Possible Keywords:

Multimedia   and students or learning

Multimedia projects  and students

prezi

presentation software   and students

 

References

BC Ministry of Education.  2013.  draft curriculum for science and socials.  Retrieved Jan 15 from https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum. 

BC Teacher Librarian Association (BCTLA) 2010.  Points of Inquiry Retrieved Jan 18, 2014 from http://bctf.ca/bctla/pub/

Commonsense Media.  10 January 2014. http://www.commonsensemedia.org/

Prezi.  2014.  Presentation software.  Website:  http://prezi.com/

Stead, T. 2005. Reality Checks: Teaching Reading Comprehension with Nonfiction K-5. Pembroke Publishers, Markham Ont.

Personal Interests and Issues in Educational Technology

I am in my second year as a teacher-librarian at École Lac des Bois.  The school is a 4 year old single track French immersion elementary school in Prince George BC. I am realizing that I want to continue to develop our school library into a Learning Commons.  Last year I started on the first steps by reorganizing library space and developing a library webpage (École Lac des Bois).  This year the school webpage is being improved by a supportive technology-savvy teacher.  We both think there are many opportunities to expand information sharing in our school both for students and staff using this web page.  For the staff, this could be good location to share online professional resources which are harder to find for French immersion elementary students, and I could curate.   For students the web page could encourage them to share digital classroom projects with other students in the school and beyond.  For example I am teaching a grade 6/7 class on inquiry research projects.  The students will be creating a Prezi to showcase their learning on a personal research question on extreme environments.  This project is supported by my Professional Learning Network[1] (PLN) focused on teaching with an inquiry learning approach.  The students would increase their learning about digital literacy if they work was published online.  I think publishing would help students become part of the global community (Kist 2013).  I also think that by publishing student work other teachers would be interested in trying similar types of projects for similar literacy goals.  I would like to explore how we can safely and legally develop a Learning Commons to share student work.  Fortunately I have support from a teacher-librarian PLN[2] that is exploring how students can share and create online within current provincial legislation.

I also think technology provides great opportunities to provide French immersion students practice in speaking and listening to oral language. Another area that I would like to explore is technology that could be used to provide the students opportunities to record and listen to French, for example digital storytelling (Robin 2008).  Currently I am working with a grade 1 teacher, we are teaching her students to run the video cameras to record fellow student’s presentations at the beginning and end of the year.  This gives the teacher a record of the student’s oral skills, and the students work hard on practicing their oral language skills before they are recorded.  Videotaping can be used at all grade levels but I think there are other digital opportunities for students to use for practicing French oral language skills, that would allow more students to use them at once, and/or provide more immediate feedback.

In the future I also see an opportunity to collaborate with teachers to create a safe collaborative online learning environment (Schoolwires 2013).  All students in our school system have access to an email account.  I think students in grade 6 and 7 should be taught netiquette and learn how to use the internet safely for collaborative learning.  I would like to learn more about what social sites could be used collaboratively for education in an elementary school setting, for example blogging, creating group projects, etc.  Potentially our school web page could provide the links to a virtual learning commons.

Possible topics and Keywords:

Library commons:
Library commons
virtual learning commons
digital learning commons
technology tools
online learning

open educational resources

oral language:

digital scholar
digital literacy
open educational resources
voice recording
digital storytelling
educational uses of digital storytelling
engaged learning
multimedia
multimodality
Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge
imovie
 
collaborative online learning:
collaborative environments
cloud computing
technology integration
student virtual spaces

virtual classroom

social media in education
social learning / social learning environments
e-learning
electronic classrooms
social networking
 

Resources:

Banawzewski, T. 2002.  Digital storytelling finds its place in the classroom.  Multimedia Schools Jan/Feb 2002.  Retrieved Jan. 12, 2014 from http://hdhstory.net/school/lit/Digital%20Storytelling%20Finds%20Its%20Place%20in%20the%20Classroom.pdf

École Lac des Bois Library website.  January 2014. http://www.ldb.sd57.bc.ca/index.php?id=6867

Kist, W. 2013. The Global School: Connecting classrooms and students around the world.  Solution Tree Press.   USA.

Koechlin, C. E. Rosenfeld and D. Loertscher.  2010. Building a Learning Commons, a guide for school administrators and learning leadership teams.  Hi Willow Research & Publishing. Salt Lake City, Utah.

Mr. G Online. July 22, Edtech cheat sheet: understanding new trends in educational technology.  Retrieved Jan 8,2014 from http://mgleeson.edublogs.org/files/2012/07/20120721-074913.jpg

Nevin, Roger.  March 2010. Improving learning, engaging students and changing the collaborative culture of a school through the learning commons.  Retrieved Jan 11, 2014 from http://tmcanada.pbworks.com/f/Paper_For_Edmonton+Rogeszr.pdf

Robin, B.R. 2008.  Digital Storytelling: A powerful technology tool for the 21^st century classroom.  Theory into practice 47:220-228.  Retrieved Jan 12, 2014 from http://digitalstorytellingclass.pbworks.com/f/Digital+Storytelling+A+Powerful.pdf

Schoolwires.  2013.  Creating a safe social learning environment to improve student success.  republished in Internet at school. nov/dec 2013.  vol 20 (5) p 8-13.

University of Houston.  2013. Educational uses of digital storytelling.  Retrieved Jan 12, 2012 from http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/archive/index.html .

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[1] SD57 TL Learning Team Grant “ Challenging the culture of research”

[2] SD57 TL Learning Team Grant on Digital Literacy