Renaissance Reader Challenge #3: One Million Words

Time for our 3rd challenge of the year: The One Million Word Challenge

This Challenge is open to all students, parents, family, faculty and staff to read ONE MILLION WORDS.


Challenge starts: September 28, 2010 and ends on May 14, 2011


Renaissance Reader Challenge Guidelines: One Million Words

1. Pick up a Word Count Form in the Middle School Library, or create a form of your own
2. Read age appropriate books
3. Determine word count for each book (see formula below)
4. Turn in your form to Mr. Williamson in the library upon completion of this challenge.
5. (For students only) Books must not be class assigned books.


How to determine your word count for each book:
1. Grab a calculator (unless you are a mental math genius)
2. Open your book toward the middle
3. Count the number of words in three lines
4. Average the number of words in the three lines (add three lines and divide by three)
5. Count the number of lines on a page
6. Multiply the average words per line by the number of lines per page. (this will give you an estimate of words on a page)
7. Find the total number of pages in your book
8. Multiply the number of pages in your book by the estimated number of words on a page.
9. This final number will be used to determine your number of words per book.

EXAMPLE:
The line word total =33 (average 11)
Number of Lines per page = 28
Number of pages per book = 118
11x28x118 = 36,344 words


Good Luck, I think you'll be surprised how fast your word count increases. You can complete this challenge in combination with the other challenges issued by combining books on more than one list.

September 25-October 2: Banned Book Week

The last week of September is a very important week in the lives of libraries across the United States. Each and every year this week is set aside to celebrate our freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. We celebrate our right to read, open access to information and to bring into the spotlight the harms of censorship.

Take a look at the American Library Association's webpage about Banned Books here and learn about the subtle differences between a banned book and a challenged book and find information about "challenged books" here (to include information about our 8th grade Summer Reading book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee).

Smile and enjoy your week of reading!

Georgia Children's Book Award Information and Video posts

Last Friday I spent the day with all of the 7th grade Language Arts classes and we discussed the Georgia Children's Book Award program and watched some cool videos about a handful of these books.

Today I get to talk to the 6th grade classes about this program; if you remember this is the program where all middle school students across Georgia are invited to read (up to) 20 selected books and then vote for their favorite.

Click here to access the 2010-2011 Nominees.

Remember you do not have to read all 20 titles to vote in the spring, but you have to read at least three (3) books to vote. Some books may not appeal to each and every student, select the books you want to read.



If you want to see some of the videos we watched in class, please click on the book title and that will link you to the specific video.


SAVVY by Ingrid Law SAVVY (Video #2)

Golly-Whopper Games by Jody Feldman

Darkwing by Kenneth Oppel Darkwing (Video #2)

Child of Dandelions by Shenaaz Nanji

Bird Lake Moon by Kevin Henkes

Bringing the Boy Home by N.A. Nelson



I hope you enjoy these books and this program. Look for lunch-time discussions of these books in the near future.

5 Week update

Today we start the 6th week of the school year and I wanted to give everyone an update on the library.

We have had 206 books checked out of the library (with 23 renewals) and 176 books have been used in the library giving us a total of 405 circulations thus far.

I spent last Friday with all of the 7th grade students talking about the Georgia Book Award Program and will be sharing this same information with the 6th graders on Tuesday.

Just a reminder this is the program where all middle school students across Georgia are invited to read a total of 20 selected titles and vote for their favorite title in the spring. To be eligible to vote a student has to read at least 3 of the 20 titles. Copies of the reading list are available in the media center as well as copies of the books to read. Click here for the nominated titles.

Right now I know which book I would be voting for, but sadly, I can not vote!

Renaissance Reader Challenge: Our Jewish Culture and History

Time for our second challenge for the school year:

This challenge is open to all Davis Academy students, families, faculty and staff.

Renaissance Reader Challenge Guidelines: Our Jewish Culture and History

1. The Challenge Starts on September 16, 2010 and ends on May 14, 2011
2. Read Two(2) novels about Jewish life or by a Jewish author
3. Read Two(2) books (history, biography, philosophy, etc) about Jewish Culture, History or Religion


Here's are the books on my list to read for this challenge:
1. The Chosen by Chaim Potok
2. Six Million Paper Clips: The Making of a Children's Holocaust Memorial by Peter Schroeder
3. A Safe Haven: Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel by Allis and Ronald Radosh
4. Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy


Please see me in the Middle School Library or post comments and I can help you find a book(s) to read to complete this challenge.

Happy Reading!

Renaissance Reader Challenge

Today is the first day of the Renaissance Reader Challenges.

I am challenging all students, faculty and parents of The Davis Academy to become a Renaissance Reader. To become a Renaissance Reader you have to meet one of the challenges posted to this Blog and bring the list of books to me in the Media Center for your certificate.

You may earn more than one Renaissance Reader certificate; in fact I hope you will earn multiple certificates during this school year.

The first challenge is simple, but there are a few guidelines:



Guidelines for Renaissance Readers: Introduction to Authors

1. The challenge starts on September 14, 2010 and ends on May 14, 2011
2. Select a level in which you want to participate
3. Read books by an author in which you have never read before.

Levels for Renaissance Readers: Introduction to Authors

Level 1: Beginning Reader: Read Books by 3 Authors
Level 2: Fledgling Reader: Read Books by 5 Authors
Level 3: Judicious Reader: Read Books by 7 Authors
Level 4: Prosperous Reader: Read Books by 10 Authors

Scripps National Spelling Bee

Mark Your Calendars

The Davis Academy Middle School is officially enrolled in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. We'll be having a school wide spelling bee to determine one student that will represent The Davis Academy at the county level in early February 2011.

More information will be forthcoming as we determine our school Spelling Bee date. Study materials will be made available for students as well.

Keep an eye on this BLOG as we move forward.

Deweyless Libraries

A while ago libraries in Maricopa County, Arizona announced that they were becoming a "Deweyless Library". What does that mean, you may ask?

For years, since 1876 to be exact, libraries have shelved and arranged their book collection to Dewey Decimal Classification. Books are grouped together in categories like Science, History, and Technology and then further broken down into small categories within the larger subsections.

The Dewey Decimal categories have reigned supreme in libraries everywhere; I know I can find a book on Shakespeare at 822.3 and books on specific dinosaurs at 567.91 (my son, Kyle even memorized this number at a young age to find books on dinosaurs all by himself) in each and every library I step into.

Now libraries are changing and perhaps headed into the book shelving areas of the super bookstore chains. Libraries are being awarded grants and recognition for their innovative ways to promote books and reading.

Are we headed in the direction of the Dewey Decimal Classification becoming a fossil? We, libraries and librarian are here to help our patrons(customers) to find materials they need and want, do they want Dewelyless Libraries? I guess some do.