Author Jason Chin Visits CVSD Schools

Science teachers across the district have been looking for ways to integrate science into reading and writing classes while also creating a shared experience for our PreK-8 students. This week, CVSD's PreK-8 buildings are welcoming Jason Chin to share his experiences and insights into writing and illustrating children’s books. Jason Chin, a local author and illustrator, is a diverse author and a Caldecott Medal winner who has written and illustrated a series of children’s books including many on non-fiction science topics.

“I love meeting readers and sharing what I love, and I hope that my visits will help young readers see themselves as artists, scientists, readers and writers.” -Jason Chin

These visits were funded through a grant, the school district, and each school's PTO/family organizations supported it as well.

Thank you, Jason, for such enriching and engaging presentations! Here are a few photos from the visit with Williston students yesterday. He was in Charlotte today and will be in Shelburne and Hinesburg this week as well.

Stone Soup at SCS

 Here's a guest post from Shelburne Community School: 

We had lots of smiling faces last week as we collected ingredients and made stone soup. If you're not familiar with the story that sparked this activity, check it out in our library or see this short, animated video version. Hopefully, the kids will have taken the enthusiasm and some new skills home!

It was really impressive to see how attentive they listened, and how focused, and enthusiastic the kids were when peeling, chopping and cleaning up. With all the chatting, it really felt like friends preparing a meal together. They showed resourcefulness (how about using scissors for the herbs?) and flexibility (substituting tools if needed). They willingly shared and swapped stations to try something new. Many parent helpers and teachers commented on the value of these life skills.

Here is Stone Soup by the numbers; our recipe for success:

230 kids helped prep
150lbs of chopped vegetables
75 gallons of soup
40 adult helping hands (some multiple times)
23 different vegetables and herbs
12 classes and cohorts
4 days of fun
3 donated stones
2 visits to the nurses
1 amazing community

Thank you to the parent/caregiver community, teachers, our food service staff, and our wonderful students. 

Summer Learning at WCS

WCS had two week-long summer learning experiences for some students. This slideshow showcases the 6th-8th experience with a focus on real-world application of math, science and reading. Thanks to Cris Milks and Colleen O’Brien for their work on creating and leading these experiences for our students.

Mobile Library Project from Empower Youth Leaders

The Empower Youth Leaders (EYL) have teamed up with CVSD Librarians to deliver “mobile bookshelves” to our K-8 schools. Empower Youth Leaders is a CVSD student organization that meets weekly, with a goal to promote Social Emotional Learning (S.E.L.) for our schools through community service projects.

The middle schoolers from EYL developed a plan to procure a mobile bookshelf for each of the CVSD K-8 schools. A Mobile Bookshelf is a moveable bookshelf on wheels. The bookshelf will house books that students can take home to build their home libraries. We are hoping that these books will promote social emotional learnings skills to kids, as they open doors to different journeys through reading.

Students will be able to keep the books that they choose from the mobile bookshelf. There is no need to return the book the the school library. Have fun reading!

 

Here are some potential questions you may have, answered by the EYL students.

How are the students expecting to manage the donation process? We are only using books that are planned to be thrown out from classrooms, and libraries. These books will already have been evaluated, so librarians, or students will not have to re-evaluate them.

Students may have some confusion about the mobile bookshelf and the school library: about which books are the library's - and must be returned - and which books are free for them to keep? How will we indicate that clearly enough between the library and the mobile bookshelf so that our students know the difference? The Mobile bookshelf will be in the hallways not the library. And it will have signs to explain the difference too.

Where will the bookshelf live? Will there be signage around it that indicates that it's not part of the school library? When will students have access to it? The Mobile bookshelves will be in the hallways so that it is more accessible to students. We will label it as the mobile bookshelf, and we will decorate it to show that it is the mobile bookshelf with decorations and signs, and we hope that we can make some announcements in the morning to inform about the bookshelf and help prevent any confusion.

Will it work like a free little library, in which students are swapping books when they take one? If so, extra management of content is required. These books are to be taken from the mobile bookshelf and taken home. This is a way for kids to get access to books that they may not have at home. They will not need to swap any books. These are just to take home without having to swap any book in return.

There is also the issue of the physical quality of donations. I have had many people enthusiastically donate books that are in terrible shape: ripped, stained, and not appealing. How will people know what the standards are for their donations? At this time, we are not accepting donations. We are planning on only using books that are being discarded from the library or classrooms.

The work with Empower School Leaders is done with the support of an SEL in Action grant from the NoVo Foundation. We'd like to give a special shout out to Katherine Batty, school counselor at Hinesburg Community School, for her work supporting the Empower Youth Leaders in CVSD. Thank you, Kathy!

CCS Second Graders Craft A Poem About Their School

Second graders at Charlotte Central School have been learning about poetry. One focus has been poems of address. 

Here's a recent creation: 

CCS

By Room 107

You were the old place we saw

From far away

You were dirty and dingy.

You take care of us everyday.

You help us learn to read and write.

THANK

YOU

You take care of us by helping us have

Food, water, shelter, warmth

You protect us

We will take care of you.

Charlotte

Central

School

You deserve

New layers…new siding

Warmth…new windows

We will take care of you.

Literacy Spotlight - Global Read Aloud 2021

This guest post was provided by CVSD's District Literacy Leader, Jensa Bushey


Librarians and literacy coaches across the Champlain Valley School District partnered to plan an experience for children in grades kindergarten through fourth grade in which a common set of books was read and discussed. To do this, we joined other educators across the world in a project called the Global Read Aloud. For elementary students, the Global Read Aloud featured picture books written by Duncan Tonatiuh and the book Dragons in a Bag by Zetta Elliott.

We picked the Global Read Aloud as a focus point this year because it allowed us the opportunity to live out several parts of the CVSD literacy vision. This includes modeling joyful reading and writing and sharing diverse stories. Children explored the themes of celebrating differences, personal and cultural identity, and perseverance.

Here’s a visual diary of some of the reading, learning, and thinking that the Global Read Aloud brought to our schools.

An enthusiastic group of second grade students activate their prior knowledge before Cara Clopton, Allen Brook School Librarian, reads them The Princess and the Warrior by Duncan Tonatiuh.

Heidi Huestis, Charlotte Central School (CCS) Librarian, discusses what students notice about the cover of the book Separate is Never Equal by Duncan Tonatiuh. In the background, a digital storyboard displays Duncan’s books along with virtual links to read alouds.

Which book will be the ultimate favorite? Each week CCS students voted between two of Duncan Tonatiuh’s books to decide which moved ahead in the bracket! At Charlotte Central the favorite book was Feathered Serpent and the Five Suns.

In the Hinesburg Community School (HCS) Library, second graders engaged in an author study during Hispanic Heritage Month using The Princess and the Warrior and Diego Rivera: His World and Ours. Students paid attention to Duncan Tonatiuh’s illustration style, especially the ornate swirls and curves inspired by pre-Columbian Mixtec art. Students also took two virtual field trips: the first to Popocatépetl (one of the volcanoes from The Princess and the Warrior) using the Smithsonian’s Global Volcanism Program, and the second to MoMA to see one of Rivera’s paintings.

This is a quick snapshot of of the volcano virtual field trip!

At Williston Central School (WCS), every grade 3-4 teacher was given a copy of Dragons in a Bag to read aloud to their class, and every grade 5-6 English Language Arts (ELA) teacher was given a classroom copy of The Jumbies.

During library time, 3rd & 4th grade students heard eight picture books by author Duncan Tonatiuh during the Global Read Aloud author study. They concluded the author study with a student vote for their favorite, and the most ancient story won: Feathered Serpent and the Five Suns: a Mesoamerican Creation Myth.

Hands Up Celebration Held in Williston

 

(l to r: Danielle Doucette, Youth Services Assistant, Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Cara Clopton, Library Media Specialist Allen Brook School, Bonnie Lord, Youth Librarian, Dorothy Alling Memorial Library)

The Dorothy Alling Memorial Library (DAML) in Williston was the proud recipient of an American Library Association (ALA) Libraries Transforming Communities: Focus on Small and Rural Libraries grant this year. They worked in collaboration with Allen Brook School on a special project to provide a free opportunity for family literacy engagement centered on creating a welcoming and inclusive community.

The grant was used to offer Brave Books Bags to each second-grade family at Allen Brook School earlier this fall. The bags included two picture books and two chapter books to spark conversations, understandings, and build caring, valued relationships. These books, created by Black authors and illustrators, were chosen to encourage conversations around racial equity and inclusiveness. The books range from picture books to middle grade titles, to encourage conversations amongst the very young as well as older family members.

As a follow-up to the distribution of the Brave Book Bags the community was invited to a celebration of the project on the Town Green today. Allen Brook Librarian Cara Clopton read the picture book Hands Up! by Breanna J. McDaniel to celebrate social justice and the partnership between DAML & Allen Brook School. The story will also be featured on a Storywalk® on the Town Green this month.

The photos below were contributed by Cara Clopton. Thank you for your part in making this effort and event happen. 

Book Shopping at HCS

The last few days before vacation were very exciting for students at Hinesburg Community School, in kindergarten through fourth grade! Each classroom had a special opportunity to go “book shopping” and take home a brand new book! There were selections from “Elephant and Piggie”, to “The Last Stop on Market Street”, “Pete the Cat”, and so many more wonderful titles.

This second annual “Build Your Own Library” event is an effort to support building students’ home libraries. According to a 2014 study in the sociology journal, Social Forces, the quantity of books in a person’s home was the most important predictor of reading performance. “The researchers measured the impact of the size of home libraries on the reading level of 15-year-old students across 42 nations, controlling for wealth, parents’ education and occupations, gender and the country’s gross national product.” Findings revealed greatest effect to be in home libraries of about 100 books, which resulted in approximately 1.5 extra years of grade-level reading performance.

Hooray for these new books!

CVSD Educator Presented with Literacy Award

We are thrilled to share that CVSD's District Literacy Leader, Jensa Bushey, is the recipient of the Vermont Council on Reading's 2020 John T. Poeton Award. This award is usually presented at the VT Council on Reading's Spring conference, but that event didn't take place this year due to safety concerns around COVID-19. 

As stated on the VT VCR website, "The John T. Poeton Award is presented annually by the Executive Board of the Vermont Council on Reading at the Conference. A plaque shall be presented by the President or his or her designee at the Annual Spring Conference to an outstanding educator working in a Vermont school setting fostering literacy development with students and colleagues."

Jensa exemplifies this to the greatest degree. She is an inspiring leader and advocate for literacy with teachers and students alike. In addition to her valued literacy role in CVSD, Jensa stepped up this year and is also teaching kindergarten in our Virtual Learning Academy. This only illustrates how dedicated Jensa is to her work, our district, and student learning. Jensa is a former Shelburne Community School teacher and literacy coordinator.

Congratulations Jensa and thank you!

Berlin City Supports Literacy

Berlin City Auto Group, announced its January grant donation of $83,845 awarded on behalf of its “Drive for Education” (DFE) program. The program, in its tenth year, uses proceeds from area car sales to fund grants awarded to neighboring schools.

This year 46 schools in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont will be receiving grants. Two Champlain Valley School District Schools, the Allen Brook School and Hinesburg Community School, were among the grant recipients.

At the Allen Brook School, librarian Cara Clopton was awarded $1000 for the purchase of new library books and will host a Family Reading Night this spring.

ABS librarian Cara Clopton and students

Hinesburg's kindergarten teacher, Miranda Johnson, was also awarded $1000 which will be used to purchase books for HCS kindergarteners to bring home and read over the summer, helping them practice and maintain the wonderful skills they have learned all year long. 

Miranda Johnson and her kindergarten class from HCS

Congratulations!

The Benefits of Author Visits

Vermont author, Ann Braden, came to visit and work with Charlotte 5th and 6th graders yesterday. She highlighted her process of writing and collecting ideas for her stories. She helped the students analyze the strengths and obstacles the main character, Zoey, experienced. She then gave each student an individual octopus temporary tattoo to remind them to always look for their own internal strengths and the strengths of others.

From her website: Ann's debut middle grade novel The Benefits of Being an Octopus was listed as one of NPR’s Best Books of 2018, received a starred review from School Library Journal, and was described by Newbery award-winner Karen Hesse as “a compassionate look at poverty, hard choices, and defending one’s right to be treated humanely.”

We thank Ann for visiting the Charlotte Central School and for inspiring students in many ways.