The concept that checking out books from the library is optional. I do have students ask if they “have” to check out a book. My answer is always YES. If they cannot match their interests with library materials, they are flunking the test of life on being a life-long learner. Since my goal is to [...]

The judgments that Wikipedia and google are inherently bad. Wikipedia may be my students starting point for reality checks. Projects double-checking Wikipedia facts can be very entertaining and involve higher-order thinking skills. Google advanced is my friend.  I was quoted about this topic 3 years ago. (I had to mention it because my hair looked [...]

The belief that incidental curiosity is trivial. I don’t have to be “doing a research paper for the … teacher” to want to find a quick answer. If a book, website, media mentions something that I don’t know about, I’m going to go research it for my personal interest – which may be more valuable than [...]

The idea that girls read fiction and boys read nonfiction. If I hold up Bearport’s book on Spooky Cemeteries, who is going to want to check it out? Boys or girls? Good readers or bad? My female students were appalled when I shared some librarians’ comments about buying nonfiction only for the boys. Girls do [...]

The concept that different types of reading have different values. There was a discussion on one of the listserv’s of which I’m a member about how we should have a label for the type of reading that occurs when we are reading necessary things like cereal boxes, forms, instruction manuals. Someone suggested that was “necessary [...]

During the SLJ Leadership Summit panel of which I am presenting (What Box? More Opportunities than Obstacles – Professionals in the field share their experiences in approaching 21st-century learning), we are talking about the Box. What box? You could define it and describe it because a box is concrete, has walls, and these walls become limitations. [...]