Orientation inspiration

You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.

And so, each year I find myself  searching for orientation inspiration.

Whether it’s your incoming kindergartners, sixth graders, ninth graders or those returning students you already know and love, you’re going to want to welcome them back in a special way.  And you are likely to have made a few fabulous summer discoveries that will rock their information and communications worlds.

I searched “library orientation” and “school library orientation” on Pinterest and discovered some very promising and replicable ideas for all levels–posters, scavenger hunts, videos, games–designed to engage and introduce skills and behaviors that will be developed through the school year.

And then I crowd-sourced the exploration using the #tlchat, #tlelem and our Google+ TLChat Community.

Here are a few of my discoveries, thank to the generous sharing of our colleagues.

No real blood or brains were used in Kathy Kaldenberg’s (@scsdmedia) orientation presentation for Solon High School.

Kathy shared her goals for the incoming 9th grade class:

Over my last ten years at Solon High School, I’ve tried a variety of ways to keep our orientation fresh and interesting, including a this/not this video with faculty playing the roles of students and an interactive jeopardy game. But with the popularity of The Walking Dead television series and high interest in our zombie genre fiction, last year I decided to build my message around how the undead should use the media center. It was a fun way to get the message across.

Things are different at the high school, so we like to let 9th graders know what to expect. It is pretty dry stuff and we don’t like to harp on rules. I’ve tried to change it up a bit by having zombies deliver the message. I pair it up with a display of our zombie books and a few posters.

If only we had a real zombie. Sleepy students don’t count.

Like me, Shannon McClintock Miller is exploring strategies for ensuring that library can be in every kiddo’s pocket.  I’ll be rolling out our kid-developed app next month, ensuring that the kids have instant access to the tools we’ll be using regularly, including our new discovery service.  (More on that in a future post.)

I want them to have this information and access at their fingertips from the very first day.

 

At South Orange Middle School, Elissa Malespina (@SOMSlibrary) is planning aurasma tours for her 6th graders.

My 8th grade students from last year produced videos of different important areas of the school–like library, office, cafeteria etc.  I am going to make auras out of the videos and, instead of a the normal [physical] tour of the school.  We also have a aurasma tour for library.  It has been a really cool way to introduce augmented reality to students.

Elissa shared screen shots of the Aurasma app from her phone, including shots of  her fiction, nonfiction, and  biography tours.

-creating Destiny login information and playing
-self check out
-physical library map fill In
-and my favorite was Meet & Greet (I took a pic of the group and we got to know each other)

The next meeting we talk about our virtual space. Sometimes a scavenger hunt, but I think it’s better  to have  groups of 2 or 3 analyze a page and then explain to the whole group what they learned. (Analyzing info text, speaking skills)

Middle School Librarian at the Detroit Country Day School, Cheri Dobbs hopes to

record a variety of 7th and 8th graders giving advice/information about the library to our 6th graders. I’d compile the short clips into a movie that would show to the 6th graders as part if their orientation. Either that, or, towards the end of this year I’ll have the 6th graders make short videos about different aspects of the library, and I’ll use those videos with next year’s group.

Sarah Worden, librarian at Ft. Sam Houston Elementary is opening with interactive storytelling:

I wrote a “choose your own ending” story using inklestudios.com‘s inklewriter program.  I was the student and made bad choices, got corrected, and had to go back and make a better choice.  I wrote simple stories for entering and leaving the library. 

Via LM_NET, Susan Grigsby, librarain at Elkins Pointe Middle School shared an interactive approach:

I am setting up an orientation in Socrative.com [student response system] where the students will all have iPads in their hands and can answer questions in the “Space Race” function of the program. So, instead of just coming in to “sit-and-get” they are going to get some basic information then they’ll have to move through the library in groups to locate specific items, answer a question about that item and try to get their group’s space ship to the finish line first.

I’m actually working on that right now! For my 3rd-4th we’ll be doing a QR code orientation throughout the library.

Lisa Castellano, Library Media Specialist, at Larkspur Middle School, Virginia Beach, VA, also plans to use a QR code approach for her incoming 6th grade:

We got the idea from a presentation at our state conference. Students scan a QR code that is a question. Students will then go to the section of the library that will have the answer, find the correct resource and find the next question. For example students might need to find out another word for wonderful – they group would go to reference and find a QR code by the thesauruses.

They have to answer the question and then scan the QR Code by the thesauruses. That code might ask them to list a book by Gary Paulsen, which brings them to fiction. The orientation is designed to have them physically tour the library, work as a group, and enjoy some technology. I attached the lesson plan and one of the paths.  We use iPads for students to scan the QR codes and we have about six different paths for students to follow.  The groups number no more than five students.

Lisa shared her lesson and a couple of handouts.

Cheryl Youse, Media Specialist at Colquitt County High School shared her Jeopardy game, a get-to-know-you scavenger hunt, and an Xtranormal video, and noted:

I get bored (with 40 or so orientations), so this year I am doing different things with different classes.  I usually show the video New Spice Study Like a Scholar to get their attention and/or the Dewey Decimal Rap and/or Gotta Keep Reading.

Monica Dennler, from the K-8 Eastamptom Community School and President of the Burlington County Association of School Librarians (NJ), shares:

The best thing that I do for orientation for the first two weeks, besides covering house-keeping issues, is to have each of my classes design their own set of classroom rules. I appoint a scribe to write out the list; each class dictates their own set of library guidelines. I then post the rules in a highly visible area.

Once that is done, we do a library  treasure hunt designed for each grade level to find resources and books in the library and on the computer. It helps break the ice and establish a fun tone for the year. This also helps work as a pre-assessment or bench mark to help focus on areas that students may need to be reminded about during the first month (or first four classes) of school.

Arlene Laverde. Librarian at John Bowne High School, shares her bingo-based orientation:

For our high school freshmen I combined a picture PowerPoint and bingo game. I took pictures of various parts of the library and put them in a PowerPoint. I used an online bingo card generator to create various bingo cards of library terms. I explained to the students that they mark the terms as I go though the presentation BUT as soon as the game became more important the presentation the game was over. There are two types of bingo regular and full card. Prizes are candy or other little things. It goes well with good classroom management.

And finally, one of my favorite orientation videos is this one from Michelle Luhtala, New Canaan High School, focusing on the very positive message encouraged by the library and the school, We Trust You.

Filed under: #tlchat, #tlelem, instruction, school libraries