Collaborations
Breakout EDU
Fourth grade teachers had just finished teaching about matter and energy. To check for understanding we used a puzzle titled Nick, the Magician which connects with NGSS standard 4-PS3-2 Energy. The librarian set up the experience in an unused classroom and facilitated while the classroom teacher connected with students over content from the classroom that helped solve the puzzle.
March is Reading Month
The month of March is a reading celebration schoolwide. Our school decorates every bulletin board in the building in a cohesive theme to connect students with stories. In 2022, our team modified the previous principal's vision to be more student centered in our celebration of literature by adopting the March Madness model. We select 16 books according to our theme. Each book is shared with every classroom and students select their favorite. Simultaneously, students are sharing their personal responses to the books on the bulletin boards throughout the building. The result is students across grade loving connecting over books.
Alongside the schoolwide celebration the librarian introduces students to favorite book characters and series every day. She also coordinates with the local minor league baseball organization to enroll the school in their reading incentive program.
Baggage
Baggage is a documentary film and a Book about the experience of immigrants to Quebec. The film shows students as they work with the drama teacher in their school to process their experience. The students worked with Simon Boulerice to write poems as they engaged in a sensory memory excercise. We worked with Melissa Baril of Caribou Lunettes to bring Simon to our district using a grant from our local Birmingham Education Foundation in combination with a Michigan Humanities grant. Simon was only able to visit West Maple and complete the writing exercise with our students. The greater event was cancelled due to Covid-19 closing of public schools on the Friday, March 13.
Book Fairs
The hosting of our fall and spring book fairs is a collaboration with Lowry's Books and with our PTA. Lowry's books is an independent Michigan book store. We have been working with Lowry's for two years now because of their collaborative approach. Our school is able to request specific content on our fair connected with programming in our school and desired content to meet our communities needs. We also invite our local French book seller, Caribou Lunettes to serve our French speaking population. Our PTA helps set up, tear down and run the book fair with the guidance of the school librarian.
Empathy Project
In collaboration with fourth and first grade teachers, the Empathy Project seeks to develop the skill of empathy in our students and prepare them to build empathy in others. The teachers work with students to examine some of the 17 Global Goals using a multi media approach. Then students choose the topic they want to learn more about. The librarian collaborates with the teachers to curate a list of resources for students to use and to guide resource exploration as needed. After researching, students prepare a public service announcement or a product to help solve the problem. These are presented to families on Empathy Night in May.
Book Bonanza
This is a reading program for grades 2 and 3 with the goal of increasing nonfiction reading. Students are challenged to read two fiction and two nonfiction titles at the teacher recommended level. The library supports this program by providing the selected books for students to choose from. Each level, J-T according to Fountas & Pinnell, has at least 4 nonfiction and 4 fiction titles available. Teachers ask for evidence of comprehension in a variety of ways. Once students have read four titles, they get to choose a book to keep from a selection in our library. The program was developed with a second grade teacher and a grant was received from the Birmingham Education Foundation to fund the purchase of the books used for the program.
As a service learning project, grade 5 students produced a book trailer for each of the titles in the program. Students received instruction from the librarian on how to create a book trailer using iMovie. Teachers created teams of students and let them choose the book to create a trailer. Grades 2 and 3 were shown the trailers to consider which books they would like to read.
Rabbit and Robot and Ribbit
Monsoon Afternoon
Battle of the Books
In partnership with the Baldwin Public Library West Maple participates in Birmingham's Battle of the Books event. This is a quiz bowl style competition districtwide. Baldwin selects five to six titles for the competition. Students form teams of two to eight students with one adult coach. Students read the titles and prepare to answer 20 questions on the day of the battle. The team with most points wins. BPS school libraries review the selected titles, provide launch day information, encourage participation and ensure honest team actions on the day of the event. Each year 80-100 teams participate districtwide.
MISelf in Books
The Michigan Association of School Librarians began releasing the MISelf in Books List annually in 2020. This list is vetted using a rigorous rubric for diverse books written by authors who have lived the experiences they write about. In 2020 BPS was working to connect with our diverse population and offer authentic online experiences for students during the pandemic. West Maple led the way by suggesting an online read aloud and discussion model using the MISelf in Books titles. In collaboration with the librarians across the district we met with Jay Marks at Oakland Schools to prepare for difficult conversations or situations that could arise during this kind of program. Then we created a template for the program, a registration process, and schedule of titles we would share. The program ran from March 2020 through June 2022 with 2-8 families attending each session. In April 2022, Reem Faruqi joined us online to present Amira's Picture Day to BPS families. This event was grant funded by the Birmingham Education Foundation. This program is on hiatus as we reconfigure the approach to increase participation and impact.
Author Visits
West Maple hosts two or three author visits each year under normal circumstances. During 2020 and 2021 we were able to host many more virtually because of reduced pricing for visits in that format. This year West Maple has hosted Jon Slangerup for grades 3-5. On our schedule we have Alice B. McGinty in March 2023 and Angela Dominguez in April 2023. Most in person author visits are in collaboration with the other elementary school libraries in the district. Some are grant funded from the local school PTA or from the Birmingham Education Fund. Each visit has to be scheduled in coordination with the school schedule, testing windows and other schools participating in the visit. We also collaborate with our local independent book store, The Book Beat, to provide a book sale to our students.
BPS Better Together
The BPS Better Together Steering Committee works to unify our schools across the district to meaningfully engage with our district strategic plan by centering in on the values our district seeks to uphold. At the district level West Maple led the way using collections to spotlight books in our library that help illuminate the value of community. Then as a district library facilitator the librarian brought in the rest of the library team to build the collection across the district. At the school level, the librarian created an interactive display for the school to participate in by sharing meaningful words in our community.