Many moons ago, NC poet (and all around awesome human) Allan Wolf visited my school. In fact, Allan visited my school many times - first when I was a classroom teacher in Winston-Salem, NC and later when I a librarian in Wilmington, NC. Each time, Allan created magical, poetry-filled, learning experiences for kids and adults alike. I have many wonderful memories of Allan inspiring the young people I worked with, but one stands out: after leading then in an all day poetry writing workshop, Allan asked a group of 6th graders if they remembered the story of The Princess and the Pea. Of course they did. Once they'd shared all the details they could remember from the story, together they made a list of the pea's attributes. I'm summarizing, but essentially they defined that pea, from the classic fairy tale, as a thing that:
you can't stop thinking about
keeps you up at night
has to be dealt with
requires action
is persistent
With that in mind, Allan asked students to think about the idea of "cognitive peas" as being things in your brain that act in the same way as that darned pea from the story: ideas or memories that linger, that can't be ignored and require action. Then he asked them to share their "cognitive peas" from the day's learning. I remember being blown away by their responses. My 6th graders, who had never quite gotten the hang of sharing takeaways before, grabbed hold of their cognitive peas and ran with them. It was magical.
As a result, I've repeated this lesson hundreds of times: asking students (of all ages) to recall the story of The Princess and the Peal, consider the idea of a "cognitive pea" and their share their own as a way to synthesize learning.
With that in mind, over the last few weeks I've been leading a professional development book club for Developing Digital Detectives with the help of Bookelicious. I found the experience incredibly meaningful and while I absolutely asked participants to share their cognitive peas with me as part of our learning, now that our little book club has ended, I'd like to share a few of mine:
Technology isn't the problem. WE are the problem. Human behavior, and capitalism, are at the root of mis-, dis- and mal-information.
This is why, increasingly, I've starting referring to this work as being less about information literacy and more about information/digital mindfulness.
This work is hard, but it’s essential that we do it.
We can’t do it alone.
BOOK LISTS AND RESOURCES
If you've read Developing Digital Detectives, then you know that Darren and I were intentional about only including one link in our book. That link goes to the website we built as a companion to our book. We call that website "the evidence locker" and it's where we house a zillion (approximately) resources and activities for teachers and librarians to use with students. When we talk about The Evidence Locker, we often use this metaphor: we think of the physical book as being, sort of, like a cook book - it's the place where all the recipes live. Whereas, The Evidence Locker is like your pantry - it's the place where all the stuff you need to make those recipes lives. Both resources are useful on their own, but they are much more effective when used together.
Additionally, one thing we learned after the publication of our first book, Fact VS Fiction, is that URLs included in books have a short shelf life. After the links we featured in Fact VS Fiction started to break, we made the decision to not let that happen in Developing Digital Detectives. We're very proud of sharing that Developing Digtial Detectives includes only one link, and it's to a website we maintain. Indeed, every resource and activity we mention in the book is linked on our website; that way, when a link breaks we can fix it. But more importantly, this also allows us to add NEW resources for educators as our ideas continue to evolve.
That said, I created 5 new mini-lessons/activities for the Bookelicious Book Study, which have all been added to The Evidence Locker, so... even if you weren't able to attend our book club, if you have the book, you can find the new mini-lessons. As an example, one of those activities was a digital mindfulness game that I created for HS age learners - however, some participants said they thought it would work for MS students, too. The Evidence Locker includes additional resources and links to help you get the most out of this activity. (Note: if you were part of the Bookelicious book study, I added the new activities to the mini-lessons associated with the appropriate lens).
Similarly, if you've read Developing Digital Detectives, then you know that Darren and I believe there's an inextricable link between information literacy and reading identity. Kids who read, and who identify as readers, possess habits and dispositions around empathy and metacognition that serve them well in the work of developing healthy online habits. With that in mind, I shared several book lists during each week of our three-week book club:
Book List One • Picture Books:
The Breaking News by Sarah Lynne Reul
How To Tantrum Like A Champion by Allan Wolf and Keisha Morris
Big by Vashti Harrison
The Rock In My Throat by Kao Kalia Yang and Jiemei Lin
I'm Sorry You Got Mad by Kyle Lukoff and Julie Kwon
Being Home by Traci Sorell and Michaela Goade
Each of these books can help:
reinforce the idea that all media messages are constructed by a human who hopes that message will elicit a reaction
give kids the opportunity to practice these essential information mindfulness questions:
how does this make me feel?
What specifically is triggering these emotions?
who benefits if I feel this way?
What are they hoping I will do?
Book List One • Middle Grade:
The Witching Wind by Nathalie Lloyd
Benji Zeb is a Ravenous Werewolf by Deke Moulton
Pizza Face by Rex Harrison and Dave Valeza
Shark Teeth by Sherri Winston
Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody by Patrick Ness and Tim Miller
Each of these books can help teachers provide kids with a safe environment to consider:
how social media affects their relationships with others
what kind of world they want to live in
what their role is in creating that world
Book List One • Family Book Club:
The Breaking News by Sarah Lynne Reul
The Worry Monster Calming Anxiety with Mindfulness by Dr. Catherine Cook-Cottone and Lena Podesta
Killer Underwear Invasion by Elise Gravel
Same Page by Elly Swartz
The Witching Wind by Nathalie Lloyd
Finally Heard by Kelly Yang
Crushed by Melanie Conklin
Family book clubs are one of my favorite ways to engage community around topics that have the potential to be triggering. This collection provides a variety of books for readers in grades PreK-8 - plus their family members. By selecting the book(s) that most interest them, each reader can approach questions around information/digital mindfulness (like those I included with the first two book lists) with their chosen story as a foundation. Book clubs are a powerful tool for creating community and have the potential to help us gather our community together around a topic that both affects all of us AND that can also be difficult to talk about.
Jennifer! Where Are Your Slides?
Long time readers know that this is usually the point where I share my slides from the event I'm reflecting on. I've decided not to do that this time. First, this was a paid event. I'm guessing most of them chose to pay because they wanted access to content they couldn't get for free. With that in mind, putting everything I shared with them online feels disingenuous. Plus, I shared a lot of links and resources during our book club that are linked in The Evidence Locker and while Darren and I know that people access our website without buying the book, I don't want to imply that I think that's okay. The Evidence Locker was created as a companion to Developing Digital Detectives - not a replacement. I hope that if you're using the resources there that you've also bought the book.
So... I'm not giving away my slides this time, but... I can give you this:
Please enjoy a special discount of 20% off the titles mentioned above (or others of your choice) by visiting Bookelicious and using the code JENNIFERLAGARDE. Note: I do not make any money when you purchase books from Bookelicious, but I am delighted that you get to save some!
PADLET IS MY JAM(BOARD):
Updating The Evidence Locker for the Bookelicious PD Book Club provided me with an opportunity to make some other updates, too. When Darren and I created The Evidence Locker, Google Jamboard was a popular tool to use with students. Since then, however, Jamboard has become yet another Google casualty. Luckily, Padlet has stepped up to create Sandbox - a tool that does everything Jamboard could do (and more!) Although the process for sharing a Padlet Sandbox is a little different, I actually like the user interface so much better. With that said, I've updated all existing activities in the Evidence Locker, that featured Jamboards, so that they now link to Padlet Sandboxes. The ability to make this change is the perfect example of why Darren and I chose to create our own website for this book. Although it takes time to update, I am grateful that we have the ability to make sure the resources we've created are still accessible for teachers.
