LibraryThing in the Classroom Going Digital in the K-12 Classroom An Advancing Literacy Workshop

Introductions Sheryl Pate, Social Studies Teacher, Lexington City Schools Christy Wojenski, EC Teacher, Lexington City Schools Michelle Kline, ELA Teacher, Cabarrus County Schools

Agenda Welcome to LibraryThing. Here’s what we are covering in this presentation: What is LibraryThing? How can teachers use LibraryThing? How can students use LibraryThing? Independent Practice & Follow Up Discussion Questions & Answers If you have questions during the presentation please post them in the chat box on the bottom left of the screen and we will answer them as quickly as possible.

What is LibraryThing? LibraryThing is a web based cataloging system that can be used by teachers and students to catalog books they are reading, own, and/or want to read. LibraryThing is also a social space similar to Facebook but it is used to discuss, compare, and track books. Users are able to organize their books, compare their collections to other collections, recommend books to peers, and receive book recommendations from others and from the site based on their current library.

LibraryThing for Teachers Catalog your classroom or personal library. Customize/organize your collection into categories, genres, lexiles, interests, etc. Tag a book to a student who has checked it out, read it, wants to read it next, or customize the tag. Compare your classroom collection with other LibraryThing members.

Add Books from Your Collection Log into LibraryThing and click on the Add books tab Type the name of the book you are adding into the search window and click on search After the results window populates, choose your book by clicking on the title in the results window Voila, it is now added to your collection

Customize LibraryThing To add a custom collection, go to the Your books tab and click on Your library and choose Edit collections from the drop down menu In the pop up window, click on + Add new collection Type in the name of your collection and click save Add your collections to books

Make LibraryThing Work for You Edit the view to show what you need Click on the cog/flower icon in the style bar Click on the dropdown box by a field you don’t want or an empty one Choose a field that better suits your needs (such as Lexile measure) Save your changes

Connect with other Bibliophiles Find out who has libraries similar to yours See what is in their library PamBelk has 179 of the same books I do Click on a members name to see what is in their library

LibraryThing for Students Create account just as you would for a teacher, but make sure you have students’ user name and password. As a teacher, you can keep up with what your students are reading and what they are discussing.

Book Information Students can find the books they are reading, rate books, tag books, find other similar books, and read and write reviews.

Groups Under the groups tab, students can join book groups with others on the web. Students can start their own groups or you can create one for your class with specific settings.

Students can discuss with others that are not in the groups under topics in Talk tab. Students can look at other members in class and see what they are reading. You can set up specific topics within your group that students can respond to, students can post a new topic, or have discussions. Students can create touchstones by using [ ], so that when they write the title or author, you can click on it and go to that page. Book Discussion

Questions & Answers If you have a question about anything we have discussed or about the follow up assignment, please click the small box with a picture of a hand.

Next Steps Over the next two days try out some of the tools we’ve shared with you here and think about how you can use them in your classroom with your students. Explore and experiment with LibraryThing. Add books, create collections, create a group and set up a forum within it. What are some other ways you can use this in your classroom? What do you think?

Next Steps That discussion is at the Adolescent Literacy Ning at: Scroll down the page to find the discussion forum for this presentation titled: LibraryThing in the Classroom Information about this is included in the workshop packet we sent out in an .

For More Information For more information about this workshop and others go to the Center for Adolescent Literacies website at: Presentation materials including this Power Point are posted at:

Thank You! Thank you for joining us today. In about a week, you will receive a short survey that helps us evaluate these workshops. Thanks in advance for filling that out. For additional questions contact: Bruce Taylor Director, The Center for Adolescent Literacies at UNC Charlotte