New Books for July: Some Hot New Reads

Posted on July 2, 2019 by Madeleine

Teaching English Language Learners: A Handbook for Elementary Teachers by Ann Morgan
Teaching English Language Learners is a handbook for elementary school staff who work with English Language Learners but who might not have specialized training. This book is a handy tool for reference that describes all the stages of learning English and how home language and culture affect English Language Leaners in school. Morgan provides a thorough guide English Language levels, adjustment behaviours, family interactions and expectations, non-academic areas of need, and how to discern whether students learning difficulties are language-based. Morgan also offers practical strategies for teaching writing and describes activities for both large and small learning groups. This book is an excellent resource for classroom teachers, para-educators, volunteers, teachers in training, specialists, and other adults working with elementary English Language Learners.

The Arabian Nights: Their Best-Known Tales by Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora A. Smith, Illustrated by Maxfield Parrish
Douglas Wiggin and Smith offer a fresh new selection from the famous Tales of a Thousand and One Nights. In their own words, there must always be favourites from among the two hundred and sixty-four bewildering and unparalleled stories. They have chosen ten tales of which they consider the most delightful. These ten tales have been beautifully illustrated to further capture the mystery and enchantment of these Arabian nights. Douglas Wiggin and Smith, like other editors, have shortened the stories here and there to omit tedious repetitions, but have “removed no genies nor magicians, however terrible; have cut out no base deed of Vizier nor noble deed of Sultan; have diminished the size of no roc’s egg, nor omitted any allusion to the great and only Haroun-al-Raschid, Caliph of Bagdad, Commander of the Faithful, who must have been a great inspirer of good stories.” The Arabian Nights offers readers insight into the realm of the impossible and ensnare both old and new readers.

Share Your Smile: Raina’s Guide to Telling Your Own Story by Raina Telgemeier
Graphic novelist Raina Telgemeier offers tips, tricks, and inspirational kick-starters for putting your own story down on paper. Telgemeier wrote Smile and Sisters, which are both graphic memoirs and based on true stories from her life, friends, family, and her experiences growing up in San Francisco. Each of her books are different but are influenced by some aspect of her real-life experiences. Share Your Smile explores the behind the scenes process of creating those graphic novels, as well as offering insight into how you too can create your own personal graphic novel. With pictures, drawings, and quirky writing, Telgemeier provides an easy and fun guide for you to share your smile with the world.

The Good University: What Universities Actually Do and Why It’s Time for Radical Change by Raewyn Connell
While universities may be booming, with over 200 million students enrolled in universities and colleges, Connell explores why these institutions have never been unhappier places to work. Cost-cutting governments and strikes by disgruntled workforces have taken their toll in almost every country around the world. But what is a ‘good university’ and what should it look like? Connell challenges readers to rethink the fundamentals of what universities do. Connell outlines practical visions for how universities can become more engaging spaces and more productive places. Connell draws on examples offered by pioneering university and educational reformers around the world.

Mobile Subjects: Transitional Imaginaries of Gender Reassignment by Aren Z. Aizura
Mobile Subjects examines transgender narratives within global health and tourism economies from 1952 to the present. In 1952 Christine Jorgensen, the first famous transgender person in the United States, travelled to Denmark for reassignment surgery. Aizura draws on archives of trans memoirs and documentaries, as well as ethnographic fieldwork. Aizura positions transgender travel as a form of biomedical tourism and shows how understandings of travel and mobility depend on the historical architectures of colonialism and contemporary patterns of global consumption and labour.

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Featured Activity Kit: Botany Cabinet

Posted on July 2, 2019 by Sarah Hamilton

When the weather gets warmer, kids cannot wait to get outside and explore! One way to foster this excitement and incorporate it into continued learning is by using the Botany Cabinet to teach young children to recognize and differentiate between various leaves.

This activity kit encourages students to make classroom-to-world connections through matching the shapes provided in the cabinet with the shapes of leaves they locate outside. Learning doesn’t end in the classroom – nature is an excellent tool for discovery! While this activity kit is designed for the Montessori classroom, it can easily be incorporated into any classroom as children are given the opportunity not only to seek out information outdoors, but to cultivate a sense of independence and curiosity.

Spending time in nature provides young children (and adults!) with a grounded feeling and an appreciation for their surroundings. The botany cabinet nurtures and encourages the child to explore their surroundings to locate and identify different leaves. This tactile kit fortifies the child’s ability to recognize the leaf shapes through tracing. The puzzle pieces are made of natural material (wood), introducing the value of environmental consciousness within the child – an additional benefit to incorporating this tool into a child’s shape recognition. Children are witnessing many environmental changes – providing children opportunities to take their learning outdoors, seeking out information through exploring, and using learning resources that are kind to the environment helps to instill the value of environmental stewardship within children of all ages.

Combine this manipulative with the botany cards and leaf cards for even more plant-based learning!

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End-of-June New Titles: Summer Reading for Educators

Posted on June 27, 2019 by Jenna Mlynaryk

An A-Z of Creative Teaching in Higher Education

By Sylvia Ashton & Rachel Stone

For the post-secondary instructor (novice or experienced) who wants to transform their classroom with creative energy, this guide is for you! An A-Z of Creative Teaching in Higher Education outlines innovative practices to address inequalities in student outcomes by breaking down the topic from – you guessed it – A-Z. From A is for Action to C is for Communication to M is for Metalearning, each chapter describes a different pedagogical approach through a combination of theory and practical advice, and also offers instructors the chance to reflect on their own teaching practices through guided tasks. Instead of overloading on how-to advice, this book provides educators with the tools to evaluate their own challenges and goals independently and build on their existing strengths.

Using Restorative Circles in Schools: How to Build Strong Learning Communities and Foster Student Wellbeing,

By Berit Follestad and Nina Wroldsen

Are you looking for a productive, positive, and inclusive way to mediate conflict in your classroom? In this book, Follestad and Wrodlsen (education professionals and founders of Safe Learning Norway) outline the use of restorative circles to promote student well-being. By building a safe environment for peer-to-peer communication, restorative circles can be used for problem-solving, bullying prevention, meditation, and improving soft skills such as listening, empathy, and self-regulation. This book describes the origins and methodology of restorative circles, and includes a helpful selection of diagrams, case studies, and games and activities to help you implement restorative circles on your own.

Classroom-Ready Number Talks for 3rd, 4th, and 5th Grade Teachers: 1000 Interactive Math Activities that Promote Conceptual Understanding and Computational Fluency

By Nancy Hughes

The title says it all! For elementary teachers looking to bolster their mathematics lesson plans, this book is chock-full of math activities to help students master addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, and decimals. Each page features a specific mathematical concept (such as perimeters, number lines, or multiplying decimals) and contains definitions, guiding questions for teachers, and a classroom activity. This ready-to-use book is ideal for new math teachers and substitutes, or those looking to introduce a new concept without extensive prep work.

The Development of Children’s Thinking: Its Social and Communicative Foundations

By Jeremy Carpendale, Charlie Lewis, Ulrich

Are you interested in how young children develop social skills? This psychology book examines the cognitive development and behaviour of children from infancy to speaking-age. Balancing recent research with key theories,  Carpendale, Lewis, and Ulrich cover a wide array of topics ranging from communication and social understanding in infancy to how children learn the meaning of words to how children develop moral reasoning. Each chapter is accompanied with a set of learning outcomes and suggestions for further reading. This book is ideal for any of our candidates in the research, developmental psychology, or counselling programs who are interested in the cognitive and moral development of young children.

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Final Examinations in Ontario High Schools

Posted on June 26, 2019 by Jenna Mlynaryk

The end of the school year has finally arrived! After all that you’ve learned this year, could you pass these provincial exit exams from our Ontario Historical Education Collections?

The OHEC houses a collection of provincial exams administered between 1873 and 1967. During this time, students were evaluated through a combination of high school entrance and exit exams, departmental (subject) exams, and normal school (teacher’s college) exams.

Students filled out this form prior to beginning their high school entrance exams. Taken from the Entrance Examination Papers, December 1874.

The Consolidated Act of 1874 published through the Department of Public Instruction for Ontario required that admission to a high school or collegiate institute was dependent on passing an entrance exam. To pass, students had to achieve a minimum score of 50%, which was awarded based on the completeness and accuracy of one’s answers. Entrance exams were held over two full days, and were evaluated by a board consisting of a county, city, or town inspector, a chairman from the public high school administering the exam, and the school’s headmaster. Students were tested in arithmetic, grammar, geography, spelling, dictation, and composition.

Questions from the Fourth Form Trigonometry departmental exam. Students would have opted to sit this exam for their Senior Leaving Certificate.

Each year, the Ministry of Education published a document containing the courses of study and examination requirements for all Ontario students. By 1896, these documents indicate that students preparing to exit high school had begun sitting for matriculation exams. While their scores were used to grant admission into university or normal schools, successful participants were also awarded with a Leaving Certificate that signified their completion of studies at the primary, junior, or senior level. To earn a Primary Leaving Certificate, students were required to pass all of their first and second form exams, which included sections in reading, English literature, composition and grammar, history, algebra, geometry, Latin, Greek, French, German, physics, bookkeeping, and stenography (shorthand writing).

Students seeking a Junior Leaving Certificate – a standard graduation certificate indicating four years of study, which was required for admission to universities and normal schools – were required to pass an additional department (subject) exam from any third form course; for a Senior Leaving Certificate (required for some university programs), students took an additional fourth form exam of their choosing. In addition to needing 50% overall to pass their exams, students had to score at least 33% on each individual exam to earn their certificates.

Similar to this certificate earned by a Montreal high school graduate, Ontario Leaving Certificates listed the departments from which the graduate completed successful final exams.

These standards remained throughout the 1920s. In 1931, the Ministry of Education began administering Graduation Diplomas to students who passed a minimum of 12 subject exams. These exams had to include British History, Physiology, English, Canadian History, and at least one math, biology, or language exam. Exams from the 1930s and 1940s were heavily based off of classroom textbooks approved by the government. However, by 1943, it was up to the individual principals to determine which courses their school should offer, and principals and teachers provided the final recommendation as to whether their students were eligible to graduate.

After 1949, entrance exams were eliminated across the province. Students continued to take departmental exit exams throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Junior and senior matriculation exams were held in June, while those in Grade 13 sat for their exams in August. Until the 1960s, these exam marks were the only measure of student achievement submitted to universities for consideration; universities determined acceptance based on one’s final exam marks rather than their year-round grades. As such, the number of departmental exams began to lessen, and the 1967-1968 school year was the last to require provincial exit exams.

To see a selection of Ontario provincial exams from the 1870s to 1960s, stop by the OHEC display case on the ground floor of the OISE Library. You can also browse our full collection of entrance, exit, and normal school exams by making a viewing appointment at the OHEC.

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National Indigenous History Month

Posted on June 19, 2019 by Annie McCarron

This June, the Ground Floor Display at the OISE Library highlights Indigenous children’s stories and scholarly material in celebration of National Indigenous History Month. June 21st is also National Indigenous People’s Day, a day for celebrating the heritage, diverse cultures, and outstanding achievements of First Nations, Inuit and Métis in Canada. June 21st holds significance as the longest day of the year, also known as the summer solstice, which has historically been a traditional day of celebration for many Indigenous communities within Canada.  We hope this selection encourages readers and students to learn more about Indigenous history, perspectives and culture. All materials on display are available for borrowing!

For a full list of the materials on display, please see the Infusing Indigenous Perspectives in K-12 Teaching LibGuide.

Jingle Dancer  by Cynthia Leitich Smith, illustrated by Cornelius Van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu tells the story of Jenna, a young member of the Muscogee (Creek Nation), living in a contemporary intertribal community. Jingle Dancer follows Jenna on her journey as she collects jingles for her dress so that she may dance in the upcoming powwow. Jenna asks the strong, educated female members of her community if she can borrow jingles from their dresses for her own, but not so many jingles that the lender’s dress will ‘lose its voice”. As she gathers her jingles, Jenna promises to dance for the women who cannot dance for themselves.  This story highlights the strong, female relationships in Jenna’s life, and the importance of family and community ties.

In ‘The Métis: a Visual History’, Sherry Farrell Raclette, combines her artistic skills withher past as a researcher and historian. This book displays four artistic panels that each represent a different era of Métis history. Originally produced as a theatre backdrop in 1996, these artistic panels were recognized for their potential as a teaching resource for history and art. Providing a culturally affirming learning experience, ‘The Métis: a Visual History’ seeks to encourage aboriginal youth to remain engaged in narrative and learning process of their own history

Moe & Malaya Visit the Nurse was written by Odile Nelson, translated by Louise and illustrated by Peggy Collins. This dual language book in English and Inuktitut follows best friends and cousin Moe and Malaya as they learn about the fascinating and fun discoveries that can be had at the nurse’s office. What is the job of a nurse? Can anyone become a nurse? In addition, what are all their crazy tools for and how do they use them? This book highlights for young children how cool and important the job of a nurse is, and how they too can become a nurse when they grow up!

Hiawatha and the Peacemaker is written by Robbie Robertson with artwork by David Shannon. A Mohawk, Hiawatha, has had is wife and daughter murdered by Tadodaho, the Onondaga Chief. As he plots revenge for their murders he encounters the Great Peacemaker, who dreams of bringing the nations together to live a new life unmarked by war, hate and fear. The Great Peacemaker enlists the help of  Hiawatha in bringing the nations together as one with unity, love and peace. This book includes a CD with an accompanying original song written and Produced by Robbie Robertson. It includes historical notes.

Rock and Roll Highway: The Robbie Robertson Story is a picture book about Mohawk/Jewish musician Robbie Robertson. Told by his son Sebastian Robertson, and illustrated by Adam Gustavson, the story traces important moments in Robbie’s life from getting his first guitar to forming the band, The Band. This biography follows Robbie’s relationship with music through his introduction by Mohawk Relatives at Six Nations reserve to his break into the music industry with Ronnie Hawkins. Key anecdotes are shared as dialogue between father and son creating an immersive book for students with an interest in music and First Nations history.

Urban Tribes: Native Americans in the City asks the question “So, just how connected are you to your Indigenous roots if you live downtown?”. Editors Mary Beth Leatherdale and Lisa Charleyboy combine contributions by Indigenous Youth and explore the question of how they follow traditions, connect to the land, and other indigenous peoples while living in an Urban environment. This book combines Q&As, descriptive articles, personal essays, profiles, poems, and spoken-word lyrics to shred stereotypes, promote understanding and positive stories of indigenous individuals. Messages of pride ring throughout the collection, to challenge the negative stereotype of indigenous people and highlight their achievements and way of living.

#NotYourPrincess: Voices of Native American women is a combined collection of poems, essays, interviews, and art displaying the voices and experiences of powerful Indigenous women across North America. Edited by Mary Beth Leatherdale and Lisa Charleyboy, these stories provide insight into the lives of women who for a long time have been invisible to the mainstream narrative. #NotYourPrincess is angry, contemplative and powerful. These stories are by strong, passionate women rising to be heard and demanding change.

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