Applies to both RLP Draft and the full RLP
for EDIT 6300, Fall 2008

It is my policy to not publish names of students whose questions are incorporated here.  If you ask a question and want your identify known, let me know - can do!


Q. I am struggling with how much has to be written in paragraph form and what I can leave bulleted ... Can we leave the "Project Outline" in bulleted form like the draft or are you wanting more specific details?

I really prefer bullets. Really. Use narrative only when you feel it is truly the best way to communicate what you're trying to say, and/or when you feel compelled to use it for your own comfort.  The Project Outline is perfect for bullets - or perhaps for two to three levels of outline or indented bullets.



Q.  On the cover sheet for the RLP, I noticed several questions at the bottom:

Leisure Reading Promotion Strategies


How did you demonstrate your knowledge of reading process?


What trends in reading instruction are most relevant here?


Differentiation strategies (for individuals and/or subgroups)


How does a MS model personal enjoyment of reading?


List your strategy (or strategies) for engaging student interest.


I was curious if these are topics that are addressed in the personal reading philosophy or the individual reflection, or if they are elements (like the performance standards or formats) that should have headers and be discussed in the final copy of the project.

A. These elements correspond, for the most part, to the Competencies (rather than Elements) listed on the RLP Assignment Description. They can reasonably appear in one or more of several spots in the project, and may vary from project to project - I did not want to dictate that they go in a certain place. Your job is to make sure they show up somewhere; in the project itself is better than in the personal philosophy, since these are to be demonstrated through the project itself.   Due to this freedom of placement, these things are rather hard to find (from my point of view), and so I'm asking you to briefly tell me how you handled it and where it appears up front.

Q. Can the explanation for item's role in project be summarized at the top of the list .... [if many of the books serve the same function]? (Referring to the annotated reading list)

Yes - you may provide a "batch" reason in this way, or some other way (like assigning a "reason code" letter).
Q. Some descriptions are one sentence and others are a few sentences. Is this ok?

Yes.

Q. Do you want the whole list alphabetized ... or can I separate by grade levels and alphabetize the sample list of books under each grade level heading?

Unless I indicated differently in the assignment, it's ok to group certain titles together in ways that make sense for the uses of the project. I would alphabetize by author within the group, however.


Q. On the cover sheet question, "How does MS model personal reading....?", where would you expect to find this in the document? We were thinking it would be demonstrated in several places like the outline when describing the project, the personal reading philosophy of each person, etc. Does this sound like what you are expecting?

It certainly could be. Here, I am expecting to see the MS showing, describing, discussing his/her own life as a reader directly in front of students.  In other words, this little detail (can be large or small, one or many) needs to show up in the project itself somewhere.  Example: MS broadcasts a video or herself reviewing the latest Twilight release. 


Q. Also, with the Annotated Bibliography, we were going to pull summaries from a source like Amazon. Is this considered fair use or do we need to give credit in the references and/or citations?

I consider it fair use.  I also believe that you should give Amazon (or B&N, etc.) broad credit for this and list in your References. A caveat: your summaries should be just that - instead of reviews or sales pitches.  This commercial-ese language is something you might have to sift through on a site like that.

Q. Did you say that annotated bibliographies are public domain and they can be copied or do they need to be original?

Good question.  It's my belief that the annotations commonly found in catalog records are public domain.  Compiled annotated bibliographies would be another level of authorship - I would cite and quote these as references.
Q.  I think that you mentioned that it is generally fine to copy an image of a book. Is that always the case or how do I know when it is OK or not?

I said for years that this was a copyright violation.  Strictly speaking, it might be depending upon how it's used.  However, in almost every case using the cover image is beneficial to all involved - sells more copies, leading to more royalties for the author and illustrator.  If the use of the image is beneficial in this way, I think it's reasonable to proceed.  I am citing, in particular, a presentation by Pilling at AASL 2007 (see Info Ethics).  It would seem that this mutually beneficial usage has entered common practice in the library world and not been legally challenged.  The only exception I can think of is if you will profit it from it somehow -- so perhaps Book Fairs would pose a problem.  However, book fair vendors usually provide copious marketing material to alleviate the need for this.


Q. I'm curious how to go about finding research citations for this ...   Will I be looking for other articles by educators who have implemented similar ideas in the past in Galileo?

Right. Look through professional and research literature for any evidence or theory that is somehow linked to your project idea, in hopes of finding evidence that will help justify your project.  Certainly, if you find good reasons to not do a project, you will want to know about that - or more likely, any "lessons learned."  You may or may not find a "direct hit" (identical match of idea) but you're likely to find articles with some relationship - like in motivation; benefits of reading; reading programs (with elements that might be similar), etc. Once you find one article, it will lead to others through subject headings, keywords, and the Works Cited list.

You can always chat with a librarian or email one.  Academic librarians are experts at helping graduate students sharpen their questions and to identify key search terms.  Nadine Cohen, one of the UGA librarians, came to our last faculty meeting and emphasized this. They are really happy to help. See http://www.libs.uga.edu/askaquestion/index.html. 

Q. I was wondering exactly what you were looking for us to include in our individual reflections. How long do you want the reflection?    What should be included? Thank you!      

A. The rubric calls for:

This reflection need not be long - as usual, I prefer brevity.  For group process, this is your private opportunity to talk to me about how well (or ill) your group worked together. You should express any concerns in this reflection, but also brag if the group is working together very well.  Focus on process rather than personalities.  For the competencies, I don't expect you to address them all.  Simply pick one or two that seem remarkable either in tremendous progress made or frustration over progress not made and reflect about that.


Q.   What is differentiation strategy?

A. Differentiation simply means working with each child according to their ability, learner characteristics, motivation, preferred modalities - etc.  It is an ideal that can never be fully achieved, IMHO.  In operation, teachers are doing quite well if they can differentiate to the degree of assuring achievement for every child.  In reality, this is very difficult.  But - attempts must be made.  In the media center, I would expect to see efforts in that direction ... but you will not be able to ever achieve the ideal, probably.  Providing even one or two alternative learning paths to any given objective should greatly increase understanding across a group of learners.

And, this has had different names over the years. This is the current one.
Q.  Do we need articles on reading pedagogy? Like things that help students learn to read--so we can incorporate those things into our project?  Or do you wa1nt articles on other similar projects? ... I think I'm feeling overwhelmed with how much about teaching and reading theory I *don't* know.

A.  Incorporate anything you find that seems fairly credible and is somehow relevant - in the synthesis, you can trace the relevance if its not obvious.

Reading is VAST. One value of the "Maritime Disaster" story (Bailey White) is that it shows, perhaps, that most kids can/will learn to read if given the right motivation ... and perhaps it shouldn't be so complicated. You're not expected to be a reading specialist, so focus on showing the value of what you propose without worrying about being comprehensive.
Q. I/we have a quick question about the annotated bibliography for our Reading and Literacy Project.  Is it okay to use the reviews or descriptions of the  book from a site like Amazon.com if we properly refer to the original source of the quote?

A: You may quote the authoritative reviews of others; certainly, Booklist qualifies - of course, using proper credit.  Here's the trick: get it down to no more than 3 and preferably one sentence. Amazon is great, but don't rely heavily (if at all) on reviews from regular users of Amazon for this purpose.
Q. I wanted to double check on some APA citation things. When we get an article from EBSCO or GALILEO, do we have to give the website or just the article information as it appeared in the publication? For instance we wouldn't need to put anything such as

Retrieved on September 17, 2008 from: http://search.ebscohost.com/ login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=32069055&site=ehost-live

or

Retrieved September 11, 2008, from Academic Search Complete database.

My other group members citated some of their sources like this, but I was never taught to do this when it was an actual article. Can you clarify this please? Thank you!

A. Great question! Here is the most reasonable thing to do.  If you use the first example in your question, that link is likely to not work anyway - the best plan is the second example.  So, here is a full example, although I'm not exactly sure if this is the right database;

Davis, S.K. (2004). Harnessing the power of parent volunteers. Knowledge Quest, 33 (1), 30-31. Retrieved September 18, 2008, from EBSCO Professional Development Collection database.


Q. How do we prove various things from the rubric, like "knowledge of the reading process"? 

A: Create your project so that it demonstrates the competency, qualitatively.  Then, on the Cover Sheet, you are asked to summarize it and provide a page number.  That should be sufficient.
Q: Can we copy/paste material from the Draft that seems to meet the requirements?
A: Yes!   (Incorporate suggested changes, if there are any.)
Q: I'm confused - should I work from the Rubric or the Cover Sheet or the Description or WHAT?
Create your project working from the Description.  Then, take the Rubric and fill out any portions that need it, so that the RLP meets all fo the criteria.  Finally, in the last step, fill in the Cover Sheet - which should simply summarize your work and provide references to page numbers.
Q: What all does an Annotation include?

A: Sample:
Deedy, C.A. (1994). The library dragon. Atlanta, GA: Peachtree.  Miss Lotta Scales is a dragon who believes her job is to protect the school'
s library books from the children, but when she finally realizes that books are meant to be read, the dragon turns into Miss Lotty, librarian and storyteller.

(You might mention where you copy your summaries from, if from a legal source.  Catalog records are public domain.)
Q: What does the Lit Synthesis look like?

A: It could be:
Do use inline citations!!
Q: What is an inline citation?
A: This is where you cite your source in close proximity to the fact.  For example, in narrative format:


Dogs are hairy (Jones, 1995).  They pant a good deal (Smith, 1991).  They have superior senses of smell (Davis, 2007).

in bulleted format:

Characteristics of dogs: