The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

ola_tl_12.2 The Teaching Librarian volume 12, no. 2 35 authored a book with Dr. David Loertscher entitled Ban Those Bird Units. Deborah demonstrated the impressive job she has done of gathering and graphing data which shows, among other things, the direct correlation between the number of books signed out by a student and that student's achievement. This is the hard data that we need. Diana then shared several methods of gathering evidence, including developing personal portfolios, sending home regular newsletters from the school library and displaying student work that shows evidence of deep understanding and making connections. She illustrated that, when gathering evidence, we should ask ourselves what the evidence tells us, what we will do with it, and what issues and concerns to consider when collecting. This session was very helpful. Many of us can now get started collecting real quantitative and qualitative evidence. ❚ - Roberta Henley BBaattttllee ooff tthhee BBooookkss Presented by Marg Esaw, Sharon Guz, and Jeanne Buckley, Teacher-Librarians, York Catholic District School Board Quick - what's a tried and true reading motivation program with a history dating back to a radio station in Chicago during the 1930s? Stumped? Welcome to Battle of the Books. Battle of the Books has evolved into a widely used program to motivate and reward readers in grades 4, 5, and 6. It has also been used in grades 7 and 8. And I suspect Battle of the Books is about to make its high school debut - there were at least three high school teacher- librarians in the audience and at least two of them plan to try the program. Essentially, Battle of the Books involves teams of students reading as many books as possible from a predetermined list and then, on competition day, identifying authors, titles, and small initiatives and be tailored to the needs of the school. They can involve book talks, circulation duties, training other students to use the IPAC, library announcements, shelving, selection of resources, responsibilities, and advertising. Students develop leadership skills, public speaking skills, and life skills such as letter writing, problem solving, and math skills associated with purchasing resources. Library ambassadors have special privileges including extra borrowing privileges, first chance to read and review new books, team lunches, or a visit to the book vendors with the task of selecting 1-2 new resources. For more information, contact: Peggy Thomas peggy.thomas@tdsb.on.ca Sybille Parry: sybille.parry@tel.tdsb.on.ca ❚ - Kathy MacDonald SShhaarriinngg SSuucccceessss SSttoorriieess:: FFrroomm AAddvvooccaaccyy ttoo AAccttiioonn VViiaa EEvviiddeennccee--BBaasseedd PPrraaccttiiccee presented by Sandi Zwaan, Deborah Braithwaite, and Diana Maleszewski This was indeed a timely session, following so soon after the Ross Todd workshop on Evidence-Based Practice and Student Achievement. Much of the buzz in the Ontario school library world revolves around evidence- based practice. Not only is the OSLA council working on providing a 'toolkit' of materials and strategies for teacher-librarians, the Ontario Library Association has agreed to fund $100,000 for an Ontario Research Study. Because advocacy requires evidence, we are now taking an evidence-based approach to advocacy. Our three presenters provided us with cutting edge strategies for documenting and sharing our success stories and methods to gather hard evidence that can be used with administrators and school community to prove that our school library programs improve student literacy. Sandi began the session with an introduction to evidence-based practice. Many will recognize Sandi as a leader in school librarianship and will have put into practice the Information Power Pack series that she has written with Carol Koechlin. Recently, they co- For most sessions, presentation materials are available on the Super Conference 2005 Web site at www. accessola.com/ super conference2005