International Digital Children's Library in the classroom

I’m currently doing my practicum at a high school, and I recently talked-up the International Children’s Digital Library to a few teachers, giving ideas for using the database in the classroom. One of the teachers for non-western history, who is currently teaching his student’s Sanskrit, is interested in letting me do a lesson using this database. I proposed using ICDL to allow students to attempt to read books in Farsi and to expose them to examples of other non-western writing systems/alphabets. We will also be looking at examples of children’s books from western countries and non-western countries to compare/contrast the pictures and stories, and determine whether they can tell us anything about the culture (what are the books meant to show/teach children?). While I was working on selling the resource to teachers, I came up with some ideas and thought I would share them. If you have additional ideas, please add to the list J

10 Awesome things about this FREE site:

- Search by color

- Search by emotion (how does the book make you feel?)

- Search by character type (imaginary, animal, people)

- Search options are picture icons (and words)

- Search by length

- Search intuitively helps you limit your search

- Read in any order you like (if you choose spiral view)

- Thousands of books available from around the world

- Books are translated into several languages

- Apps available for Iphone, Ipad, Netbooks, etc

Ways to use this site in a classroom setting:

Art class

- Compare artwork of books from different countries

- Compare illustrations in different mediums

Social Studies/Geography

- What do a country's children's books say about its beliefs and society?

- Compare books from around the world. How are they similar/different?

- Show samples of language (and writing systems/letters/symbols/etc) from around the world by looking at a book that has been translated into several languages OR by using books from different countries as examples of their writing systems.

World Cultures/English

- Discuss/read/compare folktales from around the world (search subject "culture and society--how people live", then "places, then isolate to "mythology/folk tales)

English

- Discuss the role of illustrations in literature (what are different types, how can they serve to supplement/tell a story?, what happens when you look at books written in a foreign language?)

History

- Discuss books about a certain time period (isolate by time, topic and/or country) to supplement discussion

- Compare different country's viewpoints of a time period/event as seen through children's lit (ex/ enemy countries)

- Identify what was happening around the world during that time

- Look at what was being written (published) during a time period -- notice any trends? what does that say about the country/world during that time?

Language

- Practice beginning languages by reading a children''s book

- Choose a book to have the class translate as a group project. (Contact site for permission)

Library

- Compare ICDL's Simple Search interface to that of Google (or several database interfaces for that matter) and compare/contrast them. What does the database infer about user tendencies? Who are the target audiences of the database? How do they cater to that audience? What is the best way to use the database?

- When would you use this database? Look at IDCL as example of an intuitive search. How does it differ from most other searches? How can you accomplish some of these same tasks using another database (i.e how would adults search achieve this information using search terms)? Teach keyword search strategies and other info literacy skills.

- Discuss the idea of a book. What makes a book? Compare different types of book formats (wordless picture book, pop-up book, traditional book, graphic novel, audio book/playaway, digital book from idcl, etc)

As a tool for librarians:

- Vague Reference Questions (Red cover....there was a dog in it. I liked it -- search by color/animal) *only works for books in collection

- Readers Advisory (I want a book about a __ that is funny) (No animals or imaginary creatures!!!) *use for tech savvy kids, or kids with internet but no books at home

I would like to see IDCL this: (feel free to respond with additional suggestions!)

- Find a way to add the bookmark to the site on the computer's desktop (rather than on the browser) as an icon (similar to the way apps works on an Iphone/Ipad)