Originally published at Megan Frazer Blakemore. You can comment here or there.


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Originally published at Megan Frazer Blakemore. You can comment here or there.

This summer I took an experimental course at Simmons SLIS: LTK: Library Test Kitchen. This class has been offered at the Harvard School of Design, but in this iteration, instead of getting design students to think about libraries, the course got library students to think ( Read more... )

Originally published at Megan Frazer Blakemore. You can comment here or there.

I am taking an amazing course this summer at Simmons SLIS called Library Test Kitchen. It’s a version of a course that has been offered at the Harvard Design School. I am working on a project that I’ll be excited to share later this year, but today I want to talk about ( Read more... )

Originally published at Megan Frazer Blakemore. You can comment here or there.

Going Places by Peter & Paul Reynolds is just about the perfect book for making. The story of a Go-Kart building competition in which one friend encourages another to work together and create something totally new from their Go-Kart kits hits the big themes of making: ( Read more... )

Originally published at Megan Frazer Blakemore. You can comment here or there.

This past summer I was luck to go to the International Literacy Association meeting in St. Louis and speak on a panel with Sharon M. Draper. Out of My Mind is one of my all time favorite books because Melody is such a relatable, compelling character. Melody is a brilliant ( Read more... )

Originally published at Megan Frazer Blakemore. You can comment here or there.

My third grade students are currently in the middle of an arts and literacy collaboration to design, create, and write about children’s book characters. To give them a sense of how a professional children’s book author approaches the act of creation, I invited all-star ( Read more... )

Originally published at Megan Frazer Blakemore. You can comment here or there.

Collaboration: it’s not just for the kids! Art teacher Margaret Burman and I are in the middle of a collaborative arts and literacy project in which third grade students are designing, creating, and writing about their own children’s book characters.

Part of learning to ( Read more... )

Originally published at Megan Frazer Blakemore. You can comment here or there.

In May, my fourth middle grade novel, The Firefly Code will be released. The book is set in a utopia built by artists and scientists - STEAM people, if you will. Genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, and more STEM related topics all play a part, and I hope it will ( Read more... )

Originally published at Megan Frazer Blakemore. You can comment here or there.

Chris Van Dusen’s books are fun. Fun words, fun pictures, and, when it comes to If I Built a Car and If I Built a House, fun inspiration for young inventors. I read the former to third graders and then gave them some activities to get their gears turning (get it?) as they ( Read more... )

Originally published at Megan Frazer Blakemore. You can comment here or there.

My third grade students finished their projects to design a new space for their community a couple of weeks ago and I have been reflecting on the process ever since. I asked students to do a self-evaluation, too, and their feedback has helped to fuel this reflection.

Some ( Read more... )