Tag Archives: nonfiction

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Fieldstone and St. Michael Elementary CMLE Extended Mini Grant Report

This is a guest post from Kristina Kampa, Media Specialist at Fieldstone Elementary and St. Michael Elementary.

I have seen this grant application before, but never thought to apply. My thoughts were it would be too much work since I have never applied for a grant before, I don’t have time, I would never get it, the list goes on. 

I saw the information in the CMLE Newsletter this fall and I figured I would apply this year because we were not given any funds to purchase books other than the money we raised from our book fairs.

So this was the year I was going to sit down and fill this application out for the two elementary media centers I work in. The Google Form for the grant was very simple to fill out.  When I received the email back saying that both of my schools I work in were awarded the grant, I was beyond excited.

I work at two different elementary schools in my district and they both have areas in the collection that need updating, but funds have kept the updating limited. 

I started weeding the non fiction section in one of my schools last year, but realized I couldn’t weed all of the books my report suggested because I didn’t have funds to order new ones.

Our sports team section was in desperate need of more current updated books and I was able to purchase a whole new collection of football books from this grant. I was also able to purchase a few new graphic novels as well which we never can keep on the shelves! 

My other school desperately needed updated picture books for the students and teachers to have for read alouds. With this grant, I was able to place an order for over 50 new picture books. 

The students have been eagerly waiting for these books to arrive and to read them. I am very thankful for this grant and how it allowed me to purchase new and current books for my students and staff at both schools. Thank you CMLE for helping me update our collections this year! 

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Lauren Kunde at Albany Area Secondary School Extended Mini Grant Report

This is a guest post from Lauren Kunde, Instructional Tech/Media Specialist & District Assessment Coordinator at Albany Area Secondary School.

As we made our way through the first few months of the school year, I started finding ways we could bring our Media Center back to life. While our fiction section is well loved and frequented by many, our non-fiction was seriously outdated and overwhelming.

Near the end of the weeding process, there was a moment of panic. Approximately 40% of our collection had been taken out of circulation for a myriad of valid reasons. However, this made the process of updating feel daunting. We could spend our budget about 14 different ways each year.

I didn’t know how to justify spending the bulk of it on non-fiction when our students are so hungry for fiction. And I also didn’t know how to justify not updating our non-fiction section. It could breathe life into our collection and encourage students to use it for their courses. 

The mini-grant from CMLE made this task far less daunting. We were suddenly able to purchase books that would reflect current and historical events from diverse perspectives, fill in many of the holes we had noted during the weeding process, and get non-fiction that was fun to read.

In total, we were able to purchase 82 books, which has truthfully changed our collection. They are geared towards students of varied reading levels and interest levels. No longer are the days of a non-fiction section with dusty books stuffed haphazardly onto the shelves in the corner of the library.

A huge thank you to CMLE for the opportunity to do this for our students!

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Cheryl Sorensen at McGregor High School Extended Mini Grant Report

This is a guest post from Cheryl Sorensen, Media Specialist at McGregor High School. Read more about our Extended Mini Grant Program.

A HUGE thank you to the CMLE for choosing the McGregor High School Library as a recipient for the Extended Mini-Grant Program which allowed me to purchase many books for our library. 

I chose classic stories along with books on Presidents, First Ladies, and important people in the United States.  These books will have an impact on our students through their expanded imagination, growth in knowledge of the leaders of our country, and hopefully, a joy of reading.

Every child deserves the opportunity to learn and grow and books offer that.  
– Cheryl Sorensen, McGregor High School Library

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TA Flatland Extended Mini Grant Report

This is a guest post from TA Flatland, Media Generalist at Salk Middle School. Read more about our Extended Mini Grant Program. This program is only available during the FY21 school year.

My plan for the CMLE mini grant was to increase the number of nonfiction books that are specifically related to the History Day topics students are interested in and to increase the number of nonfiction books that address and teach current political and social issues, as we have had multiple students requesting these types of materials.

We’ve seen an increase in the number of students asking for books dealing with specific topics including LGBTQ+ issues, Black Lives Matter and Civil Rights. It also became apparent in the last three years that our current collection of history books, specifically the 1950s to the present, are severely lacking or outdated in our nonfiction collection.

When I learned about the CMLE mini grant program, I immediately put in an application in the hopes that we could improve this selection of books in our media center. I was very hopeful that the funding that we would receive from the CMLE mini grant would allow our students to find engaging materials that related to the topics that they had shown high interest in.

Once I received word that I had been approved for the mini grant I consulted with our history teachers, as well as students to determine what books would be of interest and would circulate well. We created a wishlist on Mackin and spent a lot of time creating a list of books that were not only age-appropriate, but highly engaging for our students to learn from.

Once I had the list from Mackin, I started making edits. I also showed the list to our English and Science staff as we often have cross curricular activities and assignments. Another source that we consulted was the Minnesota Historical Society to ensure that we were getting materials that were useful for our Minnesota studies class.

After consulting multiple content areas and students, we were able to find 67 books that met the criteria for this grant and would benefit our students.

The titles we were able to purchase with this grant will have long-term benefits for our school, from research for Science Fair projects to the History Day project and individual interest and learning.

Now that the materials have arrived in our Media Center we are excited to promote these materials for  students to check out and use even before the end of this school year. We are also hoping to be able to highlight and cross-promote these new books with our History Day projects and mini-History Day projects that are completed in 6th grade Minnesota Studies Class.

One of the highlights of being a magnet program is that we have the highest rate of diversity in our school district. This makes it a top priority for us to ensure that we have materials and books in our media center that show windows and mirrors to students of all cultures.

We are proud of the collection that we were able to create using this mini grant. We have already had students show their excitement after seeing these materials in our media center. They were glad to see more books that deal with social and political issues that are relevant in today’s society.

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Holdingford High School Library Mini Grant Report

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This is a guest blog post from Debbie Binsfeld, library assistant at Holdingford High School. Read more mini grant reports on our page.

First, I want to thank you for allowing us at Holdingford High School library the opportunity to receive this CMLE Mini Grant.  We are finding that most of our monies are spent on fiction materials for our reading students in our Junior/Senior High School leaving a void in our nonficton materials for updating.  Especially materials, involving more current topics and biographies, which we have a need to provide as well.

This Mini Grant allowed me to purchase biographies of Prince, Adam Thielen, Judy Garland and Johnny Cash.  We were also able to purchase some current nonfiction items regarding Electric Cars, Education, Health Care, Economics, Art Animation, Graphic Arts, Racial Profiling, Vaping and more.  

Many of these topic materials purchased were a result of student interest in research topics as well as just wanting up-to-date information.  The need for current information in this ever-changing time has been an important goal in the high school library. Although older historical information is important, it needs to be balanced with current research information as well.  Thanks to this mini-grant, I was able to address a few of those topics.

Our biographies are also a highly used section of our library.   It was great to add a few new biographies, especially Minnesota related ones to our resources.  

This CMLE Mini-Grant was a welcome resource to us here at Holdingford High School.   So thank you again for making this available to our school communities.