Portola Profile - Librarian Allyson Bogie and Battle of the Books

Allyson Bogie is the Portola librarian. She has been a teacher librarian for three and a half years, all of them spent at Portola. Prior to this, she taught middle school English at Roosevelt Middle School in Oakland. When Ms. Bogie is not at Portola she enjoys spending time with her family.  In her spare time she likes to run, swim, bake, spend time with friends, and, of course, read.  She is also currently working on her masters in library and information science.

Ms. Bogie estimates that the library at Portola gets 150 student visits each day! Students come in during their lunch break to hang out, read, and check out books. They also use the library during class periods for special projects, and Ms. Bogie makes herself available to reinforce lessons by conducting special projects in the classrooms. Library programming headed up by Ms. Bogie includes the National Junior Honor Society, Battle of the Books, and Library RATS (Reading And Technology Stars).

Battle of the Books (BOB) is the main library program in March. BOB is an extra-curricular project that combines text and technology literacy. Students signed up in November and were required to read three of the following five books: Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor; Little Brother by Cory Doctorow; The Schwa Was Here by Neal Shusterman; The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie; and Return to Sender by Julia Alvarez. Each of these books raises at least one relevant contemporary theme, such as cultural identity development, government surveillance, youth rights, justice, immigration, or bullying. Students then worked in teams to make a video slideshow about one of the books using the free online program Animoto. The videos must address a question such as how the book could change the way a reader views the world, what the book tells us about society, or why the themes in the book matter.

This year, Portola students took first place at the district competition!  There were thirteen BOB teams at Portola, with a total of 34 students submitting entries. That reflects increased participation from last year. Students submitted their Animoto videos at the end of February. Adult judges from Portola used a rubric to select a first, second, and third place team. The winning Portola teams are:

1st place: Addy, Isabel, Madyn, and Lindsey. Their book is Akata Witch.

2nd place: Alex, Aidan, Lucas, and Aaron. Their book is Little Brother.

3rd place: Marcelo, Raqeeb, Isaac, and Joonun. Their book is The Schwa Was Here.

The winning team went to the district competition at El Cerrito High on March 26th. Video were shown to a team of district judges--school board members, instructional coaches, superintendents, and our scholar-in-residence.  The top three videos from across the district were chosen, with Portola in first place! You can see this year's excellent videos at http://portolalibrary.weebly.com/battle-of-the-books-2013-2014.html. Congratulations on your district win to Portola students Addy, Isabel, Madyn, and Lindsey!