The document summarizes successful collaborations between Seattle Public Schools' Roxhill Elementary and Seattle Public Library's Southwest Branch, including a parent/child book club, library presentations at Roxhill, summer STEM activities, literacy events, and a field trip bringing all Roxhill students to the Southwest Branch to promote the Summer of Learning program. The collaborations helped engage families in reading, provided professional development for teachers, and introduced students and parents to library resources.

1. SEATTLE PUBLIC SCHOOLS
AND
SEATTLE PUBLIC LIBRARY
Successful collaborations between the Southwest
Branch library and K-5 schools in West Seattle
• Roxhill parent/child book club
• SPL Presents at the West Seattle PLC
• SPL’s Pacific Science Center experiments at
Roxhill's summer school open library time
• Roxhill pages and pajamas events
• Roxhill comes to Southwest library!
Kristina Darnell
Children’s Librarian, Southwest branch
Kristina.darnell@spl.org

2. ROXHILL PARENT/CHILD BOOK CLUB
 As part of an effort to involve families
in the excitement of the Global
Reading Challenge, a family book
group event was held at Roxhill
Elementary in January.
 Roxhill receives Title I funding, and
many of the families come from
situations that produce barriers to
reading and academic success.
 CSL Kristina Darnell and Roxhill
librarian Chris Robert worked
together to promote the event to
Roxhill students and families.
 The program took place on a
Tuesday evening in the Roxhill
library, where 16 fourth and fifth
graders (along with some parents
and siblings) gathered to discuss the
GRC title Because of Winn-Dixie.

3. Parents learned more
about the GRC
program and they got
to see how their kids
gain a deeper
understanding of
reading material
through interactive
discussions and
activities.
This was an effective
way to interact with
families and to model
techniques for building
deeper reading
comprehension.
Several of the parents
had never attended a
book discussion and
appreciated the
opportunity to see how
their children might
benefit from reading
and discussing
literature.
“I see how good it is for the kids to
talk about the book like we did here
today. I can’t do anything like this
every time my kids read a book, but is
there another way I can talk to them
and help them?”
- New American, father of 3

4. SPL PRESENTS AT WEST SEATTLE PLC
 During the October West Seattle PLC meeting, SPL
librarian Kristina Darnell presented to 9 SPS
librarians and 1 SPS Instructional Technology
liaison.
 The presentation touched on Homework Help, Ask
a Librarian 24/7, Help in other Languages, key
Databases (reading and academic), Institution
cards, Children's Audience page at spl.org,
Brainfuse online homework help, eBooks and
eResources.

5. The planned 40-minute
presentation turned into
60 minutes with an
additional 30 minutes of
question and answer time!
Of particular interest were
Brainfuse, access to
NovelList Plus (and how it
differs from the SPS
subscription to NovelList
K-8), BookFlix,
Tumblebooks, and of
course, eBooks.
Prezi on Public Library
Resources for Students:
http://ow.ly/Jxj4G

6. ROXHILL SUMMER OPEN LIBRARY
Roxhill Open Library 9-Jul1-1:30 Fingerprint ID Wise Witnesses
Roxhill Open Library 16-Jul1-1:30 Reaction Time Blind Spot
Roxhill Open Library 23-Jul1-1:30 Introduction To Electriciy Conductivity
During a summer school session
at Roxhill Elementary, SPL
librarian Kristina worked with
interim SPS librarian Caitlin Enga-
McPhee to provide open library
time for Roxhill students and
families.
Kristina brought STEM activities
from the Pacific Science Center
kits created for SPL.
Kids participated in hands-on
activities, signed up for SPL library
cards, and received information
about SPL’s Summer of Learning
program.

7. PAGES AND PAJAMAS
 SPL librarian Kristina Darnell and Roxhill
Elementary librarian Chris Robert co-
hosted two evening literacy events for
Roxhill families
 The first event in October took place at the
Roxhill library. Over 45 families gathered,
read together, and learned about SPL
resources available for students.
 The second event in December took place
at SPL’s Southwest branch. The event
drew over 70 people to the meeting room to
read books, hear stories, and of course eat
cookies together, all while wearing their
pajamas. Kristina spoke with several new
immigrant families who didn’t realize their
children could sign up for library cards for
free. We passed out children’s card
applications, and over 10 children went
downstairs with their parents to sign up for
library cards.

8. ROXHILL COMES TO SOUTHWEST LIBRARY!
 On Tuesday, June 10, all 380
students from Roxhill Elementary
school plus teachers, other staff,
and parent volunteers came to the
Southwest Library to hear about
the Summer of Learning!
 Every Roxhill student got to:
 Become familiar with and
comfortable in the library
space
 Meet and speak with the staff
at Southwest Library
 Learn about SPL’s new
Summer of Learning program

9. Many students indicated
they’d never been to this
library before, but now
that they knew where it
was and knew several
staff by name, they’d be
more likely to come
back this summer.
The Roxhill teachers
and parents also got to
learn about the Summer
of Learning as well as
some other library-
related information many
of them didn’t know
Southwest staff met
face-to-face with tons of
kids they hadn’t seen
coming into their
building. They also got
to put faces to names of
the teachers and
teacher-librarian at
Roxhill Elementary.