Excellence in School Librarianship

This is a really powerful video (less than 5 minutes) compiling feedback from administrators of different schools located around the nation on the impact of school librarians. It was posted on the AASL forum yesterday and was created by Judi Moreillon, who is known for her advocacy of school librarians. This would be a fantastic resource to share with principals and other supervisors! 

*Personal side note, feel free to take or leave it: the only two aspects I really wish they had tweaked were the consistent reference to librarians in the feminine (as we all know we have some rockstar guybrarians in our midst!) and the emphasis on school librarians as the Most Important Person. We are each free to have our thoughts on this, but personally I don't think that touting ourselves as the most important members of our faculty is beneficial or accurate. We are equal partners with our teachers and administrators and students and support staff...we just have unique training that helps us fill some special roles!

Working Wonders

A fellow librarian has a tag line on her email that says " teaching library skills in isolation is like having a kid waving his arms and legs sprawled over a table, then saying, 'Remember to do this when you get into a pool' ". (Betty Buckingham) Despite continuous efforts to collaborate and build lessons with the teachers at my school, we have always been only marginally successful. However, with the implementation of the College and Career Readiness Standards and the adoption of the Wonders Reading Program, new life has been given to the library program. On practically a daily basis I am talking with the teachers at my school about research whether its ideas, scheduling the lab, developing a lesson plan, or actually engaged in research. Following is an outline of how we have implemented this.

Around Thursday or Friday, I start working on the next week's lesson plans. First, I send an email to the faculty to ask if there is any topic in particular they would like me to cover for the following week.
From the responses I get, I either do what they've asked, or if they don't  respond I log onto the Wonders website and look at the research selections for the following week. 

The website is http://connected.mcgraw-hill.com/connected/login.do and you may need to talk with your classroom teachers or reading coach about getting logged in.

Once logged in click on Resources in Quick Links, the research and inquiry in the navigation list on the left. Plug in what week the class you are working with is studying, then choose one of the guides. It's important to know, also what unit and week the class is on. I tried to set my Wonders home page up to correspond with each teacher, but it didn't work. 

Life Cycle Wheel

After I've reviewed and decided what the required research is for the next week, I begin gathering resources and often modifying the research. Because of time limits or skill levels I may need to make changes and adjustments to the research guides. I put research guides and resources on our school-wide wiki. Then I work with classes during library and lab time as well as additional time with classroom teachers. 

Learning to Use an Outline

Here is a link to our wiki                                      .https://wjeslibrary.wikispaces.com/

Collaboration at its Best!

Collaboration can be achieved through short meetings, forms, and tweaking annual projects that teachers turn to year after year.

It can turn to fun when the teachers are so "on fire" with teaching and collaborating with you that they say things like, "What cha got next?" That's when  it no longer feels like such hard work.

The picture here is of an 8th grade Social Studies class getting help from their teacher with downloading a video on Islam.

In the January 2013 issue of School Librarian Monthly, A Matrix for School Librarians: Aligning Standards, Inquiry, Reading, and Instruction is available. The columns include CCSS, AASL Standards Indicators, Inquiry Process, Reading Comprension Strategy, and Learning Applications.

In Alabama we use the College- and Career-Ready Standards (we added a lot of standards, such as cursive writing). Here is a look at one line of the Matrix graphic and how it compares to my collaborative lesson with an 8th grade Social Studies teacher:

CCSS: Production and Distribution of Writing (Students had to research and write a script before beginning filming). 6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others.

AASL Standards Indicators: Use writing process, media and visual literacy, and technology skills to create products that express new understandings. (2.1.6) Students had to use a creative scenario like freinds from differing religious backgrounds meeting up at a camp.

Inquiry Process: Demonstrating ability to integrate knowledge and apply it to answer inquiry questions. They have definitely done this with their project!

Reading Comprehension Strategy: Synthesizing information. They have done this as well! Some are teaching lessons and recording their lessons.

Learning Applications: Using Multiple literacies to create and share final products that inform, persuade, or explain new understandings. This project accomplishes that.

All of this goes to show that many lessons you already use are going to mesh with CCRS. If you are interested, this Matrix is an amazing chart and very helping for cross-checking.

The Matrix was created by Judi Moreillon, Ph. D., Assistant Professor of Library and Information Studies at Texas Women's University. Click here for a link to the Matrix and search for the January 2013 article in the search window.