Archive of ‘Role of a Teacher Librarian’ category
The amount I have learnt throughout this subject has simply amazed me. As a classroom teacher, it has been a great insight into the many roles of teacher librarians. Teacher librarians are helping lead learning and knowledge in interactive environments and there are great opportunities for them to assist students with learning how to use different types of media and working in virtual environments (O’Connell, 2012, p. 1). This, linked with working collaboratively alongside classroom teachers can only lead to positive outcomes for students.
I thoroughly enjoyed researching the literature response strategies, particularly as both that I wanted to use and learn more about involved technology. Each subject I complete throughout this course, further emphasises for me the importance of staying abreast of ways to implement learning using technology. A blog post I wrote (Catherall, May 10, 2020) about applications supporting literary learning aligns with the above statement as technology can provide information and a means of communication between students, teachers and parents in a conducive way which also contributes to literary learning. People who visit libraries in the future will have expectations of librarians to up to date with technology and ways this information can be disseminated and used (Krotoski, 2010, p. 633).
This subject has also reminded me of the importance to find ‘quality’ literature to use with students. When reflecting upon an earlier blog post (Catherall, May 21, 2020) I made during this subject, it is evident that I was aware of resources teacher librarians could go to such as Magpies, however the knowledge of these were very basic and it was not until I began the assessment tasks that I gained deeper understandings of their benefits for literary learning. For example, Magpies has a section where the genre of books can be seen so when collecting resources for classes or teachers, this is very beneficial to help teachers understand what genres they have and to find resources of different genres if they haven’t selected enough variation in their texts to promote quality literary learning.
Genres and formats is another area I have thoroughly enjoyed looking into more deeply which can be seen on my blog (Catherall, April 17, 2020). I have discovered a new love of picture books for older children and realised I had not emphasised visual literacy enough with my students. I thoroughly look forward to getting back into the classroom to discuss and explore colours, textures, sizing and placement of text. Assessment two was an excellent reminder of the literary benefits of choosing a varying range of formats and genres that link into all curriculum areas as it makes the literary learning much deeper and this knowledge can then be transferred into other areas of learning. A good library has resources that are of a high quality (Mallett, 2010, p. 373), a range of formats and genres should be included in this, which then hopefully encourages students to read more and learn more.
This subject has undoubtedly influenced my future practice. The deeper understandings that I now have, have provided me with richer information to be a better teacher, to ensure the library is resourced extremely well with a wide variety of books, implementation of technology programs to further students’ understandings and importantly collaboration between teachers as this will lead to greater outcomes for students.
References
Catherall, E. Strategies to increase professional knowledge of children’s literature. (March 21,
2020). [Emma’s Learning Journal- Blog]. Retrieved from https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/emmasonlinelearningjournal/2020/03/21/strategies-to-increase-professional-knowledge-of-childrens-literature/
Catherall, E. Reflection on assessment one. (April 17, 2020). [Emma’s Learning Journal-
Blog]. Retrieved from https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/emmasonlinelearningjournal/2020/04/17/reflection-on-assessment-one/
Catherall, E. Seesaw as an application to support literary learning. (May 10, 2020). [Emma’s
Learning Journal-Blog]. Retrieved from https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/emmasonlinelearningjournal/2020/05/10/seesaw-as-an-application-to-support-literary-learning/
Krotoski, A. (2010). Technology: Libraries of the future. Nature, 468(7324), p. 633.
doi: 10.1038/468633a
Mallett, M. (2010). Choosing and using fiction and non-fiction. 3-11 a comprehensive guide
for teachers and student teachers. Retrieved from Proquest Ebook Central
O’Connell, J. (2012). Teacher librarians stepping into the third place. Incite, 33(10).
Retrieved from https://search-informit-com-au.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/fullText;dn=803275632680351;res=IELHSS
Teacher librarians are in a position to provide students with opportunities to work across different platforms in order to help them learn and communicate in schools and the world. The idea of being ‘transliterate’ is a term I believe we will continue to hear more and more about and as information providers it is important that teacher librarians have a strong understanding of this. We can work collaboratively with classroom teachers to ensure students are exposed to this and have an understanding of how a range of different platforms work.
Seesaw is an app which definitely helps with literary learning. This app allows staff to upload information which could be a video, text, spoken language or a picture and a task can be allocated to this. Students are able to respond in a range of ways which includes typing, writing on the screen, speaking, taking a video and uploading this and taking a photo and uploading this with a written or spoken description. Staff and students are able to respond with a comment and record a message. This app provides so many different ways that students can receive information and present this as well which is what is so great about it. It is great for collaboration between teaching staff and library staff as library staff can access teachers’ pages and classes to assist them with their students’ learning.
“Read like a girl: Establishing a vibrant community of passionate readers” (Stower & Waring, 2018) was such an inspiring article to read. The impact these teacher librarians had on girls in schools to encourage reading for pleasure was simply phenomenal. To read that the amount of books borrowed in the schools actually tripled over an eighteen month period as a result of this is evidence that encouraging literature for pleasure amongst these girls was effective.
The way in which they exposed girls to different authors and books immediately assisted these girls with exploring different genres to help gain their interest. There were a range of events conducted at the two schools when this began, including: book launches, a book night with fathers or a significant male, International Women’s Day breakfast and writing workshops to name a few.
These events and strategies immediately give students access to a range of books which encourages reading which also expands on what they are reading as well as the amount, assisting with fluency (Allington, 2014, p.15). Further reading went on to discuss that motivation for reading comes as a result of purely enjoying it (Guthrie, Klauda, & Ho, 2013, p.10) which compliments the sentiments of having access to literature and a wide variety of it so that students can find different genres that appeal to them. If children are reading voluntarily and enjoying it shows their scores on comprehension tests increase (Howard, 2011, p. 47) which is fabulous that their understandings of texts are clearly improving by simply increasing the amount they read.
In our library, I would love to increase the events held with family members. I believe that involving the students’ families would be a great benefit as all families would be gaining the same positive experiences at school and hopefully be able to take these back to their homes. Therefore, one would hope that there would be more discussions around literature in the home which would hopefully lead to further reading for pleasure which consequently assists these students in all facets of their life and learning in the future.
Reference List
Allington, R. L. (2014). How reading volume affects both reading fluency and reading achievement. International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education, 7(1), 13-26. Retrieved from https://www.iejee.com/
Guthrie, J. Klauda, S. & Ho, A. (2013). Modeling the relationships among reading instruction, motivation, engagement, and achievement for adolescents. Reading Research Quarterly, 48(1), 9-26. doi: 10.1002/rrq.035
Howard, V. (2011). The importance of pleasure reading in the lives of young teens: Self-identification, self-construction and self-awareness. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 43(1), 46-55. doi: 10.1177/0961000610390992
Stower, H. & Waring, P. (2018, July 16). Read like a girl: Establishing a vibrant community of passionate readers. In Alliance of Girls Schools Australia. Retrieved from https://www.agsa.org.au/news/read-like-a-girl-establishing-a-vibrant-community-of-passionate-readers/
I have taught in a range of primary schools over the past decade, throughout this time there were only two schools with a Teacher Librarian and the other schools had classroom teachers who would take their students to the library once a week to return and borrow books. I actually felt this to be quite disappointing as it was taking away the importance a library has in a school and all that it can offer to staff and students. Audrey Church, the President of the American Association of School Librarians reiterated the importance of school librarians in her article and emphasised the impact they have on student learning outcomes which is why it is vital to have as many librarians in schools as possible (Church, 2017, p. 5). This resonates with my experiences in schools without Teacher Librarians as staff did not have an opportunity to collaborate with librarians to create units of work that could be as rich as possible which in turn has an impact upon what students are being taught and consequently student outcomes. Even having a Teacher Librarian to help students find books they love to read for enjoyment has an impact on student outcomes simply by fostering their love of learning, “school libraries are an integral part of the educational process and they carry the responsibility for encouraging students to become learners who enjoy reading and develop the habit of using library resources in their daily lives” (Domínguez, García, Martinó & Méndez, 2015, p. 236).
In my opinion and from what I have seen, the Teacher Librarian is an information manager, inspires students and staff, encourages students to find literature they enjoy reading, assists students and staff with resourcing, manages budgets, educates and trains students and staff with technology and social media and promotes the library throughout the school and all of the many wonderful resources, programs and opportunities it provides. It is difficult to identify all of the roles a Teacher Librarian is responsible for as there are so many and from my experience, different schools have different expectations of the Teacher Librarian. One survey which was completed suggested, “school librarians are not only managers of school libraries but are also playing other roles such as of educators, administrators, teaching consultants, information specialists and information literacy (IL) teachers” (Lo & Chiu, 2015, p. 696) which again demonstrates the many hats a Teacher Librarian wears.
In the schools I taught in with Teacher Librarians, they were looked upon very highly by other staff members and administrators in the school, as they added so much value to the curriculum and the students absolutely loved the time spent with them. The Teacher Librarians in both these cases also collaborated extremely well with other teachers in the school, ensuring they were assisting with resources and ensuring their classes were linked to the inquiry unit in some way making the content in their library classes even more meaningful.
The role of the Teacher Librarian has definitely changed over time and it is an extremely diverse role offering so many positive experiences to staff and students.
Reference List
Church, A. (2017). An effective school library program…for every student. Knowledge Quest, 45(3), 4-5. Retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=a53ff532-2552-4adf-80ee-eda2598dc880%40sessionmgr4007
Domínguez, N., García, I.,Martinó, J., Méndez, A. (2015). The school librarian as motivational agent and strategiest for reading appreciation. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 48,(3), 236-246). doi: 10.1177/0961000615591650
Lo, P., & Chiu, D. K. W. (2015). Enhanced and changing roles of school librarians under the digital age. New Library World, 116(11), 696-710. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/docview/1732338136?accountid=10344