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ETL512: Assessment 6: Professional Reflective Portfolio

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Part A: What makes an effective Teacher Librarian?

Effective teacher librarians are curious, interested and interesting. They wonder, wander and guide students and colleagues through their own wonder/wanderings. Effective teacher librarians blend their understanding of the nature of learning and the structure of the curriculum to maximise learning for each student both in the moment and in the future. Effective teacher librarians maintain current knowledge of available resources suitable for their communities and facilitate access for the right learner at the right time. Teacher librarians aim to provide both a physical and intellectual space for the exploration of all kinds of literacies, rigorous academic exploration, community engagement and mindful recreation. The activities undertaken and promoted there should support that aim. Effective teacher librarians are leaders as well as managers, innovators as well as guides and mentors as well as students. It is in the balance and interaction between all these attributes that the magic may be found.

The Daring Librarian Mission

Jones, G. (2018). The daring librarian mission. https://www.thedaringlibrarian.com/2018/01/how-to-be-teacher-librarian-rock-star.html

The graphic to the right, by Gwyneth Jones from her blog, The Daring Librarian, resonates with me because it puts into simple language the aims to which teacher librarians should aspire.

Part B: Critical Evaluation of Learning

Introduction

I am glad to have undertaken my studies slowly and steadily over the last three years because it has allowed me plenty of time to consider, reflect on my learning, put theories into practice and change, evaluate and refine ideas along the way. I wrote the first post on my ThinkSpace blog, Embarkation (Hahn, 2019, July 8), immediately before beginning my first semester of study so that I might look back from this end and reflect on my thoughts and impressions and how they have changed. In that post, I identified the “vital role a good teacher librarian has in developing the students’ love of learning, appreciation of literature and ability to really think about the information they are gathering” and that “it is also vitally important for TLs to make their available services and skills known and visible to their colleagues, especially their newer colleagues who might benefit most from the leadership and guidance a really good TL can provide”. I had, at that early stage, identified two key elements of the role of TL: developing lifelong love of learning and literature, and advocacy through leadership. I still believe these to be important, but I missed possibly the most vital: forming relationships: relationships with and between colleagues, students and leadership, relationships between people and information and relationships between people and lifelong learning.

Theme 1: Lifelong love of learning and literature

From the outset of my studies I was surprised by the need, expressed multiple times over several subjects, to defend the use of fiction in the curriculum. This surprised me because the place of fiction just seemed so obvious to me – it was like needing to justify the place of oxygen in the air. I have learned since, however, that it is not so obvious to everyone. Reading fiction helps students to develop empathy, explore unknown activities, places and situations safely, and to experience the world through someone else’s eyes. Rita Carter, in the Tedx Talk embeded below, explains succinctly and in everyday language this very concept in a very accessible way.

Journalist Rita Carter on why reading fiction is good not only for individuals but for society as a whole. 28 June, 2018

Lesesne (2003) and Schneider (2016) both write eloquently about strategies teacher librarians, among others, can use to help students become lifelong readers and therefore lifelong learners, citing three main skills needed: knowledge of the student, knowledge of the books and motivational skills to bring the two together. These topics were addressed in ETL503 Resourcing the Curriculum and ETL402 Literature across the Curriculum – two subjects I found to be especially useful in my work as a teacher librarian. The creation of annotated bibliographies is something I have done many times over the last three years and expect to continue.

Link to reading list in Oliver for Geography resources for Stage 2. Scan or click to view.

Recently, I have discovered the Reading Lists tool within our Library Management System, Oliver, that can be used for this purpose, keeping the information accessible to staff at all times. Using this tool, I have been able to create topic based recommended reading lists for both students and staff to use, linking the resource records directly and allowing users the benefit of tools such, reserve, request and review options as well as the ability to link items directly into their Google Classroom. I have included an example of this, created for a Stage 2 Geography unit of work, Places are Similar and Different. Use of these tools relies on the ability of staff to access it. This has involved offering staff training and refreshers at planning days and staff admin meetings as well as personal tutorials at a point of genuine need when staff come to the library seeking such information, and teaching students how to use the tools during their library lessons each week.

ETL501 The Dynamic Information Environment offered the opportunity to learn not just about creating physical spaces for learning, but also creating digital spaces for learning. I found the development of Library Research Guides to be particularly valuable. I have been creating such guides for a while, but this subject taught me a new way to go about it, making the resources so much more useful and valuable to students and staff alike.

Link to Invasive Species LRG

Visit Invasive Species LRG, created before ETL501

Link to Earth's Environments LRG

Visit Earth’s Environments LRG, created following ETL501

I have included below two examples: the first from before I undertook ETL501 and the second from after.  The linear, guided manner in which the later one is designed, along with the inclusion of items such as a glossary, recommended search engines and a feedback form for users to supply their suggestions and thoughts are things I had never considered prior to undertaking this subject. The later of these LRGs along with several others created since to support Stage 2 and 3 units of work have been received to much acclaim by staff that use them and have received thoughtful and constructive feedback allowing me to continually improve the quality of resources I can offer through the library. Staff have commented particularly about the integration of information literacy skills and how they include resources that teachers would not have considered on their own.

The idea of ensuring resource guides included resources that teachers and students would have been unlikely to find on their own was first introduced in ETL402 Resourcing the Curriculum, and reiterated in many other subjects I have taken throughout my studies and I recently had the opportunity to see this idea in action at a public library while on professional placement. The outreach librarian was selecting resources for patrons who had opted for the home delivery service available to less mobile members of the library. She too was keen to include in the selection a resource that the patron would hopefully like, but may not have chosen themselves. She used tools such as the Tourist Map of Literature

Screeb grab from the Tourist Map of Literature

Click to visit the Tourist Map of Literature

website (pictured to the right) to find authors similar to those the patron had read and enjoyed previously. This is a tool I am now using in my practice as a teacher librarian.

In order to ensure there are resources available to suit the needs of the school community, it is necessary to have in place a strong collection development policy, including a procedure around selection and deselection. This concept was first introduced in ETL503 Resourcing the Curriculum and has been developed during other subjects along the way. When I first began work as a teacher librarian in my school, I came to see that the collection was out-dated, old and in poor condition. As a result, usage of the library resources was limited. I have taken the ideas learned especially in ETL402, ETL501 and ETL503, to begin updating the collection. During my study, I was introduced to the idea of using analytical reporting to judge the health of the collection. I decided to implement this in my library, discovering quickly that the average age of the collection was over 20 years – this did not surprise me, unfortunately. I knew that the first task was to undertake a weed of the worst offenders. I established a ‘shelf of shame’ in my office consisting of items removed from the collection far too late to remind me of the need to weed and I have found it a useful tool to share with others when they question why I am “getting rid of so many books”.

A witty mnemonic explaining the criteria used for deselection of materials in a school library: F -Does it foster a love of reading? R - DOes it reflect your diverse population> E - Does it reflect an equitable world view? S - Does it support the curriculum? and H - Is it a high quality text?

Image by Jennifer LaGarde
www.librarygirl.net
Shared under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA)

I have included to the left a graphic from the blog of Jennifer LaGuarde (2020, April 30) explaining her approach to weeding. It resonates with me as it puts into positive language the desirable features of school library collection against which candidates for weeding may be compared.

Theme 2: Advocacy through leadership

ETL 504 Teacher Librarian as Leader introduced terms that can be used to describe phenomena previously observed – developing a deeper understanding of the styles of leadership available and the effect of each. Having the language to discuss and describe these concepts helps to nuance my understandings. In this way, I can be more deliberate in my choices around which strategies I employ in different circumstances and also to recognise and support the choices made by other leaders in my workplace.

Just as it is important for teacher librarians to provide a safe “third space” (Korodaj, 2019) for students, it is important to also provide this for staff. Change leadership (and I deliberately choose the word leadership rather than management) has been a feature of the work of schools in recent times – through the pandemic and the resulting pedagogical changes, as well as with the introduction of new syllabus documents in NSW schools and the challenges faced by many schools with staffing and casual relief. Many colleagues have expressed to me that, while they understand the features of the new syllabus documents, and appreciate the changes they are to make, they need more professional development in what it all looks like in reality. These conversations have taken place in the “cone of silence” – When the library office door is closed, information shared and discussed does not leave the room. By creating this safe space for staff, I aimed initially to give them a place to vent. It also allowed me to learn about what they need and how I can support them for the betterment of student learning. In my blog post, Module 3.1: Stress (Hahn, 2021, March 20), drawing on the work of Cross (2015) and Clement (2014), I explored how servant leadership such as described above and by Burkus (2010), might help to alleviate some of the stress teachers encounter. A secondary objective of this work is to help colleagues recognise, value and support contributions of the library to the life of the school, thereby activating third-party advocacy in the manner described by Kachel et al (2021).

The school library and teacher librarians are in the privileged position of having a big-picture view of the curriculum, activities and events of the school as a whole and can place them in the context of the school’s strategic plan thereby identifying areas of common interest to different groups within the school and invite them to collaborate. This relies, however, on teacher librarians actively seeking to be involved in the teaching and learning cycle of the various teams across the school, the danger lying in the alternative, described by Sturge (2019) as “a revolving door of classes” (p.26) wherein teacher librarians become isolated, and miss opportunities to address issues of information literacy at a point of genuine need – that is, finding authentic moments to address skills and knowledge contained within the Information Fluency Framework when they are actively needed by students to complete tasks required for other subjects. It is in this real-world use of skills that true life-long learning can occur. Because of this, it is vital that teacher librarians employ their instructional leadership skills and teacher leadership skills in order to mobilise and activate colleagues and others in advocating for the library, much in the manner described by Bonanno and Moore (2009). An excellent example of this is found in the Students Need School Libraries campaign started and headed by Holly Godfree. This group provides, among many resources, flyers and promotional materials that are made available for teacher librarians to share with their communities, assisting teacher librarians to harness the advocacy power of school communities in support of their library program.

Instructional leadership has been a feature of my work in recent times, especially around the use of technologies to support educational access by students with learning difficulties and additional needs. By adjusting my fixed timetable in collaboration with interested class teachers, I have been able to provide team-taught lessons introducing and utilising assistive technologies such as Immersive Reader with all the students in a class, demonstrating for students how and when such technologies may be useful to them, at the same time demonstrating to teachers how employ universal design in conjunction with the available tools to allow all students to engage with curricula on an equal basis. By working specifically with targeted, interested teachers, I have been able to harness their connections and relationships to further advocate for the services and skills a strong library program can provide.

Theme 3: Relationships

A colourful rug defines the space while brightening it up

Brighten and define the purpose of areas with rugs

The Third Space is also vital for students. In ETL 501 The Dynamic Information Environment, I explored the development of effective spaces both physically and digitally. One of the main take-aways from this subject was the need to consider how the designed spaces impact and are impacted by the people who use them. I had not previously considered that, by providing group vignettes, hidden individual reading areas, large open whole class spaces and interactive displays could encourage students to behave and interact differently with the information they are using. To this end, I have added to the library I work in, rugs that define the purpose and use of different areas, a variety of types and groupings of seating, flexible work table orientations,student work examples and wall displays that teach. I am still working on rearranging shelf configurations and technology storage to maximise use and availability.

I approach interactions with students with humour where appropriate to encourage them to see me as approachable; high expectations of behaviour so that I avoid unnecessary unpleasantness; openness and patience to encourage students to talk to me about their needs and thoughts. I provide interesting activities at lunchtime in a climate controlled environment to encourage students to come into the library voluntarily and view it as a pleasant and desirable place of interest. In this way, I hope to engender a belief that the library is a welcoming, interesting place in which ideas and information can be explored and discussed in a rigorous but non-threatening way. The lego building vignette pictured to the right is used at lunchtimes.

A collaborative puzzle area with a wall that teaches

The collaborative puzzle

Students are invited to build on to constructions made by other students in previous sessions. Once firm boundaries were established around the protocols for use of the space, students have been engaging positively and enthusiastically at lunchtimes. They are (mostly) able to leave it alone during class time and a helpful side effect has been drawing student’s attention to the sometimes neglected early chapter book collection housed around the lego area. This has seen circulation of this collection rise by 23% in the 6 months since establishment of the lego area.

A group of students can work collaboratively on lego projects

Community building activity: collaborative lego construction

Jigsaw puzzles (pictured to the right) have also been used for collaboration and community building among students. It is my intention that these collaborative activities will encourage disparate groups of students to engage in shared activities, getting to know each other better and learning to engage positively with students from other backgrounds and interest groups, contributing to the development of a cohesive school community that forms part of the school’s medium to long term goals. An additional advantage has been providing activities and environments that promote wellbeing for our students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) (Saggers & Ashburner, 2019). Puzzles are selected based on the special interests of these students and well-ordered, usually quiet and minimally stimulating areas are used to provide these students with an environment they can use to calm and re-regulate themselves as needed. This encourages all students to see the library as a peaceful, interesting and pleasant place to learn and to practise interacting with others. Visual cues, noise-cancelling headphones and positive, calm relationships are also used to engage our students with ASD.

Part C: Developmental Evaluation

The ALIA/ASLA Standards of Professional Excellence for Teacher Librarians (ALIA, 2004) provides the professional knowledge, practices and commitments that teacher librarians should strive to achieve. A key development in the professional knowledge area during my studies has been the introduction of the

Information_fluency_framework which aims to “articulate the work of the teacher librarian (p.4), drawing together elements of the Australian Curriculum General Capabilities and NSW Syllabus documents to make plain for all school staff and leadership the skills and understandings that teacher librarians teach and where they fit in the curriculum. This important document, recently released and only pertinent to NSW schools, has not been a part of my studies at all. As a result, I have needed to identify and source professional learning opportunities outside of the University, such as PLCC After Hours Professional Development, spearheaded by Gina Krohn (see left). Continual engagement with professional networks of teacher librarians and alumni groups is vital to identifying opportunities to continually develop my skills and understandings around pedagogy and curriculum developments. An area I would like to focus on in the near future is utilising educational technologies to enhance teaching and learning opportunities, with a specific focus on developing the skills of kindergarten to year 2 students and their teachers.

ALIA-ASLA Standard 3.4 Community responsibilities requires teacher librarians to participate as members of professional communities. Over the last three years that I have been studying and working as a teacher librarian, I have joined several network groups, both formal, such as becoming a student member of ALIA (which I will continue into a professional membership once I graduate) and joining the Teacher Librarian Network in Northern Sydney through my employer, and informal, such as joining social media groups for Teacher Librarians both in NSW and around the country and world. I have found there the most supportive and collaborative group of colleagues I have found so far in the education industry. This spirit of cooperation and collegiality is something I strive to replicate and actively promote in my workplace.

Standard two requires teacher librarians to provide exemplary information and library services. Recently, my school held a festival of reading for Education Week. I was able to demonstrate and explain to parents and staff alike the services I offer as teacher librarian. I was able to demonstrate some of the Library Resource Guides developed to support collaboratively taught units of work in Stage 2 and 3, show teachers and parents how to access the Library’s digital collections from their mobile device and explain the reference and information services available in the Library.

Descriptions of the role of teacher librarians

Backing board used as a conversation starter at the Festival of Reading

Pictured to the right is the backing board used during this presentation. I did not specifically refer to it, but used it to draw attention to the role of the teacher librarian and to provide conversation starters with parents. This was a highly successful morning and one of the immediate benefits I can see is dramatically increased circulation of our digital collection, and three new requests for collaboration from teachers who have not previously engaged with library services. An area I would like to develop more within this strand of the professional standards is evaluation of the library’s collection. To this end, I have enrolled in a course offered by Softlink (providers of Oliver Library, our LMS) that will address use of analytical reporting in the school library. Other sources of ongoing professional learning are SCIS Professional Learning Webinars and Primary English Teachers Association Australia courses and conferences which often offer content relevant to teacher librarians.

References

Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA). (2004). Standards of professional excellence for teacher librarians. https://read.alia.org.au/file/647/download?token=6T4ajv0c

Bonanno, K. & Moore, R. (2009). Advocacy: Reason, responsibility and rhetoric. https://kb.com.au/content/uploads/2014/08/Keynote-Advocacy.pdf

Burkus, D. (2010, April 1). Servant leadership theory. In DB: David Burkus. http://davidburkus.com/2010/04/servant-leadership-theory/

Clement, J. (2014). Managing mandated educational change. School Leadership & Management, 34(1), 39-51. https://doi: 10.1080/13632434.2013.813460

Cross, D. (2015). Teacher well being and its impact on student learning [Slide presentation]. Telethon Kids Institute, University of Western Australia. http://www.research.uwa.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/2633590/teacher-wellbeing-and-student.pdf

Jones, G. (2018). The daring librarian mission. https://www.thedaringlibrarian.com/2018/01/how-to-be-teacher-librarian-rock-star.html

Kachel, D. E., DelGuidice, M. & Luna R. (2012). Building champions in the school community. In D. Levitov (Ed.), Activism and the school librarian: Tools for advocacy and survival. (pp. 85-98). ABC_CLIO, LLC.

Korodaj, L. (2019). The library as ‘third space’ in your school: Supporting academic and emotional wellbeing in the school community.Scan, 38(10). https://doi.org/10.3316/aeipt.226270

LaGuarge, J. (2020, April 30). BFTP: Keeping your library collection smelling F.R.E.S.H! The Adventures of Library Girl. https://www.librarygirl.net/post/bftp-keeping-your-library-collection-smelling-f-r-e-s-h

Lesesne, T. (2003). Making the match: The right book for the right reader at the right time, grades 4-12. Stenhouse Publishers.

Saggers, B. & Ashburner, J. (2019) Creating learning spaces that promote wellbeing, participation and engagement: Implications for Students on the autism spectrum. In Hughes, H., Franz, J. & Willis, J. (eds.), School Spaces for Student Wellbeing and Learning. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6092-3_8

Schneider, J. J. (2016). The right book for the right reader at the right time. In The Inside, Outside, and Upside Downs of Children’s Literature: From Poets and Pop-ups to Princesses and Porridge (p. 98-158). https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/childrens_lit_textbook/6/

Sturge, J. (2019). Assessing Readiness for School Library Collaboration. Knowledge Quest, 47(3), 24–31.

ETL504 Assignment 2 Part B

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Part B – Reflection

Before beginning ETL504, my thoughts about educational leadership were limited. My view of leadership as a top-down, formal and hierarchical structure dictated by the organisational chart of the school was, I have come to see, overly simplistic. This is evidenced in Assignment 1 wherein I was just beginning to see the importance of less authoritarian leadership styles, and formed an appreciation for changing staff engagement in different leadership groups. I wrote about teacher librarians supporting teachers through collaboration, which itself represented a change in thinking. Not so much that I did not appreciate the need for collaboration previously, but that this constituted a form of leadership.

I was always aware that some teachers had the capacity to be more enlightening and guiding than others. The difference between the “experienced teachers” and the “dinosaurs” was quite obvious, but I had not attempted to describe or name the phenomena. One way in which my thinking has changed is by developing an ability to articulate thoughts on leadership. This has led me to develop the idea that if one learns to name and describe a phenomena in language, one develops a more detailed schema that then supports other thinking. The importance of nominalisation and articulation through language is well documented in the field of psychology, it turns out, and is a concept I would like to read more about.

Through this subject I have learned the importance of creating staff engagement in order for change management processes to be successful (Pennington, n.d.). Staff need not only to be enthused about the change, but also be involved in professional development around the implications, opportunities and considerations involved in change. In her 15th March post (Styles, 2021, March 15), Yvette discussed her experience with creating flexible and collaborative spaces. The result was less successful than it might be due to a number of factors, such as autocratic leadership style and lack. A mix of transformational and instructional leadership was needed. The transformational leader could engage all staff in the process, developing a shared vision and encouraging engagement. An instructional leader could facilitate staff learning around pedagogical changes made possible in the new environment. Targeting identified teacher leaders first could ensure their skills and influence are fully mobilised.

Throughout the subjects I have undertaken so far, advocacy has been an important concept, but I had not considered how other stakeholders might be mobilised in support of this goal. In my post “Leadership and Advocacy” (Hahn, 2021, May 5), I discussed a moment of discovery from module 6. I have decided that I need to focus more on activating the advocacy of others in support of the library program, as described by Kachel et al (2012) and to do that, I need to help them develop the language to recognise and articulate the ways in which the library program can support and add value to what they are already doing.

Digital technologies has been a focus area recently. I wrote about plans for development in my discussion posts on 25th April and 8th May. Using a combination of instructional leadership and teacher leadership, I plan to help my colleagues focus their attention on what they want their students to learn by using the technology, rather than focusing on how much fun they are having. To return to the syllabus to remember what it is that students need to learn and understanding why that learning is important is my goal for the professional development sessions I have now been given approval by the principal to run. ETL504 has helped me to consider the options available in terms of how this project should be approached. Giving a name to the various strategies available means I can learn more about how each works and be more deliberate in my choices. I have been influenced particularly by Farrell (2014), Weisburg & Walter (2010) and the practical advice offered by ASLA (2013) and AOSL (2013).

References

American Association of School Librarians (AASL). (2013). Empowering learners: Guidelines for school library programs. American Library Association. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/csuau/reader.action?docID=1342650&ppg=57

Australian School Library Association. (2013). Future learning in school libraries. ASLA. https://asla.org.au/future-Learning-paper

Kachel, D. e., DelGuidice, M. & Luna R. (2012). Building champions in the school community. In D. Levitov (Ed.), Activism and the school librarian: Tools for advocacy and survival. (pp. 85-98). ABC_CLIO, LLC.

Pennington, R. (n.d.). How to make change work [Vimeo]. https://vimeo.com/145795736

Styles, Y. (2021, March 15) RE: School direction [Online discussion comment]. Interact 2. https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&course_id=_55151_1&nav=discussion_board_entry&conf_id=_110083_1&forum_id=_227669_1&message_id=_3421739_1

Weisburg, H. K. & Walter, V.A. (2010). Being indispensable: A school librarian’s guide to becoming an invaluable leader. American Library Association.

Distribution of leadership

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What strategies to take you from TL, the keeper and stamper of the books and the quiet space (library) (how many of our colleagues perceive TLs), to become something different?

The role of the TL is so much more complex than many of our colleagues realise. We are the keeper of the books, though scanning has taken the place of stamping in most schools. We are the keepers of the (sometimes) quiet space, but we also are leaders in our learning communities. Among our colleagues, we form communities of practise and learning. Through collaboration we can both model and learn new teaching approaches, we can pose questions and encourage ways of thinking that previously lurked unrecognised in a TR cupboard. We can collaborate on curriculum development, integration of technology and information skills into the wider curriculum, attaching a genuine purpose to the skills students must learn in these areas.

The space we keep is not just quiet. It is a cone of silence. We listen to peoples’ troubles, concerns, frustrations and annoyances and provide a prodigious amount of chocolate and bickies to keep them coming back. By listening to our colleagues both individually and as a group, by keeping our ears to the ground we can start to recognise patterns and point them in the direction of assistance. We can recognise and celebrate the achievements of our colleagues and are in a position to communicate and promote various initiatives within the school and from the leadership that aim to address the frustrations. In an ideal world, the principal is in a position to provide visionary leadership – to develop transformational goals and map the pathways to success (Ingram, 2017). They motivate and inspire their staff to keep them on the paths set out. The DPs provide the transactional leadership – they keep the wheels in motion, putting out the spot fires and dealing with the day to day operations of the school, keeping the big picture in mind. The APs also provide transactional leadership, keeping the ball rolling and dealing with the everyday smooth running of their stage. The TL provides the servant leadership – focusing on trust, collaboration, empathy and ethics (Burkus, 2010). The TL works to promote the best interests of colleagues, students and the community.

Each leader has role to play in the success of the school. In this way, leadership in the school is often actually a type of distributed leadership – not because some leaders are responsible for different key learning areas, or certain initiatives, but because they are responsible for providing the very different types of leadership needed to keep the school both ticking over and reaching for the next milestone in their improvement journey.

References

Ingram, D. (2019, Fevruary 4). Transformational leadership vs transactional leadership definition. Hearst Newspapers: Small Business. http://smallbusiness.chron.com/transformational-leadership-vs-transactional-leadership-definition-13834.html

Burkus, D. (2010, April 1). Servant leadership theory. David Burkus. http://davidburkus.com/2010/04/servant-leadership-theory/

Meeting AITSL Standards

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The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) published a set of professional standards for teachers in 2011. ALIA Schools (2014) published a document detailing the features of excellent teacher librarian practice, showing how teacher librarians might interpret the Professional Standards in their particular context and the sorts of evidence that might be available to demonstrate how the teacher librarian has met the Standards. ASLA (2014) also published its evidence guides for the Proficient and Highly Accomplished career stages.

Professional Standard 4.1 calls for teachers and teacher librarians to support student participation by “Establish[ing] and implement[ing] inclusive and positive interactions to engage
and support all students in classroom activities. ” (ALIA Schools 2014, p8).  within Standard 4.1, AITSL requires teacher librarians to establish and implement inclusive and positive interactions to engage and support all students in classroom activities. I do this by considering the special needs and interests of the students in the classes I teach. One example is a young man in Year 1, lets call him John. John displays many of the characteristics of high functioning autism but does not yet have a diagnosis of such. He responds well to lots of positive praise, explicit one step instructions with his name in the sentence, hand gestures to complement verbal cues and visual supports. John has a special interest in military history and weaponry. During one lesson in mid Term 3 of 2019 his class were learning to place an image into a PowerPoint presentation. I read Heads and Tails: Insects (Canty 2018) to his class to support their recent class work on using prediction as a reading strategy. I asked the students to copy and paste an image of their favourite insect from a bank provided onto their own slide. John expressed that he was not interested in insects. As I knew of his special interest, I suggested that he could select his favourite model of tank to include on his slide instead. Once he had a picture of a tank on the slide, he was then happy to copy and paste a dragonfly onto the side of the tank and told me a story about a dragonfly seeking the protection of the tank to avoid the enemy. While he did not complete the same task as the other students in his class, John did achieve the stated learning intention (copy and paste an image in PowerPoint). This small exchange demonstrates the importance of modifying tasks to suit the particular needs of students in order to create a learning environment that is inclusive and in which all students can be successful and access the learning content.

Standard 4.2 requires that teacher librarians “use effective strategies to create well-managed learning environments in the school library” and Standard 4.3 requires teacher librarians to  manage behaviour in their workplace (ASLA 2014, p.14). If I am being completely honest, this is something I am still working hard to improve. Many of my classroom management techniques translate well to the library setting. I can call student’s attention to something, manage groups, use prevention strategies, modify the physical environment to suit certain activities. I can modify learning activities, roam, use voice variation and humour and adjust management techniques to suit different age groups. However, I find the physical layout of the library at the moment to be challenging. The long, tall shelves of the non-fiction section invite students to hide and misbehave as they think they can’t be seen or heard. The bank of PCs sits behind the non-fiction shelves and can not be easily seen from other areas of the library and so students take advantage and are sometimes off task or misusing them particularly at browsing time. During this time many students need attention for their circulation needs and text selection questions and I find it difficult to manage the behaviour and attend to the circulation tasks simultaneously. I am seeking to address this by changing the layout of the library to put the tall shelving around the perimeter of the room and move the computers out into the middle of the room, or better yet, replace them with Chromebooks. Setting independent work tasks first for students and then inviting only the students who are borrowing to move off to browse the collection does seem to lessen the behaviour issues, however circulation rates drop significantly especially among those students who can least afford to avoid reading. This concerns me and I think this is not as useful a strategy as one would wish.

Standard 4.4 requires teacher librarians to be “aware of relevant current school curriculum and legislative requirements and implement these documents in library management and teaching practice”(ASLA 2014, p. 14). The introduction of the new Science and Technology syllabus (NESA 2017) in NSW schools has prompted our school staff to reflect on our teaching of digital technologies and ICT capabilities. The school’s scope and sequence for this area of study is under review. We are developing new cybersafety units of work and resources to support them. When complete, these will be suitable to demonstrate meeting this standard. In addition, the emergency procedure posters and maps that detail procedures in the case of a lock down, lock out or evacuation are displayed next to both exits from the library. Student medical information and first aid kit is displayed near the circulation desk and in the workroom. Rules for safe use of the library space are displayed and referred to in each lesson. The school’s PBEL visual prompts are displayed in prominent places. All of these features could be photographed and used as evidence of meeting this standard.

References

The Australian School Library Association (2014) Evidence guide for teacher librarians in the proficient career stage : Australian professional standards for teachers retrieved from https://www.alia.org.au/sites/default/files/AITSL%20Standards%20for%20teacher%20librarian%20practice%202014.pdf

ALIA Schools (2014) AITSL Standards for teacher librarian practice retrieved from https://www.alia.org.au/sites/default/files/AITSL%20Standards%20for%20teacher%20librarian%20practice%202014.pdf

Canty, J. (2017) Heads and tails: Insects. Kew East, Victoria: Berbay Publishing

NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA). (2017). Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus. Retrieved from https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/k-10/learning-areas/science/science-and-technology-k-6-new-syllabus

 

ETL401 Module 3.2

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Module 3.2

Are School librarians and endangered species?

Karen Bonanno (Australian School Library Association, 2011) argues that teacher librarians are more valuable than ever, yet they are somewhat invisible. She argues that TLs need to differentiate themselves in the school community. They must identify what it is that they can do or offer that others don’t. Make it visible, necessary. Follow a focus area through until successful. Establish relationships with students, staff and leadership. Show how the work of the TL enhances and develops the general capabilities. In her follow up article, A profession at the tipping point (revisited) (Bonanno 2015) Bonanno adds that TLs must keep abreast of developments in curriculum and pedagogy to ensure that the curriculum is effectively and efficiently resourced, and they can share their knowledge, advocacy and solutions with their colleagues.

 

Compare and contrast the works of Purcell, Herring and Lamb

Dr Purcell (2010) argues that many school staff do not have a clear understanding of the role of the TL and therefore role clarification is necessary. She recommends a time study to provide hard evidence of what the TL is actually doing during the day, and where changes might be made in order to spend more time actively engaging with students and therefore, hopefully having an effect on student learning outcomes. This data, Purcell argues can me used when advocating for the school library program and keeping the Principal and leadership of the school informed about the necessity and impact of the program. Purcell breaks the TL role down into 5 distinct yet interconnected areas: leader, program administrator, instructional partner, information specialist and teacher. She argues that these roles are interconnected – one can not be achieved without the other. Purcell recommends TLs engage in ongoing professional development to ensure their skill set remains up-to-date.

Herring (2007) draws together industry documents from around the world to compare and contrast the mission statements and role statements regarding school libraries and teacher librarians. He states that the learning that happens in the school library should be an extension of that learning that happens in the classroom. He argues that the use of ICTs allows teachers to encourage more active and collaborative learning. Herring suggests that the mission of the school library should be primarily in the development of teaching and learning in the school and secondarily about the provision of resources for that teaching and learning. He describes reading for pleasure as a “small part of the school curriculum” (p29) that is given unnecessary prominence in library mission statements. Herring describes 5 elements of school library mission statements:

  1. Develop effective teaching and learning across the school
  2. Resourcing the curriculum
  3. Provide a suitable learning environment
  4. Promote reading for pleasure and life-long learning
  5. Develop information literate students.

Herring describes the many and varied roles of the TL in schools and suggests that it is not possible to fulfil all of them concurrently, therefore TLs must prioritise according to the needs of the school community. He suggests that the teacher part of the TL’s job is to promote information literacy, promote resource based education and promote reading for understanding and for pleasure. The Librarian part of the job is to organise information for easy access, interpret information systems in the context of curriculum, ensure students are able to use learning resources both within and outside the school and promote independent use of the library for learning. He argues that as library managers, teacher librarians should evaluate the needs of the students and staff, evaluate and develop the collection and related policies, manage the information services and provide a ‘stimulating and helpful environment (ASLA 2003, p62 in Herring 2007, p31).

Herring (2007) discusses the various information literacy models available in the literature. He considers Kuhlthau’s (2004) Information Search Process, Capra and Ryan’s (2001) Information Literacy Planning Overview, Eisenberg and Berkowitz’s (1990) Big 6, Herring’s (2004) PLUS. He suggests that, while there is evidence that teaching information literacy skills using these models does lead to improved student performance (Ryan & Hudson, 2003; Wolf 2003; Herring, 2006), new strategies that include mobile and connected devices will need to be developed.

Herring (2007) discusses the features of a high quality collection development policy. He cites Dillon et al. (2001) who recommend the policy cover:

  • Acquisition policy (not procedure)
  • Criteria for resource selection
  • Evaluation policy and
  • Disputed material policy

Herring (2007) describes the provision of information to students and staff as including reference interviews, selective dissemination of information, development of pathfinders, use of interesting and informative displays. He briefly mentions the importance of collaboration between class teachers and the teacher librarian in developing and effective library website and stresses the importance of on-going professional development, encouraging teacher librarians to remain abreast of changes in technology and pedagogy and act as leaders in their schools in helping teachers to implement change.

Lamb (2011) uses the mnemonic PALETTE to describe the varied roles of the teacher librarian: People, Administration, Learning Electronic information, Technology, Teaching and Environments.  She stresses the importance of forming productive, collaborative relationships with a range of people including teachers, administrators, students and the wider community. These relationships may increasingly be fostered in online environments. Lamb agrees with Herring (2007) that one of the keys to productive, collaborative relationships is in selective dissemination of information. Filtering and targeting information for the particular needs of individuals and communicating that information in a way that is accessible and appealing to that individual. She recommends developing students to be critical thinkers and producers of information rather than merely consumers. While she sees developments in technology as a vital and game-changing advent in the information and education landscapes, she stresses the importance of using that technology as a tool to address other, subject specific knowledge, rather than ICT skills themselves being the goal.

Lamb (2007), Purcell (2010), Valenza (2010) and Herring (2007) all agree on the importance of teacher librarians engaging in ongoing professional development to ensure they remain on the front foot in relation to developments in the information and education landscapes, emerging technologies and pedagogies and innovation. They also agree on the importance of advocacy for the library program with administrators and school leaders who are contending with shrinking budgets and pressure to produce increased student performance.

Herring (2007), Purcell (2010) and Valenza (2010) comment on the many and varied roles of the teacher librarian. Purcell suggests that the roles are interconnected and often misunderstood and so role definition is required. Herring suggests that, as the roles are so varied and numerous, it is not possible to fulfil them all given the resources most school librarian have at their disposal. Prioritisation is therefore required, and that that prioritisation should take account of the needs and goals of the school community. Lamb agrees that the roles are varied and suggests that collaboration with class teachers and the school community is the most important aspect.

Lamb (2007), Purcell (2010), Valenza (2010) and Herring (2007) all comment on the changing information landscape with the advent and continual evolution of digital technologies in schools. They recommend that teacher librarians should be a driving and educating force for both students and teachers in how these new technologies can be used to enhance the educational outcomes of students. Lamb describes a required shift in strategy due to changes in ICT and how these changes affect every part of the teacher librarian’s role. Valenza describes a number of tools that might be utilized to meet the changing and growing demand for digital literacy. While a number of the tools she suggests are somewhat common place now, nine years later, her point is that the teacher librarian, more than any other member of the school community is responsible for seeking out, using and teaching technological developments as they occur.

 

References

Australian School Library Association (ASLA) (2011). A profession at the tipping point: Time to change the game plan. Keynote presentation, Karen Bonanno. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/31003940

Bonanno , K. (2015). A profession at the tipping point (revisited). Access, March, 14-21

Herring, J. (2007). “Teacher librarians and the school library.” Libraries in the twenty-first century: charting new directions in information: 27-42.

Lamb, A. (2011). “Bursting with potential: Mixing a media specialist’s palette.” TechTrends 55(4): 27-36.

Purcell, M. (2010). “All Librarians Do Is Check out Books, Right? A Look at the Roles of a School Library Media Specialist.” Library Media Connection 29(3): 30-33.

Valenza , J. (2010). A revised manifesto. Retrieved from http :// blogs . slj .com/ neverendingsearch /2010/12/03/a-revised-manifesto/

 

 

Are Teacher Librarians an Endangered Species?

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Karen Bonanno (Australian School Library Association, 2011) argues that teacher librarians are more valuable than ever, yet they are somewhat invisible. She argues that TLs need to differentiate themselves in the school community. They must identify what it is that they can do or offer that others don’t. Make it visible, necessary. Follow a focus area through until successful. Establish relationships with students, staff and leadership. Show how the work of the TL enhances and develops the general capabilities. In her follow up article, A profession at the tipping point (revisited) (Bonanno 2015) Bonanno adds that TLs must keep abreast of developments in curriculum and pedagogy to ensure that the curriculum is effectively and efficiently resourced, and they can share their knowledge, advocacy and solutions with their colleagues.

References

Australian School Library Association (ASLA) (2011). A profession at the tipping point: Time to change the game plan. Keynote presentation, Karen Bonanno. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/31003940

Bonanno , K. (2015). A profession at the tipping point (revisited). Access, March, 14-21

ETL401 Module 3.1

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The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers describes the tasks and activities undertaken by teachers that ensure they are providing a quality service to their school communities. The Australian School Library Association (2015)  and ALIA Schools (2014) provide correlated standards for use by Teacher Librarians to ensure they are also engaged in quality service provision. Teacher Librarians can use the standards and the evidence guide in their practice to ensure that they are operating using expert-endorsed methodology and pedagogy. Many of the types of evidence suggested are documents that many TLs would be producing and referencing frequently in their every-day practice and so should not be overly burdensome to collate. It is important for Teacher Librarians to have access to such professional standards and documents in order to assist in improving practice and maintaining high quality services to the school community. They serve as a guide to the sorts of things teacher librarians should be doing. If a teacher librarian should identify and area of their practice they would like to improve, the Standards can provide a good starting point, describing what high quality practice looks like.

References

The Australian School Library Association (2015) Evidence guide for teacher librarians in the proficient career stage : Australian professional standards for teachers retrieved from https://www.alia.org.au/sites/default/files/AITSL%20Standards%20for%20teacher%20librarian%20practice%202014.pdf

ALIA Schools (2014) AITSL Standards for teacher librarian practice retrieved from http://www.asla.org.au/policy/standards.aspx