Tag Archives: role of the TL

ETL512: Assessment 6: Professional Reflective Portfolio

Posted on by
Reply

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.

ETL501: Critical Reflection

Posted on by
Reply

I undertook ETL501 in order to understand more about effective design choices. My school is currently modernising our library space (Hahn, 2021, July 3). Assessment 1 allowed me to identify solutions to the pain points. Main changes now planned are the creation of distinct zones and use of half-height shelving to delineate those spaces and to act as traffic-management devices. Nicole Bolden (Bolden, 2021, September 21) suggested that signage should be prioritised: a solid idea because, not only does it allow library users to locate the resources they need, but the process of creating it also assists the new TL to become more familiar with the collection – a vital understanding to develop, teamed with an understanding of the needs of the school community.

Resource selection for my Library Resource Guide needed to be teamed with presentation. I needed to consider how to present content in a way that is open enough to encourage emerging independent inquiry skills, but structured enough to provide quality, engaging resources for content learning (Kuhlthau et al, 2015). In order to achieve desired depth of understanding, I needed to significantly narrow my scope of content. Some students would have limited independent reading skill. This presented significant challenge. Using the readability tester from Webfx, I was repeatedly reminded that, often, texts present more challenge to students than expected, highlighting the difficulty students have in negotiating the online (and print) environment, underscoring the importance of digital curation in the role of TL (Cherrstrom & Boden, 2020). By including commentary on difficulty, expected content and suggestions for integration of new knowledge into existing schemas, skills of source selection, analysis and critical thinking were developed.

While inquiry learning aims to develop skills for independent and lifelong learning (Kuhlthau et al, 2015), most students in Stage 2 could be expected to need significant teacher support. Consequently, I chose to create my Library Resource Guide to include information for teachers and to present sources that would provoke discussions, allowing the teacher and TL to model and explicitly teach needed skills. Scaffolding and developing information literacy skills is a vital component of the role of the TL (Aisah et al, 2018) and so, as well as narrowing the content focus of my Guide, I also narrowed the information literacy skills taught to allow students to deepen their understanding and familiarisation with each skill in order to overcome the superficial use digital resources described by Coombes (2019).

Creating digital learning resources is an important aspect of the work of a TL. In the Module 5.2 forum, I commented that specialised and nuanced subject knowledge required to create effective research guides for secondary libraries is different to primary school libraries, where the subject content is less technical. This is not, as Jodie Lednor (Lednor, 2021, October 1) suggested, to say that secondary TLs cannot or should not create such resources, rather articulate the importance of collaboration with subject specialists. One of my 2022 learning goals is to develop my skill in reference interviews. I believe these techniques could establish exactly what a teacher requires students to do and understand as a result of their inquiry, and therefore guide the development of resources. Ross et al (2019) offer guidance on this topic and I look forward to implementing their strategies and learning others during ETL507.

References

Aisah, M. A., Abrizah, A., Idaya Aspura, M. K. Y., & Wan Dollah, W. A. K. (2018). Development of an information literate school community: Perceived roles and practices of teacher librarians. Malaysian Journal of Library & Information Science, 23(2), 63–75. https://doi-org.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/10.22452/mjlis.vol23no2.4

 

Bolden, N. (2021, Spetember 21). Effective Information Service. https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&course_id=_57506_1&nav=discussion_board_entry&conf_id=_114042_1&forum_id=_241160_1&message_id=_3804327_1

 

Cherrstrom, C. A. & Boden, C. J. (2020). Expanding role and potential of curation in education: A systematic review of the literature. The Reference Librarian, 61(2), 113-132. https://doi-org.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/10.1080/02763877.2020.1776191

 

Coombes, B. (2009). Generation Y: Are they really digital natives or more like digital refugees? Synergy, 7(1), 31–40. https://search-informit-org.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/doi/10.3316/aeipt.178236

 

Kuhlthau, C., Maniotes, L., & Caspari, A. (2015). Guided inquiry: Learning in the 21st century, 2nd Edition . Libraries Unlimited.

 

Lednor, J. (2021, October 1). Re: Creating Resources. https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&course_id=_57506_1&nav=discussion_board_entry&conf_id=_114042_1&forum_id=_241159_1&message_id=_3808932_1

Ross, C. S., Nilsen, K. & Radford, M. L. (2019) Conducting the reference interview: A how-to-do-it manual for librarians, 3rd edition. ALA Neal-Schuman. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/csuau/detail.action?docID=5850100

A balanced collection

Posted on by
Reply

This week’s module asks whether our school library has a balanced collection. A balanced collection means that there are sufficient items in the catalogue that cover all curriculum levels and offer a variety of types. For example, it needs maps, posters, kits, professional resources, fiction, non-fiction, junior fiction (all sufficiently diverse), web-based resources and AV resources, but could also include games and toys, construction equipment and such. In terms of fiction, our library has a relatively large collection that is slowly being updated and diversified. The junior fiction section houses picture books and simple chapter books. Many of the simple chapter books do need updating and diversifying. It is a challenge to find such resources that feature diverse characters without being “preachy” or overly contrived. I would not say that it is balanced at the moment, but it is a work in progress and is certainly closer to being so than it was 2 years ago. The fiction section contains a good number of print items, mostly realistic fiction and fantasy. I am working to build our collection of other genres, especially graphic novels. Until 2020 our school library did not hold any graphic novels or manga at all. Now it is easily the most popular collection, but it is never on the shelf so I think it still needs augmenting. The challenge with manga and graphic novels is the inclusion of socially appropriate content. Many hold story lines that are appropriate, but artwork that is not or vice versa. Again, this is a work in progress.The non-fiction section needs a lot of work at the moment. Many resources are out of date or uninspiring and unattractive. It is more difficult to sources resources on some subjects than others because they are outdated so quickly – subjects like technology and geography are quickly out of date. This subject has reminded me of the value of almanacs for this purpose. I think this is an area I would like to explore more fully in the fullness of time. It is also an area in which I think a digital collection could be very useful. It is much easier and cheaper to update websites and links than it is to update the print collection.

Our digital collection is almost non-existent at this point, though I have recently been successful in gaining approval for an ebook subscription trial through Wheelers. The next stage of this trial is to recruit some students to evaluate it. I like that it is accessible from any device – iOS, Android or browser based. I like that there are collections that have been curated already to start us off and that we can add other titles over time as we have a chance to review them. Another method of enhancing the digital collection is by including in Oliver web-based resources. I will begin by looking through the SCIS database as there is a plethora of resources and suggestions available there. I must create some method of regularly checking that the links are still active. I will include this as a task in the annual stocktake but perhaps more regular checking will be important, as I alluded to in my post about Scootle recently. Perhaps I can teach the students how to use the “send resource” function to alert me to any issues they discover, thus harnessing the people power of our 900 students, and hopefully offering another way of interacting with the library.

The collection of items such as kits is fairly small in the school library at the moment as this has been under the perview of subject coordinators at my school. Science resources are kept in the science store, for example and are not part of the library collection. I think this needs to change as it is not very effective. Nothing is catalogued, the storeroom is a bombsite and noone knows what is there or how to find it. In the fullness of time, this is a project I would like to take on, but at the moment it is a longer term plan. Visual items, such as maps, posters and AV resources, has, in my opinion become less vital in recent years with the advent of technology that can access these items on an as-needed basis and the items are more likely to be up-to-date. This is always supposing that the digital collection is up to scratch to assist teachers and students to find such quality resources. This is not the case at the moment.

Learning so far

Posted on by
Reply

ETL501 has so far been a very interesting subject. I am, by now, used to the online learning model and I appreciate the advantages that it has over face-to-face learning. I can access the content at a time that suits my other commitments. I have all the content logically laid out and collected in one place. I can read the thoughts of others, including the instructor, on the content in the discussion forum, though, I can not easily or quickly get them to expand on, deepen or explain their ideas to explore further. On the other hand, the comments that are left are usually carefully considered and articulated clearly, the exploration taken up by those further down the thread.

I had not considered when I started this subject that the content would be so interrelated as it is. I expected that the physical environment and the online environment would be quite separate topics but in fact I have come to see the connecting threads: resources, whether physical or digital, must be fit for purpose. The purpose behind the resource/object/item/choice must be the driving factor. That is, that the teacher librarian must have an idea in mind of the learning they wish to take place and select the appropriate tool for the job. A physical library that looks amazing and colourful and exciting and innovative is of absolutely no use to anyone if the students can not learn there. If it is too noisy, too distracting, too uncomfortable, students will not engage. Group collaborations happen much more readily in informal seating arrangements than in rows in a lecture hall. Similarly, the teacher librarian must select digital tools to use that match the purpose and audience of the lesson. Students must be taught how to use and interact with the resources (physical or digital) to their advantage, develop their lifelong learning skills by learning to select the appropriate tool for the job.

The flipped classroom is a concept many teachers are becoming intimately acquainted with during home learning in 2021. Classes have been forced online and teachers and students both have had to learn quickly how to use the available tools. There have been some stumbling blocks that very few predicted in terms of equity of access even in affluent areas. Motivation in an online environment has been very difficult for some students (and some teachers, no doubt). A key feature of my own kids’ experience is that their lack of literacy (they are 4 and 6) prevents their accessing much of the content their teachers provide and so they have needed almost constant guidance and assistance. I have observed online classes in several grades and several different teachers in two different schools and a clear observation is that those teachers who have taken the time to teach the students how to use the tools and technology (both practically and in terms of etiquette) have had a more successful outcome. Presenting content in a 5 minute video and then following up in a Zoom class (a flipped classroom model as described by Teachings in Education (2017) and Earp (2016)) seems an effective strategy for these students. Yet there is still a group of students who do not engage at all. For some, time outside the classroom is not for school work. There are other commitments they attend to even in non-covid times. One of the considerations for implementing a flipped classroom that teachers and teacher librarians alike need to consider is whether it is likely the target student audience will or should engage outside of class time.

When thinking about providing library services, it seems to me that teacher librarians should keep the above in mind. Some students will want to engage in learning and need access to resources outside of when they are actually in the library. Some will not. Some will be able to read and learn from a screen. Others prefer print copies. Providing a mixture of both approaches allows the teacher librarian to meet the learning needs of students in both situations. Similarly, in order for students to be able to access resources and learning from the library program, teacher librarians must teach them how to access, use and apply the available tools.

Earp, J. (2016, February 3). Homework culture key to flipped learning success. Teacher. https://www.teachermagazine.com.au/articles/homework-culture-key-to-flipped-learning-success

Teachings in Education. (2017, June 20). Flipped classroom model: Why, how and overview [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/BCIxikOq73Q

Web 2.0 and 3.0 and constructivist learning

Posted on by
Reply

In order to place web 2.0 and 3.0 technologies within the realm of constructivist learning, it is necessary to first establish what exactly is meant by each of those terms.

In the begining,  websites were static; created by experts in their fields and designed to convey information and data. Later, websites began to offer users the opportunity to interact both with each other and with the website. Users were now creators as well as consumers. This was known as web 2.o. A further development in web technology saw the technology trying to understand the intention of the user and act to facilitate the task they are trying to achieve. An example of this is semantic searching, or “Did you mean…”, “People also ask…”, “Displaying results for…”. Machines try to understand and react to natural speech and information needs. They tailor search and information results to the individual user with the idea that this will be more likely to suit their needs. This is web 3.0. The next generation, web 4.0, suggests Spivack (2007), will involve distributed searching and intelligent personal agents. The introduction of Artificial Intelligence that can act as an online personal assistant is a direction in which Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant have already travelled. The danger of allowing technology to tailor responses to our usual needs is that we may miss out on unexpected results when we attempt to find information or complete tasks that are not within our usual paradigm. Searching for information showing an alternate point of view becomes more difficult. Students who engage significantly with this technology through social media may be led to believe that opinions and world views that are different or opposing to their own simply don’t exist. A dangerous position indeed for a constructivist. A constructivist learner makes their own meaning by gathering information and evidence from their own experiences. If technology that is designed to increase our access to information is actually acting to limit easy access to information that agrees with that which we have already engaged with, we, as learners and teachers, need to be purposefully engaged in seeking information and perspectives of others in order to widen our world view. This is not an easy task, and one that many students, at least in my experience, resist. Here in lies one of the most important jobs of the teacher librarian. Exposure to information and stories about the experiences of others, teaching students to search for, find and analyse other perspectives is our bread and butter, our schtick, our reason for being.

 

Spivack, N. (2007, October 4). Web 3.0: The best official definition imaginable.

ETL501 – Module 2.1 – print vs digital reference materials

Posted on by
Reply

In her article Why libraries should retain a core print reference collection (Lederer, 2016), Lederer makes several points regarding the value of print reference materials. Many of her points relate to convenience and the longevity of print reference resources. How to these points relate to the primary school context? In the usual course of events, there are very few primary students learning only online and needing access to online only resources (though during the current pandemic, this is different) and so they usually have access to the print collection as easily or more easily than the online collection. Primary students, especially in the junior years may have difficulty being able to log in to the computer at all, let alone navigate to and through an online environment.

The level of detail and currency required for curriculum activities is less demanding than in Lederer’s academic library context. Many primary students who are still developing literacy and computer skills may have a good deal of difficulty accessing digital reference materials independently. Often they cannot read the results they find, if they manage to find the articles, though if the source uses assistive technology such as immersive readers, audio and video content, they can access the information more readily. Primary students require more generalised resources with much lower reading levels and more reliance on visual content, yet they are still learning to interpret that visual content. Having the teacher librarian available to conduct regular lessons on how to access and use reference materials is vital.  Also, seeing the print resources on the shelf during lunchtime or independent reading times means many students choose to explore these texts by flipping through, not looking for specific information but becoming familiar with the form and composition of the text.

Digital resources are much more difficult to navigate and explore when the user doesn’t have a specific question in mind. Primary students may not have any basic understandings of topics they are asked to investigate, whereas students in a high school or academic library usually have at least some context or background knowledge around what they are investigating. Reference materials are perfect for users who need to gain a general understanding of the their topic.

Lederer, N. (2016). Why libraries should retain a core print reference collection. The Reference Librarian, 57(4), 307-322. https://doi.org/10.1080/02763877.2016.1145093

WTL501 – Module 2.1 – Reference Materials

Posted on by
Reply
Farmer (2014) provides a guide to the development of the reference collection in American schools. It is clear that the information is specifically targeted towards American schools, however it is still relevant to Australian school librarians. Farmer suggests that librarians should be careful to select materials that contain American spellings and measurements, which is also true of Australian librarians, though, of course, including English spellings and decimal measurements.
Farmer points out the necessity of keeping the collection current and the fact that many reference titles are quickly out-of-date. Many school libraries do not have the funds to be updating these volumes every year, if, in fact a print update is available. While it is important to provide current reference materials, this is not an indication that older versions are not useful in a school for purposes other than locating factual information. Primary school libraries provide materials used to teach students about textual features such as indexes, contents pages, bibliographies, directories etc and this does not always require up-to-the-minute accuracy and currency, though it would be an added bonus if this was also the case. This has to be balanced against the competing needs of other curriculum areas the budget must cover. Recently in my school library we attempted to purchase class sets of updated atlases of the world. The most up-to-date edition we could buy in print form was from 2009 and contains suggestions to readers that they consult the online version for updates. We decided to purchase them anyway as it is deemed important to provide class sets of print copies for the purpose of teaching map-reading skills as well as textual features of atlases and reference books more generally.
Farmer suggests that it is important to consider hardware and software requirements when selecting digital reference materials. While this is certainly a concern, it is one that needs to be addressed not only from the point of view of the library computers, but also the universal usage by library users at home who may be using any number of different operating systems, old or new hardware with varying amounts of processing oe display power. In recent times, many reference material publishers have made their products available on a number of platforms and in a variety of formats such as websites, mobile or responsive websites, apps, cloud-based streaming services etc, that do not necessarily rely on the user having the most up-to-date technology available. This is important for patrons accessing content remotely, but also means that these services are in direct competition for student attention with sites such as Wikipedia, meaning that the educational programs offered by the library need to be on point in this regard.
In addition to the resources listed by Farmer and Alderman (2014), Australian school libraries might consider providing syllabus documents and professional readings collections in the teachers’ reference collection and conversion charts of common measurements and spelling differences between traditional English and American English. They might consider language references for First Nations languages and cultural materials.
A thought occurs that, as print-based materials are out-dated so quickly, digital resources should have an advantage. Perhaps signage and advertisements for these digital materials should be displayed in the reference area of the library. Perhaps teacher librarians should be including specific lessons about how these materials can and should be used in the library program, especially in primary schools where more students are likely to experience regular contact with the library through the RFF program.
Farmer, L. S. J. (2014). Introduction to reference and information services in today’s school library. Rowman & Littlefield.
Alderman, J. (2014). What is a reference collection? LIS1001 Beginning Library Information Systems & Strategies. http://digitalcommons.unf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1021&context=bliss

ETL501 Module 1.1 Bloom’s Tools

Posted on by
Reply

Module 1.1 invites thought about how the use of Blooms Taxonomy can encourage students to think and learn more deeply about curricular topics. Using a variety of web apps and resources to help students structure and create products of learning can help them to explore issues and topics more deeply and also assist students to learn transferable thinking and technology skills. Using these resources in a team teaching environment, or linking to them in a resource for staff can assist the teacher librarian to act as an instructional leader in technology for staff who may find this area difficult or intimidating. I found it useful to think about the scaffold I would use to assist students to achieve the type of thinking required for each level of Bloom’s Taxonomy, and then search for a web app that could do this digitally, rather than the common approach of having a recommendation for a particular app and trying to fit it into my teaching program. I suspect that one of the considerations I will learn about in this subject is the structuring of pathfinders and such resources in such a way as to include not only resources for locating information, but also for processing and presenting their thinking about that information.

Objective Question  Product of Learning
 Resources/Web 2.0 tool
Knowledge What is an ecosystem? Definition Dictionary – print or online or basic textbook, eg. Wordnik, Visuword, …
Comprehension List the different parts of the ecosystem and explain what they do. Simple One way table Microsoft Word, Google Docs
Application Using a diagram, show how the water cycle operates in an ecosystem. Flowchart Diagrams.net
Analysis Contrast the natural water cycle with that used by our community. Venn Diagram https://gitmind.com/
Synthesis Identify an unspoilt ecosystem and design a way of preserving it. Hotspot Image Inabrains.com
Evaluation Is it reasonable that people pollute our waterways? Defend your answer. Podcast/video

Persuasive presentation

 Audacity, GarageBand

Filmora

Explain Everything Digital Whiteboard

Leadership and Advocacy

Posted on by
Reply

This evening I read two readings for module 6.1:Kachel, DelGuidice & Luna (2012) and Bonanno & Moore (2009). In considering how my perceptions of the leadership role of teacher librarians has changed, it struck me that I had only been considering ways in which the teacher librarian could lead programs that influence teaching and learning activities, programs that serve and assist the faculty, leadership and community. I had not considered the importance of recruiting and leading members of the school community: students, teachers, leaders, parents and others, in support of the library program itself. I had missed the seemingly subtle but actually vital difference between promotion and advocacy. Of course, if the school library program is not successful, lacks the resources to be effective or is invisible in the school, it can not possibly have any influence at all on student learning regardless of leadership style. Advocacy for the school library program must, therefore, be seen as essential in the role of the teacher librarian, not for the self-serving reason of keeping our jobs, but because of the advantages the skilled execution of that job provides student learning (the central business of schools).

In assignment 1 I wrote about teacher librarians using both servant leadership and instructional leadership to influence student learning. I had an inkling that there was more to the idea of teachers and teacher librarians being leaders from the middle and this module has solidified that view, fleshed it out and given it a name: teacher leadership. A subject to which I hope to return.

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

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.

 

The Pointy End

Posted on by
Reply

What does it mean to be “at the heart of the school”? This is a phrase I have heard quite a bit over the last few years as I have undertaken the study in this course. We want libraries and teacher librarians to be at the centre, the heart learning and the school. But what does that actually look like? Today I had a thought. And it is this:

21st Century Learning is about problems. Defining them, investigating them, seeking, proposing and testing possible solutions, communicating and then applying new knowledge. The 21st Century education is not about memorising lots and lots of facts. It is about learning to find, evaluate, use and think about facts and information. This is the specialist area of teacher librarians. Knowledge management, fact finding, fact connection and evaluating is our schtick – our bread and butter. Teacher librarians, then, are at the pointy end of 21st Century education. Far from being a dying breed, relegated to the dusty innards of a book shed, armed with an RFF roster, a date stamp and supply of unfortunately coloured twin sets, teacher librarians need to be leading, modelling, reflecting on and investigating 21st Century learning in our schools, sharing our skills and new knowledge with our colleagues as well as our students.

My focus now needs to be on how we actually go about this. 40 minutes a week with 2 classes in the room on a fixed schedule 7 periods a day 5 days a week poses a challenge in terms of practicality – actually having the time during each lesson to accomplish all that is needed and give students time to participate, explore and partake in hands on learning as well as manage borrowing time requires exquisite time and classroom management skills. I am not sure it is actually possible and so a new way of thinking about the problem is needed – an opportunity to engage in some problem based learning myself!