Resenters: Ruth Hall, Tina Antaoniou, Marc Kopyto
Notes were taken during the session as the presentation was going on.
Teacher librarians are making purposeful connections but how do you get a clear picture of how this benefits the whole school. We have very busy positions need to know where we are going.
We have no course profile, curriculum document, and have to maintain the library. Need a common approach, to help determine if are you progressing in the school
Set up a framework to create a vision.
Three things you can do:
1. Design a brand (library handouts)
2. Framing lessons through the Research Process
3. Use curriculum mapping to find research tasks across grades and subjects.
LibraryHandouts (branding)
Use consistent headers for all library handouts. Handouts are colour-coded. All are posted online for the kids. Colour-code the research stage handouts. Postings are categorized as well.
(Blogger's note: Interesting – what they are showing is what I’ve been doing – great to see that the same thinking is happening.)
Framing Projects using the Reseach Process
Teachers forget that students need many repetitions of a skill.
They also shared some of the challenges of getting teachers to partner and buy in to a research process. Reasons: Problem of time – planning seems like more work; curriculum content is more important than process; and planning ahead makes some teachers nervous. Some schools have numerous reports and interruptions.
There was some discussions regarding how to use the guides (Imagine the Learning, Research Success@your library, Grand Erie’s GEARS). Using the research process chunks the project and makes it easier. Chunk and assess each chunk. Many assignments involve a lot if implying. This lays it out for students.
There are inconsistencies; some classes buy in some don’t. What happens to the students who don’t get the skills and processes?
Can’t reach all teachers. Teachers that you work with can spread the word
The speakers shared that they have common library assessments completed by all students in a grade. Grade 9 Geography: Library orientation. Grade 9 Science: notes and sourcing. Grade 10 Civics and Careers: databases, effective searches. Grade 10 History – notes, sourcing, supports. Grade 11 English: plagiarism and sourcing, and they distribute Research Success@ your library.
Curriculum Mapping
A group of teacher librarians are using the Curriculum Unit Planner to extract expectations and are mapping the curriculum to determine common expectations across subjects. Projects are being developed to address these expectations in large common assessment tasks. Used the core subjects This allows for the coordination of lessons for students. This allows for consistency from class to class and save time. If students have already been tsught he skills in one course then just review, reinforcement or reminder will need to be done in the library. Curriculum mapping will allow teachers see where skills occur across curriculum.
Examples of the Curriculum Maps and projects are at Secondary T-Ls Wiki.
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3 comments:
This workshop was fantastic. I am new in the library and feel somewhat overwhelmed.
I love the idea of having common and needed items. A group or organization making research templates etc used by every school library in Ontario would be great but is likely a daunting job.
I feel if all people use the research question mark in the OSLA guide we might be on a common playing ground.
Thanks for your reply, it made some of my feelings calmed.
Richard, I remember feeling very overwhelmed my first years in the library. Remember, start small and with manageable lessons. Target sympathetic teachers and know the curriculum of the teachers you want to target. If you come with specific ideas that will help that teacher to 'cover the curriculum' they will be more likely to buy in. And definitely use the research process - slot in library skills as part of the teacher's project in one or two stages. Good luck!
P.S. you might want to check out my professional blog http://bettybunhead.blogspot.com
I also find it of help to visit first year or new teachers as they love the library. I also have taken it on my own to offer to teach some classes of the new media strand. This allows the library role to be ligitamized, while having that teacher love what you do etc.
The reserach skills component is fantastic. I find it hard to have people to buy into it....I am going to do my first real workshop on it in two weeks.
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