Theme Two: Face to Face Encounters

Theme Two: Face to Face Encounters

        In this theme, the lessons and readings that stood out the most were the facts an opinions regarding the face-to-face encounters of the Teacher Librarian who is encouraging students towards the right piece of information or collaborating with colleagues about an integrated unit. This part of our job does not come with a rule book, but really requires keen listening, knowledge of ones online and print catalogue, and creative implementation skills that span the ages of each grade in one’s school.

I found the article by Shayne Russell entitled “Teachers and Librarians: Collaborative Relationships” to be very encouraging. I’ve read many articles around this and similar topics, but this one was unique because it really builds UP the Teacher Librarian in value. Where other similar articles spend time persuading the TL to advocate boldly to their administrator, this article outlines the standard of what an administrator should be like. It was a very positive article!

 Shayne Russell cites many studies that conclude positive outcomes of teacher librarian and classroom teacher collaboration. For instance:

            “Assignments developed in partnership between teachers and library media specialists are known to be more ‘authentic’-exhibiting a higher degree of meaning and significance (Gross & Kientz, 1999).”

“The study concludes that test scores increase as school librarians spend more time collaborating with and providing training to teachers, providing input into curricula, and managing information technology for the school (Manzo, 2000).”

As an early-career teacher, this can seem daunting. How am I supposed to “provide training to teachers” if they are more senior than me? What can I add to the unit to bring about a “higher degree of meaning and significance”? For a few minutes I walked around thinking “Whoa, what have I got myself into? If I were a classroom teacher, I could live in my own bubble and no one would rely on me.”   But then I reflect on the five courses I have taken for this diploma. I think of the many hours I have spent researching, diving deep into information literacy, while classroom teachers have focused on a breadth of topics. I reflect on the recent implementation of my growing skills. I actually DO have the knowledge and skills for this!

“The teacher brings to the partnership knowledge of the strengths, weaknesses, attitudes and interests of the students, and of the content to be taught. The media specialist adds a thorough understanding of information skills and methods to integrate them, helping the teacher to develop resource-based units that broaden the use of resources and promote information literacy (Doiron & Davies, 1998).”

Some of my favourite collaborative lessons or units that I have done so far in my short two years as a TL have been:

• ·        Setting up a class with Office365 accounts for their Writer’s Workshop and seeing students with lagging written output skills find confidence in their writing capabilities
• ·         Co-teaching a social studies timeline unit with a grade 5 class where they learned how to research their specific moment in Canadian history and we set up a physical timeline on the walls.
• ·         Co-teaching beginning/middle/end story elements and using Toontastic as a summative assessment tool
• ·         Using MyBlueprint as a way for students to reflect on their identity and easily share out their learning.
• ·         Teaching leadership students how to create a Book Trailer of picture books to help promote reading for the primary students. Then recording their book trailers using the Green Screen app.

My reflection has highlighted how much I have built my program around the marriage between literacy and technology.

                However, I have a large take-away from this theme. Where I do feel like I have flourished with implementing solid integrated units with teachers, this theme has showed me a weakness that I have too. Riedling spends an entire chapter outlining how to properly conduct a reference interview. However, her scope for that interview is from patron (student) to teacher librarian. And the purpose of the interview is to locate the information the student requires. There is another type of interview that teacher librarians need to conduct and, unfortunately, just this past week I did so ineffectively. When collaborating with a teacher and planning a unit or lesson, I have recently learned the hard way that there needs to be specific questions I ask the teacher involved. Because I was not thorough, I made a mistake. Because of this, here are some key questions for collaboration that I will now NEVER forget to ask:

Collaboration Session:

What is your goal for this lesson?
Is this lesson yielding some type of assessment? If yes, formative or summative?
What is your location preference for this lesson?
Who would you like to be the teacher for this lesson?
Describe your vision for how it will work?
What preparation will you/I do for this lesson/unit?
How many sessions will we need with your students? (Schedule them)

Conclusion:

Our roles as teacher librarians come with many face-to-face encounters. When we deal with people, we will have strengths and weaknesses. It is important to reflect and change to do better next time. From these changes, build formal or personal policies and procedures for reference interviews or collaboration planning sessions.

“Collaboration is based on shared goals, a shared vision, and a climate of trust and respect.” (Muronago & Harada, 1999)

 

Russell, S. (2004). Teachers and Librarians: Collaborative Relationships. Retrieved from ericdigest.org: https://www.ericdigests.org/2001-2/librarians.html