The readings, video, and scenarios this week really resonated with and affected me, surprisingly much more than I had expected. I have such a passion for reading and I have always felt so strongly about students having choice and ownership in what they read that it was almost gut-wrenching to read scenarios that ultimately stomp all over these ideas. The saddest part? These scenarios probably happen every day.  The glimmer of hope? We have the tools, as teacher-librarians, to lead the children back onto the correct path to building a life-long love of reading.

Image by theNerdPatrol via Flickr.

Before I really delve into the question, I want to provide a brief background. When I was a little kid, I saw an Archie comic in the grocery store and asked my mom if we could get it. Not exactly the epitome of “excellent” literature.  We weren’t wealthy and rarely did I get any new toy or item. Nevertheless, she said yes. After reading that comic, I got hooked. My mom (thankfully) allowed me the opportunity to grow this interest – she bought more comics.  I devoured them.  My love for Archie eventually manifested into a love for reading.  I branched out from the comics and into novels, none of which were necessarily literary masterpieces.  However, my mom supported my interest, buying me books and taking me to the library frequently. As a result, my passion for reading grew. I cannot help but wonder, however, what would have happened had my mom said no, if she had criticized my interest in reading Archie. In Gaiman’s (2013) lecture, he states “Do not discourage children from reading because you feel they are reading the wrong thing…Well-meaning adults can easily destroy a child’s love of reading: stop them reading what they enjoy or give them worthy-but-dull books that you like, the 21^st century equivalents of Victorian “improving” literature. You’ll wind up with a generation convinced that reading is uncool and worse, unpleasant.” Instead of loving books (which in part, led me to becoming a teacher-librarian), I may have hated them, which could potentially happen with the boy in the outlined scenario:

A grade two student comes into the library, on his own, to choose books. He is usually an enthusiastic science book fan (insects, tigers, sharks). He looks sad and defeated and says: “My Mom says that from now on I have to have take out chapter books to help my reading and they have to be a 2.4”

The boy in the scenario reminded me of myself – except instead of Archie, his passion was science books and instead of his mother flourishing his love for reading, she was squelching it.  In Kelley and Miller’s (2013) book they write, “Being surrounded by cultural forces that fail to support reading or diminish reading outright erodes students’ interest in reading and prevents them from sustaining any reading motivation” (p. 90).  This, in essence, is what his mother was (unknowingly) doing.

Image via Scholastic.

What would I do/say in this situation?  First, I would empathize with the child – I would explain that I know how much he loves science books. I would then point out that we have some AMAZING science chapter books!  I would help show him the different science chapter books we have, paying particular attention to specific science topics he loves and including ones he may be interested in.  He may have been unaware that chapter books could focus on science topics. My goal would be to turn this into an opportunity to expand his reading choices into other formats (such as chapter books).

Next, I would touch base with his classroom teacher.  I would discuss with her the situation and get her input on the dynamics of his reading and his mom (Is he struggling with reading? What does the teacher notice in class with his reading/book selection/motivation? Etc.). I would like to ensure that we are seen as a team working together. If the teacher thought it was necessary (or desired), I would be open to setting up a meeting with the teacher, me, and the student’s mom, otherwise, I would move on to step three, which is to call the mom to touch base on the situation and hopefully invite her in for a chat. I would also make sure my administrator was kept informed about what was happening (my current administrator wants to know everything).

Over the phone (or in person in a meeting), I would first express to the mom how much I enjoy teaching and working with her son.  I would explain how excited he gets about science books and how much he learns from them. I would then explain that he seemed concerned and disappointed about having to only take out chapter books at level 2.4. To get a better understanding of why she was limiting his reading choices, I would ask his mom why she wanted him to only read chapter books. I would then provide her with some information on literacy development, emphasizing the power of free voluntary reading and how it has been shown to not only improve children’s reading levels, but also their spelling, grammar, vocabulary, writing, and knowledge of the world (Krashen, 2012). I would further emphasize how studies have shown that students who read for pleasure do better in school than those who do not (Institute of Education, University of London, 2013). If she was still very firm about having him read chapter books specifically, I would go on to explain that our library allows children to take out multiple books and see if she would be open to him taking out some non-chapter books in addition to a chapter book. My goals for this phone call/meeting are to validate the mother’s concerns and help educate her about the benefits of voluntary free reading (in a non-condescending way), so that the student can ultimately continue to participate in unlimited free voluntary reading (and thus continue to develop a life-long love of reading).

In addition, I would also include some fun facts in my library newsletter and website about the benefits of reading for pleasure so that more people (staff and families) understand that having choice in reading is a huge factor in one’s ability to read. I would be sure to include some quotes from articles and studies that support and demonstrate the benefits of free voluntary reading.

Although this scenario has potential to turn an avid reader into a non-reader, it actually provides the opportunity to educate not only the mother but also others about the benefits of reading for pleasure (free voluntary reading).  Because the situation arose, it would remind me to highlight its importance in my library newsletter (or library section of my school newsletter) and website.  The more people (families, staff) that understand its importance, the more likely we can create schoolwide reading communities. As Kelley and Miller (2013) point out, “Building successful schoolwide reading communities requires parent education, investment from school stakeholders, and systems that support teachers and students” (p. 96).

This scenario, therefore, links directly to my essential question: How do learning commons better help schools achieve their goals?  Most schools (and my school in particular) have literacy improvement as a school goal.  If we can create successful schoolwide reading communities, we will automatically help the school achieve its goals (particularly in literacy).  By reinforcing free voluntary reading through the learning commons, students will become more motivated to read and will therefore gain its benefits, which include making gains in literacy skills (oral language, grammar, spelling, reading level, etc.).

References:

Canadian Library Association. (2014). Leading learning: Standards of practice for school library learning commons in Canada. Ottawa: ON.

Gaiman, N. (2013, October 15). Why our future depends on libraries, reading an daydreaming. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/15/neil-gaiman-future-libraries-reading-daydreaming?CMP=twt_gu

Institute of Education, University of London. (2013, September 11). Retrieved from http://www.ioe.ac.uk/newsEvents/89938.html

Kelley, S., & Miller, D. (2013) Reading in the wild: The book whisper’s keys to cultivating lifelong reading habits. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. p.88-128

Krashen, S. (2012, April 5). The power of reading. The COE lecture series. University of Georgia. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSW7gmvDLag

As I read through the readings and watched the video for this week’s module, I could not help but think about my essential question (How do learning commons better help schools achieve their goals?). Although a step-by-step guide is not specifically stated (i.e. A learning commons helps schools better achieve their goals by…), it is definitely intertwined throughout.  Sulivan and Lunny (2014) even specifically state, “The Learning Commons is the ‘Implementation House’ for school, district, and ministry goals”  while Leading Learning (2014) quotes, “Over twenty years of research shows that student achievement and literacy scores advance where professionally staffed and resourced school libraries are thriving” (p. 4). From these readings, I am starting to see how even the simple design of a learning commons can play a pivotal role in helping schools achieve their goals and how important relationships and collaboration are. As Hayes states in Library to Learning Commons (2014), “[I]t is great staff, not great stuff, which is the hallmark of a thriving school library learning commons.”  School goals are met when schools work together, when innovative teaching practices are used, and when collaboration, reflection, innovation, transformation, and celebration take place.  The whole point of a learning commons is to transform the library into a “participatory learning community” that “is designed to engineer and drive future-oriented learning and teaching throughout the entire school” (CLA, 2014, p. 4).  It is the catalyst to higher learning, to teach students how to learn and how to navigate in both a physical and digital world. As Sulivan and Lunny point out (2014), “Students will need the highest level of literacy in human history to function in a wired world.” When students know how to learn, are provided with the skills in different literacies, and are supported in their inquiries, achieving school goals will follow.  I am looking forward to making more connections to my essential question as we delve deeper into our course readings.

With these thoughts in mind, I created my own recipe for a school library as a place of literacy and learning.  This recipe, when used together, will definitely help schools better achieve their goals. I decided to use a program called emaze, which is an online presentation software platform that allows you to create and share presentations that you have made. You can even “emaze” power point slideshows that you have previously created. The program offers a ton of templates, which include 3D animations and videos. It is a free program, but you can “upgrade” for certain additional features. It was actually really easy to use and I loved all the different templates to select from.  It also had sample slides within each template and different variations (such as colors).  As with bubbl.us from last week, the user interface was simple to use and understand with a reasonable amount of options to choose from (i.e. not too many to be overwhelming, but more than enough to make it fun to play with).  I would definitely use it in the future.

Below is my recipe for a school library as a place of literacy and learning using my emaze slideshow. I recommend that you open it up in full screen (clicking on the bottom right icon on the screen).  If the presentation transitions too quickly for you, you can click the pause icon on the bottom left of the screen. You can also use your keyboard arrows or the screen arrows to scroll forward or backward at your ease. Enjoy!

References:

Canadian Library Association. (2014).  Leading learning: Standards of practice for school library learning commons in Canada. Ottawa:ON

Hayes, T. (2014, 54:3).  Library to learning commons. Retrieved from: http://www.cea-ace.ca/education-canada/article/library-learning-commons

Sulivan, D., & Lunny, J. (2014, June 28). Imagine the possibilities. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_QnbQxnNCl

My LLED 462 journey had officially begun, but I found myself stumped as to where to begin. A guiding statement or essential question seemed daunting. How would I start? What should I focus on?  What if my mind changed?  But, isn’t that the beauty of inquiry? Inquiry leads us to answers, answers that we want answered. Ergo, I decided to simply let my mind lead me, for whatever it chose would guide me down the right path.

When I thought about my essential question, lots of phrases popped into my head – learning commons, inquiry, collaboration, literacy, change, growth, and the list went on. Ideas, words, jumbled around my brain as I contemplated what I ultimately wanted to get from this course and from this curation.  Rather than picking something right away, I decided to jot down ideas, thoughts, and let my jumbled thoughts flow onto paper.  With ideas in mind, I then decided to read Leading Learning and IFLA School Library Guidelines in hopes that my ideas would hone in on my essential question. After doing the readings, I felt inspired and decided to brainstorm a variety of potential questions stemming from the five standards from Leading Learning.  I recorded my brainstorm using bubble.us.  I have never used bubble.us, but since I want to be a more informed teacher-librarian, I decided that as part of this course, I would like to experiment with new technologies, since digital literacy, technology, and the virtual world abound throughout Leading Learning. Below is my brainstorm (click on the image to enlarge it):

As a side note, bubble.us was super easy to use.  There are not too many tools to be overwhelming and the user interface is simple to navigate and interpret. I could definitely see myself using this in the library with classes.

Now that I had many questions to consider, I decided to really think about what I wanted to focus on for this course and this curation. I came up with the following goals:

• To be able to justify to my administrator why we should transform the library into a learning commons
• To be more effective at my role as teacher-librarian
• To gain a better understanding of the different types of literacies and how to teach them more effectively
• To better utilize and explore the digital world/technology and apply them to my role as a teacher-librarian

My goals are intentionally quite broad. They are meant to help me grow in many ways as both a teacher and teacher-librarian. After looking at my goals, I decided that the essential question that makes sense and encompasses all my goals is:

How do learning commons better help schools achieve their goals?

How does the essential question help meet all my goals?  Firstly, it would be an excellent way to justify to my administrator why we should change our current library into a learning commons.  Administrators want their schools to achieve their goals.  If I can justify why a learning commons is better able to help the school achieve its goals, then I am providing excellent incentive to switch.  Second, to take on a learning commons model to improve school goals, I must figure out how to be more effective at my position, which would thus entail gaining a better understanding of different literacies and embracing and understanding the digital world and technology. In essence, my essential question drives my goals.

For the purposes of this curation, I have decided to use a blog to organize and document my learning.  This is directly related to my goal of exploring and using the digital world. If I am to be expected to use technology in the library, I need to try out different tools and resources so that I know what I am doing and so that I can then envision different ways to use it in the learning commons. It also allows me the freedom to try out different technologies that I could easily include on the blog (i.e. like bubbl.us, youTube, slideshows, etc.). It also provides me with a timeline of my learning. I can see the progression of my understanding change, grow, and blossom throughout the blog posts.  It provides a fantastic way for me to see my learning. Lastly, it allows me to be “organic” in my thinking. Rather than having something contrived, it is a more natural way for me to express my ideas, thoughts, and feelings as they come to me. That, to me, was different and inviting.

With that being said, I now loop back around to how I started – taking a look at Leading Learning. My essential goal clearly stemmed from my reading, but I have yet to delve into my thoughts or reactions to the readings. When I first started taking courses towards my Teacher-Librarian diploma, the term “learning commons” had yet to be introduced (at least in the courses that I had taken).  This past summer, however, I was introduced to the term in LIBE 465 through David Loertscher’s (2008) article called “Flip this library: School libraries need a revolution.”  In “Flip this Library,” he states, “If we want to connect with the latest generation of learners and teachers, we have to totally redesign the library from the vantage point of our users – our thinking has to do a 180-degree flip” (Loertscher, 2008, p. 46). He goes on to describe ways to alter the physical space (flexible room, movable furniture, etc.) and virtual space (describing it as a “giant, ongoing conversation and a warehouse of digital materials…all available 24/7 year-round) (Loertscher, 2008, p. 47). He then provided a great overview and introduction to the world of learning commons (providing ideas of where to go in the transition from library to learning commons). However, I always felt like something was missing – like I did not quite know what steps to take to fully make this transition.  Leading Learning helped bridge this gap.

Leading Learning was easy to read and understand.  It was nicely presented, with color coordination and clear steps and charts. I liked that the learning commons was broken down into five core standards of practice, which “focus on key concepts to be implemented to drive best teaching and learning” (CLA, 2014, p.8).  I felt that this piece was a vital part that I was missing from Loertscher’s article. I now had an idea of what I needed to include and why. Not only that, but I valued that each standard was supported by a growth continuum. When I thought about the transformation, I was initially overwhelmed, but when looking at the continuum, it helped break down where our school was and where we need to go. I realized that we are already doing many of these things (albeit at different stages). I tend to do better when I have concrete goals in front of me and Leading Learning laid this out very well. Furthermore, I liked that it provided key steps for implementation.  Again, Loertscher provided ideas and examples, but I felt that Leading Learning presented a more step-by-step guide. I think having this in front of me will make it easier when I try and justify to my administrator why we should try and move to a more learning commons set-up.  Will it be easy?  Of course not.  There are potentially many obstacles in the way (funding, support, time, etc.).  However, the grand ideas and the reasoning behind are worth the effort.  Perhaps it will take years to try and implement this vision, but I think it is worth it and having this document as support will be pivotal in this undertaking.  The first steps, I imagine, will be getting my administrator on board (which, naturally, brings me back to my essential question).  Once that happens, then I can see us starting off with forming a Learning Commons team (as the guide suggests).

Overall, I am quite excited about what is going to happen over the next few months.  When I first started thinking about my learning curation and the course, I was overwhelmed. However, now that I’ve started tackling ideas and did the initial readings, I feel inspired. Transforming my library into a learning commons seems like a huge undertaking; however, I think I will be getting ideas of how to do this throughout this course (and others).  One unsettling thing, though, is that I am in a district that has a massive layoff and recall process every year (I have nine years experience and I still get laid off every year).  As a result, I never know if I will return to my past teaching position(s) and, as a consequence, many school libraries in the district have a different teacher-librarian every year.  This has resulted in many school libraries getting neglected. It takes time for the new teacher-librarian to figure things out, get oriented, and assume his/her role. As a result, none of our schools have transformed into learning commons (how can they when there is so much disruption and change?). This is the first year that I was able to return to my same library and I have hopes that I will perhaps get to return again next year. With this (hope) in mind, I still think it is worth focusing on as a goal. I know it will take small steps and lots of time, but I think it will be remarkable to see how the library changes, evolves, and motivates. Furthermore, since a learning commons involves the whole school, if I can at least get ideas percolating and started, then perhaps the Learning Commons team can potentially keep things going (even if I end up in a different school).  I may have to keep doing this wherever I go! Nevertheless, it is an exciting time for teacher-librarians.

References

Canadian Library Association. (2014).  Leading learning: Standards of practice for school library learning commons in Canada. Ottawa:ON

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. (2015).  IFLA School Library Guidelines., 2nd revised Ed. Den Haag, Netherlands.

Loertscher, David. (2008).  Flip this Library: School Libraries Need a Revolution.  School Library Journal, 54(11), 46-48.