Image by Jonny Goldstein via Flickr.

I really enjoyed the readings this week (I feel like I write that every week, but it’s true!). Difficulty getting teachers on board to collaborate is definitely something I have witnessed as I transitioned into my role as teacher-librarian. As I have mentioned in the past, my district has a lot of turnover in the teacher-librarian department.  Many of the teacher-librarian positions in our district are filled by vice principals (it allows for more flexibility in their position) and by younger/newer teachers.  Vice principals frequently change schools and younger/newer teachers almost always get laid off (unless you have approximately more than ten years seniority). As a result, many of the libraries in our schools have been experiencing changes yearly (my current school has had a different teacher-librarian for the past 7 years or so). Consequently, many teachers lose sight of what the library truly is (and can be). Last year, when I started at my school, one of the teachers jokingly told me that they didn’t care what I did with their kids as long as I was actually there when they brought them down (the administrator sets a fixed schedule). I know this comment was not meant to be hurtful or negative towards me, but it just highlights the tone and feel of his/her past experience and current perception.  Thus, changing the perception of the library and getting staff on board to collaborate has been a major focus of mine. I started last year and do feel that I am changing the perception. These articles just emphasized how important it really is.

Again, because I want to learn more new technological tools, I jumped right on board to try out Padlet for this assignment. I cannot believe how many new tools I have learned and it’s only been six weeks!  I prefer to try them out firsthand, because I feel it better prepares me for understanding the technology and figuring out how to use it in my teaching (and in collaboration with others!). Overall, I thought Padlet was super simple and easy to use.  I love that you can control different settings to make it safer and more secure for your students. Plus, talk about a perfect tool for this assignment – a tool that focuses on collaboration to highlight what is important to sustain collaboration in the library.  Clearly, using tools like these help. Enjoy my padlet below (or visit it here)!

Created with Padlet

As you can see from my padlet, teacher-librarians need to be proactive, flexible, and sociable.  They need to model instructional leadership and actively engage with others in order to build positive, respectful relationships that will flourish with collaboration and reflection. As Cooper and Bray (2011) state, “In the end, school library media is at its heart a people business” (p. 51).

As with the previous modules, these readings and prompt directly impact my essential question, which is: How do learning commons better help schools achieve their goals?  If teacher-librarians can effectively use collaboration as part of their teaching and embrace their role as educational leaders, then they will automatically better help schools achieve their goals. As Canter et al. (2011) write, “Availability to collaborate with general educators was a key factor in increasing student achievement” (p. 14).  In most cases, school goals revolve around increasing student achievement.  Since a learning commons is centered around making the library a “hub of learning” which provides ownership to all its members and which values and embraces collaboration, then it will therefore better help its school achieve its goals. Teacher-librarians themselves, as the head of learning commons, take on multi-faceted roles, such as teacher, instructional partner, information specialist, and program administrator (Cooper & Bray, 2011). They pilot new ideas, try out new technologies, and help others learn and master new teaching styles and technologies so as to meet the diversity of our learners. They need to know their users’ needs (staff, students, parents) and make creative use of their time to better meet them. When teacher-librarians embrace all these facets of their job, are proactive, and strive to do well, then they will help make their learning commons a powerful place of learning which will have significant positive impact on their users (and consequently the goals of the school).

References:

Canter, L., Voytecki, K., Zambone, A., & Jones, J. (2011). School librarians: The forgotten partners.Teaching Exceptional Children, 43(3), 14-20.

Cooper, O. P., & Bray, M. (2011). School library media specialist-teacher collaboration: Characteristics, challenges, opportunities. TechTrends, 55(4), 45-55.

Dambruoso, A. (2014, July 18). 10 things classroom teachers need to know about modern school librarians. [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://libraryallegra.wordpress.com/2014/07/18/10-things-classroom-teachers-need-to-know-about-modern-school-librarians/

Diggs, V. (2011). Teacher librarians are education: Thoughts from valerie diggs. Teacher Librarian, 38(5), 56-58. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/docview/875201232

Goldstein, Jonny. (2012). [Image of collaboration]. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/jonnygoldstein/8161551606

Image via Common Sense Media.

With the recent readings and my in-depth exploration of the MediaSmarts and BCed plan sites, one thing I have really noticed is how intertwined all the different literacies are. It brings me back to Heather Davis’s (2010) quote, “Much of these alternate literacies can reinforce and provide added dimension to the information competency and create critical skills for the 21^st century student.”  It’s almost like a giant web of interconnected ideas, skills, and thinking all drawing from and playing off of each other.  As the MediaSmarts site states, “[I]t is important to keep in mind that competencies for digital literacy and media literacy are not separate, but rather complementary and mutually supporting and are constantly evolving and intersecting in new and interesting ways.” It would actually be pretty fascinating to see a web created that listed all the different literacies showing how they are all related and connected. As a teacher-librarian, I believe it is very important for me to have a deeper understanding of each of the literacies, how they are “unique” and how they are “connected.”  I have always known, to a degree, about the different types of literacies, but I had not really spent that much time really trying to think about how they are similar and different and how they play/connect off each other. This is, of course, still a work in progress. As I further develop this knowledgebase and understanding, I feel like I can better meet my students’ needs – I will be better able to help them connect their dots, develop deeper understanding, and personalize their learning. It is not so much that the students themselves need to know these differences, but that I know them and can use this knowledge to better construct powerful and effective lessons.  When I am planning units and collaborating with teachers, I can connect these literacies to the activities we are preparing.

Image via MediaSmarts.

When creating my digital and media literacy toolkit, I wanted to thus ensure I had a variety of tools that would be useful, engaging, and inspirational for teaching and learning.  I also wanted to ensure that they helped students become “critically engaged consumers of media” while also enabling them to “participate in digital media in wise, safe, and ethical ways” (MediaSmarts). I started off my exploration with the MediaSmarts page and eventually branched out into other areas (youTube, Google, etc.).  Please remember that my toolkit is not “complete” but a work in progress.  I see it as something that will change and grow depending on my needs and my students’ needs. I have included many sites that have a variety of links and ideas as I like to keep my options open so that I can tailor make my lessons for my current students and school. If I narrowed my toolkit down too much, then it may not reach as many learners.

I decided to create my toolkit with Symbaloo, which is a new-to-me program.  The tutorial made it look quite simple and I loved how visual the layout was.  I loved that I could quickly add a tile and that it would automatically find a symbol to match the website address I entered. Being able to color code tiles also helped to simplify and organize my project. I can definitely see potential in using this with classes or creating special ones for my staff.

Just for your reference, I separated my tiles into 5 different groupings, as follows:

• White Tiles – Websites that provide easy-to-use lessons
• Yellow Tiles – Posters
• Pink Tiles – Sites with general information on digital and media literacy (often having multiple uses)
• Blue Tiles – Games to use with students
• Red Tiles – Videos (I have included videos that I could show students as well as videos that I can watch or show teachers)

Now, as I wrap up my learning curation for this module, I always like to link back to my essential question which is: How do learning commons better help schools achieve their goals?  My essential question, to me, is extremely important, particularly in the context of my school and my situation. Because my library has had such changeover (in staff, in teacher-librarians, etc.) and because it is located in a small school and in a small community, its not really perceived as being important or as a “hub of learning.” I truly feel that demonstrating how a library learning commons can better help schools achieve their goals will help and revive its importance and make it more central and integral to learning. Last year was my first year at the school and I was already starting to see a more positive shift in attitude simply with my encouragement for collaboration and my interaction with staff and students. By being able to use my learning and experiences in this course and others in the TL diploma, then I feel that I will be better able to meet my users’ needs and build up a somewhat deflated library. So, how does building a digital and media literacy toolkit help me demonstrate how learning commons better help schools achieve their goals?  Well, by creating students who are good digital citizens, we are not just helping them develop ICT skills and showing them how to use the Internet and technology safely, properly, and in a positive way, but we are also showing them how to protect their own privacy (and respecting the privacy of others); think critically and creatively; communicate effectively and respectfully with others; and behave legally and ethically (i.e. respecting the copyright).  As the MediaSmarts page states, “Digital Citizenship is ‘character education’ in a networked world.”  Ultimately, we are helping students develop higher critical and creative thinking in connection to ICT.  This, in turn, will help schools achieve their goals, because students will be able to think more critically and creatively, use technology more effectively and ethically, and apply their learning in new and innovative ways. If students can do these things, they will naturally transfer to the skills and higher thinking needed to meet school goals.

References:

BC Ministry of Education. (2012, October 17). Developing digital literacy standards. Retrieved fromhttp://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/dist_learning/dig_lit_standards.htm

Kang, C. (2014, March 5). Why all that time texting is good for your kids. A Q&A with author Danah Boyd. [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/03/05/why-all-that-time-texting-is-good-for-your-kids-a-qa-with-author-danah-boyd/

Konnikova, M. (2014, July 16). Being a better online reader. Retrieved from http://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/being-a-better-online-reader

MediaSmarts. (n.d.). Digital & media literacy. Retrieved from http://mediasmarts.ca/digital-media-literacy

I really enjoyed reading the various articles, blog posts, and videos for Module 5 on Critical Literacy.  The sentence that really resonated with me was when Heather Davis (2010) wrote, “Both critical thinking and information literacy work together in partnership, each leaning on and supporting the other.”  This, in essence, is what we, as teacher-librarian, do.  We work together with our staff, students, community, and world to support each other in creating and expanding our learning.

So much of what we do in the library is intertwined together, as Davis (2010) states, “Much of these alternate literacies can reinforce and provide added dimension to the information literacy competency and create critical skills for the 21st century student.” When I think about critical literacy (and the other literacies), I do not think of them as separate entities, but as important pieces to a puzzle of learning, growth, and reflection. As I read through the articles, I thought about how important critical literacy is and how essential it is to include as part of our teaching.  We must help our students construct this knowledge to better prepare them for the future (not just for research or school purposes, but also for everyday life experiences, to help them build empathy, and in hopes that they will construct and make positive changes to the world).  If I want to demonstrate how learning commons help schools achieve their goals (as my essential question), then I therefore need to ensure that I am integrating critical literacy (and all literacies) into my teaching, learning, and collaboration.  

When I saw the prompt for this module’s learning curation, I automatically thought about PowToon.  When we were first introduced to PowToon, I decided that emaze was a better fit for my presentation, so although I explored PowToon, I did not have a chance to use it as a tool to showcase my learning (or to teach others). I finally got the opportunity to try it out for an audience this past week as part of an inquiry assignment in LIBE 477B.  The inquiry was on fostering a reading culture in school and, rather than list a bunch of strategies, I decided to make a PowToon movie.  If you’d like to see it you can view it below.

I had such a blast creating the movie that I knew that I immediately wanted to use it again for this prompt.  I tend to write a lot and I wanted to use a tool to showcase my learning using fewer words. Because this prompt lends itself well to key concepts and ideas, PowToon was a perfect resource to again showcase my learning.  You can view my Critical Literacy PowToon below:

As a side note, PowToon is such an easy, fun program to use.  I love how many templates are available and how quickly one can create a movie.  The only downfall, teaching-wise, that comes to mind immediately is helping students differentiate between all the upgrades (i.e. not being able to use certain features, slides, or templates).  I can definitely see using it as a teaching tool and, despite the upgrades, can still see myself using the program with students (I think they would have a kick out of the different features).

References:

Bird, E. (2014, August 1). Wikipedia, Amelia bedelia, and our responsibility regarding online sources. [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2014/08/01/wikipedia-amelia-bedelia-and-the-responsibility-of-online-sources/#

Coffey, H. (n.d.) Critical literacy. Retrieved from http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/4437

Davis, H. (2010, February 3). Critical Literacy? Information! [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2010/critical-literacy-information/

Farkas, M. (2011, November 1). Critical inquiry in the age of social media. [Blog post]. Retrieved fromhttp://www.americanlibrariesmagazine.org/article/information-literacy-20

Hayes, D. (2014, August 9). Let’s stop trying to teach students critical thinking. Retrieved from http://io9.com/lets-stop-trying-to-teach-students-critical-thinking-1618729143

Matthews, D. (2014, February 6).Critical literacy activity. Retrieved fromhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uolu2tKdugA

Roberge, G (2013, June). Promoting critical literacy across the curriculum and fostering safer learning environments.  What works? Research into Practice, Ontario Ministry of Education. Retrieved from https://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/inspire/research/WW_PromotingCriticalLiteracy.pdf

Than, G. A. (2014). Mother Jones sit down and read. Retrieved from http://zenpencils.com/comic/149-mother-jones-sit-down-and-read/

Starting Resource:

Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Collection of Resources Inspired by The Very Hungry Caterpillar:

Click to Open Collection

Please note that I just used a table in a Word Document to create my resource list.  I thought about using different, fancier programs, but, realized that, ultimately, sometimes simpler is better. One of the things that I have taken from the readings and discussions this week (particularly Kleckner’s and Paul’s articles) is that one does not always have to use technology and that sometimes it can, in essence, take away from the experience and/or learning.  As such, I decided to stick with something simple. It is important to remember that when using technology, it must be purposeful and used to enhance learning, not just used because it can be used.

With the changes in literacy and learning, there are so many avenues that one can now take a potential resource.  With The Very Hungry Caterpillar, I decided to focus my accompanying collection of resources on the overriding theme of butterflies and butterfly life cycles.  However, because I did not want to be too limiting, I also broadened the theme to include other insects and other animal life cycles.  In this way, it can be used to reach many different potential learning outcomes, such as investigating the basic needs of animals (and how they are met in their environment), classifying animals according to similarities and differences in appearance, behaviour, and life cycles, describing some changes that affect animals, and describing ways in which animals are important to other living things (BC Ministry of Education, 2015).

I thus envisioned The Very Hungry Caterpillar being used to start a discussion about and inquiry into butterflies and their life cycles. I selected several fiction and non-fiction books and online book websites (Raz Kids and Story Jumper) that could be used to supplement this learning.  I also wanted to include some non-book resources, so I selected some youTube videos (presenting catchy songs and showcasing the metamorphosis of a butterfly life cycle) as well as several websites/databases. Because I did not want to be limited to only butterflies and their life cycles, I also wanted to include resources for insects and life cycles in general, as I can see potential to lead the inquiry and learning to other animals. Please note that because I’m on a maternity leave, the book selections are limited.  If I were working at my school, I would obviously refer to the resources I have in the library, choosing specific ones that I think would be most appropriate for the teacher/grade level/students that will be using them (since that clearly has an impact on what books/resources I select).  I have just provided a selection of potential ones for the purpose of this assignment.

I did not, however, want to just think of my collection as a way to meet science learning outcomes, but also as a way to meet many different literacies (digital literacy, media literacy, information literacy, visual literacy, traditional literacy, etc.).  Before delving into the science outcomes, one could spend time focusing on the character and story line (sequencing activities, character analysis, plot, etc.) in a variety of ways. I also included an animation of The Very Hungry Caterpillar as well as a puppet show of it, because I saw potential for students to compare these renditions to the original story and for students to use media or puppets to retell the story in their own ways (i.e. using technology to retell the story). Magic School Bus videos and books are also part of the collection, so this too could be used as a comparison and as an area to discuss changes in video vs. book form. This could also lead to discussions/debate about the way things are visually presented (i.e. Eric Carle’s collage illustrations vs. photographs vs. animations vs. video recordings). I also included other Eric Carle books that could be used as part of an author study. There are just endless ways of taking the resource depending on the teacher’s purpose and intent. The beauty of it is that it can be used to meet learning outcomes across different subject areas (Language Arts, Science, Fine Arts, etc.). Ultimately, I would love to be able to springboard ideas off of the colleagues I am working with to inspire further excitement, interest, and learning.

Making a multimodal collection inspired from a single resource really emphasized how important it is for me, as a teacher-librarian, to be able to think quickly on my feet, have a thorough knowledge of my current collection, and have a variety of avenues to find useful resources online. If I was limited to just my school resources, it would have eliminated much potential for learning (i.e. the amazing time lapse videos of the butterfly life cycle; the ability to analyze and compare an animation or puppet show to a print book; the fun, catchy songs, etc.).  With the Internet, we have so much potential to find useful, engaging, and motivating resources that could potentially inspire or motivate even reluctant learners. If I want to help my school achieve its goals (as my essential question), then I need to ensure that I am using multiple resources and avenues to help my students learn while collaborating with my amazing staff.

References:

BC Ministry of Education. (2015). Building Student Success: BC’s new curriculum. Retrieved from: https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum

Grisham, D. (2013). Love that book: Multimodal response to literature. The Reading Teacher. 67(3), 220-225.

Kleckner, K. (2014, August 19). The book is far superior to the ebook for early literacy: Up for debate.School Library Journal. Retrieved from http://www.slj.com/2014/08/opinion/debate/ebooks-ufd/the-book-is-far-superior-to-the-ebook-for-child-development-up-for-debate/

Paul, A. M. (2014, July 1). Eight reasons why print trumps digital for readers. School Library Journal.Retrieved from http://www.slj.com/2014/07/technology/eight-reasons-why-print-trumps-digital-for-reading/

Serafini, F. (2012) Reading multimodal texts in the 21^st century. Research in Schools. 19(1), 26-32.

Serafini, F., & Youngs, S. (2013). Reading workshop 2.0: Children’ literature in the digital age. The Reading Teacher, 66(5), 401-404.