All posts by Catherine Sharpe

Developing and maintaining ICT Skills as a Teacher-Librarian: Inquiry Blog Post #2

Ways I can continue to develop my skills, pedagogy and professional development.

When it comes to any professional development, I usually go with workshops that are being offered, possibly what colleagues are suggesting or, lately, much of my professional development has been through these courses for the Diploma in Teacher Librarianship.

It is challenging to stay current when you’re not taking courses and it’s fairly easy to fall into stagnant routines. In beginning to think about this topic, I admit that it was a bit more challenging than I thought it would be. So, I started with browsing our course reading, didn’t really find what I was looking for and then thought I should look for a video that might encompass some simple thoughts. I came across this video by Anita Brooks-Kirkland:

I was hoping for a video that was a little more current but I like this one because not only does she advocate for TLs being Technology Leaders, she also gives reasons why teaching with technology is intrinsic at this time. The best piece of advice she gives is “…being open and adaptable are perhaps the most important competencies and the reason why there’s never been a better time to be a Teacher Librarian”. I agree with this statement and have always believed that as a teacher in general and more so as a TL, the most important skill is to be flexible because when teachers become too stringent in routines and “stick with what has worked in the past”, that is counterproductive to improving professionally.

In the video she also mentions the article she wrote, “Becoming Teacher Librarian 2.0”, which contains links to blogs about school library programs and blogs about “the wider world of libraries”. Since this is an older article, some of the blogs are out-of-date but others are still current. I actually started getting lost in the “blog world” for a bit and read quite a bit of interesting/fun  view points. Although the video and article are older than I would like, I feel like the advice is still relevant; ideas such as, being engaged in collaborative communities helps us to model collaborative learning that we want our students to achieve and “… If we wait for the book to be written that answers these [technology] questions for us, we will be too late”. We won’t know all of the answers until we try suggested techniques.

Strategies, tools, resources and networks I can implement to maintain my explorations and development.

Colleagues:

What has been helpful in the past to help me with developing my skills, pedagogy and professional development has been colleagues throughout the district.

In beginning as a TL, it was the other TLs in my school district that were, and still are, my mentors. In our monthly meetings, everyone shares what activities they have been working on in their LLCs and any new initiatives they have heard about. In addition, TLs will email each other to ask for advice or book recommendations and we have taken to calling the group “The Great Brain”.

Our District Teacher Librarian is especially good at introducing new techniques, technologies and resources and then offering professional development workshops. For example, before my maternity leave (a year and a half ago), we had a pro-d workshop on various coding resources. We set up stations to explore technologies such as spheros, bee bots and code-a-pillar, amoung others. Our District Teacher Librarian is a great resource in general; I feel like I can ask her for help in almost anything and she has at least a suggestion.

In addition, for a while we had a District Technology Specialist that made rounds to all of the schools to introduce new technologies and helpful tools. It was really great when he visited my school and I jumped at any opportunity for him to help me out. I find you really need to reach out to those people initially so that they know you are interested in learning more because they don’t really know unless you make the connection. In addition, in situations like this, it is best to prove that you can be flexible or these people might not feel comfortable “popping in”. Once I made the initial contact, making it known that I was really interested in learning more, he would always come to me first to show off new tools. Unfortunately, the position did not continue, like so many of those do, but I will definitely take advantage of those kinds of experts in the future. In addition, even though he has gone back to being a classroom teacher, now that I have that contact, I’m sure I can ask him any questions that I have even if he is no longer in that specific position.

Exploring and experimenting:

I think that part of developing my own skills back in own library environment is trying out new strategies that I have heard of. In the exploration, as I find out what is working and what’s not, I conduct further research to improve the strategy or tweak it so it works for me and my school environment. This also relates to what Brook-Kirkland argues; you can’t wait for the technique to be perfect in order to try it, there may not always be a book outlining an exact way to carry out a technology lesson. I flush out which teachers in the school want to collaborate and try some new strategies, technologies or units. This is the best way to figure out if it is an effective, worthwhile strategy to share with other teachers.

Government resources:

A good resource to regularly check is the Province of British Columbia website. Government resources in general should be reviewed because it aligns educational expectations throughout our province and country and it has to stay current.  At this point in time the Digital Literacy Framework is a useful tool. I like the examples of suggested learning activities to promote digital literacy for different grade levels. In the grade 3-5 suggestions, there are a few I would like to try that would be quite simple to implement. Such as, “Produce a media-rich digital story about a significant local event based on first-person interviews. (C, T, RI, CI)”. I like how this idea is cross-curricular.

School Library Journal:

It seems like any time I type a question concerning the library into a search engine, the answer is provided by the School Library Journal. Oftentimes there is an article that answers my question and offers specific strategies. In addition, it provides more useful resources including links to blogs. It also has up-to-date news stories so TLs can see the current focus items. There are even articles and blogs that focus on professional development. Of course, a big focus for everyone these days is “Pandemic Resources”. This article/blog post, “AASL resources to address the challenges (and expressing your professional voice in reopening)”, I found within the SLJ helps with concerns that I have in returning as a TL after a year-and-a-half absence. I have the experience of teaching as a classroom teacher implementing pandemic safety guidelines but it will be much different as a TL.

Some ways educators and professionals are connecting and sharing their learning.

As I started searching, I realize that I already know many places that provide connections for shared learning with other educators and professionals.

BCTLA:

A really useful local resource is the BCTLA. Through the website, there are so many facets that can be constantly used to maintain professional development as a TL. There is even a professional development section of the website in addition to other helpful aspects such as a Twitter feed with other TLs sharing (I even saw a tweet from our professor!). Like I have already said, since I was teaching grade 4/5 from January until June, I feel a bit out-of-the-loop concerning LCC procedures for COVID-19, I found the article BCTLA COVID LLC Re-Opening especially helpful.
One thing I have been putting off but know I should do is to Become A Member. I was procrastinating about this because until now, I was not completely secure in my TL position but I am now so it is a goal of mine for the fall.

LM_Net:

A resource that was introduced to me through another library course is LM_Net. LM_Net stands for Library Media Network which is a listserv for School Librarians to ask questions and share information. In the course where I heard of this, the professor suggested that we subscribe to the “Digest” email which is more a summary of the main posts/questions and then it limits the number of emails. If you are interested in one of the topics, you can click on that post to read more in order to help or see what other TLs are suggesting.

A Facebook group that was mentioned in an LM_Net post, The School Librarian’s Workshop, which I added to my Facebook just recently, is serving to be quite interesting and handy. I tend to be more of a Facebook than a Twitter user, so I see those posts more often. Other TLs are asking questions and opinions on many topics and the responses are helpful to me as well. In the past few days, there has been good book recommendations for specific topics and needs.  There are even book suggestions for books that are new to me that I am going to investigate.

LibGuides:

LibGuides Community This site, like others I have already mentioned, has many options to explore topics of interest and see what other professionals are doing. What I like about this site is that other librarians at all levels of education have contributed to curated collections on specific topics.

LibraryThing:

I subscribe to LibraryThing, which I also found through another class and it’s free to become a member. Again, so many useful aspects to this site that it can be a bit overwhelming. I don’t remember where or when I heard about this site but I haven’t really had the chance to explore it too much until now. There are options to subscribe to blogs and there is a “Talk” section. Once you log-on, you can make your own lists, like a personal mini-catalog, for book and blogs. In the “discover” list, I clicked on “books” and explored the “early reviewers”which seems very interesting. Apparently, you can sign up to review books but you have to get in at the right time. I did look through the list of July books and it appears to have a good selection for different age groups.

What I can do to maintain connections and networks, to further develop my knowledge, experience and skills.

Once I have completed my library courses, it might be more challenging to maintain the level of professional development techniques that I have been obtaining. In addition, I have so many ideas that I want to try that I have learned through these courses that I intend to try, which might take a while.

Maintaining connections with individuals from the wider TL community, such as the contacts I have made through the UBC courses, will be helpful to have individuals I can ask opinions of. I can do this by keeping the connections made through Twitter and checking in on what others are doing.

In addition, subscribing to more Library Blogs or email newsletters that provide notifications when there is something new helps remind me to take a closer look every once in a while. For example, a blog that I found that I liked the set-up of for possibly my own LLC blog is this one: https://annacrosland.edublogs.org/. I also like the kinds of activities she features.

The trick for me will be to actually remember to continuously check these sites to see what is new. I will have more time to do this once I have finished my courses!

Conclusions:

Up until now, I have felt like the less experienced individual so I could passively pick and choose the professional development that was relevant to me. From this point on, I know as a TL, I am in a Leadership position and I will need to be the one who advocates for which professional development staff should carry out. Therefore, to stay current, I will need to stay connected to a wider community.

References:

BC Teacher-Librarians’ Association. (2020). Retrieved 25 July 2020, from https://bctla.ca/

Brooks Kirkland, A. (2007). Becoming Teacher-Librarian 2.0. Partnership: The Canadian Journal Of Library And Information Practice And Research2(1). doi: 10.21083/partnership.v2i1.280

Crosland, A. (2020). annacrosland.edublogs. Retrieved 29 July 2020, from https://annacrosland.edublogs.org/

Digital Literacy – Province of British Columbia. (2020). Retrieved 25 July 2020, from https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/k-12/teach/teaching-tools/digital-literacy

Fearful Soul. (2020). Facebook Cover Photos [Image]. Retrieved from https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7b/39/50/7b395072c468efcff1f7df439709d4f5.jpg

LibGuides Community. (2020). Retrieved 29 July 2020, from https://community.libguides.com/

LibraryThing | Catalog your books online. (2020). Retrieved 29 July 2020, from https://www.librarything.com/home

LM_NET (Library Media Network). (2020). Retrieved 25 July 2020, from http://www.lm-net.info/

Teacher-Librarian 2.0: The TL as Technology Leader. (2015). [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ble-dbvEerg

 

 

Creating a Reading Culture: Inquiry Blog post #1

How is reading culture fostered in my school?

I feel like many aspects of creating a reading culture are small everyday items such as making an inviting space where students want to read as well as making books visible and interesting through displays and bulletin boards. It is also through library times in talking about books freely  where students can witness an adult’s enthusiasm for books. The shelving of books in my Library Learning Commons (LLC) has been adapted to ease access and browsing for students through categorizing and genrefying. I’ve also given older students responsibilities in the library so they take ownership and pride in the space and books. I’ve tried book recommendations in several forms. Additionally, students give me book recommendations, I follow-through and get the book. Also, for the older students, I have made library passes so book exchanges can be done when they need or they can come to the library to work or read quietly if there is space available. There is a lot that I already do, big and small, through the LLC, but there is always more that I want to do whether it’s in the back of my mind or something I have not heard of yet.

Current programs that foster a culture of reading at my school:

Several of the programs utilized at my school are actually District-wide. We have a very active group of Teacher-Librarians who meet every month to make sure that our LLCs are fairly aligned in what is offered and promoted; we share good books that we have found and organize activities.

D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything And Read) is a District-wide initiative from the BCTLA. We do this in October and it is a day that we try to involve a larger community, inviting parents to come at the end of the day to read with their children. In the past few years, I have tried to plan this as a bit of an event, having a P.J. day and during D.E.A.R. students can read with students from other classes throughout the school; we put mats out in the gym and the library is fully available. It is a fun time and I like how it gets students mingling with others in a positive way. This year, I have been thinking how it can be adjusted; it could still be P.J. day but we cannot invite parents and students will have to stay in their own classes. Maybe I can read to the entire school on the P.A. or over Zoom or a similar program?

All of the school in our district also celebrate Family literacy week. We try to do activities that fit with the yearly theme. One of the most successful events has been the school-wide games day. We put out mats in the gym and have a different game on each mat. Teachers sign-up throughout the day with a buddy class and students play board games for 30 minutes. It is a really good community-building activity and it’s great to see the older students helping the younger ones.

Battle of the Books is another event sponsored by our District Teacher Librarians. It is for grades 3-5 and there is a selection of 5 books for each grade level. For each grade level, students make teams, read all of the novels, make a team poster, cheer and costume. Teams “battle” by answering recall questions from the selected books. We have a school battle (all student from the school in each grade level), zone battle (teams from 3 different schools that won the school battle) and then a district battle with winners of the zone battles. Each year, the Teacher Librarians discuss if this is something we want to continue as the questions do not require “higher-level” thinking and possibly the competitive aspect turn some students off but we keep doing it. I think it will continue because it encourages students to read high quality books that they may not normally choose and gets some of the “competitive types” to read more when they normally wouldn’t. As well, it is good for students to go to other schools and interact with students from those schools.

Each year the library also hosts a Scholastic Book Fair. This is an event that students look forward to and remember. It gets them excited to read new books, especially when there’s a new Diary of a Wimpy Kid or something like that. I try to make it quite an event by having a raffle, following the yearly theme by decorating the library and dressing up. I show the Book Fair trailers at library times the week before to expose the students to new books that they may not be familiar with. All students come for a browsing time before anybody can buy anything so they all feel like they have an equal chance. I usually have the Book Fair during student-led conference days so that parents can come with their children throughout the day.

For the past two years we have also had a school-wide read-a-thon. The most successful year we tried to make it a really big deal! We had a kick-off assembly where we challenged the students to read a certain number of minutes collectively and if they met the goal the Principle and Vice Principle would dye their hair pink. Throughout the month students were given a paper log to add to a beaver dam we had displayed in the hallway each time the read 100 minutes. By the end of the month, the logs were spilling out of the bulletin board and on the wall down the hallway. Needless to say, the students met their goal and got to witness the pink hair dying. It was pretty exciting!The next year, we tried again but the promotion was lacking so it was like it didn’t even happen. This past spring, another teacher did her own read-a-thon where she added dog bones to a bowl on her class website for students to see. I could also add something like this to a Library Learning Commons blog.

In addition to the larger activities and events, I try to constantly promote literature, books and reading to students. I find if books are “featured”, students tend to choose them more. An idea I got from a professional development workshop from another attendee was “Mo-vember” where Mo Willems books are featured. I read a different book Mo book for each library time and although we have many of his books, I could barely keep them in the library. I noticed my own daughter (who attends the same school) who was in grade 1 at the time, started reading more independently because of it. Once the month was over, the circulation of these books went down as well. For this coming year, I would like to come up with more ideas like this one to feature different kinds of books or authors.

New tools, strategies and resources to encourage and support a school-wide reading program

Author visits:

I know this is not necessarily a “new tool, strategy or resource” per se but I would really like to have more author visits in some shape or form. Just one time since becoming a TL, I have organized an author visit. It was fun because we studied the book before the author visit so that all students were familiar with the book. I would like to organize more author visits but I’m not sure the best avenue to take. I heard that it is best to ask authors to visit when there is some sort of conference close by. Since I live on Vancouver Island, it has been suggested to try to ask presenters from the Vancouver Island Children’s Bookfest.  Even if I could have a virtual author visit it would be cool. I heard of Authors Who Skype for free and have looked at the website in the past and at the time I found it very overwhelming because of all the authors listed with many I had not heard of before. In my search this time I found this site https://www.smore.com/1mzu1-authors-who-skype-free. I think this will come in handy because this person has already made a list of her favourites. I followed the link for Kate Messner because I thought I recognized the name and I do know her books, yippee! (Side note, some of you may be disappointed in me as a TL for not connecting her name with her books right away but I’ve always been bad at remembering author’s names, I remember book titles like crazy but for some reason the author’s names don’t always stick! This is something I need to get better at!).
This might be a good year to try to organize more virtual author visits. I am always up for more suggestions about how to do this if anyone knows more resources for virtual author visits, or if you have organized any before, how did it go?

One School, One Book:

https://readtothem.org/programs/one-school-one-book/

A strategy I would like to try is “One School, One Book” where the entire school reads one story and then plans activities that relate to particular aspects of the book. I heard of this strategy at a professional development workshop at the Superconference a couple of years ago and just haven’t had a chance to try it out because it would need school-wide buy-in and preparation. The workshop facilitator who I heard of this strategy from simply gave an outline of what it entails and did not tell me about the website; I didn’t know about the website until writing this blog post and decided to do an internet search! The website doesn’t give quite as much information about the structure of the program (I think they want you to buy the entire program) but I have been thinking about how I would organize it.

For example, I was thinking about using a book like Wonder because it has multiple “off-shoots” of the text. So, intermediate classes might read the full novel and primary classes might read the picture book version We’re All Wonders:

And then if students are still interested in reading more there is also

365 Days of Wonder: Mr. Browne's Book of Precepts

365 Days of Wonder: Mr. Browne’s Book of Precepts

My library currently has all of these books and multiple copies of the novel. Upon looking at Amazon for images, I also saw a few more books in the Wonder series that we do not have yet.

I’m sure there are other books that would work for this idea, this one came to mind because of the picture book/novel combo and related readings (this was not the original example from the pro-d either, I think it was Harry Potter).

Connected activities could be making book trailers, with iMovie or a green screen app, to share within classes, at an assembly and/or on a library blog! There could also be school-wide activities or stations where students can participate in activities similar to some that happen in the novel such as a Science fair or “nature camp”. The other nice thing about Wonder is that it teaches kindness so there could also be “random acts of kindness” activities or challenges for a determined amount of time.

The interesting part of the website is that it looks like books can be purchased for each child at the school. It may be a bit costly but in discussion in June, some colleagues and I were talking about how the library budget may need to be “reconfigured” this coming year to accommodate changes in school routines. I pointed out that the yearly library budget is allocated to support the needs of the students in that current year, therefore if students are not able to check out print materials as easily as before and online resources will be used more, maybe the library budget should be invested in those. So, if I am re-allocating this year’s library budget away from print materials I would usually buy to keep in the library, maybe there would be enough money to buy a book for every child to have, depending on how much it would cost.

Book Club:

Again, not a new strategy but one I have yet to try is forming a student book club. I know other TLs in my district have book clubs in their LLC but it is mostly in the middle schools.

I feel like students who love to read but may not like the competitive aspects of Battle of the Books would enjoy something like a book club to share their interest with others. Even though I believe students would enjoy a book club, I am tentative to start one because I wonder how much of an investment in time it would be and if it would be popular so I thought I would get a bit of help with ideas. The School Library Journal has this article: How to Run a Successful Kids Book Club  by Heather Booth and it did have some good tips.

Booth suggests to:

  • Start small – a book club can run with a few interested students
  • Find a partner – possibly combine two kinds of clubs? Booth’s example was a Science Book Club.
  • Be an opportunist – if a couple of students are interested in reading the same book, start discussions.
  • Go multimedia – choosing books that also have movies may entice more members.
  • Lead by letting go – let students choose the book and be there to follow-up to encourage more discussion; however, it’s also OK when some students want to come but don’t want to talk.
  • Focus on the end goal – it’s often about more than just the book, it’s also about students finding their voice.

In addition, some of my take-aways from this article are little things like having snacks and games that may connect with the book. Also, if the discussion is slow to start, having a survey or an ice-breaker-type activity may help. Fun follow-up activities like using a green-screen photo-booth may motivate participation as well. So, this coming year, I think I will start some conversations with students that may be interested in starting a book club and see where it takes us. This may also be something that could be carried out as remote learning.

Conclusion:

No matter what, I think that effective programs that foster reading culture need promotion and a way to make it exciting and fun for students.

In my internet exploration, I found this list: 25 Ways to Build Your School’s Reading Culture.  It was reassuring to read this list as I feel that I do all of these and more. In addition, the activities I am considering are also mentioned on the list.

I really love having a busy library where individuals from the entire school community are involved and I’m always interested in finding more ways to do that.

References:

365 Days of Wonder: Mr. Browne’s Book of Precepts 365 Days of Wonder: Mr. Browne’s Book of Precepts. (2020). [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.amazon.ca/365-Days-Wonder-Brownes-Precepts/dp/0553499041/ref=sr_1_13?crid=2EKLVI9GGYRL1&dchild=1&keywords=wonder+book+r.j.+palacio&qid=1595367027&sprefix=wonder+book%2Caps%2C227&sr=8-13

Authors who Skype Free!!. (2020). Retrieved 23 July 2020, from https://www.smore.com/1mzu1-authors-who-skype-free

Barrett, L. (2020). 25 Ways to Build Your School’s Reading Culture – WeAreTeachers. Retrieved 24 July 2020, from https://www.weareteachers.com/build-reading-culture/

BC Teacher-Librarians’ Association. (2020). Retrieved 23 July 2020, from https://bctla.ca/

Booth, H. (2018). How To Run a Successful Kids Book Club. Retrieved 24 July 2020, from https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=run-successful-kids-book-club

Kate Messner. (2020). Retrieved 23 July 2020, from https://www.katemessner.com/

Pixabay. (2020). Banner-header-book-shelf-books [Image]. Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/illustrations/banner-header-book-shelf-books-1559400/

Read To Them. (2020). Retrieved 21 July 2020, from https://readtothem.org/programs/one-school-one-book/

We’re All Wonders. (2020). [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.amazon.ca/s?k=we+are+all+wonders&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

Wonder. (2020). [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.amazon.ca/s?k=wonder+book+r.j.+palacio&crid=2EKLVI9GGYRL1&sprefix=wonder+book%2Caps%2C227&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-o-p_5_11

Resource Exploration for Teaching with Digital Technology-Reading Review B

Introduction:

From the key words I identified from Reading Review A, I felt like the concept that should take priority is Digital Citizenship. Digital Citizenship is the first thing I want to teach students in the fall because students cannot really progress productively with other aspects of digital technology unless they know how to use technology responsibly. I want to find new resources that make learning Digital Citizenship fun and meaningful to students in the hopes that they will understand the importance of it. However, I have such an interest in Inquiry-based teaching and learning I found it difficult not to gravitate towards new inquiry lesson ideas. Therefore, the resources I found are a combination of  Digital Citizenship and Inquiry-based resources.

Resource 1:

International Handbook of Information Technology in Primary and Secondary Education
Editors: Joke Voogt, Gerald Knezek. Springer International Handbooks on Education, Volume 20 2008

This is a very information-rich document that could be a little overwhelming upon the first look as just the Table of Contents is 21 pages long. I chose to look at this document from the course resources because the title seemed more specific to what I thought I was looking for. At first, I was looking for ideas for teaching Digital Citizenship but found I was more drawn to the sections that related to inquiry.

The sections of this document that I found most useful gave suggested lesson ideas, websites and teaching documents that I feel I could use right away with students of my target age level (grades 4/5, ages 8-10). The following sections of the document are where I focused:

3.2 Interactive Learning Environments: Review of an Old Construct with a New Critical Twist (p. 231)
Mark Brown 

In this section, Brown explains “Mind Tools for Inquiry” as ways to teach students skills needed to perform successful individual inquiry. I agree that most students are missing the background knowledge, skills and digital literacy necessary to be productive on-line learners.  Therefore,  I constantly seek simple lesson ideas for students to start practicing the fundamental inquiry skills. For example, “The use of mind tools for inquiry might involve students conducting critical internet-based investigations” (p. 243).  I like the suggestions that students “… could use the Web to research a genuine problem or controversial issue and then publish their findings for a wider audience” (p. 243). By doing some searching online, students practice digital literacy in that Conflicting information from a variety of sources will require students to determine which ones are not only factual, but also trustworthy. Thus, the emphasis is on knowing as opposed to the acquisition of factual knowledge” (p. 243). This relates to Richardson’s point about how school should be changing in that students should be taught how to properly find information from trustworthy sources. I find this to be one of the biggest challenges in students conducting internet research because they usually just choose the first result instead of looking at the title and source of the information to see which one really suits their needs.

3.3 Online Learning Communities in K-12 Settings (p. 249)  
Seng Chee Tan, Lay Hoon Seah, Jennifer Yeo, and David Hung 

At first I wanted to look at this section for “Comparison of the Four Online Learning Communities” (p. 258) but the most useful part of this sections ended up being the suggestion of The Web-Based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE) (p. 257). Tan et. al. describe WISE as “a free online environment, where grade 5–12 students can log on to participate in inquiry projects jointly developed by classroom teachers, technologists, natural scientists, and pedagogical researchers” (p. 257). Right away, I liked that it is geared towards my focus age-range so it makes me hopeful that it will be a usable website. In addition, some features of the website are explained:

“1. Cognitive dimension “ It aims to make thinking visible, make science accessible, help students learn from each other, and promote lifelong learning” (p. 257).

“2. Social dimension: Discussion tools such as online asynchronous discussions allow students to interact and learn from each other” (p. 258).

3. Technological support and infrastructure: In addition to the tools to support social interaction, other tools include Inquiry Map, a step wise procedural guide that serves to scaffold independent students’ inquiry and learning”(p. 258).

The description makes it sound like it would be a useful site that I could use with students so I will review it separately as another resource.

3.5 COMPUTER CONTEXTS FOR SUPPORTING METACOGNITIVE LEARNING  (281). Xiaodong Lin  Florence R. Sullivan

In scanning the document looking for a different section, this graphic caught my eye:

In this graphic, it has many of the same “Steps of Inquiry” that I am familiar with so I read up a bit more on Inquiry Island (http://www.thinkertools.org/Pages/sciwise.html) (White and Frederiksen, 2005). It is explained as “…a science-learning environment that also utilizes a number of design elements to enhance metacognitive understanding including process prompts, model prompts, and collaboration. Inquiry Island is a multiagent environment featuring software advisors related to tasks involved with inquiry, general cognitive, metacognitive, and social aspects of science learning and systems development issues (see Figure 1). (p. 288). This seems like it might be a good way to reinforce the importance of the steps to inquiry and how inquiry is a process that should be followed and skipping steps may result in disappointing results. I did go to look at this site thinking that it might be another good resource but in my explorations of the site it was not obvious how Inquiry Island might work and many of the links that seemed interesting did not work. I still think the graphic is cool and would possibly use it as another visual for students to understand the inquiry process. Maybe by making the steps to inquiry into more of a “journey” students would understand to “follow the path” and avoid skipping to the end.

6.2 Framing IT Use to Enhance Educational Impact on a School-Wide Basis (p. 555).
Peter Twining

What I appreciate about this section is the suggested assessments for ICT because I have found it difficult to concretely assess student learning in this area. I can especially see myself using the “Achievement frameworks” which “… provide a means of ‘measuring’ the quality of learning with ICT” (p. 557). Figure 2 below gives a good idea of simple skills to look for when students use digital technologies.

Overall, I found this a useful document that I would come back to for directing my professional practice.

Resource 2:

WISE (http://www.wise.berkeley.edu/)

I had high hopes for this site as the International Handbook of Information Technology in Primary and Secondary Education explained it as a grade 5-12 resource, it comes from Berkeley and is supported by the National Science Foundation. It is explained as “An Inquiry-based Science Tool” so it would seem to fit with my goals for digital literacy incorporating inquiry-based teaching and learning. Immediately, I was able to register for a free teacher account and start browsing. Upon first glance, I only see units for grades 6 and up so this is a bit disappointing to me; when I registered, there was even an option for Elementary school but maybe Elementary school goes up to grade 7 in many areas. With a teacher account, it seems like there is an option to add a unit to a “class schedule” and in the International Handbook it alluded to the fact that it could be shared with students but it isn’t obvious to me how to do that. In browsing the units, they look good and may have the flexibility to fit with grade 5 curriculum however I think students would need more background knowledge before starting these units. Or, I was thinking the units might be adaptable to fit with Canadian content. In addition, there weren’t as many units to choose from as I thought there would be. There is a “Community built library ” section that  “…contains units that were designed and contributed by WISE community members”(WISE 2020) which is an idea that promotes globalization which I like but again, there were not as many units to choose from as I had hoped .

Overall, this doesn’t seem like an immediately usable resource like I thought it would be. If I were to use it, I would have to do some preparations and adaptations to make it work for my students and situation.

Resource 3:

Common Sense Media for Educators https://www.commonsense.org/education/

Although I looked at some different sites to see if I could find a new site that could be useful, I came back to the Common Sense Media site because it seems to have the most resources that I think students would find the most engaging. With this site as well, I created a free educator account and then could access an assortment of lesson plans in different areas of digital citizenship.

Here are some of the aspects of the site that I like:

  • Variety of lesson plans in many different areas of digital citizenship
  • Grade level choices
  • Interactive activities which include student involvement
  • Engaging age-appropriate videos
  • Options of “quick lessons” and extensions
  • Graphics/slides for visual accompaniment for lessons
  • Acronyms to help students remember important concepts

One lesson I would like to highlight for example is one I found under

Essential Digital Citizenship Lessons for the Coronavirus Pandemic

I was then drawn to the lesson The Power of Words which is supposed to be a grade 3 lesson but it would be useful for grades 4 and 5 as well. Again, there are options for a quick lesson that I find useful because one never knows how much time you will have to teach a lesson as a Teacher Librarian!

Students would find the video engaging although grade 3 students may need some parts read aloud while watching:

This video also introduces that acronym S.T.O.P. that would help students find appropriate ways to deal with online behaviour for themselves and others. This would make sense to students at my school because we also use W.I.T.S. (walk away, ignore, talk it out, seek help) for ways to independently solve in-person conflicts.

There are also interactive activities with accompanying visuals such as this activity that asks students which emoji would fit if “when you walked in, I said to you [in a friendly tone, with a big smile] “Hello!” 

Then students hold up the number of fingers of the corresponding emoji.

I would use this particular lesson first because this is the exact problem I had when I was teaching online; some students think what they say/type is a joke and others take offense and then the situation gets blown out of proportion! As well, I know that situations can get even worse if an individual feels like they are anonymous online and I would hate for any students to get themselves in trouble.

Finally, there seems to be almost an endless assortments of lessons concerning countless aspects of digital citizenship which can be used in succession or stand-alone. I can definitely see myself using this site and lessons in the future.

Resource 4:

Making It Personal: A New Approach to Teaching Digital Citizenship.

 By Alecia Berman-Dry

This periodical discusses using the technique of debate as an approach to teaching digital citizenship for 6th graders. Students come up with different topics or situations relating to digital citizenship and argue their side. For example, “Sixth grader Ryan Martin…argu[ed] that his parents bear no responsibility for his behavior online. Fellow classmate Sophia Kurnot says
that parents should make it their business to manage their children’s online habits, even if it means they have to invade privacy” (p.24). I agree with this author when she states, “As the director of academic technology, I felt that mastering all of the other NETS was not as important as knowing how to use the tools responsibly” (p.24)*. This teacher developed this technique because of the need expressed by parents and the students. By using debate she felt it would ” help
students develop a personal relationship with the issues” (p.24). By making it personal, I think it has more lasting effects on students rather than simply telling students how they should behave. I like how introductory lessons posed thoughtful relevant questions and incorporate actual articles in support. The question example given in the article is “Should a 12-year-old be allowed to have a Facebook page or Instagram account?” (p.24). I think grade 4/5 students would also have strong opinions about questions like this one and enjoy debating. The author expresses that ” Debate allowed us to tap into that desire so students could connect personally with the content” (p.25). As well the author comments that even while focusing on other areas of digital citizenship, teachable moments come up such as a “…student who posted [a] comment admitted that she did not realize what she was doing was cyberbullying, and that allowed us to make a meaningful distinction between the impact insults can have online versus in person” (p. 25). I feel that this is one of the biggest problems that I have encountered with students using social media-like programs where they can interact with others.

Although this technique is geared towards using with 6th graders, I think it could be adapted for grade 4/5 students. There are so many skills that students practice with a technique like this aside from critically thinking about digital citizenship such as supporting their opinions with facts and opinion writing techniques. In addition, students are learning how to “disagree agreeably” and take turns speaking, which is a difficult skill to master even for some adults! I can see using this technique as follow-up to lessons such as the ones found on the Common Sense Media site and then having some of these topics as inquiry.

Resource 5:

ISTE STANDARDS FOR STUDENTS

https://www.iste.org/standards/for-students

In reading the above article, I noticed it was published by ISTE mostly because there was quite a large “advertisement” at the end of the article. This looked important so I decided to check it out.

*I had to look up what NETS is in order to understand which standards Alecia Berman-Dry was referring to in her article. It stands for National Education Technology Standards; it seems like there are technology standards for students and teachers and it is connected to ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education). Surprisingly, this is the first time I have ever heard of any of NETS or ISTE! Maybe it’s because it is based in the U.S.?
The graphic below displays the standards for students.

These standards reminded me of the NTCE 21st Century Literacies that Richardson discusses (p.177) and I feel like they could be connected or possibly by meeting these stardards, students could achieve the literacies.

I’m glad that I decided to look into this site because I feel like it is another good resource. Not only does it give the standards but it also gives ideas for ways students can achieve the competencies. This is yet another resource that could take ages to explore and I plan to look more deeply at it. For each standard, there are lists of resources and ways to understand more about each; it also includes  more information on my personal topics of interest such as Digital Citizenship and Knowledge Constructor.

Conclusions:

These resources incorporate two of my key interests of Digital Citizenship and Inquiry-based teaching and learning. The resources I like the best can be adapted to combine teaching Digital Citizenship with Inquiry-based skills.

It seems like all of the lessons I am finding can be carried out in classrooms if the library is not available for student use in the fall; however, if learning returns online again, some of these lessons might be difficult to distribute or need quite a bit of modification.

Even with a quick glance and by skimming these resources I can see myself using them. In addition, as I have addressed, these resources are information-rich and I feel like they could be explored more extensively and find more useful components.

References:

Apple Images. (2020). ISTE-NETS-students [Image]. Retrieved from http://images.apple.com/education/docs/Apple-ISTE-NETS-Students.pdf

Berman-Dry, A. (2013). Making It Personal: A New Approach to Teaching Digital Citizenship. Learning & Leading with Technology41(1), 24–26.

Essential Digital Citizenship Lessons for the Coronavirus Pandemic | Common Sense Education. (2020). Retrieved 16 July 2020, from https://www.commonsense.org/education/articles/essential-digital-citizenship-lessons-for-the-coronavirus-pandemic

Common Sense Media. (2020). The Power of Words [Video]. Retrieved from https://d1pmarobgdhgjx.cloudfront.net/education/PowerOfWords_NewBumper.mp4

Common Sense Media. (2020). Which emoji fits? [Image]. Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1LC3dpRP6mXBZkB8oe3hGMWkJUhunO9e5gU6g8WlUQsk/edit#slide=id.g3da8846a99_1_0

ISTE Standards for Students | ISTE. (2020). Retrieved 19 July 2020, from https://www.iste.org/standards/for-students

Needpix.com. (2020). Header, banner, head, display, dummy, board, face, technology, think, human [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.needpix.com/photo/439241/header-banner-head-display-dummy-board-face-technology-think-human

Richardson, W. (2012). Why School?: How Education Must Change When Learning and Information Are Everywhere (Kindle Single) . TED Conferences. Kindle Edition.

ThinkerTools Research Group. (2020). Inquiry Island [Image]. Retrieved from http://www.thinkertools.org/Pages/sciwise.html

Voogt, J., & Knezec, G. (2008). International handbook of information technology in primary and secondary education. Berlin: Springer.

WISE: Web-based Inquiry Science Environment. (2020). Retrieved 19 July 2020, from https://wise.berkeley.edu/

 

 

 

 

So many interests, so little time, where to begin? Reading review A

Introduction, context and background: 

I am the Teacher Librarian at a K-5 English language Elementary school of just over 300 students. The school is located in a semi-rural area south of town with most student coming from a higher socio-economic background. I was the Teacher Librarian from September 2017 until February 2019 at which point I went on maternity leave. In January, I returned to work as a grade 4/5 teacher but will be returning as the Teacher Librarian in the fall. For digital devices at the school, in January we received student devices, which are essentially two class sets of laptops, and dismantled the computer lab. These devices are stored in carts on wheels which make them easy to move to any area of the school where they are needed. In addition, we have 12 iPads that can be used. As a Teacher-Librarian, I believe it is my job to support student learning in multiple ways, with one of the main ways being teaching about and with digital technologies. This is an area of focus for improvement in my professional development and has been since starting as a Teacher Librarian. I have improved and learned a lot but still feel like I have a long way to go. The following are areas of focus in the area of digital technologies that I would still like to work on. 

 

Areas and issues of personal interest: 

  • Digital Literacy and it’s connection to Visual Literacy.
  • Digital Citizenship
  • 24/7 Online Library Learning Commons website or blog.
  • Creating a culture of inquiry-based teaching and learning in the school community.
  • Developing lessons that can be carried out without the use of the library (if it cannot be used in the fall due to the COVID 19 pandemic).
Curricular connections:  https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum/adst/5/core

Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies 5

Applied Skills:

  • Use materials, tools and technologies in a safe manner and with an awareness of the safety of others in both physical and digital environments. 

Applied Technologies:

  • Use familiar tools and technologies to extend their capabilities when completing a task.
  • Choose appropriate technologies to use for specific tasks.
  • Demonstrate a willingness to learn new technologies as needed.

Connection to digital technologies: 

With the introduction of the student devices, we spent time teaching students how to use the devices with their personalized log-ins and how to save their work but we didn’t have the chance to teach digital citizenship. Therefore, because I was teaching grade 4/5 from January until June, I dealt with some instances resulting from these deficits when students were thrust into a digital world. So, I feel like I want to start in the fall, as soon as possible, with Digital Citizenship lessons; these can be done in the classroom or the library and will help in the proper use of digital technologies whatever or where ever that might be! 

In relation to Digital Citizenship, I feel like students need to be taught Digital Literacy. I had noticed it before but it became more obvious during “online remote learning” that although students may use technology and digital devices frequently, their skills are limited to only a few that they use repeatedly. My beliefs were reinforced when reading Will Richardson’s book Why School?, especially the chapter “Our kids are illiterate”. Although I have heard other statements similar to what Richardson says; that future employers  “…cited creativity and ‘managing the growing complexity of the world'” (2012, p. 144) more important that stored facts. However, in reading his book, it is the first time I have seen the “21st century literacies” from the NCTE and the fact  “…that, if we applied those benchmarks, upward of 80 percent of students graduating from private, public, parochial, and home schools were illiterate” (2012, p. 189). The number is both surprising and it’s not considering my recent experience with online learning. It still remains that students need guidance to use digital technologies productively if only in the way of exposure to useful programs, software and apps. Additionally, students need more skills to comprehend and critically analyze what they are reading online. In this vein, I am interested in the connection between Digital Literacy and Visual Literacy and how becoming more visually literate can help students become more digitally literate.

As well, if I have a 24/7 online Library Learning Commons, students can access it at any time, from anywhere. I am hoping to make it interactive with activities and events that might be connected to the library. My biggest challenge here is to find a format that is approved by my district that I also find user friendly. In the past year I have been getting more comfortable with blogging so it might not feel like as much of a hurdle now. 

Finally, before teaching at my current school, I taught at a school that had a very strong culture of inquiry starting in Kindergarten. At my current school, there is almost no inquiry-based teaching and learning. I have been trying to slowly integrate inquiry skill  lessons through the library but now I have a bit of a set-back with my leave so I would like to start again in the fall. I find it to be quite a slow-go in this area but I believe it would be a huge pay-off if there was follow through from year to year. Students can use digital technologies in practicing inquiry skills and then choose an appropriate way of presenting their learning by using various digital tools. In addition, these are lessons that can be carried out in the classroom if need be. Students also need to have digital literacy skills in order to adequately answer their inquiry questions and have more options of  presenting their learning. 

 

Key words: 

  • Inquiry
  • Digital Citizenship
  • Digital Literacy
  • Visual Literacy
  • Online Library Learning Commons
  • Remote learning

 

Context: 

Students are in grades K-5, age ranging from 5 to 10 but I feel like I would focus most of my attention on the grade 4/5 (8-10 year olds) to begin and then work down. The administration at the school are very supportive and are also in line with my beliefs especially about  starting digital citizenship lessons in the fall, we have already had discussions around this topic. The school is of a higher socio-economic standing with a very active PAC so access to technology is not lacking. The student devices and iPads can be used in the Library Learning Commons or the classroom and work with a variety of digital technologies. 

 

Potential lesson and professional resources: 

 Common Sense Media has educational resources with lessons and videos for teaching digital literacy and digital citizenship. https://www.commonsense.org/education/.

 

As a government resource, the Keep Learning site
 https://www.openschool.bc.ca/keeplearning/ offers and Online Safety section https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/erase/online-safety which also have links to videos. 

 

A great resource that I would like to try and follow all the way through is Coding Quest  which uses the Scratch program for students to create their own game as a way to present their learning of a inquiry topic. https://www.thelearningpartnership.ca/programs/coding-quest.

 

These are some professional literature picks that were suggested by our district professional development committee that I am interested in:

 

Launch: Using Design Thinking to Boost Creativity and Bring Out the Maker in Every Student by John Spencer and A.J. Juliani (grade level K-12)

Inquiry-Based Early Learning Environments: Creating, Supporting, and Collaborating by Susan Stacey (grade level K-3)

Conclusions (for now):

All of these ideas are what I would like to achieve in the next few years but it is mostly a question of what should take the priority at this point. Many of these issues and areas of interest can be interconnected and lead from one into another, so I just need to decide where to start!

References

Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies 5 | Building Student Success – BC’s New Curriculum. (2020). Retrieved 11 July 2020, from https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum/adst/5/core

Free images. (2020). Question mark, answer, solution [Image]. Retrieved from https://pxhere.com/en/photo/1586349

Richardson, W. (2012). Why School?: How Education Must Change When Learning and Information Are Everywhere (Kindle Single) . TED Conferences. Kindle Edition.

Spencer, J. (2020). Launch book cover [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.amazon.ca/Launch-Design-Thinking-Creativity-Student/dp/0996989544

Stacey, S. (2020). Inquiry-Based Early Learning Environments: Creating, Supporting, and Collaborating [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B078XK3X9X/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Wallpaper Flare. (2020). HD wallpaper:Digital marketing – with copysack – dark version [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.wallpaperflare.com/digital-marketing-with-copyspace-dark-version-business-communication-wallpaper-agmyn

 

Producing Information literate students: Assignment 3 – Reference resource plan for my LLC

Library Web page teaser. (U.S. Air Force graphic/Stephen Collier)

Introduction: 

At the moment, the reference resource section of my school Library Learning Commons is pretty much non-existent. When I started in my current library, the print reference resources looked much like the picture above, maybe a bit newer. It took me about a year of working towards transforming the space into a Learning Commons to realize where the reference resources resided and that nobody was using them, even me. They were out-of-date and kept on a very high shelf. In a purging mood one week, I de-selected the entire area and didn’t feel too guilty about it because we have good online resources. However, I feel like I have had a change of heart and now have a plan to make a reference resource section that everyone will want to use!  

Stage 1: Purchase New Print Reference Resources! 

First of all, I was doing it wrong; I thought that having good online subscriptions to reference resources meant that I did not need any print reference resources. In reading that Teacher-librarians should not discriminate, for or against, one format (print or electronic) over another. They should try to determine what reference, in which format, will help students and teachers to answer their questions and support the development of information skills” (UBC, lesson 4), I began to question my previous mindset. Therefore, I did some further research into the print vs. electronic debate for my second theme reflection. I found out that I am not the only one having an internal conflict about this. Ithe article “Digital vs. Print: Taking a Position as an Academic Librarian” from the Library Journal online Steven Bell points out that “New research suggests ... Students fail to comprehend complex or lengthy material in digital format as well as they do in print”(par.3). This convinced me that although I was correct that the print reference resources I had were not useful in my library, I just need to select new print reference resources even if they are pricey. I need to select new reference resources that are more appealing to Elementary students, which means they need more visuals.  One other important point that I learned as a new Teacher Librarian was that “Reference selection tools or aids serve to assist the school librarian in evaluating sources for possible inclusion into the library, as well as identifying gaps in the reference collection. However, these are merely aids; they can only assist if the school librarian has a complete knowledge of the collection and uses good judgment based on the existing resources and the needs of the community and students served”(Riedling, p.21). I needed to be in the library for a year before I knew that I needed to de-select those items and now, another year later, I have a better idea of what we need to replace those. 

In my last blog post, reflecting on the course, I posted a few examples of print reference resources that I think would be suitable and interesting. I feel like I will begin with just a few, such as handbooks (a more inexpensive option) and a visual thesaurus and encyclopedia.  

Here are some examples of what I would like to purchase: 

I got some ideas from classmate’s in this course from the first theme reflection blog posts, thanks everyone!

I found these on Titlewave (through Destiny) and what I like about Titlewave is that I can make a saved list for when I am ready to purchase. 

In addition to a yearly purchase of The Farmer’s Almanac, I think other handbooks would be popular in Elementary School.

cover_imageThis handbooks would spark interest for my elementary students. Plus, the lessons that come out of it would be useful!

For an Encyclopedia, The new children’s encyclopedia. (Visual Encyclopedia) is one I would purchase.

cover_image

Finally, for a thesaurus, this is an example of what I would like:

cover_image

Stage 2: Make a usable and comfortable place for browsing! 

One thing I am missing in my Library Learning Commons is a section comfortable for browsing the print reference resources I have many other areas that are flexible for different learning needs but none that I feel are great for the purpose of browsing reference materials. In the current landscape of Teacher Librarian and the transition to Library Learning Commons, “The role of the school librarian in a Learning Commons is transformed from keeper of the books to a program director with specialized knowledge in information sources and services who coordinates the use of a dynamic space shared by all members of the learning Community”(Riedling, p.117).  So, I feel like I am still trying to perfect my space for all learning purposes. It would have to be an area directly next to the print reference resources and have at least one computer to access the online reference resources. In addition, it would need to have enough space to provide opportunity for interaction and collaboration because “Online reference tools generally meet the immediate information needs of users, so the reference area must be transformed into a center for social interaction, individual and group exploration, and guidance in the location, access, and use of information Resources”(Riedling, p.119). By making an area conducive to using the reference materials would increase use. 

The dream would be to have something like this image but maybe a bit smaller, I don’t have quite the space for such a large unit.

shelf interior bookshelf free photo

Stage 3: Teach lessons on how to use reference resources! 

I could create a fabulous reference section of the Library Learning Commons, but it would still not get any use if students don’t know how to use it. Some students may explore the area on their own but “Research clearly indicates that the development of student competence in information literacy skills is most effective when integrated with classroom instruction through collaborative program planning and teaching by the teacher-librarian and the classroom teacher”(Achieving Information Literacy, p.7). Here are a few lesson ideas that I would collaborate and co-teach with intermediate classroom teachers. 

Research skills:
To expose students to the various reference resource types, I would simply explain the use of each type and then have students explore the resources. Once students know the purpose for each reference resource, we could try to find an answer to a question because “A good reference source is one that serves to answer questions, and a bad reference source is one that fails to answer questions”(p.21).  Exposure to the different kinds of reference resources that exist and telling students how to use them would promote student use of the resources. Once students know the purpose of each resource, they will know the suitable source to go to find answers to the kind of questions they have.  To foster information literacy “It is vital to know when to turn to print resources, when to use the Web, and when to avoid them all in favor of consulting an expert in the field”(Riedling p.113). I will know these lessons are successful when I start to witness students independently using the resources. 

Searching the web: 
One important aspect of teaching about reference resources that I find many teachers are afraid of is internet safety. Many teacher’s answer to this is to just avoid computers in general. However, students are using the internet whether we teach them about it or not, so I believe it is our job to give them the tools to use the internet safely and productively. If we do not, they will try to figure it out themselves and we know that leaving students to their own devices does not always lead to good choices. I agree that I previously thought the internet was a scary place and I didn’t completely realize the existence of “The invisible web – dark web” (UBC, lesson 8) maybe because those are places on the internet that I don’t use.  Teaching students how to be safe online and choose safe sources is beneficial when doing any online learning. By doing the following lessons, it is my hopes that students will begin to be critical thinkers in making good decisions for their learning.  

Digital/Media literacy:
An exercise that I feel would be beneficial for students to try is: EVALUATING SEARCH ENGINES (Reidling, Figure 10.1, p.114). I modified this activity to be more suitable for intermediate students by including fewer questions and adding “Kiddle” as a search engine to explore. Then I created it on Microsoft Forms so that I could post it online and students can answer the questions online and submit electronically. 

After teaching students how to evaluate a search engine, it would be beneficial to teach students how to decipher between reliable sources of information that would come up in an online search because “In general, high precision recall from electronic searches depends on how well users understand the source they are using to find information and the quality of their search query”(Riedling 113). Just as we are taught as Teacher Librarians to evaluate the authority of the sources we select, students should be taught what authority of a source is.  

The activity on considering the authority of a web page (Reidling p.55) I have modified to make another sample lesson that is appropriate for intermediate students. 

Conclusions: 

I do believe that one of the biggest jobs of the Teacher Librarian is to give students appropriate resources to further their learning and understanding.  Currently, my Library Learning Commons is lacking print reference resources that can assist learners in finding answers to their questions. As well, students are lacking the knowledge of how to use different reference resources that can assist them in finding those answers. As a Teacher Librarian I agree that “Access to information and ideas is essential for students to become critical thinkers, competent problem solvers, and lifelong learners who contribute productively and ethically to society”(Achieving Information Literacy p.25) and now I know some more ways to help students achieve those skills. If given appropriate guidance, students will be able to evaluate sources for validity, reliability, and authority which will promote information literacy. To be information fluen[t]involves the following skills: determining the accuracy, credibility, and relevance of a source; distinguishing among facts, points of view, and opinions presented in a source; and selecting the most useful resources for a particular information need”(Riedling 115). By offering a diverse selection of print reference resources in combination with online sources, an area conducive to utilizing those resources and the tools to use it all properly will help to develop information literate students. 

 Works cited: 

Asselin, M., Branch, J., & Oberg, D., (Eds). (2003). Achieving information literacy: Standards for school library programs in Canada. Ottawa, ON: Canadian School Library Association & The Association for Teacher-Librarianship in Canada. 

Bell, S. (n.d.). Digital vs Print: Taking a Position as an Academic Librarian: From the Bell Tower. Retrieved from https://www.libraryjournal.com/?detailStory=digital-vs-print-taking-position-academic-librarian-bell-tower. 

Offutt Library. (2020). Welcome to our library [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.offutt.af.mil/News/Photos/igphoto/2000669114/mediaid/355921/ 

Publicdomainpictures.net. (2020). Shelf interior bookshelf free photo [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.needpix.com/photo/1360655/shelf-interior-bookshelf-reference-book-information-old-studying-literature. 

Riedling, A. (2013). Reference skills for the school library media specialist: Tools and tips, (Third Ed.). Santa Barbara, CA.: Linworth, an Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC. 

UBC. (Winter 2020). “Lesson 1: Information Literacy and Reference Services in Schools”. Theme 1: The foundation of reference services in LIBE 467. Canvas Online Classroom.   

UBC. (Winter 2020).”Lesson 4: Print and/or Electronic Reference Materials “. Theme 2:  Managing and evaluating reference services in LIBE 467. Canvas Online Classroom. 

UBC. (Winter 2020).”Lesson : Digital Resources, the Web, and Grey Literature “. Theme 3:  Reference Materials in LIBE 467. Canvas Online Classroom. 

Bibliography: 

Hellweg, P. (2018). The American Heritage children’s thesaurus. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 

Packer, A. (2014). How rude! : the teen guide to good manners, proper behavior, and not grossing people out. Free Spirit Publishing. 

Smithsonian. (2019). The new children’s encyclopedia. (Visual encyclopedia).. DK Publishing INC. 

Piquing student interest in reference materials.

Introduction:

I know I’ve already said this but before beginning this course, I de-selected all of my print reference resources mostly because nobody was using them. Upon reflection, maybe I was not promoting them enough so students didn’t know how to use them or want to use them. As well, maybe the reference resources didn’t really spark any interest for me either because they were old, dingy and kept out of reach for me as well as the students. Side note: I am about the same height as an average grade 5 student so I can see from their point of view, literally. Anyways, I didn’t even think we needed the print reference resources because they are found on-line; however, students don’t know how to use those either!  I agree with Rieding when it states, Often students will expect quick and authoritative answers to their questions using an Internet search engine such as Google, but are often disappointed by the number of irrelevant results and annoying advertisements” (Reidling, p39) and it can be frustrating for all involved.

So, in working through this theme and exploring some resources, I started to think about how useful and interesting the students would find some of them. In particular, for this post, I want to focus on some reference types from Theme 3: thesari, handbooks, encyclopedias, and atlases. 

Thesari:

To begin, I was thinking that my grade 4/5 students probably do not know what a thesaurus is but would probably find it pretty handy! In elementary school, I find that students need specific instruction to use a print dictionary or thesaurus. Some students use them independently, but most want to use online sources.  The thesaurus I previously had was also difficult for elementary students to use with only text so I would like to get something with visuals like this: 

cover_image

 In addition to showing them a print copy and Thesaurus.com I feel like an activity like this would be fun to test their knowledge: 

By doing this kind of activity, it makes students realize what a synonym is, why it is important and if they need to know a bit more.  Then, maybe they will be motivated to use a thesaurus on their own! Wouldn’t that be exciting?!

Handbooks:

I have never really thought about having handbooks in the library and I definitely did not think of a handbook as a reference material, for some reason! A handbook is one reference material that I would consider purchasing in print form for the library because “Print copies of almanacs are relatively inexpensive sources of information. By purchasing these resources, the teacher-librarian is able to keep up-to-date information at hand for ready reference” (UBC, lesson 12).

For handbooks, Reidling suggests, “Sources included in a school library collection should be based on the students and community served, the types of questions asked, and the number of questions posed in a particular subject area (curriculum needs). Another critical factor in the selection process is the geographic location of the school” (Reidling, p41). My school is in a semi-rural setting and started a school garden last year so it is really just getting started. Each class has their own plot that they look after but the library does not necessarily have its own. So, I was wondering how the library could be involved and the readings reminded me about the Farmer’s Almanac which, again, I did not think of purchasing as a library resource.

It is reasonably priced on Amazon for $7.91, so I
wouldn’t mind spending that yearly.

The TL could be involved in early planning with classes and use the Farmer’s Almanac as a guide. I like that there is a yearly print version and an online version as well. 

Old Farmer's Almanac

At the moment, the online Farmer’s Almanac has a section for kids. https://www.almanac.com/kids

This would be cool for kids to explore and apply to their own gardens as well as using the rest of the site especially with their knowledge of the school garden from the previous year.

Encyclopedias, maps and atlases:

In my exploration of resources, I got some lesson ideas where students can find information about topics of interest by using these atlas and encyclopedia resources. 

I had a hard time considering the purchase of a new atlas because of the high cost, inconsistent use and the fact that “A five-year-old atlas is considered historical”(Reidling, p.80). Therefore, I would mostly promote online resources to students because With the wealth of geographical sources currently online, it is now significantly less complicated to fulfill the diverse requests required by students”(Reidling, p79). It might be good to have at least one current print atlas and encyclopedia but “Regardless of the format, the resources must provide the desired information quickly and easily and be clear and legible” (Reidling, p.80).

National Geographic kids has many options where students can access integrated information. For example, when I typed in “MAPS” in search, it produced some animal results and when I explored those items, the information combines maps with the animals such as this information on Grey Wolves.

I like The Canadian Encyclopedia as a free encyclopedia resource because of its many features such as geographical features in each province and maps. For example, in the “browse” area, I searched “Geographical Features” and found an article on “Allison Pass” where is shows a map of the area and discusses the location and elevation. Students can relate to areas that they may be familiar with in their own province and explore other areas of interest as well.  

Conclusions:

So, if the reference resources are presented in a more appealing way and students are taught how interesting and useful they are, I could see justifying the purchase of more print resources. To be honest, when I started this course, I was not interested in reference materials and I don’t think I completely understood what reference materials were! I didn’t have any in my library and wasn’t planning on purchasing any  more. In addition, as a fairly new TL, I was still figuring out what kinds of lessons are important to teach at which grade level to truly utilize all of what the library can offer. I found that intermediate students don’t need a story every time but do benefit from lessons like how to use more features of the library catalog. Now I would add lessons on how to use reference materials, such as the ones I have discussed, because now I know more useful resources that the students would find interesting. I still think that the print reference materials I originally had were old and boring but now I also know that it doesn’t have to be the case. Each year, I have a running list (mostly in my head) about resources that the school needs for the coming year and now new reference materials are on the (mental) list. 

Works cited:

Riedling, A. (2013). Reference skills for the school library media specialist: Tools and tips, (Third Ed.). Santa Barbara, CA.: Linworth, an Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC.

UBC. (Winter 2020). “Lesson 12: Dictionaries and thesauri; almanacs yearbooks and handbooks “. Theme 3: Reference Materials in LIBE 467. Canvas Online Classroom.  

Bibliography:

Do you know your synonyms, or words that mean the same thing? | CBC Kids. (2020). Retrieved 4 April 2020, from https://www.cbc.ca/kidscbc2/the-feed/do-you-know-your-synonyms-or-words-that-mean-the-same-thing

Hellweg, P. (2018). The American Heritage children’s thesaurus. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Home | The Canadian Encyclopedia. (2020). Retrieved 5 April 2020, from https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en

The Old Farmer’s Almanac. (2020). Retrieved 5 April 2020, from https://www.almanac.com/.

Thesaurus.com – The world’s favorite online thesaurus!. (2020). Retrieved 4 April 2020, from https://www.thesaurus.com/

Assignment 2: Collaborate with a Teacher and Evolve their practice

I have been the Teacher Librarian at a K-5 English Language Elementary School for two years. There are 14 classrooms of just over 300 students. The school is located in a semi-rural area and the population of students come from families with higher socio-economic status. Print reference resources were extremely out-of-date and above the reading level for most students in the school so most have been de-selected, leaving the Library Learning Commons with very few. The district provides subscriptions to many online reference resources such as Worldbook Online, Ebsco Database, Thompson Gale Database, and National Geographic for Kids; however, most of the teachers are not using any reference resource with their classes and I wonder if this is because they are not sure that the library has them or because they don’t know how to use them even if they know they exist. The library is transitioning to a Learning Commons format but is still lacking a seating area where patrons can comfortably peruse print reference resources. Many teachers at the school have been teaching there for many years and are a bit “stuck in their ways” but as the school has been growing, there are more young teachers who seem eager and willing to try some new ideas. I find many of the seasoned teachers have been through the changes of having a Teacher Librarian and then having them taken away so now they are reluctant to rely on working with another teacher, which I have found a challenge in booking times outside of a weekly book exchange in order to give lessons on reference resources. I think this is because “When people are overwhelmed or feeling unsuccessful, they are not ready to grow. In that case they will NOT state responses such as those listed at the level we might expect. They will be focused at a lower level where they still have concerns. If their professional development needs remain unmet, they can easily become stuck at some lower level of development, perhaps even for the rest of their career!”(Loucks-Horsley, 1996, p.7). There has not been a culture of inquiry at any level in the school as of yet. The school I was teaching at before this is a school where there is a very strong culture of inquiry starting in kindergarten and by the time students get to grade 4/5, all grade 4/5 classes work towards a showcase at the end of the year. I would like to create an inquiry culture at my current location, but it may be challenging because it is not happening at all and “The effective implementation of a new program is a highly personal developmental process” (http://www.sedl.org/cbam/, par.2). Therefore, I will be focussing my energy on two of the newer teachers to the school and applying “The Concerns Based Adoption Model” which uses “the seven stages of concern” to evaluate their readiness for collaboration with me, the Teacher Librarian, to use print and online reference resources. I feel like ” seven stages of concern” is suitable in my situation because “First, they point out the importance of attending to where people are and addressing the questions they are asking when they are asking them”(Loucks-Horsley, 1996, p.1). Both of the teachers, in conversations with me, have expressed that they would like to work with me but I have pre-assessed them at two different levels in “the stages of concern”. 

Teacher #1 has been teaching for about 2 years and has been teaching at the school for the entire time with just minimal TOC time before that. She is co-teaching a class of 30 grade 5 students, only working two days a week. She has expressed to me that she would like to try an inquiry unit but from ideas that I have explained to her, she cannot picture how it will work without being chaotic and without it going on for weeks as she is just working 0.5 FTE. As well, I have told her about the online resources that the library supplies and she told me she had no idea these existed and therefore does not know how to use them. I would apply the “Concerns-Based Adoption Model” to this teacher because “The model (and other developmental models of its type) holds that people considering and experiencing change evolve in the kinds of questions they ask and in their use of whatever the change is” (Loucks-Horsley, 1996, p.1). Last year, we began to discuss ideas and logistics for an inquiry unit but she didn’t seem quite ready for a full-on inquiry because she was obviously in the “Informational” to “Personal” stages of concern. I know this because she was asking questions much like the examples given in the article when it states, “In general, early questions are more self-oriented: What is it? and How will it affect me?” (Loucks-Horsley, 1996, p.1). To start the process, all we accomplished was a series of note-taking and citation lessons. This year we have continued the discussion and currently I believe she is in the “Management” stage because she has moved on from the simple questions and now,“… questions emerge that are more task-oriented: How do I do it? How can I use these materials efficiently? How can I organize myself? and Why is it taking so much time?” (Loucks-Horsley, 1996, p.1). So, we still have the challenge of time constraints where she does not want a project that goes on for weeks but she is interested and more willing to try a project together this year and she is keen to collaborate and co-teach. The other challenge is her inexperience with inquiry and her unfamiliarity with the resources the library supplies. During informal conversations I have asked her what area of focus she would like the inquiry to be and I took note of units she taught last year. While selecting books and new print reference materials, I look for suitable materials that would connect to units that she has taught or is wanting to teach. If and when these materials are obtained, I take the new resource(s) to the teacher and show her and ask if she would like to set up a time to look at them together or book her class in one day to explore the resource(s). In addition, this teacher is unfamiliar with the library’s online reference resources so I would ask her if she would like to book her class for a lesson to explore those resources. In exploring both the print and digital reference resources, I would first have a question or questions that I want the students to find answers to and then have them come up with their own “inquiry-style” questions to try and find support for in a specific subject area. In doing these lessons, the teacher and students will get more exposure to the print and electronic reference resources as well as practicing the inquiry skills of questioning, researching, and coming to personal conclusions. This will meet the needs of the teacher in that it will not go on for too long, she will learn inquiry-style teaching techniques and become familiar with the reference resources available. An added bonus is that the students are still learning new information linked to a unit of study. I feel like next year, she will be ready for more in-depth and more independent inquiry projects and I will continue to look for reference resources that would suit her needs in units she is teaching. To evaluate our progress, I will use the “Levels of Use” diagnostic tool from the “Concerns-based Adoption Model”. I will determine which level she is in by interviewing her. Last year, I would put her in the ‘nonuse’ level and then hopefully this year she would be in the ‘orientation/preparation’ level (http://www.sedl.org/cbam/levels_of_use.html, par. 3). 

Teacher #2 has been teaching for 15 years and it is her second year at the school. She has exposure and training in inquiry-based teaching and learning and has tried out some simple inquiry units. Recently, she expressed that she would like to collaborate and try some more specific inquiry units but finds students are lacking the background skills to work independently on inquiry such as formulating questions and research skills. This teacher is in the ‘Consequence/Collaboration’ level in the ‘stages of concern’ asking questions like the examples given: “How is my use affecting learners? How can I refine it to have more impact?” and “How can I relate what I am doing to what others are doing?” (Loucks-Horsley, 1996, p.2).  I believe this teacher is getting close to the ‘collaboration level’ in that “Once employees attain the collaboration level and work at that level for two years or more, they know its value and, given the opportunities and time to maintain and live out that disposition, will continue to seek and give collaborative support among their colleagues”(Loucks-Horsley, 1996, p.9) but needs a bit more support to reach it fully. I feel this way because she has experience with inquiry and collaboration but has not had the opportunity to apply these skills and would like more. This teacher is already very familiar with the print and online reference resources available in the library but commented that students are not familiar with them so don’t use them. In addition, she expressed the need for more current print reference resources because she knows they were all out-of-date and above the reading level for most students at the school. I will make a point to find this teacher and have informal conversations about what kinds of units she would like to focus on. Also, I will talk to administration about release time for collaboration with this teacher. I will purposefully seek out print reference materials that fit with the units of study in her class. During library times, I will teach a series of mini-lessons working on inquiry skills to assess the needs in the class. The lessons will focus on how to formulate suitable inquiry questions, explore online reference resources, how to use a print reference resource and find answers to some simple questions using reference resources available in the library. These mini-lessons will take about six weeks to complete if we were only working during the weekly library times. Hopefully, we will get time to formally collaborate and plan an inquiry unit where the class will be able to apply the inquiry skills using reference resources to come to conclusions. If there is no release time for collaboration this year, I will push for it next year. As soon as new print reference resources arrive, I will find the teacher and show her to see if it is a resource she is interested in and let her know that if she needs any help, I am available for booking. To evaluate our progress, I will be looking for students independently seeking out and using the print and electronic reference resources. As well, I will also apply the “Levels of Use” diagnostic tool from the “Concerns-based Adoption Model” and determine which level she is in by interviewing her. From our current conversations, I would say she is at the ‘Mechanical Use” level and working towards ‘Routine Use’ (http://www.sedl.org/cbam/levels_of_use.html, par. 3). 

Since I will be working with these two keen teachers, it is my hope that other teachers who are less adventurous will see how easy and productive it is to collaborate with the Teacher Librarian and how beneficial it is to students when they learn how to use the reference resources available. I plan to continue to check in with these two teachers with a goal that in the next three years, they will feel comfortable collaborating and using the print and digital reference resources easily and maybe even helping others because “Change is a process, not an event. …. Subsequent research on school change has confirmed that changes in classroom practice can take anywhere from three to five years to be fully implemented”(Loucks-Horsley, 1996, p.4). In addition, “Change is a highly personal experience, involving developmental growth in feelings (the Stages of Concern) and skills (the Levels of Use). More to the point, people need sustained help along the way if they’re going to fully implement a new idea, and they’ll require different kinds of help as their needs change”(Loucks-Horsley, 1996, p.4). I anticipate that these two teachers will continue to pursue inquiry-based teaching and learning with the use of reference resources and they will be good allies to have when other teachers enter the lower ‘Levels of Use’ and ‘Stages of Concern’. 

Works cited: 

Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM). (2020). Retrieved 8 March 2020, from http://www.sedl.org/cbam/ 

Levels of Use, a Dimension of the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM). (2020). Retrieved 8 March 2020, from http://www.sedl.org/cbam/levels_of_use.html 

Loucks-Horsley, S. (1996). The Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM): A Model for Change in Individuals.  

What is better in a Library Learning Commons, print or online reference resources? Theme 2 reflection.

Hundreds Of Cute Free Png Printables And Clip Art Of All Kinds A year before taking this course, I decided to de-select pretty much my entire print reference resources. I had been in the library for a year and hadn’t seen anyone, student or teachers, even pick them up except for one time when I decided to show a couple of students the encyclopedias to look for one topic related to their project. The librarian I took over from had been working between two schools and I don’t know if the reference resources had been looked at in her time. They were stored on a very high shelf that I could not reach without a step ladder and they were out-of-date by at least 10 years. As a beginning Teacher Librarian from what I had learned about the de-selection criteria, cost of books, observations of patron use and with my knowledge of the online reference resource subscriptions my library has access to, I was confident in my decision to remove all of the print reference resources in favour of online and never look back….until now. 

 In the past, when helping students with research projects, inquiry or answering wonders, I would refer them to non-fiction books and Worldbook online but the print reference resources were never my first choice. In addition, up until recently, I would have defined non-fiction books as a reference resource. However, in reading the information about “Managing and Evaluating Reference Services” I started to question my own beliefs about print reference resources. I am now considering investing in more print reference resources after reading that  “Students who use a wide range of resources in various mediums for learning have the opportunity to approach a theme, issue or topic of study in ways, which allow for a range of learning styles and access to the theme or topic via cognitive or affective appeals” (UBC, lesson 7). As well, in reading that “School librarians have a multitude of tasks; one critical task is the selection and evaluation of reference materials—print and electronic. Without the proper tools, expertise, or good judgment to accomplish this task, students’ informational needs may remain unanswered”(Riedling, p.18) I feel like I have been failing my students in some way although I thought I was making an informed decision.  

So, to help me decide about adding more print reference resources to my collection, I did some further research to see what some other experts believe when considering print vs. online reference resources. From the Library Journal online, in the article
Digital vs. Print : Taking a position as an Academic Librarian by Steven Bell
 it argues points such as cost, ease of access and takes on the debate saying, ” For academic librarians, adding ebook content to the discovery engine vastly increases the value of book chapters as a searchable database. There are tradeoffs, such as coping with clunky display and print features, or eyestrain, but why would higher education make a case for supporting print over digital—especially when it comes to expensive textbooks?”(Bell, 2020, par.2). One point in favour of print reference resources that Bell makes that I know but have always thought of as applying to other print materials such as fiction and non-fiction books is that “New research suggests educators can add another, even more ominous, reason to the list. Students fail to comprehend complex or lengthy material in digital format as well as they do in print”(Bell, 2020, par.3). However, Bell points out that “…preference for online materials is driven by their affordability and accessibility—and the lightened load in [student] backpack[s]”(Bell, 2020, par.3). Bell concludes that “Our destiny [as Teacher Librarians] is to have one foot firmly planted in the history and tradition of print as stewards of long held collections while the other foot steps forward into the digital future. I believe we are up to the task of finding balance between the two”(Bell, 2020, par. 6). So, from this article, I realize my “balance” is off and I need to supply more print reference resources especially if I want more student comprehension of information because that’s kind of the point, isn’t it?

Being a good Teacher Librarian and wanting to make sure that I didn’t just find a resource whose opinion I was biased towards, I found from the UBC library in the journal, “The Reference Collection:From the Shelf to the Web”, the article “Getting It Right-The Evolution of Reference Collections” by Margaret Landesman. Landesman seems to be even more pro online in saying, “Many printed reference titles were important to us as a way to keep track of what’s in other books or in journals. The ability to search full text, though, turns every collection of online texts into a reference collection and provides an automatic concordance for every title. Titles can no longer be tidily separated into ‘reference works’ and ‘general collection.'”(Landesman, 2005 p.19). I guess part of the fear for librarians is that if there is too much of a shift towards digital, where will that leave the library and us? I like Landesman’s explanation: “It seems evident that there will continue to be reference librarians, though perhaps they will use some other title. Reference collections, though, might be a less certain bet. Why will we move away from ‘reference collections’? Partly because, given the convergence among formats, we can’t recognize a reference book when we see one. Nor can its electrons be pinned down to a ‘reference collection.’ Why will we still need ‘reference librarians’? Because users frequently need more, rather than less, assistance to find needed sources and information. The needle in the haystack was hard enough to find when there was only one haystack. Now the number of haystacks is multiplying”(Landesman, 2005, p.19). This makes me feel better in that I now have a more solid argument when people tell me that if I promote digital too much then I’ll be out of a job. In addition, I now feel like I need to do more lessons on how to access and use the online reference collections that the district supplies. 

In conclusion,  I do not think that I will be buying an entire collection of Encyclopedias any time soon but I will be looking into some age-appropriate print reference resources in singles and choosing a more accessible shelf or area for students to browse. The two articles support the idea of having both print and digital reference resources regardless of cost even if most patrons seem to prefer online reference resources. Although I believe that my job as a Teacher Librarian, regardless of time or budget, is to “promot[e] reading and language development and literature appreciation” (UBC , lesson 6) I now have realized that I need to supply reference resources in various formats even if I have a multitude of other print resources that could also be used for research and inquiry.  

Works cited:

Bell, S. (n.d.). Digital vs Print: Taking a Position as an Academic Librarian: From the Bell Tower. Retrieved from https://www.libraryjournal.com/?detailStory=digital-vs-print-taking-position-academic-librarian-bell-tower

Clipart Library. (2020). Book Clip Art #2949685 [Image]. Retrieved from http://clipart-library.com/clipart/book-clip-art-37.htm

Landesman, M. (2005). Getting It Right-The Evolution of Reference Collections. The Reference Librarian44(91-92), 5–22. 

Pin Clipart. (2020). Problem Clipart Animated – Reasoning Question With Answer [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.pinclipart.com/pindetail/oTooh_problem-clipart-animated-reasoning-question-with-answer-png/

Riedling, A. (2013). Reference skills for the school library media specialist: Tools and tips, (Third Ed.). Santa Barbara, CA.: Linworth, an Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC.

UBC. (Winter 2020).Lesson 6: Managing the Reference Collection“. Theme 2:  Managing and evaluating reference services  in LIBE 467. Canvas Online Classroom.

UBC. (Winter 2020).Lesson 7: Evaluating Reference Services“. Theme 2:  Managing and evaluating reference services  in LIBE 467. Canvas Online Classroom. 

Assignment 1: Evaluation of a Reference Work

LIBE 467 63C 

Assignment 1: Evaluation of a Reference Work 

Catherine Sharpe 

Rubric for assessing a Reference Resource: 

Reference Work  Not Meeting  Meeting  Exceeding 
Relevancy  Not many visuals or visuals are unappealing for audience. 

Authors and publishers with little or no authority/no author found. 

Visuals further content understanding and engage reader. 

Authors and publishers with good authority. 

 

Visuals are highly engaging and age appropriate and strongly connect to content. 

Authors and publishers with excellent authority. 

Purpose  Expensive and may need to be replaced frequently. 

Difficult to navigate – organization is illogical. 

Information is presented with bias or connected to commercial agencies. 

Resource is created to sell or sway reader’s opinion. 

Cost effective. 

Easily navigated-table of contents/index/ 

glossary are available. 

Minimal level of bias. 

Information of presented with no intention to sell or sway reader’s opinion. 

Resource is created for educational purposes with possible connection to commercial agency. 

Little or no cost to the library. 

Logical sequence 

Obvious and logical navigation available – table of contents/index/glossary simple to follow. 

No level of bias. 

Information is presented in a neutral way. 

Resource is created for educational purposes only. 

Currency  10 years +. 

Little of no updates available. 

Little or no search features. 

Information is out-of-date. 

5-10 years old. 

Updated yearly. 

Basic search features. 

Less than 5 years old or is continuously updated. 

Link maintenance 

Basic and advanced search features. 

Curricular Connection  Materials meet some of the curriculum.  

Content is presented in singular format, reading level and student needs. 

Does not reflect student interests and cultural background of student population 

Materials meet most of the curricular needs. 

Content is presented in a few formats, languages and reading levels. 

Meets from variance of student needs. 

Somewhat reflects student interests and cultural background of student population 

Materials meet all of the curricular needs.  

Content presented in different formats, languages and reading levels. 

Meets diverse student needs. 

Strongly reflects student interests and cultural background of student population. 

Use of Lib. Space  Stored on high shelf out of reach for most patrons.  

Occupies an entire shelf or is difficult to fit on shelf.  

Meets the needs of a few learners. 

Complex organization that is difficult to follow. 

Accessible for all patrons most of the time. 

Fits easily on one shelf or does not take up any shelf space (digital). 

Meets the needs of most learners. 

Organization can be followed with some direction. 

Easily accessible for all patron use. 

Takes up little or no space in the library. 

Meet the needs of diverse learners. 

Organization is user-friendly. 

How to use the materials is explained clearly.  

 

Reference Resource to be replaced: 

Fick, S. (2004). The Canadian atlas. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre. 

Reference Work  Not Meeting  Meeting  Exceeding 
Relevancy  Not many visuals or visuals are unappealing for audience. 

Authors and publishers with little or no authority/no author found. 

Visuals further content understanding and engage reader. 

Authors and publishers with good authority. 

 

Visuals are highly engaging and age appropriate and strongly connect to content. 

Authors and publishers with excellent authority. 

Purpose  Expensive and may need to be replaced frequently. 

Difficult to navigate – organization is illogical. 

Information is presented with bias or connected to commercial agencies. 

Resource is created to sell or sway reader’s opinion. 

Cost effective. 

Easily navigated-table of contents/index/ glossary available. 

Minimal level of bias. 

Information of presented with no intention to sell or sway reader’s opinion. 

Resource is created for educational purposes with possible connection to commercial agency. 

Little or no cost to the library. 

Logical sequence 

Obvious and logical navigation available – table of contents/index/glossary simple to follow. 

No level of bias. 

Information is presented in a neutral way. 

Resource is created for educational purposes only. 

Currency  10 years +. 

Little of no updates available. 

Little or no search features. 

Information is out-of-date. 

5-10 years old. 

Updated yearly. 

Basic search features. 

Less than 5 years old or is continuously updated. 

Link maintenance 

Basic and advanced search features. 

Curricular Connection  Materials meet some of the curriculum.  

Content is presented in singular format, reading level and student needs. 

Does not reflect student interests and cultural background of student population. 

Materials meet most of the curricular needs. 

Content is presented in a few formats, languages and reading levels. 

Meets some variance of student needs. 

Somewhat reflects student interests and cultural background of student population. 

Materials meet all of the curricular needs.  

Content presented in different formats, languages and reading levels. 

Meets diverse student needs. 

Strongly reflects student interests and cultural background of student population. 

Use of Lib. Space  Stored on high shelf out of reach for most patrons.  

Occupies an entire shelf or is difficult to fit on shelf.  

Meets the needs of a few learners. 

Complex organization that is difficult to follow. 

Accessible for all patrons most of the time. 

Fits easily on one shelf or does not take up any shelf space (digital). 

Meets the needs of most learners. 

Organization can be followed with some direction. 

Easily accessible for all patron use. 

Takes up little or no space in the library. 

Meet the needs of diverse learners. 

Organization is user-friendly. 

How to use the materials is explained clearly.  

 

Relevancy: Although this resource has very well-known affiliation of “Reader’s Digest” and “Canadian Geographic”, the publisher and author are lesser known. As well, there are many colour visuals that strongly connect to the content; however, since the date of publication is 2004, it is now 16 years old and the visuals are dated and therefore unappealing to current students.
Purpose: In 2004, this resource cost $69.95, which, on a library budget is quite expensive and since this is a print resource about Canada, the content changes rapidly so if the library wants to supply reference resources with current content, the resource would need to be replaced at least every 5 years. There is a table of contents, a map index, and a thematic subject index that make it easy to navigate the contents but a bit complex for younger users. There is no glossary present so it would indicate that the resource is intended for users who already understand the vocabulary in the resource. The resource is affiliated with a commercial agency, “Reader’s Digest”, but the information is presented for educational purposes without bias and without any intention to sell or sway the reader. This resource is a Canadian atlas, so the purpose is singular.
Currency: This resource was published in 2004, making it 16 years old. It is a print resource; therefore, the search features are finite, and it cannot be updated automatically so much of the content is out-of-date. 
Curricular connection: The contents of this resource focus on Canadian maps and facts about Canadian geography, environment and peoples. The contents may still meet some of the curricular needs, but it is difficult for students to know what information is still accurate, so it makes the resource unusable. As well, the information is presented with the intention for higher level readers only, with a lot of words in a small font. The contents are Canadian so it is well-suited to meet the interests and cultural background of most students in a Canadian Elementary school.
Use of library space: This is a very large, heavy book with the spine measuring 37 cm tall, the covers measuring 45 cm diagonally, and weighing 4 lbs. Therefore, it is difficult to fit on a regular shelf, so it was stored on a high shelf out of reach for most patrons. The size and storage for this resource makes it challenging for most patrons to use. 
In conclusion, this resource will be deselected  from the Library Learning Commons because it is NOT MEETING the criteria for a Reference Resource.
 

New Reference Resource: 

Home Smithsonian Institute. (2020). Retrieved 6 February 2020, from https://www.si.edu/ 

Search | Everything | Smithsonian Learning Lab. (2020). Retrieved 6 February 2020, from https://learninglab.si.edu/ 

Reference Work  Not Meeting  Meeting  Exceeding 
Relevancy  Not many visuals or visuals are unappealing for audience. 

Authors and publishers with little or no authority/no author found. 

Visuals further content understanding and engage reader. 

Authors and publishers with good authority. 

 

Visuals are highly engaging and age appropriate and strongly connect to content. 

Authors and publishers with excellent authority. 

Purpose  Expensive and may need to be replaced frequently. 

Difficult to navigate – organization is illogical. 

Information is presented with bias or connected to commercial agencies. 

Resource is created to sell or sway reader’s opinion. 

Cost effective. 

Easily navigated-table of contents/index/ 

glossary are available. 

Minimal level of bias. 

Information of presented with no intention to sell or sway reader’s opinion. 

Resource is created for educational purposes with possible connection to commercial agency. 

Little or no cost to the library.  

Logical sequence 

Obvious and logical navigation available – table of contents/index/glossary simple to follow. 

No level of bias. 

Information is presented in a neutral way. 

Resource is created for educational purposes only. 

Currency  10 years +. 

Little of no updates available. 

Little or no search features. 

Information is out-of-date. 

5-10 years old. 

Updated yearly. 

Basic search features. 

Less than 5 years old or is continuously updated. 

Link maintenance 

Basic and advanced search features. 

Curricular Connection  Materials meet some of the curriculum.  

Content is presented in singular format, reading level and student needs. 

Does not reflect student interests and cultural background of student population 

Materials meet most of the curricular needs. 

Content is presented in a few formats, languages and reading levels. 

Meets from variance of student needs. 

Somewhat reflects student interests and cultural background of student population 

Materials meet all of the curricular needs.  

Content presented in different formats, languages and reading levels. 

Meets diverse student needs. 

Strongly reflects student interests and cultural background of student population. 

Use of Lib. Space  Stored on high shelf out of reach for most patrons.  

Occupies an entire shelf or is difficult to fit on shelf.  

Meets the needs of a few learners. 

Complex organization that is difficult to follow. 

Accessible for all patrons most of the time. 

Fits easily on one shelf or does not take up any shelf space (digital). 

Meets the needs of most learners. 

Organization can be followed with some direction. 

Easily accessible for all patron use. 

Takes up little or no space in the library. 

Meet the needs of diverse learners. 

Organization is user-friendly. 

How to use the materials is explained clearly.  

 

Relevancy: This resource has a very well-known Smithsonian affiliation and therefore has good authority so all patrons can trust the content provided through any links on the website. On every page of the website, there are visuals that appeal to patrons of varying interests.
Purpose: Si.edu is a free resource with no advertising popups. The information is presented without bias and is for educational purposes only. From the homepage, there is an easy to use navigation bar with many links to suit the needs of a wide variety of patrons. For example, on the homepage, one link on the navigation bar is “Learn and Explore” which has resources “For Educators”, “For Kids”, “For Researchers” and “Collections”.  In addition to offering information about various world locations, their environments and peoples, this site supplies information on almost every topic one can think of. So, this site can be used for multiple purposes which makes it extremely cost effective.
Currency: As a web resource, it is continuously updated and therefore the content is always current. Every link works, contains current content and each connects to educational contents always within the Smithsonian Institute website. 
Curricular connection: This site meets all of the curricular content and more. It meets a variety of diverse patron needs by offering many different links through the homepage. If a student patron clicks on the “For Kids” link, it offers a selection of resources like games that reinforce a variety of content reflecting curriculum. Links can be found for all ability levels, interests and cultural connections. Under the “For Educators” link there is another link to “Learning Labs” where patrons can search almost any curricular topic, create a log-in and save links to favorite resources within the Learning Labs.
Use of library space: As a website, it takes up no extra space in the library and is easily accessible for all patron use. The website is well-organized and clearly explains how to use the various resources. The website offers content in different views that patrons can choose to meet their learning needs.
In conclusion, Si.edu, Smithsonian Institute website, will be selected as a new resource for the Library Learning Commons because it is EXCEEDING the criteria for a Reference Resource. 

 

References: 

Asselin, M., Branch, J., & Oberg, D., (Eds). (2003). Achieving information literacy: Standards for school library programs in Canada. Ottawa, ON: Canadian School Library Association & The Association for Teacher-Librarianship in Canada (pp. 32-33). 

Fick, S. (2004). The Canadian atlas. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre.  

Home Smithsonian Institute. (2020). Retrieved 6 February 2020, from https://www.si.edu/ 

Riedling, A. (2013). Reference skills for the school library media specialist: Tools and tips, (Third Ed.). Santa Barbara, CA.: Linworth, an Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC (pp.22-23). 

Search | Everything | Smithsonian Learning Lab. (2020). Retrieved 6 February 2020, from https://learninglab.si.edu/search?st=energy&st_op=and&item_type=collections  

The Sage Colleges. (2020). Evaluating Sources: TRAP. Retrieved 6 February 2020, from Libraries.sage.edu.  

 

Creating information literacy: integrating traditional literacy skills to foster digital literacy

I heard it again just the other day, a teacher expressing “I don’t give my students screen time at school because I feel like they get enough screen time at home”. If this argument was applied to reading and writing, what would we be doing at school? As the internet and digital resources become more accessible and prevalent in the world outside of schools, we are doing our students an injustice by ignoring their existence as a teaching tool and an important part of information literacy. We also know that if students are left to make their own choices about what to learn with no direction, they don’t always make the best choices. So, if we know students are using internet resources but not giving them any direction, advice or suggesting new tools to use, they are simply going to use the same ones continuously. Students need exposure and instruction using both print and electronic resources to learn how to use similar skills across genres, sources, and formats  in order to be successful life-long learners. Computer geek

Reading, writing and composition are the forms of communication that students are taught first and now teachers need to acknowledge that the internet and digital resources are going to be more and more important in the years to come. I like how Riedling states, The Internet is not really a source of information, but rather a means of communication—the ‘ultimate’ communication Network”(2013, p.116) and if teachers think of it as another form of communication that students need to learn, maybe teaching digital literacy will gain more attention. Students need the basic information literacy skills to start but then need to be taught how to apply those skills to digital resources. In addition, I agree that Much of the information accessed digitally is of variable quality and many students lack skills that are necessary for them to evaluate the information”(UBC, LIBE 467, Lesson 1, 2020). Yes, it is true that most children by the time they are intermediate students will have exposure to technology and may be more proficient that many adults (hence the digital divide) (Riedling, p. 138); however, many, if not all, of these students know only a limited scope of what to do with the device(s). For example, most students know how to use a search engine and I would argue that the majority think that Google is the only one. In addition, when using a search engine, most students simply choose the first few results, not really analyzing the source of the information. Students need to be taught digital and media literacy to critically analyze the search results in order to access appropriate resources for their task. 

It is apparent that “An information literate citizen analyzes information critically in all its formats and in all media contexts”(UBC, LIBE 467, Lesson 2, 2020) and I assert that visual literacy is an often-ignored but very essential part of information literacy. In another library course, I researched visual literacy and how it influences digital and media literacy. There was one article I found with a strategy that I would like to try which is the DIG (Digital Image Guide) method. 

Found from the UBC library here:

 https://www-tandfonline.com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/doi/full/10.1080/1051144X.2018.1564604#.XPXxeFQ1Us4.gmail 

This method was formulated to use at the University level but I think it would be beneficial to teach in Elementary now because students are becoming avid technology and internet users at younger ages than before. The DIG method is a series of questions, similar to the CRAAP test for literature, that students use to evaluate digital images. The author compares the digital-visual examination to how students are taught to read literature in that “The questions…created from this assimilation were then organized according to the steps of critical reading: analyzing, interpreting, evaluating and comprehending” (Thompson, 2019). The main focus of these lessons is for students to be able to determine the difference between what the article defines as “shallow and deep images”: “shallow images, are what we might think of as ‘typical’ internet images:… Shallow images are mostly innocuous because they do not purport to do more than entertain” (Thompson, 2019) whereas “Deep images require more interrogation because they are created and posted online to perform different roles and fulfil different intentions: to inform, to mislead, to persuade and/or to sell” (Thompson, 2019). Therefore, students first determine if images are shallow or deep and then if the images are deep, the students decide the intention of the images. Overall, the article argues that “Grounding a lesson or module with visuals reinforces the idea that since communication is now more visually-oriented, especially within the context of new digital technologies and social media platforms, the same critical sensibility that we routinely apply to text-based communications can, and should be, applied to visual mediums” (Thompson, 2019). 

In addition to the Thompson article, the video “The power to tell the difference: visual literacy in a visual age” by Don Levy discusses how teaching visual literacy aids in media literacy by creating critical thinking skills. Levy concludes that “In a world surrounded by images, visual literacy requires critical thinking and awareness” (Levy. 2015) because if visuals are guiding our perceptions, then we need to be aware and have “the power to tell the difference” between fact and fiction in media. Levy states, “The dark side of our new reality is the more convincing the imagery the gap between fact and fiction blurs” (Levy, 2015) because “…we know that not every use of visuals is a force for good. The dark side can be blinding. There is a difference between escapist entertainment and losing our connection to the world” (Levy, 2015). 

It is a difficult job for the Teacher Librarian to convince classroom teachers that “screen time” is not always negative. Students need to be taught how to use digital resources productively; they are not going to learn it without direct instruction. As “Achieving Information Literacy” states, The major learning outcome for the school library program is to develop students who are information literate”(Asselin et. Al., 2003, p.4). Students should be able to apply the same techniques learned for reading and writing to become digitally literate. In my experience, the classroom teacher may be on the lower side of the digital divide (pre-1977) and/or uncomfortable using technology so it is good that Research clearly indicates that the development of student competence in information literacy skills is most effective when integrated with classroom instruction through collaborative program planning and teaching by the teacher-librarian and the classroom teacher”(Asselin et. Al., 2003,p.7). I am going to use this information the next time I try to convince a classroom teacher to do a project integrating technology. Also, I like the list of outcomes in “Achieving Information literacy” especially Outcome 4: “Students will use information critically to evaluate the relevance, authenticity, and validity of information and its source”(Asselin et. Al., p.13) because students should be able to evaluate a resource in any format. Students need to be taught the proper purpose for all types of resources because It is vital to know when to turn to print resources, when to use the Web, and when to avoid them all in favor of consulting an expert in the field”(Riedling, 2013, p.113). Students need to be given proper instruction for how to productively use digital resources at school in order to know the full potential of the resource, how to apply the resource and become fully information literate citizens.

 

Works Cited:

Asselin, M., Branch, J., & Oberg, D., (Eds). (2003). Achieving information literacy: Standards for school library programs in Canada. Ottawa, ON: Canadian School Library Association & The Association for Teacher-Librarianship in Canada.

Free SVG. (2020). Computer Geek [Image]. Retrieved from https://freesvg.org/computer-geek

Levy, D.  [TEDxABQSalon]. (2015, April 16). The Power to Tell the Difference: Visual Literacy in a Visual Age.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f09ybYDJoSE

Riedling, A. (2013). Reference skills for the school library media specialist: Tools and tips, (Third Ed.). Santa Barbara, CA.: Linworth, an Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC.

Thompson, D.S. (2019). Teaching Students to Critically Read Digital Images: a Visual Literacy Approach Using the DIG Method. Journal of Visual Literacy, 38(1-2), 110-119. https://www-tandfonline.com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/doi/full/10.1080/1051144X.2018.1564604#.XPXxeFQ1Us4.gmail

UBC. (Winter 2020). “Lesson 1: Information Literacy and Reference Services in Schools“. Theme 1: The foundation of reference services  in LIBE 467. Canvas Online Classroom.  

UBC. (Winter 2020).Lesson 2: The Reference Process and Information Skills“. Theme 1: The foundation of reference services  in LIBE 467. Canvas Online Classroom.