Tag Archives: Assignment 3

Assignment 3, Assignments, LLED 462, Themes

StoryMaking: using makerspace to tell stories.

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Rationale:

I am the Teacher Librarian at a K-5 English language Elementary School. I have been in this position for a total of 2.75 years with an 18 month maternity break in the middle. I would like this presentation to be shared with staff at my school to encourage collaboration with the Teacher Librarian and give teachers confidence to try makerspace activities in the library or in their own classroom. The story “making” concept introduces inquiry skills in a non-threatening way and one of my goals in my school is to foster and encourage inquiry-based teaching and learning. In addition, I have heard teachers express their need for more information and guidance for how to incorporate ADST curriculum. Finally, a school and district goal this year is literacy. I really connected with the Story “making” in that for such a simple and easy to implement idea, it meets topics of focus for my school and has the ability to meet curricular topics in multiple areas. Therefore, I have followed the StoryMaking framework quite closely and incorporated other materials from the course, such as multi-modal learning and expression of ideas and how StoryMaking allows for diverse learning opportunities.

Reflection:

For my presentation, I chose to use Canva as I’ve heard good things about it and wanted to try it out. I thought choosing the “presentation” mode would be suitable to present these ideas to staff as I would like to make the ideas clear but not overwhelm teachers with the information. I liked using Canva and also created my blog header with it. I would use it again for other purposes in the future now.

I spent quite a bit of time exploring different digital tools to find ones that I felt were easy to implement for teachers and students to present learning from story “making”. From what I have heard, I thought that Storybird would be a good webtool but didn’t realize that it was a subscription. So, I tried Lark by Storybird as I hear it is free but apparently it is only for iPads and iPhones. We do have iPads at school so it may be a possibility; however, classes mostly use our student devices which are microsoft products. Therefore, I decided to use Storyboard That because our school district uses Microsoft and all students have an account. I am hoping that students will be able to automatically sign-in once they are logged on to our student devices. Book creator seems good because it has the option to log-in with a microsoft account which all students have in our district. Also, if the teacher has an account, the students use the teacher code to connect with the teacher so their books can be easily shared. I noticed that once I downloaded my presentation to insert into my blog, the book from BookCreator is not able to be viewed however it works when I present it in presentation mode in Canva. Therefore, I have inserted a screen capture below with a hyperlink. I have published the book to the public so it should work.

Finally, I have shared this presentation with my principal and she is excited for it to be shared with staff.  As this is a presentation, I fully expect that there will be rich discussion with teachers as I explain StoryMaking and how it can be implemented in the Library Learning Commons with any classes throughout our school.

Works cited:

4 Principles Of Student-centered Learning. TeachThought. (2019). Retrieved 21 November 2020, from https://www.teachthought.com/.

Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies | Building Student Success – BC’s New Curriculum. Curriculum.gov.bc.ca. (2020). Retrieved 14 November 2020, from https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum/adst.

Bradshaw, J.,  (2020). Graphic Novels for Kids: The 13 best graphic novel series. Everyday Reading. Retrieved 15 November 2020, from https://everyday-reading.com/graphic-novels-for-kids/.

Canva. (2020). Blog header [Image].

Compton, M., & Thompson, R. (2018). Storymaking: A Maker Movement Approach to Literacy for Early Learners [Ebook]. Redleaf Press.

Davidson, A. (2018). How do Makerspaces heighten student engagement?. Edcan.ca. Retrieved 21 November 2020, from https://www.edcan.ca/articles/makerspaces-heighten-student-engagement/.

Good, S., Araujo, J., Shuster, L., & Meredith, A. (2019). Story Studio: Collaborative Inquiry. Presentation, Burnaby School District.

Media Literacy Fundamentals. MediaSmarts. (2020). Retrieved 21 November 2020, from https://mediasmarts.ca/digital-media-literacy/general-information/digital-media-literacy-fundamentals/media-literacy-fundamentals.

Moorefield-Lang, H., & Kitzie, V. (2018). Makerspaces for All: Serving Lgbtq Makers in School Libraries. Knowledge Quest, 47(1), 46-50. Retrieved 21 November 2020, from.

Postmodern picturebook list. Literacy Clinic Education. (2013). Retrieved 15 November 2020, from https://literacyclinic.education.gsu.edu/files/2013/10/Postmodern-Picture-Book-List.pdf.

Serafini, F. (2012). Reading multimodal texts in the 21st century. Research In Schools, 19(1), 26-32. Retrieved 15 November 2020, from.

Weisgrau, J. (2015). School libraries and makerspaces: can they coexist? [Blog]. Retrieved 14 November 2020, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/school-libraries-makerspaces-coexist-josh-weisgrau.

UBC. (Winter 2020). ” Learning from Multi-Modal Texts: a look at new literacies.” Module 4 in LLED 462 Canvas Online Classroom.

UBC. (Winter 2020).”Supporting Learners Through the Library: Critical Literacy.” Module 5 in LLED 462 Canvas Online Classroom.

Assignments, LIBE 477

Participatory Virtual Learning Commons: Vision for the Future in LIBE 477

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OCEAN GROVE PARTICIPATORY VIRTUAL LEARNING COMMONS

For my final vision project, I thought I would create a Virtual Learning Commons. I have wanted to develop one since my second year as a Teacher Librarian, got a blog set up through my district and found I did not appreciate the format; it was not user friendly for me , I could not get the sections to work as I wanted them to and therefore felt it was too time consuming so I stopped using it.

In beginning this course, I identified developing a Virtual Learning Commons as one of my key interests and throughout the course, it seemed like I was getting more and more ideas for aspects I wanted to include in my ideal Virtual Learning Commons. Therefore, I concluded that creating my own Virtual Learning Commons was the right choice.

For a previous blog post, I came across The Virtual Learning Commons website and it suggested a Participatory Virtual Learning Commons which I really like the idea of. One of my goals is also to create a culture of collaboration and I feel like it could be supported through a Participatory Virtual Learning Commons. I decided to develop a site with GoogleSites because on this website there was a free template that uses Google. I like the ideas that this template suggests and as teachers we always say “why recreate the wheel”? Plus, not only is it a template but it has so many ideas to include in the Virtual Learning Commons that can be integrated and used in the Physical Learning Commons. Some of the ideas I already knew about and some are great ideas that are new to me that I feel my students would find useful as well like Storybird. I also felt like I could add the ideas that I accumulated from the course into the existing pages in addition to adding my own.

The idea behind my Participatory Virtual Learning Commons is for it to be a place where teachers, students and parents can go for ideas and resources that can be completed online but also have some options for offline activities. Many activities I have included can be completed independently by students and they can construct their own meaning. This connect with points made in Why School: “ The emphasis shifts from content mastery to learning mastery. That means students have more ownership over their own learning, using their access to knowledge and teachers to create their own unique paths to the outcomes we, and they, deem important” (Richardson, p.276).

On my site, I feel I have touched on all of the areas identified on NETS, which I shared in Reading Review B.

 

By formulating the site in the way I have, it is promoting 21st literacy skills, as mentioned in “Why School?”, by encouraging collaboration between all members of the school community and allowing students to explore, create and problem solve. I have done this by  including ways for the entire school community to contribute to the site and the library as well as see themselves represented on the site. The following explains the pages I have included and what each page contains and why I have chosen those aspects.

 

Pages included:

Home Page:

On this page, I want it to grab the user’s attention and have interactive activities. There is an announcement banner, a quick activity idea, a student survey and I would like to add pictures as the year goes on.

Discovery Center:

The website template explains this as a place where students can learn on their own. I left the explanation at the top of this page because it gives some good ideas of what else to add to the page. I would like to re-word the explanation to make it more student-friendly but I really like the concept of the discovery center. It has a lot to do with inquiry but also some more ideas for independent learning.

I thought this was a good place to add information on Inquiry. Inquiry is one of my key areas of interest that I identified. I have added some ideas like question creation, how to find the answers and the inquiry process but I could not find links that I like for students so I will still work on that.  I did add the graphic for Inquiry Island because I like how it portrays inquiry like a journey and it is more exciting that a chart, table or graph. I also added a document I made in May for students to carry out their own inquiry.

In addition, this is a good area to add links to some coding resources. I have added links to code.org and scratch.

New ideas to me that I will keep on the page and would like to explore more are Symbaloo, Storybird and Virtual Makerspace. I wanted to keep the videos that were already included here because they are actually videos that I would choose to show students to brainstorm ideas for personal inquiry projects. There is more I would like to do with this page but at the moment I am leaving it “under construction”.

In this area I would also like to share creations that students have made in order to generate some ideas for others.

Fun with Literacy :

This is an area where I can promote ways to create a reading culture throughout the school. There is a combination of ways to read individually and communally as well as different activities that can be completed online or offline. Included on this page are links for:

  • District Learning Commons
  • OG Library Catalog
  • Public Library
  • Links to eBooks and audiobooks
  • Suggest a book – I got this idea from John Weldon Elementary School Learning Commons
  • What are you reading? – book recommendations – I chose the following as sites that are safe for students.
    – Biblionasium – this connects with Destiny and we are a Destiny district so this would be great to teach students how to use, they just use their Destiny log-in! It appears that it would need to be added to Destiny as a separate purchase, my district does not have it yet; however, this may be a good way to use the library budget this year as we probably need more online resources. I am going to have to explore this in more detail and talk to the other TLs and District TL. I feel like this would be a good lesson that I could teach in classrooms using our digital devices.
    –Scholastic:Share What You’re Reading – this is a free resource and Scholastic is a well-known product. I think this would be good because students could potentially discover books that we do not have in our library and possibly connect with more peers in other areas.
  • Reader of the month – Thanks Tracey W. for the ideas! I would like to start with some teachers and then have students afterwards. I think there could be at least a couple a month or maybe one teacher and one student each  month. I don’t have one on the site yet but I would like to have one (maybe mine) for September and I would do something like the example Tracey shared from this school: Roosevelt Library Learning Center.
  • STEM stories – I apologize, I do not remember who I got this idea from but thanks! I have included a link to STEM story ideas on Scholastic if people are looking for different ideas. I have also included some specific stories with read aloud from YouTube with a specific activity idea attached for easy access; there is one for primary and one for intermediate but of course people could use both! I chose these specific videos from YouTube because they are short and only show the book, no people.  I think I will change up the specific activities each month.
  • Reading Challenges – Read-a-thon – I just added my reading challenge from 2019 to show what I would include, I would update it for the coming year.
  • Book club offerings – this is something that I identified in my “Reading Culture” blog post as something I have not done before but would like to. In that post I said that I would try to identify some students that might like to participate. On my site, I have left it as a “contact me” if interested and I figure maybe groups of friends would arrange to be in a group or if individuals are interested, I can find them a group to be a part of or pair up interested individuals.
  • Virtual Author visit information – this is another aspect that I identified I would like to do more of. At the moment this is something I would like to look into more so it is a “coming sometime this year” section.
  • Battle of the Books information – this is a district-wide initiative and we usually start by sharing the books and information in November for students to begin thinking about if they would like to participate or not.

Parent & Teacher Zone:

In my inquiry post #3 on professional development offerings from the TL, I found this template for the Participatory Virtual Learning Commons. I really like how it says that “If they help build it, they will use it”. In addition, I really like the idea of a place to share professional collection resources that teachers can peruse at their leisure, as shared by Jacquie B.

Links to resources for teachers:

  • Copyright – with using online forums for teaching, teachers are curious about what they can do/share online with their classes, especially the rules around read-alouds with classes online.
  • Digital Citizenship – I wanted to link to some ready resources for teachers on internet safety and citizenship because that is what I found I needed when teaching online.
  • Inquiry – I wanted to add some resources on inquiry for teachers because I would like to create a culture of inquiry-based teaching and learning at my school. The documents that I chose to include are some easy ideas to start with such as practicing recognizing good questions, acknowledging knowledge building with an easy lesson and some simple changes that can be made to common units to make them more inquiry-based.

Links for parents:

  • Digital Citizenship – I thought I should include some resources for parents on this subject so that they also have some tools and knowledge about proper etiquette and use for their children.

Way to share documents/readings that teachers found useful:
This is the place I thought could be the online professional literature exchange. There would also be a physical professional literature exchange in the LLC itself.

Discussion board: participants can email to obtain a link to be able to contribute to the discussion board. I am picturing that it will mostly be teachers and a few parents,  maybe from PAC. This is where people can ask questions, write comments or share information or links to useful sites/articles etc.

Twitter feed: I wanted to include a Twitter feed so that I can post any new updates to the website and that will hopefully increase the use of the website itself.

Book/resource request form: Like on the “Fun with Literacy” page, I have included a way for teachers/parents to request any professional literature that they would like to see in the library. Again, this is a way for the school community to feel like they are contributors to the LLC.

At the end of this page I also added an infographic on ways a TL can help because I feel like sometimes people don’t really realize what all of the different parts of our jobs entail. By adding this, it is my hopes that it will encourage more collaboration and individuals asking for my assistance.

Project Zone:

In this area, again, the template makes some great suggestions on how to make it collaborative. It says, ” The idea of this portal in the VLC is that two heads are better than one; meaning that collaborative planning, construction, execution, and assessment by classroom teachers and adult specialists (including outside experts) is superior to the efforts of a single and isolated teacher in the classroom or teacher librarian isolated in the library Learning Commons”. I love this idea because it is one of my favourite things and always one of my goals to collaborate, co-teach and work with different classes throughout the school on varying projects and units.

Three features are recommended for this “room:”

  • Current projects between the learning commons staff and classroom teachers.
  • An archive of completed projects as a track record for monthly or annual reports.
  • A section devoted to the teaching of Personal Learning Environments for both students and adults in the school.

So, since there are not any collaborative projects happening at the moment, this page is definitely UNDER CONSTRUCTION and COMING SOON!

Global literacy:

I wanted to include a page on global literacy because I always wanted to find and teach ways for my school and LLC to contribute globally. So, it was a great opportunity to be able to do some research on this topic through this course to be pushed to find out more. In the past few years, I have been trying to think of ways that our school can do some fundraisers for world organizations and it seems obvious that it should be something to develop global literacy.

To start, on this page I am just going to include some Canadian organizations that contribute to global literacy. As well, I will post a “stay tuned” for fundraising for global initiative area. I would like to organize something from our school that incorporates some research by the students into global literacy and organizations so that they can take ownership of the contributions but I’m not sure what form that will take yet.

Online Safety:

Digital Citizenship and Media Literacy was also one of my key areas of interest that I identified at the beginning of this course. I feel that it is such an important topic for students to be taught from the beginning of the year with information at their grade level. I find that the grade 4/5 level is very important to reinforce these ideas in many different ways throughout the year as they are the age where they are beginning to use many online forums more independently but they don’t necessarily have enough common sense to navigate online without guidance.

I was debating what to name this section as I want it to make sense to students and parents. On first glance, I don’t think that parents and students would understand what Digital Citizenship or Media Literacy might mean. On the page, I will give a definition and explain why it is important and what to do on the page.

The site I have used for all of my resources is Common Sense Media. In my research, I found that this site has the most appealing lessons and videos. I have added some lessons for students to check out at first plus a link to the Digital Passport. I will change the lessons every month or so to keep students coming back.

How I will share this site:

Like I said earlier, I have wanted to create a Virtual Learning Commons for a long time but felt like it has always been out of reach with time constraints. I feel like a Participatory Virtual Learning Commons will be even more purposeful than simply a Virtual Learning Commons and by having more contributors, I feel like it will also motivate me to update the website. I would like to share this site on our school website and through our school newsletter so that parents and students will be aware of its existence. I would also use my designated time during a staff meeting to highlight specific areas of the site that I think that teachers would find useful such as the Teacher Zone and even some specific ready-made lessons that I have identified. Simply giving teachers the link will not be enough, I will need to show them exactly what I think they would find useful. In addition, I will use library times to teach students specific aspects of the site. This will also meet my goal of having lessons that can be taught anywhere in the school depending on how I will be teaching this fall. Finally, if we do remote learning again, I feel like students will be able to do many of the activities and be able to explore this site independently.

References:

Adobe Stock Images. (2020). See+you+soon [Image]. Retrieved from https://stock.adobe.com/ca/search?k=%22see+you+soon%22

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

Copyright & Creativity : K-12 Teaching Resources on Copyright and Fair Use. (2020). Retrieved 11 August 2020, from https://www.copyrightandcreativity.org/

Copyright Guidelines for Teachers. (2020). Retrieved 11 August 2020, from https://teachbc.bctf.ca/docs/CopyrightGuidelinesForTeachers.pdf

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

If I Built a House read aloud. (2020). [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXW89Pc8B7I

Images by pixabay

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

Mighty Little Librarian. (2020). Top 10 things your librarian do for you [Image]. Retrieved from http://www.mightylittlelibrarian.com/?p=1388

Mrs. St.Germain Reads. (2020). Perfect Square [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRqL7GUaavc

Natural Beach Livign. (2020). 25 day reading challenge [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.naturalbeachliving.com/reading-challenge-for-kids/

Reviews for what your kids want to watch (before they watch it) | Common Sense Media. (2020). Retrieved 11 August 2020, from https://www.commonsensemedia.org/

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

The Virtual Learning Commons – learningcommons. (2020). Retrieved 2 August 2020, from http://www.schoollearningcommons.info/the-virtual-learning-commons

TemplateVLC Elementary. (2020). Retrieved 2 August 2020, from https://sites.google.com/site/templatevlcelementary/

Top 10 Read Alouds for Elementary STEM. (2020). Retrieved 12 August 2020, from https://teachoutsidethebox.com/2018/01/top-10-read-alouds-elementary-stem/

Under the stairs entertainment. (2020). Coming soon [Image]. Retrieved from http://underthestairsent.com/coming-soon

Assignments

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

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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. In the 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.