Supporting Teachers with Reference Materials
Research practices and resources themselves are ever changing. Teachers understand the importance of teaching research skills to their students. The challenge for teachers is to try and keep up with the ever changing formats of resources available. Gone are the days of library shelves filled with encyclopedias and other reference materials. Now, instead of directing students towards books, students are dependent on using the internet to find answers to their questions. Teachers must support their students in sifting through an overwhelming amount of websites. Teaching information literacy includes "the ability to identify, find, evaluate, and use information effectively." (Information Literacy, 2022) Teachers are now supporting their students with search strategies and evaluation techniques. Furthermore, students must learn how to evaluate quality, credibility and the validity of websites. Using the internet as a base for research requires a new set of skills for both students and teachers! Ideally, the role of the teacher-librarian is to support teachers and students acquire these news skills. Teacher-librarians can act as mentors to teachers looking to evolve their practice. This mentorship includes teaching information literacy skills and sharing with teachers alternative reference resources.
For this assignment, I decided to work with two teachers at my current school. Although I am not a teacher-librarian at the moment, I took on the role of a mentor as if I were in this position.
Jasmine has been an intermediate French Immersion teacher for 16 years. Jasmine typically teaches the fifth and sixth grades. She keeps a clean, organized and disciplined classroom where students are engaged and on-task. Jasmine has students complete several research projects throughout the year. Jasmine is well-known for her United-Nations themed projects. At the beginning of the year, students select two countries to learn about. Students work on various projects, through the lenses of these countries. Jasmine often allows choice in her assignments, especially with how students share their learning or projects. In addition to a well established classroom library with both fiction and non-fiction titles, Jasmine has a class set of Canadian Atlases and dictionaries. She displays books from the library based on the topic students are studying. Jasmine also has access to a class set of Chrome books, which reside in her classroom full-time. Jasmine takes her students to the library one time per week for thirty minutes. This visit is used as a book exchange.
Jasmine makes an effort to incorporate technology in her classroom. She allows students to use Chrome books for their research. Students are also allowed to play various Math and Geography games on occasion. Jasmine teaches her students about online safety and also shows them basic research skills. Jasmine knows that allowing her students freedom online to do their research can cause a risk. She is unable to control what sites students are visiting or protect them from seeing inappropriate images. Keeping students on task while on computers can also be a challenge. Jasmine sometimes catches students playing online games, looking at images or talking with their friends via e-mail or chat platforms.
Being a mother of two, Jasmine no longer participates in many district offered professional development workshops. Jasmine has settled into her teaching practice and is comfortable with the opportunities she provides her students. Jasmine is willing to collaborate as she knows that there may be better alternatives, especially in terms of resources. Her main concern is that she does not necessarily have the energy or the time to make changes to her practice. According to the CBAM Stages of Concern (see below), Jasmine is at the Personal Stage of Concern.
According to CBAM, personal concerns are legitimate. In order to support Jasmine in finding suitable resources for her students, it is important to show her the benefits of using new resources. The change must also be simple and effective. By demonstrating easy access to various reference materials, Jasmine could easily by-pass the Management Level of Concern and progress to the Consequence Stage of Concern.
At the school where Jasmine and I work, the teacher-librarian is not well-versed in technology. It took a significant amount of time for me (a classroom teacher) to find our school district's access to online materials. In my search, I discovered that our school district has access to World Book Online, National Geographic Kids, Canoe Kids, and Discovery Education. The benefit of using reference websites over allowing students open access to the internet are significant.
- Teachers do not have to worry about the online safety of their students. Students will not stumble upon inappropriate content when searching for information within a controlled platform.
- The information search is narrower. Students do not have to spend time filtering through results.
- The authority of the information has already been reviewed. Students do not have to question whether the source is reliable.
When hearing of these benefits, Jasmine was keen to work together to find alternative reference resources to replace open access to the Internet. Now that I have found our reference resource access, it was important that these websites be located in a user friendly location.
Library Commons Website: Having a library website would be an excellent way to ensure that teachers have easy access to online reference materials. Embedded links would be key. One issue that I discovered is that each site requires a different password. How can this be simplified for teachers and students? For teachers, printing the passwords on cardstock and laminating them would be helpful. It will also be important for students to keep a print out of passwords in their agendas for easy access.
Here is an excellent example of Library Commons website. The Casorso Elementary website is clear and user friendly. It includes links to research skills, student search engines, virtual field trips and access to online reference materials. Using a website as a starting point for research creates a simple step for students and teachers. Although setting up a website is a time consuming process for teacher-librarians, I believe that this is the step needed to move teachers away from the Management Stage of Concern, where teachers are worried about spending their time getting materials ready.
Reference Sets and Padlets: I have noticed that many school districts have created reference sets or padlets as a way to collect digital materials on similar topics. This is a very helpful resource in supporting classroom teachers. I do not believe that our school district has created these reference sets but I did find some from School District 42 (Maple Ridge). These reference sets are a collection of websites, videos and book titles that students can access via embedded links. These sites have been previewed by teacher-librarians, creating a safer research platform for our students. It also simplifies the process of sifting through websites.
In working with Jasmine, I also realized that there is a need for our school to learn about our districts access to online reference materials. In fact, NONE of my colleagues knew that we had access to these reference sites.
Ksenia is a veteran teacher. She has been teaching for over thirty years. Ksenia typically teaches grade 3 French Immersion. Ksenia has well established routines in her classroom. She runs a strict, traditional and teacher-centered classroom. In her classroom, Ksenia has dictionaries available to her students. She also displays books from the library based on their units of study. Ksenia participates in professional development opportunities in our district, but her practice remains consistent. Ksenia prefers to use workbooks with the accompanying teacher manuals. Ksenia has her students complete small research projects using specific books. She is nervous to allow her students to do research online. She values print materials but does incorporate technology into several of her daily routines. Ksenia has a SmartBoard in her classroom and has six iPads that remain in her classroom. These iPads have French games and allow her students access to online reading materials such as Je lis.
The challenge with leading Ksenia and my colleagues to growing their practice is that they do not know that there is an opportunity to change. According to the CBAM Stages of Concern, Ksenia is at the Awareness Stage of Concern. In order to bring Ksenia and my colleagues to the next Stages of Concern, they need to be made aware of how these reference resources can be beneficial to their practice.
Monthly Newsletter: The first step is for teachers to be made aware of the reference resources that are available in our library and online. Sending out a monthly newsletter from the library that features new book purchases, professional development opportunities and links to helpful resources would be a good first step to awareness. This newsletter could also be addressed to parents as a way to share reference resources to the school community.
Book Walk: Inviting teachers to visit to do a monthly book walk where new books or specific genres of books are highlighted would be another way to grow awareness. In order to highlight online reference materials, a couple of computers could be left open for browsing.
Professional Development: The next step, would be to offer a series of short professional development opportunities at school. Teachers are busy people! It is important that workshops are not considered a burden but an opportunity to collaborate and learn together. Hosting a series of lunch and learns, is a fun way to share reference resources and research tips and tricks to teachers. Providing treats is also a nice way to thank teachers for attending.
It would also be important to highlight key factors I am hoping to share during staff meetings or during a whole-school in-service. If all of the workshops are optional, teachers like Ksenia who do not know that their teaching practice can change, may not attend these extra sessions.
Learning Walks: Providing time for small groups of teachers to take turns observing other teachers using reference materials in their classrooms would a powerful learning opportunity for our staff. Prior to Covid, learning walks were a common practice in our school. In addition to the actual walk, it important that teachers have time to establish an observation focus and have time to debrief and to ask questions. Teaching is an isolating profession. "Without opportunities for collaboration, teachers are not likely to reach high levels of professional practice and increased results because they are denied the day-to-day time needed to interact with and learn from their peers and colleagues." (Loucks-Horsley, 1996) Learning Walks are excellent for the final CBAM Stages of Concern. During walks, teachers can begin to Collaborate and Refocus.
In order to support teachers move through the CABM Stages of Concern, a teacher-librarian must first make teachers aware of the reference resources available to them. The next step is to ensure that staff have easy access and they are not struggling to find site addresses or passwords. The final step is to provide opportunities for teachers to learn from each other. One of my important takeaways from the CBAM model is that change takes time. As teachers move through the stages, we will all be able to support each other as we learn how to integrate reference resources into our teaching practice.
References Cited:
Information Literacy. Common Sense Education. Retrieved from: https://www.commonsense.org/education/digital-citizenship/information-literacy
Classroom Observation Strategies: Learning Walks. Edvolution Enterprise. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7OAjMvS1Ec
Loucks-Horsley, S., (1996). Professional Development for Science Education: A Critical and Immediate Challenge. In R. Bybee (Ed)., National Standards & the Science Curriculum. Kendal/Hunt Publishing. Retrieved from: https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/731/2015/07/CBAM-explanation.pdf
So glad you like the reference sets that our district TLs have worked so hard to develop and curate! They really are a great resource.
ReplyDeleteNatalie Clark