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February 2003
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Have a newsworthy item? Comments? Questions? Contact Paula Byrne, editor |
By April Graziano
agraziano_pps@yahoo.com
Collaborative Teaching
In order for a library media specialist to be an effective leader in the school, the library media specialist must collaborate with teachers to teach information literacy skills that are integrated into the curriculum. Collaboration could be co-teaching the research portion of a project while the classroom teacher teaches the goal setting and final product portions, or cooperatively teaching each portion of an entire unit. It could include conducting research on topics related to literature that is being used in the classroom, or working with small groups. Collaborative teaching can take numerous forms, but whatever the form used, collaboration enables a library media specialist to take an active role in teaching and to help students become effective users of information, presenting information literacy skills in meaningful situations. Here are some successful ideas to help library media specialists collaborate with other teachers:
• Actively recruit teachers. Some teachers will be excited to work with you while others will need to be asked. Start with a few teachers who are excited about collaborating. Some teachers will wait to see other projects, but then will be interested in working with you after seeing the results. Many reluctant teachers are more comfortable collaborating if they will only need to collaborate for one or two sessions. Find a lesson that you could integrate with a classroom topic and that wouldn’t require a large time commitment from the classroom teacher. They will then be more prepared to collaborate with future literature or research units.
• Be flexible. Although it is easier to plan for multiple classes doing the same project, it is more interesting for the library media specialist and more valuable to the classroom teacher if collaborative units are customized to meet each teacher’s curricular needs. Five third grade teachers may want to study a specific animal habitat using resources that are centered around deserts or grasslands. But another third grade teacher might decide to combine animal habitats with conductivity and insulation, so the resources for that class will need to cover a variety of animals with information about the materials that the animals use to make their homes
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• Use a formal research program. Many library media specialists use a formal research program such as the Big 6 or IIM. (IIM http://www.activelearningsystems.com/_iim/why.htm
Big 6 http://big6.com/ )
• Although you don’t want to be limited in how you collaborate with teachers, using a formalized program can help the teachers feel confident that you are working toward common goals. They will be more willing to collaborate with research and other projects when they know that you will help them meet the students’ educational needs.
• Ask teachers to use the same research method. Having teachers use the same research method you use will help the teachers understand the research steps you are going to follow. It will also give you a common language that will help prevent miscommunication. Teachers will feel confident in the role that they will have in collaborative teaching.
• Help evaluate the research process. Most teachers will want to do their own grading, but they might appreciate having help grading source notes, bibliographies, and other research parts of the projects. If the students are using electronic databases or conducting online searches with the library media specialist, teachers might also welcome input on the students’ ability to access the databases and conduct searches.
• Be reliable. Teachers need to know that you will do what you say you will do. Library schedules are sometimes changed without warning, and teachers will understand when changes are out of your control. However, if you agree to teach a collaborative unit using specific resources or focusing on specific skills, the classroom teachers need to know that you will talk with them if you need to make any changes.
• Use professional resources to save time and effort. Collaborating with classroom teachers can be exhausting. Using professional resources to locate lesson plans and project ideas can save a great deal of time. Formal research programs like the Big 6 and IIM have their own forms and will help save time. Another resource for websites, lesson plans, and project ideas is the Selection Connection link on the MSLMA homepage. (Selection Connection/MSLMA http://www.mslma.org/ )
• Be visible. Teachers and administrators need to see you actively teaching students. The library media program is often one of the first areas to be cut during difficult funding times. The library media specialist must have a recognized and valuable role in the school’s teaching and learning process.
• Use special events to renew interest in collaboration. School or grade level events can be great opportunities to promote your role as a teacher and collaborator. If the school is hosting a science fair, you could offer to work with teachers to research related topics such as inventors, simple machines, or chemical elements. Multicultural events such as the Chinese New Year can open the door for projects about the culture and history of other countries. These events could also provide opportunities to offer to collaboratively teach literature forms such as legends or poetry from a particular country.
• Give your teaching time first priority. Collaborative teaching helps establish library media specialists as equal professionals in the school. Try to protect your teaching time. Although there is usually no choice when administrators ‘ask’ to cancel library activities, library media specialists can politely mention teaching sessions that will be canceled as a result of the change. Administrators will eventually realize that such changes disrupt the students’ learning.
• Communicate with other library media specialists. It is easy to feel isolated and overwhelmed, but staying in contact with other professionals helps you to face the challenges that constantly arise. Networking with others through email, list serves, meetings, and conferences can provide an invaluable lifeline of support and encouragement.
Use the Model Site Rubrics to periodically evaluate your program. The Model Site Rubrics can be found on the MSLMA homepage (Model Site Rubrics/MSLMA http://www.mslma.org/ ) and will help you develop the library media program according to the state and national standards for school libraries. The state standards are outlined by the Massachusetts School Library Media Association, and the national principles are outlined in Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning.
This column has been created to provide a way for Media Forum Online readers to share successful ideas with their colleagues. In this issue, the column has been written with ideas gathered by the author and with ideas from Laurie Belanger, Gerry Bonneau, Abby Gilbert, Donna Guerin, Marianne Haggerty, Janyce Murray, Mary Shepherd, and Susan Wauchope. The topic Summer Reading will be presented in the next issue. If you have successful ideas for this topic that you would like to share, please send them to April Graziano at agraziano_pps@yahoo.com and let your colleagues know What Works.
| What Works! | Biology and the LMC | Summer Reading | Editor's Note |