Category Archives: IS516

End of the Semester Reflection

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Monday evening was the last virtual synchronous class session for IS516: School Library Media Center. This week iSchool graduate students will be sharing their course learning in an online discussion forum . As a co-learner in this class, I am taking the opportunity to reflect here and will share this post with the class.

Time
There never seems to be enough time to accomplish all that we set out to do in a single class. All educators must prioritize. Inevitably the instructor’s values combined with the course description and stated student learning outcomes figure into those decisions.

Course Content and Textbook
To put this course in context, IS516: School Library Media Center focuses on instruction through the library program. Currently at the iSchool, school library administration topics are addressed in students’ practicums and in a general library management course. It was this focus on instruction that led me to apply to teach this course.

This was a golden opportunity for me to use my book Maximizing School Librarian Leadership: Building Connections for Learning and Advocacy (ALA 2018) in a graduate-level course for school librarians. I feel lucky to have had this opportunity.

I believe the book offered students a framework for exemplary practice. Each of the chapters fit into a flow of knowledge, skills, and behaviors that can lead school librarians into leadership roles on their campuses. Last June at ALA, I received one of the highest compliments of my career from a colleague who teaches school librarians at another university. She said, “We recommend your book to prospective students. If they see themselves serving at this level of leadership, we encourage them to enter our program.”

For me, the downside of using my book was that we could not take full advantage of the discussion questions, activities, and reflection prompts. The book was intended to be read one chapter a month, digested, and reflected upon over a nine-month period. Some of the questions, activities, and prompts are most effective for practicing school librarians rather than candidates. That said, I hope students in IS516 and other preservice courses will keep, revisit, and use the book in their practice of school librarianship. Perhaps they will share it with a principal or other decision-maker to start a conversation about how school librarians can serve as leaders.

Pre- and Post-Course Surveys
I asked students to complete a pre-course and a post-course survey. All students completed the pre-course survey; fourteen out of nineteen completed the post-course survey at the time of this blog post.

On the survey, I listed in alphabetical order the five roles identified by the American Association of School Librarians and asked students to rank them in importance: information specialist, instructional partner, leader, program administrator, and teacher. While leader remained number one by a narrow margin, both information specialist and instructional partner increased their rankings in the number one and number two slots. I assume this was a direct result of the content of this course and the assignment tasks as well.

The survey asked: “In your role as a school librarian, who will be your most critical ally and advocate, and why?”

Position  Responses
Classroom Teachers

7
District Level Librarian Supervisor and Site Instructional Leader

1
Principals

4
Teachers and principal

2

I believe the focus on instruction in this course put the emphasis on classroom teacher colleagues. I agree that classroom teachers and school librarians must collaborate and coteach in order to move the work of the school librarian into the center of the school’s academic program. This can be started without the explicit support of the school principal. But in terms of long-term success, in my experience and in school library research, the principal’s support for the school librarian and the library program are absolutely essential.

Students’ Top Priorities and Lingering Questions
The survey asked: “What is your top priority in maximizing school librarian leadership?” It was compelling to me that many students’ top priorities and their lingering questions were directly related. Top priorities included increasing understanding and gaining respect for the roles of the school librarian, the perception of administrators and colleagues that the librarian is an equal partner with classroom teachers, building relationships, and launching collaboration.

Many lingering questions focused on how to begin collaboration conversations and launch coteaching as an expected practice in their buildings. I would ask students to return to the “diffusion of innovations” Activity 2 on page 35 in our textbook. Who are the most promising partners? Who are the most strategic in terms of their ability to influence colleagues? To students who asked about collaborating in large schools, I would recommend identifying someone in the English language arts department, preferably the chair, as a first effort since every student must take ELA-R classes. (That was my strategy when I served in a high school with 1,800 students.)

Others asked about changing school cultures, (traditional) perceptions of school librarians’ roles or teaching as a “solo” activity. Although it seems like a simplistic response, everyone is from “Missouri,” the Show Me State. If you can show the benefits of clasroom-library collaboration to classroom teachers and students, you can begin your effort to create a collaborative culture of learning. When you strengthen that effort by partnering with administrators to help every school stakeholder reach their capacity, you have a recipe for successful change.

One student also wrote about advocating for full-time state-certified school librarians in every school in their district. (I invite you to follow the progress of the Tucson Unified School District School Librarian Restoration Project). Another asked about moving to a completely flexible schedule. Again, advocates for change must demonstrate how the need for professional school librarians and schedules that allow students to access the library at the point of need make a positive difference in student learning outcomes and in classroom teachers’ satisfaction and involvement in the library program and its resources, including its most valuable resource—the librarian.

My Reflection
The first time an instructor teaches a course can involve a steep learning curve. I was happy that I could align my book’s content with assignments that are prescribed for IS516. This course combined content from three courses I have previously taught at other universities. I was able to revise and update resources from those courses and identified or created many additional resources as well.

I created checklists and rubrics for all of the assignments in the course. All teachers learn from the first time out with assessment tools. This semester was no exception for me. Thank you to students for teaching me where the gaps were and where I can (and have) made improvements for next time.

The two-hour weekly synchronous meetings were new to me in a 16-week course. I still find this format challenging in terms of ensuring interactivity in that time slot and keeping our conversations fresh over the course of the semester. I especially appreciated students’ willingness to explore Twitter chats as a learning platform. Our chats were an ideal way for everyone to share in real time. They were also a way for me to learn more about what students were gleaning from the textbook and how they were connecting it to their current and future practice. I hope students will continue to grow professionally using this tool. This semester, I also learned about some new technologies and their applications in classrooms and libraries from students’ work products.

I am grateful to the students in IS516 and for the iSchool for giving me the opportunity to teach this course. I appreciate IS516 students for co-creating a culture of collaboration within our course. From my perspective, the course focus on instruction and my emphasis on leadership through coteaching combined to make this learning experience influential for students’ current and future practice. It also offered me the opportunity to practice what I preach—continuous learning. I will apply my learning in future courses with graduate students and in my work with school librarians practicing in the field.

“The conditions are right and ripe for school librarians to maximize their leadership roles in building collaborative school cultures. There is an urgent need for students, educators, administrators, and community to work together to create dynamic learning environments” (Moreillon 2018, x).

Our profession needs the best prepared candidates to serve school library stakeholders through the library program. I believe IS516 Fall 2019 students are prepared to create optimal conditions for teaching and learning and for taking leadership roles in their schools.

Work Cited
Moreillon, Judi. 2018. Maximizing School Librarian Leadership: Making Connections for Learning and Advocacy. Chicago: ALA.

Image Credit
mrkrndvs. “Isolation vs. Collaboration.” Flickr.com, https://www.flickr.com/photos/113562593@N07/35978055230

Leadership Twitter Chat

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This fall graduate students in “IS516: School Library Media Center” have participated in bimonthly Twitter chats. The chats are based on the pull quotes from chapters in Maximizing School Librarian Leadership: Building Connections for Learning and Advocacy (ALA 2018).

We invite you to join us our final chat of the fall semester on Monday, December 9, 2019 from 7:00 to 7:30 p.m. Central Time. Chat questions are posted on this blog on the Wednesday before our Monday chats.

December 9, 2019: #is516 Twitter Chat: Leadership

 This post is adapted from the Maximizing School Librarian Leadership preview podcast.

I believe school librarians have three converging pathways that point the way to leadership. School librarians are culture builders, professional developers, and changemakers.

School librarians are culture builders.
When we create a welcoming, accepting, risk-taking space for exploration in the library, our influence can spread throughout the building. With smiles, hellos, and a service orientation toward all library users, the library, the largest classroom in the school, can be as important as the front office in creating a climate of welcome.

With resources reflecting diverse perspectives, the library can be a place where learners – of all ages – come to explore their own worldview and the worldviews of others.

And with a commitment to exploration, the school librarian can model risk-taking—accepting missteps as an essential aspect of learning and growing from mistakes in order to fail forward. A whole-school, or systems thinking, approach helps school librarians serve as effective culture-builders.

School librarians are professional developers.
Through sharing our expertise and integrating the library’s resources into the classroom curriculum, school librarians practice reciprocal mentorship with the classroom teachers and specialists with whom we form effective instructional partnerships.

Collaborators coteach multiple literacies, inquiry, deeper, and digital learning. Educators model and coteach skills, such as collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and creativity. We model and coteach dispositions, such as flexibility, openness, and persistence.

Through coplanning, coteaching, and coassessing student learning and our own instructional proficiency, we practice the best kind of professional development—job-embedded. As collaborating educators, we develop our craft by working as equal partners; we coteach with classroom teachers, real students, actual curriculum, available resources and tools, with the real supports, and within the constraints of our everyday teaching environments.

School librarians are also changemakers.
We understand that the teaching and learning landscape is in a constant state of change. Lifelong learning is an essential behavior for all education stakeholders. Preparing students for futures that we cannot imagine takes a leap of faith and a willingness to accept change as the defining feature of all our lives.

Rather than sitting back and waiting for change to happen to us, changemakers are proactive. We strategize; we experiment; we test and retest until we create learning environments and opportunities that engage, excite, and support students as agents in their own education.

All three of these pathways to leadership require collaboration.

Effective school librarians can maximize leadership opportunities by collaborating with others—with administrators, educators, and students, and with family and community members.

#is516 Chat Questions (for copy and paste)

Q.1: How do you/can you show a commitment to continuous change/professional growth? #is516

Q.2: Why is collegiality so important? #is516

Q.3: How do you bridge Ss in-school and out-of-school lives? #is516

Q.4: How can you help develop an effective teaching force in your school? #is516

Please respond with A.1, A.2, A.3, A.4 and bring your ideas, resources, experience, questions, and dilemmas to our conversation so we can learn with and from you!

For previous chat questions and archives, visit our IS516 course wiki page.

Thank you!

Post Adapted from
Moreillon, Judi. 2018. Maximizing School Librarian Leadership: Book Study: Preview Podcast. https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/moreillon/episodes/2018-08-05T19_58_04-07_00

Assessment Twitter Chat

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This fall graduate students in “IS516: School Library Media Center” are participating in bimonthly Twitter chats. The chats are based on the pull quotes from chapters in Maximizing School Librarian Leadership: Building Connections for Learning and Advocacy (ALA 2018).

We invite you to join us our chat on Monday, October 28, 2019 from 7:00 to 7:30 p.m. Central Time. Chat questions are posted on this blog on the Wednesday before our Monday chats.

October 28, 2019: #is516 Twitter Chat: Assessment

“The integration of authentic learning tasks with diagnostic assessment and project monitoring is a powerful education instrument for [instructional] change and student achievement” (Moreillon, Luhtala, and Russo 2011, 20).

Assessment to Improve Learning
Assessment must always be conducted in the service of learning. When educators conceive of learning as an on-going journey that students and educators take together, they can keep their focus on assessments as measures of both students’ development and educators’ effectiveness. School librarians can maximize their instructional leadership by developing assessment tools, assessing student learning outcomes, and reflecting on the effectiveness of their instruction with coteachers, who are trusted colleague. These activities lead to evidence-based practice.

During coplanning, classroom teachers and school librarians must determine “how” knowledge, literacies, skills, and dispositions growth data will be collected, analyzed, and used to improve schooling for future ready students. Educators use formative and summative assessments and reflection activities to measure student growth.

Formative assessments monitor student growth and provide students with timely feedback so they can improve their work. Formative assessments also inform educators’ subsequent instructional decisions.

Educators use summative assessments at the end of an inquiry unit and are often represented as final project grades. Reflective activities integrated throughout the inquiry process help students understand their own learning process and improve their ability to transfer learning to new contexts.

Rather than using traditional standardized, multiple choice, and fill-in-the-blanks tests to assess students’ content knowledge, educators use performance-based measures to assess how students apply future ready learning in real-world, authentic contexts. The effectiveness of performance-based assessments is determined by how well students can use them to guide their learning process and self-assess their progress as well as their final product or performance.

#is516 Chat Questions
These are the questions that will guide our chat (for copy and paste).

Q,1: Why is self-assessment important for students? #IS516

Q.2: How do educators assess students’ dispositions? #IS516

Q.3: What would you ask a supervisor to observe during classroom-library collaboration for instruction? #IS516

Q.4: What are your strategies for reflecting on your own instructional practice? #IS516

Please respond with A.1, A.2, A.3, A.4 and bring your ideas, resources, experience, questions, and dilemmas to our conversation so we can learn with and from you!

For previous chat questions and archives, visit our IS516 course wiki page.

Thank you!

Work Cited

Moreillon, Judi, Michelle Luhtala, and Christina Russo. 2011. “Learning that Sticks: Engaged Educators + Engaged Learners.” School Library Monthly 28 (1): 17-20.

Digital Learning Twitter Chat

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This fall graduate students in “IS516: School Library Media Center” are participating in bimonthly Twitter chats. The chats are based on the pull quotes from chapters in Maximizing School Librarian Leadership: Building Connections for Learning and Advocacy (ALA 2018).

It is fitting that we are preparing for our chat and talking about digital literacy and learning during “Digital Inclusion Week” (10/7/19 – 10/11/2019). For me, #digitalequityis fully resourced school libraries led by state-certified school librarians who provide access and opportunity to close literacy learning gaps for students, educators, and families.

Monday, October 14, 2019: #is516 Twitter Chat: Digital Learning

 “Digital literacy is the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, understand, evaluate, create, and communicate digital information, an ability that requires both cognitive and technical skills” (American Library Association 2013). As educators with expertise in curating and integrating digital resources and tools into curriculum, school librarians and libraries are perfectly positioned to be leaders and coteachers of digital literacy.

School librarians serve as technology stewards. Stewardship is an activity that requires one to practice responsible planning and management of the resources one is given, or over which one has authority. In school libraries that serve as hubs for resources, effective school librarians curate resources that support standards-based curricula as well as students’ needs for independent learning. Students, families, classroom teachers, and administrators rely on proactive library professionals who plan for, manage, and integrate digital learning tools and experiences into the daily school-based learning lives of students.

Access and equity are core principles of librarianship. With their global view of the learning community, school librarians have an essential role to play as digital literacy leaders who help address gaps in technology access and in opportunities to use digital resources for learning and creating.

In schools with plenty, school librarians advocate for a digitally rich learning environment for students and coteach with colleagues to effectively integrate digital resources, devices, and tools. In less privileged schools, librarians will dedicate themselves to seeking funding and advocating for students’ and classroom teachers’ access to the digital resources and tools of our times.

School librarians can be leaders in codeveloping, coimplementing, and sustaining digital learning environments in their schools. They commit to closing the gap between access and opportunity by collaborating with classroom teachers and specialists and ensuring that the open-access library makes digital learning opportunities and tools available to all students.

#is516 Chat Questions
These are the questions that will guide our chat (for copy and paste).

Q,1: What are the benefits of #coteaching digital literacy/or collaborating to integrate #digital learning tools? #IS516

Q.2: What future ready dispositions are students practicing when engaged in #digital learning? #IS51s6

Q.3: How do you or how can you serve as a technology mentor for individual Ts? #IS516

Q.4: How do you or how can you serve as a school/system-wide technology mentor? (Share a tool or website!) #IS516

Please respond with A.1, A.2, A.3, A.4 and bring your ideas, resources, experience, questions, and dilemmas to our conversation so we can learn with and from you!

For previous chat questions and archives, visit our IS516 course Twitter Chats wiki page. Thank you!

Work Cited

American Library Association. 2013. Digital Literacy, Libraries, And Public Policy: Report of the Office of Information Technology Policy’s Digital Literacy Task Force. www.districtdispatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/2012_OITP_digilitreport_1_22_13.pdf

 

Inquiry and Reading Comprehension Twitter Chat Summary

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On Monday, September 23, 2019, graduate students in “IS516: School Library Media Center” participated in a bimonthly Twitter chat. The chat was based on the pull quotes from Chapter 3: Inquiry Learning and Chapter 4: Traditional Literacy Learning in Maximizing School Librarian Leadership: Building Connections for Learning and Advocacy (ALA 2018).

These are the four questions that guided our Twitter chat

As the course facilitator, Twitter chat moderator, and chair of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Reading Position Statements Task Force, I had a pressing reason to mine students’ thinking, experiences, and questions. While the critical role of reading competence is one of AASL’s core beliefs (AASL 2018, 4) and inquiry is one of the shared foundations described in depth in the new standards (67-74), the link between the reading comprehension and inquiry learning is not explicit.

A question posed recently on a popular school librarian Facebook group heightened my level of concern for how school librarians perceive their roles as teachers of reading and how they view the relationship between information literacy (or inquiry) and reading comprehension strategies.

These are a sampling of the students’ tweets.

Beliefs (about information, inquiry learning, and reading comprehension strategies)

@the_bees_knees
A4. Inquiry, information literacy, and reading comprehension are like a three-legged stool. Without any one of the three, we don’t really understand why we keep falling down.  #is516

@K8linNic
A.3: Common beliefs: Literacy is IMPORTANT & ESSENTIAL! Reading = foundational skill necessary for success in school/life. Literacy support is more than promoting reading #is516

@OwlsAndOrchids
A3: Both classroom T’s and #schoollibrarians highly value traditional literacies. Reading, writing, listening & speaking are core parts of learning. Without mastering these skills, students aren’t able to properly learn about other subjects or succeed in life. #is516 @iSchooK12

@bookn3rd2
A.3 SLs & Ts believe literacy learning involves giving Ss listening, speaking, writing, technology, print, inquiry, & reading comprehension strategies thru multimodal texts. SLs serve as literacy leaders in their schools. #is516 @iSchoolK12

@clairemicha4
Ts discuss all the time the transition from learning to read and reading to learn. Ss have to have solid reading skills to thrive in an academic setting. This Ts and #schoollibrarians can agree on.

@spetersen76
A.4. All (reading comprehension/information literacy/inquiry learning) require strategy and skill to be successful. With purposeful planning and teaching, Ss will learn how to critically evaluate sources, & read deeply/comprehend across various types of text/media, to be able to successfully participate in inquiry at its fullest.  #is516

@ScofieldJoni
A.3 Another common belief between both teachers and librarians is that the reading element of literacy is not the only important kind. In this day and age, digital literacy is just as important. #is516

@MFechik
A.3: They share a belief that inquiry is an important foundational skill for literacy, which leads to larger opportunities for students as they grow. They also both believe strongly in students’ right to privacy and intellectual freedom. #is516 @ischoolk12

@MsMac217
A.4 @iSchoolK12 Inquiry can’t be done w/o reading comprehension. Ss must be able to support themselves thru difficult texts in order to inquire & reach sufficient conclusions. Plus, inquiry can’t be done w/o the ability to sort thru information & determine what’s valuable #is516

Current Experience

@malbrecht3317
A1: In #Together203, our middle school science curriculum is entirely inquiry-based. There is a guiding essential question for each lesson & students come to an understanding of the world around them by participating in hands-on research labs. #is516 @ischoolk12

@karal3igh
A.1. Inquiry/Research is mostly left up to the teacher, but it is very heavily encouraged! Our math and science curriculum have geared strongly towards #inquirylearning in just the 6 years I’ve taught at my school. #is516 @iSchoolK12

@litcritcorner
A1. Our Juniors currently engage in very inquiry through their research projects. Students get to choose an independent reading book and then research a theme or question based on their book. This gives students a choice but also provides a focus. #is516 @iSchoolk12

@TravelingLib
A.1 Currently, research is used much more in our school compared to inquiry.  Inquiry is mostly seen in science and social studies, but has yet to be integrated well into other subjects. #is516 @ischoolk12

@bookn3rd2
A.1 I mostly saw traditional research in my school. Inquiry research was only done in gifted classes. Low Socio-Eco school, admin wanted classes CC & curriculum-centered. Gifted Ts got all the fun! SLs did no classroom literacy instruction #is516 @iSchoolK12

Less-than-ideal Current Practice

 @lovecchs165
I have never worked in an educational environment when Librarians/Teachers collaborate and have only seen traditional research done in the classrooms…I wonder if other teachers realize what they are missing out on by not collaborating with librarians?

@burnsiebookworm
A1 We’re pretty traditional – more research than inquiry based. Individual classes do their own lessons. For instance, ELA classes do a WW2 project in 8th grade, focused on life on the homefront. @ischoolk12 #is516

@bookn3rd2
A.1 I mostly saw traditional research in my school. Inquiry research was only done in gifted classes. Low Socio-Eco school, admin wanted classes CC & curriculum-centered. Gifted Ts got all the fun! SLs did no classroom literacy instruction #is516 @iSchoolK12

@CydHint
#is516 in the study on teacher and librarian #perceptions about #collaboration, #less than 50% of #librarians believed they should help with teaching note taking skills. #whoshoulddowhat remains an issue

Quote Tweet
@CactusWoman
A.3 Common beliefs are essential starting places for #collaboration. In my experience not all middle & high school Ts in all disciplines saw themselves as “teachers of reading.” This is also true of some #schoollibrarians who do not see themselves as “teachers of reading.” #is516

Effective Practices

@OwlsAndOrchids
A4: #inquiry is reliant on information literacy & reading comprehension. Without understanding text, the information is lost. Being able to recognize when info is needed, find it, assess it, & apply it is a fundamental part of inquiry. #is516 @iSchoolK12

@OwlsAndOrchids
The skills do seem to build upon one another and they are all necessary for total success. #is516 @ischoolk12

Quote Tweet
@burnsiebookworm
A4: Once Ss can get a handle on reading comprehension, skills like making predictions come more naturally, which allows them to move thru the inquiry process. @ischoolk12 #is516

@bookn3rd2
A.3 In the past few years Ts across disciplines within my school have started purposefully teaching reading strategies within their classes. It’d been greatly beneficial in increasing student comprehension, esp. w Nonfiction texts. #is516 @iSchoolK12

@GraceMW
A.4) #InquiryBasedLearning works best when there is a solid foundation of #infoliteracy and #readingcomprehension skills. Ts and #schoollibrarians who help foster these skills are helping curious students be stronger researchers and info seekers #is516 @iSchoolK12

@burnsiebookworm
A4: Reading comprehension is paramount. We use the making #textconnections strategies in ELA classes. Being able to connect to a text is the 1st step. @ischoolk12 #is516

@rural0librarian
A.4  #inquiry, info literacy, & reading comprehension are all tools and strategies that allow Ss to build their knowledge, encourage deeper learning, and become personally and academically competent #is516 @iSchoolK12

Reading Proficiency: A Foundational Skill
The importance of the foundational skill of reading can support or hinder a student’s ability to negotiate meaning in both print and digital texts. Readers applying comprehension strategies such as activating background knowledge, questioning, making predictions and drawing inferences, determining importance or main ideas, and synthesizing regardless of the genre or format of the text. Readers “read” illustrations, videos, audiobooks, and multimodal websites. In this environment, “school librarians can do more than promote reading. We can accept the role as instructional partners in teaching reading [and inquiry] and thrive in performing it” (Tilly 2013, 7).

These preservice school librarians agree that people can be reading proficient without being information literate, but a person cannot be information literate and engage in inquiry learning without comprehending what they read, view, or hear. It is my intention that they will take this understanding into their practice as educators and librarians.

Note: The tweets quoted here are used with permission and the whole class provided me with permission to link to our Wakelet archive (see below).

Works Cited

American Association of School Librarians. 2018. National School Library Standards for Learners, School Librarians, and School Libraries. Chicago: ALA.

Inquiry and Reading Comprehension Strategies. Twitter Chat #2. Wakelet.com. https://wakelet.com/wake/546a25ea-5595-4882-bc71-e883ef153e12

Tilly, Carol L. 2013. Reading instruction and school librarians. School Library Monthly 30 (3): 5-7.

 

Twitter Chat: Inquiry and Reading Comprehension

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This fall graduate students in “IS516: School Library Media Center” are participating in bimonthly Twitter chats. The chats are based on the pull quotes from chapters in Maximizing School Librarian Leadership: Building Connections for Learning and Advocacy (ALA 2018).

We invite you to join us our chat on Monday, September 23rd from 7:00 to 7:30 p.m. Central Time. Chat questions are posted on this blog on the Wednesday before our Monday chats.

September 23, 2019: #is516 Twitter Chat: Inquiry Learning

When students engage in inquiry learning,
they “build new knowledge by inquiring, thinking critically, identifying problems, and developing strategies for solving problems”
(AASL 2018, 34).

Inquiry learning can spark students’ curiosity and ignite their passions. Inquiry puts learners in the driver’s seat and leads them to invest in and care about the literacies, skills, and dispositions they develop during the process. As students pursue the answers to personally meaningful questions and engage in real-world projects, they learn how to learn and build their confidence.  Hands-on, minds-on inquiry learning experiences help prepare young people to problem solve when confronted with the inevitable learning challenges that will characterize their futures.

Educators are responsible for creating the conditions in which inquiry learning can flourish. Inquiry doesn’t just happen; it must be expertly designed.

Building connections between required curriculum and students’ interests is essential. When two or more educators plan for inquiry, they increase the resources and knowledge at the collaboration table. They push each other’s creativity and codevelop more engaging learning experiences for students. When school librarians and classroom teachers coplan, coteach, and comonitor students’ inquiry learning process, they create opportunities for students to increase their content knowledge. They help students develop their ability to comprehend all types of texts and build future ready skills and strategies that are transferable to other learning contexts—both in and outside of school.

Comprehension strategies are essential for success in our personal, educational, and professional lives. Throughout the inquiry process, students (and adults) access and use information for which they have little, incomplete, or no background knowledge. “Regardless of the content and whether ideas and information are communicated in print or multimodal texts, students begin and progress on their literacy journeys by learning and developing their ability to effectively read and write” (Moreillon 2017a, 87). The traditional literacies—reading, writing, listening, and speaking—are called into service during inquiry learning.

School librarians can be leaders in codeveloping, coimplementing, and sustaining a culture of reading and inquiry in their schools. When school sites or entire districts adopt and practice a single inquiry model, and teach and reinforce reading comprehension strategies, students will have multiple opportunities to achieve successful deeper learning.

#is516 Chat Questions

These are the questions that will guide our chat (for copy and paste):

Q.1: How is research/inquiry currently taught in your school?

Q.2: What is/could be the connection between inquiry and #makerspaces?

Q.3: What common beliefs about literacy learning do classroom teachers and school librarians share?

Q.4: What is the relationship among inquiry, information literacy, and reading comprehension?

Please respond with A.1, A.2, A.3, A.4 and bring your ideas, resources, experience, questions, and dilemmas to our conversation so we can learn with and from you!

For previous chat questions and archives, visit our IS516 course wiki page.

Thank you!

Works Cited

American Association of School Librarians. 2018. National School Library Standards for Learners, School Librarians, and School Libraries. Chicago: ALA.

Moreillon, Judi. 2017. “Literacy Leadership and the School Librarian: Reading and Writing—Foundational Skills for Multiple Literacies.” In The Many Faces of School Library Leadership, 2nd ed., edited by Sharon Coatney and Violet H. Harada, 86-108. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited.