The role of the Teacher Librarian
All seven standards outlined in the Australian School Library Association’s (2014) ‘Evidence guide for teacher librarians in the highly accomplished career stage’ emphasise the ‘teacher’ role of ‘Teacher Librarians’ and Cynthia Houston’s paper on the importance of Teacher Librarian’s training incorporating Web 2.0 and other 21st century tools for information literacy skill development combine to highlight the multi-faceted role of the Teaching Librarian as a teacher of information literacy as well as an information administrator.
Similarly, the very practical experience of ‘ETL503 Resourcing the Curriculum’ in developing Library Guides, also known as LibGuides, or PathFinders is a clear demonstration of Standard 1 – Teacher Librarians know students and how they learn; Standard 2 – Teacher Librarians know the content and how to teach it; and Standard 3 – Teacher Librarians plan for and implement effective teaching and learning.
Developing the “My Place, Your Place’’ Unit for this subject required a clear understanding of the curriculum to be taught, the student diversity and capabilities to match delivery, and opportunities for complementary teaching and learning activities, including Web 2.0 to enhance classroom activities.
These ideas and experiences led me to question why I delayed the use of Web 2.0 experiences until Stage Two. I began implementing the use of online storytelling programs with Year 1 and sought a Stage One class to create a book wrap edublog. I have learnt a great deal from these experiences and continue to refine the inclusion of Web 2.0 with younger students.
These first steps for students into Web 2.0 and other online tools establish good habits for increasingly more sophisticated and independent information literacy and inquiry in Stage Two and Three. Kuhlthau, Maniotes & Caspari’s (2007) research into Guided Inquiry and Todd’s (2010) work on the Information Search Process (ISP), energised me and I very enthusiastically started investigating ways to implement GI or ISP to achieve the “…richer and deeper and more personalised over time’ (p133) student learning that GI had achieved in Kuhlthau, et al.’s studies.
However, the reality of Library Programming as an RFF role in the school and the brevity of lessons, combined with the time required to establish strong collaborative relationships with teachers in a new school, meshed to make GI or ISP a pipe dream for the moment.
Seeking alternative ways to develop student’s information literacy skills with the resources available (iPads and three computers as well as texts), I decided on Mike Eisenberg and Bob Berkowitz’ Big 6 model for teaching information and technology skills (Big 6, n.d). I had seen the use of the Big 6 demonstrated by a Teacher Librarian at a Sydney Region Teacher Librarian Network Meeting and investigated it further. Considering that I wanted to develop information literacy from Kindergarten through to Year 6, the modified version for younger students, Super 3, was an additional bonus. Now, each class uses the Big 6 or Super 3 for at least one investigation each year. In addition, I have started promoting its use to teachers for classroom investigations as well. This further strengthens the connections between the classroom and the Library.
An important aspect of the implementation of the Big 6/Super 3 model is the development of Pathfinders to guide students use. Working through ‘ETL505 Describing Educational Resources’ and ‘ETL501 The Information Environment’ not only provided the vital skills of resource description for organising the multitude of multimodal information available today to ensure ease of access and use, but also the importance of being able to determine the quality. Explicit teaching of resource and website evaluation has also been integrated into teaching to ensure students develop these skills on their own as well.
References
Similarly, the very practical experience of ‘ETL503 Resourcing the Curriculum’ in developing Library Guides, also known as LibGuides, or PathFinders is a clear demonstration of Standard 1 – Teacher Librarians know students and how they learn; Standard 2 – Teacher Librarians know the content and how to teach it; and Standard 3 – Teacher Librarians plan for and implement effective teaching and learning.
Developing the “My Place, Your Place’’ Unit for this subject required a clear understanding of the curriculum to be taught, the student diversity and capabilities to match delivery, and opportunities for complementary teaching and learning activities, including Web 2.0 to enhance classroom activities.
These ideas and experiences led me to question why I delayed the use of Web 2.0 experiences until Stage Two. I began implementing the use of online storytelling programs with Year 1 and sought a Stage One class to create a book wrap edublog. I have learnt a great deal from these experiences and continue to refine the inclusion of Web 2.0 with younger students.
These first steps for students into Web 2.0 and other online tools establish good habits for increasingly more sophisticated and independent information literacy and inquiry in Stage Two and Three. Kuhlthau, Maniotes & Caspari’s (2007) research into Guided Inquiry and Todd’s (2010) work on the Information Search Process (ISP), energised me and I very enthusiastically started investigating ways to implement GI or ISP to achieve the “…richer and deeper and more personalised over time’ (p133) student learning that GI had achieved in Kuhlthau, et al.’s studies.
However, the reality of Library Programming as an RFF role in the school and the brevity of lessons, combined with the time required to establish strong collaborative relationships with teachers in a new school, meshed to make GI or ISP a pipe dream for the moment.
Seeking alternative ways to develop student’s information literacy skills with the resources available (iPads and three computers as well as texts), I decided on Mike Eisenberg and Bob Berkowitz’ Big 6 model for teaching information and technology skills (Big 6, n.d). I had seen the use of the Big 6 demonstrated by a Teacher Librarian at a Sydney Region Teacher Librarian Network Meeting and investigated it further. Considering that I wanted to develop information literacy from Kindergarten through to Year 6, the modified version for younger students, Super 3, was an additional bonus. Now, each class uses the Big 6 or Super 3 for at least one investigation each year. In addition, I have started promoting its use to teachers for classroom investigations as well. This further strengthens the connections between the classroom and the Library.
An important aspect of the implementation of the Big 6/Super 3 model is the development of Pathfinders to guide students use. Working through ‘ETL505 Describing Educational Resources’ and ‘ETL501 The Information Environment’ not only provided the vital skills of resource description for organising the multitude of multimodal information available today to ensure ease of access and use, but also the importance of being able to determine the quality. Explicit teaching of resource and website evaluation has also been integrated into teaching to ensure students develop these skills on their own as well.
References
- Australian School Library Association. (2014). Evidence guide for teacher librarians in the highly accomplished career stage. [PDF] Canberra, ACT: Australian School Library Association. Retrieved from http://www.asla.org.au/site/DefaultSite/filesystem/documents/evidence-guide_ha.pdf
- Big6 Skills overview (n. d.). The Big6: Information and Technology Skills for Student Success. Retrieved from http://big6.com/pages/about/big6-skills-overview.php
- Houston, C. (2012). Digital Natives, 21st Century School Libraries, and 21st Century Preparation Programs: An Informal Affirmation of Branch and deGroot. School Libraries Worldwide, 18(1), pp. 138-143.
- Kuhlthau, C. C., Maniotes, L. K., & Caspari, A. K. (2007). Assessment in guided inquiry. In Guided inquiry: Learning in the 21st century (pp. 111-131). Westport, Conn: Libraries Unlimited.
- Todd, R. (2010). Curriculum Integration. Victoria, Australia: ACER Press