Library/Info Lit Curriclum

[Sandra Carswell]

This will be my second year in junior high. Last year I primarily worked on cultivating relationships with the teachers and weeding the library. I was able to "cooperate" with 3 8th grade teachers on research projects in which I tried to touch on all aspects of the research process and information literacy skills. This year we are adding 6th grade to 7th and 8th so I'm thinking I need to have a plan of what specific skills I want to target with each grade.

Do you have suggestions for specific information literacy/library skills I should be teaching each grade level?

[Sandy Rowland]

Hi, Sandra. I have been a middle school library media teacher for ten years now and am booked nearly every day with research and recreational reading selection. I commend you for beginning slowly. Like you, I cultivated a few professional relationships among teachers and grew from there.

I was quite surprised that the the first department to welcome my collaboration across the board was the science department. I would have thought either English or history would be my busiest clients. But, in my school, the science department follows the state standards more closely than others and they told me what research skills were required for each grade level and what topics they wanted to cover. For the past six years we have done 6th, 7th and 8th grade research with every science class. It was easy to convince them to require bibligraphies (Work Cited pages) to their assignments and to add time for webpage evaluation when necessary. I add other information literacy skills when they are appropriate. It is wonderful for me to know that I will see every student in the school via their science class.

Believe it or not, there are 8th grade English and history teachers in my school who NEVER come to the library as a class. They are too busy covering their curriculum. They assign research and expect kids have a recreational reading book at all times, but they must get it on their own time.

So I prep the kids for this during their 6th and 7th grade years. In reality, if each of them wanted their week or two in the library for research and a biweekly check out period, I would have a huge scheduling problem!

But, getting back to your question, I think you let the assignments dictate what skills you teach.

[Sandra Carswell]

Thank you, Sandy, for your reply. I think it is great you can be sure that all the students in your school are getting the info lit curriculum they need through the science department. I have an open schedule so it is really hard to depend on getting all of the students of even one grade in the library for instruction. I think that is where my trouble lies. I was at an intermediate school for 3 years and we had regular library classes (reading class)every other week. I didn't like how that would interfere when other teachers did want to use the library for research though. There are problems associated with both schedules, open and fixed/flexible. I have been thinking of going to a modified or temporary fixed/flex schedule for the 6th grade. That is what they are used to anyhow.
I could use those class times to review the use of the library, basic resources available, introduce the databases (or electronic resources which is what I will be calling them this year), search skills (print, opac, Internet, electronic resources), website evaluation. I would also be able to work in reading promotion, book talks, etc. Oh dear, you know, it sounds like it will take an entire year! I was thinking if I did this in 6th, then maybe the 7th and 8th grade years, I would just review the skills when their teacher brought them for a research project and teach the Big 6 process and any others that would apply to that particular project. BUT, the problem with this model is I didn't have any, zero, zip, nada, 7th grade research and very little 8th grade. So, the intro in 6th grade would not be retained, having been taught out of context anyway, and I would have to re-teach in 8th grade or the hs librarian would think I had taught them nothing, which would essentially be true!

I would like to have a way to say, okay, this is what I'm teaching, for each grade level. Then, I could make sure, (beg, plead, bribe) certain teachers from those grade levels to allow me to work these particular skills in through a research project that we teach together. If I lay out all of the library skills/info lit curriculum I feel I need to teach to all of the teachers, and ask to be allowed to work them in through a research project in their content area, I think they would laugh because of the time it would take. You should have seen the look on the face of the teacher that did come for research and I asked to be allowed 15 min at the beginning of class. She kept telling me they didn't have much time. I told her that what I was teaching them would save them time in the long run. Then she allowed me to address the class but after about 10 min. she kept trying to break in and set them on their way before I had finished. That's why I was thinking of just trying to focus on a few in each grade level. So, maybe I should just take your lead, look for a particular dept, subject area, in which to teach these skills through. I know science is an area that has been keeping our 8th grade test scores down so maybe I'll start with them too.
Again, thank you so much for your reply. It helps me to think these things through.
Sandra

[Sandy Rowland]

It sounds as though you have given this a lot of thought. One more thing that worked for me when I was tried to build collaboration among teachers was to attend department meetings, varying from month to month who I joined. At one meeting, when language arts teachers were bemoaning how difficult it was to get around to all students for writing process revision, I offerred that they might send half a class to the library while they kept half a class in the classroom and then the next day we could switch halves. They jumped at the chance and I got the opportunity to show kids some websites and tools I had not taught them before. The kids loved it and so did I.

It was so successful, we copied this model with the science department during the 8th grade science fair research process. Teachers were able to have smaller more manageable groups for labs and I was able to have each student on a computer rather than sharing. (I only have 15 students computers, not 30.)

I'd say you are heading in the right direction. Asking yourself all the right questions. Best of luck this year.

[Sandra Carswell]

Thank you for the new ideas Sandy. I've been looking at jh/ms library webpages and have noticed on some library calendars they have scheduled class check out times. Do you do this or do you just have open scheduling and students come on their own if the teacher doesn't schedule a class time?

[Sandy Rowland]

Hi again. I keep a totally flexible calendar. It sits on a counter in the library and anyone can sign up for whatever time they choose, however, some language arts teachers sign up for the same period every other week because our checkout period is two weeks. That is fine with me and when I have only them, I do book talks, or AR reading tips, author talks etc. for them. But if someone wants to schedule research, I tell the check-out teacher they are on their own. They need to supervise and discipline their own students as I will be working with the researchers. It all seems to work out even though it sounds chaotic.

At the beginning of the year, every language arts class comes to the library for an orientation and to check out their first books of the year. Then I see every 6th grade language arts class three more times to practice using the library and OPAC. I also teach them how to use the network as each student has space to save work on it.

As I was trying to build up library usership, I had a couple years when on the bottom of each week, I listed my "lesson of the week" and people could sign up for it. I really didn't like that because I felt as though I was teaching out of context and they wouldn't remember what I taught. But it did bring some classes in who wouldn't have come otherwise. The kids usually liked what I had to offer because it was usually online and they love using the computers.

My 8th grade English teachers NEVER bring their classes in just to check out books. They expect them to always have a book, but get it on their own time. (I'm open 7:45 - 5:00 every day.) They do research and bring them for that. All they want from me is to teach how to do the Work Cited page... boring, but necessary. :)

Hope this helps.

[Sandra Carswell]

Hi Sandy, Thanks for the information. I'm going to implement some of your practices like having the calendar on the desk for teacher's to sign up for library class times. I thought of doing it electronically but have decided I'd rather have a face-to-face meeting with them. I imagine some of the 6th and 7th grade reading teachers may use this time. I'm also looking forward to being able to do some booktalks with them as well.
Thanks again!
Sandra