Collaboration Question from Graduate Library Students

[Judi Moreillon]

Please put the level (elementary, middle, or high school) at the top of your response.

Please share specific strategies that you use to develop your instructional partner role with novice and with veteran classroom teacher colleagues.

We are especially interested in collaborative projects that include designing, planning, implementing, and assessing standards-based lessons or units of instruction.

[Ann Ewbank]

Taking the PD involvement one step further, consider asking your principal if you can join your school's professional development committee. In my second year of teacher-librarianship, I did this, and continued my role in planning the school's agenda for PD throughout my tenure there. This helped with collaboration with my colleagues in quite a few ways.

First, I always knew what the PD agenda was for the year and was able to ensure that the library and information literacy were represented. Second, as a PD team leader, I had visibility in front of my teacher colleagues in a different way- this helped them to see me as a "teacher" and not "just a librarian"- something that is difficult for some teachers to understand- that I had knowledge of curriculum and pedagogy and could apply it in classroom settings- and understood what they were going through in their classroom world! Third, the principal saw me as a school leader, and began to come to me for assistance and advice on PD matters regularly, once she saw my competence as a presenter and a planner of PD school-wide.

Taking professional development to the planning level allowed me to build influence with my principal and my fellow teachers in a way that I never could have by collaborating one-on-one with teachers. When you are one of the architects of the PD agenda at your school, it assists with collaborating one-on-one with the teachers as well.

[Liz Deskins]

Elementary setting
I would agree with being involved in Professional Development as a benefit as well. A side benefit is that, just like our students, not all teachers learn at the same pace or in the same way, so if I am involved in the roll-out of something new I can touch base with teachers I know learn "differently" and offer to collaborate on a project that embraces this new initiative. It makes things easier for them, and they are more willing to collaborate on something else!

Also, our district practices "Understanding by Design" (Wiggins and McTighe) as a teaching/learning planning framework, so any discussion starts with the standards and indicators of whatever content is being taught. I have a plannng form that I use that starts with the content(s) indicators, the library media indicator(s), and technology/information literacy indicators that should/could be integrated. That way we all see what needs to be learned, and at what level of Bloom's taxonomy, so we really do begin with the end in mind.

We are very fortunate that in our district we have a certified library media specialist in every building, and that our district values us as teacher-leaders in the buildings. Very often a new district initiative will be introduced to us first and we are charged to go back to our buildings and work with the principal and other key leaders to share with the entire staff. This adds another level of work to our day, but also enables us to truly be of assistance to our staff when they are learners as well as teachers.

[Allison Showers-Chlup]

I am excited to hear that your district uses Wiggins and McTighe's "Understanding by Design" to plan. I was introduced to the model in my education classes, but have not seen it heavily used by the district for which I currently work. I think it is a very powerful tool for developing lessons that are designed around the desired learning outcome. I would love to see a copy of your planning form. It sounds like a great starting point. I think teachers would be less resistant to collaboration if a teacher-librarian were to approach them with such a planning form. Often, I think teachers think that collaboration simply means more work on their part. It is important to demonstrate (and therefore, convince them) that this is not true.

[Judy Franz]

Hi, Judi. I would like to know if you will be presenting at the AzLA conference in November and if your books will be available for purchase and autographing? I noticed that your book, Collaborative Strategies for Teaching Reading Comprehension is available online, but I am a hard copy person when it comes to practical resources like these. Thanks.

[Judi Moreillon]

I will not be presenting at AzLA this year. (I do so every other year.) I will be co-presenting (of course!) a session related to my book at the AASL Conference in Reno.

My professional book is available from ALA Editions online, or directly from the author (me). You should know it was written with a K-6 audience in mind.

(The book itself is a hardcover. There is support on my Web site, but not the contents of the book.)

[Mary Ann Harlan]

High School
One thing to read is my earlier angsting regarding sign ups in the library and the concern I had for impacting relationships I had with veteren teachers - it is titled Addition by Subtraction.
When I first came on to campus I worked hard to make the library a friendly place, and the librarian to be viewed as approachable. I spent a number of years undoing the attitude that "I don't want to bother you while we are in here." I did it by one on one explanations of what my job actually was - teaching. I handed out a "Library handbook" that was 5 pages, and one page explained the collaborative role I could play in research. Each fall I passed out a Library Newsletter detailing what was new in the library. I met with new teachers to give a tour, go over resources, and procedures. I provided sugar after school for this meeting.

Eventually I found the one or two teachers who I could do exciting, truly collaborative projects with and had them act as my marketers and promoters. When there was a large turnover in the English department I developed a Handbook, that included helpful hints, how I could help, procedures, resources, lessons, examples of research projects, since I did it for English I went ahead and created one for the other core departments. Each lesson identified the state standard and the information literacy standard (believe it or not identifying standards is a novelty in our school.)

Over the years I have made myself as useful and friendly as I can. I have with personal, as well as classroom informational needs. I have plugged in VCRS, taught PD classes in web tools, served with teachers on committees, answered questions, gone around and through teachers to improve their students experiences. To me the best experiences have come with people whom I have developed personal relationships with, maybe not friends off campus but definitely on campus. That understanding shoulder someone else mentioned. I try hard not to overwhelm new teachers but build a relationship where they see I can help. I work with the veterans, trying to move them towards more engaging experiences for their students. And frankly I do it one at a time. It is slow but can be rewarding.

[Nicole]

Mary Ann, I applaud you for your effort and vision. I did read your previous post. I really can feel your struggle. I have only touched the surface on trying to collaborate with teachers compared to your efforts. Would you mind sharing an example of your pamphlets? I work in an elementary school but I am having trouble getting the definition of collaboration across to the administration and faculty. I had a new teacher excited and in addition to her fixed time I thought we had decided on co-teaching a 45 minute extension to a class project. When the time came she left her class in the library and when asked where she was going she said she had things to do. I felt like we were on the right track and I even discussed what our roles would be during the lesson. I did not do my job obviously because there was a gap in communication somewhere. I also have gone to every grade level to give teachers examples of lessons we could do together based on their reading program. Again I thought all was well but after discussing a higher reading level group club, my role turned into AR test facilitator without the help from the classroom teacher. It seems so productive and simple to work alongside the library. I have opened up the library for flexible times and self checkout so I can be available to co-teach. So to sum up my post. Please keep up your efforts. You are a model for those of us new to the career.

What are your strongest programs for high school students? What services do you find the most popular? What is something every library needs to provide for teenagers? Thank you!

[Mary Ann Harlan]

Nicole,
Keep trying, rant and rave to someone safe if you get frustrated, but keep trying. That is the the only way I know how to build collaborative partnerships - and sometimes it takes a while. Very seldom, but occasionally when you have built some political capital by being the friendly, helpful teacher librarian, and with only a certain type of person - putting your foot down can help but I find that to be a very rare case. What I know from talking with other professionals is that it can be a long road but persistence pays off.

As for my most popular services - I provide the pleasure reading without judgment, not too many teens get that and we don't have a strong public library system. But I think that is unique to my situation.

[Kathy Hellman]

I think one reason teachers are reluctant to let the school librarian get involved with their plans is because they are not used to having such competent, well-educated and informed school librarians. Many school districts still staff their school libraries with clerks or volunteers who grew into the job after the last librarian retired. Perhaps part of the effort to convince more schools to hire professional teacher-librarians includes teaching teachers during their education process that school librarians are a lot more knowledgeable and engaged than they used to be and they are a great resource for collaborative teaching.

[LoriDraper]

I agree with Kathy in that teachers are not expecting the librarians to be competent educated people. I think one of the most important things of being a Teacher/Librarian is getting to teachers to not see me as just a librarian. As I read through many of the comments made by teacher/librarians about all of the successful collaboration stories, I think that the best way to change the "just a librarian" mentality is to advertise our skills within the school. I am working on my degree and do not have much experience in a school library. I have taught in elementary schools and I see many librarians talking to the students about their classroom assignments. I think it would be good if librarians were aware of what is going on in the classroom from the points of view of both the teacher and the student. It is important to find something the students are interested in so that we can try to apply it to other areas of teaching. Can we as librarians affect the curriculum by pointing out what students are most interested in? Can we show teachers how to apply interest in one subject to learning in another?

[Mary Ann Harlan]

The lesson plan/paperwork is the beginning. I always want to have a conversation, to spend time understanding expectations, goals, and roles. I have to be honest - I struggle with collaboration in my school. My teachers prefer to do "their own thing" and "be left alone." I struggle to find a way in. Usually it is with teachers new to the profession but not newbies. I spend time building relationships with students - through programming and conversations - in order to be a friendly face they approach for one on one instruction. I have a blog, I watch what students watch, I helped set up their gaming night, and the first film festival (which is now too big for the library). I put up a March Madness bracket, and while my fantasy football fell through, we set aside the stats for those in fantasy leagues. This makes me friendly to students so when I can't build a collaborative relationship with the teachers students know they can approach me. But everything I do is with an eye to building the program in such a way that student learning is improved. And when I find any way, any moment, to talk it out - I grab that opportunity to say - hey I see your bring your kids in for an online scavenger hunt - can I have 5-10 minutes to talk about effective Google searching, and if it turns out that goes well, then the next time the teacher is more likely to sit down and plan with me.

BTW - the handbook is very specific to our site but I can give everyone an idea of the Table of Contents if you'd like.

[Lisa Hunt]

Mary Ann, your comments are right up my alley. It's all about student learning. I learned this when I became a National Board Certified LMS/Teacher, but keeping students in mind makes the job rewarding every day. I get a warm fuzzy feeling when I think about this because I have experienced such a personal transition. My job is the best job in the world. Once when I lost my professional focus everything came back into place when I remembered to give my energy to the students. It is not easy to develop a library program, and collaborate with your peers. There are so very many dynamics in place you feel like you are constantly juggling. My personal fear is double booking or mistaken date/time issues. I've done it twice during September. However, when the going gets tough I just make myself think "students." Mary Ann mentioned all those personal touches that she includes in her library program for the students. These touches allow her to work with many people in her building (collaboration of all types) but even when the plan doesn't quite work out with a specific teacher success is achieved because the initial plan was for the students. I create small group things in my library during student lunch, recess, or study hall times. Teachers notice the new things students learn with me, students talk about library experiences, and my principal thinks I'm really creative providing alternative experiences within our already crowded school day. Once again, I am seen as a teaching partner because my energy is always directed toward student learning.