Integration, enhancing the role of the TL?

Integrated units of work which focus on the same theme across all the key learning areas are of concern due to their limited focus. Surely students need opportunities to expand their horizons? There is so much to learn and discover one would think that using a different topic for each KLA would provide more scope for students to explore more topics; give them a smorgasbord so that they can taste lots of different things and will be more aware of possible choices as they go through life. Apparently this is not in line with current educational theory so it seems like a tremendous opportunity and challenge for the TL to provide lots of interesting resources so that when students do come to the library (either physically or virtually) they can explore new vistas. Selecting wisely is of paramount importance to ensure that young imaginations and hungry minds are provided with lots of stimulus and lots of options for wide reading. The Premier's Reading Challenge and similar programs can be helpful as they encourage students to read outside their normally favoured genre and topic areas. What do you think?

Challenges to the school librarian

Also in Access September 2005 pp. 15 -17, Malcolm Gillies highlights the transition of the last 30 years from the role of "keeper of the keys of boxed knowledge" to "co-worker with teachers and students, helping them to maximise information access and advising on good and bad practices". He sees 4 challenges/opportunities -
(1)accountabilty, including documenting;
(a) the contribution that a TL makes "as [a] facilitator of powerful teaching, powerful learning", (b) how the TL develops information literacy (IL) in the clients (c) research on improvement in IL that results from the activities of a TL
(2) "contribution to learning how to learn" - basis for lifelong learning
(3) "contribution to global citizenry" - freedom of information, freedom of expression and intellectual liberalism - leading to tolerance and plurality of perspective.
(4) "maintenance of the library as a place apart" - a quiet refuge for reading, thinking, listening to music or looking at books, a place of order and mutual respect.

Success, motivation, thinking and self-awareness

Victor Davidson in Success, motivation, thinking and self-awareness, Access September 2005, p. 9-10 talks about various literacies, including listening to music from a variety of sources and formats and cooking (recipes, food groups, etc.) as being useful tools to engage students with the concepts, tools and skills that are needed to be information literate. An example I have used in this regard is selecting the exact item when a hypothetical Mum asks a hypothetical student to purchase some margarine on the way home from school. When you walk into the supermarket there are sometimes dozens of pots and pats of various sizes, and with a multitude of different ingredients. Unless you have asked 'Mum' the right questions, e.g. is it for baking a cake or spreading on bread, has someone in the family an allergy/intolerance to a certain ingredient, etc. you'll be lucky to come home with the exact item that is needed. It's the same when a student comes to the library and says "I need some information about XYZ". They need to ask themselves a few leading questions first so that they can be more specific and end up with exactly what they need rather than a plethora of trivia. Asking the right questions is an important skill for lifelong learning, and it doesn't just happen; it has to be taught and developed through practice.

Davidson also says that "In an ideal world, we would collaborate with all the [teachers] and team-teach to integrate information skills" but in the interim he will "embrace" those teachers who come and "subvert" those who don't "by teaching around" them in all sorts of creative ways. That seems to be the reality in a lot of school libraries.

Expectations

Some years ago I worked with a newly qualified TL who emphasised the L part of her role by saying that while she had a double degree, which gave her credibility within the school environment, she was primarily a Librarian who therefore did not have to work after hours and especially during school holidays. Needless to say, there were no information literacy initiatives introduced from or within that school library during her tenure.

The minimal level of staffing in most school libraries, and the culture of teaching (there is always preparation and marking to be done at home)does not allow committed TLs to enjoy the 'luxury' this lady maintained as her right.

The reality for the vast majority of TLs is that they prepare lessons, display materials, pathfinders, etc. at home or after school hours.

Reflective learning

In his rationale for work placements for librarianship students, Pymm (2007) cites Alderman and Milne, (pp. 11 & 12)as they quote David Kolb's "experiential learning" propositions:
*Learning is continually modified by experience
*Learning is about testing and examining, then building the results into what is already known
*Learning is continuous
*Learning is about resolving conflicts between the practice and theory; concepts and experience

Pymm further says that reflection is of major importance - "that it involves students...thinking about what has happened, how it fits in to their experience and how they respond to this knowledge (eg. by changing behavious, broadening understanding etc) (Alderman and Milne, p. 16)". Pymm also contends that having a mentor is highly beneficial as, as well as providing challenges and insights to stretch the student's learning experience, it enables a student to debrief in a caring and supportive environment.

Prioritising - the 3rd generation (Covey, 1990)

I have been feeling really stressed because I am getting further and further behind. My other subject for this semester is Introductory ICT and I can't get my head around the Boolean algebraic expressions, truth tables and digital gates already and the next topic has to do with algorithms and binary numbers, etc. Assignment 1 is due on 30 March. Over the past 9 years I have attended lots of TL conferences and read lots and feel very passionate about teaching skills for lifelong learning; and assignment 1 for ETL401 is not until after Easter, so I'm just going to put it on hold while I get all the reading done for ICT. Then I will probably need to find a tutor/coach to help me with the mathematical side of it while I prepare to write ETL assignment one.

Engaging students

This week (as a follow up to an initial ppt presentation on Assembly) I have been visiting classrooms to inform and encourage students K to 9 to take on the Premier's Reading Challenge, for the first year in our school. In the first primary and secondary classrooms (year 2 and year 9) I spoke and used the data projector to demonstrate logging on to the website and looking up Booklists, etc. Subsequently, the kindy teacher, who is fairly tech. literate, showed me how to use the interactive whiteboard software to create a wmv? file - a recording of everything that happens on the screen while I do the searching, logging on, etc. So I made the recording - alternately typing, searching, logging on, etc. I have now used it with years 7, 8, 9 and stage 3. I can pause the movie and answer questions and the kids love it. They all watch intently while it plays (I made a couple of spelling corrections within the recording and that really caught their attention!). I am very pleased with the way the kids got really involved with the presentation.

Are we crazy?

Interesting that one of the first readings for the subject Teacher Librarianship is "Conflict Resolution" (Sanders, 2004, ch. 13).

Anecdotal evidence (and on OZTL_NET) is that many students are going right through school to university without even the basics of how fiction and non-fiction are stored differently. I hear so often of the frustration suffered by practicing TLs who experience a glass wall between themselves and class teachers when it comes to collaboration. Most TLs seem to compromise and focus on teaching Information Skills and hope that some of it ignites in the kids minds when they start doing their assignments. 'Crumbs under the table' come when the class teacher books the class into the Library for research sessions. The TL can then prioritize to work alongside the students as they start to look for sources and resources.

So, the consensus is that it is worth all the negatives, to see when the 'light comes on' and the students experience the satisfaction of finding good quality information.

Literate or Fluent?

Migrants to Australia who are not fluent in spoken English may be quite literate but still have difficulty in communicating. My Uncle came from Eastern Europe and worked on the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme for many years. He arrived in Australia before I was born and during my teen years we corresponded periodically - in English. He lived alone, and when he died we found that he had hand copied the entire Bible 3 times in order to improve his English.

After retirement, when he came to visit me at boarding school, his accent was still so strong that the other students queried whether he actually spoke English.
He was literate. He could read and write in two languages. He was almost 'able to speak a foreign language correctly and [mostly] without hesitation', but he was not totally fluent, that is 'able to express himself clearly and without hesitation' because his accent was so strong it offended his hearers ears. Thus he was not considered to be 'fluent' but rather awkward and embarrassing.

To live effectively in the 21st century we must all be both literate and fluent. We need to be able to read and write, although not necessarily using the written language conventions of previous generations. (The speed of everything in this generation is developing a kind of sms shorthand, although still requiring uniformly understood print conventions to facilitate communication). Just like my uncle and other migrants, people using 21st century information and communication technologies (which are, or are rapidly becoming, the norm in our everyday lives,) can be 'information literate' in a print sense but not necessarily 'information fluent' in the ICT sense. This lack of fluency causes embarrassment and will continue to do so until overcome by upskilling (or by death as in Uncle's case).

Uncle could have immersed himself in social activities to practice his English conversation and to improve his fluency in the English language. This would have produced many embarrassing incidents in the short term, but would also have helped in the long term. Teaching and learning in schools in the 21st century must involve total immersion in the Web 2.0 environment to produce both information literate and information fluent members of society.

BTW, Uncle probably knew more about the structure of written English than many of my school peers, but they had the advantage of fluency through regular and continual use. Teachers and Teacher/Librarians can/must learn something from this.