Collaboration Elaboration: Evolving Together Toward a New Understanding of Reference Services

The general outlook of this blog assignment was to consider ways to "evolve" the practice of fellow teachers through collaboration with Teacher-Librarians. Looking at the Concerns-Based-Adoption-Model, or the Substitution Augmentation Modification Redefinition Model, are ways recommended to channel professional growth.  It seems implicit in these ideas, though, that many teachers are resistant to change, and that Teacher-Librarians, as potential leadership figures, have the answers.

However, I feel that all teachers are not very resistant. They are always adapting and adopting from year to year, but never moreso (in my approximately twenty years teaching) than right now. There has been a tsunami of change all at once to the education system, and teachers are rolling up the crests and plunging down the troughs of those waves of change admirably (despite 15 years of under-funding and cut services). And, as a Teacher-Librarian, I feel like I still haven't got my sea legs either, that I don't have all the answers, and that my practice is evolving weekly as well. Leaving tortured sea metaphors behind...where the Models mentioned above have a hint of a corporate management feel that rankles me a little, they are useful in that they suggest that someone can take a leadership role in helping colleagues through change.

And that is the strength of the Teacher-Librarian role: helping, being an instructional support. It's not so much leadership as it is acknowledging we are all having to change rapidly and being willing to be a partner who lends a hand. Not hierarchical leader/follower relationships, but side-by-side collegiality.

I find the real strength in the CBAM lies in these considerations:

...this model suggests the importance of paying attention to implementation for several years, because it takes at least three years for early concerns to be resolved and later ones to emerge. We know that teachers need to have their self-concerns addressed before they are ready to attend hands-on workshops. We know that management concerns can last at least a year, especially when teachers are implementing a school year's worth of new curricula and also when new approaches to teaching require practice and each topic brings new surprises. We also know that help over time is necessary to work the kinks out and then to reinforce good teaching once use of the new practice smoothes out. Finally, with all the demands on teachers, it is often the case that once their practice becomes routine, they never have the time and space to focus on whether and in what ways students are learning. This often requires some organizational priority setting, as well as stimulating interest and concern about specific student learning outcomes. We also know that everyone has concerns-for example, administrators, parents, policy makers, professional developers-and that acknowledging these concerns and addressing them are critical to progress in a reform effort (National Academy of Sciences).

Teacher-Librarian partnerships and team-teaching can ameliorate the overwhelmed feeling teachers have in those first three years of major change, can provide the time and space for reflection, and can help find new resources and new technologies to support classroom teachers.

We are in an era where there is an entirely new report card system being worked (MyEd BC having just replaced the already entirely new BCESIS, now scrapped), the style and focus of the entire curriculum has shifted, while which topics get taught in which grades has shuffled about, while publishers haven't yet fully created resources to match, and whole new subjects, such as Applied Design Skills and Technology, have been added (plus, remember DPA?) without there being anything removed, nor the days getting any longer.

So, how can Teacher-Librarians best help to "evolve" education practice?
A) By being a partner who is willing to initiate and organize much of the new explorations with colleagues.
B) By knowing the new curriculum well, anticipating resource needs, and by transforming the notion of what reference/research services are.
C) By finding ways in which technology can be used to help students find reliable information, credit sources responsibly, and share learning widely with authentic audiences.

Admittedly, this blog post is already doomed to run long. Thus, I will be focussing mainly on Part B above. I'll do this by imagining partnerships with two different teachers who want to tackle new elements of the curriculum in new ways.

Imaginary Chilliwack Teacher 1 is a Grade 3 teacher who now has portions of what used to be Grade 4 material in her Social Studies curriculum, namely a strong focus on Aboriginal cultures, with Content such as "Cultural characteristics and ways of life of local First Peoples..." (NEW CURRIC). She has concerns about being able to teach this meaningfully and respectfully without having much prior knowledge or experience.

The Chilliwack area, is the traditional unceded territory of the Sto:lo Nation. As a Teacher-Librarian with an interest in history and Place-Based Education, I know that there is a wealth of information about the Sto:lo available, but that it goes beyond the traditional form of reference and research materials. The options available are perfect for leaping into 21st century inquiry learning.

Sto:lo Reference materials:
A Journey Into Time Immemorial: an online virtual village experience jam-packed with valuable vetted information (requires Flash to play; doesn't work on ipads).
Sto:lo Sitel database on SD33 Sharepoint: short pages of information and images on traditional housing, hunting, weaving, stories, etc
Steqoye Classroom Workshops: teachers can book classroom visits in which Sto:lo members guide students through hands-on traditional and contemporary cultural practices such as cedar weaving, drumming and dancing, Halq'emeylem language, etc.
Archaeology Kit: brand new, originally designed for Gr 7, but I've used half the components with Gr 3 for incredible exploratory learning on Sto:lo fishing, weaving, tools, etc.
Lit Kits on Aboriginal themes: Smart Learning lessons tied to kits with various books and hands-on elements to pull Language Arts and Social Studies together (not specifically Sto:lo stories).
Longhouse Extension Program fieldtrip: all Gr 3 classes in the district will automatically go to this in the spring; includes sessions in the longhouse, with storytelling, plus a fishing information station, and a tour of the native plant garden.
Sto:lo Aurasma App Exploration: an interactive fieldtrip I created (with much support) as a "treasure hunt" at the Sto:lo Nation Resource and Research Management Centre; kids seek out, draw, and record information on various cultural artifacts while asking questions of the community members and research staff on site.

The above resources are a new breed of reference material. They allow experts to present information directly to students. They encourage students to be active in creating their own learning. They alleviate the pressure on the teacher to learn, assimilate, and create an entirely new "bag of tricks" resources to deliver the curriculum. As a teacher-Librarian, it is valuable to sit down with the teacher and present these options, map out a learning plan, arrange most of the bookings, and take the lead in teaching or presenting the material the first time around.

Now, let's look at Imaginary Chilliwack Teacher 2, who is a Grade 5 teacher, trying to address the newer, stronger Content focus on immigration and injustice in Canadian history: "Past discriminatory government policies and actions such as the Head Tax, Komagata Maru incident, residential schools, and internment camps" (BC Ministry of Ed, SS, Gr3). The imagined teacher may feel nervous about sensitively teaching these controversial topics about some very dark times in our history.

If I, as a Teacher-Librarian (who believes these social justice issues are essential to ensuring that Canada stays on a positive path), can help this teacher find and deliver resources to his students, we will both grow our practice together. And there are some stellar new-generation reference materials available here in Chilliwack, and a few others in development.

Immigration & Injustice Reference materials:
Chilliwack's Chinatowns Kit: one of a seriese of brand new local history resources created by district teachers collaborating with Chilliwack Museum staff; it is being field tested in classrooms now; it contains many primary source reproductions housed in an archive box with magnifying glasses and cotton resource-handling gloves.
The Writing on the Wall Outreach Kit: a Royal BC Museum resource about historical wrongs to the Chinese Canadian community; one kit is available for sign-out via the Chilliwack Museum; it contains a wealth of reproduced primary source documents.
Canadian Immigration and Injustices Lessons (work in progress): lessons I started developing last spring to help teachers (and myself); starting in late March, I'll be meeting with curriculum department members to develop some of these ideas into district kits.
Righting Canada's Wrongs textbook series: this incredible series highlights primary sources; titles include Japanese Canadian Internment, Residential Schools, and Chinese Head Tax; they will be included in district kits; we are also looking at ordering Jackdaws primary source reproduction folders (old-school T-L vertical files!) to add to kits.
Indian Residential Schools and Reconciliation: these resource guides, lesson plans, case studies, and primary sources collected/created by the First Nations Education Steering Committee are phenomenal; while I would focus mainly on the Gr 5 edition, supplements from the Gr 11/12 guides are applicable, too.
Residential Schools Writing Rubric: a standard assignment marking rubric I use with students, this one adapted to the residential schools team-teaching I did with a colleague in the fall.
Secret Path Kit: a local Lit Kit resource so new that it was presented as a workshop only a week ago; it's built around Gord Downie and Jeff Lemire's intense graphic novel about one boy's residential school experience (for which there is also an animated video, plus a CBC production for further enhancement).
A huge number of picture books and novels about the residential schools: books such as Shi-Shi-Etko, Shin-chi's Canoe, I Am Not A Number, When I was Eight, Not My Girl, Fatty Legs, etc, etc, all available in the Library collection.
General immigration books available in the Sardis Elementary Library.

Once again, the above resources are a new breed of reference material. They allow students to be active in creating their own learning by engaging with primary documents, often via hands-on exploration, to analyze the attitudes and intentions of the past. They help the teacher (and T-L) help alongside students as they "differentiate between intended and unintended consequences...," "take stakeholders' perspectives...," and "make ethical judgments about events, decisions, or actions..." (BC Ministry of Ed, SS, Gr5).  Again, as a teacher-Librarian, co-planning, ordering and organizing, and team-teaching these materials the first time around is a great way to develop together.

Further growth, transformation, evolution goals:
I still want to get to the Redefinition phase of the SAMR model in which...
"Computer technology allows for new tasks that were previously inconceivable. 
At this level, common classroom tasks and computer technology exist not as ends but as supports for student centered learning.  Students learn content and skills in support of important concepts as they pursue the challenge of creating [an end product using technology].  Collaboration becomes necessary and technology allows such communications to occur.  Questions and discussion are increasingly student generated." (Technology is Learning).

In the same vein, the Canadian Library Association includes this vital component of fostering 21st century literacies:

"Growth Indicator: Students construct and share new personal meaning using knowledge building technology tools" (Canadian Library Association).

Ideas for Using Tech Tools to Create and Easily Share Learning with Authentic Audiences

• Use students as guest lecturers/experts: for example, in the fall, some Gr 5s wrote incredibly empathetic and thought-provoking essays about residential schools; they could present/read the essays to the next round of grade 5s learning this material; if the readings were recorded, the videos could be shared into the future; or, the students could turn their essays into voice-over for a slideshow housed on the Library webpage.
• Have students collaborate on a wiki compiling important documents or images on an immigration/injustice topic so that it becomes a research repository for the future.
• Have small groups collaborate on presentations using tech tools/apps such as Book Creator, infographic sites, Shadow Puppet, HaikuDeck, etc.; then, share the products out to family members, community members, classmates via a class or Library blog and invite feedback and questions.
• Start students with images of historical moments/events with small amounts of details in captions, then send them on inquiry missions (after info-seeking lessons) to discover why these are important pivotal moments in Canadian history; they then report out to other groups so that each group teaches the other; consider doing this reporting out via share-able app creations, perhaps ThingLink would work best here to annotate photo elements rapidly.
• Give student groups a primary source document to analyze it for bias, attitudes, implications, etc; have them snap a photo of it, upload it to Skitch, etc, and record their thoughts by highlighting and writing comments on the virtual doc; then present out to other groups.

These types of ideas above are the strategies I/we still need to work out at our school. We've tried some of them in pencil-and-paper format, and I've often used the apps in other ways, but haven't transitioned into these new tech-assisted versions. We are on our way, though. First, we've had to fully comprehend the new curriculum, then find more relevant, engaging resources, plus figure out the new reporting procedures in these early years of change. Now, I think we are ready to move beyond transforming our ideas of reference materials into transforming/evolving the ways in which students can present and share their learning. 

The near future is sure to be very interesting!

REFERENCES

this link will connect you to my references: