Suzanne
Suzanne is a grade 2 French
Immersion teacher and has been teaching at my school for more than 10 years.
She has a good and well-practiced program in her classroom and works hard to
see her students succeed and improve in their learning. Because she is well
established in her grade range she has many resources and materials on hand in
her classroom, though they are mostly from the beginning of her career, rather
than injecting new elements of what is available.
I have been the Teacher-Librarian at
the school for two years and have often assisted Suzanne in locating specific
fiction picture books to enhance lessons on topics such as, self-confidence,
friendship, and storytelling. We are not currently collaborating on any
projects or lessons, nor have we done so in the past two years, apart from one
instance. The grade 2 teachers were completing a heritage project with their
classes and Suzanne requested that we collaborate on a specific portion of the
project. She was looking for some reference resources (digital and print) that
would assist her students in finding certain information on their choice
country. We discussed what type of resource would be most valuable to her
students and most easily accessible. I collected a variety of reference books
and a website to present to the class. I planned a brief introduction on parts
of a book: table of contents, titles, images, and the index to help them be
better able to use the resources, as well as a review of accessing the website
and typing in their search term. When I arrived in the class the students had
already been given their page of questions, which most did not fully
understand, and were sent to me immediately to take a book and an iPad. Suzanne
gave a few instructions verbally as students moved about the room and with
their eyes already glued to their screens. We then spent the next half an hour
ineffectively, answering the same simple questions and individually explaining
how to use the reference resources.
In the Concerns Based Adoption Model
I would consider Suzanne to be between the Orientation and Preparation levels
in her approach to integrating reference resources into her teaching. The fact
that she approached me for something other than a storybook shows her
recognition of their importance to student learning. But the scaffolding to
best use the resources is not currently present. This leads to frustration for
teachers and students alike, and an ineffective use of class time and the
resources themselves.
Within a year’s time frame, I
believe I could better support Suzanne and help raise her to the level of
Routine (CBAM) in her use of reference sources, and also to move our practice
as colleagues from Emerging to Evolving in the area of Instructional
Partnership (Leading Learning, 15). The goal would be not to overwhelm Suzanne
with too many new processes or technologies, but to introduce one or two new
things at a time to allow her to build a level of comfort with the tools.
Because her class is primary and new to research I would introduce mainly printed
resources initially. I would begin with the following steps:
- Sitting down with Suzanne to establish
what the goals for the project are, then creating a series of co-taught
lessons that we will guide the students through to achieve the final goal.
- Developing a research aid, such as, https://www.nbexcellence.org/cms_files/resources/Research%20Template%201-3.pdf, to assist the students with a step by step
research process involving: accessing prior knowledge, curated sources,
defining useful keywords, and integrated self-assessment.
- Leading a collaboration block purely for
exploration where Suzanne and I demonstrate the use of reference resources
using a related topic to their project. Then allowing the students time to
practice and explore the resources in preparation for their individual
work.
- Meeting with Suzanne at intervals
throughout to discuss the progress of her students, and to make any
changes to our initial plan for future collaborative projects of a similar
nature (moving to the Mechanical level, (CBAM)).
- Doing a final evaluation of the
students’ process and our planning to determine what was successful and
where further clarification or additional steps would be required.
- Offering to pull a few reference
resources for their next topic of study to have in class to pique students
interest and continue practicing the skills they have learned.
- Sitting down with Suzanne to demonstrate
the learning opportunities found in exploring a digital resource such as, World
Book L’Encyclopédie Découverte, then suggesting we incorporate this
resource into our next collaborative project.
I believe by following these steps
and then building on them in the following years Suzanne would reach the levels
of Integration and Renewal (CBAM). This process would make her as a leader in
her grade level and develop a greater interest in focusing on inquiry
opportunities that are guided by student choice and incorporate student input
into their planning (Leading Learning, 15).
Charlotte
Charlotte is a grade 5 French
Immersion teacher who has been in the classroom for at least 6 years. She has
also taught grades 6 and 7 and has a well-established program. Charlotte is a
creative teacher and is always open to new ideas, rich learning resources, and
collaborative projects.
I would consider Charlotte to be
between the levels of Refinement and Integration on the Concerns-based Adoption
Model. She has an established pattern of teaching already in place and is now
looking for ways to make changes to better serve her students. She has also
been instrumental in bringing together other teachers to work on collaborative
projects and school initiatives.
Charlotte was interested in
collaborating on a science inquiry project. We began by planning a presentation
using rock samples and photos I had taken when on a trip to Iceland. Her
students would explore and observe different rock formations through a hands-on
lab, aided by a series of print reference sources I had already pulled for them
to access. These resources would then help them determine what type of rock
they had chosen and some of its characteristics. This was an introductory
lesson to a unit on the rock cycle and served to engage the students in a real
world context (Leading Learning, 15). The final project for the unit invited
students to create an interview with a rock (see Teachers Pay Teachers Link).
Using a journalistic format, they tailored their questions to demonstrate their
learning.
I think it would be a short series of steps to help move Charlotte
towards the levels of full Integration and Renewal (CBAM). The aforementioned
project included only print reference resources but could be enhanced by
scaffolding in lessons for students to access digital sources such as a
database like Science in Context, part of the Gale Group resources.
In our initial planning I would begin by:
- Demonstrating the resource and its
application to the unit to Charlotte and then spending some time
integrating one of the available videos (such as, Unearthing Ancient
Climate Change, a video clip found on Science in Context) into
one of the preliminary lessons. This could help introduce the new resource
to the students.
- Planning to incorporate a guided class
research project on a single topic to further explore the resource and
practice the research process as a group using a guided template (such as,
https://www.nbexcellence.org/cms_files/resources/Research%20Template%20Grades%204-6%20Checklist.pdf ).
- Encouraging Charlotte to co-lead a
lunchtime or after-school workshop on the value and use of her digital resource,
with examples of students’ project successes.
- Suggesting the establishment of a
digital interface (such as, Symabloo) that allows for useful reference
resources to be stored for easy student access and shared amongst
colleagues.
In this way I believe Charlotte
could further develop her use of reference resources and enrich her teaching
practice personally and collaboratively. She is open to new ideas and resources
and would be able to adapt things easily to the needs of her students.
Charlotte would soon be able to find alternative and interesting ways of
integrating reference resources into more areas of her teaching.
References:
“Interview with a Rock: An
Introductory Activity for a Unit on Rocks.” Teachers Pay
“L'Encyclopédie
Découverte.” World Book,
Library Media Specialists
of New Berlin. “Primary Research Template (1-3).” School
Library Media Specialists
of New Berlin. “Research Template for Grades 4-6.” School
Loucks-Horsley, Susan. “The
Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM): A Model for
Change in
Individuals.” The Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM): A Model for Change
in Individuals, Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co, 2005, www.nationalacademies.org/rise/backg4a.htm.
Montgomery, Emily. “Research
Assistance.” Symbaloo.com, SymbalooEDU, 2018,
Sykes, Judith. Et al.
“Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons in
Comments
Post a Comment