Evidence-based Practice:Making the Case for Coteaching

For LS5443: Librarians as Instructional Partners

Department of Library and Information StudiesTexas Woman’s University

Judi Moreillon, M.L.S., Ph.D.

Core Concept

Leadershipinvolves

developing expertise in literacyapplying evidence-based practice

taking a global viewmaking connections

between and among classroom teachers and specialists

and across disciplines and curricula.

“Adolescents entering the adult world in the 21st century will read and write more than any other time in human history. They will need advanced levels of literacy to perform their jobs, run their households, act as citizens, and conduct their personal lives.”

Richard Vacca (quoted in Schmoker 51)

CoteachingStrategies

Reading Comprehension(Info Literacy)Strategies

Research-basedInstructional

Strategies

Evidence-based Practice

Objectives:At the end of this presentation, you will be able to:

Synthesize the research related to classroom-library collaboration, teaching and coteaching reading comprehension strategies, and effective instructional practices.

Develop strategies for incorporating evidence-based practice into coteaching with each other and with classroom teacher colleagues.

The Case for CoteachingReading Comprehension Strategies…

Throughout this presentation, we will refer to Collaborative Strategies for Coteaching Reading Comprehension Strategies: Maximizing You Impact. Please have it handy for reference.

What isEvidence-based Practice?

Conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current research to inform instructional practices (Todd, SLJ Summit, Phoenix, 2007)

Evidence FOR practice – synthesize research, the information base for our profession

Evidence IN practice – locally-produced data-generated practice – formative assessments

Evidence OF practice – outcomes, subsequent instructional decisions

Evidence FOR Practice

Where do we find evidence?

What evidence matters to us? To our administrators and colleagues?

Evidence FOR Practice

Well-funded, professionally-staffed school library programs based on classroom-library collaboration correlate with student achievement, particularly in reading (Library Research Service; Smith; Moreillon).

Evidence FOR Practice

Coplanning, coteaching, teaching ICTs, and providing inservice workshops

Planning with teachers, coteaching, teaching ICT (information and communication technologies), and providing in-services to teachers are among the library predictors of students’ academic achievement on standardized tests, particularly in reading and language arts (Achterman 62-65).

Evidence FOR Practice

Administrators correlate a successful educational program with an active, collaborative, and resourceful library program (Lance et al. 15-16). Principals who support collaborative efforts amongst the teacher and teacher-librarian acknowledge the results of the efforts to be demonstrated in academic achievement and standardized tests (Lance et al. 16).

Evidence FOR Practice

Job-embedded Professional Development Professional Learning Communities

“The single most effective way in which principals can function as staff development leaders is providing a school context that fosters job-embedded professional development” (DuFour 14–15).

Evidence FOR Practice

Reading Comprehension Strategy Instruction Multiple Researchers, including:

Biancarosa, Gina, and Catherine E. Snow.Blachowicz, Camille, and Donna Ogle.Fisher, Douglas, and Nancy FreyPressley, MichaelRAND Reading Study GroupSweet, Anne

Research indicates that reading comprehension strategies should be explicitly taught and modeled at all grade levels (Biancarosa and Snow; Blachowicz and Ogle; Pressley; RAND; Sweet and Snow).

These strategies can be effectively taught through modeling in which adults and more proficient peers share the metacognitive processes involved in comprehending text.

Specific strategies can be taught one at a time, over time, so that readers can begin to self-regulate their use and apply these strategies in their independent reading (Biancarosa and Snow; Blachowicz and Ogle; Pressley; RAND; Sweet and Snow).

However, there is little evidence that this type of direct instruction is actually occurring in classrooms (Pressley).

Summative Assessments “State reading assessments are increasingly

dominated by skills such as the ability to infer; to identify an author’s bias or persuasive techniques; to support interpretations or main ideas with evidence from the text; and to summarize, synthesize, analyze, and evaluate” (Schmoker 40).

Note: These skills align with indicators from AASL’s Standards for the 21st-Century Learner : http://storytrail.com/Impact/matrix.htm

Research-basedInstructional

Strategies

Three Areas of Expertise for Specialistsfrom Collaborative Strategies for Teaching Reading Comprehension

Evidence FOR Practice

Research-based Instructional Strategies Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock (2001) Summary in CS4TRC (13) and CRCSSSL (16).

Identifying Similarities and Differences (45)Summarizing and Note Taking (34)Non-linguistic representations (27)Cooperative learning (27)Setting objectives and providing feedback (23)Questions, cues, and advance organizers (22)

Evidence IN Practice

How do we gain access to students’ prior understandings? Test scores?

How do we generate locally-produced data?

Why it is important for librarians to engage in this level of instruction?

Evidence IN Practice

Through collaborative planning, classroom teachers and librarians share students’ background or prior knowledge and applicable summative assessment data.

By administering pre-and post-tests or formative assessments and by collecting artifacts, coteachers document evidence of student learning.

Evidence IN PracticeFormative Assessment Tools:

Rubrics;Checklists;Learning artifacts;Reflections;Educator observation;Self-reports and self-assessments.

Formative assessments are used by educators to guide, monitor, and modify instruction.

Evidence IN Practice

School librarians’ effectiveness as educators may hinge on being considered a peer by classroom teacher colleagues and equals with classroom teachers by administrators. As Zmuda and Harada attest, “Effective partnerships help teachers to meet their existing priorities, which include the implementation of a standards-based curriculum” (38).

Evidence IN Practice

In the age of accountability, school librarians must meet the imperative to impact student achievement through effective instruction. “Until school librarians serve as full members of instructional teams, their true value as educators cannot be measured” (Moreillon 2007, 9).

Evidence OF Practice

To whom does this data matter?

How should we share this data?

How does this evidence address professionalism in the education profession?

Evidence OF Practice With whom?

Site and district administrators, Parents, ColleaguesDecision-makers at all levels

How and when?As it becomes availablePresentationsGrant applicationsAnnual reportsPublishing in the field

CoteachingStrategies

Three Areas of Expertise for School Librariansfrom Collaborative Strategies for Teaching Reading Comprehension

Reading Comprehension(Info Literacy)Strategies

Research-basedInstructional

Strategies

What is leadership?

Leaders are willing to be lead as well as willing to lead.

Dr. Ross Todd, SLJ Summit, Phoenix, Arizona

2007

Leadership in Literacy: Skills

Current knowledge of best practices in reading and information literacy instruction

Current knowledge of literature and electronic resources (including Web 2.0 tools)

Integration of literature, resources, and ICT into classroom curriculum

Leadership in Literacy: Skills

Alignment of classroom standards (reading across the curriculum)/AASL standards/Partnership for 21st Century Skills/ISTE NETS for Students...

Application of instructional design

Application of assessment design

Alignment of modeling, learning tasks, and assessment

Leadership in Literacy: Dispositions in Action

Interpersonal skills Collaborator

Keywords in student standards!

Initiative Confidence Creativity

Risk taker Practices follow through

Adaptability Resilience Persistence Critical stance

Two Heads Are Better than One

I am a teacher.I am a teacher, too.

I teach in the classroom.

I teach in the library.

And we teach even betterside by sidewe two.

Sometimes I approach youwith a new resource or tool.Sometimes I approach

youwith a learning problemto solve. We take turns leading

and following

and always workingtogetheras equal partners.

We plan for instruction

with student outcomesin mind.

We brainstorm.

We negotiate.

We bounce ideas off each other.

I bring my knowledge ofindividual students.

I bring my knowledge of resources.

And we both bring our knowledge

of curriculum standards

and instructional strategies

and our love of learning!

We determine the essential questions.

We select the best resources.

We build scaffoldsand bridgesto help learners succeed.

We model the tasks.

We model the process.

We assess our examples

with checklists and rubrics

that we designed together.

Then we turn the students loose…

to develop questions,

to make choices,

to locate, analyze, andevaluate informationand ideas,

to develop strategies,

to organize their thinking,

to create new understandings.

With the guidance of two educators,

with four helpful hands,

we monitor,

we adjust.

We give twice the feedback.

We are a team.

Two reflective practitioners,two avid learners,

two joyful explorers

who know…

that two heads,

yes, two heads,

are better than one!

A ripple? Or a wave? It’s up to you!

Works Cited

•Achterman, Douglas L. Haves, Halves, and Have-nots: School Libraries and Student Achievement in California. Denton, Texas. UNT Digital Library, 2008. Web. <http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc9800/m1/>.•American Association of School Librarians. Standards for the 21st-Century Learner. 2007. Web. <http://ala.org/aasl/standards>.•_____. Empowering Learners: Guidelines for School Library Programs. Chicago: American Library Association, 2009. Print.•Biancarosa, Gina, and Catherine E. Snow. Reading Next—A Vision for Action and Research in Middle and High School Literacy: A report to the Carnegie Corporation of New York. 2nd ed. Washington, DC: Alliance for Excellence in Education, 2006. Print.•Blachowicz, Camille, and Donna Ogle. Reading Comprehension: Strategies for Independent Learners. 2nd ed. New York: Guildford Press, 2008. Print.•DuFour, Rick. In the Right Context: The Effective Leader Concentrates on a Foundation of Programs, Procedures, Beliefs, Expectations, and Habits. Journal of Staff Development 22.1 (2001): 14-17.

Works Cited

•Fisher, Douglas, and Nancy Frey. Background Knowledge: The Missing Piece of the Comprehension Puzzle. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2009. Print.•Lance, Keith Curry, Marcia J. Rodney, and Bill Schwarz. The Impact of School Libraries on Academic Achievement: A Research Study Based on Responses from Administrators in Idaho. School Library Monthly 26.9 (2010): 14-17.•Library Research Service. School Library Impact Studies. 2012. Web. <http://www.lrs.org/impact.php>.•Marzano, Robert. J., Debra J. Pickering, and Jane E. Pollock. Classroom instruction that works: Research-based strategies for increasing student achievement. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2001. Print.•Moreillon, Judi. Collaborative Strategies for Teaching Reading Comprehension: Maximizing Your Impact. Chicago: ALA Editions, 2007. Print.•_____. Coteaching Reading Comprehension Strategies in Secondary School Libraries: Maximizing Your Impact. Chicago: ALA Editions, 2012. Print.

Works Cited

•Pressley, Michael. Reading Instruction that Works: The Case for Balanced Teaching. New York: Guilford Press, 2006. Print.•RAND Reading Study Group. Reading for Understanding: Toward an R&D Program in Reading Comprehension. Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2002. Print.•Schmoker, Mike. Results Now: How We Can Achieve Unprecedented Improvements in Teaching and Learning. Alexandria, VA: Association for Curriculum and Supervision, 2006. Print.•Smith, Ester. G. Texas School Libraries: Standards, Resources, Services, and Students’ Performance. Austin, TX: Texas State Library and Archives Commission, 2001. Print.•Sweet, Anne P., and Catherine E. Snow. Rethinking Reading Comprehension: Solving Problems in the Teaching of Literacy. New York: Guilford Press, 2003. Print.•Todd, Ross. Evidence-based Practice. School Library Journal Summit. Phoenix, Arizona, 2007.