School Libraries Supporting Learning Day Two

The school library is a leader for literacy and reading

In this session we will focus on:

• your role in helping to build a school-wide reading culture

• practical strategies to meet the needs of your school’s stakeholders

• accessing online and print resources for extra information / support

• using evidence to inform your practice

• creating a strategic approach for you to action back at school

The greatest gift is a passion for reading.

It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites,

it gives you knowledge of the world

and experience of a wide kind.

~Elizabeth Hardwick~

Donalyn Miller The Book Whisperer

… if we show students how to embrace reading as a

lifelong pursuit and not just a collection of skills for

school performance, we will be doing what I believe

we have been charged to do: create readers

“

“

"We don't achieve literacy and

then give children literature;

we achieve literacy

through literature."

Author and children’s literature

expert Charlotte Huck

Student Literacy Achievement

3 key messages…

Teachers Library team&

Community visitors

Whānau

YOU are the enabling adult

Key message 1:

The enabling adult…

What is it that enabling adults do ?

Readers create readers when theyprovide access to resources

• Print rich environment

• Great library collection

• Comfortable places to read

• User-friendly library policies .

• Students can choose their own reading

• Time to read – classroom, library, whole school, home…

Readers create readers when theyknow about children’s / YA books

Readers create readers when theyknow their students’ interests

• ELP : Knowledge of the learner

• School data

• Reader surveys

Readers create readers when theyactively promote books

• Book talks

• Book clubs

• Literature circles

• Speedbooking

• Special roles for students

• Student input into book buying, creating lists, writing reviews…

• Participating in reading-related event - festivals, competitions….

Readers create readers when theymake time for book discussion

“We don’t know what we think about a book until we’ve talked

about it.” (8 year old Sarah, quoted in Chambers, Tell me)

Discussion:

Why I chose this book

Why I kept reading to the end

Who I would recommend it to…

Readers Create ReadersUse social media to promote reading

Free voluntary reading

Key message 2:

Literacy skills and Reading for pleasure

“When students read for pleasure,

when they get “hooked on books”,

they acquire, involuntarily and without

conscious effort, nearly all of the

“language skills” many people are

concerned about…”

Stephen Krashen - The Power of Reading :insights from the research

Connections between reading and academic achievement

Growing independence: Competent Learners @ 14

“It is not enough just to learn to read – one of the

strongest indicators of positive engagement in school

and learning was the enjoyment of reading” (p.25)

Cathy Wylie et al

Michael RosenWriter and former Children’s Laureate

“Reading for pleasure can easily sound like some kind of wishy-washy, soft option, while instructional stuff like learning to read through “synthetic phonics”… sounds tough and purposeful.

In actual fact… research shows children

who read for pleasure achieve better

school performance than those who

don’t.”

Key message 3:

Every student a reader…

Every student a reader…

"If we believe in the value and power of books,

stories, poems and plays, we also have to remember

that it will never be enough simply to publish good stuff.

We have to be committed, ingenious, flexible and

experimental in coming up with ways of making all

that literature come alive for every single child

- no exceptions allowed.”

Michael Rosen

Readers create readers when theyare reading role models

“Children learn about literature from what the adults around

them do about it.” Zahnleiter, 1985

Being a powerful reading role model…

• Modelling what a good reader does…

• Who reads aloud in your school?

• Where / when does it happen?

• How often ?

• What is read ?

• Before / during / after strategies ?

• What are the challenges ?

• Any favourites ?Jenny Ratana-Koia, teacher of a Year 4-6 class from Koraunui

School, Stokes Valley, is a 2011 Reading Superhero winner!

Readers create readers when theyread aloud

Celebrating the book…

Kids’ Lit Quiz, NZ Post Book Awards, Storylines,

Montana Poetry Day, NZ Bookweek, create a

book blog, bookfairs, competitions…

What does this mean for our school ?

• Students

• Teachers

• Principal / BOT

• Parents / school community

• What I am going to follow up back at school?

Time for a break…

Browse the displays

and have some reading time,

talking time, and refreshment…

Your school library collection

Participants will:

• Understand how the collection supports learning and

literacy in their school

• Understand the steps involved in the life cycle of library

resources

• Be able to find supporting tools using the ODC

• Become aware of trends in collection development

Why do we have a collection?

Scenario:

The principal and BOT of a new school are questioning the

need for a library or a collection.

You are the pro-library DP.

• What will your arguments be?

• What might their arguments be?

Balanced Targeted Relevant

Collection development is

• Planned

• Ongoing

• Cyclic

School Library Collection: guiding statement

Collections 3 : Guiding Statement

• Purpose

• Background information - School community profile form

• Content

• Guiding statement – example

• Challenged resources

Knowing your collection

• Assessment

(Collections 8: Assessment Guide)

• Weeding

(Collections 5: Weeding Guide)

• Gap analysis

And what your community isinterested in

Survey staff and students – Survey Monkey

Getting ready to select

• Collection requirements plan

• Budget

Selecting resources for your library

Example of Library Catalogue

• Pigeon Mountain Library Catalogue I hope with websites

and high interest topics catalogued – watch this space.

Does your collection include Māoriresources?

• Dictionaries Dictionaries

• Atlases and Place Names

• Proverbs, Idioms & Sayings

• Māori Concepts

• Encyclopaedias

• The Treaty of Waitangi

• Myths and legends

• Mäori language picture books

The Resource Cycle

Selection

Acquisition

Cataloguing

Processing

Circulation

Maintenance

De-selection

Pre-selection

Promotion

Looking at the future of the book

• http://www.ted.com/talks/mike_matas.html

Lunch

Evidence and Advocacy: Showing that you make a difference

In this session....

We will talk about the following:

• The concepts of Evidence , Evidence-based practice and Advocacy

• Making the connections from the evidence, to the library, and student learning

• Interacting and collaborating with the key people in your school community

• Tools that will assist you

What is a school library?

• The school library is the school’s

physical and virtual learning commons

where inquiry, thinking, imagination,

discovery and creativity are central to

students’ information-to-knowledge

journey and to their personal, social and

cultural growth

The school library contributes to learner

outcomes that are …

linked to the visions, principles and

competencies as identified in the school

curriculum

Vision

•Confident, connected, actively involved, lifelong learners

•Effective users of communication tools

•Literate and numerate

•Active seekers, users and creators of knowledge

Principles

•Empowering all students to learn regardless of their personal circumstances

•Students learning how to learn

•Links across learning areas

•Future focussed

Competencies

•Competent thinking and problem solving actively seeking, using and creating knowledge

•Making sense of information

•Competent users of language, symbols and text in a range of contexts

•Confident users of ICT to access and provide information and to communicate with others

Evidence-based practice

Using evidence of what you've done to show that you make a difference

and to inform what you do next.

We use Evidence to demonstrate the library's impact on student learning

Evidence is provided by collecting information, data, and stories from a variety of sources.

Collecting evidence is an ongoing cyclical process

Evidence Based Practice involves three dimensions:

•Evidence for practice

•Evidence in practice

•Evidence of practice

Why collect evidence ?

• To identify areas in which the library can develop services to support student learning.

• To show the difference the library makes to student learning such as:

– Creating motivated and engaged readers

– Developing positive attitudes towards reading

– Practising and developing skills in inquiry learning

– Digital citizenship

• To change perceptions about the role of library staff

How do you know you made a difference – what evidence do you have ?

Activity: Give one example of an occasion when you KNOW you made a difference to student learning

Here’s the challenge…To collect evidenceevidenceevidenceevidence of how the library supports student learning….Libraries usually measure ““““the foundthe foundthe foundthe found”””” i.e. the number of classes in library,

number of items borrowed, number of books purchased etc. These are a measure of pathways to learning not of learning itself. (Information outputs)It is about knowing and showing how a school library helps students learn, and the learning outcomes that are enabled, i.e. ““““the the the the understoodunderstoodunderstoodunderstood””””....We boost achievement.We boost achievement.We boost achievement.We boost achievement. Loertscher and Todd (2003) p.9

Data

� 40% explore - what do we want to know?

� 20% collecting the data

� 40% analysis of data

Triangulation of data: collect from various vantage points before making decisions and taking action

Parent

voice

Student

voice

Teacher

voice

Evidence in action“Talk Book Time” - Roxburgh Area School

Triangulation of dataTriangulation of dataTriangulation of dataTriangulation of data

• Pre test and post test assessment dataPre test and post test assessment dataPre test and post test assessment dataPre test and post test assessment datashowed improved comprehension and more positive attitudes to reading

• Student voicesStudent voicesStudent voicesStudent voices about TBT programme:“I enjoy reading more and I can read for longer”“I find it easier to read. I used to struggle. I can read Maths instructions better.”

• Parent voiceParent voiceParent voiceParent voice – “Mum is pleased that I am improving. Mum comes & reads with me at night, we read a page each.”

Programme to support literacyProgramme to support literacyProgramme to support literacyProgramme to support literacy

• Target group of students Year 7-10 with low reading comprehension.

• TBT weekly sessions with Librarian –students ‘sell’ their book to others.

What evidence?

•Formal / informal

•Quantitative / Qualitative

•Do not underestimate the power and value of your users stories

•

Perceptions

What students, staff, parents and

community think about the school

library

– Student and staff surveys

– Interviews

– Small focus groups

Information guide on library surveys

Image from:

http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/thumblarge_300/1218867653ybc5b2.jpg

Image from: http://www.thedebutanteball.com/?m=20091119

Tools for collecting school-based evidence

• Surveys of students and teachers – Information guide on library surveys

• Student-generated products – bibliographies, presentations etc

• Student assessment data

• Recorded observations of groups of students

• Collaboration log - recording formal and informal collaborations with staff and students

• Group discussion with staff

• Records of student involvement in the library such as librarians and tech angels

• Record of school community involvement with the library

• School library data – system reports such as individual borrower histories

Linking evidence to advocacy

• You are doing a great job … making a real difference to

learner outcomes … and you have the evidence to

demonstrate your value ...

• SO how do you make sure that you and your library are

valued and supported at your school

Advocacy

Advocacy can be one person or many “speaking out and winning influence."

School libraries making a difference – Advocacy campaignhttp://www.schoollibrariesadvocacy.org.uk/what.asp

Advocacy - Every interaction is an opportunity for transformation

Activity

Identifying people who are key to your school libraryIdentifying people who are key to your school libraryIdentifying people who are key to your school libraryIdentifying people who are key to your school library

• Who will support your work and vision ?• Who does not support your work and vision ?• Who is neutral ?• Who are your potential champions ?Then:• How are you going to change their views ?

Negative �Positive / Neutral �Positive

Your Library’s ‘elevator speech’

Tell your own library story to someone in the group.

Scenario to set the scene - the principal brings a new family to the library what do you tell them about your library ?

Image from: http://photography.mojado.com/archives/2004/06/11/elevator.php

Advocacy toolsAASL provide great, practical ideas that will help you in your

advocacy journeyhttp://advocacytipoftheday.wordpress.com/

Examples• Take photos of students reading and send the picture home for the

fridge with a THANKS • Take a 30 second contribution to every faculty meeting – something to

make someone’s job easier.

Collaboration is the key...

Linking theory to practice

• We will now look at your “library-based initiatives to

make a positive difference to student learning in your

school”

• Who were your collaborating partners

• What evidence do you have of the success of your

initiative

• How can you use this evidence to advocate for your

library?

Action learning cycle = 5 step process

1. Overview:Library based student learning need identified

2. Planning / PLC:Collaborative plan to trial initiative

3. Development:Resources put in placefor trial

4. Implementation:Initiative trialled with a groupof students, results discussed/communicated with Principal

5. Sustainability:Successful initiativesbecome “how we do things” in the school

Activity

• Using the ‘Effectiveness Progression

Process: Action Learning Cycle Planner’

Plan a model initiative.

• Focus on identifying learner outcomes,

sources of evidence, identifying potential

collaborating partners, and how you use the

results of this initiative to raise the profile of

your library and role in your school

community

Time to wrap up…

Reminder about the information on the

Services to Schools website and Online

community

Complete evaluation forms