Building a Flexible School Library Program

Have you ever wholeheartedly believed in something but were unable to completely articulate the whys and hows of your beliefs to someone else? That was the exact position that I found myself in when beginning my career as a school librarian. Over ten years ago, I finished my work for my library credentials and started searching for a library position. At every interview, I shared that I would utilize collaboration and the flexible schedule model as the basis for my library programming. I knew that I was not doing a good job of articulating why I thought collaboration was so important because instead of rushing to hire me, several principals said, “No thank you, we won’t be doing that in this school.” To be fair, the principals did not know me, and I understand that there has to be a strong level of trust between the librarian and the administrative team at the school for collaboration and flexible schedules to work. But, finally, a principal stated that she wanted new energy and increased standardized test scores and she believed that collaboration could do the trick. So, the journey of collaboration and a flexible school library schedule began.

I was now ready to start implementing my belief that collaboration and planning is the place to start. In its truest sense, collaboration is when lessons are planned, implemented, and assessed as a team (Buzzeo 2008). Planning is how the lesson intends to create the atmosphere in which the learning will happen.

PLANNING

I came to realize that working together with other adults is tricky. The librarian needs to be attuned to the different personalities of the staff and figure out how to work best with each personality type. Listening to the staff during planning sessions and actual teaching activities can help the librarian learn a great deal about the team members. Furthermore, planning is not about what the librarian wants to do with the students, but what the students need to learn and how the team can provide that experience.

Each grade level team that I have worked with had different methods of planning. Some liked to plan out the entire nine weeks in a broad plan. Some planned by the week or even daily. I had to realize that I needed to give up some measure of control within the planning process. I planned with each team as they prepared for their grade-level lessons. (Third grade planned quarterly with a quick meeting every couple of weeks to see if we were still on target with those goals, fourth grade planned monthly, and fifth grade planned weekly or sometimes daily at my school.) I am the type of person who needs to have plans for the next week on my desk by Thursday afternoon, but eventually I realized that the staff, unlike me, were not ready to plan for the next week by Thursday afternoon. I learned that I needed to relinquish my desire to control planning that met my needs in order to accommodate the needs of the teachers.

Another important aspect of planning with staff members is the librarian’s knowledge of the state mandated curriculum, which in the state of Virginia is the Standards of Learning from the Virginia Department of Education. Also, becoming very familiar with the curriculum and proving you have a basic understanding of the curriculum quickly encourages the teaching staff to trust you with their students. I referred often to the state standards in meetings and making lesson plans.

COLLABORATION

After planning, we moved on to the actual collaboration. During our planning times together, I took copious notes. I transcribed these into a lesson plan format that clearly delineated who was responsible for what within the lesson. The lesson plan format included state standards, library standards, materials needed for librarian and teacher, step-by-step directions including which staff member was responsible for what parts of the plan, and assessment. The teachers were always responsible for some small part of the lesson, even at first, so that they would actually “buy in” to the process. They had to have some ownership of the lesson for the collaboration to be successful.

Teachers also need to know what collaboration is and how to do it. During the first year of collaborating with the teachers in my school, I modeled many things for the teachers including database usage, searching the online catalog, the power writing model, etc. During the second year, I could coach them through many of these lessons. They were seated at the computer and I talked them through the usage of the database that they were going to demonstrate to students. During the third year, the teachers were comfortable enough with many of those previously taught lessons that we were truly able to start collaborating. The class was split in half. The teacher did the lesson on databases with her half of the class and I taught a new skill to my half of the class. One example of a new skill for a research project was teaching about elements of plagiarism. After about twenty minutes, we switched groups and did the same lessons with the second half of the class. This process allowed the teachers to see that I supported them, and they began to trust me. It allowed us to have smaller group sizes and more individualized attention to those students with special needs.

The longer that we worked together, the more I could assign as their responsibility for the lesson. After ten years of working together, the teachers now offer to do various parts instead of waiting to be assigned a part. We are also creating tests together to assess the skills learned in the library. The current library assessment goal is to have grades 3-5 assess one collaborative library unit per nine weeks for the report card. The teachers always have a copy of each unit plan or individual lesson plan before the lesson starts. They look it over to make sure that it states exactly what we discussed during planning and then they suggest changes or ask questions about the lesson.

FLEXIBLE SCHEDULING

After spending the last ten years working on the collaboration piece, it was finally time to put the flexible schedule into place. In the past, I had a fixed schedule with some built-in flexibility, but traded times for teachers as needed. This year, I have a totally flexible schedule for grades 3-5. Second grade has two fixed time slots per month and they sign up for other time slots on a flexible basis. Kindergarten and first grade are on fixed schedule once per week for thirty minutes. First grade occasionally does some collaborative lessons in the spring of the year. The lessons are collaboratively taught during the fixed library time for first grade. I found that it was easier to move into a flexible schedule when the collaboration piece of the puzzle was already in place. The collaborative model of library services combined with a flexible library schedule is quite an adjustment for all involved.

The next step that my school system asked me to take was to offer a workshop on how our school uses the collaborative approach within the flexible schedule model for other elementary principals. Principals were encouraged to bring their building librarians to the workshop so that they could determine where they were on the collaboration continuum (cooperation, coordination, collaboration, or data-driven collaboration) and how they might implement changes to be able to shift from one place on the continuum to another (Buzzeo 2008). We had over twenty principals participate in the workshop with their librarians. Once we had interest in this model, we offered a coaching class for the thirteen librarians who planned to take steps to start the process of collaboration and the flexible library schedule during the 2013-2014 school year. We meet online as needed and every other month in person to share what we are doing and then brainstorm the next steps. We are using The Flexible Access Library Media Programs by Jan Buchanan and The Collaboration Handbook by Toni Buzzeo as our texts.

SPREADING THE WORD

My principal has been very supportive and has encouraged me in all of these endeavors. We have read and discussed the current research related to collaboration and the flexible schedule. He helped me teach the workshop for the elementary principals. We also engaged a fifth grade teacher to present with us so that the principals could hear about this approach from the perspective of a teacher. A professional development workshop was held at the beginning of this school year for our current staff to share how we would be utilizing the library with the flexible schedule aspect. The principal has helped me plan and implement every step of the way. Having administrative support is crucial to the success of this library model.

Many librarians ask about what methods to employ when trying to win administrative support. The most critical thing that can be done is to share the current research that shows the effect of collaboration on student achievement. The administration can see the benefits and be involved in creating the plan for implementation of collaboration and the flexible library schedule.

TIPS

The best advice I can offer is to try this model one piece at a time. Work on collaboration first, and then work on the flexible library schedule. Attend monthly grade-level planning meetings. Be available to meet individually or in teams. Visit a school that is already implementing this model to see it in action. Be creative in thinking about library scheduling. At the master scheduling meeting, emphasize that the library is not considered a “special” that covers for teacher planning time. Provide support, ideas, and encouragement to the teaching staff to get started. As the librarian, be willing to learn and let others coach you. See “Further Reading” for literature that may help in your quest for moving towards collaboration and a flexible schedule model of library services.

Works Cited

Buzzeo, Toni. The Collaboration Handbook. Linworth, 2008.