Collaborative Instruction
Course
Specific Types of Collaboration [6:12]
While the main focus of library collaboration is usually with the classroom teachers, there are many other teaching staff who can be encouraged to collaborate in the library.
The guidance counselors have a different focus than the average teacher in the school building. They are concerned with the emotional health and well-being of the students as well as their academic achievement. There are many different ways to tie guidance lessons into the library. One of the clearest connections that I identified was lessons on cyber bullying. Our guidance team spends quite a bit of time teaching students about bullying and effective ways to deal with bullying.
The guidance team and I paired up when it was time to move into the lessons on cyber bullying. The guidance teachers review standard bullying issues while I compare those issues to what they would look like in the cyber world. Then we break up into small groups to discuss what the students have already seen in the way of cyber bullying. And then we have the students practice how to handle cyber bullying appropriately so that they will be prepared if such a situation should come up in the future. The guidance team prefers to do this in the library because the librarian has the technical expertise on this issue and because we can break up into the small group discussions where every student is able to participate in this important conversation and practice session.
Another way that guidance and I have collaborated together is when they have done research regarding careers. Because the guidance teachers are on a fixed schedule, it's exceedingly helpful for me to have a flexible schedule so that they can work collaboratively with me whenever they need me to be available. The next time we do the career research we are even planning on connecting it to the classroom teacher's objectives with a public speaking presentation grade.
The reading specialist is one of my favorite people to collaborate with because we have many of the same priorities in common including every child finding that just right book that will spur him or her on to a love of reading, and partnering with families to enrich the reading life of each student.
Often we work together to prepare the school staff for a new literacy initiatives or to plan reading workshops for parents. We plan together frequently so that we can be united in our ideas and objectives when planning with a grade level team. We use each other as a sounding board in order to figure out the best way to deal with individual personalities. We present a unified front so that the teachers will get the same answer when they come to the librarian or the reading specialist.
There are many times where we collaboratively teach with a classroom teacher because that classroom teacher may have a large amount of special needs within the class. Or sometimes a teacher may just need to observe collaboration in action to find a fresh approach to teaching a specific objective. Often we are modeling curriculum for a brand new teacher or we are coaching a teacher through implementing a new teaching initiative.
The other specialist can collaboratively plan, implement, and assess with the librarian. Here are just a few examples. The speech therapist has planned and implemented public speaking workshops with me during times that either presentations are due for a grade level or during the election process of our student council. The school principal has helped me to plan and implement a workshop on good sportsmanship for all candidates going through our student council election process. One year the art teacher and I planned a research unit on black history in conjunction with her art project. Recently she helped me to plan an after school club that combined literacy and art.
The whole school can even plan, implement, and assess an activity or a unit because the librarian is the unifying factor. Grades three through five created a three week steam (science, technology, engineering, architecture, and math) camp to be completed in the library during the last three weeks of school. My job as librarian was to coordinate the schedule, plan with the teachers, assist with the setup of the activities, and assist teachers and students as necessary with the activities. Each teacher picked one activity to plan and supply materials for all of the students. They individually worked with the librarian to prepare and set up the activity.
Reaching out to other schools is another possibility for collaboration. Recently a librarian from another school reached out to our school for collaboration. Her school participates in library collaboration in grades three through five, while mine collaborates in grades two through five. She thought our schools should get together to have a refresher training on planning and collaboration with brainstorming as the cornerstone of the whole training. She thought that if we shared our collaborative ideas it might provide each school with fresh ideas to spur us on in our planning efforts.
Another way that I have reached out to other schools is to invite our area elementary and middle school principals and their librarians to our school to observe collaboration in the library in action with a debriefing session immediately following the observation. We have offered this invitation twice. The first time we had 40 attendees and the second time we had 20 attendees. We had plenty of time for them to interact with the research, ask questions, and observe the process in action.
Additional Resources
About the Author
MLA Citation
Donnelly, Andria C. "Collaborative Instruction. Specific Types of Collaboration [6:12]." School Library Connection, ABC-CLIO, September 2016, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/1995737?learningModuleId=1995731&topicCenterId=2247903.
https://schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/1995737?learningModuleId=1995731&topicCenterId=2247903
Entry ID: 1995737