Collaborative Instruction
Course
More Ideas for Collaborative Lessons [6:36]
What are some specific lessons that the librarian could collaboratively plan, implement, and assess with the teaching staff?
So let's get down to some specifics. What are some specific lessons that the librarian could collaboratively plan, implement, and assess with the teaching staff? Test-taking skills may not be the librarian's favorite lesson idea but it will be on the minds of every teacher in the building, especially if the librarian can provide some creative ways to address test-taking.
Test-taking skills could be slid into any lesson that is taught all year long. Almost any part of the curriculum can be turned into either a mini research project or a full-blown research project. And if the teaching team is having difficulty, just ask the students what they would like to research – there will be a plethora of ideas. Because the librarian is familiar with all grade levels spiraling up across the curriculum in the grade levels can happen.
For example, in dictionary skills, third grade might be responsible for teaching ABC order to the third letter, finding definitions and parts of speech, while fourth grade might be responsible for all of the previous third grade skills and practically applying dictionary usage in reading and writing. And fifth grade might be responsible for the third and fourth grade skills plus identifying all other parts of the dictionary definition.
Since the librarian is familiar with the way curriculum spirals up to the grade levels, here she can provide connections for the students as they progress through the grade level objectives. The librarian is the one person who proceeds with the students through all of the curriculum in all grade levels.
Individual reading and writing conferences take up quite a bit of time for the classroom teacher. This is one area that I found the teachers are the most grateful for the help of the librarian. If the librarian and the teacher are doing individual conferences while the rest of the class is independently reading or writing, approximately half or more of the class will be able to have a conference in that one session of 45 minutes of time. And if the reading specialist is able to conference during that same time, most if not all of the class will be able to have a conference.
As the librarian, I often offer to conference with those students who either need enrichment, are having struggles, or reluctant readers for some reason. This allows the teacher to focus on the average students who often fall through the cracks.
Public speaking workshops are the perfect way to practically involve the speech teacher in the education of all the students. The speech teacher provides a mini lesson on voice projection, eye contact, etcetera. Then we break the class into three groups, one for the teacher, one for the librarian, and one for the speech teacher and practice the concepts from the mini lesson with exercises that the speech teacher has taught us. Later that week I would have the students practice their research presentations in partners, utilizing our speech workshop techniques while the teacher met individually with students on the content of the research.
Readers' theater productions are another way to show the value of the librarians to the teachers. In our school, readers' theater productions are done either to practice fluency, or as a presentation to parents. In either case, the teachers always appreciate assistance with readers' theater. If the library assistant is available, that is even better. The class can be broken into three groups to practice and prepare for the presentation. Each adult needs to only be focused on the individual group that he or she is responsible for assisting. This would also be an excellent place to tie in a public speaking workshop with the speech teacher.
Preparing for poetry recitals is another easy fit for the librarian to collaborate with the grade level teams on. The first decision to make is whether the recital is going to be just reading out loud published poetry, sharing poetry written by the students, or some combination of both. From there the teaching team needs to determine what types of poetry will be introduced.
Sometimes this is specifically stated in mandated standards, sometimes not. After that, decide who will be responsible for teaching the following objectives: types of poetry, word choice, thesaurus skills, sensory words, etcetera. After that a public speaking workshop and practice could be in order. And then the actual day of the presentation for parents arrives.
After assessing any unit collaboratively taught in the library the next step is enrichment for those who are ready and remediation for those who need it. The classroom teacher may have good intentions to provide enrichment and remediation, but oftentimes that can fall by the wayside due to all kinds of unforeseen circumstances. However with the help of the librarians, smaller groups for these two needs can happen pretty regularly.
Often assessments can occur naturally in a library, particularly assessments that are of the practical application nature. My goal is to have at least one objective assessed in the library per nine weeks; however we often exceed that goal. We have assessed on any number of things in the library – presentations, conferencing, decimals, fiction and non-fiction genres, using a dictionary, thesaurus, or index, identifying text features, etcetera.
Occasionally I help with the creation of an assessment, but usually I leave that up to the teacher because I want the wording of the questions to not hinder the student's ability to answer the question. I always offer to help with the grading of the assessments. Not all teachers take me up on this offer, but since I'm part of the process from beginning to end, I want them to know that I'm willing to assess the student work with them.
Additional Resources
About the Author
MLA Citation
Donnelly, Andria C. "Collaborative Instruction. More Ideas for Collaborative Lessons [6:36]." School Library Connection, ABC-CLIO, September 2016, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/1995740?learningModuleId=1995731&topicCenterId=2158571.
https://schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/1995740?learningModuleId=1995731&topicCenterId=2158571
Entry ID: 1995740