Social Studies and the Library: Creating Meaningful Collaborations

Most school districts promote the idea of educator collaboration, but how often does it actually happen? We have learned that successful collaboration occurs best when partners are intentional about working together—by choosing to invest their time in the process—and are flexible with their collaborative approach. By creating purposeful bridges between libraries, curriculum development, and classroom teachers, we can foster an environment of inquiry, develop critical thinking skills, and grow student passion for lifelong learning.

This session will support you as you brainstorm future collaborative opportunities in social studies, in your own setting and across grade levels, and also highlight how you can apply these ideas across the disciplines. Session participants will have the opportunity to learn about our approaches to collaboration and examine five types of partnerships we have undertaken. We will discuss why this work is valuable and explore models of collaboration, including possible ways to overcome obstacles that inherently exist when we try to put our brains together for the good of our students. A discussion and question period follows the session content.

Join us to learn more about how to

• Develop a vision of collaboration that recognizes the importance of humans as a resource
• Identify different methods of collaboration
• Design learning experiences that support student success
• Create discipline-specific items with library resources that promote collaborative approaches to inquiry and critical thinking