Teaching and Learning by Design

Schools exist to educate children, and the school librarian has an essential role in helping children and young adults learn. The primary publications that guide school librarians in their roles as teacher, information specialist, instructional partner, and program administrator are Empowering Learners: Guidelines for School Library Media Programs (American Association of School Librarians 2009) and Standards for the 21st-Century Learner (American Association of School Librarians 2007).

LET’S DISCUSS TEACHING AND LEARNING

As teacher and instructional partner, you will need skills in instructional design. The three main types of instructional design are curriculum planning, unit planning, and lesson planning. Curriculum planning, the big picture, looks at the entire set of skills and knowledge for the district, the school, or a specific grade level. Unit planning focuses on preparing lessons for a complete unit of study, such as volcanoes or insects. Lesson planning, more limited than curriculum or unit planning, focuses on the instruction that will occur on a particular day and is the focus of this article.

To successfully design a lesson plan or unit, the following questions should be asked and answered:

• How do students learn?
• What are my students like?
• What do my students need to learn?
• How do I plan their instruction?
• How do I deliver this instruction?
• How do I assess their learning?
• How do I evaluate the process?

HOW DO MY STUDENTS LEARN?

Educational theorists have studied how children and young adults learn for decades. While the theories may seem remote from daily teaching, they can provide guidance in designing lessons. Some of the most popular educational theorists today are Vygotsky, Gardner, and Bloom.

Vygotsky theorizes that children learn best socially, and proposed the idea of the zone of proximal development (ZPD). The ZPD focuses on what the child can do independently and what the child can do with adult assistance. When designing lessons, you might first model correct ways to use the online public access catalog (OPAC), then guide individual users as they search for titles, and then notice that students are using the OPAC independently.

Gardner identifies eight intelligences that characterize preferred learning styles: linguistic, musical, logical-mathematical, spatial, body-kinesthetic, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and naturalistic. Incorporating activities that support all eight intelligences over the course of the academic year gives all students the opportunity to excel.

Bloom’s Taxonomy has six levels of thinking skills: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Remember that asking students to list criteria used to evaluate a Web site is a lower order thinking skill (knowledge) than asking them to use those criteria to judge the quality of a Web site they have not seen before (evaluation). Being aware of which level matches the activities you are designing can enhance your lessons.

WHAT ARE MY STUDENTS LIKE?

Knowing your students well is vital for creating effective lessons or units. Consider their intellectual ability, how well they interact with their fellow students, and their behavioral characteristics. It is also important to know what knowledge of the topic students bring to your lesson.

As a school librarian, you will have contact with them in the school library, which will continue from grade to grade. The classroom teacher will also know the students, mainly through a classroom setting. This knowledge, when paired with your personal knowledge, can be used to build a more complete picture of each student.

As you start a new lesson, prepare and administer a pre-test. This can tell you what the students know now and, when given again after the lesson, can document what they have learned. Alternatively, you may use a KWL exercise (individually, in small groups, or as a whole class exercise). Before instruction, ask students what they already know (K) and what they want (W) to know about the lesson. After the instruction takes place, ask students what they have learned (L).

Sometimes you find that students already know and grasp the intended content. On the other hand, you might find that students don’t possess adequate background or foundational knowledge so you must back track to teach what is needed before you can go on. Knowledge of your students enables you to find the beginning place for your lesson or unit.

WHAT DO MY STUDENTS NEED TO LEARN?

The school curriculum identifies what students need to learn. The AASL Standards for the 21st-century Learner identify areas that should be the basis for information literacy instruction. Specifically these standards require learners to use skills, resources, and tools to:

• Inquire, think critically, and gain knowledge
• Draw conclusions, make informed decisions, apply knowledge to new situations, and create new knowledge
• Share knowledge and participate ethically and productively as members of our democratic society
• Pursue personal and aesthetic growth (American Association of School Librarians 2007, 2)

Each broad area is subdivided into skills, dispositions in action, responsibilities, and self-assessment strategies. The skills are similar to the familiar list of information literacy skills taught in school libraries such as, “find, select, and evaluate appropriate source to answer questions” (1.1.4). Dispositions are the emotions and attitudes that students display. The dispositions often focus on issues of student behavior, such as “demonstrate teamwork by working productively with others” (3.2.3). Responsibilities articulate expectations you may have for the students, such as, “Use valid information and reasoned conclusions to reach ethical decisions” (2.3.3). And the self-assessment strategies are intended to help students develop the ability to accurately evaluate their own learning or ability. For example, one strategy states, “Recognize the limits of own personal knowledge” (4.4.2).

These new standards reach beyond both the traditional library skills curriculums and the most recent information literacy expectations. They incorporate elements that address all aspects of the learner.

HOW DO I PLAN THEIR INSTRUCTION?

The first step is to articulate what you want your students to learn. The AASL Standards for the 21st-century Learner can help, and for each lesson you need to decide what your focus will be. This should be stated as the goal(s) and objective(s) of the lesson. Writing goals and objectives is the foundation of instructional planning. Without recognizing your intent, it is difficult or impossible to achieve the desired results.

A goal is a broad sweeping statement that provides guidance to the lesson, unit or curriculum. For example, your goal may be to enable students to learn to evaluate the quality of information on the Internet. This goal provides guidance for the specific objectives of the lesson.

An objective is specific and measurable. For example, one objective could be to teach students how to judge the reliability of Web site sources based on the URL (uniform resource locator). This objective suggests several ways to assess student learning, ranging from a test to observation of students working on computers to an analysis of sources used to write a term paper.

The second step is to decide how to teach the lesson. For example, to meet the objectives stated in the preceding paragraph, elementary students would need to know the parts of a URL, the significance of domains, and why some domains are more reliable than others (such as the distinction between .gov and .com).

The third step is to locate or create materials to use in teaching the lesson or unit. Books, audio-recordings, Web sites, guest speakers, realia, graphic novels, video recordings or DVDs, photographic images, and magazines or journals are some of the many media available. Think about the strengths and weaknesses of the medium, the type of information each medium conveys, and how the medium matches your lesson. If sound is essential, as it could be for music, a CD might be the best choice. It is difficult, if not impossible, to teach mineral identification from a book or video–even with excellent pictures. You need the actual specimens of the rocks and minerals themselves so students can directly observe and experience the difference between quartz, feldspar, and calcite.

Be sure to match the activities to the students you will be teaching. For example, activities that work well with older students (such as using handouts for independent practice on the computer evaluating Web sites) would be less successful with primary students.

HOW DO I DELIVER THE INSTRUCTION?

Now it is time to design a strategy to actually teach the lesson. Think about methods you will use to teach your students. The possibilities include:

• lectures
• field trips
• drills
• demonstrations
• discussions (either teacher or student led)
• problem solving/brainstorming sessions
• debates
• group projects
• dramatics
• written, oral, or non-print presentations
• laboratory sessions

Students learn better if they are actively involved. For example, one way to present material on evaluating Web sites is to lecture on the criteria used to evaluate Web sites and give students a handout. A more active way would be to present a brief mini-lecture then have students visit a set of pre-selected Web sites to evaluate their quality. Students need the opportunity to apply and practice the skills and knowledge they have just learned.

As you teach, be aware of the feedback you are receiving from the students. Some of the feedback will be oral. Keep in mind that the bravest students often ask questions that others are too scared to ask. Sometimes a quiet silence indicates a confusion so complete students don’t even know where to start to ask a question. By paying attention, you can tell if the students are engaged, confused, or hopelessly lost, and adjust your lesson accordingly.

HOW DO I ASSESS THEIR LEARNING?

Decide how student learning will be assessed as you plan the lesson. While teaching, observe students and assess their understanding of the concepts and skills you are presenting. However, when the lesson is over it is important to determine whether or not the students actually learned the skill or knowledge you taught. There are many different ways to assess student learning such as rubrics, checklists, and portfolios. Harada and Yoshina (2005) provide a very thorough and useful discussion about assessing student learning.

HOW DO I EVALUATE THE PROCESS?

After you have planned and taught the lesson, evaluate the entire instructional design process.

• How did learning theory inform the instructional design, and what other theories do I need to consider next time?
• Were the information literacy standards selected appropriate to this material and to these students at this time? Why or why not?
• Were the goal(s) and objective(s) appropriate? Do they need to be revised? Or, do new ones need to be developed?
• Were the materials used, the activities selected, and their sequence successful? Why or why not? What can you do about it?
• Would you use different materials or different activities next time? Would you use the same materials and activities?
• Were the lesson and the activities successful? What could you change to make them more effective next time?
• How did you evaluate student learning? Would you do the same thing again?
• If you were working collaboratively with a teacher or teachers, how did the collaboration work? Did everyone contribute? Was the work load unbalanced? What worked well? What would you change next time?
• Was this lesson/unit plan overall well done? What needs to be changed or added next time?

School librarians are and can be skillful teachers. All successful teachers continually practice, evaluate, refine, and reflect on their teaching in order to improve.

SOURCES OF ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

American Association of School Librarians. Empowering Learners: Guidelines for School Library Media Programs. Chicago: American Library Association, 2009.

American Association of School Librarians. 2007. Standards for the 21st-century Learner. Retrieved October 30, 2008 from the American Library Association Web site www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/aaslproftools/learningstandards/AASL_LearningStandards.pdf

Harada, Violet H. and Joan M. Yoshina. Assessing Learning: Librarians and Teachers as Partners. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2005.

The Educators Reference Desk. 1999, 2003. Write a Lesson Plan Guide: How to Develop a Lesson Plan. Retrieved November 10, 2008 from the Information Institute of Syracuse Web site www.eduref.org/Virtual/Lessons/Guide,shtml .

Kearsley, Greg. 1994-2008. Explorations in Learning and Instruction: The Theory into Practice (TIP) Database. Retrieved November 10, 2008 from http://tip. psychology.org/ .

Stripling, Barbara. “Dispositions: Getting Beyond ‘Whatever.”‘ School Library Media Activities Monthly 25 (2008): 47-50.

Wong, Harry K. and Rosemary T. Wong. The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher. Mountain View, CA: Harry K. Wong Publications, Inc., 2004.