Keeping Current. Turn Summer Reading into Fall Invasions

Each year, SLM readers are offered an opportunity to make up for missed professional development opportunities, such as attending professional association conferences or workshops, through suggestions for professional reading in this column. While the mission of this column continues this year, I am also suggesting that school librarians take on a more aggressive role as a leader and advocate—a necessity this year more than ever. It is no longer an option for school librarians to visit the principal's office and say, "Harry (or Mary), here's what could happen with an information program." Instead, it is essential for school librarians to lead… we need credibility NOW, and developing that credibility requires a fall invasion. Every school librarian must move outside of the school library to establish credibility as a leader and teacher among teachers.

For many, the possibility of going to the principal as the school librarian no longer exists because they have been reassigned to a classroom, and a library aide is in the school library. If this has happened, it's time for those displaced school librarians to reinforce the importance of their role in the information world. In spite of being reassigned as classroom teachers, these school librarians should make a request to attend local, state, and national professional library-related meetings. This demonstrates an intention to keep current and reinforces the value of having the professional school librarian available for the education of students. This lets the principal know there is an expectation for reassignment back into the school library in the fall.

For those of you remaining in the school library, use the information from the professional readings found here and create a leadership invasion strategy now. Don't wait until school staff meetings begin in the fall to show and tell; contact teachers who are getting their classrooms ready for the next school year and share your ideas, engaging their enthusiasm for proposed projects.

An Overview

The professional association meetings reviewed for this year's column are as follows: the American Association of School Librarians, the California School Library Association, the International Association of School Librarianship, the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association, and the Texas Library Association. Program themes continue from past years: leadership, collaboration (with emphasis on school/public librarians), advocacy, and the role of the school librarian in reading and technology, including gaming. The technology programs stress the need for conducting professional development to help teachers understand how to use new technologies to teach their students. One storyteller suggested a new "accessory"—digital storytelling. Speakers at the AASL conference in Charlotte highlighted the new standards. Newer topics included global awareness, the learning commons, professional/personal learning communities, dispositions, and online teaching.

Leadership

Taking a leadership role in the education of students is the mission for school librarians. Learning how requires reading and reflecting. Coatney suggests, "Being accepted as a leader in your school is not an easy or automatic outcome of accepting a position for which leadership is a recommended function. School librarians need to know where they are going in order to lead long before they think about how to do it" (Coatney 2010). This new collection of essays, The Many Faces of Leadership, is edited by Coatney and written by several school library leaders. They offer insight into beginning or increasing your leadership role in your school and beyond.

School/Public Library Collaboration

Budgets tight in one place are usually tight in others so collaboration can be a helpful solution. Gates and Webster tell us it is time to join with others outside of our school and district (2009). For five years, a one-month family literacy activity, One School, One Book, has been a successful partnership in one city. The results of this program and the way to replicate it will help in efforts "to build a lasting literate community" in your own location. Two articles by school and public librarians share their ideas of collaboration (Resh 2009 and Miller 2009). The article by Miller describes a monthly meeting of all librarians in one city: public, school, parochial, and special, as well as a bookstore owner.

Advocacy

Perry's sense of adventure rather than her bravery or her ability to do "extras" led her to invite her state legislator to her school (2009). Her success story can encourage you to follow her example and contact your member of Congress. Advocacy activities for those who fund schools at the state and national level are equally important when crafting messages for the school community.

Reading

Gallagher coins a new word, "readicide." It is defined as, "noun, the systematic killing of the love of reading, often exacerbated by the inane, mind-numbing practices found in schools" (2009, 2). Gallagher advocates for classroom collections to "food" students with books and points out how reading a little of a book can encourage a desire to read. If your school is in a low achieving "danger zone" with mostly non- or poor readers, introducing this book to your teachers is the beginning. Help them choose rotating classroom collections checked out from the school library. Keep the collections refreshed on a regular basis. Point out to teachers read-aloud spots in books that will interest the students and entice them to read the book. Document the success of this venture and then propose a program presentation involving you and one of your teachers at next year's school library conference, or better still, at a state ASCD conference.

For some, the name Krashen is synonymous with reading research. In his article "Anything but Reading," he shares reports of "anything but" ways that have been suggested: roller skating, gym class before literacy class, teaching reading strategies as suggestions for improving scores. In the final analysis, "…the obvious most pleasant, least expensive, and probably the only Effective way to improve reading ability—providing readers with interesting, comprehensible reading material—appears not only to be the last resort, but is often not even mentioned" (Krashen 2009, 29). Regularly remind principals and teachers of this "least expensive" method of encouraging reading throughout the year.

Research focusing on the relationship of intrinsic vs. extrinsic rewards is offered in an article by Small et al. along with some little-to-no-cost reading incentives (2009). School librarians can offer a learning environment to encourage students to read for intrinsic motivation by modeling behavior, demonstrating enthusiasm, and praising students who are reading.

Technology

Creating a learning environment where students can blog to the entire world is described by Davis and McGrail (2009). They provide steps to build a safe blogging community and move the activity into student-directed learning. For students, their first joy of blogging was replying to comments on the blog. If teachers are still reluctant to blog, you can offer them some one-to-one instruction on how to see the value for their students.

Gaming

Members of the ALSC Children and Technology Committee highlighted a few of the presentations at the 2nd annual Gaming, Learning, and Libraries Symposium showing how gaming can help reluctant readers learn to read and how games can be tied to state standards (2009). One speaker suggested that multiplayer role playing games allow players to develop team skills, cooperating and collaborating. Games can also increase Effective decision-making under stress. Help your teachers "harness the educational potential of video games and turn this fascination with gaming to a pedagogical advantage" (Hutchison 2009, 56). The implementation of Hutchison's ideas leads teachers into video gaming through the content areas.

Storytelling

Rather than accessories to enhance your stortytelling session, Ward-Crixell suggests that computer games tell stories (2009).

Global Awareness

Freedman shows a collaborative project with students on two continents and lists the reasons teachers should set up these projects while identifying available collaboration tools (2009). He quotes Kim Cofino, "Start small, with something achievable and let it grow from there. Find a partner that has close curricular goals—don't try to force a connection that doesn't match with your learning needs" (2009, 60).

Cutshall reports that "Often without leaving their language classrooms, teachers are using technologies such as Skype, wikis, and asynchronous conversation tools to foster bilingual conversations and dissolve cultural barriers" (2009, 41). Through these tools as well as blogs and Nings, students gain 21st-century technology skills and increase their language skills.

Learning Commons

In "If They Build It, They Will Use It" Loertscher proposes transforming the school library and computer labs into both a virtual and a physical learning commons (2009). He offers steps to follow through a simple chart. A more detailed description may be found in Diggs's case study (2009).

Professional/Personal Learning Communities

The role of the school librarian in a professional learning community creates powerful opportunities for teacher professional development. "Current research suggests that providing intensive, content-rich, and collegial learning opportunities for teachers can improve both teaching and student learning" (Darling-Hammond 2009, 52). Research shows that professional development activities of fourteen or fewer hours have no effect on learning while the most effect happens with 30-100 hours over at least six months to a year. The school librarian can provide leadership in helping to plan these activities.

A "personal learning community" is defined as working within a community to find out what learning occurs. Mar-coux and Loertscher offer a checklist to help the personal learning community of a school assess the reading program (2009).

Professional Dispositions

What makes a teacher memorable? In a presentation eons ago, Nat Hentoff described essays that his college students had written answering the question, "How many teachers made a real difference in your life?" He found some wrote none, others one, and occasionally, two. During my university teaching career, my school library students described their school librarians: "One of the reasons I am here is someone needs to do a much better job" or "I am in this program because X inspired me so." What makes the difference in the way our students remember us? Ballard suggests that our "professional responsibilities" include "professional attitudes, values, and beliefs" and these are "dispositions" (2009). Jones and Bush's book, Tales out of the School Library: Developing Professional Dispositions, introduces school librarians to dispositions as a way to move our profession forward, one school librarian at a time (2010). Does the book have a hidden agenda? It's up to you to decide.

Online Teaching

Michigan's mandated online learning graduation requirement (twenty hours of online learning experience) led Margaret Lincoln to develop a course to meet state technology and AASL standards (2009). Using or modifying her design could help you and your teachers create a similar course whether mandated or just useful.

In Summary

Once your fall leadership invasion plans are in motion, you can keep track of your successes and report them by submitting an article for publication (e.g., magazine/journal, blog, newsletter, etc). You can also encourage your principal and teachers to join you in a conference presentation—theirs or yours. Please report your successful "invasion." You can help others succeed.

References:

ALSC Children and Technology Committee. "Going for Games: What Libraries and Kids Can Learn about Gaming." Children and Libraries 7, no. 1 (Spring 2009): 48-50.

Ballard, Susan D. "Directing the Dispositions" Library Media Connection 27, no. 6 (May/ June 2009): 24.

Coatney, Sharon. The Many Faces of School Librarianship. Libraries Unlimited, 2010.

Cutshall, Sandy. "Clicking across Cultures: Today's Digital Books Help Language Students Make Global Connections from Their Classrooms." Educational Leadership 67, no. 1 (September 2009): 40-44.

Darling-Hammond, Linda, and Nikole Richardson. "Teacher Learning: What Matters?" Educational Leadership 66, no. 5 (February 2009): 46-53.

Davis, Ann, and Ewa McGrail. "The Joy of Blogging." Educational Leadership 66, no. 6 (March 2009): 74-77.

Diggs, Valerie. "From Library to Learning Commons: A Metamorphosis." Teacher Librarian 36, no. 4 (April 2009): 32-38.

Freedman, Terry. "Working Together Internationally." Knowledge Quest 37, no. 4 (March/ April 2009): 56-60.

Gallagher, Kelly. Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do about It. Stenhouse Publishers, 2009

Gates, Jan, and Nancy H. Webster. "One School, One Book: One Successful—Library Collaboration." Children and Libraries (2009): 47-50.

Hutchison, David. "Video Games: Ideas for Teaching and Library Media Links." School Library Media Activities Monthly 25, no. 7 (March 2009): 56-58.

Jones, Jami, and Gail Bush. Tales out of the School Library: Developing Professional Dispositions. Libraries Unlimited, 2010.

Krashen, Stephen. "Anything but Reading." Knowledge Quest 37, no. 5 (May/June 2009): 19-25.

Lincoln, Margaret. "Information Literacy: An Online Course for Student Library Assistants." School Library Media Activities Monthly 25, No. 10 (June 2009): 29-30.

Loertscher, David V. "If They Build It, They Will Use It." School Libraries in Canada. http://clatoolbox.ca/casl/slicv27n2/272loertscher.html (accessed March 4, 2010).

Marcoux, Elizabeth, and David V. Loertscher. "The Role of the School Library in a School's Reading Program." Teacher Librarian 37, no. 1 (October 2009): 8, 10-14.

Miller, Gabriella, et al. "Sewickly Area Libraries: A Unique Collaboration." Learning and Media 37, no. 3 (September 2009): 7-8.

Perry, Sally. "A Legislative Visit in an Elementary School. Learning and Media 37, no. 4 (Fall 2009): 22-23.

Resh, Shannon, et al. "Making Connections @ the Library: Celebrating Collaborations between the School and the Public Library." Learning and Media 37, no. 3 (September 2009): 7-8.

Small, Ruth, et al. "Reading Incentives that Work: No-Cost Strategies to Motivate Kids to Read and Love It!" School Library Media Activities Monthly 25, no. 9 (May 2009): 27-31.

Ward-Crixell, Kit. "Games Have Stories to Tell." School Library Journal 55, no. 6 (June 2009): 28-34.