ELA Collaboration

In this workshop, Andria Donnelly takes you through how and why to get started with collaborating and a flexible library schedule.

What started as a casual conversation at the lunch table has turned into a project we'll iterate on and repeat for years to come and provided an example I can point to when looking to collaborate with other teachers.

Our English language arts (ELA) teacher loves teaching poetry and his students have a robust portfolio of poems by the time they exit fifth grade. What if they chose their favorite poem from their personal anthology to have another student anonymously illustrate?

When I first started as a librarian, I had to fish for collaborative teacher friends. I didn't wait in line for them to swim up to me, but I floated around the building with a baited hook. My pick-up lines included, "How can I help you?" "How can I connect to your curriculum?" "How can we work together to increase achievement?"

There are many ways to connect to ELA or connect to history or connect to science. If you look at what's being read in the classroom and make a connection there, you'll likely come up with many ways.

Paige Jaeger and Bridget Crossman discuss tried-and-true collaboration strategies, from covert operations to global initiatives, to help you connect with teachers and others in your community and increase student learning.

Igniting a passion for nonfiction titles can be a challenge for high school librarians but it can be done. Biographies, primary sources, and informational texts can be presented to students in innovative ways, such as in this successful biography celebration in our library.