Making Collaboration Work

by Allison Donahay, Jenna Kammer and Matt King, June 2021

In schools, collaborative cultures often emerge from the need to solve authentic and real challenges. As students return to in-person learning, educators have been working together to address achievement gaps, inequities, social and emotional needs, and implement new health and safety protocols. We sought to investigate practical ways that the school librarian and classroom teacher can collaborate at deeper levels to improve student learning and create equitable and meaningful learning experiences, within the constraints of systems that naturally impede collaboration.

What follows are some tools, tips and resources for developing a culture of collaboration between classroom teachers and school librarians. Two school librarians, Matt, an elementary school librarian, and Allison, a high school librarian, collaborated extensively with teachers in their schools. We share the tools Matt used to organize collaboration with teachers from various grade levels in an elementary school and strategies Allison used to avoid collaboration overload after working in a collaborative partnership with the English language learning program in a high school.

Tools for Collaboration

Collaboration between school librarians and classroom teachers is vital to ensure school administration sees the importance of a school library program. For one, teachers who have positive collaboration experiences with school librarians will spread the word. However, it is well-established that there are obstacles that prevent collaboration, like finding time to collaborate and lack of understanding of the role of the school librarian.

One tool that can be used to mitigate some of these obstacles is co-constructing a collaboration plan with teachers. A collaboration plan is a document which is developed by the classroom teachers and the school librarian to establish a clear plan for the collaboration that will meet classroom and library learning objectives. In Matt's collaboration with the elementary teachers in his building, he adapted a template created by Judi Moreillon (2013). An example of this plan can be seen in Moreillon's new book Core Values in School Librarianship (2021). This plan was flexible enough to be used with any grade level and consisted of several key components:

• Topic and Subject—This section includes the main topics and subjects relevant to the collaboration.
• Lessons—This section includes the lessons specific to the plan, as well as who is responsible for each lesson.
• Standards—Within this section, both the grade level standards and the library standards taught are listed.
• Objectives and Assessments—Student objectives are listed along with how students will be assessed.

To complete the collaboration plan, Matt includes a section to indicate the grade level and fills out the standards and objectives for the school library, while the teacher fills out the standards and objectives for the content area. Then, they create lessons together based on those objectives and decide who is responsible for those lessons. After that, assessments are created, and materials needed are identified. For example, when Matt did a collaboration with the 3rd grade teachers on the geography of Missouri, the teachers taught about the characteristics of the regions of Missouri, and Matt taught students how to use a new app that helped them to learn note-taking skills in alignment with the content-area objectives.

Using a collaboration plan was effective for collaboration in Matt's school for many reasons. Though it took time to plan the collaboration, the plan made it so that the time spent afterwards was more effective and efficient. The collaboration plan allowed the collaborators to determine the strengths of each member to provide improved learning opportunities for students. In addition, teachers and school librarians were able to share the responsibility for student growth, and classroom teachers were able to see the school librarian as part of their team for increasing student knowledge.

If getting together to complete the plan is challenging, the plan can also be completed asynchronously via Google Docs. Before using the plan, some teachers may be unaware of what library standards are and how they align with content areas. Working directly with the school librarian to create lessons, teachers are likely to gain a better understanding of the role of the librarian, what a school library program offers, and the benefits of collaboration efforts. Once the plan is in place, collaborators can develop additional materials. In Matt's collaboration, his team created an assessment guide combining both library and classroom standards after their first collaboration. For the collaboration at Matt's school, using the plan and sharing it with administrators helped support the value and importance of a school library program.

Tips for Avoiding Collaboration Overload

School librarians have the unique opportunity to collaborate with teachers in all different subject areas. In order to make these collaborative connections, librarians often find themselves initiating collaboration with teachers in a wide variety of curricular areas, some which are unfamiliar.

Given that collaboration demands the time of both teachers and school librarians, it is critical that school librarians work to ensure that collaborative partnerships do not result in "collaboration overload." In other words, collaboration should be purposeful, efficient, and beneficial for all stakeholders. This can be achieved with planning and engagement throughout the collaboration process: in preparation for the collaboration, during the collaboration period, and after the collaborative process is executed.

Figure 1. Planning for a Smooth Collaboration

One way that librarians can maximize their time spent collaborating with teachers is in their individual learning and professional development throughout the year. In other words, school librarians can familiarize themselves with curriculum, instructional initiatives, and a variety of professional learning in preparation for successful collaborative partnerships. This might mean doing a deep dive into the district's new science curriculum or becoming an expert on Real World Learning in the early stages of its implementation in the district. For Allison, it was helpful to attend a professional development on English learners (EL) in both her school district and state in order to prepare for a collaboration with her school's EL teacher. Time well spent on teacher-librarian collaboration begins with personal learning. The more school librarians engage with knowing the district curricula, initiatives, and best practices in a variety of disciplines, the better equipped they will be to offer teachers a successful collaborative partnership. This learning can also aid in those quick, spontaneous collaborative moments to provide just the right article, resource, or instructional tool for a teacher or student.

Once a collaboration begins, librarians can help maximize the small amount of time afforded to teachers for collaboration with goal setting, active listening, and establishing action items. In Allison's collaborative partnership with her EL teacher, they decided that the three top priorities were to increase library resources in the student's native language, offer a library orientation for non-native students who were new to the school, and build a collaborative research and inquiry unit for English learners. Staying focused on these priorities and seeing progress along the way helped to avoid the collaboration fatigue of seeing time spent without results. Librarians can help ensure progress along the way by being active listeners—pro tip: take notes in collaboration sessions!—and establishing action items for both the librarian and teacher between collaboration sessions.

Even after a collaborative goal or project is achieved, librarians can continue to leave teachers with a positive attitude towards the collaboration. The role of the school librarian does not have to end when the lesson is taught. Librarians and teachers can work together on student assessment, with the librarian helping to lighten the workload on teachers. Librarians can also continue to reach out to their collaborative partners with purposeful follow-up. This starts with keeping good records. If collaboration is a success, reach out next year around the same time to initiate a continued partnership with teachers.

Works Cited

American Association of School Librarians. National School Library Standards for Learners, School Librarians, and School Libraries. American Library Association, 2018.

Moreillon, Judi. Coteaching Reading Comprehension Strategies in Elementary School Libraries: Maximizing Your Impact. American Library Association, 2013.

Moreillon, Judi, ed. Core Values in School Librarianship: Responding with Commitment and Courage. Libraries Unlimited, 2021.