Coplanning for Student Success

wordle_lesson_planningWhen classroom teachers and school librarians coplan standards-based lessons and units of instruction, they can experience the two-heads are better than one phenomenon. Each educator brings a unique perspective as well as knowledge, skills, talents, and teaching style to the collaboration table.

Both classroom teachers and school librarians must know the standards. Whether the Common Core or other state standards. Classroom teachers have more familiarity with the background knowledge and skill development of the students in their classrooms. School librarians bring their knowledge of the resources of the library and beyond as well as strategies for integrating technology tools into lessons. Together, these equal educators have the potential to develop more creative, more engaging, and most of all, more effective instruction for students.

Many school librarians and classroom teachers find it helpful to use collaborative planning forms to record their ideas as they brainstorm and plan. Often the school librarian takes responsibility for making notes and/or completing the planning form and using it to rough out a lesson or unit plan, which both partners fine-tune. These are some sample elementary level (Chapter 1) and secondary level planning forms that can be downloaded from the Web.

In the 2014-2015 school year, Kelly Hoppe school librarian at Palo Duro High School in Amarillo, Texas, coplanned with 9th-grade pre-AP English language arts teacher Jessica Wilcox for a year-long collaboration. Jessica felt that even though her students were on the pre-AP track, they weren’t skilled library users. She wanted to do something that would immerse students in library skills and critical reading skills using YA and classic literature. Together, Jessica and her school librarian Kelly collaborated to create a year-long program to meet these students’ needs.

Jessica and Kelly began by helping student learn how to use the library more effectively. Along the way, they discovered that students needed more support with how to make sense of difficult texts that were above their proficient reading level. These coteachers will have an article in the August issue of Voices of Youth Advocates (VOYA) that describes their collaborative process and the results of their coteaching.

Works Cited

Wilcox, Jessica. “Teacher Librarian Collaboration.” YouTube.com. 2015. Web. 29 May 2015. <https://youtu.be/d9WHb8i8v5I>.

Word cloud created at Wordle.net

Collaborative Teaching

String MachineThank you to the May 19th Texas Library Association Webinar participants for sharing their ideas and experiences in building cultures of collaboration in their schools. If you were unable to attend, please see BACC co-blogger Karla Collins post-Webinar wrap-up.

The BACC co-bloggers gleaned our June topic from that conversation: collaborative teaching. We have divided the topic into four interrelated components: coplanning, coteaching, coassessing student work, and coassessing the effectiveness of the educators’ collaborative work. Each co-blogger will share her perspective on one stage of the coteaching process.

Before delving into coplanning, many Webinar participants shared the importance of building relationships with their classroom teacher and specialist colleagues. Making time to address this prerequisite for collaborative teaching is essential. In the Webinar chat, one participant noted, “Collaboration relies on cultivating relationships. You (school librarians) have to earn their trust.” Another wrote, “Offer to do the ‘little things’ to make friends and build relationships.”

In the above photograph, two teachers from the San Francisco Exploratorium Museum’s Teacher Institute examine the “String Thing” they built. Clearly, these two educators are learning together… and having fun doing it! It stands to reason that educators who enjoy learning together would also enjoy teaching together. In fact, more fun is one of the benefits cited by many coteachers—classroom teachers and school librarians alike.

In 2005, Dr. Keith Curry Lance and his colleagues conducted a study called “Powerful Libraries Make Powerful Learners.” These researchers looked for the activities in which effective school librarians engage. They compared the activities of school librarians serving in low performing schools with those in high achieving schools. They found that in high achieving schools school librarians spent 240% more time planning with teachers.

On Thursday, I will share my perspective on the coplanning process and a just-published testimonial from a high school English language arts teacher who talks about her successful coplanning experience with her school librarian.

Works Cited

Lance, Keith C., Marcia J. Rodney, and Christine Hamilton-Pennell. “Powerful Libraries Make Powerful Learners: The Illinois Study.” Illinois School Library Media Association. 2005. Web. 19 May 2015. <https://www.islma.org/pdf/ILStudy2.pdf>.

Snyder, Amy. “Exploratorium Teachers.” JPG. Wikimedia.org. 2009. Web. 29 May 2015. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Exploratorium_teachers.jpg>