Professional+Knowledge

= = =**  1.1    **** Lifelong Learning: **= = Excellent teacher librarians…. = =  =      **//     1.1.1         //**  **// Are well informed about information literacy theory and practice //****//  1.1.2    //****// Thoroughly understand how all learners develop and apply lifelong learning skills and strategies //** My learning journey through the two years of undergoing my Masters, has consolidated many of my ideas and provided many 'aha' moments when I finally connected all the dots. There is a wonderful article written by Linda Langford entitled **Information Literacy**: **A Clarification** accessed at http://www.fno.org/oct98/clarify.html that outlines very succintly the dilemmas of information literacy theory. What follows are several passages from the article that highlight the difficulties of labelling information literacy:  //“There is also an understanding that schools must develop literate and numerate citizens, emphasizing the importance of reading and writing skills at a functional level. Therefore, domains of teaching are unwittingly set up, and when new ideas percolate through, they are often sectoralised. // // For example, the literature abounds with the idea that teacher librarians are significant stakeholders, and sometimes infers the teacher librarian as sole stakeholder in the development of information literacy in students. On the other hand, schools of thought discuss whole language approaches to education and integrated teaching of skills (information skills) toward lifelong learning. As teacher librarians, are we responsible for some distinct concept referred to as information literacy or are we a part of a whole, promoting literacy through the development and encouragement of an array of skills that include information and thinking? // //   Kuhlthau (1995) …through her concern for her students' unease with research, challenged the rather pragmatic interpretation of literacy by introducing the importance of attitudinal behaviours toward seeking information. She affirmed that to be literate was not only to recognise when information was required, but involved the ability to construct one's own knowledge through a process that gave meaning and self-interest to the notion of learning throughout a lifetime. //  //  Information Literacy … is not library skills, nor is it computer skills, nor even  // //  information problem-solving skills (Eisenberg & Berkowitz, 1990), but all of these are necessary enhancers of information literacy. One needs to be able to locate and access information in all its forms and registers or to solve information problems through enlisting a set of behaviours that develop competences in the techniques and skills necessary to survive in the Information Age. As these techniques and skills strengthen, so too do the individual's metacognitive processes (Eshpeter & Gray, 1988), thereby affirming Doyle's belief that information literacy involves critical thinking behaviours, that is, knowing how to learn. //    **// Conclusion //**// : We know that lifelong learning is more than a lofty ideal; it is the outcome of an information-literate society. However, the very people responsible for empowering students to become lifelong learners appear not to understand the information process, let alone information literacy, well enough to be truly effective learners themselves. We need to understand why this is and how we can change existing practices. Research into working out how classroom teachers can develop a belief, along with ensuing behaviours, in the teaching of enabling skills to permit our clients to construct their own knowledge and learn through their independent and interdependent manipulation of information is long overdue." //       When I started as a Teacher Librarian in Australia, library lessons were a combination of lessons that ranged from reading stories, to demonstrating parts of the books, to using the card and then the computer catalogue and to understanding the Dewey system. All of these aspects of ‘library skill’s', however noble, were falling on deaf ears. They had no relevant structure nor any particular relevance to what the students required. Cooperative learning then became popular, with TL’s planning with teachers the work unit. More often than not, this became the TL choosing resources for busy teachers, delivering them to the classroom and then in library lessons, showing students how to find the resources using the catalogue, which then turned out to be in the classroom anyway. Disgruntled with this approach, I attempted to turn things around by introducing a structure to the teacher’s research. The Big 6 was introduced, teachers were inserviced and a common language was developed. I used library lessons as a literature based sessions and worked with small groups of students on research, both traditionally and digitally. This was more successful but still was not comprehensive. When Capra and Ryan introduced ILPO (2001), I introduced it throughout the whole school, including the use of their research booklets. I ran many PD workshops in the hope that there would be a continuity of skill building from the junior years upwards. On the whole, this was reasonably successful. Teachers had a framework they could use; the library supported their work in the class, and filled in the gaps when needed or when teachers were out of their depth, and information literacy finally had a voice. Of course, as in every school, staff turnovers, new principals and other demands meant that the PD lapsed and the program was in danger of self destructing. The problem I faced was that the new principal had overnight changed the P-12 College, previously operating under a Head of Senior School, and Head of Junior School into 5 divisions: P-3 called Foundations, Yr 4-6 Consolidations, Yr 7-8 Connections, Yr 9-10 Experiences and Yr 11-12 Credentials. Each of these had a Head of Programme and Program staff meetings were held. It was impossible for me to attend five programme meetings in a week and consequently ILPO was not longer in fore front of the planning discussions. It was a huge danger period for the influence of the library as far as the information literacy as a component of work unit planning. The next hurdle that I faced was that, without discussion, work units were completely replaced – previously well planned and resourced units were no longer used and the new units were introduced without thought to resourcing. For two years I felt that I was fighting not only for the library, information literacy and for the skill basis of the students, but at times, for the life for the library. Many agonising hours were spent debating how I was going to get things back on track. I felt that in certain areas I was a failure. I worked with students more on an individual basis than in a class situation and maintained the library presence by stepping out of traditional roles eg becoming Yr 12 co-ordinator in 2006. It was about this time that I embarked on my Masters. In retrospective, a combination of things happened. I was reinspired, had time to step back and revaluate, rediscovered the theory and a purpose and was challenged in my thinking and the way I was doing things. Combined with this, my relentless pursuit of reengaging the library with planned units of work, and the requirement from Queensland Government that Essential Learnings be incorporated into units, as well as the QCAR audit and the Headmaster's desire to authenticate our own College’s curriculum, allowed me to regain a foothold. Another interesting component and I resisted a, ‘I told you so’, was a poor QCS result in comparison to other years and the subsequent analysis pointed to many gaps in the student’s skill base. The point of this reflection is that despite a thorough understanding of information literacy and its relationship to student’s lifelong learning skills, it is the influence of the library and the Teacher Librarian that becomes crucial. It may be a long uphill battle; in my case ground was lost so quickly that the task was to re-establish a connection. It could be viewed as a necessary battle, that by losing ground, the importance of what I was offering was again considered relevant and crucial and therefore it was reintroduced. When I look back now at the work that I did in my unit the Knowledge Hubs, it is clear that I was still in ‘mid battle’ – I knew what needed to be done but was still toying with strategies. Perhaps I should go and do the unit again with a clear head, or perhaps, it was because of this unit that I managed to put things in perspective and reclaim lost ground. ** References: ** [|Essential Learning Document] Capra, S.,Ryan, J.(1998 ). ILPO: Information Literacy Planning Overview. Brisbane: CapraRyan and Associates Eisenberg, M., Berkowitz, R. The Big 6TM Information Problem-solving Approach to Library and Information Skills Instruction. Retrieved from [|http://big6.com]

**// 1.1.3   //****//Have a sound understanding of how children and young adults become//** **//  independent reader  s //**


 * Reading Promotion**


 * Childcare Centre:** The desire of every library and of every teacher librarian is to provide an environment where the love of reading and literature thrives. In a Junior school this is relatively easy to obtain. Young children arrive at school with the goal of becoming a reader. The love of reading and the joy of listening to a story begins in our College with our Child Care Centre where once the students enter the ‘Butterfly’ room (3 and a half years up) they visit the library in small groups, borrow books for the Child Care cCntre. This is usually their first visit to ‘the big school’ and is very exciting. They sit in on a Prep class and the library staff always make a huge fuss over their first visit. Combined with this I have, over the years, collected books suitable for babies upwards and next year these are ready to be parcelled in book collections of six books that parents, grandparents or whoever picks up the children from childcare can collect a pack from the centre. I have enough books to have 15 sets for each of the 3 different age groups. I am hoping that this will make it easier and encourage parents to read to their children. Many children have both parents working and have little time to visit the public library, so by being able to collect a set of books that they can borrow for a couple of weeks, will hopefully lighten the load.

Prep:** All three prep classes come to the library every week for library session. This is firmly entrenched in active noisy storytelling with art work sessions thrown in when we are feeling particularly brave. Parents are invited to use the library as their community library and I attend the Prep Intro evening to introduce the services that the library can offer the families. As preppies finish the day at 2.30, parents and children are welcome to come to the library to read to their own children while they wait for older siblings to finish class. We also encourage parents to borrow for themselves as we have a very active book club for adults and a senior collection of fiction. As well as a huge Junior Fiction collection, I also have a special section called Middle Fiction which houses all the simple chapter books. This section of the library is hugely patronised and is housed away from the Junior collection so that older students with reading difficulties can access it without obvious delineation issues.
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YR 1:** Several years ago, ‘Rex’ by Ursula Dubostaky was a short listed book. Telling the tale of a chameleon who was a class pet, the story followed the adventures as members of the class were allowed to take Rex home for the night. Thus, Rita was born. She was a pink and purple dinosaur, complete with scarf and blanket. She has a special crate that she was transported in. Inside the crate was a copy of the book Rex and a display folder with a template sheet in it. Originally Rita moved on a weekly rotation to each of the three Year 1 classrooms where teachers tell me they had a blissful week as students tried to be extra good so they could take Rita home. The student selected came to the library at the end of the day and we packaged up Rita for her trip home. The idea was that parents read the story of ‘Rex’ and then the student wrote what they did with Rita in their house that night and drew a picture or took a photo. The next morning, after sharing their story with the class, they brought Rita back to the library where we equally made a fuss over them, got them to read their story to us and had discussion with them. The success of Rita has led to her cousin Rodney arriving and then this year Mchumba (sweetheart in Swalihi) arrived from deepest, darkest Africa. Now each class has their own library pet and the popularity of these critters does not seem to abate. During the day, the books are on display in the library and students of all ages stop to read their adventures. The Yr 12’s are particularly jealous! Activities like this support the love of reading and writing and sharing experiences. The stories are scanned and are placed on the library website in the Prep to 3 blog. (http://pto3.wordpress.com/)
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Photo: R.A.W. members with visiting author Coral Tulloch
 * [[image:coral.jpg width="143" height="140" align="left" caption="RAW Coral"]]R.A.W.: S**tudents from Yr 4 can join R.A.W. (Readers and Writers Club) which meets over breakfast several times per term where we share books, act as shoppers from local book shops, and enter writing competitions. Sixteen students from this club were selected to spend the day at the Brisbane Writers Festival.


 * BLOG**: http://booksnippets.wordpress.com/ is the blog on our library website. This is maintained by Nolene. Library Technician. Great way to involve her after she completed of the '23 things of Web 2.0' course (see 3.3.4)

Readers Cup:** Since 2004, I have been the Gold Coast Coordinator for Readers Cup. This is a reading competition where teams of four read six set texts and then on the night of the competition answer questions about each of the books. This is a hotly contested competition and now has grown so large that is divided into 2 sections Yr 6 & 7 and Yr 8 & 9 with over 30 teams across the Gold Coast competing for the right to represent the region at the State Competition held during the Brisbane Writers Festival. To decide our school team, I run a Readers Cup competition in which every Year 7 & Year 8 child is in a team and competes. I run it a bit like a TV quiz show so it is fast, action packed, with lots of prizes and fun. This competition serves as the Term 1 reading programme for Yr 7 & 8.
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Photo: Regional Readers Cup

Lexile is a perfect example of incorporating ICT’s into a reading programme. Parents can also monitor their child’s progress. Lexile is a Scholastic product which means that not every book comes with a lexile number and nor will they release the program that decides the lexile. Obviously this bodes well for Scholastic, as it encourages us to buy the annual collection and quizzes. For smaller schools this would be a big ask from their constrained budgets, however it is one decision that I am still pleased with. Students resit the test at the beginning of each term and for many students this is a positive way for them to record how much their reading has improved. I would love to use this program with Yr 7 & 8’s but unfortunately the Lexile programme is lacking in quantity of books at this level. Scholastic is looking at addressing this but it only works for Yr 4 – Yr 6’s.
 * Lexile:** I was becoming concerned at the quality of the books that this age group of students were selecting. They were either stuck on ‘Captain Underpants’ which held the title of being the most borrowed book in the library or borrowing the first thing they laid their hands on. I had been closely observing Deanna, Head of Library at the College I used as my co-site, who had introduced the Scholastic Lexile Program into her library. Other than time and money, she was thrilled with the change in the student’s reading habits and recommended the program. It took just over a term to relabel all the books currently in the collection with a lexile number, alter the catalogue record and then tick every book in the lexile collection that was housed in our library. This procedure also needs to happen with every new book accessioned into the library. PD for teachers happened nex;, teachers needed to know their way around the lexile website, how to activate tests, and view the progress of their class. I prepared all the class databases and paswords for the studies and then introduced the program to every class. To begin, all students sit an online comprehension multi choice quiz which results in each student being given a lexile number. Then students can select from a list of subjects, the types of books they are interested in and then print out a list of books that are in our library, around their lexile, that they know they will be interested in and that they can read. Armed with their individual lists, the student’s choice of reading material developed significantly. As a bonus, students can also earn points by answering quizzes about the books they have read which result in certificates, book prizes etc.

Visiting Authors Program:** Every year we invite authors and illustrators to the school for an intensive Literature Week. This year we hosted, over a period of two weeks, the following authors, Coral Tulloch, Simon Higgins, Anita Bell, Michael Gerald Bauer, James Roy, Ross Clark, Kim Michelle Toft, Narelle Oliver, Matt Bray, Phil Kettle and storyteller Steve Wright. The visiting author program is an essential component of our literature program within the College and one that is warmly embraced by the students. Members of the R.A.W bookclub have a special lunch with the authors as part of their special privileges and act as hosts and guides throughout the week. Photo: Kim Michelle Toft with her amazing silk paintings
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Book Club for Adults** The book club for Adults is run twice a term and is named Saintly Readers. They also have a presence on the library website and a ‘librarything’ presence which is slowly being embraced. We have a fluid membership of thirty adults and the book club is run by Rebecca, my co- TL.
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Photo: Term 4, 2008 Book Club Meeting

Book Fairs:** These are held twice a term and provide a great meeting place for parents. We hold a themed family gathering with each book fair with breakfasts or afternoon teas and have had times had over 200 people in the library before 8am!
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Literature Circles:** Literature Circles are an integral part of the reading programme for Yr 7 & 8 studies and also operate as an elective. This is form of guided inquiry using literature as the inquiry and with students within each group taking on a different role evry week in their literary journey - Discussion Director, Amazing Artist, Literary Luminary, Inquisitive Investigator, Word Wizard and Capable Connector.
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Photo: Yr 8 Literature Club in Action

In regards to the Literature component of the Masters program, I was a little disappointed that the only paper pertaining to literature that was available was entitled 'Youth, Popular Culture and Texts'. While I acknowledge the relevance of pop culture, film and television and the changing identities of youth today, I strongly contest the viewpoint that literature needs to ‘hip’ for kids to read. My experience with students is that if you constantly engage with students and know your students well, you will be able to find quality literature that they will read. If we expect them only to read graphic novel and magazines then that is what they will read. I have resisted the move to graphic novels in our library. While some may say that I am limiting choices, I am yet to be convinced that this is path that I need to go down in order to keep my students reading. Considering that literature is still the primary responsibility of the teacher librarian, I would hope that a paper on engaging students in reading will be available to future MLN students.

//** The teacher librarian is often the instigator of ICT’s in the school setting. As a profession we entered the digital age ahead of many others in the teaching world, with computerised catalogues, and have managed to remain at the cutting edge of technological innovation. It is only natural that we led the way incorporating these technologies into mainstream education. The library website ([|http://ssc.asaglearn.com]) combines many ICT’s within its framework. Our library catalogue, ‘V-knowledge’ offers federated searching; we subscribe to many electronic databases through the UQ Cyberlibrary that are well patronised by senior students and we also use clickview throughout the school. Currently our broadband connection is far too slow and we are promised that this will be rectified in 2009. Until this happens, it is becoming increasingly difficult to expand our ICT’s into full Web 2.0 capabilities although plans are well underway. The library is currently leading the way in the development of ICT’s within the school. In order to put in place the library website with its blogs and wikis I have had to house them off site. While I have protected the sites as much as possible I would obviously prefer that they were securely behind the school portal. This is a risk I am prepared to take until the IT department keeps up with the pace of change. 2009 is going to be a huge year for ICT’s. I have applied for permission to run a compulsory ‘23 Things of Web 2.0’ style course for all administration and staff in the first term lasting over a 10 week timeframe. This will be a huge time commitment for all involved, but it is the only way I can hope to activate and stimulate interest across the board. We cannot expect our students to embrace new technologies unless the staff have some understanding as well.
 * //  1.1.4    //****// Comprehensively understand the role of ICTS in lifelong information