Now that our class has attempted to define the school librarian, what comes next? The school librarian must always be up to date with the times and thinking about how to better library services to meet the needs of students. For example, one school district decided to completely revamp their library curriculum, and standardize it across the district. The librarians in this district spent a lot of time in meetings discussing how to change their curriculum. It was great that these librarians took the time to first come up with what they thought was important to teach their students, before they adopted the model which would best fit their needs.
The type of curriculum being adopted is centering around learning with inquiry, in which students can drive their own learning based off their questions. The inquiry process includes questioning with a sense of wonder (I remember our 641 field trip to the natural science museum), student collaboration, solving problems, and assessment/reflection. This actually sounds a lot like the roll of the school librarian, who must keep her job fresh by always questioning how to serve her students better. She also collaborates with teachers, solves problems, and constantly assesses and reflects on her teaching methods. In the case above in which the school district adopted a new library curriculum, the school librarians went through this same sort of process.
My favorite quote of the day, from Things That Keep Us Up at Night: "Our libraries should not be grocery stores. We need to use those groceries, to open the boxes, pour the milk, mix the batter, make a mess." The library should not just be the place where students check out books, but where students receive instruction on how to locate and navigate the resources available to them. Librarians should always be trying new recipes in order to stay on the cutting of things in providing the best possible education for their students.
Laura Warren-Gross tried a new recipe when her school was failing. She chose to rise to the challenge and change aspects of her program to ensure the library did not fail. She placed multicultural books in all the classrooms of her urban school, had teachers booktalk them, and watched as students eagerly took them home to read. While Laura lost circulation stats in the library, she succeeded in immersing the library throughout the rest of school, ensuring that students overall read more, and paved the way for more collaboration with teachers.
School librarians are also taking on roles of leadership. Rather than fitting in with teachers' lessons, librarians can initiate the development not only of lessons, but of school curriculum. Librarians must make sure that their collection fits with the school's curriculum, is up to date, and authentic. Librarians should facilitate inquiry-based learning, and partner with students for instruction - by guiding, not dominating, their learning. The school librarian can be a driver of education, always looking for ways to better meet the needs of students.
I really liked the "recipe" metaphor in Things That Keep Us Up at Night as well. It really implies that 1) experimenting is worth a bad batch or two until you really figure how to make the perfect cookie and 2) adding and subtracting ingredients all the time allows you to tailor your product to your audience's needs.
ReplyDeleteI agree that librarians should assist with the development of curriculum. My mentor right now is head of the english curriculum development committee, which makes it that much easier to interact with the teachers. Sure, it's a bit more work, but it helps with collaboration in the long run.
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