Preliminary Program Concurrent Sessions to Include: Bringing Inquiry to your Curriculum: Using Real World Problems to Teach Information Literacy Facilitators: Katrina Nye and Kathy Clark The Lower School librarians from the Harker School in San Jose, CA will explain the process through which they used inspiration from real world problems to create inquirybased projects for their third and fourth grade students. Learn practical methodology to bring new life and more inquiry to your information literacy curriculum while seamlessly embedding library and research skills into lessons. This presentation will provide examples, and practical takeaway ideas for designing successful collaboration and group work. Building Background Knowledge: Pathways to Inquiry Facilitators: Nicole Hunter and Hayley Beale Students often come to research projects with no prior knowledge about what they are about to start studying. As librarians we often rely on our background knowledge to create paths to further inquiry. How can we help students build their own background knowledge as a launching pad for developing sound research questions? In this session we will workshop two methods that we have found successful. We will then invite
participants to brainstorm and share their ideas for engaging students in discovering what they don’t know and how to turn those questions into research. Curation: Bibliographies for the Digital Era Facilitator: Robyn Martin Librarians have always carefully selected materials for their collections. In this digital age, the scope of those materials has expanded to include media, online resources and more. Helping our students discover and curate the sources they need for their projects is a more focused version of what we do. In this session, we will discuss the difference between selection and curation and work with a variety of tools that we can use with our faculty and students to develop curated lists of sources. Dueling or Dancing with Data? Conversation about Data and Statistics as Part of Information Literacy Facilitator: Kristin Fontichiaro When we learned how to "teach research," most of us learned primarily about learning through text: articles, books, and websites. But in their research, social media streams, and daily life, students are inundated with data and statistics. From infographics to research sample size, selection bias to misleading headlines, correlation to causation, we need to arm ourselves, and then our students, with strategies for interpreting, understanding, and evaluating data and statistics. In this session, we'll begin with a "cheat sheet" of data literacy skills, then open up the conversation to share strategies from the field. Exploration, Reading & Writing: Making Nonfiction Text Engaging, Accessible and Purposeful for Young Learners Facilitators: Mary Ann Scheuer and Alyson Beecher Young students are insatiably curious about the world around them, but they are still developing their reading and writing skills. How can we provide engaging, dynamic experiences for them to learn about the world around them? This session will provide prompts to discuss the role of pleasure reading about high-interest nonfiction topics and reading for specific research projects. We will provide guidance and time to explore librarians’ role in selecting and using print and electronic resources especially for developing readers. Participants will have hands-on time evaluating materials and discussing criteria. Finally, we will share some examples using mentor texts for students’ own nonfiction writing. Participants will work together to develop a lesson plan using a sample mentor text as a springboard for students to use as a model their own writing. Fab Lab + Fab Lib = Added Value for Students: How Two Essential School Venues Together Propel a Growth Mindset Facilitators: Susan Faust and Mike Matthews Learn by researching, reading, and making. These imperatives shape a powerful partnership at Katherine Delmar Burke School. In the K-4 Library program, research and
literature-based units help students develop transferable skills and understandings to satisfy any future need to know. In the fabrication labs, known on campus as Makery Up and Makery Down, those same students create original products, both real-world and virtual, to demonstrate and share their new knowledge. Students then move on to learning by reflecting, collaboratively guided by the librarian and Makery facilitator: creating digital portfolios, assessing their own work, receiving teacher feedback, and learning about themselves as learners. On the teaching side, find out how the Library and Makery programs are deeply complementary and collaborative. On the learning side, find out how students benefit from a Library/Makery integration that nurtures responsibility, investment, and growth. It adds up to added value for all. I Know It When I See It: Making Learning Visible Through Assessment Facilitator: Jole Seroff Inspired by principles of backwards design, we will consider how to approach assessing the impact of our research and information skills instruction. Participants will work collaboratively to devise effective assessments for a given project. Come to take the first steps toward developing assessments for your own program, or come to share how you’re already assessing your students’ progress! It Comes Down to This: Editing Video Reflects How Experienced Researchers Distill Information and Decide What to Use Facilitator: Karen Morgenstern Just as a film or video editor cannot use all the footage shot for a project, our student researchers should not include all the information they discover about their topic. Distilling the essence of that topic, finding the structure inherent within, and deciding how best to tell a story are all issues faced whether designing a school project, instructional unit, or professional presentation. Experience the challenge students face when trying to figure out what to include in a research project by storyboarding your own narrative of raw video footage made available to session participants. Work together to uncover our processes for deciding what to include. Go home with ideas about how to engage with students around this particular task in the research process. Let’s Unpack Those Primary Docs! Facilitator: Connie Williams Participants will learn how to use primary source documents in their classrooms and libraries by looking, analyzing, discussing, and critically thinking together how to best introduce them to students in classrooms of any age or discipline. The Life and Death of Project-Based Instruction Facilitator: Annie Schutte Does this sound familiar? You're a librarian looking to teach research skills, and it feels like you only have two options. Either you have a regular library or research skills class,
but your curriculum is partially divorced or spottily reinforced by classroom teachers. Or you provide class-based instruction when it's project time, but it's a teacher-specific, oneshot deal where the depth and breadth of skills varies wildly between students and classes and grades. Neither is a great option. This session will model a third way--a hybrid method for developing a more consistent and intentional collaborative research-skills curriculum in any grade, with or without a weekly library class. The basic idea is for librarians to work with grade-level teachers in every subject to brainstorm and develop a set of important skills, then map out how and when to hit different concepts throughout the year using existing projects and classes. This session will show examples and timelines for how this type of collaboration can work, provide tools and strategies for working with teachers and administrators, and facilitate individual brainstorming and group discussion time around the challenges and opportunities that implementing this type of model would present. Making the Most of Screen Time: Reading, Note Taking, and Comprehension in a Digital World Facilitator: Jen Gaspar-Santos As we continue to explore digital tools for reading and note-taking, questions arise around the effects of this new medium on the reader’s experience and learning outcomes. Skeptics claim the tools’ transformational impact on the quality of the learning experience remains elusive. Advocates champion how e-book authoring and annotation tools are paving ways for both teachers and students to be both consumers and analytical producers. How do we create informed decisions around which medium to share with faculty and place in our research toolkits? When partnering with teachers, how can we design learning experiences where these tools are more effective? And how do we measure that effectiveness? Participants will hear what the research says about this debate and how teachers at Castilleja School are actively responding to these questions. The session will also include a small group design activity and exploration with digital tools. Participants will leave with strategies and resources they can add to their toolkits and share with teachers. Many Faces, a Variety of Needs: Supporting Students from Around the World Facilitator: Michelle Fitzgerald Do you struggle to support the needs of your ELL students and others with special learning needs? Would you like advice from two librarians who have worked for 10+ years at various international schools in multiple countries? Join Molly McPharlin, Pre-K to Grade 12 Teacher Librarian at the International School of Helsinki for a global conversation on research skills instruction. Let’s apply the insight gained from supporting language learners to improve our research instruction for all students. Your contributions and tips are welcomed, join us to do what librarians do best: share what we know. New Media’s Support of Knowledge Building and 21st Century Skills Development Facilitator: Barb Jansen
There is a growing consensus that the character of pedagogy must shift from one of teacher- and textbook-directed instruction to one of student-centered learning. Professional organizations such as AASL and ISTE continue to revise their learning standards to reflect skills that students will need to live and work in an increasingly global, networked society. Skills including communication, collaboration, critical thinking, creativity and innovation can be difficult to teach and measure through traditional classroom practices. Evidence from a study conducted by the presenter suggests that use of new media tools not only supports the development of essential 21st century skills. It also deepens subject-area knowledge by promoting participation among all students, helping students broaden their perspectives through universal access to their peers’ thinking. Participants in this session will explore 21st century skills, tools, and strategies that promote a collaborative learning environment. Playing with History: Teaching Historical Research through Role-Play Facilitator: Teresa Copeland For the last seven years, students at the Tesseract School have stepped into history and tried to change it. The trials of Socrates, Galileo, the Salem Witches and others have become a platform for in depth historical research and critical thinking. This session will explain the design and running of these competitive adventures. Educational institutions are committed to advancing students’ college readiness and supporting students’ transition from high school to college, especially in light of current retention trends. Stemming from conversations with high school English teachers and library media specialists, the presenters applied for a grant to fund a day-long workshop to facilitate dialog between high school and college-level students, librarians, and teachers. The workshop includes speakers and panel presentations combined with collaborative breakout sessions. In particular, the breakout sessions invite participants, across grade levels and institution types, to collaborate and explore how educators might close the gaps in student preparedness between high school and college. This workshop is part of a larger, multifaceted approach to support local retention and diversity initiatives that include collaborating with current K-12 outreach programs. Learn about their pilot workshop to facilitate dialog among all stakeholders, and hear how they strove to highlight underrepresented student perspectives. Come share your ideas on how to engage different stakeholders in these initiatives and brainstorm ways to integrate outreach and retention efforts at the local level. Predictive Search: Increasing Quality and Enhancing Findability by Teaching Students to Imagine the Perfect Source Facilitator: Tasha Bergson-Michelson One tip that expert researchers commonly offer is to “imagine your perfect source.” But what does that actually look like in practice? Is it an innate skill, or can students all learn to do it? We draw from several libraries teaching practices to kick off our group brainstorm. Come enhance your own predictive skills, then collaborate with colleagues to explore ways to scaffold student success at imagining and finding the evidence they need.
Quality Research in Second Grade? "You Betcha!" Facilitator: Emily Jones Are you looking to deepen elementary students' understanding of quality research? Go beyond the Super3 and dive into ways to blend strategies from various disciplines in order to connect student learning across subjects. In this session you will hear from an elementary librarian who completed a successful six-week research project on inventions with second graders. You will also have the opportunity to consider your own practices and collaborate with fellow participants about ways to integrate research concepts with existing curriculum. Scaffolding Efforts to Improve College Readiness: Strategies and Collaborations Facilitators: Vicki Gruzynski, Juliann Couture, and Caroline Sinkinson Educational institutions are committed to advancing students’ college readiness and supporting students’ transition from high school to college, especially in light of current retention trends. Stemming from conversations with high school English teachers and library media specialists, the presenters applied for a grant to fund a day-long workshop to facilitate dialog between high school and college-level students, librarians, and teachers. The workshop includes speakers and panel presentations combined with collaborative breakout sessions. In particular, the breakout sessions invite participants, across grade levels and institution types, to collaborate and explore how educators might close the gaps in student preparedness between high school and college. This workshop is part of a larger, multifaceted approach to support local retention and diversity initiatives that includes collaborating with current K-12 outreach programs. Learn about their pilot workshop to facilitate dialog among all stakeholders, and hear how they strove to highlight underrepresented student perspectives. Come share your ideas on how to engage different stakeholders in these initiatives and brainstorm ways to integrate outreach and retention efforts at the local level. Step over the Threshold with Us Facilitators: Debbie Abilock and Sue Smith In every discipline there are threshold concepts, that is, ideas that are central to mastery of a subject which, once understood, transform how one understands and thinks within a discipline. The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) has drafted six anchoring threshold concepts that frame an academic research process. Since these concepts will permeate academic research, we believe that it is essential for pre-collegiate educators to think about how to ground them in our schools. One such concept, “Scholarship is a Conversation,” involves mastering disciplinary ways of thinking and communicating including using nuances in syntax, specialized vocabulary and subject-appropriate evidence to convey ideas in a given medium or genre, shaped for a particular audience and context. We asked ourselves: What developmentally appropriate sequence could we craft to teach this concept that might serve as a model for
other school librarians? We will share our initial work to introduce “Scholarship is a Conversation” and invite you to think about ways to translate this to your own school settings. Toward a Librarian’s Utopia Facilitators: Jeanie Phillips and Jole Seroff This collaborative session will encourage out-of-the-box thinking using techniques adapted from gamestorming and design thinking methodologies. We will challenge each other to imagine--and build prototypes!--of an ideal library program: one that engages all students and enables each young person to pursue his/her talents, passions, and interests through critical thinking, ethical use of information, and expert problem solving. Where to Begin Facilitator: Sara Kelley-Mudie When working with students during research we often want to move quickly to the process of finding and evaluating sources. However, the latter stages of the research process often break down when students have not spent sufficient time selecting a topic and developing meaningful questions to drive their research. In this session we’ll discuss--and have an opportunity to practice--different techniques we can use with students during the opening stages of inquiry. These presearching strategies create a strong foundation for further research. You’re Bound to get Ideas, or How Teachers and Librarians brought a Road-trip into the Classroom Facilitators: Trevor Calvert, Derek Anderson, Mary Collie Marin Academy’s Library and English department co-planned an experiential research project tied to Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath. Students collaborated to plan a cross country trip modeled after the journey in the novel. They applied information literacy skills to solve unexpected challenges, gaining research experience on the open web. Students learned to interpret nontraditional sources like maps, weather guides, and even timetables. Students engaged in a melange of writing, research, web-design, and creative problem solving in order to complete the project. Who Are the Facilitators? Debbie Abilock Debbie Abilock has been “noodling” about research since she used her mother’s library card to sneak adult books about Mexico from the adult section of her local library in the Bronx. A co-founder of NoodleTools, Inc., she is charged with shaping the educational vision for this integrated note-taking, outlining, citation, document archiving/annotation, and collaborative research and writing platform that is used worldwide by educators and their students in upper elementary through university. Honored as a Library Journal “Mover and Shaker” and winner of the Grand Prize for innovative online curriculum from Time Magazine, Debbie and been appointed to numerous local, state, and national organizations. She writes a column for LMC about “friction,” the design of slow thinking into the research process. In her workshops participants
encounter "rules of thumb," "messing around and clumping" and "points of friction" as they learn hands-on, minds-on strategies for teaching and learning. Derek Anderson Derek Anderson is the library director and a member of the history department at Marin Academy. He holds a BA from Bates College and his MLIS from San José State University. He has traveled to 47 states and 49 countries, teaches a world history course, and worked for fifteen years in college admissions before becoming a librarian. Hayley Beale Hayley Beale is a librarians at San Francisco University High School. She is passionate about research and teaching students how to assess sources in the ever widening and deepening sea of information. Alyson Beecher Alyson Beecher is an educator, book geek and literacy advocate with over 20 years of experience in education, six of which were spent as an elementary principal. Her favorite thing is when a student stops her for a book recommendation. Currently, she is the K-8 Literacy Specialist for the Pasadena Unified School District. Alyson served as the Chair of the ALA 2015 Schneider Family Book Award Jury and served for three years on the Scholastic Principals Advisory Board. She can be found on twitter @alybee930 or through her blog www.kidlitfrenzy.com Tasha Bergson-Michelson Tasha is the Instructional and Programming Librarian for Castilleja School in Palo Alto, CA. Since 1995, Tasha has been exploring what makes for successful information literacy instruction in corporate, nonprofit, subscription, and school libraries, and through after school programs and summer camps. Most recently, Tasha was the Search Educator at Google, where she wrote an extensive series of Search Education lesson plans, the Power Searching MOOCs, and - most importantly - collaborated with other librarians around the world to explore the most effective ways of teaching research skills. Tasha was recently designated a 2014 Mover & Shaker – Tech Leader by Library Journal. Trevor Calvert Trevor Calvert is the interim librarian director at Marin Academy where assists students with research, teaches information literacy, leads minicourses, and advises for the MA literary magazine, Echoes. He received an MFA from Mills College in Creative Writing and an MLIS from San José State University. He has taught college English, and has worked at the Oakland Public Library and the California Digital Library. Kathy Clark Kathy Clark, Lower School Campus librarian has been teaching information literacy at the Harker School in San Jose, CA, for 20 years. She is an avid storyteller, reading advocate, and Maker, having created the library’s Maker Space this year. Mary Collie Mary Collie teaches English I, Journalism, Creative Nonfiction, Baseball Literature, and Shakespeare. Mary received a BS from Southern Connecticut State University and an MA in English from Middlebury College Bread Loaf School of English. She is also a Certified Journalism Educator. Mary also coaches the Girls Water Polo team and serves as faculty advisor to MA’s newspaper, The Voice. Teresa Copeland Teresa Copeland has been librarian at the Tesseract School in Paradise Valley, Arizona, for 8 years. Julian Couture Juliann Couture is the Interdisciplinary Social Sciences Librarian at the University of Colorado Boulder. She provides instruction, outreach, and reference to social science departments including Women and Gender Studies and Ethnic Studies. Her research interests include integrating information literacy within disciplines and student engagement in university libraries.
Susan Faust Susan Faust has been the Lower School Librarian at Katherine Delmar Burke School for over 30 years. In addition to collection development and teaching, she has worked extensively on curriculum and schoolwide initiatives. As an active member of the Association of Library Service to Children (ALA/ALSC), she has served on numerous book award committees and chaired Newbery, Sibert, Batchelder, and Notable Books for Children. For nearly 30 years, she has had a monthly column of children’s book reviews in The San Francisco Chronicle. Kristin Fontichiaro Kristin Fontichiaro teaches at the University of Michigan School of Information. Her work focuses on how we can facilitate robust, rich, and engaging learning in formal and informal settings. She has written several books on teaching, learning, and digital and information literacies for K-8 readers, educators, and librarians. Visit her online at http://www.fontichiaro.com/ Michelle Fitzgerald Michelle is Librarian at the International School of Asia, Karuizawa in Japan. Michelle has taught and served as Head Librarian in schools in Turkey, Zambia, China, and Japan and is focused on information literacy and technology. She has a background in business, systems analysis, and process redesign, and many of the skills learned in business have helped her to approach her teaching and the role of librarian from a different perspective. She is passionate about teaching students to be independent critical thinkers who are able to quickly find and evaluate information. Jen Gaspar-Santos Jennifer brings over ten years of experience working in educational technology in independent schools. Prior to coming to Castilleja, she led the Technology program at St. Matthew's Episcopal Day School (a PreK- 8th Grade independent school in San Mateo) serving as both faculty and Academic Technology Coordinator. She led Technology Day for CAIS educators in 2012. She has presented on the SAMR Model and transformative technologies at both the Head Royce School for CAIS and at the NCGS (National Coalition of Girls' School) conference in Philadelphia 2014. She is eager to explore the transformative ways technology impacts learning at Castilleja. In her spare time, she loves trying new restaurants with her husband, JC, and playing with her two kids. Vicki Gruzynski Vicki Gruzynski is the Education Librarian at University of Colorado Boulder. Her professional activities and interests include information literacy, high school to college transitions, and outreach to under-served populations. Nicole Hunter Nicole Hunter is librarian at San Francisco University High School. She is passionate about research and teaching students how to assess sources in the ever widening and deepening sea of information. Emily Jones Emily earned her MLIS at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2002. She is currently the Library/Media Department Head at a P-12 Episcopal school in Minneapolis, where she work with all divisions but primarily teaches in the Lower School. Sara Kelley-Mudie Sara is the Upper School Librarian and Instructional Technologist at Hawken School in Ohio. She has an MLIS from Kent State (2007) and an MEd from Teachers College, Columbia (2014), and was selected as one of the American Library Association's Emerging Leaders in 2011. Sara is passionate about working with students and teachers to become independent learners with the confidence and skill to navigate an ever-changing world of information and knowledge. Robyn Martin
Having been a librarian for over 30 years, I'm currently the Director of Libraries/Upper School Librarian at The Lovett School in Atlanta, Georgia. For some reason, I seem to gravitate towards places that begin and end with A. I've lived in Australia, Alaska, and now Atlanta. Of course, there have been other places, too. Cape May (NJ), Cleveland, DC and Ann Arbor (which almost fits the A-A, right?), to name a few. I started my career in Florida, in a public library system (1983), and switched to schools in 1997. My husband is also a school librarian - it was fate! Karen Morgenstern Karen Morgenstern is the Library Specialist and Teacher Librarian at Brawerman Elementary School in West Los Angeles. She loves to design information literacy projects that incorporate her students’ own interests. Her research interests include K-8 information seeking behavior and student preferences of print vs. digital text. She spent many years working in film production in Hollywood before becoming an educator. Passionate about school librarian advocacy, she recently produced the short video “Does Your School Have a Teacher Librarian?” for the California School Library Association. Katrina Nye Katrina Nye has been the Lower School librarian at The Harker School for three years, where she has developed and modified the new library curriculum for the third and fourth grades. She is also a member of APALA and has served on the literature awards committee for the children’s and picture book categories. Jeanie Phillips Jeanie Phillips is a librarian in Chester, Vermont. A trained collaborative practices facilitator and affiliate of the School Reform Initiative, she believes in the power of collaboration to foster deep learning. As a 2014/2015 Rowland Fellow, Jeanie is designing opportunities to increase student engagement and personalize learning in her library learning commons and in her school. She also teaches instructional design for library media centers in the University of Vermont School Library Media Studies program. Mary Ann Scheuer Mary Ann Scheuer divides her time between district level teacher-librarian elementary school libraries in Berkeley Unified School District, and the site level librarian at Emerson Elementary School. She is passionate about connecting children with books that make them excited to read, and helping parents and teachers foster this love of reading. She is serving as the author events co-chair for the 2015 AASL National Conference, and is a member of the AASL Best Apps for Teaching and Learning Committee. She actively shares her book recommendations on her blog, greatkidbooks.blogspot.com Annie Schutte Annie Schutte is the Director of Libraries & Center for Inquiry at the Maret School, a co-educational, K-12 day school in Washington, DC. Jole Seroff Jole Seroff is Director of Library and Information Services at Castilleja School, an independent school for girls in grades 6-12 in Palo Alto, CA. This is her 10th year as a school librarian. She began her career in large, urban public schools in Memphis, TN. Her passions include creating a community of avid readers, defending intellectual freedom, and promoting active reflection on the role of information and technology in our lives. Visit her online at library.castilleja.org. Caroline Sinkinson Caroline Sinkinson is Assistant Professor in the University Libraries Arts & Humanities Department. She coordinates library teaching and learning programs and facilitates campus discussions and collaborations. Her research agenda centers on Information Literacies, teaching and learning technologies, and library instruction. Susan Smith Susan Smith is the Library Director at The Harker School, a PS-12 private school in San Jose, CA. With four campuses and eight professional librarians, Harker has one of the largest independent school library
programs in the Western U.S. Her chapter “Professional Learning Communities in an Information Literacy Odyssey” is featured in Growing Schools: Librarians as Professional Developers; ABC-Clio, 2012. She is a frequent speaker on information literacy curriculum and instruction at regional and Connie Williams Past president of California School Library Association, co-developer of 2.0 tutorials for librarians and classroom teachers, author of “They call it Learning” in “Growing Schools: librarians as Professional Developers”, author of articles in LMC, KQ and other periodicals, GODORT Government Information for Children (GIC) committee co-chair.