Best Practic es in School Libr aries
Kahoa 4 th G rade Collaborativ e Project
Introducing……. Liz Wysong Hoffart
þ 2nd year in the Kahoa
Elementary Library as the School Librarian þ Taught 3rd grade at Kahoa Elementary for 13 years. þ Avid reader and life-‐long learner.
þ Working on creating collaborative relationships with all of the classroom and specialist teachers in the building.
Library Mission Statement: To create and empower…. enthusiastic readers; critical thinkers; students with the skills to locate, use, and evaluate information both in print and digital format; inspire a passion for knowledge and research; support the educational objectives of the school curriculum through collaboration with teachers and school personnel.
Kahoa Elementary School Kahoa’s Mission is to foster academic excellence for all students in a safe and caring environment.
570 Students 11% Minority 5% Gifted 10% Special Education 4% Mobility K-‐5th Grade
20% Free/Reduced Lunch Eligible Middle Class Located in NE Part of Lincoln Growing!
Stats taken from: School pro\ile /school snapshot brochure: http://www.lps.org/about/pro\iles/2014-‐15/kah.pdf
Collaboration at it’s Finest! Individual Teacher’s Ideas
+
Models collaboration for Students too!
Time to Work Together
=
Best Learning Opportunity For Students
Interviews with the 4th Grade Teachers about Collaboration Ashley Reub Stacey Meier Carie Miller
27 Students 1 Sped. Ed. Student 5 Gifted Students 2 Minority Students Taught for 1 ½ years
24 Students 0 Sped. Ed. Students 8 Gifted Students 2 Minority Students Taught for 22 years
Click pictures for video
25 Students 3 Sped. Ed. Students 4 Gifted Students 1 Minority Students Taught for 16 years
Step #1:
Colleague approached me about creating a plan to help students with their upcoming biography research and to tie it into the reading unit that was just completed on inventions.
Step #2:
I reviewed the recent reading unit material, the upcoming writing unit, library standards and ISTE standards to \ind similarities and objectives that could be combined for the unit.
Step #7:
Assess outcomes of the lesson and collaborative process. Readjust for next time.
Step #6:
Planning and Collaboration Process
Co-‐taught the lessons to the students. Both teachers actively engage with the students. Classroom teacher brings the background information from reading curriculum previously taught and previews upcoming writing unit, and librarian adds new information and technology resources for the lesson. Both teachers evaluate the lesson for learning outcomes.
Step #3:
I had frequent conversations with the teachers while planning the unit, on possible formats for the unit and skill de\icits from previous years.
Step #4:
Created an outline and preliminary sequence of learning activities and reviewed it with the 4th grade team.
Step #5:
Changed the plan and focus with input from the team. Wrote lesson plan and created and gathered materials for the lessons.
Standards Galore!
LPS: 4th Grade Library Power Standard: Students will demonstrate independence when combining previously learned skills to locate, select, and take notes for an inquiry-‐based project using a variety of sources to be evaluated according to established criteria.
Goals
NE Language Arts Standards:
LA 4.1.4.b Demonstrate ethical use of information and copyright guidelines by appropriately quoting or paraphrasing from a text and citing the sources using available resources. LA 4.2.2.c Conduct and publish research projects to answer questions or solve problems using multiple resources to support theses. LA 4.3.3.e Collaboratively converse with peers and adults on grade-‐ appropriate topics and texts, building on others’ ideas to clearly express one’s own views while respecting diverse perspectives. Language Arts Standards taken from : http://www.education.ne.gov/AcademicStandards/index.html -‐ LanguageArtsStandards
1.1.6 Read, view, and listen for information presented in any format In order to make inferences and gather meaning. 1.1.9 Collaborate with others to broaden and deepen understanding. 2.1.4 Use technology and other information tools to analyze and organize Information.
International Society for Technology in Education Standards (ISTE):
3. Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information. 3.c. Evaluate and select information sources and digital tools based on the appropriateness to speci\ic tasks. Standards Taken from: http://www.iste.org/standards/iste-‐standards/standards-‐for-‐students
More
Standards Taken fromhttp://www.ala.org/aasl/standards-‐guidelines/learning-‐standards
Standards
Objectives
American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Standards for 21st – Century Learners:
n o s s Le d n a n g i s De s e i g e t a r St
Essential Question: How can Inventions Solve Problems? How can Inventors Change the World? Students watched and discussed current inventions and how these inventions have solved “problems” in our world. Whole Group Instruction
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVl86GUaWZM
Print Resources
Digital Resources
Whole Group Instruction and Guided Instruction modeling
Students were taught How to use a print version of an encyclopedia and an on-‐line version. Students were taught how to use guide words for the print resource, and key words for the digital resources. Students were given a choice of which resource they would like to use.
Collaborative groups working together
Special Accommodations Students worked with a partner with varying Abilities helping so they could help each other. Material was presented in both visually and Auditory modalities. Multiple adults were available to help Struggling students. On-‐line resources could be read to the Students through features in the Database.
During whole group instruction, informal assessments were given through questioning techniques. During partner work, students completed a form and it was discussed during the \inal whole group wrap up session.
Formal and Informal Evaluation
Re\lection on a job WELL Done! This particular lesson was about an hour long. To give every student enough time, I would have liked to extend the time to about 1 ½ hours. Each partner group was given a name of an inventor to research, some of the inventors were not as exciting as others. I would have liked to have more up to date print Encyclopedias available so the inventors could have been from the last couple of decades. As we become more comfortable collaborating together I think the co-‐teaching aspect will increase, and the quality of the interjections will improve. Sometimes it felt like I was doing all of the teaching, so I think we could have assigned components to really co-‐teach together. The classroom teacher could have brought in more background information into the lesson to tie the new material to the already known material. The students seemed very engaged in the inquiry process and working with their partners. A few of the students used their inventor that they researched as their biography topic.