Scotia-Glenville CSD Board of Education Written Report Library Media Department K-12

Transcription

1 Scotia-Glenville CSD Board of Education Written Report Library Media Department K Report provided by: Dr. Maureen Long, Director of Curriculum and Instruction & Liz Ryan, Interim Head Librarian Page 1 of 8

2 Scotia-Glenville Library Media Program Course for Academic Success Scotia-Glenville Library Media Program Description Library Media Specialists (LMSs) teach all students in our school district (K-12) and select instructional resources (print, audiovisual, and online formats) for all grade levels and disciplines. The LMS, in collaboration with classroom teachers, specialists, and instructional staff, facilitates academic and recreational reading, the development of the research process and presentation skills integrating the use of technology, and media arts/video production. Scotia-Glenville LMSs also network with leaders in the school community and local and global institutions to provide resources for teaching and learning. Scotia-Glenville Library Media Program Vision Within individual school communities, LMSs collaborate with teachers and staff, consult with administrators, and instruct students to prepare them to be lifelong learners. Students engage in instructional activities that prepare them for assessments and future careers. LMSs are committed to working with all stakeholders to maintain a course focused on the academic achievement of students. In addition to teaching students, LMSs also guide technology usage and digital content creation, differentiate instruction through selection of new resources, and provide high-quality professional development in our district and Capital Region through conference presentations and Model Schools courses. LMSs in Scotia-Glenville think that the school library should center as the hub of the school community. Library teachers and classroom teachers co-plan and co-teach activities that are integral to the intellectual and social development of all learners. Carefully selected and updated resources support the curriculum and developmental interests and needs of all students. Our libraries circulate large numbers of books every year. In , approximately 56,000 resources were borrowed from our libraries by students and staff. Our vision is to provide flexible and dynamic schedules and spaces that allow for a variety of rich experiences. Students will grow to value the library information technology center as a place for independent discovery. Scotia-Glenville Library Media Program Curriculum Guide Library media instruction is an essential part of the education of Scotia-Glenville students. All curricular areas are dependent upon the LMSs and the library resources for the support necessary to meet many outcomes. The LMSs design instructional experiences based on the information in the following documents: Scotia-Glenville Grade Level Expectations for Library Media The Empire Information Fluency Continuum, a comprehensive curriculum adopted by our BOCES School Library System and written by national experts from the New York City School District, provides a framework for the instructional aspects of our library program. The framework is based on three standards that form the basis for the skills and strategies that are essential for students to become independent readers and learners. Benchmark skills for grades K-12 assessments begin on page 44 at the link below. 51E28D34BF4F/0/InformationFluencyContinuum.pdf Common Core Learning Standards Page 2 of 8

3 Scotia-Glenville Library Media Department Successes for the School Year K-12 Library Media Department Curriculum Celebrations: Each LMS designs and maintains a library Web site that continues to be a primary resource for SGCSD students and staff research. Students access LMC resources from home through the web 24-hours a day, 7 days a week. Senior High School LMC Middle School LMC Elementary Schools LMC LMSs increased utilization of electronic resources by fully implementing Overdrive, a web based collection of provide fiction and nonfiction e-readers downloadable to mobile devices for K-12. ( 0CE5AE02CEC6/10/1344/en/Default.htm) LMSs actively serve on district and state-wide committees including various district curriculum review committees, Professional Development Committee, district-wide Technology Committee, and other professional organization committees. LMSs provide leadership for the selection of resources that meet the Common Core Learning Standards and the development of resources for the CCS across subject areas. This fall we also worked with Lexile.com, a company that provides a database of Lexile levels, to upload their database of Lexile levels into our library automation system. Students and staff may now search the automation system by Lexile level and obtain more robust results. LMSs regularly provide leadership in many aspects of technology integration across the district and continue to provide computer triage and computer lab support. LMSs are ambassadors to supporting a wide variety of resources books, magazines, newspapers, research and reference sources provided by the state's NOVEL (New York Online Virtual Electronic Library) Program, the Capital Region BOCES School Library system, and our school district. With the guidance of the LMS and support from administrators and parents, students in grade 6 Scotia Scholars and iopal students in grades 3-5 utilize an online communication tool called Edmodo to foster collaboration, connection, and creative space in a closed, secure online environment. In Edmodo students experience an online classroom that compliments the physical learning space while creating knowledgebuilding communities. ( The LMS in each school increased student learning by teaching information skills linked to curricular units. Students are involved in a number of library-based literacy initiatives including summer reading programs. A summer reading program for students in grades 4-6 was created from a state grant awarded to Nancy Gifford from Schenectady Public Library and facilitated by Deb Byrne, GD LMS. Using Edmodo, students discussed reading experiences with guidance from the grant recipients. Over 40 Scotia students participated actively in this literary program that fostered connections between students and books. LMSs currently design and deliver high-quality professional development workshops in our district and the Capital Region BOCES through conference presentations and Model Schools courses in both literature and technology topics. Documents relative to professional development and in-service opportunities spearheaded by Scotia-Glenville LMS are detailed below. Page 3 of 8

4 Professional Development Opportunities Taught by Scotia-Glenville LMSs: Jan Tunison, Senior High School Library Media Specialist Technology Playground K Are you ready to run with a tech idea but need coaching on tech tools to fulfill the idea, how to design the experience, and ways to successfully implement and/or assess? Join us for a series of playground and work sessions with an experienced tech coach. Several sessions will be done online and others will be done face to face with the tech coach. Deb Collins, Middle School Library Media Specialist Technophobe or Technophile, either way come and join us for a series of 1-hour sessions of Tech Smackdown!. The nature of a Smackdown is to introduce one or two online tools per session and give participates time to just play and ask questions. We will start with programs that might be useful in the classroom or for your own organizational needs, such as Prezi, Animoto, Delicious, Pinterest, etc., but remaining sessions will rely heavily on the needs and interests of the group. So if you would like to increase your comfort or skills with some of the amazing free tools that are currently available consider joining us! Deb Byrne, GD Library Media Specialist Model Schools Webinars taught this year included: Windows into the Past: Using Primary Source Materials in the Classroom, Kick it Up a Notch! Digital Booktalk Strategies, The Interactive Classroom, Have I Caught Your Pinterest? Using Social Pinboards in the Classroom. Elementary Curriculum Highlights: Each elementary librarian maintains a web page for students, parents, and staff to access. Librarians worked over the summer to create one unified library page and one computer lab web page to document consistent resources for our students and staff. Elementary School LMC Computer Lab Web Page A presidential mock election was held at the SAC library media center (LMC) this year for all students with collaboration from Liz Ryan, SAC LMS, Colleen Carnevale, classroom teacher and Elle Taubner, teaching assistant. Students conducted research on national issues, read literature based on elections and visited the MS on Election Day to experience the voting process. Students discovered the joys of bee-produced static electricity with Deb Byrne, GD LMS. Grade 5 students at LN and GW used at the beginning of the year to set goals; grade 4 students wrote Halloween stories at LN by using Both of these experiences were taught by Tracy Bacher, LN and GW LMS. Sac Election Day Field Trip to MS Page 4 of 8 GD Students Discovered Static Electricity

5 LN and GW Students Wrote Goals using Middle School Curriculum Highlights: Grade 6 Scotia Scholars were given one piece of paper and 20 cm of tape from which they had to design a device that would deliver an egg from the top of a 12 foot step ladder to the ground without cracking the egg. Please click on the Animoto video produced by Deb Collins, MS LMS and student photographer, Tom Omicinski see what these students discovered. svzekgzita Grade 6 Scotia Scholars used Edmodo with Debbie Collins, MS LMS as a tool to share ideas related to time management. High School: In approximately 55,000 students used the HS LMC for independent use and co-teaching of lessons designed and implemented by the LMS and classroom teacher. College and career readiness provides a focus for our HS library program as we prepare students to participate in sustained reading and writing, independent thinking and critical nature, and capabilities to become content providers in a digital world. Inquiry forms the basis for our most effective lessons at the high school level. Examples of inquiry based instruction includes investigation of ways that a person may brand Page 5 of 8

6 him/herself in authentic situations and online (grade 9), creation of health related infographics (grade 10), research and written argument of a hero s qualities (grade 11), and analysis of government policies related to a topic that a student wishes to change (grade 12). Students commonly use a plethora of web 2.0 tools to collaborate, create, comment, and publish. The suite of tools features Google Docs/Drive, Prezi, Voicethread, Wikispaces, and other cloud based web sites. Jan Tunison, HS LMS, also facilitates instructional technology progress at the district level. In the technology reorganization for this year, she works with district IT staff to plan and implement software and hardware for the instructional program, meets with the elementary technology specialists, serves as liaison to the Model Schools Program facilitated by BOCES, and works with Dr. Long on professional development opportunities related to instructional technology. Collage of HS photos pictured above were taken by Joanne Ruan, student photographer. Significant Changes in Scotia-Glenville Library Media Program for the K-12: APPR (Annual Professional Performance Review) requires elementary school LMSs to test students growth. This year our LMSs pre-tested grades 1, 3 and 4 as required by state law described in this document. Although this testing is not required at the MS and HS library program, Jan Tunison, HS LMS, eagerly piloted the pre-testing process for grade 9 in collaboration with English Teacher, Kelly Neiderer, and the support of Dr. Long and Peter Bednarek. This nonrequired experience will begin to provide valuable data and perspective on how this new system can work to improve student learning going forward. Staffing and Library Schedules Due to staff reductions, LMSs are not currently open 100% for student use at the Middle School and all four elementary schools. Loss of staff for the academic year (one elementary LMS and one MS LMC teaching assistant) equated to a reduction in instructional time, co-teaching opportunity for inquirybased instruction, resource/facility availability, and technology leadership. Below is a screencast link with audio titled, What to Expect from Your Library Media Specialist in : A Guide for Students, Teachers, Parents, and Administrators. This document was shared at elementary building faculty meetings in September to communicate staffing changes. This detailed document along with current K-12 library schedules that reflect these reductions are attached to the end of this report. The role of technology in instruction and information literacy continues to change and with these changes the LMSs continue to expand their roles. This natural evolution occurs as technology and information literacy become more important in our society. The reduction in computer lab teaching assistants (two full time to half time with further reductions to zero) requires the LMS to provide technology triage before and after school hours with instructional time impacted during the school day due to the wait time. Elementary: Instruction remains the focus of our elementary LMSs. Tracy Bacher, Deb Byrne and Liz Ryan, our elementary LMSs, develop, implement, and assess information, reading, visual, and digital literacies. Our preferred method of instruction, based on the results of national studies, is inquiry-based learning. Through inquiry, students become active learners rather than passive researchers through a carefully scaffolded process. Page 6 of 8

7 Additionally, the students morph from information consumers to product generators. The inquiry-based learning documented in the National Common Core Learning Standards is currently the most successful in the iopal program for advanced learners in grades 3-5 rather than the classes taught in isolation of the classroom curriculum on a weekly basis. The tight schedules and reduction of one LMS impacted independent book selection opportunities and implementation of the Daily Five. As a result of teacher and parent requests, we are working with Dr. Long and building administrators to increase book selection opportunities to our students outside of the fixed library schedule by seeking time from other teaching assistant s schedules. Our elementary LMSs continue to manage in some cases more than one facility and library collections without the support of library clerks and often without parent volunteers. In the shift in the economy, volunteerism has reached a low point in our department. The reduction in computer lab teaching assistants also requires the LMS to provide student technology opportunities and triage. After a successful first year, the elementary LMSs responded positively to Superintendent Swartz's challenge of continuing for the second year of an inquiry-based program for advanced learners in grades 3-5 (iopal). LMSs assuming sole responsibility for grade 3-5 programming. iopal program curriculum was updated this summer and includes a new web site for students to use across all elementary buildings in the program. In addition, LMSs will soon begin to use a parent blog that can be found here We will continue to work with Dr. Long to find opportunity to assess the iopal students. Middle School: Debbie Collins, MS LMS, expends energy, enthusiasm, and expertise in providing high quality instruction to students in the areas of information, reading, visual, and digital literacies. She remains committed to inquiry-based instruction and will continue to work on consistency regarding LMC use with the reduction of a teacher aide. Students on specific teams use the LMC consistently and develop a refined set of literary skills while other students stagnate in this area. Deb Collins responded positively to the additional teaching responsibility for teaching grade 6 Scotia Scholars that currently services 17 students. During the second year in the newly designed instructional LMC space, student use of the LMC continues to grow. The space provides a warm, inviting, academic space for individual students and classes. Due to the movement of the MS Library Clerk to another district position in early September, a three month time period elapsed before the position was permanently filled. During this time, the MS LMC suffered the loss of a clerk, the reduction of a TA, and the part time reassignment of the MS Computer Lab TA to 504 accommodations. All of these staffing situations were detrimental to the instructional program of the school. High School: The LMS continues to work with building level Maintenance staff and district level Building and Grounds staff to track the physical leaks in the LMC ceiling. In over $3000 worth of art books and reference books were destroyed due to leakage. To date, three active leaks exist in the teaching area of the LMC. The reassignment of a teaching assistant to the HS LMC created the need for additional training. Previously, the LMC TA provided point of use advisement to students on research and technology projects. Training will continue to occur in the creation of web 2.0 tools, Microsoft Office Suite, and other forms of media. The movement and subsequent retirement of the HS Computer Lab TA also created additional technology responsibilities for the HS LMS. Computer triage in the classrooms, licensing issues, and participation in student problem solving issues related to technology were added to the LMSs job responsibilities, in addition to the technology triage performed in the HS LMC. Page 7 of 8

8 Areas of Focus for Library Media Department Improvements Our program continues to grow due to the dynamic LMSs in our department and administrative/board of Education support. The research cited in the Student Achievement Information Brief written by the New York Comprehensive Center, clearly connects the role of the LMSs to student achievement, curriculum development, and instruction. Through political and fiscal state support, effective school library programs can serve as consistent drivers for student achievement in times of constant change and churning educational reform. To read the comprehensive brief, visit: ( Future Considerations Today s LMS should function as a collaborative instructional partner by planning, teaching, and evaluating with fellow educators. Additionally, the LMS should also function as a teacher of information literacy skills by teaching students to access, evaluate, and use information in the context of their content area curriculum (AASL 1998). When LMSs fulfill these roles and provide leadership, student achievement increases according to research (Lance 2005). ( The direction provided by the Board of Education and district administration regarding the use of our LMSs exceptional expertise will continue to impact student achievement. The integrated library program philosophy requires an open schedule. Investigating the benefits of flexible and semi-flexible class scheduling for the elementary libraries might provide a significant increase in research opportunities for our K-5 students. This year the elementary LMS teaches each K-5 classroom once a week for 30-minutes. This fixed schedule provides no opportunity for the LMSs to collaborate or co-teach with classroom teachers or provide inquirybased research projects for our students. If library classes were flexibly scheduled throughout the year according to the curricular needs of our students, the LMS could co-teach and collaborate with classroom teachers more often and improve the quality of learning experiences. More information related to the benefits of a flexible library can be found here ( Page 8 of 8