Digging Deeper into Reference Materials

As LIBE 467 comes to a close, my learning about reference materials has increased exponentially throughout the course.  There are so many aspects of reference materials which I did not know about.  I also learned how reference materials and services apply to learning in the Learning Commons.  When I look back on my own years of schooling in elementary and secondary school, the main reference material that was used was the encyclopedia.  As I entered university and was required to do more research, that is when I was exposed to more databases and periodicals.  I look at my first experiences at the university library and feeling completely overwhelmed of not knowing where to start or even who to ask.  Thinking back to that time, makes me realize even more the importance of having teacher librarians in elementary and secondary schools to help students develop the skills and confidence to effectively navigate the reference materials available.  Throughout university, the internet started to emerge as an additional resource for students to use.  Our students now have to have even more advanced skills to navigate the endless amount of resources at their fingertips.  

Throughout this blog post, I will reflect and share some of reference materials which I tried to dig deeper into and how they may apply to my specific school situation.  I will also share some reflections on what I learned and want to learn more about. 

I had never heard of OER Commons before this course.  The idea of a free online library of educational materials for teachers sounded very appealing.  Unfortunately after just a few basic searches, I became disappointed. I went under the STEM resources and went to look for different STEM text sets. The most recent searches that came up were dated 2012 and 2013.  Although the resources were about Building Text Sets , I find this very old and am probably more likely to find better text sets and information regarding curating text sets through reading popular blog posts or even through Twitter or Pinterest. 

Maybe I do not fully understand the possibilities of the OER Commons and this is an area I need to explore further.  if any of my readers have any additional suggestions, I would greatly appreciate it.  Additionally, I found the same with Listservs.  In a previous course, I had to take information found from a Listserv and post it.  The Listserv did not seem very well used, difficult to navigate and was not updated often.  Again, I wonder if individuals are looking elsewhere to obtain the information such as more common platforms like Facebook Groups, Twitter, Pinterest and blog posts.  

I spent some time looking at The Children's Literature Web Guide.  There is some great information in some areas such as Authors on the Web, but again you can tell this site is older and not updated regularly.  

The Deep and Dark web are areas I had never really been exposed to or thought about until this course.  I feel like I have a better understanding thanks to the information shared on Dark Web News.  I found the article Deep Web: What is it and how to access it?  The Ultimate Guide  very beneficial in helping me learn more.  I do wonder how best to explain this information to elementary students or even if it is necessary.  Maybe it is something to explore with upper division two students.  This is an area which I feel requires more reflection on my part. 

Being a grade one teacher in the classroom for many years, I was exposed to some databases, online encyclopedias and reference materials which were specific to that grade level through our Online Reference Centre on the Learn Alberta site.  However, being in a Teacher Librarian position this year has expanded my use of this site and my experiences in using databases to become more familiar in what is available for our students.  In Alberta, the Online Reference Centre is where databases are accessed for all schools.  After speaking with Aaron our course instructor during one of our hangouts, he suggested that some schools supplement these types of features by purchasing a specific school license.  I found this very intriguing as I had never thought about doing this before.  Since a grade group at my school was looking at learning more about biographies, I decided to look into the Gale - Biography in Context.  I was able to get a free 30 day trial.  Although there is a lot of information on this site and seems to be kept very current in biography content, it was not a good fit for our elementary students.  The reading level was too high as well as it does not offer the ability to read it to them.  I would recommend it for junior high or older. 

A reference resource recommended throughout this course was Culture Grams.  This resource is available through our Online Reference Centre and I have shared this with a few classes within my school.  A feature which I really appreciate on this database is the Kids Edition.  The Kids Edition reads to the student.  As mentioned earlier, this is often a deciding factor in trying to convince a teacher in my building to use the resource.  

An aspect of databases which I never considered until this course was looking into what was offered from my public library.  In Strathcona County all residents can get a library card for free.  This is a great way for students to access additional databases.  I will consider highlighting Strathcona County Library's features more in the future.  On the public library page, they have a complete section devoted to research.  This section has online journals, databases and encyclopedias.  When I narrowed the search to just Kids, the available choices were limited but it did however offer some which we do not have at school that many students might find beneficial.  My personal favourite was World Book Kids.

An area from this course which I feel I have focused on more than any other area since taking over as Teacher Librarian, is having my students use the school library catalog.  A feature discussed in this course is the ability for students to use the school library catalog as a starting point for bibliographies.  Prior to me taking on this new role, students at my school had never logged into the school library catalog or even knew the features and possibilities.  I have worked hard with each grade level to introduce them to the school library catalog and how to use the information available to support their learning.  I have even done a Breakout EDU with classes focused on them using the school library catalog to solve various challenges.  

Atlases were an area of interest to me and I explored this in Assignment 1.  However, I think Google Earth has an abundance of possibilities which are not being used effectively by many teachers and teacher librarians.  Five years ago, I attended a Google Summit session on Google Earth and I left the session in 'aw' with the information available on one site.  Since then, Google just continues to improve its features.  Most recently, Google released, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? Although this is in its infancy stages, I think the concept and ideas gets to the heart of Riedling (2013) saying how stimulating geographic materials are for the imaginative mind (p. 84).  I would like to explore more lessons with my students using Google Earth to share with them the capabilities.  

This course has opened my eyes on the vastness of reference services and materials available for the Library Learning Commons.  Although I have learned about many different services and materials, I feel like I have really only scratched the surface on what is out there.  There seems to be an abundance and that is the most difficult part in narrowing down what to offer to students in a way to not overwhelm them.  Even though there is an abundance, I do feel there are limited reference materials available for elementary students.  From Riedling (2013) many factors have to be considered when evaluating a resource - this includes the format, ease of use and accessibility.  Many resources available are too difficult for my audience which hinders their ease of use and accessibility.  As I prepare for Assignment 3 and continue building our school's reference collection this will be something I will continue to keep at the forefront of my mind.  I will continue to look at ways to try out different reference materials before purchasing by asking for free trials or previews.  I hope to also continue to utilize social media and Facebook groups to ask others for recommendations before purchasing.  Digging deeper into reference materials has opened my eyes to the possibilities in the Library Learning Commons. 


References:

Cuthrell, S. Deep Web What is it & how to access it (Ultimate Guide 2019). Retrieved from https://darkwebnews.com/deep-web/

Google Earth. (2019). Where on Google Earth is Carmen Sandiego? [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJRMplV9SpA

Google for Education. (2018). EDU in 90: google Earth in the Classroom [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWq8nhocU5M

Google for Education. (2019). EDU in 90: Innovate with Google Earth [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrJy8ectHNc

Riedling, A., Shake, L., & Houston, C. (2013).  Reference skills for the school librarian(3rd ed.).  Santa Barbara, California: Linworth, an imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC. 

Facilitating Change is a Whole School Effort

Our vision for our Library Learning Commons has been slowly evolving over the past year and a half with the implementation of a Library Learning Commons Leadership Team.   Last year, our Library Learning Commons team met monthly to discuss moving our Learning Commons further along the growth continuum using the Leading Learning (2014) document to guide our practice.  This Leadership Team was created with the belief that “participants supporting each other and building on each other’s thoughts and ideas push further than each team member could individually” (Leading Learning, 2004, p. 4).  We knew as a group we could come up with ideas, build learning communities and find better ways to support literacy in our school. As part of the process our team met to discuss various things such as space/facilities as we prepare for our replacement school, resources that needed weeding or acquired, literacy events to be promoted within the school, etc.  The reason I am sharing this process is that developing a Library Learning Commons committee helped to transform our Library Learning Commons and has also helped to create a more collaborative approach. Our learning commons space before our Library Learning Commons team was seen as just a place to house books and very little interaction with staff and students.  This year, my administration added 0.5 FTE of a Teacher Librarian which has also increased our Library Learning Commons usage. This has also allowed for opportunities for our teachers to feel comfortable in asking for help, guidance, collaboration and support in changing behaviour and in identifying strategies to support change.

Without the above leg work taking place within our school, the following approaches in supporting the following teachers would not be successful.  As a school, we have worked hard to develop a culture of mutual respect, risk-taking and collaboration.

Fictional Teacher 1 (Jane):

Jane is a first year teacher.  She is currently teaching Grade One.  Since Jane is a recent graduate, she is aware of emerging technologies and loves to integrate technology into many of her lessons.  She is Google Educator Level 1 certified. She is using many of the G Suite for Education features in her lessons.  She also incorporates the use of Seesaw as a platform with her students to incorporate technology, use as a digital portfolio as well as a way to communicate with parents.  Although Jane is very aware of emerging technologies and has recent knowledge on best practices, she is unaware of some of the resources available within a school to support her practice.  Jane spends many hours creating effective lessons. She is able to easily move through the SAMR model. However, when reviewing the Stages of Concern in the Concerns-Based Adoption Model she has little to no “Awareness” or “Information” when it comes to understanding how to leverage the resources and reference materials available in the Library Learning Commons (Huang, n.d).

Fictional Teacher 2 (Joe):

Joe is a veteran substitute teacher.  He enjoys being a substitute teacher and will often accept temporary contracts as well throughout our district.  Most recently, Joe accepted a temporary contract in our grade 3 classroom as the previous teacher has gone on mat leave.  Although Joe is very eager to engage students in a variety of ways he lacks the overall basic knowledge of emerging technologies currently available in our school.  Since he has held many different temporary contracts in various schools, he is aware of many different school processes but has limited training in many different areas due to not being with a school for an extensive period of time.  Joe would like to receive more training in a variety of areas, and learn more about ways to access resources in the classroom. Joe does not know very much about G Suite for Education and is still at the substitution level for most areas in the SAMR model.   

Since both teachers have very similar beginning needs, I would like to meet with them together to form a small PLC.  This will allow them to develop a relationship and support each other as well as reduce the time necessary to meet to show some basic steps in finding resources within the Learning Commons.  My hope is they will also begin to rely on each other as well for support. Jane is very knowledgeable with technology whereas Joe requires some guidance. Joe being a veteran teacher has many years experience dealing with classroom and school situations which can be beneficial to Jane.  The initial meeting will be to show both teachers how to use Destiny. I will show them how to log into their own Destiny account and how to search our school catalog. From here they will be able to search the catalog on their own in their free time focusing on specific areas related to the particular outcomes of the their respective program of studies.  In this initial meeting, I will explain how our reference section in very small since many of our resources have just been integrated into our non-fiction section. I will also show both teachers how to use the Online Reference Centre through Learn Alberta.

After this initial meeting, I will meet with them individually to discuss their specific learning outcomes and how to use the Online Reference Centre with their students.

Fictitious Teacher 1: Jane

Curricular Outcome to be Addressed:

Grade One Topic: Needs of Animals and Plants

General Learner Expectations

Students will describe some common living things, and identify needs of those living things.

(Alberta Education, 1996, p.9)

After our initial meeting and providing Jane an opportunity to do some of her own exploring through Destiny and the Online Reference Centre, I will also pull a text set of materials on the  Needs of Animals and Plants. I will also meet with her to show her some specific databases in the Online Reference Centre which target the curricular outcomes.

Since teaching Grade One students about the Online Reference Centre and the features can be overwhelming in the beginning, I will offer to co-teach the lesson with her.  I will ask for the Learn Alberta link to be placed in the student’s Google Classroom where they can easily access it. From here, Jane will be able to show the students the features in the ORC and I will be in the classroom to help support students.  It is important to introduce our youngest students to the ORC as early as possible so they learn to become proficient with the ORC and know that this is a place to support their research and inquiry. Jane is very comfortable in using technology, so she just needs some support to help leverage her skills and engage her students in using the reference materials available in the Library Learning Commons.  The two main databases we will be showing the students are Pebble Go Animal.  Pebble Go Animal allows the students to learn about various animals with tabs specifically related to topics such as body, habitat and food.  The other database the students will be able to explore is Power Knowledge Life Science.  This database has many different animals to explore based on classifications.  Both of these databases read aloud to the students. In addition to these two databases, students will also have access to the various non-fiction books chosen from the Library Learning Commons.  

After discussions with Jane, she will have her students find three facts about a certain animal which they can share through Seesaw with their families in any way they choose.  The child may choose to do a video, draw pictures or write text.

Fictitious Teacher 2: Joe

Curricular Outcome to be Addressed:

Grade Three Topic: Communities in the World

General Outcome Expectations:

Students will demonstrate an understanding and appreciation of how geographic, social, cultural and linguistic factors affect quality of life in communities in India, Tunisia, Ukraine and Peru.

(Alberta Education, 2005, p.37)

Joe is currently looking for reference materials to help support the grade three social studies curriculum.  When doing a quick search of our reference material section on the four countries to be studied, we have very limited resources in this area.  Mostly due to the fact that our reference section is out of date with regards to Atlases, Maps and other geographical resources. We have some non-fiction resources on these four countries which can be pulled to help support students in their inquiries.  The best way to support the teacher and students in learning more about these communities is through a few Online Reference Centre databases. Similar to Fictitious Teacher Jane, I would also suggest to Joe some possible co-teaching in showing the students these online databases.  This will also allow me the opportunity to introduce how to do citations with this group of Grade Three students as well. I might choose to show the following video with them.

Also to help move Joe along the SAMR model, I would suggest that students share their findings through a shared Google Slide. Each student could be a given a specific topic to research such a food, holidays, geographical location, etc. Each student would complete their slide but at the end of the project the group would have a finished project addressing all of the areas. This is similar to a Jigsaw model.

Through collaboration with the teacher, I would introduce the following databases to him and his students.  ProQuest Culture Gram database is available in our Online Reference Centre.  There are many tabs to explore within each Culture Gram with tabs related to people and places, history, lifestyle, & society.  The benefits of using this database to support inquiry into the countries noted above is the easy accessibility of using the tabs.  The database also reads the text so this helps to support inquiry without having to worry about reading ability. Scholastic Go!  is the other reference resource available in the Online Reference Centre which I would suggest Joe use to support student inquiry.  

As always, one of the biggest limitations and hurdles in assisting teachers in addressing their usage of references is collaborative time.  It is difficult to find the time to collaborate to show reference materials or to even find time to discuss how to use reference materials in the classroom.  In an effort to combat some of the time constraints, I have asked for time during staff meetings to share various library services and resources. Although this time is limited to just 5-10 minutes it might move some individuals along the CBAM Model from Awareness to Information to Personal.  This short time frame might also spark a thought or idea in individuals that they might want to explore further and then ask for my services. Another innovative way to try and assist teachers in addressing reference materials is through our school's weekly updates. In our school, we have a weekly update posted in our school’s own Google Classroom.  This is way to communicate with staff about the upcoming week’s events, deadlines, etc. However, the Learning Commons has also been given a section in this weekly. This is a simple way to highlight new resources in the Library Learning Commons, also to remind staff about reference services which are available in the Library Learning Commons.

The examples and ideas presented above from working with Jane and Joe are just a few ways to approach educators in a school and help move them into higher level technology integration. These simple approaches will hopefully help them learn to apply additional features in their classroom.  Ultimately, the main goal in the plan will be to transform practice and increase student learning.

References

Canadian Library Association. (2014). Leading Learning. Ottawa.

Common Sense Education. (2016). What is the SAMR model? [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9b5yvgKQdqE

Huang, P. (n.d). Stages of Concern - Concerns-Based Adoption Model. Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/site/ch7cbam/home/stages-of-concern

OSLIS Secondary Videos. (2016). Why You Need to Cite Sources [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=20&v=4v9mRHivjX4

Science. (1996). Retrieved from https://education.alberta.ca/media/159711/elemsci.pdf

Social Studies Kindergarten to Grade 12. (2005). Retrieved from https://education.alberta.ca/media/159594/program-of-studies-k-3.pdf