Collaborate with Lisa Wilkins at DFMS

Lisa Wilkins has entered her 26th year (and final) in Lexington/Richland School District Five as a school librarian and has been working at Dutch Fork Middle School (DFMS) for most of her tenure. Prior to working in the school district, she worked as a reference librarian through the public library system and also worked in an early childhood education classroom. As I will be taking her position next year, I was most interested in how she encourages collaboration among students and colleagues. In our interview, we discussed many topics in relation to the following questions: 

• What are some examples of the ways in which you are implementing these competencies in your library program?

• What process do you follow to establish group norms and goals? How do you involve students in this process?

• How do you cultivate personal relationships with faculty and staff?

• What are some of the challenges that you face when trying to implement these competencies?

Lisa stressed the importance of staying up to date with the latest technology and research tools, as they are constantly evolving. Offering to help teachers use these tools with students or co-teach a class can promote collaboration with both the staff and students. Lisa often integrates collaboration in lessons, as students need to learn how to communicate knowledge collectively in order to achieve specific goals (i.e. a final project). Lisa works with the teachers to ensure the collaboration is going smoothly, with everyone contributing and fulfilling their assigned roles. 

When discussing collaborative efforts at DFMS, Lisa finds it to be more challenging in recent years for several reasons. First, middle school standards have become very demanding with strict pacing and guidelines. Many teachers feel they do not have enough time to complete a research project or longer writing assignment if they are to teach all of their standards by the end of the year. Also, Lisa mentioned students' lack of resilience when approaching a larger task or project seems to be a barrier for herself and teachers when attempting to plan a lesson or unit. Students have trouble completing even simple tasks. When given a larger amount of work, they often shut down and do not complete the assigned task. This makes teaching research and collaboration difficult. 

In the many years I worked with Lisa, I have found that she is kind, encouraging, and welcoming to all teachers and students. This makes her job as a collaborator easy, as she has built relationships and rapport with the staff and students of DFMS. As I move into her role next year, I hope to provide the same welcoming environment in the school library. In our interview, Lisa stated “it sometimes just takes one teacher to work with you. If you do a good job, word of mouth will open the doors to more collaboration.” I feel as if this should be my goal for next year. Rather than try to connect with every teacher, I would like to connect with one or two from each department in the hopes that it will open the door for more collaboration throughout the school.  

Include with Ellen Hinrichs at RSES

Ellen Hinrichs has been the librarian at River Springs Elementary School (RSES) since 2013. Prior to her job at RSES, she worked for Scholastic. When working with Ellen for my internship, I immediately noticed her displays contained many diverse titles. I was intrigued to find out more about how she implements the Include AASL standard. In our interview, we discussed many topics in relation to the following questions: 

• What are some of the resources in your library program that you are using to implement these competencies?

• How do you ensure that the library collection reflects the diverse global community? What criteria do you use for selection?

• What strategies do you use to celebrate the differences and similarities of your student population through library initiatives?

• Can you describe how you create flexible learning spaces in the library to accommodate various learning styles and needs?

Ellen uses a variety of resources and strategies to help all students during library lessons or when collaborating with teachers. She often uses BookFlix, which has many adaptable features including read alouds, vocabulary assistance, and activities to connect to the text being presented. Ellen also teaches research with websites such as PebbleGo because it has diverse topics, is specifically designed for an elementary reading level, and has a read aloud feature. During library lessons, Ellen checks for understanding by using “exit ticket” questions or playing games to reinforce skills learned. Ellen is welcoming, kind, and encouraging to students which motivates them to participate. 

When selecting books for the RSES collection, Ellen tries to reflect the diversity of the school’s student population. She uses the idea of “windows” and “mirrors” when selecting titles, attempting to balance what is popular with what will help students grow and learn. Ellen subscribes to Hornbook and School Library Journal, as she knows these reviews offer diverse titles. When assisting students in selecting books for check out, she often makes diverse recommendations that students will like based on their current interests. When browsing the fiction and nonfiction topics, students have much to choose from and rarely have trouble finding a book of interest. 

While I initially found the RSES collection to be diverse, there were some deficits that concerned me. For example, when I asked about LGBTQ+ titles, Ellen stated she has them available upon request, but they are not shelved. I found this surprising as there are many students and caregivers who could benefit from seeing these books on the shelves. Ellen also mentioned she did not have certain popular titles, such as the Hunger Games because she does not like the violence it promotes. While I understand age appropriateness is a factor, this type of self-censorship in the current political climate limits the books students will be able to check out. In our district, school librarians do not have a specific set of guidelines they need to follow when selecting books for a library collection. In some ways, this is great for those who want to promote a diverse collection without limitations. However, some interpret this differently and are intimidated by potential administration and caregiver scrutiny. I think it is important for students to have choice and to see themselves represented in the library. This is something I hope to achieve when developing my own library collection. 

Engage with Angie Thoele at CMS

Angie Thoele has been the librarian at Chapin Middle since the new building opened in 2015. She previously worked at what is now Chapin Intermediate School and Irmo Middle School, so she has spent her career as a District Five librarian. As I also work in a middle school, I know that we tend to focus on teaching digital citizenship, privacy practices, and fair use. Therefore, I created the following interview questions based on the Engage AASL standard: 

• Can you describe your approach to teaching students about ethical and legal information usage?

• How do you model and facilitate positive digital citizenship in your library?

• How do you handle challenges to library materials and can you provide an example of a situation you've faced?

• What are some of the challenges that you face when trying to implement these competencies?

Angie teaches the concepts of fair use and digital citizenship in tandem with collaborative lessons, rather than in isolation. She finds this challenging as students are familiar with the terms but not with the concepts in practice.  While the district has provided digital citizenship lessons for students in the past, students often fail to connect these lessons with everyday practices. This seems to widen the disconnect between digital literacy skills and content area knowledge. Angie is typically asked to collaborate with ELA teachers when doing research. She facilitates lessons having to do with citations and critically evaluating online resources. In the past, Angie has collaborated with departments, but most teach these skills in their own classrooms, rather than using the school librarian as a resource. 

Challenges of library materials used to be handled by school, but are now handled by the district. The policy has recently changed and does not require the challenger to read the book in question. The Chapin cluster of schools within the district often has more challenges or questions about curriculum, so Angie deals with questions about books frequently. During inventory, Angie said she’s noticed more controversial books just “disappear” from circulation. She always replaces them, but said that this indirect censorship of books has become more prominent in recent years. 

When talking with Angie about implementing this standard, I learned it is difficult to teach any type of lesson or standard when teachers are not willing to collaborate. Throughout the interview and visit, I had empathy for Angie’s situation, as it seems as if her skills as a librarian are not valued by her administration or staff. When a school librarian does not have support, it becomes difficult to teach the necessary skills students need in order to engage appropriately with online resources and implement effective research. I am fortunate to have connections with my current staff and a rapport with teachers from all departments. However, I am apprehensive about taking on the school librarian role and not being able to make those same connections necessary for collaboration. I need to show how to effectively integrate digital literacy skills in content area classes in a meaningful way. I will also need to be proactive in my approach and show how I can positively impact lessons and classroom learning. 

Inquiry with Ayanna Mayes at CHS

 Ayanna Mayes has been the school librarian at Chapin High School for the last three years, but has twelve years of school librarian experience that spans all grade levels, including elementary and middle school. As a high school librarian, I inferred Ayanna would utilize the Inquiry AASL standard frequently, as many of the high school and AP credit courses require research and inquiry based projects.  As predicted, Ayanna was a wealth of knowledge with regard to teaching research and inquiry. In our interview, we discussed many topics in relation to the following questions: 

• Can you provide an example of how you have collaborated with classroom teachers to integrate inquiry-based learning into their curriculum?
• What are some of the resources in your library program that you are using to implement these competencies?
• What are some of the challenges that you face when trying to implement these competencies?
• How do you engage in ongoing reflection and professional learning regarding the inquiry process and design thinking? What resources do you find most beneficial? 

Ayanna mostly collaborates with the English department, as they offer AP Seminar and AP Research. Freshmen are also required to participate in digital literacy lessons in their English classes.  Ayanna visits these classes right at the beginning of the year and teaches a form of the “Big 6” inquiry based learning process, as it aligns with the English and AP standards, as well as the AASL Inquiry standard.  She utilizes and facilitates the database resources the district and state provides, such as Discus. However, she realized as these AP classes are popular, she needed more options to offer and decided to purchase subscriptions to additional databases, such as Gale In Context and Gale Academic OneFile. Ayanna said that she approaches classroom lessons differently after participating in the district librarian’s book study regarding digital literacy and research. District librarians read Developing Digital Detectives and Deepening Digital Citizenship. Ayanna said that it really changed the way she approached teaching research and digital literacy.  The district provides continual PD on these subjects, so Ayanna feels more prepared to implement the AASL Inquiry standard with fidelity.  

Ayanna did mention the challenges she faced when presenting these lessons to the twenty-first century digital native. I loved the analogy she used when describing how students attempt to research a topic. She stated, “Google is now considered a verb” and as second nature as “blinking” for students. She can tell students about how to evaluate credible sources, but they are so inundated with information that it is difficult to teach them the patience and process of reliable research.  She shared a lesson with me where she uses John Green’s Crash Course episode, “Navigating Digital Information.” In this clip Green states, “Patience is a hard-earned skill for humans, especially when you’re really hungry.” I think this is a perfect way to describe students’ information overconsumption and how real inquiry requires purpose and diligence.   

When talking with Ayanna, I learned high school librarians face many of the same challenges as teachers do. The lack of time to collaborate with others is a commonality among all educators.  Ayanna said that the demands of AP classes and state standards have prevented her from planning with certain content areas, like science and social studies. While I think this also may be a challenge for me going forward, moving from teacher to school librarian might better equip me with the ability to work with reluctant teachers or those who have little time to plan.  I also know first-hand how students approach inquiry and will take this knowledge with me when creating lessons pertaining to research and digital literacy.  I feel inquiry is an essential part of all grade levels, but teachers also need to be “on board” with implementing these skills in their classroom.  If we continue to let students “Google” their way through school, we are doing them a disservice and under preparing them for lies beyond high school.