Learning for the Future

Learning for the Future Working Toward National Standards for School Libraries in Canada Paper Abstracts

Introduction Liz Kerr and Carol Koechlin

Part I: Student Needs

Confronting the ‘Crisis of Significance” in 21st Ray Doiron Century School Libraries Faculty of Education st University of Prince Edward Island The demands of life in the 21 century have 550 University Avenue evolved dramatically, giving rise to the need for a Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island complex set of interrelated and interdependent Canada C1A 4P3 [email protected] skills in order to cope with this complexity and to achieve success in life. Unfortunately, there is a widening gap between the world experienced and Marlene Asselin Department of Language and Literacy Education created by youth outside of school and their in- 2125 Main Mall school experiences leading to what Michael University of British Columbia Wesch has called a “crisis of significance” (2009) Vancouver, BC facing teachers and schools today. Many would Canada V6T 1Z4 [email protected] suggest school libraries today are also struggling to find their place and regain their significance in the learning lives of students. How should schools and school libraries respond to this ‘crisis’ and change the learning landscape to better match 21st century realities? This paper explores these issues and clarifies the characteristics of 21st century learners and learning, and provides ideas for re-visioning school libraries to meet the expectations for 21st century learning.

Response to Young Canadians in a Wired Professor David V. Loertscher World Phase III: Teachers’ Perspectives School of Library and Information Science San Jose State University A recent Canadian research report published by Twitter @davidloertscher The Media Awareness Network provides another opportunity for school librarians to speak directly Carol Koechlin to all teachers about the future of learning and the Educational Consultant role the Learning Commons plays in facilitation of Twitter @infosmarts best teaching and learning. This cross Canada Website study, Young Canadians in a Wired World Phase https://sites.google.com/site/schoollearningcommons/ III: Teachers’ Perspectives, brings to the fore concerns that we hear from classroom teachers right around the globe, thus it is appropriate and necessary for us to respond. We have taken the key findings of the executive summary of this report to frame our Response of the Learning Commons Teacher Librarian April 2012 One Common Goal: Student Learning a report Published by the Center for of Findings and Recommendations of the New International Scholarship in School Jersey School Library Survey Phase 2. Libraries (CISSL) Prepared by Dr. Ross J Todd Dr. Carol A Gordon Dr. Ya-Ling Lu

School Library Websites: The Bricks and Anita Brooks Kirkland Mortar of the Virtual Library Space B.Mus., B.Ed., MM., MLIS Ontario Certified Teacher, New thinking about the school library as the School Librarianship Specialist centre of a learning commons puts equal Anita is the Consultant for K-12 Libraries at the emphasis on the physical and virtual space. Waterloo Region District School Board, where she supports library programs and services in 118 School library practitioners are actively engaged elementary and secondary schools. The district's [ http://library.wrdsb.ca/ Library Learning Commons in transforming their physical spaces, but many of website, created by the region's teacher-librarians Ontario's school libraries have no digital home, or under Anita's leadership, has received international one that does not adequately serve program and attention. Anita was a member of the writing team for the user needs. A strong, well-designed library Ontario School Library Association's guideline website is essential for today's school libraries for document, Together for Learning: School Libraries providing access to digital collections, scaffolding and the Emergence of the Learning Commons (2010). learning and providing ubiquitous access to the Website: http://www.bythebrooks.ca library, its resources, programs and collaborative Twitter: @AnitaBK learning spaces. There are lessons to be learned from other library sectors about the role of the "digital branch". The paper makes the case for creating standards for well-designed, rich and usable websites, and the support structures required to make them successful.

Redefining reading and the role of the teacher- Alanna King librarian For just two years Alanna King has been the teacher- The complexity of reading online impacts every librarian and Directions Team Leader of Informational and Digital Literacies at Orangeville District facet of education. As we trudge through our Secondary School in the Upper Grand District School current digital infancy we need to approach Board in Ontario. She describes the process of learning in these environments as a new form of moving from teaching English, media arts and drama to full-time library as “coming home”. Her inner child literacy. The role of the teacher-librarian to is very happy spending most of the day divided facilitate the relationship between text and user between teaching information literacy and digital has become more imperative than ever to the fluency. This is her first time attending Treasure Mountain Canada literacy of our students. Twitter @banana29

Part II: Evidence of Student Growth

Just a Little Thing: At the Heart of 21st Century Moira Ekdahl Learning Must Be Reading Moira Ekdahl is presently a teacher-librarian with the John Oliver Secondary School in Vancouver Vancouver School Board. She works half-time at the John Oliver Secondary School Learning Commons recently re-designed its school library as a and half-time as the District TL Mentor for 150 learning commons. If the rule for building a teacher-librarians in 110 schools. Prios to this, she learning commons is to start with the teaching was the District TL Consultant. Moira has a BA in English and Geography from SFU, an MA in Social and learning, this teacher action research and Educational Studies and a TL Diploma from initiative explores guidelines for schools that start UBC. She is the BCTLA Liaison Chair, taught at with the facility. Where is the common ground? UBC, is a double winner of the Angela Thacker Award, and loves to write. She blogs at the In proposing to build a culture of reading at an TLSpecial Weekly Report East Side Vancouver secondary school, teacher- (http://tlspecial.blogspot.com) librarians consider the foundations for extending Twitter @tlspecial. the invitation for school-wide engagement with the reading skills students need to find their places in the increasingly digital worlds of work, play, and learning.

Beyond Google…a collaborative approach to Cindy Jorge-Paul B.A.,B.Ed.; Marg research Baltzer B.Sc., MLIS; Nicole Alves B.A. Evidence shows that the information literacy skills B.Ed.; Cathy Hird B.S.W., M.S.W., of students are limited and insufficient to navigate B.Ed.; Greg Ladd OCT the abundance of information sources now London District Catholic School Board,Ontario available to them. In our situation, the librarian and teacher collaborate to embed IL strategies into already planned assignments. Through this process, students learn to search databases efficiently and effectively by moving beyond keyword searches to develop more sophisticated search strategies. Our experience showed that our young people developed a meaningful approach to research for learning and integrated this learning into other class settings.

The Books of Life Project, sponsored by the Derrick Grose is a teacher-librarian with the Ontario Teachers' Federation in the 2011-2012 Ottawa Carleton District School Board. A teaching career that began thirty-three years ago has taken school year was targeted at promoting awareness him from a CUSO posting at Ujoelen Grammar School, a high school in rural Nigeria, to Lisgar of the Ontario Ministry of Education's First Collegiate Institute, Ottawa's oldest high school. Nations, Metis and Inuit Initiatives. The emphasis There have been several stops along the way on story-telling in this project seemed to make it a including Oxford House and Thicket Portage in northern Manitoba. He is a member of the editorial natural fit for the library. This paper will discuss board for the OSLA's Journal, The Teaching the opportunities offered by the program and Librarian and the editor of School Libraries in some of the lessons learned about large library- Canada, the on-line journal of the Voices for School based extracurricular projects. Libraries Network of the CLA

Personalized Inquiry for Secondary Students Linda Shantz-Keresztes, This paper provides an overview of an "eureka Linda is currently an Education Consultant, specializing in school libraries transforming into moment" during the implementation of a Learning Commons. She has over 30 years of personalized inquiry project with a class of teaching experience, with the majority of her secondary students on contemporary teen issues. professional teaching career as a K-12 Teacher- librarian. Linda has been a district Curriculum The focus strategy for the success of the project Specialist, responsible for developing quality school was on providing sufficient planning/preparation library collections, and a Teacher-Librarian time for students to better develop meaningful Consultant for an Alberta Initiative for School Libraries project on "Revitalizing School Libraries: essential questions with real-life outcomes. Building Information Literate Learning Communities." Linda is an Adult Education Instructor for the Calgary Board of Education for the Workplace Library Assistants Training Program. She has provided workshops, speaker presentations, and webinars locally, provincially and nationally. Linda continues to offer Learning Commons webinars through the Calgary Regional Consortium.

Part III: Evidence of Teacher Growth

Collaborative Teacher Inquiry and the School Jeanne Conte Learning Commons Instructional Coordinator/ Educational Librarian In the Peel district School Board, teacher- Curriculum and Instruction Support Services librarians have been engaged in a number of Peel DSB collaborative learning networks. This paper is a brief description of teacher-librarian networks that were established in the South, Mississauga West, and North Field Offices, as well as a collaborative inquiry in its second year involving intermediate ESL teachers and teacher-librarians.

Blog- Fieldnotes Judith Comfort Judith Comfort started her online secondary Judith Comfort, Teacher-librarian Dr. Charles Best Secondary School Library, school library practice in 2005 with the goal that it Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada perfectly reflect and enhance her day-to-day program at Dr. Charles Best Secondary School in Coquitlam, BC. Twelve years later it provides an open, transparent record of her process. Judith has created a site to guide us through it. http://www.judithcomfort.ca/tm/ If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Judith at [email protected]

Teacher-Librarians – There are many ways to Melissa Jensen lead Teacher-Librarian Trillium Woods E.S Action Research is always happening in the SCDSB library

TL Peeps WRDSB Jenny Taylor Teacher Librarian Five Teacher Librarians: one burning Sir John A. Macdonald Secondary School question... WRDSB

How do we as Teacher-Librarians deepen and enrich student research projects? https://sites.google.com/site/tlpeepswrdsb/

Hugh Beaton Public School Collaborative Inquiry Team: Chris Research Question: What impact will implementing Konrad, Teacher Librarian, Margi differentiated technology opportunities have on our Savoni, student’s achievement and engagement in writing? Classroom Teacher, Elizabeth Jinks, Classroom Teacher, Derek Lappalainen, Classroom Teacher, & Dana DiVincenzo, Instructional Coach. Greater Essex County DSB, Ontario Brock Elementary School and J.L. Forster Collaborative Inquiry Team: Barbara Secondary School White, Secondary Teacher Librarian; Inquiry Question: How does the pairing of Marianne Brown, Elementary mainstream students with English Language Classroom Teacher; Margaret Stanley, Learners (ELL) impact on social, oral, and academic Secondary Classroom Teacher skills? Greater Essex County DSB, Ontario

Glenwood Public School Collaborative Inquiry Team: Amy Inquiry Question: How does using technology in the Vreman, Teacher Librarian; Sharon learning commons impact the development of Johnson, Instructional Coach phonological awareness skills in Early Years students? Greater Essex County DSB, Ontario

John Campbell Public School Collaborative Inquiry Team: Liz Inquiry Question: What is the impact of teacher Laporte, Instructional Coach; Debbie collaboration on grade 6 boys’ engagement and Finnerty, Grade Six Classroom achievement in non-fiction reading and writing? Teacher; Tracy McDonald ,Vice Principal; Stephanie Douglas, Teacher Librarian. Greater Essex County DSB, Ontario

Lakeshore Discovery School Collaborative Inquiry Team: Michelle Inquiry Question: How will digital readers enrich the Lachine, Teacher-Librarian; Trevor Grade 5 reading program to impact overall student Stanley, Grade 5 Teacher; Tracey learning about and development in reading? Oliver, Instructional Coach Digital readers (for example, the Kindle from Amazon) Greater Essex County DSB, Ontario are a tool for literacy instruction in the classroom. Digital readers make books more accessible to all students and allow for better understanding of the text through the use of the text to speech feature and the built-in dictionary. Using digital readers in literature circles, during independent reading and for class novel studies will improve student engagement and achievement.

LaSalle, Kingsville, Amherstburg and Northwood Collaborative Inquiry Team: Martha Public Schools Martin, Teacher Librarian; Liz Golden, Inquiry Question: Do the use of wikis, web 2.0 Teacher Librarian; Adrienne Reaume, applications, high interest texts, and explicit teaching Teacher Librarian; Bernadette increase student engagement and develop higher level Morencie, Grade 8 homeroom; Tammy responses within the literature circle model? Bachmeier, Grade 7 homeroom; Erin Teacher-librarians and intermediate teachers from four Holt, Intermediate SERR; Laura schools, LaSalle Public, Amherstburg Public, Braithwaite, Learning Support Teacher. Northwood Public and Kingsville Public felt their Greater Essex County DSB, Ontario students were disengaged in their literature studies, and were not creating high level responses. The team hypothesized that using wikis and web 2.0 applications, explicit teaching, and high quality, appealing texts in the model of literature circles would improve both the quality of the students’ answers, and their reading engagement. The five test classes were very different in terms of clientele, interests, and experience with both wikis and literature circles. Each group used the same wiki and literature circle formats, but depending on student ability and interest, book choices and quantity of work differed. Results showed clearly that using the wiki helped many students complete their work more successfully. The web applications increased the enthusiasm for the project in all groups. Explicit teaching of higher level responses resulted in varying degrees of improvement depending on test groups. Overwhelmingly, being able to choose their text from a collection of high interest, high quality newer fiction was the key component in raising reading engagement.

Queen Victoria Public School and Forest Glade Collaborative Inquiry Team: Claire Public School Kenno and Jillian Authier, Teacher Research Question: Can the Forest of Reading Librarians program and the use of technology help improve Greater Essex County DSB, Ontario student engagement in reading?

Talbot Trail Public School Collaborative Inquiry Team: Carly Inquiry Question: How can the strategic teaching of Burkhart, Teacher Librarian; Amy the research process using a variety of technologies to Allison, Classroom Teacher; Johanna engage our grade 3 students impact the writing process Lawler, Learning Commons and the understanding of non-fiction texts? Instructional Coach The purpose of this inquiry was to determine if the Greater Essex County DSB, Ontario strategic teaching of the research process using a variety of technologies to engage our grade 3 students would impact the writing process and the understanding of non-fiction texts. We discovered that after exposure to variety of nonfiction texts, students felt more confident to use non-fiction texts to find information. We can conclude that the strategic teaching of the research process did impact the writing process and the understanding of non-fiction texts. After spending a significant amount of time researching, evaluating and recording their facts, the students were able to easily transfer their information from their jot notes to write a first draft. As a result of this research, we recommend the strategic teaching of the research process to students of all grade levels.

Victoria Public School Collaborative Inquiry Team: Dani Inquiry Question: How can the Blue Spruce Reading Hayes & Debbie Demers-Hewitt, Program and its related activities Teacher Librarians be used to promote reading enjoyment in our grade two Greater Essex County DSB, Ontario students?

Part IV: Evidence of Whole School Growth

Making the Learning Commons Happen at the Sarah Murray is a qualified teacher-librarian, Ottawa Catholic School Board who began her career teaching English 14 years ago. She began her library career by building the library at St. Joseph from scratch and is celebrating the 10th anniversary of the school by piloting the Learning Commons transition. Sarah is also an active OLA member and is on both the Red Maple and White Pine Steering Committees.

Donna Presz is the Library Services Supervisor for the Ottawa Catholic School Board. Over the last 17 years she has worked in private, academic, special, and mostly school libraries at both elementary and senior elementary schools. Donna ran the Derry Byrne Teacher Resource Centre for 7 years and is now the key contact for the Learning Commons transition.

The Creation of the Edgewood Experimental Fran Potvin-Schafer has been a teacher in Lab &Learning Commons for 21st Century Toronto, Ontario for the past 22 years, in four different elementary schools. She has experience Learners teaching students in all grades, as a regular Teacher Librarian April 2012 classroom teacher, special education resource teacher, and as teacher librarian. She has additional qualification specialists in science and library and currently has the good fortune of teaching the wonderful students of Edgewood P.S. Tamara Mitchell completed her M Ed at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto and has been an educator for 19 years. She has taught various grades throughout the elementary panel, including special education and Reading Recovery. She is currently the principal at Edgewood PS

The Learning Commons Landscape Donna Grove Library professionals have been questioning the Donna Grove is a teacher-librarian with over 20 years experience in both rural and urban school districts in transformation of the school library to a learning Alberta. She has been an Alberta Initiative for commons for many years now. With the explosion School Improvement Library Consultant (AISI) and of technological resources, all that is new, an AISI Learning Leader on a 21st Century Learning Project. She is currently a Learning Support Teacher impacts the existing school library. It is about a in a Gifted Education elementary school program conceptual notion of a landscape for learning with the Calgary Board of Education. She has just beginning within any school and not bound by its completed a Master of Education (School Administration) program with Gonzaga University. walls. What is this new learning commons? The Her capstone project is on Transforming School purpose of this paper is to examine the Libraries to Learning Commons. landscapes of the learning commons as part of a whole. This paper will discuss a learning environment including the school library learning commons

Creating a Strong Virtual Presence to build Roger Nevin Collaborative Knowledge Centers through the teacher librarian at Adam Scott Collegiate Kawartha Pine Ridge DSB, Ontario Learning Commons [email protected], School libraries need to have a straightforward Twitter: @rogernevin, and efficient method to create effective virtual Website: engagestudents.ca spaces that support learning, collaboration and engagement. These virtual spaces may include web pages, wikis, blogs videos, podcasts, tutorials, web 2.0 collaborative spaces including shared documents and possibly social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. This short paper will discuss simple to use technologies that allow school libraries to have a very effective online presence. Planning Committee for Treasure Mountain Canada  Carol Koechlin, Library Program Consultant, Speaker, Author - email [email protected]  Liz Kerr, School Library Advocate, Education Director, OLA - email [email protected]  Cindy Matthews, Co-Moderator for Voices for School Libraries Network,TDSB Instructional Leader - email [email protected]  Ruth Hall, OSLA Past President, TDSB Instructional Leader - email [email protected]  Linda Shantz-Keresztes, Co-Moderator for Voices for School Libraries Network - email [email protected]  Judith Sykes, School Library Services Manager, Alberta Education - email [email protected]  Professor David V. Loertscher , School of Library and Information Science, San Jose State University - email [email protected]