Day 2 - Literacy - Collections - Evidence based practice - advocacy

1. School Libraries Supporting Learning
Day Two

2. The school library is a leader for
literacy and reading
In this session we will focus on:
• your role in helping to build a school-wide reading culture
• practical strategies to meet the needs of your school’s stakeholders
• accessing online and print resources for extra information / support
• using evidence to inform your practice
• creating a strategic approach for you to action back at school

3. The greatest gift is a passion for reading.
It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites,
it gives you knowledge of the world
and experience of a wide kind.
~Elizabeth Hardwick~

4. “
… if we show students how to embrace reading as a
lifelong pursuit and not just a collection of skills for
school performance, we will be doing what I believe “
we have been charged to do: create readers
Donalyn Miller The Book Whisperer

5. Student Literacy Achievement
"We don't achieve literacy and
then give children literature;
we achieve literacy
through literature."
Author and children’s literature
expert Charlotte Huck

6. 3 key messages…

7. Key message 1:
YOU are the enabling adult
Teachers Library team
&
Community visitors
Whānau

8. The enabling adult…
What is it that enabling adults do ?

9. Readers create readers when they
provide access to resources
• Print rich environment
• Great library collection
• Comfortable places to read
• User-friendly library policies .
• Students can choose their own reading
• Time to read – classroom, library, whole school, home…

10. Readers create readers when they
know about children’s / YA books

11. Readers create readers when they
know their students’ interests
• ELP : Knowledge of the learner
• School data
• Reader surveys

12. Readers create readers when they
actively promote books
• Book talks
• Book clubs
• Literature circles
• Speedbooking
• Special roles for students
• Student input into book buying, creating lists, writing reviews…
• Participating in reading-related event - festivals, competitions….

13. Readers create readers when they
make time for book discussion
“We don’t know what we think about a book until we’ve talked
about it.” (8 year old Sarah, quoted in Chambers, Tell me)
Discussion:
Why I chose this book
Why I kept reading to the end
Who I would recommend it to…

14. Readers Create Readers
Use social media to promote reading

15. Key message 2:
Free voluntary reading

16. Literacy skills and Reading for pleasure
“When students read for pleasure,
when they get “hooked on books”,
they acquire, involuntarily and without
conscious effort, nearly all of the
“language skills” many people are
concerned about…”
Stephen Krashen - The Power of Reading :insights from the research

17. Connections between reading
and academic achievement
Growing independence: Competent Learners @ 14
“It is not enough just to learn to read – one of the
strongest indicators of positive engagement in school
and learning was the enjoyment of reading” (p.25)
Cathy Wylie et al

18. “Reading for pleasure can easily sound
like some kind of wishy-washy, soft
option, while instructional stuff like
learning to read through “synthetic
phonics”… sounds tough and
purposeful.
In actual fact… research shows children
Michael Rosen
Writer and who read for pleasure achieve better
former Children’s school performance than those who
Laureate don’t.”

19. Key message 3:
Every student a reader…

20. Every student a reader…
"If we believe in the value and power of books,
stories, poems and plays, we also have to remember
that it will never be enough simply to publish good stuff.
We have to be committed, ingenious, flexible and
experimental in coming up with ways of making all
that literature come alive for every single child
- no exceptions allowed.”
Michael Rosen

21. Readers create readers when they
are reading role models
“Children learn about literature from what the adults around
them do about it.” Zahnleiter, 1985

22. Being a powerful reading role model…
• Modelling what a good reader does…

23. Readers create readers when they
read aloud
• Who reads aloud in your school?
• Where / when does it happen?
• How often ?
• What is read ?
• Before / during / after strategies ?
• What are the challenges ?
Jenny Ratana-Koia, teacher of a Year 4-6 class from Koraunui
• Any favourites ? School, Stokes Valley, is a 2011 Reading Superhero winner!

24. Celebrating the book…
Kids’ Lit Quiz, NZ Post Book Awards, Storylines,
Montana Poetry Day, NZ Bookweek, create a
book blog, bookfairs, competitions…

25. What does this mean for our school ?
• Students
• Teachers
• Principal / BOT
• Parents / school community
• What I am going to follow up back at school?

26. Time for a break…
Browse the displays
and have some reading time,
talking time, and refreshment…

27. Your school library collection
Participants will:
• Understand how the collection supports learning and
literacy in their school
• Understand the steps involved in the life cycle of library
resources
• Be able to find supporting tools using the ODC
• Become aware of trends in collection development

28. Why do we have a collection?
Scenario:
The principal and BOT of a new school are questioning the
need for a library or a collection.
You are the pro-library DP.
• What will your arguments be?
• What might their arguments be?

29. Balanced
Targeted
Relevant

30. Collection development is
• Planned
• Ongoing
• Cyclic

31. School Library Collection:
guiding statement
Collections 3 : Guiding Statement
• Purpose
• Background information - School community profile
form
• Content
• Guiding statement – example
• Challenged resources

32. Knowing your collection
• Assessment
(Collections 8: Assessment Guide)
• Weeding
(Collections 5: Weeding Guide)
• Gap analysis

33. And what your community is
interested in
Survey staff and students – Survey Monkey

34. Getting ready to select
• Collection requirements plan
• Budget

35. Selecting resources for your library

36. Example of Library Catalogue
• Pigeon Mountain Library Catalogue I hope with websites
and high interest topics catalogued – watch this space.

37. Does your collection include Māori
resources?
• Dictionaries Dictionaries
• Atlases and Place Names
• Proverbs, Idioms & Sayings
• Māori Concepts
• Encyclopaedias
• The Treaty of Waitangi
• Myths and legends
• Mäori language picture books

38. The Resource Cycle
Selection Promotion
Acquisition
Processing
Maintenance
Cataloguing De-selection
Pre-selection
Circulation

39. Looking at the future of the book
• http://www.ted.com/talks/mike_matas.html

40. Lunch

41. Evidence and Advocacy: Showing that
you make a difference

42. In this session....
We will talk about the following:
• The concepts of Evidence , Evidence-based
practice and Advocacy
• Making the connections from the evidence, to the
library, and student learning
• Interacting and collaborating with the key people in
your school community
• Tools that will assist you

43. What is a school library?
• The school library is the school’s
physical and virtual learning commons
where inquiry, thinking, imagination,
discovery and creativity are central to
students’ information-to-knowledge
journey and to their personal, social and
cultural growth

44. The school library contributes to learner
outcomes that are …
linked to the visions, principles and
competencies as identified in the school
curriculum

45. Vision
•Confident, connected, actively involved,
lifelong learners
•Effective users of communication tools
•Literate and numerate
•Active seekers, users and creators of
knowledge

46. Principles
•Empowering all students to learn regardless
of their personal circumstances
•Students learning how to learn
•Links across learning areas
•Future focussed

47. Competencies
•Competent thinking and problem solving
actively seeking, using and creating
knowledge
•Making sense of information
•Competent users of language, symbols and
text in a range of contexts
•Confident users of ICT to access and
provide information and to communicate with
others

48. Evidence-based practice
Using evidence of what you've done to show
that you make a difference
and to inform what you do next.

49. We use Evidence to demonstrate the library's
impact on student learning
Evidence is provided by collecting information, data, and stories
from a variety of sources.
Collecting evidence is an ongoing cyclical process
Evidence Based Practice involves three dimensions:
•Evidence for practice
•Evidence in practice
•Evidence of practice

50. Why collect evidence ?
• To identify areas in which the library can develop services to support student
learning.
• To show the difference the library makes to student learning such as:
– Creating motivated and engaged readers
– Developing positive attitudes towards reading
– Practising and developing skills in inquiry learning
– Digital citizenship
• To change perceptions about the role of library staff

51. How do you know you made a difference – what
evidence do you have ?
Activity: Give one example of an occasion when you KNOW you made a
difference to student learning

52. Here’s the challenge…
To collect evidence of how the library supports student learning….
found”
Libraries usually measure “the found” i.e. the number of classes in library,
number of items borrowed, number of books purchased etc. These are
a measure of pathways to learning not of learning itself. (Information
outputs)
It is about knowing and showing how a school library helps students
learn, and the learning outcomes that are enabled, i.e. “the
understood”
understood”.
We boost achievement. Loertscher and Todd (2003) p.9

53. Data
40% explore - what do we want to know?
20% collecting the data
40% analysis of data
Triangulation of data: collect from various vantage points before making
decisions and taking action
Student
voice
Parent Teacher
voice voice

54. Evidence in action
“Talk Book Time” - Roxburgh Area School
Triangulation of data
• Pre test and post test assessment data
showed improved comprehension and
more positive attitudes to reading
• Student voices about TBT programme:
“I enjoy reading more and I can read for
longer”
“I find it easier to read. I used to struggle.
I can read Maths instructions better.”
Programme to support literacy
• Parent voice – “Mum is pleased that I am
improving. Mum comes & reads with me
at night, we read a page each.”
• Target group of students Year 7-10 with
low reading comprehension.
• TBT weekly sessions with Librarian –
students ‘sell’ their book to others.

55. What evidence?
•Formal / informal
•Quantitative / Qualitative
•Do not underestimate the power and
value of your users stories
•

56. Perceptions
What students, staff, parents and
community think about the school
library
– Student and staff surveys
– Interviews
– Small focus groups Image from: http://www.thedebutanteball.com/?m=20091119
Information guide on library surveys
Image from:
http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/thumblarge_300/1218867653ybc5b2.jpg

57. Tools for collecting
school-based evidence
• Surveys of students and teachers – Information guide on library surveys
• Student-generated products – bibliographies, presentations etc
• Student assessment data
• Recorded observations of groups of students
• Collaboration log - recording formal and informal collaborations with staff and students
• Group discussion with staff
• Records of student involvement in the library such as librarians and tech angels
• Record of school community involvement with the library
• School library data – system reports such as individual borrower histories

58. Linking evidence to advocacy
• You are doing a great job … making a real difference to
learner outcomes … and you have the evidence to
demonstrate your value ...
• SO how do you make sure that you and your library are
valued and supported at your school

59. Advocacy
Advocacy can be one person or many “speaking out and
winning influence."
School libraries making a difference – Advocacy campaign
http://www.schoollibrariesadvocacy.org.uk/what.asp

60. Advocacy - Every interaction is an opportunity
for transformation

61. Activity
Identifying people who are key to your school library
• Who will support your work and vision ?
• Who does not support your work and vision ?
• Who is neutral ?
• Who are your potential champions ?
Then:
• How are you going to change their views ?
Negative Positive / Neutral Positive

62. Your Library’s ‘elevator speech’
Tell your own library story to someone in the
group.
Scenario to set the scene - the principal brings
a new family to the library what do you tell
them about your library ?
Image from: http://photography.mojado.com/archives/2004/06/11/elevator.php

63. Advocacy tools
AASL provide great, practical ideas that will help you in your
advocacy journey
http://advocacytipoftheday.wordpress.com/
Examples
• Take photos of students reading and send the picture home for the
fridge with a THANKS
• Take a 30 second contribution to every faculty meeting – something to
make someone’s job easier.

64. Collaboration is the key...

65. Linking theory to practice
• We will now look at your “library-based initiatives to
make a positive difference to student learning in your
school”
• Who were your collaborating partners
• What evidence do you have of the success of your
initiative
• How can you use this evidence to advocate for your
library?

66. Action learning cycle = 5 step process
1. Overview:
Library based student
learning need identified
5. Sustainability:
Successful initiatives 2. Planning / PLC:
become “how we do Collaborative plan
things” in the school to trial initiative
4. Implementation:
Initiative trialled with a group 3. Development:
of students, results discussed/ Resources put in place
communicated with Principal for trial

67. Activity
• Using the ‘Effectiveness Progression
Process: Action Learning Cycle Planner’
Plan a model initiative.
• Focus on identifying learner outcomes,
sources of evidence, identifying potential
collaborating partners, and how you use the
results of this initiative to raise the profile of
your library and role in your school
community

68. Time to wrap up…
Reminder about the information on the
Services to Schools website and Online
community
Complete evaluation forms