This document provides suggestions from teacher-librarians on how they can help teachers with various tasks. They can help locate resources for assignments, provide topic ideas for different student levels and interests, and suggest ways to modify assignments to require higher-order thinking. Examples are given of assignments that were modified from lower-level tasks, such as poster-making, to ones requiring analysis, comparisons, or creative projects. The teacher-librarians also offer assistance with teaching proper citation, avoiding plagiarism, and using online tools for collaboration. Their goal is to work with teachers to develop engaging and meaningful assignments for students.

1. A Powerful Partnership: You and
Your Teacher-Librarian
Leslie Ikeda (Pinetree Secondary) likeda@sd43.bc.ca
Diane Silzer (Charles Best Secondary) dsilzer@sd43.bc.ca

2. Often new teachers
have the toughest
loads

3. We can help you:
• Save time by locating and providing
resources
• Provide for different levels, abilities,
interests of your students (Inquiry
Based Learning)
• Help you refine ideas for assignments

4. Resources
- Newspaper articles/ Magazines for analyzing and/or
cutting up
- Find a useful article, DVD, YouTube clip
- Provide you with a resource based assignment you
can tweak
- Provide list of topics for research

5. The EAL teacher was
thrilled with the
ebook she requested
for her students

6. Lists of topics and useful links
(http://www.bestlibrary.org/sjgen/)

7. Book talks on Psychology titles
(http://www.sd43.bc.ca/secondary/pinetree/ProgramsServices/Library/Pages/Co-operativeLibraryAssignments.aspx)

8. Science 10 Bioaccummulation/ Literacy assignment - included a
starter article provided by the t-l. Students had to locate another
article from a database for additional info. They then had to make a
comic strip demonstrate their understanding of their topic.
(http://www.sd43.bc.ca/secondary/pinetree/ProgramsServices/Library/Pages/Co-operativeLibraryAssignments.aspx)

9. The Chyrsalids in the 21st century – the t-l
helped with the topics and found resources
including powerful clips for the topics
(http://www.bestlibrary.org/chrysalids/)

10. While there are times where
basic knowledge acquisition is
fine, nowadays with easy
access to information,
assignments should require
more from our students than
cutting and pasting

11. Change the assignments to require
higher level thinking (check out TC2 The Critical Thinking Consortium http://www.tc2.ca/)
Find a country in which French is spoken
and make a presentation 
Research two countries where French is
spoken. Which would you prefer to live?

12. Family Studies
Do a presentation on marriage in a
country. -
Would you rather be a wife in Mexico
or China? Explain why.

13. Research an element from the
Periodic table and make a poster 
Jigsaw the research. Put students
into groups of three with different
elements and have them decide
which of their elements is the most
valuable and explain why.

14. Research an invention from the
Industrial Revolution and make a
poster 
Students complete a chart of their
invention with four categories:
Agricultural age, Industrial age, Digital
age, The Future

15. Design a home for five people 
Give the students the blueprints for a
home for four and have them
reconfigure it to accommodate the
addition of a fifth person who requires
his/her room (i.e. A grandparent
moves in; a home stay student joins
the family).

16. Make a timeline of World War I
 After completing background research,
students have to make three pictorial/
informational timelines of the most important
events for three stakeholders in World War I.
Each timeline should include the five most
important events for each stakeholder and an
image from its perspective.

17. An example of demanding more from students
Creative project: People of the CPR and the Building of the West
OPTION ONE: WRITE AN AUTOBIOGRPAHY FOR AN HISTORICAL PERSON
STEP ONE
Choose one person from the list of people (or groups of people) who contributed to,
or were affected by, the building of the railway
Go on a fact-finding mission for this person or group taking into consideration:
Background of person or group
What responsibilities they had or how they were affected
What problems they encountered.
Who were their adversaries and why
What were their solutions?
What were the results?
STEP TWO
Write a first person biographical sketch, which covers all areas of the notes (Hello, my
name is……..
STEP THREE: get together with a person in the class who represents a collaborators
or enemy. Write an argumentative dialogue between them where they argue
(logically and with historical accuracy) and finally reach a compromise. Be creative
but factual. You should create an anonymous individual if you represent a group.
STEP FOUR: Bring your character to life. Perform either your biographical sketch or
your argument with a partner - in front of the class.

18. • OPTION TWO: CREATE A GAME
STEP ONE
1.
Choose at least 5 real historical persons and groups who contributed to, or were affected by, the
building of the railway. They should be connected in some way.
2.
Go on a fact-finding mission for this person or group taking into consideration:
•
Background of person or group
•
What responsibilities they had or how they were affected
•
What problems they encountered.
•
Who were their adversaries and why
•
What were their solutions?
•
What were the results?
STEP TWO
The game will be like Trivial Pursuit. Here’s how to do it.
1.
IDENTIFY A CONFLICT THEME: From your notes, choose a lively conflict full of historical facts, events,
problems and solutions.
2.
CREATE A BOARD: that takes players on a path through the conflict ( e.g. the problems building a
railway in BC in the mountains). The board can be a map or a particular scene.
•
•
•
•
•
Create an historically accurate STARTING AND ENDING POINT (reward of winning game).
Draw a path with places for players to land.
Create some barriers or spots that allow the player to stop and pick a card.
Create setbacks where players go backwards ( e.g. 10 Chinese workers killed by dynamite)
Create opportunities to jump ahead ( e.g. Good weather allows a work ahead of schedule)
3.
CREATE CARD with the image of the person or group and a question on one side; and the answer to the
question on the other. Put various values on the cards, depending on how hard the question is.
4.
CREATE GAME MARKERS for 4 players that are appropriate to your theme

19. Academic Integrity / Assessment
A true story: 25 students in two business
classes were required to attend a lunch
session with me because they had
plagiarized.

20. What are some
ways to avoid
plagiarism with
assignments?

21. We can help you to be clear with
your expectations/ assessment by
scaffolding or providing examples

23. We can help you teach students
how to cite properly

24. Citation Machine
(http://citationmachine.net/index2.ph)
p

25. Easy Bib (http://www.easybib.com/)

26. We love to help you
bounce ideas around

27. … and to help think
carefully about
assignments

28. A Socials teacher had students jigsaw and
present topics on World War II.
There is already a great power point on World War I weapons.

29. Students could be asked to critique or change or add to this.
(gms6teacher.wikispaces.com/file/view/weapons+of+World+War
+II.ppt)

30. There is lots out there on “the
role of the mockingbird” in To
Kill a Mockingbird.
Instead, have students locate an
article on this topic and then
critique it.

31. Web 2.0 Tools
Internet programs that allow users to interact
and collaborate and create and not just view.
(Check with your district as you might need
parental permission for students to create
accounts)

32. Glogster for online multimedia posters
(http://edu.glogster.com/)

33. Prezi for an alternative to Powerpoint
(Create an educational account for more storage)
www.prezi.com
Click on the link to this presentation as a Prezi:
http://prezi.com/x1wppixwivb8/?utm_campaig
n=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share
(Students can work online on a Prezi at the same
time)

34. Other tools
• Google docs – Have students make surveys,
make edits, use a Facebook template, etc.
• Twitter for professional development
• Dropbox for saving info online
• Evernote for saving info online
• Slideshare for putting powerpoints online

35. Other tools
•
•
•
•
Wordle for word clouds for main ideas
Time Toast – for visual timelines
Voice Threads – great for language classes
Edmodo for a more secure way to interact
(similar to Facebook)
• Making book trailers with Movie maker,
Animoto, etc.

36. Miscellaneous tips and tricks
To save YouTube clips easily,
• Go to the YouTube clip you want to save
• Type ss in front of the y in the link on YouTube
• It goes to “Save from the Net” site. Click and
save as a mp4 file.

37. Check out Teacher Projects in the Charles Best Library site
http://www.bestlibrary.org
http://
Charles Best Library site
http://www.bestlibrary.org

38. Assignments are also found here

39. Questions and answers
Email us if you have any further questions or
concerns
Leslie Ikeda (Pinetree Secondary)
likeda@sd43.bc.ca
Diane Silzer (Charles Best Secondary)
dsilzer@sd43.bc.ca