ESL teachers and librarians

Greene, Shannon

CO

Naidoo, J. (2005). Informational Empowerment: Using Informational Books to Connect the Library Media Center Program with Sheltered Instruction. School Libraries Worldwide, 11(2), 132-152. 

Summary:

This article focusing on the use of informational trade books to increase collaboration between library media specialists and English as Second Language (ESL) teachers was published in School Libraries Worldwide. Dr. Naidoo's experience as a school library media specialist in a suburban Alabama elementary school that saw an increase from less than 5% of its population being English Language Learner (ELL) students to almost 1/3 of its students being ELL students inspired him to conduct his own literature review of the benefits of cooperation between ESL teachers and librarians. His article focuses on two areas of collaboration: 1) how library media specialists can provide informational trade books to ESL teachers to supplement textbooks and improve ELL students’ content and language acquisition and 2) alignment of TESOL’s ESL standards and the ALA / ISLMA Information Literacy Standards for Student Learning. 

Evaluation: His work was helpful to me because I am finding, that most of the discussions of collaboration don’t specifically note how ESL teachers and librarians’ can best work together. The school I work in has over 50% of our students are native Spanish speakers. His in depth investigation of how librarians can assist ESL teachers is also very significant as he gives realistic examples, discusses how the strategies improve student achievement,  and defines how these methodologies correlate to students achieving the standards.