Collaboration in High Schools

Martin, Jeanette
CO-Collaboration Strategies

Long, D. (2007). Increasing Literacy in the High School Library: Collaboration Makes It

     Happen. Teacher Librarian, 35(1), 13-17.

 

Many of today's high school teachers have received little or no preparation in teaching students to read. Many of these teachers work in isolation, and struggle to provide the reading instruction that students need to succeed in their content areas. (Long, 2007). At Merced High School in Merced California, the literacy coach along with the librarian and Civics and English teachers decided to ban together to collaborate in teaching literacy skills needed to complete a combined project. A template was created on notetaking, summarizing and predicting text.  A template was also created for a works cited page, that the students followed. The results were as followed: the template improved the teachers’ skills on instruction of research as well as teaching students’ how not to plagiarize. The librarian was able to create a works cited template that was later utilized throughout the school. The webmaster was able to use the information in the collaboration of literacy to create links and pages useful to students’ research practices. In closing, Rodger, 2007, states the importance in having an open mind and create value in a library host system. Librarians must understand their host systems; they must understand the source of their claim to being a legitimate part of that system: and they must do their work well so the system is better because they are there. It’s usually far more a matter of asking and listening than it is of telling and pleading.”

This is something that has been reiterated over and over in the MLIS program at San Jose. Being such an integrate part of the school system that the district and the school wouldn't think of cutting such an integrated and valuable asset such  as the school librarian.