Together is Better

Kelly Mahoney

CO

1.     Hobbs, N., Oleynik, M., & Sacco, K. (2011). Together Is Better. School Library Monthly, 27(6), 42-44.

This article describes collaboration in reading instruction between teachers and the school librarian at an elementary school in Pennsylvania.  At this school, the teachers and the librarian plan and teach lessons together, such as understanding the setting of a story.  They find that students benefit from this collaboration and integration of ideas.  The teacher is an expert on the individual students and their skill levels, while the librarian is the expert on her collection.  The collaboration is much more beneficial to learning than each professional planning individual lessons.

I found this article to be very encouraging and a great example of real collaboration and co-teaching.  Too often, in elementary school settings, teachers view the library as a place to drop their kids off and it is built into the schedule as a break time for the teachers, so collaboration is not encouraged.  This model is much more effective and helps students to make connections between the books they read from the library and what they are learning in their classroom.  The integrations should be built in, and this school does a great job of using their librarian's expertise as a teacher.