Inna Levine

Creating our future: Students speak up about their vision for 21st century learning. speak up 2009 national findings: K-12 students & parents. (2010). ().Project Tomorrow. 15707 Rockfield Boulevard Suite 250, Irvine, CA 92618. Retrieved from http://dialog.proquest.com/professional/docview/1238189801?accountid=143640

IL

For the past 7 years, the Speak Up National Research Project has provided the nation with a unique window into classrooms and homes all across America and given us a realistic view on how technology is currently being used (or not) to drive student achievement, teacher effectiveness and overall educational productivity. Most notably, the Speak Up data first documented and continues to reveal each year the increasingly significant digital disconnect between the values and aspirations of the nation's students about how the use of technology can improve the learning process and student outcomes, and the values and aspirations of their less technology-comfortable teachers and administrators. Students, regardless of community demographics, socio-economic backgrounds, gender and grade, tell year after year that the lack of sophisticated use of emerging technology tools in school is, in fact, holding back their education and in many ways, disengaging them from learning.  The Speak Up 2009 national findings paints a vivid picture of this continuing digital disconnect and also, advances the premise introduced with the data the previous year that by listening to and leveraging the ideas of students we can start to build a new vision for 21st century education that is more reflective of the needs and desires of today's learners. With the 2009 year's findings, the researchers give voice to a new genuine "student vision" for learning and in particular, the student's experience-based blueprint for the role of incorporating emerging technologies in 21st century education, both in and out of the classroom.

Inna Levine

CO-Collaboration Strategies

Subramaniam, M., Ahn, J., Waugh, A., Taylor, N. G., Druin, A., Fleischmann, K. R., & Walsh, G. (2013). Crosswalk between the "framework for K-12 science education" and "standards for the 21st-century learner": School librarians as the crucial link.School Library Research, 16 Retrieved from http://dialog.proquest.com/professional/docview/1509082301?accountid=143640

Within the school library community, there have been persuasive calls for school librarians to contribute to science learning. The article presents a conceptual framework that links national standards of science education ("Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas,") to core elements embedded in "AASL's Standards for the 21st-Century Learner", the standards that guide the teaching and learning of multiple literacies for which librarians are responsible in schools. Based on this conceptual framework, the authors of the article highlight how four middle school librarians in a large school district in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States enact and expand their five roles--information specialist, instructional partner, teacher, program administrator, and leader--while they participate in Sci-Dentity, a science-infused after-school program. They observed clear links between skills, dispositions, and responsibilities from the "Standards." taught and facilitated by these school librarians, to principles in the Framework. The authors contend that the learning of the Standards is crucial to creating and sustaining science-learning environments as envisioned in the "Framework" and argue that school librarians' role in science learning is more vital than it has ever been.

Mulligan, Kristi

ET

Easley, M. (2017). Personalized learning environments and effective school library            programs. Knowledge Quest.  Retrieved from             http://web.b.ebscohost.com.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid  =d1d3c80a-4ad0-4e4a-99f9-9f99a20a9f6e%40sessionmgr101&vid=25&hid=125

Summary:  This article defines personalized learning.  Furthermore it explains the benefits that a student reaps through instruction that focuses on personalized learning and growth.  The article goes on to enumerate the ways in which school librarians hold a position that can be uniquely tailored to support personalized learning.  Emphasis is given to the need for choice and voice when developing personalized learning units.  The article tasks school librarians with preparing a collection, both physical and virtual, which will support student effort.  It also discusses the requirements of the physical space of the library in this educational context.

Evaluation:  I see today's schools and school libraries as institutions that should support individualized learning.  This article speaks to that belief.  In addition to supporting that belief, the article provides reliable suggestions for librarians who are moving in the direction of support for personalized learning.

Enabling Inquiry Learning in Fixed Schedule: An Evidence-based Approach

Mulligan, Kristi

CO

Stubeck, C.J. (2015).  Enabling inquiry learning in fixed-schedule:  An evidence-based       approach. Knowledge Quest, 43 (3). Retrieved from             http://web.b.ebscohost.com.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid  =a13fbf00-0ae8-471a-ad35-62ea68311666%40sessionmgr102&vid=14&hid=125

Summary:  As is the case in many K-12 libraries, librarians must adhere to a fixed schedule for class lessons and meeting times.  This causes challenge when it comes to collaborating and co-teaching over a full unit of instruction.  This article addresses the trial and error of one middle school librarian as she sought to overcome the inherent problems of the fixed schedule and such collaborative efforts.  The author chronicles the evolution of a process that she has developed for her site.  She offers insights into problem solving and solutions that have worked for her.

Evaluation:  This is a challenge for many librarians.  I appreciate the honesty with which the author shares her successes and her failures.  I believe that collaboration with classroom teachers on long-term units provides innumerable benefits to students.  Therefore, the suggestions put forward in this article are a genuine assistance to anyone struggling with their own fixed schedules.

1:1 Initiative for Individualized Learning

Mulligan, Kristi.

IL

Aitken, T. (2017). 1:1 initiative for individualized learning. Teacher Librarian, 44. Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid =d1d3c80a-4ad0-4e4a-99f9-9f99a20a9f6e%40sessionmgr101&vid=33&hid=125

Summary: This article describes the role of the library as Future Ready Librarians. It focuses on the Future Ready Librarians’ Framework and the library’s role in Personalized Student Learning. The article relates the specific works of the librarian to the elements therein. The message is the librarian can and should be instrumental in the integration of technology that is part of a 1:1 initiative that supports individualized student learning.

Evaluation: The Future Ready Librarians Framework provides a context in which librarians can see the relevance of their work in the academic world of 1:1. This framework also serves as a means by which librarians can communicate their role to others in the educational fields.

An Example of Co-Teaching

Mary Fobbs-Guillory

CO

Ainsworth, L. (2016). Teacher and teacher librarian collaborative inquiry. Teacher Librarian, 44(2), pp. 28-31.

This article gives a detailed account of a co-teaching experience between a 5th grade teacher and a teacher librarian in Canada.  The class was studying Inuit culture and the skill of questioning.  The article documents the process of the professionals planning the lesson together and then teaching the class in two groups.  This method is also called Station teaching because the students rotate from being taught by one professional to the next.  The teacher librarian created a short video on challenging vocabulary for students to view ahead of time and posted it to the class blog.  The teachers taught how to ask questions and provided them with question builder frames and rubrics.  They read books, facilitated discussions, and provided artifacts and art prints from the local museum for the students to analyze and develop questions about.

This article gave a very detailed account of the lesson, I felt as though I watched it.  It gave me a full picture of what co-teaching looks like and how fun and powerful it can be.

Education and the Mediated Subject

Mary Fobbs-Guillory

ET

Saul, R. (2016). Education and the mediated subject: What today’s teachers need most from researchers of youth and media. Journal of Children and Media, 10(2). Pp.156-163

Roger Saul discusses how the education system that is still in place in most schools around or country is operating on old understandings of how children work and what they need from schools. He says that researchers can help bridge the divide of where were are now to where we should be by helping educators see the untapped potential of their students and the valuable skills they can contribute to their education. He states that there has been a “mass imposition and perpetuation of a constructed reality...embedded in power relations that have operated to deny in young people a range of options for self-understanding and expression that they might otherwise be entitled to” p.158. Teachers may not even realize they are marginalizing students because they are also being robbed of their agency.

This article echoed a lot of sentiments that I've been learning about in my Young Adults library class and that I have felt as an educator. Students can be very bored with the low level work they are often assigned. They need more of a challenge and they are more committed to that challenge when they have input and autonomy. There are a lot of studies that show the value and importance of inquiry and constructed knowledge, yet it is still not the norm in most schools. I sincerely hope that changes.