What Is Inquiry Based Learning?

Inquiry based learning is not so much a method – it's more of a philosophy with guiding principles. Ultimately, it's about being comfortable with uncertainty in the classroom and allowing students to find answers themselves.

Allowing students to explore and “play” with ideas as they search for answers to questions, inquiry based learning is often embedded in project based learning or problem-solution based learning.  Inquiry based learning requires metacognition by asking students to think about what they are learning and how it fits into a bigger framework.

Inquiry based learning is not really a new idea. It goes back to the Socratic method – asking questions to make sure you know what you think you know and explain how you know it. John Dewey was also a proponent of inquiry based learning. Inquiry based teaching requires that students and teachers are comfortable asking questions without knowing the answer beforehand (which is the antithesis to the standardized testing atmosphere we are currently immersed in).  Inquiry allows students to ask questions in order to find answers, or ask where answers can be found. It’s about finding information and teaching kids to use it appropriately – absolutely the reason we need school librarians.

I don’t know where I found this quotation about learning, but I’ve come back to it for several years now. It seems to sum up the purpose of Inquiry Based Learning for me:
“In times of change learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” --Eric Hoffer

 

http://www.teachinquiry.com/index/Introduction.html

http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/inquiry/
http://www.inquirybasedlearning.org/?page=What_is_IBL
http://www.youthlearn.org/learning/general-info/our-approach/intro-inquiry-learning/intro-inquiry-learning
http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/socratic-teaching/606
http://www.garlikov.com/Soc_Meth.html

Sit Where You Read The Best

A beautiful, sunny day with a slight breeze, a hammock, a good book, and two kids taking a nap equals a perfect afternoon.  For some of you but not for me...I feel sea sick if I read in a hammock so it is not the best place for me to sit and read.  So, I sit where I read the best...in my den on the couch. 

Follow this link and watch this brief video about Albemarle County Schools and how they provide a variety of seating choices for students.  And notice the bookcases on wheels (such a simple concept from our maker's space week that I love!).

http://www.edutopia.org/practice/flexible-classrooms-providing-learning-environment-kids-need

I want students to love reading and books.  And if having different spaces to read will help to increase that love, let's have different spaces.  Some ideas of types of spaces I would like to have:

• Moving chairs out of the way and reading underneath tables (Bonus-it's free!)
• Keep a stack of sheets in your office and create reading forts
• Beanbags
• Loft Space
• High top tables (or maybe use a bookcase top) for students who want to stand and read
• Taking reading outdoors as much as possible
• A hammock would be possible!

What reading spaces would you have in your library?

*Disclaimer-As said in the video, you must pick a place where you can be safe. Safety is first. 

Misperception of the Library

 I was talking with a teacher friend of mine who's daughter is a first year teacher and the daughter mentioned that the 4th graders at her school don't go to the library due to schedule issues and something else that I don't remember, but the comment that bothered me was that the administration said it was a waste of time for the 4th graders to go.
My first comment, was "What!" How can a school get away with that? I don't know all of the reasoning behind the decision, but I started thinking about the perception of libraries.

This is my first year as a librarian and I am already feeling the pull of administration and others to do things outside of the library, for example covering classes for child study meetings, taking students to their lunch time to help out classroom teachers. I guess my thought is that it will be up to me to prove and to show that my job is important and that yes I can be supportive in times of need, however I want my teachers and students to see me as an important resource, not just a sub or pack-mule :)
According to an article on the ALA site:
"Across the United States, studies have demonstrated that students in schools with effective school library programs learn more, get better grades, and score higher on standardized tests than their peers in schools without such resources." Retrieved from the ALA website.
I see the excitement when students come into the library and I know that my students are technology driven, so there must be a delicate balance to offer both.

Also noted on the website: http://www.ilovelibraries.org/school-libraries

"More than 60 education and library research studies have produced clear evidence that school library programs staffed by qualified school librarians have a positive impact on student academic achievement."

Yet, many students are returning to school without a resource essential for success: a strong school library program lead by a certified school librarian.

An article from the website: 
http://askatechteacher.com/2015/05/16/21st-century-school-how-technology-is-changing-education/

discusses the importance of technology in schools and introducing it in our schools at an early age so that our students are ready for the working world.

One interesting area of discussion in the article said:

"On the primary and high-school levels, schools that successfully integrate technology into their classrooms see increased performance, better behavior from students, and lowered drop-out rates.


Schools that implement technology in their classrooms see a 92 percent reduction in the need for disciplinary action, a 90 percent increase in high-stakes test scores, 89 percent fewer drop-outs, and a 63 percent increase in graduation rates. Tablets, laptops, educational gaming software, and smartphones allow schools to:

Personalize the learning experience
Increase student engagement and collaboration through social media, simulations, and games
Efficiently assess student progress as often as once a week, for more carefully tailored educational experiences
Address the special needs of kids struggling with learning or cognitive disabilities, language barriers, or other obstacles to learning
All of this can be addressed in the library and this brings me back to my concern that if we as librarians don't offer these skills and balance it with books, we will be seen as non-essential and that would be a crime.

Ebooks in schools...inaccessible, expensive, and discriminating?

Accessibility to Ebooks and the use of Ebooks in general seems to be an elusive concept in many school libraries today.  I first started wondering about Ebooks when I was checking out CD's and Playaways in my high school library.  I teach in a very large, fairly affluent school district and had a long commute.  I was trying to fill the travel time with something valuable, so the librarians showed me all the options.  The options were mostly books on CD and Playaways for listening while driving, but I was also introduced to the Kindle and the use of Ebooks in general.  They explained that they didn't have many titles on Ebook and they generally did not check them out to people yet, but they were hoping to at some point.  

Five years later, the Ebook is still being stifled, mostly due to a lack of understanding of the Ebook concept, and a lack of county policy and procedure regarding student check-outs and Ebook copyright laws. 

 

When they first came out, publishers of Ebooks loved the reduced cost of having to print/ship the physical books.  On the other hand, they did not want to make Ebooks accessible to public and school libraries because, unless technology drastically changed, libraries would only have to buy one copy, ever, which meant a huge drop in profit.     Instead, Ebooks and Ereaders became solely a consumer product, not available even if libraries were interested.  For school libraries, whose choices for purchase are limited to a select set of vendors, this meant either Ebooks were not available at all, or they were only available for exorbitant prices.  For research and reference materials, which would garner great usage, it was justifiable to purchase materials in Ebook format from a vendor.  However, libraries cannot justify spending for example $100 on a $12 paperback, especially when their budget is already severely constrained.  This made it virtually impossible for librarians to delve into the Ebook concept.  

But libraries should make the use of Ebooks a priority in my opinion.  As technology has changed, people want digital access and have moved toward purchasing their own digital copies of materials, rather than go to a library to see a hard copy. Some lawmakers have even made efforts to close public libraries, citing that the libraries are not offering resources that people need in the format they need it.

In terms of school libraries, Ebooks would offer not only more accessibility but also accommodation of special needs.  Christopher Harris, director of the School Library System for the Genesee Valley Educational Partnership in New York State and blogs at American Libraries’ E-Content, sums the benefits up nicely below:

"One of the areas of greatest potential for ebooks in school libraries is in accommodating students with special needs. The US Department of Education–funded BookShare.org program supplies free DAISY-formatted ebooks, offering text-to-speech enhancements with read-along highlighting to students with a qualifying print or visual disability. Other publishers, including Capstone and Orca, provide ebooks in the high-interest/low reading level (hi-lo) field."

 Ebooks and School Libraries | American Libraries Magazine. (2012, January 13). Retrieved September 14, 2015, from http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2012/01/13/ebooks-and-school-libraries/.

In the past two years, there seems to be a major shift occurring to not only bring Ebooks into school libraries, but also make them affordable.  Vendors such as Follett, Mackin, and Scholastic have been working with schools to bring both affordable Ereaders and Ebooks into the schools.  One way that Ebooks can be included in school libraries, but also assure that a fair amount of money is being paid for the product over time, is to offer them on a subscription basis.  Another way is to require that the Ebook can only be checked out to a certain number of people at a time, and that a new copy be purchased after the book has been checked out a certain number of times overall.  Ebook adoption at the district level has proven to be effective, more so than at the individual library level.

Over all, it is clear that transition to the Ebook concept is going to take time, understanding, and development of copyright law and protection before it will be fully endorsed and supported.  With the emergence of Ebooks and Ereaders, such as Kindle, comes new difficulties and hindrances, such as those for blind students and others with disabilities that the Ebooks and Ereaders cannot address.  Here is an exciting article about how Amazon is trying to make the Kindle more accessible to the blind:

Sidhu, M., & Yingling, V. (n.d.). Amazon Kindle: Is it Coming to a School Near You? Retrieved September 14, 2015, from https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/fr/fr32/2/fr320209.htm

Supporting New Teachers

Do you remember the excitement of signing your first teaching contract?  That excitement probably quickly turned into overwhelming anxiety as you stood in front of a classroom full of children on the first day of school, wondering how you were going to get through 179 more days.  Teachers come into the profession from many different paths with varying amounts of experience, but they are all faced with the same pressure, effectively managing a class while using all of those instructional strategies learned in college to teach a new curriculum while acclimating to the culture and policies of a new school.  And then there are more basic worries:  How do I get my alphabet laminated?  What is the password for Grolier?  Can I draw a poster of Elsa to put on my bulletin board?  Enter the school librarian. 

As  school leaders, librarians should reach out to new teachers and provide collegial support.  After all, isn’t the library supposed to be the heart of the school?  Not only is this showing a commitment to the profession of education, but it can pave the way for future collaboration and growth for the library program.  In a recent Knowledge Quest article, Rebecca Morris outlines 5 steps for supporting new teachers:   

1. Offer to present at the back-to-school or ongoing induction programs.
2. Prepare a collection of resources at the ready.  (Passwords for databases; Catalog/OPAC tips; library map; Schedule, policies, hours, services; Professional resources.)
3. Show interest and attention to the needs of new teachers.
4. Give curricular support. Identify resources for a lesson or unit from the teacher’s grade level, and give the resources to the teacher to use in the classroom
5. Communicate with cooperating teachers or college supervisors of student teachers and interns to convey the vision of today’s school library programs.

Following even a few of these steps can go a long way in supporting a colleague.  So when we all find ourselves in the role of school librarian, let’s remember the beginning teachers and show them our support.  We were in their shoes once and best of all, we can recruit them in the future to collaborate in the library!

Morris, R.J. (2015).  YOU’RE Hired!. Knowledge Quest, 43(5), 38-41.

Wong, Harry K., Ted Britton, and Tom Ganser. (2005).  What the World Can Teach Us about New Teacher Induction. The Phi Delta Kappan 86 (5): 379–84.

Diversity in School Libraries: An Ethical Duty

Something I’ve become increasingly observant of since beginning this program at Longwood is the need for inclusion of all patrons.  This, in particular, means that our libraries must provide access to a wide selection of resources and materials.

My main source of interest is the representation of diverse characters in fiction.  Books are such a powerful tool for opening a person’s mind, as I am continually learning in my own reading.  It is imperative to me that we provide opportunities for our students to read about characters who face different challenges, whether those challenges are related to physical ability, gender, nationality, political affiliation, values, identity, race, sexual orientation, religion, body, economic situations, class, or culture.  When students have the opportunity to read about characters who are like them, they feel less alone and create a deeper connection to their literature.  When they read about characters whose experiences are different from their own, students are better able to understand others’ perspectives and daily struggles.  One of John Green’s themes in his novel, Paper Towns, is the necessity to “imagine people complexly.”  Diversity among the characters, subjects, and writers in our libraries will assist our students in opening their minds to that very concept.

Two of my favorite blogs and campaigns for this cause are Diversity in YA and We Need Diverse Books.  I follow their blogs on Tumblr, which allows me to see their regular updates books with diverse characters, including new releases, reviews, and interviews with authors.

There was also a crowdfunded Indiegogo campaign over the summer for Rainbow Boxes, which was “a charitable initiative that aims to connect LGBTQIA books to readers, founded by YA authors Cori McCarthy and Amy Rose Capetta,” and inspired by We Need Diverse Books.  What I LOVED about this was that people were able to come together to fund as much of this campaign goal as possible:  to send a box of inclusive books to a public library and a GSA/LGBTQIA homeless shelter in each of the United States.  Though it was only 60% funded, I think it was a very noble campaign that still has resources to do a significant amount of good.  Their campaign video was great, too, and included 15 reasons why we need inclusive fiction:

The Importance of Diversity in Library Programs and Material Collections for Children from ALA gives the background or diversity in libraries and ALA’s position on the subject, which would be a good document to steer administration or book/resource-challengers towards, should an issue arise over the acquisition or funding for diverse/inclusive materials.  School Library Journal also had an entire Diversity issue in 2014, which included features on girls in the technology fields, cross-racial scenes in picture books, how to support LGBT students, and other helpful topics.

This topic is something that is constantly in the back of my mind, popping up to remind me of how little we actually do see diversity in all forms of media.  I am excited to (hopefully) be attending NerdCon: Stories in a few weeks, where they will have a diverse panel of storytellers discussing this very issue.  Representation is, to me, the key to creating a true community environment in a library:  one where every patron feels safe and welcome.

To "Genrefy" or not....that is the question!

To "genrefy" or not....hmm....
It seems like there are definite opinions for and against this practice.  For myself, I really like going to the Historical Fiction section to see what's new.  I also really like knowing if a book is part of a series.  During my middle school observation, the librarian showed me her "bread and butter" section of the library....the series section.  She told me how it had a life of its own quickly taking over the whole back part of the library.  Students would quickly tell her when a new book was about to come out in their favorite series.  She also shared that she had 2 students that 'worked' the series section maintaining shelves and moving books when the series outgrew its space.  Her circulation more than doubled after she 'genrefied' her fiction section. The students really responded to the change and are eager to visit the library to check out a book.  Isn't that one of our goals? To share the love of reading with our students?

Check out the following links to articles and blogs:

Goldblatt, N. (2015). ONE EASY DECISION: GENRE-CLASSIFIED FICTION. Library Media Connection, 33(5), 20.

One Easy Decision: Genre-Classified Fiction

Buchter, H. (2013). Dewey vs Genre Throwdown. Knowledge Quest, 42(2-), 48-55.

Dewey vs Genre Throwdown

Hembree, J. (2013). Ready! Set! Soar! Rearranging Your Fiction Collection by Genre. Knowledge Quest, 42(2-), 62-65.

Ready! Set! Soar! Rearranging Your Fiction Collection by Genre

Jameson, J. (2013). A Genre Conversation Begins. Knowledge Quest, 42(2-), 10-13.

A Genre Conversation Begins

Blogs

Mrs. Readerpants  The Library Genre-fication Project

Mrs. Readerpants

Shannon McClintock Miller

The Library Voice

AASL blog  

Dewey vs. Genre Shelving…the Conversation Continues Here