Collaboration around Curriculum & Instruction

Support for

Independent Reading

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Special Events

• Plan powerful literacy instruction in collaboration with teachers

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• Develop topical collections that support student learning in the content areas

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• Provide information literacy instruction that prepares students for college and career

• Develop and maintain a library collection that meets student needs

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• Hold open library hours for student and family access

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• Host class visits

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• Provide book recommendations

• Author visits

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• Library Clubs

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• Reading Programs and Challenges

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Inquiry Focus and Data

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Briefly share your dilemma/question/challenge/area of focus. How did it come about? Our focus areas were special events, independent reading, or supporting curriculum

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What data did you collect?

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What did you notice when you first started looking at student data?

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Evidence of Success

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What student successes did you realize you wanted to see in this area?

Changes in Practice

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Give 2-3 examples of change(s) in practice and why you made those changes.

Impact on Learning & Takeaways

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Share the impact of the change(s) in practice on student learning or your own learning

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Key noticing(s) / realization(s)/ question(s)/ transformative moment from data about your learners, your learning goal, or your teaching

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Inquiry Focus and Data I looked at…

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I wanted to better support our Arab-American / Middle Eastern students to find culturally relevant materials and to feel at home in our library. At our Dual Language Spanish school, their perspective can be overlooked.

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I interviewed students and examined our existing collection. It’s already robust, featuring Arabic language books, fiction/non-fiction with Muslim and Arab-American representation. However, I noticed students often did not know how to find these books.

Evidence of Success

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Partnered with our school’s mentors from AAYSP (American Association of Yemeni Students and Professionals) to convene a Ramadan Student Advisory Group. Students created a library display.

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This also sparked planning for more student support (lunch clubs for fasting students) and student-led teaching about Ramadan in classrooms.

Changes in Practice

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• I made a special effort to engage in active listening when this student population expressed information needs
• I made space for one-on-one conversations outside of class visits, since visits are so busy
• I reached out to other educators at my school (counselor, mentorship group)

Impact on Learning and Takeaways

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• One-on-one conversations rapidly deepened my relationship with students, especially one 3rd grader who is now obsessed with the library!
• Articulating my inquiry focus helped me prioritize in certain moments, over the course of a hard year full of non-stop days.
• My small project is having a school-wide impact!

Inquiry Focus & Data I Looked at …

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How can I impactfully support independent reading while building up the library culture at UPA?

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I wanted to better support our students in becoming more independent readers while creating a student-centered library culture at UPA. UPA hasn’t had a working library for 2 years, and stuArab-American / Middle Eastern students to find culturally relevant materials and to feel at home in our library. As a Dual Language Spanish school, their experience can get lost.

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Evidence of Success: Student run library!!! The library has a student staff that works during open library horse. They help with recommendations, checking books out & decorating.

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Changes in Practice

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• I made a special effort to ask students what they wanted their library to be
• I made space to let students be

who they are and flexibly incorporate

that into the UPA library culture.

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Impact on Learning and Takeaways

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• Students want agency
• Students take pride in their library
• Students want to share what they love
• Students want to be heard.
• Flexibility is important.
• Students need to see that reading can

fun

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Inquiry Focus & Data I Looked at …

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Whether students are familiar with SORA

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Evidence of Success

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Mixed; many students haven’t accessed it

Changes in Practice

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Repetition. Repetition. Repetition.

Impact on Learning and Takeaways

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Student access to SORA while at the library would be helpful

Inquiry Focus & Data I Looked at … Creating a good library culture and fomenting a hunger for books.

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To be honest, I just experimented the whole year. Younger students did not have a lot of library experience during the pandemic, concepts like “choosing a book by its cover, borrowing a book, having fun in the library without raising a ruckus – all new. Developing good conversations after the read-alouds, students sharpening their skills of observation and analysis, getting excited about their insights into the literature.

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Evidence of Success

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OK, I am just learning how to do this so I would not say I have anything profound to pass on as far as accomplishments. Volunteering in the library is popular. Students love to stop by, give suggestions for books, ask if a book they have recommended has come in (no, orders are incredibly slow.)

Changes in Practice

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Displaying books everywhere so they could attract attention. Figuring out what books are attractive and popular and why. Learning to order at least two copies of books so friends could check out the same book together. Introducing groups of books that are similar (Name Jar, Always Anjali, Thunder Boy, Alma). Learning to explain what is necessary in a basic way to elicit engagement and thinking on the part of the students. Less performing, more interacting.Combining music and dance with read alouds, doing a second line with Trombone Shorty.

Impact on Learning and Takeaways

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Oh my, as they say, IDK.

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One thing I noticed, and I wonder if others have a similar experience, is that many 2nd & 3rd and 4th graders are struggling with reading. I believe this is due to the pandemic and online school and continued intervention is nnecessary. (Some of the students in 1st grade are reading better than some 4th graders.)

Inquiry Focus & Data I Looked at …

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How do bean bags affect student experience during reading time? What are the positives? What are the drawbacks and challenges? How do I know when to first try? Are there safety concerns? What has been the precedent? Are there different concerns across the grades?

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Evidence of Success

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Some classes across the grades have successfully enjoyed using bean bags. Class enthusiasm is obvious due to the many inquiries and unanimous hand count when asked if they would like to try bean bags. Even when the class as a whole is not successful with their bean bag behavior, most of the students act appropriately.

Changes in Practice

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Incentivizing bean bags for appropriate behavior.

Priming students for appropriate behavior.

Asking students to repeat rules around bean bags.

Making a hard barrier to bean bags access to prevent inappropriate behavior

Impact on Learning and Takeaways

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Students more apt to be on task reading quietly

Students more enthusiastic about library time

Facilitates reading in pairs or groups

Not everyday is a bean bag day

Likely will be some inappropriate behavior

Make adjustments as needed

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Inquiry Focus and Data

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I focused on special events, particularly around family engagement, as a way of connecting literacy with practices that encourage reading at home. I had conversations with parents who told me they didn’t know how to help their child with reading at home (language barriers, not knowing why they liked to read, not having books at home) as well as students that told me they didn’t take library books home because they didn’t want to lose them. There was an opportunity to engage families to empower them with some tools

Evidence of Success

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Our first Franklin read-a-thon was a big success. All classes participated, there was a big buzz around the school, and we raised $3600 for new books.

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Families that attended events were very grateful to leave with practices they can use at home with their kids.

Changes in Practice

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• Family literacy events: on Zoom, morning workshops
• Showed families OUSD literacy milestones, Sora demos, read-alouds to make reading fun
• Read-a-thon
• Engaged families with reading over break
• Book fair
• Encouraged families to develop a home library of books their child likes to read

Impact on Learning & Takeaways

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• Students at Franklin love to read!
• Special events make reading fun and promote literacy
• Family literacy events were poorly attended. I need to think more about how to encourage attendance; Zoom may be an impediment.
• Given the opportunity, parents want to be given the tools

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Inquiry Focus & Data I Looked at …

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For the 21-22 school year, I wanted to focus on creating events to help our students get excited about reading, outside of the classroom and especially at home. These events were also geared to help foster and rebuild a community around the library.

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Looking at the SIPPS Data for our school really emphasized the importance of creating events to help encourage our students to read at home for, atleast, 20 minutes each day.

Evidence of Success

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I had the opportunity to work with many members of our school community, such as parents and teachers, to create month-long events, such as a Fall and Spring Reading Challenge.

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During Read Across America, I also had students members form the Student Council participate as guest readers for classrooms. Students and teachers were excited to see students be involvement in the school community.

Changes in Practice

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• Made an effort to be involved in the school community.
• Reached out to teachers and support staff for to create opportunities to collaborate on projects and events.
• Listens to student suggestions regarding the resources that they wish to see in the library and what would get them excited to see in the shelves.

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Impact on Learning and Takeaways

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Inquiry Focus & Data I Looked at …

I did some research on what students were reading in other schools . I checked what was the most popular books

for students in my schools age group. My data came from teachers, parents, librarians, and students.

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Evidence of Success

My evidence of success was determined by the increase in student reading. Students were making better choices in their reading. Books around social justice, biographies, and science.

Changes in Practice

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Impact on Learning and Takeaways

Inquiry Focus & Data I Looked at …

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What is the role of frequently read titles/re-reading?

What do students re-read?

Why do students re-read?

How should this inform library practices and collection development?

Reviewed student survey data (4th/5th grade) and circulation data.

Scholarly articles on re-reading

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Impact on Learning and Takeaways

Changes in Practice

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• Being more flexible about re-reading
• Encouraging alternatives to old favorites without discouraging re-reading
• Sharing student data and ideas with teachers.
• Increasing the number of copies of popular titles

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Inquiry Focus & Data I Looked at …

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How can I use short, advisory class visits as a way to build a culture of reading at school?

• Focal Student interview
• Circulation Data
• Reviewed results of EOY Behavior and Goal Setting Inventory

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Evidence of Success

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• Student checkouts of featured books and authors went up
• Students learned language to discuss the types of books they like and don’t like (appeal terms, ex. plot driven, character driven, action packed, etc)
• Class visits were more participatory
• Most students report they like being read aloud to

Changes in Practice

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• Author Spotlight presentations in UFSA Advisory - Readers have favorite authors, they can read through their catalog and then find similar authors to enjoy!
• Explicit teaching of appeal terms to Life’s Middle & HS - Give students clear language to talk about the books they enjoy
• EOY Reader Behavior Goal Setting & Inventory - Encourage students to notice all the things they already do that are part of being a reader and choosing one attainable next step to try.
• Included more picture book read alouds in class visits to remind kids of the joy of reading

Impact on Learning and Takeaways

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• Students were more likely to check out books outside what they would normally read when I pull them (ex. Cart full of Mary Hahn Downing and Similar, ex. Books for fans of Diary of a Wimpy Kid cart)
• Talking about books/recommending books is most effective when it goes two ways (ex. Asking kids to talk about books they read from these slides)
• Everyone likes to be read to.
• Displaying appeal terms and asking students who are stuck to pick two or three worked better that expecting them (or me) to remember them

Inquiry Focus & Data I Looked at …

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Balanced Safety Lead responsibilities

and still kept the library open continuously

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Evidence of Success

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• All classes had continuous access to the library

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• Books circulated

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• Weekly covid testing & home testing distributed

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• PPE and PPE and PPE and PPE and PPE for days

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Changes in Practice

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• Down and dirty library, 18K circulation, lots of cut and paste projects since no one remembered how to hold a pencil let alone what to do with scissors.

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• Whole second job in public health carried out

Impact on Learning and Takeaways

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• Lots more grey hair

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• Made it to May 2022

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Inquiry Focus & Data I Looked at …

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Focus

• Supporting Independent Readers and
• Curriculum and Instruction

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Activity

• Asked students to complete a short form (in writing) to recommend a book to their friends/peers

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Data

• 33 class visits
• Approximately 20-28 students per class
• 25 minute visits (usually focus on book checkout for SSR and library displays)
• Brief discussion with two 6th grade ELA teachers during class visits
• Sharing of ideas/activities with colleague Sam Solomon
• Interview with one student

Evidence of Success

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Goal

• To engage students more in class visits and not have them just be a check-in/check-out event.

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Success Data�

• Received over 150 book recommendations�
• Students are actively engaging with book displays�
• Students are reading peer recommendations�
• Books on display are getting checked out

Changes in Practice

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I will be adding more hands-on activities to class visits to engage them beyond book check out.

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Some and successful activities added this year were:

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• Blackout poetry

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• Poster-size post-it notes on tables for additional book recommendations

Impact on Learning and Takeaways

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Collaboration is a good thing! I learned so much from my colleagues and from the students.

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Trying new things is a good thing!

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Simple activities are a goodthing! It doesn’t have to be complicated to be successful.

Inquiry Focus & Data I Looked at …

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Evidence of Success

Changes in Practice

Impact on Learning and Takeaways

Inquiry Focus & Data I Looked at …

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As a first year librarian, I had to consider everything all at once. However, I particularly was concerned with curriculum and instruction in order to create engaging library classes. I wanted to develop both short-term class structure and long-term curriculum planning.

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I worked with librarians in our district to request advice, shadow their practices, and gain new ideas and insights.

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Evidence of Success

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After having little to no library experience, most students at my library sites now feel comfortable using the library and understand basic library skills. For example, most students can now look up a book on the library catalog, write down the call number, and locate the book on the shelves by themselves! I love seeing them take ownership of their library.

Changes in Practice

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I believe that my library classes became more effective as the school year progressed. At the beginning of the year, I mainly just read stories to each class. Now, I have incorporated activities, discussions, book talks, and reading challenges into library class time. I have also learned to take my time teaching important concepts. Each class usually only has 10–15 minutes of instruction per week, so I review and build upon concepts week after week.

Impact on Learning and Takeaways

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I have learned to be mindful to meet students where they are at and I have also developed new ways to engage them in library. Moving forward, I want to deepen my relationship with staff to provide instruction that ties in to grade level curriculum. I also want to strengthen my instruction time.

Inquiry Focus & Data I Looked at …

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I wanted to work more closely with students on a research project this year.

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My Project:

Fourth and fifth grade students in one class worked in pairs and researched a Native American tribe and described an area where the people are combating climate change or working to regain land.

They created a pin for a shared Google My Maps map which included brief information about the tribe and the environmental or land issue the tribe is working on.

Students will present their map pin to the class during upcoming library visits.

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Evidence of Success

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Link to slides of assignment and final map.

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Changes in Practice

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I introduced the assignment and kids could start working on it immediately on Chromebooks, rather than me showing resources in the library and then doing research later. Project was very hands on.

Impact on Learning and Takeaways

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Trying to figure out ways to take this project to more than one classroom.

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