What they need to know and how to teach it - a beginning

I am the extended essay co-ordinator at my school, and I also work with students in grades 6-11 on research related skills.  From a number of years of observation, I have come to realise that my students face several difficulties when researching.  They don't have the skills to effectively summarise or précis a text and take notes, either on paper or online; they are unable for the most part to develop a search strategy and generate effective search terms; and they aren't experienced or sophisticated enough to recognise appropriate print or electronic sources.

I have worked with students on some of these skills year after year.  However, the skills are not reinforced by the teachers, who still see this as my job.  I do understand why this happens.  Teachers have enough to do just preparing activities for their subject matter, without also including activities to help develop note taking and other research skills.  Furthermore, in many cases teachers are not well versed in research themselves, especially Internet research.  However, as we all know, it takes hard work, frequent practice, and perseverance to develop any skill.  The majority of students (and others) will take the easiest way out.  Without constant reinforcement they won't develop a list of search terms, they won't use more than one or two key words, they will never develop a search strategy, and finally they won't note take when they can more easily copy and paste.  The challenge for me is to turn things around for both students and teachers.  But how?

I've been reading for months, or is it years?  At some point and that appears to be fast approaching, I have to synthesise what I've read and develop a strategy for moving forward. The workshops I attended at AASL were a catalyst but I was ready for what they said and had, for the most, come to the same or similar conclusions.  Students should have scaffolded activities in research, building year after year, to the point where they were able to research independently  That isn't what is happening at the moment at my school.

Some of the Resources I Am Using

I have been reading widely both in print and on the net for some time.  It wasn't until I went to AASL that I had my present focus but a lot of what I had read in the past had led me to be open to various ideas which came out of the conference.

I shall start with a list of some of the print resources I have been delving into or studying at great length:

Harvey, Stephanie, and Harvey Daniels. Comprehension and Collaboration: Inquiry Circles in Action. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2009. Print.

Koechlin, Carol, and Sandi Zwaan. Q Tasks. Markham: Pembroke, 2014. Print.

Kuhlthau, Carol C., Leslie K. Maniotes, and Ann K. Caspari. Guided Inquiry: Learning in the 21st Century. Santa Barbara: Libraries Unlimited, 2015. Print.

Maniotes, Leslie K., LaDawna Harrington, and Patrice Lambusta. Guided Inquiry Design in Action: Middle School. Santa Barbara: Libraries Unlimited, 2016. Print.

Patton, Alex. Work that Matters: The Teacher's Guide to Project-Based Learning. London: Paul Hamlyn Foundation, 2012. <http://www.innovationunit.org/sites/default/files/Teacher's%20Guide%20to%20Project-based%20Learning.pdf>

Schmidt, Randell K., Emilia N. Giordano, and Geoffrey M. Schmidt. A Guided Inquiry Approach to Teaching the Humanities Research Project. Santa Barbara: Libraries Unlimited, 2015. Print.

Woops, I just noticed that one e-resource has crept into that list but I will leave it!

Next Step: The project and what it may look like!

After AASL I decided, for a number of reasons, that we should consider introducing a project into the grade 9 study skills course, into which we could embed many of the skills we are teaching through stand alone lessons at the present time.  This is the project I am wrestling with and have discussed on the International School Library Connection on Facebook.  (Thank you by the way for all the great input!)

The design of the project is to follow the precepts of Guided Inquiry:

• It will take into account Carol Kuhlthau's Model of the Information Search Process 
• It will follow the Guided Inquiry design process, including the stages: Open, Immerse, Explore, Identify, Gather, Create, Share and Evaluate
• It will involve the establishment of an inquiry community, including a team approach for teachers, inquiry circles and "study buddies" for students

(Kuhlthau, Carol C., Leslie K. Maniotes, and Ann K. Caspari. Guided Inquiry: 

     Learning in the 21st Century. Santa Barbara: Libraries Unlimited, 2015. 
     Print.)

It will also:

• be set in the Global Context of Scientific and Technical Innovation
• be of interest to and have meaning for the students
• result in a product or performance that has personal and/or social value
• address key information literacy standards
• pose essential questions of relevance to the students
• develop habits of mind and work associated with academic and professional disciplines
• require students to develop organisational and self management skills
• extend beyond the classroom
• require real investigations using a variety of methods, media, and sources
• provide milestones/checkpoints
• involve lots of reflection for students and teachers
• result in exhibitions and performances
• be grounded in personal, school and real-world standards of performance

(Patton, Alex. Work that Matters: The Teacher's Guide to Project-Based Learning. 

     London: Paul Hamlyn Foundation, 2012. <http://www.innovationunit.org/ 
     sites/default/files/Teacher's%20Guide%20to%20Project-based%20Learning.pdf> )

This is where I am today and who knows how things will develop over the summer before the project begins.  Comments appreciated!

The Project Begins

In November of 2015, I went to the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) conference in Columbus, Ohio.  Before going I had signed up for a pre-conference workshop on guided inquiry and the humanities project.  After attending the workshop, I spent the rest of my time at any workshop or session relating to guided inquiry or research.  This was the catalyst which eventually led to the decision to try a project in grade 9 study skills, which would allow us to embed a number of skills, which are taught through stand alone lessons at the moment.  This workshop and the subsequent ones at AASL, also led me to reevaluate all my suppositions on the research process.

This is where I'm at today.  I had already come to the conclusion that we are teaching research skills ineffectively.  At the moment I try to fill in the 'blanks' and model to teachers during class visits to the library, for a research introduction, at the beginning of a particular unit or project.  I use LibGuides as a pathfinder for topics, and include in them Internet resources, links to the best of our databases for the topic, instruction via google slides on the use of the library catalog, Noodletools and citation, links to other libraries, etc.  

For two years I have been working with students on key words/search terms for their particular topic and other search assistance for using databases and search engines.  My students are fully briefed in the correct answers to questions, such as the optimum number of key words to use in any search.  Do they follow that advice in their own research?  No, or at least not enough of them to make a noticeable difference.  In fact they are aware of all the advice but continue in their old ways, habits established in primary school.  To add to the mix, is the fact that many of the teachers I work with, have little or no understanding of how to effectively research or to use the Internet to find information.   Therefore they are unable to model the process for their students.

We are a full IB school and approaches to learning should be at the centre of what we do. We talk a lot about the ATLs and ensure that they are in our unit planners but something is obviously not working out as it should.  A few years ago, we introduced a 'study skills' course in grades 9 and 10 (last two years of MYP) to make sure that students did have the necessary skills, such as time management, exam preparation, note taking, etc.  They should have acquired these in the years preceding but haven't.  My feeling is that teachers find that teaching the content and skills of their subject and all that that entails, is time consuming enough.   They simply don't have the time, energy or knowledge to come up with activities to embed in their curriculum which will ensure that the ATLs are taught effectively.

So where do we go from here?  I have some answers to that question, which I will pursue in subsequent posts.

And once again I begin again!

How embarrassing to read posts what you have written in the past.  It is rather like looking back at your teenaged self in your diary.  Cringeworthy to say the least.  I have decided to start posting again in this blog in order to give myself a place to write and think about what I am doing as a librarian.  I have weeded out previous post, which really have no further relevance and may take down more. However, for the time being I think that the ones I have left will give me subjects to contemplate over the course of this next spate of writing.

Last year I was inspired to write as part of 28 days of writing on Twitter.  I will put up some of those posts here and make further comments on them and well as exploring some of what has been written here in previous posts.

However, to start with I am going to write about and examine the "project" I am working on for next year's grade 9 study skills class.  You will find this in the next post.

Forging the Technology-Curriculum Link

Last night, I attended a webinar offered by Edweek, entitled “Forging the Technology-Curriculum Link”. It was described as “a webinar exploring the need for educators to be thoughtful and deliberate in aligning both technology and curriculum to develop the most successful programs for students.” The speakers were Noreen M. Walton, director of learning support services for the 33,000-student Poway Unified School District in San Diego; and Mark Hofer, associate professor of educational technology, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Va. In a few days time, a link will be available to the archived webinar and I will send that out to interested parties.

I found the speakers and the questions, which followed to be very helpful in my own deliberations on how to help teachers integrate information technology into their curricula. I have been offering workshops on various applications, which I have been using and which I felt would be of use to certain teachers in certain subject areas. The difficulty has always been to avoid becoming so enthused by the application or the technology that you try to find a place to use it, whether or not it is the best solution. In other words, one can end up layering the technology on top of the curriculum, rather than embedding it. One needs to learn to see each technology or application as one of a series of tools, which may or may not be appropriate to the task at hand.  It is a sobering reminder of how carried away one can become when one offers a high-tech solution to a task, which only required a whiteboard and marker pen. I find myself guilty of this at times.

Noreen Walton talked of the need to have members of her IT department go into the classroom to see how technologies are being used and to meet regularly with teachers to discuss their needs and problems. Mark Hofer discussed his work with identifying the activity types in each subject area and the possible technologies, which could be used for each. You might like to have a look at: http://activitytypes.wmwikis.net/HOME)

When the archived webinar becomes available, I will post a link. I think that any librarian or teacher, involved in the integration of technology would benefit from it.

Oh no! Number 11! Top 10 Revisited!

Did I really think that I would be able to stick to only 10 top sites for teaching and learning? I should have known better for within moments of making the post, I had already thought of another. Today I have to add number 11: RCampus, a site where I made a rubric this morning for the Prezi presentations a group of science students are doing tomorrow. I can see that this site definitely have the potential of being one of my top 10.