Recipe for a Dynamic, Learner-Centered Program

By Barbara Bertoldo and Bev Golden -- Learning Quarterly, 12/1/2003

How can a teacher-librarian help students and staff become successful users of ideas and information? The Information Power model demonstrates how librarians can reach this goal. Getting there isn't easy, but it's worth the trip. Here are some ways that teacher-librarians can create a learner-centered program:

Learning and Teaching

Know the curriculum. Collaborate and communicate with teachers on ways to achieve learner-centered goals. At Alamo Heights High School in San Antonio, librarians work with faculty to design units that align with state-adopted textbooks. For an AP biology class, my library assistant Martha Rossi and I designed an interactive DNA Web page that incorporated technology, teacher collaboration, and knowledge of the curriculum. Working from the Web page, students gathered information, answered teacher-developed questions, and participated in a quiz.
Attend curriculum workshops. Active participation in workshop sessions can do much to foster collaboration. For example, San Antonio's Huebner Elementary teacher-librarian Bev Golden attended a full-day workshop, along with about 150 third-grade teachers, to learn about new initiatives in reading instruction. Several times during the presentation, Golden was able to illustrate how librarians could support the new initiatives with resources and lesson ideas that encourage direct integration of information-literacy skills and technology.
Be aware of and support the school's learning and teaching goals. Teams of grade-level teachers at Huebner Elementary School plan units of instruction for each subject for the entire year. By gathering copies of each plan, the teacher-librarian can support the teachers' efforts and contribute to classroom projects. This way, the majority of the collaborative cross-curricular units will integrate information literacy and technology.
Listen, identify and create opportunities. Teacher-librarians should take advantage of every chance to assist a teacher with supporting materials, ideas, and professional resources. At Alamo Heights High School, librarians schedule faculty departmental meetings in the library to point out new or underused resources. When teacher-librarians help improve the quality of classroom instruction, they become part of the instructional planning process. This also helps promote the library program.

Information Access

Make Library Day every day. Students may use the library at will to develop their own reading rhythms.
Provide access to classes. Teachers may bring the entire class to the library to check out books each week or bi-weekly. These scheduled check-out times require a library assistant to manage the circulation desk. The librarian's focus should further the educational objectives of the school. Circulation of materials does not necessarily require the librarian's presence.
Remember that the library belongs to the learning community. The library exists to support student literacy, learning, and instruction by the teaching staff. It must be perceived as open and committed to this objective.
Provide an inviting climate. Even though the library is constantly buzzing with activity, an atmosphere for learning and thinking must be maintained.

Program Administration in the Library

Ensure sufficient staffing. An effective learner-centered media center should employ at least one certified teacher-librarian and a qualified, full-time clerk.
Collaborate with teachers. The teacher-librarian is always available to teach individuals, small groups, or entire classes information literacy skills.
Provide the atmosphere of a successful library. During a typical school day, the library may host simultaneous activities—for example, a class dropping by for a book exchange and students from various classes independently engaging in library research.

Beyond the Library Walls

Actively participate. School leadership committees and councils are excellent venues to promote and share the positive student outcomes of an effective library program.
Know the curriculum needs and ask for suggestions. Good collection development supports the curriculum. When purchasing materials, ask for input from your teaching colleagues.
Objectively assess. Survey all participants in the learning community—staff, students, and parents—about how the library program is viewed and where there is room for improvement.
Collect data. Statistical measurements can provide a framework for self-assessment, strategic planning, and program effectiveness.

Author Information

Bev Golden is a library media specialist at Huebner Elementary School in San Antonio, TX.

Show How Your Library Makes a Difference

Schools and libraries now face the challenge of transforming traditional curriculums and instruction into standards-based programs. In order to do so, it's essential that teachers, librarians, and administrators work together to retain the most effective practices and initiate new ones.

What do librarians need to do to succeed? Begin by reading the literature on exemplary library practices and by implementing standards-based programming.

Of course, some librarians think standards-based programming is restrictive and binding. And, to some degree, they're right. Standards-based programming exposes program deficiencies and initially reduces flexibility by requiring lessons to be linked directly to the curriculum. But effective teacher-librarians view standards-based education as an opportunity to promote good teaching techniques and boost student achievement.

As library media specialists teach standards-based information skills, students are more likely to acquire the higher-level thinking skills described in Bloom's Taxonomy of Education Objectives. Stanley Pogrow, an associate professor of education at the University of Arizona and an expert on school reform, has used some of Bloom's ideas to create a program called H.O.T.S. (Higher Order Thinking Skills), which is aimed at helping Title I students and those with learning disabilities in grades four through eight. Research indicates that students who participate in H.O.T.S. tend to be systematic thinkers, engaging in a wide range of learning activities.

Before an Alamo Heights High School biology teacher launched an interactive unit on DNA, the teacher-librarian hand-picked the databases and print materials and created a Web page to accompany the lessons. The Web page includes links to interactive Web sites and periodical articles, as well as a set of questions formulated by the teacher and librarian. Upon completion of the online database and Web-page instruction, the teacher lectured using the DNA Web sites selected for the unit. After concluding the unit, students were evaluated by a project-based assessment tool, which consisted of a written assignment, a quiz, and a student-produced PowerPoint presentation covering the nuances of DNA replication.

Finally, output measurement was used to gauge the use of the library program and services by staff, students, and the community. When calculated annually, output measurement can show how a program has grown over time.

Outcome-based evaluation measures the extent to which a program has achieved its goals. Outcome-based evaluation answers two important questions:

1) How has the library program made a difference to students?

2) How are students better off as a result of experiencing the library program?

Teacher-librarians have long taught the skills and abilities outlined in Information Power; it is now time to break the barrier and implement a standards-based program.