ID_+Thought+Provoker+1

Discussion Prompt -- Thought Provoker 1

//Go back to the three purposes that you listed for the exercise earlier in this chapter.//

The 3 purposes that I jotted in my book on p. 5 were these: 1. Turn kids on to reading. 2. Give kids a place to feel safe, welcome, and excited about learning. 3. Locate, acquire, and manage appropriate media resources based on students' interests, teachers' interests, and pedagogical needs.

//Think about the roles of the school library media program that would be most beneficial to you as a teacher, media specialist, or technology specialist. Is there a significant congruence with the three-purpose model proposed in the chapter?//

I will approach this from the perspective of high school Spanish teacher first. I taught Spanish for 4 years, and the school library media specialist (SLMS) at my school in Sanger, Texas was a highly-trained, competent media specialist who explicitly stated to the faculty that she wanted to act as an instructional consultant (I'll call her Dr. S). I visited with her in her office one day, and she showed me an instructional guide that she had created for one of the English teachers in the school. The English classes were studying a specific author and period of literature, and the SLMS had created a 2-page handout with relevant resources--both online and in print--that students could explore during their time in the media center. The SLMS was also playing a role in instructing the English classes when they came to the library. She told me that if I would give her the heads-up that she would be glad to do the same for me. I left thinking that that was really nice of her to offer, but I didn't really believe that she wanted to help. I thought, that's not her job; that's my job. So, I ended up not troubling her. Also, the lesson plans from which I was working were established at the department level, and the activities we had established for our "computer lab days" were also already planned out. So, while there is every reason to revisit our instructional plans with fresh eyes, I did not do that. I did not avail myself of the assistance offered by the SLMS.

In reflecting back on that missed opportunity, I can see now how my preconceived views of the role of the SLMS limited my own understanding of what was possible. I would concur that the roles of "promoting reading," "providing information skills," and "helping teachers teach" (Turner & Riedling, 2003, p. 8) are all of great importance. I am not sure I could identify the one of greatest benefit.

Had I taken Dr. S up on her offer, she would ideally have embodied the latter two roles above (providing information skills and helping teachers teach). Who knows better how to find information in a media center than the SLMS who designs it? In a collaborative teaching effort, I would expect that she would have included the information skills piece in the helping teachers teach piece. And, perhaps as a by-product, encouraging students to read for fun may have taken place. At the very least, the students might have strengthened their rapport with the SLMS, making it more likely that they would visit the school library media center (SLMC) on their own at another time.

As I reflect further on the question asked for this thought-provoker, I sense that maybe I misunderstood it. So, now, I will answer it according to a fresh understanding that Dr. Putney is asking us to compare our three purposes with what was put forward in the book on pages 6 and 7.
 * **My Purposes** || **The Purposes of Turner and Riedling** || **Comparison** ||
 * Turn kids on to reading. || Promoting Reading || There is congruence on this point. I see pushing the value of reading as a central role. ||
 * Give kids a place to feel safe, welcome, and excited about learning. || Providing Information Skills || I think the purpose I state is threaded throughout the standards that guide practicing SLMSs. The book explains that a part of the "reading" purpose is to provide "a haven in the school where children and young adults can expans their imaginations outside the bounds of the formal curriculum" (Turner & Riedling, 2003, p. 6).

I forgot to mention the information skills piece of the purpose, and I wonder if I should admit that. Had I reviewed the AASL standards prior to reading the chapter, I would have known better. I agree with Serim, who is quoted as saying that he found it necessary to ally himself with the SLMS, who had training in the area of information literacy--training that he lacked as a teacher (Turner & Riedling, 2003). ||
 * Locate, acquire, and manage appropriate media resources based on students' interests, teachers' interests, and pedagogical needs. || Helping Teachers Teach || So, in my purpose here, I focus on the stuff that the SLMS has to manage. If I were to further develop my ideas here, I think I eventually could have moved along to the instructional specialist aspect of the SLMSs' job. I could have said that teachers and students may need to be trained on how to use the resources that have been acquired. This might lead into SLMS as instructional consultant, whether that manifested as co-teaching situations or in-service trainings. Again, had I further developed my idea, I might have gotten to something akin to "helping teachers teach." ||

//Rethink your model. Should it be expanded? Should one or more of the purposes be replaced? If you feel your three purposes are more appropriate than those indicated in the chapter, explain why.// I will give an answer, but for now, I largely defer to the experts and practitioners here. There's a long history of folks thinking about the purpose of the school library media program, and I'm not about to push my views too hard. What my quick model was lacking was the emphasis on information literacy, as well as the instructional consultant role. Given my ideas and those of the book authors, what might I change?

Perhaps this is covered later on. But, if teachers don't have the information literacy skills they need, and if SLMSs do, then I would think that one of the functions of a program would be all-school education. And that would not exclude administrators. Given radical shifts in the way we obtain information, I think it's safe to say that lots of people need updating. If the SLMS can get administration's support, perhaps a culture of information literacy could be established over a series of years. The SLMS can't be the only one who knows how to locate, evaluate and apply information from varied sources. Everyone needs to know how, from principals down to students and back again (and parents). This one piece is foundational to critical thinking. And I would argue that the better we can teach our kids to use critical thinking, the more motivated they are as students.

Kim

References Turner, P. M. & Riedling, A. M. (2003). //Helping teachers teach: A school library media specialist’s role//. 3rd ed. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.