Curriculum Connections: Chapter 2

Summary
Chapter Two, written by Violet Harada, focuses on fostering thinking across the curriculum and, in particular, the role a teacher librarian can play in the mix. In particular, the chapter looks at some of the "intellectual capital" that twenty-first century citizens must possess including:

• basic language proficiency
• scientific thinking
• competent use of ocmputers and applications
• decipher, interpret, and express ideas with visual media
• appreciation of cultural diversity
• proficiency in locating/evaluating/using information

One of the concerns, as has been mentioned elsewhere, is that there is not a lack of direction, but rather that there are too many directions; too many standards to guide us.

Unfortunately, in many schools we are viewed as "...providers of ancillary (and dispensable) services and gatekeepers of underused collections." Instead we should be pushing to be perceived as the person who provides depth to instruction and to learning.

Harada asserts that there are certain characteristics that showcase productive centers of learning and they include:

• Schools are learning organizations where stakeholders change norms and habits
• Empowerment is part of the school vision
• Schools create a foundation of thinking that relate pieces of information with other pieces of information
• Thoughtfulness is a key ingredient; how students percieve themselves as thinkers is important

When you align curriculum with these four characteristics, learning becomes focused on depth rather than breadth.

Our role in empowering learning in our schools works specifically because our jobs are structured in such a way that we can have an impact on the entire school population.

How this looks, like was discussed in Chapter 1, is related to the specific disciplines. What works in one discipline may not work in another. What it looks like for the disciplines can be:

• Language Arts: Literary appreciation/analysis require students be able to predict/validate/synthesize and the ability to analyze from multiple points of view.
• Social Studies: Students formulate questions/obtain data/test sources for accuracy and authority.
• Mathematics: Problem solving means students need to formulate problems and consider alternative strategies to solve the problems.
• Science: Using scientific inquiry asserts that students understand key questions/concepts that guide investigations.

Information Literacy: Searching for and using information requires student engagement in different formats/purposes.

Reaction
I had a particularly strong reaction to how we are viewed at some schools ("...providers of ancillary..."). Unfortunately, this is likely true. And, importantly, where this is true, the teacher librarian often plays a role in making in true. The connection that I see to the job and my livelihood is that when funding is low, they want to keep positions where they see the most benefit. Teacher librarians have the ability to make or break their positions.

How we relate to the others teachers in a school determines our ability to be successful. We are in a unique position to work toward changing the culture of a school and how students learn by collaborating with teachers in such a way that inquiry is key and that the goal is depth of learning.

One point I found interesting was how many of us have focused our efforts on tradtional tasks (using an online catalog, creating a bibliography, etc.). Yes, these are important skills, Harada asserts that, in addition to teaching those skills, we should also be teaching:

• Perception and recognition
• Storage and retrieval
• Organization and transformation
• Reasoning and utilization
• Metacognition

The question then becomes how we implement such strategies. We should:

• Generate questions
• Focus instruction on distinguishing between fact and opinion
• Use graphic organizers
• Have students reflect on they performed specific operations

Part of this requires the use of scaffolding, providing a temporary support for students, until they are able to perform the work on their own.

Key quote: In short, substantive learning requires focusing on a smaller number of critical ideas, concepts, and themes that can be studies in depth.

Related Articles
Zmuda, A., & Harada, V. (2008, April). Reframing the Library Media Specialist as a Learning Specialist. School Library Media Activities Monthly, 24(8), 42-46. Retrieved June 24, 2009, from Academic Search Premier database.

Yoshina, J., & Harada, V. (2006, April). Engaging Students in INQUIRY. School Library Media Activities Monthly, 22(8), 22-25. Retrieved June 24, 2009, from Academic Search Premier database.

Curriculum Connections: Chapter 1

Summary
Chapter 1 is an introduction to inquiry learning. Inquiry learning is a system of learning where we start with the known and move to the unknown. We inquire by asking "intriguing" questions about what is not yet know, begin an investigation of the question(s), and communicate with others to achieve greater understanding.

Unlike informational problem solving, inquiry-based learning is open-ended. Constructivism, the melding of inquiry with the practice of teaching, has turned regular classrooms into student-centered learning environments. How this occurs is through the use of a series of experiences that are related to each other as well as due to the interactions between students, teachers, and the community around them. It provides students and teachers with opportunity to look at important ideas in depth.

Significant text is devoted to the difference between inquiry and information problem solving. While both are based on a process, inquiry most closely relates to the constructivist environment. It provides a situation for learning that is "...active, shared, and based on pursuit of student-generated questions; meaning is constructed by the learner; the curriculum is based on big concepts; assessment is founded on student work rather than on teacher-generated tests; and the teacher's role is to interact and mediate the environment."

The Inquiry Process includes:

• Connect (to previous knowledge)
  
• Wonder (develop questions)
  
• Investigate (find and evaluate information)
  
• Construct (new understandings related to previous knowledge)
  
• Express (new ideas to share learning with others)
  
• Reflect (on own process of learning and ask new questions)
  

Once you have decided to use an inquire model to drive curriculum and instruction, you need to look at organizing curriculum by disciplines. Student need to inquire in discipline-specific ways because which discipline determines the types of questions that need to be asked. They look like:

• Science: Students are searching for the truth and for explanations of the physical world.
• Math: While also a focus on finding the truth, math is immutable. Math does not need the who, why, and where.
• Social Studies: Emphasis is on values and behaviors. Beyond just why, who, and where, but also how good or bad and what are the consequences.
• Language arts: Emphasis is on process. Because educators are now using more non-fiction, more inquiry can now be used in the language arts classroom.

Inquiry requires four pieces in order to be inquiry:

1. Learner-centered
2. Knowledge-centered
3. Assessment-centered
4. Community-centered
   

Response
Inquiry based learning is the librarian's job. When we talk about information literacy skills, this can best be taught through the use of inquiry. When we talk about those "experiences" that need to be strung together, we are talking using those information literacy skills in creative ways along the inquiry model. While inquiry is not the collection of those skills, there is a solid relationship between those skills and content.

Related Articles
Pappas, M. (2009, May). Inquiry and 21 st-Century Learning. School Library Media Activities Monthly, 25(9), 49-51. Retrieved June 23, 2009, from Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts database.

Curriculum Connections: Introduction

Summary

1. There has been an increased focus on standardized testing. This focus has resulted in legislators and others defining achievement as solely high test scores.

2. Stripling and Hughes-Hassell assert that reaching high achievement is through developing independent learning skills.

• "Read and write with comprehension and expression."
• "Use mathematical and scientific principles to solve real-world problems."
• "Find, evaluate, and use information."
• "Seek and interpret multiple perspectives on historical/current issues."
• "Appreciate the arts and express themselves creatively."
• "Construct meaning for themselves."
  

3. Teachers and Teacher Librarians need to provide students with to develop and use those skills.

4. The one thing that the focus on achievement through standardized testing has brought is a focus on what should be included within curriculum.

5. The curriculum needs to spiral so that what is taught in earlier grades comes back in later grades.

5. The first step is to clarify curriculum expectations, but that is not the end of the work. You must also recognize and deal with competing expectations for assessment.

6. Key quote: Teachers who have embraced educational reform ideas are changing their instruction to focus on students' active learning and their ability to demonstrate and apply their learning.


Response
The introduction has three key components:

1. Students should learn to be independent learners and the specific components necessary.
2. There is an inequity in curriculum expectations across states and even across districts.
3. Teachers need to change their instruction to focus on active learning.
   

First, by becoming independent learners students learn the skills necessary to be successful both as students, but also in life.

Second, in addressing the inequity in curriculum expectations we also address why schools that are "failing" in one state would be "passing" in another.

Third, active learning means that students will be apply to apply what they have learned to real-world problems and issues.

Related Articles
Carmichael, P. (2008, June). An independent learning project that can change the culture of learning in your school. Access (10300155), 22(2), 27-33. Retrieved June 23, 2009, from Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts with Full Text database.

Mokhtar, I., Majid, S., & Foo, S. (2008, September). Information literacy education: Applications of mediated learning and multiple intelligences. Library & Information Science Research (07408188), 30(3), 195-206. Retrieved June 23, 2009, doi:10.1016/j.lisr.2007.12.004