When Loertscher and Koechlin introduced the concept of the Learning Commons in 2008, we introduced the idea of an Experimental Learning Center both in physical and virtual spaces that would be the center of school improvement. It would be a collaborative with the administrators, specialists, classroom teachers, and students working on projects aimed at improvement and even disruption.  Abilock, Fontichero, and Harada have teamed in this book to enlarge on the role that teacher librarians can have in this effort. They have looked for teacher librarians who are taking the lead in professional development in their schools and provide the reader with a banquet of examples that are beyond just the idea stage. This is an essential read; it provides fresh examples of what can and should happen when a teacher librarian moves to the center of teaching and learning. Chapters have been written by building and district teacher librarians and library educators. Thus, there is a broad perspective as the authors use the metaphor of the garden of learning to demonstrate their point that we do have an important role to play. What we don’t see in this collection is a collaborative role by other players in the schools such as administrators, technology directors, reading coaches, persons either at the school or district in charge of professional development, the various commercial and governmental players tuned into school change. Thus, there is a “siloing” effect when looking at the role here. We are not the only players here; we need to draw on the perspectives of other players; and, in the Experimental Learning Center, this is exactly what needs to take place. If the teacher librarian can facilitate a physical space where adults and students can take risks, experiment, succeed, fail, test, and get better and better, the school takes on the characteristics of a professional learning community.  This is not only true in a physical space that might be created as a part of the library/learning commons, but it is even more important to create a virtual Experimental Learning Center as a part of the Virtual Learning Commons (see the Loertscher/Koechlin article of this issue). However, that said, this is one of the most important books to appear in the literature this year. It begs the professionals of teacher librarianship to realize the power they have under their fingertips. Instead of just using the bully pulpit, it provides real people doing real projects that make a difference.  Read it; think about it; and, then reach out to others in the school to form a strong team bent on school improvement. Essential. DVL

Barnes, Mark. Role Reversal: Achieving Uncommonly Excellent Results in the Student-Centered Classroom. ASCD, 2013. $24.95.  ISBN: 9781416615064.

Mark is totally into the idea of self-directed learning and has his ROLE model, meaning Results Oriented Learning Environment. In this ROLE, teachers are guides on the side; students are using many technologies; they are blogging regularly; they have year-long projects alongside other investigations; Mark gives comments, not grades; and, he does not worry about “the test.” The best news is that he values the regular input of his teacher librarian! The book will lead you to his website: Learnitin5.com where lots of videos  get kids started in various investigations and discussions. This is required reading by every teacher librarian, because as you recognize a teacher like Mark in your building who is doing something different, pounce on that person to help out and partner in the experimentation! Time after time one encounters these teachers who build great names for themselves in the web world and many lack any contact with a teacher librarian, or, if they do, they never acknowledge it. You will hear more from Mark in the pages of Teacher Librarian, but for now, read this one and consider the possibilities. DVL

Bell, Suzanne S. Librarian’s Guide to Online Searching. Libraries Unlimited, 2012. 286 p. $50.00. ISBN: 9781610690355.

Really?  Another text for online searching by librarians?  Yes, and this one is a great one.  It gives librarians a leg up on not only evaluating sources and databases, but the intricacies of the search for the “right” information find—something librarians can always improve upon.  Graphics, screenshots, and practical exercises and questions guide your work.  References are quite good and divided up often to fit the chapter content.  Bottom line: Excellent presentation of a hard to encompass subject and good ways to approach it.  Highly recommended.  EM

Crockett, Lee, Ian Jukes and Andrew Churches. Literacy Is Not Enough: 21 ST-Century Fluencies for the Digital Age. Corwin Press, 2011. 213 p.  $34.95. ISBN: 9781412987806 .

Somehow we missed this 2011 title, but it is and essential think piece for teacher librarians. The author trio present five major ways that a young person needs to develop fluency if they are to succeed in the global world: information fluency, solution fluency, creativity fluency, collaboration fluency, and media fluency. They not only defend their five point model but offer excellent advice on how to implement each of these with young people.  The scientific method is employed by use of a fluency scaffold;  each fluency has its own staircase to develop that ability. For example, in information fluency, their five steps are: Ask, Acquire, Analyze, Apply, and Assess. For solution fluency, the six steps are: Define, Discover, Dream, Design, Deliver, and Debrief. For collaboration fluency, their five steps are: Establish, Envision, Engineer, Execute, and Examine. The authors bring all of them together as a method of creating digital citizens that they define as personal responsibility, global citizenship, digital citizenship, altruistic service, and environmental stewardship. We appreciate the wider conceptual model these authors envision in an attempt to prepare young people for the challenges of the 21^st century. It will challenge you as a teacher librarian to rethink what you consider as information literacy and how you implement and integrate your ideas into collaborative learning experiences alongside the classroom teachers. It is time to take a broader look at the IL models we developed back in the 1980s and this book is an important contribution to that analysis.  This is a must read for every Teacher Librarian bent on moving to the center of teaching and learning.  DVL

Evans, G. Edward & Saponaro, Margaret Z. Collection Management Basics  6^th ed. Library and Information Science Text Series. Libraries Unlimited, 2012. 128 pp. $ 45.00. ISBN 9781598848649

Now in its 6th edition, there isn’t a better tome to orient oneself to collection development and management.  This edition is nicely updated but maintains the concept of the collection being the heart of a library.  How to manage what is there is what this publication covers well.  Whether used as a ready reference or as a text to come to a good understanding of how to manage and develop appropriate collections in a library, this book is well worth using. EM

Froschauer, Linda, Editor. A Year of Inquiry: A Collection for Elementary Educators. NSTA, 2012. 211 p. $25.95.  ISBN: 9781936959341.

The Common Core Standards may center their attention on Language Arts and Mathematics, but they urge that science be included. You can expect to see a larger inclusion and development around science as the CCS continues to develop and be implemented. This is the case because of the movement toward STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) that is enjoying a new emphasis in many schools across North America. That said, teacher librarians in elementary schools should watch for and encourage more interest in science as they see these signals start to take hold in their school. Now to the book at hand:  Every elementary teacher librarian should purchase this book; read it; and, share it with teachers. It is amazing. Amazing because it advocates that inquiry and science knowledge be integrated to help children to start thinking like scientists. It is exactly what we as teacher librarians would hope that teachers of all disciplines would do; that is, integrate the teaching of content knowledge and 21^st Century skills/information literacy. When the readers understand what is happening here, they will see it is like raising the curtain on the true integration of the library/learning commons into the lives and practices of the classroom teacher. The book is laid out in chapters, each with a theme or stage of the inquiry process. Following a short introduction, the editor has collected articles from the NSTA journal that give practical examples of that theme.  The themes are: What do Scientists Do?, Process Skills, Science Notebooks, Investigable Questions, Data Collection and Representation, Selecting an Inquiry Experience, Switching from Cookbook Labs to Full Inquiry, Sharing Research Results, and, Assessing Inquiry. What a natural idea to marry such an idea from science with the inquiry skills teacher librarians wish to teach! Fabulous! What an opportunity! Get this book and start the conversation!  DVL

Hysell, Shannon Graff. Recommended Reference Books for Small and Medium-Sized Libraries and Media Centers: 2012  Edition, Volume 32. Libraries Unlimited, 2012. 321 pp.  $ 75.00. ISBN: 9781610691802.

As with the other volumes of this series, this one is well presented and provides excellent guidance to librarians, if for nothing else than to understand the enormous cost of many of these books.  However, it also is a map to use when considering what to collect, what to subscribe to, and what not to subscribe.  Highly recommended.  EM

Kurzweil, Ray. How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed. Viking, 2012. 336p. $27.95. ISBN:9780670025299.

Get ready for a hefty, but authoritative read-in with this one. Ray Kurzweil is a major scientist and futurist. He invented text-to-speech for those who are blind and have low vision among many other inventions, so his name is revered by many. There are a plethora of books out there about brain-based learning that we have reviewed over the past several years, but we have been skeptical about the expertise behind them. In this volume, if you can wade a bit through the complexities, you get the latest on what we really know about brain functioning up until the date of publication. I found as I listened to the audio book of this title, that the novice on brain science can skim over the most technical ideas to glean the essentials and come out understanding major ideas. Kurzweil is the kind of scientist who brilliantly applies what we currently know about science, but has no hesitation about discarding old ideas as new discoveries are made. He teaches the reader how our marvelous brain works and how we can use its strengths in partnership with technology to build deep understanding. For teacher librarians, such understanding helps us help children and teens deal with the ubiquitous information glut and the newest technologies to help us all cope. This book is the kind where you read a chapter and think a while; then, read the next chapter . . . And, don’t get lost in the complex explanations, but ferret out the major ideas and their implications for our own practice. While this is not an easy book, it will tickle your brain with major new ideas and understanding. An incredible think!  DVL

Lindsay, Julie, and Vicki A. Davis. Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds: Move to Global Collaboration One Step at a Time. Pearson, 2013. 340p. $33.99 Trade pb. ISBN: 9780132610353.

Remember the old days of pen pals among children around the world? You are old!, at least in tech time. In the flat world and networked environment, educational experiences can be without boundaries across classrooms and groups of learners around the world. These two authors are co-sponsors of the Flat Classroom Project and have created a super guide to their work with a theoretical and practical guide to success. This is simply the best book on this topic and a must-read. The authors take us through a bit of theory first and then provide seven important steps for getting started. They are experts at this and have created a six-month extension of the book that is free. So, the guide is really a whole world of professional development guides, helps, examples, and tools far beyond the printed page. If you have the slightest interest in building learning experiences collaboratively among teachers or across the world, then get this book instantly. A best book of the year!  DVL

Loertscher, David, Carol Koechlin, and Esther Rosenfeld. The Virtual Learning Commons: Building A Participatory School Learning Community. Learning Commons Press – Hi Willow Research & Publishing, 2012. 133 pp. $32.  ISBN: 9781933170701.

Teaching and learning in the 21^st century require new approaches, goals, and practice for teacher librarians, classroom teachers, administrator, and students. Among the many ideas to emerge with significant support is the concept of the Learning Commons. In their previous book , The New Learning Commons Where Learners Win 2d edition, 2011,  Loertscher,  Koechlin, and Rosenfeld presented the basic concepts and spoke primarily about the Learning Commons as a physical place combining the library and computer lab into a newly designed collaborative learning space. As its title suggests, this new book extends the concept to the virtual world and all its potential. The first part of the book presents the foundational ideas of a large participatory Virtual Learning Commons and how and what it can contribute to teaching and learning.  The second part of the book directs the reader to download a Google sites-based template to enable you to start creating your own VLC. The last part of the book addresses several of the issues which might arise when you embark on this route.   The authors state: “We hope that the reader will be as excited by the possibilities as we are. Education across the world is changing, and we hope that the Virtual Learning Commons will be the vehicle to help both young people and adults learning to work in a global community. It is time to focus on building young people who are in charge of their own learning; a habit that will serve them their entire lives.”  The books is well cited, indexed, and provides a very valuable further reading part.  Practical and poignant.    Highly recommended.  EM

Perez, Katherine. The Co-Teaching Book of Lists. Jossey-Bass, 2012. 270p. $29.95. ISBN: 9781118017449.

I could not believe my eyes at a recent convention when I came across this book and spoke to the author. Co-teaching? Is anybody except teacher librarians still talking about this topic.  Oh yes, the author responded.  My calendar of workshops and conferences is packed! After reviewing hundreds of books in education, I can hardly remember the last time I read about collaborative teaching as a part of school culture from any of the major educational writers.  Well, here is a practical guide with list after list after list of tips and steps to take during the co-planning, co-assessing, and co-teaching of learning experiences.  Admittedly, Dr. Perez has a bias toward special education teachers because that is her field, but she does include other specialists, just not technology folks or teacher librarians. Well, we don’t seem to be able to have everything, but there is so much wiggle room in the lists that it is a simple matter to include our agenda in an information rich and technology rich environment. Teacher librarians need to be experts at collaboration whether or not they can reach every faculty member. This is a book for your bedside table –  read a list every single night before going to sleep. The ones we can work on, we adopt as our strategy of the week and perhaps we showcase one strategy alongside a classroom teacher at each faculty meeting. Get this book! Use this book!  It can only push you toward that center of teaching and learning whether in the physical learning commons or the virtual learning commons.  DVL

Perrauto, Anna & Aversa, Elizabeth. Information Resources in the Humanities and Arts, 6^th edition. (Library and Information Science Text Series).  Libraries Unlimited, 2012. 461 pp.       $ 80.00.  ISBN: 9781598848328.

This book continues to be worthy of trust and time.  While geared mainly to newer professionals, it is a good reminder of how humanities and art are so important to scholarship.  Taking almost 10 years to be updated, it doesn’t disappoint.  There are interesting digital resources as well as standard print resources in this text, and it can be used as a ready reference tool for many different types of libraries.  If used with elementary or middle school students, caution needs to be taken with developmental appropriateness.  EM

Wagner, Tony. Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World. Scribner, 2012.  288 p. $27. ISBN: 9781451611496.

Tony Wagner is an outspoken critic of cookie cutter education and lays out in this book a plan for your people to stretch their imaginations and spread their wings in the solution of local and world problems and challenges. Interesting reading that will tweak your brain.  DVL

Click on the poster to download the pdf version for printing.

In Ohio, teachers face the arrival of the Common Core State Standards and Ohio Learning Standards and the new emphasis on teaching inquiry skills. In order to help teachers implement the standards in the area of inquiry and use appropriate resources, INFOhio developed the IMatrix, an online tool that supports integrating inquiry with instructional practice.

How Was Imatrix Created?

INFOhio, Ohio’s K-12 digital library, has long supported inquiry and research.  So logically, the next step was to create an online tool that merges information and resources needed to effectively implement inquiry in instruction. Using the shared services partnership with Hamilton County Educational Service Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, a development team was formed to design a tool that would combine Ohio’s New Learning Standards with inquiry learning skills. This tool had to be easy to access, extremely user friendly, and combine the three major elements of grade level, subject area, and inquiry standard. The design team also wanted teachers to be able to easily see cross- curricular connections and have instant access to both assessment and instructional resources. The new tool must also allow teachers to drill down to a specific skill set in a specific grade level for a specific subject area.  And, to add to the complexity of designing this tool, the development team felt it was crucial for teachers to see the progression of skills through the grade levels. After many weeks of discussions and diagrams, the IMatrix structure — basically a three-dimensional grid, was created as the design for the new tool, and INFOhio’s technical services team went to work to build the online tool.

What Is the Imatrix?

INFOhio’s IMatrix helps educators practice inquiry-based instruction that aligns to skills embedded within the content standards of the four core curriculum areas: English/language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies. By searching the IMatrix, educators can easily see how skills are scaffolded across grades for students and find resources that will help them teach those skills, find interdisciplinary connections, and help plan quality instruction.

The IMatrix uses the six Dimensions of Inquiry as its unifying instructional model. The Dimensions of Inquiry, first identified through an environmental scan of various inquiry models, include the following skills:

1. Questioning
2. Locating Information
3. Evaluating Information
4. Applying Information
5. Sharing Knowledge
6. Reflecting on Learning

The IMatrix uses the Dimensions of Inquiry for two main reasons. First, the new nationwide Common Core standards for ELA and math and Ohio’s updated standards for science and social studies demand that teachers help students develop the critical research skills they need in college and on the job. Second, inquiry is common to all four content areas and to all grade levels. Therefore, coordinating lessons across subject areas and building on skills from grade to grade is easier.

Who Should Use the IMatrix?

Educators at all levels can use this tool both in the classroom and in school-wide and district-wide curriculum planning. IMatrix provides a comprehensive way to view key skills as they scaffold in a student’s learning from kindergarten through the end of high school.

Why Use the Imatrix?

One of the main objectives of the standards movement is to ensure students learn the essential skills and knowledge that are keys to college and career success.  The IMatrix helps teachers identify the key skills in the standards that support the development of thinking skills. Inquiry-based instructional practices, in particular, help students develop thinking skills, provide them with authentic content with which to practice the skills, and ask them to demonstrate their ability to use these skills as they discover connections, develop insights, and learn to articulate their understandings about what they learn.

Students develop those thinking skills—how to form questions, how to work with information, how to share their knowledge and evaluate their own learning—best through experiences embedded in all of the content areas across all grade levels. Therefore, IMatrix correlates standards from the four core content areas to demonstrate not only interdisciplinary connections among those skills but also to show more clearly the scaffolding of these skills from simple tasks in the early years to more complex assignments in later grades.  By helping teachers develop a clear understanding of how these skills align to all of the content areas, IMatrix provides them with a deeper insight into how student learning in their classroom meshes with learning in other classes and builds upon learning from earlier years.

In addition, many experts of the Common Core for Reading and Writing recommend that students have a minimum of three or four, rigorous research experiences, embedded in multiple content areas, throughout each school year. Doing that requires coordinating assessment plans and identifying appropriate content across subject areas. IMatrix helps schools identify key vertical alignment and interdisciplinary alignment for essential student skills.

How to Use Imatrix–http://imatrix.infohio.org

Step 1 — Explore the IMatrix Cube

Click on each of the six navigation buttons on the IMatrix home page to walk through the structure of the matrix cube and the various relationships it represents. Click Introducing IMatrix in the left menu to learn more about how and when to use it.

Step 2 – Brush Up on Inquiry if Necessary

Understanding inquiry is crucial to making the best use of IMatrix. The brief material listed under What is Inquiry on the main menu includes links to help expand your knowledge. There are many inquiry models and structures for teaching the inquiry process. INFOhio has identified six Dimensions of Inquiry that encompass most of these, so any model you use can be correlated to these dimensions.

Step 3 — Explore the Components

INFOhio has completed the correlation of resources, standards and inquiry dimensions for grades K – 8. Remaining grades will be added in the near future.

Step 4—Examine Curriculum Areas

Each of the subject areas links to resources for that field, such as the state or national subject area standards, organizations, and other high-level resources.

Step 5 — Search IMatrix

In its search, you see the real power of IMatrix. Select the subject area, grade level, and inquiry dimension to drill down to specific skills and resources. You can also search by specific standard if you know it.

Searching the IMatrix by Block, Standard Code or Standard Progression

Searching is easy. To search by block, select a grade level, subject, and dimension of inquiry. For example, a seventh grade social studies teacher who is concerned that his students need more practice evaluating information, can click 7th grade, Social Studies, and Evaluating Information on the search screen. IMatrix returns every applicable standard along with dozens of websites, articles, lesson plans, and activities he can use to help his students.

To search by the standard, simply type the standard code and select Search IMatrix. An example would be CC.6.W.1 which shows it is a Common Core Standard for sixth grade writing, standard statement 1.  A word of explanation—When IMatrix was first designed there was no uniform coding for the Common Core Standards or Ohio Learning Standards in Social Studies or Science. When standardized coding is available, IMatrix will revise the coding to the national standard.  It is also important to note that IMatrix is the integration of the standards with the Dimensions of Inquiry.  Only the standards with inquiry integration have been included in IMatrix.

The newest search strategy for IMatrix is a search by standard progression. This search uses an asterisk as a wildcard and will allow you to select any grade levels above and below your current grade or you may select all the grade levels, and then enter a standard code using the asterisk to replace the grade level (CC.*.R.L.1).  The result will be a progression of the standard for all the grade levels selected.  Or when entering a standard code use the asterisk to get a more global search of how many standard statements aligned with the Dimensions of Inquiry there are for a grade level.  For example, CC.6. R.L.* will show results for all the reading literature standards for sixth- grade that are aligned to inquiry.

Search Types and Search Results

It is important to note that IMatrix includes both Internet based resources as well as INFOhio resources for the assessment and instructional strategies and resources section.  The INFOhio resources are available through a statewide strategic partnership, Libraries Connect Ohio (LCO), made up of school, public and university libraries under the leadership of the State Library of Ohio. All of the content, including the premium research databases, is available at no charge to all Ohio citizens, including all K-12 students, educators, and parents. Licensing agreements between LCO and the database publishers mean that some resources might be blocked for people outside of Ohio, but many states have similar statewide digital libraries where educators can find classroom resources at no cost.

Library and Classroom Application

Creating an environment of inquiry in a classroom requires skill, practice, and encouragement. For many teachers, this is a new way of thinking about their teaching. First and foremost, teachers must understand and believe in the value of inquiry across all subject areas and be comfortable with the inquiry process. The school library media specialist and teacher working together can best teach inquiry skills in concert with the content.

The IMatrix gives teachers and librarians easy access to resources that not only help explain inquiry, but also help teach inquiry skills to students. The Dimensions of Inquiry provide a ready-made scaffold that helps teachers better understand the skills students need to acquire in order to master each aspect of the process. Teachers can pace their own learning, using resources provided, or library media specialists can team with district curriculum leaders to create professional development that meets the needs of a small group of teachers, a grade level, a building, or the whole district.

The media specialist is well situated in schools to play a key role in helping teachers discover ways others are teaching the same skills, allowing everyone to maximize efforts, develop deeper learning, or even expand the scope of a project to bring rich interdisciplinary connections to the table.  For example, working in a learning team with their school library media specialist, teachers might bring content topics they want students to master, along with their own ideas for inquiry topics for students to research. The learning team can then use the IMatrix to search for content standards that align to specific content areas, grade levels and the Dimensions of Inquiry. By searching similar skills in earlier grade levels, teachers and media specialists can easily see how a specific skill has been scaffolded in earlier grades, or explore how the skills will develop in later grades. The ability to see skill standards across grade levels also makes it easier for educators to differentiate projects to meet the needs of all their students. Planning templates within the IMatrix provide a framework that helps a learning team plan around a wide range of design criteria, including content standards, Common Core alignments, essential questions, assessments, instructional strategies, and appropriate uses of instructional technology. The research template can be used as a planning guide by teachers and media specialists to gather their thoughts prior to working on final project design, and by the team during planning work. Completed forms provide a framework for easy dissemination of project ideas with colleagues, administrators, parents, and students.

Once a project has been completed, the team can review opportunities for reflection to strengthen future learning – both for students and their own professional development as they consider what they have learned about designing inquiry-based projects and how future projects can benefit from this learning.

Looking Ahead

Since launching IMatrix in August, INFOhio has already begun work on improvements and expansion of the project. Alignments for grades K-5 have been finalized and background work is underway to complete alignments for grades 9-12. The development team is working to expand resources that support professional development about the Dimensions of Learning, effectively searching the IMatrix, and planning inquiry-based projects.

Developing model lessons to support teachers as they learn to create effective inquiry-based instruction is also being considered. Part of this process would include expanded planning templates for teachers, media specialists, and district administrators charged with guiding professional development plans for the district. Altogether, these enhancements would provide districts with resources that will help everyone better understand how best to design a scope and sequence of the Dimension of Inquiry skills across the curriculum, ensuring that all students receive this important instruction.

As the IMatrix is being seen and used by more educators, additional ideas for expanded resources and innovative tools are already coming from the field and being studied by the development team. Possibilities range from expanded web-based capabilities, increased connections to other INFOhio programs, and even the possibility of additional technology-based tools to support the work.  For any inquiries about use of these materials outside of the state of Ohio, contact INFOhio at central@infohio.org.

Development Team

IMatrix was developed in a partnership between INFOhio and Hamilton County Educational Service Center. The INFOhio IMatrix design team was:
Tom Shessler—Hamilton County ESC Education Consultant
Ann Tepe—Education Consultant
Linda Johnson-Towles—Education Consultant
Mike Ridinger—INFOhio Web Designer
Gayle Geitgey-INFOhio Instructional Specialist

INFOhio, one of the country’s largest and most comprehensive information networks, serves Ohio K-12 schools with library management software, digital content for the classroom, and professional development to support academic content standards and effective instruction. INFOhio offers a full range of programs to help educators better understand the expanding definition of literacy and how to use tools and technologies to support digital learning, To deliver those resources and services, INFOhio has forged strategic partnerships with Information Technology Centers (ITCs), The State Library of Ohio and other statewide library networks which combine federal, regional and local dollars to make cost-effective group purchases to save the state millions of dollars. Using these strategic partnerships enables all Ohio K-12 students and educators robust access to the research resources they need for rigorous academic study.

IMatrix is copyrighted by INFOhio. IMatrix was created with the Joomla CMS, version 2.5.x.  IMatrix consists of hundreds of individual documents containing detailed information about each content standard, dimension of inquiry, grade level and subject area.  Content is stored using Joomla’s core content organization tools, making the content portable and easy to access.  Each document’s content is indexed and made searchable via the IMatrix web interface.   The searching mechanism behind the web interface was custom designed and written in PHP by INFOhio’s technical services team.

That lightly draws its breath,

And feels its life in every limb,

What should it know of death?

~William Wordsworth, from “We Are Seven”

The publisher, editors, and staff of Teacher Librarian and VOYA mourn the death of the victims of the school shooting in Connecticut. Our hearts ache for the children lost and for their families and for the heroic and dedicated teachers who died and for their families. We cannot imagine their grief. Our thoughts and prayers are with them.

As parents and educators we will need to help our own students and children understand or cope with this tragedy. Some initial guidance can be found at http://www.neahin.org/blog/school-crisis-resources.html

The challenge across the U.S. and Canada is to raise the bar on education and to prepare every child to succeed in a very different world than we faced at their age. Whether you’re are facing the Common Core Standards, or some other challenging school improvement initiative, we have assembled an issue that we believe will provide both theoretical and practical steps to assist you as teacher librarians in moving into the center of teaching and learning.

While the articles and columns dealing with these issues share many basic ideas and recommendations, each brings a unique perspective in its approach. In the lead article, Dr. Ross Todd weaves together the need for visibility of teacher librarians and the need for new learning and teaching models, and how both are affected by and affect the implementation of the Common Core Standards. He does so within the framework of “the power of story,” using story as an approach to data collection and presentation. Much of his data and his stories are taken from the long-awaited and much praised New Jersey research study, “One Common Goal: Student Learning.”

Keith Curry Lance and Linda Hofschire provide research findings supporting the belief (or irrefutable fact) that school library programs and teacher librarians contribute significantly to gains in student achievement. This fascinating report, like so much of Lance’s work over the years, provides evidence for your arsenal for advocacy when dealing with other educators, education administrators, public officials, and the general public.

David Loertscher and Carol Koechlin continue their important and prolific partnership with an exploration and explanation of the Virtual Learning Commons (VLC), and its relationship to the Learning Commons concept for which they are so well known. They provide both theory and practical steps to take to design and implement your own VLC as a keystone in 21st century learning.

Jayme Linton speaks about how TPACK (technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge) can frame student learning and offer collaborative inquiry strategies. Catlin Tucker offers ideas about collaborative learning and how it can affect student learning as well as teacher learning. Included are several illuminating illustrations.

October’s guest columnist “from the brain trust” is AASL president-elect Gail Dickinson. In a few short pages, Dickinson identifies and addresses and links together so many key issues that face the profession and individual professionals during this time of great change. As she notes, “It’s a matter of simple logistics. We can’t do everything we always used to do plus everything we need to be doing now. Some things have to go….” We also share her interest in embedded librarians and entrepreneurial librarians.

Beginning in this issue and continuing throughout the volume and beyond, our trusted book reviewers will note connections to the CCS, in general, and to specific standards when appropriate. For those of you who use comic books in your teaching, or who are, themselves, fans of comics, Dr. Joe Sanders has two very interesting columns this month, one featuring a major initiative by DC Comics and the other introducing us to Humanoids, one of the significant comic book publishers worldwide.

In October’s professional reading section, the editors provide reviews for a large number of books, many of them recommended. Loertscher takes special note of two books he finds essential for all teacher librarians: Guided Inquiry Design: A Framework for Inquiry in Your School (Carol C. Kuhthau, Leslie k. Maniotes, and Ann K. Caspari) and Growing Schools: Librarians as Professional Developers (Debbie Abilock, Kristin Fontichiaro, and Violet Harada). In his “What Works” column, Loertscher discusses research about the Learning Commons and maker spaces and in her “School Library Tech Ideas,” Marcoux offers suggestions and hints on how to best approach technology to insure it connects well with learning. For specific uses of ed tech in learning and teaching, Joanne Troutner’s ”Web Wonders” provides many good recommendations and also says goodbye to an “old friend,” as Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Educators is retired. Lamb and Johnson, on the other hand, revisit an old friend, Jiminy Cricket, in their always outstanding “InfoTech” column, which explains “a dozen ways video can activate learning.”

Mark Ray, in his “Advocacy” column, continues his year-long fabulous journey as Washington State teacher of the year, with a slight stop along the way to become a manager of instructional technology and library services for the Vancouver (WA) public schools. Teacher librarian as instructional tech manager or director is an interesting development probably destined to become more prevalent. “Primary Voices” columnist Erlene Bishop Killeen once again brings a counterbalance to all the technology coverage, capturing the heart and soul of what we do and why we do it. As she asks and answers the question if the youngest students are ready to learn, she touches on many key issues while also addressing the Common Core Standards.

Please enjoy this powerful issue. Remember you can access the digital edition anytime day or night with your computer, smartphone, tablet, or other mobile devices.

Find Where You Fit in the Common Core, or The Time I Forgot about
Librarians and Reading
Rebecca Morris addresses the importance of reading in the Common Core Standards and in
the role of teacher librarians, even as we become instructional technology leaders. In turn,
she addresses the role to be played in CCSS by teacher librarians. This is a useful guide for all
teacher librarians.

The Common Core State Standards and Text CompLexity: What Librarians
Need to Know . . . and Do
Elfrieda H. Hiebert provides fascinating and important insight into the recognition of text
complexity by the Common Core State Standards. She identifies some of the ambiguities
and shortcomings in current readability formulas and provides ample evidence that human
interpretation and intervention are needed to use them correctly. Hiebert makes a strong case
for the teacher librarian to fill that role and also provides ways for teacher librarians to engage
students in reading to meet various CCSS.

Sequentially Smart—Using Graphic Novels across the K–12 Curriculum
Karen Gavigan shows how the use of graphic novels in the curriculum conforms to several
Common Core Standards. Her persuasive arguments are followed by an extensive list of
resources for GN collection development and curriculum use. Gavigan also provides lesson
plans for elementary, middle, and high school utilizing graphic novels.

Rethinking Reading Promotion: Old School Meets Technology
Rosemary Chance and Teri Lesesne provide an overview of traditional booktalks and their
benefits for students, a guide for how to create them, and finally how to expand them to include
other media as both topics and tools for the talks. The authors reinforce the importance of
reading for pleasure and the strong impact it can have on student learning.

Experience the “Shift”: Build an iCentre
Lyn Hay describes a welcome trend in Australia toward the design and building of iCentres
in schools. Similar in concept to the learning commons, the iCentre is a hub of teaching and
learning where teacher librarians, administrators, classroom teachers, IT staff and others
collaborate to create and a total learning environment for students. The growing acceptance of
iCentres and their recognition by various government and education authorities, is an exciting
development. Hay provides information and guidance which should be useful to anyone
adopting the learning commons approach.

Play in The Library: PrimordiaL Learning
Sherry R. Crow and Jennifer Robins explain the importance of play in the learning process and
provide an arsenal of evidence to support their argument. Their use of self-determination theory
(SDT) and its components—competence, autonomy, and relatedness – strengthens an already
strong case. Keep this article handy for the naysayers who eschew play in the learning process.

Report from the Field
Gail C. Bailey and Myra A. Paul report the fascinating and positive findings of an important study
conducted by their school district. Surprising few of us, the study found that school libraries and
teacher librarians make a significant contribution to student achievement. They provide very
useful information on the design and methodology of the study.

The unfortunate typo in the poster of the April issue of Teacher Librarian has been brought to our attention. We apologize for the error. An investigation has been launched to ascertain how such a mistake could occur. Preliminary indications point to human error, although aberrant auto-correcting software could have played a role.

A correct version of the poster, suitable for use, can be downloaded here. The correct poster also appears in the digital edition of Teacher Librarian available here.

We apologize for the error and inconvenience.