Teacher Librarian Feature Article

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Volume 31, Number 1, October 2003

TAG Team: Collaborate to Teach, Assess and Grow

Janie Schomberg discusses the process of initiating, developing and implementing a collaborative unit at her elementary school.

When it comes to collaborating on planning and implementing a curriculum unit, the old adage holds true: two heads (the teacher and the teacher-librarian) really are better than one! Collaboration is often a stated goal in our schools and deemed best practice but making it work can be a challenge.

According to Information power (ALA, 1998, pp. 50-51), "collaboration is:

Essential as librarians work with teachers to plan, conduct, and evaluate learning activities that incorporate information literacy;
Critical as librarians work with teachers and administrators to build and manage collections that include all formats and support authentic, information-based learning; and
Basic as librarians work with teachers, administrators, parents, and other members of the learning community to plan, design, and implement programs that provide access to the information that is required to meet students' learning goals."

Keith Curry Lance's research provides strong support for teacher-librarians and teachers to work collaboratively, drawing a direct link between higher reading scores and collaboration (Lance, 2002). In addition, David Loertscher and Douglas Achterman contend "when two professionals are delivering a quality learning experience, the odds of success are doubled" (Loertscher & Achterman, 2002, p. 12).

At Leal Elementary School, the teacher evaluation system is based on a Learning Teams model. Each Learning Team is required to focus each year on a specific area of our School Improvement Plan. Based on the professional literature, best practices and current research, our learning team set out to focus our professional growth project for 2001-2002 on collaboration and assessment.

Previous collaborative efforts focused on bits and pieces of the collaborative process: cooperatively brainstorming and developing plans for a teacher-taught unit; selecting materials (print, non-print and electronic) for use by teacher/students during an instructional unit; coordinated teaching, with the classroom teacher focusing on content instruction and the teacher-librarian teaching information literacy skills as needed. In other words, our collaborative efforts could be described as parallel goals approached separately.

Our Learning Team made the commitment to move from token efforts to the best practices of collaborative instruction. Our comprehensive goal was to collaboratively plan, deliver and assess instructional units that focused on not only content and product, but more specifically on the importance of the research process as well as the formal assessment of that process. We began an intensive effort to collaborate on a solar system unit from start to finish.

Assessment is a relatively new collaborative component for us as we move toward standards-based instruction and student-involved assessment. To prepare for our teamwork, we spent several months in intensive research, reading and discussion of materials on assessment, collaboration and information skills. This gave us common ground, knowledge and vocabulary for the hard work ahead.

Our specific assessment goal was to develop rubrics and student self-assessment instruments for the content, process and product components of our collaborative units. We hoped these assessment tools could be adapted and replicated for other units and grade levels.

We determined five necessary phases and steps in our collaborative process: planning, instruction, information gathering, product and assessment.

Planning

Identify the content, process skills and concepts for the unit based on state and national standards. Identifying district, state and national standards in unit development is essential in today's standards-based educational environment. From these standards, learning targets can be identified and shared with students so they know exactly what is expected of them;
Administer a pre-test to determine what students already know about the unit topic and adjust learning targets accordingly;
Determine core information for direct instruction. Direct instruction of core information provides students with the basic understandings and background they will need to pursue research questions;
Develop student information graphic organizers. Young students are just learning how to generate questions. If the primary goal of the unit is to locate information within sources, pre-determined categories and questions will help students develop that skill. Graphic organizers will assist them in recording the information they locate. While older students are capable of developing their own questions, they too benefit from graphic organizers;
Determine final product or product choices;
Develop student assessment and student self-assessment tools. Student self-assessment tools such as checklists and reflection activities ensure that students are given the opportunity to learn how to reflect on and/or evaluate their own work. Familiarizing students with the assessment process and the instruments that will be used to evaluate their work will increase their understanding of the unit expectations;
Ascertain availability of sources appropriate to the abilities of the students. If the research goal is for the young student to locate information within the source, pre-selecting the sources, including Internet sites, will promote that goal. This will add to their opportunity for success. Older students are more capable of accessing, using and evaluating their sources;
Adapt learning targets, materials and product for special needs students; and
Determine instructional roles of collaborators.

Instruction

Provide direct instruction of core information;
Provide direct instruction of/for research steps/processes as needed; and
Model the research process and product. Modeling the process and product will greatly increase students' understanding of what they will be doing as well as their potential for success. This step gives students a clear picture of the learning targets. Demonstrating application of the assessment instruments for the sample product should be a part of the modeling process.

Information gathering

Select and locate information resources;
Take notes using graphic organizers; and
Categorize and organize information using strategies and techniques developed in language arts instruction and experiences.

Product

Synthesize and communicate information in the predetermined or selected format. This may include creating a written component and selecting or creating a graphic component. The subject matter as well as the age, abilities and independence of the learners will have a direct effect on the choice of a final product. Examples include a flip book, written report, tri-fold brochure, demonstration, oral group presentation, Powerpoint presentation or a web page;
Give credit to sources (bibliography).

Assessment

Student self-assessment
Teacher assessment

TAG in action

Our 2001 collaborative solar system unit was fact-based by design in order to focus heavily on the beginning research process for our young students. As we proceeded through the collaborative steps we predetermined questions, categories and organizers for our students so they could be successful in finding simple facts in pre-selected information resources. The modeling component was extensive. As the students were to research the individual planets, we selected the Earth as our topic for the modeling phase. The entire class worked with us to dig for facts using different resources, take notes using the graphic organizers and create the flip book, which was the designated final product. As a group, we applied the Content, Process and Product Rubric to the completed product.

The modeling phase was key to the success of our unit. At the end of that phase, the students knew exactly what was expected of them - the learning targets were clear and they were ready to begin their own research. As students moved through the steps of their own research, we provided guidance and assistance as and when needed. Adaptations were made for an autistic student - a simplified topic and product based on a more concrete topic. At the end of the unit, each research pair completed the Research Process Checklist with guidance from the teacher-librarian. The collaborators completed the rubric for the final product and communicated the results to the students. After completing our 2001 solar system unit, we revised the unit, modifying elements in which we felt the students or we stumbled along the way. In February 2003, we taught the "new and improved" solar system unit to a mixed class of Grades 3 and 4 students. We plan to regularly reassess the unit and the process, as our goal continues to be improved student learning and increased student achievement.

Three essential ingredients for instructional collaboration

There must be "real" time for collaborative planning. We did it before and after school, over lunch hours, on the weekend, whenever we could grab some time.
There must be flexible access to the library and teacher-librarian for collaborative units to be successful. Our school population allows for a combination of fixed and flexible scheduling but the time not scheduled does not always match with the schedule needs of the classroom.
There must be administrative support for a collaborative climate in which all instructional staff members are instructional partners. If that support is not present, collaboration will be very difficult to get off the ground.

Our journey to effective instructional collaboration and student-involved assessment continues to be anything but linear as we move back and forth between steps and components. We frequently need to take a step back to look once again at the research and best practice literature. Our team did an extensive study of Student-involved classroom assessment (Stiggins, 2001), and we participated as one of the state teams in the Illinois Standards-Aligned Classrooms Project. We continue to be excited by our work together, and, as is the case with many growing things, the more we do, the more we have to learn. We anticipate each collaborative experience will take us further in our journey as we learn from each other and from our students.

References:

American Association Of School Librarians (1998). Information power: Building partnerships for learning . Chicago: American Library Association.

Arter, J., & Busick, K. (2001). Practice with student-involved classroom assessment . Portland, OR: Assessment Training Institute.

Burke, K. (1999). How to assess authentic learning. Arlington Heights, IL: Skylight Professional Development.

Lance, K.C. (2002). What research tells us about the importance of school libraries. White House Conference on School Libraries. Institute of Museum and Library Services. Retrieved June 8, 2003, from http://www.imls.gov/pubs/whitehouse0602/keithlance.htm

Loertscher, D., & Achterman, D. (2002). Increasing academic achievement through the library media center: A guide for teachers. San Jose, CA: Hi Willow Research and Publishing.

Stiggins, R. (2001). Student-involved classroom assessment , 3 rd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice-Hall.

URLs of Solar System Unit Components :

Collaborative Planning Guide - http://www.usd116.org/jschomberg/guide.htm

Graphic Organizer Sample - http://www.usd116.org/jschomberg/chart.htm

Research Process Checklist - http://www.usd116.org/jschomberg/checklist.htm

Content, Process, Product Rubric - http://www.usd116.org/jschomberg/rubric.htm

Collaborative Unit Overview - http://www.usd116.org/jschomberg/TAG

SIDEBAR I :

What can a school administrator do to facilitate collaboration?

Create a building focus on student learning;
Build, nurture, and support trust at all levels;
Establish and support an environment that defines professional growth as meaningful and purposeful to classroom work;
Establish and support staff learning teams - ".a small group of professionals who agree to experiment with new ideas and meet regularly for a specific period of time to share a specific professional growth experience guided by specific goals or purposes" (Arter & Busick, 2001, p. 15);
Provide resources and feedback for staff learning teams to work well together;
Keep professional work focused on school improvement; and
Honor teachers' time and efforts

Becky McCabe,

Principal

Leal Elementary School

SIDEBAR II:

What are some of the benefits of collaboration for you as the teacher-librarian?

When you and the classroom teacher collaborate, the process leads to a better understanding of mutual roles and responsibilities.
When you and the classroom teacher work as a team, the curriculum planning process is expanded and energized.
When you and the classroom teacher identify the standards, concepts and skills for the unit together, information literacy skills can truly be integrated into the content curriculum.
When you and the classroom teacher work together to develop the assessment instruments, you can address all the learning targets, including the process skills so often neglected in the assessment component of a content curriculum unit.
When you and the classroom teacher co-teach and model throughout a unit, the students begin to look at you differently - not as that library teacher they see on Thursdays for library class, but as a full member of their instructional team.
When you and the classroom teacher select instructional resources for a unit of study, resources are used to meet a wider variety of student needs.
Collaborative unit development and implementation place you right in the middle of the student achievement picture.

Janie Schomberg,