Collaborate

 

Working Together For A Common Goal

 

I was able to interview Jenny Summey, a school librarian at Cowpens Elementary School in November.  Jenny serves students who are in kindergarten through fifth grade. 

The questions I asked Jenny were: 

What are some ways you are incorporating the shared competencies in the school library?

How important are the shared competencies when you are planning lessons in the library?

Are any of the competencies overlapping with the SC state standards and how do you collaborate with teachers when planning your library lessons to align with their classroom instruction?

Do you face any challenges when implementing these competencies?

We talked about a lesson on theme she had just completed with students.  Theme is in the state standards across multiple grade levels.  When students join her for the lesson, she reviews the concept with a graphic organizer and connects with other books they’ve read and the theme of those books.  She said she had students turn and talk and come up with ways the books share a theme.  She asked students to share with their partners said. She read a new book and again had students share whole group about the theme after turning and talking once again.  Finally, students worked in pairs to choose a book and create their own shared theme “bumper sticker”.  In the end student pairs shared their bumper sticker and why they chose it for the book and theme.  Allowing students to connect with peers, collaborate, and share keeps students engaged while they are adding to their learning, developing new ideas, and also challenging understanding with others’ thoughts and perspectives.

 

I discussed with Jenny the shared domain, Collaborate, and how important it is to use during lessons in the library.  She said it was absolutely necessary and essential and that it really jumpstarts conversations and extends learning with her students.  Students working together to solve a problem, develop an idea, or investigate the unknown together is what collaboration in the library is all about!  This also gives students who may not be able to solve problems or develop ideas independently the opportunity to work with someone who can help them achieve common goals by working together.  I love how during the turn and talk to a neighbor and partner sharing, students are able to learn from others and clarify any misunderstandings or change their own thinking while learning new information or rethinking about ideas and concepts previously taught.

 

Jenny said that it is very easy to integrate the domains and competencies with the SC state standards.  She plans with teachers regularly to help coteach and present the same concepts in the library lessons that students are working on in the classrooms.  I can tell that having relationships with teachers, whether it is through planning times or via emails and google doc lesson plan sharing, it is important to work together towards a common goal.  Collaborating with teachers ensures we are all effectively working together for the common goal—to help our students learn and grow.  This is exactly what we want to be able to teach them how to do while in the library working together.  Modeling a collaborative environment while working with teachers shows students we can learn more and deepen our thinking as well as correct misunderstanding when we work together and are open to others’ perspectives and ideas. 

 

We discussed how with the collaboration competency, the biggest challenge is getting students to actually talk.  We live in such a technology driven world, that when we give students the opportunity to talk and discuss a topic, they often do not know how to collaborate.  This is a skill that really has to be modeled and taught, and it’s almost like pulling teeth to get students to speak sometimes!  Jenny also said that collaboration can be really tough with the younger grades because they haven’t had any opportunities to develop this skill, so it can sometimes be a little challenging (chaotic) doing collaborative work with kindergarteners! 

 

What’s next?

School librarians should create an environment that allows students to work together for collaboration through library programs and instruction, helping students to develop and strengthen their problem-solving and critical thinking skills.  Allowing students the opportunity to collaborate and setting the expectation of physical discussion, helps students develop necessary skills of collaboration, communication, and working with others which are skills everyone needs when working outside of a school environment as well.  In the future, I will model a collaborative environment while promoting students to engage and learn from each other.