Collaboration/ Instructional Design

• Librarians as learning specialists : meeting the learning imperative for the 21st century by Allison Zmuda and Violet H. Harada (Libraries Unlimited, 2008, 128 p., $_____, ISBN: 9781591586791)

  Zmuda and Harda have written the best professional book for teacher librarians during 2008. Zmuda is a member of the cadre of ASCD and Harada is retired from the Univeristy of Hawaii. Together, the are giving a central piece of advice to teacher librarians who want to move into the center of teaching and learning. Readers of Teacher Librarian may have seen this team’s article in the _______ issue where they discuss the major changes in learning reform in a school and where the teacher librarian fits in this move towards excellence. It is at the center where we belong. And if we don’t move there, someone else will. It is worth suspending all the problems that we can all list of why we are not at the center currently. It is worth considering, studying, talking with colleagues about, and getting the courage to do what they recommend. The wonderful thing about this book is that it speaks to other members of the educational community as well as it speaks to us. Thus, you can give a chapter to a group of teachers or to your administrator and set a time to discuss it. If you have not yet seen or encountered this book since it was published, order it today and the minute it comes, concentrate on its message.

   

• Greater expectations : teaching academic literacy to underrepresented students by Robin Turner (Stenhouse, 2008, 226 p., $18.00, ISBN: 9781571107404)

  Robin Turner is the product of the Puente program in California that targets college bound minority students and AP classes. This program concentrates of preparing students to write and do research as a part of intensive literacy. Turner takes us on a personal journey as he teaches us how to work with the underrepresented student. Turner now teaches at Cal State Fullerton but his work is certainly good for the AP English classes in high school. But where is the library? Not is this fine teacher’s repertoire. Why not? No mention of a high school teacher librarian or the college librarian now that he is there. What a missed opportunity! It is all part the current assumption that the classroom is the only influence in learning that matters. So why bother with Turner at all? He sets students at the task of doing research. Research where? By what means? It’s a mystery, although the students end up learning to cite information they must pull out of the air because there is no mention of the source of their information. Why Turner, indeed. How much more would Turner’s students succeed if a teacher librarian were in the harness with him? And, what would it take to collaborate with someone obvirously successful with the very group we would like to be successful with? I’m assigning you to read this book to get into the mind of such a teacher; to understand what he is concerned about; what makes him tick; what language does he use to describe what quality research and writing looks like? Then, we take the Turners of the world and do a frontal assault with successful collaborations with others and the challenge that your students can be even better. I’m thinking that Turner’s like him just need to meet a teacher librarian superstar. So watch out, Robin. I am going to contact your librarian at Magnolia High School in Anaheim California and get the scoop.

   

• A teacher's guide to multisensory learning : improving literacy by engaging the senses by Lawrence Baines (ASCD, 2008, 2007 p., $_____, ISBN: 9781416607137)

  Baines reminds us all that there are many advantages to build upon the solid research that using sight, sound, smell, taste, movement, touch, and play will enhance learning and understanding. He has gathered sample lessons that take advantage of these stimuli for the classroom teacher to use on topics he has selected. The value in this book of examples is not the possibility of involving the library, because his examples don’t’, but we can learn from his integrations how to integrate such techniques into learning. So, think of the instances in collaborative units where you have used or promoted the learning through the various senses. If few examples come to mind, then perhaps this is a book to revive interest in what we already know from Howard Gardner. Otherwise, skip this one.

   

• Collaborative library research projects : inquiry that stimulates the senses by John D. Volkman (Libraries Unlimited, 2008, 196 p., $_____, ISBN: 9781591586234)

  Setting up stations in the library where teens do mini-projects that add up in some way to investigate a broad topic has had some popularity for some teacher librarians. It is one way of controlling what students are doing under the watchful eye of the classroom teacher and the teacher librarian. Volkman provides sixteen stations units complete with ideas for each station, its materials, purpose, and needed handouts. If you are a fan of this approach, then this book is for you. We prefer inquiry that is more governed by the questions that students create rather than those the adults do. Perhaps stations are one step in a freer and more open ended collaborative experience for both teachers and teacher librarians, but that is a matter of taste. Recommended with reservations.

   

• Better learning through structured teaching : a framework for the gradual release of responsibility by Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey (ASCD, 2008, 146 p., $_____, ISBN: 9781416606352)

  It is easy to dismiss this book as but another traditional behaviorist teaching methods book. Not so. The subtitle: gradual release of responsibility, is the central point of the book and the central issue for teacher librarians as they integrate the AASL Learning Standards into learning activities. For many years, we as a profession, have emphasized that by teaching information literacy, students become more and more independent learners, confident that they can attack any question, project, or problem in an information-rich world. Now, if we could just ask Fisher and Frey to refocus this book from just a classroom teacher to a co-teaching stance, this book would be a central element in our collaborative work.  I wish I could reproduce their model here because it is immediately understandable and thought provoking. The steps leading from teacher responsibility to student responsibility go through the following stages: The teacher teaches a focused lesson and the student does it; the teacher guides instruction and “we”  do the task; collaborative learning focuses on “you do it together;” and independent learning strategies mean “you do it alone.” Fisher and Frey demonstrate what each step is not and then proceed to demonstrate each level as they teach the reader methods to make progress from dependent learners to independent learners.  If the reader can get over the focus just on the classroom teacher and stretch the ideas here to a co-teaching stance, then this is one of the best brief books of the year.

   

• Designing & assessing educational objectives : applying the new taxonomy by Robert J. Marzano and John S. Kendall (Corwin Press, AASA, NAESP and NASSP, 2008, 184 p., $_____, ISBN: 9781412940351)

  There are several  attempts to reinvent Bloom’s taxonomy in publication that we have reviewed before. Marzano’s version is featured in this publication with the obvious approval of a number of school administrator associations. Marzano’s taxonomy combines a self-system, a metacognitive system and a cognitive systems to produce knowledge. At each step of the revised taxonomy, Marzano and Kendall provide methods of assessment that are quite clear. For six types of learning within the above taxonomy such as metacognition, analysis, or compression, the reader is taught how to assess at that level with just enough examples that the reader can construct assessment measures. With assessment being a major topic of conversation across education in the new presidential administration, teacher librarians should be equipped to enter the conversation since our own new AASL Learning Standards require a much broader look at our own agenda and how it is to be assessed along side the agenda of the classroom teacher. For this reason, this book is labeled required reading for every teacher librarian in order to participate in the major conversations within the professional learning community of the school. One of the best publications along with James Popham’s Transformative Assessment (ASCD, 2008).

   

• The collaboration handbook by Tony Buzzeo (Linworth, 2008, 132 p. $_____, ISBN: 1586832980)

  Most teacher librarians have heard one or more presentations by Toni who has cress crossed the country encouraging collaboration. Tony notes that collaboration really begins with a teacher partner as cooperation in order to gain trust and then inches its way toward collaboration where team planning, team teaching, and team assessment are happening. She goes one step further by suggesting what she terms data-driven collaboration. This idea watches for the “gaps” in student achievement and then concentrates the collaborative efforts in those target areas. This is a brilliant idea since it takes advantage of the two heads are better than one idea as both partners try to concentrate on turning a weakness into a strength. Another good idea is that the contribution of the teacher librarian is not just a research model. Rather, Buzzeio looks across a wide variety of literacies for the collaborative effort. We have been emphasizing just one aspect of literacies, the research scaffold for much too long. Rather, we use every possible tool, resource, and technology to push achievement along side our partner. The book ends with a brief treatment of web 2.0 ideas for collaboration which could have been integrated into the rest of the text. This book is a little larger than a paperback size, so it is a handy guide to a topic that needs to be front and center in every teacher librarian’s program. If you like Tony’s message, this is an excellent printed guide to use, study, and implement.

• Transformative assessment by W. James Popham (ASCD, 2008, 150 p., $_____, ISBN: 9781416606673) Popham, who opposes the current do all end all state testing, takes quite a different approach to assessment. He looks at formative rather than the summative once a year kinds. Formative assessment happens continuously during the teaching and learning process, not just at year’s or semester’s end. Popham teaches his four-tiered system beginning with the planning and instillation of tools and procedures, followed by  assessing student level tactics, followe by adjusting classroom climate, and ending with school-wide implementation. He is looking at a wide variety of factors that happen or should happen every day to demonstrate that excellence in learning is happening. Should the current craze in summative testing come under questioning, then this book will provide one of the major options. For that reason, it should be in your collection if not in your head as teacher librarian/leader. Recommended as a work from a major scholar in the field.

• Powerful learning : what we know about teaching for understanding by Linda Darling-Hammond, et.al. (Wiley, 2008, 274 p. $_____, ISBN: 9780470276679)

  There are hundreds of books giving sample units of instruction for teachers to mimic or try in their own classrooms. This one is a big cut above the competition. Why? The George Lucas Educational Foundation or GLEF, is dedicated to finding the best instructional strategies in a technology-rich world with their website, newsletters, and books. This one is a jewel. It is a collection of articles about the role of technology in teaching and learning and a collection of excellent examples from actual classrooms the help us view excellence in action. The appendices are worth the price of the book since they list the various recommended strategies, describe them, and list the foundational sources supporting that strategy. There are two ways to approach this book for use in professional learning community discussions: by strategy or sample unit. In five minutes, the discussion leader can present either with the example of a particular chapter, then question: What is there about this strategy that makes it likely to succeed? How would we adapt this strategy for the learners in our school? Within ten to fifteen minutes, such a conversation would lead to a volunteer to try and then showcase the strategy to the rest of the school. This is one of the most important books of the year.

• Childhood and nature : design principles for educators by David Sobel (Stenhouse, 2008, 168p. $_____, ISBN: 9781571107411)

  In a post-NCLB world, educators and parents will be looking for alternatives. We thought we should bring this curricular focus to your attention as one alternative.  Based around nature mysticism, Sobel proposes a curriculum that centers itself in a union with nature in an effort to lessen man’s footprint. While the entire perspective may be a bit much for most, there are enough interesting ideas here for nature study so that the volume is worth examination.

   

• REFRAMING TEACHER LEADERSHIP TO IMPROVE YOUR SCHOOL by Douglas B. Reeves (ASCD, 2008, 204p. ISBN: 978 1416606661) In his latest book, Reeves places action research at the center of school improvement. He posits that teachers become leaders when they are testing ideas from research in their classrooms and reporting the results on Data Walls or science-fair type expositions. The key to school improvement, then, is based on evidence that our practices are effective based on increased learning.  This idea follows the ideas of Reeves in his previous book The Learning Leader (ASCD, 2006) where he categorized the successful teacher is one who succeeds and knows why. We could not agree more and recommend that the Experimental Learning Center of the Learning Commons (the library media center) be the center of such research activity that informs the faculty as a whole. When there is an atmosphere of collaboration in the achievement of excellence because everyone expects that there is a place in the school where experimentation is the central focus, then the likelihood that a positive attitude toward continuous school improvement is likely to develop and sustained across years and across faculty turnover or student demographic evolution. If the action research combines both the classroom teacher and one or more specialists such as the teacher librarian, then the focus of school improvement turns to ascertaining the impact of collaboration among the faculty. Such  a focus would go a long way in promoting the idea that everyone has a stake in school improvement rather than just isolated teachers in closed classrooms. For example, the theme of the school year through its action research could be on the impact of actual collaborative teaching and learning resulting in a data wall exhibition for the school board, parent groups, the news media, presentations at professional conventions, and to any other interested audience. What is leaned as a group becomes part of the repertoire of teaching strategies for the school. We named Reeves previous book a winner. And, while this one is a bit tougher read, its central message is well worth considering.  Highly recommended.

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• Instruction for All Students; 2nd edition, by Paula Rutherford (Just Ask Publications, 2008, 320 pp., $34.95, ISBN: 9780977779688)

  Need a bluffer’s bible? A one-page summary of several hundred major educational ideas and strategies? Well, here is your source. The author summarizes the central ideas and provides one or more publications to pursue the idea further. Is the coverage sufficient to understand and immediately practice? No. But it does offer a central kernel of an idea. The ideas are grouped in sections: In the news and influencing our thinking, Lesson & unit design, Presentation Modes, Active learning, Assignments, Assessment, Differentiation, Thinking skills, The learning environment, and, Collaboration. The one-page ideas include 21st Century Skills, Self-Assessment, Graphic Organizers, Task Analysis, Job-Embedded Learning, Technology Integration and a host of other ideas. So, why acquire this book? Simply to define a topic in educational jargon and pursue it. One can’t become well acquainted here, but it is a start. So, if you want to cram for a professional learning community discussion, here is a brief summary. Of course, to use the one page as “all I know about a concept” is not very wise, but at least it provides a beginning for further investigation. And, that is why we think you will find some interesting quick reading here. The book comes with a CD of the pages that can be used as handouts.  Recommended.

• A guide to co-teaching : practical tips for facilitating student learning, 2nd edition, by Richard A. Villa, Jacqueline S. Thousand, and Ann I. Nevin (Corwin Press, 2008, 213 pp. $_____, ISBN: 9781412960588)

  If you can get on Richard Villas calendar, you can probably get on anyone’s. This popular speaker with his two co-authors come from the field of special education, but they introduce the concept of co-teaching to the wider audience of teachers in this book. In their definition of co-teaching (that teacher librarians code collaboration), the authors say: “ Co-teaching can be likened to a marriage. Partners must establish trust, develop and work on communication, share the chores, celebrate, work together creatively to overcome the inevitable challenges and problems, and anticipate conflict and handle it in a constructive way.” They cite the benefits as follows:

  •    Two heads are better than one

  •    Opportunities to use research-based interventions

  •    Increased capacity to problem solve and individualize learning

  •    Empowerment of co-teaching partners

  •    Teacher-to-student ratio is increased leading to better teaching and learning conditions

  •    A greater sense of community is fostered in the classroom (and we would add, in the school)

  •    Co-teachers report professional growth, professional support, and enhanced motivation

  •    Increased job satisfaction

  They back up their clams with a few research studies reported in several special education research journals.  As with the teacher librarian literature, they see that there are various levels of co-teaching from cooperation through actual co-teaching where both partners are on the stage together. Thus we have specialists who are working with teachers who have special education students integrated into their classroom and they are trying to figure out how a specialist and a teacher can make a difference larger than they could make separately. That is why this book is essential reading for teacher librarians. How do others propose getting into the classroom? What are their techniques? How to they actually make a difference. Here is a work to compare their techniques with the teacher librarian set of strategies developed over the years. No, we are not in this picture, but we could be. It is a challenge all specialists face. Perhaps the most effective approach is to gang up together and do a frontal assault on the fortress. Highly recommended.

• Teamwork : setting the standard for collaborative teaching, grades 5-9 by Monique D. Wild,  Amanda S Mayeaux, and Kathryn P. Edmonds (Stenhouse, 2008, 176 pp., $_____, ISBN: 9781571107114)

  What does collaboration really look like, feel like, and how does it really work?  Three middle school teachers, who as a team, won the Disney Teacher of the Year Award, describe the formation of a dynamic teaching team that is able to make a major difference in their school. How does a team get beyond the business of the day, the barriers, and the mundane to really work together on the improvement of teaching and learning? This book is worth the read to ascertain how this particular team succeeds and their recommendations for the rest of us. No longer in the school together, I wondered how much involvement other specialists had in their success, because they really don’t mention the impact of either the library or the teacher librarian. Checking with their teacher librarian, I find that there is a bit of collaboration going on. One wishes there were more – more opportunities for all the specialists in the school to realize that even the best teacher teams can improve with the ideas from others. This book is worth reading because so many strategies discussed will work elsewhere with local adaptations.  Highly recommended.

• Making standards useful in the classroom by Robert J. Marzano (ASCD, 2008, 294p. $_____, ISBN: 9781416606482)

  Of the hundreds of speakers every year at the ASCD national convention, few draw bigger crowds than Robert Marzano. Known for his What Works series of books that spotlight research-supported practices for teaching, learning, and schooling in general, Marzano’s extended view of education backed by a long career of experiences with top thinkers, makes him a major attraction. This year, he spotlighted his new book and its full first printing was sold out in a matter of hours. Making Standards Useful in the Classroom has some major practical suggestions. As Marzano traces the standards movement in the U.S., he notes the bloated curriculum suggests that it would take at least 22 years to deliver if it were all covered the way that it is laid out in the various standards documents. This is because the mathematicians tend to think that their subject is the most important one in the curriculum and so they want it all covered. This can be said of all curricular areas including the concerns of teacher librarians. His solution? Reduce the number of topics for a school year to a maximum of fifteen so that the current rush to cover would be replaced by more in depth studies. We could not agree more. The knowledge of the world is expanding rapidly and if we continue to try to cover everything, we are all doomed to failure.  The second thing Marzano does is to recommend a standardized rubric for measurement across the various content areas – a scale upon which all teachers could agree and learners could expect. His scale goes from zero to four with half-increments such as 2.5 or 3.5. The scale is appealing because at 3.0, a student has mastered the standard and gets the A. If the student scores above 3.5, that student has pushed into the excellence range, or what we would term the expertise to compete globally. Such a notion counters the current mediocrity of NCLB that only concentrates on students achieving the minimum at their particular grade level. These two ideas are exciting indeed, but only as far as they go. Some will argue that the power of letter grades is not covered well in his rubric scoring system because a 2.0 equals a C, a 2.5 is a B, and a 3.0 is an A – meaning that there is a very narrow range between 0-4 where normal grading practices are understood by parents and students. That one can be solved, we think, but there are two major issues missing for teacher librarians and the major ideas being pushed by the Partnership for 21st Century Learning. The first idea is “learning how to learn” (information literacy, media literacy, critical thinking, creative thinking, etc.) and the second is the explosion of information and technology. To be fair to Marzano, he does suggest rubrics for what he terms life skills including participation, work completion, behavior, and working in groups. But there is a world of learning to learn strategies that Marzano has never addressed in his interests or in his research. The same goes for the expansion of the world of information and technology. These two areas seem not to have come into Marzano’s radar screen.  This lack of understanding becomes quite amusing when he sets up rubrics for research in the language arts rubrics. By fourth grade, students who can use an encyclopedia article to extract information get an A, and excel with a 4 score if they can do detailed Internet searches. These two blind spots are major deficiencies in our opinion. If we cut the number of topics studied, then students need to build and reflect on their learning skills simultaneously so that they begin to understand that they know and can do a great deal about some topics but also have the power to learn and master anything they wish to learn. They are smart and they know how to learn. It is a powerful two-pronged thrust into global excellence. Thus, to teacher librarians, this book is half the story and thus a challenge to its author to expand his vision into the real world of 21st century information and technology systems. It is a challenge that many educators wish to ignore because they feel pressured to cover just what is in the textbook. So, consider carefully the Marzano proposals in this book. Teachers will surely have opinions about his recommendations. And, perhaps that is the sign of an engaging book. Is there such a thing as a half recommendation for a book? We will rate this one on Marzano’s own rubric as being 1.5: “Partial knowledge of the simpler details and processes but major errors or omissions regarding the more complex issues and processes.”

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• Deeper learning : 7 powerful strategies for in-depth and longer-lasting learning by Eric Jensen and LeAnn Nickelsen (Corwin Press, 2008, 312 pp. $_____, ISBN: 9781412952033)

  Every great teacher and teacher librarian has a bag of tricks in their head that usually work or that can be modified in a moment’s notice to adapt to  learners of various types and in various situations. At first glance, our authors are headed directly there and are right on target.  They present a model that pushes students toward more than surface learning. First, they suggest  that teachers begin with the standards statements, then build knowledge of the group you are working with, developing positive student engagement strategies, activate their prior knowledge, and then they provide a plethora of strategies for activating and thinking about what they are learning ending in evaluation.  Most ideas are for engaging students in text and we liked the many worksheets that force the learner to interpret and think about what they are reading and doing. However, these authors need a good teacher librarian who would introduce them to the world of information and technology adding strategies not only for various information types but also information literacy and so what activities as the culmination of what they know and how they learned it. So, if you need text-based engagement strategies, this is a book to purchase and study. However, for a collaborative tool that pushes kids into the real world of the Internet, film, and web 2.0, I am looking for something much deeper. Not recommended.

   

• Communities that learn, lead, and last: building and sustaining educational expertise by Giselle O. Martin-Kniep (Jossey Bass, 2008, 213pp. $_____, ISBN: 9780787985134)

  We have reviewed a number of books on professional learning communities simply because they hold the best promise of change within a school and, if teacher librarians are involved, then an opportunity to interject the library directly into a serious conversation. We have particularly recommended the works of the DuFours as the most practical guide to PLCs as they are known, but this one is particularly attractive because it provides not only practical advice for creating and sustaining PLCs, but also rubrics that help groups reflect on their goals, their organization, their progress, and the results. These rubrics or reflection pieces are spread throughout the text and then are collected in the appendix for easy use. The author has a great deal of experience as president of Communities for Learning, a non-profit located in New York. The writing is clear, sensible, and with enough practical suggestions that this is a must read. For folks who have experimented with and failed at PLCs, we still recommend this as a good read. What is the mechanism in your school to engage in serious conversation about teaching and learning? What ever that mechanism, this book would provide guidance on reflection on the organization and strategies for success. Sometimes popular  ideas like PLCs are tried and fail for various reasons, but the lack of conversation is no solution to anything. Bottom line: a must purchase and a good read.

• How to coach teachers who don't think like you : using literacy strategies to coach across content areas by Bonnie M. Davis (Corwin Press, 2008, 214 pp., $_____, ISBN: 9781412949095)

  Instructional coaches, specialists within the school, and teacher librarians all have something in common as they attempt to collaborate with classroom teachers – locked doors. Davis is not thinking about teacher librarians, but writes eleven chapters that can be read/used as professional development conversations in any sequence. Her topics overlap teacher librarians concerns: moving from teaching students to coaching teachers; organizing to save stress, time, and mistakes; coaching teachers who don’t think like you; scheduling time for coaching; and, coaching teams of teachers to improve instruction. Davis assumes that a coach does not have a warehouse to tend as teacher librarians do, however, there are enough good ideas here to consider for collaborative strategies not already in the literature of teacher librarians. The idea occurs to us that if there are other specialists in the school who are having the same problem we are, then why not ban together as a professional learning community of specialists with concerned administrators and get a focused program of coaching going throughout the school that has a better chance for real change and impact on achievement. For this reason, we recommend the Davis book for ideas not only for ourselves but for other struggling professionals like ourselves.

• 75 outrageous ideas for librarians to impact student achievement : fun ideas to motivate students and inspire collaboration by Laurie Noble Thelen (Linworth Publishing, 2008, 89 pp. $_____, ISBN: 1586832328)

  Of the many definitions of the word outrageous, we suppose that our author means: highly unusual or unconventional; extravagant; or remarkable. Thus, sone approaches this thin book with high anticipation. As we read the various activities, we applied the question: “Are two heads better than one?” That is, would the combined efforts of teacher and teacher librarian be better using these activities than if either of the partners tried to do them alone? We also looked at the process of collaboration, asking: Does the information literacy goal for the lesson support the learning of the content objective? Does the assessment actually measure both the content and the information literacy skill to be taught? Does the learning activity actually match the objectives stated? Are the learning activities “outrageous?” Was there a “so what” activity at the end of the learning activity to stimulate higher-level thinking? And, finally, How likely would the activities contribute to achievement as stated? We think such questions should be emblazoned on planning sheets, posters, and into the minds and hearts of every teacher librarian. When given the great gift of collaboration, how do we actually perform? We did find a few activities here that were mildly interesting, but not enough to justify the purchase of this book. However, the purchase might be justified for a professional development session with teacher librarians at a district level. Take a copy of the book, cut it up and distribute pages to teams of teacher librarians. Using the rubric questions above, have the group critique and reinvent the activity they are to critique. Perhaps we could all gain better ideas of actually how we could contribute to teaching and learning. So, in a strange way, buy this book and then be outrageous enough to move beyond it as you test your own creativity and skill.

• Sustaining professional learning communities edied by Alan M. Blankstein, Paul D. Houston, and Robert W. Cole (Corwin Press, 2008, 203p. $_____. ISBN: 9781412949378)The editors have gathered a number of essays from prominent educators who have had a leadership role in establishing  and leading professional learning communities. A number of the essays concentrate on the sustainability of the PLC as it functions after the initial enthusiasm. Their focus is on achieving the ends the PLCs were designed to address.

• Leading professional learning communities : voices from research and practice by Shirley M. Hord and William A Sommers (Corewing Press, 2008, 103p. $_____, ISBN: 9781412944762)The authors describe professional learning communities for the novice reader: their why, how to set them up, their function, how they operate over the year, and what they should accomplish. For schools establishing or re-designing faltering PLCs, this would be a good basic work.