What’s a Library Lesson Curriculum Matrix & How Do I Use It?

Posted on August 18, 2020 by Barbara Paciotti

When we become a School Librarian we don’t cease being a teacher. What changes, however, is how we plan and present our lessons.

First, we no longer have a standard curriculum designed to be presented chronologically on a daily basis.
Second, we rarely have contiguous days with students, so we must spread learning across random, irregular library visits.

So, how can School Librarians teach Library Information Literacy Skills under such circumstances? We must scaffold stand-alone topical lessons that gradually build up knowledge, so students receive a comprehensive program of Information Literacy instruction.

In short, School Librarians must integrate info-lit skills into every subject and grade level, during single class periods throughout the school year. And the only way to do that is to become familiar with everyone’s subject area curriculum.

A VISUAL ORGANIZATION TOOL FOR SUBJECT CURRICULA

School Librarians must support what students are studying in the classroom, otherwise, teachers won’t allow time for a library visit. We don’t need to know course content as teachers do, but we must familiarize ourselves with content area units and their assessments so we can discern when students need an information literacy skill to do what they’re expected to do—even if it’s not written down and the teacher doesn’t realize it.

Once I decided this was the best approach, I had to devise a way to organize it: First, to identify when a library lesson was needed for students, and second, to track intermittent lessons and progressively build Info-Lit Skills. I decided to create a grid with different subject areas along one side and a chronological listing of my Library Info-Lit Lessons along the other side.

I worked my way through subjects and grade levels, and as I added actual lessons, I also entered Library Standards. The grid became quite unwieldy, but after digitization into a set of spreadsheets, with a few modifications & adjustments, I finally arrived at the finished product that I use even today:
the No Sweat School Library Lesson Curriculum Matrix.

USE MY TEMPLATE TO BUILD YOUR OWN CURRICULUM MATRIX

Colleagues have asked for more specifics about my LLC Matrix, so for this blog post I’m explaining the template I created so any school librarian can fill in their own subject curricula and library lessons.

My Matrix Template is available from No Sweat Library, my TPT store, but for my email group it’s a free download from our e-List Library.
If you’re not on my mailing list, join now so you can access all the valuable FREE school librarian tools I offer there. Plus you’ll receive a personal email when I add a new blog post!
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The No Sweat Library Lesson Curriculum Matrix Template contains 5 tabbed spreadsheets:

a year-long Library Scheduler overview page.
3 tabbed pages for Grade levels, in my case 6g, 7g, and 8g. (Add additional pages by copying one of the spreadsheets and rename tabs to align with your own grade levels.)
an Example sheet with some of my No Sweat Library Lessons entered to guide you through filling in your own information.

For each grade level spreadsheet, the Subject Area rows are listed down the left side, along with rows for Information Literacy and National School Library Standards. The Grading Period Week columns are across the top and between each subject. There is a separate block for each of the two semesters. Notice the “Freeze” entry: this feature allows you to slide the relevant time period next to the Subjects column.
(Customize subjects & grading periods for your situation.)

Here’s the step-by-step process for filling in the LLC Matrix Template:

Begin with a single subject area for your lowest grade level.
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Using the subject’s curriculum guide/scope & sequence, enter content unit titles/themes into the field for the week they begin. (I italicize these to keep them distinct from my library lesson information.)
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Look through the cg/ss for classroom assignments that could benefit from a library lesson or library resources. For the week you think it’s needed, colorize the block (the same color as the subject area) and type “Library Lesson” or “Library Resources.”
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In the Information Literacy row, under the corresponding week, add the skills that can be introduced and/or type of resource.
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Grab another subject area cg/ss for the grade level, and fill in units & identify probable library lessons or resources. Do this for each different subject at that grade level.
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Move to the next grade level and fill in subject area units and possible library lessons & resources. As you progress through each grade, keep in mind what you identified at prior grade levels, so you can plan a review and then introduce new skills.
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Once you have a preliminary LLC Matrix, pull out Library Lesson Plans that you regularly teach and replace your own Lesson info as shown in the example above. Be sure to enter National School Library Standards into the appropriate fields. (I like to enter my lesson Title into the subject row and the lesson Theme or Learning Target into the Info-Lit row.)

When you’ve finished your LLC Matrix, you’ll have a thorough picture of all subject area curricula and where you can create more lessons to introduce, review, and build Library Information Literacy Skills. You may also see the need to enhance the library’s print or digital collection to meet a curricular need you weren’t aware of.

Your LLC Matrix may occasionally need changes as standards and course curricula change, but if you keep up with it, you’ll always have a broad view of library visits and the Info-Lit Skills you cover for the grade levels.

The Library Lesson Curriculum Matrix is a great tool to show your principal during evaluations, so they understand how valuable you are to classroom learning!

HOW TO USE YOUR LIBRARY LESSON CURRICULUM MATRIX

Creating the Library Lesson Curriculum Matrix is the easy part. Creating specific Library Lessons is a bit more challenging. The really hard part is convincing teachers that students will benefit from a Library Lesson! Here’s how I do it:

At the start of each grading period I look over the upcoming library lessons & resources for that span in my Matrix. I select & print out enough of the Matrix so those teachers see how important their place is in building Info-Lit skills.
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I also print out each Library Lesson Plan so teachers can see how I incorporate their unit Standards and activities as a focus for the library skills lesson.
When only library resources are needed, I use my Library Lesson Short Form for Teacher Requests (available on my FREE Librarian Resources page).
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During their conference period, I go to each subject area teacher and show them the LLC Matrix and their Library Lesson Plan. I make it pretty easy for them to say “Yes, indeed, let’s do this!”
(For resources & Short Form, I suggest a “quick lesson” so students know how to best use the materials.)
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I also bring a selected print-out of the Library Scheduler spreadsheet and when I pull it out for scheduling their library visit they’re pretty impressed to see what a School Librarian’s job is all about!

You may be thinking, “Wait, shouldn’t we collaborate with the teacher before we create the Library Lesson Plan?” Uh, NO. In my experience, teachers who are unfamiliar with librarian collaboration can’t envision how we can help them. But, they’ll consider a library visit when we show them a concrete example of how we use their content to teach library skills that enhance classroom learning and increase student achievement.

NoSweat Library Lesson Planner Template - page 1

My No Sweat Library Lesson Planner Templates are available for download from my FREE Librarian Resources page!

Learn more about using my Library Lesson Planner Template from these blog posts:

Library Lesson Short Form for Teacher Requests - Print out this abbreviated form of the Library Lesson Planner Template and use it when teachers walk in with lesson requests! #NoSweatLibrary

Short, Simple, and Relevant School Library Lessons
How to Build a High Quality, Standards-Based School Library Lesson

GO FORTH & COLLABORATE WITH YOUR CURRICULUM MATRIX

Once you’ve completed your Library Lesson Curriculum Matrix, I know you’ll rely on it to develop your lessons and purchase resources. And when colleagues, teachers, and administrators see this tool, your professional standing with them will skyrocket! BTW, I’m open to any suggestions you may have for improvement…just put it in the Comments below.

Not Fixed vs Flex, But Responsive Scheduling for the School Library

Posted on February 27, 2020 by Barbara Paciotti

Fixed vs. Flexible Scheduling for school libraries has long been controversial, and AASL now recommends we implement “Responsive scheduling”. The purpose for library scheduling is often misunderstood by school administrators, by teachers, and even by School Librarians, so it’s time to take a fresh look.

To better understand the issue of fixed or flex or responsive scheduling, it may help to see how far we’ve come, and where we are now, so that we can effectively work toward where we need to be.

A SHORT HISTORY OF LIBRARY SCHEDULING

Fixed scheduling was originally a non-negotiable schedule of library visits set by school administration. Lessons came from a specific, fixed, scope-and-sequenced Library curriculum of what students needed to know about the library, just as English, Math, Social Studies, and Science were separate curricula. There was no coordination of Library skills with what was happening in classrooms, but that seemed OK, since none of the subject areas were coordinated either.

For the next 30 years we tried to coordinate and integrate curriculum to improve student learning, like adding literature, art, and music to Social Studies. Along the way we increased the use of technology and added authentic project-oriented assessment.

Educational advancements increased use of the school library, highlighting inadequacies in student information literacy skills and the need for an improved library program to address these skills at point of need. AASL’s Information Power (published in 1988 and republished in 1998) promoted the integration of library skills into the curriculum and a flexible approach to library use for the teaching of these skills. To make that happen, librarians and teachers would collaborate on how and when to teach what.

THE FLEX APPROACH: THE PROS & CONS

No more stand alone library lessons taught in isolation from other subjects. No more classes dropped off by teachers at prescribed times each day of each week. School Librarians would now flexibly schedule classes into the library when they needed to be there, for a few days in a row if necessary, and take time to plan with teachers to create lessons that integrate library skills into classroom activities.

Here’s where some misunderstanding arose. If fixed scheduling denied us power over our schedule, flex scheduling can also take away our decision-making power. If we’re told we can’t have any schedule at all, that we need to provide unlimited access, to anyone, anytime, to do anything, well, that isn’t what flex schedule means.

The key word is flexible. It means that, rather than being forced to accept specific classes on a regular schedule, WE determine who uses the library and when. It means we decide when a class needs to be in the library, and it means we can even have a fixed schedule for certain classes, because we have decided that is what students need.

True flex scheduling means we can say yes or no to casual drop-ins or last-minute requests, because we have a class scheduled to visit which requires our full attention, especially when we don’t have an aide to assist with book checkout. It also means that students working on projects we’ve had a part in teaching can come to the library at any time even if the class isn’t scheduled.

BENEFITS OF A COMBINATION FIXED/FLEX

A fixed schedule provides more opportunities for teaching and reinforcing library skills, so we must know our school’s curricula very well and develop a wide repertoire of activities to keep students engaged. Fixed schedules demand that we become as flexible as possible to plan with teachers and integrate curriculum into our library lessons.

Flex scheduling promotes integration of library skills into classroom activities; however, flexible schedules demand that we regularly plan with teachers and schedule classes for library and research skills. Either way, we must push ourselves to become a better professional. As fixed scheduled teachers work with us, they begin to see the benefits of having a flexible library schedule, so they can become our best allies when we ask administration to move toward flex scheduling.

I began my school library career with completely flexible scheduling, but after a couple years it became problematic. Once I understood what true flex scheduling meant, I created a combination fix/flex schedule that works for our school:

ELA classes come to the library on a set day every other week for book checkout and DEAR time (silent reading). We collaborate on a schedule so one week 7g & 8g classes visit on Tuesday & Wednesday, then the following week SpEd/ELL and 6g visit on Thursday and Friday. I can adjust ELA visit day if the library is otherwise needed: we switch to another open day that week, or they get books & return to the classroom for DEAR time, or the teacher sends a few students at a time for a new book.
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With 5 contiguous open days—Thursday through Wednesday, every other week, I can schedule other subject classes into the library for lessons and research assignments.
I can reserve Monday for library administrative work, for planning, and for collaboration with teachers, unless it’s essential for a teacher to bring students in that day.
Recurring yearly lessons, such as my Dewey Decimals Lesson with 6g and 7g Math classes, my Online Subscription WebQuests with 6g and 7g Social Studies, my Cloud Computing Lesson with Spanish & Art classes, and my Digital Citizenship Lessons, are all scheduled with teachers at the start of each grading period to be sure there are no conflicts with newly planned projects that may need to use the library and its resources.

This combination (or semi-fixed/flex) scheduling worked well in my School Library for over a decade from the early 2000s.

“RESPONSIVE” SCHEDULING FOR THE 2020s

AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner in Action (2009) offered little about scheduling other than consistent use of the term equitable access. However, AASL issued a Position Statement on Library Scheduling in 2011, revised in 2014, which was printed in the new National School Library Standards (2018, p216), about “flexible scheduling”:

Classes must be flexibly scheduled to visit the school library on an as-needed basis to facilitate just-in-time research, training, and use of technology with the guidance of the teacher, who is the subject specialist, and the librarian, who is the information-search process specialist. … Regularly scheduling classes in the school library to provide teacher release time or preparation time prohibits this best practice.

Then in 2018, “flexible scheduling” was revisited to better align with the new Standards. The new AASL Position Statement on Library Scheduling was submitted to the board and approved in June, 2019. Their new recommendation is for “responsive scheduling”:

Scheduling of classes should allow flexible, open, unrestricted, and equitable access on an as-needed basis to facilitate just-in-time research, training, and utilization of technology with instruction from the school librarian and the content-area educator. The practice of scheduling classes in the school library on a set schedule to provide educator release or preparation time inhibits best practice by limiting collaboration and co-teaching opportunities between the school librarian and classroom educator.

Responsibility for responsive scheduling is to be “shared by the entire school community: the local educational agency, district administration, principal, school librarian, educators, the school library support staff, parents, and learners.” We School Librarians can use this section when we approach our principals for a more flexible schedule, and give them something to take higher up.

This new Position Statement on School Library Scheduling is a critical document for School Librarians “desiring to fully achieve a collaborative and integrated school library philosophy.” It emphasizes the importance of collaborative planning and helps us promote our Library Lessons as “an essential and integral part of all classroom curriculum.” I encourage all of us to print out this 3-page .pdf document to show to our principals and our teachers and to develop a new “elevator pitch.”

With this new Position Statement we may need to make changes in our policies & procedures. I’d love to have an aide to help with book checkout and incidental student interaction while I’m teaching classes, but know that’s not fiscally likely. So, I set up a self-checkout station and teach students how to use it, having eliminated overdue fines and increased book limits to remove barriers for making this work.

I use the Open Dyslexic font for print and digital documents to make it easier for all students to read materials. I create videos answering some common questions students ask about the library and its resources, putting them on the School Library Website, so students can find answers when I’m unavailable.

I have computer administrators set the student browser homepage to the School or District Library Website so our virtual library is the first resource students see. This will ease student access to searching for books, using research databases, and locating Resource Lists, library guides, and other assignment helpers.

I’m sure there are other considerations I’ve not even thought about. If you have suggestions, please add them to the comments!

References:

AASL Board of Directors Meeting, ALA 2019 Annual Conference, Washington, DC June 20 – 25, p46-50

AASL Position Statement on School Library Scheduling

Let’s Expand Our View of “School Library Orientation”

Posted on August 19, 2019 by Barbara Paciotti

School Librarians know the importance of our students’ first library visit, so at the beginning of each school year, “school library orientation” becomes a hot topic on library listservs, social media, and blogs. Folks request ideas, asking, “What can I do differently this year?”

A couple years after I simplified and customized my school library orientations with English Language Arts classes, I came to an astounding realization:

EVERY subject-area’s “first” library visit of the school year is a “library orientation” for THEM!

I’m suggesting that you don’t need to keep trying new things every year with the same subject class. Rather, expand your view of what “library orientation” means and customize an “orientation” lesson for every grade level and subject area in your building!

Allow me share how I developed a series of “library orientations” that brought 6th grade ELA, Social Studies, Math, Science, and Elective classes into the library at various intervals during the first several weeks of school. Once you try this, I know you’ll love it, and your subject area teachers feel pretty special having their very own unique library orientation customized to their content. (Even an elementary librarian can focus each class’s visit on new library materials or features, so it’s a like another orientation.)

ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS “ORIENTATION”

I’ve written about how I simplified my 6th grade library orientation, so students aren’t overwhelmed with too much new information. Keep in mind that for lowest-grade-level, new-to-the-school students, our school library is completely new to them, and our lesson is “fresh” for them, even if we’ve done it a dozen times! Because each new year is a totally new group of students, I’m as enthusiastic about this lesson as I was the first time.

Our ELA classes begin the year studying narrative text, so we focus on how to choose one good book from the new-to-them Fiction area. My lesson is followed by plenty of time to browse the Fiction area of this “new” library, after which we have extended silent reading while I do a quiet invited checkout. This standard procedure establishes a reading culture for ELA’s every-other-week library visits for the rest of the school year.

SOCIAL STUDIES “ORIENTATION”

After the ELA visit, we can bring in other 6g subject-area classes and do a “library orientation” customized to their particular content. I’ve written about my Special Collections for Social Studies, so I have 6^th grade Social Studies classes visit a couple weeks after ELA to learn more about their “new” school library: the GlobeTrekkers Special Collection of fiction & Dewey books that support their study of World Cultures.

The first part of the lesson is returning books and a library expectations lesson, giving students a few policies & procedures for their “new” school library. Then I introduce Content Area Reading and why it is important.

Educators have learned that reading comprehension isn’t so much about word recognition as it is about conceptual understanding in context. That is, students become better readers as they accrue background knowledge of various topics, so the more they read, the more they know.

Yes, Dr. Seuss instinctively told us this years ago in his book
“I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!” and it just took brain researchers a while to confirm that.

Now I don’t tell all this to kids…I just tell them that the more GlobeTrekkers books they read, the better they’ll do in Social Studies and get better grades!

I show them how to identify GlobeTrekker books in the search results from our online book catalog, and when they hear they can check out a GlobeTrekker Dewey book and, if needed, a new fiction selection for their ELA class they are excited to begin browsing. We follow the same procedure—silent reading & invited checkout—which reinforces with Social Studies the reading culture that was established with ELA.

MATH “ORIENTATION”

I’ve also written how it makes sense to do our Dewey lesson with math classes which has students locate decimal numbers on the bookshelves. When 6^th grade Math classes enter the library, students are so puzzled about what they are doing here…with their math class? That, in itself, sustains engagement for students—who apparently have never done anything like this before.

Keeping the lesson focused on numbers makes it easy for students to relate the Dewey number they see in a book search to a location on a shelf, regardless of the topical content of the book. After the lesson there is plenty of time for students to browse for up to new books, either Fiction or Dewey depending on what they already have checked out. The 6g boys are especially eager to find their favorite informational books in this “new” school library: aliens, cars, sports, and drawing, as well as the Guinness and Believe-It-Or-Not books. And we continue our standard reading & checkout procedure, which reinforces with Math the reading culture we established with ELA and Social Studies.

Three customized lessons with 3 different subject area classes have progressively given our “newbies” what they need to effectively use their “new” school library.

We have imparted our policies & procedures when applicable, so students are not overwhelmed with too much new information to remember.
We have established our school’s reading culture of silent sustained reading (we call ours DEAR—Drop Everything And Read).
We have gradually built up the number and type of books students can check out, so during the early weeks of their new school experience they needn’t keep track of too many books.

SCIENCE “ORIENTATION”

By now our 6^th grade Science classes are well into their unit on Energy and are ready to begin their project on alternative energy resources. The timing is perfect for an introduction to our online subscription services for middle school, which are completely different from those in elementary school.

Most “newbies” come to us from feeder elementaries, but many are new-to-district students. Thus, I begin this “online library orientation” with Digital Citizenship and direct students to our online library resources webpage to prepare for the WebQuest lesson.

I’ve written about my guided WebQuest that introduces just 3 subscription services to 6^th graders—an encyclopedia, a periodical database, a topical reference e-book—with each segment looking only at the specific features of a service they’ll need for the project.

This is a full-period lesson, and each segment has students reading for content information and citing sources as they fill in the WebQuest worksheet (or HyperDoc). Students come away well-prepared to research their project, and I also provide a cart of books for the classroom to supplement the online tools.

To illustrate how favorably teachers respond to customized lessons, shortly after this, 6g Social Studies has an “online orientation” WebQuest using our countries of the world databases. Students gather country data into a spreadsheet app for comparison, and then learn to automatically generate a graph.

ART & SPANISH “ORIENTATION”

By this time we are through the first 9-week grading period, yet I’m not quite finished. Remember, any subject-area class that visits the library for the first time gets a “library orientation.” So, I begin the second grading period with a customized orientation for 6g Art and 6g Spanish. Because these 2 subjects alternate semesters, all 6g students receive this lesson during the first semester.

Both these lesson visits introduce Cloud Computing & Netiquette featuring our online email service. It is a guided lesson, similar to the WebQuest, that examines 3 features of the service: email, blogging, and discussion forums. I always let the other 6g teachers know when I do this popular lesson, so they can begin using the service for their own courses.

INFORMATIONAL CONTENT “ORIENTATION”

I’ve written, too, that making ELA and Math orientations about location allows me to bring other subject areas into the library for content-specific lessons. During the second grading period, 6g Science returns to the library during their Classification & Organization unit.

The lesson allows students to explore the Dewey 590 Animals section, whose disciplinary organization mirrors that of scientific classification, thus reinforcing content for both science & library. The lesson also reviews the parts of informational books so students learn ways to dig into a book’s content to find and extract what they need.

HIGHER GRADE LEVEL “ORIENTATIONS”

Lest you think I ignore our 7^th and 8^th graders, here’s a list of the “library orientations” I’m providing for them during this same time period:

7g & 8g ELA – Narrative Fiction & first book checkout
8g Social Studies – The American colonies, a U.S. History project
7g Math – adding/subtracting decimals & locating Dewey numbers
7g Social Studies – First Texans, a TX History cooperative learning activity
7/8 Theater – Multicultural folktales, creating one-act plays
7g Social Studies – WebQuest on European explorers, a TX History project
8g Spanish – Weather reports & introduction to video broadcasting
8g Health, 8g Careers – books, ebooks, online services & websites

I know you may not think of these as “orientations,” but if view each library visit as an entirely new experience for that group of students in that subject class, all our lessons become “library orientations.”

THE POWER OF “SCHOOL LIBRARY ORIENTATIONS”

I’ve discovered it doesn’t matter how good a librarian students have had before they arrive in our school. These “library orientation” lessons are always powerful because they are bite-sized pieces, scaffolded over time, helping students gradually learn—and remember—how to use every aspect of our library services.

To make successful, carefully crafted lessons, we must have a comprehensive view of each grade level’s total library experience, for both subject-area curricula and the library curriculum. I created my Curriculum Matrix for just this reason, and I keep it updated so it is always ready to be referred to.

Our attitude toward “library orientation” is a reflection of our mindset about our entire School Library Program. We want every student experience with us to be a memorable one, offering meaningful lessons that never get old.

Looking Backward – No Sweat Library Lessons & Management That Works

Reflections from A Middle School Librarian

Category Archives: Collaborating with Teachers