The Certified School Librarian Is and As a Curriculum Partner

Posted on January 15, 2024 by Barbara Paciotti

The 5 facets of a certified School Librarian offer a useful organizational paradigm for understanding why this educator is needed in every school. This series of blog posts examines those five roles—experienced teacher, curriculum integration partner, information specialist, program manager, and education leader—to elaborate on each one and to offer how we can best fulfill each role.

The first post of the series examined that most important role of experienced teacher. In this next post of the series, we explore what I consider the second most essential role: the certified School Librarian is and as a curriculum integration partner.

THE CERTIFIED SCHOOL LIBRARIAN IS A CURRICULUM PARTNER

Our teaching certificate and years of experience help us successfully work with teachers, but there’s more! The certified School Librarian knows every subject’s curriculum and their national and state curriculum standards. We don’t have the depth of knowledge that teachers do, but we know the breadth of all subject curricula through all grade levels so we perceive when to approach teachers for a collaborative opportunity.

The certified School Librarian can fully incorporate library resources, services, and instruction with classroom activities because we glean what students are studying that could bring them to the library, and then we determine which library skills students need to know in order to do what the teacher expects them to accomplish.

With this background knowledge, the certified School Librarian can plan Library Lessons:

that are based on each subject’s curricular Standards and educational best practices.
that are scaffolded to build knowledge and skills.
that use high-quality resources in print and digital forms.
that seamlessly introduce new media and technologies.
that have meaningful activities to practice learning.
that will increase student achievement.

While we can’t impose lessons on teachers, we show them how we can enhance existing classroom activities with what we deem students need, and we guide teachers toward infusing their projects with more student-centered inquiry. We work with them to teach the processes of learning while they teach the content, and we provide the best available resources so their content area teaching results in successful learning for all students.

Other blog posts that address the certified School Librarian’s role as a curriculum integration partner.

5 Essential Literacies for Students: Part 2 Content Area Literacy – The certified School Librarian integrates reading, writing, thinking, and communication skills specific to each discipline’s vocabulary, concepts, and methods.

To Teach Critical Thinking & Inquiry Learning, Entrust Your School Librarian – The certified School Librarian is an authority on critical thinking, because our Information Literacy curriculum is all about analyzing, evaluating, inferencing, synthesizing, and communicating complex information in multiple formats.

School Librarians: Show Teachers Their National Standards Require Student Research – At least 46 National Standards for middle school subjects require or align with students doing research assignments.

THE CERTIFIED SCHOOL LIBRARIAN AS A CURRICULUM PARTNER

Ideally, the certified School Librarian and the classroom teacher are a team that works together to contribute to student achievement, yet seemingly this partnership is the hardest one for us to actualize. One obstacle is on us, and the second obstacle is with teachers. I’ve found solutions to both of these obstacles.

THE LIBRARY LESSON CURRICULUM MATRIX

Being a curriculum guru sounds easy, but it’s hard to know which library lessons to teach and when and to whom. Since most of us come from a single-subject teaching experience, we need spend time examining every other subject area curriculum to discern what students are learning in their classes that might benefit from a Library Lesson that builds on that classroom experience.

My Library Lesson Curriculum Matrix - Composite example of an older version for the 1st grading period.

click to enlarge

To keep track of these possibilities, I created a visual organizer—a set of spreadsheets—that I call my “Library Lesson Curriculum Matrix.” This unique tool also helps me develop continuity for Information Literacy skills among sporadic lessons scattered between a variety of subjects and across grade levels.

At the start of a grading period I check my Matrix to see which teachers have upcoming lesson opportunities. Then, for a few minutes during their conference/planning periods, I go to their classrooms with my Library Lesson Curriculum Matrix to schedule a library visit.

Cover image of the Library Curriculum Matrix product available from the No Sweat Library store on Teachers Pay Teachers.

The School Library Lesson Curriculum Matrix is available through No Sweat Library, my TeachersPayTeachers store.

THE SCHOOL LIBRARY LESSON PLANNER

Teachers who understand the benefits of collaborating with the School Librarian are in the minority, so how to convince them to accept a lesson and bring classes to the library is the second obstacle. We must show them that our library lesson is tied to their subject standards, is relevant to what their students are studying in the classroom, and has students producing something relevant and meaningful.

When visiting teachers for prospective lessons, I bring the Library Lesson Plan I’ve generated for their proposed library visit or project. Yes, Library Lesson Plan. If we want teachers to regard us as a teaching professional, we need to show them a lesson plan that fully incorporates what they are doing in their classroom.

The visual planner makes teachers more willing to collaborate with me … and it’s even more compelling if I create a sample of the library activity (or screen-shot of technology) so they can see what students will be doing. That extra step nearly always clinches the teachers accepting a library lesson visit.

The School Library Lesson Planner is a FREE download from my FREE Librarian Resources page.

TEACHING EXAMPLES & INSPIRATION FOR YOU

Here are a few ways to implement classroom learning into library visits:

Here are successful collaboration lessons that are available in No Sweat Library, my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

Library Lessons Bundle: Doing Dewey Decimals with Math

Math teachers were thrilled when I approached them to visit the library for a review of decimals at the start of their unit! The collaboration resulted in these 2 lessons that are much more fun—and revealing—than a pre-test. 6g has a simple book locating activity for recognizing decimal sequencing. 7g adds & subtracts decimals then locates books that match the answer.

School Librarians can make Dewey Decimal Lessons more authentic and relevant by inviting 6th & 7th grade Math classes to the library to review prior knowledge before the start of their decimal unit. Teachers LOVE these Library Lessons so much that they will come to you every year asking when you'll schedule their visits! | No Sweat Library

Comparing Multicultural Cinderella Fairy Tales to Support 6g ELA

This is the first lesson in a completely collaborative unit that is also co-taught by ELA teacher and School Librarian. Students review plot elements through an interspersed read-aloud of the original Perrault Cinderella story. For their activity student pairs read an alternate cultural rendition of the story, and compare/contrast cultural elements (studied in Social Studies World Cultures) using a double-bubble graphic organizer.

Students know the Cinderella story, but examining its story elements through an interspersed read-aloud gives it new meaning. Students then read other cultural renditions of the story, and make comparisons to identify the diversity of cultural elements. | No Sweat Library

Library Orientation Lesson – Viewing Video Book Trailers with 8th grade ELA

This collaboration with 8g ELA is both a library orientation and an introduction to students’ first ELA project. The lesson has students use their own Smartphones to scan QR codes linked to video book trailers, which inspires them for creating their own.

Library Orientation Lesson: Viewing Video Book Trailers with 8th grade rejuvenates student passion for the School Library. This group activity using Smartphones to scan QR codes linked to video book trailers gets students excited to do their own video booktalks about the books they'll read. | No Sweat Library

The certified School Librarian‘s second most compelling endeavor needs to be as a curriculum integration partner with the teachers in our building. Yet, we do have other important roles to perform. Read the next blog post in this series, which looks at the certified School Librarian Is and As an Information Specialist.

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

Posted on March 15, 2023 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.

We no longer have a standard curriculum that is presented chronologically on a daily basis.
We rarely have contiguous days with students, but rather random, irregular library visits.

How can a School Librarian teach Library Information Literacy Skills under such circumstances? We have to scaffold stand-alone topical lessons in order to gradually build up knowledge, so students receive a comprehensive program of Information Literacy instruction during the time we have them with us.

In short, School Librarians must integrate info-lit skills into every subject and each grade level during single class periods throughout the school year. How, then, might we effectively do this?

A VISUAL ORGANIZATION TOOL FOR SUBJECT CURRICULA

School Librarians need to support what students are studying in the classroom, otherwise, teachers won’t allow time for a library visit. And the only way to do that is to become familiar with everyone’s subject area curriculum. We don’t need to know course content to the depth 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 (even if it’s not written down and the teacher doesn’t realize it). With such an overwhelming prospect, we must have a way to:

identify when a library lesson is needed for students, and
keep track of intermittent library lessons in order to progressively build information literacy skills.

When I faced this challenge, I determined the best approach would be to create a grid with different subject areas along one side and Library Lessons along the other side. I began on paper, but as I worked my way through subjects and grade levels, the grid became quite unwieldy, so I digitized it into a set of spreadsheets. After a few modifications and adjustments, I arrived at the finished product that I use even today: the No Sweat Library Lesson Curriculum Matrix.

The No Sweat Library Lesson Curriculum Matrix Template is now available through my Teachers Pay Teachers store. The No Sweat Library Lesson Curriculum Matrix Template contains 5 tabbed spreadsheet pages:

a year-long Library Schedule page.
3 pages for Grade Levels. (In my case, 6g, 7g, 8g, but you can add pages by copying a spreadsheet 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 a row for Information Literacy and one for National School Library Standards. The Grading Period Week columns are listed across the top with a numbered row also between each subject. There is a separate block for each of the two semesters. By using the “Freeze” feature, you can slide the relevant time period up next to the Subjects column to make it easier to read. (See image below.)

BUILD YOUR OWN CURRICULUM MATRIX

Colleagues have asked for specifics about the No Sweat Library Lesson Curriculum Matrix, so here’s how any school librarian can easily use the No Sweat template to fill in their own subject curricula and library lessons.

A STEP-BY-STEP PROCESS FOR CUSTOMIZING YOUR CURRICULUM MATRIX:

Begin with a single subject area for your lowest grade level. I suggest beginning with your former classroom subject area, since that’s what you’re most familiar with, which will make filling in the Matrix much more intuitive.
linebreak
Using the subject’s curriculum guide or scope & sequence, enter content unit titles into the field for the week they begin. I italicize these to keep them distinct from my library lesson information.
linebreak
Look through the guide/s&s for classroom assignments that would benefit from a library lesson or library resources. For the week you determine it’s needed, colorize the block (I make it the same color as the subject area) and type the Library Lesson or library resources needed.
linebreak
In the Information Literacy row, under the corresponding week, add the skills that are reviewed, expanded, or introduced. Or, add details about resources needed.
linebreak
When finished with one subject, grab another subject area guide/s&s for the same grade level, and fill in those units, then identify probable library lessons or resources. Continue doing this for each different subject at that grade level.
linebreak
Move to each grade level and fill in subject area units and possible library lessons & resources, until all subject areas at all grade levels are filled in.
linebreak
Once you have this preliminary Curriculum Matrix, pull out all Library Lesson Plans that you currently teach and, in the appropriate fields, fill in other lesson info and the National School Library Standards, which is now included on another tabbed spreadsheet to copy & paste into the other sheets as needed. 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 Curriculum Matrix, you’ll have a thorough picture of all subject area curricula and your Library Lessons. Now, do some analysis:

Look over each grade level and compare the information literacy skills you taught for the prior grade level and what you will teach at the next grade level.
Make notes in your current lesson plans if you can activate prior knowledge from previous grade level lessons before you introduce new skills.
Make a list of specific Information Literacy Skills which you need to introduce or build with new Library Lessons.
Make notes of where you need to expand the library’s print or digital collection to meet a curricular need you weren’t aware of.

Your Curriculum Matrix may occasionally need to be updated 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 all your grade levels.

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

HOW TO COLLABORATE WITH YOUR CURRICULUM MATRIX

Creating the Library Lesson Curriculum Matrix is the easy part. Developing 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 use my Curriculum Matrix to view upcoming possible library lessons & resources for that time span. I select & print out enough of the Matrix so I can visit with those teachers and show them how important their place is in building Info-Lit skills.
linebreak
I print out the related Library Lesson Plans—recurring or new—so I can show each teacher 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) so the teacher can make any changes or additional requests.
linebreak
I also select and print-out the relevant portion of the Library Scheduler spreadsheet.
linebreak
I go to each subject area teacher during their conference period 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!” Then I pull out the schedule to enter the teacher’s library visit, and they’re pretty impressed to see how busy a School Librarian really is! (For Short Form & resources I suggest a “quick lesson” so students know how to best use the materials.)

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. (Read my blog post, “How to Propose Library Lessons to Teachers ,” to learn more about this!)

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. When colleagues, teachers, and administrators see this tool, your professional standing with them will skyrocket!

My Teacher Collaboration Form is available for download from my FREE Librarian Resources page!	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: Short, Simple, and Relevant School Library Lessons How to Build a High Quality, Standards-Based School Library Lesson
The No Sweat School Library Lesson Curriculum Matrix Template is available from No Sweat Library, my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

Looking Backward with No Sweat Library

School Library Lessons & Management That Work

Category Archives: Collaborating with Teachers