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HELPING TEACHERS SUSTAIN THE VISION: A LEADERSHIP ROLE

School librarians work with teachers to sustain two visions. Our first vision, which
we share with all educators, is to help our students reach their full potential. To
sustain this vision, we hold an active, leadership role in creating a schoolwide
environment responsive to student needs. Our second vision reflects the true
concept of a school library, the center of the school where all the school's resources
are integrated through all the classrooms, the curriculum and through assignments
given to and carried out by students. In many cases, we must first teach this vision
before it can be sustained. Our challenge involves "selling" this vision. When we
succeed, we act as catalysts for encouraging teachers to teach across grade levels
and subject areas.

School librarians naturally lead. The skills we offer are: to provide access to
information from all sources; to help teachers design instruction; and to move from
the helping role to one of leadership in curriculum reform.
The first skill, to provide access to information for use by students and teachers,
challenges us to know about technology access points such as CD-ROM references,
online services and the Internet with its e-mail, listservs and myriad resources.
When the cost of technology seems daunting, teacher-librarians must help secure
funding by providing evidence of the effectiveness of particular technologies; as
well, teacher-librarians must help develop strategic plans for implementing those
technologies. In addition to ensuring that technology is selected, purchased,
maintained and upgraded according to carefully identified steps, teacher-librarians
must simultaneously motivate those teachers still wary of technology applications
that seem less effective than their more familiar teaching methods; we must also
ensure that inservice is provided for students and teachers. It will largely be our
efforts that ensure that teachers and students in our schools move onto the
information highway. Administrators will be convinced only when we challenge
them with information they can understand about how these technologies work and
how they benefit our students.

Our second skill involves helping teachers design instruction using a wide variety of
teaching methods and information formats and by integrating available technology.
The ten steps for implementing instructional design as well as examples from an
actual unit are outlined below:

Step One:

WRITE THE RATIONALE FOR THE COURSE.

What are the education objectives? Why would students need this information? Are
there basic values that must be included? What problem will be addressed? In
essence, the rationale covers the subject matter that will be included. It may also
state the grade or ability levels of the students.

A sample course rationale states:

To provide students ages 14-18 with a sense of the global needs of society today.
Students are introduced to the people and the cultures of another nation. After
leaving school, our graduates may visit other countries as part of their job. Others
may become tourists. To get the most from travel opportunities students will be
introduced to research about other countries.

For this unit, the problems associated with government, business and travel in the
chosen country form the basis for the actual unit. World politics and economics
have an impact on citizens of every country. The speed of transfer of information
through news telecasts, provides students a view of each new situation. The
suggested unit helps students understand the history and culture that drive
governments, business, industry, education and leisure activities. Learning the
history behind the landmarks to be seen predicts more enjoyment when actually
seeing them. Expanding the horizons of students as they move into a global
economy prepares them to become citizens of the word. Students will read novels,
historical fiction, non-fiction and research in reference resources, using what they
find to analyze the backgrounds of the people in an effort to understand the
underlying culture.
Step Two:

DETERMINE THE AUDIENCE FOR THE COURSE.

Which grades, which students? What are the learning needs and abilities of these
students? What knowledge will they bring to the topic?

Step Three:

GENERATE IDEAS.

The essential brainstorming process proves over and over that two heads are better
than one. As leader, the teacher-librarian ensures that everyone in the group has
an opportunity to make suggestions. The sample unit outlined in this article was
designed by social studies, literature, home economics, art, music, math, science
and physical education instructors. The text below outlines information to be
determined.
• What is the theme of the proposed unit?
• What are related units?
• Who are the participating teachers?
• When will this unit be taught?
• What is the duration of the unit?
• What assignments will we be making?

Step Four:
STATE LEARNING OUTCOMES.

Which learning outcomes will be expected of all students, which will be for more
interested students, what is the minimum expected of all students? Learning
outcomes are considered to be skills and understandings. They are divided into
affects, cognitive skills and psychomotor-perceptual skills.

The affective domain relates to feelings. This area is often of concern to parents
and the community. School district personnel are struggling with ways to teach in
this domain using nonjudgmental, nonpolitical, nonreligious examples. Assessing
the degree of attitude change that occurs remains difficult. One example of an
outcome might be:

• Students will read a diary written by a citizen of their chosen country. Interested
students will develop and present a reader's theater performance of their
interpretation of a happening in this diary.

The evaluation process for this assignment strives to demonstrate change in

student attitudes to persons or situations based upon the intent of their
performance. "Scoring" must be considered before the "judging" begins.

Cognition involves defining, identifying and recognizing those skills that allow the
student not only to demonstrate learning, but also to be able to apply that learning.
For example:
 • Students will point out the capital city of their country on a map of the world.
• Students will determine a travel sequence that begins in their homes and has them arriving in the
capital city using the most direct route.
• Students will distinguish between a descriptive statement, a propaganda statement and a
judgmental statement.
• Students will solve math problems related to the exchange of their money system to another
country's monetary system.

Psychomotor-perceptual skills are the more physical, more easily perceived skills.
For our sample crosscurricular unit, a psychomotor learning objective might be:

• Students will dance the (underbar), a folk dance from this country.

As can be seen by the objectives, these two domains -- cognitive and psychomotor-
perceptive -- have outcomes that can more easily be evaluated. Students readily
demonstrate map skills and their ability to follow dance step patterns.

Step Five:

IDENTIFY ANTICIPATED SKILL DEVELOPMENT

For this unit, it is anticipated that:

• Students will expand their research skills as they look up information in a variety of reference tools.
• Students will expand their language skills as they use the Internet, among other electronic
resources, to gather information.
• Students will increase their communication skills as they talk with others who have traveled to that
country, who have lived in that country or who have conducted business in the country.

The final skill purposely encourages students to think critically.

• For the country of your choice, review the political activity, economic conditions
and relations with other countries during the past five years and predict what you
think will happen with your country's government within the next six months.

Step Six:

DEVELOP A TENTATIVE OUTLINE OF THE UNIT.

As the new outline expands, people with the most expertise in the topic area
ascertain if activities are accurately placed in context. Then the team of teacher-
librarians and teachers meet individually or in a group to discuss teaching
strategies.

Step Seven:

SELECT TEACHING STRATEGIES.

At this stage the team decides which teaching strategies match teachers' styles and
which learning styles are needed for the students in their classrooms. It is also the
time when the division of the teaching assignments between the teacher-librarian
and teachers involved are distributed.
Step Eight:

REVIEW THE LEARNING OUTCOMES to see if what is proposed will, in fact, provide
the framework for the students to meet objectives. In this step, the team also
determines which measures will be used to ascertain the degree of learning and
what will be produced by students to add to their portfolios.

Step Nine:

COLLECT THE NECESSARY RESOURCES.

To secure enough resources, the librarian must determine:

• What's in the current research about this topic that would be useful for teachers? for students?
• What materials are currently available in the school library? What must be secured elsewhere?
• What materials, and/or activities, are suggested in the textbooks which cover these areas?
• What materials, activities, outcomes are required by the local, state or national guidelines for
instruction?
• What is available to substitute for any missing pieces?

Step Ten:
REVIEW THE COURSE OUTLINE AND LEARNING OBJECTIVES to see if the resources
available will support the content and the proposed assignments. When there are
insufficient resources, assignments are revised or modified so that students will
achieve their objectives.

Coordinating integration across the curriculum becomes second nature once the
librarian accepts the leadership challenge and collects information about what,
when and how teachers teach and how students learn. The knowledge of what is
being taught at each level is integrated into the requirements of the local school
board and at the state level. Finally, knowledge of the expectations of parents for
their students' achievement is considered. The end product becomes a collection of
units of work across the curriculum and across the school. Most are modified and
repeated in subsequent years.

Designing instruction requires moving from resource-based teaching into resource-

based learning. Jane Bandy Smith has compiled a list of activities for school
librarians in resource-based teaching. The chart presented above, shows how the
teacher-librarian's role can be expanded from providing support in a resource-based
teaching model into a leadership role in developing curriculum.

The teacher-librarian's third skill moves from the helping role to one of leadership in
curriculum reform. Having demonstrated this helping role for many years, teacher-
librarian's find that "leading" requires a radical change in behavior. We must lead if
we are to successfully sustain the vision of meeting the needs of all the students
and we are the logical people to accept this essential assignment within a school.

School librarians, assume a natural leadership role because of the "all" rule. "We
know all the students, all the teachers, all the curriculum and we see all the
students, all the teachers and all the curriculum all the time." We believe in change,
and, willingly, adapt to change.

The leadership role becomes a natural one for a variety of reasons:

• We have no vested interest in any single area of the curriculum and can treat all teachers equally.
• We help our principals and headmasters who, increasingly, deal with problem students, teachers
and parents. These people are often focused on budget and division of resources for light bulbs and
buses and building repairs. Furthermore, they are often out of the building attending meetings.
• We have management skills: keeping records, meeting established timelines, analyzing evaluation,
chairing collaboration and organizing and retrieving information.
• We know our students' learning styles, our teacher's teaching styles and when and how our
teachers teach specific units.
• We, acting as leaders, organize and coordinate teacher's efforts to increase learning in all areas of
the curriculum.
• We chair the curriculum team, build new curriculum, change teaching methods and identify,
coordinate and direct the collaborative experience. Working collaboratively with teachers, teacher-
librarians model what should happen in the classroom -collaboration among students.
• We recognize different levels of acceptance of change in teachers and adopt our efforts to match
their needs.
• We lead.

As catalysts for curriculum innovation, teacher-librarians move into a proactive role.

We begin by varying the way we have always done things. We stop shelving books
and teaching isolated research skills and instead, work through the curriculum and
with all the teachers all the time. We ask teachers to do things differently showing
them how it will work. While this process may seem overwhelming at first, it works
over time because most instructions planned remains in place for several years with
only minor modifications. Past units are improved when additional teachers bring
their classes to join in the unit. Resources are added to bibliographies and changes
are made in teaching strategies and teaching assignments. Resources are added
from semester to semester as new technologies and their software are integrated
into classroom assignments.

Helping students take responsibility for their own learning empowers them to set
their own goals and objectives. Lessons are designed to allow students to develop
thinking skills, to match what they have already learned to a new experience, to
learn by doing rather than memorizing facts with little application to the real world.

The instructional design, so briefly described, helps this happen. Begin with one or
two teachers and one or two units in their teaching assignments. Show how they
can achieve their teaching objectives and enhance student learning! Build
classroom objectives that include your "library lessons". Vary instruction and
teachers will be more successful; students will learn more and be more successful
which will build their self-esteem. In the end, everyone is a winner.

TABLE 1 Theme of Proposed Unit: Planning for Peace in a Battered Nation

Related Units and Teachers

Social Studies: Current Events

 Forms of Government
United Nations

History: Religions of the World

European History

Literature: Poets
Novelists

Math: Ratios

Home Ec: International Foods

Art: Arts and Crafts of Eastern Europe

Artists
Museums and their Holdings

Music: Musicians

Phys Ed: Folk Dancing

Business:

Industrial Arts:

Unit Currently Taught: No=

TABLE 2. Preliminary Planning Integrated Theme: Planning for Peace

in a Battered Nation
The students in (underbar) High School have been selected as a delegation for the
United Nations. They will be envoys to Nation X. This country is embroiled in deadly
conflict.
Teachers: A, B, C, D, J, S, T, W, TL (Teacher-librarian)
Subjects: Across the Curriculum

Activity Responsible Location

Person

Map the region

How many miles between sites
of conflict? J Room 105

Economic conditions
How is most of the country
employed? S Room 106
TL Media Center

Education system
What is/was taught in schools there?

History of the people who live there

What causes of the current conflict
can be matched to conflict in the
past. T, W Room 107
Collect true and fiction books
about this country TL Media Center

Language classes

What languages are spoken? Plan for

intensive study to learn basic
terms of greeting, simple
conversation A Language Lab

Math -- monetary system, exchange

rates

What would be the cost per person to

travel there?

What would it cost to stay -- housing,

food? B Room 103

Home Economics

How would one dress: for the climate?

for the trip?

How would one pack for the trip? What

is the food of the region? C Room 110

Literature classes

Who are the major authors and what

have they written?

How would you ask our government,

the United Nations, letters to
officials in the country, for
permission to travel? D Room 112

Locate videos, educational and

fiction, for learning about the
country, its people, its customs,
its religions, its cultures. All Media center
teachers

References:
Smith, Jane Bandy. (1995). Achieving a curriculum-based library media center
program: The middle school model for change. Chicago: American Library
Association.

~~~~~~~~
By Blanche Woolls

Blanche Woollshas recently accepted the position of Director in the School of Library
and Information Science at San Jose State University in California

THE ROLE OF THE TEACHER-LIBRARIAN

Support
Recommend media for specific purposes.
Evaluate the effectiveness of various formats.
Reinforce student's skill acquisition.

Identify examples in literature relation to classroom exercises

or content.
Provide professional information to assist teachers in improving
teaching skills.
Provide in-service programs in equipment utilization.

Relate textbook content to information in reference books and

outside information sources.
Recommend supplementary materials for use in classroom
activities
Obtain online information about information human resources.
Alter or produce materials when needed.
Offer staff development programs to promote better utilization
of materials.
Inform teachers [and] students about copyright provisions and
decisions.
Suggest ways and resources that will guide students to materials
that extend to enrich classroom learning.
Infuse information skills into coursework so that students have
the skills they need to effectively acquire and use
information.
Provide instructional resources cited in textbooks.

Maintain and circulate equipment for available materials.

Secure needed media not available in the school collection.

Leading

Discuss objectives each medium will support.

Suggest appropriate format to meet learning needs.
Share the design of tests to determine level of student's skill
acquisition.

Provide in-service programs demonstrating the equipment and the

software available to use.
Teach information in reference books to reinforce textbook
content.
Booktalk appropriate materials to encourage their use in
classroom activities.
Teach students to search online, evaluating as to its relevance
to their needs.
Help students plan to produce materials as needed.

Demonstrate ways and resources that will guide students to

materials that extend or enrich classroom learning.

Expand from the instructional resources cited in textbooks to

material available worldwide.
Booktalk library books with classroom topics to encourage
outside reading.
Encourage students to search in online catalogs around the
 world.

Copyright of Emergency Librarian is the property of Scarecrow Press Inc. and its content may not be copied
or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission.
However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.

Back

Choose Language Translate

Title:
Helping teachers sustain the vision: A leadership role. By: Woods, Blanche, Emergency Librarian,
03158888, Sep/Oct97, Vol. 25, Issue 1
Database:
Academic Search Complete
HTML Full Text

HELPING TEACHERS SUSTAIN THE VISION: A LEADERSHIP ROLE

Contents

1. Step One:
2. Step Two:
3. Step Three:
4. Step Four:
5. Step Five:
6. Step Six:
7. Step Seven:
8. Step Eight:
9. Step Nine:
10. Step Ten:
11. TABLE 1 Theme of Proposed Unit: Planning for Peace in a Battered Nation
12. TABLE 2. Preliminary Planning Integrated Theme: Planning for Peace in a Battered Nation
13. References:
School librarians work with teachers to sustain two visions. Our first vision, which we share
with all educators, is to help our students reach their full potential. To sustain this vision, we
hold an active, leadership role in creating a schoolwide environment responsive to student needs.
Our second vision reflects the true concept of a school library, the center of the school where
all the school's resources are integrated through all the classrooms, the curriculum and through
assignments given to and carried out by students. In many cases, we must first teach this vision
before it can be sustained. Our challenge involves "selling" this vision. When we succeed, we act
as catalysts for encouraging teachers to teach across grade levels and subject areas.

School librarians naturally lead. The skills we offer are: to provide access to information from all
sources; to help teachers design instruction; and to move from the helping role to one of
leadership in curriculum reform.
The first skill, to provide access to information for use by students and teachers, challenges us
to know about technology access points such as CD-ROM references, online services and the
Internet with its e-mail, listservs and myriad resources. When the cost of technology seems
daunting, teacher-librarians must help secure funding by providing evidence of the effectiveness
of particular technologies; as well, teacher-librarians must help develop strategic plans for
implementing those technologies. In addition to ensuring that technology is selected, purchased,
maintained and upgraded according to carefully identified steps, teacher-librarians must
simultaneously motivate those teachers still wary of technology applications that seem less
effective than their more familiar teaching methods; we must also ensure that inservice is
provided for students and teachers. It will largely be our efforts that ensure that teachers and
students in our schools move onto the information highway. Administrators will be convinced only
when we challenge them with information they can understand about how these technologies
work and how they benefit our students.

Our second skill involves helping teachers design instruction using a wide variety of teaching
methods and information formats and by integrating available technology. The ten steps for
implementing instructional design as well as examples from an actual unit are outlined below:

Step One:
WRITE THE RATIONALE FOR THE COURSE.

What are the education objectives? Why would students need this information? Are there basic
values that must be included? What problem will be addressed? In essence, the rationale covers
the subject matter that will be included. It may also state the grade or ability levels of the
students.

A sample course rationale states:

To provide students ages 14-18 with a sense of the global needs of society today. Students are
introduced to the people and the cultures of another nation. After leaving school, our graduates
may visit other countries as part of their job. Others may become tourists. To get the most from
travel opportunities students will be introduced to research about other countries.

For this unit, the problems associated with government, business and travel in the chosen
country form the basis for the actual unit. World politics and economics have an impact on
citizens of every country. The speed of transfer of information through news telecasts, provides
students a view of each new situation. The suggested unit helps students understand the history
and culture that drive governments, business, industry, education and leisure activities. Learning
the history behind the landmarks to be seen predicts more enjoyment when actually seeing
them. Expanding the horizons of students as they move into a global economy prepares them to
become citizens of the word. Students will read novels, historical fiction, non-fiction and research
in reference resources, using what they find to analyze the backgrounds of the people in an effort
to understand the underlying culture.

Step Two:
DETERMINE THE AUDIENCE FOR THE COURSE.

Which grades, which students? What are the learning needs and abilities of these students? What
knowledge will they bring to the topic?

Step Three:
GENERATE IDEAS.

The essential brainstorming process proves over and over that two heads are better than one. As
leader, the teacher-librarian ensures that everyone in the group has an opportunity to make
suggestions. The sample unit outlined in this article was designed by social studies, literature,
home economics, art, music, math, science and physical education instructors. The text below
outlines information to be determined.

• What is the theme of the proposed unit?

 • What are related units?
• Who are the participating teachers?
• When will this unit be taught?
• What is the duration of the unit?
• What assignments will we be making?
Step Four:
STATE LEARNING OUTCOMES.

Which learning outcomes will be expected of all students, which will be for more interested
students, what is the minimum expected of all students? Learning outcomes are considered to be
skills and understandings. They are divided into affects, cognitive skills and psychomotor-
perceptual skills.

The affective domain relates to feelings. This area is often of concern to parents and the
community. School district personnel are struggling with ways to teach in this domain using
nonjudgmental, nonpolitical, nonreligious examples. Assessing the degree of attitude change that
occurs remains difficult. One example of an outcome might be:

• Students will read a diary written by a citizen of their chosen country. Interested students will
develop and present a reader's theater performance of their interpretation of a happening in
this diary.

The evaluation process for this assignment strives to demonstrate change in student attitudes to
persons or situations based upon the intent of their performance. "Scoring" must be considered
before the "judging" begins.

Cognition involves defining, identifying and recognizing those skills that allow the student not
only to demonstrate learning, but also to be able to apply that learning. For example:

• Students will point out the capital city of their country on a map of the world.
• Students will determine a travel sequence that begins in their homes and has them arriving in the
capital city using the most direct route.
• Students will distinguish between a descriptive statement, a propaganda statement and a
judgmental statement.
• Students will solve math problems related to the exchange of their money system to another
country's monetary system.
Psychomotor-perceptual skills are the more physical, more easily perceived skills. For our sample
crosscurricular unit, a psychomotor learning objective might be:

• Students will dance the (underbar), a folk dance from this country.

As can be seen by the objectives, these two domains -- cognitive and psychomotor-perceptive --
have outcomes that can more easily be evaluated. Students readily demonstrate map skills and
their ability to follow dance step patterns.

Step Five:
IDENTIFY ANTICIPATED SKILL DEVELOPMENT

For this unit, it is anticipated that:

• Students will expand their research skills as they look up information in a variety of reference tools.
• Students will expand their language skills as they use the Internet, among other electronic
resources, to gather information.
• Students will increase their communication skills as they talk with others who have traveled to that
country, who have lived in that country or who have conducted business in the country.
The final skill purposely encourages students to think critically.
• For the country of your choice, review the political activity, economic conditions and relations
with other countries during the past five years and predict what you think will happen with your
country's government within the next six months.

Step Six:
DEVELOP A TENTATIVE OUTLINE OF THE UNIT.

As the new outline expands, people with the most expertise in the topic area ascertain if
activities are accurately placed in context. Then the team of teacher-librarians and teachers
meet individually or in a group to discuss teaching strategies.

Step Seven:
SELECT TEACHING STRATEGIES.

At this stage the team decides which teaching strategies match teachers' styles and which
learning styles are needed for the students in their classrooms. It is also the time when the
division of the teaching assignments between the teacher-librarian and teachers involved are
distributed.

Step Eight:
REVIEW THE LEARNING OUTCOMES to see if what is proposed will, in fact, provide the framework
for the students to meet objectives. In this step, the team also determines which measures will
be used to ascertain the degree of learning and what will be produced by students to add to their
portfolios.

Step Nine:
COLLECT THE NECESSARY RESOURCES.

To secure enough resources, the librarian must determine:

• What's in the current research about this topic that would be useful for teachers? for students?
• What materials are currently available in the school library? What must be secured elsewhere?
• What materials, and/or activities, are suggested in the textbooks which cover these areas?
• What materials, activities, outcomes are required by the local, state or national guidelines for
instruction?
• What is available to substitute for any missing pieces?
Step Ten:
REVIEW THE COURSE OUTLINE AND LEARNING OBJECTIVES to see if the resources available will
support the content and the proposed assignments. When there are insufficient resources,
assignments are revised or modified so that students will achieve their objectives.

Coordinating integration across the curriculum becomes second nature once the librarian accepts
the leadership challenge and collects information about what, when and how teachers teach and
how students learn. The knowledge of what is being taught at each level is integrated into the
requirements of the local school board and at the state level. Finally, knowledge of the
expectations of parents for their students' achievement is considered. The end product becomes
a collection of units of work across the curriculum and across the school. Most are modified and
repeated in subsequent years.

Designing instruction requires moving from resource-based teaching into resource-based

learning. Jane Bandy Smith has compiled a list of activities for school librarians in resource-
based teaching. The chart presented above, shows how the teacher-librarian's role can be
expanded from providing support in a resource-based teaching model into a leadership role in
developing curriculum.

The teacher-librarian's third skill moves from the helping role to one of leadership in curriculum
reform. Having demonstrated this helping role for many years, teacher-librarian's find that
"leading" requires a radical change in behavior. We must lead if we are to successfully sustain
the vision of meeting the needs of all the students and we are the logical people to accept this
essential assignment within a school.

School librarians, assume a natural leadership role because of the "all" rule. "We know all the
students, all the teachers, all the curriculum and we see all the students, all the teachers and
all the curriculum all the time." We believe in change, and, willingly, adapt to change.

The leadership role becomes a natural one for a variety of reasons:

• We have no vested interest in any single area of the curriculum and can treat all teachers equally.
• We help our principals and headmasters who, increasingly, deal with problem students, teachers
and parents. These people are often focused on budget and division of resources for light bulbs
and buses and building repairs. Furthermore, they are often out of the building attending meetings.
• We have management skills: keeping records, meeting established timelines, analyzing evaluation,
chairing collaboration and organizing and retrieving information.
• We know our students' learning styles, our teacher's teaching styles and when and how our
teachers teach specific units.
• We, acting as leaders, organize and coordinate teacher's efforts to increase learning in all areas of
the curriculum.
• We chair the curriculum team, build new curriculum, change teaching methods and identify,
coordinate and direct the collaborative experience. Working collaboratively with teachers,
teacher-librarians model what should happen in the classroom -collaboration among students.
• We recognize different levels of acceptance of change in teachers and adopt our efforts to match
their needs.
• We lead.
As catalysts for curriculum innovation, teacher-librarians move into a proactive role. We begin by
varying the way we have always done things. We stop shelving books and teaching isolated
research skills and instead, work through the curriculum and with all the teachers all the time.
We ask teachers to do things differently showing them how it will work. While this process may
seem overwhelming at first, it works over time because most instructions planned remains in
place for several years with only minor modifications. Past units are improved when additional
teachers bring their classes to join in the unit. Resources are added to bibliographies and
changes are made in teaching strategies and teaching assignments. Resources are added from
semester to semester as new technologies and their software are integrated into classroom
assignments.

Helping students take responsibility for their own learning empowers them to set their own goals
and objectives. Lessons are designed to allow students to develop thinking skills, to match what
they have already learned to a new experience, to learn by doing rather than memorizing facts
with little application to the real world.

The instructional design, so briefly described, helps this happen. Begin with one or two teachers
and one or two units in their teaching assignments. Show how they can achieve their teaching
objectives and enhance student learning! Build classroom objectives that include your "library
lessons". Vary instruction and teachers will be more successful; students will learn more and be
more successful which will build their self-esteem. In the end, everyone is a winner.

TABLE 1 Theme of Proposed Unit: Planning for Peace in a Battered Nation

Related Units and Teachers

Social Studies: Current Events

Forms of Government
United Nations

History: Religions of the World

European History
Literature: Poets
Novelists

Math: Ratios

Home Ec: International Foods

Art: Arts and Crafts of Eastern Europe

Artists
Museums and their Holdings

Music: Musicians

Phys Ed: Folk Dancing

Business:

Industrial Arts:

Unit Currently Taught: No=

TABLE 2. Preliminary Planning Integrated Theme: Planning for Peace
in a Battered Nation
The students in (underbar) High School have been selected as a delegation for the United
Nations. They will be envoys to Nation X. This country is embroiled in deadly conflict.

Teachers: A, B, C, D, J, S, T, W, TL (Teacher-librarian)
Subjects: Across the Curriculum

Activity Responsible Location

Person

Map the region

How many miles between sites
of conflict? J Room 105

Economic conditions
How is most of the country
employed? S Room 106
TL Media Center

Education system
What is/was taught in schools there?

History of the people who live there

What causes of the current conflict
can be matched to conflict in the
past. T, W Room 107

Collect true and fiction books

about this country TL Media Center

Language classes

What languages are spoken? Plan for

intensive study to learn basic
terms of greeting, simple
conversation A Language Lab

Math -- monetary system, exchange

rates

What would be the cost per person to

travel there?

What would it cost to stay -- housing,

food? B Room 103

Home Economics

How would one dress: for the climate?

for the trip?

How would one pack for the trip? What

is the food of the region? C Room 110

Literature classes

Who are the major authors and what

have they written?

How would you ask our government,

the United Nations, letters to
officials in the country, for
permission to travel? D Room 112

Locate videos, educational and

fiction, for learning about the
country, its people, its customs,
its religions, its cultures. All Media center
teachers
References:
Smith, Jane Bandy. (1995). Achieving a curriculum-based library media center program: The
middle school model for change. Chicago: American Library Association.

~~~~~~~~
By Blanche Woolls

Blanche Woollshas recently accepted the position of Director in the School of Library and
Information Science at San Jose State University in California

THE ROLE OF THE TEACHER-LIBRARIAN

Support
Recommend media for specific purposes.
Evaluate the effectiveness of various formats.
Reinforce student's skill acquisition.

Identify examples in literature relation to classroom exercises

or content.
Provide professional information to assist teachers in improving
 teaching skills.
Provide in-service programs in equipment utilization.

Relate textbook content to information in reference books and

outside information sources.
Recommend supplementary materials for use in classroom
activities
Obtain online information about information human resources.
Alter or produce materials when needed.
Offer staff development programs to promote better utilization
of materials.
Inform teachers [and] students about copyright provisions and
decisions.
Suggest ways and resources that will guide students to materials
that extend to enrich classroom learning.
Infuse information skills into coursework so that students have
the skills they need to effectively acquire and use
information.
Provide instructional resources cited in textbooks.

Maintain and circulate equipment for available materials.

Secure needed media not available in the school collection.

Leading
Discuss objectives each medium will support.
Suggest appropriate format to meet learning needs.
Share the design of tests to determine level of student's skill
acquisition.

Provide in-service programs demonstrating the equipment and the

software available to use.
Teach information in reference books to reinforce textbook
content.
Booktalk appropriate materials to encourage their use in
classroom activities.
Teach students to search online, evaluating as to its relevance
to their needs.
Help students plan to produce materials as needed.

Demonstrate ways and resources that will guide students to

materials that extend or enrich classroom learning.

Expand from the instructional resources cited in textbooks to

material available worldwide.
Booktalk library books with classroom topics to encourage
outside reading.
Encourage students to search in online catalogs around the
world.