I teach in an old building. Because of its age, the building is actually undergoing massive construction. Most of my English department is teaching in mobile units. And the nearest bathroom is a porta potty.
Despite the building’s age, our library is well maintained. Due to the construction, many of the books are in boxes. But I recognize how privileged my students are to have access to a good library. A quality school library is a great resource. For this reason, I wanted to share some ideas for making the library a meaningful part of your ELA instruction.
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Choice Reading
Firstly, the most obvious way to get the most out of your school library is to use its offerings to support choice reading programs. Right now my students are reading a choice book during sustained silent reading at the start of each class. Throughout the semester, I use comprehension interviews to assess specific skills and fluency. At the end of the semester, students will make a formal presentation about their choice books.
The librarians were great in helping my students select choice books. Two years ago, our librarians decided to organize the fiction by genre. And that has helped point students to books they might enjoy. Additionally, our librarians put on countless reading programs, book tastings, and reading clubs to promote literacy. Each of these events offers students a chance to “try on” different books and styles.
Inviting your librarians in to your classroom can be a great way to start choice reading in your classroom. Who better to make recommendations to your students than the librarians?
After a book tasting or other library program, my students often complete First Impressions Book Reviews! This helps me survey the class’ reading habits, provides a quick speaking opportunity for students, and builds community!
Research Support
Another valuable resource your library probably provides is research support. After all, librarians study library science. When my students start a research paper or presentation, we always spend at least one day in the library. Here are some ways the librarians can support research:
1. Generating meaningful research questions.
CCSS ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.7-8 both require students to generate research questions before conducting research. Writing high-level questions can be challenging. But as the keepers of research, librarians have plenty of experience generating, modeling, and refining inquiry.
2. Introducing research resources.
Since CCSS ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.8 requires students to gather credible, relevant research, librarians can help students explore their research resources. Undoubtedly, each school has unique resources. But librarians are the perfect candidates to introduce research databases, reference books, and card catalogues. Because students must be able to work with a variety of sources, I often require students to support their claims with at least one database and one book source. This way students work with a variety of resources and learn to cite them correctly.
3. Developing meaningful search terms.
My juniors just finished a persuasive paper. One of the prompts asked students to determine whether safety or freedom is more valuable. Every year I have a student type into a database: “Is freedom more important than safety?” Needless to say, such a broad search term returns less than desirable results. This is where librarians can help students transform their research questions into meaningful search terms. Our librarians do a great job modeling the process of brainstorming search terms.
4. Determining source credibility.
In addition to conducting meaningful research, students must also determine the credibility and relevance of each source (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.9-10.2). While students recognize that database and reference sources are usually credible, they struggle more when they begin to Google. Is History.com a credible source? What is The New Yorker? How do I determine if a source is for profit? Our librarians often expose students to multiple sources answering the same question. Then they ask students to talk through source reliability and bias. A great complement to this task is a Credibility Checklist and Bookmark.
5. Creating accurate citations.
Few skills are more challenging for students than creating correct citations. Nevertheless, academic accountability is an important part of research and CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.8. Our librarians have worked hard to make sure students know how to access resources that will walk them through the steps for creating accurate citations. Most of the school databases give students considerable assistance. But there’s always a few tricks involved in citation. For this reason, our librarians have developed their own presentation for modeling citation skills, including formatting that tricky hanging indent! You can couple your librarians’ pointers with this MLA checklist!
Presentation Pointers
If my students are researching for a paper, they are probably eventually going to make a presentation. For this reason, I often rely on the librarians to help students prepare for and design effective presentations.
Per CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.2.A, students should use formatting, graphics, and multimedia to help readers and listeners better comprehend research findings. For this standard, librarians can be helpful in providing students with the tools to ethically access and cite images. In particular, librarians can provide a mini-lesson for students on the concepts of public domain, fair use, and copyright. While I don’t expect students to be experts on these concepts, students do have an obligation to be ethical researchers, and the librarians are the experts on these subjects.
Similarly, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.9-10.5 asks students to use digital media to enhance a presentation and engage an audience. While I enjoy using technology in the classroom, I am not a digital tools expert. For this reason, I often ask our librarians to make recommendations for students. Our librarians have introduced students to countless presentation tools: Jamboard, Canva, PowToon, Venngage, Biteable, Haiku Deck, Animoto, and Adobe Spark among others. In particular, the librarians are good at recommending a specific digital tool for a specific presentation need. For example, when my students were making Book Trailers earlier this year, Biteable proved to be a winner. But when my students were making handouts, Canva was the way to go.
Last Words
At the end of the day, inviting the librarians into your classroom helps students meet the library. Anything that encourages students to interact with literature and informational texts promotes literacy! Similarly, the more adults students meet in the academic setting, the more allies they find in the building, and the more resources they have for achieving success.
How do you bring the library into your classroom? Let us know your suggestions in the comments!
