tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62363905326323741942024-03-12T18:30:44.297-07:00A Culture of Inquiry: asking the right questionsChristine M Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14462643110276961200noreply@blogger.comBlogger34125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236390532632374194.post-90146686505158967452021-02-25T10:36:00.001-08:002021-02-25T10:37:19.826-08:00Schomburg's Life Work: archivist and popular historian of Black history<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51dQgJ0+L2L._SX408_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="410" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51dQgJ0+L2L._SX408_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">When I was scheduled to write the last library blog post in February, I had a very clear idea of what to say and how to make essential connections to the work of Arturo also known as Arthur Schomburg for Black History Month. Arturo Schomburg, whose personal collection is the core of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library, is fascinating in his persistent collecting and unique organizational scheme for books about the cultural and historic contributions of people of African descent. His story is beautifully captured in the picture book <i>Schomburg, The Man Who Built a Library</i>, by Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrated by Eric Velasquez. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Just in case you are thinking of leaving this post because the students you teach or your own children are beyond the picture book stage, I would encourage you to read Pamela Paul, editor of the book review for the New York Times, and her recent opinion piece, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/20/opinion/sunday/picture-books-reading.html?smid=url-share">"Your Kids Aren’t Too Old for Picture Books, and Neither Are You"</a> in which she states picture books are the real wizards of the literary world! This book is no exception to that picture book rule. Formerly a selection of the Rhode Island Children's Book Award nominees in 2017, it is a very accessible tribute to a complex man who believed, "History was not history unless it was complete from all angles." </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">An ardent bibliophile, Schomburg's collection of 5000 books was purchased by the Carnegie Corporation for $10,000 and donated to the New York Public Library. His collection became the core of the </span><span style="font-size: large;">Division of Negro History, Literature, and Prints at the 135th Street Branch of the New York Public Library in Harlem.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> From 1932-1938, Schomburg served as the curator of that collection. A new Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture opened in 1980 at 515 Malcolm X Boulevard in Harlem and includes etchings, paintings, and sculpture. Schomburg believed these artworks offered visible proof of the accomplishments of African descendants. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">My original intention was to summarize Schomburg's accomplishments and connect our blog readers to the outstanding </span><a href="https://www.nypl.org/books-more/recommendations/schomburg/kids" style="font-size: large;" target="_blank">Schomburg Center's Black Liberation List for Young Readers</a><span style="font-size: large;">. This is a comprehensive and affirming list of forty-one titles for ages 0-12. Covering a comprehensive spectrum of genres and reading levels, it is worthy of its own blog post! </span><span style="font-size: large;">What happened though, was the more I read about Mr. Schomburg the more I wanted to know. I also came to the conclusion in my search for more information about this man who was instrumental in promoting scholarship about the African Diaspora, Black History Month might not even exist if Arturo Schomburg had not decided at a very young age to prove that "Africa's sons and daughters had a history and heroes worth noting." </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">According to Weatherford, during his elementary school years, Schomburg developed a passion for finding evidence in books about the African Diaspora and the cultural and historical contributions of people of African descent after he was told by his teacher they did not exist. Please forgive me here as I take a moment to connect Schomburg's passion and commitment to "the goals of his recuperation of a lost African past" to the inquiry process we strive to develop with sustained curiosity, original research, and sense of purpose in our students. This became Schomburg's life work, persevering through roadblocks and false narratives, he spent uncountable hours in book shops looking for any piece of writing that reinforced his goal and spurred on his desire to know more. Everything he found became part of a collection built over many years and which included pamphlets, books, and other ephemera that had been cast aside by white book shop owners and collectors who saw no value in the story Schomburg was seeking to tell. He realized in his "book hunting" that no one volume would tell the whole story.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Schomburg came to New York from Puerto Rico with the career goal of obtaining a law degree, although the lack of educational credentials kept him from this goal. He worked in various capacities in law firms but his true profession was as the architect of a narrative based on the idea that this history must "restore what slavery took away." The manipulation of "knowledge" to preclude the black history narrative meant he had to dig through the books and visual arts to find the experiences of people who were continually buried and marginalized. Schomburg was active in organizations that fostered research as part of the "black-popular-history project" that emerged in the early part of the 20th century. With the end of World War I and a resurgence of the black liberation movement along with the Harlem Renaissance, Schomburg became a renowned author and scholar, widely sought after for his insights into black culture and history. He argued for the "spiritual nourishment of our cultural past so that youth can be nourished on its own milk." Schomburg believed that the increased body of knowledge, scholarship, and growing archival evidence would require the rewriting of a "common American history." He was especially critical of the way historians represented the contributions of black figures like Phillis Wheatley and Frederick Douglass.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">To truly understand the importance of Schomburg would require years of research and many more pages than one would want to read as a blog post, thus the "wizardry of the picture book" which excels in the remarkable economy of telling a story through the twin arts of visual and textual storytelling. If we can take away two important lessons from Schomburg though they would be, that curiosity fosters persistent research to build knowledge and develop deeper learning, creating new knowledge and ideally changing our understanding and our world view. The second, this is the work of a lifetime and can lead to unexpected and impactful consequences. We must also acknowledge that while we are reaching the end of Black History Month, Schomburg has taught us that there is no end, there is one more book to find, a pamphlet to read, artwork to view that we have yet to discover in a historic and cultural narrative that has systematically been negated by the dominant culture. This is the work of our lifetime, to acknowledge that what we know as the "American story" is not neutral or innocent and that we like Schomburg must be persistent and sustain the work of bringing in to the light the story of black people and culture which in truth is the antecedent of all other American history narratives. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;">Holton, Adalaine. “Decolonizing History: Arthur Schomburg's Afrodiasporic Archive.” The Journal of African American History, vol. 92, no. 2, 2007, pp. 218–238. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20064181. Accessed 25 Feb. 2021.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;">Weatherford, Carole B., and Eric Velasquez. Schomburg : the Man Who Built a Library. Candlewick Press, 2017.</span></p>Christine M Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14462643110276961200noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236390532632374194.post-15789093593553843502021-01-20T04:28:00.004-08:002021-01-20T04:28:55.090-08:00Children's Books Through a Critical Lens (with thanks to Dr. Debbie Reese)<br /><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUuRXDK9L-mIXY_wEEOWvgbZEwDVi0x5kzI0TQk4bfYHu_b2smmO899Rlck1ftjCd4GsBCuPeRjLjH3f5s2wHA3TL2kCkxz_ArwIsleA6o0NmWZ1S7zvFz96fNyXHtFuUYLZslyEfxExE5/s960/blog+header.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="347" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUuRXDK9L-mIXY_wEEOWvgbZEwDVi0x5kzI0TQk4bfYHu_b2smmO899Rlck1ftjCd4GsBCuPeRjLjH3f5s2wHA3TL2kCkxz_ArwIsleA6o0NmWZ1S7zvFz96fNyXHtFuUYLZslyEfxExE5/w640-h347/blog+header.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p> <span style="font-family: courier;">It's my turn to write the blog post for Ask Prescott. I hope this finds you rejuvenated after a short vacation and managing the challenges of fully remote teaching this week. Remember, the librarians are here to help so reach out if we can provide support or collaboration in any way that makes this experience better for you and the students. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: courier;">I am envious of my Library Team members and fellow bloggers. They always seem to hit just the right tone or create a post that is visually appealing. Those posts are popular, widely read, and clearly hit on the interests of our blog readers in meaningful ways. I on the other hand frequently seem to be going down the twisty path of self-reflection about the challenges of our DIE work upon which we've embarked. It stretches well beyond the Include Shared Foundation we used to frame our work for this year. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: courier;">As we've mentioned in previous posts the Library Team as a whole is participating in Project Ready, investigating our role in de-centering whiteness, disrupting the literary canon, and building a truly diverse and inclusive collection in our libraries. Even more significant in this process is our own accountability for being part of a system that has at times lost young readers who have not seen themselves reflected fairly, accurately, or at all in the books that have been selected in the past. Not only are we working on the collection, but we are also working on ourselves to be better.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: courier;">This week we worked through a module called </span><span style="font-family: courier;"><a href="https://ready.web.unc.edu/section-1-foundations/module-6-indigeneity/">Indigeneity and Colonialism</a>, which "provides context and consideration for Native Americans living in the U.S. today." Also, in previous posts, I've mentioned my work at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center as two of the most edifying years in which I learned to acknowledge my own lack of understanding of the experiences of Indigenous Peoples in the United States. I also learned quickly that I could not speak for these tribal nations nor represent myself as having great insights into tribal cultures. I was a work in progress then as I am now and learn something new every time I encounter work by "Dr. Debbie Reese who is enrolled at Nambe Owingeh Pueblo, a federally recognized tribe." Her long history of work on the representation of Native people in children’s literature has been a guidepost for me and many over the past twenty years. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: courier;">In an article, published in the journal<b><i> Language Arts</i></b>, Volume 95, Number 6, July 2018, Dr. Reese discusses "Native American Heritage Month and its intersection with Thanksgiving." She suggests that we move with intention away from the mythic Thanksgiving of Plymouth and focus on choosing better books to bring into the classroom. She suggests we choose books that are tribal specific, written by Native writers, and set in the present day. She also strongly urges us to keep Native peoples visible throughout the whole year. How you ask are we to do that? <a href="https://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2020/12/2020-aicls-best-books-of-2020.html">Dr. Reese has a blog</a> filled with outstanding recommendations and critical reviews of books currently being read in schools that demand reconsideration. <a href="https://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2020/12/2020-aicls-best-books-of-2020.html">American Indians in Children's Literature</a> also asks us to consider teaching children to encounter stories through the lens of critical literacy. That critical lens asks questions when engaging with literature. Whose story is this? Who benefits from this story? Whose voices are not being heard? In fact, children from a very young age should be encouraged to ask these questions. While Dr. Reese's focus is on Indigenous Critical Literacy, we should adopt this practice to every book we add to our collections both library and classroom as we continue to learn to tell the whole, true story. As we continue to de-center whiteness and take an anti-racist stance we must continue to unlearn the lessons of the dominant culture and it's biased history and learn the history and culture through the lens of a critical stance opening our minds to acknowledgement and change.</span></p><span class="th-RW4GC-installed"></span>Christine M Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14462643110276961200noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236390532632374194.post-37016677352119874892020-10-30T05:14:00.003-07:002020-10-31T09:13:31.358-07:00Annual Report Part II: Could PBL and Inquiry Based Learning fill the gaps?<div class="video-container" style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VymsuAHyxwo" width="560"></iframe>
</div><h3 style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small; font-weight: 400;">Animoto compiled and produced by Kate Covintree, Upper School Librarian</span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">I was taking a moment today, October 14, 2020, to appreciate the beautiful autumn day following a stormy Tuesday. The weather seemed analogous to our longing for an end to the COVID19 storm that has been challenging our social, emotional, and educational interactions for seven months. I had recently been reminded of Part 1 of our Annual Report: Starting at the Finish published on this blog in August summarizing our successes along with our personal and professional challenges in the spring of 2020. The "report" highlighted our departmental work during remote learning. We moved quickly to the digital realm for resources, teaching, and learning. In my reverie, I came upon an article about PBL, project-based learning, as the answer to the learning gaps created by the distance learning of the spring where equity and access played a crucial role in the quality and efficacy of the emergency remote learning experiences of many students. </span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">We have returned this fall to mostly in-person learning, with grade-level hybrid models and self-selecting distance learning for some students. Classroom and student interactions look different from last fall. Instead of encouraging close collaborative and inquiry-driven models of learning in flexible workspaces classroom environments with social distancing safety guidelines now look much more like the traditional classrooms found in <i><a href="https://search.follettsoftware.com/metasearch/ui/61278/search/LIBRARY:6f0876f014b1fad55295e4976d7ea11e0f04dd4d/details?requestId=launchTitleDetails&launchFromPermalink=true" target="_blank">The Wednesday Wars</a></i> by Gary D Schmidt, set in 1967. We have found our own spaces compromised in terms of access and flexibility due to the social distancing that is an essential part of our healthy return to campus.</span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">As we return to traditional-looking classrooms, have we also retreated from student-driven learning as part of the Inquiry and PBL goals of last fall? There are so many factors to consider here that to distill all of the challenges in this difficult time down to one over-simplification of a teaching and learning model is unfair and inaccurate. I've watched teachers adapt their classroom limitations to engage their students while employing every tool garnered from years of experience under challenging circumstances, which can include changes in the weather and shifting numbers of students learning remotely on any given day. They are to be commended, routinely, for the work they have done to make this substantive and meaningful for Wheeler and Hamilton students with the ever-present possibility of positive cases of COVID 19.</span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">However, the reason I am writing this under our annual report heading is two-fold. Last fall the Librarians who were Miller Fellows for Teaching and Learning at the time were invited into curricular discussions and planning at every level and in every discipline. The drastic change in teaching and learning in a COVID19 world has sidelined some of these initiatives, but should it? In fact, wouldn't Inquiry and PBL, created as a modular student-paced learning experience be just what is needed to engage and encourage learning in different environments, both in-person and digital?</span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Spurred in part by the 2019 summer reading of <a href="https://search.follettsoftware.com/metasearch/ui/61278/search/all?q=diving%20into%20inquiry&ists=0" target="_blank"><i>Diving into Inquiry</i></a> by Trevor MacKenzie faculty were challenged last school year to grow their curriculum in the Inquiry model based loosely on the John Dewey philosophy of "living as learning." Needless to say, inquiry fits very well with the research models we as librarians have encouraged as part of a robust curriculum for critical thinking and we were pleased and quite busy as teachers came to talk through ideas and find collaborators to help implement change. We were also asked to be resources for those veteran faculty members who were going through a revised evaluation process that encouraged Project and inquiry-based thinking and learning. </span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Some of us worked closely with faculty to add an experiential component to their curriculum hoping to link disciplines such as science, history, and English in 7th grade by considering the Lowell Mills for their social impact through writing in the Lowell Offerings, the economic impact of cotton textile mills, as well as the science of water power using gears pulleys and more to build a robust manufacturing society in the Northeast. Tapping into Slater Mill and the Museum of Work and Culture these cross-disciplinary and "place-based" learning experiences were created to also help students see the value in material culture as part of the story and spark their interest in history both locally and regionally.</span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">We in the libraries continued through February with Quahog Cup, Rooster Games, and Battle of the Books reading and promotions along with the tradition of the National Library week trivia contests. Revisions in the Upper School Tech Core fostered true collaboration with the Tech Facilitator and the Upper School Librarian creating a learning experience that provided an inquiry model of engaging topics and meaningful sharing for 9th grade students. </span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Information Skills for 6th-grade developed projects that examined important literacies. Assessing information sources and looking at the use of media production techniques that convinced an audience that a fictional event was somehow made realistic helped the students explore "fake news," and finding reliable online sources. They learned that confirmation bias plays to our emotions, not our critical thinking brain. All of this excitement for developing opportunities that fostered a high level of engagement among students were impacted by the COVID19 lockdown and emergency remote learning in the spring. Teachers were challenged to compress the remainder of the curriculum into fewer classes, less face time with students, and the final quarter of the year.</span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Projects that had already begun had to find a digital mode to continue the student work. Digital ways to share final projects were devised and research projects not yet started that had in the past been part of the final quarter were modified or sidelined. So too it seemed that inquiry and project-based learning fell from the radar a bit in terms of new (or tried and true but not in the virtual realm.) PBL or IBL curriculum.</span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">This summer there was a team of Virtual Teacher Leaders charged with creating an accessible repository of ideas and models for the return to remote teaching should that be necessary. I was the representative librarian on that team. As we researched best practices in preparation for when we might go fully remote again one theme came through and that was that PBL and Inquiry-Based Learning designed in a modular student-paced way could be the key to filling in the learning gaps in a hybrid or remote learning environment.</span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Our fall and winter semester of learning last year was full and busy in the libraries. We spent our retreat charting a course toward our Include Shared Foundation as we evaluated our collections through a diversity, equity, and inclusion lens. We were active and sought after collaborators in curricular change. As school year 20-21 has started, we find ourselves encountering new and unique challenges all of which look quite different from our previous fall. </span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Materials management and safe access to the spaces and the collections have been a priority, along with the fact that unless we are scheduled to be a "special" or rotation we will be "pushing our way into classrooms" to In some cases literally with carts and rolling bans and in other cases figuratively. In order to try and keep inquiry and its component parts of digital literacy, media literacy, and research. We can help, talk to us, projects can make the dichotomy of your teaching life manageable and meaningful as well as addressing the conundrum of assessments and feedback. IBL and PBL are still here and so are we. Our spring was robust as we turned on a dime and were meaningful partners in the realm of digital teaching and learning. Consider us as you reclaim the level of student engagement that Inquiry can manifest in a digital world.</span></h3><div><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /></span></div>Christine M Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14462643110276961200noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236390532632374194.post-10930675362609156302020-08-14T05:13:00.000-07:002020-08-14T05:13:34.289-07:00COVID19 Policies and Procedures: Library re-opening challenges and guidelines<h3 style="height: 0px;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-cff0f504-7fff-3630-5b91-0b8b212e78d5"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMZuvd2MexTXb36tWkGNOyqDu-740p28ywn6x-jxLCFcT6amHqK0kMsFKOwZ74bYDJ-KKL9ZsW0p6qxhycQzdcJXfr9jWdWKdD0q6561b5y-TbPbIbfhGqCtKsX94DkwW90NR4Okzj64Fk/s2048/COVID+19+Library+Policies+and+Procedures.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMZuvd2MexTXb36tWkGNOyqDu-740p28ywn6x-jxLCFcT6amHqK0kMsFKOwZ74bYDJ-KKL9ZsW0p6qxhycQzdcJXfr9jWdWKdD0q6561b5y-TbPbIbfhGqCtKsX94DkwW90NR4Okzj64Fk/s640/COVID+19+Library+Policies+and+Procedures.png" width="640" /></a></div><h4 style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 5pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><br /></h4><h4 style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 5pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;">As we plan for our September return to school and are in the process of writing specific guidelines for safely opening the libraries for students nursery through grade twelve we are faced with the undeniable fact that safety guidelines in this current pandemic are not always in keeping with the open collaborative and flexible spaces we have designed and encouraged. Our program goals have always included equitable access to information and ideas. We are committed to teaching students to take a critical stance when finding and meeting their information needs in all of its mediated forms. My personal philosophy about being a school librarian is that we are not gatekeepers but guides. Our pivot to emergency remote teaching was successful because of our service attitude, creating everything from resource guides, booklists, tutorials, and online classes to one-to-one meetings with teachers and students to continue to provide service at an unpredictable time. Our response and services were predictable in that they were daily, consistent, easy to find, and people-oriented.</h4><h4 style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 5pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span><a name='more'></a></span>We are a department that has fostered open, flexible, and collaborative learning spaces. Now we are challenged to find new and physically safe ways to continue to promote this interactive philosophy. Under the current circumstances, I think our work shines in the online world and in a distance learning setting even as we creatively consider new ways to deliver service to our entire student body in a physically changing facility. We are committed to making the libraries safe for everyone. Our best work and most equitable and accessible library presence will continue to be online even as our doors open to a changed and challenging environment. </h4><h4 style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 5pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span><!--more--></span></h4><p dir="ltr" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="" style="font-family: times, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">COVID POLICIES AND PROCEDURES</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="" style="font-family: times, serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This will be an unusual year. In order to support the health and safety of the entire community, many of the library’s previous offerings will be on hold. In addition, the library has instituted these policies and procedures. As the year progresses, other adjustments may occur. Any changes or updates to these policies will be posted at the library entrance.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="" style="font-family: times, serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Entrance and Exit Policies </span><span face="" style="font-family: times, serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- The library’s COVID-19 capacity will be determined by the Library Staff in consultation with the Healthy Task Force </span></p><ul style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: times, serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Before school </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- *check with each division librarian for specific before school procedures</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: times, serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">During the school day</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Students will come to the libraries with scheduled classes. * check with division librarians for specific details of independent user access to the library during the school day, </span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: times, serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After school</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - The library will not be open after school.</span></p></li></ul><p dir="ltr" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="" style="font-family: times, serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Entrance and Exit Procedures </span></p><ul style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: times, serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Entry </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- Library users will be asked to follow protocols in each space for entering and leaving the library: eg. Information Commons, enter through the double doors, leave through the single exit door from the Buchanan Room</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: times, serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hand sanitizing upon entry</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Students will be asked to sanitize their hands with hand sanitizer supplied at the entrance to each library</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: times, serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cloth masks</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Students will be expected to have cloth masks on in the library at all times. This includes individual workspaces as well as the book stacks and instructional areas.</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: times, serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Social distancing</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Students will be expected to maintain a 6-ft social distance when facing others in the library.</span></p></li><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: times, serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: circle; margin-left: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Furniture and barriers - Please do not remove any plexiglass barriers put in place throughout the library or rearrange furniture as these have been placed to best support social distancing. </span></p></li></ul><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: times, serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Exit </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- Students will exit through the marked exit doors: eg. enter the Lower School Library through the double doors, exit through the story room door.</span></p></li></ul><p dir="ltr" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="" style="font-family: times, serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Class Reservations </span><span face="" style="font-family: times, serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- Teachers are encouraged to reserve library space for their classes as they have in the past. Please follow these additional guidelines:</span></p><ul style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: times, serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Partial class reservations</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Teachers can reserve student slots for up to half of their class to enter the library during a given period and with the understanding that these students will have support from the library staff while visiting. For best results, teachers should meet with the librarian two weeks prior to the scheduled classes in addition to reserving the space. </span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: times, serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Whole class reservations</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Teachers can reserve work areas in the library for whole-class instruction and collaboration with the library staff. For best results, teachers should meet with the librarian two weeks prior to the class visits in addition to reserving the space. *consult with each division librarian to determine if a whole class visit can be accommodated by space restrictions.</span></p></li></ul><p dir="ltr" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="" style="font-family: times, serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cleaning and Sanitation - </span><span face="" style="font-family: times, serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Throughout the day, the library staff will sanitize high touch surfaces at the beginning of each period and at intervals throughout the day as possible. In addition, we hope the library users will help in the following areas: </span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: times, serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Student tables and work areas - In the Upper School-</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Library users will be expected to wipe down tables and chairs in their workspace BEFORE sitting down to begin working Appropriate cleaning supplies will be provided. Students will be asked to wipe down tables and chairs in their workspace again prior to leaving.</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: times, serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the Lower and Middle School:<span style="font-weight: normal;"> The Library staff will clean high touch surfaces such as tabletops and doors after each class throughout the day and will close for a deep cleaning hour to ensure all high-touch and work surfaces have been cleaned according to the Healthy Taskforce guidelines.</span></span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: times, serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bathrooms </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- Library users will be expected to follow sanitation guidelines set by the Healthy Taskforce for Bathrooms</span></p></li></ul><p dir="ltr" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="" style="font-family: times, serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Borrowing books and browsing </span></p><ul style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: times, serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Checking out books</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Self-checkout will currently not be available. We are currently updating our procedures to fit with best practices for staying safe. e.g. Lower and Middle School students will request books through a Google Form. Books will be checked out and delivered to the student's homeroom. </span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: times, serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Returned books</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - As books are returned, they will be placed in quarantine for a minimum of 72 hours. After this time, books will be shelved and placed back into circulation. </span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: times, serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Browsing </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- Library users are encouraged to browse our books virtually through our </span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://wheelerschool.follettdestiny.com" style="text-decoration-line: none;">online library catalog</a></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. We will also provide additional curated lists. If one must look at books, library patrons will be asked to wash their hands and/or use hand sanitizer before browsing the collection.</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: times, serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 5pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Students will be required to bring their own devices, either personal or supplied by the school to the library for class and independent work</span></p></li></ul></span></h3>Christine M Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14462643110276961200noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236390532632374194.post-33562227685995111032020-08-01T04:46:00.019-07:002020-08-17T11:44:24.307-07:00Distance Learning: Best Practices and Resources<h3 style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZeqp7dmfCJGAFZigoI-4Rn7pKHNgIeeAfBQO3QN2GTlRZIxAnsiZjONbRgvZtIWKL4wkbABx_viH8mZ8BX52FACAux7IgRBThinXWrIpeeWRf46SZAQeDWOj2vmkM0zHmGJGP5YrcneFF/s2048/Distance+Learning_+Planning+and+Implementation+%25282%2529.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZeqp7dmfCJGAFZigoI-4Rn7pKHNgIeeAfBQO3QN2GTlRZIxAnsiZjONbRgvZtIWKL4wkbABx_viH8mZ8BX52FACAux7IgRBThinXWrIpeeWRf46SZAQeDWOj2vmkM0zHmGJGP5YrcneFF/s640/Distance+Learning_+Planning+and+Implementation+%25282%2529.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /></span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">What is the difference between emergency remote teaching and distance learning? How do we know which are the best tools to use when we have another term that requires distance learning? What are the best practices to develop effective and meaningful experiences for our students during remote teaching? How do I strategically plan my distance learning classes to optimize my time with the students? </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">What do we mean by blended and hybrid classes?<span> </span></span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><h3 style="text-align: left;"><font color="#ff0000">The lessons learned during COVID19 provide opportunities to re-envision what schools can be. Now efforts have to be made in developing a practical path. So, what might this look like going forward? </font></h3></span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">These questions and so many more arose during the period of reflection at the end of the school year after a spring of pivoting from in-person to digital teaching. What are the best practices for ensuring that our next distance learning term will be intentionally planned while meeting the communication, education, and relationship needs of our students and families?</span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Our goal was to create a navigable resource that shares pedagogy for distance learning which when intentionally and strategically planned will look different from the emergency remote teaching of the spring term along with practical applications. The Wheeler/Hamilton Virtual Learning Team of teachers has spent the summer reading the feedback shared by you and your students, sifting through the information, participating in webinars, and trying technology tools to create a guide that highlights best practices for creating a blended classroom. You will notice that many of these guidelines can be incorporated into your "real-time" classes, helping students develop habits of learning and familiarity with the technology you use, making the transition to a distance learning term seamless and effective. Our guiding principle was to make the website accessible and practicable. </span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">As you plan for September and into this upcoming school year the most important practice to consider is establishing consistent and reliable communication with your students, their parents, and your colleagues using digital and multi-modal formats from the first day. The emphasis placed on relationships through advisory and class meetings continues to be a defining philosophy behind Wheeler/Hamilton's blended and distance learning planning. Finally, we do not anticipate that the website will be processed as a whole. We believe we have included just the right pieces of information, technology tools, and exemplars to get you started with your plans for distance learning as you embark upon this opportunity to re-envision what school can be. Thank you, </span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Virtual Learning Team</span></h3><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNMj-6g_6mJDvfjNiy-KXZvDihD2iRWP-ndF7rNRkvUG9EHEofCorfBdDlPsVhMm7Ciz1piycL4EDdJg50MIiNGnBAg-feR1-mr3M72aPk3MtitCBYD8-Q42RVSuaAc18HV6oNo9-14_6P/s1600/Hybrid+Learning_rev.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="992" data-original-width="1600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNMj-6g_6mJDvfjNiy-KXZvDihD2iRWP-ndF7rNRkvUG9EHEofCorfBdDlPsVhMm7Ciz1piycL4EDdJg50MIiNGnBAg-feR1-mr3M72aPk3MtitCBYD8-Q42RVSuaAc18HV6oNo9-14_6P/s640/Hybrid+Learning_rev.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /></span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><br /></h3><div><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /></span></div>Christine M Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14462643110276961200noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236390532632374194.post-83557652838558979022020-07-29T07:12:00.000-07:002020-07-29T07:12:27.181-07:00Chat From the Stacks Episode 8: Ridding Schools of Reading Trauma<h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"></span></h3><h3><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /></span></h3><h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8ayh6MHsAZqfTczbBtf99tJhQA0RLcFtt0t8zbPZoy9ljdY6NK301EFmhjaaIJDQqXqK5rBBD1qfyxnK89MJ968xwO4zOqUVV5kKH_1KMJJOJ0_h2ejvtNT5PG-K0sbU7Vy9JW1lemAPo/s2048/Chat+from+the+Stacks+%25281%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="351" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8ayh6MHsAZqfTczbBtf99tJhQA0RLcFtt0t8zbPZoy9ljdY6NK301EFmhjaaIJDQqXqK5rBBD1qfyxnK89MJ968xwO4zOqUVV5kKH_1KMJJOJ0_h2ejvtNT5PG-K0sbU7Vy9JW1lemAPo/w625-h351/Chat+from+the+Stacks+%25281%2529.png" width="625" /></a></div><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /></span></h3><h3><span style="font-weight: 400;">Hello and welcome to Chat from the Stacks, episode 8. My goal when I started the chat was to create an online and audio outlet for middle grade and YA books with which I connected. Books I wanted to share with a middle school audience, teachers, and parents of middle school students. Today's episode is a bit different. I attended the virtual American Library Association conference this year; my first ALA conference ever without the associated costs of hotels and airfare. I was impressed with the conference offerings as a whole, but two sessions resonated with me. One was about the SIFT process for evaluating online information. Geared toward college information literacy goals, the concept of lateral reading and teaching students to "think like the web" was fascinating. Research skills seemed to take a back seat during our COVID19 emergency remote teaching efforts. A goal for this year is to return to intentionally teaching these in collaboration with content area teachers. The second streaming session that made an impact on me was about reading trauma. Too often by the time students reach 6th grade they have decided that they are non-readers. We often chalk this up to the distractions of ubiquitous technology but is there more to it?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">How can reading cause trauma? In my personal experience from the time I was a child, reading has been a comforting, engaging, and meaningful time that relaxed my mind filled my heart and introduced me to characters that helped shape who I am. I loved going to the public library every Saturday to collect two more books for the week. My mother volunteered at our little elementary school library and would set aside books like "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" for me, knowing that historical fiction and biographies were my genres of choice. My happiest days in school were the Scholastic Book Club delivery days. I would be distracted, usually during math class, by the new pile of paperback books just waiting to be read. How could reading cause trauma? </span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">As a teacher and a parent, I saw it first hand with children who didn't understand the mechanics of decoding, struggled with fluency, and with comprehension because they were too often trying to decode words that were exceptions rather than rules. Children who weren't believed when they won the independent reading contest because of preconceived ideas about who they were as a reader based on standardized test scores. I've employed many strategies to help these children, including buying both the print and audio versions of well-loved books that "everyone" was reading but that my challenged readers would not have been able to navigate without someone to help them with the pronunciation of Hermione. I've allowed these students to choose books that are not at the Lexile that test scores would indicate but are of high interest to the child motivated to try a challenging book. As a school librarian, I have never leveled collections. </span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Now let's add to these painful reading moments, which have likely turned prospective readers to non-readers, the even more painful realization of never seeing yourself represented as an empowered main character in the books you love. Of only seeing yourself reflected in stories of trauma and victimization and not of the joy, trials, and tribulations of everyday living with strong families, good friends, and your own cultural realities. Not being able to find books written by people who look like you, but instead finding books with main characters who look like you written by people who do not. Imagine how painful these reading experiences have been for children just learning to read or those who are avid readers but have never quite connected with a story, a character, or an event. </span><blockquote>“Students are more important than books. We’re not gatekeepers of books, that’s not our role,” said Stivers. “I would much rather lose a book than a reader.”</blockquote></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"> How do we make reading a healing process and not one that causes children embarrassment, pain, and a feeling of not belonging? </span><a href="https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/blogs/the-scoop/116407/" target="_blank">Ridding Schools of Reading Trauma</a> <span style="font-weight: normal;">Tips for interrupting traditional practices and diversifying collections by </span><span style="font-size: 18.72px; font-weight: 400;">Teacher-librarians Julie Stivers and Julia Torres is a great place to start. These outstanding librarians introduced professional development created by middle school students called the #LibFive, so important when interrupting practices that have proven painful in the past.</span></h3><h3><span style="font-size: 18.72px; font-weight: normal;">These are:</span></h3><h3><span style="font-size: 18.72px; font-weight: normal;">1-See me. Listen to me.</span></h3><h3><span style="font-size: 18.72px; font-weight: normal;">2-Show me on the shelves and walls. Read those books yourself.</span></h3><h3><span style="font-size: 18.72px; font-weight: normal;">3-Graphic novels and manga are not extra.</span></h3><h3><span style="font-size: 18.72px; font-weight: normal;">4-Show the joy in our stories.</span></h3><h3><span style="font-size: 18.72px; font-weight: normal;">5-Make the library a sorting-free zone.</span></h3><h3><span style="font-size: 18.72px; font-weight: normal;">By sorting, we mean separating students by perceived ability, grades, compliance, or other factors. Our libraries should not sort students but treat all visitors as readers and scholars.</span></h3><div><span style="font-size: 18.72px; font-weight: normal;">We are heading into a new school year faced with many challenges for safe reopening and distance learning. We must continue to see ourselves as disruptors of the status quo and that includes disrupting our own practices that may have caused trauma to young readers who are excited to read their next best book with the assurance that they and their stories will be inclusive, honest and accessible. </span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 18.72px;"><blockquote><br /></blockquote></span></h3><blockquote><div></div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /></span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><br /></h3>Christine M Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14462643110276961200noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236390532632374194.post-10553030830026465682020-06-18T06:31:00.026-07:002020-08-01T05:28:05.444-07:00Annual Report Part I: Starting at the Finish<h3 style="line-height: 1.5; text-align: left;"><font size="4" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.5;"></font></h3><h3 style="line-height: 1.5; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ2m8aklethAZKkl1K-0sRgHqY9EmgNMlnKUx3pB0ThZJ0fjXb0FEjroLQWv-PmxFp0j19uN8oh78L4G-dzHWqVocCLFX7T9v69Nmj9eK5Ur8ndwUzgRiDfGnH498C8NDvR1OEdjXb-A84/s1600/000.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ2m8aklethAZKkl1K-0sRgHqY9EmgNMlnKUx3pB0ThZJ0fjXb0FEjroLQWv-PmxFp0j19uN8oh78L4G-dzHWqVocCLFX7T9v69Nmj9eK5Ur8ndwUzgRiDfGnH498C8NDvR1OEdjXb-A84/s640/000.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><font color="#b51200" style="line-height: 1.5;"><br /></font></h3><h3 style="line-height: 1.5; text-align: center;"><font color="#b51200" style="line-height: 1.5;">"Brava to the 2019-20 Miller Fellows for all their work on our behalf this year. From blogs, Instagram, Animotos, traditions, new thoughts, hard topics, and new voices they ILLUMINATE the manuscript of our Wheeler community!" <font size="1" style="line-height: 1.5;">Laurie Flynn, Director of Strategic Communications</font></font></h3><h3 style="line-height: 1.5; text-align: left;"><font face="georgia" size="3" style="line-height: 1.5;"><h3 style="clear: both; font-weight: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">We have reached the end of another school year. This one has been extraordinary and in many ways underscores the reason for the librarians to write an annual account of our work with teachers and students. Can our influence be summarized by the last few months of distance learning? This environment does showcase our efforts to provide a true blended learning and online experience for our students and the journey to distance learning has highlighted our work in a way that is unprecedented. </span><i style="line-height: 1.5; text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=slj-covid-19-response-survey-shows-librarians-preparation-and-response-to-school-closures-coronavirus-COVID19" style="line-height: 1.5;" target="_blank">School Library Journal</a> </i><span style="text-align: left;">published a survey in April 2020 of school librarian experiences during this time of Distance Learning. The survey of 975 librarians reported: "About one-third of respondents said they’d been unprepared for their school’s closure because of COVID-19. Thirty-one percent said they’d received no notice prior to the shutdown orders, and 30 percent said they were not prepared for the shift to online distance learning." Our experience was very different. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSfDRGJZ-YWTEVkcfVwGmLlPJE4K8YTECRkXjeussN4zyL8t_FNCBp0mhxeahVVsp_fRK4Q7wDpwRd6RifD1JzqqVdKTKsrRbecwgzZT0ipGvdlMVtByT3AOy3UbUrAInpKKsv6zp4UmnO/s1600/001.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSfDRGJZ-YWTEVkcfVwGmLlPJE4K8YTECRkXjeussN4zyL8t_FNCBp0mhxeahVVsp_fRK4Q7wDpwRd6RifD1JzqqVdKTKsrRbecwgzZT0ipGvdlMVtByT3AOy3UbUrAInpKKsv6zp4UmnO/s640/001.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></span></h3></font></h3><div><h3 style="clear: both; line-height: 1.5; text-align: left;"><font size="4" style="font-family: georgia; line-height: 1.5;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.5;">Team Library was able to pivot quickly to a digital response and active presence in a week! We were asked before spring break to prepare resource <a href="https://prescottlibrary.wheelerschool.org/familyresources2020" style="line-height: 1.5;" target="_blank">lists for families </a>and <a href="https://prescottlibrary.wheelerschool.org/familyresources2020" style="line-height: 1.5;" target="_blank">faculty</a>. Both included curated online resources from databases to science experiments, virtual museum tours, video tutorials, booklists and passwords.</span> <span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.5;">A</span></font><span style="font-family: georgia; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.5;">s soon as distance learning was announced we were ready to bring both resources and services online. Our collection development shifted from Follett to Overdrive for e-books and audiobooks and saw unprecedented numbers of new users and items circulated through this online book platform. We did our best work as a team with weekly meetings and goal setting that integrated us into the daily life of the "virtual" school.</span></h3></div><div style="line-height: 1.5;"><font face="georgia"><br /></font></div><div style="line-height: 1.5; text-align: left;"><font face="georgia"><font color="#b51200" size="4" style="line-height: 1.5;"><b style="line-height: 1.5;">"Thanks for creating and sharing all this great content - been really helpful and inspiring especially during distance learning.</b>" </font><font color="#b51200" size="1" style="line-height: 1.5;">Beau Poppen, Hamilton Middle School Teacher</font></font></div><div style="line-height: 1.5;"><font face="georgia" size="4" style="line-height: 1.5;"><br /></font></div><div style="line-height: 1.5;"><font face="georgia" size="4" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.5;">One of the best outcomes for us as a team of librarians was the time to work together in a way that was both unique and rewarding. We were able to speak with one voice about our goals and responsibilities to foster and demonstrate inclusion, equity, and diversity in our collections and our lives. We capitalized on our strengths to meet departmental goals and embrace the opportunity to lean in as technology integrationists, online storytellers, podcasters, senior interest group facilitators, and book club leaders to enhance virtual reading development. We moved well-loved independent reading initiatives and their culminating activities to online platforms that rewarded 4th grade Battle of the Books and 6th grade Quahog Cup readers with exciting digital challenges. Capitalizing on our access to social media we reinvigorated our blog <a href="http://askprescott.blogspot.com/" style="line-height: 1.5;" target="_blank">"Ask Prescott"</a> with twenty-four posts in a matter of two months!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5I7HBMayFx7bZvUyIQdBNHpC4Q6EpoCbHvSXbbY3nzTlVizDCLRLS4u9MHBFLaUY40Z731xwApbFt0Pt-uZMn9VH1Z99dZQBgNF40nDTV_hKcCeXo3lc96OckLSdrjd9IRHWgbV__4v7x/s1600/002.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5I7HBMayFx7bZvUyIQdBNHpC4Q6EpoCbHvSXbbY3nzTlVizDCLRLS4u9MHBFLaUY40Z731xwApbFt0Pt-uZMn9VH1Z99dZQBgNF40nDTV_hKcCeXo3lc96OckLSdrjd9IRHWgbV__4v7x/s640/002.png" width="640" /></a></div></font></div><div style="line-height: 1.5;"><font face="georgia" size="4" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.5;"><br /></font></div><div style="line-height: 1.5; text-align: left;"><font color="#b51200" face="georgia" style="line-height: 1.5;"><b style="line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" style="line-height: 1.5;">"Awesome tutorial! Wow! Wheeler is so lucky to have you." </font><font size="1" style="line-height: 1.5;">Amy Bonnici, Upper School Spanish Teacher</font></b></font></div><div style="line-height: 1.5;"><font face="georgia" size="4" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.5;"><br /></font></div><div style="line-height: 1.5;"><font face="georgia" size="4" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.5;">Our team believes in professional development. The nature of our work requires that we actively engage with our library organizations such as the Rhode Island Library Association, Association of Independent School Librarians and the American Association of School Librarians. We attended conferences and webinars throughout this distance learning time to stay abreast of best practices for providing services during this time, (who doesn't love the school librarian who used a drone delivery service to get books to her students?) and procedures for safe re-opening. </font></div><div style="line-height: 1.5;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3ya_nmCu8uN598cGtM0v7THKl74RTCCpc8DOWtPDY7T1e95eICYR00tjdzJZNeBxCXod6b8Vk_pf4qhxlmyMdONP_7mr6cNunoFajYuP77G6qo7SC5ISNikZTakYp2GEu8k66Jp5hWZQk/s1600/003.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3ya_nmCu8uN598cGtM0v7THKl74RTCCpc8DOWtPDY7T1e95eICYR00tjdzJZNeBxCXod6b8Vk_pf4qhxlmyMdONP_7mr6cNunoFajYuP77G6qo7SC5ISNikZTakYp2GEu8k66Jp5hWZQk/s640/003.png" width="640" /></a></div><font face="georgia" size="4" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.5;"><br /></font></div><div style="line-height: 1.5;"><font face="georgia" size="4" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.5;"><br /></font></div><div style="line-height: 1.5;"><font face="georgia" size="4" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.5;">Digging into technologies to deliver better lessons, create digital escape rooms with Google Forms, build waves with Wakelets, use Google Slide Hyperdocs to create interactive and self-paced lessons, and become expert on Padlet and Flipgrid filled our days. We found new exciting online mentors like Amanda Jones a fun and inspiring Middle School librarian who serves a school population of 700 5th and 6th graders in southeast Lousiana and her webinars called <a href="https://youtu.be/h3_WOvRrjI8" style="line-height: 1.5;" target="_blank">"Our Two Cents"</a> and Sam Kary an amazing 5th-grade social studies teacher from San Franciso who shared his excellent online teaching strategies in his <a href="https://youtu.be/s9Vwcro03xI" style="line-height: 1.5;">"New EdTech Classroom"</a> videos. I personally watched, listened to, or tweeted with these two educators almost every day trying to build my own storehouse of tech knowledge to be able to better serve our students and teachers. </font></div><div style="line-height: 1.5;"><font face="georgia" size="4" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.5;"><br /></font></div><div style="line-height: 1.5;"><font face="georgia" size="4" style="line-height: 1.5;">The last month of our distance learning experience brought an end and beginning to our work and clarified in the starkest way our responsibilities as librarians in a community of learners to own the work of anti-racism, through diversity, inclusion, and equity. Intellectualizing our response to the death of George Floyd through discussions and efforts to build a collection that is representative and includes Black, Indigenous, and people of color did not meet the urgency of the moment. Even now with our efforts to share pivotal texts and media that changed our thinking we want to do more, to help students: "read books to arm yourself with the knowledge to better protect your rights, give voice to the voiceless, and challenge social norms." D'Orio.</font></div><div style="line-height: 1.5;"><font face="georgia" size="4" style="line-height: 1.5;"><br /></font></div><div style="line-height: 1.5;"><font face="georgia" size="4" style="line-height: 1.5;">We've challenged ourselves as a department to follow the curriculum <a href="http://ready.web.unc.edu/" style="line-height: 1.5;" target="_blank">Project READY: Reimagining Equity & Access for Diverse Youth</a>. The purpose of the free online professional development curriculum is; improving knowledge about race and racism, racial equity, and culturally sustaining pedagogy. The primary focus of the<b style="line-height: 1.5;"> Project READY</b> curriculum is on improving relationships with, services to, and resources for youth of color and Native youth. And that's our goal too along with recognizing and calling out systemic racism wherever it exists. I know that some will feel this is not enough. But it is a place to start to edify ourselves in a mostly white school community about race. It is a place to start the challenging discussions that must follow in the coming school year and beyond and help students own their awakening to systemic racism and white privilege as told through the lived experiences of Black Americans. A comprehensive and inclusive reading list has been developed for Upper School Summer Reading. It was developed by Kate Covintree, the Upper School Librarian and Ann Bruno, Upper School English Teacher and is rich with BIPOC authors, avital resource that is long overdue. Each division is working to create similar<a href="https://wke.lt/w/s/Kf6Vy3" style="line-height: 1.5;" target="_blank"> developmentally appropriate reading recommendations.</a></font></div><div style="line-height: 1.5;"><font face="georgia" size="4" style="line-height: 1.5;"><br /></font></div><div style="line-height: 1.5;"><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="georgia">In our newest blog posts <a href="http://askprescott.blogspot.com/2020/06/read-watch-listen-learn-media-thats.html"><i style="line-height: 1.5;">Words on Wednesdays</i>,</a> read, watch, listen, act, each of the librarians identifies a time and place, a book, a video, and a podcast that changed their thinking about race and white privilege. By sharing these multimedia experiences and inviting guest bloggers to share theirs we are hoping in some small but important way to keep the momentum going in this watershed moment. What we cannot do is speak to the moment and then fade away again behind the book club, booklist, and collection development work that at times protects us from having the difficult conversations and identifying racism in our community and beyond. We want our shelves both physical and digital to be emptied of these books and we want to be better as members of our communities to speak these truths and get these books into the hands of those who need them most. We've spent our professional lives getting the right book to the right reader. We're doubling down now because those "right readers" at this moment are those of us who need to develop cultural competencies and to collect and evangelize narratives by diverse authors as we learn about ourselves and we recognize and challenge systemic racism wherever it exists. </font></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: 1.5;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; line-height: 1.5; text-align: center;"><font size="1"><br /></font></div><font size="1">D’Orio, Wayne. “She Started ‘Read Woke’. (Cover Story).” School Library Journal, vol. 66, no. 4, Apr. 2020, pp. 26–30. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=afh&AN=142485150&site=ehost-live.</font></div><div><br /></div>Christine M Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14462643110276961200noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236390532632374194.post-53644060691458898062020-05-21T11:37:00.006-07:002020-08-03T10:48:41.346-07:00Escape Room Part II: Locks and Keys<h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK0XQKhPbzF9hsivAPUmbuZXXDscy3IBHLOjPyoRMLfvOfDSBmebDFStHvF2CSrJy4zgECxhOTUW3sbsFjLlD7LYEiJaqYpKPjjohvsMGFtulEcRfL5ATWbTbAQc5jfNw6VTmF-LW70mQv/s2240/Culture+of+Inquiry.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1260" data-original-width="2240" height="351" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK0XQKhPbzF9hsivAPUmbuZXXDscy3IBHLOjPyoRMLfvOfDSBmebDFStHvF2CSrJy4zgECxhOTUW3sbsFjLlD7LYEiJaqYpKPjjohvsMGFtulEcRfL5ATWbTbAQc5jfNw6VTmF-LW70mQv/w625-h351/Culture+of+Inquiry.png" width="625" /></a></div></div>With the end of our Quahog Cup Challenge for 2020, I wanted to take the time to recap and share what I learned. First I need to give credit to <a href="#" id="https://www.lomlibrary.org/meet-the-librarian.html">Amanda Jones</a>, an inspiring and creative librarian from Louisiana who with her teaching colleague, Heather White, produced an excellent online learning experience about Google Forms and Digital Escape Rooms. As I said earlier, I have done digital escape rooms in Google Forms specific to nonfiction articles in which I wanted students to practice close reading. This one was going to be a bit different. <a href="" id="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/13LxLj939EBsqD3bkVYMOxaqtJu09M1Xdki9yr8TouNw/edit?usp=sharing">Amanda Jones's webinar</a> was an excellent refresher course for me and reminded me of some fun tricks and tips when creating the game. I would recommend their <a href="" id="https://twitter.com/abmack33?s=20"><i>Our Two Cents</i> </a>Webinars as very practical and immediately useful in your daily teaching practices, both on campus and remotely. </span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Just to remind readers of the previous post, students were given a list of twenty-five books that were selected by the 6th-grade team and me, the librarian. They were asked to read a minimum of ten books and to record book reviews on Flipgrid during the course of the school year. The Escape Room, based on the booklist, combined puzzles, codes, images, and maps as the students were guided through the Locks and Keys to arrive at their final destination. In the end, teams were asked to create their own Lock and Key based on one of the books they had read. Some were very creative incorporating keys written in Morse Code! </span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8dZ6dN4GPpYUVkkUDh4eqXRAPxbkE0LsdckuM-rD6d0G0RIbOk7SkDo0Pf2Nsmm5X0T8uT2eQA_XHAle-X6aC9hVqK8AlPy9wC-O0XwDOg5SPfSg94_e_Uvdw2wk3I84QmDfEQkCyRk2g/" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1056" data-original-width="816" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8dZ6dN4GPpYUVkkUDh4eqXRAPxbkE0LsdckuM-rD6d0G0RIbOk7SkDo0Pf2Nsmm5X0T8uT2eQA_XHAle-X6aC9hVqK8AlPy9wC-O0XwDOg5SPfSg94_e_Uvdw2wk3I84QmDfEQkCyRk2g/s320/Quahog+Cup+List%252C+sy+1920.jpg" /></a>You are probably wondering what all of this has to do with the purpose of this blog. I believe it is an ideal example of the inquiry process. My driving question was "How do I create a virtual escape room?" Once I had my question, I sought out resources that would help with the design of the <a href="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/13LxLj939EBsqD3bkVYMOxaqtJu09M1Xdki9yr8TouNw/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">game</a>. I had to identify all of the moving parts and components that would be needed to make the game interesting, as well as challenging for the students who read all twenty-five books. The Escape Room could not be so difficult that students would be unable to finish in the allotted time. I needed to think through each lock and key determining images or codes that would work best to find a solution and incorporate critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication into the elements of the game. </span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">After hours of pre-planning, I assembled the final product and ran the game with other 6th-grade team members to make sure it was just right. Finally, it was made public to an authentic audience of 6th graders. Once the challenge was finished I received feedback from teachers and students who monitored or played the game. This post is my reflection step of the inquiry process. Most of the teams worked collaboratively and used their knowledge of the books or critical thinking skills to solve the puzzles. Some teams, however, especially those with members who had read all of the books, moved through the locks and keys much too quickly. </span></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Again, with a limited amount of time I wanted each team to be able to finish. I would like to work on the complexity of the solutions for next time though to make certain that the "avid" readers find the challenge, well a bit more challenging. This was the perfect inquiry in practice for me and it leads me to the idea that while teaching and learning remotely can be difficult at times, inquiry practice is ideally suited for teaching our students in a distance learning environment, just as it was for me. I was highly engaged in learning all I could about Digital Escape Rooms because I knew I had to produce something authentic for an audience that would be clamoring for an Escape Room Challenge to drop at 10:30 on Thursday morning. Starting with a question and having the flexibility and freedom to find the answers as well as produce something meaningful is still the way I learn best. I'll just bet it is for our students too!</span></h3><iframe frameborder="0" height="1410" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdHt3lgmMfqZz7dFdXKmFxHxqtOFMvmMxf4a4Fk_Xw0XsCZMA/viewform?embedded=true" width="640">Loading…</iframe><div><br /></div>Christine M Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14462643110276961200noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236390532632374194.post-14982158192944612752020-05-02T13:01:00.003-07:002020-06-25T04:15:54.586-07:00Inquiry and Online Escape Rooms: Part 1<h3><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /></span></h3><h3>
<span style="font-weight: 400;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWiNJcFO4nZ0kw1XYzMuW2u8C3oj5B6Xc8E7ZGeCYyRQBOjjXIVy3h5zQCq2HFN1s55HaoO-R1EEnztjIPF4R3Nmd1avPGkZonCH25ueeEYrobfFh5EqVDurFuYbZ10eFj-0EMuYYAsM22/s2240/Culture+of+Inquiry.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1260" data-original-width="2240" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWiNJcFO4nZ0kw1XYzMuW2u8C3oj5B6Xc8E7ZGeCYyRQBOjjXIVy3h5zQCq2HFN1s55HaoO-R1EEnztjIPF4R3Nmd1avPGkZonCH25ueeEYrobfFh5EqVDurFuYbZ10eFj-0EMuYYAsM22/w500-h281/Culture+of+Inquiry.png" width="500" /></a></div>The Quahog Cup is a reading challenge for 6th graders. The 6th-grade team of teachers has chosen twenty-five books that are of high interest, award-winning or nominated, and engaging. The list includes novels both literary and graphic, non-fiction and picture books, and the books are available in both print and audio through various school and library resources. As with everything else in the curriculum this spring we have had to reinvent the challenges and games to make the event digital! I have been charged with creating an online escape room that involves puzzles, book references, map challenges, and more. While I made an escape room themed challenge last spring with locks and boxes and ring pop rewards, I felt for this digital gaming I needed more information. The reason I am musing about this in my <i>Culture of Inquiry Blog</i> is that I am using an inquiry model to take me through the steps of creating an online version of last spring's successful and fun event. </span></h3>
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<span style="font-weight: 400;">In October of last year, I went through an escape room challenge with my family. It was loads of fun and I was thankful to be with three great problem solvers and analytical thinkers or I would still be locked in the haunted room with a plastic skeleton trying to find the missing artifact! Full disclosure, I am not a great puzzler. Math has always been a challenge to me and puzzle-based games seem to lend themselves to a mathematical mind. I have committed to this escape room, so I will follow the steps of inquiry to a Breakout game I can share. </span></h3>
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<span style="font-weight: 400;">Wonder, Investigate, Connect, Create, Share, Reflect, are the steps to the process. My wonder phase has been made clear in the first few paragraphs and I have moved on to the investigation stage. I watched a webinar last Monday that was both delightful and helpful to develop an online escape room using Google Forms. I may have to watch it again and I am quickly running out of time but I do think I understand the basics. While they are puzzle-based there is a writing element to escape rooms, the story has to be good, draw the participants into the storyline quickly, take the team on few twists and turns and fit into a time frame. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-weight: 400;">Writing is crucial. I chose to base my escape room on one of the books on the list, <i>Alanna: Song of the Lioness</i> by Tamora Pierce. I have also been investigating games for DIY escape rooms. Today, I'm moving on to the "create" phase and I'm going to use this space to write out my story, plan the games and start to make the Google Form that will be the container app for the puzzles. First, the challenge. </span></h3>
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<span style="font-weight: 400;">Alanna disguised as Alan of Trebrond has been taken in to train as a knight under Duke Gareth. Here she meets and is befriended by Prince Jonathan of Tortall. Using her untutored magic she saves Jon from the sweating sickness. Jon trusts young Alan and asks Duke Garrett to allow Alan/Alanna to accompany him as his squire to Persopolis where they both face the magical beings inhabiting the Black City and defeat them, but only for the time being. Somehow the foul beings and dark magic of the Black City are connected to Jon's uncle, Duke Roger, a powerful sorcerer and the heir to the throne of Tortall after Jonathan himself. </span></h3>
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<span style="font-weight: 400;">For the purposes of our escape room story, Jon and Alan/Alanna have gone to visit Sir Myles Olau, their History of Warfare professor and friend. He hikes with them to the ruins at the top of a hill on his property. The local folks including Sir Myles's own servants will not venture near the ruins. There is an evil presence, ghosts they say, but Alanna knows from a previous visit that there is a dark magical presence hidden in the labyrinth underneath the ruins. During her first visit, Alanna opened the locked passage to the maze beneath, thinking it was the armory. While she was in the maze she was nearly ensnared by a dark presence but the focused power of the light emanating from a crystal embedded in the hilt of a sword meant for Alanna casts a powerful magical light that causes the black force to withdraw, freeing Alanna to return to the surface and safety. </span></h3>
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<span style="font-weight: 400;">Before she and Prince Jon leave for Persepolis though, they must retrieve a powerful magical artifact, a sapphire ring, lost in the labyrinth. It will give Jonathan the power he will need to face and defeat the sorcery of the Black City. As they descend the stairs to the darkness appears to have an eerie blue glow of the sapphire ring fills the passage as does the black presence that nearly possessed Alanna on her first visit. The time to find the artifact is running out and the passageway leading to the center of the underground maze is blocked by metal doors marked with runes, numbers, and maps that hold the keys to unlocking each one. In order to retrieve the ring and escape to the surface, Alanna and Jonathan have to solve the ancient messages left by the sorcerer who stole the artifact and buried it deep in the earth. The clock is ticking, can you and our team help? Look for the puzzles and their solutions in the next post as I move on to the "Share and Reflect" steps of the process.</span></h3>
Christine M Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14462643110276961200noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236390532632374194.post-32188066651614291442020-03-05T11:54:00.000-08:002020-03-06T09:28:23.104-08:00Even Oprah! Who's story is it? The challenge of a diverse collection<span style="color: #674ea7;">Oprah's recent Book Club pick, </span><i style="color: #674ea7;">American Dirt </i><span style="color: #674ea7;">by Jeanine Cummins, has raised a firestorm of controversy. The book, published in early 2020, was hailed by the publisher as this generation's </span><i style="color: #674ea7;">Grapes of Wrath</i><span style="color: #674ea7;"> and according to Kirkus review "intensely suspenseful and deeply humane, this novel makes migrants seeking to cross the southern U.S. border indelibly individual" The push back came from Latinx authors, activists and journalists who took issue with stereotypes and tropes about Mexicans seeking asylum in the United States.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #674ea7;">Exacerbating the outrage at Oprah's choice is the fact that the author Jeanine Cummins was born in Rota Spain and is of Irish descent. In other words, she is telling someone else's story through her dominant culture perspective. Therefore the novel does not have an authentic voice as a person's lived experience. The New York Times article, <a href="https://nyti.ms/32Ooxy2" target="_blank">"Critics of Oprah Book Club Title Put New Novel on Trial"</a> goes into great detail about the criticism of the book and Oprah's frustration with having to defend her choice. Subsequent to the program organized to allow people to air their concerns and responses Oprah promised to have more Latinx authors represented among her Book Club choices. I'm not convinced that while she called this discussion a seminal moment Oprah and others see how deeply this issue goes in the publishing world.</span><br />
<span style="color: #674ea7;"><br /></span><span style="color: #674ea7;">Our work this year in the Library has focused on the Include Shared Foundation of the AASL National Standards for School Libraries. As we were working on a "crosswalk" of skills and inquiry projects, the blank spaces on our Google Sheets in the "Include" column were glaring. We decided that this would be our focus for the year. We thought we were being intentional about diverse representation in our library collections and instruction. Was that true? How would we even begin? Because just like Jeanine Cummins, I learned that while I can speak about the reasons that someone of another race or culture cannot authentically write about someone else's lived experiences, I too cannot speak as one of those under-represented voices. Once before, I was asked to work with teachers to help them select books for their classrooms and curriculum that did not perpetuate Native American stereotypes. At that time I returned to the best practices in libraries and considered the evaluation criteria we use, looking for the #ownvoices that were so hard to find.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #674ea7;">With all of this in mind I decided to do an informal audit of books in the collection to determine if we truly had a diverse collection. The audit is still in process. We are also looking at our collection development policies and book challenge policy to ensure that when these books are in the collection, they remain there in spite of others best efforts to remove them. Back to my earlier point though, the problem is that books with diverse main characters written by diverse authors are still not being published in the numbers that would be representative of the populations we serve. We cannot buy or recommend books that are not there. When the publisher of <i>American Dirt </i>was challenged to develop a division for Latinx writers and books, the response was not to divide the stories but to bring them all forward. Clearly this is still not happening in the numbers that it should.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #674ea7;">I certainly do not have all the answers and stumble along knowing that multiple copies of books by Kwame Alexander and Jason Reynolds, while responsive, does not make for a "diverse" or representative collection. I still have much work to do to put my own collection in order. I was a bit surprised though to learn that a person with so much power to elevate the discussion, fell into the same trap of believing that anyone in the dominant culture can tell anyone else's story. That, in my opinion, is simply not true.</span>Christine M Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14462643110276961200noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236390532632374194.post-53277030552779041082020-03-03T08:27:00.004-08:002020-06-29T14:33:59.535-07:00Self Assessment is not Self-Judgment<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS6ZtypbRjPkXCHwNmRRux7vCSo-3IA-uHdNCkGpv4xZmGga93n5mFuNDOwNzkUm_wPfseVx84EW5dtA00Zs3QyY4086h6z2OqftvfxhOzUeXmRVBw-udxcn8NmGa0pBZ_bCq259BmRN6l/s2240/Culture+of+Inquiry.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1260" data-original-width="2240" height="351" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS6ZtypbRjPkXCHwNmRRux7vCSo-3IA-uHdNCkGpv4xZmGga93n5mFuNDOwNzkUm_wPfseVx84EW5dtA00Zs3QyY4086h6z2OqftvfxhOzUeXmRVBw-udxcn8NmGa0pBZ_bCq259BmRN6l/w625-h351/Culture+of+Inquiry.png" width="625" /></a></div>As one can tell from the intermittent blog posts this year, I have been challenged to get my thoughts in writing and digitally share them with others. Part of the struggle may be the feeling that every post needs to be my Magnus Opus as opposed to informed thoughts on issues surrounding inquiry-based learning as part of school culture. The self-judgment I bring to the process perpetuates the emotional block to writing that happens when I don't feel as though a post measures up. Recently, in another context, I was listening to a podcast about self-judgment and self-assessment. With the word judgment a defining piece of the first hyphenate, this may seem like it's simply a matter of considering the definition of each word to understand the differences.<br />
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In my experience, however, the line is not always that clearly drawn. Self-judgment is negative self-talk and perpetuates a feeling of failure for the person who is reflecting on their work or even just that day. Instead of asking ourselves upon reflection what went right, we typically begin a reflection time with what went wrong as we ask "what would I do differently," implying that our writing or our work for that day wasn't quite good enough. Self-assessment, on the other hand, is honest and curious. It starts with what went right and leads to many more questions. True self-assessment and reflection can help you think ahead about your next day's goals. It encourages you to think differently about the next steps while committing to doing what you say you will do. We ask students to self-reflect as part of any inquiry process. Shouldn't we also be encouraging them to self-assess and develop habits of honesty, curiosity, and accountability to self?<br />
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<a href="https://practicaledtech.com/2020/03/02/how-to-increase-engagement-with-school-newsletters-and-social-media-posts/" target="_blank">I was reading another post </a>in which the author stated that many writers of blogs and other shared digital writing feel that their efforts go unread. Well, I realized a while ago that most of my writing on this blog is for me to get ideas and thoughts about our culture of inquiry out of my head and onto ¨paper¨ as it were. I'm not counting on huge numbers of readers. One of the key statements was that posts need to be published routinely so even if you have only one other reader, they will know when to look for the next installment. When months or weeks go by and nothing appears, the small audience you may have cultivated will drift away. There is also value in the discipline of publishing regularly. Therefore, as part of my self-assessment as a writer of this blog, my plan is to keep things simple, be honest and curious during reflection and commit to the discipline and habits of mind that will have me writing and publishing in a timely way: until the next self-assessment.Christine M Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14462643110276961200noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236390532632374194.post-21365269378505973242020-02-24T12:24:00.000-08:002020-03-05T12:23:56.266-08:00Diving Right In!Every day for two weeks after Winter Break, 6th-grade students worked with teachers/facilitators to dig into topics of interest and develop inquiry questions that guided research and project development in the first Inquiry Deep Dives! The broad topics included Birds and Beasts of Rhode Island. Providence Architecture, Building Bridges (at the Wheeler Farm), Food, Social Justice and Interactive Storytelling. Afternoons were spent in workshops offered by teachers from the Middle and Lower School Divisions introducing the students to technology apps, interviewing techniques, non-fiction writing, orientation to design thinking and more to build their skill sets as they chose issues and creative ideas to develop and share.<br />
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Anecdotally and based on responses through the reflections students completed this week, there was a high level of engagement, a feeling of agency especially for those who were able to work with their first choice topic and many who would have liked more time to get the project piece of the process in motion. My experience with Interactive Storytelling was loads of fun! The students who choose this topic are true storytellers! Each challenge was met with determination, creativity, and thoughtfulness.<br />
Through the process, students were asked to choose an inanimate object somewhere in the Middle School Library Commons and give it human characteristics. Students constructed a story around the inanimate object, constantly revising as they were reminded to help us connect to their character. How do you make us care about a hydro flask or a dust bunny? The students work with character and setting and creating a world for their object helped set the stage for the next week.<br />
The topic theme was Interactive Storytelling so students were challenged to create a story in which the audience needed to make choices to determine the outcome for the main characters. This challenge required research as some of the stories were situated in the Middle Ages or in Greek and Roman mythologies. The students were introduced to several different ways to create a "Choose Your Own Adventure" story through Google Forms, Google Slides, Bookcreator or Twine. Each individual or team engaged with the process, challenging themselves to make the stories more complex and illustrative.<br />
Each day of the inquiry dives students were asked to reflect on their work and to set goals for the next day in terms of revising, researching or learning through the workshops which app would work best for their story. We focused on the idea that everyone has a story tell and these students certainly did! I am looking forward to round two of these inquiry dives; we all have more stories to tell!Christine M Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14462643110276961200noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236390532632374194.post-41881213748596607952019-10-30T09:21:00.002-07:002020-03-05T12:20:26.054-08:00Fake News and the "War of the Worlds" Broadcast, October 30th, 1938<br />
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<span id="goog_1611970869"></span><span id="goog_1611970870"></span>I'm always trying to find new and interesting ways to introduce the idea of News Literacy to 6th graders in their Information Skills classes. Some may feel this is too young to start this conversation. Hopefully, as these 6th graders become more inclined to seek news sources for answers to their questions, and to inform themselves when making civic and political choices, the lessons learned about being aware of "confirmation bias," and the difference between fact and persuasion will connect for them. As we know, many adults view and read news sources that confirm their perspective or bias and might benefit from some of our work in News Literacy!</div>
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This year, in an attempt to make our first foray into "Fake News," fun and engaging, I stumbled upon a lesson plan that was designed for High School students about the broadcast of the "War of the Worlds." On October 30th, 1938, the Mercury Theater on the Air presented a dramatized version of H.G. Wells War of the Worlds. The rest, as they say, is history. Approximately, one million people believed the broadcast. Once the hysteria dissipated and listeners realized that this was a theatrical production on the radio, the questions started about the intention of the network and actors who quite convincingly produced the piece. They claimed to have used accepted "radio techniques" to make the show seem like a news announcement and instead sparked the mass response.<br />
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Modifying this lesson for Middle School students, included discussing the historical context of both Nazi Germany looming large in Europe and the uncertainty of the Great Depression making this dramatic piece all the more believable. While I did touch upon the history with the first group of 6th graders with whom I tried this lesson, I wanted them to focus on both the presentation itself and the techniques used to make the "War of the Worlds" so believable. The radio techniques used in the dramatization were:<br />
#1-Prestige of Speakers-When an idea has a better chance of acceptance if endorsed by a well-known person with status.<br />
#2-Radio as an accepted source of important announcements-of local, national and international news events.<br />
#3-Specific incidents-enhanced by descriptions of occurrences that a listener could readily imagine.<br />
#4-Everybody baffled-The events reported proceeded from the relatively credible to the highly incredible<br />
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Are these techniques, used 81 years ago to create an authentic-sounding on-air production of a Martian invasion, so different from the techniques used today to create and share questionable news? As we examine these techniques applied to this particular radio incident, students will be encouraged to create their own set of standards through which they can view 21st-century news. The difference between the infamous "War of the World" broadcast and questionable news stories today is that one was meant to entertain using trusted methods, the other is meant to mislead. The challenge is to help our students become better consumers of information delivered through mass media outlets masquerading as news. Why are we so ready to believe news that is questionable? What can we learn from the radio broadcast of "War of the Worlds" to become better news consumers? Would we too be persuaded to believe something that is fundamentally untrue? Let's learn from the lessons of the past.Christine M Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14462643110276961200noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236390532632374194.post-43073652752347685722019-10-18T06:44:00.005-07:002020-06-08T10:06:18.483-07:00Social Movements and Reform in Industrializing America: The Lowell Experience<a href="https://www.nps.gov/lowe/learn/photosmultimedia/images/Wpesue.gif" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="153" data-original-width="193" src="https://www.nps.gov/lowe/learn/photosmultimedia/images/Wpesue.gif" /></a>One of the rewards of having an inquiry mindset is that you never stop learning or wanting to know more. Knowledge is limitless and enthusiasm for a topic or issue can start with the smallest kernel of interest and grow into something much greater and purposeful. I have a tendency, as I've indicated in previous posts, to start to pull one research thread and end up unraveling much more, piquing my interest along the way and taking me into a deeper dive and in unexpected directions.<br />
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When Becca Hunsicker, the 7th-grade history teacher, and I started talking about developing some elements of experiential learning and inquiry for the United States History curriculum, we were focused on the Folklore Fair. This work is ideally suited for inquiry. Students are asked to share a meaningful artifact or heirloom, interview a family member who has a connection to the piece and "dig in" to contextualize the artifact in a period of history. A high level of engagement is built right in. The inquiry focuses on their own family story. The students often find out more than they've ever known about their history and how it shaped their identity.<br />
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After visiting the Tenement Museum in New York, I was wondering how we could make the digital storytelling piece of the Folklore Fair part of our own museum and link it to immigration experiences in Providence. We were also trying to get the students in 7th grade out into Providence, learning that history happens every day and everywhere, right at our doorstep. We wanted them to experience the rich resources of the John Brown House, The Rhode Island Historical Society and RISD Museum and prepare them for the larger landscape of the Cityside experience in 8th grade. Then we hoped to move them along the Blackstone River to the Lowell Mills and the Museum of Work and Culture as part of their regional identity.<br />
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As we wrestled with a direction in which to take this curricular enhancement and to bring back some of the "place-based" work Becca had done in previous years our focus shifted to the Early National Period and the role Providence, Rhode Island, and New England played in establishing a national identity; keeping in mind the 7th Grade theme of "Be the Change."<br />
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Wanting to include inquiry-based and experiential learning as well as the immigrant experience, I stumbled upon this rich NEH summer program about Social Movements and Reform in 1830's New England. Thinking I was fairly well versed in the textile mills of New England having grown up in Northeastern Connecticut, this seemed like an opportunity to reinvigorate my interest in how immigrants became the workforce in textile mills and how this work became part of their identity. My own grandparents had come from Canada to be part of the textile industry in the early 20th century. The outsized mill buildings were situated on rivers where the force of the water was transferred as energy to drive the "state of the art technology," producing at its height tens of thousands of yards of cotton cloth.<br />
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What I hadn't expected to discover was the cross-disciplinary nature of this learning experience. The social reform movements of the period found a voice among the "mill girls;" young women in their late teens and early twenties, living independently for the first time and becoming a catalyst for change. In a broad sense, the United States, while still in the early stages of forging a national identity, had reached a moment in which reflection and reform could be part of the general discourse. Survival as an individual and as a country was no longer an immediate need as in previous generations. Due to industrial growth and the nation's economic security in the world, people from all walks of life began to consider the social inequities that persisted in a nation founded ostensibly on equality and freedom.<br />
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This experiential learning opportunity provided engaging experiences through literature, art, and science in a way that encouraged me to "dig in" with questions. How did the development of new technologies directly affect the cultures and communities that grew up around new industries? How did the newly formed government encourage innovation and what impact did innovation have on the economy, society, and culture? How does material culture help tell the stories of history? How did experiential learning influence this inquiry process? As Becca and I continue to develop place-based, experiential and inquiry-based learning opportunities for 7th Grade History students (with major kudos to Becca for the massive scheduling and planning challenge of these museum experiences!) the Summer Scholars work resonates as a rigorous example of how we learn through questioning and hands-on experiences while telling our stories as part of our identity. History is made every day, by everyone. Just ask the "mill girls" who contributed to <a href="https://www.nps.gov/lowe/learn/historyculture/sarah-bagley.htm" target="_blank">"Lowell Offering."</a> How did these young women become the voice of a reform movement as they learned to "Be the Change?"Christine M Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14462643110276961200noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236390532632374194.post-30510089463708787102019-09-06T06:35:00.001-07:002020-03-05T12:39:17.524-08:00Self-Care, Summer 2019The August 2019 issue of School Library Journal is filled with editorials and articles about the pressures of contemporary librarianship and the need for self-care. The article "Don't Sacrifice Self-Care" by Idamae Craddock, was very specific to the work of school librarians. I was glad to say I stepped away from writing blogs, thinking about inquiry-based teaching and learning and with the exception of two weeks of curriculum-related work with the 7th grade History teacher, a tech camp, and the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Workshop, "Social Movements and Reform in Industrializing America: The Lowell Experience," I took the summer off. I needed time to reflect and answer some questions about the impact of my enthusiasm for IBL and PBL within the school context.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbtsSz9ZGPEI7_ndmrF9Js765XhxQcj-GPy2-6EFeadjfV6-oawtu4H1XIMT9klkahtoIFKevAZNUti7V2P5qpJE0m8PwF7d42vnAQRVewLgo00xDNHQP4X-1OTfI1gpvBTSOS0kzNcZqH/s1600/IMG_20190821_153020.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbtsSz9ZGPEI7_ndmrF9Js765XhxQcj-GPy2-6EFeadjfV6-oawtu4H1XIMT9klkahtoIFKevAZNUti7V2P5qpJE0m8PwF7d42vnAQRVewLgo00xDNHQP4X-1OTfI1gpvBTSOS0kzNcZqH/s200/IMG_20190821_153020.jpg" width="112" /></a>Was I becoming just so much white noise? Were teachers listening politely (or skipping the Division Meetings when I was presenting)? Maybe the time has come for me not to try and push my way to lead and instead respond to those who want to collaborate and work with me. I'm always glad to help teachers align their teaching goals with inquiry. Coupled with this uncertainty upon reflection was the feeling that we once again had to justify some of the library programs for budgets, use of space and other concerns. We are so often required to answer the question, "what goes on in here?" An information and media literacy program that supports inquiry, innovation, and project-based learning and unfettered access to resources that serve N-12 students, parents, and faculty is the answer.<br />
I needed the time with my thoughts and to take care of myself. Long hours of knitting, reading and time with family really helped me disengage for a bit. Traveling to Dublin and spending time in Maine certainly helped. As the article recommends, I set some boundaries, hydrated, left some tasks to be handled at the beginning of school to others, and delegated some work.<br />
Am I ready to start writing regular blog posts with the same passion for IBL that I have felt in years past? Yes. Let's see where the tide takes me. I'm here, and an excellent resource for people who want to think differently about how they teach and how their students learn best. I believe in high levels of engagement asking good questions identifying valuable information sources and creating something new of value to share with the community. This will always be the way I will work with teachers who want to collaborate and embrace an inquiry model and with students who want to ask the questions. Maybe that's enough for now.Christine M Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14462643110276961200noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236390532632374194.post-35491900636370797862019-06-03T10:00:00.002-07:002019-06-05T12:37:55.045-07:00The annual report conundrum: data gathering, time for reflection or both?<br />
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At the beginning of this school year, as the faculty was engaged in working groups to examine the mission of the school, the schedule needed to support inquiry and project-based learning and assessment tools that align closely with personalized learning pathways, the library department considered this focused work an opportunity to help establish a culture of inquiry. In the spring of the preceding school year during our department retreat, we had looked closely at library learning goals and "skills" and worked to align the teacher collaborative and librarian directed work with the newly published AASL National School Library Standards. This framework is organized through a hierarchy of common beliefs, shared foundations and the learning domains impacted through guided inquiry practices. Leading us to the essential question: "How does our work make a difference in improving teaching and learning and integrate with the school's mission?"<br />
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Annual reports are used to tell the story of the school library. In the past we have relied on output measures such as circulation numbers, the number of classes taught, teachers with whom we have collaborated and Libguide or website visitors to inform an audience of decision-makers about the program. What we have come to realize through reflection and feedback is that these measures do not necessarily correlate with our goals of helping students ask good questions, select quality sources, synthesize information and ethically create and communicate new knowledge. We have changed our reporting structure over time to integrate some of the metrics with representational teaching and learning projects that have been collaborative efforts across the divisions. We have also worked toward a goal of supporting a culture of inquiry, providing professional development, either one to one or in division meetings. What you will see and read in this annual report is a hybrid of these two models. We are using a template that has included artifacts and project descriptions showcasing some collaborative opportunities and shifts toward inquiry and personalization. We will also integrate data where it seems informational in this process.<br />
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This annual reflection has given us time to see that we need a shift in our thinking and the data we collect. Just as we are working with teachers to develop inquiry-based classrooms, we need to develop new structures to connect what we value in the inquiry process to the impact the program has on learning. The old metrics don't measure our new goals. In an article by Joyce Valenza, Professor in the MLIS program at Rutgers University, researcher and frequent contributor to ALA journals and blogs, the answer is using the local data all around us, teacher and student feedback concerning their inquiry experience to set goals and "measure" impact. In her experience, she developed focus groups of graduating seniors and asked them what they learned. She shared the questions in her article and used these to identify issues and deficiencies for goal setting and future instruction.<br />
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In a modified version, middle school students were asked a range of questions that included how well prepared they felt for the next set of research/inquiry-based learning challenges. While not scientific by any means, patterns emerged in the answers that will guide future instruction through data collection that connects to the library and school's learning priorities. This year's report will include some of these results along with web analytics and other data. We will continue our professional growth by building our knowledge of the Common Beliefs and foundations of the AASL National School Library Standards in a book club model, reading selected articles from a bibliography specifically designed to dig-in. Admittedly, the Animoto video and the single page of colorful graphs and charts in their brevity are likely more appealing to administrators and others at the end of another academic year. However, the year-long analysis of and reflection on how the library program impacts student learning and teacher practice will provide evidence to plan for program growth and inform our own practice to enhance student-centered learning.<br />
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<br />Christine M Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14462643110276961200noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236390532632374194.post-5184140059180985762019-03-07T13:20:00.000-08:002019-10-21T05:54:34.111-07:00Women's History Month: A Nod to Miss DeyToday is very cold. We are late into the winter doldrums of snowy days. It's been a confusing season weatherwise. With spring beckoning and Daylight Saving time moving us forward an hour on Saturday, it should be warmer,<br />
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don't you think? Along with the unexpected winter weather, I've found myself needing to find a "thought partner" to push my practice and re-ignite my enthusiasm for working with faculty colleagues to change the way they see and teach inquiry. I've found interesting bloggers like the <i><a href="https://inquiryninja.com/" target="_blank">Inquiry Ninja</a></i> and<i> <a href="https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/" target="_blank">Cult of Pedagogy</a>.</i> I have read articles about research to inquiry practice "every day in every way," and civic action informed by project-based learning. I am fortunate to have brilliant thought partner-colleagues among the librarians, middle school faculty and inspired administrators.<br />
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Yet for the purposes of this mindfulness and re-energizing push, Miss Mary Helena Dey is my thought partner of choice. John Dewey's educational progressivism informed Miss Dey's philosophies of teaching and learning. While Miss Dey's innovative ideas of how students learn best were developed around individual engagement, the piece that brought her from Chicago to Providence was that Miss Wheeler had a school for girls. From all I've read, she was intrigued by the idea of creating a curriculum in the "light of the newer educational theory and practice with girls as the center of the interest."<br />
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Miss Dey led with calm determination spurred on by Miss Wheeler, a devotee of John Dewey, "with his little book <i>School and Society</i> in her library," and the impending Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the school. Each woman was determined to start the next quarter-century situating the curriculum within the newer educational theory and practice. With the faculty in full support, Miss Dey desired to "change the emphasis from many hours a week of teaching to hours for the girls to learn for themselves and bring their findings to class discussions" She intrinsically understood the value of the constructivist classroom, she also understood that girls should have access to a school that promoted this "new school" theory of teaching and learning. Wheeler was not to be a "world apart" for each girl, "but one where she shared in the outside world and where learning was regarded not as a matter of compartments labeled but all as a part of an enriched living experience."<br />
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Miss Dey's essay in the <i>Half a Century of Girls</i>, a tribute collection of memories, reveals a woman who, even years later, did not doubt the course of change she designed when she first came to Wheeler to be the Head of School. She knew to use the word "progressive" cautiously while moving the curriculum toward a personalized and rigorous learning opportunity. I admire her conviction, her ability to persuade people to join her in this revolutionary experiment in New England and her easy acceptance of an educational philosophy that was at times controversial. I always find Miss Dey to be a challenging and steady thought partner. She had such clarity in her vision for the school and for a broadened curriculum that enriched the experiences and life-long learning of the girls; even, I would imagine, on cold snowy New England days. Thank you, Miss Dey.Christine M Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14462643110276961200noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236390532632374194.post-59819523177507379152019-03-01T09:53:00.001-08:002019-03-06T12:25:31.220-08:00National Day of Unplugging March 1-2.Yesterday, February 28th, was cold and snowy. Many schools in Connecticut where I live had a two-hour delay. And while we at Wheeler did not, I always appreciate the late start time for others, making my commute that much smoother and less congested. The roads were very clear with the exception of some city streets so my drive was uneventful for our first all snow event of the winter. The Library Learning Commons was a bit chilly but soon the heat kicked on and the warmth started to permeate the room. Part of my morning opening routine is turning on the monitors, all connected wirelessly through casting devices and on a school-wide network. As one and then the next clicked on, the message, "connection failed, no networks available" colorfully leaped on to the screens. Thinking, at first that this might just be the wireless hub in the Learning Commons I checked in with a few folks and learned that the entire wireless network was down. The Tech Department was in full troubleshooting and repair mode. Our students with 1:1 devices, work routinely in Gsuite and utilize other apps for specialized learning.<br />
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How, then was I going to move from an online lesson to a real-life workspace in anticipation of 6th graders arriving for Information Skills? They were expecting to work on an online challenge about civic action. Admittedly, my first thought was, "this is surprisingly calm," even with classes on their way and no real plan. Not feeling the constant pull of checking emails gave me time to focus on re-working the lesson. My second thought was, "what am I going to do?" Much of our own collection has moved to a digital platform so unless I could find hard copies of books and magazines to support this dive into civic action and service learning we were likely going to have free reading time. This is always a fine option and with the Quahog Cup Challenges a little over a month away, I'm sure the students would have made the most of the time. One of the sections though will be heading to the farm quarter soon so we needed to keep moving forward with the scaffolding for civic action research. Digging back through my own files I stumbled on some lessons and articles I had printed out about social action, civil action, and service learning. While we as educators often use the terms interchangeably they are not the same. They do however require the same three steps once an issue or topic is chosen, be informed, speak up and take action!<br />
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Even with our digital collections, we still receive some print magazines. Yesterday, I was very grateful for our small but exciting collection. In the magazine,<i> New Moon for Girls</i>, there was an article called "Clean Water Fighters," highlighting the work of girls ages 10-12 who are actively seeking to change this environmental health issue that is urgent. Not only does the article showcase their passion and fearlessness, but it also provides specific action steps, "we talk to reporters, we go door to door, we support people and organizations working for the people of Flint." The girls' advice; to do simple things routinely to bring about change. This issue of the magazine included additional stories of civic action by school-aged girls ranging from neighborhood and community to global concerns.<br />
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After making a few copies of each article, setting out pieces of chart paper on tables along with new markers (other than new crayons is there anything better?) and a set of simple directions, I was ready for the 6th graders! Much to my surprise, many came in and were excited to see the paper and markers! They were equally happy to realize we wouldn't be using Chromebooks for this class. The three simple directions were 1-along with your table mates choose one of the articles and read together, mark it up, write in the margins, write two questions you have about the topic/issue and about the challenges faced by the students. Brainstorm possible issues of interest that require action, 2-identify and organize the issues by communities of concern; your school or neighborhood, the nation, or the world, 3-identify two topics with which you might engage and learn more and possibly be inspired to act.<br />
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Each piece of chart paper collected the visual thinking of the table groups. Some were color-coded, others collected and organized their thoughts in various geometric shapes. others made long lists of ideas and actions. All were engaged with each other and their work. Those who finished the first three steps were asked to brainstorm some actions 6th graders could take. Table groups shared their ideas and every student had a chance to see that people in middle school make a difference and take action every day. As the class ended, there was an excited buzz about civic action!<br />
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Later in the day, the network came back up (thank you Tech Department). It was a little bittersweet. Clearly, whatever upset the network didn't take into account that today from sundown until tomorrow at sundown is actually the National Day of Unplugging! I think I may just try that.<br />
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<br />Christine M Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14462643110276961200noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236390532632374194.post-73599095537015289992019-01-11T10:11:00.000-08:002019-10-21T06:06:17.913-07:00Inspired by Dewey, Uniquely Dey<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Last year during a Board of Trustees retreat, our Head of School, Allison Gaines Pell, connected Wheeler's vibrant past to its dynamic future through research about the founders of The Wheeler School and their educational philosophies. Using memorable ideas and quotes as a framework, Allison guided the Board of Trustees, Division Directors, and a number of faculty to engage with the challenging and exciting task of developing a forward-thinking path for Wheeler. What was intriguing to learn is that by following a path toward student-centered learning experiences of inquiry and innovation we were fostering the belief of Miss Wheeler and second Head of School Mary Helena Dey "that all real teaching must concern itself with individuals" (Carmichael).<br />
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How had these early women leaders of Wheeler developed a learning experience for young women that celebrated their individuality while preparing them for college and life in the wider world? Among the essays, newspaper articles, as well as tributes in our School Archives, the answer was found in the work of Miss Dey "who effectively brought about reforms in which she was interested. She did not just talk about them"(Carmichael). A very astute Miss Wheeler, inspired by Dewey's work as something "quite revolutionary," recruited Miss Dey to her new progressive school in Providence with an opportunity to plan a school life "in the light of newer educational theory and practice, with girls as the center of interest." Miss Dey left her graduate studies and deanship at University High School in Chicago and with Miss Wheeler's endorsement and a "free hand with the educational planning of the school" followed her own unique ideas incorporating the best of the "new movement" of John Dewey with her own emerging philosophies of education. As a result, Wheeler School came "to stand for something soundly new in the East"(Dey 17). According to Miss Dey" in reorganizing the school, we set before us the goal of making it not a world apart, but a real world with the world and in contact with the world "(19).<br />
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Working closely with the faculty, Miss Dey orchestrated changes that are still part of the DNA of Wheeler and make a clear connection to the metacognitive and constructivist qualities embedded in the current strategic innovation initiatives of the school. Miss Dey faced some of the challenges of broadening the curriculum, modification of the schedule to create “ a very uncramped sort of school day and a course of study which made room for keeping alive special interests which vivified all of a student’s intellectual life” and “infusing all work with new interest.” Miss Dey, who died September 7, 1949, was an intellectual and brilliant educator who manifested progressive ideas in an individualized curriculum that prepared young women for college and the world. Mary Helena Dey believed that “life in a school has to a marked degree the element of continuity, the past is gathered about us and we are constantly and readily looking into the future” and that “the spirit within which we seek knowledge and share our findings gives life to our learning” (Dey 23).<br />
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Bibliography</div>
Blosser, Myra H. "Alcott was right about his friend Mary C Wheeler: for she did prove an unusual teacher at the school here." Providence Sunday Journal (Providence), April 9, 1939, 2-3.<br />
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Carmichael, Leonard. Memorandum, "Mary Helena Dey; a brief appreciation," n.d. Mary Helena Dey #2 1920-1940. Wheeler School Archives. Wheeler School, Providence.<br />
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Dey, Mary Helena. "The Second Quarter of the Century." 1939. In Half a Century of Girls 1889-1939, 17-23. Providence, RI: The Mary C Wheeler School, 1939.<br />
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Christine M Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14462643110276961200noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236390532632374194.post-63973078035672659732019-01-09T08:21:00.001-08:002019-01-18T08:32:25.252-08:00Getting what you wish for...<a href="https://image.slidesharecdn.com/pdislides2017keynotefinal-170724104947/95/personal-digital-inquiry-connecting-learners-in-ways-that-matter-71-638.jpg?cb=1500893490" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="479" data-original-width="638" height="240" src="https://image.slidesharecdn.com/pdislides2017keynotefinal-170724104947/95/personal-digital-inquiry-connecting-learners-in-ways-that-matter-71-638.jpg?cb=1500893490" width="320" /></a>In September, fully recharged and anxious to talk about Inquiry-Based Learning and collaboration, I met with the 6th-grade team. Over the past several years 6th graders have taken part in an Information Skills class that incorporates media literacy, news literacy, online source evaluation and dabbling with Guided Inquiry through picture book biographies. These accessible biographies were used as the research catalyst for students as they engaged with the process of formulating questions, determining information needs and sources, digging deeper and synthesizing ideas to share new learning.<br />
The team decided that the last quarter on campus for each homeroom would integrate the InfoSkills practices with a PBL/IBL project that would lead to protest or activism. In December I was excited to meet with the 6th Grade Team again to talk about what this might look like. We met in the Library Learning Commons during one of the Focus on Inquiry times and produced this <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XDmVf9bZXN8kzs22ftJxZgestuQNVuDEg_uo3yFYfI0/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">document</a>.<br />
We believe that failing forward is an option in IBL and PBL especially when it comes to student inquiry practice helping students to set new goals and learning challenges for themselves. Educators recognize that learning happens even when things don't work out as planned. Through reflection on their learning throughout the process and recognizing where they struggled and where they met with success students learn a great deal about themselves. I also know that if my colleagues do not see this collaboration as value added they will be reluctant to commit the time for the inquiry/project again. I have seen great and highly engaging projects downsized or disappear for a number of reasons. For many, it has been the time commitment and if the project is seen as integral to the curriculum and the students' learning. This is totally understandable for the point of view of the classroom teacher.<br />
If IBL is to be explored the traditional teaching conventions framed by rigid schedules, teacher control of the process, and assessment can de-rail a teacher's enthusiasm for this challenge. IBL and PBL cannot comfortably be shoe-horned into traditional structures. So how do we make this work? First and foremost educators' understanding of collaboration, as opposed to collegiality, is important. In a collaborative effort, the lead teacher will view their co-teachers full partners including in the assessment stage. A digital portfolio of learning artifacts may help decentralize the responsibilities for assessing the students' work. When considering IBL or PBL the learning happens continuously and over time and is not readily summed up in a single letter or number grade. All of the learning artifacts including notes, information sources, conferences, goal setting documents, and planning calendars will make the final product/project much richer and will be part of the final assessment.<br />
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In order to plan for the IBL experience and the final on-campus quarter for each homeroom, we used the PDI organizing structure from the University of Rhode Island Summer Institute in Digital Inquiry created by <a href="https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=afh&AN=113529589&site=ehost-live" target="_blank">Dr. Julie Coiro</a><br />
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<b>Guided Inquiry: Activism Project, Grade 6</b><br />
<b>Learning Outcomes:</b><br />
What is the essential question? What will students have learned?<br />
<b>Inquiry Practices:</b><br />
<i>Inquiry: </i>Guide students to formulate framing questions to guide information seeking and evaluation.<br />
<i>Collaborate and Discuss: </i>Explore, analyze, talk about, organize new knowledge gained from resources: include an interview or other adult connections in the community.<br />
<i>Participate and Create:</i> Take notes, create interactive diagrams, write scripts, letters, organize ideas to share.<br />
<i>Reflect:</i> Use screencasting or Flipgrid to reflect on the process, information, organization, purpose, receive feedback from peers<br />
<b>Purpose of Technology Use:</b><br />
<i><b>Giving Direction</b>:</i> i.e. choosing inquiry topics, searching for online content, discuss and curate relevant sites, citing sources.<br />
<i>Prompting:</i> Encourage evaluation of online sources; dialog around topics<br />
<i>Making</i>: Introduce, Google Sites, Adobe Spark, ThingLink, Book Creator, Anchor Podcasting app- guide students to choose media to express their understanding.<br />
<i>Reflecting:</i> Involve students in using technologies to reflect, revisit, and connect their work to real-world issues and authentic audiences.<br />
<b>Features to Consider when designing Guided Inquiry projects for Grade 6</b>.<br />
Provide a sequenced list of steps by guiding students into the process and engaging interest.<br />
Include multi-modal sources in the hyperlinked overview page: videos, images, interactive timelines<br />
Provide safe searches and determing technology use.<br />
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While there is more work to be done, this exciting opportunity to integrate and collaborate is exactly what I wished for in September!<br />
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Works Cited<br />
Coiro, Julie, et al. “Personal Inquiry and Online Research.” Reading Teacher, vol. 69, no. 5, Mar. 2016, pp. 483–492. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1002/trtr.1450.<br />
<br />Christine M Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14462643110276961200noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236390532632374194.post-90798051460635186792018-12-04T08:14:00.000-08:002019-01-29T11:19:39.231-08:00Finding Traction with Professional Development II: Inquiry-Based Learning<h2 style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<b><i>Inquiry-Based Learning and its near cousins of Project-Based and Problem-Based Learning have been well researched and implemented in schools around the world for the better part of a decade. </i></b></h2>
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My most memorable experience with the concept of Inquiry-Based Learning as something separate from the "research process" started about eight years ago when I began coursework for a Master's in Education. I recall a teacher at the Annie Fisher STEM Magnet school saying "everything starts with a question." The mission of the Annie Fisher STEM Magnet School in Hartford is to empower students to be "effective innovators and communicators who can creatively solve problems and compete as responsible global citizens." All disciplines in the school are expected to help students develop the habits of learning that would support the school's mission and to work on cross-discipline teams to plan and implement IBL and PBL. Recently, the Hartford Public Schools have developed a Boundless program that integrates the Public Libary services with school programs to take full advantage of the YouMedia lab, internet access and more. The first HPL Branch in a school opened at the Sarah J Rawson Elementary school this fall. Hartford Public Schools developed these STEM, magnet, and community school models to address the racially, educationally and economically diverse populations they serve.<br />
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<i>Why Now?</i></div>
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The why question at Wheeler may well be, <b>why now? </b>Though not the "driving force" behind this deep dive into Inquiry, <b>ubiquitous 1:1 technology certainly opened the door to this model over five years ago in terms of integrating the use of technology into the student learning process and placing information once deliverable only by the teacher, into their hands.</b> Even more, reaching back to the vision of our founder Mary C Wheeler, <b>we've established a course for the future "to learn our powers and be answerable for their use."</b> This mission, if I am interpreting this correctly, means that student-centered learning needs to be at the core of all the teaching and learning in the classroom as we help students recognize their power and take responsibility for it as citizens of the school, community, and the world. How will we effectively serve the mission? Students will need all of the habits of learning mentioned earlier and a sense of wonder and engagement. The school is dedicated to helping each student find their power and become a citizen of their community and the world, then <b>The level of student engagement is an integral factor in this model of learning. According to the research, it is an imperative criterion for success. .” It is literally neurobiologically impossible to think deeply about things that you don’t care about “ (Lahey).</b></div>
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The most immediate and concrete answer to "why now" is <b>CitySide.</b><br />
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For those who don't know, this is a PBL(IBL) learning initiative for 8th-grade history which will begin in the fall of 2019. The driving question behind such an initiative is how do we develop creative and intellectually curious citizens of the world and personalize this learning through connections with the broader community? This initiative is broad in scope and will call on all of the skills mentioned earlier that we value as educators as well as many that will be <b>challenging for students such as planning, self-management, self-reflection, collecting evidence of learning, perseverance, synthesizing information and data and sharing with audiences beyond the classroom or school. </b></div>
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<i><b>What is one driving question you have about Inquiry-Based Learning? </b>Write it on this Padlet </i><br />
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<i>What does the research show?</i></div>
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I guess my point is,<a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1191725.pdf" target="_blank"> the benefits of inquiry-based learning have been well researched</a>, implemented and part of the educational landscape for a decade or more in the United States and in many other countries. It has been around so long that IBL has been parsed in several ways to include levels of inquiry, the question formulation technique, online inquiry, personal digital inquiry models and more. <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ868627.pdf" target="_blank">The research is replete<b> </b></a>with how<b> IBL teaches habits of learning that most educators agree we value including, critical thinking, creativity, asking good open-ended questions (QFT), problem-solving, working with others, self-reliance, self-management, and perseverance. The research also shows that content knowledge is not enough to foster these habits of learning.</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: italic; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ethical, engaged, and creative citizens of our school, community, and world</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: italic; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span> These are <b>dispositions of learning that are not easily acquired without the chance to practice them before the students encounter an intellectually challenging program like Cityside. </b> These habits of thinking and learning through authentic student questions, open-ended conclusions, critical thinking, comprehension, and synthesis must be routinely incorporated into meaningful inquiry and problem-solving opportunities. Moving beyond the "why now" question we come to the "how are we going to do this?" part of the journey.<br />
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<b>What does IBL look like? </b> There are books and articles published over the last decade written about Inquiry-Based Learning and what it looks like. Trevor Mackenzie has written two easily accessible books with concrete ideas to move students toward an Inquiry Mindset and guide teachers through the sometimes confusing work of developing an inquiry practice that is not an add-on at the end of a unit of study but is the curriculum, the unit of study with all of its contingent assessment practices. The Buck Institute, leading proponents of project-based learning acknowledges that too much emphasis on the product or simply finishing out a semester with an add-on is not PBL and not valuable to student learning.<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CZri3kn8rqKWIzSGkfGKZT02DUhWHBrTqGYQiLAjQYk/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">PDI Model</a>, <a href="http://www.learnalberta.ca/content/kes/pdf/or_ws_tea_inst_02_inqbased.pdf" target="_blank">Facilitating Inquiry-Based Learning (Alberta,2004)</a><br />
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<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JtObMvBT_odldny4S1ekJArry_F1W-mDjjhoNGV52WE/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><br /></a> <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JtObMvBT_odldny4S1ekJArry_F1W-mDjjhoNGV52WE/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Before we can effectively re-imagine our work with Inquiry, we should reflect on what we are doing presently that supports this model</a>. What are we doing in classrooms now to create space for curiosity and creativity? Some of these practices include:<br />
<b>Ask Questions QFT Open and Closed</b><br />
<b><br /></b> Allowing 5-10 minutes every day to practice asking questions (very challenging for students)<br />
As a group activity, have students generate questions together or build off of each other's questions<br />
Understand the difference between open and closed questions<br />
<b>Find and evaluate information needs, sources</b><br />
Compare prior knowledge to what they want to know and then what they learned<br />
Use elbow partners to share what they learned<br />
Discuss where to find sources, how to make sure they are helpful and accurate, give credit<br />
<b>Construct a new understanding, examine what they know, need to know, learn (KWL)</b><br />
Opportunities to draw conclusions about questions and hypotheses<br />
<b>Sharing Learning with an audience</b><br />
Provide students with an opportunity to seek feedback from an audience<br />
Allow students to select a specific audience for an assignment<br />
<b>Communicating their learning</b><br />
Express new ideas to share learning with others<br />
Explore multiple ways to present information<br />
<b>Reflection</b><br />
Ask students to think about what they are proud of in their work<br />
Have students write about one thing they would do differently next time<br />
Ask new questions<br />
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Discuss the practices in the Inquiry process listed above. Which elements of the inquiry model do you routinely incorporate and feel most confident about in your current teaching practice? Write it on a post-it and put add it to the chart paper grid. What would you like to add to your practice?<br />
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How do we move from mini-bursts of inquiry to Inquiry-Based Learning and the full arc of Inquiry?<br />
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Through a scaffolded approach to inquiry, <a href="https://www.trevormackenzie.com/" target="_blank">Trevor Mackenzie </a>demonstrates how to gradually increase student agency over learning while providing learners with the necessary skills to be successful in their inquiry.<br />
For next time: take a moment to think about an inquiry practice that does not come at the end of a unit of study but is the unit of study. How might that look, how should it be scaffolded in the process? Should it be Structured, Guided or Free Inquiry? Who would you want to work with in terms of a Learning Team and interdisciplinary teachers on your team and other resources? Use Flipgrid to respond and record your responses.<br />
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Works Cited</div>
Lahey, Jessica. "To Help Students Learn, Engage the Emotions." New York Times, 4 May 2016, well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/05/04/to-help-students-learn-engage-the-emotions/. Accessed 29 Jan. 2019.Christine M Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14462643110276961200noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236390532632374194.post-78283152778918948782018-11-30T05:55:00.002-08:002019-01-29T06:19:20.614-08:00Finding Traction with Professional Development I: Building a Culture of Inquiry<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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My goal is to build a Professional Learning Community of "school professionals who continuously seek to find answers through inquiry and act on their learning to improve student learning" (Ruebel). Just as with our students, the level of engagement with a relevant issue is directly proportional to the individual's connection to the issue and their desire to dig deeper, learn more, and whenever possible dive into a challenging practice or create new and innovative learning opportunities.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCyoSh9Cw4tmk2eUv2xF2pT7YfN2K3cZhJ3TmbfXQjEc793B1pO0uks8hCvv1ZFgjcptFxHruDT_SljpunWa7nRgdard6WF3AfaoJNE76bpizrL4Z8uNEGj2JhyphenhyphenEmwqz_M_ZIk36wQpr-n/s1600/IMG_20170911_142729_917.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1458" data-original-width="1458" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCyoSh9Cw4tmk2eUv2xF2pT7YfN2K3cZhJ3TmbfXQjEc793B1pO0uks8hCvv1ZFgjcptFxHruDT_SljpunWa7nRgdard6WF3AfaoJNE76bpizrL4Z8uNEGj2JhyphenhyphenEmwqz_M_ZIk36wQpr-n/s200/IMG_20170911_142729_917.jpg" width="200" /></a>As we work to give students agency in their own learning, faculty need to have agency in their professional development as well, making it self-directed, exploratory, collaborative and non-judgmental. In other words, when incorporating IBL and PBL into the classroom, risk, reward and sometimes failure are all options. These same concepts that make IBL and PBL exciting are also among the obstacles for developing a Culture of Inquiry or a Deep Learning School. (School ReTool.org)<br />
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I worked on a change management plan over the summer that sent me down this path of professional development through Learning Communities. I have continued to dig in and read as part of a PLN (Personal Learning Network), not a PLC. To create a culture of inquiry, we must satisfactorily answer the "why should we shift our teaching to IBL/PBL?" question. How do we ensure teachers recognize what inquiry looks like, how it differs from the old project model and its real benefits for learning compared to practices that have worked for some learners in the past? We are challenged to make professional development relevant and engaging. The research and writing about IBL and PBL over the past decade has been prolific. From theory to practice these pedagogies have been examined from all sides. Entire educational industries have grown up around the concept of student-directed, teacher facilitated learning and include some groups with whom we have engaged like the Buck Institue Education and NuVu.<br />
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For an upcoming Middle School Divison meeting, I have been asked to create a learning opportunity about IBL that will be meaningful for the faculty, most of whom are in very different places on the spectrum of recognizing, embracing and integrating IBL and PBL in their teaching practice. With all of this information about IBLcluttering my brain and a strong personal commitment to being instrumental in developing a culture of inquiry, I've once again reached my own very real challenge of producing something meaningful and communicating it effectively while still being most comfortable in the information gathering stage. Now to put theory and ideas into practice<br />
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I do feel that I know the audience fairly well. And if I've learned anything over these past few months of working with teachers as they add choice, question formulation, reflection and authenticity to their "projects," it is that some are ready to dive in and replace existing "curriculum" with a rich deep dive into a topic, others would prefer small "hacks" (School ReTool) that are moving in the direction of IBL/PBL and still others are in the "this is what's driving me crazy about all of the IBL talk."<br />
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With all of that said, how do I make this forty-five minute examination of IBL effective for professional learners who are at very different places in this process? This is really the same challenge teachers face with a classroom full of students. Some are at the end of the diving board ready to dive in, completely comfortable with asking their own questions, defining their information needs, making meaning out of all they learn and communicating effectively through different mediated forms while others are still in the locker room, needing to be guided through the multiple steps and rigorous challenges to get to the diving platform. We also know that we would not send students out to the tip of the diving board without having coached them to the skill sets they will need to be successful. How should this professional development look? Read the next blog post with a framework for teacher agency and inquiry.<br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-48c17e8c-7fff-d2fe-e516-c8ea8ed8fecc"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ruebel, K. K. (2012, January). Professional Learning Communities [Blog post]. Retrieved from Association of Middle Level Education website: </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://schoolretool.org/big-idea/learning-galleries" target="_blank">School Retool</a></span><br />
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<br />Christine M Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14462643110276961200noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236390532632374194.post-33138905941705052382018-11-26T09:04:00.001-08:002019-01-10T11:52:37.603-08:00It's all about Meaningful Learning.One of the pleasures of reading professional journal articles about effective ways to motivate middle-school learners through inquiry and project-based learning is the References/Works Cited page. I realize as I am writing this that the joy of digging into sources that support the thesis of the author is probably a "very librarian" thing to do. I do find this page a rich treasure trove for further research and reading providing new ideas and a map to more meaningful learning and challenging curriculum. After finishing a well written and researched piece, I am drawn to the back page to see who inspired the writer. With that "following the breadcrumbs" frame of mind I came across the following article: Lattimer, Heather, and Robert Riordan. “Project-Based Learning Engages Students in Meaningful Work.” Middle School Journal, vol. 43, no. 2, 2011, pp. 18–23.<br />
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I continue to work with thoughtful teachers who are revising past projects and creating new ones as the "catalyst for an engaging learning experience." We sometimes place too much emphasis on the "project" part of project-based learning. Working through two recent IBL/PBL ideas, the question came up about student sharing of new learning. In each case, the teacher wanted to be faithful to the choice element of sharing. After discussing how "big" to go with the project the decision was made to keep it simple and meaningful. Both teachers considered the developmental stages of the students and where they are in their learning journey. Each considered the cognitive load which is part of choosing and learning about a new presentation app while digging into important questioning skills and inquiry. They decided to focus on the learning goals. While one required a recorded interview and the other a TED Talk like presentation for science research, they did not lose sight of what they wanted the students to learn.<br />
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I have referenced in past posts to my own learning experience at the Summer Institute for Digital Literacy at URI. We were given choices to delve into our own areas of interest, organizational tools and presentation technology. There were required pieces that had to be submitted as part of the project work but we were allowed time to investigate, revise and think about our work over the course of a week. We were also asked to create an elevator pitch, short and to the point, about our change management plan using the tools we learned about in the more structured class sessions.<br />
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The course was an important mix of "lecture" and inquiry/studio time. Most beneficial were the informal conferences with faculty and other leaders to set next steps, keep questions and goals in mind and not be overwhelmed by the prospect of a deadline. I found myself struggling for traction and focus until one of the conferences with a teacher in the program on the day before the pitch was due helped clarify and simplify my thinking. The emphasis became more about learning and less about the finished product. What I needed to do was effectively communicate my thinking, ideas, and plan. While the technology/product needed to organize and support the ideas I was presenting, it needed to be clear and nearly self-explanatory in case I was not right there at my presentation point when someone stopped by.<br />
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The Lattimer, Riordan article addresses this project dilemma. In a quote from Wiggins and McTighe the authors support the idea that "when teachers focus on what the students can make and do instead of what they can investigate and uncover, projects are guilty of the "activity oriented sin of design." The article further introduced Steinberg's six A's of design. They are Academic Rigor, Authenticity, Applied learning, Active exploration, Adult Connections, and Assessment practices. We will look more closely at these in another post.<br />
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Seeing the various interpretations of IBL/PBL based on the wisdom of the teachers who know their students' ability to manage multiple elements in an inquiry-based process is compelling. Students are often asked to consider a topic, generate questions, decide on their information needs, find credible sources that meet those needs, turn the notes into new learning and understanding and share that new knowledge and possible action plan in a technology format and through oral presentation. Any of these elements of the process could de-rail a student due to the cognitive load of understanding the importance of each step to reach the goal. The goal cannot simply be the project, the goal should help the student share discoveries, make connections, think creatively and perhaps spark an interest to know more and continue the search on their own. What I was reminded of in these two planning sessions is to trust the wisdom of the teachers and their knowledge of just where their students are in their learning journey.<br />
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<br />Christine M Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14462643110276961200noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236390532632374194.post-35404568605851530642018-11-05T11:57:00.001-08:002019-01-09T12:39:18.643-08:00Material Culture and Experiential Learning at the Tenement Museum: A ReflectionI was in Manhattan recently to see my daughter, Aimee-Rose Willett, perform in a chamber opera called the <i>Yellow Star</i>, the inspiring story of ordinary Danish fishermen who risked their lives to save Jewish friends and family from the escalating terror of the Nazis. Together they braved dangerous crossings to Sweden in small fishing boats seeking safety and asylum. Nearly 8000 people were saved from the ravages of the Holocaust by this act of humanity. <i> Number the Stars</i> by Lois Lowry is a poignant middle-grade novel that relates this stunning story of great personal risk.<br />
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The <i>Yellow Star</i> was moving and beautifully told by the composer, Bradley Detrick, sharing a story from a family member and survivor. It is the 75th anniversary of this monumental rescue effort and still timely as evidenced by the fact that when the cast performed the opera at a Jewish Community Center the weekend of the attack at the synagogue in Pittsburgh, they did so under enhanced security. Why do we fail to learn the lessons of history? This entire experience speaks to us as a society about historical literacy, and a sense of urgency and commitment to teaching our students to be thoughtful, responsible and activist citizens of the world.<br />
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On this same trip to Manhattan, I visited the <a href="https://www.tenement.org/" target="_blank">Tenement Museum</a>, a thoughtfully conceived experiential learning opportunity, capturing the lives and stories of those who lived at 97 Orchard Street from the mid-1800's until the building closed in 1935. Using public records, census documents and photos donated by family members the tours are developed to immerse the visitor/student in the lives of the inhabitants of the building and the larger community.<br />
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With structural safety as a consideration, the foundation and bearing walls have been re-built and re-inforced but little has been changed in the interior allowing you to travel through time looking at the layers of wallpaper, flooring, original windows and more. We learned about an Irish immigrant family, the father working as a waiter, touching a bit on the influence of Tammany Hall and the experience of Irish Catholics in a neighborhood that saw them as outsiders. Has anyone read<i> A Tree Grows in Brooklyn </i>by Betty Smith? Many other stories are told on the tours about Sweatshop Workers, Under One Roof, Hard Times and more giving one many reasons for a return visit to this brilliantly conceived and inspiring educational experience. Museums like The Tenement Museum are as much about education as preservation.<br />
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As I took in this exciting and ingenious immersion experience I began to think about experiential engagement, material culture, and project-based learning. I have always been a fan of museums for teaching and learning, especially those that foster interaction with the stories and artifacts. Wheeler has a project now that engages students with their family story through a keepsake similar to the Tenement Museum's endeavor called "Your Story, Our Story: objects that tell personal stories of American immigration and migration." Part of the current seventh-grade curriculum, the Folklore Fair, has fostered an opportunity for students to share a family experience through the historical context of a treasured object.<br />
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We have a rich material culture with museum opportunities here in Providence. In previous school years, the 7th graders spent a day at the John Brown House and The Rhode Island Historical Society on an engaging walking tour examining the city's connection to Slavery and the Slave Trade organized by Becca Hunsicker, the seventh-grade History teacher. Some students, as part of their French class with Madam Greenberg, visit the Museum of Work and Culture to understand the 19th French Canadian migration to New England.<br />
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These are all the components of an exciting experiential learning initiative that could be molded into an opportunity for inquiry and project-based learning building on historical literacy and laying the groundwork for future excursions into the city in eighth grade and the CitySide immersion project. Could this idea be the bridge leading our students from the important stories of the past into the neighborhoods of the 21st century? While we have a responsibility to engage students in the cultural and social constructs of today, helping them to become advocates for understanding and change, so too must we help them engage with the important stories of the people who built these neighborhoods. Providence has many stories to tell. How exciting would it be to have our students propose a Tenement Museum for this city that would bring understanding and appreciation for the lived experience of those who came before?<br />
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<br />Christine M Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14462643110276961200noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236390532632374194.post-65447957307475359642018-09-20T10:17:00.002-07:002018-10-02T10:13:47.797-07:00The"Why" of Inquiry Based Learning<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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John Dewey said, more than a century ago: " <i>The world is changing at an ever-increasing rate and we have to prepare our students for that future, not for the past</i>."<br />
Why are we challenging the learning process and promoting a transformation in style and substance that makes so many uncomfortable? How do we inspire faculty, parents and most importantly students to make these changes, creating a sense of urgency to take action when developing a culture of inquiry? What I really want to ask here is why are we struggling to change?<br />
The mountain of evidence that we must change the way we help students learn should create a sense of urgency. Yet many of these journeys toward change were produced and published nearly a decade ago and still we struggle with questions like: should we challenge the process? take the risk? make the change? There are well researched books and videos that support student-centered, inquiry based, problem based and project based learning and assessments. <i>"Race to Nowhere</i>" is a movie which challenges the process of teaching and learning as it currently exists and <i>Beyond Measure: Rescuing an Overscheduled, Overtested, Underestimated Generation</i> by Vicki Abeles similarly questions the current idealized singular path to success.<i> #EdJourney</i> by Grant Lichtman and <i>Diving Into Inquiry</i> by Trevor Mackenzie examine innovative and student centered teaching practices with meaningful assessments. How do we inspire a shared vision that this change must come?<br />
I recently completed a graduate course in Leadership. It was a valuable mix of lecture, reflection and application of ideas as we created a plan for change. Each class period introduced us to important tools needed to create a viable change management plan. We were instructed to explain what needed to change in our school culture and why it was urgent, to identify who the stakeholders were as well as obstacles to implementing the plan. We were challenged to use representative tools from class instruction to support our plan goals.<br />
My point in saying all of this is that had we been given a daily quiz on Stakeholder Analysis models or the five characteristics of a leader, I would likely have failed. Producing a plan that incorporated Force Field Analysis and Stakeholder Analysis helped me to understand where each tool should be applied and its effective use in leadership. While I cannot insist that change must happen because it better suits my individual learning style, I might argue that many students learn effectively when applying their knowledge to bigger questions and ideas.<br />
What must we do to create a culture of inquiry, student-centered learning and innovation? Do we really want to or are we just "looking," to better inform ourselves but not take the risky steps to change? I was asked recently to describe my superpower and my kryptonite as a collaborator. I easily identified "seeing the big picture" as my superpower and reluctantly admitted that my kryptonite is patience with a process. Maybe that should be the title of my next blog post. In the meantime let's work at answering the Why question. I know all of the reasons I believe that a culture of inquiry is inspiring, engaging and intellectually demanding and rigorous. I know how assessments can be very valuable when integrated with meaningful feedback, ongoing revision, great and essential questions, reflection and learning evidence. Let's create an elevator speech for "Why?" we must change our current practice and inspire people to come with us on this journey.Christine M Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14462643110276961200noreply@blogger.com