SA

South Australia

David Strempel, Teacher Librarian, Marryatville High School Kensington Rd Marryatville 5068 South Australia

A practical way to teach information skills in secondary.

I am in the midst of introducing an Info Skills Continuum, so that we can be sure students receive instruction in the whole shebang, divided into year levels. We already do it in year 8 (1st year high school) with the Science faculty, and we know what we want for senior students, so it's relativelyeasy to fill in the gaps. Not that I reinvented the wheel. I modified one (R-12/K-12) I got off the net. Science teaches LOVE that we are offeringto teach their classes and mark the work. That is a major selling point.

So here's the deal. The TL collaboratively plans the unit with a faculty, teaches the unit and then marks the work for the process part. The teacherdecides what product they want (powerpoint, etc) and teaches and marks that bit.

The TL part is about the process, with open Qs, dot points (not sentences) and a bibliography run thru a generator. Guided Inquiry, really.

The skills will be taught through SOSE (S+E) in year 9, and I am proposing English takes year 10.

There is no magic bullet. This is a practical way of doing what we profess we want done in the school, and for it to be obvious to all and sundry.It's a way of making sure that skills are explicitly taught in context.

The other thing I'm involved in at the moment is offering a 30 min slot after school. (I've called it Tinkering on Thursday, to keep it casual) Wehave looked at Wikis, FaceBook, Powerpoint, Blogs, Department email options and more.

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=**Gilles Street Primary School, Adelaide**=

The library at Gilles Street Primary School, located in the CBD of Adelaide, plays a central role in the education and development of its students. The school has two components: mainstream classes, studying the state curriculum in years Reception to 5 and the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program in years 6 and 7, and New Arrivals Program classes, where intensive English is taught to children recently arrived in Australia. Through a focus on literacy and inquiry pedagogy links are made between the three curriculum frameworks. All inquiry units develop deeper understandings, concepts, skills and values and highlight a particular literacy genre. As teacher librarian I am in the special position of supporting all three frameworks and providing guidance in showing the connections between them. I work collaboratively with all classroom teachers to plan and implement inquiry units. I teach students the questioning, critical thinking and search skills necessary for undertaking their own inquiries. Through guided inquiry students acknowledge prior knowledge and determine what they want to learn, locate and select relevant information, then record and present their new learning in a variety of ways. They engage in reflection about their learning at appropriate stages throughout the inquiry units. I promote the use of a range of school and community resources, such as books, electronic sources, artifacts and expert people, to enable students to gather their information. I model and explicitly teach the structures of genre and literacy skills to support students in becoming independent and confident learners. I encourage a love of literature and reading in all students through literature units, individual guidance, displays and operating the book club and fairs. I have a strong rapport with students as I take note of their personal interests and match them with quality books. I support those from non-English backgrounds to maintain literacy in their first language by providing books in over 40 different languages. Learning English is assisted by the provision of dual language books, a large variety of simple English texts, highly visual signing in the library and personal guidance in finding English books on their favourite interests. By teaching all students throughout their time at the school I am able be part of their development in both educational and personal spheres. I promote the library with activities such as special events, fund raising, displays, book fairs and school pets. The library at Gilles Street Primary School is definitely the hub of the school and the role of teacher librarian is at the forefront of introducing, modeling, sharing and mentoring new programs, technologies and pedagogy. That the school advertised for a teacher librarian position for a further 10 years is testimony to this claim. I feel fortunate to have been the successful applicant.

An example of how I have supported students in their information literacy is the use of digital books to meet the different needs of learners. Master copies of the Macmillan Digital Library (MDL) series are saved on the curriculum network. In keeping with copyright guidelines modified versions are used during units of work, then deleted after completion of the unit. Relevant samples of student work are saved if required.

I used the MDL series ‘Australian Animals’ on the interactive whiteboard to support a class of New Arrivals Program students in learning how to construct an information report. While the text is relatively simple, there are many aspects that needed further explanation for non-Australian and non-English speaking students. I was able to add these using the Adobe Reader tools that come with the MDLs. In the book on lyrebirds I added attachments of images to support text (eg a lyre, a goanna), sound files where I recorded pronunciations of difficult words and a video clip of a lyrebird which demonstrated the facts in the text. I used the snapshot tool to copy identified key words to paste into a text document, then used these for joint construction of an information report. The classroom teacher and I then assisted students in using other MDLs and resources to write their own reports.

A different approach was used with an upper primary mainstream class. The aim of the inquiry unit was for students to understand how different cultures of the past have influenced the world today. Using the MDL series ‘Ancient and Medieval People’ and ‘First Peoples’ students first read a range of books in the series to gain an outline knowledge of the topic. They used the Adobe Reader sticky note tool to make comments at relevant points in the texts, such as questions, opinions and matters for clarification. These were shared and discussed with the class, the class teacher and myself. Students then chose a particular culture to research in depth and used the various Adobe Reader tools, such as sticky notes, text boxes, recorded audio comments and a range of attachments, to insert their research responses at relevant places in the MDL text. Student engagement in the unit was greatly enhanced by providing these opportunities for interacting with the text.

Alison Hicks