Use of Reference Resources

For the purpose of this assignment, I will be discussing two fictitious elementary school teacher’s teaching practice. Specifically, I will be looking at their effective use of reference resources with their class and offer suggestions on how the two teachers can evolve their teaching practice to further engage student learning and inquiry.


Teacher X

I will begin by discussing Teacher X who is a digital immigrant (Marc Prensky, “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants”. When Teacher X graduated from high school, the internet was just being invented. He has been an elementary school teacher for approximately 25 years. Teacher X’s class does all of their classwork with paper, pencil and textbooks. Their homework is written on the whiteboard daily with term previews sent home on paper to parents. Most of the textbooks they are using have outdated information and the students alternate between 3 different textbooks to find information that applies to the new curriculum. When Teacher X’s class is working on a report, students sign out books from the library to assist them in research. Occasionally the class will visit the computer lab, which is slowly being disassembled with the advent of more laptops being acquired, and the students will go to Wikipedia to find information for their projects.


Teacher X’s teaching practice is routine and he has not attempted to incorporate technology into the classroom although he has been thinking he should try to add some learning that involves technology into his classroom. According to the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) approach to change (Susan Loucks-Horsley), Teacher X is in the self-concerns stage of questioning and asks questions regarding change such as: What is it? & How will it affect me? On the Typical Expressions of Concern about an Innovation table, Teacher X is at a 0.5 level stage of concern about innovation which is in between Awareness and Informational (Awareness being, “I am not concerned about it” and Informational being, “I would like to know more about it”). In terms of Levels of Use of the Innovation, this teacher is at a 0-Non-Use Level of Innovation (The User-has no interest, is taking no action). If we look at the SAMR model of Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition (Dr. Ruben Puentedura). ,Teacher X is at Level 1-the Substitution Level.

image courtesy of Dr. Ruben Puentedura

In his classroom, computer technology is used to print out worksheets which are filled out and handed in to Teacher X for marking. There has been no functional change in teaching or learning in Teacher X’s class with the increased amount of innovation and technology available. (SAMR model developed by Dr. Ruben Puentedura).



An Approach to achieving a higher level of integrating Reference Resources for Teacher X
As Teacher X is at a low level of integration of innovation, I would offer support by inviting Teacher X and his class into the library learning commons to use the laptop cart to do some research with some of the digital resources available through the district. I would model to the class how to access the digital reference resources online available through the district such as, World Book Encyclopedia Kids, World Book Encyclopedia Students, World Book Science Power and Discovery Education Network, Learn 360, KnowBC.com, Follett shelf ebooks, National Geographic Kids, and Primary Schools Explora. I would also model how to type in keywords to a search engine and evaluate websites for their trustworthiness and quality of information. After guiding the students through accessing digital resources, I would also offer teacher X more support in the following ways as “Learning brings change and supporting people is critical for learning to “take hold””.(Professional Development for Science Education: A Critical and Immediate Challenge," by Susan Loucks-Horsley). One of the ways I would offer support would be to offer weekly lunch-hour technology and innovation workshops for the staff in the library learning commons for hands-on-learning and practicing with the different digital reference resources. To supplement this, I would print out the information for paper takeaways of the names of different digital reference research tools and how to access them along with passwords and step by step instructions. I would also arrange for class coverage so that Teacher X could visit other classes in the school or district that are using digital reference resources in their classroom learning and how it is benefiting student learning. Regularly, I would check in with Teacher X to see how it’s going, and if he has any questions about the online reference resources. I would also let him know about district workshops that are available on using digital resources and try to arrange a small group from the school to attend the workshop so that we could carpool and he would have colleague support. As Susan Loucks-Horsley states in her discussion about The Concerns Based Adoption Model, “kinds and content of professional- development opportunities can be informed by ongoing monitoring of the concerns of teachers”. Through this process, I would also refer to The Leading Learning Standards of practice document for School Library Learning Commons


http://llsop.canadianschoollibraries.ca/fostering-literacies/, in particular the section on fostering literacies and information literacies using reference resources.







Teacher Y

Teacher Y is a digital native. He used the internet for research at University and is very comfortable with technology including i pads, i phones, laptops, blogs, and social media, including twitter. He has been an elementary teacher for 5 years. Teacher Y has a classroom that uses technology daily. He posts daily homework on the app Edmodo where students can access homework using a electronic device as well as ask the teacher questions. The students in Teacher Y’s class do most of their writing and reports using google docs. They can access their work with any device as long as they remember their password.Teacher Y uses his laptop to write morning messages and news on upcoming events for the students as well as uploads interesting videos tidbits of information for students to watch as the morning message is played by a rotating student helper. Teacher Y regularly has his class do inquiry projects and signs out the laptop cart for students to do online research. To date, his students have done online research with World Book Encyclopedia Kids accessible through the school districts digital resources.


Teacher Y uses formative assessment in his classroom and his students are constantly viewing their progress and uploading samples of work to Fresh grade. Through formative assessment, students know what goals they are working towards and are active managers of their learning.


Teacher Y has seen how teaching practice has changed the last few years and he has tried to make it his practice to incorporate many of the new models and techniques into his classroom. According to the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) approach to change, Teacher Y is in the Impact Concerns Stage of Questioning and asks questions regarding change like; Is this change working for students? And Is there something that will work even better? On the Typical Expressions of Concern about an Innovation table, Teacher Y is at a #4 Consequence level stage of concern about an innovation and he is asking questions like; How is my use affecting learners? And How can I refine it to have more impact? In terms of Levels of Use of the Innovation (Po-Sen Huang), this teacher is at a IVB -Refinement stage where the user is making changes to increase outcomes. If we look at the SAMR model of Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition, Teacher Y is at Level 3 -the Modification Level. In Teacher Y’s classroom, common classroom tasks are being accomplished through the use of technology. (ie, homework on the classroom blog, or Edmodo, students submit writing assignment through google docs, etc.). Students are able to proofread each others writing on google docs, and may be collaboratively writing something with a partner, while each being at their own house. Students are taking more ownership over their learning at this level.



An Approach to achieving a higher level of integrating Reference Resources for Teacher Y


An approach to taking Teacher Y to the next level would be first of all to begin sharing some of his Principles of Learning and Teaching techniques that he’s been using with the rest of the school community. I would ask him if he would be willing to co-present at a school pro-d with myself, some of the technology and innovation he’s been using in the classroom and how he’s been using online reference resources to support his student’s learning. I would ask him if he’d like to schedule some time in the library learning commons with his class to explore online reference resources such as Discovery Education Network. Although he has frequently used online World Book Encyclopedia and other online encyclopedias with his students for research, he had not explored the capabilities of the interactive student boards on Discovery Education Network. With this type of inquiry learning, students can create an interactive online board for a subject they are researching and asking questions about. They can attach video clips, images, and notes on the board regarding their topics.

Example of digital student research board created using Discovery Education Network Reference Resource

This type of activity takes the facts that they gather from online reference materials and makes a online presentation with it which further solidifies the students understanding. We would also look at Discovery Education Science Techbook which is linked to B.C.'s new curriculum and teachers can go into the grade level and use it to supplement teaching. Students can use it to learn more about vocabulary words, listen to video clips take practice quizzes and explore the topic further.

Discovery Education Science Techbook

Once Teacher Y is familiar with some of the other learning opportunities from reference resources, he could collaborate with another teacher in his grade and team teach using these resources. The students from his class could partner up with a students from the other class to create a digital board to share or collaborate on or team teach Science using Science techbook. I would also continue to check in with Teacher Y to answer questions and show him any new reference materials that were available online or offer new suggestions on how to further student engagement and learning. I would also support Teacher Y by collaborating with him on the Leading Learning document. We would focus on cultivating effective instructional design to Co-plan, Teach and Assess Learning. We would focus on various themes by looking at the leading into the future column as Teacher Y is well on his way to evolving his practice and incorporating change to strengthen student learning and engagement.




References


Huang, Po-Sen. Concerns-Based Adoption Model-Levels of Use. This is the Levels of Use website Link.


Leading Learning- Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons in Canada. 2014. This is the Website Link


Loucks-Horsley Susan Loucks. The Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM): A Model for Change in Individuals. 1996. This is the website link.


Puentedura, Ruben. SAMR Model-Technology is Learning. This is the website link