Deanna's+Case+Study

Deanna Buckholz Prep - Year 7 State School
 * __ Case Study - Site 3 __**

**__ The School __** This school is an Education Queensland State School situated in regional Queensland. It caters for approximately 540 students from Prep-Year 7. The newly completely Library and Resource Centre (LRC) is staffed by a part-time (4 days/week) qualified teacher-librarian (TL) and a full-time qualified library aide.

**__ The Role of the Teacher Librarian and the Library __**  The TL at this site believes that providing support is her primary role. Ultimately, she wants to support students to ‘Learn How To Learn’ (Library Policy Document, 2011). This support is provided in a number of ways. Firstly, she believes that by providing quality lessons to the students she is supporting the class teachers to implement a quality curriculum. She has developed a scope and sequence using the ILPO (Information Literacy Planning Overview) model. This overview demonstrates the development of information literacy skills from discussing picture books with the Prep students to locating reference materials and beginning research skills in Year 3. These skills are used as building blocks for the upper primary classes to complete guided research tasks. The lessons are mostly implemented independently of the class teacher’s lessons, however, the skills the children develop can be utilised to complete classroom learning tasks.

 A further support job of the TL is the provision of resources to compliment the curriculum delivered by the class teacher. The TL requests at the beginning of each new term that class teachers provide her with their learning topics as well as any specific resources they require. Bulk collections are then collated to meet the needs of each class. In addition to this the TL is responsible for checking and collating databases of appropriate online resources that support the regular classroom curriculum implementation. Recently, the TL has been made aware of the development of Year Level units of work that have been written without her collaboration. Hence, some of the supporting resources are not currently available at this site leaving class teachers feeling frustrated.

 In addition to these support roles, the TL advocates that it is of paramount importance that she provides the students with a resource centre that supports and encourages reading for pleasure. To assist in this endeavour the TL has designed a physical learning space that has an inviting and friendly atmosphere. This facility encourages learners to explore and socialize through interaction with a range of literacy media, games and technology. The brightly coloured furniture encourages students to immerse themselves in reading for pleasure. When the new LRC was being established the TL culled the well-loved and outdated resources. This culling process has paved the way for the TL to modernizing the fiction collection with current popular children's authors as well as providing more child friendly non-fiction texts. The TL is a subscriber to the Magpie Magazine and regularly uses this resource to inform collection purchases. The knowledge she gains through her interactions with staff and students is also used to assist in collection purchasing and maintenance. The aforementioned support roles of the TL are outlined in the Library Policy Document (LPD) that the TL has developed.

**__ Curriculum and Collaboration __**  The LPD clearly states that the TL is willing to cooperatively plan and implement the curriculum with the class teacher. Furthermore it provides suggestions to the class teachers on implementation methods that can be negotiated. These adaptations include taking whole classes, small groups and on a flexible timetable. The TL will willingly assist with class project work (in the LRC or in the classroom) or any information literacy learning activities the class teacher requires. However, many class teachers are currently feeling overwhelmed by the content required to be covered. As a result, they do not have the time to communicate with the TL on the best way to properly utilize the LRC and the skills she has to offer.

 The TL’s role of collaborating with individual teachers has declined over the years. In the initial years, the TL had regular meetings with each teaching staff member to cooperatively plan each unit of work and library/classroom partnerships were strong. Research projects were designed and completed as a joint effort between the class teacher and the TL. However, as this school was transformed to a multi-age (and stage-based) school, the room for flexibility between classes and the collaboration with the TL has diminished. A stage-based approach requires teachers from Prep to Year 3, Years 4 and 5, and Year 6/7 to meet regularly. At these stage meetings teachers collaboratively plan and review units of work. This would appear to be an ideal situation for the TL to liaise with the teachers, however, all stage meetings are held on the same afternoon limiting the contact the TL can have with the class teachers. In addition to this, even though the TL has been welcomed to attend these meetings she often feels that she is an outsider and her role and contributions in this process are not appreciated.

**__ Leadership __**  The TL believes that as her role encompasses working with the whole school community it is her job to promote herself as a leader within the school. To assist in this promotion the TL instigates regular meetings with the principal. The purpose of these meetings is to inform him of her curriculum planning and implementation, resource purchasing and maintenance. She also discusses other relevant issues that may arise through her dealings with the school and/or the extended community. In addition to this the TL has expressed the vital contribution she can provide to the Head of Curriculum (HOC) when units of work are developed. Currently, these units of work are provided to the TL after completion to inform her of resource purchasing.

 In addition to promoting herself as a leader, the TL promotes the importance of the library within the school. A library newsletter is occasionally distributed to the school community to encourage use of the LRC and to inform of upcoming events. Such events may include the promotion of Book Week each year as well as WriteFest. Where time and budgeting allows, the TL organizes travelling authors/illustrators to visit the school and talk to or work with students from relevant year levels. To further enhance this promotion, the TL is currently developing an interactive website that students and parents can access from home. This website will allow new resources to be viewed, book reviews to be posted and will open up lines of communication between the TL and parents.

 As a leader, the TL ensures that she attends relevant professional development so as school library practices are kept up-to-date. She also advocates the importance of the library aide attending professional development to keep her skills current. The TL is a member of the local TL networking group allowing her to share/develop new ideas, knowledge and skills pertinent to the enhancement and future development of her role.

**__ Future Visions __**  Increasingly students need to be information literate and the TL believes she can play an important role in this endeavour. To achieve this, she is on a journey to promote cooperative learning through problem solving tasks with the upper school children. She is hoping to then utilize these skills to complete independent group research tasks. The aim of this is to help students ‘become independent learners, informed decision makers, and effective communicators’ (LPD, 2011). These skills are important for life beyond the school. To further enhance this goal in our modern society the TL admits that her IT skills need considerable work. Although the LPD defines IT skills development as the responsibility of the class teacher, the TL realises that to implement the curriculum in a more effective and stimulating manner she needs to make better use of technology tools that are available. In the long term, the TL would like to work more closely with the class teachers to bring back a collaborative teaching approach to the now very 'weighty' primary school curriculum.