Other Early Childhood, School and Specialist Education Teachers
This unit group covers Early Childhood, School and Specialist Education Teachers not elsewhere classified. It includes Teacher Librarians.
Lunchtime in a busy school library
You are a teacher librarian running a school library at lunchtime, with a hundred students passing through and three things to deal with before the bell. It is 12:40pm. The library is crowded, the printer has jammed again, and a teacher has sent a class in for research with only ten minutes' notice.
Choose what you would do. Then see what happens. There are often good reasons for each choice.
I'm sending my class to the library after lunch for a research project on climate. They'll just use the internet. Can you help them out? Some of them copy and paste everything and I do not have time to teach them to do better.
Plan a quick lesson on picking trustworthy sources and putting ideas in their own words, using the topic they are researching
The students learn to check who wrote a page and why. Their notes are in their own words and the project is stronger. Ms Vega asks you to do it again next term.
Tell Ms Vega the library is not a computer room and ask her to book ahead next time
Your point about notice is fair, but the students arrive unsupported and copy and paste. A short lesson now would have taught them something that lasts.
Let them use the computers and keep an eye out from the desk
The students copy long passages from the first page they find, some of it unreliable. They hand in work that is not really theirs, and nobody has taught them otherwise.
I need a book for my reading log but I hate reading. I just want something that's short and not boring. Last time I got a book I could not finish and now I have to do another one. Can you just pick one for me?
Ask Kyle what he likes outside school, then offer two or three short books and let him pick
Kyle likes skateboarding and picks a graphic novel about it. He finishes it in two days and comes back for another. The right book is often found by asking about the reader.
Hand him the first short book you can find on the shelf so he can get back to his friends and lunch
He takes it, finds it dull and does not finish it. He has had more evidence that reading is not for him.
Tell him that to get better at reading he should try harder and longer books than this one
Your idea has some truth in it, but Kyle leaves with a long book and a long face. Starting from where the reader is works better than pushing.
The library is the quietest room in the school. We have a lot of detentions this week, and the staffroom is full. Could we put the detention group in the library on Tuesday and Thursday at lunch? It would only be a few students.
Agree, as it is a quiet room and you want to support the school
Students who use the library for quiet reading stop coming, and the library starts to feel like a punishment. A place for choice is hard to rebuild once it has become a place of control.
Explain what the library is for, and suggest another room or a supervised session after school
Mr Dalton listens and finds another room for one day, but still asks for the library for the other day. Part of your point was accepted.
Offer a staffed study space in a classroom instead, with the library open to them by choice
Mr Dalton gets a workable plan, and the library keeps its character. Some detention students even return voluntarily. Offering a solution works better than saying no.
How it went
The bell goes, Ms Vega's class has a lesson on sources, Kyle has a graphic novel and the library is still a library. Teacher librarians teach, curate and defend a place where every student can find something. Would you enjoy being the person who connects the right book to the right student?
This is a simplified, fictional situation to help you explore. It is not professional instruction or a test of your ability.
Case study: The book a parent wanted removed
A fictional case set in the library of a secondary school, with shelves, computers, a quiet corner and a very busy lunchtime.
The situation
Mr Zhao was the teacher librarian at Stirling Ridge High. A parent, Mrs Calloway, came to the library with a novel her son had borrowed. It dealt with grief and bullying in a way that she found too upsetting for Year 8. She asked for it to be removed from the shelves. Some teachers thought it would be easier to quietly take it out, and the principal wanted the issue resolved before the weekend newsletter.
What they did
Mr Zhao thanked Mrs Calloway and told her the school had a process for concerns about books. He listened carefully to what had troubled her, then offered her the reading lists and the review process and asked her to put her concerns in writing. He read the book again with the school's selection policy in mind and asked two colleagues to read it too. He told Mrs Calloway that her son did not have to read it, and offered to suggest alternatives for him.
How it turned out
The review concluded that the book suited older students and moved it to the Year 9 and above section. Mrs Calloway was not entirely satisfied, though she said she felt listened to. The book was borrowed again by students who needed it.
What would you do?
- How would you balance one family's wishes with what is right for all students?
- Why might a school have a process for challenging books, and not just a quick decision?
- What is the difference between choosing books for a library and banning one?