empowering students: making real world connections in your school library

Empowering Students: Making Real World Connections in Your School Library

Presented byRichard H. Horah

Department of Defense Education ActivityPierce Terrace Elementary School

Columbia, South Carolina

Education:

M.Ed in Instructional Technology Georgia Southern University

MLIS in Information Science University of North Texas – Georgia Cohort

Professional Experience:

Pierce Terrace Elementary School - DoDEA Information Specialist – K-1

Armstrong State University Head of Media Services Instructional Technology Librarian

Savannah/Chatham Public School System School Media Specialist – K- 6

History of the Library Program Pierce Terrace Elementary School

Program Objective:

To develop a library curriculum and instructionalplans focused on building students’ transferrablelibrary skills, which could be utilize in their school library, home, classrooms, and local public libraries.  

Technically, my performance appraisal does not require me to teach library/information literacy skills to our students. I’ve chosen to teach these them.

• Into the curriculum: lesson plans for library media skills – H. Thomas Walker and Paula K. Montgomery

Resources:

• Lesson Plans for the busy librarian: a standards-based approach for the elementary library media center – Joyce Keeling

• Complete Library Skills K-2 – Linda Turrell

These resources contained a “loose concept” of library lesson planning.

Some of the lessons contained library skills, but most were activities for reading and language arts.

In my library instruction, I wanted to teach my students strictly library skills they could use in their school library, but skills which also transferable to their classroom, home and public library.

Elementarylibrarian.com

Jocelyn Sams – lesson plans and curriculum map (Month and Grade Levels – K-6)

I quickly realized I was teaching a majority of the library skills identified in her curriculum map for K-1 grade AND they matched my goals for my program.

http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/guidelinesandstandards/learningstandards/AASL_LearningStandards.pdf

I struggled with standards/objectives to use for lesson planning. After a search, I located this PDF abbreviated version of IP. It made adding standards and objectives to my lessons much easier.

Instructional Units:

• Library Rules and Book Care – Powerpoint presentation and Library Rule Agreement/(Leo the Library Mouse)

• Using the Library – Map (easy, fiction, non-fiction and reference)Circulation Desk and Book Drop

• Book checkout – Letter to parents, newsletter and library cards

• Finding a Reading Counts Book – The three methods

• Biography/Autobiography – Student interview, collect information and write a biography

• On-line Book catalog – Print, eBook and VisualLocate a book by author, title and subjectAuthor’s name, title, call number, due date, status

• Electronic Databases – Locate information in a encyclopedia, magazine and atlas

• Post Library Fieldtrip – Predictions and compare/contrast differences

• Summer Reading Program – Site visit from the post and off-post librariansProgram overview, student accounts, logging inand reading logs

Communication:

→ Monthly library newsletter→ Classroom newsletters→ Library web page→ Fort Jackson Leader

Collaboration with the Librarians

→ Open House→ Family Library Night (Book Fair)→ Special Area Night

QUESTIONS???

THANK YOU FOR ATTENDING MY PRESENTATION!!

RICHARD.HORAH@AM.DODEA.EDU