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A Collaboration of Media Specialists and Secondary Teachers: Developing Effective Strategies for Implementing Technology and Information Literacy Within Schools

Mary N. Bennett-Wingate

1867 Elim Church Rd. NE, Ludowici, GA 31316

An Annotated Bibliography Submitted to:Dr. D. A. Battle of Georgia Southern University

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for FRLT 7130 – Y01

Sunday, April 19, 2009Statesboro, Georgia

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A Collaboration of Media Specialists and Secondary Teachers: Developing Effective Strategies for Implementing Technology and Information Literacy Within Schools

In the high school I taught at, the media center was at the end of the hallway. It was an

intriguing place, but one that I rarely visited and very seldom took my students too. I used

technology in my classroom, but I always spent hours after school planning and preparing to do

so. Therefore, I was surprised when I repeatedly heard the importance of collaboration between

media specialists and teachers being stressed throughout my first semester of Instructional

Technology classes. What I was learning made sense, but I had never before seen this true

collaboration being put into practice. As a future media specialist, it is important that I prepare

myself to collaborate effectively with the classroom teachers at my school. Why? Because

student achievement depends on it.

To learn more about how to effectively implement collaboration into a high school

library setting, I searched several databases for relevant research articles. The most useful of the

databases was Academic Search Complete. I found most of my articles from this source, and it

returned the most relevant results. I also used SAGE Publications and the Professional

Development Publication. I searched the databases for articles concerning collaboration, and

then skimmed the results to select articles that focused on collaboration in the high school media

center. I wanted to make sure that the articles dealt with several different content areas at the

high school level, as that is the level I plan to work with as a librarian.

Abilock, D. (2005). Six promising approaches to civic engagement. CSLA Journal, 29(1), 8-11.

Retrieved April 7, 2009, from Academic Search Complete database.

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This article addresses the active role that media specialists can have in encouraging civic

responsibility and involvement in students, while simultaneously meeting information literacy

and classroom civic standards. Six approaches are presented as effective ways for media

specialists to build civic knowledge and involvement through collaboration, and specific

examples of each approach are given. These six approaches include classroom instruction in

civic areas, discussing current issues, promoting civic service, civic learning through

extracurricular activities, creating a student voice, and simulating real-life civic issues and

situations.

Achterman, D. (2007). The sower. School Library Journal, 53(10), 50-53. Retrieved April 15,

2009, from Professional Development Collection database.

This article focuses on the work of Keith Curry Lance, a pioneer of library research. The article

claims that the amount of effort put into the library is the single most important factor in

determining standardized test scores. Lance goes on to say that though collaboration is

important, how and what you collaborate on is more important. For example, focusing on

information literacy standards is a must. Lance continues to say he has shifted his research from

quantitative survey methods, to qualitative questions that focus on interaction between school

personnel.

Donham, J. (1999). Collaboration in the media center: Building partnerships for learning.

NASSP Bulletin, 83(20), 20-26. Retrieved April 15, 2009, from SAGE Publications

database.

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This article explains the necessity of collaboration between librarians and teachers in schools.

Collaboration is what makes the learning of information literacy skills meaningful, authentic, and

applicable. Students benefit from collaboration because the teacher and librarian each bring their

area of expertise to the experience. The article provides a model for collaboration, offers

techniques for implementing collaboration, and argues that without collaboration, learning is not

effective. This article has historical significance because it gives background information on

collaboration and its benefits, while addressing the fundamentals of applying it in schools.

Downing, J. A. (2006). Media centers and special education: Introduction to the special issue.

Intervention in School and Clinic, 42(2), 67-77. Retrieved April 15, 2009, from SAGE

Publications database.

The author focuses on effective means of collaboration between the media specialist and special

education teachers. She supports a four-step method for ensuring collaboration is effective. The

method includes making sure the teachers involved know their own strengths and weaknesses,

know the strengths and weaknesses of their co-teacher, know the needs of their students, and

know their area of expertise. She also highlights the way that collaboration between the two

parties can increase library accessibility for SPED students. Overall, SPED students benefit

from collaboration between the two parties.

Eastman, W. D., & McGrath, K. (2006). Encouraging civic virtues. Knowledge Quest, 34(4),

28-31. Retrieved April 7, 2009, from Academic Search Complete database.

This article focuses on the need of content-based civic knowledge among high schools students,

as well as the information literacy needs of students to ensure they appropriately understand that

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civic knowledge they acquire. This article, written by a civics teacher and a media specialist,

views the media specialist as a co-teacher in a classroom that encourages active student

involvement. Through the creation of Web 2.0 tools that are civic content based and

participation in real-life civic processes, students master civic standards and information literacy

standards simultaneously.

Houston, C. (2009). Commonwealth schools in the information age: The status of information

services in Kentucky school media centers. School Libraries in Canada, 26(3), 9-19.

Retrieved April 6, 2009, from Academic Search Complete database.

The article addressed the changing job description of the librarian from one who simply manages

books to one who teaches information literacy. Research has suggested that librarians who

collaborate with teachers more effectively teach information literacy skills. It is suggested that

collaboration affects information literacy comprehension because information literacy skills are

increasingly needed for success in all content areas. A study was conducted to see librarians’

areas of focus, and what areas need more attention. The study revealed that increased

collaboration was needed in Kentucky schools to raise student achievement.

Long, D. (2007). Increasing literacy in the high school library: Collaboration makes it happen.

Teacher Librarian, 35(1), 13-17. Retrieved April 2, 2009, from Academic Search

Complete database.

The article described a collaborative effort at a high school to increase student achievement.

Each professional involved had a slightly different goal, all of which were met through the

reciprocal teaching model implemented. The research template used promoted predicting,

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summarizing, asking questions, and clarifying. This method led to increased student

achievement in English and History classes and an improvement in overall information literacy.

Emphasis was put on the fact that media specialists are to teach students information literacy

skills, and to teach teachers how to promote those skills in their classrooms.

Ruffin, B. (2006). T.E.A.M. work: Technologists, educators, and media specialists

collaborating. Library Media Connection, 24(4), 49-52. Retrieved April 15, 2009, from

Professional Development Collection database.

The author of this article provides a step-by-step outline for effectively promoting and

implementing collaboration in the school setting. She uses the acronym TEAM to label those

involved in the collaboration process: technologists, educators, and media specialists. The same

acronym describes the steps in her process: taking action, establishing plans, applying lessons,

and measuring success. She includes in her article two sample units that are examples of

successful collaboration between a classroom teacher and media specialist.

Schaffhauser, D. (2008). Make it work. T H E Journal, 35(8), 34-37. Retrieved April 7,

2009, from Academic Search Complete database.

Ways to make media centers effective for student learning on low budgets is the focus of this

article. One suggestion is the collaboration of media specialists across school districts to

implement programs that would enhance student learning and information literacy. By

collaborating across school districts, media specialists can offer reference databases and create

websites for student assistance that would otherwise be too costly. The article also suggests

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others systems, such as RFID systems, that free up the media specialist to have more time for

collaboration with teachers.

Implications for Applications to Educational Settings

My research proved to be very beneficial in providing me with effective techniques and

strategies for implementing collaboration as a high school media specialist. It was repeatedly

reiterated that collaboration has been proven to increase student achievement. This increase in

achievement is primarily because the benefits that come from having two teachers of different

content expertise planning a unit collectively cannot be outweighed. In fact, Donham (1999)

goes as far as to say that collaboration between the media specialist and classroom teacher is

what actually makes learning meaningful and applicable to real life. Therefore, it is all the more

important that media specialists make every effort to collaborate with classroom teachers of all

grades and content areas. The four step process that is encouraged in Downing’s (2006) article

appears to be a promising technique for preparing and implementing collaboration. When

teachers know the strengths and weaknesses of themselves, their co-teachers, and their students,

along with knowing their content area material, collaboration is bound to succeed. And even

though this method is presented primarily for collaboration between special education teachers

and librarians, I would argue this method would be beneficial in all collaborative settings.

Ultimately for media specialists, collaboration proves as an effective way of teaching

information literacy standards along with content-area standards. This mingling of standards is

necessary because it makes information literacy standards relevant to students, while

simultaneously improving content based knowledge (Donham, 1999). If either party of the

collaborative team were to work alone, the lesson would be much less meaningful and

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understandable for students. On this same note, the media specialist is not only responsible for

collaborating with teachers to teach students, but also to teach the teachers themselves. While

many teachers are experts in their specific content areas, they lack the knowledge to assist

students in areas concerning information literacy. Therefore, it is all the more important that I,

as the media specialist, assist the teachers, so they can in turn assist students.

Overall, the research I completed for this project showed me the importance of

collaboration in the media center, for the success of both the students and the teachers. The

readings also highlighted several useful techniques for implementing collaboration, such as the

TEAM approach presented by Ruffin (2006) and the four-step “knowing” approach presented by

Downing (2006). This project has definitely better prepared me to be an effective media

specialist by implementing collaboration to increase student achievement.