Collaborating Outside the Box

Cassandra Barnett

As an elementary school library media specialist, I was fortunate to have flexible access and many opportunities to collaborate with my teachers. When a new principal arrived in my building, I became an unwilling participant in a fixed schedule and providing planning time for classroom teachers. While some teachers preferred to continue co-teaching with me, there were a number of teachers who welcomed the extra planning time.

I was determined to continue collaboration, and looked for every opportunity possible. In the past, I had used a simple form to keep up with what was going on in the classrooms, and to guide my collaborative efforts. Once a month, teachers completed it during a faculty meeting and gave back to me before they left. I used it to find out what was going on in the classroom, what materials teachers might need and to determine how I might connect activities in the library to classroom learning. I relied on this form even more as I lost collaborative planning time with teachers.

Soon after my schedule became fixed, the music teacher asked me if she could make copies of the completed forms so that she could use them. It occurred to me that the art teacher might be able to use them as well. We arranged to meet every month to go over the forms at the same time and our meetings naturally evolved into collaborative sessions. We found ourselves connecting to the same topics and tapped into them using our specialty areas.

For example, a first grade teacher planned to review the alphabet. The music teacher taught the students some alphabet songs. In the library, students examined examples of alphabet books, and then decided on a type for the class to write and illustrate. Each student chose a letter and wrote a sentence using the format selected by the class. The art teacher worked with the students to illustrate their page and design the cover of the book.

When the book was bound and ready to share, the classroom teacher was invited to the music class. The children sang the songs they had learned, and each read the page of the book they had written and illustrated. The bound final copy of the book was presented to the classroom teacher.  

A fifth grade class was studying the first industrial revolution. In the library, the students used articles from the periodical Cobblestone to examine the lives of textile mill workers. Using the information to justify their decision, students either agreed or disagreed that working in the mills was a good job. The music teacher taught students several folk songs and work songs that came from the early 1800s. During the art classes, the students tried their hand at weaving simple patterns similar to those created in the textile mills.. The classroom teacher was invited to hear the songs, look at the weavings made by the students, and watch a presentation by the students on the advantages and disadvantages of working in the mills.

This type of collaboration was beneficial in several ways. First, the art teacher, the music teacher and I were able to provide learning experiences for our students that connected to what they were learning in the classroom. Second, the students not only saw the connection to the classroom but found the learning to be fun. Finally, more of the teachers began to see that collaboration extended the learning and appreciated the benefits of working more closely with the "special" teachers.

When I moved to the high school, collaboration between the librarian and the classroom teacher was an established practice. However, the departmental nature of a high school made it difficult to collaborate across more than one discipline. I saw opportunities that someone without elementary experience might not have noticed.

A sophomore English teacher wanted to do something different with historical fiction. I suggested that students use picture books to determine the characteristics of historical fiction. During our planning session, we decided that the final product would be an historical fiction picture book. Evaluation of the product would be based on several factors including story, accuracy of time period based on research, and replication of the picture book format. The English teacher would focus on the writing process, and I was to concentrate on the research process. We brought in one of the art teachers to provide instruction on illustrating a picture book.

The ideal situation would have been for the art teacher to spend a day or two in the English teacher's classroom providing instruction on illustrating picture books. But the only way to do that would be to hire a substitute which was not possible. So we brainstormed other options:

• The art teacher had an intern; perhaps she could provide instruction.
• The English teacher could bring her classes to the art teacher's room. Both the art class and the English class would receive instruction on picture book illustration at the same time.
• The art teacher could instruct some of his advanced students, and they could provide instruction to the English class during the period they would normally have art.

We decided our best option this time was to give the intern the task.

An advantage to working in a high school is the option of working with a teacher for as long as needed.

Week one was spent in the library examining picture books for characteristics of historical fiction and the picture book format. Students also chose a time period to research, and gathered information. Instruction was provided on using appropriate print sources and our subscription databases.

During week two students spent time in the classroom developing their stories and incorporating the historical information gathered. The art teacher's intern came to the library during week three. She demonstrated techniques for illustrating a picture book, and acted as a consultant as the students worked on their final project.

Special arrangements were made for the students to share their picture books with students at a nearby elementary school. Parents were also invited to an evening book sharing event in the library. No student wanted to give their picture books away so we scanned some of the best ones to share the next year.

These are just a few examples of how you can collaborate even in difficult situations. The secret is to actively pursue the opportunities that are all around you. The successes provide great learning experiences, and bring converts to the collaboration fold.  

    Cassandra Barnett is the School Library Media Specialist at Fayetteville High School in Arkansas and is a member of the AASL Learning Standards Rewrite Task Force which has been working on developing new National Information Literacy Standards. "I am working my way through The Blue Book on Information Age Inquiry, Instruction and Literacy by Daniel Callison & Leslie Preddy."