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Teacher-Librarian Institute for Integration of Research into the K-12 Curriculum

June 12-14
Sponsored by the UNLV Library Advisory Board with cooperation from the Clark County School Librarians Association

Overview
Institute Curriculum
Participants
Institute Evaluation
Links

Overview

The UNLV Libraries Advisory Board approved funding for a K-12 teacher-librarian institute to design research-based assignments for middle- and high-school curricula. In March a planning group was called together consisting of Jennifer Fabbi, Stephen Fitt, Amy Johnson, Anne Zald, Steven Hoover (Institute Facilitator and Designer) and Eileen Horn (CCSD-retired). Dan Ihnen, Coordinator of Libraries for CCSD endorsed the Institute after being consulted by members of the planning group. An application form was created that asked school librarians to recruit a department head in order to attend the Institute as a team. Participating teams developed subject-specific research-based assignments to be implemented across multiple grade levels. The Institute was announced at the April 17, 2012 meeting of the Clark County School Library Association (CCSLA) and using the district listserv. Stephen Fitt and Amy Johnson followed up the announcement with personal phone calls to librarians at middle- and high-schools throughout the Clark County School District (CCSD).

Twenty four participants in twelve teams attended the Institute on June 12-14, 2012, eight from middle/junior high schools and four from high schools. One team consisted only of a teacher (the librarian had been “surplused” by the District shortly before the start of the Institute) and Amy Johnson worked with her, while three teams consisted of two teachers and one librarian. The remaining seven teams were comprised of one teacher and one librarian. All CCSD participants received a $500 stipend upon completion of the Institute and submission of their draft curriculum plan.

This institute was developed to address strategic directions articulated in the University Libraries’ 2009-2011 Strategic Plan, specifically:

Implement a targeted outreach program to the local K-12 community.
Develop partnerships that will help identify and prioritize content to digitize that supports K-12 and the UNLV curriculum. Develop and market digital collections containing these digital primary source materials.

Institute Curriculum

At the conclusion of the Institute participants will be able to:

Collaboratively design and implement assignments that will support developmental information literacy learning across grade levels for a subject area at their school
Collaboratively design and implement authentic student learning assessments for information literacy outcomes across grade levels for a subject area at their school
Articulate performance levels for information literacy learning outcomes which will be integrated into assignments across grade levels for a subject area at their school
Describe the integration of information literacy learning outcomes into the curriculum standards across grade levels for a subject at their school
Describe information literacy articulation issues and student preparation for the next step in their education.

The Institute curriculum consisted of five parts:

Leveling the Big 6 – a main goal of the Institute is to create collaborations around developmental instruction of information literacy learning. The Big 6 model of the research process was used as a starting point to develop and level learning outcomes.
Assessments & Evaluation
- Assessment – using learning outcomes developed in the previous activity, teams devised an assessment (or multiple assessments) for each stage of The Big 6 process.
- Putting the Pieces Together – combine the assessments just created into a larger project.
- Evaluation – create very basic rubrics to evaluate student work on the assessments developed. The emphasis of these rubrics is to provide developmental feedback to the students.
Teaching – teams develop teaching activities and identify the roles and responsibilities for the librarians and teachers.
Alignment – identify how the assignments and activities align with the Common Core Standards, adopted by the Nevada Department of Education in October 2010 and being implemented statewide over the next five years.
Implementation / Communication Plan – teams will summarize their work, develop implementation plans and devise strategies for engaging colleagues at their respective schools and communicating the results to various stakeholders.

In addition Cory Lampert Head of Digital Collections provided a one-hour hands-on introduction to the UNLV Libraries Digital Collections, some of which have curriculum integration suggestions.

Teams were asked to submit the following documentation of their work during the Institute by June 18, 2012:

A completed curriculum map for at least two grade levels
Worksheets for:

future planning
collaborative research plan
timeline
barriers & solutions

Participants

School	Name
Brinley Middle School	Jill Raw
Brinley Middle School	Robert Jones
Brinley Middle School	Kristen Albrecht
Cram Middle School	Madeline Noetzel
Cram Middle School	Barabara Sheehan
Fremont Middle School	Barbara Shapiro
Fremont Middle School	Katrina Shaw-Valencia
Fremont Middle School	Brian Brill
Green Valley High School	Sherwin Bennes
Green Valley High School	Christa Fialkiewicz
Greenspun Junior High	Andrew Slocum
Greenspun Junior High	April Paris
Greenspun Junior High	Anthony Moffett
Harney Middle School	Yunn-Hwa Lii
Harney Middle School	Jolana Jensen
Hyde Park Middle School	Brian Pawley
Hyde Park Middle School	April Carlson
Keller Middle School	Charmaine Falkenberg
Keller Middle School	Wayne Smith
Las Vegas High School	Jennifer Mills
Las Vegas High School	Amy Colasuono
Sierra Vista High School	Karen Simmons
Sierra Vista High School	Pamela Poster
West Career and Technical Academy	Lynn Mitchell
West Career and Technical Academy	Fawn Canady

Institute Evaluation

The evaluation of the Institute experience consists of several elements. During the three-day Institute, feedback was gathered each day on participants’ understanding of the material and what concepts were/were not useful or needed further reinforcement. Participants were asked to complete a survey after the three-day Institute. Selected participants were interviewed on videotape at the conclusion of the Institute. A content analysis of the participants’ final projects submitted on June 18 will be completed to examine which concepts from the Institute were integrated.

The end of institute survey had a 100% response rate. Respondents were asked to rate their level of agreement with the following prompts (Strongly Agree = 4 through Strongly Disagree = 1):